Prog 2342 - Urban Renewal!

[Barrington Boots]

On a run of Saturday progs!
Love this cover from Tazio Bettin.

Dredd is already starting to heat up. We know Asher is a decent guy (considering, anyway) and the tension here is who is going to get him first. Great gag with the corpse in the car - funny, but also heartlessly horrible stuff from Dredd.
Portals is winning me round - the monster stuff is good, Dain's overblown dialogue is excellent althiugh the vampire stuff less so. I'm less sure on the racism analogy: I think I know what it's aiming for but it seems clumsy when Kroy is literally trying to avoid being killed by monsters. If the monsters are literal flesh-eating monsters, is fearing and hating them a sensible reaction? Anyway, it's enjoyable stuff on the whole.
Void Runners has won me over - and then it finishes. Argh! Glad to read it's coming back as I feel like it's only just started to get really good. The three subjugators are definitely the highlight.
Absolute belter of an episode of Hershey - the last two pages are sheer, sheer horror. Incredible art and the red against the muted colours is a masterstroke. Nightmarish.
Finally Azimuth - SPOILERS - is what we thought, a straight up continuation of Dexter. Its a standard Dex episode where he shoots people with funny names. Ho hum. At least it looks good.

[broodblik]

Cover by Tazio Bettin:

[Leigh S]

Partying like its 2102 in Dredd. 

I wish Tharg had pointed out the prog numbers from the last Asher story as I can't recall the exact details of where it was all left - Dredd is already onto Asher, Asher is mobbing it up, but its a bit hazy - is Barney up to date enough to track em down?  As ever the KenPT Droid is pretty close to that Classic taste, and I appreciate a reference to ShepNerd, being one.  That said, I do feel the calibration of Dredd Softy/Bastard/Wanker scale seems to have been turned a bit too far to Wanker after some complaints about Softy setting coming through in the N-AI_mand bot.  Burning the corpse is fun in the moment, but is a 90s/00s flavour that jars a bit with the 70s/80s stylings elsewhere.

Portals & Black Goo is working better than Tomlinsons shorts, though as Barrington says, the "Racism" angle is a bit weird. We could presume that the story would reveal that the myths are all just that and the monsters arent "comin over here and taking our entrails", but we've kind of established that they are? 

Still at least theres a theme and I think thats the Void in Void Runners - whats it all about?  Drugs are cool?  Dunno, the comparisons to Ace Trucking arent putting this into teh best light - I could see a fun Ace Trucking story based rouhghly around the same plot points, but it would be half the length and twice the fun?  It;s OK, but feels a bit stretched thin.

Hershey is dead to me (literally)!

Azimuth - not too disappointed that it ties into Sun Dex as it wasnt that out of the blue, but I must have lost track of Sin Dex - wasnt Sinister still after Dexter and co and part of the Creep fakes?  Again, could do with going back if Barney has up to date enough info....

[Leigh S]

Oof!  Barney is 3 years out of date - I know the feeling as the last 3 years all feel like a bit of a gap - if I had the passwords, I wouldnt mind updating it as it would give me an excuse to go over the last 3 years and see if I can make some of it stick

[Richard]

An Honest Man was in progs 2281-2286.

[Funt Solo]

The A-Z has a Kyle Asher page.

[Funt Solo]

Dredd is already onto Asher, Asher is mobbing it up, but its a bit hazy

In the first story, the SJS were the bad guys. In the second, Asher does go perp - trying to generate quick creds to pay to his first victim's daughter. He succeeds, but a hot-head Judge dies in the debacle. He's now wanted.

I must have lost track of Sin Dex - wasnt Sinister still after Dexter and co and part of the Creep fakes?  Again, could do with going back if Barney has up to date enough info....

The A-Z is more up to date on Sin-Dex.

Sinister is a creepfake, and was chasing Dexter and co., who were trying to escape to Mangapore. However, in the last part of Bulletopia (The End of the Pier Show), Lilith (an AI that lives in Dexter's Fony implant) gains the power to locally stealth-blind creepfakes.

Billi, Klinks and Hosanna head for Mangapore, and Dexter decides to return to Downlode. Lilith, who only Dexter (and us, the readers) can see, adopts a Sinister skin. Creepfake Sinister is whereabouts unknown.

(I haven't read the current prog to see how this ties in with Azimuth - I have to wait for digital.)

[Colin YNWA]

Lots going on this week behind an interestingly framed cover.

Dredd the story build. Niemand shows what a superb writer his in with the silent arrest pages, while get an exposition dump as a 'soundtrack' just sublime stuff.

Portal and black goo yeah feels disjointed at the moment but its okay.

Void Runners arh damn only 8 parts, 8 absolutely thrillpower packed part. Interesting Tharg says we'll retrun to the Universe rather than the specific thrill. I mean that might mean nowt and this story has a really satisfying end. So whatever we come back to looking forward to it. This has been a fantastic, fresh story

Hershey thought it was here I saw someone praising Simon Fraser art to the heavens, must have been elsewhere, which is a shame as I can't just quote it and say 'this' the story holds better than last week but let's face it Fraser stunning use of colour is the absolutely star here. Great stuff.

