Prog 1586: Staked!

[Richard]

I assumed Steak Knife was going to turn out to be the stand-up comedian. Never mind.

Really enjoying Dead Signal.

[Funt Solo]

Italics off (for non-IE users - those scum!)

---

Aye, the wig gag in Dredd was brilliant.  All told, a great Dredd tale.  Appropriate art would've made it a classic, that could happily sit alongside The Starborn Thing on the Bench of Thrills.

[Funt Solo]

Aye, tordel - wtf with Savage?

They have a fight, then they both tumble to the ground, then half an hour later Savage is A-OK.  What happened in the interim?

Oh - and why were the Volgan soldiers presented as demonic entities?  Sure, artistic license and all that - but the rest of the strip tends to realism, so what was that about?

[Mardroid]

I had a reread of Dredd. I noticed that the monster, is referred to by the couple as male, as in 'he', until the second to last episode and it became 'mother' and therefore she.

It makes me wonder if the author changed his mind as to small parts of the story later, but the earlier chapters had already been sent in...

Another thing I thought odd, the futsie guy in a guy full of dead bodies he's just knifed, and at the end Dredd told the traffic judge that he was going to see the coach home as they had lost 2 people.

I understand that not all the people in the motel were coach passengers, but I got the impression they made up most of the people. And there were a lot of dead people in that hall...

Still, these are small discrepancies (if that, I might have missed something) and it was till a great Dredd story, the best story in the strip in the last 5 issues I reckon. Possible exception being Dead Signal.

[PG]

Hi there

Just thought I'd explain  some of the points mentioned in this thread regarding Savage,

Steaknife to my knowledge was just some Volgan assasin, nobody particlarly special. Pat wanted him to look like the lead character from the Hitman game (but I screwed his hair up a bit, been a while since I've done any B/W work). Plus if anyone did witness him going into the building then he would easily be mistaken for Savage - cough, cough (pretty thin). But the main reason to their similarities was that Bill was going to look very different (poss.more plastic surgery), Pat suggested he be more like Clive Owen so I originally drew him with longer hair, but Pat liked a sketch I did with cropped hair so that stayed and I didn't change Steaknife as he was OK'd- my bad!  I must also take the blame for the confusion for his status, as he's falling, Bill is stabbing him in the stomach, obviously the composition didn't work that well.
With the 'demon' volgans, that was me again playing around, as it was a nightmare/dream shot, I thought it might've worked, whoops!

It's been interesting reading as it's been going along and I'll take on board your comments

cheers

Patrick

[Banners]

Thanks for the tips, PG.

;-)

M@

[TordelBack]

Thanks for the assist, Mr. G.  The Demon Volg vision sequence was very effective and really stood out amongst the rest of the realism, although i did entirely miss the stabbing of Steak Knife - think I'll have another look.  It just seemed an odd decision for Pat to base a series around a character that we never really find out anything about - although it might be construed as cleverly  different in a medium of charismatic villains that are more interesting than the heroes they fight (although not by me).  

For what it's worth, the art on this series has been a real highlight - I thought I'd miss Adlard's heavy-black style, but the detailed realistic art managed to keep the established feel of the strip going while being distinctive in its own right.  Well done, that droid.  Any more on the way?

[Funt Solo]

Looking back at the prog, I see the "nightmare/dream shot" now - it's quite clearly a different style to the surrounding art, and there's Bill's mad eyes at the top.  I took it too literally - the demonisation being in his head makes perfect sense, yes.

I scanned the scaffolding fight too fast, I think, because I didn't even see the knife changing hands, and then there in that second last panel, you can see the knife (just, sort of) stabbing the bad guy - and he's got stun marks (technical term?) around his head, so I should be able to tell he's just been stabbed.

It's big of you to say it didn't work well - I could spend more time on the comic, maybe I wouldn't get confused in the first place.

[Funt Solo]

::"Just thought I'd explain some of the points mentioned in this thread regarding Savage"

When I read that I had to do a double-take and check who was posting, because I thought for one mad moment that Pat Mills was on the board.  

(I think the world would end, or something.)

[TordelBack]

I thought for one mad moment that Pat Mills was on the board.


Ha!  Me too!  All our hateful prattle exposed to His baleful gaze.

[Roger Godpleton]

Cover: Meh, bit of a stock, er I mean teh best cover evar!!!111 Good Stuff.

Droid Life: Bit of a letdown after the high standard of recent DLs. Last panel was what did it. Maybe I'm just racist against Caballistics. OK Stuff.

Dredd: Disappointing ending. Not keen on big swirly monster crashing the party. Didn't care about the broad not even in that dress. OK Stuff.

Savage: Last page seemed a little homoerotic. Liked the stuff at the start and in the middle. Good Stuff.

Dead Eyes: Cool, the fighting starts next week and humanity is about to get its ass handed to it. I hope the deus ex machina monster wipes out all the wonderful folks who don't like this strip as well. Great Stuff.

Dead Signal: Owns your soul. Great Stuff.

Ten Seconders: So the deluded hipster who isn't all that great ends up becoming a first tier villain. Kane's crying is destined to become one of the all time great unintentionally hilarious moments ever. At least we now know that after the apocalypse comes we'll still be able to find Cristal. Would Josey Scott really be drinking Cris? I thought only rappers drank that stuff.

Anyways, you know what that cutting edge referece brought to mind? That Orange cinema advert with Kevin Spacey and Snoop Dogg, which brings me to the following tortured analogy.

In the aforementioned advert, we're meant to laugh at the fact that Kevin Spacey is "wack" and uncool and lacking in "flow". Yet I personally find his effort to be superior, it is more imaginative than Snoop's cliched and laboured spiel, and the square execs seem to be having more fun. The preceding Dead Signal is dealing with themes such as identity and our perceptions of reality, but it does so in a playful and exuberent fashion. TS comes off as leaden and somewhat cliched in comparison.

What's that you say? You want me to do a rap? Happy to oblige.

That guy Kane is a pussy,
That's another word for muff,
I hate Ten Seconders,
REALLY Bad Stuff.

[Banners]

Kevin Spacey? His name's Brennan Brown.

M@

[Proudhuff]

Nice of Patrick to vist us, hello there! That nice man Mr Smith should take a leaf out of your book ;p

I, for one, have enjoyed this book of Savage and the B&W artwork which suits the story.

SteakHuff

[House of Usher]

Re: Prog 1585 - "I liked the bit where the airship exploded, but I don't know if that's a good thing or not. If it doesn't crash onto the steps of St. Paul's I can't see the problem."

Well, I was right, wasn't I? Steak Knife blows up the blimp, the Volgans massacre 100 civilians (much to Savage's chagrin), and the Americans invade. Voila! Job done. If only there had been some way to allow the Americans to invade without 100 civilians dying; but how many civilian casualties does Savage think there will be after the Americans invade? Does he think the Americans and the Volgans will fight carefully to avoid 'collateral damage'? I'd say not.

[johnone]

I think the whole point is that Savage just wants the Volgs out ( We know from Hammersteins war Stories and the abc warriors that the war that follows nearly destroys Europe, it was originally ( although not mentioned in the recent origins) in the nineteen seventies one of the reasons that led to the worlds Mega Cities beig created.
  To be quite honest I think Savage is one of the best things Mills has done in years,  I wasn't too happy with the half reset they had with this series ( The Volgans retaking control) however the ending of this series was brilliant  ( Strangely reminded me of the old bbc series secret army) and you do gt the feeling that Savage is going to come to a definitive end soon.