Prog 1589: Reek and Destroy

[Matt Timson]

I am enjoying the arrival of my Saturday progs!

[Matt Timson]

Cover- OK.  I'm not a fan of the art though.  As mentioned before, there's nothing technically wrong with it- I just don't like the style.

Dredd:  More mortality stuff- interesting opener.

The Vort:  Lovely artwork and interesting premise- that's all I can really say for now.

Defoe:  I'm desperate to give this a fair go- but the artwork just doesn't do it for me and that teeny tiny text made my eyes bleed.  I wasn't particularly looking forward to it in the first place, so I decided to skip it for later.  Sorry!

Dante:  Oddly, I think that Burns is a far superior artist to Si Fraser- but I'd much rather see Fraser's work on Dante- so this is my standout strip this week- especially the double page spread of New York.  Lovely stuff.

Sin/Dex: Reasonably interesting opener- although I much prefer Simon Davis to Anthony Williams on art chores.  Again, there's nothing particularly wrong with the art- it just doesn't do anything for me.

[Mardroid]

Yep mine too. This should really be in the SPOILER forum, but never mind.

As we know, a whole new set of progs this week!

Cover- Nice Defoe image. Interesting to see a guest appearance of Elektra in the background there. Heh,

Dredd- Interesting start. Things to say about mortality and Dredd without a helmet! Oh and communal showers. Must be hell on that overactive adrenal gland. Heh heh.

The Vort-  Original story. Interesting environment and weird science. Curious to see how D'Israeli's work looks in colour. To borrow a cliche, so far so good.

Defoe- I was a bit reticent about this ones return to be honest. I didn't dislike the previous, I just found it a bit repetitive, although it had some interesting ideas.  I'll give it a chance and this is a great start. Look, there's Elektra again!  Interesting use of cutlery too! I forget, was the 'table lady' in the previous strip? I forget.

Dante- Interesting take on America (Amerika) and possibly an interesting reversal when considering events in the world today. (Not sure if that was intentional, I think sometimes it's easy to read too much into something meant to be just a good story- which is good enough in itself.)Flame on anyone? Messed up Fantastic four terrorists! Great stuff! I think 'minutemen' has been used before in a strip though, it rings a bell. I don't think it was taken so literally though.

Sinister Dexter-  I read lots of negative stuff about this strip on the review site, but I've always rather liked it. I only started reading 2000AD last year though so maybe stuff other people find repetitive just doesn't affect me. Rather serious start (although I feel like a fill in of previous events would be nice. I have read previous arcs, but much of there is still a lot of back story I'm missing.), but promising. Finny looks a bit effeminate in this incarnation though. Heh heh.

Overall- Early days obviously but a good prog I'd say. Those who weren't too keen on recent progs could be in for a treat (but it's so subjective isn't it?  With reservations, I didn't think the last stories were particularly bad.)

Oh, and a couple of lovely double page splashes!

[Mardroid]

The "yep mine two" in my previous post was in reference to the first post comment on arrival of Saturday Progs.

[ukdane]

No "SFX-cover" with my Saturday Sub.
(see the other post)

Link: http://www.2000adonline.com/?zone=fan&page=messagethread&choice=22673&Replies=0" target="_blank">here

[Leigh S]

aha - thrill power!

Dredd - more than a touch of the Cal files about this one, especially that cliff hanger ending - but thats all for the good!

The Vort - since I'm still unconvinced by "G.Powell", I'm going to say this most closely resembles the work of one Mr Spurrier - anyone else get the vibe? Just got to work out which existing story it will segue into! :)
A good enough opener, with loverly art and a decent set of ideas to fire things off - Hope for good things from this one.

Defoe - Pat is often at his finest when he sits down and comes up with a gaggle of new characters - the double page spread has got me interested in meeting them. Mungo's journal is gonna have Jon tearing his hair out when this gets collected!  

Dante - bit early to say. Like the image of the gun emplacement in place of the torch

sin Dex - not really following that character development there - So who is he pissed off with suddenly that hes gonna shoot up?  I think I've passed caring about the subplots in Sin Dex at some point and lost the plot.

Even with Sin Dex baffling me a bit, there's a prog that feels like I'm going to enjoy the majority of it, so cautious thumbs up!

[Bad Andy]

Problem with Sin Dex is that no-one gives a shit about Kal Cutter. There's no personality there at all. He'll be dead within two months.

