Prog 1613: Snuffed Out!

[Leigh S]

Dredd by Mills and Locke.  Its an interesting one so far - multiparter and much more conventional than Pats previous oddity.  could be good, though the idea of a perp released who has been cubed up since before the Judges came to power seems perhaps too good in and of itself to be attached to the other intrigues going on in this one - one to watch

Stalag 666: Not doing anything to win heart or mind.  The bomb thing is all a bit of a tangent, and the one potentially good scene is fluffed - not sure if tis the art or the dialogue, but [spoiler]when Holland kills Mother, its a nice touch - the whole "You dont deserve to die - actually, thingking about it..." bit is a nice gag, but soemthing about it falls flat[/spoiler]

ABC:  Graffiti, its a laff aint it (but lets not go there again!).  Pats ideas are nice hre, but its all a bit unwieldy and the art is doing less favours than it could with the material.

Ampney Crucis: not really grabbed me yet - as others ahve said, the LOEG lite bits last week just grated, but one to watch, wait and see.

Dante: stil havent read

Thargnote tells us about prog 2009:
Greysuit by Mills and Higgins
Dredd by Wagner and FLint
Sin Dex by Abnett and Williams
Stickleback by Edgington and I.N.J. Culbard, whoever that might be.

[Proudhuff]

//http://strangeplanetstories.blogspot.com/

That's his site, you may know him from Who Killed Round Robin?

[W. R. Logan]

I posted on the Meg review thread that I thought my love affair with the Meg was coming to an end but I've just realised that the Meg may be my mistess and it could be time to move on but I never thought that my relationship with 2000 could ever wane. I mean I survived the 90's, we had our rocky times but we pulled through and we went from strength to strength but I'm really struggling at the moment. Dante is the only light in a dark room, I just hope that with any long term relationship we can get through it.

[Toni Scandella]

Really Logan?  I liked this prog and I really enjoyed the Meg this month, too.

Pat's Dredd was an interesting start.  When I saw his name in the credit box I apprehensive because I haven't really liked his Dredd stuff in recent years, but this was solid enough with a really interesting perp.  Stalag remains readable and interesting enough to keep me reading, ABC#s looks as good as usual but I still didn't read it, Ampney did not grab me this week and Dante was great as usual - I _really_ have to go back and read it all as there is a lot of Dante I just never read and now I'm slightly lost.

[Mardroid]

Cover- Nice cover. A touch of the Halloween (although that would have been better last week) and the candles, which are relevant to the Dredd strip.

Thargnote- Interesting line-up there as others have seen. I'm looking forward to Stickleback, but a bit apprehensive about Greysuit, not enjoying the last arc that much.

Dredd- Great stuff so far. Interesting creepy perp, and thought the change of art style was interesting from the softer pastel tones depicting yesteryear (vaguely reminiscent of courtroom sketches maybe?) and the harder stuff of gritty 'present day' (Present from the point of view of the strip I mean, 2130.)  I think I've already guessed the reason for the guy's longevity though, but I'm very much looking forward to this. The whole style is different from Pat Mills's previous Dredd (although I liked that too.)

Stalag 666- Ok.

ABC- I'm enjoying this. I liked the skeleton gag. (Hey, another link to the cover?) The idea of nail guns being the 'most powerful guns on Mars' seems a bit silly in this future setting though. I'm not against projectile weapons in a future setting, in fact I feel it brings a bit of realism to a strip and energy weapons are a bit cliche.... but most powerful? Explanation for the G-men's abilities also given. Kinda silly and interesting at the same time. Magnificent double page spread. I wouldn't mind if they moved the story along a bit more though, but I certainly don't dislike this like many seem to.

Ampney Crucis-  Good continuation, but something is bugging me this episode. (No pun intended with the 'bugging' reference.)  The lady blew of her husband's head with a shotgun right? There was a scene of the headless body slumped over and the head sliding down the wall.[spoiler]Now I'll accept that a supernatural creature might survive that.... but when did the head and body reconnect? Did the head sprout a new one? (It certainly looks more beelike than previous.) Maybe I just missed something, but I think it should be a bit clearer.[/spoiler] Also again, why didn't the police search the house when they arrested the woman? It's a fair enough strip though.

Dante- Semi nude ladies. Mmmm. Nice little continuation. [spoiler]Considering all the energy blasting the Konstantin has done in front (and on) Dante, I can't help wondering why he didn't guess his identity. I suppose he might have thought the fusion power was a function of the suit. And maybe Konstantin's apparent 'demise' looked pretty final at the time... Considering what Konstantin did to the other guy... the interrogation is a chilling development.[/spoiler]

Back cover. Hayden Panetierre. Not related to 2000 AD at all (apart from the sci-fi theme) but worth a mention I think. Even if it is only an ad. Mmmm.

[Leigh S]

Yeah, its not really clear whats happening in Ampney Crucis there is it?

Either the husbands human body was found and she was accused of murder, or no (human) body was discovered, in which case, no charge against her surely?  Did the body revert back to human?  Is this bee thing the same one, resurrected and more advanced (unlikely), or a different one?  At this point, I'm not pulled into the strip enough to care, and admit theres every possibility the answer to the above is actually in the strip, I (and it would seem others) just ahvent been paying enough attention to get it.

