Dead Eyes and Dead Signal

Colin YNWA · 23 November, 2010, 12:19:05 PM

Ok I'm not just reviewing these together as they both have the word dead in the title. I'll get to why in a wee bit.

Firstly 'Dead Eyes' signals a bit of a departure for John Smith for me (see what I did). In retrospect it felt like a warm up for 'Cradlegrave'. A more grounded, earthy John Smith (hey these things are relative), dealing with some great characters. The over all plot and story has many of the same elements of 'classic' Smith and has all his normal delightful twists and turns. The language on the whole wasn't quite as eye catching as I associate with my favourite 2000ad writer and yet still it told the story wonderfully. The Indigo Prime thing seemed a little stitched on, with is no great shame however, especially when we now know what's coming up.

Lee Carter's art which I've grown to like in Necrophim is probably a little too, well grounded and earthly to the point of being murky and inhibiting in this strip. A shame as looking at it the potential he's since shown is clearly there, its just too hidden.

Not a Smith classic for me but then something that's not a classic by John Smith is still bloody good.

Over in 'Dead Signal' its as if Al Ewing has cast his eyes over what John Smith is up to (see, see I did it again!) and decided to throw us a story with many of John Smith's previous themes. Its got all the struggles with reality and identity that Smith crafts so well and is frankly a bit of a minor classic. Its a bit of a shame that it ends quite so abruptly, almost teasing that there's more to come, which never happened. The art by PJ is crisp, clear and energetic and really quite wonderful.

Over all I almost think if I'd come to these blind with no knowledge of the writer and been asked which was a John Smith story I might have pumped for the wrong one... might have...and that's certainly no bad thing.

The Adventurer · 23 November, 2010, 08:27:25 PM

I remember thinking Dead Eyes to be a bit of an obtuse slog, but thinking the ending was an interesting twist (even though I'm no great fan of Indigo Prime)

Dead Signal on the other hand was astonishingly good, and thought a sequel/continuation would be in the near future. Need more of this.

locustsofdeath! · 23 November, 2010, 09:01:11 PM

Caveman orgies will always interest me.

Van Dom · 23 November, 2010, 09:19:55 PM

I liked both but was disappointed by the ending of Dead Eyes, it didn't really deliver on the very intriguing set up and premise. I'm a bit of a traditionalist, I like my stories to have proper endings, and this just seemed to fizzle out. It was almost like John got bored with it and couldnt be bothered finishing, so he just brings Indigo Prime in to erase the whole reality/story! It was great seeing Indigo Prime there, I just would have liked a meatier ending to the Caveman plot.

Dead Signal was completely awesome though. If Dandridge can get a follow up series, why can't this?

Peter Wolf · 23 November, 2010, 09:34:44 PM

Quote from: Van Dom on 23 November, 2010, 09:19:55 PM
I liked both but was disappointed by the ending of Dead Eyes, it didn't really deliver on the very intriguing set up and premise. I'm a bit of a traditionalist, I like my stories to have proper endings, and this just seemed to fizzle out. It was almost like John got bored with it and couldnt be bothered finishing, so he just brings Indigo Prime in to erase the whole reality/story! It was great seeing Indigo Prime there, I just would have liked a meatier ending to the Caveman plot.

My thoughts exactly more or less as i enjoyed it a lot but i could have done without the ending as it involved Indigo Prime whichi dont know much about as there is a lot of 2000ad material i havent read.It seemed too convenient as a way to tie everything up or explain it but it didnt make sense because i havent read any Indigo Prime and rather than having to read Indigo Prime to try and make sense of it i would rather the strip continued for longer with an ending that didnt overlap into another strip.It seemed like an ending where you had to be "In" as it were to understand.

It just felt like another rushed ending and its not the first time either and i dont believe in getting bored with things that you have started or not bothering to finish things properly.

Perhaps John Smith thought he was finishing it properly ?

Its all opinion and this was my opinion of it.

The Monarch · 24 November, 2010, 02:47:04 PM

Believe me as someone who has wanted to know whether winwood and cord got out of their unwinnable situation that I cheered when they appeared....

I cheered!!!

TordelBack · 24 November, 2010, 03:55:47 PM

Much preferred Dead Signal to Dead Eyes, and I'm a huge fan of John Smith, Dead Eyes wasn't bad by any means, and I'm still looking forward to the payoff, but Dead Signal was more fun, had terrific designs and clever art-tricks, and it just zipped along. Was disappointed to learn there won't be any more - felt like it had legs to me.

Colin YNWA · 24 November, 2010, 03:58:01 PM

Quote from: TordelBack on 24 November, 2010, 03:55:47 PM
Much preferred Dead Signal to Dead Eyes, and I'm a huge fan of John Smith, Dead Eyes wasn't bad by any means, and I'm still looking forward to the payoff, but Dead Signal was more fun, had terrific designs and clever art-tricks, and it just zipped along. Was disappointed to learn there won't be any more - felt like it had legs to me.

That's made me happy!

Emperor · 24 November, 2010, 05:03:09 PM

I liked them both. Dead Eyes got me sitting up and very interested but the ending as a little bitter sweet - hurrah for the return of IP but also disappointment that there wouldn't be a "proper" ending (although, yes this is a proper ending). I'd like to read it in collected form to see if knowledge of the ending spoils the story or even enhances it. I also think Dead Signal would benefit from reading in one sitting too, so I hope it gets collected at some point (perhaps in a Meg supplement down the line?) as I seem to recall getting a bit lost in the weekly instalments, which felt more about the format (or my attention span) than the story itself.

Quote from: Colin_YNWA on 23 November, 2010, 12:19:05 PMLee Carter's art which I've grown to like in Necrophim is probably a little too, well grounded and earthly to the point of being murky and inhibiting in this strip. A shame as looking at it the potential he's since shown is clearly there, its just too hidden.

I have a feeling this is more the reproduction problems (that also made the early Necrophim instalments darker than they should have been), a problem that also hit London Falling and seems to be adding a layer of gloom to Slaine that isn't in the original art (if we compare the cover to the original that Pete Wells posted on his blog). The infamous werewolf doing it doggy, while lizard Nazis march passed and a Blue Boy cried certainly looks a lot brighter online than it did on the page.

I have my fingers crossed that when this is included in some future IP trade (it must do mustn't it?) that Lee will do whatever tweaking/exporting is required to really show the pages off to their best advantage.