Prog 1717 - Dognapped!

[worldshown]

Early Prog for me today.

Cover: Jon Davis-Hunt draws Gene and the "Robert" squaring off. Potential cover of the year already!

Teaser: Anderson - The Trip.

Dredd: Wow! Can't believe all that took place in six pages. Very tight writing from Mr Carroll and a suitably busy looking Meg from Mr Fraser.

Shakara: Eva's new playmates get into a lot of trouble. Loved the cheeky nod to Dante on the second page.

Ampney Crucis: Not doing it for me at the moment. A big reveal at the end if you're into it though.

Necrophim: A pissed off Lucifer and a betrayal. This could be the episode that turns it all around.

Kingdom: They're Masters, Jim. But not as we know them.

Overall: Great prog. A terrific Dredd one-shot and most of the other thrills hit their stride.

[Minkyboy]

Awesome prog firing on all cylinders!

Cover - I'd buy it if I saw it on a shelf.

Dredd - You nailed it Mike, just brilliant. I was glued, great pace and SO much going on. Great to see more of how Control works, and I don't remember having seen a cadet in Control before, a first? Best Dredd for ages, more please. I doff my cap Sir.

Shakara - Brill. Parallels with Zombo of course but death world as 'prison' planet seems very consistent with the Hierarchy to me. Lots of expo and action and interesting characters. Also enormous arse on last panel.

Ampney - Much better. Top comedy dialogue and amazing wormy reveal. Loving it.

Necrophim - Manages to still be entertaining even though everything that happened this week had been telegraphed in previous weeks. Looks like the actual 'war' might kick off soon. Good.

Kingdom - Superb, lots of new stuff. I feel sorry for Gene and Clara that there is no safe harbour here for them. I want them to be happy dammnit! Again fantastic last panel with creepy fetal man in a servitor.


Just a brilliant prog all round. Best of the year so far for me.
Top accolades going jointly to the final panels of Ampney and Kindgom.

Thank you Tharg.
Off to read it again now.

[Keef Monkey]

My postie was uncharacteristically early today too, so got to start the day with some thrills in bed. Then I read the prog LOL

Really good issue, the cover is well nice and every story was at it's best this week I thought. Saying that, Ampney and Necrophim are slight dips in interest for me, but that's personal taste and I'd hardly go as far as to say I dislike them. Dredd, Kingdom and Shakara were all brilliant. The meg is out soon too is it not? Life is good.

[Colin YNWA]

Well its arrived. Alas not able to read it yet as I'm still waiting for Prog 1716. Sigh

[Pete Wells]

I've got all Jon's fabby steps for the cover, I'll put 'em on my blog tonight!

[I, Cosh]

A nice. dramatic cover this week.

Mr Michael Carroll has turned in a fistful of decent Dredd one-offs in short order. Nice to see somebody new getting a chance and making a success of it. I look forward to more.

Shakara is being spun out a bit more than normal, but it's still an entertaining ride. Highlights this week were the Dante reference, the spider's-eye view point and the rainy panel at the foot of page 2 which stands out for its beauty and reminded me of Will Simpson's Universal Soldier.

Here's the problem with Necrophim. It's shite.

Only joking. Well, not really, but here's why I think it's shite. Untrustworthy and amoral characters are very attractive to a writer. They seem intrinsically more interesting than someone with straightforward motivations, whether heroic or evil, and they offer all sorts of narrative possibilities. For the audience, this can be very entertaining (the fun of The Usual Suspects is in watching the layers of lies unfold and Senator Palpatine in the Star Wars prequels is a great villain because of the way his outward actions contrast with what the audience knows of his real character) but there are a couple of potential pitfalls. Both of which Necrophim stumbles into repeatedly.

