Prog 1433... Rawhide Rex!

[Funt Solo]

Groovy cover - that vampire cowboy might pull in the goth punters.

Descent is gorgeous, of course, but it seemed a bit 'neat' that JD just happened to have a silver-bladed boot knife with him (until I realised that it's a reference back to Meg 4.05).

Sinister Dexter throws in an interesting concept (the island) that's been used a couple of times before in MC-1 (Whitey's island prison and that one where the down and outs are searching for the fabled treasure zone).

American Gothic totally over-turned my assumptions about what it was going to be about.  Great stuff, mixing werewolves, vampires, ogres and "there was an old yagga that lived in a shoe".

Also enjoying The VCs, with it's change of tack to a sort of Eastenders meets Private Benjamin approach.

And...oh my god - they've turned Nikolai Dante into a musical (sort of)...as predicted on this very board.

Letters:  I'm glad they printed Floyds one in support of the board - I had sent in my own retraction to my previous letter but Tharg chose not to print it.  Still, my effervescent butterflies got through the net, so it's all good.

[crazy comic guy]

YEY. This half term comes in handy to report on issue early.

Covers nice and there isn't any art inside that dissapoints. Great.

[crazy comic guy]

FREEBE: this more that makes up for the price rise. I don't know how any one couldn't resist the temptation of actually using them.

COVER: VERY very nice. Beautiful art work, and love the PJ Maybe stories. Hope thios one carries on for a long time.

Possibly the best stories in the megazine and 2000ad at the same time as long as i've read.

[petesbeats]

Cover:- Cool.  Lovin the vampire/cowboy

Droid life:-  The Photocopier returns. Kerwality!

Dredd:-  Descent continues to open my eyes wide with the artwork.  Story is continuing to develop nicely.  Lots of pointy teeth!!!

Sin/Dex:-  Never really liked this but Yeowalls(sp) art grabbed my attention straight away.  The story has actually got me asking whats coming next.  Groaned at the autobahn pun though.

Vc's:- SO-SO.

American Gothic:-  Really fighting hard to knock dredd off topspot.  As i said last week really like this.  What does the vampirew ant him for. Find out next week.  Artwork also class.

Dante:-  Artwork needs commending from burns.  Story o.k.  Lets see how he gets out of this one. It's like Jumanji!

[McNulty]

And now my comments...

Judge Dredd: Great story so far, great artwork. Very dark and spooky.

Sinister/Dexter: This has the makings of the best Sin/Dex for a long time. Shades of Devil's Island from the early Judge Dredd stories...

American Gothic: A great premise of early American immigration! Why shouldn't the legends of the Old Countries not have come accross the oceans with the people?

V.C.'s: Still continuing with the fallout from the previous book. I still need a few more episodes to see what's going on.

Dante: When did Dante learn to affect a Scottish accent???

All in all, a very good prog!

[ming]

A great premise of early American immigration! Why shouldn't the legends of the Old Countries not have come accross the oceans with the people?

Has somebody been reading American Gods? ;-)

[Dudley]

In order of recall (and the better they are the more likely to rise to the top)

As usual, paeans of praise to Cook & Rennie.  Everything about Descent works brilliantly - I'm looking forward to re-reading it tonight and spotting the usual great touches I miss first time round.  More, more, more, please!

American Gothic shaping up to be well wierd - in a very good way.  Liking the artwork here, too.

Has Yeowell done Sin/Dex before?  This is excellent storytelling, and it really raises the quality of the strip.  Trapping our hapless heroes in an old Dredd scenario works well, too.

Nikolai Dante: not the best.  I don't like the Africans-as-animals thing, I don't like a lot of the colonial overtones in this, and I don't like the completely pointless Scottish disguise.  But at the same time there's still a lot of promise here and I continue to hope for more from this strip.

VC's: had to struggle to remember it was there.  The hard bastard instructor thing works, I guess, but there's nothing here that really stands out for me.  Mind you, it's average rather than bad.

Overall, this is yet another strong Prog.  

[Banners]

I know Sin and Dex are supposed to be trapped amidst a miasma of traffic and poluttion, but they could always hitch a ride back up with the Downlode county council's litter-collecting company. By the looks of things they must be down there fairly often.

M@

[Tiplodocus]

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Must say that Sin/Dex is the best start for ages.  A simple concept and a tricky position for he boys to extricate themselves from.

For once DABNETT resists the need to drown his script in opuns (some of which are often good, I admit, but they can be distracting).  Yeowell's art is spot on and just HOW GOOD is that trick of making you think "Oh, it was all a dream... No wait, he's on the airbag!". Genius.

DREDD and VCs moved the stories along nicely introducing new and interesting plot elements.  

On DREDD, Boo's art in the dark was great - compare it to the muddy brown art that plagued the nineties and he's given us an object lesson in getting a dark and moody atmosphere yet maintaining clarity.  But how come the bodies seem intact if they've been killed for food?

American Gothic was a great episode for rubbing the noses of everybody who thought they knew what was coming into the buffallo dung.  Great art from Mister C as well.

The only let down for me was Dante which just had broad and badly played out Socttish caricature. The opening splash of the pleasure palace over the falls was pretty poor (surely something much more panoramic would have been bettered). The Humanimals are a bit too retro for my tastes as is the fan dancing titillation.    

But overall, an interesting prog with some great art.

[Dudley]

But how come the bodies seem intact if they've been killed for food?

Haven't they been exsanguinated?  Haven't got my prog on me, but I'm pretty sure that they've been bled rather than eaten.

[Trout]

Another great prog! Nice, creepy cover.

I'm still loving Dredd and - despite some small similarities to Kurt Busiek's Arrowsmith - American Gothic, while the VCs was still good enough to keep my interest and SinDex seems to be based on a nice idea.

Dante's back to throwaway silliness, but I don't mind too much.

It's great to get 2000AD every week and enjoy all its varied delights!

(That's nothing to do with it scoring me big points on fantasy football with Collins, Abnett and Smith... It's about time!)

- Trout

[Lobo Baggins]

Descent is gorgeous, of course, but it seemed a bit 'neat' that JD just happened to have a silver-bladed boot knife with him (until I realised that it's a reference back to Meg 4.05).

Talking of references back to old Megs, do you think that Karyn will remember that she's already travelled into the Undercity to hunt down and destroyed a nest of vampires in St Patrick's church during 'Karyn: Concrete Sky'?

[GordonR]

Probably not, seeing as how neither I or anyone in the editorial office remember it either.

And then there was the time Dredd fought Dracula in an old Dredd annual story...

[Tordelbach]

"And then there was the time Dredd fought Dracula in an old Dredd annual story..."

...which i always rather enjoyed, lovely garish Coney Islandesque backdrops.

[longmanshort]

One of these days, the judges are going to tear St Pat?s down as it seems to be the centre of every vampire manifestation the Meg?s had. IIRC Anderson also shot a vampire that was hiding in its rafters.

But, having been there only a few days ago I can confirm that there are no vampires lurking in St Patrick?s Cathedral. One or two sad Cathlics though ;)