1347 - the end is nigh.

[DavidXBrunt]

Are you thinking who would be who if the stories in this months prog were Spice Girls? Me too!

Dredd - Emma 'Baby' Bunton.
Past Imperfect - Victoria 'Posh' Beckham.
Sinister Dexter - Geri 'Ginger' Halliwell.
Lobster Random - Melanie 'Sporty' Chisolm.
Rogue Trooper - Melanie 'Scary' Brown.

I suppose that makes Tharg Simon Fuller. And my post-man Jonathon Ross.

[Queen Firey-Bou]

David pass straight through to med bay.

[Leigh S]

"On this weeks Blue Peter, John Burns will show us how to make a Lawmaster out of cardboard boxes".  I'm still unsure about his art - everyone is right about it - the faces are good, the design is poor, the colours are atmospheric but the final picture of Dredd is appalling - Still, better than most.Its still a bit weird that Dredd needed Edgar to point out the bleedin' obvious - a point that at least Wagner acknowledges with Dredds admission of responsibility.

Past imperfect is still doing nothing for me


Sin dex ends on one of those weird twisted moral endings - oh look, he's a bad man for killing someone...erm - we kill people, but we are nice men, because it's our job.  Whenever Sin/Dex enters this territory, I reach for the barf bag.

Lobster is still the best thing about the progs at present - shame it wasn't a bit longer - I would have liked this even more if some of the other characters had been expanded (such as the incompetent crims). It's more successful at humour than Bec and Kawl which I'm not a big fan of (as the humour is rising out of situations and characters more naturally, IMO), and also good at the more 'serious' stuff (Even better than The Scrap, which I really liked - maybe mixed with the humour allows the more serious stuff to seem less forced as well). The drug thing reminds me a bit of that Stainless Steel Rat episode - (the only things that havent worked for me are tiny details (the sleep thing last week and the "forgot I had this" line this week is a bit unlikely ) but it's rare to see a new story so fully formed and enjoyable from the off - more Lobster, please.

Rogue is really picking up - it would be a shame if the luke warm reception it seemed to get meant we didnt see the conclusion of this storyline played out properly - Rogue has been cursed by far reaching plans suddenly being wrapped up in a few pages (the hit, the Tor Cyan stuff, hell, even the Traitor General storyline!)

[Art]

If I were Tharg I would have told Steve Moore he could have his money when his Past Imperfect that was 5 pages long and actually had a twist, but hey, what do I know?

[Art]

Deinately agree that Lobster Random has been the stand out strip of the last few issues. Actually, has anyone suggested a collected editon? That might work quite well...

[longmanshort]

Rather than drag the price rise thread COMPLETELY off topic, I thought we could start again here. The other reason is that we can watch Frazer not being able to help himself and joining in ;o)

So. We begin again with ...

Who said "Spoon!!"?

[Capt.Zeep]

It's here!  Oh frabjous day, callooo, callay... course I read it in about 25 mins but hey that's me.
S
P
O
I
L
E
R
S

Have to agree with the watcher about the last panel of Dredd..lets the whole thing down which had otherwise been fairly well rendered.

Past Imperfect seems to be Blackadder meets Telguuth but it's OK...ish...

Sinister Dexter,  hmmm well this tale as a whole was something of a return to form IMO, it really helps having good artwork, Steve Yeowell here and also Davis, and Clark, seem to draw the characters to the same template which makes them more believable to me than when they're drawn as comedy thugs.  Question:  Aren't they still massively wanted by the 'lode PD following the (hughly silly) episode where Sin. spilled his guts on TV?  And I note that next week we're headed for Bollywood.  Surely that boat has sailed?  I mean it's just so "early 2003" ;)

Lobster.  LOBSTER!  Great.  I was actually a little upset when klik was killed/ had her personality wiped.  Hmm, does that make me a "Skange Trawler".  Look forward to the trip next week.