Firstly, there has to be more to a character to make them interesting. For the majority of characters in Necrophim, untrustworthiness is their sole character trait, usually with little reason. Occasionally, someone will say "Uriel is proud" or something but you never actually see much evidence of this. A good comparison, for me, would be Dante where you have characters like Lulu and Arkady who are always switching sides but for whom it makes sense due to what we've seen of the characters. I'm sure I remember Cythea saying something like "I'm a succubus. It's in my nature." That's not character, it's just plot contrivance.

The second, connected, problem with so many characters like that is that the writer can resolve any plotline or invent a new one just by saying: "Oh I've changed my mind. I was working for him all along." Used once this can be effective but when repeated ad nauseam it becomes tedious and makes it pointless for anyone to try and follow the story as it devolves into a continual "unexpected" reversal with little or no internal logic or consistency.

After three weeks of big, empty panels something interesting finally happens in Kingdom, which is nice to see. I quite like this strip, but I sometimes wish I loved it as much as everyone else.

Overall, a good performance from Kingdom lifts the Prog from last week's "lacklustre" to the coveted "passing muster."

[vzzbux]

From cover to cover the prog was top, not a loose story.






V

[Darren Stephens]

Only read Dredd so far. Excellent stuff. The cover is great, too. 

[Mikey]

Great cover - I reckon Davis-Hunt does a fine mech indeed and this is no exception.

Dredd - Classic Dredd right there, as in the story features Dredd but is more about the city and Justice Dept. I loved this. I was hooked from the first panel and I don't recall a story being told from the control perspective before, or an 'admin' cadet, so this really fleshes out Dredd and his world whilst giving a thrill packed strip. It was such a great perspective on Judging - ordinarily you see some daystick/lawgiver dispensing, giving the impression of autonomous enforcers making the decisions and following their noses, but here you've got the support structure shown that makes them look good on the streets. Brilliant! Simon Fraser's talents need no further introduction, but I'm not so keen on his Judges personally.

Shakara - I'm running out of new ways to say good things about this. It continues to be my top thrill of the noughties and beyond. It's just so much good fun! And Eva has a nice arse too.

Ampney Crucius - Yeah, I liked this a bit more than last week. But I'm not sure if it's a bit familiar, what with a hell beast on a public transport vehicle needing fed an that.

Kingdom - Wow! Is that actually a master?! I care for these dawgs and want a happy ending too. I'm sure Clara Bow can handle the pound, well, I hope so! Incidently, is the name Clara Bow a pun like Gene the Hackman? If so, can someone enlighten me?

Necrophim - I was enjoying this episode but then it seemed to really go back to square one with double-triple-quadruple crossing making me confused again. I think I know what's going on, but I'll have to wait and see. Lucifer has become a more rounded character I think and I actually feel a bit sorry for him!

Very good proggage Tharg.

M.

[Richmond Clements]

is the name Clara Bow a pun like Gene the Hackman? If so, can someone enlighten me?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clara_Bow

[Mikey]

Ah, good man. Why didn't I think of Wikipedia 

M.

[Richmond Clements]

Ah, good man. Why didn't I think of Wikipedia 

M.

Hangover?

[Proudhuff]

I'd just like to say that that was one of the best Dredds have read in in ages.

It really captures the excitment of the early ones,moves along at a cracking pace, fine characters, no clunky chat and Mr Fraser does turn in a cracking job by showing exactly what's needed to tell the tale with none of the photoshop nonsense we see elsewhere,it also bring Dredd up to date as it were with the techie /touch screens/CSI info AND it kinda answer my recent  'where's the web in MC1?' question.

Rewally wonderful stuff Mike ( and Si)you can be proud of this baby !!!!

The rest of the prog kind of pales 

[Bolt-01]

Don't often really comment on the prog reviews- but that was a seriously solid Dredd. Well done Mike and Simon.

[IndigoPrime]

Well its arrived. Alas not able to read it yet as I'm still waiting for Prog 1716. Sigh

Me too—and 1715. FPI sent out another copy of each and... they haven't arrived either. Fucking Royal Mail.