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7:20am

Postie drops off new prog. Haven't read it all yet, but just getting the early gloat in.

Quick point. Dredd's helmet is officially welded to his head.

Later.

James

I have not recieved it yet.  I suspect it's punishment for writing off VC's last week.

Got it, and it is good.

SPOILERS!
SPOILERS!
SPOILERS!
(In the 'Third Man' Harry Lime isn't dead!)
SPOILERS!
SPOILERS!
SPOILERS!

Cover - not so keen on this one. Don't really like it at all, in fact. Nowt wrong with the drawing, it's just very generic and bright and doesn't reflect the contents at all.

Dredd - Gearing up to conclusion, like the use of Rad Waggons to attack the aliens, good to see Giant being shown to be so competant and resourcefull. Shame to see Bones go down so quickly. I quite liked the idea of an old fashioned villain with mad schemes and hasty escapes at the first sign of danger.

Cabalistics - It was over before it began. Nice bit of info on what's going on. Very Hitchcockian thing of letting us know more than the characters, which should make future stories interesting. Glad there's not long to wait before they return. I'm increasingly impressed by the art on this tale.

V.C.'s - Redeems itself? I really liked this weeks, which builds on what has gone before and ties some story threads together. Looks like the rest of this series will have a narrative focus. Finally twigged what the art reminds me of - the brilliant 'King of the Hill'.

Telguuth - Okay stuff. Now lets see a real surprise and the innocent party escape danger.

Atavar II - Still surprised how enjoyable this is. Looks great and the story takes an interesting curve this week. The scale of the action looks to have been reduced as well, with a lone man exploring a planet, which will make a change from the huge scale of the story so far.

Letter Cols back as well, and loads of fun. Lots of info about the future which always helps stir up interest.

My, but I have gone on. Sorry. One word reviews next week to make up for it.

Oooh, my first subscription copy!

S
P
O
I
L
E
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(Like you couldn't guess)

Dredd: Quite enjoying this so far, are we to assume Dredd and Sanchez have both been impregnated already?

Caballistics : Mystical tales like this have never really appealled to me and I don't think Caballistics is going to make me change my mind. That said, it seems all we've seen so far is the set-up for the proper story, so it looks like it can only get better.
And how do you pronounce Ravne anyway?

VCs : Not enjoying this much either. The characters remain rather undeveloped (dare I say cliched) although it looks as if the plot is begining to pick up.

Telguuth: Semi-naked, busty females... check! Evil demons... check! Wizards just asking to meet a horrible end... check! Strange, unpronouncable names.. check!
Looks like a normal day on Telguuth then.

Atavar : This is looking better and better although the space battles seem to be lacking completely in tension or action. Interested to see where the plot heading.

Sadly enough, the part of this prog to get me most excited was the preview for Revenge of the Chief Judge's Man. With this and the Trial of Orlock, Dredd should be a high for the foreseeable future.

Re - pronunciation of Ravne. Chapter, I think, referred to him as 'Ravenous' at one point in 'Going Underground' so I've been taking that as a cue and assumed that his name was pronounced 'Rah-ven', as in the first two syllables of Revenous.

Usually wrong about these things though.

I assumed it was Ravne as in Rav-Nay?

nice cover, and looking forward to Revenge of the Chief Judge's Man.

Dredd continues the form. Bones is a bit camp, isn't he? And I was very impressed that Dredd managed to keep his helmet on despite being upside down for the entire episode.

Caballistics: Bah! As soon as it's started, it's finished again. Still, not too long a wait for the return, can we hope this'll be a longer run?

V.C.s a great improvement on last week, looks like it's going somewhere. But it's not going to get very far if there's only a couple of episodes left, is it?

Telguuth was fun again. The last line made me chuckle.

Atavar continues to grow on me, I'm now rather glad there's going to be a 3rd series

and there's a letter from someone called Slaine. No, really.

Argh! No!


Too little spoiler space...

