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[Full Tilt Boogie]

I didn't realize that Full Tilt Boogie was so Marmite. I've been enjoying it and looking forward to more. I wasn't much of a fan of the Vector 13 structure, and wasn't sad at its eventual passing. Like the odd idea to replace Tharg, it was thankfully not permanent. Or - I'm with the Soggy Bottom Boys.

Full Tilt Boogie

It depends on the story being told - as Dredd is not always the protagonist.

In The Apocalypse War, he's the hero.

I'd say Apocalypse War Dredd is one of the more ambiguous examples - he kills his own chief judge who was not in control of his actions, he kills numerous citizens either as a mercy or for collaboration and then he wipes out half a billion innocent civilians. Not really textbook heroism

I entirely take your point. The counterpoint is that a lot of people consider Winston Churchill a heroic figure in British history (despite things like fire-bombing Dresden), because his enemy was Hitler. And so, as long as Kazan had worse motivations than Dredd, we can allow Dredd to be a hero while he does all the terrible things you mention.

It's a bit like this, I suppose:

It depends on the story being told - as Dredd is not always the protagonist.

In The Apocalypse War, he's the hero. In Working Girl, he's an antagonist, and Mona Plankhurst is the hero. He also gets to play mentor roles, like in Carry the Nine - where Maitland is the protagonist.

By being fairly brutal, single-minded and monk-like (he doesn't seem to have personal desires), he's able to act in ways that seem heartless (as he applies impersonal and hurtful laws without remorse) or kind (in using those same laws to support underdogs), depending on the needs of the story.

Just throwing it out there that I'm really enjoying the prog at the moment - it's in the pipe, five by five - no damp squibs in the mix.

If I had to rank 'em, I'd do it like this, probably:

1. Brink
2. Intestinauts
3. Fiends
4. Hope
5. Judge Dredd

It's also weird how the names of so many poor series have their flaws somewhere in the title: Dry Run, Trash, Skip Tracer & Junker. I was developing a game concept once and warned away from the title "Dead On Arrival", on the basis that it was tempting fate.

One of the issues with Skip Tracer was that it felt as if in the first series his magic eyes weren't really an important part of the strip, and then later they were used repeatedly as a magic get out of jail free card. It's like the opposite of the Birdie Lie Detector problem - with that, they introduced it and then used it super-sparingly after that because they realized it was something of a plot-killer. But with Nolan's eyes, everything is solved by them so there's never really any threat.


My review of the first series (Heavy is the Head):

Probably the best you can say about this is it's a bit like Bad City Blue, and the worst you can say is it's too much like Dry Run. On the face of it, there are strengths - it's a cyberpunk dystopia, with minotaurs - the hero eats noodles in neon, like in Blade Runner. But, the lead is a second-rate Stallone devoid of anything approaching a personality - and if the lead character is the keystone upon which the entire edifice relies, that's a problem. Perhaps Pat Mills is onto something when he says that one of the rules of great comic strip creation is to name the strip after the main character - because I don't know his name. He's a bit like Korben Dallas from The Fifth Element, which had the same problem of not really giving the lead any positive characteristics. And he's drawn with a permanent villainous sneer.

My review of the second series (Legion):

Turgid weak-sauce that turns all the lights to amber on the dull-ometer. Somehow, even maestro MacNeil on art duties can't enliven this macho libre ham-fest of overwrought melodrama dressed up as cyberpunk. It's missing the punk, is the problem. It's cybercorporate by way of jocksville, as brooding muscle-man with special "get away from me" powers does no skip tracing whatsoever and instead goes to psychic war with his equally brooding muscle-man brother. (Except they're all being exploited by the Associament. Sorry, the Governiety. The Fellowgarchy. Something.)

My review of the third series (Louder Than Bombs):

This Strontium Dog reboot continues to explore Johnny's Nolan's new-found mutant eye powers, as he investigates a false flag plot to cover up an attempted genocide committed by his father the Associament Governiety Fellowgarchy Contrafibularity.

Whilst the lack of a bearded Viking sidekick or a cute alien medic seems like an obvious own goal, this does provide some action momentum as it chugs along to the unlikely climax of defusing a bomb by throwing a taser at it (using ESP). Just another day in the cube.

On the original publication run, the last one I got was Midnight Rogue, which was enjoyable.

Option Z: Consociation may be a word, but that doesn't mean we should use it.

[The Helltrekkers]

Tricky. The characterization and story structure in Ten-Seconders is probably academically superior, but I didn't really get into it until the last series. The Helltrekkers, for all it's maudlin schmaltz hangs easily on the disaster-movie framing, and the core concept has become part of Dreddverse lore.

Or, to quote myself:

Although this tale, heavy on the melodrama, proved risible for a portion of the readership, the concept of Helltreks and radwagons became a staple motif of Dreddverse lore. Often seen in the background (in, say, Alabammy Blimps, and as the denouement of the modern classic The Heart Is a Lonely Klegg Hunter), or as the kernel of a wider investigation (as in The Raggedy Man and Ratfink), the concept was also used as the core structure for the Missionary Man fable The Promised Land.

[Meltdown Man]

Just check out Funt Solo's wonderful Round 2 so far thread to get a sense of what Round 3 will be...

Much as I am an amazing nerd (and modest to a fault), that's AlexF's thread.


Oh, and Meltdown Man - a glorious part of my childhood.

I like that idea of a five minute commitment, JB - getting started on things is often a stumbling block for me.

This feels appropriate again: Leonard Nimoy: The Ballad of Bilbo Baggins


I'm not sure how you rinse your brain after that. Maybe this?

SNP's Ian Blackford calls Boris Johnson 'a liar' in Commons - and this time, the Speaker lets him carry on.

Gary Gibbon's goes for the throat in this C4 interview: Boris Johnson questioned on Partygate during India trip – as pressure builds at home

I'd almost feel sorry for him if it weren't for the fact that he's a horrible, self-serving, arrogant bully that deserves to fail.

It joins the ranks...

[Return of the Taxidermist]

Return of the Taxidermist is a classic - Olympic Staring, and that bit where an axe-wielding maniac sets about the synchronized swimmers and gets awarded top points from the judging panel. Taking the supporting act of Jacob Sardini out of Dredd and into a 72-pager was masterfully done.




Maelstrom was just too much a space-LARP. The best we can say about it is that it's a sort of proto-Insurrection. It *looks* good, but it turned the melodrama up to eleventy-stupid, and the hybrid pterodactyl-Judges didn't really work, visually or conceptually.

Good job persisting! A lot of folk just fold when things get tricky - but exploring your options can pay dividends. In this case, a tenner.