Prog 1476: Shadows & Frag.

Funt Solo · 22 February, 2006, 02:28:14 PM

Wasn't the statue of liberty destroyed in their experimental teleportation accident?

Satanist · 22 February, 2006, 04:26:55 PM

Hmm - Me no like alt cover trick so plumped for the ABC one.

Dredd - Simple & funny with cracking art.

H.Kipling - I'm guessing this is meant to get me intrigued as there's really no background info on Kipling. Bad man who likes doing bad things is dead but not really. Oh and he hunts Gods. I wouldn't mind if I saw more of this but then again wouldn't lose any sleep if I didn't.

ABC - I really, really like this. Madcap ideas with lovely art. So what if its just a big slugfest when its this enjoyable.

Synnamon - Oh dear. Generic character climbs the walls in outrage. I really did wonder where she was going on that 2nd panel. Tharg should implement the US 3 strikes and you out rule. No more please...pretty please?

10 Secs - Enjoying this but would like it made clearer in the art whether she's a jailbait Lolita or perfectly alright and totally above board teenage temptress.

Oh and good to see the cut-out coupon back in the prog. Its been a while.

A good prog made great by the end of Synnamon. Amen.

ukdane · 23 February, 2006, 02:33:16 AM

So how much does the dual-cover edition weigh? My subs copy still hasn't arrvied, and that's normally due to weight problems!

Funt Solo · 23 February, 2006, 02:38:40 AM

Almost 106% the normal weight.

I, Cosh · 23 February, 2006, 07:36:15 PM

Art-wise, this was an outstanding Prog. You can never have too much Arthur Ranson, spiky-spiky Henry Flint fits perfectly with the ABCs , apart from a couple of dodgy panels I thought Synammon looked gorgeous and the final page of Ten Seconders is one of the best looking things I've seen in a prog for ages. The only fly in the ointment was Boo Cook: I just can't decide if I like his work or not. Things like the Hieronymus Bosch dinner table and the monocle-wearing bionic elephants are brilliant but I have trouble getting past the overall cartoony feel.

The stories all seem pretty good to me as well.

JD - Perfect light-hearted one off.

Harry Kipling - I've pretty much missed all of Devlin Waugh, so I don't have any problems with that. Quirky and amusing, but I like pretty much everything of Spurrier's I've read.

ABC Warriors - What a difference from Slaine! Still features the Mills-patented narrative technique of describing at great length a whole bunch of cool things you've thought up at the expense of plot, but wrapped up in a fun story about giant robots knocking lumps out of each other.

Synammon - Not brilliant, but it really doesn't seem as bad to me as a lot of you think. I like to see a real, honest-to-god, old-fashioned sci-fi story from time to time and I that's exactly what this is (or, at least, has the setting and potential to be.)

Ten Seconders - Continues to be patchily great. I think a lot of this is probably down to uncertainty over whether it's a one-off or an ongoing series. It seemed to me like Jen was supposed to be 17/18 from the outset.

Caveat - I genuinely can't believe people would buy the exact same comic twice to get a different cover.

Funt Solo · 23 February, 2006, 07:45:57 PM

:: "I genuinely can't believe people would buy the exact same comic twice to get a different cover."

They're called completists.

Empire magazine went up to 4 alternate covers for a single issue! I nearly went up to 4 on them, the money-grabbing corporate whores.

Roger Godpleton · 23 February, 2006, 08:49:42 PM

Got the ABC cover.

Fascist Cop: Entertaining one-off. Great idea and execution plus Ranson art. Ending could of been so bad, but Wagner pulls it off once again. Good Stuff.

Aristocratic Monster hunter: Not too keen on some aspects of the art, as mentioned by others, but I generally like it. I liked the script enough to hope for a proper series, but I am doubtful that Kipling himself could avoid getting stale after too long. OK Stuff.

Mismatched Killer Robot team: A lovely big fight to start off the last book, the script serves its purpose, establishing the danger posed by the Shadows, and I'm interested to see what Bootleg is all about. Hopefully Mills will bring the lunacy next week. Flint's art is dependably lovely. Very Good Stuff.

Kick-ass Space Chick: When I was in Middle school, we had to do a test where we had to write to write a short story in 30 minutes or so. Usually, I ran out of time, and ended up writing something along the lines of:

"...and then, suddenly, she was hit by a car.
But then she woke up sweating. It had all been a dream".

or:

"... Just as the madman was about to strike, her boyfriend, Chad, showed up and shot him. They gazed at each other and then kissed."

