Prog 2361 - Drokk Solid! Jo Stands His Ground

[broodblik]

The last regular prog of the year, solid but not spectacular. All the stories except Dredd runs into the Xmas special. A good last prog cover by John McCrea.

Dredd – The fight against the entity that possesses ant droid continues. This is all action-fest and ends quite predictably with maybe not so much of a twist ending. This was not bad, but the previous stories were much more fun.

Helium – Our heroes are on the run and just as it looks like they have made it something goes wrong. This episode was more of the action than story but still top-notch stuff.

Railroad – We reach our final destination. The story at last showing some upward trajectory. Still not the best but much better than the preceding episodes.

Enemy Earth – Somebody watched the Walking Dead. Still not really my cup of tea.

Feral and Foe – The fun continues but a more talkative episode with the last page stealing the thunder. As always enjoying F&F, Abnett knows how to entertain, and Elson likes to give us the visual bliss. 

[broodblik]

Cover by John McCrea:

[scrotnig]

The Christmas Prog was always a jumping on point with an all new line up. I've noticed in recent years there's been the odd story that runs into it, now it's all of them except Dredd. Is it just me or does this....diminish it a bit?

[broodblik]

Looks like the xmas prog is going to be split into a section of all one-shots and then the stories that continues into next year. I also preferred the concept that the xmas is like a jump-on point

[broodblik]

B/W Cover:

[Barrington Boots]

I wonder why the perp on the b&w cover was trimmed from the used version? My wife hated this cover but I rather like it.

Dredd Surprisingly quick resolution here - I know the other stories have also been short, but - nothing wrong here but I thought it'd be more entertaining: definitely the weakest of the three tales with this antagonist. Did like the ending though.

Helium Another great episode, action packed and so amazing to look at. The colours are just magnificent. loving this.

Railroad Better than previous couple of episodes as Brood says above, but still not to my liking. Palamon again confirmed as an awful idiot.

Feral and Foe That last page is great. An all but forgotten plot point... yep, I'd forgotten that bit. I also didn't get the joke on Celine's name until Bode pointed it out. Gah! I'm really enjoying this: it's daft tone is absolutely spot on, the dialogue delights when it could so easily grate and annoy. Lovely stuff.

I can't believe its Christmas Prog time already next week. Where does the time go?

[broodblik]

Cover without Logo:

[nxylas]

Pretty sure that's supposed to be "JD stands his ground", rather than "Jo".

I just noticed that Annie Parkhouse is back. That's good news (she may have been back for weeks, I haven't been checking).

[broodblik]

Pretty sure that's supposed to be "JD stands his ground", rather than "Jo".

Yes, I see my mistake when I created the heading. I will blame my glasses for that one

[Funt Solo]

I really didn't like the self-reverential (sic) nature of this prog's Feral & Foe. You're not supposed to see the little man behind the curtain, but Toto somehow got loose in the Nerve Centre and suddenly the script turned into the Look What Dan Can Do With Words show. The characters were hijacked to make a triple-headed naval-gazing repeat-joke (Stewart Lee would be proud) and then even the captions got in on the act and start talking about "plot points".

Punny names are part of the act, yes, but we don't need the other characters to explain them to us.

Pre-emptive response to anyone that thinks I'm being over-critical: "I know! but still..."

[Funt Solo]

Looks like the xmas prog is going to be split into a section of all one-shots and then the stories that continues into next year. I also preferred the concept that the xmas is like a jump-on point

There's a longer answer to this, but the short answer is that it looks like scheduling neatness has been somewhat sacrificed on the pyre of Regened. Or - if Regened can "interrupt your normal scheduling", then the festive doesn't need to be a jump-on anymore. I preferred it as a launch point as well.

Data-diving, the "last prog of the year being a jump-on" was in place going into 1999, then 2000 (with the oddly-numbered PROG 2000 that was actually prog 1173.5). This routine continued until Bad Company's First Casualties, which snuck its last episode into the festive prog 1961 (last prog of 2015).

Normal service resumed going into 2017 & 2018 ("in 1975 no one died") but then Brink decided to run for longer than standard over the 18/19 and 19/20 breaks. The Out did similar in 21/22. Basically, it's all Dan's fault.

[athorist]

Have there been any announcements about giving digital copies to subscribers whose progs are still in the post? I'm two issues behind now, and only got Prog 2359 last week.

[Jim_Campbell]

Yes, I see my mistake when I created the heading. I will blame my glasses for that one

To be fair, the capital 'O' and 'D' in this font are very similar.

[Le Fink]

I liked the cover. Lawgiver Mark 1. Dredd's bent out of shape and yet kind of laid back. Background colouring is interesting. I think the last couple of John's have had white backgrounds? I had to double-take the cover text too.

broodblik pretty much covers it for me but special mention to:
- The colouring in the cabin after the Helium crew break through the poison belt. The cabin frame shadows. Yow.
- The ghastly last page in Devil's Railroad is a great drawing, alas I'm not quite sold on the story or characterisation.
- Enemy Earth has crazed levels of action which was very exciting to read but needed a reread to figure out exactly what was going on.

Dredd it's fine, funny dialog. F&F excellent but yeah the fourth wall stuff is pushing it a little.

Good prog.

[Le Fink]

It's a shame Enemy Earth didn't continue in regened, it has much improved and I'd enjoy reading 21 page chunks of this.  While I'm also happy to read it in the prog it feels to me like a closer fit to regened (this is not a dig) - aren't kids missing out as they're not reading the main prog? Or is EE going to be collected for them soon?