Prog 1790 Shooting Star

[oshii]

Cover - Ezquerra, Durham Red.

Dredd - That's it.  Day of Chaos is over.  New one parter from Al Ewing and Nick Blythe.  Don't know about anyone else but I thought the epilogue was going to go on for a bit longer.  Feels a bit weird not having it.

Durham Red - Final part.  Lovely art, but the story has just been a bit so-so in this, for me

3rillers - Really liking this.  Story and art working together really well.  Really intriguing alternate world.

Ichabod - Not entirely sure what's going on, but enjoying it.  I do really like the narrative style of it, and Reardon's art is lovely to look at.

Dante - Lovely hints of Vlad's back story.  Next weeks is the final ever part!  Noooooo! 

[Dark Jimbo]

Dredd - I assume this was written before DoC? Did read a bit strangely, coming after last week. It's a bit hard to believe that the Judges are still doing their usual beancounting shtick in the face of everything that's happened. Which is a shame, because otherwise this was a solid one-off Dredd tale - just rings untrue coming where it does, like a flashback to a year ago.

Durham Red - I wanted to like this more than I did, but Alan didn't really give us anything of substance. Quite good fun for all that but ultimately more than a little forgettable. How many more origin series is Grant going to embark on? Pat Mills gets an awful lot of flack of revisiting his old stories, but at least he always gives us a new spin on old events. These are adding nothing of interest to the characters.

3rillers - It probably bears repeating - I really, really, really like the Norwhichmas 3rillers. So much so I'd probably buy a TPB of them (the only misfire for me was that John Mcrea-drawn one). Future Shocks always elicit a little sigh of dissapointment when I see them on the Nerve Centre page (even though they can often be very good), but a new 3riller always feels exciting, like the start of a new long-running thrill. More to invest in, I suppose. Anyway - this is a fine example of the craft. Slowly falling a little bit in love with the art style, too.

Ichabod - Arsom, in the truest sense of that venerable word. How this must be reading to folk who haven't read the first series I can't begin to imagine, but I'm loving it. Heartily recommend a re-read of the first book, which I did myself last week; I'd forgotten quite a bit of the intricacies of Ichabod's underworld journey. My fave moment this week was probably the glimpse of General Beuregard in Ichabod's glass - hope he returns for a starring role.

Dante - Brilliant, brilliant, brilliant. Hope it gets a double-episode send-off next prog.

[TordelBack]

Damn it all you subbers, stop beating about the bush and just tell us what the inside-cover summary for Dredd says about population...

[Dark Jimbo]

...just tell us what the inside-cover summary for Dredd says about population...

Unchanged!

[TordelBack]

Thanks, Jimbo!  From which I presume we can conclude that this week's story is set before DoC.

[Dark Jimbo]

Except it ends with - Now, following a city-wide infection, Judge Dredd is picking up the pieces...

[oshii]

It certainly reads like a pre Day of Chaos story, except from Dredd saying a couple of times about having more important things to do, and another panel where Judge Maitland talks about busting someone for cannibalism.

I did of course mean Nick Dyer on art earlier, not Blythe.

[Cactus]

Another solid Judge Dredd one-parter from the Ewing droid but the scheduling is incongruous, to say the least. On the other hand, we've spent the last six months reading a story that covers a period of about a fortnight, so the clock does need winding forwards. It was an interesting deconstruction of Joe's attitude to the job and I was pleased to see the old-style lawmasters at the end, although they did look a bit skinny.

I've enjoyed this Durham Red story and don't really care if it brings anything new or not, as long as it's a ripping yarn. Which I think it was, though I feel that the page-count of the series overall was stretched by many pictures of Red running jumping and falling.

Loving the 3riller, and Kek-W even slipped a joke in there. [spoiler]Churchill's "resting" is he? The old sot.[/spoiler]

I also recommend a re-read of series one of IAatDLiHW if you have it. I did so after I got last week's prog and the current story reads a lot better for it. Lovely drawing and colouring too. Pure class. [spoiler]I'm intrigued by the presence of a/the devil as Al Capone, and I suspect Zoe's "angelic" voice is more than metaphorical.[/spoiler]

I'm really really worried about next week's final Dante now. Saturday can't come soon enough. My only hope is that [spoiler]shooting himself so he doesn't grow into Tsar Dante the Degenerate or somesuch[/spoiler] wouldn't provide the prophesied "spectacular" death. He and Jena deserve a happy ending but I have genuine doubts that they'll get it. Whatever happens, I hope it's a double-length outing filling Durham Red's now vacant slot with at least one of Simon Fraser's trademark splashes.

[Trout]

Dante tops the lots for me this week. Where is it going? I can't wait for the next part.

The Dredd story works very well. As ever, Al Ewing is taking the strip's extensive background and, while following "house style" in Dredd characterisation, doing something new. Day of Chaos was always going to be a hard act to follow but this one-off is excellent.

