Prog 1981 - The Law Lives

[Colin YNWA]

The 'Coming Soon' box has been bothering me all day; I love MacNeil's art but am I the only one who thinks he's an odd choice for Defoe?

Yeah completely agree - for me not the best use of his talents - though to be fair that's very possibly more to do with my dislike of Defoe than anything else. At least this is balanced by the return of Grey Area which art aside I'm very much looking forward too.

ANYWAY - so many posts so few reviews and this, the review thread. Better do what little I can to redress the balance.

Dredd just keeps getting better and better. Nothing really different yeah its building up so much as has been said questions about just what Texas City are up to. The extremes we're seeing in Brit Cit. Like vultures circling the dying Mega City One old allies peak for best seats at the corpse. All defted realised by both script and art. Some of the very best Dredd.

Brink is an interesting change of pace for the Prog and one I'm enjoying. Its moving things along more sutly than we're used to and that is refreshing in the Prog. I think this one will be a slow burner and when we look back at this and see something a little  special.

So all good then... oh right that's just two thrill. Well we have two endings I'm happy with, but only in that the two strips concerned are ending. To be fair I've enjoyed this Survival Geeks story more than any before, but that's not really saying much. Tainted just end but grimly promises to return.

I've stood up this Slaine longer than most and I've enjoyed the first two books of The Brutania Chronciles but really this book after fooling me at the start, is just dull old nonsense. I mean really we have another Slaine about to be behead cliffhanger. Really. Dull.

So pretty low key Prog all in all BUT the prospect of two new thrills next week gives me hope.

[Magnetica]

I have a fairly similar take on this week's Prog to Colin.

The cover is one of the very best in a long while IMO.

Dredd - yeah just great. PJ and Carroll at the top of their games.

Geeks - I have enjoyed the last two series more than any previously but am happy this is the last episode (er there isn't any story starting next week is there?)

Slaine - over the years this has been one of my very favourite things in the comic. Ever. Indeed I sit here writing this wearing a "Kiss My Axe" T- Shirt by Angie Mills. But this is dragging on too much.  3 Weeks and counting for what could have been a couple of pages. And isn't Slaine looking old now. Unlike Dredd, it just doesn't suit him.

Brink - agree its a bit of a slow burn, and it is verging on needing a re-read already (which is not normal for a Dan Abnett script).

Tainted - just sort of stops. Was going to say ends, but that's not right. I for one won't be looking forward to it returning.

Thrills of the future. I seem to be in the minority, but I think Macneil's art on this will be great. Yes the current style he uses on Dredd would not be suitable, but this looks completely different to that. One thing he has shown over the years is an ability to draw / paint in different ways.

[ThryllSeekyr]

Did anybody remember this Slaine cover?

Same amount of face shown here!

Same shape of face two!

If I had the patience, I might try a facial swap just to see if it fits.

Is it normal for Slaine to have such a tiny head? 

It does look like he's just further away. I'd attempt that myself just to see if it fits if I could find a cover picture that is the same size. Otherwise I might have to find some art program that would help. Paint & Art-Rage aren't what they used to be.

Back on the subject of buying this prog, I had to choose between eating until I get paid next Monday, and buy any of the two versions of last weeks and this weeks progs. My last ten dollars only went as far twelve packet of noodles (Which aren't very filling, they're so tiny) and a box of oats and small bottle of milk. Now all the milk's gone and not sure about the oats. I'm having some now with touch of Cacao powder and they aren't much like the oats I've had from those free samples I often find in the mail.

I don't think I will be seeing any more Slaine until next Monday.

[SuperSurfer]

Well, I have to say... and I have debated with myself and others whether I should post this... my ears pricked up when I read about the United City States concept in the prog. I thought that was an interesting idea – that the USA was once again whole. Rather than a union of states, it would be a union of city states. And that Dredd would now be imprisoned and tried. And then when I saw the 1981 prog cover, I had an even stronger feeling of déjà vu. Which I also had when reading some other things. I'm not dissing Jon Davis-Hunt as I don't know what his brief was.

