London's Burning - Prog 1396

[paulvonscott]

Ah, I was still wincing at the thought of aliens, even fictional ones called 'The Clench'* when this gem came up:

"Those fans on the web are less than one percent of the readership.  They just like the sound of their own voices..."

Ha-ha-haaa...

Anyway... Dredd was great, Savage and Tyranny were okay, but Tyranny ended really well when they put all the distracting gobbledigook away and just got on with some drama.  Nothing wrong with the two part future shock really, nothing wrong with the story really, but it gave me such a laugh I probably enjoyed it more than I should.

Not a bad prog, again, looks great.

*Clench (v.) The action of a pair of buttocks (see Bison)

[The Monarch]

Yep definatly like the sound of my own voice ;)

Anyhoo

Dredd: excellent as always

Savage: Best thing Pat has written in a long long time

Lowlife: still not 100% on this but will welcome a sequal

rex: should have stayed dead to be honest

future shock: enjoyed it

[thrillpowerseeker]

I dont agree that Pat Mills is BACK on top form..to me he never lost it!...Cant wait for the new ABC story with Flint...Its getting really exiting now in prog and meg

[W. R. Logan]

Have you ever met a terrorist? They're not all brilliant misunderstood geniuses that are experts in the latest technological advances. Some of them are a bit thick.

La Placa Rifa,
W. R. Logan.

[W. R. Logan]

>Wait till 2005 for part 2? You funks!

And even that will be too soon.

La Placa Rifa,
W. R. Logan.

[Bolt-01]

Tyranny Rex: Me and Dud nearly used Ice-9 in big freeze, but decided to be obvious and call it Insta-freeze instead.

Bolt-01

[philt]

Unfortunately all the ones in Judge Dredd are a bit thick... But then isn't that true of all the villians in Dredd - appear,plot their fiendish plots, cackle manically, twirl their moustaches and then get arrested / killed or whatever. Which is fine - Dredd's the "hero" but every so often it would be nice to put the charactor in jeopardy
As for ever meeting a terrorist? No. Living in the same place as terrorists? Yes.

[Dudley]

Bolt -

I hadn't even seen that!  Glad to see John Smith reads the same books.

For those who haven't got a clue what Bolt's referring to, it's the strip linked below, he said self-promotingly.

Link: http://www.2000adonline.com/?zone=input&page=thrillviewer&choice=bigfreeze" target="_blank">The Big Freeze

[Floyd-the-k]

all is good;
Yeowell`s art leaves me cold, but the Tyranny Rex story could be good. I think Dud has been reading too much Eng Lit stuff, the babble in John Smith`s writing is just babble
Terror is terrific, I only worry it`ll finish too soon
Droid Life was very funny
Savage brilliant. How does he know that the Volg`s are perverts? Same way he knew about the soap, I suppose
Future Shock; looks good. that message board where people just love to hear the sound of their own voices sounds bad. I`m glad I`m on this message board.
the cover was pretty impressive

[Bico]

BAH!  
I only just got this today, and it was along with a stack of bobbins american comics, too (guess what got read first).
Reviewing it seems a tad redundant, since everyone above has pretty much articulated my feelings on the prog, though I WILL miss loveable, right-wing, mass-murderer Bill Savage until book 2 appears - in 2005.  Homophobic subtexts don't write themselves overnight, I suppose.  I really am sorry to see Bill go.
Great prog all round, but the jury's out on Tyranny Rex, which has yet to grab me.  

BTW - this prog looked especially good after I'd read the latest issue of JMS's Spidey.  Some Robert De Niro lookalike gives Mary-Jane acting tips and I nearly pissed myself laughing.  Is this the same JMS who wrote and directed a sizeable chunk of the acting tour de force that was Babylon 5?  After that, I can easily forgive Mills his unsubtle 'war for oil' line.  
(AND John Romita jr isn't drawing it any more - that didn't help matters)

[Banners]

I was a bit disappointed. Seeing the strapline, I was well up for a comic adaptation of the Sunday evening adventures of Blackwall's Blue Watch.

M@

[john_s]

Quote:

>Yeowell`s art leaves me cold, but the Tyranny Rex story could be good. I think Dud has been reading too much Eng Lit stuff, the babble in John Smith`s writing is just babble

[Dudley]

John Smith in interview:

"I research everything I write – though obviously a story about something like dragons is a lot harder to research than one about serial killers or dinosaurs or whatever... For this last Devlin series I've learned all kinds of groovy stuff – not just about magick and conspiracy theories and UFOs, which have interested me since I was a kid – but stuff about the Earth's atmosphere and geophysics and the electromagnetic effects on man. Believe it or not, a lot of the "wanky techno-babble" in 'Devlin' does actually mean something if you have the same abstruse interests I have."

I doubt that he's accidentally hit on the combination Ice-9, Floyd... especially when it comes from one of the better-known books by one of the best-known sci-fi writers ever.

Link: http://www.2000ad.nu/classof79/JS_interview.htm" target="_blank">Class of 79 interview

[test 4 echo]

dont know about the book, only know Ice 9 as a Joe "god on six strings" Satriani tune from Surfing with the Alien.

[House of Usher]

Well, yeah, I haven't read much Kurt Vonnegut, but I still picked up the Ice-9 reference. Alan Moore alluded to it too in Halo Jones, where Ludy's band was called Ice-10.

I thought it was a splendid Prog. Hurrah! But it was full of glitches nevertheless.

Dredd: Why wasn't the bomber at all suspicious anout the scorpion fly attack? He's a terrorist living in a mass-surveillance police state, and he's not totally paranoid? Good fun, though.

Tyranny Rex: she can now have any body she wants, but she still favours a lizardy one with a big tail? I presume this mission doesn't call for anonymity. I just think it detracts from the credibility of the story if we know the character could look like anything she wants, but clings to her original form out of habit. Good fun, though.

Savage: calling the state of unrest "The Problems"? Very subtle, Pat. (Not). Oh my God, it's you, that Volgan pervert secret policeman who killed Tommy - either Savage's intelligence is right on the money, or he reads 2000ad.

They're after our oil, see? Because we've got so much of it! Good fun, though.

I reckon about 8/10 overall.