I've enjoyed Durham Red. Everybody keeps saying it's "old school" but I think it's simply good. It's straightforward story-telling and 2000AD benefits from it.

I enjoyed 3rillers and Ichabod, too. Five out of five from me!

- Trout

[Dark Jimbo]

I've changed my mind about Dredd, following a more careful re-read. It clearly is set after DoC - there are actually quite a few oblique references in the dialogue that for some reason didn't register at first. It still doesn't feel like it's set in a mostly ruined, depopulated city, but at least it means we should be getting lots of aftermath tales in the coming weeks.

[Dandontdare]

Ah, funtweasel. Just back home piss-wet from yukky Saturday shift - no prog.

[SmallBlueThing]

(skimming through thread so as not to read too much)
Quick question for subbies- is next week's Dante DEFINITELY the final episode? Does it say so this week? :-/

SBT

[Trout]

(skimming through thread so as not to read too much)
Quick question for subbies- is next week's Dante DEFINITELY the final episode? Does it say so this week? :-/

SBT

There's a full-page ad for Dante on the inside-back page:

"The conclusion to the 15-year epic - next prog!"

[WhitBloke]

SBT - - Full page ad on inside back cover for next week's Nikolai Dante.  Won't spoil the image for you, very nice design, but it does state that next prog is IT.

Cover - Yes, yes, yes, they're fantastically leersome knockers, luv, but can you get out of the way now?  I'm trying to enjoy the backdrop you're obscuring.  I don't care how wonderfully coloured you are, or how wickedly sexy the black latex is, that's an Ezquerra spaceship skirting excitingly close to some sort of colossal fireball for Grud's sake.  Now move that curvaceous arse of yours, if you please.  Perhaps in the direction of a hair salon.

Dredd - Ooh, Maitland!  Always a pleasure to see somebody (worthy) stand up to Dredd.  Not that it hurts for them punctuate their argument with a Widowmaker while being the Anti-Quimby.  No pat on the head for her!  Day of Chaos was perhaps the toughest act to follow in the history of the strip and Al Ewing delivers with aplomb without delving too far into the new status quo.  Brisk, unexpected and yet still engaging, keeping Dredd at the top in my estimations.  I certainly hope soon to see some of the heavy lifting done for the post-DOC era but this week's script more than suffices for my fix and I look forward to seeing Maitland again in the future.
Plus, some great work from the others, though particularly Nick Dyer.  The reflection of Maitland in Dredd's helmet on page two and the face hidden in the body of Maitland's shoulder eagle on page four.  Can't be sure if that second one isn't unintentional but it's what I see when I look at it and I like it so that's good in my book.

Durham Red - Whaaaat?!  No Zeta Beam escape from Rann?  Still, shouldn't grumble.  While I've not enjoyed this as much as other Alan Grantium Dog stories from around the same era, it has been a breezy romp nonetheless.  With added Squirrelly goodness.  Coming as it did on the heels* of a similarly retro-but-adding-little story with perhaps a little bit of a flippant approach to the seeming fact that the core audience for such examples of retro are the long-timers who will welcome untold tales but also inevitably hunger for fanboy tidbits from them, but being more rompily good-natured and less fraught with plot slips, I have hopeful suspicions that Alan Grant was burning out his smiling motors and purging his humour thrusters before working on the forthcoming return of Anderson.  (What do you mean, that should have been reworked as three or four sentences?  I'm too busy tediously grumbling at an accomplished writer to, you know, take better care over what I'm writi...  Oh.)

3rillers - 1947 - Rolls-Whittle's very existence.  Eric Blair's activities.  Burlington's use as the launch site for the Galahad.  Bla... brown and white television screens.  Some extremely welcome grounding touches of alternate history authenticity from Kek-W and krew, all supporting a rather enjoyable yarn.  One part research, one part dynamic action, one part clever, two parts fun.  Also manages to have the best panel in the Prog, being the one after "Let's see your authority!"  Who the hell needs some crumb-bum called Clark Kent when we can get this kind of freedom of the press action in the Prog?

Ichabod Azrael - I also also recommend a re-read of series one of IAatDLiHW if you have it. I also did so after I also got last week's prog and the current story also reads a lot better for it. Lovely drawing and also colouring also too also. Pure also class.  (With apologies to Cactus and his earlier post!)

Dante - SHOOT HIM WITH YOUR RIFLE!  IN THE FACE!  NOW!

* What Emperor says at times like these?  That.  This isn't feetbeat.com, you know.

[SmallBlueThing]

Thanks guys, i guess this means i will have to avoid the board between saturday and wednesday next week, as even if i stay out of the 1791 thread, someonis bound to say something somewhere else- and rhe mobile web doesnt do spoiler tags, so i'd see it anyway even if they used them.

I dont mind telling you, im more keyed-up, anxious and excited over the end of Dante than i have been about fiction in years. Let's hope he gets a good send off.

SBT