Prog 1841 : BLOW OUT

[Buttonman]

Lovely Dave Taylor Dredd cover - the skeleton doesn't jump out it's a great image.

Dredd : Concludes Wastelands. A little bit quick and neat at the end but a good arc with cracking art. Reminded me of a 1950s film noir but with more robots. Top thrill!

Defoe : Defoe fires up his wheel but has to wait for the kettle to boil before taking off. Good fast paced episode.

Age of the Wolf - Not a fan but a decent big double page spread.

Sinister Dexter - A look at Ramone & Tracy's happy relocation - that ain't gonna last! Decent outing but no action.

10 Seconders : Not entirely sure who is doing what to whom and for what purpose but it looks nice.

No letters.

Good, enjoyable Prog with nothing too amazing but plenty of thrills bubbling away.

[Banners]

Simon Davis back on SinDex. Magnificent!

[JamesC]

Pretty much agree with everything Buttonman said except I've found this Dredd story to be a bit mediocre.

[The Adventurer]

Its been quite a while since Simon Davis did a SinDex strip, yes?

I've been digging the hell out John Burns on SinDex. If I'm a honest with myself, I was a bit skeptical he could pull it off. But damned if he proved me wrong (though he does seem to do the same thing he did on Nikolia Dante, and downplay a lot of the 'future tech' we probably should be seeing around).

I also love all the SinDex love we seem to be getting this year. The last few years it felt like Sinister Dexter was relegated to once-a-year filler fodder for year ends and lead time to jumping on Progs.

[Eamonn Clarke]

Lovely cover. Pops out on the newstands.

Dredd: Wastelands part 5
It's not vintage Wagner is it? The sense of tensions and impending doom from the build up to Chaos Day is absent. Instead we get lots of exposition explaining how they followed the money trail to get their man. And then Dredd plants a bug to get his confession. Bit of a cop out really (pun intended). At least the art by Dave Taylor is interesting with its obvious comparisons to European artists like Moebius. I love the panel on page 5 where Dredd walks back to his Lawmaster.

And nice to see Beeny again, but overall a bit Meh. When is that Dark Judges story due?

Dafoe is grimy black and white brilliance.

Age of the Wolf is interesting but don't the Wolves look a bit cute and cuddly when they are standing around talking?

Sinister Dexter. Skipped. Will read it later

Ten Seconders. Building up nicely but a bit cramped in 5 pages. I want more, wonder how it would have gone down in the Megazine

[vzzbux]

The cover brought this beauty to forefront of my mind.
Don't you just love a bit of vintage Higgins.




V

[JUDGE BURNS]

this weeks prog cover  1841,  did remind me of the front cover of prog 471. thats saves me looking it out from my collection now.


Another great prog this week...

[Albion]

I particulary enjoyed Defoe this week.
Mmmm........who's that undead forum member on the right?

[QuickQuag]

The cover brought this beauty to forefront of my mind.
Don't you just love a bit of vintage Higgins.




V

That beautiful 80s block-shadow on the corner sash!

[James Stacey]

still no prog for James.

[Frank]

It's not vintage Wagner is it? The sense of tensions and impending doom from the build up to Chaos Day is absent.

It would be, in a post-Chaos Day story. I wouldn't want anything he was writing now to be vintage Wagner; he's dispensed with almost all of the iconic villains of Dredd's past now his interest in the strip seems to lie in the combination of procedural detail, character, and the city's slow progression/regression towards something like the condition it was in before the judges decided they were necessary to keep a lid on things.

overall a bit Meh. When is that Dark Judges story due?

Given Wagner's statement that the only reason he was interested in writing the Dark Judges story you mention was because he'd figured out a way to make them scary again, I'm not sure we should expect the Second Battle of Peanut Park.

[Proudhuff]

Cracking Dave Taylor Dredd cover

Fun and games in Damage report

Dredd : Concludes Wastelands. A quick tie up but plenty to chew over, the city really is on its knees.

Defoe : on the boil!

Age of the Wolif - they are all a wee bit to cuddly looking  for me, looking forward to some Grey Witch action


Sinister Dexter - nice set up but hey we KNOW that won't last...


10 Seconders : keeping its early promise....so far 

Fine prog

[Proudhuff]

It's not vintage Wagner is it? The sense of tensions and impending doom from the build up to Chaos Day is absent.

It would be, in a post-Chaos Day story. I wouldn't want anything he was writing now to be vintage Wagner; he's dispensed with almost all of the iconic villains of Dredd's past now his interest in the strip seems to lie in the combination of procedural detail, character, and the city's slow progression/regression towards something like the condition it was in before the judges decided they were necessary to keep a lid on things.

overall a bit Meh. When is that Dark Judges story due?

Given Wagner's statement that the only reason he was interested in writing the Dark Judges story you mention was because he'd figured out a way to make them scary again, I'm not sure we should expect the Second Battle of Peanut Park.

At The Glasgow Con The Big W stated it was because of the wonderful Death artwork (one of which was on show) [spoiler]'someone'[/spoiler] sent him that he chose to bring em back, other wise he would have left them where they are, he doesn't seen to keen on them at all.

[Frank]

Wasteland gave us plenty of the wonderfully written procedural that's characterised Wagner's best modern work on the strip - from the use of surveillance and lateral thinking to find the bombs and the bombers in Terror and Total War, to the forensic detail afforded to charting the geometric progression of the virus in Day of Chaos - and Waldorf and Mutch were classic gunsel characters, their dialogue and ice cold dispatching of the hired help providing so much of the fun of the story and mirroring Dredd's own M.O. In the scenes with Beeny which top and tail the tale, we also got another addition to the foundations of what Wagner's entire time on the strip (or at least the last decade of it) has been building towards.

Now the conditions which led to the judges' rule no longer obtain - and there are no more citizens of MC1 than there are residents of England - it's only a matter of time before Dredd (and others) confront the logic behind the absolute authority of Justice Department. Dredd assuring Beeny that judges like her will be needed soon reads like prophecy or foreshadowing to me.

I don't think it's a coincidence that Beeny and Starbux are engaged in essentially similar enterprises - using violence to establish ownership of real estate so it can be filled with their kind of people - "some we'll make citizens of, some we won't. Plenty of room now anyway". The orphaned kids we see Beeny's squad creating at the start of the story aren't given much more consideration than the assets Starbux has to liquidate to add to his portfolio - "There's two types of people, the doers - like me - and the little people. An' the little people don't matter. How many of them died in the freakin' Chaos? Millions. You think one more is gonna make any difference? They're just grubs crawlin' around in the dung heap".

Justice Department and Starbux have their own versions of what Dredd describes as sanitation detail; I hope Beeny's leave gives her time to consider that.

[Frank]

At The Glasgow Con The Big W stated the wonderful Death artwork [spoiler]'someone'[/spoiler] sent him that he chose to bring (the Dark Judges) back, other wise he would have left them where they are, he doesn't seen to keen on them at all.

Wagner said as much in the interview he gave around the time Death and Co appeared in Day of Chaos, but he added that once the art had provided the impetus for bringing them back he had to think of a way to make the characters work in a new story and seem threatening again. I'm not expecting it to be War and Peace, but it'll look great.

The Dark Judges don't really fit in with the tone or the subject matter of what Wagner's writing these days anymore than Mean Angel, Chopper, Walter, or any of the other characters he's quietly retired over the years, but Staples is so great he deserves another crack at those characters. Letting artists' enthusiasms dictate the subject matter and tone of stories has been part of Wagner's way of working for years - Oz came about because McCarthy had drawn those messed up looking alternative judges and had a lot of Australian reference photographs from his time working there on animation.