Prog 1804: Get The Point?

[Mikey]

Great Dredd opener, everything well set up. I really loved seeing Harrison back in the prog (and as always it made me hanker for The 10 Seconders) becasue I love how he depicts MC1 - it feels real, futuristic and quite a grim place to be. Absolutely loved the cityscape panel, it put me in mind of the movie which is no bad thing. I would say that Dredd doesn't look himself but a small quibble for an otherwise excellent installment.

Brass Sun continues to be superb and I'll play along with Brass Sun Bingo. Loved Mr dead robot suit thingy! Brilliant series that I'm already looking forward to buying a collected version of. Preferably hardback, production like the Dark Horse Scarlet Traces trades please.

ABC Warriors is great fun! Packed with ideas as per Mills, lovely monchrome work from Langley - there's nothing not to like for me.

I really enjoyed the Simping Dectective in the Meg, but there's something I just didn't get on with in this episode. I seem to be saying that a lot with Spurrier's more recent work so I think I've somehow parted ways with his writing. Saying that Coleby is always a pleasure to see in the prog, his art always looks carved in stone it's so solid looking. So overall I'll say it was ok and I'll see how it goes.

And Grey Area had a surprise demise and the BIG THING IS COMING! This has made me excited - the groundwork is done, now let's get epic!

Plus Dirty Frank returns next week, things are looking good Tharg.

M.

[I, Cosh]

Cover: Obviously Cliff Robinson but intrigued to see Dylan Teague in there too.

Dylan has been inking Cliff's covers for some time now.

Overall a decent Prog. I thought Mark Harrison's Dredd art was a nice, bright change from his usually dark, cyber-detailed stuff. Pretty nice and a fun opener.

I laughed at the iPad joke which makes this officially the best episode of the ABC Warriors since the snakes ate Hammerstein's brain.

Not sure about Simping Detective yet. It's trying hard to channel the old series. Not least in Coleby's attempts to at least echo the intense play of blacks that Irving managed. Sadly, through no fault of his own, he's an artist whose work I dislike quite a bit, so the story has to work that bit harder to overcome my prejudices and so far it hasn't. Here's hoping though.

Finally, a neat ending for Grey Area. I hope this will be back early next year rather than languishing in the same purgatory as the last enjoyable, episodic strip that I liked: Damnation Station.

[dyl]

I don't ink Cliff's covers, just colour them. Always fun.

[a chosen rider]

Cover - Definitely striking: works well even at the much reduced size on the 2000ad site.  And checking out the full-sized cover, I discover some really nice inking.  Lovely stuff.  (Although I am horribly thrown to discover that Jack Point has green hair.  This is just like the time I learned Ro-Jaws was green months after I read the Complete Ro-Busters.)

Judge Dredd - Good stuff.  I really like this art style, and the great moody colouring especially, though I must admit to getting a bit lost in the action on page five on my first readthrough.  And this is a very intriguing start to the story - is our protagonist [spoiler]a sleeper agent who's forgotten his old identity after the head injury[/spoiler]?

Brass Sun - Wow, this went fast this week.  I was getting really interested and zip, suddenly it's over.  I'm looking forward to sitting down and reading this through in collected form.

ABC Warriors - Fun!  I continue to love this art style, and I'm enjoying all the little tie-ins to Ro-Busters.  Entertaining stuff.

Grey Area - Another one that seemed to be over too soon.  Stakes have been raised: I hope this presages some more action-packed Grey Area stories to come.

Simping Detective - Ooh.  Love this art style on the strip.  And those are some really nicely designed pages: captions, panel borders, lettering and such all working together beautifully.  The smiley face on the Wally squad letter amused me, and the [spoiler]"Insert lazy fat gag. Smattering of applause,"[/spoiler] line at the end really made the whole thing work.  I very much enjoyed the previous Meg stories aside from my quibbles over what was done to DeMarco's character, so I'm definitely on board for this series.  Prog-length suits it well, I think.

Great prog!  A very nicely prepared sandwich with dense stories as bookends, faster ones in between, and some classic Pat Mills robot action in the middle.  Excellent stuff.

[Colin YNWA]

  And this is a very intriguing start to the story - is our protagonist [spoiler]a sleeper agent who's forgotten his old identity after the head injury[/spoiler]?

That was certainly my reading of things.

[Proudhuff]

Wayhay!! Late prog this week, so only read it now on WedPlebsday.

Enjoyed that cover, classic image skewed by simping? loverly.

Dredd: I got a bit lost in the action sequence, colours slipping into 90's muddy at times, Dredd seemed to have had a body replacement, is this a younger clone or a c-rations that thin on the ground, he really lacks the gravitas of a senior street Judge, apart from that i loved the PKD/Bladerunner refs /atmosphere and the JD scene of crime tape.

