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Have yet to read it...but great cover by Cliff Robinson. Ingeniuos!  

Beaten to it...

Cover – Amusing Cliff Robinson cut and paste gag

Dredd – Great fun. Kudos to Al Ewing for not ending it with a gag about [spoiler:1zb3xobe]Ozzy's ring being sullied in the cubes.[/spoiler:1zb3xobe]

Zombo – His origin explained and a new twist revealed. Good stuff.

Slaine – The owner of the tower revealed. You'll kick yourself. Gets good after the fight finishes.

Cradlegrave – The feeling of menace goes up another notch. This is easily my favourite John Smith story ever and matched with fantastic art.

Savage – The get out from last week's cliffhanger is a bit convenient, but very old school. So much for the pub though.

Back cover – Who wears the wig?

Quote from: "worldshown"Slaine – The owner of the tower revealed. You'll kick yourself.

Surely it's [spoiler:nck7c7uq]Ukko[/spoiler:nck7c7uq]?

The run of quality continues. Excellent prog this week all round. Dredd and Cradlegrave being the cream of the crop.  

OK, it's slightly worrying when I enjoy a whole prog immensely, especially when Savage and Slaine are in there and I don't normally enjoy those stories.

Cover - Lovely.  Really, really lovely.Nice to see chav fashions - trackies and trainers and all - are still a feature in Mega City One.This cover is a little story in itself and is really well done.  Class.

Dredd: OK, this should have simply make me snigger a bit and move on, but it was sublimely silly fun with a ton of classic lines:
[spoiler:1aj7s9sf]In Sovblock, athletes do not have such luxuries! We rely on skill, stamina - raw determination!' 'And cheating, of course.' 'Da! But only if we are going to lose!'[/spoiler:1aj7s9sf] Genius.  I also love the idea that a [spoiler:1aj7s9sf]tech failure can ruin the women's solo event in world sex championships[/spoiler:1aj7s9sf] I guess my sense of humour is stuck in the adolescent stage... this episode was stuffed full (ooh-er) of great little lines, the commentary on the event being class throughout :>  Ewing can write Dredd full time once the mighty JW hangs up his pen.  Do not let this droid escape, Tharg!

Zombo: To quote Tiswas - THIS IS WHAT WE WANT!!!! Utterly, utterly great. I have to quote again: [spoiler:1aj7s9sf]If you go down in the woods today, the creepers will eat your eyes[/spoiler:1aj7s9sf] - [spoiler:1aj7s9sf]No! Please! Not that! Not-- THE SCORPIONS![/spoiler:1aj7s9sf] - YES!!!! [spoiler:1aj7s9sf]Oh my God, that's not the commander! It's--it's BEES![/spoiler:1aj7s9sf] - That line is going to be my Facebook status for the next million years, I think, and Zombo's origin... pretty much told in a single panel... genius

Slaine: Gorgeous, if slight.  I might enjoy it more if I had been following this strip over the years, but that hardly matters as this stands perfectly well on it's own.  [spoiler:1aj7s9sf]Love how Ukko gets Slaine to bang the gong[/spoiler:1aj7s9sf]

Cradlegrave: i am absolutely loving this - [spoiler:1aj7s9sf]my theory of nothing strange going on, really was all ok up until the very last page[/spoiler:1aj7s9sf] - creepy as hell and utterly compeling.

Savage: This is another story I usually skip, but this outing has been fantastic and for the first time ever I'm really looking forward to next weeks episode.

Back cover: [spoiler:1aj7s9sf]does this mean Paul Daniels is joining the Judges?[/spoiler:1aj7s9sf]

What a great prog.

Great cover, great gag. Weird that the ginger kid actually looks like the new sex olympian, but I'm sure that's just a coincidence.

Nerve Centre: Nice little gag in Tharg's intro. And the competition for Machine Girl DVDs. I'm not sure I've heard of that one, although it's vaguely familiar.

