Prog 1644 - Two Minutes To Midnight.

[Pete Wells]

Cover - Nah, sorry. I love the figure but the filter used on the clock behind makes it look pixelated and spoils it for me.

Nerve Centre - Very exciting nerve centre from Tharg, ooooooh!

Dredd - Class. A cracking script (again!) by Al Ewing and beautiful art by Karl Richardson. Once again, Al mixes the old (Blockmania) with the new to make a tale that's accessible to all. I absolutely loved Dredd's 'speech', it was hilarious, as was the banter between the newsreaders. Excellent stuff all round.

Red Seas - Exposition Alley but fun nevertheless.

Cradlegrave - Aaaah, the main event. A really horrible, satisfying, yet strangely uplifting ending. John Smith has some absolutely horrible ideas floating around in his brain and some of this weeks, and last weeks, panels made me actually gasp! Dammit there's no spoiler tags so don't read the next bit if you haven't read the strip yet...

The page of Mary's death at the hands of the mob contrasting with her childhood memories is so sickening and yet so beautiful at the same time - just... wow! Skully's demise was similarly disgusting - people eating celery indeed, ugh! Amazing tale, hats off to both creators. I can't wait to read this all in one disgusting lump now.

Sin Dex - Bah, Dabnett bottles it! I really want Sin Dex to have more credibility as I really enjoy it and kinda casually killing Kal would have gone some way towards doing this. I love the new doctor though and his little minions are great - very Toy Story!

Defoe - Gubu! I'm really enjoying this. Mills and Gallagher introduce us to more great baddies who have wonderful dialogue and another cool concept - clockwork zombies (shame they wuz in Dante t'other week.) As ever, the script is heavy on the exposition but it doesn't jar too much. As you'd expect, the art is superb.

Yet another superb prog with the promise of a Dredd Mega Epic in five weeks - I'm gonna pop!!!

[Colin YNWA]

What a fun way to start the weekend! Normal disclaimer of Defoe aside (I really will go back to the beginning of Defoe and read it in one go one day and try again with it!).

Agree with Pete totally about Yeowell's art I love it but I've noticed a couple of times recently that its doesn't seem to be scanned well and appeared pixalated, not just the cover but in Red Seas as well. Not sure why this is but its a shame.

Cradlegrave finished really really well. Loved it. Bold, scarey, sad, brutal, ugly and uplifting. Simply brillant. Having read quite a bit of Mr Smith's work lately I'm really having to rethink top three 2000ad writers as I don't think he can be excluded from it any longer. Genius. Art has been excellent throughout as well.

Red Sea and Sinister Dexter were both really good fun strips with great art (comments about reproduction aside). Dredd was a great change of pace. The last three Dredd stories really show you the strength of Dredd in supporting different types of story by writers with distinct voices. Art was ok, not my favourite, mind who would want to follow Dave Taylor's art last week! That last page did that remind anybody else of John Tomlinson?

All this and the massive tease in the Nervecentre. Can't wait for so much coming up in 2000ad at the moment. We really are in one of the comics golden periods.

[moly]

really enjoying the prog some cracking stuff loved the geoff cape block setting in judge dredd and really looking forward to the mega epic coming up soon..

cradlegrave is a cracking story and satisfing ending

defoe continue to like this interesting story

red seas... interesting story ahead i hope really like this strip

lastly full praise to cradlegrave its got my girlfriend into reading 2000ad and she finally been converted to tooth

[Toni Scandella]

Only read Cradlegrave so far.  Twice. On first read it seemed to rush to a conclusion, on the second, slower read it all made perfect, nasty sense.  This has been utterly brilliant and disgusting throughout, and, yes, some of the panels were horrific even though they only hinted at what was happening and didn't explicitly show stuff - that third frame in particular disturbed me (the 'come on tozzer one') as it was two horrrible horrible things in one frame.  Also, Skully deserved whatever it was he got.  I can't believe he went through with the superglue thing.

[DavidXBrunt]

In the end though, wasn't it a blessing that he did? Wouldn't it have been worse if she'd seen it?

[Mardroid]

Cover- Decent enough.

