Prog 1899 - Lords Have Mercy?

[NapalmKev]

I really don't like 'Black Shuck' and am glad it's ended. But if enough people do like it, I see no reason why it shouldn't return.

What I'm really saying is bring back 'Ulysees Sweet'!

Cheers

[TordelBack]

Great cover, Marshall as his considerable best. Reminds me of Luna-1 for some reason.

Dredd. I've enjoyed this story a lot, being a fan of the Lawlords and surprising twists: I also really like how much ground it covered in 6 episodes!  However, ultimately I felt that things didn't make sense, not because of plotholes, but because they simply didn't have enough time or detail thrown at them.  The whole story depends on the subversion/ambition of Dallas, which as pointed out by Sauchie is in keeping with his established character, but doesn't seem to work chronologically, or really on a power level: this guy has been having meeting with aliens while/before being a slave in the Undercity, and he's throwing empathic shapes at a Sisters of Death level - he's obviously a much more significant baddie than we have been shown in his previous two outings, and we needed to see who he really was and how this all this happened.  I hate to encourage bloat in an otherwise tight tale, but a bit of a secret-origin-of-Gideon-Dallas flashback between parts 6 and a-notional-7 seems like would have helped my enjoyment, and given the character the heft he needed.

Big stompy lawlords being monologuing eejits I can definitely handle (although I did wonder at the scene last week where Dredd punches Sycorax/Skrillex/Scalectrix/that guy and grabs his gun and nobody bothers to shoot him... I bet that read better than it looked when it was spread out over several panels of a dozen armed aliens doing nothing), the ace laser defense system from the 21st C that they never bother to get working, and have no ability to destroy, I have more of a problem with.  See also: empath so powerful Psi-Div can't do anything, not anything, about it.  Still, as a six-part mini-epic this was pretty tasty, and "I wish it had been longer" is the very best kind of complaint: file alongside Titan.  Good stuff from Carroll, and some great work from Marshall.

Future Shock: Lovely little tale, and oh that gorgeous art. 

Aquila:  I'd maybe have liked something more from Nero's final moments here, and I feel a wee bit cheated that we didn't learn any more about the Devourer, but this has been a splendid outing all told.  The procession of hideous champions has been consistently inventive and beautifully designed, the St. Peter stuff neatly done, and while I suspect the model has now run its course it worked brilliantly in terms of this story. If only The Hit had been like this.  This is going to make for a fabulous collection.

Black Shuck:  I haven't been particularly kind to this strip, but I loved this episode - really great visuals in the jotun king being tortuously dragged from his barrow, what a scene!  The art has been great throughout (with the exception of a pretty terrible face for Shuck in the final panel), and the interesting stuff Moore and Reppion have come up with for Yeowell to draw has been its real strength.  If we could find a bit of personality for Shuck himself, and get a better handle on the five-page structure, I'd like to see more of this, and if that's not going to happen, more from this team.

Brass Sun:  Nice surprise in the group being trimmed back, although as Jimbo notes, it doesn't help that I can't recall the Gormenworld guy's name.  I'd be so bold as to suggest that Edginton has a problem with this: he needs his characters to call each other by their names at least once every two weeks.  I haven't counted, but I bet months go by without names being used, and that's a recipe for confusion with we hard-of-thinking.  Please don't tell me that this isn't an issue in the longer US-sized reprints, 'cos I'm not paying for those, I'm paying for this.  Liked this run a lot, thought the middle bit kicked the story onwards very nicely.  Come back soon!

[Proudhuff]

  I'd be so bold as to suggest that Edginton has a problem with this: he needs his characters to call each other by their names at least once every two weeks.  I haven't counted, but I bet months go by without names being used, and that's a recipe for confusion with we hard-of-thinking.  !

Works for The Archers 

[Fungus]

Cover   Like this, it follows a string of stellar covers recently (and precedes the best of the bunch?!) so it's in tough company. The daft grin on the kneeling figure is nice.

Dredd   My favourite Dredd since Titan, so much going for it. Great start with the returning hero, domesticity, shock return of the Lawlords, and fitting climax. In a spate of recent idiot logic elsewhere in the prog (and plodding tales), Carroll wrapped this up very skilfully I thought: "I'm not a judge"

Aquila Straightforward face-off to round off a really enjoyable series. Aquila does flowery language (though less this time) so much better than Shuck. Top art too. Come back soon.

BS 1 Hm. The current Meg interview mentions Abnett and Culbard's fondness for 'world-building' and no-one seems to tread that path more than Edginton, in the prog and elsewhere. Don't want to be too critical because the returning Stickleback is about my favourite strip. And BS 1 started so brightly.

Future Shock  A bit of "hard" sci-fi really stands out, oddly, when the prog contains so much historical fiction (and adventure yarns). A bit confused in the telling, I would agree.

BS 2  As cliches go, 'The End?' made my ears hurt. That was painful. My attention has drifted so much in this series that the poisoning on the final page meant nothing to me. Relevance lost on me and I didn't care. For all that, Yeowell and Blythe are a fine art team.

Next Prog  Lovely. I had a comment about the content of prog 1900 but it's not the thread to comment on that so I won't

[Fontwell Magma]

The prog hasn't been hitting it for me as of late so I'm hoping prog 1900 gets back on track! Perhaps just my personal preferences but other than Dredd, all the running strips weren't cutting it. Black Shuck has been an especially painful read each week for me.I'm sure that's the point of an anthology and that some readers thought this run of stories were top notch though!

I loved the first two series of Brass Sun so I hope the fourth series comes back with a bang.. the third has been hit and miss for me - some great episodes amongst fairly uneventful ones.

Roll on Dark Justice..

[The Adventurer]

This current run of strips has been pretty solid. Dredd, Brass Sun, Jaegir, and Aquilla have been pretty good all around. Without Black Shucking being the.... dog in the bunch.

Sin-Dex being left half done is a bit... annoying. That strip gets kicked around like a filler football these days. That's really sad.

[Fontwell Magma]

This current run of strips has been pretty solid. Dredd, Brass Sun, Jaegir, and Aquilla have been pretty good all around. Without Black Shucking being the.... dog in the bunch.

Yeah to be fair - I have been quick to forget Jaegir - this has been one of my favourite new series as of late - such fantastic artwork from Simon Coleby too. I've been loving his art as of late - Royals: Masters of War was awesome.

[ming]

Anyone else still waiting for this Prog?  1900 arrived a couple of days ago but there's no sign of 1899...

[Dandontdare]

Anyone else still waiting for this Prog?  1900 arrived a couple of days ago but there's no sign of 1899...

I'd give Denise a call - If mine fails to arrive I usually wait till the Friday (day before the next one's due) and they always send me a replacement fairly quickly (although the missing prog sometimes turns up weeks or even months later thanks to Royal Fail)

[Hawkmumbler]

Anyone else still waiting for this Prog?  1900 arrived a couple of days ago but there's no sign of 1899...

Go digital. Problem solved.

[Timothy]

Anyone else still waiting for this Prog?  1900 arrived a couple of days ago but there's no sign of 1899...

Go digital. Problem solved.

It solves one problem, but creates another. The wait until Wednesday can sometimes seem unending!

[ming]

The day after I contacted Denise for a replacement the missing Prog turned up, adorned with a sticker saying "Mis-sent to Bermuda"...  Norway, Bermuda - I often confuse the two myself.  There's a Future Shock in there somewhere, I know it.