Azimuth nicely slams up back into gear. Intrigued that a story that feels far more of a 'typical' Dexter continuation retains the Azimuth title so things may well develop even further here. Great stuff.

So yeah overall pretty damned fine Prog. Do we know what we're getting to replace Void Runners next week? I'm guessin 2350 will be a jump on Prog (???) so a 3riller (not so frequent these days) or a run of Future Shocks? We'll see.

[broodblik]

.....Do we know what we're getting to replace Void Runners next week? I'm guessin 2350 will be a jump on Prog (???) so a 3riller (not so frequent these days) or a run of Future Shocks? We'll see.

In prog 2329's Thrills of the Future it said that in prog 2343 Herne & Shuck return in Maxwell's Demon - the original 3riller was titled The Crawly Man and was published in prog 2297-2299

[IndigoPrime]

Lovely cover, despite, you know.

Dredd shows more assured writing and art from Niemand and Foster. The black humour and horrible city feel quite classic Dredd, albeit shifted into this more mature era. I'll be amazed if Asher survives this arc, mind.

Portals still feels really messy. Maybe it's Tomlinson's writing style, but from a storytelling perspective it feels quite disjointed. I don't care about the lead. So this feels like a "fine, it's there" strip for now.

Void Runners feels more end-of-arc than end-of-character. Surely the last line from the narrator confirms that. In all, this one was a short blast that was quite fun. Not a classic for me, but I'd happily read another series to see where it might go.

Hershey remains top-notch, in my book. I get that it's divisive. But for me, this pairing of script and art just works. Again, I do suspect we have a main protagonist who's not going to survive the arc. Although Frank might have better luck.

Azimuth was... fine. I mean, at this point it's basically Sin/Dex if Sin had magic powers. It looks lovely. I just still wish it could have been something else. But as an imaginative rug pull, it still outmatches anything else I've seen from this strip in a long while.

Hershey > Dredd > Azidex > Void > Portals

[norton canes]

One of those weeks where another post sums it up perfectly

On a run of Saturday progs!
Love this cover from Tazio Bettin.

Dredd is already starting to heat up. We know Asher is a decent guy (considering, anyway) and the tension here is who is going to get him first. Great gag with the corpse in the car - funny, but also heartlessly horrible stuff from Dredd.
Portals is winning me round - the monster stuff is good, Dain's overblown dialogue is excellent althiugh the vampire stuff less so. I'm less sure on the racism analogy: I think I know what it's aiming for but it seems clumsy when Kroy is literally trying to avoid being killed by monsters. If the monsters are literal flesh-eating monsters, is fearing and hating them a sensible reaction? Anyway, it's enjoyable stuff on the whole.
Void Runners has won me over - and then it finishes. Argh! Glad to read it's coming back as I feel like it's only just started to get really good. The three subjugators are definitely the highlight.
Absolute belter of an episode of Hershey - the last two pages are sheer, sheer horror. Incredible art and the red against the muted colours is a masterstroke. Nightmarish.
Finally Azimuth - SPOILERS - is what we thought, a straight up continuation of Dexter. Its a standard Dex episode where he shoots people with funny names. Ho hum. At least it looks good.

So I'll just leave it there

[Bad City Blue]

Dredd was solid, not really moving anything on much but the info dump with the daft arrest in the background was effective. Love Foster's art, even if "Ken" doesn't like him.

Portals doesn't do much for me, not totally sure what's going on, though the art is good

Void Runners was a good series, and not stretched too thin which always makes a nice change. The best use of Boo Cook so far.

Hershey is OK, feels like we've been following her for decades up there, I hope it actually finshes this time round.The art is basic but works well.

Azimuth was fun, so glad it turned out this way as I was ready to bail on it last week until the twist.

[Jim_Campbell]

Love Foster's art, even if "Ken" doesn't like him.

Not sure where you're getting that from...? I don't do Twitter much these days, but that's the only place Ken has a social media presence and I haven't seen any griping about Tom on there...

[Proudhuff]

Lovely cover, despite, you know.

Dredd shows more assured writing and art from Niemand and Foster. The black humour and horrible city feel quite classic Dredd, albeit shifted into this more mature era. I'll be amazed if Asher survives this arc, mind.

Portals still feels really messy. Maybe it's Tomlinson's writing style, but from a storytelling perspective it feels quite disjointed. I don't care about the lead. So this feels like a "fine, it's there" strip for now.

Void Runners feels more end-of-arc than end-of-character. Surely the last line from the narrator confirms that. In all, this one was a short blast that was quite fun. Not a classic for me, but I'd happily read another series to see where it might go.

Hershey remains top-notch, in my book. I get that it's divisive. But for me, this pairing of script and art just works. Again, I do suspect we have a main protagonist who's not going to survive the arc. Although Frank might have better luck.

Azimuth was... fine. I mean, at this point it's basically Sin/Dex if Sin had magic powers. It looks lovely. I just still wish it could have been something else. But as an imaginative rug pull, it still outmatches anything else I've seen from this strip in a long while.

Hershey > Dredd > Azidex > Void > Portals

This^^^ from me too!!

[broodblik]

B/W and Coloured Covers: