Prog 2336 - Thrills set to stun!

[Colin YNWA]

ANOTHER Saturday Prog, alas I've been away this weekend so only just had the chance to read it...and ...

Well I said last week I said with the unfortunate timing of this issue it had better be a good one or I'd be grumpy... well...

The Cadet Dredd was good. I've always said this series is best when Dredd and Rico are played off against each other and this episode underlines that. Though fair to say since we know how that plays out we also know that scenario can't play out and develop which is why the end of this story feels so familar. Still its a great fun romp that plays the two junior Dredds off against each other delightfully.

Of course all of this is helped by having Neill Cameron on art. As expected its just superb stuff. Alas it rather exposes how weak the rest of the art is in this issue.

After Cadet Dredd its all so muh. Its just not that entertaining or thrilling. Lowbrow High , dull and the art static and uninspiring. Oh we get 20 CHUFFIN' pages of this again. Enough to not progress the inspection stuff at all but to add a new plot thread I'm equally disinterested in with some... person with one tusk....ohhhh...I just don't care. Future Shock the art has much more potential. There's moments when it doesn't land but we've seen Zander Cannon before and hopefully they'll develop on their obvious potential. The story is okay, but the shock week and I couldn't even be bothered to work out who that was meant to be in the end? So we get 20 pages of Lowbrow and then Finder & Keeper back, one of the least interesting of the early Regened stories and well it still didn't hold my interest. The art flatters to decieve and didn't quite hold together.

So yeah we get 12 pages of good Dredd with great art and the rest is just dull and uninspiring with art that doesn't help matters. I don't know what's happened to Regened this year, have the budget for these been cut, has it just run out of steam but another really weak issue alas.

Grumpy as chuff me.

[IndigoPrime]

Yikes. Not got mine yet, but that doesn't bode well. It's an odd one. The Phoenix is firing on all cylinders right now, according to mini-IP. Why are the Regeneds not landing in the same way? (Again, according to mini-IP.)

[Richard]

I thought the Future Shock was okay. There's a new artist on Lowborn High, whose style I liked, so hopefully we'll see him again. So two out of three for me (I haven't read Finder & Keeper yet).

I never like Cadet Dredd, and this one is no exception, but I didn't dislike it as much as I usually do. The target audience might enjoy it.

[scrotnig]

I think part of the problem is that, for us old farts, Lowborn High doesn't really work. I keep reading that it's very popular with the target audience though. I don't mind it but the Harry Potter riffs are too obvious for me, plus of late it's just been too long. I'd rather see it half the length and have a different strip as well. It's not as if it does anything epic with the massive length to be honest.

This Cadet Dredd was good. As has been stated, it works well when the strip plays the two Dredds off against each other, and I always do enjoy the foreshadowing elements. This one worked well.

Future Shock was...ok. They are rarely more than that for me, even in the main Prog.

I'll go against the grain and say I've always quite liked Finder and Keeper. I'm glad it's back and this one does what it needs to do well. It's not really aimed at me but I can see its appeal and it's a fun read.

[broodblik]

Cover by Rob Davis:

[broodblik]

Cover and Logo:

[IndigoPrime]

I never like Cadet Dredd, and this one is no exception, but I didn't dislike it as much as I usually do. The target audience might enjoy it.

I do hope so. I don't get the appeal of Cadet Dredd. My soon-to-be 9yo couldn't give two hoots about it. Perhaps she's too young for Regened, but she merrily blazes through Phoenix/Marvel/Rebellion Treasury/etc, and reads comics and standard prose daily.

I keep reading that it's very popular with the target audience though.

Where do you read that? I mean, I'd imagine that has to be true, given how many pages it's getting. But I find it pretty poor. (That's something I wouldn't level at the vast majority of Phoenix strips.)

Out of curiosity, does anyone here have kids who love Regened? It'd be really interesting to know what it is they are into, and what they'd like it to do differently.

[IndigoPrime]

Well, mine showed up. The cover's great. Dredd still doesn't work for me as a basic concept, but within its own limitations was quite good. I liked the art from the Mega Robo-Bros chap. But a conflict with a resolution that occurred in the late 1970s and that won't be resolved in Regened feels odd to me. Also, what the heck are cadets doing off on their own, without a supervising full eagle?

Lowborn High... I found OK. It's got chunks of narrative going on, and there are clearly plenty of events. But it's painfully clear mini-Tharg is shoving this through until there's enough for a trade. Really, it would have been better as a standalone from day one, but that's no the model here. Nice lettering though. I appreciated the Ezquerra lines on the THOOOOOM.