My 'Final Days' forum art comp entry from 2012:

[Colin YNWA]

Brilliant work as ever Supersurfer.

[Hawkmumbler]

Well that was all rather good!

Behind a smashing Judge Dredd cover by JDH (has anyone see his art on Clean Room recently? Utterly phenomenal!) even if it is a little misleading about the content of the strip itself this week. Mr. Holden has got his vision of Brit-Cit down to a T, brilliant stuff and the Car-Roll droid really is hitting the spot right now. Dredd has been uniformally great for a few years running now and long may it remain thus.

Survival Geeks is...alright. Googe is a brilliant artist but I can't help but feel hus talents are wasted on an a series that alright at best. I love the Beeby droid and GRennie but sadly this just isn't for me, despite te fact I feel it should be. Tainted ends as it lived, grotesquely. And I loved it! More please, and make it soon!

Slaine is boring the tits off of me, Simon Davis is such a phenomenal talent it's almost a shame to see his work be wasted on such a tright boring slug fest thats been going on for weeks and weeks. And the dialogue is just AWFUL! "NEVER! Slaine is my friend!" God give me strength!

Brink is the surprising star of the prog right now. Everything about it clicks, it's old rope but it feels like it's been tied into a new knot and i'm loving it so far!

[ThryllSeekyr]

I'm sorry to hear such bad press about Slaine I from what I have seen  so far, I'm getting impression  that Pat doesn't feel the same way for this character that he when the he was in his prime as identity here and chronologically as well.

Dare, I say, maybe it might have been better off to have ended with the Horned God when it really began to be recognised internationally, I guess. Yet, also when the stores started to feel like they were just going through the motions. Well, at least as far as it's concerned plot-wise or what ever point was being made.

I still in it for art work & action at least....it's legacy from the Pre-Horned-God days is that powerful. Which why a lot of us still bother to read....why I still bother to only buy the Prog for this reason alone.

About the art work... I like Simon Davis's work. Why I actually believe it was myself who suggested he should have this duty ages ago. After seeing his work on Dark Siddhara/Abbey Cruxis (You should know the one even if I got the spelling wrong!) that one about the prisoner island and that Bob Geldorf inspired Slaine poster....

Which I currently can't get in Google images

Yet,  his art work here in Slaine does pale in comparison. or perhaps the drabness is intentional. Because it's supposed to be bleak looking. I still like it of course, but Slaine does suddenly look very old like blessings of the Earth Goddess are starting fade. What ever holding back foibles that life kick's every bodies butt!

[TordelBack]

Cor, I did enjoy that Prog. Everything motoring along nicely - particular nods to the background gags in Dredd, the snappy dialogue in Brink, the neat resolution to Survival Geeks, the promise of more Tainted (yay!) and the Triumphant Return of the Purple Willy.

[mejustnow]

I'd set Brink aside after the first episode and decided to do a catch up last night. What a little jewel of a story! The characters' voices seem their own (I was surprised to see it was an Abnett story. They don't sound like anyone he's written before, if that makes sense).

There's a good little police procedural going on. A hint of Lovecraftian cosmic horror. A setting with a ton of possibilities, and...and I realise I'm going out on a limb to invoke this....the dialogue and interaction and slice of life tone of this thing really reminds me of the first book of Halo Jones. The world feels larger than that we see inside the little boxes. It seems realised and lived in. Maybe it's just that the slang hits the mark for me (as it did with Halo Jones). It feels genuine.

Stick the landing on this; set the stage well for future installments; and this could be the dark horse of the prog.

[Ghost MacRoth]

Cover: Pretty cool....as are the various joke versions displayed here.

Dredd: So....what are Texas up to I wonder?  Are they in league with the Brits??? And what the hell is the plan with Dredd I wonder??  Maybe they need Joyce before they can go to trial or summit.....

