Prog 2296 - Making a stand!

[Leigh S]

IP sums it up for the most part for me, though I willdefend the idea of Cadet Dredd a bit later, if not the execution(s)

Storytelling competence I think is the biggest barrier - it's not confined to the Regened for me to be honest, though it is often more obvious in the Regened because we are dealing with new concepts and characters and that's always the hardest part to get across

More often thann not, I get the sense of reading small press creators work, sometimes script sometimes art, sometimes both. Anyone who knows me knows I'm a big supporter of the small press, so this is not a criticism of the small press, but of the comic that shouldn't have those sot of teething problems you expect from creators honing their craft.

I's aallways assumed James Peaty was getting regular work in the prog because he could turn out a competent script  - the fact that Skip Tracer is at best "workmanlike" in terms of the end result probably is less of a consideration for an editor who needs reliable content he doesnt ahve time to beat into shape.

But this Dredd was the worst of the Regened as far as I can recall - it tries to hint at continuity (before the wall / mutants an be treated differently) and it does make me think the strip is a summation of what I dont get along with in the REgened - every time is it different - different creators, characters, moods - not bad in itself, except those difference should be in a framework that is confident in what it is trying to achieve on a broader level - it;s missing a Mission Statement.

2000AD has a Mission statement - its anti-authoritarian, its irreverent and its a bit risky in being a bit older than your parents might realise.  None of those things are out of date - if anything, you could argue theres as much space for that now as there has ever been given the state of the world.

If the kids in the 70s didnt get that Dredd was a dick, the kids in the 80s were certainly made aware that was the case, so it shouldnt be a barrier to young people enjoying it - its trying to make him likeable that is messing with the winning formula. 

[Funt Solo]

There's not much science involved in the construction, but here:




I counted things like Finder & Keeper, Department K and 'Splorers as half and half, given that they have a fairly even gender balance of protagonists. Made judgement calls all over the place.

[IndigoPrime]

I had a quick flick through the issues myself, but split them into M/F/mixed. A mixed strip does not necessarily infer equality, but Regened does broadly do reasonably well on this, the odd flub aside. By comparison, by my count the first two Monster Funs had 12–15% female leads, so bear that in mind.

(All numbers rounded, hence not always adding up to 100%.)

2130: M44%/F33%/X22%
2170: M67%/F00%/X33%
2183: M42%/F23%/X35%
2196: M27%/F18%/X56%
2206: M47%/F43%/X11%
2220: M26%/F21%/X53%
2233: M36%/F43%/X21%
2246: M57%/F21%/X21% ('Splorers was overtly female-led in this one, so I put it in that column there.)
2256: M47%/F21%/X32%
2280: M57%/F00%/X43%
2288: M32%/F41%/X27%
2296: M57%/F00%/X43%

Regened does do a lot better than MF and I suspect probably no worse than The Phoenix. Although that's not to say The Phoenix doesn't have a blind spot itself. (I Hate Pixies left me fuming after it initially went all-male cast, bar one female character, who was basically an idiot.) The overall tilt is still male, though, and, again, Renk feels like one that could have made an interesting difference here. Oh well.