Prog 1717 - Dognapped!

[Zarjazzer]

Another solid Dredd and Shakara smokingly hot as the inside of Hades VII. Kingdom continus to thrill, Ampney Crucis and Necrophim make it another pretty good prog. With extra fun  the alien thingy at the end of Crucis was suitably Cthonian looking.

[JamesC]

I thought the Dredd script was ace, Shakara is rocketing along nicely and Kingdom is absolutely fantastic - classic 2000ad.
Ampney and Necrophim just aren't my cup of tea.

The artwork on Dredd though was absolutely shockingly bad. In fact I'd go so far to say as it's the worst single episode of artwork to feature in the prog in last 10 years - at least as far as I can remember.

I know Simon Fraser is capable of excellent work so I don't feel like I'm criticising his talent - I simply don't think he's trying. It looks like he knocked this episode up in half an hour before he went to the pub and I think it does a dis-service to the fantastic script.
The strip is full of rubber limbed figures, shocking anatomy and dodgy perspective. I don't have the prog on hand at the moment but I'm happy to provide page and panel numbers. From off the top of my head, Dredd apparently shooting a rubber bodied Stretch Armstrong in half and (I think) the second panel on last page with Judge Jelly Legs and his belt full of water balloons are particularly bad examples.

[James Stacey]

I can't help thinking this time though.... [spoiler]giant worms? Again?[/spoiler] I think this strip merits a reread when it's finished.

I took it to be the [spoiler]same giant worm again.[/spoiler]

Looking at the triptych on Mr Wells blog [spoiler]http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_cmoMeISWzmE/TTXth8GJeKI/AAAAAAAACDk/JDyQ_jZedW0/s1600/Ampney%2B3.jpg if it's not, he should come up with a different design [/spoiler]

[Batman's Superior Cousin]

I can't help thinking this time though.... [spoiler]giant worms? Again?[/spoiler] I think this strip merits a reread when it's finished.

I took it to be the [spoiler]same giant worm again.[/spoiler]

You mean the [spoiler]SAME giant worm seen with the other Old Ones in deep space near the end of the first book[/spoiler]???

[Mardroid]

(Why so many scars on a medical person? I guess their healing tech only goes so far... but I'd think skin regeneration would remove  much of that stuff.)

Fetishism. She comes from a medical culture: maybe it's normal where she comes from to retain the outward signs of surgery to show what they've had done/repaired.

Kinky!

[Richmond Clements]

I can't help thinking this time though.... [spoiler]giant worms? Again?[/spoiler] I think this strip merits a reread when it's finished.

I took it to be the [spoiler]same giant worm again.[/spoiler]

You mean the [spoiler]SAME giant worm seen with the other Old Ones in deep space near the end of the first book[/spoiler]???

Yes.

[House of Usher]

Kinky!

Precisely!

[Kerrin]

Only had a quick flick so far.

Dredd was superb, that's my favourite so far from Mike, hope there are plenty more. Good energetic artwork from Simon Fraser.

Shakara is fantastic. Is it still wrong to go PHWOARRR at a ladies backside which has been stitched together out of spare parts? PHWOARRR. Great page design.

Ampney Crucis is bimbling along and as no one else has mentioned it, CONGRATULATIONS LARGE 48! I thought, "bloody hell, I recognise him" and ten saw the medallion/clasp that proved it. Nice.

Kingdom, oooooh, [spoiler]Gene's new pack?[/spoiler].

[Emperor]

Well I've not done one of these in a while.

Cover - a splendid effort from JDH who has really captured the feel of Richard Elson's work while making it his own.

Dredd - while Mike's run of Dredds have managed to dodge the feeling of "filler" that attaches itself (rightly or wrongly) to quite a few not-the-Wagner Dredds, I think this goes even further on the quality front and tops the previous ones. Lovely character work but it was also gripping and had real pace. Top notch. I liked Simon Fraser's slightly looser line on this (especially for the scenes in Control) but some panels seemed to lose detail - it might be understandable in the views of distant figures but the third and fifth panels on page one looked like they were finished, odd as the last page has plenty of detail so he can't have been rushed (unless he drew them in reverse order). Not a deal breaker but it looked a little odd to my eye.

Shakara - some stunning art from the Flint droid here, the landscape in that first big panel looked both scratchy and beautifully detailed. It is also good to see the threads coming together here.

Ampney Crucis - layering intrigue on intrigue, he is my second favourite foppish occult detective in 2000AD (but that is not to shabby as Devlin Waugh is top of the chart) and I have yet to be disabused of my earlier notion that this is the perfect story for Simon Davis' art and he does another lovely job here, I just hope he has used up that stock of blue paint and gets to dip into his other colours a bit more because, as previous instalments have shown he has a palette at his command. And [spoiler]"there is a worm in this balloon"[/spoiler] (which someone must say later on or I'll feel let down) could come straight out of 1930s guide to Upcountry Swahili.

