Well first and formost how glorious does the Prog look. Get this for a line up.
Dan Cornwell
INJ Culbard
Henry Flint
Brendan McCarthy
Richard (and Joe) Elson
Each of them utterly different, yet each of them absolutely brilliant in their own way. Just an absolute visual treat.
The thing is the stories match the visuals for quality to boot.
Dredd see a wonderfully off centre opener by Kenneth - shall we discuss who he is again - Niemand. All giggles, until that final page. This one already screams its going to be a good un.
Brink is a typically brilliant conversation that drive plot without you realising disguising such story needs behind glorious dialogue and magnificent characters. Just a masterclass.
Proteus Vex smoothers us in its gigantic realities.
While Zaucer of Zilk tickles our good bits with its glamourus fantasies
Feral and Foe might not get to those standards but it gives us action, character and enough to keep on coming back.
Tharg this is some way to kick off the year. Trouble is you've set your bar high as you come out the gate. Your challenge is to keep this wonderful stuff up for the next 48ish weeks!
Also some good news inside the back cover -- the first graphic novel of Third World War will be the first in a series.
(https://i.imgur.com/DrCnmE6.jpg)
Richard Elson cover kicks off 2020, almost literally
(https://2000ad.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/4e.jpg)
Niemand needs to write a lot more Dredd. He's really good at it.
Quote from: IndigoPrime on 05 January, 2020, 07:00:37 PM
Niemand needs to write a lot more Dredd. He's really good at it.
Did we establish that Kenneth Niemand is not Matt Smith?
All sorts of rumours were rattling around, not least that he was Al Ewing in a cunning disguise. Perhaps he's just a bloke called Kenneth Niemand.
Quote from: CalHab on 06 January, 2020, 11:26:12 AM
Did we establish that Kenneth Niemand is not Matt Smith?
Several times now, I think.
As has been noted frequently on this score: if you think you've seen Pat Mills be a bit ranty, this would be as nothing compared to the apoplectic fury from the freelance community if the editor was handing themselves the plum writing gig on their own book.
Quote from: Jim_Campbell on 06 January, 2020, 11:32:18 AM
Quote from: CalHab on 06 January, 2020, 11:26:12 AM
Did we establish that Kenneth Niemand is not Matt Smith?
Several times now, I think.
As has been noted frequently on this score: if you think you've seen Pat Mills be a bit ranty, this would be as nothing compared to the apoplectic fury from the freelance community if the editor was handing themselves the plum writing gig on their own book.
*cough* Alan McKenzie *cough*
Although the real problem with McKenzie is that he tried to assert more rights than he was willing to give other writers and simultaneously claim that the artist has no creator rights. Which was, to be polite, not very nice.
Summer Magic was good, though.
Quote from: CalHab on 06 January, 2020, 12:05:21 PM
Although the real problem with McKenzie is that he tried to assert more rights than he was willing to give other writers and simultaneously claim that the artist has no creator rights. Which was, to be polite, not very nice.
Summer Magic was good, though.
I was hoping for a revival of Luke Kirby in the prog after the complete edition came out, but alas nothing.
Peter Hogan could make a good job of that...
Droid Life "Flicker" is a word to be lettered very carefully. Hopefully that droid's name isn't Clint.
A strange Prog for me, can't really explain why, perhaps its that there are so many different, colourful, challenging and completely different strips in one issue giving me that mild feeling of disconnect that I used to get reading the NME way back in the late 70s when a hundred flowers blossomed ?
Dredd: a good Dredd, I'm sure there will be a nice twisted to the 'murder in a locked room' troupe as the mysterious Niemand droid gives excellent Dredd
Brink If you're going to do a talking head episode, this is the way to do it.
Proteus Vex, struggling a bit with getting my hooks into this, maybe the lack of identifiable protagonist?
While Zaucer of Zilk is loverly to look at and has some tasty text, it feels strangely out of its time
Feral and Foe like most sword, sandal and sorcery stuff, leaves me cold, but that's just me.
While welcoming all the different strands of this prog, and understanding the prog smorgasbord anthology effect, I'm discombobulated by this Prog. Maybe that's a good thing, shaking thing up? It cant all be big boots and guns!
Luke Kirby was brilliant but if they ran new stories today about a boy wizard it would invite unfair comparisons with Harry Potter. However, Tharg could always commission new stories where Luke is an adult.
Lots to enjoy in this comic, including an excellent Dredd story, but Brink tops the lot. What a sublime strip.
Great start to the new year. The new thrills Proteus Vex and Feral & Foe taking the sharing the laurels this round. The new Dredd story also has a great start.
Quote from: Richard on 07 January, 2020, 04:52:54 PM
Luke Kirby was brilliant but if they ran new stories today about a boy wizard it would invite unfair comparisons with Harry Potter. However, Tharg could always commission new stories where Luke is an adult.
