Prog 2141 - Pincer movement

[Eamonn Clarke]

Great Chris Weston cover.

Dredd. Williams, Weston, Blythe & Parkhouse bring back the inaccessible Pin, and to great effect. This one is going to be a goodie.

Indigo Prime. Dunno, looks lovely though.

Anderson. Pass

Absalom. Deeper in to the dark heart of the satanic mill with the Guvnor stealing the show.

Thistlebone. The folk horror revival continues, although I feel this one might read better for me in the trade.

Pick of the prog is Dredd. Will this story see the Pin drop?

[Geoff]

Cover - Superb!
Dredd - Superb!
Absalom - Still pretty damn good!
Thistlebone - Art's always been great and the tale is warming up at last...

4 out of 5 makes for a very strong prog. Good man Tharg!

[Colin YNWA]

There's some cracking stuff in the Prog this week.

Dredd Rob Williams is already cooking up a storm, one episode in and as Eammon says this has all the marks of being a blinder. Everything about it oozes class and Chris Weston's art delievers the tale with art of the same quality. Its also amazing how much is packed into these six pages. Delightful.

As is Indigo Prime. Never has a boardroom meeting been so delightfully entertaining, I'm sure many have been as chilling. Then the explosion of  chaos and mystery. I hang onto the tale, barely by my fingers tips, but boy is it worth the effort.

Anderson is frustrating and the three panels of ...chappie whose name I can't remember... close up as he watches Karyn save him on the first page kinda some it up. See they're okay, they convey what's needed, I can work it out... its just its not convincing, its lacks conviction, you see what Aneke's going for, but it looks flat and unconvincing. The story is getting much the same alas. I think this one will read better in one and its all such a shame as its so close.

Absalom on the other hand carries its tale with absolute conviction. The betryal by Guv'nor is no surprise, its juts done with such grim and bitter glory. Majestic.

Thistlebone continues its level of creepy horror also with absolute conviction, it cast doubt on what you think you know, on what you assume to be correct with precision leaving you unsettled and uneasy. A bit of a masterclass this one.

So yeah four very contrasting pieces of brilliance and one duffer that's always going to be a big win.

[Tjm86]

Loved the nod in Dredd to one of the earliest Dredd covers.  Really brought back prog 18 for me!

Going to go out on a limb; felt like the strongest prog in a while this one.  Not quite firing on full cylinders but certainly a lot closer than in a while.

[Eamonn Clarke]

[Colin YNWA]

Loved the nod in Dredd to one of the earliest Dredd covers.  Really brought back prog 18 for me!

Yeah that was brilliant.

[Eamonn Clarke]

Good spot, TJm. Particularly as that cover was by Don Lawrence I think, who was Chris Weston's mentor.

[Richard]

Chris Weston is brilliant and I always look forward to seeing his work.

[glassstanley]

Thanks to Thargnote for sending me to the correct back Progs for the Pin storyline. As I grow older there's now way I can keep it all in my memory banks.

Dredd is nice and ominous. Absalom is thundering towards a climax. I don't mind the Anderson - still like that Karyn wasn't forgotten. Thistlebone has lost me - I need to go back and re-read. My problem, not the strips.

I haven't a clue what's happening with Indigo Prime. While this is in keeping with it's John Smith origins, I don't have the same trust in the author that this is going to sort itself out.

So yeah, 4/5 and even the 1/5 looks good.

[broodblik]

Wow what a cover, here it is in its full glory:

[MumboJimbo]

Mister Gekko is right - Selling England by the Pound is the best Genesis album

[Frank]

Mister Gekko is right - Selling England by the Pound is the best Genesis album

Kek-W is playing an interesting game. Last week, I suggested a large organisation trying to assume control of Indigo Prime and dispensing with its creator sounded a bit like what was happening in real life, but I just thought I was being even more hilarious and clever than usual (i)

But this week we discover that organisation is anagrammatically named ICP and occupies a tower in central London (ii) whose every floor contains different worlds, their concern being the return of their intellectual property (IP!).

I'm now interested to see where Kek-W's going with the idea that Indigo Prime's maverick creator may have survived recent catastrophic events (iii)




(i) As if such a thing was possible

(ii) The Slice (Shard) is a bit on-the-nose, even if it fits with the idea of each floor of the building offering a cross-section of an alternate reality, just as IPC's King's Reach Tower base contained different fictional worlds, from The Eagle to NME and Woman's Journal. I suppose it might be a bit more comfortable to figure IPC as aggressively seeking the return of their property, and it was IPC (or Fleetway?) who originally forced Smith to surrender copyright of his creation.

(iii) The 'upgrade' mentioned here is referenced in the strips Smith wrote which brought Indigo Prime back from its 20-year hiatus (which involved the realities they maintained increasing from a few dozen to thousands). If we're understanding all this as metafictional commentary, that could be understood as the relatively rare example of a creator rebooting their own strip after a lengthy absence, rather than it being Fleischered.

[broodblik]

The Dredd story is like when you buy a boxset of movies just to get hold of one of them, that is how good this new Dredd story is.  Weston is a master (double wow) and Williams is one of my top Dredd writers.

And what a discovery when the you realise the rest of the movies in the box is some real good and solid stuff in it.

Absalom is another standout episode. It is a pity that it is coming to its conclusion soon.

I just have one minor complain and it is Thislebone that feels like it is dragging its feet a little bit. Art is as always with Davis top-notch.

Indigo Prime was just a wonderful weird wacky episode.

So yes, this was for me a 5 out 5 prog.

[Tiplodocus]

Yes, I really enjoyed this prog too. All good stuff according to my input sensors.

[norton canes]

Very much as it's been over the last few weeks, really - one phenomenal story (Absalom), one very good (Dredd), one interesting enough to enjoy (Thistlebone), one not quite interesting enough to enjoy (IP), and one sadly missing the mark.