Prog 1890 - The Butcher Of Rome

[Colin Zeal]

An enjoyable prog for me this. Dredd and Aquilla got off to good starts and the return of the latter is something I was looking forward to. Brass Sun continues to give thrills every week and I am also looking forward to reading it in collected form.

Sadly I wasn't too keen on the other strips. The 3riller started well but the last couple of parts didn't really seem to go anywhere. Sin/Dex is a strip that I just can't get too excited about. I think this is a result me missing too much of the story. I've read (and enjoyed) the trades but other than that my exposure has been the stuff since my return to the Prog. I guess there's just too much of a gap for me to get too excited by the latest instalment of a story that seems to have been running for years.

Colin YNWA: any chance of some solidarity and going easy with the smelly dance on a fellow Colin?

[Grobbendonk]

good luck! 

Thanks

[Colin YNWA]

Colin YNWA: any chance of some solidarity and going easy with the smelly dance on a fellow Colin?

Man I feel the pain of being a fellow Colin. Its not an easy name to go through life with. If you are of a certain age, aside from it being a bit of a rubbish name in general you also had to put up with the telly show 'Colin's Sandwich' and the cartoon character 'Clumsy Clumsy Colin' who was not only clumsy but also advertised some terrible crisp based snacks.

So yeah I feel your pain.

However there can be NO MERCY

Your name is Colin
But I'm still dancin'
There is no mercy
Even for Colin
You can't see me
but Colin's dancing
and you are smelly
Smelly smelly Colin

[TordelBack]

Well I love SinDex, and thus remain fragrantly immune to Colin's tarantella, and after a bit of squeezing to get the last week's new art to sit right in my headcase, I thought this week's was the Prog's top strip - or at least in a closely fought tie with Aquila.  I'm always staggered by how perfectly crafted Rennie's episodes are these days (see also Absalom and Jaegir) - dense, precise, contained, really remarkably skilled writing. 

But oh that ad for Block Judge had me flipping to the cover to check how many weeks to go...  Too many, that's how many.

[ThryllSeekyr]

Aquila....I used have Elven-Ranger that went by that name in a Dungeon & Dragons games I played nearly twenty years ago. I named him after well known constellation.....which is supposed to be latin for Eagle....I think. (So, I'm not sure why African/Middle-Eastern man is running around Rome with the same name...) The funny thing was that another person who was playing the game with was playing a Elven-Thief who's name I forget, but was of Clan-Aquila....Coincidence or not?

[Frank]

Aquila means eagle in Latin, and the eagle is the symbol of the Roman Empire.

[ZenArcade]

Cover: cool stuff, I can see whu the foreshortening caused confusion. It does look as if the gladius is fixed to the arm. The segemnted armour looks similar to that used in the Dacian campaigns some 100 years or so later. If I remember it was to counter the Dacian Falx.

Dredd: I kind of like the more easy going everyday policeman stories. The art isn't bad either, Cook does a good threatening Dredd in this. The last page is nice, that poor wee lad looks well f**ked.

Sinister Dexter: story ?  Art: excellent.

Brass Sun: this is a visual delight, only 2000AD would have the rocks to commission something like this nowadays.

Aquila: the pick of the week (despite my rather pedantic armour issues).

3riller: a satisfying end to a good story.

All in all again not at recent heights, but good stuff none the less.
The Ezquerra frame looks fantastic, he seems to be doing detail again.

[ThryllSeekyr]

Aquila means eagle in Latin, and the eagle is the symbol of the Roman Empire.

Aquila meets Black-Hawk... now that would be something 

BTW the cover with him holding the sword (Is that a Gladius?) infront of his barely covered groin.

Very sus 

[Frank]

BTW the cover with him holding the sword (Is that a Gladius?) infront of his barely covered groin. Very sus 

The cover line should have been YOU WANT THAT, DON'T YOU? OH YEAH, USE THE TEETH.

[judgerufian]

Aquila meets Black-Hawk... now that would be something 

Think its been well discussed that Aquila is an updated BlackHawk for the 2010's. Now if they were to meet that would lead to a situation similar to when Rogue Trooper, Friday and Tor Cyan get together for a beer on fridays

[TordelBack]

Think its been well discussed that Aquila is an updated BlackHawk for the 2010's.

Complete with Aquila's Congolese guardian spirit Massim-Biambe manifesting as a black hawk...

Given all the parallels drawn between Nero's attempts to become Boss God in Rome and the 3-centuries-distant ascension of the cult of ol' Heyzeus himself, I wonder might we again ponder connections between John-whom-Jesus-loved the Evangelist-possibly-also-of-Patmos aka the Eagle (in Christian mythology the longest-lived of the apostles, and as our story unfolds yet to write his Revelation, if you buy that he was the same guy) and Aquila?  We've already seen Il Papa, whose destiny is a clever inversion of Aquila's (right down to ending his earthly life being crucified upside down, just as Aquila begins his immortality nailed the right way up), could be see the two Eagles paralleled or even offered as an explanation for the contrasts between John-of-the-Gospels and John-the-hate-filled-nutter of Revelations?

[judgerufian]

Aaaaaaand you've lost me!

[TordelBack]

I'm drawing spurious fanwanky parallels between Aquila (the Eagle) and John the Evangelist, the Gospel-writer (called the/depicted as an Eagle, who may or may not be the same guy who was 'the apostle who Jesus loved', and the author of Revelations), whose lives and nicknames neatly overlap, and who are already connected in the story through St. Peter, who we met in the Christmas Prog. 

I find it easy to amuse myself, others less so.

[Satanist]

Well if I have to stink of shit I hope its good shit! Cos Sin/Dex is really pushing its luck in my house. It just drags on and on and on and you get the idea. Go here shoot random baddies, go there and shoot more randoms. Im not even sure if Ive forgot War of the Moses, its still to come or I dreamed it all up? I actually hate the thought of skipping a story Ive paid for as Im Scottish but Im getting close.

The rest was good though and theres stuff to look forward to so nature of an anthology, swings & roundabouts, its a game of 2 halves, etc.

[Colin YNWA]

Well if I have to stink of shit I hope its good shit! Cos Sin/Dex is really pushing its luck in my house. It just drags on and on and on and you get the idea.

Oh no need to worry as by now any right thinking human being would have given up this ridiculous jig as a bad, overused jape...

Alas for you I'm a blinked committed evangelist for the series so

I'm am dancin'
Oh yes I'm dancin'
You might like Satan
Doesn't stop you being smelly
For I am dancin'
Though you can't see me
And I ain't stoppin'
Til you agree* me

*with - I put it here as it spoiled the flow above in its rightful place.