Well it an interesting place to go to an over sized Prog that's being treated kinda like a jump on. But what the heck. This is largely an excellent Prog.
Dredd. BRILLIANT. Niemand on fire again with a superb story and Joe Currie's dreamy art is just perfect. Another brilliant Dredd loved this one.
Indigo Prime - lost me for a second there, not quite sure how we made the leap from where we were to the white hole of all realities but frankly who cares if all the joins aren't quite clear this was superb and a fantastic ending.
Full Tilt Boogie slips back to the story after last weeks delightful break and it great and a little chilling.
Deadworld this one has lost me - such a shame.
Thistlebone - yike it just continues to be what it is creepy, horrible and wonderful.
So next week we get Proteus Vex in for Deadworld so that's looks like being an upward trade and an exciting prospect. With added Rogue Trooper (guess we'll see a lot of that this year) could be a treat. As it is though we have quite enough this week to keep me happy.
What are you bribing Tharg/Royal Mail with to get all these Saturday Progs?
I'm with Colin for the most part on this prog. There's definitely a lot to like about the quality of what we're being given.
Dredd's a cracking, albeit predictable one-shot. Visitors to MC1 fall foul of the law. We've seen it from dimensional, alien, chronal ... pretty much every type of traveller going. The city is stark staring bonkers and the Judges top the list. Currie's artwork though really lifts the piece. Loving the European vibes with shades of Moebius.
Full Tilt Boogie back on the core issues at play makes a little more sense after the last few weeks. Well, insofar as we're sat staring at whatever is at the heart of the quest our protagonist has been gulled into.
Now Fall of Deadworld is an interesting one. As the current run ends we find ourselves faced with issues that start to tie things together. Ultimately this is about how Deadworld became the world we know from our first exposure to Judge Death. Necropolis introduced us to the Dark Sisters who have featured significantly in more recent runs. We see that they are far more significant to Death's development than we were first led to believe.
The 'errant sister, Enomia' is curious. As the Greek goddess of law, good governance and order, it is curious that she is linked to Phobia and Nausea. Then again, maybe it is worth considering that ultimately Deadworld is utterly devastated. After all, the point of the Dark Judges is that they stand as completely opposite to Dredd's perspective and his world.
Certainly this is a series that merits a re-read. There is a lot that just doesn't seem to work properly for various reasons. Possibly because so much is going on?
As Colin says, Thistlebone delivers that earie, creepy, mind-alteringly queasy Hammer Horror style as always. Davis is the perfect choice for this strip although Lee Carter would be a close second after his performance on Cradlegrave. Where will this land? Given the penchant of Eglington for rooting this series in deep, dark British mythology, my money is on plenty of blood and gore.
I'd be a little more excited about the return of Rogue Trooper if I knew the creative team but I think that is because we've had some absolutely dire runs over the years. Here's to hoping it is up there with some of the stronger offerings we've had since they've tried to revise the strip.
Overall though, this is a cracking prog.
Quote from: IndigoPrime on 16 March, 2024, 04:37:32 PMWhat are you bribing Tharg/Royal Mail with to get all these Saturday Progs?
Given we're getting our progs (and Meg which is amazing) of a Saturday, it is clear that the bribes are on a randomiser. ::)
Wot? Is nobody going to mention that stunning cover?!? One of the best depictions of Death in recent years, in this cow's humble opinion.
And yet ... shurely misleading, given the prog's actual content? (Where's that number for Trading Standards...?)
That cover is indeed totally awesome and does have very little to do with the story inside!
I found this a very quick read this week. News of more Rogue Trooper... yeah, reserving judgement on this one. The recent Goddard / Ennis tale was terrific and I'd be keen to read more from them, but otherwise its a big 'meh' from me: that story is done and has been diminishing returns for a long, long while.
Dredd - thought this was a pretty forgettable Dredd rehashing stories we've seen several times before. Not bad in any way, but very filler-y.
Indigo Prime - trippy installment that channels the weirdness of this series, but only really feels like it moves the story forward at the end. Great end to the episode though!
Full Tilt Boogie - slightish this week, but it's a middle of the story episode setting up next weeks episode, when a lot of the revalations from this week should presumably have more significance.