It appears that I can now be paid for doing this as an adult. SSSSOOOOOO DULL. I kinda liked the second serial, but I'm not willing to see if Clayton and Dows only deliver on even-numbers. If this had been the first Syn story, then I would of agreed with it being voted "Worst Thrill" ahead of Dead Men Walking back in '03. Very Bad Stuff.

Post-Apocalyptic resistance group: Better than previous episodes, due to the absence of any God action, apart from right at the end. I've already forgotten who all the other characters are, so the football guy is a good inclusion, as he'll at least stick out. Mad Props Yo. The Jesus talk is a bit cheesy, but nothing too grating. OK Stuff.

Overall: Ok Prog, worth ?1.75 but no more. Synnamon isn't enough to sour the whole prog but still... OK Stuff.

SamuelAWilkinson · 23 February, 2006, 11:23:30 PM

Can someone with handy access to the relevant back progs tell me this, because I swear I haven't gone mad:

Dog-Tag. Back in the first two books, he didn't look like a dog. He didn't. He's turned into a dog for no reason. What the hell's going on?

Roger Godpleton · 23 February, 2006, 11:31:41 PM

Perhaps the change from Ezquerra has something to do with it. Dogtag wasn't in Book 2 much, so perhaps you're remembering Carlos's version?

Funt Solo · 23 February, 2006, 11:55:12 PM

A cheap way out would be to say he's using a different body - something most of the ABCs have done in their time.

DavidXBrunt · 24 February, 2006, 01:19:59 AM

I think DogTag was wearing a tri-corner hat and bandana over his face for much of his appearances so far, so perhaps he was dog like beneath the highway robber get out.

Al_Ewing · 24 February, 2006, 06:20:13 AM

Didn't Dogtag get his head blown off? I forget. Anyway, I assumed that, like The Hamster, he'd got himself a brand new head.

Anybody heard 'I Like Mike' by Jay Spears? It's fantastic.

Trout · 24 February, 2006, 06:36:16 AM

I really liked this week's Dredd.

The Ten Seconders was still good stuff.

Kipling was lots of fun; promising. I look forward to more.

I thought Synnamon was dull but not actually dreadful.

I hated the ABC Warriors. The scripting is clunky and spoils it, although the art was good.
Like Slaine and SinDex, I'll keep skimming it and wait patiently for it to bugger off.

- Trout

ming · 24 February, 2006, 02:28:17 PM

Great Prog. Liked my variant cover (both of them). Thanks, Green-bonce.

Dredd - I like these kind of stories once in a while, and it's nice to see Mr. Ranson back in the weekly. When do we get more Button Man.

The ABCs return with style - but isn't this the second Malevolent Seven that has graced the pages of the Galaxy's Greatest? The Mean Arena, anyone - Steve Dillon art?

Synnamon - over, thankfully. I tried to like this, I really did. But couldn't.

Harry Kipling entertained me and I'll be happy to have more. Certainly far better than other uses of recent pages *cough - Synnamon - cough*.

Ten Seconders is coming along nicely and I wonder where it's going (I missed the start, but will catch up in a week or two when I pick up the Progs from the last three months of 2005 - yay).

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House of Usher · 24 February, 2006, 05:52:34 PM

Everything I felt about this Prog has already ben said by other people, so I'll just put mine in the order I enjoyed them most.

1. ABC Warriors
2. Judge Dredd
3. Synnamon
4. The Ten-Seconders
5. Harry Kipling (deceased)

ABC Warriors looked great, but "X uses Y bullets" slowed down the action and was a poor narrative device that used to serve very well on educationally improving children's cartoons like Bod. Sorry I didn't hate Synnamon enough this Prog. Maybe I was just grateful that it all got cleared up and explained - much easier than being expected to think for myself: I hate when writers do that - but it didn't offend nearly as much as it usually does. Hooray that it ended so quickly. It was the least good episode of The Ten-Seconders yet. Harry Kipling totally failed to grab my imagination on any level and had me totally not caring. The colouring works against it too, as if the alien gods' only source of lighting is a roaring fire giving off a lot of glare or they live beside a motorway under a whole bank of sodium lighting that's hard on the eyes and not good enough to read by.