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Prog 2306 - Titanic SF Thrills!

Started by Colin YNWA, 01 November, 2022, 05:12:48 PM

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Colin YNWA

Tired ol' tagline, but best Regened for some time. Its a cracker.

Dredd is energetic, fun and really places nicely with the Joe / Rico dynamic. Loved this one.

Bladers James Peaty lands a good un! Regened has been crying out for a good sports thrills and this one lands for me. The sport itself is kept simple and open enough for some expansion. The team / coach is a little cliche but brisk and enjoyable and while it clearly needs more parts to flesh this one out I'd welcome more.

Ulysses Sweet - Psychobaby by its grown-up teams creative crew is daft cheeky fun.

The Future Shock is the only real let down its rather long and overblown for what it is and the twist is muh!

Another nice Chopper wraps things up well. Its as playful as the previous story the winks to camera well used. Its brisk and exciting and all adds to Marlon's character growth. Great stuff.

Not sure what's going on with next weeks cover, but who cares when the Prog in front of you is this much fun!

broodblik

When I die, I want to die like my grandfather who died peacefully in his sleep. Not screaming like all the passengers in his car.

Old age is the Lord's way of telling us to step aside for something new. Death's in case we didn't take the hint.

broodblik

When I die, I want to die like my grandfather who died peacefully in his sleep. Not screaming like all the passengers in his car.

Old age is the Lord's way of telling us to step aside for something new. Death's in case we didn't take the hint.

IndigoPrime

I keep reading 'Bladers' as 'Bladders', which I'm assuming would be a very different strip. No idea when the Prog will land, alas. (The child has her comics this week, but I don't have mine. Tsk.)

broodblik

Overall, this was not a bad regen prog. The big letdown for me was that Mayflies was advertised in the previous prog, but it was nowhere to be found.
Back to the regen prog and for this round the Cadet Dredd worked for me, the new thrill Bladers was quite enjoyable and would mind more of it (and yes it has art by Leigh Gallagher whom I thought would not work in the regen prog). Ulysses Sweet in the regular prog I did not like but the mini version was fun and something different. I liked the Future Shock and this one could have worked in the regular prog as well.
When I die, I want to die like my grandfather who died peacefully in his sleep. Not screaming like all the passengers in his car.

Old age is the Lord's way of telling us to step aside for something new. Death's in case we didn't take the hint.

JudgeJudi

Funny the things that pull you out of a story - why are Dredd and Rico say behind small wood school desks from the 1950s - if they are doing a dissertation, well they have finished at the academy - why would they then be in class later?

Barrington Boots

Wot no Mayflies?

Dredd One of the better Cadet Dredd tales but I still think the whole concept just isn't that much fun.

Bladers Others enjoyed it, but I thought this was pretty dire. A future sports concept story is a good fit for Regened: this set up the story, but was pretty boring, which is criminal in a sports strip. More crucially the various characters stood out from each other visually, but lacked any other distinction between them. Really surprised that this was Leigh Gallagher on art duties! I thought the player names were all poorly chosen for an all ages comic, as kids won't get the jokes.

Ulysses Sweet I think this nailed the idea of an all-ages comic a lot better than 90% of what we've seen in Regened before. No crazy panel layouts or confusing storytelling, and a mix of carnage and humour. Seemed a bit odd to run all four strips back to back rather than, say, sprinkled throughout the issue but good stuff.

Future Shock I thought this was decent, but possibly would have been better suited to the main Prog with a few changes.

Chopper I personally don't like this version of Chopper at all, but this episode was far better than the previous one and I think this bodes well for a more all-ages version of Chopper. The art was bright and cheerful and the story fast moving and fun, and I liked the direct chatting to the reader. On the flipside, as with Bladers, I'm sure the Chekov's Gun joke would go over the head of almost all younger readers (although it was nicely done)

Regened feels like a necessary evil for me nowdays. The state of Royal Mail has me considering my subscription, and tbh Regened issues (and it's intrusion into the regular Prog) are also a factor. Anyway, onwards to next week!


You're a dark horse, Boots.

IndigoPrime

Mine only just arrived. I had a flick through and, honestly, am quite surprised to see the house ad for 2000 AD subscriptions with an essentially naked woman (covered up a bit by her unlikely hair) in a comic essentially aimed at children. (I don't give much of a shit about this myself. Brits have too many hang-ups over nudity. But it nonetheless raised an eyebrow, given how such things are often seen.)

Link Prime

What's the word on the net regarding the Regened publishing schedule for 2023?


broodblik

Quote from: Link Prime on 02 November, 2022, 04:28:56 PM
What's the word on the net regarding the Regened publishing schedule for 2023?

I am sure it would follow the same pattern as the last few years so basically: 2320, 2333, 2346 and then 2356
When I die, I want to die like my grandfather who died peacefully in his sleep. Not screaming like all the passengers in his car.

Old age is the Lord's way of telling us to step aside for something new. Death's in case we didn't take the hint.

IndigoPrime

Sadly, I didn't really enjoy much of that.

