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Prog 2178: Not all heroes are apes

Started by The Monarch, 18 April, 2020, 12:31:16 PM

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broodblik

Aquila and Blackhawk even share the same look. I loved both these strips and hopefully this is not end of Aquila.
When I die, I want to die like my grandfather who died peacefully in his sleep. Not screaming like all the passengers in his car.

Old age is the Lord's way of telling us to step aside for something new. Death's in case we didn't take the hint.

SmallBlueThing(Reborn)

Hopefully Aquila gets kidnapped by aliens at the end!

SBT

shaolin_monkey

Quote from: TordelBack on 18 April, 2020, 04:46:32 PM
Aside from being a beautiful cover that's a magnificent tagline, truly inspired (I see a T-Shirt in its future)

I've just renewed my subscription on the basis of this cover, and yes I would very much like a tshirt with this on can I please it would be awesome thank you very much.

Colin YNWA

Quote from: IndigoPrime on 22 April, 2020, 02:33:14 PM
Personally, I like the idea he's... Kenneth Neimand (and a bit perplexed people think his name is a pseudonym).

Arh but we all like a bit of mystery and he certainly sprang fully formed out of the ether. Which isn't to say that he's not just someone call Kenneth Neimand - but I love the idea its someone else teasing us.

Then of course there's the name itself lest we forget. Neimand being German for nobody, no one, no man or if you punch it around a bit you get to

Quotesag das niemand(em)! don't tell anyone

Which gets us to ... kind... work with me... Kenneth (Kenny) Who?

Oh I just love the fun of it all - and judging by the straight bat they play on Twitter - so do they!

Muon

Kenneth Niemand's stories take me back to when I first started reading Dredd and the world of Mega-city One seemed huge and heaving with possibilities. There's something in the way whoever it is revels in the world of the city that makes the stories a joy to read. It also makes me think it's a long-time fan. I reckon it's Frank from this forum.

Proudhuff

Great Prog, we'll soon have to have 'The Grennie doid presents' written above the logo on the front page...
DDT did a job on me

TordelBack

Quote from: Colin YNWA on 22 April, 2020, 04:33:02 PM
Oh I just love the fun of it all - and judging by the straight bat they play on Twitter - so do they!

I've been largely convinced by one popular theory, supported by hearsay-slash-testimony and stylistic parallels, but the Twitter account is so resolutely out of character for that suspect that it makes me doubt everything.  If it is a well-known droid, I have to hand it them - it's the best mind-f**k yet.

I think it's fair to say that the Niemand entity can tell a story, and has the tone, substance and oh-so-tricky voice of both MC-1 and Dredd himself down pat, and long may these tales continue (they're exactly what I want from the strip most of the time, a modern Casefiles 7). The next big hurdle will be if it (or he or she or they or them) can write a Dredd-focused action thriller with Dredd doing important stuff that doesn't involve him either being incapacitated for most of it, saved by another character or endlessly consulting with the Chief Judge. That I'd very much like to see.  I have every faith that it's possible.


SmallBlueThing(Reborn)

My money would be on Wagner himself, seeing if he "has still got it" and can tell popular, engaging, Dredd stories without all the heavy continuity that he seems to have attached to his name.

A bit like Stephen King did successfully with "Richard Bachman" and J K Rowling attempted with, weirdly, "Robbert Galbraith". Weirdly, because I have a very old friend of that name.

SBT

I, Cosh

Fair Prog for me. The colours on the cover are outstanding and it's a fun opener to Dredd. A slight quibble with the scheduling as three sympathetic cit stories in a row is pushing it but I'm generally enjoying these.

Quote from: IndigoPrime on 22 April, 2020, 02:33:14 PM
Personally, I like the idea he's... Kenneth Niemand (and a bit perplexed people think his name is a pseudonym).
Really? It's not quite Amanda Hugenkiss but it's certainly getting there.

Also worth bearing in mind that the first strip to credit our man was that Starlord pisstake from the 2018 Christmas Prog. Both an unusual place to blood a new writer and the type of story which could just as easily appear under a TMO or Alec Trench pseudonymous byline. In fact, the hope of clarification is the main reason that strip isn't listed on Barney.

Quote from: broodblik on 22 April, 2020, 03:31:30 PM
Aquila and Blackhawk even share the same look.
There's even a bit of a clue in the name. Although it has enough of a Roman connection to make that seem coincidental.

It does seem like this is heading for an end to Aquila too, rushing through untold stories in a page or two of flashback. But who knows?
We never really die.

paddykafka

Quote from: Bolt-01 on 22 April, 2020, 02:58:08 PM

These are off the top of my head, but it seems that Aquila, like Blackhawk before him, is off to meet his maker. I only hope that Aquila gets a happy ending as the ending of Blackhawk makes my eyes leak something fierce.

Congrats to Gordon & Patrick for a superb series.

But Blackhawk ended [spoiler]with the Warrior and his mates only being sucked into a Black Hole, while they were in a safe and secure in Kwark's Ark : "A mysterious construction built to conform to advanced mathematical principles - but built from the only materials available." (Which in this case appeared to be wood and rope, but still and all...)[/spoiler]

So they're fine, right? Right?

Andy B

I agree with everything being said about Kenneth Niemand's old school Dredd (It's always a good sign when Dredd doesn't turn up until the end of part one): but also a shout out for the art. PJ Holden seems to have taken it to another level recently: I'm no expert, but that last panel looks a tricky angle to pull off, and it's wonderfully dramatic.

It's stuff like this that should be in the Regened progs...

metcalfecarr

Comeo on, we all know Niemand is Mark Millar :D
Dave Metcalfe-Carr

norton canes

Excuse my ignorance - I only returned to 2000 AD a few years ago, so this is the first run of Aquila I've seen - but isn't the point that it is essentially a reworking of the original Tornado-era Blackhawk saga, with added mythical/sorcery elements? As I said last week, the silver eyes are another nice callback. Loving this chapter but like most of the Rennie droid's output it does seem to come in frustratingly short instalments then return to dormancy for too long. Ah well, you can't rush quality.

Unless you're Kenneth Neimand, it appears, from whose prolific mind Dredd stories of the highest calibre fly like startled pheasants (sorry, lost for a decent metaphor there). You just know that when an episode starts almost immediately with the phrase "tween-block ped-over", the script droid is one that inherently gets Dredd. The droid in question has also clearly had its sensitivity circuits augmented, generating a string of whimsical tales focussed firmly on the little people of the Big Meg trying to do right. We could all do with a little more of the Neimand algorithm.

All round the prog continues to sing sweetly, with a set of stories well into their flow. Another week in confinement is made vastly more bearable by the House of Tharg, to which I once again proffer the most grabundaest of florixes.

Sinx

Quote from: Andy B on 23 April, 2020, 01:48:44 AM
I agree with everything being said about Kenneth Niemand's old school Dredd (It's always a good sign when Dredd doesn't turn up until the end of part one): but also a shout out for the art. PJ Holden seems to have taken it to another level recently: I'm no expert, but that last panel looks a tricky angle to pull off, and it's wonderfully dramatic.

It's stuff like this that should be in the Regened progs...
Completely agree with the art - nicely the right side of cartoony and the last panel was a masterpiece in setting up an ominous lead in to the next episode.

Tiplodocus

Yeah that last DREDD panel was perfect.
Be excellent to each other. And party on!