Dredd:  Very amusing. Gread end to the story. (Why does that sentence seem like an innuendo?)

Zombo:  Great and funny as always.  That zomby baby was genuinely freaky.

[spoiler:3tq7p0bn]Zombo was a complete success-- docile, obedient and friendly. Oh he might be a little crude at times....
Zombo: WELL, CAN I EAT YOU MISTER LAB PERSON?[/spoiler:3tq7p0bn]

Slaine:  Wonderful art. Still a bit undecided about the story, but it's not bad.  All that comercialism seems out of place in a proto-celtic story, but it's all very toungue in cheek, so... ok. (And the owner of the tower is a great character.)

Cradlegrave: Mixed feelings this week. The story itself is ok. Considering how the last chapter finished, I would have liked to pick up from there though. Now the main protagonist hasn't done himself any favours with this show of selfishness or maybe he is just weak, easily led.  I wonder if this means he's set up for destruction at the end of this and he's been made less sympathetic for that reason.

Savage:  Rescue. More shooty stuff. Ok.

Another great prog. Last week's highlight was the Tweak nightshirt, this week's is the sly reference to this classic moment in Thrillpower:

(//http://www.2000ad.org/covers/2000ad/hires/93.jpg)

10p...........those were the days.    I'm no sure this was the ref for that great moment n zombo, but its a great image!

On the plus side:
Cover, Cradlegrave & Dredd

Yawn:
Slaine & Savage

Pure Thrillpower:
Zombo & Rear Cover

For those not in the know...

The back cover is clearly an homage to the cover of Prog 584.

(//http://www.2000ad.org/covers/2000ad/hires/584.jpg)

Oh, and as for sly references, slightly off topic, but spotted none the less, in this weeks Cradlegrave: Morley cigarettes.

//http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morley_(cigarette)

I am enjoying all 5 strips at the moment, and that doesn't happen very often. Normally I only like 3, maybe 4. I am even enjoying Savage for the first time ever.

Who thought it was odd to read [spoiler:3hvkmmk2]a Pat Mills character openly praising Pat Mills' Margaret Thatcher-a-like[/spoiler:3hvkmmk2]? It must have been strange for someone like Pat to write that... It shows that Savage certainly isn't a part of Pat!

I like Cradlegrave, but I hope it gets going soon. I do like slow build-ups, but this one has used up all of its allowance and must get going next prog.

Dredd was fun but the thing that stuck in my mind was the next week blurb - "It came from Bea Arthur Block".

Back in April P.J.Holden responded to Ms Arthurs death with "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! (For reasons that may, or may not, become apparent....)"

Leading me to speculate "Coming soon to a House of Tharg product near you, a strip that features copious references to Bea Arthur, art by PJ..." Cam I just say...told you so!

Thoroughly enjoying the current run of form from all areas - loving Zombo particularly. Hope to see this make a swift return once this initial chapter is concluded.
J.

My word ... what a bloody fine prog. Almost makes up for the fact that it didn't arrive until today!

Mr Ewing's Dredd is quite, quite splendid ... just the right proportions of smut, innuendo and stuff that's actually risque, combined with dry wit until that rarest of things (for me, at least): a laugh out loud moment from a comic book. Bravo!

Not content with a bravura Dredd, the Ewing droid follows up with Zombo ... is there no end to this man's talents? Flat-out mental in the finest of 2000AD traditions: violence, more violence, polite zombies, death planets, swarms of bees imitating people, and more violence. How could it get any better? Oh ... I know, let's get the current generation's finest exponent of old-school art lunacy to draw it. Fan-bloody-tastic.

Slaine is fun and looks gorgeous. The character leaves me a little, well, "Meh" these days -- I'd sooner read a new DeFoe story from Pat, since its bonkers high-concept has entirely won me over. Nonetheless, this is entertaining enough stuff with lovely art from Langley.

