Prog 2316 - Taking Liberties

[Richard]

Nice to get a Saturday prog at last!

Dredd finishes and does not disappoint.

Tin Man - whatever.

The Out - significant things happen.

Proteus Vex - apparently something significant happened but I missed what it was; I think it will be necessary to re-read all of this at some point to understand it.

The real highlight for me this week is the Terror Tale, which was really strong I thought, and an improvement on some of the recent offerings. A clear premise and a horrible ending.

[broodblik]

Cover by Cliff Robinson and Dylan Teague:

[broodblik]

Cover and Logo:

[Darren Stephens]

That's a bloomin' AMAZING cover, that!

[Colin YNWA]

Loved this prog plan and simple.. well like many of the best Progs one story aside.

Dredd chilling and brilliant conclusion for another Niemand classic showing again why he's the best of this generation of Dredd writers. Loved the way Assirello used the down to earth backdrops of the city the citizens live in tio contrast the future tech of the Judge's holding area. Just superb all round.

Joe Pineapples... I mean with better writing this character reflection and introspection could have been great... it wasn't.

The Out has that brilliant writing, which serves the art and the way this moves the story is just fantastic and in its own way as thrilling as anything in the Prog. Brilliance defined.

Terror Tales I mean its a play on the old theme of 'we the aliens' or 'we're the baddies' but its done so well who cares. Lovely to see Steve Yeowell do his own colouring again. Understandable when it was so centre to the story. Tale as old as time told with wonderful execution.

Proteus Vex rounds off superb Prog with such fun and quality as is fitting. Fantastic way to advance the story from a oblique angle. Genius wonderful realised.

Superb Prog.

[Barrington Boots]

Saturday Prog for me, too! Tharg must have sent Mek-Quake round to the distributors.

Dredd Dark conclusion and not unexpected: the tone of this tale suggested poor Aguerra was in for an unhappy ending. This was a great tale and I love the way Niemand can flip between this and crazy, silly stories.

Joe Pineapples Not good, but given this will presumably be the last ABC tale to hit print, I appreciated the splash pages of Hammerstein et al though. The stuff about the voices just confirms for me what we were discussing elsewhere about a contemporary reference dating things, although it's interesting to hear what Pat Mills thinks the Warriors sound like.

The Out really cool stuff: looks great, reads great, potentially changes the status quo so we can head off in a new direction.

Terror Tales Simple and very effective. Best one of these for a while!

Proteus Vex As Colin says, a good way to advance the story from a more unusual angle. Really good stuff again.

[IndigoPrime]

4:1 this week.

Dredd was horrible. Just a crushing ending and quite topical, given what's going on in the UK right now, with women not being believed. (For once, the blokes-only nature of judges works in a story.) Anyone suggesting Niemand can't do dark Dredd after this.... Well...

Joe Pineapples was dreadful. Although the second half was slightly less awful. I imagine some people will like this, but I can't for the life of me see why. It's just bad writing, full stop.

The Out turns a corner and tries something new. I'm not yet finding this as compelling as the previous runs, but it's still quality stuff.

The Terror Tale was, for once, not a Tomlinson one. And this one was really great. It rattled along at speed and nailed the twist and the landing. Honestly, this could have been a 3riller, but I appreciate the writer making the strip as dense as it was. More, please.

Proteus Vex rounds things off by again reminding me I need to reread the series in the trade I bought. It's a bit info overload due to its own dense storytelling. But I do want to reread it, so that's a good thing.

Dredd > Terror Tale > The Out > Proteus Vex >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Pineapples

Not much between the top four this week though.

[JayzusB.Christ]

That's a bloomin' AMAZING cover, that!

I haven't read the prog yet, but yeah, it's breathtaking.  I would say Cliff Robinson's best cover ever, and that's saying something.

(Remember when that torch-wielding hand was broken off and on its own ground-level plinth in America 2? They must have fixed it since.)

[broodblik]

A good prog wrapped around by a good cover. 4 hits and a miss. It is a good prog when you cannot for certain tell which story was your favorite.

Dredd – Morbid ending to another good Niemand story. Everything looked like it will work out until that last page.

Joe Pineapples – Mmmmm nice pictures

The Out – This book has been completely focus on the aftermath of Cyd's Tanikinar experience. The tribunal has cleared Cyd to live her natural life out on the planet. The focus shift to her new life as a holidayer for life and just when we get bored with her Abnett slightly change the focus again. Lovely use of words (please take notice Joe) and nice pictures.

Terror Tales – A good terror tale one of the better ones recently. Short to the point good story good art.

Proteus Vex –  The focus of the story shifted and we now start to see different perspectives of all the factions withing the universe. This is really starting to be an epic an excellent space opera.

[The Corinthian]

PAGE 1: Joe Pineapples moping because he'll never see the ABC Warrior again.

SUBSEQUENT PAGES: Inconsequential flashbacks showing us stuff the ABC Warriors did in more consequential, less mopey stories.

[JohnW]

To be oddly specific, the third page of The Out is just about my favourite thing I've ever seen from Harrison. Even more specifically, it's not the page as a whole, but the views of Ruzl, looking less like a cheery customer services interface and more like the Recording Angel, all stern and silver.

[Jacqusie]

PAGE 1: Joe Pineapples moping because he'll never see the ABC Warrior again.

SUBSEQUENT PAGES: Inconsequential flashbacks showing us stuff the ABC Warriors did in more consequential, less mopey stories.

Or money for old rope... someones royaly taking us for a ride with this story and the way it's been written. It shouldn't have been published really, I realised I used the word 'story' then, my apologies...

Still we have that wondeful cover, a thing of greatness indeed. It's amazing how Cliff & Ken can still come up with new concepts to delight and keep Dredd's world looking fresh, no recycling of hackneyed & tired old ideas here thankfully...

[nxylas]

Joe Pineapples Not good, but given this will presumably be the last ABC tale to hit print, I appreciated the splash pages of Hammerstein et al though. The stuff about the voices just confirms for me what we were discussing elsewhere about a contemporary reference dating things, although it's interesting to hear what Pat Mills thinks the Warriors sound like.

Well, the last one made me laugh, at least. But I read a blog post from him the other day where he said that Marshal Law also sounds like Robert Mitchum. I guess he really likes Robert Mitchum. Personally, I'm struggling to remember what Robert Mitchum sounded like. I remember Les Dawson used to do an impression of him, but that was just pulling a face, he didn't speak.

[norton canes]

Keep meaning to get a few thoughts down on the prog as a whole but TBH I'm still knocked sideways by that conclusion to 'The Night Shifter'. The whole story addresses such heavyweight issues, more relevant in these times are than ever, that it really needs a review of its own. Suffice to say the storytelling in this final instalment, switching between narratives, was absolutely riveting, seat-edge stuff, ramping up the unease until that horrific payoff.

A shame it was (presumably) written too late to be cited in Michael Molcher's forthcoming 'I Am The Law'

And what a stunning yet massively ironic cover for this episode to be published under.

Elsewhere, The Out and Proteus Vex are settling comfortably into their runs and 'Rites' is a wonderfully crafted Terror Tale, though to my chagrin I did have to give it a repeat read before the twist clicked. 

I still can't bring myself to completely dislike Joe Pineapples, despite the fact it seems to take wrong turn after wrong turn. I mean last week I was saying what a nice little throwaway joke the Bob Hoskins reference was, and now it gets absolutely hammered into the ground. Oh well. It's... quirky, I'll give it that.

[JayzusB.Christ]

Deadlock sounds like John Malkovich.  I just can't get past that.