Nerve Centre- So a new Mega epic on the way! I'm not sure if I've come across one of those since I started. (They were finishing off Origins at that time, so I just caught the last 2-3 episodes.) There have obviously been plenty of multiparters since then, but I'm not sure how many constitutes a mega epic.

Dredd-  Great start to the story. I really liked the introduction from the point of view of a petty criminal in the cube. Loved the art too. Oh, and the taxi bit amused me.

Red Seas- Interesting start with the multiverse conference stuff! So the guy with the eye is from a different world? I seem to remember him appearing in Stickleback, so I guess that means SB and Red Seas are separate worlds after all, but close. (Alternatively he steps between them.)

Cradlegrave- Umm.. I think I need to read it through again from the start. It didn't give a complete explanation although that might not be a bad thing. The end felt a bit disjointed (i.e. Shane's mate saying he was leaving then appeared to turn up at the end with the 'babies'....) Could perhaps have done with a few more pages to cover tie things up a bit better.

Mary's flashback was rather touching and sad. Scene reminiscent of Gladiator there. I got the impression, that while she was supposedly at the heart of things, in the end she was a victim too, and the Estate itself was diseased.
Disturbing stuff and a great strip overall.

Sinister Dexter- Great stuff. Love the creepy little robots and the new Doctor. Reminds me a little of the Sebastion stuff in Bladerunner, with a bit of Nightwatch thrown in. Remember witch's doll spider familiar thing at the start?

Defoe:  More clockwork zombies! See the leer on 007's face at the prospect of the seduction? He might get a bit of a shock when she undresses. Decent episode.

Great prog. We're really spoilt lately aren't we?

[Darren Stephens]

Good prog. Cradlegrave.....just excellent. I shall miss it loads. 

[Trout]

Superb is the word. What a prog!

The ending to Cradlegrave, though more understated than I expected, is just right for the story. Who expected a happy ending? Not me.
I was creeped out last week by the superglue thing, then this week - heavy irony - it turns out to be a blessing, as DXB says. The scene of Mary's death/childhood is very sad, too. A sympathetic monster. Wow.
I notice that what Mary is hasn't really been explained, unless I'm missing something. Oddly, I don't seem to mind.
Cradlegrave's been a real gem. Ten out of ten to everyone involved.

As for the rest, I can't find a flaw. The Dredd story is great fun and paced just right, while SinDex is stuffed full of good ideas, as is Defoe, which I just can't get enough of.

Finally, I've loved The Red Seas for years now and I was fascinated to read all about these 12 (really 13) parallel worlds. What the hell went on behind the 13th door? Who's through it? There's enough material here, and in uncompleted past storylines, to keep this amazing story going for years, which is fine by me.

It was fun looking carefully at the Brotherhood types. Is that the Invisibles' Mister Six there? I hope it is!
Also, there's a brain in a tank, wearing a Tom Baker hat a scarf. Hee hee!

As if this isn't enough, Tharg gets us tumescent with a Dredd epic to come!
More, more, more!

- Trout

[DavidXBrunt]

That brain in a tank is likely to be George Sewell, Victorian time-traveller and three time Dredd opponant.

[Dark Jimbo]

Best prog of the year? I think so, and I don't say such things lightly.

A decent enough Dredd, flawless outings for Cradlegrave and Defoe and two strips that I thought I'd lost interest in some years ago managing to surprise me by being fun, imaginative and fresh enough to reignite my interest - only a rather so-so cover let the package down.

I'm surprised that the ultimate lack of explanation in Cradlegrave didn't annoy me. I wanted to know what had infested Mary, how it had started and when, etc etc - and in a sense I still do - but at the same time, we didn't really need to know. The ending was nearly perfect as it was - especially as it tied up one of the best self-contained thrills in years. No sequel please, let it stand as it is, unanswered questions and all.

[Keef Monkey]

My favorite thing about Cradlegrave was that with it being set during a sticky heatwave, the writing captured that perfectly. Every time I got to that part of the prog over the last few weeks I've genuinely felt a bit queasy, because Smith showed a real power with words and the horrible humidity just oozed all over you reading it.

Brilliant story and easily one of the most memorable things Tharg's printed in years. Want to say a lot more but I'd just end up gushing. Gushing horrible grannymilk probably.

