Prog 1308

[Leigh S]

Nothing better than having Monday off work and being woken by the sound of the latest prog dropping through your letterbox.....

Dredd - YAY!  I know McMahon divides opinion like nobody else, but I really like his new style - not my favourite of all the McMahon periods (Mikes Slaine, or the early Dredd annuals would be that), but no one captures the style of MC1 like Mike - Hell, working loosely from Ezquerras foundations, he pretty much invented it!  His Dredds expressions here are wonderful - real character from just a chin!

The SCrap - dont know where this is going, but unlike Bison that may still be a good thing. Lots going on, so it's too early to say which way this is going to jump.  The ending reminded me of those old Alan Hebden stories, where a beasty would inexplicably pop up (and next week turn out to be a Scooby style hologram to frighten off meddling kids.), so it almost fits into the retro prog season!

Sin DEx. hmmmm, I can only echo what others have said about this - give it a rest.  The caricature humour is too unsubtle to be funny, which is a shame - I've no problem with comedy Cockney Gangsters - its taking the mick out of Lock Stock more than your real luvable cockerney rogue guvnar.... but it just seems too forced.I only hope that next week they meet up with Don Logan and get their just desserts... "nononononononononono"

Bison just.....one.....more.........week......if........i........can .........just......hold......on.........

Rogue - the most interesting of the retro revivals in the sense that it captures the essense of the original stories very well, doesnt try to update the action for modern sensibilities (no good guy norts here), and makes no excuses for its gung-ho 'kill 'em all' attitude.  It's the sort of revival I'd imagined Ennis might do (a compliment in this case, as Ennis handles this kind of jingoism well outside of Dredd scripts), though last weeks veered dangerously closer to Mark Millar indestructable sadist territory...  The main thing Gordon's getting right IMO is making Nu Earth the star and emphasising the gigantic scale of the war.  Still feel like were in introductory territory with this new story, but we'll see if any there are more developments from the "Weapons of War" story in the next few weeks I suppose.

Overall a good prog - while Stront was my favourite of the retro revivals, a mix of revivals, plus new story and newer old favourites works best IMO - I LIKE the schizophrenia!

[crazychrissy]

I probably won't get my 1308 till Teusday or Wednesday, but.......

MIKE McMAHON ON DREDD!!!!!
YES!!!!
THANK YOU GOD!!!!

I love him. Old style. New style. Whatever.

CC

[paulvonscott]

Yeah, Dredd was fun, get back in the full body cast Joe!  Drokking students.  I'm warming to this new McMahon fellow.  This was the star strip this week, bit dissapointed that Joe was got so relatively easy, but anyone can get lucky once.  Punk.

My mental prayers that Sin Dex and Bison would cease to be have not been answered.

Rogue was much better this week, I think to be honest because Staz Johnstons art is easier to look on than Coleby's.  Cut out the swearing though, why do we have words like Stak, if people are just going to start saying 'oh that's shite rogue, what the bollocks do we do now, you blue fucker?'?

Scrap, doesn't seem bad at all, we learnt quite a lot about the world and it's inhabitants in the first episode and it seemed to have a bit of depth which was nice.  I'll be reading it next week, which is more than I can say for Bisindex.

[sigu]

Absolutely brilliant to see McMahon back on Dredd, all the better for being a total surprise. No one draws poor old Joe getting pulped better than McMahon and some of the panels here were painfully reminiscent of the punishment he received in HOWLER.  just a shame to see the words 'The End', I was hoping for a "Next Prog". Oh well, always leave 'em wanting more, I suppose.
For me, the other highlight of the prog was The Scrap, which did a cracking job of introducing us to a very bizarre world in just 5 pages. No need for a double length intro here, just a concentrated dose of in media res. Can't wait to see how it's all fleshed out over the next few weeks.
Vucking marvellous!

SiG

[John Caliber]

DREDD: McMahon's art really benefitted from Blythe's colouring. Nice to see Blythe's normally OTT work toned down to complement McMahon's simplistic but effective artwork. Nice to see a few more sci-fi gimmicks in the strip too, just like the very first Dredd stories waayyyyy back ...

ROGUE TROOPER: The more faithful the storylines try to remain to to the old Rogue series, the better they are. With the exception of the obligatory 'grown-up' expletives to taint it, this story is another cracker. Great art too.

SIN DEX: It's been said before, I'll say it again. Sin Dex are not funny any more and the plots smack of desperation to try to keep the series running until the end of time. Let's have another series of Strontium Dog instead.

- tcc

[DavidXBrunt]

Flange tralwing subscribers with their knuckle baiting early progs.

Grumble... Mutter... Grumble... Mutter...

dbeebie.

