Messages

'Armageddon' derives from the Hebrew, 'Har Megiddo'.  Given that Megiddo is a place, we may be able to shoehorn a 'Meg" reference into all this as well.

But don't worry if you don't know what 'Armageddon' means.  It's not like it spells the end of the world or anything.

Who did the rogue trooper print? Pretty sure that's not Steve.

Never mind who did it, what's Rogue doing in that picture?  I assume he's meant to be sitting on a pile of rocks, but it looks more like he's lowering himself onto it, or squatting over it.  It looks like the picture was originally his head and torso within the Souther emblem, and then a decision was made to extend it, adding the (very far-apart) legs.

[Who?'s the Boss]

Who?'s the Boss
An obscure Calhab artist unexpectedly becomes President of a major MC1 corporation.

Who?'s on First
Hijinks ensue as the Who? family move into a plush residence on MC1's famous First Avenue, along with Ma Who?'s sister, Beverly Hilbillie.

I think I've gone from puns to bad TV Guide entries.

[Alien Sex Fiend]

Alien Sex Fiend

The Olympic Games most-watched event has a new contestant.

[Death by Chocolate]

Death by Chocolate

When Brit-Cit's Chief Judge Cadbury and his aide Yorkie visit MC1 to attend Hershey's commemoration service, crime boss Mal Teser has other ideas.  Ideas that involve a certain alien superfiend and a giant fondue display.

[Magnam Force]

Magnam Force

Lost behind enemy lines, straggling Souther trooper Harry Callahan's life is saved by the accidental discovery of a GI pistol.  But what do you do when your commanding officer is a talking gun, with ideas other than getting you back to safety?

[Bring Me the Dredd of Carlos Ezquerra]

Bring Me the Dredd of Carlos Ezquerra

A homage prog in which Tharg challenges his art droids to draw a story in the style of King Carlos.

Hmm, interesting.  I just buy the trades these days.  I'll occasionally grab a prog, but not often.

PPS Do you all really, really like Judge Maitland stories or not?  Asking for a friend with a big mouth (currently stuffed with feet).

Frankie says, When Two Diatribes Go to War.

Dash, what have you done this time??

I'm not going to disagree, for example, that some frames of Dredd-on-a-Lawmaster can be a bit uncanny valley, but that's not limited to Tom Foster.

Absolutely, I totally agree.  I do think it happens less these days now we have toy Lawmasters, which are clearly being used as models by some artists to get their angles and views right; not to mention those who model them in apps etc as well, but it clearly is very challenging.

My fault for not being clearer - it was part of my point about the following panel, (which has a headshot of a Judge that turns out not to be Dredd, but says "I'll go now" immediately after we see Dredd on his Lawmaster), though to be fair I did go off point to gripe about the art.

I do think it is worth critiquing the stories in the hopes it is helpful.  It is not intended to have a dig at anyone.  I like that Niemand includes casual in-world references e.g. to Otto Sump, pre-Apoc fashions, etc.  On the flipside, I still think there were a number of confusing parts in the presentation of the story, e.g. when Purcell & Dredd's trip wading through the swill tanks is mentioned again.  Likewise, I do see several Dredd images throughout the story which look very much like Bolland covers, but there's no denying the art is really good overall, and things like the crashed truck at the start of "An Honest Man" and the crashing gunship look fantastic.  Besides, all artists learn from each other and if you're going to choose your influences, then Bolland is a great choice.

Any road - my point is that the best artists ever to grace the prog have fucked up the odd panel - we notice it, we move on. We forgive them because generally the quality of art on offer in the prog is fucking amazing.

This is an excellent point too.  Tom Foster's art is very good overall, and I will keep looking out for Kenneth Niemand stories in the hopes they will click with me.  And of course, they're both in the prog and I'm not, so that speaks volumes too.

I hope I am still allowed in the clubhouse.

PS, Funt, you always do a great job pulling out panels to illustrate your points.  Do you have a digital sub?  I had thought of including shots of some of the things I was talking about, but I don't fancy cracking the spine of the book putting it on the scanner, and taking a photo seems less than ideal.

^ Sorry, that all needs a serious edit but the edit window remains ridiculous.

