lovely wraparound cover with a mega city one that makes us glad we are not THAT bad yet
inside and stories continue on as they were. Love Dredd, love survival geeks though i feel like i got shafted out of my knightmare adventure. Murderous Tregard was great tho.
Hershey is the star of the show though i take back what i said weeks ago i am all in now
A fine prog - an absolute pleasure to sit and read something so well crafted throughout.
#PraiseTharg and all the droids.
The cover by Stewart K. Moore:
(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EWPrRx5WsAEbZaI?format=jpg&name=4096x4096)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dmitri_Ivanovsky
Well lets say straight of the bat that Stewart K Moore's wonderful technical makes for a very nice, striking cover.
Let it also stand on record.
All hail The Phoenix
All hail Tharg and his might organ.
Once again Britsih comics... well the two I get regularly anyway are beating the limitations this pandemic is putting one our lives by injecting, or you know cleaning our lives with thrillpower. It maybe be through the skin, or you know from the inside but its sure interesting, and I'm glad I looked into them.
As for the content - pretty damned fine stuff too.
Dredd has an excellent second part as Dredd accesses and Noam rushes to... well an eye opening discovery.
Survival Geeks is so chock full of nice like treats its hard not to enjoy it, even if it is a puff piece to our fanboy pasts.
Skip Tracer well its so firmly okay - except falling into a what now?!? Did we know that was coming, was I not paying enough attention - its entirely possible alas.
Aquila okay so its hard not to think of Zaphod Beeblebrox from that 80s version of Hitchhikers but heck this is fun and pretty gripping too.
And last but probably best we get Hershey - its light content, yet substancial on impact. Its fantastic on the eyes and just an absolute joy.
Keep on keepin' on you marvelous thrillweavers you.
I normally like Kenneth Niemand's work, and I liked the Chimpsky one-off last year, but I'm not excited about five episodes of this. I think the talking monkeys trope is over-used; enough now. Maybe he'll do something new with it at least.
I like Survival Geeks. Some people just want unremitting grit and misery, but it's good to have something frivolous to lighten the mood sometimes, and it's only 1/5 of the prog. Also, unlike some 2000AD comedies, it's actually funny.
Skip Tracer is better than the previous series, but it still feels like something from the 90s. I hope everyone dies at the end.
Aquila is the best thing this week. I like the baddie with missing skin, and the impending volcanic eruption, and Goddard's art is always impressive. I hope we won't have to wait two years for more of this when it's over.
Hershey is okay, but I'm still pretending it's not her.
A good prog yet again. Again, the highlight for the week and something to be grateful for in our house arrests.
The thing that really stood out for me is the great art in all the strips. I especially liked Simon Fraser new style. That two double pages in Survival Geeks are pure bliss.
Good news, the app seems to be working more smoothly.
Bad news, we still don't get the wraparound covers as a single image on digital.
The problem was that the digital version was created that the last page (back cover) started as page 1. The way the app works is when you rotate the device for example the page 1 will always be on its own and page 2 and 2 will be wrapped together. Now the bad part was that none of the double pages was grouped together because the placement of the back cover in the prog caused now everything to be misaligned. Googe's two double pages was split.
Quote from: broodblik on 30 April, 2020, 04:01:04 AM
The problem was that the digital version was created that the last page (back cover) started as page 1. The way the app works is when you rotate the device for example the page 1 will always be on its own and page 2 and 2 will be wrapped together. Now the bad part was that none of the double pages was grouped together because the placement of the back cover in the prog caused now everything to be misaligned. Googe's two double pages was split.
Good point. Sticking the back cover at the front has made it worse not better.
Quote from: Eamonn Clarke on 30 April, 2020, 09:09:26 AM
Quote from: broodblik on 30 April, 2020, 04:01:04 AM
The problem was that the digital version was created that the last page (back cover) started as page 1. The way the app works is when you rotate the device for example the page 1 will always be on its own and page 2 and 3 will be wrapped together. Now the bad part was that none of the double pages was grouped together because the placement of the back cover in the prog caused now everything to be misaligned. Googe's two double pages was split.
Good point. Sticking the back cover at the front has made it worse not better.
This is to circumvent by adding the front cover again as page 1 with the back coveras page 2 and then the front cover again as page 3.