Cradlegrave seems to be me to be tapping into to the finest tradition of British SF and horror ... this is hairs on the back of your neck creepiness set against the most mundane of backgrounds. It's a genius turn by John Smith, and a superb art job by Edmund Bagwell ... it's bloody hard to draw normal people not doing very much, and doing it well is the key to the rising sense of unease.

And finally, Savage. For some reason, I'm slightly vague on the early stages of this reboot, but this is good stuff. Goddard is drawing some dynamic, exciting action sequences and the whole thing barrels along at a decent clip.

Like so many posters already, I have to give a big grin and a thumbs-up to a five-good-strip prog, but also to mention that I find it heartening to see an issue of this quality without a contribution from Wagner.

That's no disrespect to the Wagner droid, of whom I am on record as being a staunch fan, but there was a period a couple of year back when I thought that a Wagner-less prog would be real trouble for the title. Less so these days, which can only be a good thing for 2000AD, since John, Pat and Alan will all surely want to take the Long Walk (or a wedge of cash from a computer game company) one day ...

Cheers

Jim

Have to agree with much of this thread.  It wouldnt take much searching of my posts to find a very down squaxx bemoaning the state of the comic and coming to terms with the fact he was reading it mostly for the Wagner, with an odd bit of Mills doing the business now and again.  However, the current prog is really doing all i could ask of it - non Wagner Dredds that feel "right", and same new writer doing his own (and the artists!) thing just as well. a bit of old school in the mix from Mills and John Smith doing something that earns its place by being very different and so far, decently creepy - even if it doesnt quite pay off for me in the end, I certainly wont begrudge the intention.  Indeed, switch out one of the Mills for Stront, and this would be a strong contender for best lineup we've seen this century.

I still have concerns about just how long this can go on, and in some ways I am seeing a perfect storm of strips that are all decent reads at worst... but well done Tharg.  For this rnu at the very least, I stand corrected.

I was away for last week so that leaves me 2 weeks behind on the progs. Finally caught up and agree with most of what has been posted here re them. Also ... finally something looks like it is happening with Cradlegrave! I'm all for a big build up and character fleshing out but looking at it logically we dont really know a lot more about them than the start nor care about them any more. I'm trying to enjoy it but the characters are all pretty unlikeable.

Cradlegrave is an astonishing piece of writing (and art).
I've been readin ti, then reading it again slowly, then looking at it again, and I can't figure out just where that feeling of dread is seeping from. Yes, this latest episode has the first 'incident' as it where, but up until then it was just creepy for no apparent reason.

Brilliant stuff.

Is that not because you know there has to be a payoff due to the fact its in 2000ad and the fact little has been revealed. There are some small happenings that can be taken as sinister or mundane depending on your expectation. I'd expect watching Corrie fully expecting it to explode in a Cthulu-esqe explosion of tenticles would have the same effect

Cover: Beautiful in its own strange fashion. Great Stuff.

Dredd: I actually had to put this down at one point because it was so funny. I also love the fact that it still has a sad ending and that the creators know to respect this. Great Stuff.

Zombo: Slightly more sedate than previous weeks, but still Thrill of the Year. Great Stuff.

Slaine: Yes Pat, this is all very nice. Satires on property booms? That Pat sure can surf that zeitgeist! OK Stuff.

Cradlegrave: Well it looks like we'll be getting the money shot next week, I just hope it's not some silly copout "It was just some cakes" or something. Great Stuff.

Savage: So how about that monster, eh? Oh, he's ill. Well, he can always be resolved in Book Kajillion. To make up for it we'll just bung in some stupid made-up espionage-y dialogue and everything will be copacetic. Now let's get some hookers and some coke. OK Stuff.

Cover: Yay! Mr Robinson, I salute you. Always a pleasure to have you up the front.

Dreddy: Again, I'm not overly fond of this- but it didn't read "wrong", just not to my taste.

