Prog 2352 - You are entering a wold of hurt...

[Colin YNWA]

Well we're into the new line-up proper this week and its going to be interesting.

Dredd developing nicely with a steady but well crafted episode.

Helium drops us back into the midst of the story again but with enough to make it all easy enough to see what's happening. Good stuff.

The Devil's Railroad forgot we were getting another Milligan and Dayglo story. Hope its as strong as Counterfeit Girl (7 years ago really!) a lot is covered on the opening episode and then we get a surprising ending. There's enough here to make me interested, but too much to allow me to be fully engaged yet.

The Fall of Deadworld drops in you and carries on, good enough but doesn't allow you time to get into things again, rather throws you in as if its not been a number of years away. Might take a while to get its momentum back, or allow me to get my head back into it.

Feral and Foe fine episode.

So yeah not as strong as last time as these new new stories don't start quite as strong, but promise for the future.

[Barrington Boots]

I returned from a week away to a wealth of reading material: Progs, Meg, Battle special.. 
This Prog wasn't as great as the last one, but still a great read.

Dredd story is coming along well and taking a turn I did not expect. PJ's Dredd is excellently gnarly, he's got a real craggy face, full of scars and restrained anger. Awesome.

Helium Great episode. I'm still 're-warming up' to the story but this is engaging, witty and fantastical. So glad it's back.

The Devil's Railroad Bit early to say on this one really. I didn't enjoy the previous Milligan / Dayglo stuff so I'm not hopeful but lets see!

The Fall of Deadworld I was looking forward to this coming back, but a strangely awkward episode: some exposition and catch up, but the dialogue felkt stilted and nothing really happened. Good to be back with Fairfax though - it feels like a return to the 'main' plot.

Feral and Foe Absolutely excellent. Peter the Porter is the sort of gag I'd throw into a D&D game. The self-aware dialogue sparkles instead of annoys, the art is fantastic. Is there a bit of a Warhammer influence on this particular setting? Loving it, anyway.

Great cover too, a touch of the 90s about it, in a good way!

[norton canes]

This is looking like a mightily good line-up to take us through to Christmas. A great premise, a mysterious universe and lots of intrigue in the first instalment of The Devil's Railroad, the promise of more horrors in store in Deadworld and another glimpse of some terribly British evils in Helium. 'Poison' continues its sow burn, though it's maybe not the perfect moment for a Hershey-based storyline so soon after a line's been drawn under her life. And Feral & Foe will continue to be fantastic as long as there's piss to be taken from the world of D&D - which will basically be forever.

[norton canes]

(and I say that as an erstwhile D&D-er!)

[Richard]

I really liked the art in the first page of Dredd this week (the night sky panel).

[IndigoPrime]

Yep. Not quite as thrilling as last week, but still a very good Prog. Dredd is quite investigative for a Williams script, rather than HOLLYWOOD BLOCKBUSTER. Nice art, as ever, from Mr Holden. Helium is excellent and makes me wish Abnett would share his cloning secrets with Edginton. (Although we'd probably then just get 137 new series and still no more Brass Sun.)

Devil's Railroad smartly avoided the obvious (I'm pregnant > dead > bloke goes off to avenge), and had a nasty twist. Lovely art. Feels like Ewins and Hewlett had a baby. Deadworld continues. As noted earlier, momentum has really fizzled. I hope this picks back up but also that it spends more time in its own internal horror rather than dragging in bits of Dredd lore. I liked it more when it was weird in and of itself rather than having not-Sovs knocking around. (I am curious, though, to see where this is going. After all, we know the end state, right? Or do we?)

And then Feral & Foe, which I know winds some people up with its flippancy and modern language. But I really like it. The strip is fun and has buckets of character.

Helium > Feral > Dredd > Devil's > Deathworld, but all good.

[Le Fink]

Another cracking prog. A mention of the colouring. Pete Doherty's colours combine very nicely with PJ's drawings to give us some atmospheric Dredd. Presumably this is the 'young death' Pete Doherty? Then after his subtle palette we get the retina-searing effects of D'Isreali. Yowza. That's a contrast and both are quite, quite brilliant. Also impressed with the new strip's art by Rufus/colours by (sorry prog not in front of me, haven't got the colourist's name to hand), Elson's stunning self-coloured art which just *works* and then finally the amazing fully (digitally?) painted Deadworld by Kendall - a gloriously otherworldly style of its own that really fits the story. What a brilliant set.

[Le Fink]

Devil's Railroad colours by Jose Villarrubia, and they look great. I did notice quite a change-up on the lettering for the new Devil's Railroad, the sole entry for Jim this time, compared to the other stories, all helmed by Simon Bowland. The new story has a more flamboyant speech balloon font, with horizontal lines tilted up, and a scrawled letter-writing style for the narration. I found the letter-writing font a bit small to be honest. Speech font looks nice and energetic, which befits a story that packs a lot in.

[broodblik]

Cover by Toby Willsmer:

[broodblik]

Cover and Logo:

[Jim_Campbell]

I did notice quite a change-up on the lettering for the new Devil's Railroad, the sole entry for Jim this time, compared to the other stories, all helmed by Simon Bowland. The new story has a more flamboyant speech balloon font, with horizontal lines tilted up, and a scrawled letter-writing style for the narration. I found the letter-writing font a bit small to be honest. Speech font looks nice and energetic, which befits a story that packs a lot in.

The font/balloon combo was one I originally came up with for Zaucer of Zilk, but I thought Ruf's work has a strong Ewins/McCarthy vibe so it seemed appropriate to wheel it out again...

Apologies for any problems reading the letter-lettering (if you see what I mean)... it's always a bit awkward deploying a mixed-case font in comics, especially a hand-writing-ish one because you have to crank the leading (line spacing) up a fair way to avoid the ascenders and descenders tangling, meaning the text is already taking up a lot of space before you've adjusted the font size. Seeing it in the wild, it is definitely on the small side, which I'll adjust for the next time the narrative device is used.

Hopefully, The Mighty One won't subject me to too many Rigellian Hotshots if I promise to fix it before the story goes to TPB.

(I also did the lettering in Feral & Foe, BTW, but in what I tend to think of as my 'default' style...)

[Le Fink]

The font/balloon combo was one I originally came up with for Zaucer of Zilk, but I thought Ruf's work has a strong Ewins/McCarthy vibe so it seemed appropriate to wheel it out again...

Apologies for any problems reading the letter-lettering (if you see what I mean)... it's always a bit awkward deploying a mixed-case font in comics, especially a hand-writing-ish one because you have to crank the leading (line spacing) up a fair way to avoid the ascenders and descenders tangling, meaning the text is already taking up a lot of space before you've adjusted the font size. Seeing it in the wild, it is definitely on the small side, which I'll adjust for the next time the narrative device is used.

Hopefully, The Mighty One won't subject me to too many Rigellian Hotshots if I promise to fix it before the story goes to TPB.

(I also did the lettering in Feral & Foe, BTW, but in what I tend to think of as my 'default' style...)

So you did! Sorry, don't know how I missed that. Thanks for the response! I have no idea on the ins and outs of the lettering so great to hear from the expert. Interesting stuff, thanks. I see what you mean about the art style - looking forward to seeing more from the Dayglo droid