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I've never liked them and have always considered them a chore to read. It's a comic, not a magazine.

My son, who really like Regened, is wondering what has happen to Finder Keeper, as it has been quite along time since it appeared. Does anyone know if there will be any more?

And for what it's worth, he would rather see that in the Prog than Lowborn High.

[Rogue Trooper]

Best thing about this week's Prog is the return of two of my favourite artists, Ben Willsher and Patrick Goddard.

The return of Rogue Trooper was pretty good. It also demonstrated the value of digital, as I have all the Rogue Trooper collected editions on my iPad, and was abLe to very quickly bring up the story from Progs 327 to 332 that was referenced and read it.

Elsewhere in The Prog, I'm just reading The Order with little expectation of knowing what's going on.

Is there any reason to think it will have the colour pages? Has there been an announcement to that in effect?

Lowborn High added His Dark Materials to Harry Potter as something it's rippung off.

Yes it was very noticeable that the teacher's daemon, sorry I mean familiar,was a Pine Martin. Really? Couldn't they have made it something else?

And as for getting to the school by driving your luggage trolley at the wall on platform 9 3/4, sorry I mean shopping trolley at the wall in the supermarket....don't get me started.

Overall Lowborn High seemed to have 4 distinct phases that were only peripherally related to each other, so it all felt very disjointed to me.

That sounds great Simon. I've just emailed you. Thanks.

It's the kind of thing I would have thought McMahon would have done, but I'm struggling to find an example. He might he done one in that famous annual story where he did the blocks, but I don't have it to hand.

Other examples you might like to to look up are as follows (sorry I don't know how to add images):

The Invisble Man part 1 , Prog 134 by Ron Smith. A kind of flying saucer type thing.

Pirates of the Black Atlantic, parts 2 and 3, Progs 198 and 199. Ron Smith again, a sort of rectangle with a "Space 1999 eagle" inspired cockpit. That one crops up again in Block Mania part 5, in Prog 240.

Unamerican Graffiti part 2, Prog 207. Ron Smith again, but a slightly different design.

Judge Death Lives, part 5, Prog 228, by Brian Bolland.

Block Mania part 2, Prog 237. More a near ground floaty type thing than a full on H Wagon, by Mike Mahon.


In more modern times, I get the impression the design moved more to an actual H, as others have said. And as has already been stated, there doesn't seem to be a standard, definitive design.

Massive apologies for piquing peoples' curiosity!
'Tsellest', as far as I am aware, is nothing more than a palindrome. I happen to rather like palindromes and find this one especially beautiful in its construction, but didn't mean to suggest there was anythihng more going on with the name...

Tsellest is indeed a palindrome, but that's not the only reason I invented it...

The first T is silent so it's pronounced "Celest" as in "Celestial" ("of the heavens" or "star-like").

The "Ts" at the start is suggestive of "Tsar" (itself an anagram of "star") which is the Russian imperial title (derived from "Caesar" meaning ruler or king: alternate spelling is "Czar").

Its great when the creators come on here to answer questions...so whilst we have got your attention, I didn't understand what the last panel two panels on page two are showing - where is Tsellest and what has crashed into what? Nor did I understand the last panel on page 3 - where is Vex, what's that brown thing he is he's on top of? Is he outside of the ship he was on?

And sorry guess these are probably more questions for Jake Lynch. And sorry for being thick and not able to read comic after 45 years of trying to do so 😉.

Is it just me, or has anyone else noticed that the paper used for the Prog now seems to have a strange waxy quality?

the niemand droid whoever they may be is a great writer and has written some of my fave dredds in recent memory and tbh thats all i care about

Yeah complete agree with that. I haven't got a clue who it is, and I suspect when/ if name is ever revealed, there is going to be a big chance I haven't actually heard of them anyway.

So on that basis it's they're just Ken Neimand to me.

It's not as if I know any of the creators beyond their work for Tharg anyway.

I'm finally up to date on the podcast and am ready for the next episode having completely Hell and High Water yesterday. So looking forward to that coming out.

A big thanks to Simon and Eddie for doing these; it's the only podcast I listen to regularly, and gives me a real incentive to do the complete Dante read through I've been meaning to do for years.

Tsellest continues to be the cleverest villain name in all space opera

One for the 'over my head' thread, I'm afraid. It's a palindrome, but..?

Yeah I was wondering the same and hoping someone would post an explanation - AlexF really.

It's great when the creators take the time to come onto the Forum and answer questions about their work.

[Manco's]

I haven't commented much lately, so this is more a review of the recent Prog, than this week's specifically.

Loving Manco's art, but not his depiction of the Judges' uniform or the contemporary looking MC1 - the clothes, the blocks and the cars.

The Out and Proteus Vex surely now take their place in the pantheon of top level thrills of all time.

The Order lost me years ago, so I read it with a level of acceptance of not knowing what is going on.

Pineapples has now finished (I known it's not in this week's Prog) and I'll not miss it, or the ABC Warriors. Which just goes to show how far the quality has dropped off.

One of the best things about the forum is the debate about what is good and what isn't. It's way better than some Facebook Groups I'm in, for some band, where there is little critical appraisal and some people  appear to think that everything the band has ever put out is wonderful.

So I think saying you don't like a particular strip is fine, so long as reasons are given and it doesn't decend into personal criticism. I think on the whole the forum stays on the right side of that line.