Well, I don't think this story will answer the questions about Dredd/Rico that have been kicking around the message board the past few weeks. If anything, Leaving Rowdy will only enflame the debate. I won't go into details in case you're reading this by mistake, but if you have read the strip, don't you think a younger Dredd would have worked out the dripping tap before leaving the block?
MATT
If I understand you correctly...only if the younger Dredd was familiar with the quirks of his block as opposed to coming there for the first time.
Wake
Nope, because, while he's got the smarts and the abilities, he still lacks the lifetime of experience.
And, as Dredd kind of points out, he's been living in Rowdy for over 25 years, while this is Rico's first time there. Which of them then is more likely to notice a tiny but crucial detail like that?
No, I don't mean Rico, I mean a younger Joe Dredd. I thought Dredd had worked out the significance of the dripping tap in that one panel where he freezes. I raised a wry smile knowing that even though JD may be getting old, he's still as sharp as ever. I fully expected Dredd to set his lawgiver to heatseeker and blow the perps away. But then he gets on his bike and rides off. Only to realize the significance when it was almost too late.
Attributing this to Dredd's age must be an extrapolation too far! If it had been necessary to the plot he would have worked it out in an instant.
Nigel
I suppose I could have read too much into the story. I think that although it was a damn good read, especially after the few lame Dredds of recent progs, it wasn't the monumental 25th Anniversary Dredd we had kinda hyped it up to be on the message board.
I like it for it's pace - it's got an 'interlude' feel about it. I'm a sucker for these occasional stories that remind us that Dredd's a human character and not just a fascist bastard. The Lopez moment was nicely done.
And after 25 years what could possibly be monumental - except for a death?
Nigel
Leaving Rowdy is classic understated Dredd as only Wagner knows how...
The Tharg story is telling - First of all you have Pat Mills being more interested in his non 2000AD characters, and sticking in another tedious pagan reference...
The story doesn't hang together as well as the Tharg Heads revisited tale from prog 500. I feel this is indicative of 2000ADs biggest headache - getting some level of editorial control in the days of prima donna creators. For example, the story has a number of the same characters appearing on different pages in conflicting situations. It also has conflicting things to say about the past, present and future of 2000 - surely a better starting point would have been to shift Garths page nearer the start and had Tharg initially defending his thrill record during the 90's, but having been confronted by the evidence, realising his mistakes and THEN trashing Wireheads/Feleischer etc.
Maybe I'm expecting too much to have a narrative in a 10 page piss take, but IMO it would have been a good opportunity to lay the cards on the table and make a statement about the future direction of 2000.
"Rock Bitch", "The League", "Requiem"??? Whats he on about?
Dunno, but one of the other supposed bands he mentioned, Accident Man, was actually a strip Pat wrote for Toxic.
Are all the others also minor entries in the deathless Mills ouevre? 'Rock Bitch' sounds strangely familiar...dunno where from, though. Toxic again, maybe?
hmm, thats what I thought.... Though I've got all the Toxics, and they didnt appear there. Cool Beans maybe?
Rock Bitch - They are a european heavy metal band made up of women. Not sure about the music, but I have heard that the show includes them performing lesbian sex acts on each other. At the end of the show they throw out gold condoms to the audience. Recipients of these condoms are then invited back stage and get 'intimate' with the band. They completed a British tour in January. Keep your eye's peeled for the next time they are in this country!!
The League - I'm not sure, I took this to be a reference to the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen as drawn by one Kevin O' Neill.
Requiem - Don't know this one. Anyone else?
Mostly right on Rock Bitch - they are in fact a British (nearly) all-female metal band, who play the most godawful muddy sub-thrash and get away with it by virtue of being largely naked and prone to regular onstage sex acts. The golden condom thing is also true. Whatever pays the bills, I guess...
Isn't the reference to the League as in 'Human' though?
And as you say, god knows who Requiem are...
I agree with Watcher on leaving Rowdy (wotcha watcher), brilliantly underplayed dredd by Wagner. I liked how Dredd pretended he didn't want that old journal of his, because he new he couldn't just give it to him, the tightest smile afterwards ever. Yes, I thoroughly enjoyed it, and it was just as I thought, answered no questions about Dredd's retirement whatsoever.
I thought Night 2 remember, was fun and self indulgent. I don't have any problem with this sort of stuff in short doses, some of it was very well observed, some note so. My favourite was the Frazer/Rennie one which summed up a lot of my own opinions. I'm not sure they should have been aired in 2000AD, but it's what a lot of people were thinking anyway. So, what the hell.
Burt has always been my very favourite cartoon droid ever and if he is to be reduced to a weight and then scrapped, I'll have him. Perhaps he could tidy my desk up or something.
I'm not a huge ND fan, but this episode was the sort of ne that could perusade me, sexy, not smutty fun, adventure. I initially thought it was a one off but I was wrong, it was just the start of a new series.
Anyway, I enjoyed it, a fun issue, but and boy do I have a big but (damn your yankee humour sir), however I'll save that for another thread. I'm off to get my bottle of wine from the freezer, it should be cooled now, the sophisticate I am.
PVS
Oops, that's not a bottle of wine, that's an arm. I got it from the wrong freezer, that was the Dalmer Freezertronic 8000.
>Dalmer Freezertronic 8000.
Did you mean Dahmer? Or is this an as yet undiscovered serial killer, known only to you and your secret identity
Iz thad hough iz speldt?
Yes, I'm afraid I type faster than I can spell, or alas, sometimes think. I have invented a device to directly tanslate my thoughts into words, but it only exists in a story I writ (sic), though I have the schematics on the inside tray of a pack of swan vestas if anyone wants to try to secure funding for a grant.
Unfortunately my identity must remain public domain, the secret to working out the jimmy is to take out the word 'von'. I have no claim to any germanic noble heritage. It is the most damnable of lies.
Anyway, I have a few more posts here to make before I head off to the serial killers chat room. (Every room is either a basement, attic or chest freezer)
PVS
RE: that Golden Condom thing.
I read an article about the band. Looking at the photos, all I could think was, 'don't fancy yours much.'
Hell, if they were chucking the condom anywhere near me, I'd be ducking.
Is that politically incorrect?
> Isn't the reference to the League as in 'Human' though?
*cough* *splutter* I certainly hope NOT!!! Why the hell would they refer to a bunch of wankers like that???? And if someone would rather see the Human League than stay at the party, then they're a very very sad person.
I immediately thought of The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen.
"The Tharg story is telling - First of all you have Pat Mills being more interested in his non 2000AD characters"
Well, *if* (and it's a big 'if') Mills could get Marshal Law back to the quality of those early Issues, I'd love to see it in 2000 AD
Yeah, I suspect it's got more to do with a bit of blatant self promotion for the cool beans site (i'm surprised there wasn't an ad hidden away in it).
The sad thing is he chose Marshall Law when he has created some of 2000AD's best character. Not that I don't like ML.
Still it was fun and I can't see a Dredd/Marshall Law crossover (oh yeah!) happening soon, so I can't get too hot and bothered about it.
I've discovered who Requiem is:- according to the back cover blurb of the Slaine book Pat "is currently writing book three in his best-selling Requiem- Vampire Knight series for editions nickel of France".