Deadworld - feel like this is roundly back on track after losing its way a bit, and seems a good move to have the various factions at play join up: the fact that half the comments on this series show readers are confused are to whats going on highlights how the broader spread of the tale ended up showing us a sequence of events, whilst losing the actual story. Hopeful this comes back with a focus on what made it good initially: horror and not elseworlds or the Sidney version of Death.
Thistlebone - Very good again. It struck me today how this feels written for the weekly format, as opposed to, say, FTB which feels a lot more decompressed: almost every week on Thistlebone we've had a cliffhanger-esque ending which hints at something truly awful happening next week, only for the tension to relax a little before ramping up again. This time, things look a lot more serious however.
void indiga :D
I'm getting old annual cover vibes from the next issue preview.
Cover by Toby Willsmer:
(https://dyn.media.forbiddenplanet.com/QsT2Yq-4dUiQg3gFUY7wUTMdhEw=/trim/fit-in/779x1024/filters:format(webp)/https://media.forbiddenplanet.com/products/99/58/eabafda199e946da28bc853d48254e458948.jpg)
Quote from: Tjm86 on 16 March, 2024, 04:39:38 PM....Davis is the perfect choice for this strip although Lee Carter would be a close second after his performance on Cradlegrave.....
Cradlegrave's art was by the late Edmund Bagwell
Crikey, Old Dredd's put on a bit of timber hasn't he?
Must be all those munce burgers and synthi sausage's...
Thistlebone is just geniuses at work! It never fails. Worth the price of the Prog on its own.
Top Prog all round, agree that the cover is a stunner! And yes please to more Joe Currie artwork, it reminds me of classic Ron Smith one-off comedy shorts in tone, if not even slightly in style.
Quote from: AlexF on 20 March, 2024, 11:02:53 AM.......And yes please to more Joe Currie artwork.......
From the Nerve Centre he is currently working with Mike Carroll bring a new series to the prog later this year
Weirdly, no Prog here yet, despite the Meg arriving on Monday. Boo @ reality.
I got the Meg on Saturday and the Prog today. They usually arrive on the same day.
I used to get them on Saturdays. Today I got progs 2373 and 2374 together, and still no Meg.
Quote from: A.Cow on 16 March, 2024, 11:28:38 PMWot? Is nobody going to mention that stunning cover?!? One of the best depictions of Death in recent years, in this cow's humble opinion.
And yet ... shurely misleading, given the prog's actual content? (Where's that number for Trading Standards...?)
Yeah, that's a really great cover. Nothing like his style, but I can imagine it as a Brett Ewins on an old fashioned bog-paper Prog.
Regards,
Robin
Quote from: Richard on 20 March, 2024, 04:27:13 PMI used to get them on Saturdays. Today I got progs 2373 and 2374 together, and still no Meg.
That always happens to me when my sub renews.
Proggage! Seems like people's reactions to this one are all over the shop, and mine won't be any different.
Fantastic cover, even if it has nothing to do what what's inside. And then Dredd kicks things off. We've seen it all before. But so what? I don't care when the strip is this well written. I probably chuckled several times. "Everyone loves the friendship lasers!" I mean, come on. Currie's art was good. Hints of Steve Sampson and other 1990s Dredd, but broadly only taking the good bits. Nice.
Indigo Prime has already been called trippy. And... yeah. Nice twist. Although almost everything in the strip is a twist. Full Tilt Boogie also shook things up on its last page, and I'm enjoying this one, despite its decompressed storytelling.
Deadworld... I dunno. I'm not sure there's any saving this one. Great art, again, but I hope whatever we gets next has a bit more cohesion and a bit less camp and 'comedy'. Honestly, that last frame doesn't feel so much like a cliffhanger as the run just having to stop so the creative team can catch up with the schedule. It's all feeling a bit Zenith Book III.
Thistlebone didn't grab me as much as other folks, by the looks of it. I definitely agree that it's written very nicely with the weekly format in mind, but it's overall not quite landing with me to the same degree as the previous two outings. Not a Hope-style fall, mind, and I'm glad it's here.
Looking forward to next week. Proteus Vex has been relentlessly great so far. And Rogue is dependable, if nothing else.
