PROG 1451... STALKING ON THE MOON!

[Artificial Idiot]

I also thought the cover was rather poor. Just seemed pretty dull to me, didn't grab me at all. The Roberts Bek & Kawl cover is GENIUS though...

[Jim_Campbell]

> I know it's all a matter of personal taste, but I
> bring you the real stinkers:

The Yeowell Sin/Dex cover is not a great piece of work but is rendered utterly blah by the unspeakably dull and literal colour palette which entirely fails to draw the eye to any particular part of the action.

Imagine the background rendered in its current muted blue, the foreground in the same but the main part of the image in strong reds/yellows/oranges with the muzzle flashes really beefed up.

The composition would never make this a great cover, but a better colouring job would certainly elevate it above 'stinker' ...

Cheers

Jim

[Proudhuff]

Dredd top form as is the Luna story, Savage excellent, the rest I could take or leave

Death to the Festival!!

Huff

[Banners]

Death to the Festival!!

Eh?

M@

[DavidXBrunt]

The inclusion of the faulty lawbot is evidence of just why John Wagner is the best. The humour offsets the otherwise bleak story to perfection. Without it the story would be far too unpleasant to be a really effective commentary. And in this time of supporting characters being killed off and loose ends being tied up (Max Normal'll be the next to go) it's great to see what could be a potentially great supporting character back. Means I can't enter the design a baddy compo though.

As for the rest Leatherjack has one spectacular moment that elevates it above the run of the mill whilst the other pages also fill out the world and set up the story. I'm hoping this is a 12 or 13 week run.

Savage has possibly the best cliffhanger in ages. We know Bill can't die (or at least in part 2 of 4 it's hugely improbable) and the supporting cast aren't really developed enough for them to be put in jeapordy but contrasting Bi;;s words in the last panel with the story title is a brilliantly subtle way of building tension by pointing to where this is all going.

Breathing space got off to a good start, for a story set on the moon it was very atmospheric. The art is so good that I wonder if the change of artist coming up is going to be a major problem.

And Robo-Hunter. If, as was suggested at Dreddcon, this a make or break story it looks like it's going to be 'Make'. This is lightyears in advance of the other Samanthat stories and feels like the RoboHunter I know and love. Silly as it is I love the idea of a war robot that looks like John Lennon in his peacenik days. If this is the last hurrah it's getting out with style, if this is going to confirm RoboHunter as a regular story then it's fine by me.

Enthused by the prog, or maybe just loved up, I really enjoyed the read. Not so keen on the cover.

[Floyd-the-k]

It is indeed a matter of personal taste. Prog 1412 is one of my favourite covers ever, witty, unusual, striking, interesting.  It's up there with the "BabeRace2000" cover. In both cases, I think the people's views of the covers were affected by the fact that the story sucked (actually I liked 'freaks' but you know what I mean)

[Byron Virgo]

"Well, the Adlard & Higgins covers are both pretty poor efforts & probably on a par with the new one."

I have to disagree - I loved the Gibson one, it encapsulates everything I love about 2000AD. The Higgins one was also nice in its elegant simplicity, it's always nice to see Steve Roberts and Simon Davis work together. I knbow Charlie's one was a little below par, but then he doesn't really do a lot of painted work these days, and I rather liked it myself.

[Eck]

The idea for this week's cover is fantastic. However, I agree that it wasn't pulled off that well. There's no need for the starry background, or Earth; Most people, I assume, would have 'gotten' the idea simply from the skull.

[Eck]

Oh yeah, what's with the furries?

[Funt Solo]

I'm retreating to safer ground:

[Trout]

A fish writes:

Dredd: Oh, yeah, that's what we want!
This story demonstrates why nobody does a Dredd like Wagner.
It's gripping and well-paced, and expertly controls the emotions of the reader. As good as Dredd's been in the last few years.

I'm still really enjoying Savage, too.
There are enough real elements mixed in there - TheRev, I'm sure the messages in the washing thing was used in real life somewhere, perhaps Northern Ireland - with the outlandish fantasy to make it work.

