Prog 2207: Welcome to the Clownshow

[Barrington Boots]

Welcome to the awesome show more like. Saturday Prog for me again, some kind of 2020 record that.

Dredd - Back on track with another cool story from Kenneth Niemand who is knocking it out of the park this year. The Simp thing can sometimes feel a bit overdone but this is a good twist on it. Loved Daisy's petals refelecting her mood.

Stickleback - Completely mental. Really digging it.

Skip Tracer - Best Skip story so far. It's hard to review as it just sort of keeps rolling along at the same pace, but I'm finding it a very nostalgic in it's pacing like progs of old and that's a good thing. Those bad guys really need to stop falling for the same gate trick.

Fiends - Still gets better every week. It seems like there's a new idea every episode. I love the dialogue in this story especially. I really liked the difference between the three kisses...I've seen someone comparing it to Mignola and I think it does have some of that magic.

Hookjaw -I was wrong to be cynical over the reveal last episode, this is still great. Looks grotesque and beautiful. I think it's told in a very horror - cinematic way and I can imagine watching this on a VHS. Next week promises to be absolute carnage.
Also: I'd wear one of those derpy Hookjaw shirts we keep seeing.

Cool cover by Chris Robinson. This prog ruled.

[broodblik]

The cover by Cliff Robinson and Dylan Teague:

[broodblik]

Cover with logo:

[Tjm86]

Dredd is most definitely a cracking idea this week.  What works best in Dredd, a thinly veiled attack on real world issues.

Assuming I'm not the only one that has only just had their subscriber prog?

[Colin YNWA]

Assuming I'm not the only one that has only just had their subscriber prog?

Yeah mines just lined and not had the chance to read it yet.

[broodblik]

Did anyone notice Tharg is on the cover as well?

[Barrington Boots]

I didn't spot Tharg until now!

[Colin YNWA]

Good spot on Tharg did not notice him.

Good Prog as well. The Neimand Dredd starts with his usual panache and interested to see what this one does. Its fun.

Stickleback cranks it up very dramatically.

Skip Tracer continues to be engaging.

Fiends is superbly weaved story, from many sources.

and Hookjaw rules the roost. Now its played it cards we're nicely set up for a thrilling final act and this episode setting that up does an excellent job of being thrilling in  its own right.

We've had a break and its testament to the quality we currently have that a beat has not been missed and I've happily dropped right back into all these stories.

[broodblik]

A good prog wrapped up an excellent cover by Cliff and Dylan

Dredd – A good start with good work done by Dredd first time artists Steve Austin. Niemand has done some excellent Dredd stories this year and is becoming more than just a good Dredd writer. He likes to his comedy to tell us a deeper more intriguing Dredd-tale.

Stickelback – The battlelines are drawn the heat is on, let the battle commence.

Skip Tracer – Skippy continues to hinge on the generic sci-fi story.  Good art with a functional story. Still enjoyable.

Fiends – The story continues to add more fantasy elements to it. Great stuff all-around.

Hook Jaw - The story is really fleshing it with some bloody good imagery to boot. Just love this, my highlight of the week.

[JayzusB.Christ]

Haven't got the prog yet, but it's great to see the man who drew the first MC1 simp drawing simps on the cover over thirty years later.

[TordelBack]

Excellent program throughout this week,  from glorious Robinson Cover to deal Witt's spectacular Sláine poster. Obliged to note the by-now traditional jump from all-ages prog to real-world swearing and naked goddesses.

Dredd is a strong opener, if maybe a bit familiar. Austin does some lovely work on the Simps in a style reminiscent of Jeff Anderson which works well with the Robinson aesthetic. I love the way Daisy's petals wilt when she's rejected by her wife. But for me there are a couple of unfortunate panels: the reveal of the neat Simp leader design doesn't really land because of the use of silhouette in their first panel, and then there's a panel where angry Dredd looks more like Judge Pin (possibly due in part to colour choices by Blythe). But it's another good Niemand episode overall.