Necrophim - still not enjoying it I'm afraid, the glory of God in the last prog firmly underlines that the Carter droid should be on a colour story where he can show what he can do with light, as I think he'd be winning quite a few fans. I think I have realised why Necrophim isn't working for me - I struggle to think of any recent Hell-based that have really worked (possibly one with Etrigan in it which currently is proving difficult to pin down) if there is a segment of Hellblazer that requires him to venture into Hell I'm usually twiddling my thumbs until it is over, the Christian Hell has been so over-used it is difficult to bring anything new to it (I thought bringing in Jotunheim might help, but it didn't). Much more interesting is when you introduce denizens of Hell to the real world but even in series like Vertigo's Lucifer I found my attention wandering. I don't think my general apathy to Hell-based stories is really helped by the plotting and pacing as it seems to be going on forever. However, it seems like something might actually be about to happen after all this set-up, so I'm still open to being won around.

Kingdom - I'm glad this has kicked up a gear as running from giant spiders seemed to go on for too long (perhaps not a problem in the trade but in weekly segments it seemed a bit repetitious) and now things have not only got moving again but it has been kicked up a notch, so I'm on the edge of my seat waiting to see what happens next.

So quite a few hits only one miss - not too shabby. The big plus is that all the ongoing stories seem to be hitting their stride this week and things are going to start hotting up on all fronts. This might underline a bit of a problem with starting so many ongoing stories that required a bit of a slow build-up, as the last few weeks have felt a little like everyone is bringing their pieces onto the board and setting everything up for the actual game (although some have managed to be interesting and entertaining while doing this). So a good prog overall and signs future ones will only get better.

[Rook]

My two creds:

Cover: Ace, and the best of the year so far.

Dredd: I'm intrigued that people feel this is the best of Mike's stories so far as for me I actually find it's the weakest. It's not a bad script by any stretch of the imagination - it's good - but I can't help but feel that the art lets it down significantly, to be honest. Dangerously lacking in detail where last prog's story was bursting with it.

Shakara: I'm getting eager for this to really kick off now, but it seems that it will do very soon, fortunately. It still looks fantastic though, even if this part - to my mind - doesn't quite equal the first few in the script department.

To be honest there's very little I can think of to say about either Ampney Crucis or Necrophim. As a few people have said, they just don't do it for me on any level, really. In the former case, why a chap's duplicate head is jutting out of his own crotch on the first page I just can't imagine, what what, etc. No wonder he looks horrified.

Kingdom: Still great, and I'm still completely with it despite never having read any before, which I think is a testament to how well a low-on-dialogue script can work. The robots are just the icing on the cake of what remains a surfeit of joys as far as the wonderful art is concerned.

[Emperor]

In the former case, why a chap's duplicate head is jutting out of his own crotch on the first page I just can't imagine, what what, etc. No wonder he looks horrified.

If Zaphod Beeblebrox could've he would've.

[Tiplodocus]

Just add my twopennerth to the praise heaped on Michael's run of Dredds. Very good stuff throughout prog and meg.

Kingdom also pretty much what I want from a prog.

Ampney and Shakara less so.

And Necrophim not at all (really not my cup of tea)

[Large48]

Kerrin, beer for you for hitting the answer.......  

Mind you not sure if I look old / fat or what! not as menacing as I would have thought though.........

As always Simon's artwork is second to NONE!

Now where's that Burdis????? it's all gone quiet over there, etc, etc! 

[JamesC]

As always Simon's artwork is second to NONE!

Are you looking at a different strip?

[locustsofdeath!]

Kingdom and Shakara are really doing it for me. These two strips are making the prog worth it right now.

Necrophim is okay, but since the 'prologue' ended I've felt disconnected from it. I'm ready for it to either develop or depart.

Ampney Crucis should just be merged with every other Ian Edington story so we only need suffer one a year rather than...what? four? five? separate strips a year.

Mike's Dredds are nice - and I think I would like them even more if they were dispersed between SOME KIND OF LONGER, MORE MEANINGFUL DREDD ARCS. As it is, they're coming at the end (I hope) of a long string of Dredd stand-alones, some of which have been quality, others which have been so-so (not Mike's, I mean overall since Tour of Duty ended), and I suppose I'm just ready for a bigger story arc to anchor the prog. C'mon Mike, if Wagner keeps vacationing, I'm sure you've got a cool way to blow up Mega-City One up your sleeve right? Pitch it to Tharg and let's get something going!