[opaque]

Dredd:
Felt too short but ok. Not my favourite artist though, maybe I prefer his art in B/W? Bit about Transporter jars as does the psi element especially as Dredd is Zero rated in that respect. I'm also wondering what element the PSI dept plays nowadays, haven't seen much of them around as I'd like. (Remember all the Feyy predictions and pre-knowledge, in fact in regards to things like Narcos isn't the PSI dept in the same situation as the CIA and the collapse of the Soviet Union? IE being proved mainly impotent)

The Scrap:
Beautiful art, hope the story keeps up the same quality.

Sinister and Dexter:
God No. This one sucks like no other. There has been some really good Sin/Dex but this is crap.

Bison:
I've been willing to give it a go but it's gone beyond a joke now. far too dragged out. Mind you it makes more sense than previous episodes.

Rogue Trooper:
Great :) I really like this, there is a huge number of stories still to be told without compromising the end of the Traitor General story.

[petemaskreplica]

Dredd: bit of a lightweight story, and the ending was a bit of a cop out, but frankly, Wagner could use his shopping list as a script and it would be good if MacMahon was drawing it. Any chance of him doing a bigger story? He's God!

The Scrap: Intriguing. Good that it manages to create its world immediately without lots of tedious exposition. And a big monster at the end too. hurrah!

SinDex: I wouldn't say it's terrible, it's just that Wagner and Grant used to do this kind of thing much better in Robo Hunter. Still, it's better than...

Bison: zzzzzz.....

Rogue: Going from strength to strength. It's true that the real swear words jar a bit. Mind you, Dredd doesn't seem to say "Drokk" or "Stomm" nearly as much as he used to. But of course, things in general were much better in the old days, policemen are getting younger, etc etc...

[Oddboy]

My opinion?  I though this was one of the worst progs in a while.

Thank Si for the Scrap, I can honestly say this was the best story this week.  It saves the rest of the comic.  Sorry Dredd, but I really can't get into McMahon's current style: it's sub-Beano.  He used to be amazing, but like the Manic Street Preachers, it's all gone a bit crap at the end.  Sinister Dexter was practically unreadable.  Strangely enough, while I prefer Davis as the series artist, I'm not really fond of his Sin Dex covers.  Last week the story was okay but this week's sucked & there doesn't seem to be any way to save it now.  Bring them back in a more serious tale - they work better that way.  The comedy in Sin Dex should come from the duo themselves, not the "silly" cartoon characters they meet.  Ms Octavo must be turning in her grave.  Even Bison was better that this this week (& congrats to A.Wyatt Arse).
Rogue Trooper's fine, Gordon's doing it well, but the blue guy was never a favourite of mine- I always figured Rogue to be a bit of a tosser.  I prefer the stories that focus on his dead buddies & get bored of Rogue constantly saving the day.  Don't Millicom train Souther troops?  So don't take offence Rogue: "it's not you, it's me".

But HOORAY! for the return of the letter's page, with some carefully Bison +ve letters to boost Tharg's ego (does it need boosting?) and an extra HOORAY! for a nice ASH picture mmm luvverly - Tempted to take scissors to that one so it can adorn my wall (only I don't have any walls of my own for the next month or two so I won't).

And finally: Who planned the back cover?  Come ON!!  Half the writing was missing, is anyone going to put up two grand for something when the people responsible can't write straight?
Good job it's up on the website.

Sorry to moan.
I really liked The Scrap.
I just thought the rest of the stories were lacking.

[sigu]

Oddboy,

I hadn't looked at the 2000AD Films Plc ad but now you mention it, what a shocking bodge! Unless maybe they _deliberately_ made it so we couldn't read  the price of a 50p share... eh? eh? me, paranoid?

Now, I was going to take you to task over calling this weeks glorious Dredd art 'sub-Beano' but then I read your glowing praise of the wonky-eyed Manga-style crap in the Ash ad and I realised you must have been winding us up ;-)

SiG

[Slippery PD]

well heres my ten pence worth...

Dredd - McMahons art is good, but his new style doesnt seem to suit Dredd as well as it did.  Another thing I notced was the hair, everyone had odd hair.  But once again, its of better quality than most of the prog.  
Scrap - well Si Spurious has been playing this down hasnt he.  Well on the opening showing, its got all the bits in place.  Good background with enough interest thrown in to keep us asking questions like; Whats happening topside? who are the two races, etc etc.  Good work el spurioso
SinDex - I said it before.  These two have run their course.  The whole thing reads like Lock,Stock and two smoking barrells written by a 10 year old.  It just doesnt hold any interest for me now.
Bison - Well its not got any worse.....
Rogue - I Like rogue a lot, but the last story with an indestructible rogue.  Good as it was had something lacking.  This is a step better and harks back to the old RT stories.  I agree with Oddie and probably a few others that the Biochips probably need to be brought in a bit more.  That gripe aside this is a good, fast paced RT story.