PROG 1501

[COMMANDO FORCES]

Guns & Roses cover by Cliff Robinson is excellent.

Banzai Battalion is the best story this prog as it looks like they will have to do battle with the new outfit in the garden who have taken over their turf.

The other stories are all okay, just building up for their respective pay offs.

[jabish]

Who's on script and art for the new Banzai Battalion?

[paulvonscott]

How do you do it, Judge Burdis, I envy you!

Mind you, I had somehow forgotten its prog day again tomorrow, come on postie, don't be late!

Glad to know Banzai is good stuff, I really enjoyed reading my Banzai Batallian graphic novel a few months back.

[COMMANDO FORCES]

Banzai Battalion is as follows,
Script -JOHN WAGNER
Art    -STEVE ROBERTS
Letters-SIMON BOWLAND

I`m sorry paulvonscott to let everyone know how I know this would mean a call from the Justice Dept.
Suffice to say it helps kick my weekend off to a flying start to see the hallowed prog sharpish.

[LARF]

My betting is that you work at the printers?

:-)

[Jim_Campbell]

"Guns & Roses cover by Cliff Robinson is excellent.

Can't agree, I'm afraid. The rest of the prog is excellent, but someone in the design department badly needed to have brought that cover up in Photoshop and lightened and/or blurred the background because it swamps an otherwise very fine composition.

Cheers!

Jim

[DavidXBrunt]

A cracking issue behind a nice but middle of the road cover. The two strips I really enjoyed keep up the pace, the two I enjoyed less speed up to join them and the newcomer leaves the blocks at a furious speed.

Dredd moves on in an interesting fashion. I'm reminded of the Nimrod subplot from Total War with the mutants in that I haven't a clue where the thread is going but it's interesting following it. Some lovely facial expressions in amongst the artwork.

Malone now has me hooked. The central mystery is intriguing and the relationship between the two leads is sweet. I'm liking the art now. Seems all it needed was the right story all along.

Stone Island feels like it's getting ahead of itself but it's a one off so there's bound to be a sense of it all happening at once. Stil, great art, great atmosphere, great dialogue.

Banzai Battalion has a real sense of a relaunch or second phase of storytelling. Going of just this start I'd love it to be back regularly. Steves interpretation took a page or two to get used to (like Dom Reardon his style has become so fixed on one strip for me) but it suits the story perfectly. The tale looks to be The Shadow Warriors as presented by the Reduced Shakespear Company, which sounds fun.

Nikolai Dante is back in business. I can't help but wish the story that's been ongoing for 215 issues had been told in a shorter span but it's all kicking off nicely now and feels like it's conected to the overall series again. Please keep Dante around Tharg.

Really enjoyed the prog, the letters were amusing and Droid Life bonkers. Shame it got right royally screwed by the postie.

[Rio De Fideldo]

Did anyone else's prog printing appear matter than usual.

The feel of it felt completely different and all the colours seemed a shade darker.

[Bolt-01]

I agree with Jim about the cover. A cracking idea and it could have been so much better with a bit more thought.

Really solid prog, though it needs digesting a bit more to have much to say about it.

Bolt-01: Got me a letter printed!

[paulvonscott]

Er, yes, I wondered whether I should have posted about that as it seemed a bit trivial. But yes, it did feel less glossy!  Thanks for saying it for me!

Dredd... good.  Not sure where it's going, but it's going somewhere.

Malone... not bad. Spoiled for me only by the clown appearing again, I don't like clowns (which I suppose is the point), but it's really off putting.  Whether there would be clowns in the year gimp is another matter.  But having seen clowns in IT, The Clown, and various horror films, I think its been done a death and has become shorthand for easy terror and should be avoided.  Any clowns reading this, sorry, but that's how I feel.

Stone island good.  I'm assuming this is a short run as it seems to be running along at quite a pace.

Strange colour pallette for Banzai, but it's good fun.

Dante may have been a little sigh worthy last week, but it does feel like it's back on plot and going somewhere this week.

Yeah, enjoying the prog, still finding it hard to start reading for some reason.  Too high  expectation perhaps?

[Jim_Campbell]

"I agree with Jim about the cover. A cracking idea and it could have been so much better with a bit more thought."

And ... on closer inspection [Photoshop Nerd] those background flowers appear to have been picked out of other images with the Magic Wand - the clipping is just terrible. [/Photoshop Nerd]

Otherwise, a damn fine prog as far as I'm concerned.

Cheers!

Jim

[Banners]

:: [Photoshop Nerd] those background flowers appear to have been picked out of other images with the Magic Wand - the clipping is just terrible. [/Photoshop Nerd]

'Cutting out' a foreground from the background is an everyday task around here. I tend to zoom in close and slowly use the magnetic lasso around the subject. I then tweak the selection where necessary, then fade and blur the edges into a transparent background. But is there a better way?

Cheers,

M@

[Buttonman]

Good letter Bolt, although I have to say it was Tharg's headline for  it that was the highlight!

[Dark Jimbo]

Would you happen to mean the 'These are the droids...' one?

Can someone please explain what the hell this is? I hear it everywhere, and I've come to assume it's some sort of quote from something, simply because people always say it as though it means something, with a knowing smirk and unecessary emphasis, then all fall about laughing as though it was the best thing ever uttered by human lips.

I've tried to decode it looking for some sort of wordplay, or double meaning if you pronounce it a certain way, but there doesn't seme to be one, so I'm back to the quote idea. What the hell's it from?

[LARF]

Magnetic lasso!!!!!

My god, no!!

There's nothing more discernable and detailed than a good manual clipping path.

Magnetic my arse.

:-)