Prog 1640 - Know Him By The Trail Of The Dead...

[Pete Wells]

Cover - The Defoe cover that was in this months Meg. Nice enough...

Dredd - Beautiful Dave Taylor art. As you'd expect, Mega City One looks positively alive and some of his building designs are sublime; I particularly liked the Alien Cult building, it's lovely. Taylor's depiction of Dredd has him looking ancient, his neck looks like an elephants scrotum! The story, by Eddington, is intriguing but hasn't grabbed me too much yet, I hope that Lamia character isn't going to be too annoying. Strange fruit-based dialogue too!

Future Shock - Much more meaty and satisfying than the text-less small press offering of last week. Arthur Wyatt delivers a fine script that is a cross between Dead Space and Halo. Nice retro art by Robin Smith (though I'd have liked it to be darker), can we see him on a Dredd please Thargy?

Defoe - I realise that the prog is jam packed but I'd have liked to have seen biographies of the characters somewhere (perhaps on this website, or as part of that lovely trailer?) as I've forgotten who's who. Leigh's art is great as usual and the script is wonderfully tense places  (the Sweeney Todd style barber shop) and very funny in others.

Cradlegrave - Undisputed prog highlight! I can't believe [spoiler:1cgthxed]Shane succumbed[/spoiler:1cgthxed], I felt sick and let down myself! Mary's dialogue is just awful too, really, really creepy. The ending is fantastic, I love how John has mixed the oppressive, weird creepiness with contemporary and compelling chav drama. Brilliant stuff.

Savage - Loving this too. Yes, the dialogue is just awful in places (all that music nonsense) but the story is gripping. I was a bit disappointed by the Noannoia, I wanted it to be some animal and metal hybrid. Exciting ending and the 'Next Prog' title has me suitably excited!

Back cover - An ad for the DVD release of Hardware special edition which comes with the 2000AD strip it ripped off!

[Mardroid]

Cover- Nice. I like it. The flaming skull with a crown is a nice touch.

Dredd- I like it so far. Sassy insolent new character. I'm not sure if it's an optical illusion but Lamia's boobies seem to change position between panels. (Trust my eyes to be drawn to them, I know. ) That might be due to the mystical nature of her job though and I'm certainly not complaining.  

I'm curious about the Exor badge. I thought the exorcists would be a subsection of the Psi division, and have the Psi badge, but since I've never encountered them before who am I to say. I like the design of the character with the judge get-up and the cloak. I thought she had a neck skin problem to start with then I realised it's probably some kind of mystical tatoo probably a protection script of some kind.

Future Shock- Decent tale. I guessed part of the twist, but not all of it.

Defoe:  Hee, hee. Bit of sauciness. I liked the manhole gag. This was a great start of the latest chapter. I'm curious what the Barber had to do with the reeks though or is it just that they want to keep their operation secret from the citizens? As for a biography of the characters, that was covered quite a bit last chapter. An online reference wouldn't hurt though.

Cradlegrave:  Decent continuation. I hoped Shane would be the strong one, (and I suppose he is to some extent, his spell in hospital being due to his initial resistance.)  It's just by degrees though and I think it's been proven by now that he is just another chav, what with driving away after the hit and run, etc.  Still, that's not unrealistic. And what's with the dog food?

I like the mix of supernatural danger with ordinary 'real world' danger though. And I suspect the puppy thing isn't quite what it appears and we've got a ghastly reveal coming.

Savage: Nice continuation. i was hoping for something that looked a bit more mechanical too with Noannoia but I can understand why they took this route.   The Volgans obviously want a beast threat which plays on peoples superstition and fear. I suspect under the fur, the beast is mechanical though.  I'm not sure I entirely buy how Savage transferred his bug, but it was a nice little twist just the same.

By the way, has anyone seen Hardware? The name rings a bell but I haven't heard much about it. Is it any good?

[Batman's Superior Cousin]

By the way, has anyone seen Hardware? The name rings a bell but I haven't heard much about it. Is it any good?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hardware_(1990_film)

[Art]

Hardware is great. I was a little suprised to find out that it wasn't available on DVD lately, so a re-issue s great news.