Stickleback is enjoyably bonkers, I just love the Valentine-as-London design, and I could look at those paving setts all day long.

Skip Tracer jogs along affably, enjoying this more conventional thrill quite a bit now.

Fiends continues its brilliant shaggy-dog story, winning the I-can't-believe-it's-not-Sláine title from Aquila, and leaves me hoping that this doesn't end anytime soon.

And so to my pick of the litter, Hookjaw, a strip so implausibly enjoyable that it vies with The Out as the year's best. It's great to see something so fresh and fun emerge from such an unpromising choice for a reboot, managing to squeeze in at least one great image (cliff jumping instagram sensation and Hookjaw face piercings) and one surprise element (Granny Weatherwax's hilariously transcribed accent) every week. Top marks to Worley and Gallagher.

[JayzusB.Christ]

Did anyone notice Tharg is on the cover as well?

Hey, you're right!

[norton canes]

Ah, we're at that point in the cycle where all the non-Dredd stories are coming nicely to the boil. Five progs to the Xmas special - can't be long until we get a couple of Future Shocks (maybe a Quilli!) and hopefully, the obligatory two-episode micro-chapter of Sinister Dexter in which pretty much the whole of the first instalment is taken up with a story recap. Don't you just love tradition!

Anyway back to this week, where Rob Williams finally staggers back to his corner after a marathon stint in the ring and tags Kenny 'Knockout' Niemand, who wades in with more body-slammin' thrills. Daisy and Pansy, fantastic. The panel text in the frame with Dredd riding away from the clinic is a great counterpoint to something like Pat Mills' Cursed Earth "The law cannot turn a blind eye" speech. Still it's not enough to eclipse Fiends, a definite contender for hit of the year. The balletic pose of that Japanese demon-witch thing is utterly glorious. Also, it's nice that the Edginton droid credits us with enough knowledge to present the crone/mother/maiden goddesses are presented without explanation. He knows we know!

Elsewhere Hookjaw continues to rip it up in its inimitable fashion, Skip Tracer continues to teeter frustratingly on the brink (no pun intended) of being properly great, and Stickleback continues to look amazing even though I don't think I'll ever catch up on the (Stickle)backstory. 

You know what? I think I'd buy a collection of the last few years' Robinson/Teague covers.

[broodblik]

Ah, we're at that point in the cycle where all the non-Dredd stories are coming nicely to the boil. Five progs to the Xmas special - can't be long until we get a couple of Future Shocks (maybe a Quilli!) and hopefully, the obligatory two-episode micro-chapter of Sinister Dexter in which pretty much the whole of the first instalment is taken up with a story recap. Don't you just love tradition!

I think you got it wrong the first episode Sin/Dex will be talking heads followed by a recap of everything and beyond

[JayzusB.Christ]

I really hope SinDex doesn't cop out yet again, and put everything back to normal.

Back to the prog at hand, though - great stuff.  Kenneth Niemand is writing good, old-fashioned Dredd as usual - 'You. Least weird one here. You the spokes-creep for this freak collection?' It's a bold move and he pulls it off.  Love to see a bit of focus on the citizens once again.  Great art from the Bionic Man too - has he done anything else for the prog?

Fiends is departing radically from earlier stories, which is fine by me, because it's great fun.  Definitely more than a bit of Sláine going on there - those three women look very familiar.

Not quite sure about the ghost-witch in Hookjaw - one supernatural element (the absolute head on the Hookjaw monster when it was revealed) was enough - but it's still rolling on very nicely.

Haven't read Stickleback yet and I'm afraid I stopped reading Skip Tracer during the first series.

Obviously the cover is incredibly well drawn by a droid we're lucky not to have lost to the Americans, but let's have a bit of appreciation for Dylan Teague's colours too.  He's extended the colour scheme to the logos, and it really, really works.