The Future Shock wasn't very shocking and I've no idea why the art was in a weird aspect ratio, thereby requiring the title to go up the left-hand side of every page. Still, this was readable and seemed suitable. And Finder & Keeper was solid and hung together pretty well. My favourite thing in this issue.

Also slightly baffled by the Next Prog ad. I get running house ads, but house ads for something that's entirely unusable for the intended readership of this comic? Weird. Run a house add for a trade or something instead.

Anyway, given the high the Prog's been on, this was a bit of a bump. And it's been worryingly long since I genuinely enjoyed one of these Regened. I get they're not really for me per se, but I did enjoy quite a few of them. What again concerns me more is my kid doesn't care about them either. Still, if they're selling, they're selling and that keeps the issues I do like afloat.

Finder & Keeper > Future Shock > Cadet Dredd > Lowborn High

[A.Cow]

I'd definitely prefer to have read the Cadet Dredd story illustrated on the cover.  Please, Joko, give us some respite from tales of "Oh no, Rico might be a bad 'un at some point in the future."

There's an unfortunate smell of emptying-the-drawer when we see 76 million pages of Clowborn High followed by the clearly-laid-out-for-a-different-publication Future Shock(s).  Who knows, perhaps Regened's young readers may get to experience "Exciting news inside, kids!"?  (Can a comic actually merge with itself??)

(And how did that "Miami Vice" reference get past editorial?  I can't imagine there's many 30 year olds who'd understand the line, let alone the Regened target audience.)

On the plus side, Finder & Keeper seems to work pretty well.  Nice art, too.

[IndigoPrime]

Regened has a habit of doing the references thing. Be it to strips that ran 30 years ago, or things that happened decades back. The main Prog can get away with that, although it can be tiresome when a writer references yet another band from back in the day. But it's bizarre when creating content for children. I'm struggling to think of many references from that era that might have clicked with my own youngling. Maybe Pac-Man? But even then, the notion of the passage of time to that degree is quite abstract to her.

And I'm not sure it's emptying the drawer so much as getting enough strip for a book. Mostly, that's happened by way of shifting strips to the main Prog for a bit. But not here.

[Tomwe]

Zander Cannon's Kaijumax is great I recommend that for those who liked his art this issue. The Dredd was good, I preferred the art on Clowborn High even if it was still a bit rough around the edges. And it went on... Not read Finder and Keeper yet.

[Le Fink]

The story is okay, but the shock week and I couldn't even be bothered to work out who that was meant to be in the end?

I thought it was the dad bringing future tech to spice up the 80s.

I liked the future shock this week, thought it was superior to the other stories. I suppose Lowborn High and Finder and Keeper are not meant for my demographic and yup, they did not do much for me. Nothing against magic and ghosts - Summer Magic was a fine story. I just cared a lot more about Luke Kirby than these characters. Luke's story had a real feeling of peril, which I'm not getting here - it's all a bit safe (is that what all ages means?).

I'm not sure about cadet Dredd either - how does a buttoned up proto-fascist fit the young hero mould? Rico is rebellious which makes him more interesting, but we know he's a bad 'un.

Noam Chimpski would have been a good  Dreddworld all ages candidate - enjoyable for kids and their parents. I guess his story is more adult at times, but it doesn't have to be.

[broodblik]

I understand the purpose of the regen progs, but I am getting a little bit negative about them. I am starting to get that 90s vibe about them where the prog left me cold and I dropped it (I am not talking about the normal prog here). I would still like the regen progs to be done differently, what is wrong with it being handled like the current Battle Action mini-series?

[IndigoPrime]

I imagine there are various reasons for not doing that, not least that these issues give the main Prog a sales spike. Whereas creating an entirely new publication is far riskier. Battle's also designed to be a one-hit mini series, whereas Regened primarily exists to create material that can be compiled into trades (which in children's comics is today where the real money is).

I think what disappoints me is that we've had several of these in a row now that I've found mediocre, and they disrupt the flow of the main Prog, which has been on a high. That was less of an issue when the Prog itself wasn't blazing along at quite a level and Regened was pumping out comics that I enjoyed a whole lot more. It's an odd one, but, yeah, I think I'm shifting now from active supporter to "well, whatever, if it helps the Prog", which is a space I really don't want to be in; not least given that I am a rare parent who gives a crap about comics, with a daughter who is one of a now tiny number of friends in her year (Y3) who still gets regular comics.

[broodblik]

I agree 100% what you saying and maybe I ma just venting because out of the regen we got Pandora, Full Tilt Boogie and Department K which all translated well into the prog. The last few issues were not good at all.