Richard Stanley seems to be... a little odd, but his other flm Dust Devil is well worth tracking down as well. After that he tried making a film for Hollywood, The Island of Doctor Moreau, and it all went to shit.

There's some links here to his stuff: //http://www.metafilter.com/77750/Mark-13-no-flesh-shall-be-spared

[Jim_Campbell]

By the way, has anyone seen Hardware? The name rings a bell but I haven't heard much about it. Is it any good?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hardware_(1990_film)

For some reason that link doesn't include the close bracket, but it works if you try this.

Also, official Richard Stanley website.

Personally, I'm still waiting for Carl McCoy to stump up Stanley's money so we can have the live DVD from the Nephilim's Astoria gig.

Cheers!

Jim

[Mardroid]

Thanks for the links.  Interesting read up. That film seems to have completely passed me by.

[ThryllSeekyr]

I'm not sure if this would be extended to my half of the world.

The film itself, has independant feel about it. It didn't seem like a Hollywood product and probably bit too underfunded. Not my favorite film, but I wouldn't mind seeing this again. Perhaps on Cable television.

[spoiler:14tkyy2s]Iggy Pop narrates as a DJ. broadcasting over whats left of humanity in similaer fashion to the female DJ
in "The Warriors" film.  A distopian world of leftovers. I recognise a younger Dylan McDermott with a robotic powerglove replacing one of his real hands. Looking suspiciously tacky and much like the gaming controller. There's fat guy, a contender for the fatties brigade in Mega City One. Perhpas not, but a bit of a slob who would often obsessively spy on the young lady who gained possession of the HARDWARE. Listen for his funny song that I don't remember enough of to put up here. It's strange what I recall from one vewing of a film many years ago.[/spoiler:14tkyy2s]

Actualley my respect for this film is only because of it's connection to SHOKK. It think thats the name of the 2000AD story. Not sure if it's just another Future Shock or if it's set in the Judge Dredd universe. Though, I'm more interested in it since I learnt of it on the site here a few years back.

[Jim_Campbell]

Hardware actually has a pretty good soundtrack, featuring Order of Death by PiL and the absolutely f*cking awesome Stigmata by Ministry.

Plus cameos from Lemmy and the Nephilim's Carl McCoy.

Cheers

Jim

[Batman's Superior Cousin]

Okay, this has gone off topic for a while now, lest Wake or one of the "others" comes along I'll say this outright:
Let's get back on topic!!!!

[pauljholden]

Got to say, that's a cracking issue of 2000AD (I felt the same way about the last few issues, but as I was in those it may have come out a little self serving...)

Dave's Dredd /Mega City 1 really makes me want to up my game on Mega City 1. And Leigh's art on Defoe is frustratingly brilliant (only a shame the Mighty Tharg couldn't get the page order required to make the centre spread happen in the middle pages). Love the fact that the comic has as much b&w art as full colour art now (and the full colour art is pretty great). The only downside is no more Zombo...

-pj

[LGDROID]

Bugger it to hell, I still haven't seen this issue yet, but I'm made up you like the start of Defoe (I'm still chuffed about that trailer)!

PJ, thank you sincerely buddy. I'm really struggling to stop myself from humping your leg.

I mentioned this in the trailer thread, but look out for my cover for episode 4, and the new cover (a mixture of digital painting and photography) I've done for the trade coming out in August.
Thanks guys!
L

[Banners]

In Dredd, isn't it a bit of a contradiction that the alien outsourcing franchises set up in the most disenfranchised 'burbs...?

And what's up with colour - is Chris Blythe on strike?



M@

[Darren Stephens]

Great prog.
Cover was a little weak, I thought, but everything sandwiched inbetween was top notch. Best bits? Dave Taylors Dredd and Cradlegrave, which gets better (or worse!) each week. Love it.

[zombemybabynow]

excellent band. First album and single were superb

[Jim_Campbell]

Let's get back on topic!!!!

Fuck off! I'll ramble on about any old shite I choose ...

Cheers

Jim