And rogue...strangely I'm enjoying this.  However talking rifles are really silly.  And would anyone on either side really give a rat's ass if they blew up nu earth?  Not that they can cos it's still there a zillion years in the future.  Unless we're into alternate realities which please god don't let us be again.

The verdict?  Crunchy in a chewy sort of way.
Z

[Waddie]

Spoilers









Cover: It's Mongfaced Trooper, and it appears they forgot to add the "I'm special!" speech bubble just to the right of his head.  Sorry, but that's horrible.

Dredd: The fantastic vultures and corpse on the first page just about manage to distract attention away from the odd Lego-like Lawmaster.  Other than that, the art is still great and the story is continuing well.

Past Imperfect: Odd, this; I'm enjoying it muchly, but it's slightly reminiscent of the Slaine Time Killer arc, which I've just loathed reading reprints of in the Meg.

Sin/Dex: It was okay, I suppose.  It had a story, albeit a thin one, and it's well drawn.  None of that stopped me wishing fervently that Sinister and Dexter would be brutally, painfully and messily killed at some point during the episode, but as I get that with every new Sin/Dex story, it would be unfair to hold it against this one in particular.

Lobster Random:  Yay!  This isn't just my favourite thing in the Prog, it's my current favourite thing in comics.  Every page is brilliant.

Rogue: It's good but it feels like a leftover from twenty years ago.  Just too traditional to leave much of an impression.

[Oddboy]

Dredd - burning along nicely [excuse the pun!]

Past Imperfect - I agree with Art, why o why are they messing with the PI formula? And it's still not over yet? Gah! I'm not even remotely sympathetic to any of the characters.

Sinister Dexter - why are they being so high & mighty? It's okay to kill for money but not for vengance? Rubbish! Most of the time they're killing for someone else's vengance, Dick was just cutting out the middleman. Or was that the point - SinDex ditched him because he didn't pay them to kill his agent?  Anyway, in spite of all that I quite enjoyed the story, but I do feel that they've had thier day already. Time for Tharg to take them out to the old barn & blow them away with an old rifle.

Lobster - Best thing in the prog at the moment, although it's competition isn't exactly great at the moment. Really like the art & story.

Rogue T - I always have to struggle to read RT, be it original, Fr1day, Tor Cyan or new original... but this is an enjoyable struggle at the moment, so YAY...

I'm not overly happy with the prog at the moment, it seems to have taken a bit of a dip since Snow/Tiger, Interceptor & Cab Inc have ended, to be replaced by Sin Dex, Telguuth Imperfect, and Rogue... Just as well Dredd & Lobster are being so good at the moment.

[Leigh S]

The other unlikely point about Sin Dex is the fact they can walk away - wouldn't Dick implicate them in the crime? Wouldn't they be called to stand trial as accessories? Sin Dex works better for me when it embraces its inherent implausibility, rather than tries to justify it.

[Trout]

I really, really want to read next month's Meg. Both the Meg and prog are kind of at a low point right now and I want Wag/Irv Death!

On Prog 1347:
This Past Imperfect isn't very good, is it? It's chucking tons of historical characters into one place, with Steve Moore forgetting to make them in any way interesting. Ugh.

SinDex, after a reasonable first two (?) episodes, lumbered to a predictable ending. I always hate it when they moralise about murders. They're hitmen, for crying out loud. How moral can they be? Who makes up these bizarre rules on different kinds of killings?
This episode is a perfect illustration of why these characters do not work in anything deeper than a Pulp Fiction-inspired exchange of dialogue or gunfire.

Rogue Trooper's still enjoyable enough, although I'm not over-excited about it this week.

Likewise Dredd, which in the current prog was one of those in-the-middle episodes. It's moving forward, which is fine.

Finally, thank heavens for Lobster Random.
It was the best thing by far in 1347. Drama, disaster, heart-rending grief, building anger... We may even get to find out what "Aloha" refers to soon.
By the way, Critchlow should be banned from ever producing painted art again. His line work has always been fantastic - since Thrud in the mid-80s - and for this strip it's working very well.