This is just the sort of story Mills does well, and is pitched just right in today's political climate.
It's the intelligent storytelling which is one of the biggest reasons why I stuck with 2000AD as I grew up, instead of discarding it like other comics.

I'm a bit more tuned into Leatherjack than last week, as it gets a strong focus for the first time.
It's often recognised that comics work best when they hinge on a main character, and I'm keen to find out more about this one.

I also enjoyed the very tense, claustrophic tone of Breathing Space.
Doherty's art suits it well and I'm pleased to see Williams has a Dredd-esque setting to play with. Let's hope it works out well for him. (But I agree with PVS: let's hope nobody ever mentions Judgement Day again...)
Fun with reference-spotting: League of Gentlemen gravestones. :-)

Next, Robohunter was good fun.
As I read it, I was chuckling and wanting to find out what happens. It's the best it's been since it came back.

Lastly, the cover was just okay. A big skull? Er, right, fine. Let's move on.

Overall: a bloody good comic!

- Trout

[paulvonscott]

I'll say this for the skull, which I liked, it was much more of a stand out image than the previous one.

[Oddboy]

Cover was great, I thought.

Dredd - also great... as everyone else says: Wagner is the tops.

Savage - Wasn't so keen on the 'Report' exposition to begin with, but it turned me around before it'd finished, so that's okay.

Pet hate alert: It's the old Pat Mills' Badly Divided Book Syndrome! As often seen previously throughout Sl?ine's Books of Invasions, I can't help but feel that this episode should have been part one of book 2, and that last week's episode should have been at the end of book 1.
Okay, Mills' technique gives for a good series end Cliffhanger moment, but it offends my sense of what makes a "Book" - ie a beginning middle and end, not a 'Beginning & middle' book 1, and an 'end, beginning & middle' book 2, etc.

But putting the structure aside, the story & art are fantastic.

[Oddboy]

Leatherjack - swinging into making sence territory, but with plenty of Smithisms to keep you plesantly bemused & amused. Looks like it could be a great story.

Breathing Space - looks great, nice set up episode, now we'll have to see where it takes us.

Robo-Hunter - enjoying it.

Lobster Random Coming Soon - good to hear it!



Overall - great prog, better than last week!

[Dudley]

I'm amazed to read the negative comments about the cover, which I think is absolutely excellent, and a real match for what Doherty's doing with the strip inside the prog.  An excellent, stand-out image that might suffer slightly in comparison to Jock's Top Ten effort, but definitely one of the covers of the year for me.

Dredd ended in that way Wagner specialises in, with a feeling of mingled surprise and inevitability.  The painting technique used to render the counsellor is excellent.  PD314 is great, isn't he?

I do rather wish that Savage would dispense with the character of the sister - or indeed any female characters.  Pat just doesn't seem to be able to write them.  This isn't hunting for misogyny (I didn't see anything untoward in the graffiti), just that his tin ear for female dialogue pisses me off as I read it, and it's a consistent fault.  Art's superb.

Our lovely, illiterate Leatherjack makes a superb entrance into the library.  Can't wait for next week.

Samantha C. Slade, Robohunter trundles by.  The C stands for "Can't be bothered", by the way.

Breathing Space's superb opening panels reminded me of how much I enjoy Rob Williams' work.  This is going to be a class act from beginning to end, I think, though i'm amazed at the choice of Laurence Campbell to follow Peter Doherty - I find it difficult to think of 2 artists with more opposing styles.  Should be interesting.  
I really hope that Wagner and Rennie can be persuaded to integrate some of what Spurrier and Williams are doing at the fringes of Dreddworld back into the main continuity, as this is an excellent version of Luna-1 and I'd hate to see it jettisoned in a couple of years' time for a brand-new version.  (As happened with most early Megazine "worlds", as happened with the Corps' space-war, as happened with Cal-Hab, as happened with Mega-City 2).  For that reason, I'm extra pleased to see a nod in the direction of Judgement Day.  It's not Crusade, people!

Overall - great prog that continues to fire on all cylinders and give the Mighty meg a run for its money.