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Prog 2213 - Blood Cell!

Started by A.Cow, 02 January, 2021, 02:47:18 PM

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TordelBack

Great to see Simpson back on Dredd and CB, still as unique and exciting as ever. Not as keen on Carroll's weltenbummler mode (here adding flying shanty-cities to his floating and underground ones), as I am on his gangland/cit-centric stories, so I'm vaguely hoping this ties back to the Kindred etc.

Those still puzzling the Death Belts should note that the concept was previously revisited at more length in Missionary Man, and in a rather good Black Museum short: in essence debris lofted into perpetual low-altitude jet streams created by nuclear blasts, latterly with added magnetic and gravitational anomaly justification. It's all good.

Not sure about precedent for Year 3 cadets going on Hotdog Runs, but this is post-Chaos, so who knows what shape the accelerated curriculum has taken. Interesting that Hershey is also in CB at the minute, maybe we'll see a reprise of the Carroll/Williams soft-collab around Enceladus?

Good rich broth, this.

Durham Red recaptures the stylish freshness of the first reboot story, with Willsher's incredibly sharp art and a nice action-slash-mystery setup. Hope it continues in this, erm, vein.

Sláine. There's no denying Manco's utter brilliance, the zoom function on my tablet is in continual use getting into ever microscopically detailed nook and cranny, each background figure lovingly designed, but... I actually find this style too heavy, with my eye halting on each page, sometimes each panel, while I try to take it all in. And this isn't entirely optional: there are pages both this week and last where I really had to work at it to find out what was going on, and who was doing what to whom where. I prefer my comics to move, rather than be a series of glorious posters at playing-card size. Luckily Pat's script is leisurely if wordy, so the reading experience isn't too disjointed.

If this is really the final Sláine then it's fitting that Manco gives us a version that echoes Gal and Druillet, much as Angie Kincaid's opening chapter did, albeit in a very different way.

Proteus Vex probably takes top spot for me this week, it's busy creating such a fun world with some memorable characters, and Lynch's more fluid take on the Vex-shell is tickling my fancy. If a cosmic interweb based on giant transparent testicles isn't 2000AD I don't know what is.

Hershey I won't be discussing beyond expressing ongoing awe at Fraser's work.



Sean SD

Still trying to keep up with my progs but here are my top 3 for Prog 2213
Maybe if I keep doing this, end of year awards may be easier  :)

1st - Slaine. Dragons, great art. Enjoyed this type of Slaine much more than Psychopomp etc
2nd - Durham Red.
3rd - Hershey.