Prog 1801 Green Death On The Red Planet

[Alski]

A first class Prog this week, for the most part.

Without the slight fuzziness, I like the Dredd art, although there is certainly confusion in the story.

Brass Sun is intriguing, so far so good.

ABC Warriors is frakkin' gorgeous this week, some of the best art I've seen in the Prog (if youy like 'that sort of thing')

Terror Tales is a neat one, a good if slightly unoriginal idea well executed.

Grey Area is very good, looks like a nice mystery story and the art is to notch.

[Van Dom]

After nearly a year away I'm struggling to get back into the swing of things Im afraid. I'm not blown away (yet) by the newest batch of stories (only resumed buying from 1800). Dredd is strong as always, but thats a given, with Wagner or Carroll on scripting duties. Shame about what happened to the art cos it looks good and PJ's one of my favourite 2000ad artists. Still missing The 86ers big time, his art on that was fab.

ABC Warriors though.....it just seems like more of the same, again. The wraparound cover to this issue just made me sigh to be honest, as technically well produced and brilliantly painted as it is. LAngleys skill is incredible and mindboggling, its just the subject matter is boring me at the moment. Same goes for the story inside. Why does every ABC Warriors story have to be primarily a flashback going over old ground (with a slight twist) all the time? There's no sense of threat or suspense or drama. Sorry, I am a fan of Pat Mills in general (even Greysuit!!!) but I don't like this format as it makes every story seem pointless.

I;m not actually digging Brass Sun yet as much as everyone else seems to be, don't know why. Although I will confess to not being much of a fan of the other Edginton stuff, (apart from Stickleback, which is incredible) so that might explain it. Art is wonderful though.

The Terror Tale was quite good, great idea, great art. Just thought if fell just a liiiiiiiiiiiiiiiittle bit flat at the very end there. But still, apart from that, nice little frightener.

Finally Grey Area and the problem with this is that I havent seen any previous Grey Area stories and I'm a bit lost with it. I think it probably is good and once I figure out who everyone is and what the setup is Im sure Ill love it (kind of like what happened with Sinister Dexter when I joined that late) but as of right now its not lighting my fire.

But maybe this is all just a result of being away too long and my thrill receptors going rusty! Lets re-assess in a couple of weeks, what!

[Dandontdare]

...if Pat is ret-conning the whole of the Robusters era into something completely different (deep cover mission? Betray all robotkind?) I won't be a happy bunny.

If? Hasn't ABC Warriors been ret-con-a-go-go for some time now?

Maybe not Ro-Busters itself, but it's got to be something to do with the Rise and Fall storyline. I'm long overdue a re-read of that. Quartz will surely be involved in some fashion I'd expect.

There has often been examples of extra stories that took place between establsihed strips, and we are simply left to wonder why nobdoy mentioned this significant interlude earlier, eg why does Hammerstein (in Ro-busters) keep banging on about the Volgan war, but never mention the ABC warriors? (obviously cos it hadn't been written!) That, I've got no problem with.

What I wouldn't like is the suggestion that something completely different was going on during strips that already exist than what we've always been told , as this would forever taint a body of stories that I love.

[Hawkmumbler]

I have no idea what the heck is going on in the Millsverse continuity anyway.
How did the Volgan war go from Savage and co. driving the cosac's out of the country to the whole human race just watching Hammerstein's and other's tear eachother apart like some messed up TV program?

[Steve Green]

...if Pat is ret-conning the whole of the Robusters era into something completely different (deep cover mission? Betray all robotkind?) I won't be a happy bunny.

If? Hasn't ABC Warriors been ret-con-a-go-go for some time now?

Maybe not Ro-Busters itself, but it's got to be something to do with the Rise and Fall storyline. I'm long overdue a re-read of that. Quartz will surely be involved in some fashion I'd expect.

There has often been examples of extra stories that took place between establsihed strips, and we are simply left to wonder why nobdoy mentioned this significant interlude earlier, eg why does Hammerstein (in Ro-busters) keep banging on about the Volgan war, but never mention the ABC warriors? (obviously cos it hadn't been written!) That, I've got no problem with.

What I wouldn't like is the suggestion that something completely different was going on during strips that already exist than what we've always been told , as this would forever taint a body of stories that I love.

I'm really waiting to hear the explanation for the different head as a disguise for a robot that was mass produced, and calling himself the same name...

[Dark Jimbo]

Given that we're only two weeks in and the flashback hasn't even started, how about everyone waits to see how it pans out before getting their knickers in a twist?

[Fisticuffs]

I think I'm gonna stop reading these review threads, all you grumpy old men are spoiling my enjoyment of the prog, and I've only just taken out a years sub. :p

Dredd - Good story, shame about the pixels.