I read it as Rav-nee, but I'm probably waaay off the mark. At a guess, it's an eastern European/Slavic word so it could be pronounced 'onions' for all I know.

JD vs A is getting better. good to see another great story waiting in the wings after orlok!

"JD vs A is getting better."

Wow. Still? I love this story!

let's hope it arrives lucky Tuesday!

SPOILERS

Cover - scores 5 for 'random Dredd cover'.
Nerve Centre - YAYAYAY Revenge of the Chief Judge's Man!

Dredd - Yes, Dredd & Sanchez are both up the duff ("Remember, you're hanging there for two now!" - he's not talking about minutes) - Good stuff, but I'd've liked Bones to escape to kill judges another day...

Cab Inc - still brilliant, but too short!  Hope this won't fall into the trap of having Ms Simmonds warp-out at the end of every story to kill the beasty & leave the rest of them wondering how she did it though (let's just say a pattern is emerging...)  COME BACK SOON!

The VC's & Atavar - both getting my interest back, good top adventure fun

It's 3am, I'm on the corner reading Telguuth an' I'm like yeh whatever.

Input - A Welsh girl called Sl?ine?  Stranger things have happened...

Yummy 2000AD.

Frivolous fact:  I enjoyed reading my prog al fresco today and the lovely sunny sun didn't half bring out the colours.  The whole thing practically jumped up and pleastered itself on my retinae. :)

SPOILERS

I'm afraid I found this week's dredd a bit silly and unbelievable.  Fifty tons of rockcrete's not that much really, spread over any sort of largish area.  Aliens too soft.  Bah!  Dredd up duff possibly nice twist however, how the hell's he gonna etc., and artwork a joy as usual.

Caballistics, yep I really like this.  Did Ravne (pr.  rrrrrraaav...NI!) cheekily scoff the strange mummified corpse of the Great Beast?!  Looks that way to me...  the whole thing should have a Delia Derbyshire soundtrack.  Class!

VCs I continue to enjoy, though can't help playing spot the photo now!  The artwork of the characters is pretty fine though, just look at pages 2&3 of the strip..pretty classy I'd say.    Was wondering when we'd run into Jupe again...

Telguuth I liked, especially the "boring place like this" bit:  "All must die in pain who do not worship Tiglog".  Aww it's a laugh, a chuckle, a titter anyway.

And Atavar, good too. Some background on the Binod Union, Galactic history lesson, and exploding spaceships.  Great.

A good prog.  Thumbs up!  Hey no mobile ads either.  Double good!

Stonking through and through!

rotts.

I was right about this weeks dredd too (mostly)

A good prog this.  

Dredd - Well its all getting kinda predictable and the villain did go rather quickly.  But its being going on quite well and teh arts sumptous (sp)

Callaballistics - Great story this and some nice little touches.  I hope that we are getting a longer storyvery soon.  Well done GR.

VC's - well its getting better, but not much.  Give me some characters I can relate too and this will be brillaint.

Telguuth - Well they are small and predictable.  However, they arent that bad.  But we need some threads or links between the stories.

Atavar is coming on nice.  But who says there are no humans left!?!?!?!

yer Slippo
 

Here are the results from the Danish Judges.

Cover: Compared to last weeks, I think it's rather boring. I normally think Cliff's Dredd cover poses are pretty good, but this one does little to entice the casual buyer.

Nerve Centre: Anyone know what's replacing Cab Inc in the next two weeks? I'm thinking that Prog 1335 might be a double episode Dredd (or possibly Atavar) anyone care to confirm?
I agree with Odd- good to have the CJ's man teaser- but I was hoping for MacNeil artwork. ABC Warriors teaser: Why is it that so many of Mill's stories are divided up into parts. Can't he tell the story in one straight run, without it having to be broken down into bitesize (digestible) pieces?

