Prog 1784 - Rex on Fire

[Batman's Superior Cousin]

Brilliant prog, full review later today!!!

[Colin YNWA]

Much as we where last week really. The Terror Tale felt a little hollow but everything else is on fine form. Dredd is brutal, Flesh is explosive and Anderson is quality. Zaucer of Zilk ends wonderfully and this has been a superb series. There's a hint at the end that there might be more and I for one would welcome it.

With MacNeil, Yeowell and McCarthy all in top form as well as great work by McKay and nice stuff from Harrison the Prog really does look glorious and its all behind a cover that hopefully everyone will enjoy (as if) as a few that have left people divided.

Great Prog.

[COMMANDO FORCES]

What is the point of saying that you have the Prog just to start the thread and then not say anything about it 

[A.Cow]

Cover - eye-catching but nothing special.

Dredd - can this get any better?  The pace is relentless and the logic inescapable.  "Made that point to the Chief Judge..." -- cracking, smart dialogue.

Flesh - At least a bit more going on this week but the characterisation is still piss-poor.  Carter/Carver swang from hard-assed bitch to wimpy whiner far too easily.

Zaucer - Dear god, I'm glad that's over.  Just wave your wand and everything is all right?  If there's something clever going on here, I'm missing it.

Terror Tales - Pretty average, aside from Mark Harrison's great art.  (I presume that the two protagonists were meant look like Daphne & Velma from Scooby Doo?)

Anderson - My abiding memory of this storyline will be crates with stupid signs on the side.  This week's episode did nothing to adjust that.

So, in summary: Dredd was stunning but the rest...

[Satanist]

Brilliant prog, full review later today!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eyQca1cwe54

[IndigoPrime]

I think this is finally the Dredd that dumps my other favourite tales from their attempts to top the lofty perch. America. The Pit. This for me beats them all. It keeps you guessing, never lets up, and also has great art.

Elsewhere, I very much enjoyed Zilk, which showcased wonderful imagination. It's very much a comic book, and I'd say 2000 AD could do with more rampant creativity of this sort, albeit perhaps only in one of the five strips. That said, I can understand why it's proved divisive. I also rather liked the Terror Tale, which somewhat reminded me of Hellboy one-shots, in things just happening. I'm not sure it was particularly chilling, but it was at least interesting.

Anderson's reasonable filler, as it has been since the start, and I still can't stand Flesh and can't wait for it to be over. The continual flip-flopping of the leads is infuriating, and the entire thing feels like it's being strung out. My guess: we're heading for END OF BOOK TWO in that typical Mills fashion, with the next part of 10 or 12 episodes of semi-random wargle blargle on the way.

[WhitBloke]

Highly enjoyable prog, full review right now...

Cover - A cover that has resulted in at least one extra sale I know of.  My evil nieces simply will not be happy unless I give this week's Prog to them later today after the cover got them flicking through it, so that's a result in everybody's book, surely.  (Kept thinking about Ron Smith when I saw it.)

Dredd - [spoiler]John Wagner and Colin MacNeil Blocks under fire and on fire,[/spoiler] Beeny feeling the pressure and Dredd being superbly Dredd in the thick of it all.  Another superb interlude chapter while the fires keep burning ever hotter and the countdown keeps ticking away in the backdrop of this marathon mega-epic.  Seeing the [spoiler]questionable Simes and his squad[/spoiler] really does bring home the realities of the situation as much as anything else, perhaps even moreso than the [spoiler]pill-popping option-that-isn't-much-of-one[/spoiler].  People really are such small things, but cram them all in a city like Mega-City One with John Wagner ruining their lives and they become positively engrossing.  Another week of DoC being as darkly wonderful as it gets.

Flesh: Creative Wideboys - Pastor Sunday's continued absence tellingly results in a continued sharpness of storytelli...  Oh, wait!  He's back and much to my measured surprise we nonetheless get coherent old-school storytelling paced well and delivered clearly, with exciting moments of high-octane action, high-explosive mayhem and spurts of drama here and there.  Gorehead gives good bite and as the panels buzz past the rest of the characters are... well, essentially somewhat more like characters rather than just cyphers, plot-props or you-know-whats on legs.  And all without recourse to soft porn distraction.
This is the Flesh I REALLY wish we'd been getting all along, instead of the garbled tosh in its place.  It remains a shame that the last ten weeks still to me seem to have been built around achieving the ending rather than built up to the ending.  Thusly, for me, while the end we shall receive next week looks increasingly likely to break even in and of itself it will almost inevitably do desperately little to engender much give-a-damn about future Flesh appearances.  In particular because it was disappointing yet oddly gratifying to watch Carter finally implode as a character of either resolve or resolution.  Mind you, you can never have too many dead prats in shorts and high socks, or too few sodding Reptoids.  Or weeks of more Flesh.

