Prog 2308 - Knockout Blow!

[broodblik]

Enjoyable prog with most stories (except the one I want) in its penultimate episode.  This is the type of cover that screams at you read-me read-me, great stuff PJ.

Dredd – Well maybe not such a surprise as Buratino turns out not to betray MC1. The fight start in earnest as Anderson also gets free. More action orientated episode as we are heading for the last installment.
 
Chimpsky – Another good action-fest episode as our valiant heroes fights the horde and reach the top-level. This has a great read and some great fun by the creative team. We even get a surprise reveal in the last panel.

Hope – At last Mallory escape the nightmare house as we head into a mini-break. We will soon see the price that Mallory had to pay to free him and his unlikely companions.

Enemy Earth – I am sure I watched an episode of the Walking Dead that feels like this episode. Reading it but not a fan.

Hershey – Great episode as the action continues and the secret is starting to reveal itself.

[broodblik]

Cover by PJ Holden:

[broodblik]

Cover and Logo:

[Richmond Clements]

Loving the John Woo-ness of that cover.

[norton canes]

Another one of those progs which might best be described as 'pleasantly messy' (do the Germans have a word for that?)

Strong 'Judge Death Lives' vibes from 'Buratino Must Die' (the gang of supernatural foes, the psychic shield) but it's told with little of the clarity or economy of the Wagner classic. Actually, the blind Dredd with shattered visor reminds me it feels more like the rather meandering 'City of the Damned'. Maybe it needs a big centre-spread featuring its adversaries?

"This city is guilty!"
"The crime is harbouring a bizarrely large-headed Sov psychic"
"The sentence is..."
"Uh... not quite sure"

Problems with Hope... also, where the capricious narrative takes another slalom. I wonder - when a script droid is lucky enough to be given a 15-week (or similar length) run for their strip, is there an edict from Tharg that it has to be one long story? Seems to me that the problems with people having to re-read huge swathes of the earlier instalments would be alleviated if long runs were split into smaller, self-contained 3- or 4-part stories.

Fortunately the remaining three strips are a little more straightforward. Hershey continues to do the simple things well and that's a nice twist at the end of Chimpsky. I think though Enemy Earth might just sneak TOP THRILL this week for the severed arm coming completely out of the blue - though why something so gruesome should happen in a supposedly all-ages strip, I'm completely stumped.

[JWare]

"This city is guilty!"
"The crime is harbouring a bizarrely large-headed Sov psychic"
"The sentence is..."
"Uh... not quite sure"

John Wagner can step down now. His legacy is in good hands.

[broodblik]

B/W Cover:

[Colin YNWA]

What is going on with the schedule.

2305 = Friday
2306 = Tuesday
2307 = SATURDAY !!!!
2308 = Thursday

Thank the heavens they privatised Royal Mail hey.

ANYWAY its here so I just need to move on I guess.

So as suggested the 'twist' from last week in Dredd is detwisted (it would seem) in a solidly entertaining episode  with glorious art.

Chimpsky shows folks how to do it all however. Beautiful art, compelling and wildly entertaining hi-jinks and then a gasp at the end. This is a brilliant bit of comics all round.

Hope is entertaining and we'll see that magic costs I guess... I mean we are ALWAYS told that magic costs but rarely has that cost been so viceral... well assuming this goes the way it might... I mean it might not as well, which is half the fun.

Enemy Earth continues to be much more entertaining. Its not great but not terrible at all. Its decent.

Hershey stunning art, some lovely character moments, big bangs and falls. I mean its not Chimpsky but its damned good.

Oh and that cover is just glorious AND Mega City 2099 looks like it might be very much a good thing from the simple image in Thrills of the Future.

Great Prog.

[Batman's Superior Cousin]

Still no Prog for me

[Barrington Boots]

Arrived today here in Worcestershire. Not the strongest Prog for me.

Agree with everyone on the cover - VERY John Woo with the birds - superb stuff!

Dredd – Not really digging the turn this has taken and not really interested where it goes next sadly. Most of the Sov mutant judges look daft (and their arrival had the feel of a 90s Marvel comic where Stryfe or Mr Sinister rolls out his next gang of b-list henchmen) but otherwise stellar work from Henry Flint. All adds up to a story that's readable but doesn't really have any impact on me one way or another really.
 
