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Prog 2104 - The Watchers in the Walls!

Started by McNulty, 20 October, 2018, 01:24:01 PM

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JamesC

A decent prog but it would seem I'm less delighted than others.

Dredd just isn't doing it for me.
I'm getting fed up with different writers seemingly having their own Dredd continuity. Eceladus is obviously a big deal in Williams' Dredd-verse but is never mentioned in any other writer's Dredd strips. Likewise, Dirty Frank and Sensitive Klegg seem to be Rob Williams exclusive characters (to be honest, I think both are joke characters who have worn thin).
I know others are enjoying this, so fair enough, I just feel I have very little invested in Dredd these days.

Brink is excellent. So atmospheric and tense.

Fiends is pretty good. It's carried by the fantastic art. As usual with Edginton stories I like the ideas but feel the characterisation is lacking.

Skip Tracer is just there. I really can't think of much to say about it. I still have no feel for any of the characters and the world building has been very sparse.

Kingdom is great fun as always. Abnett and Elson make it look easy. 

Proudhuff

Quote from: norton canes on 25 October, 2018, 10:11:03 AM
Another prog, and not only do we have the same high quality strips but we're five weeks into the stories now and therefore we're getting further absorbed into the plots and they're ramping up the stakes (literally, in FOTEF-ET), so the thrill levels are rising almost exponentially. Reading the prog right now is genuinely an exhilarating experience.

This is probably why the Command Centre's server has went rogue: Thrill power overload!
DDT did a job on me

I, Cosh

Definitely the best crop of thrills so far this year for me.

What a difference a Dredd makes. I really enjoyed the Titan/Enceladus storyline but I felt it came to a logical end. The follow-ups haven't done so much for me but Williams is simply a better writer than any of the other current regulars and Flint colouring Flint is artistic Mega City Nirvana.

Brink continues to be sublime. Abnett & Culbard have quietly created the most unlikely 2000AD hit. A talk-heavy cop strip set in a claustrophobic environment drawn by an artist whose primary characteristic is the amount of space he leaves in the panel.

Skip Tracer is much improved but can't help but fall short in comparison.

Fiends looks beautiful but it's not a story which has much depth or interest for me. I wonder which mysterious figure will turn out to have placed the winning bid for the diary in the last episode...

Many people think Kingdom is the best thing ever. I quite like it.
We never really die.

Frank

Quote from: I, Cosh on 25 October, 2018, 01:55:20 PM
Williams is simply a better writer than any of the other current regulars and Flint colouring Flint is artistic Mega City Nirvana

You're far-right on the first point*, but only alt-right on the second. Which demonstrates what a versatile talent Chris Blythe is.

I'm one of the morons who are delighted for Kingdom to be a series of exquisitely rendered, dynamic action sequences punctuated by the introduction of a new character with an appalling comedy name like the ones posh dog owners insert into the lengthy titles of their mutts at Crufts**

This series has been all talking, all head. Not sure whether this is a necessary exposition dump efore the strip takes off in a new direction or if the creators have decided to wrap the strip up and are having to cram all the story they had worked out into the few episodes they have left.

Still enjoying it, just wish they were doing the talking-fighting thing Pat Mills hates (but, amusingly, uses all the time).


* Williams is evidently, demonstrably the best at putting all the words in the right order, although it would be interesting to see whether that changed if Tharg followed-up on the interest Abnett's expressed in having another crack at the main Dredd strip. For the record (as if anyone cares), I'd much prefer Abnett carry-on creating his own strips. The Small House isn't my bag, but this sort of gathering of dangling plot threads to weave a cosy continuity quilt is exactly what most of the board have been asking for whenever someone starts a WHY DON'T I LIKE 2000ad ANYMORE? thread, so I'm happy to enjoy it as a series of jokes with occasional splatter.

** Sir Isaac Neuter, Kanye Westie, The Impossible Lightness Of Bow-wowing ... I'm hoping the next species of Aux Abnett introduces are duck-based lifeforms - Duck-E Fresh, Duckie Howser MD, Nigel Plumage - the possibilities are as obvious as they are limitless.
 

Woolly

Quote from: JamesC on 25 October, 2018, 12:43:38 PM
Dredd just isn't doing it for me.
I'm getting fed up with different writers seemingly having their own Dredd continuity. Enceladus is obviously a big deal in Williams' Dredd-verse but is never mentioned in any other writer's Dredd strips. Likewise, Dirty Frank and Sensitive Klegg seem to be Rob Williams exclusive characters (to be honest, I think both are joke characters who have worn thin).

I hear you.
Fully agree that Dirty Frank and Sensitive Klegg are a bit over-used, one-note joke characters. Hopefully there's a Dirty Frank revelation coming up that explains just how he's managed to continue being a Judge for all this time, and not get pensioned off to the cursed earth.

I'm also not really getting the plot: [spoiler]Secret Judge who lives in the walls that Dredd and Hershey already know about, is using invisible Ninja Judges that Dredd and Hershey already know about, to make assassinations that Dredd knows about and is investigating (that Hershey doesn't know about).[/spoiler]

Is that right? And if so, why hasn't anyone just [spoiler]arrested Smiley and taken him in for interrogation?[/spoiler]
I must be missing something...

Woolly

Should add: Henry Flint is on fire! And I'm adoring Chris Blythe's Flint-esque colouring. Brilliant stuff!

Frank

Quote from: Woolly on 25 October, 2018, 06:23:43 PM
I'm adoring Chris Blythe's Flint-esque colouring

It looks like a continuation (or adaptation) of what I assumed was a bespoke mottled technique Blythe developed for Mick McMahon and Rory McConville's Lord Of The Fyreflies, from this time last year.

Blythe coloured MacNeil's art on Carroll's Echoes in his usual, glossy style, just a few weeks later, and I can't remember him breaking out the SpongeBlob SquarePaints since.

I thought Blythe was colouring McMahon's art the way the artist would have done himself. Maybe he's doing the same here, or maybe Blythe just thinks the approach is best-suited to a certain style of art (if so, he's right):





Woolly

Quote from: Frank on 25 October, 2018, 07:17:50 PM
I thought Blythe was colouring McMahon's art the way the artist would have done himself. Maybe he's doing the same here, or maybe Blythe just thinks the approach is best-suited to a certain style of art (if so, he's right)

I'm guessing it's a conscious effort of the Blythe droid's to try and mix elements of Flint's colouring style with his own.
As you say, he's right to do so. It looks great!
The texture of Flint's colouring style, without the more out-there colour contrasts.

Woolly

Addendum: I would still prefer to have Henry Flint coloured by Henry Flint, as it's awesome, but Chris Blythe in this current style is a very close second choice!

Tiplodocus

Devoured this prog and loved it. Not a bum note in it as far as I am concerned.

I'm curious as to why I'm enjoying the DREDD so much. Titan was great, Enceladus and follow-ups less so. And secret departments within the justice department became it's own sub genre. But this all comes together for me in a nice exciting package with phenomenal art.

But jeez, everybody involved in BRINK just knocks it out of the park every prog.

Skip Tracer, Kingdom and Fiends all really, really good too.

I enjoyed the previous run of progs, with The Order and Mechastophles etc, don't get me wrong.

But this run feels as if Tharg has peeked inside my head (removed that fantasy about Kelly Brook and Famke Jansen propositioning me with a tub of Vego chocolate spread), and then put the results on the (digital) page.

Thank you.
Be excellent to each other. And party on!

Aaron A Aardvark

Getting seriously good proggage right now. Enjoying everything.