Prog 2175 - Semi Detached

[broodblik]

Wow, since I went digitally this is the first time that the digital prog is not available.  I have avoided to read any spoilers or even previews on the new story, so now it is the waiting game

[Darren Stephens]

The sursprise.....I'm not sure I'm on board with. I'm a huge fan of both creator droids, so we'll see how it plays out. I have faith!

[IndigoPrime]

Still Progless on a Wednesday. Boo and hiss. And we did actually get mail today as well. Here’s hoping it’s in a pile at the local sorting office, because I really want to read this one.

[hippynumber1]

If Wagner was on-board with this from the start I suppose it’s okay. Still can’t help feeling cheated though...

http://www.comicon.com/2020/03/31/2000-ad-news-whos-headed-for-a-long-walk/

[Rately]

If Wagner was on-board with this from the start I suppose it’s okay. Still can’t help feeling cheated though...

http://www.comicon.com/2020/03/31/2000-ad-news-whos-headed-for-a-long-walk/

I'm looking forward to reading the rest of the story, but can't help feeling it really needs to be something special, otherwise what was the point.

I will trust in the writer and argist, and see where it takes us.

[IndigoPrime]

Full story here and on the 2000 AD blog. Notable bits:

Co-creator of Judge Hershey, John Wagner, said: “When discussing the new series with Matt Smith and how it might fit in with Guatemala, I suggested Hershey’s death could just be a subterfuge – I had no plans for Hershey and am happy to see others take her in new directions, so there’s a little clue in Guatemala, that I don’t think anyone spotted, that things were not as they seemed! And who doesn’t love a good old story of revenge?”

[Rob Williams]: "“John agreeing we could tell this story, and to fit it in around Hershey’s ‘death’ in his story was important.”

[TordelBack]

First time digital-on-the-day for me, and a great prog to be doing it with. 2000 cheers for Tharg and his tireless mechanical minions.

Initially growling at the Secret Story especially as there appears to have been ample room in the established timeline to tell this sort of tale. However, Fraser on Dredd(-ish) is always a winner for me, and this is exquisitely told by both him and Williams, so judgement is reserved.

Survival Geeks steals the week's top spot with art that seems made for zooming and panning, utterly beautiful. After a rocky start I grew to love this strip, and I'll be very sorry to see it go.

Dredd looked eye-scorchingly divine and wrapped up well, but definitely could have used a third part to include some giant fleas and other HIStK mini-perils - even a Banzai Battalion reprise! - to really make full use of the Rinus Limpopo Quinz Revisited concept.

Aquila has really stepped up a gear with all the time jumps, and the prospect of both the JPF Crack Suicide Squad in action and an imminent pyroclastic finale. Goddard is quite brilliant here, balancing a light openness with rich detail.

[Judge Olde]

I've yet to read this weeks prog, but just saw this article about the spoiler story & thought it might be of interest to others

https://2000ad.com/news/spoilers-whos-back-in-2000-ad-prog-2175/?fbclid=IwAR08YtY4CaTpdgezCcZaxR3m73bdiS68PK1l9IletkOH__nwUuFebld5phc

[Richard]

That's the same link Indigo Prime posted above.

[broodblik]

Another good  prog. Since the start of the year the prog has been very good. 2020 is so far a great year.

The highlights for me is Aquila and Simon Fraser's art and return on the strip that we will not name. Adding to this some nice work from Googe on Survival Geeks as well.


With all the doom and gloom world-wide thank you for Tharg and team for giving us a ray of light. 

[IndigoPrime]

The Prog has landed! \o/

[norton canes]

Gonna nail my colours to the mast and say that, for three reasons, this is one of the best progs ever.

1. The fact that it's here at all, a testament to the phenomenal effort put in by Tharg's droids under the most trying of conditions.
2. Because I'm reading it after ten days of lockdown and working at home and beyond the fact that I'm lucky to have my family with me (and they're still healthy), it's one of the few things that's made me happy.
3. Even if 2 were not the case, the quality of the strips alone is still enough to make it magnificent...

For starters, Hair Of The Dog; it might be one of those slight two-parters destined only to fill future Case Files but this part is the only single instalment of a strip I can remember that's made me laugh out loud ('WHOOMMMMF'/'FZZZT') and brought a sentimental tear to my eye (the lovely final page). The brace of double-page spreads in Survival Geeks, one of my super-favourites of recent years, is sublime and Aquila is thunderously good, exactly what a historical epic comic story should be. It's nice to see that Dan Abnett isn't the only droid who can pack a prog with more than one strip! And while Skip Tracer is pure schlock I'm not averse to a little schlockiness, especially if it contains full-frontal wizened zombie attack action. Also, isn't Dylan Teague's colour pallet to die for?

And finally, the strip-that-shall-not-be-named. All I can say is 1. it's ace, and 2. it's comics, this sort of thing happens, people die and are resurrected for all kinds of expedient reasons. Don't tell me people would be happier if the last we'd seen of Judge Death and The Angel Gang had been at the conclusions to Judge Death Lives and The Judge Child? Long-running strips need to keep coming back to their bankable assets and I don't see anything wrong with crow-barring in a little plot amendment to facilitate this. I read Guatemala last year, it was brilliant then and it's brilliant now, and nothing that happens subsequently will change that.

So, all I can do is give massive kudos to everyone involved in getting this and future progs out to the squaxx. Command Module crew, we need you more than ever right now.

[Richard]

Don't tell me people would be happier if the last we'd seen of Judge Death and The Angel Gang had been at the conclusions to Judge Death Lives and The Judge Child?

I read Guatemala last year, it was brilliant then and it's brilliant now, and nothing that happens subsequently will change that.

It's not the same. Judge Death didn't die in his first story, he was trapped in Boing. Bringing back Mean Angel the first time worked; bringing back the rest of the Angel Gang in prog 958 didn't work and since The Three Amigos they've never been seen again.

Reading Guatemala won't be the same again, because the next time we read it, we'll know that we're not really seeing the big event we thought we were seeing, and that diminishes the significance of that entire scene. Imagine if they brought McGruder back? Would Death of a Legend still be the
same? "You deserved better."

To my mind, saying people come back from the dead all the time in comics is just another way of saying "it's only a comic so it doesn't really matter." If I thought that, I would have stopped reading comics. It happens all the time in American comics, which is why I don't read them. It very rarely happens in 2000AD, and when it does I usually don't like it. One of 2000AD's strengths is that death is usually for keeps.

[TordelBack]

Gonna nail my colours to the mast and say that, for three reasons, this is one of the best progs ever.

1. The fact that it's here at all, a testament to the phenomenal effort put in by Tharg's droids under the most trying of conditions.
2. Because I'm reading it after ten days of lockdown and working at home and beyond the fact that I'm lucky to have my family with me (and they're still healthy), it's one of the few things that's made me happy.
3. Even if 2 were not the case, the quality of the strips alone is still enough to make it magnificent...

QFT!

One of 2000AD's strengths is that death is usually for keeps.

Is that really the case these days, though?  McGruder and Wulf stayed dead (zombie attack version aside), but almost everyone else has come back now, either as themselves or a clone/secret son.

[JOE SOAP]

Don't tell me people would be happier if the last we'd seen of Judge Death and The Angel Gang had been at the conclusions to Judge Death Lives and The Judge Child? Long-running strips need to keep coming back to their bankable assets and I don't see anything wrong with crow-barring in a little plot amendment to facilitate this. I read Guatemala last year, it was brilliant then and it's brilliant now, and nothing that happens subsequently will change that.

Neither Judge Death nor The Angel Gang got a send-off that approached the sentiment of Dredd's final farewell to Hershey.