Dredd: Still enjoying this. I'll be buying the Dark Horse version, and the trade collection. I thought Dredd might have kept the badge, and use it in order to save himself. I hope the pheromone doesn't become a pregnancy cure for Dredd and Sanchez. I'd rather see Dredd having it surgically removed.

Advert: At least it's relevant!

Caballistics Inc: Enjoyed. Looking forward to the return. (Did I miss any jokes this week Gordon?) Is it me, or do I remember DXB guessing what was going to happen in this series?

VCs: I had high hopes this week, and truth be told, I enjoyed this weeks tale a lot more than last weeks. UNTIL I got to the last page. Ant's artwork was going great until I saw this page, where I think 2 things let it down. 1) The silhouettes of the ships in the first frame, on a background og CGI, and 2) All the geeks on the mining platform. To me, they both looked like a rush job.

Telguuth: Another multiparter story- yeay! Haward's art on this series has, as I said in last weeks review grown on me more and more. This week I enjoyed it once more. The script has got me intrigued as well. This run of Telguuth is definately an improvement over the last one.

Atavar II: I really am enjoying this story, and even though I have no idea what's going to happen in the third series, I'm already hoping that there will be a collection (of all three in one).

Input: Yeay, it has returned, and those nasty phone thingys have gone. (No indication of any of my letters though :-()
The hints to the Summer offensives contents please me too. Alpha in July (I checked to see if Tharg meant an audio drama, but that's scheduled for May), and Slaine too. I'm a sucker for these titbits.

Overall: Another good (and early) one. This weeks biggest let down for me was the cover. With the Spring Offensive nearly over, Tharg's going to have to come up with some pretty incredible tales to keep the next few seasons offensives as good as this one- and I don't doubt that he will. Could this be one of 2000ad's best years ever?

7:20 am!!!!!!!!!

How come no-one has gasped and commended my(or my postie) FOR CLEARLY BREAKING NEW RECORDS with the earliness of my prog?

I'm beginning to think nobody cares...


...sniff...

P.S. I'm a bit drunk

Heh. Yeah, I'd made a guess as to what had happened to Ms. Simmons. But surely there are more twists to come?

As to what's replacing Cab.Inc, I haven't got my copy near by but it says in the Meg. At least one Future Shock though.

Oh, and when Gill returns he will no longer be the Chief Judges Man but *SPOILERS* the Chief Judges Executioner!

I'm impressed James, I got mine today, and it had been opened!

Cover, nice of course, but imagine an aliens background with the strange bio-metallic stuff in the background (no need for aliens).  Would have been spot on.

Dredd, good fun, as it has been.  Story seems very light for 16 parts.  But I got a thrill from many of the scenes as usual.

Cabalistics was enjoyable.  More zapping of bad guys in last moments.  This means that they wander around, say stuff and then something is introduced to blast the bad guys at the end for a second time.  Magic, rituals, demonic possession should be more than just blasting stuff.  Where's the horror?  The demonic posession of the woman is good though.  Liked the Critchley action figure ;)

VC's was better this week as people said.  I have a problem with strips where I find the lows eclipse the highs, but we'll see.

Telguuth.  Still good, still nice art, nice to see that there is some references being made now in telguuth to previous stuff (though we DO need those Tharg notes for this!) but I honestly think too much involvement could mean we lose out on the story variety.  I think telguuth has really hit it's niche, though I see some people still don't see a place for it, I think it's currently superior to almost any of the filler we've seen in 2000AD for a long time, and that includes past imperfects.  i thought the scene where she complains about it being dull and all the weird stuff going on in the background was great.  More shameless Cthulhu refences!

Atavar.  Dull.  Can't see what people see in it.  Aliens and Omega Man versus Terminator, but not interesting.  Grud, there's still another book to come.

Looking forward to future Alpha, ABC and CG Man, there is some light at the end of the alien infested tunnel.

But in the name of Grud, we want ORLOK!

Ah hell. Here goes...

Cover: I like Cliff Robinson and I like this, but I agree that with the current dredd story this should have been a bit more relevant.