The App certainly struggled with all that. Having little patience for such shenanigans I ended up reading it in ComiCat instead.
The cover is magnificent. As with all Stuart Moore stuff it requires a bit of work to get the best out of it, but it's a terrific, dense and original image.
Dredd really very enjoyable, lovely Dredd and Chimp drawings and characterful characters. Classic in the making. (Be churlish to mention the couple of typos when editorial is somehow still putting out 200 excellent pages of comic a month in current circumstances).
Survival Geeks lovely nerdy fun, light and beautifully composed pages. Especially liked Clone Griefer Clive.
Hershey seems to be digging in for multiple series if it's taking this long just to deal with Communa 13. I've stopped worrying about this being a final Hershey story mashed up with Deus Ex-celadus Magic and am just enjoying the atmospheric action and the superb art.
Aquila probably pick of the litter this week - freak-out weirdo imagery and impending fiery doom, very much like. One question though: does the boiling acid lake have no effect on Aquila? I thought his abilities stretched more to healing than simple invulnerability.
So with PJ at work on Dredd in the Prog and Meg at the same time, I'm noticing a subtle difference. I suppose it could be to do with the colourist, but for some reason I'm finding the Noam Chimpsky tell to be an extra treat on the eyes. There's something a bit more fluid and cartoony about it. Holden is always on the cartoonier end of 2000AD artists, but he seems to have stepped it up a notch here. Point is, his work on the Meg tale is the usual quality stuff, but on the Prog it's even better. Curious.
Is it just me?
Quote from: AlexF on 30 April, 2020, 11:38:43 AM
Is it just me?
PJ is always willing to adapt his style to the tone of the story and is quite capable of doing a "straight" style if the material requires it. I'm assuming he was happy to push the "cartoonier" aspects of his style for a story with more overtly comedic elements like Chimpsky. I think the final panel of this episode is just priceless.
I've become a massive fan of PJ's work over the past number of years, Dead Signal being the real eye-opener, with Monsterology a later landmark. His ability to draw chunky visceral action with detailed hardware and backgrounds, and in a separate charming open cartoon style, has always impressed.
The current evolution of his work seems to incorporate the best of both styles, together with a genius for engaging layouts within panels, and of panels on the page. The result is expressive, distinctive, dynamic characters in a believable world that always seems to have its own momentum even when the protagonist is standing still: it's just great comics art.
He's become one of those artists that always elicits a little 'yay!' whenever I open the week's prog and see his work.
PJ was the first droid I ever got a sketch from, and has always been a fave.
He fully ticks the box of the great Dredd artists by filling up his panels with loads of details, be it architecture or lunatic citizenry.
Dredd I like Noam Chimpsky though I agree we've had quite a bit of talking apes recently. Oddly the uplifts in Lawless don't seem to fall in that mental space to me... but in any case, I think I can go one more if it's as appealing as Noam Chimpsky. Congratulations on the biggest nightmare of all though with the introduction of Katy Hopkins College
Survival Geeks remains utterly fan service fun.
Skip TracerI can't really get a grip on this one. Space bounty hunter on a hab-station? Political/military intrigue? Psychic dreamscape battles? Just so much going on and backstory, all of it a bit...shrug. Shame as I think the concept implied by the title could go somewhere but it's the least developed part of the strip.
Aquila I love Aquila. Likewise a bit puzzled by the acid bath but a wizard clearly did it. Play in a semi-regular RPG of post-roman Saxon/Celt monster hunting and Aquila has been a good source of inspiration for this.
Hershey I like finality, even if it's cheekily undermined by having clones and legacy and so on. So Hershey was a bit of a hard sell for me. I liked the end of the line, basically. But I enjoy the strip and love the art and happy to see more of another city, even if I think it would just as fine with any Judge.
(Long time no see guys! Just got busy in other digital spaces thanks to lots of TTRPGs)
We're blessed with talented droids, we really are.
Monkey vigilantes gorgeously drawn, some very 80s geek references for anyone alive then (yes, I'm looking at most of you lot!), dead heads that can see sewn onto shoulders, plus exploding people, I mean, what more could you wish for? :thumbsup:
Belated musings...