I'll look forward to it, as perhaps it will give me a different perspective on things.  I would genuinely like to like it, and had a little bit of a "Is it me?" moment with it.  "I can't tell who's who, I can't tell what's going on, and I can't even turn the pages!"  But each of those were momentary, and I have all my faculties, so in the end it came down to "It's not me, it's you."  Thinking over it even now, it's just so obvious and by-the-numbers.  I don't mind that, have Dredd visit his 'friend'/'mentor'/'plot dumpee' on the shooting range.  Have Dredd apparently do badly but actually do well.  But make it interesting!  John Wagner would have given those people character, but it was blah and I just let it all wash over me.  At the same time, the art was good but didn't do its job.  At the very end we see Dredd hasn't failed because he didn't shoot the holographic target Judge with the 'Judge' badge.  But all the targets are Judges, and we can't see any of their badges, so there's no build up to an "Aha!" but a "What's Dredd talking about?  Oh, that badge says 'Judge'.  Does that mean the other targets have badges saying something else?  (Looks back.)  None of them are presented large enough to read."  The story should flow, through the anrrative and the art. Sure, it should have sudden whammys that pull the rug out from under our expectations, but the reader shouldn't be piecing together what is going on in the way this requires.

I've been looking forward to reading "Judge Dredd: A Penitent Man" for a while now, as I've been getting the impression that Ken Niemand is considered a rather good and inventive Dredd writer.  Apart from "Surfer", recent Dredd trades have felt rather flat, so a return to form would definitely be welcome.

Unfortunately that hope has been dashed by yet another lame set of stories.  "A Penitent Man" has some potentially intriguing ideas - SJS doing dodgy things to keep convicted ex-Judges out of MC1 - but it's handled in such a by-the-numbers way. I was yawning over the ho-hum idea of yet again making everything dystopian even more so.  "Of course" they're all bad, "Of course" they do whatever they want.  The story tries to ratchet up tension by ratcheting up the scale, until at the end of the first part of the triptych, there's an army of SJS Judges lining up, but in the end it falls flat.  "Asher stays with me," says Dredd, and that's that.  No "Too bad, Dredd, this is an SJS matter now".  No plans to push Asher under a zoom train the next day.

By the time we get to the second story, the pivotal strong idea of Asher trying to be an honest man depite MC1 is thrown away.  Within a few pages we see him beating someone up, getting illegal access to Justice dept computers, and planning to go less than slightly legal with an operation that may restore some of what was taken from him on Titan.

The story is drawn by Tom Foster, who, as we know from the cover of "Every Empire Falls", can do a very good Bolland, but the work is uneven.  It's very proficient and looks great in places, but not always.  We see the 'side view of grumpy Dredd looking at <person> like he's smelled something bad' shot more than once.  Sometimes it looks good (and Bolland-y), but other times Dredd looks like a gummy old Popeye wondering where his false teeth have got to.  It's all drawn with skill but just look at Dredd riding away on his Lawmaster at the bottom of page two of "An Honest Man".  We know how long those Lawmasters are, but Dredd looks like his seat is only centimetres from the front of the bike.  The very next panel, at the top of page three, has a helmeted Judge talking.  We can't see his badge and he's in no way differentiated from Dredd.  I was completely confused for a moment, thinking it was Dredd, then rationalising that the 'riding away' panel was actually Dredd saddling up and here he was speaking before riding off, until I realised what was going on, and this is part of the problem.  He could have been helmetless, or had a beard, or been a different skin colour, or drawn holding something or with his badge showing, or even been drawn with Dredd visible in the background.  The art is certainly very professional, and well done technically, but it's variable all round.- lookl, story telling, choices in panel composition.  It doesn't help that the SJS play a large part in things, as, in my opinion, they have the stupidest and most awful uniforms of all the MC1 Judges.

Like "Judge Dredd: The Darkest Judge", the paper stock is super-thick again.  I'm not sure if this is to make the book feel more substantial, or just a cost (or supply) issue, but more than once I thought I'd turned over two pages at a time and spent a few annoying seconds trying to separate what none should separate.  This wouldn't be a problem if the book ihad page numbers, but it doesn't.  Having advocated (to derision!) for page numbers since the first JD Case Files appeared, and being very appreciative since they were introduced, I don't understand why Tharg isn't ensuring every trade has page numbers.  I'm sure P14 has extra capacity.

I thought this was the first Kenneth Niemand I'd read, but looking back I realise I'd already read some of his work in the equally underwhelming "Judge Dredd: The Darkest Judge".  Considering that this is all as lame as "Judge Dredd: Regicide", my new suggestion for the identity of Ken Niemand has to be Arthur Wyatt & Rob Williams.  I don't know if anyone else has suggested that he could be more than one person, but remember: Niemand is an island.

With his overly-long neck and funnt teeth, Rogue looks more like an otter or Rufus the naked molerat.  And what's going on with his left shoulder?

It's cube time for sure.