Messages

Belatedly (been away for a week)...

A promising Dredd but I thought the narrative was unclear in places i.e. on the first page it initially looked like Barbarbara Grimm was the cit with the child. Also not sure what those robotic snakes were supposed to do but whatever it was they must be a massive security risk moving from zone to zone in an iso-block. Couldn't work out how Barbarbara was initially approached by the criminal syndicate, either. Still, trusting the Carroll droid to deliver now the plot is properly underway. SinDex well told but a little underwhelming. IP by Kek-W really not working for me. Hope it's shelved and he gets to start on a new strip of his own invention. 3riller good but could have done with some sort of context or exposition even if only teased. Jaegir imperious once again.

A satisfyingly squalid denouement to 'Control', I thought - kudos to all involved. Admittedly I wasn't quite sure what was happening when the charnel pit opened up - was it an empty subterranean space, the roof of which the sinking Mechanismo droid caused to collapse? If it was just a filled pit, where did all the mud go? Also, I got the impression from earlier installments (and previous chapters of the arc) that Pin's lair was underground, but here it was raining, or was that water running in from a ceiling? Anyway, the 'dark side' of Smiley's ghost was a nice touch - it took a moment before I realised why it was there!

IP seems to be pulling out a lot of tricks, but to me it just seems like it's trying too hard, and Kek-W should concentrate on refining his characters and storytelling rather than on each page simply unveiling yet another contrived new idea. Contrast that with the simple yet elegant style of Dan Abnett in this week's Sin/Dex, where his narrative flow is like a sweeping river winding smoothly across a lush plain. John Charles' colours are, I agree, absolutely glorious and the perfect complement to Steve Yeowell's art.

I quite liked the Future Shock, nothing revelatory but a nice twist (shame about that cheesy last line though) and Liana Kangas' vibrant art was a treat.

Jaegir was as magnificent as ever. I can cope with short 6-week bursts as long as they keep coming this frequently.

So Thistlebone is on its way back, then. That at least explains why the end of what turned out to be the first chapter wasn't especially rewarding.

TIKRIK ITITIK RIKITITIK TIKI RIKRIK!!

Imagine if some 2000 AD stories started with the last ever chapters and worked backwards. Verdus would be a great way for Sam Slade to bow out. We'd all be pining for the days of John Hicklenton's Nemesis artwork, bemoaning this new Kevin O'Neill guy. Anderson and Slaine would just get better and better.

(^ Covert Kovert)

Looking forward to a change in next week's line-up now Anderson and Thistlebone have concluded. This Anderson story lost me almost from its first installment, and I'm afraid to say that T.C. Eglington's folk horror tale didn't really click either. Jaegir, on the other hand, is as fantastic as ever - I guess I should dig out progs 350-355 and see what Colonel Covert was up to last time we saw him...

[Thistlebone]

There was absolutely nothing wrong with Thistlebone, but it was paced like a TV show rather than a comic. Pat Mills doesn't write comics like eighties Nemesis or Slaine anymore, but anyone who has read that combination of super-condensed ideas and exciting action and doesn't see that this is something to which the comic form is uniquely suited needs a brick through their window.

Appropriating forms from other media is something Comics are also good at, but if I wanted to watch an episode of Midsomer Murders I'd probably do that rather than seek out the comic version. Eglinton's interviews suggest he did enough research to pack 3000 years of paganism into ten parts. The only reason not to do so is, presumably, an Alan Partridge desire for a second series.

The trajectory of all long-running 2000ad strips demonstrates that this kind of concentration of incident and ideas isn't sustainable beyond a few books

This all sounds very sensible but could I respectfully play Devil's advocate and point out that 2000 AD's most successful new strip of the last few years has been Brink, the box set-style long-form procedural with a preposterously low incident to page count ratio?

All I would say is, you don't write Judge Dredd, you write Mega City 1 and incorporate Dredd.

^ I'd go with that.

I don't think there's ever a reason to cancel a character outright. Someone will always have the ideas and imagination to take them a step further.

The Beatles - Love Me Do

Magnificent conclusion to Absalom, no epilogue required. Some people have said it felt a bit hasty but Gordon Rennie has been writing most of this chapter's installments as self-contained 6-page episodes so it feels entirely right this concluding part is done in the same way. To draw a comparison with another medium, too many TV shows these days feature protracted, emotionally-wrought codas which take up the last 20 minutes or so of the running time and add little to the essence of the story - I much prefer a pithy concise, ending. The back page merely makes a superb denouement even more wonderful and of course harks back to the way this chapter opened eight weeks ago. Farewell Harry.

Went back to Dredd after starting with Harry's exit and I have to say, the two strips make for spectacularly grim bookends! Have to admit that I only really skim-read the intervening three strips as they were nowhere near the stellar quality of the other two, though Thistlebone a least looks great.

Just wondering if people think 2000 AD could benefit from another strip like 'Dredd'? By which I mean an ever-present strip where a roster of script and art droids take turns to create short to medium length stories centered on the same character and their 'universe', self-contained but often part of their own 'continuity bubble' of developing plot arcs. 

With the rest of the prog featuring creator-owned strips generally served in long chapters and where art droids will spend a long stint, Dredd is something of an anomaly. What's the likelihood that a writer would want to create a character, start it off in a new strip then hand it over for others to develop? How would payments work practically? Would it effectively mean a return to the not fondly looked-upon days of the publishing company taking more profits?

Would the prog even benefit from such a strip? How difficult would it be to create an appealing character with defining characteristics that was nevertheless flexible enough to be cultivated by other writers? Would the prospect of such a major launch being a flop put Rebellion off trying?

Got any ideas about what this new 2000 AD hero(ine) could be like?

Just a few questions that popped into my mind

[Absalom]

Absalom is storytelling taken to a surgical level: precise, intense, compelling, relentless. Brilliant work

Thank you - I was trying to articulate how much I love this strip and you've done it perfect justice.

Like others I can't believe this is going to wrap in five or six pages, but I've no doubt the Rennie droid is up to the task. In fact I can't believe that the whole Rennie world which began so long ago with  Caballistics, Inc is going to disappear.

Oh and there were some shouts a few weeks ago that D'Israeli should enter the pantheon of all-time great 2000 AD artists; well, absolutely, as long as he's joined by Tiernen Trevallion, whose work on Absalom has been stunning.

Very much as it's been over the last few weeks, really - one phenomenal story (Absalom), one very good (Dredd), one interesting enough to enjoy (Thistlebone), one not quite interesting enough to enjoy (IP), and one sadly missing the mark.

Fantastic to see Tom Foster back, bringing his Bolland-y goodness to Dredd. Is there more than a little homage there..?



Also, 'Mackerel' and 'Petrol'? Am I missing some kind of pun? Will I be posting about this in the 'Things that went over you head' thread in a few years time?

Meanwhile, Absalom is just stunning - I think I might have to actually take my scissors to the prog and rearrange those panels so they read in the correct order. It's an amazing conceit, very reminiscent of Steven Moffat's best ideas in Doctor Who.

Thankfully I'm starting to get on the right frequencies to enjoy Indigo Prime and Thistlebone. The stumbling block I have with IP is that my 26-year 2000 AD hiatus began just as the strip was getting started, so I've never really experienced the John Smith version. There have been some nice concepts in this Kek-W continuation, though I still think I'd prefer shorter, 3-4 part self-contained stories.