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Prog / Prog 2290 - Double Impact!

« on: 09 July, 2022, 06:20:12 PM »

The highlight this week is double-length Dexter. Funny script, lots of action, and glorious art by Tazio Bettin. There's also a really good cover by Andy Clarke (although the number plates don't match!).

Next is Brink with an interesting reveal.

Judge Dredd introduces some more characters, and then begins the action.

I'm not really following Skip Tracer. Why is the pop star even there? She's just a pop star. Why is Blake helping them again? "I have a bad feeling about this," well that's original.

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Other Reviews / 45 Years of 2000AD: Anniversary Art Book

« on: 10 June, 2022, 11:39:57 PM »

Well this arrived today, and I spent plenty of time looking through it. It's a nice, well put together volume. As explained in the recent Megazine feature, most of the artists are from outside the prog, but there are several droids too. There's an excellent image by Stewart Moore, which includes impressively detailed pictures of Wagner, Ezquerra, Pat Mills and Matt Smith, all surrounding Dredd. Other stand-outs for me were Staz Johnson on Rogue, Phil Noto on Anderson, Mike Perkins on Harry 20, and Mark Eastbrook's painting of Dante.

As well as work by 45 (I presume; I didn't count) artists, there are also the covers to progs 1 and 2270 (the 45th birthday issue).

I'd recommend this to anyone.

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Film Discussion / Top Gun: Maverick

« on: 25 May, 2022, 11:32:16 PM »

Just saw this in IMAX, and I think it's actually better than the original. Definitely worth seeing in cinemas.

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Website and Forum / Emojis on the forum no longer working

« on: 31 January, 2022, 08:51:42 PM »

Is anyone else seeing that the emojis aren't displaying properly, or is it just me?

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Film Discussion / No Time to Die

« on: 05 October, 2021, 12:36:39 AM »

Just saw the new James Bond film, thought it was great.
Recommend you see it as soon as you can before somebody puts all the best bits on Instagram or whatever and spoils it for you!

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Prog / Prog 0 - AD2000

« on: 02 October, 2021, 01:44:17 PM »

My subscribers' copy of Prog 0 arrived today! It's quite nice. It's slightly bigger than today's size prog, and has glossy paper all the way through. Inside the cover Tharg explains that this is the 1976 dummy for what became 2000AD, and compares its contents with the final line-up in prog 1.

That's almost the only text in the comic, since the dummy didn't bother with lettering except the titles. But it's actually nice to see the art on its own. It starts with Invasion 1988, as it was originally called, then Harlem Heroes, then Shako!

Then there is a colour double-page spread of Dan Dare (not by Bellardinelli). Then there's MACH 1, which has the same level of violence that got Action cancelled. It's all rounded off by The Visible Man, where the last panel of the story takes up the entire back cover as he reacts to his invisible skin -- my favourite illustration in the comic!

This was a great idea, and I'm glad it was done properly: full size and quality paper. Thanks Tharg!

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Prog / Prog 2236 - A View to a Kill!

« on: 14 June, 2021, 08:25:00 PM »

An all-round excellent prog this week!

There's a cover by Dylan Teague, and a silly Droid Life, and then a new Dredd story by John Wagner and Colin MacNeil, Removal Man, about a hitman with inventive ways of killing people. As always, Wagner's writing is fantastic. Looking forward to seeing how this story turns out. I'm already rooting for the hitman.

More Mechastopheles and Department K -- these are good but I don't really have anything new to say about them since last time.

Chimpsky's Law is fabulous, with the same quirky text boxes we saw last week used to great effect. Genuinely funny and fun.

Feral & Foe II finishes with a seven-page episode, and ends on exactly the right note in my view. I hope there's a third series.

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Prog / Prog 2229 - Crunch Point!

« on: 24 April, 2021, 12:49:46 PM »

A good prog this week. Visions of Deadworld is back for a two-episode story, but the first episode works perfectly well as a one-off story in its own right. I really like these stories.

A Penitent Man reaches its penultimate episode. Not much to say that hasn't already been said, it's a good tale. Looking forward to seeing how it ends.

Feral and Foe is full of innuendo and smut, which is entertaining.

Thistlebone isn't for me I'm afraid, but I'm sure the people who like it will enjoy it this week.

There's a Future Shock with art by Glenn Fabry. Story-wise, I enjoyed the first five pages, and I thought it was going to end in a particular way, but then the sixth page disappointed me, and also made much of what had happened earlier seem irrelevant. It reads (to me anyway) as if the writer originally had another ending in mind and then was told to change it, but didn't adjust the rest of the story. I'll be interested to read what others think about this one. I'd still like to see more stories from Mark McCann though.

The cover is by Dermot Power; when did we last see him round this way?
 