Chimpsky – This on the other hand was great. All-action, and a superb and completely 'did not see that coming' twist on the final page.

Hope – Don't care for this.

Enemy Earth – Skipped entirely.

Hershey – This on the other hand was great. All-action, and a superb but completely 'did see that coming' twist on the final page. Tbh the last couple of episodes have been so cinematic in their presentation, and I've enjoyed them, so much I'm thinking of going back to re-read the previous Hershey stuff to see if my feeings over her return soured me on something I should have been appreciating more.

More hits than misses for me this week but such is the way of the anthology.

[JWare]

Do I sense an underlying theme here?
Lot of missing arms going on. Hershey, Hope, and now Enemy Earth.
All I’m saying is that Dredd and Chimpsky had better watch out. Better start observing Health & Safety protocols more closely, you know?

[Jacqusie]

Hope – At last Mallory escape the nightmare house as we head into a mini-break. We will soon see the price that Mallory had to pay to free him and his unlikely companions.

"HOPE's back in Prog 23101"


Blimey, we are used to some long gaps between stories in the prog, but that's a stretching it abit!

[Tjm86]

That's "2310!" ... an exclamation mark, albeit difficult to tell with that font.

Look on the bright side, I read it as the year 2310 first time round ... <facepalm>

Chimpsky was definitely the win for me this week mind.  Holden is perfectly suited to this type of strip.  Has the right manic / comedic feel to it.  Mind you, he went up massively in my estimation with Stringbags, a piece that really does need to be read by anyone .... full stop.

Enemy Earth does seem, as has been mentioned elsewhere, to be failing to live up to its potential from the Regened prog.  I would agree on the cliche-ridden dimension here.  Hope it doesn't fall into the trap of being another Walking Dead knock off. 

TBH I'm also struggling with Scott's artwork on this.  Not sure why the assumption that the only way of appealing to younger readers is to go with this type of artwork.  Perhaps that's because we had the likes of Ezquerra, Gibbons, Gibson, McMahon, Bolland, Turner, Smith, Ewins, .... to spoil us when we were that age.  Or maybe I'm just turning into a grumpy old git that is stuck in his ways ...

Then we get the utterly creepy, bizarre and frenetic work of Broxton.  Adams has created a fascinating alternate world that is equal parts noir thriller, Constantine knock-off and alternate-history.  Seems to add in a dash of American Horror Story to turn up something genuinely disturbing whilst tantalisingly absorbing.

I doubt very much that Dredd would have held my attention as much as it did had it not been for Flint's artwork.  Having not been overly impressed the last time Williams took us on a quasi-mystical quest in End of Days, largely to the point of having forgotten it, this has been a struggle to follow.  Might need to go back and re-read that story then try and pick up the threads on this one.

Jury still out on Hershey.  Another Williams one that benefits from the strength of the artist.  Excuse the pun but this one is leaving me a little cold ...

As for Thrills of the Future ... Niemand taking a stab at some early Dredd tales?  And again with the puns ... "The heat is on!"

[broodblik]

That's "2310!" ... an exclamation mark, albeit difficult to tell with that font.

After super zoom in on the digital version I can confirm it is 2310

[IndigoPrime]

A great cover kicks things off and then a teaser for Niemand/Boyle doing Mega-City 2099? OH YES.

Dredd continues to be fun and feels quite old-school in nature. Nutty villains. Grim Dredd. Impossible odds. I suspect at the end there will be a swift resolution, quite a few dead enemies and a deadpan Dredd saying something quippy.

Chimpsy remains excellent too. I didn’t see the twist coming either, and it’ll be interesting to see what it means.

Hope has just completely lost me. Sorry. I want to like it, but I’m now at the point where I have no idea who anyone is nor what’s going on. Nice art, mind.

Enemy Earth is pretty gruesome for a Regened strip. It’s also objectively a lot better than most of the Regened strips. I don’t imagine it’ll become a classic too many people will clamour for umpteen series of, but I’m happy enough with it in the Prog.

Which leaves Hershey. I never had a problem with this series in the first place, and this second series is better than the first. In fact, it’s my favourite thing this week.

Hershey > Chimpsky > Dredd > Enemy Earth > Hope