Prog 1791: The End

[Alien Goodness]

I have to wait until next Friday to find out how Dante ends. Might crack and get the paper Prog (or at least stand in WHSmith and read it for free!).

[Richard]

I always thought 400mil was a bit light though.

In prog 1750 Vass says the population is "over 400 million."

[Rog69]

Rest of the Prog was strong. Its was always going to be over shadowed and so it was.

I still have issues with Dredd and the seeming pasting over of old stories to quickly make them post 'DOC'. I have no evidence to back this up of course and could be utterly wrong. It just felt again a few captions aside this could have been pre DOC. Shame as one of DOC strengths of what I thought was going to some real impact on the strip. Still plenty of time for that to bare fruit.

It does feel that way with the last couple of Dredd strips. I wonder if its just down to Wagner playing his cards close to his chest regarding how DOC would end and then buggering off on a well deserved holiday and leaving Tharg with a pile of perfectly good pre-DOC Dredd strips and not much else to follow it up with.

[Spaceghost]

Dante was lovely. I can't really comment past that. In my mind, he marries Jena and lives happily ever after but I'm a romantic at heart.

Now, Dredd totally confused me. Can anyone shed any light on these points for me? Bearing in mind I read it once in a bit of a hurry...

Why did Dredd and Chesty, sorry Maitland, even go into the club?

Why were they suddenly next door after hearing shots despite the fact that the guy at the desk looked like he'd been shot earlier?

Why was the guy crouched, in the rain, outside the window in plain view despite the explanation a few panels later that he hid in the crawlspace?

It just didn't flow at all and seemed to jump from disjointed scene to disjointed scene.

[Trout]

I bet Dante was [spoiler]up to his nuts in some girl's guts within an hour of the last panel, leaving his bride jilted at the altar.[/spoiler] Please pardon my Russian. 

A great ending! I've loved that series and I fear I will now buy lots of reprints.

I enjoyed the rest of the comic too, but Dante was the best. I'll miss it very much.

- Trout

[Steve Green]

I'm not in the 'everything that's wrong about comics' camp - but yeah Maitland was ridiculous - she may as well as have had a 12 foot handlebar moustache, Dredd seemed so unconcerned.

It also lessens the contrast between the dancers and a 'real' judge - just indulgent IMHO.

Good job it wasn't a Rennie Dredd, eh?

[thejudgemuffin]

The end of Dante was really really sad but fantastic and amazing and in fact everything ! but at the same time I felt numb I don't understand why but maybe that's just waiting for a shock that didn't happen

[leebrown1990]

Jesus that final scene with Vladamir was powerful. But never thought I'd say this and mean it, "Nikolai is an asshole."

Don't know if I really like the ending to be honest...

[IndigoPrime]

As for Maitland I see why people are a little up set about the art (which over all is great). However regardless of how she's rendered she's still a strong, great new character and maybe we should all be focusing on that rather than how she is or isn't drawn?

Not really, given that comics are a visual medium, and women are so often portrayed in a sexualised way, contorting themselves into positions to show off tits and arse. To my mind, this artwork was not only sexist but it made absolutely no sense in the context of Judge Dredd. Post-DOC or not, that is not how a judge would present herself, and it just smacks of a male artists getting a bit too excited with boobies and bottoms, and making a women pose in a manner that shows off both all the time. Given Maitland's excellent intro (even if, as others have said, the strip doesn't really feel post-DOC to me), it's horribly disappointing to see her rendered in this manner.

Elsewhere, I've only read Dante (since 1790 only arrived here an hour ago) and it ended well. I'm not really a fan of [spoiler]open endings, but then that does provide you with the means to imagine your own future for the characters. Will Dante just disappear into the underworld, or will he return to Jena, get a slap for being late, and attempt to become a just ruler? Oddly, my money's on the latter. Also, I really thought he'd be killed off, so I'm glad that 'out' didn't happen[/spoiler].

[Skullmo]

One thing that bugged me in this weeks Dredd-what's with the `open-neck`casual style of the uniforms?

Me too. Dredd and Maitland sure looked stupid with their tits hanging out, tiny, pin-head helmets and comedy chicken shoulder pads.

Yeah, it annoyed me too. Shouldn't it be the job of the Editor to sort stuff like that before it gets printed.

[radiator]

I've gotta agree I'm afraid. I think Currie's a great artist, but if I were the editor those pages would've gone straight back to be corrected. Just distracted me, not in a good way.

[judgefloyd]

I've been away a bit - what's DOC?
Oh and why is it a good thing it wasn't a Rennie Dredd?  I remember his Dredd stories being pretty good

[James Stacey]

I think it's more Mr Rennie is never backwards in coming forward if he thinks the art on his story is shit.

[The Prodigal]

As for Maitland I see why people are a little up set about the art (which over all is great). However regardless of how she's rendered she's still a strong, great new character and maybe we should all be focusing on that rather than how she is or isn't drawn?

Not really, given that comics are a visual medium, and women are so often portrayed in a sexualised way, contorting themselves into positions to show off tits and arse. To my mind, this artwork was not only sexist but it made absolutely no sense in the context of Judge Dredd. Post-DOC or not, that is not how a judge would present herself, and it just smacks of a male artists getting a bit too excited with boobies and bottoms, and making a women pose in a manner that shows off both all the time. Given Maitland's excellent intro (even if, as others have said, the strip doesn't really feel post-DOC to me), it's horribly disappointing to see her rendered in this manner.

Elsewhere, I've only read Dante (since 1790 only arrived here an hour ago) and it ended well. I'm not really a fan of [spoiler]open endings, but then that does provide you with the means to imagine your own future for the characters. Will Dante just disappear into the underworld, or will he return to Jena, get a slap for being late, and attempt to become a just ruler? Oddly, my money's on the latter. Also, I really thought he'd be killed off, so I'm glad that 'out' didn't happen[/spoiler].

Agreed-it comes across as irritatingly self indulgent, juvenile and sexist.

Rant over but it does grate.

[Steve Green]

It's more that he made a comment on those sort of cheesecake depictions of judges about an Anderson sketch.