Second City Blues?

[Dudley]

Sensing a bit of a closing of the hive mind against SCB... but why?

So far the art's well up to scratch, the plot (and even the sports scenes) hang together well enough, and we have characters that are a hell of a lot more believable than many other series.

So what is it?  Have future sport stories had their time?  Is it the curse of the ensemble strip -too many characters, too short a time?  Or is it the wierd horse-boy?

[Banners]

It's not too bad. There are certainly some nice elements to the sub-plots.

Maybe the main problem with these sports stories - in any medium - is that you know that against all odds, they're going to win - whatever it takes!

And after Karate Kid, nothing else can really come close(!)

M@

[Dunk!]

horse-boy.

[petesbeats]

Personally i'm enjoying this strip.  The artwork is a bit stretched at times but overall i like whats happeniing.  Time will tell though as the alien ball is unleashed next episode. ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooohhh!!!

[ukdane]

I'm not a huge fan of Warren Pleece's artwork. But I am of the opinion, that his artwork started to appeal to me more when he was working on Deadenders for DC- and this is an improvement on that- so that's a good sign.

As to the story itself- It's ok. Not great, but not dire. One thing that worries me, is that when I close up my prog, I can't remember the names of the main characters, although I can picture one or two of them- horsehead chappie, girlie who sold her body to a mutant (I reckon she's gonna turn up preggers at some point) and the nervie-kid who I think has a brother and dad working against him. Am I right? No idea what their names are though!

[Max Kon]

Don't let that worry you Dane. I'm the same, but with nearly all stories.

[therev]

Again not a GREAT fan of the art but the storys ok, not earth shattering but ok although the bits with the girl selling herself (?) I thought were abit tacked on to make it more "adult". Mind you I though Mean Area was cool!

[Tanky]

I'm really enjoying scb, but have to agree with the rev. The dark stuff is tacked on to stop the whole thing turning into the famous five.

[johnnystress]

"The dark stuff is tacked on to stop the whole thing turning into the famous five."

hahaha!` well theres that strip completely ruined for me!:)

i suppose the horseboy can be Timmy

[Proudhuff]

Timmy the wonder horse!!

You wonder if he's hung like...

As said elsewhere... never been keen on sports, even less keen on sports in comics, even less keen on future sports, even less keen on future sports in 2000ad.



...and yes, you know they are going to win after a few drawbacks.
The only decent sports story was Alf Tupper, who could save a stranded steeplejack, whlst eating his fish and chips, welded a stray dog to a blind man's cane and hang out his auntie's washing before coming second, all whilst running in a pair of tackity boots belonging to a orphan child.

Grrrrand!

Huff of the Track  

[longmanshort]

If I'm being honest, the artwork on the first episode was damn near appalling (yes, yes, yes, I'm not exactly Frazer Irving, but I can still have an opinion) but it has steadily improved over time. Hopefully, we'll get the full 'whack' by the end.

As for the story, sports stories have never grabbed me in the past and this has yet to make any lasting impression. As with most stories, I'm reserving final judgement on the overall product until the end but it's an interesting experiment in reviving a thought-doomed genre, we shall see if it bears fruit.

[Trout]

I'm finding it kind of ho-hum, although I do really like Pleece's artwork.

I bought every issue of Deadenders and was gutted when it was cancelled.

- Trout

[Krustabi]

I don't know why I don't like it. Maybe I find that it tries too hard to be believable and hasn't found a balance between wackiness and solemness yet.

[Bolt-01]

I'm enjoying it, despite not being a fan of sports strips (Apart from one :P)

I'm enjoying the art and I liked the feeling that it 'could' have been in the bull-ring, even if there is no pub looking anything like the one in ep 2 near Spagetti.

Bolt-01

[Bico]

I find it rather pedestrian, which is slightly more offensive than something that's outright awful, to be honest.  It just doesn't seem to be trying anything new, almost as if the storyline was the result of a checklist.
Not that that would be bad in itself if it was padded out with good characters, interesting ideas, or had something new to offer by way of the interpretation of teenagers in comics, but it just trundles along without so much as a pacy plot, or interesting cliffhangers.  Michael Fleischer's Mean Team was at least eventful.
If it's about sport, shouldn't it be something we haven't seen before?  If it's about kids, shouldn't they be interesting?  It just seems to be filler so far, but then I've only read two episodes, and one of those seemed stretched out for the christmas prog.  It might get better.
But the art is still poor by Pleece's standards - he's normally less 'plain' than this.  There have been quite a few board members posting pics on here that displayed more ability at digital colour, too - still, at least he's getting his money's worth out of that 'gradient fill' tool.