Prog 2178: Not all heroes are apes

[The Monarch]

oh my god i can actually start one of these bless the postal droids!

Dredd: as the cover hints Chimpsky is back and he may face yet his greatest threat. wonderful stuff as ever

survival geeks: i will admit the reference to a certain tv show from my childhood at the end got a chuckle out of me.

i skipped skip tracer its not my bag i am afraid

aquilla and hershey are both fantastic as ever.

[Eamonn Clarke]

P J Holden and the greatest ape.

[TordelBack]

Aside from being a beautiful cover that's a magnificent tagline, truly inspired (I see a T-Shirt in its future), but the font and placement of same... I dunno.  I think cover design has been a bit of struggle this past year or so. Still can't wait for Wednesday, mind...

[Magnetica]

No Prog today 😢. And still not got last week's either. How about everyone else?

[moldovangerbil]

No prog this week.  Got last week's on Tuesday.  No sign of the Meg.

[Batman's Superior Cousin]

Got the Meg on Ghursday and the Prog on Friday, no postie today though!!

[Batman's Superior Cousin]

I meant Thursday,. No edit function makes me sad!!

[Colin YNWA]

Well then that is a cover, a bloody lovely cover. And of course the fact that we have a cover means we have a Prog behind and if we have a Prog behind it we have to

Salute The Phoenix
Salute Tharg the Mighty.

Once again another week and another two glorious comics.

This one starts with a belter to. Dredd sees the return of Noam Chimpsky in a delightful opening episode by the still mysterious Kenneth Neimand and the still delightful PJ Holden. Loved the contrast between the friendly warm opening five pages and the brutal inpersonal introduction of Dredd.

Survival Geeks remains cheeky fun but nothing more.

Skip Tracer remains bland badassery, though the return of Hardy McHardfaces brother gives me hope.

Aquila remains brutally horrific and thrilling.

Hershey remains a visual tour de force and a compelling story.

All in all a good Prog a beckon of thrills in a time so lacking.

[broodblik]

I am still grateful for the little pleasures in life and that is weekly prog. The prog continues its solid, good run.

5/5 prog 😊

[TordelBack]

Still can't get over how great that cover is.  Not only is it striking and original in its own right, it's also a poignant image of urban self-isolation, complete with facemask.  This'll be one of those covers that I never forget where I was in my life when the prog landed. 

Inside, Chimpsky (featuring Judge Dredd (just)) is every bit as good as I'd hoped it would be - one of the strongest first parts in a while. I like that the brilliant language gimmick of the first story isn't re-used (yet), and that PJ deploys his full range of character art in depicting Chimpsky as both 'realistic' talking ape and cartoon chimp as the scene requires. Also, the detailed cityscapes are beautifully designed, automatic bonus points from this jury, setting aside the cheeky ad for a certain artist's podcast. 

Interesting that this is the third in a row of Niemand's citizen-centric stories, following on from Mystic Pigeon Lady and Fenster: Process Server (and the preceding Psychic Amateur Paramedic and Imaginary Friends sagas). While I gave out a bit about the passive-Dredd angle to some of those stories, it's good to see the City and Citizens coming back into consistent focus, instead of world-ending crises. globe-trotting missions and corrupt/covert judges.  Add that to Carroll's gangland underworld sub-series and things are looking up for my kind of Dredd. Anyway, this is the undoubted highlight of a strong prog. 

Survival Geeks continues to amuse, which is its job. I particularly enjoyed the heavily-populated signpost in the Chasm of Failed projects, in the first of this prog's overly-generous two Mind Palace sequences. Not really sure what mechanics are at play in Griefer Clive's takeover, but good to see that their plan to regrow Clone Griefer Sam was successful. 

Aquila still doggedly working through the purple ink and Cenobite surpluses that affect us all, while doing that slightly-annoying Rennie thing of resolving previous plots in a two-panel flashback. Why did the Phlaegrean Hags want the Name of God? What were they planning on doing with it? Rude Pompeian Graffiti?  Marketing mailing list? Enquiring minds. Much like Absalom before it, this is looking alarmingly like it's moving towards a rapid conclusion, and I'm already missing it.  Enjoyable as always.

Hershey.  I should really dispense with my hoighty-toity expectations for this strip, because this was a very stylish and engaging action episode, and I enjoyed it. Nice cameo from Lulu and Jenna too! Always welcome.

[SmallBlueThing(Reborn)]

I dont know who Kenneth Neimand is, but he can write Dredd better than just about anyone save John Wagner himself.
At this point I dont care if he turns out to be a Rebellion work-experience drone who communes with the spirit of Michael Fleisher in his spare time, because however he is doing it, I would strongly advise Tharg to keep him around.
Thisnis the best run of Dredds in ages. I never put the strip at the top of polls because while I've read and liked it my whole life, I'm genuinely not that attached to it. By which i mean that were the prog to go under (and i hope that day is so far off someone will have to channel my spirit to comment upon it) and then strips sold off to other comic companies, I probably wouldn't follow Dredd to Marvel, or DC, or wherever. For me theres always (no, "usually") something better in the pages of 2000AD. But not this week.
That was a perfect episode of Dredd, of the kind that the series once was entirely composed of- back when I was 11.

Every other strip was enjoyable as well, obviously. Even Skip Tracer, which had been peeking up for two weeks but now seems to be going back to sleep. Still, it was readable and in a prog that didnt have that Dredd, Aquila and Hershey, would have seemed a whole lot better in comparison.

The further we go into Covid-19, the harder it is becoming for me to buy the prog in a shop. I *could* sit it out and buy them all from the web shop "when this is all over". But I dont want to- it's just too good at present.

SBT

[IndigoPrime]

I dont know who Kenneth Neimand is, but he can write Dredd better than just about anyone save John Wagner himself.

Personally, I like the idea he's... Kenneth Neimand (and a bit perplexed people think his name is a pseudonym). But, yeah, his writing is excellent. His Dredds feel like a mix of Wagner's past and present, and are to my mind in that very top tier, along with Wagner himself and Al Ewing. (I'm also generally very fond of the work of several other Dredd writers, most notably Rob Williams and Michael Carroll, but there's something extra special about Neimand's scripts that just click. For me, they are Dredd.)

[SmallBlueThing(Reborn)]

I sincerely hope Neimand is Neimand. It would be lovely to see a talent like that "come from nowhere", without doing the rounds in the "small press" and other comics first. And would further cement my respect for the current incarnation of Tharg as an editor with his eye on the ball.

Whoever he (or she?) is, I really want to read more.

SBT

[Bolt-01]

I'm going to take five minutes to point stupidly at similarities between Aquila and Blackhawk as I see them right now.

One is a Roman citizen plucked from his circumstances and plunged into working for an unearthly force and the other is Aquila.

One has an annoying sidekick that comes in handy in a fight while the other has Ursa & Zog.

One goes on a quest to recover his soul and the other has to deal with space pirates.

One is in a doomed city when he meets up with a character who seems to know everything and the other one meets a wizard from Rome.

These are off the top of my head, but it seems that Aquila, like Blackhawk before him, is off to meet his maker. I only hope that Aquila gets a happy ending as the ending of Blackhawk makes my eyes leak something fierce.

Congrats to Gordon & Patrick for a superb series.

[TordelBack]

These are off the top of my head, but it seems that Aquila, like Blackhawk before him, is off to meet his maker. I only hope that Aquila gets a happy ending as the ending of Blackhawk makes my eyes leak something fierce.

Double rations for Rennie if the Devourer's lair looks like the inside of a desk drawer.