thanks postie for the second week running prog has arrived on a Friday.
haven't read yet , anoher lovely Jake lynch cover.
DREDD one off from Carroll/Marshall
all other stories continue
and I know this is important to some of you, but 3 letters on letter page.
(http://i144.photobucket.com/albums/r182/Caliban_photos/1955_zpsdy9noxqo.jpg)
Mines just arrived, too. Lovely cover, that.
It is indeed lovely, but that looks like a ridiculously tough game of Frogger
Showing your age there. Kids today would see it as Crossy Road, Daddio.
I do wonder why they call it a review thread?... anyway
Nice cover very reminiscent of Ron Smith possibly?
Nerve Centre: big push on Molch-r's ABC, and why not? The big film/tv review continues in Damage Report.
Dredd: A fine story by the Car-rolled crash-test droid, let down a wee bit (unusually) by Ms Parkhouse slightly out of kilter balloon placement, strange how when this misfires how it can trip up a story. On a purely personal point of choice I like my MC1 a bit more grubby and run down, especailly post DoC.
Defoe: gets its teeth into the story proper, could really have started from here without the previous couple o weeks, but who would tell that to Pat?
Brass Sun, Nice unexpected twists and turns to the tale, excellent.
Sin/Dex, only back to reading this cause Rich says so, and it is the best its been for a while, but how would I know as I tend to skip it :crazy: Telegraphed big surprise coming?
Bad Company now has me hooked, Artwork and story cracking alone at a fair lick, Top Proggage!
and three wordy letters with the Tharg-threat of Dreams of Dullworld returning :(
That's a fine cover. Z
Stunning prog.
Dredd was disarmingly sweet.
Defoe finds another gear.
I actually liked Sinister Dexter!!!!!!!!
Brass Sun justifies the narrative jump between the last book and this.
Bad Company doesn't just fund another gear, it invents one. This is the reason 2000AD is peerless amongst mere comics.
Quote from: Proudhuff on 31 October, 2015, 11:40:58 AM
A fine story by the Car-rolled crash-test droid,
That nearly ended up in the 'things that went over my head' thread! ::)
On the cover front, I did have a chuckle over the nod to the illustrious Mr Kennedy in the graffiti.
I would have to agree on Brass Sun. This series seems to be picking up nicely now and shaping up into one of the strengths of the prog. Defoe? not sure yet. As you say, up until now it really hasn't offered owt to make it worth the effort. Perhaps moving forward we'll see something worth sitting up for.
I'm going to hold judgement on Bad Company until the end. I'm not a massive fan of Mr Dayglo's art and considering the shoes he has to fill, to quote from Blackadder, I have to admire his balls.
Well I don't normally talk about the cover but that is a fine one. Something Jim Baikiesque about Dredd there or is that just me? On top of that so much movement in the cars, not quite sure how Jake Lynch has done that, I'm thinking its in the colours? Either way astonishingly effect and just a very well crafted piece of work.
Alas the Dredd inside isn't so much. Strange I'm a big fan of the Carroll Dredd so was a little disappointed this felt ... flat... I could pick holes in the plot but that's not the big problem, the whole story felt a littled too muted and staged. Not a fan of this one.
Defoe had an up week, I've stopped trying to work out the ups and downs of this story and I'll just enjoy it when I enjoy it and gripe when it dips. Whatever happens I suspect it will end up being by far by favourite Defoe tale to date.
Brass Sun and Sinister Dexter are both on consistently supreme form, okay so S&D having a chat with Moses while the battle blazed was all a bit 60s and 70s Marvel but it served a purpose for the story so I'll let it pass. Brass Sun was absolutely faultless.
Bad Company is continually building and engaging lovin' it but this week I found the art a little loose in places, not something I've noticed before and it might, might be more to do with Jim McCarthy's inking rather than Dayglo's pencils but in a few panels it was weak and pulled me out the story. Otherwise a fine part to a great story.
Dredd. I like the Carroll Marshall partnership on Dredd. A neat self contained tale
Defoe. I've been waiting to find out more about the Vizards so looking forward to this
Brass Sun. I still love it. An new AI emerges to rival Merlin
Sin Dex. Loved it. Not quite sure what's happening to Moses though.
Bad Company. I need a better understanding of the original BC nefore I can comment
overall a top prog and excellent saturday reading in between scooping pumpkins
Bad Company has me completely baffled........and not in a good way I think. Am i being completely dense? I hope for some kind of enlightenment at the end of it.
Seems I'm the odd one out, but I really don't like the cover. Dredd and especially the bike don't look right to me and the traffic in the background is very simplistic to my eye..
Anyway, I enjoyed the Dredd tale (although not really liking the art) it was a neat and rather sweet tale. These strips are part of what makes Dredd such a special strip. These single episode strips can be funny, moving, whimsical etc and can be amongst the best Dredds.
Brass Sun seems to be hotting up and I even enjoyed the old funtsters.
The first two volumes of Bad Company are up there with the very best of 2000ad. Despite the best will in the world, I'm rather baffled by this incarnation. I like looking at the strip and I like that Bad Company is in the prog, but it should be more than that.