[Tjm86]

I'm surprised that the ultimate lack of explanation in Cradlegrave didn't annoy me. I wanted to know what had infested Mary, how it had started and when, etc etc - and in a sense I still do - but at the same time, we didn't really need to know. The ending was nearly perfect as it was - especially as it tied up one of the best self-contained thrills in years. No sequel please, let it stand as it is, unanswered questions and all.

On the first reading of this conclusion I felt a bit cheated but having sat down and reread it from start to finish I have to agree completely.  For me this has to be the perfect horror story.  The slow simmering pressure, the growing sense of unease at the actions of the characters, the hinted at actions that are never fully revealed.  This puts me in mind of the original Alien, all tension derived from what we don't see as much as what we do.  Disturbing!

[Colin YNWA]

That last page did that remind anybody else of John Tomlinson?

Arh now normally my rushed posting and poor spelling and grammar mean that I can't get too hung up correcting embarrassing errors in my posts BUT in this case its so wrong I feel I have to. I meant John Hicklenton NOT Tomlinson.

So what I was actually saying was did anybody else find that the art on the last page of Dredd this week reminded them of John Hicklenton?

Lets put it down to having a thrillpower overload cos the end of Cradlegrave was so good and move on shall we...

[I, Cosh]

I doff my cap to the fine, upstanding posties of our great nations. There were marvellous scenes as I opened my front door with a sense of rising dread only to find a pristine Prog envelope lying in the hall.

Being a master of self-control, I always read my Prog from front to back, even squinting at Damage Report before turning to Dredd. I can't even remember being tempted to break this habit before today, but I resisted.

More news about the promised major developments in the Nerve Centre, although Tharg's reluctance to give us the name is rather spoilt for anyone who has read Grant's Previews thread.

Dredd itself was a great first episode. Looking forward to seeing where Mr Ewing goes with this one and the second panel tells me exactly why: "The waitress hadn't seen it - Hell! What's a robot need a tip for anyway?"  Nice to see Karl Richardson back in the Prog too.

It was fun looking carefully at the Brotherhood types. Is that the Invisibles' Mister Six there? I hope it is!

That was my first thought too, so there must be something in it. Did Steve ever draw any episodes of the Invisibles with him in it?

With the mystery of what's behind that Green Door, it's about time The Red Seas got round to answering some questions rather than posing them and, while I appreciate the benefits it has for the newcomer or the elderly, I'm getting a bit fed up with that "Previously.." montage at the start of every story. In a couple of years, the first episode of every Red Seas adventure will be a recap of all the prevoius ones. None of which means I didn't enjoy it, because I did. Good stuff with the promise of more.

It's fitting that Cradlegrave should conclude with the first seven-page episode since the end of Origins. Even if that fact's completely unverified, I think it's right that Tharg should let such a quality story push the envelope just a little.

I think I feel the same way about this ending as everyone else. At first it seemed a bit sudden but, as I thought about it, it seemed more and more in keeping with the story as a whole. The two parts of this episode that stick out have both been mentioned already. The "Tozzer" panel for pure vileness and the page cutting between Mary's memory and her end. This is the only spot of brightness we've seen in this whole story and it generates a sense of sweetness and sadness. Ultimately, it doesn't matter what Mary really is or how she got that way. This page is key to my reading of the story, which is that it's the estate itself - the way people are trapped in it - which generates the tension and the violence and the horror. Mary is just a physical manifestation of or metaphor for that and the only real answer is Shane's. To get out. Do you think that was a deliberate nod to Halo Jones, by the way?

I'll save any more semi-coherent pseudo-intellectual waffling for my next 2000ADreview screed. However, if Mr S is reading this, I'd be interested to know if he read Lynsey Hanley's book "Estates: An Intimate History" prior to writing this and what he thought about it. Oh, and cheers for writing such a cracking tale. And to Mr Bagwell for bringing it so (im)perfectly to the page.

Sin/Dex was alright with noticably better (read, more detailed) art in the last couple of pages while Defoe was silly but immensely fun again.

[zombemybabynow]

WOW!!! Karl Richardson's art is amazing