[mechanix81]

I'm with Logan on this one - I've only been reading for a mere 6 years, but this is the worst period I've been through. Much of it isn't 'bad', but so much of it lacks the magic of about 4 or 5 years ago. I've given serious thought to dropping the meg till Simping Detective comes back, and I'm going to take a long look at the prog early next year as even Dante might not be worth £2 a week.

Rough times indeed.

[Jim_Campbell]

Rough times indeed.

I have to say that the current issue didn't please me very much ...

I'd rather 2000AD published six blank pages than let Pat Mills write another Dredd story, and as much as I like Vince Locke's artwork, Dredd is really not a good fit for his style.

ABC Warriors ... don't care. Pretty pictures and not much else. Is it a flashback, where are we in relation to the main narrative? I have no fucking idea, and I don't care.

Stalag BlahBlahBlah: Dear God, has this STILL not finished? Whilst I may not have been the world's biggest fan of the Diggler's "rocket fuel" approach, it least it would have shaved a good four episodes off this bag of old pants.

Ample Cruise-ship: Devlin Waugh, much? Apart from playing spot-the-reference (got the Thunderbirds one last issue) and cross-referencing more entries into the Edgyverse (Leviathan this week), I'm not getting anything from this series. Nice art,  obviously.

Dante: best thing in the prog. Even in a much better prog, it would probably have been the best thing in the prog. At some point, Dante will end and -- at that point -- I think it will stand as a remarkable body of work, one of the most sustained pieces of story-telling I've seen. Huge kudos to the Morrison-droid for his efforts here.

Cheers!

Jim

[Darren Stephens]

Covers quite nice. Could of been an entry in the Oct art comp!

Dredd : Nice first part. Mills in okay Dredd shocker! Like the artwork, too, but how big is Dredds head in his first two panels he appears in??!

ABCs : Ok, but a bit streeeetched out.

Stalag : Has me looking forward to next week. Did'nt think i'd ever write that sentence...! Its been a wee bit of a struggle getting to the conclusion of this. Sorry to all concerned, but lets just see the end out and move onwards and hopefully upwards, eh?

Ampney : Very nice indeed. Dont really mind that its quite close to some previous thrills in tone and setting. Its well written, with some nice pics. Really though, think they should of just brought back Bixxy boy.

Dante : Just fantastic. Makes me want to go back and re-read the whole saga from the off. John Burns is ok, but I so wish Simon Fraser could of drawn the whole shebang. Thats the only thing that puts me off buying the collected tpb. :=(

[dweezil2]

Have I missed something or has Christmas come early? Bah humbug, you miserable gits!

[Roger Godpleton]

I am sssooo looking forward to Stickleback book 3.

PANEL ONE

Stickleback is on the phone and is talking.

STICKLEBACK: Yo bitch, you're gonna need to DEM me out again like you did in the last one but no one cared because everyone was too racist against Dead Eyes in about 2 months from now

GIRL: You are such a fucking moron, if you die you won't be in a position to kick anyone's ass gaywad.

STICKLEBACK: Dude, it's totally not cool for you to say "gay". Robo Trevor P will be along in a minute to kill you.

[IndigoPrime]

Mm. It's a real Marmite prog, it seems. Personally, I was pleasantly surprised by Dredd (what with it being by Mills, whose recent Dredds I've hated), happy enough to see Stalag dodder on to its conclusion (but, yeah, this should have been ten episodes), bored stupid by the ABC Warriors (maybe, like the pair's Sláine, this'll work better when collected—I hope so), intrigued by Ampney Crucis, and still enthralled by Dante, which seems to be on its way to the end, sadly.

Overall, not the 'best evah' Prog, but a long way from the down times for me.

[Tiplodocus]

Great cover - nice cimple striking image. Have we had that before?

Dredd was great - again a really simple and slightly scary premise with no misfires in script or dialogue. The art, however, was absolutely 100% not right for Dredd. Not the slightest hint that we were in the future or in a Mega City.

Stalag 666- No thanks.  Oh and I agree some of the big scenes in this episode were fluffed - just too much dmned talking. It's like COMMANDO comics where everything is explained three times in the Caption, in the dialogue and then in somebodies thought ballons.

AMPNEY - Still enjoying this and still stoked about my new found love of Simon Davis art.  I wasn't sure about the purply blue hue but actually warmed to it on second reading.  I agree there may be some plot inconsistencies to be resolved.

ABC Warriors - just dones't work for me. I really can't see why people think the art is "gorgeous". It's just a dark mess with all the detail in the wrong place as far as I can see.

DANTE - nice to see Dante finally knows what we've known these past years.  Still don't think he looks tortured enough.

[W. R. Logan]

Great cover - nice cimple striking image. Have we had that before?

Prog 1150

[Trout]

I thought it was a decent prog , for one without John Wagner.

The Dredd story is based on an interesting idea, Dante continues to be gripping and the other elements are enough to hold my attention.

- Trout