Pretty enjoyable prog then, but with a few niggles.
Does anyone else's cover have weird pixellated red lines on it, or is it just me? They don't seem to be on the cover in the pic above. I'd post a photo but it won't let me.
Actually I couldn't see them in the picture on my iphone but I can just make them out on a laptop, so I assume everyone's looks like that. I think they spoil the picture and look like they're not meant to be there but were a guide for the artist which he then forgot to remove. Maybe.
Quote from: Richard on 01 November, 2015, 04:19:13 PM
Does anyone else's cover have weird pixellated red lines on it, or is it just me? They don't seem to be on the cover in the pic above. I'd post a photo but it won't let me.
Pretty sure they are supposed to be there. Just part of Jake Lynches style. I really like the effect! Each to their own, of course. ;)
Nice to see something different to a black outline.
Fabry and Bisley both went through red line periods
(http://i.imgur.com/fMgb5ZT.jpg?2) (http://i.imgur.com/XCFj2vb.jpg?1)
Ah, the day when Hershey went mad by wearing a face like the Joker and her non-reg high-heel boots. (That always was a very odd star scan.)
Quote from: Colin_YNWA on 31 October, 2015, 08:48:25 PM
Something Jim Baikiesque about Dredd there or is that just me?
Thank you! That's been itching away at the back of my mind since Saturday morning! I think you're quite right.
Quote from: mejustnow on 02 November, 2015, 11:47:06 AM
Quote from: Colin_YNWA on 31 October, 2015, 08:48:25 PM
Something Jim Baikiesque about Dredd there or is that just me?
Thank you! That's been itching away at the back of my mind since Saturday morning! I think you're quite right.
yeah, that's closer than my stab in the dark earlier in the threat, Baikiesque it is and not a bad thing either.
Sorry, but Bad Company is still incomprehensible gibberish. It's fine in isolation, separate from what went before, but six episodes in and without any recognition of the fact that loads of characters have come back from the dead is just wrong.
If it's trying to be clever then colour me stupid.
I fear this is going to end in "it was all a dream" for Danny, maybe in a psycho ward somewhere and pumped up on meds. Or something similarly meh.
Quote from: Proudhuff on 02 November, 2015, 03:22:32 PM
Quote from: mejustnow on 02 November, 2015, 11:47:06 AM
Quote from: Colin_YNWA on 31 October, 2015, 08:48:25 PM
Something Jim Baikiesque about Dredd there or is that just me?
Thank you! That's been itching away at the back of my mind since Saturday morning! I think you're quite right.
yeah, that's closer than my stab in the dark earlier in the threat, Baikiesque it is and not a bad thing either.
Yeah about as good a compliment as I can think of.
Looks more in the very best tradition of McMahon, Kennedy, and Flint, to me:
(http://i.imgur.com/rntGaqH.png?1) (http://i.imgur.com/RgGzp67.jpg?2)
Jake Lynch has the makings of an up and coming Dredd classic artist.
Quote from: Richard on 01 November, 2015, 04:19:13 PM
Does anyone else's cover have weird pixellated red lines on it, or is it just me? They don't seem to be on the cover in the pic above. I'd post a photo but it won't let me.
They do look a bit odd like guides to show what's selected as they are not antialiased. Cracking cover though.
Quote from: Geoff on 01 November, 2015, 04:18:32 PM
Seems I'm the odd one out, but I really don't like the cover. Dredd and especially the bike don't look right to me and the traffic in the background is very simplistic to my eye..
I actually agree with what you say, that the individual elements aren't the best that we've seen on the cover, but put together I love it! We've seen Dredd on a bike many times, but somehow this cover brings something fresh to the scene.
To misquote Will Rogers (had to Google that), I've yet to see any Jake Lynch art I didn't like. Style-wise, seems to be finding his feet and rearranging his influences... I'm seeing a Baikie Dredd on that cover, with Bolland traffic.
Dredd'n'bike is great, the background vehicles I find a bit bland. Love Jake Lynch's work, his colouring in particular is ace.
These wee one-part Dredds are the lifeblood of the strip - when I started reading Tooth they were key to understanding the character and the city. Love the longer thrillers but wish we had a few more of these now and again. Michael Carroll's Dredds often miss the mark for me, but this was a little beauty - really sweet and just about managing to veer clear of Robbie Morrison territory (only just, mind).
Defoe is jolly good, promising an interesting new direction next week. Been waiting ages to know more about the Vizards!
Brass Sun throws us a sudden narrative curveball, and is all the better for it. For someone with such a clean artistic style, though, it can be surprisingly hard to tell what Culbard's meant to be illustrating sometimes. Had to read those last few pages a few times to make sense of it.
Sin-Dex continues to be surprisingly good. Just a shame this story didn't happen a few years ago long before my interest died. Moses gets some actual character development for the first time since, what, 1997?
I'm really struggling to know what to make of Bad Company. There's a weird dissonance thing going on and it's hard to know if that's a deliberate effect of the character's confusion or because I'm not getting on with it.
Great prog!
Loved them all! Sin-Dex is perfect, wish artist did it few years ago!