[numanti]

I enjoyed the prog.  I think the only story I'm going to struggle to keep up with is going to be SinDex, because Kal Cutter is such an emo and Finny and Ramone have never really interested me as characters before and I doubt this story will change that.  It appears to be well paced with believable enough dialogue, and it's well drawn so far, though, so I am giving it a chance.

The Dredd was well written and drawn, and very interesting considering nothing much happened.  Wagner is writing Dredd so well these days that whenever I notice he hasn't written the Dredd story I'm almost wishing they would just not put a Dredd story in.  The bar is being set so high that it's not really fair to give the story to anyone else to run with because no matter how good they may be, they aren't Wagner.  It's the little details like Dredd taking off his helmet to sleep and shower, the communal showers (which had me thinking, 'Hah - all those Judges sharing the shower with Dredd can see his FACE!', and I totally wasn't sniggering at the boobs, which must mean I am growing up) and also Dredd ignoring his duty to see about his pain and nausea, yet having a go at Edgar for not getting treatment for her cancer.

I loved everything about The Vort.  I don't think there will be any tie in, though - it almost seems too obvious - brand new writer no-one has ever heard of starting off on a major strip drawn by D'Israeli - and the writing is all good and the dialogue is natural and funny and the whole premise is interesting... got to be an established writer having fun with us, right?  I think it's a double bluff and not a Dead Man / Malone / Dead Eyes twisty thing, but I'm crap at spotting things anyway and didn't guess who The Dead Man was till after the reveal, so just ignore what I say :>

Defoe... I really want to like Defoe.  I am a huge admirer of Pat Mills and the art is wonderful, and it is full of zombies... but, the first series of it lost me completely about halfway through, and I am thinking that it's going to be no different this time.  Still, the first episode was fun and the splash page was jaw droppingly good.

Dante was great.  I am still catching up with Dante, as I had never really read it much in the past so I'm not completely sure wo everyone is exactly, but I do have all the comics available to be read as soon as I have a few days... and the splash page of New York was stunningly good.

A realy fine prog, that.  The fact I managed to enjoy Sinister Dexter and Defoe makes me hopeful that I'm going to enjoy their full runs, I feel The Vort is just going to get better and Dante and Dredd are both just wonderful so there is nothing to complain about.

[Dandontdare]

Dredd: LOVED THIS! rare peek at Dredd's daily life and musings plus a tantalising intro to what looks like it's going to be a classic story.

The Vort: Interesting opening - the diagram suggests it's a 'planet' made entirely of water, but it looks pretty solid to me! and those organic gun thingys - like it!

Defoe: No comment. (Dan really DON'T dare!)
 
Dante: - The FF parodies made me chuckle lots - and the switcharound - "you're not the hero, you're the villain" is a nice move. I love the Fraser droid's linework, wonderful detail and expressive faces.

Sin/Dex -  a rather slow opening (I've never really taken to kal as a character) but I expect this to gather pace soon enough. It's one of my favourite strips and it's amazing how the original thin premise has managed to develop from a pulp-fiction parody into a complex and engaging story. Not sure about Finny's new haircut, though it's good to see his nose condition has cleared up!

[JOE SOAP]

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[IndigoPrime]

"Curious to see how D'Israeli's work looks in colour."

His previous colour work (such as Kingdom of the Wicked and Scarlet Traces) has been excellent, and so I wasn't expecting otherwise here - and I wasn't disappointed. More great art from the master.

[Hoagy]

"I think that Burns is a far superior artist to Si Fraser- but I'd much rather see Fraser's work on Dante"

I take it Fraser's on art duties then? I'm beginning to prefer John Burns' retro feel. Am I maturing?

D'Israeli should work on Sin/Dex. I wonder what his Downlode would look like.

[JOE SOAP]

***I'm beginning to prefer John Burns' retro feel. Am I maturing? ***

I think it's just that Burns' style suits it better cos of it's swash buckling grandiosity which suits the strip down to a tee.

[WoD]

I have to disagree, I'm over the moon that Simon is back on art duty as he does the city-scapes so much better and I prefer his clean lines.  It did look to me in the last Dante story he did that his work didn't have the same (high) quality that it had had on previous ealier stories, but this weeks looked pretty good to me.

[JTurner]

Best. Dredd. Ever.

Just something about it hit the spot.

Defoe's double page was pants wettingly good, also. However I must add by voice to the cries of agony after trying to read that illegible font. It really shouldn't have made it past the final edit. Shame on you.