Overall, this prog can be summed up as an uncomfortable night out with some quite boring but generally nice people, rescued by the arrival of a nutcase with gigantic Lobster arms!

Huzzah for the lobster!

(Oh, and the cover was pish too. Static and dull.)

- Trout

[Slippery PD]

Well heres my review but there little I can add.

Cover - Well its not very good.  Face too long, colours are a bit bright and Rogues blue is off.

Dredd - Im loving the story, but Burns vehicles are putting me off.  Someone said lego, thats insulting to lego.  The rest is brill his features are excellent and thats what makes it so infuriating.  The last panel though, is I agree a bit shoddy.

SinDex - Just as I was enjoying it they go and spoil it.  This moralising gets my bakc up and it spoiled a potentially good story.  Dabnett could have taken this in a very interesting way, but he gets hired killers to pontificate about killing.  Im sure someone will defend sin dex, but they are running out of steam (by steam I mean theres about 1 molecule of water left) and they need a change.  I think a new writer may be able to do something a bit different with them.

Past Imperfect - is so throwaway its not worth it.

Lobster is just feckin ace.  Great art some great lines and when the robot was killed you could just see the anger and the tension build.  Brilliant

Rogue - I actually think Gordon has got the handle on rogue, Im rather enjoying it.  But it is better without Rogue.  Anychance of a Nu Earth Tales???

Yer Slips

[Tiplodocus]

1347

Didn't mind the cover but I really used to love all those pictures of Rogue stood against that dirty great black hole in the dark sky of Nu-Earth so this all looked a bit bright (even if it was a skull).

DREDD - Enjoyed this.  Especially "You don't want to go up against Gill again having just got out of hospital"  and instead of spending half a page expalining about duty, honour, respect of other Judges etc. Dredd just says "Don't I?".  Top.  See - I was right about Mister Burns vehicles all along.

PAST IMPERFECT:  While I am enjoying this tale -  though I don't know why;  it has many indistinguishable (in garb and character) people in it, I can't help feeling that it is slightly missing the point of a PI.  I thought we were meant to see a wild and crazy world that might have evolved if things had just been a smidgen different or more magical.  This just seems to be a setup for such a tale rather than such a tale itself.  GRENNIE, iirc, is the only writer to do these as I understand they should be done.  It's probably me missing the point thoough but can someone tell me what exactly these tales meant to be?  

SIN/DEX: No thanks, I've just had double glazing installed.

LOBSTER: Good but a few little handy plot glitches annoyed me but, hey, I'll roll with it as this is still the best stuff Mister S has produced by far (IMHO).  And reading it just after reading DIG-Ls manifesto on another thread, LOBSTER seems to fit the bill quiet nicely.

ROGUE: I think I read this...er... I'm sure I did, I've just lost my opinion on it... my brain is only tiny and I've probably forgotten so I'll stick my long neck out and suggest that I quite enjoyed the story and I really love the art.

[W. R. Logan]

>Didn't mind the cover but I really used to love all those pictures of Rogue stood against that dirty great black hole in the dark sky of Nu-Earth so this all looked a bit bright (even if it was a skull).

Thought this weeks cover sucked big time.

La Placa Rifa,
http://www.2000ad.nu/classof79/>W. R. Logan.

http://www.2000ad.nu/classof79/images/Co79_logo.gif>

[Devons Daddy]

im telling you / its done to lull into a false sense of its gone down hill again.

then the summer offensive kicks in. its all a trick.offer mediocre materail, then fizz them thrill circuits.

i can see it now.in the uk. its a bright sunny day you look out the window and notice all the local females are in tight t shirts and short skirts and little else ;~)
with a gentle breeze in the air.
you smile to yourself about the fact you love summer.and you open the thrill power containment  vessel your postie has just pushed through the door.
WOW!!!!!!!
DAMN thats great.

i am telling you its  big plan to get us to lower our expections. then completely amaze us.