First time for a Saturday Prog for a while and its a double treat, what a Prog it is.
Last time I said things are bubbling along well, the trick beign whether these thrills can deliever and on the evidence of this weeks Prog the answer will be yes. In spades.
First though we get a new Dredd with a more immediate epilogue to 'End of Days' by Rob Williams as Dredd, Anderson and Ichabod's Mr Ed track the 'moth-hounds' in the Cursed Earth. Dan Cornwell excels on the art side once again and its brisk, exciting and has an fantastic eight legged boothanger. Great.
Stickleback - wow its fantastic Stickleback doesn't mess around and but his efforts are to no avail, but other dangers are harboured in his target.
Skipperty is no long Skipperty as Skip Tracer continues to be the best this series has been since that seciond story that folks seems to forget about (or didn't like as much as me). The strip works best when Blake as a companion that allows him to become more than the gruff 90s hard and gritty 2000ad protangist and this one is tripping along nicely and Paul Marshal's art continues to shine.
Fiends - wow its fantastic. Futures are foretold with Dragon (Hydra) forboding before we charge into that future. Its a gripping yarn.
Hookjaw - wow its fantastic 'We're going to need a bigger bus' - GOLD. The mysteries start to be peeled away in effective and exciting style and we find out why giant sharks can fit into hot tubs - we're not safe on land indeed. I've seen folks elsewhere bemoan the 'lack of reverance shown towards a classic strip.' Well if this is the product of 2000ad's lack of reverance I fully get why I've loved 2000ad's lack of reverance for so long. Gripping and gruesome stuff.
Wonderful Prog AND on a Saturday - that's double good that is.
Quote from: Colin YNWA on 17 October, 2020, 01:42:20 PM
Skipperty is no long Skipperty as Skip Tracer continues to be the best this series has been since that seciond story that folks seems to forget about (or didn't like as much as me). The strip works best when Blake as a companion that allows him to become more than the gruff 90s hard and gritty 2000ad protangist and this one is tripping along nicely and Paul Marshal's art continues to shine.
I can remember the second series firstly because of the art by Colin MacNeil and rightly as you said it was the best of them all.
Just checked and there is no Prog or Megazine at Huff Mansions sur-le-mer... but luckily my purchases from Tharg's shop have arrived, these and my sale items from FP will tide me over...
Prog arrived today. Boy did I enjoy it! :)
If you're a big Dan Cornwell fan (like me) then here's my guide to his contributions to the prog / Meg
https://boysadventurecomics.blogspot.com/2020/10/updated-dan-cornwell-for-2000ad-megazine.html (https://boysadventurecomics.blogspot.com/2020/10/updated-dan-cornwell-for-2000ad-megazine.html)
Great prog! I'm really loving Cornwell's art as well. Standout for me was Fiends, with killer story and art to boot. With only one issue before the next "Half Term Special" I'm assuming it won't be a deck clearing point this time. 2206 looks to be a winner though, great dino-cover as seen in this month's Meg, which also arrived today.
Cover by D'Isreali:
(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EkXC1EVWoAI7I2Z?format=jpg&name=large)
Cover plus logo:
(https://dyn.media.forbiddenplanet.com/BkSfc4dittpYH3hn92SdDTzeEto=/trim/fit-in/1024x1024/filters:format(webp)/https://media.forbiddenplanet.com/products/73/2d/a95f2aaf4e2641c47a936a033f0150310d14.jpg)
Yet again . no Prog ( although the latest Judge Dredd Year 3 Novel arrived - boy its good !!
I am finding the Prog is not arriving till the end of the week ( despite being a subscriber )
Cover: Great design (particularly for the upcoming spooky season) though I fear the lack of colour will stop it popping on the shelves of WH Smith.
Dredd: As said by Colin, an epilogue proper to End Of Days with Horse playing a good comic role to Dredd and Anderson's exposition. The giant chicken farm scene was fun and gory. Plus, a nice cliffhanger to close.
