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Prog 2135 - Beware the woods...

Started by Colin YNWA, 08 June, 2019, 01:23:23 PM

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Colin YNWA

Well its a four thriller and to be honest it feels like a four thriller. Not that those four thrills are bad, just it means the Prog feels a little light, like its missing something.

That feeling is not helped by a light weight Dredd. I know last weeks split opinion some what and I wonder if this one will also, with me this time in the less impressed camp. It just felt...insubstancial, even a little flabby... that'd be insubstancial flab then... anyway. We don't like robots, we get threatened by robot supportser, we get saved by robots (well one of them does) and Dredd tut tuts. Mind looked lovely.

Scarlet Traces is only solid this week we get some interesting hints at backgrounds and origins, but that doesn't really feel like it adds anything, the end is intriguing but nothing here really builds on the thumping events last week.

Thistlebone opens really well. It uses its 10 pages not to cram things in to fill the page with more action, plot or character, rather it uses the extra space to establish tone and pace. There's really nothing here that couldn't have been easily covered on a normal 5 or 6 pages BUT Eglington and Davis use the extra room to create atmosphere and make the big moments really strike. Its really done well and a fantastic start.

Kingmaker comes to an end well. It still still carries the problem of quite how potent Crixus might be.... or it does until possibly that last page cliffhanger! Still it also carries the idea that a true leader or king might have the power but their true power comes from their constraint. Oh and that cliffhanger I mentioned. Its a doozy.

So a Prog not to the standard of last weeks but still doing okay.


Tjm86

I'm with you completely Colin.  Thistlebone made for an interesting start and Davies' artwork is up to his normal standard.  Scarlet Traces definitely marches gamely on, reviewing the key points from the Great Game for the benefit of all who missed / forgot.  Kingmaker reaches a hiatus point on a bit of an attempt at a shock that might have made sense if I knew who the new player was.  Since I have no recollection it was more WTF than WOOOOAAAAHH.

The real let down though was definitely Dredd.  It almost felt like a whole melting pot of ideas had been thrown together.  One or two flat gags.  A bit of old school Dredd moralising.  Disappointing.

Still Absalom returns next week.

Darren Stephens

Thistlebone has the feeling of something quite special. Totally loved the opening chapter!
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CalHab

Thistlebone is the highlight. This is a masterful use of the additional space given and covers as much ground as an American comic would in 3 or 4 issues, but doesn't seem rushed. I'm really looking forward to reading the rest of this.

glassstanley

Thistlebone has an intriguing opening - looking forward to more of the same.

Definitely nice to see the Thargnote in Dredd. I had completely forgotten the story this is a sequel to!

Proudhuff

Sooo as usual, I'm firmly in the other camp  :lol:

Nice cover image. one of the best for a long while  :thumbsup:

Damage report: Serious business... come on the Droids! Solidarity Brothers and sisters.

Dredd a passable Megacity Citz tale,
Scarlet Traces a beautifully rendered masterclass in storytelling, pacing, character building and exposition.

Thistlebone a wonderful start and well worth the page count, I'm hoping the woods are the heroes for once!

Kingythingy lost me weeks ago, glad its over and...

The best bit of the Prog is that advert for next Prog on the inside back page!! Next week's Prog will be epic.


 
DDT did a job on me

broodblik

Dredd – As with any of McConville's once-off Dredd strips it always feels like a split in middle, this round we pendulum has swung to a mildly entertaining thrill. Love the art on this one tough.

Scarlet Traces – It is as always, a very enjoyable strip. Again, it is a case of having to acknowledge D'Israeli's great work on the strip just awesome.

Kingmaker – This is one of Edgington great works and the strip is compliment with some great art. The only let down is that we now need to wait for the next chapter (hopefully this is not going to be another 2 years). It ends with a bang.

Thistlebone – Great intro to the new strip and what a treat to have Davis on art duty (and we get 10 bumper pages by him, plus the cover).

Overall a good prog slightly let-down by Dredd
When I die, I want to die like my grandfather who died peacefully in his sleep. Not screaming like all the passengers in his car.

Old age is the Lord's way of telling us to step aside for something new. Death's in case we didn't take the hint.

Frank


Over the last few weeks, we've perfected the art of reviewing Scarlet Traces: gush effusively over Brooker's command of colour, compare it to Cam Kennedy's US work or McMahon Dredd Annual stories, and move on.

Today, I break new ground by working myself into a frenzy over The D'Israeliton's ability to control the pace at which the reader moves through the narrative for maximum dramatic effect.