One little thing that get on my goat about Sin-Dex - that Moses comment that they are the best gun-sharks, and he hired them so many times. But Moses is from Parallel universe and he killed young Sin-Dex. SO his comment are illogical?!
Spot on DJ, that was a nice old timey one off Dredd. Encore. Z
Quote from: Goaty on 04 November, 2015, 03:49:01 PM
One little thing that get on my goat about Sin-Dex - that Moses comment that they are the best gun-sharks, and he hired them so many times. But Moses is from Parallel universe and he killed young Sin-Dex. SO his comment are illogical?!
Oh yeah good point. Maybe he was aware that was the case in this universe.
Another cracking Prog this week.
I agree with Jimbo about Dredd. Just a great one off like we used to get back in the day. I can't remember many more recent one offs as good as this. I have said it before, but I really like Mike Carroll's writing on Dredd. So with him and Rob Williams supplementing the ever brilliant Wagner, it feels like Dredd is in safe hands.
Defoe - like Colin I am enjoying this more than other previous tales. There are possibly two reasons for this a) six weeks in and I am still understanding it and b) Leigh Gallagher's art is the best it has ever been. To my eye it previously had a bit of an untidy look, but that seems to have been eliminated now.
Brass Sun. Seems to have picked up again after a relative lull. Thanks to Eamonn for the explanation last week as to who the gold guy is. At the risk of dragging up the "Im not enjoying the Prog at the moment and I know why" thread, this is a story that suffers a little bit from being broken into ten episodes every year. It certainly helps to keep the back Progs handy.
SinDex. Just a masterclass in how to tell a story in an individual episode that is part of an ongoing story. Loving it.
Now for the bits I am not so keen on.
I am really trying hard to like Bad Company. Really I am, believe me. After all the previous ones were amongst my all time favourite 2000 AD strips. But, but ...this isn't really working for me. And I think I know why. It isn't that it features previously killed off characters - Peter Milligan made it perfectly clear that will be explained during the recent Thrillcast. No it is two things. Firstly the story seems to be taking forever to move on. It seems like little has happened for the last three or four weeks. The old Bad Company did what SinDex is currently doing - nice snappy episodes that were part of an ongoing story. This...well not so much in my view. Secondly, and I stand corrected about the screentone comment from a couple of weeks back - ok it was used in the old Bad Company, and indeed a random flick through some TPBs shows other stories used it as well it the past, but the point is I never really noticed it before. And the reason for that was it was used far more subtly - more sparingly and finer dots. Now it feels to me like it is being used as the default shading technique and its just not to my taste. I appreciate other might like it, but it's not for me.
The cover. Now at first glance this looks great. Indeed when I first saw Eamonn's post of it on my phone on Saturday I thought it was great. NowI have the Prog in my hand I am not so sure. Firstly the mo-pads are too basic. We have had some great, bizarre designs down the years but this just ignores all that. Secondly are the red lines. Now I really don't mind that they are red, what I don't understand is why they are pixelated. Or rather why you would have them intentionally pixelated as Darren seems to be suggesting. Just looks like a low-res computer image to me.
Honestly, I think this weeks Dredd might be my single favourite one-off since Caterpillers. Just absolutely clicked with me on every level. Praise be to the mighty Carroll and May he never leave us.
Well, that's a full 5/5 Prog for me, those don't come along too often. Loved every story, with a simply superb Dredd and captivating Bad Company leading the field.
The idea is nothing new, but the sheer craftsmanship in that Dredd... Just a great sequence of subtle misdirections from both art and script, all building to a satisfying conclusion. Yeah, one of the best one-offs in recent memory.
Even though the nature of the mystery is now pretty clear, I am loving each successive episode of Bad Company more. The art is gloriously energetic, the story 100% Milligan, and I'm greatly enjoying the ride.
Defoe fascinates. My favourite later Mills strip, it continues to have a coherence that just seems to build from book to book. The art is as great as ever, and the evolving world always interesting.
SinDex is just pure cool. Edge of the seat stuff, beautifully rendered, and Brass Sun follows a similar model.
Top, top thrills all round.
Dredd was the best thing in the prog this week, as people have said, hardly the most original but so well told. Given we didn't see the little boy's mum at the start I did wonder for a moment whether the woman outside was his mum!
Defoe was very good and I did love the bit where no one would go down the man hole.
Sinister Dexter was a whole lot of fun.
Brass Sun was interesting but as others have said it takes me a while to get up to speed on what's happening (and more importantly what has happened before!)
Bad Company, I haven't a clue what's going on here, and not in a good way, shame as I really enjoyed the opening episodes.
Seeing Goddard on SinDex is very interesting. It seems that I prefer a more 'realistic' artist on this strip (see also SBD), probably because the characters themselves are so cartoony (regular readers of my drivel will know I usually prefer the most stylised art possible). Seeing the violence rendered in a crisp realist way somehow emphasises the strength at the core of the strip, the conflict between the characters as amoral murderers for hire, and charming punning funsters. When the killing looks fun, that tension evaporates.
It's the wheel on the Lawmaster that looks wrong, as it looks as if it's been drawn from a slightly different angle.
I loved the Dredd as it's close to home and so well observed and that's why I bought two pages of the art.