Main Menu

Prog 2270 - 45 Revolutions per minute

Started by Colin YNWA, 21 February, 2022, 08:56:02 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

Funt Solo

Is that supposed to be Bix Barton, ordering the vodka martini?
++ A-Z ++  coma ++

The Corinthian

Quote from: Funt Solo on 26 February, 2022, 04:10:46 PM
Is that supposed to be Bix Barton, ordering the vodka martini?

Fat middle-aged Zenith surely?

Colin YNWA

Quote from: The Corinthian on 26 February, 2022, 07:47:24 PM
Quote from: Funt Solo on 26 February, 2022, 04:10:46 PM
Is that supposed to be Bix Barton, ordering the vodka martini?

Fat middle-aged Zenith surely?

I had it as Bix. Very McCarthy (other one) inking style attempt I'd say?

Jacqusie

Quote from: IndigoPrime on 23 February, 2022, 03:53:32 PM
Quote from: Richard on 23 February, 2022, 03:35:43 PMThe nuns literally turned her back into her old self again, a kind of anti-rehabilitation, so she could defend the nunnery from its attackers.
I recall, but I don't remember her being quite so "shoot someone in the head for the LOLs" in the last Smith story, say.


I just don't think that whole scene / set up really worked - the dialogue and the action just seemed all rather matter of fact and careless. Still the toys are well and truly out of the pram to be played with and I do often think of John Smith and how he must feel at times.

Saying that, I did appreciate how way back on a 'A Dying Art, Kek-W completed an unfinished story in a credible and respectful way and forged a head with what has always been one of my favourite concepts in 2000AD.

I look forward to the next installment, which lets hope isn't that far away so there might be a faint chance we can remember the prologue!

Funt Solo

Quote from: Colin YNWA on 26 February, 2022, 07:59:03 PM
Quote from: The Corinthian on 26 February, 2022, 07:47:24 PM
Quote from: Funt Solo on 26 February, 2022, 04:10:46 PM
Is that supposed to be Bix Barton, ordering the vodka martini?

Fat middle-aged Zenith surely?

I had it as Bix. Very McCarthy (other one) inking style attempt I'd say?

Looks quite a lot like a certain R. Harris, unfortunately.
++ A-Z ++  coma ++

Barrington Boots

My copy of this arrived Saturday, so I'm late to the review party.

I'm not a fan of this cover really, for the same reasons others have said about the choice of characters used.

Dredd Lovely start and lovely art. The creative team and hype has me very excited for this and for a scene setter this is a very very good episode.

Proteus Vex Another exposition heavy episode, this time with squishing. Cool stuff as ever.

Indigo Prime Didn't enjoy this much: bit of a series reset under mounds of near-gibberish dialogue. I'd leave this series to rest tbh and move Lee Carter onto something better.

Kingmaker As a stand alone episode this is superb: exciting visceral fighting, dragons, wraiths, battle tank things, massive cats made of brambles and then a happy a reunion. The art is fantastic, the combat is chaotic, the characters are superbly realised. The story however is losing me. Over the course of seven episodes Ablard dies, Ablard comes back, Ichnar possessed the Duke, Ablard and Yarrows Dad reunited the nine realms and now the Duke's army has been defeated. The earlier series had much more of a slow, character-centric build and this feels like it's been hugely compressed. I'm alarmed, because I love Kingmaker and want it to continue, not conclude or suddenly change focus. Is it just me feeling this?

Tharg the Mighty Far, far too long. Fist of Red gag a nice one though.

The Order - the Order is still being The Order! Enjoyable episode.

Brink - Bold decision to take the series back to such an early point and switch perspectives like this. Like Dredd, it's hard to comment on this as an individual episode and it's mainly talking heads, but as it's Brink I feel like this will be good so I'm excited to see where this goes.