Dredd: Taking a few leaps and bounds really. I mean the part where someone says that the remenants of the aliens have been taken care of couldve (shouldve) been a whole story in itself! I mean theyre ALIENS! Still good though despite my gripes. Great art as usual.

Caballistics: The highlight for me. I had to back and reread the first story before I started to enjoy this series, and now Im loving it. Great atmospheric art. I did see ODDs point about Miss Simmmons. Will this be some kind of running joke?

What else...

VCs: Definately better this prog. I feel that this series has been lacking some kind of focus, like its been jumping about all over the place with all sorts of ideas but not settling on any of them. Its good to see slightly less CG stuff from Williams as I enjoy his "proper" stuff.

Telguuth: Blah, blah, blah...

Ataver: Well its certainly going somewhere now. Given thats theres only one sodding human let (..?) I would have hoped for a little more characterisation. That said Elsons art is a bit action oriented so it might be for the best. I am still enjoying this in a pulpy sci-fi opera kind of way.

I would like to have seen Kev "Sin City" Walkers take on ABC Warriors. As opposed to Kevin "ABC Warriors" Walker. He has come along way. I suppose Ezquerra will have to do. Sigh...

 

With regards to Caballistics, Inc. - I kind of think it's a bit of a shame that Miss Simmonds (damn - how do you spell her surname??) has turned into an evil smokin' demon as she was probably my favourite member of the group.  I'm not sure whether the demon has taken over her body completely & that the 'real' Simmonds is dead or MIA, or whether the demon is sharing the body with Simmonds.
Gahh! What's to happen next?

Roll on the new story, I'm loving this series!

I get the impression that shes all well and fine until the right (wrong) thing comes along and brings the demon out. Kind of like in Gremlins.

I too am liking the story. But some of the critiscms (sp) that are directed at VCs could as easily be directed to Cal Inc.  

Some of the characters are a little flat, although there are some great touches, like the personality by book reading.  We havent seen much of the interaction between the characters, well we have an evil sod, the brigadier professor type, the demure english woman and the gung ho for hire americans.  But at the moment its being revealed in snippets which is rather good.

Anyway Im not sure we seen much of Simmonds before the possession, so Im not sure of the affect of it on her.

Yes, roll on the next installement please gordon.

Yer Slippo    

this ain't a suck-up mr rennie but your story was the best in the prog for me as for the rest...

dredd vs aliens: good as usual

telguuth: i shouldn't be enjoying this but i am damn it!

vcs: i should be enjoying this but i'm not dammit!

atavar: a load of cack why does everyone like this okay its not b***n crap but its still crap

oh my newsie got it early for some ungodly reason not complaining though!!

>Anyone know what's replacing Cab Inc in the next two weeks?

It'll be a Future Shock next week, followed, as you surmise, by a double-length finale for Dredd/Aliens (1335 will also have a double length finale for Atavar).


>I thought Dredd might have kept the badge, and use it in order to save himself.

Well if he's been impregnated, he presumably wouldn't need a pheromone tag, as the Aliens tend to leave those who have been impregnated alone (as in Alien3 and, ISTR, some of the comics). Not that I imagine Dredd knows that at this point - think he just wanted to put Bones out of commission.

Its not just any old Future Shock though is it? If I'm correct it's Mr Gurrs latest creation.

Yes there's a small preview on his website.

"But who says there are no humans left!?!?!?!"

hmmm... that mysterious race of aliens who no-one's seen for aeons...?

My views:

Dredd Nice one this week, I was incorrect that Mr Bones would call off the facehuggers with his pheromones, but this way turned out better.

Cabballistics Again, my views on this is clear. A good enough story, but horror just isn't my thing.

VCs Much better. Smith shows his loyalty to his old commander. Looks like a big clean-up operation is in the offing...

Avatar Still enjoying this series.

Link: The A-Z of Cal-Hab

So did Ravne snarf Critchley's remains then?

reckon so

thereby absorbing whatever occult energy remained in the strange shrivelled thing I take it.

filthy devil

der teufel!

