Prog 2046 - Demonslayer!

[Frank]

I'm looking forward to the Dead Meat reboot. "Donald Trump is ba-aa-aa-aad".

[Muon]

I'm looking forward to the Dead Meat reboot. "Donald Trump is ba-aa-aa-aad".

Noooo! Anything but Inspector Raam! I'd even go for a reboot of the '90s reboot of Sam Slade above that 

[Muon]

...although I feel the need to clarify that I remember really enjoying Armoured Gideon.

[IndigoPrime]

I wasn't keen when it went all meta with the old 2000 AD characters. (Those kinds of tales always feel like the writer's struggling for ideas – note when Ace Trucking briefly did the same.) Other than that, I really enjoyed the strip's weirdness, art, and the big stompy robot. I'd hoped it might be a 'curveball' book in the 2000 AD UC. At the very least, the run must surely be ripe for a Meg floppy or five?

[Frank]

I wasn't keen when it went all meta ... Those kinds of tales always feel like the writer's struggling for ideas

You hear that? That's the sound of Rob Williams and Ichabod Azrael sobbing quietly into their pillows.

Armoured Gideon was okay, but the basic concept of an enormous, grinning robot (with a pun name drawn from Judeo-Christian apocrypha) smushing demons doesn't strike me as so great it needs revisioning for a new generation*.

It's only a matter of time before someone reimagines Chronos Carnival. **


* Actually the same generation, just older.

** Maybe they'll reimagine it as good, next time

[Link Prime]

Armoured Gideon was okay, but the basic concept of an enormous, grinning robot (with a pun name drawn from Judeo-Christian apocrypha) smushing demons doesn't strike me as so great it needs revisioning for a new generation*.

In my minds eye it was more of "Cain & Abel are demon-slaying Transformers" romp.

And you're forgetting your namesake, Frank Weitz- hapless middle aged Peter Parker-esque photographer (and Michelle Pfeiffer fetishist).
Enjoyable character.

[Frank]

Armoured Gideon was okay, but the basic concept of an enormous, grinning robot (with a pun name drawn from Judeo-Christian apocrypha) smushing demons doesn't strike me as so great it needs revisioning for a new generation

... you're forgetting ... Frank Weitz- hapless middle aged Peter Parker-esque photographer (and Michelle Pfeiffer fetishist). Enjoyable character.

This version has a Robot Dad.

I can't decide whether the way Karl Richardson switches between his usual fine rendering on scenes involving the human characters and the bold inking style employed when the kaiju versus jaeger action kicks in is really clever or disconcerting.

Hopey and The Analist are both taking a long time to go nowhere in particular, which - unusually for current Pat Mills - isn't an observation you could make regarding Greysuit. Maybe it's just a function of being told to wind the strip up, but more happens in this episode than all 20 parts of Brink.

The holding patterns and retracing of steps that characterise Mills's ongoing serials are dropped in favour of sometimes jarringly abbreviated storytelling, but the rush of just deserts delivered and ideas expressed is more like the super condensation of concepts in Nemesis and Marshal Law.

Like the rest of Greysuit, this episode walks a wobbly line between awful and entertainingly daft, but the disquisition on the ways we brainwash ourselves about the horrors of our schooldays struck a chord in a way not much has since Zaucer Of Zilk's observations on ageing.

I can't believe I'm saying this, but Greysuit was my favourite thing in the comic.

[JoFox2108]

Hope and the alienist are the highlight for me this week, for some reason the judge dredd strip isn't doing it for me with this story

I feel the same, especially about Hope - such a strong characterisation and a great story and world background.  I'm really enjoying the Alienist too - it's just keeps on picking up pace.  Like Moly I'm not sure why Dredd is not really clicking for me.  It's kind of like a piece of music where teh timing's ever so slightly out.

[TordelBack]

The prog is an odd beast for me at the moment, things I should like I'm currently ambivalent about, things I shouldn't like, I'm ambivalent about too. 

Cover:  Stonking. Needs 100% more Kaiju, but what's there is well metal.

Droid Life: Ugh! Chortle!

Dredd: War Buds.  I dunno, it's a classic Wagner tale and delightfully told with all the pathos and violence that entails, but for me there's something a bit off with still using the Apocalypse War as THE defining event... 7/8ths of the population (and 60% of Justice Dept) died after Chaos Day, yet all eight (alas, poor Ocks) surviving Apocalypse Squad members made it through.  How did these five judges fare during Necropolis? Judgement Day? The Narcos takeover?  Were they just sitting in a bar reminiscing for the last 35 years? I know it was their moment in the spotlight (Shanty Town and Gulag too, for a couple), but I'd argue that they've almost certainly been through worse since.

Cornwell's art is great, and I disagree that Carlos should have drawn this one*: we're seeing a lot of the same scenes from a different perspective, it'd be deathly dull to see the same artist render them.

The Alienist:   Aside from wishing that ** could draw the continuing adventures of Luke Kirby, I'm really enjoying this.  Lovely juxtapositions of times and realities, anchored in an engaging central relationship. 

Hope:  Lost my attention a little this week, but still a pretty classy read.

Mechastopheles:  See this I like, and not just because GIANT ROBOTS FIGHTING KAIJU. If this is to Armoured Gideon what Aquila is to Blackhawk, count me in for more.  Mechastopheles is way better than Detonator X, about the same as Big George, but not as good as TorqueArmada... but give him time. 

And lastly Greysuit, which I just hate everything about all the time.

But no, wait a minute:  I thought this week's (and last week's) episode were... fun?  I mean it's still awful stuff, but it's certainly vibrating along so fast that I might be unable to see its ginger noggin anymore, and thus its flaws are rendered invisible.  Or maybe I'm just feeling such relief that it's almost over that I'm confusing the sensation with pleasure.  Must ask the wife about that. 

*While accepting the position that Carlos should draw EVERYTHING as a basic tenet of existence.

[TordelBack]

The Alienist:   Aside from wishing that ** could draw the continuing adventures of Luke Kirby...

That should read Coveney, obviously.  Apologies.

[norton canes]

Quick summary, only just managed to read this after being away for a week

Cover: Big demon-possessed robot, what's not to like?

Dredd: A fine read but a slow-burner. Will there be a sting in the tale?

Alienist: Gets more intriguing by the week. 'Sick-Changers' huh? Shades of Ramon Sola in the artwork.

Mechastopheles: Nice, given its three-episode limitations. Could see it being expanded to full-strip proportions.

Hope: Dark, dark, dark! Love it.

I think that's all the strips. Yep, sure that's all of them.