Agreed, but why on this thread? what have I missed!
Good article on how the cover came to life:
https://2000ad.com/news/2000-ad-covers-uncovered-its-all-kicking-off-with-feral-foe/ (https://2000ad.com/news/2000-ad-covers-uncovered-its-all-kicking-off-with-feral-foe/)
Quotewhat have I missed!
Page 1?
Bloody hell is Brink brilliant. Even in this strong line-up it feels like it's in another league. And it's just a cop and a gangster talking... amazing work.
Dredd starts well, Niemand's grasp of Dredd and MC-1 is spot-on, and Cornwell is fast moving up my personal ranking of Dredd artists: some lovely little details, like the left-handed judge, set against pages that feel huge and full. But surely that isn't an invisible ninja approaching..?
Proteus Rex - Jovus H Grud, Mike, cut back on the expository text, you've got Henry Flint drawing this - give him more than a few square inches of the page to do his job! That gripe aside, very intriguing, and lots to absorb.
Zaucer: very very very beautiful, and in keeping, but feels a bit like Swifty's Return, if you get my meaning.
Feral & Foe: Yeah, I could grow to like this. For now, I trust the creative team more than almost any other, so i'll let it marinate for a bit longer.
Can't do more than echo a few already expressed thoughts, really...
A spot-on Dredd, perfectly complemented by Dan Cornwell's buoyant art. That silent frame is priceless! A story about an imaginary person written by Kenneth Niemand... who'da thought huh.
Brink continues to be a welcome counterpoint to the sound and fury elsewhere. It's all going to kick off soon though... isn't it..?
Not 100% sold on Zaucer Of Zilk - the story-weaver stuff in nice but otherwise there's only so far a bit of whimsical psychedelia will get you. Maybe it will pick up.
Proteus Vex also appears to be displaying early symptoms of a fundamental flaw, in this case a lack of characterisation. Two episodes in and the protagonist has shown no singular traits; neither is the plot especially compelling. I think that if you've got a strip with such spectacular artwork you've either got to make the script equally spectacular, or go the other way and make it so vague the pictures do all the storytelling. At the moment it seems to be a bit of a halfway house here.
See with Feral & Foe, you have a couple of well-drawn protagonists and an immediately engaging story. It's only the details that are throwing me for now, like the decision to give antler guy that bizarre ersatz East End gangster style dialogue. Let's hope this and Kingmaker never bump into each other in a Nerve Centre corridor - could be orc-ward!
Quote from: norton canes on 09 January, 2020, 10:16:22 AM
Let's hope this and Kingmaker never bump into each other in a Nerve Centre corridor - could be orc-ward!
:lol:
Quote from: TordelBack on 08 January, 2020, 09:21:34 PM
Dredd starts well. But surely that isn't a JUSTICE DEPT invisible ninja approaching..?
FTFY
Great prog, which happened to coincide with my first day back to work after the xmas break and thus made the commute blues vanish in a cloud of thrill power (definitely took the sting out of the latest Scotrail price hike...grrrrrr).
Dredd, Brink and Feral & Foe all the top drawer highlights for me. The Dredd tale seems fun and cool, Brink never has a less than brilliant week and Feral & Foe as mentioned further up has that Kingmaker feel that I really enjoy in my 2000AD fantasy stuff.
Saucer just isn't the kind of story for me (although I do like the art a great deal), and I want to love Proteus (and very possibly will at some point down the line) but still settling into it and yet to form much of an opinion, although again the artwork still makes it a great and very welcome read.
Quote from: Dark Jimbo on 09 January, 2020, 10:24:58 AM
Quote from: norton canes on 09 January, 2020, 10:16:22 AM
Let's hope this and Kingmaker never bump into each other in a Nerve Centre corridor - could be orc-ward!
:lol:
For some reason I had it in my head that this and Kingmaker existed in the same world.
It did make me think that we haven't had any Trifecta-style shocks for a while. Closest was the surprise reappearance of Armoured Gideon in The Order, I suppose.
Could happen at any time!
Quote from: norton canes on 10 January, 2020, 12:26:55 PM
It did make me think that we haven't had any Trifecta-style shocks for a while. Closest was the surprise reappearance of Armoured Gideon in The Order, I suppose.
Could happen at any time!
My thoughts, based entirely on the creative team, could be this could become some sort of future Kingdom word... almost certainly poppycock.
revere in indigo prime or was that before the order one?
Thought I had posted this last night, but I must have only previewed it ;)
Great Prog for me - kicking off the new year, indeed the new decade in fine style.
All stories are doing for me and which is great.
Loving Feral and Foe already - an instant classic, possibly.
Brink sublime as always.
Dredd was great . Loved the "Real Imaginary Friends Only, No Weirdos or Crazies".