Zombo: Right. I want a whole series set in this universe of humans exploring worlds that just try to kill them, with no intelligent aliens. A nihilistic Star Trek. That's such a pefect, encapsulated, pitch for an ongoing series that I haven't been quite so impressed by anything in 2000AD for a very long time. This is magnificent stuff. The pages detailing Zombo's backstory are among my favourite bits in the comic, ever- and I only read it today. Glorious.

Slaine: Art's a bit fusty this week, I thought- but this has pleasing echoes of those early Bellardinelli stories, where Ukko would get Slaine into all sorts of trouble each week. Again, top stuff.

Cradlegrave: More build-up, though this week it seemed to be going somewhere. Ordinarily I'd've given up on a strip wherein four episodes go by and nothing really happens... but this... but this... there's menace in the pages. I look forward to watching it unfold over the rest of its run. Mr Smith hasn't let me down yet.

Savage: Gawd bless it, I love it. And the art is exemplery.

Back cover: Heh. I can still remember buying that prog. It was a random purchase, back during a period where I wasn't actively getting 2000AD every week. I remember being disgusted with the thinness and paper-stock, and not buying again for ages.

So,

Top Thrill: Zombo.

Best Bit: Zombo's origin.

Splundigs!

Steev

Cover - A one panel story. Brilliant.

Dredd - Stonking finish. Give Al some more Dredd jobs please Mighty One. <simpergrovelbreakwindnervouslysimper>

Zombo - Favourite thing in the prog. Awesome art again. Flinty's alien flora and fauna are beautifully done, there's almost a Moebius feel about some of it. Al Ewing and Henry Flint are my new dream team. And now we've got inbred cannibals too. Perfect.

Slaine - What the f*ck. I actually read a slaine and didn't think "what a load of old monkeyspunk". No ancient boring bollocks, it's just daft. Much better than I'd expected.

Cradlegrave - Creeping. Me. Out. Skin crawlingly atmospheric in story and art.

Savage - Was good. Jeez.

Back cover - Who wears the wig? Well in the old day's it would have been a Wogan caricature of some type. But nowadays it could be any kind of craziness.

Another great prog, even Slaine and Savage, which is kinda weird considering how I've felt about them for years now.

I think we could do with a decent space opera story. We haven't had a decent one of those for a while.

Just a little gripe about the cover.

Don't get me wrong it is a great cover but why cant they be topical to stories inside. these can be assigned to star scans.

Gripe over.





V

What can I say that's not been said?  Fine prog.

Didn't care for the cover much - I appreciate the joke, and I love Cliff's Dredd usually, but this doesn't work somehow for me. Thought I should get any negativity out the way early doors, cos the rest of it's a corker!

Judge Dredd - it's got crazy future sports, Mega City  Vid-jocks getting threatened, homicidal priests, Dredd handing out harsh sentences, all overlayed with a uniquely British sense of smutty innuendo. What more can you ask? Ewing scores another hit, and the Marshall & Blythe combo don't put a foot wrong. They are shaping up to be a really good team on Dredd. I still wouldn't let John Wagner & Carlos Ezquerra fly on the same plane though.

I think Zombo is just a masterpiece. I'm seriously going to start having nightmares about them birds. "I'm dead. RWWARRRK"

Slaine looks pretty as always. [spoiler:38ujz86s]I'm not sure I buy either the coincidence of running into each other, Ukko's denial of the obvious dangers (implausible for such a smart  career coward), or Slaine being so easily manipulated into beating the gong.[/spoiler:38ujz86s]Frankly, Slaine became meaningless for me plot-wise after the first few sagas (time travel was the 'jumping the shark' moment I think), but I've always appreciated it as a vehicle to tell great celtic/fantasy type stories with lush artwork, and this doesn't disappoint on that level.

Cradlegrave continues to ramp up the menace. [spoiler:38ujz86s]Going to the old guy's house after a hit and run seems a bit unlikely,[/spoiler:38ujz86s] but the characters remain believable. I really hope this doesn't disappoint, but I really can't say where it's going at this stage - which is good really, but if it later turns out to be pants, can I go on record as saying I knew it deep down all along (similarly if it turns out to be a classic)? Absolutely love the art by Bagwell - the palette of reds browns and mauves is suitably grim.