[spoiler]I'm assuming this tale is going to end with Horse going off on his own time-loop journey to do his thing in all the previous Rob Williams Dredd epics.[/spoiler]
Stickleback: Happy to just enjoy the ride, but alas, my knowledge of characters and previous encounters is lacking to be fully engaged with whats happening (though it does well to explain whats going on JUST enough to let me follow along)
Skip Tracer: Someone questioned whether India had had surgery to make her look anime. Quite the horrific concept!I'm enjoying this run of Skip Tracer. Its a nice simple bodyguard plot and has a good pace to it. Almost Strontium Dog-esque.
Fiends Of The Eastern Front: Another great chapter in this origin tale, particularly if you're a big fan of dragons. There's a lot of hydra heads.
Hookjaw: Now it's taken it's black magical turn, I'm a lot more onboard with this story. I think they really missed an opportunity to build up the [spoiler]"hot tub scene"[/spoiler] though, in exchange for what was a page of talking heads. Just felt a bit mis-paced for me.
Overall: Very much into this run of thrills and already looking forward to next week's prog.
QuoteSomeone questioned whether India had had surgery to make her look anime. Quite the horrific concept!
First suggested by Dave Hine in
Mambo.
Monday prog for me and how welcome it was to have it arrive. I love the Saturday morning prog ritual but there's something lovely about taking a short work break to read a lovely new comic.
I really dig Dan Cornwells art on Dredd. Already seems a better epilogue to End of Days - complete with a final hand wave re. Andersons status - but that'd be churlish to moan about. Story moves along at a nice clip, enjoying this so far.
Stickleback - more callbacks, ones I remember this time! Still looks absolutely fantastic. My wife has given up reading this as she can't remember the continuity but I'm appreciating it. I need to re-read the collected editions I suspect to refresh myself.
Skip Tracer - I agree with people saying this is potentially the best the strip has been. I feel it's moving a lot faster, which is to it's benefit, with a nice straightforward plot and not just Blake being all tough.
Fiends - Enjoying this SO much. It's so folklorey, even the dialogue feels storybook-esque and it looks just wonderful. Since the reboot I struggle to think of a Fiends story that hasn't been great and they've all been very different from each other to boot. Bringing in the magical elements has elevated it although I suspect unreliable narrator in the form of the priest...
Finally Hookjaw - pipped to the summit by Fiends this week after I told some goon on FB it was the best thing in the prog but runs close. Whilst Fiends carries an atmosphere of being a proper olde folk tale I am finding Hookjaw has a dreamlike quality - the way the story sometimes just drifts from one scene to another - that combined with the way it's unfolding makes me double down on my nightmare comments from the other week. It feels classic horror and my only niggle is that the bad guy seems a bit Hellraiser 3 right now but I'm very keen to see where it goes next.
A good prog again difficult to choose between the thrills for top honor.
Dredd – A good enough start to another epilogue for End of Days. We end this episode with an déjà vu type of cliff-hanger [spoiler]with Dredd stung and hanging up-side-down alas thus round he has a hanging partner.[/spoiler] Cornwell' art is growing on me and he is getting more
Stickelback – God story, good art what more can we say about the return. I will have to revisit this since my memory-banks struggle to retrieve to correct memory-unit for all the juicy backstory.
Skip Tracer – It is good to see at least that the strip is getting more love from the forum. This keeps on being readable, but I still feel like the current arc is too much generic and nothing we have not seen before. Good art as always.
Fiends – It is almost that the story was written for the art. I am enjoying this arc and must say that I am not sure I am not trusting the priest; something is just waiting to be unleashed.
Hook Jaw – The story continues to surprise, and the plot is engaging and intriguing. The real source of what is going on is starting to unfold.
Excellent line-up under mybcover-of-the-year vote.