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News / Half price Zenith graphic novels

« on: 05 September, 2020, 07:52:42 PM »

There's a 50% discount on hardback Zenith graphic novels at the shop, until 9 September:

https://2000ad.com/news/get-50-off-the-superpowered-superbrat-in-the-zenith-sale/

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Prog / Prog 2175 - Semi Detached

« on: 28 March, 2020, 01:02:50 PM »

Judge Dredd: Hair of the Dog finishes perfectly well.

Skip Tracer, well the art is good anyway.

Survival Geeks returns for its last story, and for me this is the highlight this week. There are two massive and crazily-detailed panels that must have taken Neil Googe absolutely ages! The theme of this story seems to be the exact way that this series should logically conclude actually, as if the whole series has been building up to this. Can't wait to see how it pans out.

Aquila is suitably bloody, and promises more mayhem next week. Also it's nice to have an occasional alternative to science fiction in the prog, and I always love Patrick Goddard's art (can we have him on Dredd again please?).

Finally, I will spoiler tag this last one because I think some people will enjoy the surprise of discovering it for themselves. A new series starts called Hershey, starring ex-chief judge Hershey, by Rob Williams and with brilliant art by Simon Fraser, and I really like how this looks, with the unusual use of colour. At first I thought it was going to be about what she did after she resigned but before she died, but no: it retcons her death in Guatemala and says she faked her own death and cremation. Well, sorry but fuck that. That's a big nope from me. That death scene was a brilliant and touching moment, and this story retrospectively unhappens it? This is the same mistake Garth Ennis made with Chopper, and it seems that lesson has not been learned. I'll still read it but I will never think of this as canon. (I wonder what Wagner thinks about people "improving" his stories?)

Finally, Damage Report gives us an insight into Tharg working from home during the coronavirus lockdown, and it sounds like we are lucky to get a prog at all! So congratulations Tharg and thank you!

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General / Stories you've changed your mind about

« on: 02 November, 2019, 11:53:07 PM »

I've just re-read Breathing Space in one sitting, a story I didn't think much of when it first appeared in the prog (I was only re-reading it for the art), and I quite liked it this time -- it's much easier to follow all in one go. This made me think about which other stories I and other squaxx dek Thargo have re-appraised on a second reading, either because the story works better that way or just because our tastes have changed as we've matured got older.

I doubt that I'll be saying the same thing about Skip Tracer a decade from now, but I'd like to know which other stories in the prog or the meg the rest of you have unexpectedly enjoyed on returning to them weeks, months or years later.

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Other Reviews / Ragtime Soldier

« on: 05 October, 2019, 05:10:39 PM »

Ragtime Soldier, a new World War I story by Pat Mills and new artists Gary Welsh and Philip Vaughan, in Great War Dundee no. 1, is now available online here: https://discovery.dundee.ac.uk/files/38849747/GREAT_WAR_DUNDEE.pdf (desktop version, 96 MB) and here: https://discovery.dundee.ac.uk/files/39072837/GREAT_WAR_DUNDEE_compressed_1_.pdf (mobile version, 40 MB).
It's much like Charley's War, and I liked it. There's also a text article by Pat at the end.

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Other Reviews / Wildcat: Loner

« on: 15 September, 2019, 09:38:09 PM »

I've just started the Wildcat book Loner from the Treasury of British Comics, and I have to say that Dave Pugh's art is absolutely beautiful to behold. Tharg should get him back working for 2000AD at once!

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Prog / Prog 2140 - Deep in the Bone

« on: 13 July, 2019, 12:39:23 PM »

This is top quality this week.

There's an excellent one-off Judge Dredd story by Rory McConville and Tom Foster. I think we've seen Tom before, but I can't remember when/where. But his style is very reminiscent of Brian Bolland's, in a good way. I'd like to see more from him. If Tharg doesn't get Brian back for the episode when Hershey dies (as she surely must soon, and he did her first episode), I'd like to see Tom Foster do it. The story is Rory at his best.

It's actually possible to follow what's happening in Indigo Prime this week, which is nice. It's also quite eventful. Ditto Anderson, and I'm still a fan of Aneke's style, whatever others might think of it.

I'm not usually keen on Absalom, but this episode is fantastic. I can't really explain why without spoiling it, but it's just great and it has made me care about two characters in a strip where I didn't care about any of them before.

Thistlebone seems to introduce the bad guy at last, unless it's just misdirection (and unless we actually have seen him before and I'm just having a senior moment).

There's a Droid Life and some letters.

All in all, nothing was disappointing this week. And the Megazine has arrived too!

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Film Discussion / Brightburn

« on: 26 June, 2019, 08:44:49 PM »

Everyone should see Brightburn immediately. That is all.