ABC - As a newcomer I'm not seeing repetition, just GORGEOUS artwork and an interesting story.

Brass Sun - Is the watercolour to the ABC oil painting. Love it, fantastic world so far.

Terror Tale - Not bad, starts well but ends on a damp squib, they just give up when the car is 10 feet away? Nah...

Grey Area - Again a bit boring, very 'static' artwork, the torso section of the female agents armour needs ALOT of detail adding to it, and the story isn't dragging me in.

Overall very good though!!!

[TheMightyOne]

Just picked up my prog today.

Dredd- Good story, pixels where annoying though.

ABC- Love the art work, good story.

brass sun- Great, really great. Fresh new story, nice artwork.

Terror tale- Very underwhelmed, did not enjoy this at all. Their wasnt really much of a story, it had an interesting begin then ended (if you call that an ending). Also not scary. To summarise, not terrorising or a tale.

Grey Area- Liking the story and the setting and the general feel. Art work is a bit static and even though the dialogue was well set out, the things the said were very juvenile and ruined the atmosphere. 

[Dudley]

Dredd - Having missed the whole Day Of Chaos apart from what I picked up from squaxx web posts, this doesn't make over-much sense.  But it's nice to see Dolman again, even with a beard.

ABC - you really do know exactly what you'll get, don't you?

Brass Sun - The dialogue seems oddly stilted for an Edginton, and the art's OK but nothing like the detail one would expect from a similar artist (D'Isreali).  Awful lot of cliches, given the quite original steampunky central idea.

Terror Tale - these creators can never do wrong. 

Grey Area - Whassgoinon? Lee Carter's art has improved massively since I last say an example.

[Richmond Clements]

Given that we're only two weeks in and the flashback hasn't even started, how about everyone waits to see how it pans out before getting their knickers in a twist?

Are you new to the internet?

FWIW: my digital copy was fine!

[gufnork]

And once again, not actually blown away by this issue. The cover is fantastic though, another true work of art. Absolutely beautiful stuff here.

Judge Dredd - Wasn't quite so keen on the art this week. Last week's was definitely my favourite art style for Dredd of these two issues. Having said that I am only two issues in and both episodes have been well drawn in their own way. Still preferred last weeks art though if I'm being picky. I'm a great fan of multi-parters so I'm expecting to enjoy this one as it proceeds. Gonna have to look up some acronyms though. What's a SOV? Anyway, am liking the whole struggling to get things back on an even keel after the Day of Chaos(which I haven't read, but looked up the synopsis on wikipedia) kick thing. So, yeah, good but missing the humour of last weeks one off. I like humour. A little more tongue in cheek stuff please.

Brass Sun - No, no, no, no, NO! The story looks like it could actually be tolerable, if not quite good(in the end) but the artwork just doesn't do anything for me except anoy me quite a lot. I could imagine myself, or maybe that 5 year old from next door drawing this kind of stuff and perhaps even that isn't a bad thing for a lot of people, but when I pick up 2000ad I really do want, nay, excpect something a little better, something that I know is beyond the usual plebs abilities and I'm still not convinced this is it. So I say again... NO!

ABC Warriors - Yes, yes and thrice more, YES! Now this is more like it. Fantastic artwork, in fact absolutely stunning artwork, in fact there just aren't words in the English language to describe my love and admiration for the artist and colourist(are they the same person?) in this one. I quite liked the memory/flashback thread running through this episode, just so long as it's not all going to be memories and flashbacks every week. The different speach bubbles, well now... I can see why it's there and I'm really loving the black cloud speach bubble for Deadlock but the others are a little angular for my liking and tend to draw my eye to them a little more than I would like really. But I'm probably being picky there I think. This is just remarkable work all round and deserves all the praise it gets.

Terror Tales - Not sure what the point of this was. If you're going to do these little one off stories then at least make sure they're done right. This would have been fine if it'd been twice or maybe three times as long. They could have really ratcheted up the tension and given the ending the time and space it deserved, but what actually happened was that they miss-timed the whole piece and ended up rushing the ending. It just seemed to a bit too much of a stretch to believe the two of them would simply say, 'oh well, looks like we've been tricked and are going to die now. Not to worry sweetie...'. Just made no sense at all and was entirely unbelievable. If they're going to do this sort of one-shot-short then the timing really does need to be spot on I think.

Grey Area - Was ok. Just ok though. The art isn't to my taste but I'm not offended by it either so that's ok. It was nice to see some faces this time rather than just helmets standing around. I liked the look of the Ambassador at the end too. Could become slightly more than ok if we're lucky, but I'll not hold my breath.