Zilk - Since this is the end and I've not done more than skim it since the second part, the time has finally come to read the whole lot.  Tomorrow looks like a Good Sunday indeed, though I do expect my brain to bleed strange new colours out of a new oracular orifice.

Terror Tales - At first I thought, well, that was a weak if inoffensive story.  Then I reread it and realised that in four pages it managed to be tonally on-pitch and manage despite its four-page constraints to tell a tidy tale.  Not much of a fan of Terror Tales or Horror in comics in general, so it's just not for me despite its successes.  Well-executed filler stuff that serves to make Prog 1786 all the more exciting, but still filler stuff.

Cadet Anderson - What was it that the baldy Almost-Feyy guy said...?  Perhaps what we'll be seeing this story has been designed to deliver is the first steps towards Judge Anderson's familiar confident flippancy borne of a hard lesson and less self-questioning or reliance on Rand's hand-holding.  (But this might just be me trying to escape the mental clutches of the Bovine Boardie when it comes to what's really happening...)

High - Minty Beaver!!

Low - McGurk crying wolf Gorehead.  Again.

[Batman's Superior Cousin]

What is the point of saying that you have the Prog just to start the thread and then not say anything about it 

I have just gotten up and only have my mobile phone at hand, that's why!!!

[mygrimmbrother]

Dredd towers above everything else. Anderson is pretty meh, feels like total autopilot. Flesh - well, my interest has tailed off a while back now. Still a big fan of McKay, but not so much the story. Zilk - have adored this series and saving this for later. Terror Tale - I would REALLY love for these to be the exclusive domain of up-and-coming talent rather than an art droid who has been in the prog for nigh on 20 years. But I did enjoy it.

[The Amstor Computer]

Haven't noticed anyone mention this so far, but that "Next prog" line for Dredd?

[spoiler]"An Interlude in Hell"? Wonder if the recently-discorporated three will make a bid to recover their brother for a fresh assault on Mega-City One?[/spoiler]

[Trout]

Nabbing the prog thread without a review is BAD FORM, Batson. Please try harder.

As happens occasionally, I received my monthly US comics order today, just as the prog and Meg arrived. I'm also halfway through a book I'm really enjoying and I still have to get through a pile of GNs, including Grandville and its sequel, that I bought with birthday money last week.

Despite all this choice, I went straight for the prog - and Dredd. I've run out of superlatives so I'll let that recommendation speak for itself. No other entertainment is this good.

The other standout was Zaucer of Zilk, which I will miss very much. It's gone straight into my all-time 2000AD stories top 10 as a modern classic of the prog. I enjoyed the Terror Tale, too. Simon Spurrier always spins a good yarn.

- Trout

[Batman's Superior Cousin]

Sorry for the delay, have been extremely busy today!

Cover - Nice picture of Gorehead!!

Dredd - One Word: MAGNIFICENT!!!

Flesh - Is this the [spoiler]end[/spoiler] for [spoiler]Claw Carver's daughter[/spoiler]???

Terror Tales - WTF is going on?? Is the [spoiler]amusements cursed[/spoiler]??

Cadet Anderson - Feels a bit rushed!!!

[radiator]

I'm going to sound like a broken record here, but just how amazing is Dredd at the moment? Grim, dark and action-packed and the art is perfect - every single page is so atmospheric.

[DrJomster]

I'm going to have to echo the above, Dredd really does tower above the rest. I've enjoyed Zilk although perhaps it was always going to be a little tricky to round off. These two thrills have carried the prog for weeks now, for me at least. By Grudd though, Dredd really IS good!

[Hawkmumbler]

Cover- Standard fair. A T-Rex is on fire. Sound's awsome, yes, but there's something about the cover I just dont quite like. ***

Dredd- Nothing can top this at the moment. The Pit for modern time's, only with a greater impact. *****

Flesh- Holy cow, actualy story telling! And it's, shock horror, interesting! *** and a 1/2

Zaucer- Iiiiiiiii would be happy to see this come back. Just make sure it doesn't start off as bad as this series, OK? *** and a 1/2

Terror Tale- Meh. ** and a 1/2

Anderson- Was OK. Just, OK. ***