That image**, with its muted palette, follows several panels of visually uninteresting two-shots of mauve and slate domesticity. The slow creep into that huge close-up and switching the background to stark white is the equivalent of the creators dropping their voices to a whisper, forcing the audience to lean-in, drawing them closer, and then ...






MASSIVE BLOODY RED HOT SPACE WAR! That page turn works the same way as the drop in EDM or the Inception BWA-A-A-R in every bloody film trailer of the last decade. The incongrous shift from Coronation Street to Independence Day is a good metaphor for the appeal of the strip in general.

Proper creatives often point out that the way to make something with universal appeal is, paradoxically, to create something very specific and personal**. By using the particular geographic and temporal fabric of their own childhood memories to fashion the home-leg of their space opera, Brooker and Edginton have managed to create something truly unique and all the more enjoyable for it.

The warmth and familiarity the creators communicate to the reader regarding their shared childhood makes it easy to share the emotions of the characters in a way that possibly isn't true of the residents of Metropolis or Sokovia when they face existential threats.

Any reader of 2000ad can relate to watching the land of their childhood being destroyed by age, redevelopment, or the loss of the people who formed its geography and monumental architecture. Middle-aged nerds just need some spaceship and lasers in there, too.


* Even the way that horrible lump of dialogue is balanced by the bold lines and minimal detail of the main image shows a real instinctive understanding of how the eye processes the combination of words and images. Such a volume of text against a backdrop like that of the following panel, for example, would be like having a massive serving of dry chips (with no seasoning) thrust in front of you and being told you have to clean the plate before you can leave the table. Sorry, just processing the trauma of a Scottish childhood.

** Harp on about Joseph Campbell and Jungian archetypes all you like, but George Lucas's most successful solo creation is a story about an awkward kid from a desert town who takes on a massive establishment with much better resources and wins his freedom by taking advantage of a backdoor the enemy knew about but didn't think was important. In this analogy, the exhaust port is Kenner and Steven Spielberg is a Wookiee.

Magnetica

The story in Dredd was all a bit so what. As to the art, the Judges uniforms didn't look right to me. Now I know different artists interpret it differently but this seem a bit too far: it looked like there was some body armour padding like in movie Dredd, the badge looked a bit like movie Dredd too and the belt buckle had red and white strips (but so did the cover a few weeks back).

Scarlet Traces is fine, but with the way it jumps around from character to character will read better on one sitting at the end.

Thistlebone started well. I am assuming this will be a done in one series tale. Can't agree Davies's art was up to his usual standard - it was even better.

Sorry to see Kingmaker end as I gave enjoyed the run. I assume the entity at the end was the one mentioned at the very beginning of the very first episode. Which I thought was just a fable at the time; this puts a different perspective on that.

MacabreMagpie

Quote from: Magnetica on 12 June, 2019, 12:22:05 PM
the belt buckle had red and white strips (but so did the cover a few weeks back).

It's the US stars and stripes, innit? Hence the blue bar above that's often drawn with stars. Many artists/colourists have forgone the all-gold look over the years and, I personally, have always favourite the flag colours as it complements the red on the helmet.

Frank

Quote from: Magnetica on 12 June, 2019, 12:22:05 PM
I know different artists interpret it differently but this seem a bit too far: it looked like there was some body armour padding like in movie Dredd, the badge looked a bit like movie Dredd too and the belt buckle had red and white strips (but so did the cover a few weeks back).


Anyone passing through the office could have a go at colouring Dredd in the early days (far left), but the founding fathers liked a bit of red, white and blue with their stars n stripes when they coloured their own work ...





... and lovely yellow knee/elbowpads, too. Not sure I see a Dredd3D kevlar vest, but the boy with the girl's name does seem to have given Old Man Dredd a cosy set of armoured thermals to wear underneath his leather onesie:





The Simon Schama of 2000ad fandom, Ian Hollingsworth, points out that Jeff Minter Block isn't just a retro-gaming reference, it's been a feature of the extended Dredd universe since the eighties. Wouldn't have known that.



* Looks more like the extra seams and tailoring detail the sculptor added to that Dredd statuette to break up the surface area in a way that would be achieved by shadowing and highlights in line art.

Magnetica

Yeah sure, I know what it is meant to be - it's just I haven't noticed it for a while and it was markedly different to how Henry Flint drew it last week.

Magnetica

Not seen green shoulder pads before - ugh they look all wrong.

I also seem to recall a coloured in respirator once (red I think)

IndigoPrime

Quote from: Frank on 12 June, 2019, 01:29:07 PMJeff Minter Block isn't just a retro-gaming reference, it's been a feature of the extended Dredd universe since the eighties. Wouldn't have known that.
Well, Jeff's been making games since 1981...