- Not sure about all these lockdown star-scans. At the moment the prog is a welcome escape from this stuff.
- Chimpsky's Law sailing along on a plethora of ideas. If the Mega City One series ever gets off the ground, this is how it should be.
- SG a bit rushed but still great
- Skip Tracer - how would you describe Dylan Teague's colour palette? Was going to go for 'pastel' but it's more a case of pastelly colours used for a really oversaturated effect. Anyway it's gorgeous.
- Aquila - as with SG the Rennie droid seems keen to pack in maximum thrills over a short page count, which is no bad thing, but does happen at the cost of a little coherence. Also, rule one of drawing a character with a another head transplanted onto their shoulder - do make sure you don't end up having to give the chracter a bizarrely extended shoulder.
- Hershey - Sick thrills. I remember a few weeks ago bemoaning that the strip titles these days are generally just stuck into a bit of spare frame space, so they can easily be removed from the collected version. Well thank grud, 'Hershey' sticks a middle finger to that convention! Implement this across all strips please, Tharg!
Great point about titles. A quarantine-driven re-reado of the superb Hachette Brothers of the Blood volume shows the Fraser droid has previously in this area - an unmemovable chunky logo built into the cityscape was most welcome.
Sigh. 'PREVIOUS'. Is there an actual reason we can"t edit in this specific sub-forum? It's bloody tiresome on my recalcitrant phone.
Quote from: TordelBack on 04 May, 2020, 11:54:44 AM
Great point about titles. A quarantine-driven re-reado of the superb Hachette Brothers of the Blood volume shows the Fraser droid has previously in this area - an unmemovable chunky logo built into the cityscape was most welcome.
Yup. Love a title incorporated into the artwork.
Seem to remember Jock doing something similar when he drew the classic Judge Dredd logo into a page.
Still don't understand why that logo isn't used any more.
Caught up with several weeks worth of Profs all at once (I am on holiday this week) and it's pretty much on fire at the moment.
I don't have a problem with the condensed story telling in Aquilla. There is always something that brings a sequence of panels together. It works for me in a way that The Order sometimes doesn't.
Loving Survival Geeks.
And agree about PJs style on Me on- suits it too a tee.
I read this last week ( the last Saturday delivery for a while ?? )
and it was pretty good -
Dredd - I also really liked the new story featuring Noam Chimpsky . Good solid fun
Survival Geeks - for me me its all right , but I won't miss it when its gone -
if it gets me more Jaegir , then its all good
Skip Tracer - I also can't really get a grip on this one and although the artwork is fine
it just is so-so - I would place this in the same league as THE ORDER - a series that has seen its best days
Aquila - I am really enjoying this other Gordon Rennie serial - its sublime -
and did I mention the artist
is top rate ?
Hershey - not too bad and as others state nice to see a new city
he cover is magnificent. As with all Stuart Moore stuff it requires a bit of work to get the best out of it, but it's a terrific, dense and original image.
Dredd really very enjoyable, lovely Dredd and Chimp drawings and characterful characters. Classic in the making. (Be churlish to mention the couple of typos when editorial is somehow still putting out 200 excellent pages of comic a month in current circumstances).
read this on Monday ( due to the new ban on Saturday Royal Mail deliveries )
Front Cover is delightful
Survival Geeks - be glad when this serial is finally finished - more Jaegir please Mr Rennie
Hershey - won't include any spoilers - but its a tough one to read - interesting to see where it goes
next - otherwise good solid fun
Aquila - totally agree with other comments = It is the best Story in the Prog
Thank Heavens for Mr Rennie - we need him in the Prog , as he is so on song
I love the artwork as well
On a different note - I got my Paperback
Book Judges - The Patriots today - looking forward to reading this
(https://i.imgur.com/LUIabiP.jpg)
Note - I struggle at the moment to post regular reviews of the Prog -
due to working hard 12 hours Shifts for the NHS in the Operating Theatre in Edinburgh -
also I see Pat Mill's new Comic SPACE WARP - is almost ready to release
the Video interviews with some of the Artists are on YouTube if you want to look at them
Pat Mills
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dqVt75kxcwk
and the interview with Bruno Stahl
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Adfmkm5ntRA
kind regards to the Forum