Prog 1711 - Justice is Served

[zombemybabynow]

the last couple of Progs for me have been some of the weakest this year

Couldn't agree more.  Prgos like this one make me think about not renewing my subscription

[leebrown1990]

the last couple of Progs for me have been some of the weakest this year

Couldn't agree more.  Prgos like this one make me think about not renewing my subscription

It's odd, because it's an anthology comic we expect to have the odd weaker Thrill mixed in with the usually ARSOM standards of qaulity. But it's not normally the case, we normally get one or the other, and unfortunatley the last few progs have been full of weaker thrills.

Sometimes we get a Future Shock to fill in gaps, but I often find when when the the rest of the Prog is great they put in a strong FS, rather than taking off the edge of a bad Prog with a strong FS.

On the plus side, I have no doubt Prog 2011 will kick all kinds of ass.

Cheers,
Lee

[radiator]

Yeah, got to say I'm hardly touching the prog at the moment - though I'll probably come back to some of the strips at some point in the future (thinking of doing an epic read of the last four years of Sinister/Dexter in an attempt to get into it.

It just feels like we're winding down atm in preparation for the new line-up (which looks fantastic) - (hopefully Wagner) Dredd, Shakara, Kingdom and Ampney Crucis is much more my cup of tea...

[Colin YNWA]

Yeah, got to say I'm hardly touching the prog at the moment - though I'll probably come back to some of the strips at some point in the future (thinking of doing an epic read of the last four years of Sinister/Dexter in an attempt to get into it.

Uh do it, do it do it. I've just finished 2008s Sinister Dexters as part of my 're-read, read, re-read' and would say go back as far as you can. Certainly to Malone in early 1500s if you have them (well further but that's a good starting point to this phase of the story). There's some great comics right there.

To be fair I come from a love of Sinister Dexter but really hope if you give it a big go the rewards will be worth it.

[Colin YNWA]

the last couple of Progs for me have been some of the weakest this year

Couldn't agree more.  Prgos like this one make me think about not renewing my subscription

Sorry for the double post but I'd see this the other way around. If a couple of weak Progs (if that's how you see them) out of, what 49 regular Progs a year isn't good value I'm not sure what is? There can't be many comics that have that kind of hit ratio?

It also just goes to show bloody lucky we're been for the last couple of years when we didn't even get this kind of lull!

[radiator]

S/D started just after I first started reading 2000ad - I read it from the very first episode in the 1995 Winter Special in fact. It remained one of my favourite strips for many years - I thought it really hit a peak around Eurocrash (which felt at the time like it was going to wrap up the whole series), and I remember starting to go off it when they introduced aliens and space travel to the strip.

One of the things I really liked about S/D was that it was never explicitly 'sci-fi' - it was more like a lighter-hearted, slightly cyberpunky Pulp Fiction, and introducing these things to me felt a little like Abnett was running out of ideas. I stopped reading 2000ad shortly after and didn't return until prog 1500 (the very issue when Malone started). S/D didn't seem to bear much resemblance to the strip I remembered - in it's prime the stories tended to follow a formula and it was always very accessible and easy to follow, but I gave up trying to keep up with the whole clone/alternative dimension thing which has now dragged on for years. Admittedly, it doesn't help that only Anthony Williams seems to draw it nowadays, and, no offence to the guy - he's a pro and good storyteller - I just don't like his art style at all so that's been another barrier to me getting into it. To me, Si Davis was always the definitive artist for Sin/Dex.

[radiator]

Sorry for the double post but I'd see this the other way around. If a couple of weak Progs (if that's how you see them) out of, what 49 regular Progs a year isn't good value I'm not sure what is? There can't be many comics that have that kind of hit ratio?

It also just goes to show bloody lucky we're been for the last couple of years when we didn't even get this kind of lull!

Agreed. I don't actually think 2000ad has ever been through a sustained bad period since I started reading it (prog 950), and as far as I can tell from reading back issues, it's only been consistently bad around that infamous early nineties period (progs 700-900). I've only ever cancelled my subscription (twice) because I lost interest, not because the quality was bad.

[Zarjazzer]

I enjoyed Dredd, Dandridge and the Future shock , most other things okay. Fun cover.

[Tiplodocus]

Not a lot worked for me this week except the art on Dredd, Dandridge and the whole of Sin/Dex.

Curiously, it's only these last few years I've got into Sin/Dex; really hated it when it started andmuch of EUROCRASH went over my head.  But these days, Dabnett's wordplay and Antwill's art make it a joy to behold - I actively love his style on this in a way I never loved Simon Davis (who conversely, is IDEAL for Ampney Crucis).