Still liking Savage. Is that last panel a blatant homage to Ashes to Ashes with the chequerboard ceiling tiles, moustachioed cops and shootahs?

I find I'm waking up on a Saturday and wondering if the postie's been like I haven't done for a good while, and that's a good thing.

I'm not going to comment on Slaine after this week because it really is absolutely terrible stuff and I can't muster the energy for it. Savage on the other hand is bearable and showing signs of developing into something that's 'not completely shit', which has taken me by surprise somewhat.

Now for the good stuff. Dredd was aces. Al Ewing is working wonders with the character in his brief spells and a longer run is surely coming although maybe not quite yet. Bringing him on slowly may be the best bet for long term success.

Cradlegrave has creeped me out since it started so I can't wait to see what it has in store now that the plot proper looks like it's kicked in. The old woman really amped up the weirdness this week didn't she?

Zombo needs to run and run. The sheer invention in this short run has been off the scale and deserves a much broader canvas. And I too was freaked by the birds. Seriously creepy, and all the more so for appearing in an otherwise quite breezy series. If breezy is the right word for a series that killed almost  it's entire cast in the first two episodes.

And the cover was tops too.

Forgot to add:  If Edmund Bagwell is the same chap who did the "Juves n the hood" strip in a Dredd special all those years back, then he has to be seconded back there pronto! I always loved that take on Dredd, and hoped to see more of the artist. His lack of a return gig was especially annoying given the genreal level of art back in the meg and prog was much lower than it is now, but even in this age of much improved art, that strips seemed to capture something that very few can...

QuoteI'm not sure I buy either the coincidence of running into each other,

(Referring to Slaine and Ukko!)

I have always assumed that they were 'fated' to be adventuring companions. Cathbad predicted this arrangement himself in "Warriors Dawn". Sort of like a Geas. I think Slaine's livelihood rests on this. So, it's more than a coinincidence that they meet again. Don't take my word for it though. It's just one of those things that I've assumed.

Loving Zombo, the art, story and ideas eg. clone lovers, sentient deathworlds etc.

I'd love this to come out as a hardback T(p)B like that Lobster Random arc did.

Overall, loved it.

Dredd - not been disappointed by Ewing yet. Paul Marshall's Dredd is not my favourite but it's perfectly serviceable.

Zombo - great, lightweight, classic 2000AD strip - again, Ewing delivers the goods again. Flint - a joy, as always.

Slaine - BOOOOOOOORING. Enough was enough a long time ago. Langley's art is too dense, too un-comic-ey, doesn't flow; Mills' script lazy, on autopilot.

Cradlegrave - still intriguing, agree with other posters - it might go down the paranormal route or it might just be hinting at it, either way I wanna know.

Savage - enjoyable.

I have just got back from the pub and I've had 5 pints, so bear with me if I seem overly critical.

Class progage from the thrill-meisters.

Little Shop of Cradlegravers is a standout - it's so overbearingly tense due to a masterful fusion of art and script.

Dredd v. funny - loved the commentary tying into the gun battle.

Zombo - bonkers and loving it.

Slaine - hurrah!  It's Ukko!

Savage - a sort of cross between The Sweeney, Life on Mars and Generation Kill - which makes it not 'alf bad.

Cover - special mention for this - it's a story all it's own - why not make more cover story type covers, seeings as Star Scans are seemingly a thing of the past.  G'arn.

Nothing at all for me to add right now. You've said it all already, you bloody buggers! I totally agree with all the comments posted so far, even the mutually contradictory ones. Two absolutely cracking Progs in a row.

10/10 (again)!

Quote from: "James S"I'd expect watching Corrie fully expecting it to explode in a Cthulu-esqe explosion of tenticles would have the same effect

Oh it does, believe me. Y'see I've got this theory about Blanche.......