Prog 2236 - A view to a kill!

[Colin YNWA]

Where oh where is that Proudhuff review? Baggin' the Prog thread so late on a Monday evening - what is the world coming too?

Anyway who cares as its a good Prog, under a lovely Dylan Teague cover.

Colin MacNeil's art on Dredd finds new ways to get better somehow. Its simply stunning. The story is an intriguing opening by Wagner as an assassin apparently makes mistakes.

Mechastopheles has a decent episode with a story that allows Boo Cook to shine.

Department K continues to entertain why moving in unexpected direction, again. Last week we had an apparent invasion, this week an Eternal (well Locust) is dead as the Kirby vibe continues.

Chimpsky's Law is the star of the show, amusing, exciting and also moving in interestin directions. This story is such fun.

Feral and Foe has a bombastic ending, all action finale that wraps things up a little generically for the work that has gone before. Its good an' all but we've come to expect more. Still the good news is there seems to be more to come as the Nerve Centre calls it the 'current series' implying there more to come, which is great, well as long as the creative duo visit Kingdom on their way to the next run out.

Maybe not up to the stella levels of last week, but no complaints.

[Colin YNWA]

WHOOPS - Richard beat me to it as I typed. Can a kindly mod merge please.

[Tomwe]

A fantastic prog this week! It occurred to me that there is now no black and white strips. Looking back, Hershey was kind of two-tone but what was the last black and white strip? I don't mind either way, but right now it all seems very colourful and the cartooning is on the less-gritty side, which is kind of my preference but I'm just used to a more varied prog I guess.

Looking forward to The Out's return - is that next prog?

[broodblik]

Looking forward to The Out's return - is that next prog?

No, it is not Aquila is back next prog - Goddard is on art duties

[broodblik]

Cover by Dylan Teague:

[broodblik]

Cover and Logo:

[Barrington Boots]

Prog not quite hitting the heights of recent thrillpower for me this week but still a lot to like here.

Lovely looking cover although is Dredd looking a bit beardy here? He definitely looks like he's about to mess somebody up.

Wagner and MacNeil on Dredd, what's not to like? Awesome start, already excited to see what comes next.

Mechastopheles - First off, this looks immense. The scenes of the Mechastopheles machine itself on the seabed are just superb, I think this is my favourite thing I've ever seen by Boo Cook. Away from that, it may be that I've not remembered enough of the previous series but it's not really engaging me yet. I really like the concept so hoping this kicks in.

Department K pains me to say it but this is not clicking for me at all, reads like a kids comic (which in fairness it came from), there's no no nuance or anything really of interest in the characters, plot or dialogue so far - big disappointment. That said, great last picture of the big Kirby Eternal dude and the art is full of nice little touches - I liked the Starfish guys shaking hands with their head-limb.

Chimpsky's Law - I thought I was a bit Chimped out but I'm not, really enjoying this. Strikes the right balance between humour and grotesque violence - some great expressive simian faces and the narration and exposition boxes really make it for me. A delight.

Feral and Foe - I'm with Colin on this weeks finale in that it wraps up well, but I was kind of hoping for more given how good the strip has been up to this point. There's nothing wrong with it - dialogue and art are on point and overall I've enjoyed this run a lot and I look forward to it's return.

It is Aquila next week?

[Barrington Boots]

No, it is not Aquila is back next prog - Goddard is on art duties

Question already answered!

[broodblik]

A good prog

Dredd – Good to have the combo off Wagner and MacNeil on Dredd again. A good solid opener. Wagner knows how to deliver a Dredd story.

Mechastopheles – Some great visuals by Cook to complement the story. I can see that we will have a great sea-battle soon. Good story

Department K – Cornwell provides some great images especially that last panel. The story is fine, but I was hoping it would grip me more. Well, it ends at least with an interesting last page.

Chimpksy – Plain simple fun, this is turning to be a delight to read.

Feral and Foe - Although the ending was more generic the way the story brought us to this point is what the journey is all about. Great stuff and please more of this Tharg (and please ask this team to bring us another run on Kingdom)

[Jacqusie]

Lovely looking cover although is Dredd looking a bit beardy here?

There is certainly a touch of Lycanthrope about ol' Dreddy this week, for someone who detests facial hair, the Cry of the Werewolf look is a bit odd, unless the story is heading in a strange new direction and Dredd's inner Lycan is making an appearance once more!

The best thing about Dredd this week is the Credit Card, to have Wagner back on scribe is brilliant, as is McNeil back on Dredd, who we don't see nearly enough of these days either. Great cover by Dylan Teague too and it's been long overdue to see him back on art duties once again, be good if he becomes a regular artist again.

[norton canes]

Cover: I think it's the Teague droid's trademark hatching lines, rather than whiskers, across Dredd's face. But overall, just how cool does Dredd look, for a character designed 45 years ago? Refined and revised organically over the years, every artist bringing a little evolution of their own, and still looking as coolly futuristic as ever.

'Removal Man': "Shove a pair of joke teeth in", "Nimby unit", "childbirth might give her veins", "Kentucky wastes", "the munce line"... genius.

Mechastopheles: Glorious underwater scenes, and the story rattles on with the Rennie droid's custom flair

Department K: Yeah, I'd say Dan Cornwell's art is the big draw here - the starfish suits, the pet, the little floating jellyfish, that final page panel... wonderful stuff 

Chimpsky's Law: Loving this, even though I wasn't expecting Chimpsky's solo outing to be an out-and-out comic tale. I could look at PJ Holden's chimp faces all day.

Feral & Foe: Short, sharp, delivers - all good to me. 

as long as the creative duo visit Kingdom on their way to the next run out

Yes!

[broodblik]

Cover in B/W:

[Jim_Campbell]

Totally worth following Dyl on Twitter or Instagram. His 'sketches' are a constant delight.

[broodblik]

Must say that Dylan's work is fantastic on Dredd. Please give this droid more work Tharg and I am not talking about his coloring.

Here something I missed which Dylan highlighted on his twitter feed:

Judge Dredd strip page 2 preview out tomorrow! Bit of a mistake on this page too, oops.

[Jim_Campbell]

Please give this droid more work Tharg and I am not talking about his coloring.

It’s not really about whether Tharg can give Dylan more work, it’s a question of how long it takes to draw a page vs. how long it takes to colour a page.

For example: I’d love to write comics again but, realistically, I’d need to write at least four US-length books every month to make the same money I make lettering (at the level I’d go in at writing). Even assuming I could get that much writing work on a regular basis, I’m waaaay too slow at writing to reliably turn in a 22-page book every week.

Same reason that although I give Pete Doherty shit about drawing more comics every time he colours a strip, I don’t really mean it. We’re all trying to cover the mortgage and put food on the table. I’d love to see Pete draw more comics, but if (made-up page rates follow) you can colour three pages a day at £50 each, or pencil and ink one at £100, that’s not a difficult choice, economically.