Dredd > Indigo Prime > Full Tilt Boogie > Thistlebone > Deadworld
Quote from: don wiskerando on 20 March, 2024, 11:14:31 PMQuote from: Richard on 20 March, 2024, 04:27:13 PMI used to get them on Saturdays. Today I got progs 2373 and 2374 together, and still no Meg.
That always happens to me when my sub renews.
Interesting, mine renewed last month! Hopefully that's all it is.
I did however get impatient and bought 2373 in Forbidden Planet, so if anyone didn't get theirs then DM me and I'll send one over.
Excellent cover. I think all the hype for next week's bumper prog must have affected me because I kind of skimmed this one. Fun
Dredd, albeit on a well-worn trope. Lovely art from Joe Currie. Nice cliff-hangers for
Indigo Prime and
Full Tilt Boogie. Loving
Thistlebone as ever.
Quote from: M.I.K. on 18 March, 2024, 06:17:07 PMI'm getting old annual cover vibes from the next issue preview
Oh yes!
Quote from: The Monarch on 18 March, 2024, 03:12:53 PMvoid indiga :D
For anyone not in the know, Indigo Prime first appeared in the guise of Void Indiga in the Future Shock
A Change of Scenery in prog 490. It wasn't until the Tyranny Rex story in the 1988 Sci-Fi Special that they reappeared under the name Indigo Prime.
We got some retro-explanation for this in 2017's
A Dying Art:
(https://i.imgur.com/MvD7o0U.png)
2000 AD is kicking it at the moment and I really enjoyed the prog. As has probably been mentioned, the cover is great but also has nothing to do with what's happening in the story. Last time we saw Death he was in a dentist's gown and very much on the back foot.
Dredd I liked, although the art style is ... different. There's lots to love (e.g. interesting H-Wagon designs, great attitude in the final panel), but it's also running a 90's Sampson vibe that pushes it a little outside of my comfort zone. Happy to concede that's really my problem, and we need new artists keeping things fresh.
Void Indiga is doing its job of fucking with our minds and also driving a plot forward, even if we're not entirely sure what that plot is (which is probably why it needs to keep up the momentum). The artistic storytelling, though, is masterful - switching from a Minecraft reality, to a multiversal singularity before turning Challis into a 2D plane and then rescuing him using 80s line art. Wow!
Full Tilt Boogie I'd been avoiding because I wanted to do a deep dive, so I read the "previously on" and first eight episodes in a single sitting. I really enjoyed it, with the switch of tones, settings and characters keeping things fresh. Is granny knowingly avoiding bad things or just lucky? The "trapped in a tube" scene, especially with that stonking cover from Alex Ronald, was superbly done. This episode keeps the stress levels up because we have no idea what is going to happen - only that it seems it won't be good.
Fall of Deadworld remains a favorite. This series did dip a little into the cheese with the Johnny Biker scene, but it's difficult to balance things if you accept all the canon. Something I think a lot of these long-running, multi-character thrills would benefit from is some kind of who's who graphic that would help readers out. It was done with Indigo Prime in prog 678 with an Organizational Structure chart, and we got The Family of Tomas de Torquemada in prog 250.
Before this series I did a full re-read of the saga, so I know who everyone is - although it doesn't help that Byke/Eunomia keeps skipping forms. The art is next level slaps, though. That full page of the triad's psychic shriek is worth the entry price alone.
Thistlebone continues to be both the best and most worrying thing in the prog. Every episode builds up the horror and we get this slow and steady ratchet, ratchet, ratchet. It's fucking creepy! Now, we have a double threat - the director is now fully a monster, and his insane misogyny is loose and aimed at Yvonne. Meanwhile, we've shifted from a very disturbing scene of gay bashing and homophobia into what looks like a planned murder. Thistlebone usually lets us off the hook in some way, at some point - but this is starting to seem hopelessly dark.
Has or Currie drawn Dredd before? There is a lot of praise up thread for his art this week, but for me his depiction of Dredd himself and especially his helmet doesn't quite work. The rest is fine though.
Yes, he did a Cadet Dredd story in prog 2346. Personally I am not a fan of his style
Dredd wasn't always in the first slot of the prog. Maybe...