The Future Shock left me scratching my head with a great "Was that it?" Some glove shenanigans didn't make a good twist for me. I enjoyed teh absurdity of the suicide note but that was about it.

You're tired of reading about how much I hate Slaine so I'll save you.

(Oh and I guessed AntWill then PJ for the cover but not Mister Bagwell).

[TordelBack]

Yez are all mad so yar.  I thought that was a very chuckleworthy Prog, provided I skipped over The Return of Joe Soap (if only) in glorious monochromatic green.

The Dredd, while a little off in places (less than in the previous part) was very funny, and beautifully drawn.  Judges on stake-out getting takeaway (And why not?  Dredd even interrupts a Final Assessment to buy a Hottie - or was it an Eltzweltz?), gourmet gluttons eating their own transplant organs, a non-straightforward parody of the celebrity food industry, the return of some authentic Klegg argot: yup, that'd be a hit for me.

Sinister Dexter:  Can do no wrong in my book, and this is a great development.  But yes, where is Ramone's headcase?

Dandridge, while still very clumsy in the show-don't-tell department, became quite intriguing, and I loved the telephone opole gag.  Worley is now definitely One To Watch, but he does need to learn to trust the art to carry an interesting story, rather than hiding the good stuff in ginormous speech bubbles - you've got Warren Pleece drawing it FFS, Alec, relax, he can handle it!

Future Shock was deliciously old school, and grotesque to boot.  Not a world-shattering idea, but well executed all round.

Slaine just makes me sad.  Two great creatives, one great strip and five potential-filled pages wasted.

[Rook]

Having just read prog 1712 I realised I haven't offered my thoughts on 1711 yet, so I'll do that briefly...

Cover: Really like this - especially the colours. The weird foods become more like a pattern than an actual image.

Dredd: Thought this concluding part was quite a bit better than the first, which was pleasing. Still not a great Dredd though, and I'm still unimpressed by the art.

Sinister Dexter: Just continues to be great - exposition-y, but still a thoroughly enjoyable read. Got to love Charon.

Future Shocks: Well this was really, really convoluted. I sort of liked the basic idea, and the art was nice in a fairly old-fashioned way, but it didn't quite hang together as well as you might hope.

Slaine: Continues to be pretty inconsequential stuff, albeit pretty enough.

Dandridge: Picked up a lot after the barely understandable first episode - love the art, and generally the whole thing is starting to become a real pleasure.

Best thrill? SinDex, followed by Dandridge.

[Mardroid]

Cover- Amusing.  I'm not over keen on the respirator being just a curved part of a simpler looking helmet. I prefer it jutting out more...if that makes sense. (Kind of difficult to describe what I mean without pictures.) It is interesting to see another take on it though.

Dredd- Not bad. I thought he escaped to easily though. Hallogen Hobbs looked like a goner on the second to last page though... although it is possible to survive disembowelling depending on the amount of damage and how quickly one gets sewn up and treated I suppose. Guess these 'extreme gastronomes' have to be pretty hard nuts. Art is okay, although the helmet repirator thing looks massive! Realistically it would need to be to cover the face (unless more of the helmet section pulls down too) it just looks a bit odd to me, probably from being used to other designs.

Anderson Meg Ad- I don't normally review these but it's appeared quite lately. Very sassy! (That suit's material is way to thin though. Something that shows the nubbins ain't much protection. Not that it is anyway...) Her head looks a bit large to me though, but that's an art style often employed so fair enough.

Also, just so you don't think I have a one track mind (okay I do) that's a fearsome well drawn beastie.

Sinister Dexter: Good all round story and art.

FS- Self Inflicted:  Nice art and great twist, although I can't really see the people reading the note believing it, can you? (I understand it's supposed to be daft though.)   Panel 5 on second page looked odd though as it looks like the alligator bloke on the left is breaking out of the room rather than into it. He is even shooting the wrong way!

Slaine: Lovely art as usual. Interesting twist too. If the story finished on this chapter it could be longer Terror Tale! What's with the bag though? I imagine it must have cropped up either this story (reread I guess) or one of the later stories, but I've completely forgotten about the story behind that!

Dandridge:  I'm liking the art. Dandridge looks rather like Dante, doesn't he? I didn't get the bit with the Telegraph pole straight away. I had to look twice. Also, if losing the power is enough to let Dandridge out of his personal prison, why didn't it work for the Soul Cage too? Different power source maybe? I am really enjoying the story though. While I'm uncertain about the coincidental release of Dandridge coinciding with Oliver's turning, but I like the joke that the masked guy is a bit of a klutz.  Despite my reservations, I like it a lot.

Another good all round prog.

[Mardroid]

Rereading my post I see a number of errors. I also need to stop writing 'though' in every freaking follow up sentence. Grrr.