Survival Geeks: An entertaining run, but I reckon it needs to do something....more.... next time.  There's only so many times you will order light and frothy before you move onto the hard spirits. 

Slaine 'The Bore-tania Chronicles': Zzzzzzzzzz...............

Brink:  Not feeling it at all. 

Tainted: Damn....it's ended!  Look forward to seeing more on this.

[Colin YNWA]

Brink is the surprising star of the prog right now. Everything about it clicks, it's old rope but it feels like it's been tied into a new knot and i'm loving it so far!

Ha! Love that turn of phrase and if it wasn't for the fact I'm enjoying Dredd so much right now I'd agree 100%

[Frank]

Dredd I think PJ Holden may have oversold the ballistic properties of flat caps.

Sláine: "Obey as a dead body obeys" - Slough Gododin is basically Jimmy Savile - he (almost) says 'now then' as he's describing the sexy fate that awaits Sláine's corpse. The salmon of knowledge also seems to be functioning as a commentary on student loans.

Brink: the timing of that nipple scene was brilliant, and Culbard's overhead view of the habitat is breathtaking.

Tainted: Who knew Fairfax's sarcastic bike was a lady! From Kendall's fantastic art to the way the infected judges went around declaring innocuous behaviour and attributes capital offences (like the Cursed Earth mutie Dredd impostor), this has been consistently enjoyable.

I was surprised by how much fun this was, because I really couldn't care less how the Dark Judges took over Deadworld. It could teach Mills and Davis a lesson in how to split a larger story into discrete parts too.

[Goaty]

Great prog!

My fave story is Tainted, [spoiler]glad Fairfax's alive, he could be Deadworld's version of Dredd? [/spoiler]

[TordelBack]

Yeah, Fall of Deadworld/Tainted was a complete triumph AFAIC, didn't put a foot wrong. Like Dreams... before it, Tainted made Deadworld real and terrible to me like nothing since Judge Death Lives! has managed.  I really worried that Dreams... might have been impossible to follow, but taking a new tack with the same sickening feel worked perfectly. It makes the most outrageous grand guignol supernatural nonsense plausible.

If the board will permit me another of my "reading things into the comic that just aren't there" meanders, I'd like to extrapolate a bit from the Sisters' mention of the Deadworld version of the Judge Child prophecy. Others have speculated that the Girl (blanked on her name) is who they are referring to, and I think there's a fair bit to support this.  If Death is the dark mirror counterpart of Dredd, then our heroine is similarly the flipped counterpart of Owen Krysler.  Female:male; normal human:psychic mutant; protective of her family:uncaring about the fate of his; untainted:tainted; merciful:cruel; taken along by Fairfax; abandoned by Dredd.

Time and again we've seen echoes of Feyy's prophecy that aren't quite what he described, but may have fed into it: the Apocalypse War, Necropolis, Chaos Day. Could it be that the fate of Deadworld is the original source of his vision?  All this is presumably taking place long before he has his deathbed vision in 2102.  It's a great parallel for Kek-W to explore in tandem with the Dark Judges.

[IndigoPrime]

One thing I do like about Deadworld is a palpable sense of horror. The Dark Judges may be one-note (and, frankly, a bit stupid—or at least terrible strategists in the main), but what happened to their world is ripe for expansion. We know it doesn't end well, because we've seen it, but the journey should be interesting.

Slain is one of the big disappointments for me. I really liked the first book in this run. The art and script worked really well, with hints of otherworldliness that reminded me of Hellboy. Now, there's still a sense of a painterly Mignola in the art, but the script is repetitive, dull and preachy. As I said elsewhere on this board, I have a newfound respect of sorts for Mills after very much being reminded of his contributions in the 2000 AD documentary (as in, without him, no 2000 AD), but this Sláine run has plunged into the mire.