The cover was quite nice, but Cadet Dredd still doesn't work for me as a concept. Taken in isolation, this story is OK. But Dredd is a really boring character, with Rico being mildly more interesting. The point about the Black Atlantic just seemed weird. I mean, I get the notion that we should be telling kids to save the planet, but this seems at odds with Dredd as a whole. So is this a new continuity or its own thing? It doesn't seem to know and nor do I. Moreover, I... don't care.

Bladers left me halfway between Colin and Barrington. I didn't think it was bad, but would echo Mr Boots's points about the jokes seemingly being aimed at readers' dads and the strip needing more excitement. Still, it was a part one and set the stage for something. The best thing in the Prog, even if it didn't set my world on fire.

Ulysses Sweet was an oddball. I'd say there's a big misstep in the baseball bat being shoved up someone's arse (I mean, come the fuck on – this is a comic for kids). And the ending was a set-up that would only make total sense to people with a knowledge of 2000 AD minutiae. However, it came close in setting up a Sweeny Toddler for Regened. (Speaking of, what happened to actual Sweeny? He seems to have vanished from Rebellion output these days. A pity.) The format was odd, though. This would make more sense in a weekly, and without the last spread – just have it continue indefinitely. It'll probably work well spread throughout volume 5 or 6 of the compiled Regened though.

Next up, the Future Shock. This looked nice. The script was fine. Not very shocking and too talky. Not bad though.

Then... that advert with the naked lady. I don't even.

Finishing up, we get Chopper. Like Boots, I don't care for this version of Chopper, but the story mostly works well enough, bar the joke for old people. I just can't help wondering how many kids are going to care about this over, say, Mega Robo Bros.

In all, this is the first Prog I can remember where nothing really hit home for me at all. I also don't know how much it would impact on the target audience. I suspect Chopper and Ulysses Sweet would have the best hope, although Chopper in part remains mired in continuity no Regened reader will know nor care about. On that basis – and given how many strips have this problem – it's curious that only one of the five strips in this issue is something properly new.

Bladers > Ulysses Sweet > Chopper > Future Shock > Cadet Dredd.

Link Prime

Quote from: broodblik on 02 November, 2022, 06:00:34 PM
Quote from: Link Prime on 02 November, 2022, 04:28:56 PM
What's the word on the net regarding the Regened publishing schedule for 2023?

I am sure it would follow the same pattern as the last few years so basically: 2320, 2333, 2346 and then 2356

Has that been confirmed?
Still hoping for the best case scenario - it gets it's own bi-monthly title next year, replacing the lacklustre* Monster Fun.

* From the mouth of babes.

broodblik

Quote from: Link Prime on 03 November, 2022, 01:08:48 PM
Quote from: broodblik on 02 November, 2022, 06:00:34 PM
Quote from: Link Prime on 02 November, 2022, 04:28:56 PM
What's the word on the net regarding the Regened publishing schedule for 2023?

I am sure it would follow the same pattern as the last few years so basically: 2320, 2333, 2346 and then 2356

Has that been confirmed?

Nope more me guessing. So 4 issues a year looks like it is here to stay in the current format
When I die, I want to die like my grandfather who died peacefully in his sleep. Not screaming like all the passengers in his car.

Old age is the Lord's way of telling us to step aside for something new. Death's in case we didn't take the hint.

Link Prime

Quote from: broodblik on 03 November, 2022, 01:26:30 PM
Quote from: Link Prime on 03 November, 2022, 01:08:48 PM
Quote from: broodblik on 02 November, 2022, 06:00:34 PM
Quote from: Link Prime on 02 November, 2022, 04:28:56 PM
What's the word on the net regarding the Regened publishing schedule for 2023?

I am sure it would follow the same pattern as the last few years so basically: 2320, 2333, 2346 and then 2356

Has that been confirmed?

Nope more me guessing. So 4 issues a year looks like it is here to stay in the current format

Cheers BB.

If it is broke why fix it, I guess.

IndigoPrime

Quote from: Link Prime on 03 November, 2022, 01:08:48 PMStill hoping for the best case scenario - it gets it's own bi-monthly title next year, replacing the lacklustre* Monster Fun.
Given the risk factor involved in launching a new regular comic, I really hope Monster Fun survives and thrives. But... I dunno. I wanted it to be great. I enjoyed the specials myself and mini-IP enjoyed bits of them. But she wasn't really taken with the first couple of issues, and I'm not about to throw money at something she just doesn't care about. If I said I was stopping The Beano, she'd probably never speak to me again. She shows less 'loyalty' to The Phoenix, but I imagine that wouldn't go down well. Last time I asked about Monster Fun, I just got a shrug. (From her perspective, her favourite character isn't in the mix anymore, her second favourite from the Buster/Cor specials – Gums – isn't either, the storytelling is frequently too chaotic, and the gender mix is dreadful. That last one is something she refuses to tolerate anymore, which is fair enough.)

That all said, I at this stage am unsure whether Regened is strong enough as a standalone newsstand title. As a quarterly fused to 2000 AD, it has the 'protection' of existing sales and can be used to experiment with pilots that spin out into the regular Prog and get collected in trades. I'd be surprised if it would be sustainable alone. Going bi-monthly (or whatever) would also cause major problems in rapidly creating content to compile. After, what, 18 months, you'd have enough strip for a skinny trade?