>So did Ravne snarf Critchley's remains then?

Ewwwwwwwwwwww!

Erm....no.

But we'll be seeing Critchley again.

Finally read this issue on the bus this AM, had to skip 'Tales of Tellietubbiles' as it was just too embrassing to read on a crowded bus.

Who won the Pinball machine?

Middenpus

"We'll be seeing Critchley again"
Good stuff!  Plenty of scope for Crowleyan shenanigans a-go-go then.

Any reason why you didn't use Crowley's real name, GR, when you've namechecked Houdini, Lovecraft et al?

>>Any reason why you didn't use Crowley's real name, GR, when you've namechecked Houdini, Lovecraft et al?

'cos the real Aleister Crowley wasn't shot to death in 1934 while performing a human sacrifice black mass in the cellar of his English country mansion.

Picky,picky,picky...

Christ Gordon, you are SUCH a continuity freak ;)

well, this opost is massive, so i'll just add a quick thought; i like 1333, it's nice, and i like the letters page as much as the stories. ahem. yay!

I say Ravne Scoffed him... look at the pictures... it's obvious...

"'cos the real Aleister Crowley wasn't shot to death in 1934 while performing a human sacrifice black mass in the cellar of his English country mansion."

tsk! how inconsiderate of him ;)

Seems somewhat fatuous writing thoughts upon a comic in light of current world events, but I'm bored, so wtf.

Decent cover. Often surprised Robinson's name isn't uttered with the same reverence as his contemporaries. Surely he remains one of the definitive Dredd artists, and is perhaps also the most enduring?

Dredd- cool, but not being big on Aliens(TM) I don't get the pregnancy references. Have Joe and Sanchez been impregnated or are they hanging there as food for the babies below them about to hatch?

Cabalistics - wrapped far too quickly and was too condensed and rushed for my liking. Would like to have seen the story told in a more expanded and considered way.

VCs - thought we were back on track until the last panel. Irrespective of arguments as to what they were doing exposed to space, all those Geeks on that platform just looked like a bunch of badly twisted pipe cleaners - and ruined it.

Telguuth - continues to benefit from new artist and touches of melodrama that have been introduced. A nice read.

Atavar - excellent. There's so much imagination going on in here, the dialogue is well done and things are moving along now at a super pace. Continued kudos to Elson, but wasn't his neck unusually long on the first page..!

Ho hum, back to the war...

M@

Ravne was rubbing his chin thoughtfully, after inspecting the evidence. That's what made it look like he was eating it. But you'd have to be weird to think that. As Ravne is the only one who knows what he did to Simmons during the underground case (as Simmons either doesn't remember or is no longer inhabiting her body) he's suspicious of what went on.

Hence him checking up on her later that night, which seems out of character for the man we've met - unless he's suspicious of the Simmons/Demon creature.

The question is, is Brand getting suspicions as well? Was he looking at her with compassion in her eyes, or does he think things aren't as they should be? And what will he do to Ravne when he discovers the truth.

Damn, but I really like this story, and am pleased to have such a good ongoing story added to the mix.

Blimey DXB you really have been paying attention... but no, you're entirely wrong... Ravne scoffed Critchley... he just popped the withered embrio like form under his tongue when no one was looking and waited for it to dissolve....he was covering his chin because the demonic energies he was absorbing made his beard go spikey...

"you'd have to be weird to think that"

ok, I admit it, I'm weird... :)

Welcome to the club.

Right enough, Crowley didn't die like that  (he faded away into obscurity and died an enfeebled old gimp, selling pills made of his own sperm as I recall), but why let the facts get in the way of a good story?  It doesn't really matter cos we all know who he's supposed to be...

As for the Ravne question, on second thoughts there would have been a sound effect/caption if he'd been secretly snoshing the expired necromancer...

"CHOFF CHOFF CHOMP GUUURK!"