Dredd: The horse was always the best thing about Ichabod, so I'm pleased to see him in this thoughtful epilogue, and so nicely rendered by the ubiquitous Cromwell. Less pleased to see Dredd immobilised again, after falling into a hole. I wonder how many rookies Joe failed over the years for things go he does everything other week now.
Skip Tracer. This is pretty fine stuff, took it's sweet time but everything has finally pulled together to create a coherent world and an involving story. Now if only Nolan was a bit more interesting himself. Marshall putting his back into it.
Stickleback cuts through the cliffhanger and gets straight to the monologuing, but it's interesting material. Absolutely no idea how SB recognised Valentine, but I was happy to see him back.
Fiendsis almost too beautiful for words, but it's maybe in danger of making young Constanta almost unrecognizable as the root of his future self. I'm reminded of the difference between Lestat in the first and second Rice books.
Hookjaw is fantastic fun. The jacuzzi bit gave me the weekly 'wow' this strip continues to deliver. Couldn't quite work out if the nakey ladies were meant to be real, or statues. This is the kind of pondering that passes my day.
Jovus H. Drokk but autocorrect had it's sick way with that post: Cornwell, its, you name it. Apologies.
Great article on how the cover was created:
https://2000ad.com/news/2000-ad-covers-uncovered-disraelis-step-by-step-guide-to-the-whole-cover-for-prog-2204/ (https://2000ad.com/news/2000-ad-covers-uncovered-disraelis-step-by-step-guide-to-the-whole-cover-for-prog-2204/)
Quote from: JimmyNailz on 19 October, 2020, 12:42:41 PMSomeone questioned whether India had had surgery to make her look anime. Quite the horrific concept
Just call me Clare. Clare Voyant...
Quote from: norton canes on 08 October, 2020, 10:43:20 AM
rather disturbingly - in Skip Tracer, since Paul Marshall draws everyone realistically, India Sumner has presumably had extensive surgery to make her look like a manga character, yes? Including eye enlargements (by the injection of extra fluid? Ew!) and lip removal
I half expected to turn to page two of this week's instalment and see the surgery in process - perhaps wisely, however, Peaty and Marshall have denied us that opportunity. Agree with the general consensus that Skip Tracer is shaping up into a decent strip. Might have mentioned this already but Dylan Teague is a bit of an unsung hero with his gorgeous washed-out colour palette.
Fiends is winning the Battle of the Edgington Strips hands down right now - in fact it's difficult to believe they're written by the same droid, with Stickleback's awkwardly florid prose in contrast to Fiends' sparsely effective narrative. That slip into monochrome halfway through Fiends, with the dragon's eyes extinguished, is genius. I guess it's inevitable that a detailed retelling of Constanta's origins would reshape his character somewhat but it's a small price to pay for the reward we're getting here.
Hookjaw's a blast once again (that pool scene definitely needs dropping into an actual horror movie) and Dan Cornwell's art is always a pleasure to have in the prog. Though you'd think that for rough terrain journeys, Justice Department would issue a Lawmaster variant with a bit more ground clearance...
Anderson looks fantastic in the Nerve Centre preview, can't wait to see that.
Quote from: broodblik on 22 October, 2020, 09:04:40 AM
Great article on how the cover was created:
https://2000ad.com/news/2000-ad-covers-uncovered-disraelis-step-by-step-guide-to-the-whole-cover-for-prog-2204/ (https://2000ad.com/news/2000-ad-covers-uncovered-disraelis-step-by-step-guide-to-the-whole-cover-for-prog-2204/)
That is just gorgeous!
Fascinating stuff.
Strong prog this week. Again. Lots to love! V pleased with how Hookjaw and Fiends are turning out.
Giving up on getting my Subscriber Prog on a Saturday -
lucky if I get it at the end of the week nowadays
Another thoroughly enjoyable prog for me. Hookjaw and Fiends are just great in script and art and colour and letters.
and Great Dredd and Stickleback, a cracking prog! :)