In summary, the best of the bunch once again were Dredd and ABC Warriors. The worst was undoubtedly Brass Sun. The rest just seem to be either ok-ish or simply not up to scratch at all. I'm kind of hoping things will pick up a bit as these stories move on because I've gotta tell ya guys, I'm far from being won over at the moment. ABC Warriors(and Dredd to a degree) are the exceptions.

Still, onward and upward(hopefully).

[Jim_Campbell]

I could imagine myself, or maybe that 5 year old from next door drawing this kind of stuff

Then you would imagine wrong. For many (but by no means all) artists, layering detail, shading, rendering onto a page is a very effective way of covering up basic weakness in the drawing. Strip a style right back, and there is literally nowhere to hide. (Kev Walker said something similar in his Megazine interview a couple of years back, when he anticipated stripping his very highly rendered style back to something more Mignola-ish didn't save him anything like as much time as he'd anticipated.)

If Culbard's art isn't to your taste, that's fine -- your opinion is no more or less valid than mine, but don't assert that this stuff is easy, because it really isn't.

Cheers

Jim

[Proudhuff]

indeed less is more dear boy. Getting across the complexity of an entire solar system in as few lines as possible is genius, and the story telling, the important bit, flows beautifully, while that is often not the case with a highly coloured and crowded panel.

[SmallBlueThing]

While i would, of course, agree with the two gentlemen above, i would urge caution. Hereabouts we are all seasoned and experienced critics (ha!) and know how to use the language of that criticism. Newer folk may not yet have those skills- and to every other (non-arty) person in the whole world "it looks like something a five year old would do" is a reasonable response to art that is not immediately seen as complicated or rendered in a manner similar to some of the other strips in the prog. Of course it is- and we all have seen everything from picasso to mike mcmahon described thus by, amongst others, our parents. Memorably my dad told me i could draw better than carlos ezquerra on looking at a page of apocalypse war art. He was comparing it to dan dare in the eagle and, well, there you go.
The first time i saw i.n.j. culbard's work- that stickleback xmas one-off- i hated it too. In comparison to d'israeli it looked, er, like something a child would do. Then i read 'at the mountains of madness' and hooo (cont)

[TordelBack]

'Nother thoughtful review there Gufnork, keep'em coming.  'Sov', BTW and just FYI, is just short for the inhabitants of (the former) East-Meg 1 and East-Meg 2, the 'Sov-block' of the former Soviet Union - Chaos Day being their posthumous 'payback' (of the title) for Dredd's annihilation of their city some 30 years ago.  It's an obviously dated term, but hails from the comic's cold-war origins.

As to my thoughts:

Cover:  Finally, the ABC Warriors / Slaine crossover nobody demanded!  Very striking and technically accomplished, no doubt, and probably a good lure for the new punter, but while it would have been on my bedroom wall had it shown up in 1983, I've really had enough of the art style at this point.  Looking forward to seeing Langley's return to pen-and-ink shortly.

Dredd:    As our all-island Irish cricket team struggle in Sri Lanka, it's good to see the cross-border partnership of Carroll and Holden come out for another innings, and briskly chip an easy delivery right down past square leg for four. Presumably they're eligible for some sort of Good Friday Agreement grant. 

PJ's strong art is barely dented by the Great Pixellation Disaster of oh-12, and the story looks like being a strong sequel to a strong tale.  Loved the cadet's Judgement Day quip, but a little puzzled to see that Easter has been told who Dolman is - but I suppose that everyone at the Academy knew, so once he kept the name the facechange was irrelevant.  Good stuff.

However, again I find Tharg's scheduling a little odd.  Last week was a jumping-on Prog, but this week we have a story which is the explicit continuation of one from last month, and further features a not-really-explained-at-all character previously seen 6 years ago.

Brass Sun:  Yet more Dolmen.  Seriously though, -drooooool-  Besotted, that's what I am. Not a line wasted in the art, and yet full of lovely scene-setting details like the roasting spider.

ABC Warriors:  Actively dislike the Happy Shrapnel redesign, but intrigued by the story and enjoying the lettering quirks hugely. 

Meanwhile, over in kontinuity korner:  As to Hammerstein's supposed 'disguise', he was AN Hammerstein, albeit the Mk III prototype, so keeping the name isn't a problem - maybe his old head had some kind of RFI Tag in it that was deactivated once he took it off?  I hope his 'betrayal' relates to the end of 'Fall and Rise', that would be pretty cool.

Terror Tale:  Another dream team in Smith & Bagwell, with a story that while atmospheric did have a certain seen-it-all-before aspect to it.

Grey Area:  An improvement on last week's certainly, but while I think the colour art is excellent, I've really had enough of Carter's boobarmour.