You're a dark horse, Boots.

norton canes

Yeah the cover's just riffing on the character heads from prog 500 and 40 Years of Thrill-Power. Shame the Bolland droid couldn't have come up with something as iconic as his classic prog 2000 Iwo Jima scene. The 'Stars on 45' skit inside seems to exist largely to pack in as many humorous references to the 'Fist of Dredd' panel as possible.

So it's okay to use the likenesses of Pat Mills's characters, but not to script them, even in a parodic capacity?

'The Citadel' has a low-key opening episode even by John Wagner's laid-back standards, which is good as it gives Dan Cornwell's art and Dylan Teague's colours chance to open up. I've said before, the Cornwell droid is really developing into one of the prog's all-time great talents - although this week he has stiff competition from Jake Lynch in the very next strip. The final panels on the last page of this week's instalment of Proteus Vex really took me back to the very ealiest years of 2000 AD when abrupt acts of violence, characters being suddenly snuffed out like this, really had the power to shock. Note to Tharg: when we talk about what's lacking from the Regened content, this is what we mean. Please, make sure that graphically horrific moments like these are never given up.

Most of Indigo Prime happened during my 27-year prog-lapse, so I know very little about the continuity. I didn't even care that much for its comeback run a couple of years ago. I did ilke this one-off, though - it certainly seemed to inpsire Kek-W to write more entertainingly than he does in The Order which is, sad to say, becoming increasingly perfunctory. Also, as has been noted, Kingmaker seems to have lost a lot of its winning depth and subtlety in this run.

Which leaves Brink. It's just occured to me that even if the speech bubbles were left empty, you could tell the dialogue was good just by their frequency, and position relative to the characters. You would intuitively deduce that it's flowing and naturalistic. A very different kind of final panel to Proteus Vex, but no less disquieting.

broodblik

On Brink if you go way back to prog 1984 the last page of the episode links directly up with the start of the news series.
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.

Jim_Campbell

Quote from: norton canes on 28 February, 2022, 04:44:16 PM
So it's okay to use the likenesses of Pat Mills's characters, but not to script them, even in a parodic capacity?

Are there any Mills characters in the strip...? Plus, y'know, Rebellion does own them.
Stupidly Busy Letterer: Samples. | Blog
Less-Awesome-Artist: Scribbles.

Jim_Campbell

Quote from: Jim_Campbell on 28 February, 2022, 06:57:47 PM
Quote from: norton canes on 28 February, 2022, 04:44:16 PM
So it's okay to use the likenesses of Pat Mills's characters, but not to script them, even in a parodic capacity?

Sorry... I mis-read your post, and it's too late to edit my original idiocy...!
Stupidly Busy Letterer: Samples. | Blog
Less-Awesome-Artist: Scribbles.

norton canes

Yeah sorry I was genuinely just asking what the legal position was :)

Jim_Campbell

Quote from: norton canes on 28 February, 2022, 09:02:32 PM
Yeah sorry I was genuinely just asking what the legal position was :)

God, don't apologise — as I said, I mis-read your post! However, [insert usual "no inside info, not a lawyer" caveats here] Rebellion does own them. I'm assuming Rebellion are OK with the same 'take the reprint money' model that seems to be the case with Zenith (and, to be fair, there's nothing stopping Tharg commissioning Zenith Book 5, or Halo Jones Book 4... I'm damn sure DC would have done it by now if they owned those properties).
Stupidly Busy Letterer: Samples. | Blog
Less-Awesome-Artist: Scribbles.

Jim_Campbell

Quote from: Jim_Campbell on 28 February, 2022, 10:58:50 PMto be fair, there's nothing stopping Tharg commissioning Zenith Book 5, or Halo Jones Book 4

In unrelated news, I'm quietly hopeful about a pitch I'm sending to Tharg, starring Blaine, the Welsh barbarian, and Yukko, his gnome sidekick. :-)
Stupidly Busy Letterer: Samples. | Blog
Less-Awesome-Artist: Scribbles.

Tiplodocus

Be excellent to each other. And party on!

The Monarch