Brass sun; can't see how anyone can say no much has happened!  The best bit of this prog IMHO

ABC, Grey not my bag really

Simp very promising

[SimonBowland]

Thanks for all the kind words folks, much appreciated! That's what happens when everyone working on the strip shares the same name...

[Proudhuff]

Thanks for all the kind words folks, much appreciated! That's what happens when everyone working on the strip shares the same name...

You married him?

[Jim_Campbell]

Thanks for all the kind words folks, much appreciated! That's what happens when everyone working on the strip shares the same name...

I believe I've commented before that I could probably replace my entire blog with a single entry that says: "See what Simon Bowland does? Do that."

:-)

Cheers!

Jim

[Spaceghost]

Cover - Very nice stuff from Cliff and Dylan.

Judge Dredd - Really great art and a nice opener. Is this a Sov sleeper agent who was supposed to participate in the Chaos Day shenanegans? Dredd seems to very quickly and easily identify that this is the case just by looking at a few corpses. Surely there could have been any number of explanations? A minor complaint.

Grey Area - Take that you spindly alien bastard! Is Bulliett lying through his teeth about shooting the ambassador in self defence? Events don't seem to be as he describes in the hearing.

Brass Sun - Lovely, lovely story. I can't fault it. It's very different to the usual 2000 AD strip, but it fits in perfectly all the same. Hope it runs and runs.

ABC Warriors - Really prefer the art to the usual photo-shopped stuff. Takes me back to the 'Black Hole' glory days. Looking forward to seeing Ro Jaws again. He's a working class hero.

Simping Detective - I more or less enjoyed this in the Meg but occasionally have a problem with Simon Spurrier's clever-clever writing style, filled as it can be with over-worked puns and groan-inducing similies. I'll reserve judgment until it's a few episodes in. Liking the art though.

A decent prog. I'm slightly worried that although I'm looking forward to seeing Dirty Frank again, with Low Life starting next week, 3 out of 5 strips will be Dredd-world stories. I tend to get a bit bored when that happens.

[Spaceghost]

Simping Detective - I more or less enjoyed this in the Meg but occasionally have a problem with Simon Spurrier's clever-clever writing style,

Can't edit this.

What I meant was the style he often adopts when writing stories in the first person (Simping Detective, Lobster Random). I do enjoy other things he's written.

[SmallBlueThing]

The post-1800 run continues apace, with the best and most intriguing episode of Brass Sun yet. Cannot wait to see where this goes eventually, and at the moment am nursing a forlorn hope that when Tharg said culbard would alternate with d'israeli, he meant there would be an unbroken run of these stretching into next year- like in the old days. That d'israeli is back next week buggers that i reckon (three mega-city one strips in a five strip comic? Hrrnn...) and so im now already dreading the end of book one. Beautiful, delicate stuff from culbard and the most assured scripting we've ever had from the edge.

Dredd was good- always nice to see harrison behind the pictures, and this reminds me his superior durham red is overdue a reread. A shame he's using this particular style, as i much prefer the other, but as it's so gorgeous i'll forgive him. But haven't we had this episode before?

Grey Area ended well- i was hoping, i admit for the bad alien to get blasted in full-page panel-o-rama, and not just a (cont)

[SmallBlueThing]

(cont) tint box, but you cant have everything. Very much enjoyed this story and hope it returns soon, along with a trade. Good, solid, 'meat and potatoes' 2000AD.

ABCs- Im glad to say i've at last acclimatised to langley's new art, and this was just lovely. All the usual Millsisms in the ideas and dialogue (is this the first time we've seen Mr 10% in his robot body? Reading weekly and being 42, i forget) and my only complaint would be the hammersteins being hard to tell apart.

As for The Simping Detective- this was a strip i loathed in the meg, and regularly skipped. Here, divorced from frazer irving's art, it's a much better read. There's been some talk hereabouts of simon coleby's evolution as an artist over the decades, and i'd very much like to add my voice to those saying that, while his early work may not have done it for me particularly, his pages now are as if sent by the gods. Astonishing. If people work hard and try their best, they get better at what they do. Whoever would have thunk, eh?

SBT

[Daveycandlish]

A cover that jumps from the newstand - lovely stuff! Inside? Really like Harrison's art on Dredd - he draws a good dirty MegaCity. Just how I imagine it would be; very Bladerunnerish. Good set up for the story too. Brass Sun - my highlight once again. I really hope this gets a collection as soon as it's finished as I want to read it all in one go, all in one place. Nice round up to the Grey Area story - I look forward to seeing more from this universe. Simp is a surprise welcome return (is it really five years?!!) with nice art - very different to Irving but still reminiscent of his take. The only downside to this current line up is ABC - I just can't get away with it. I like Pat Mills other stuff and love reading his blog, but this just leaves me cold. A good solid 8/10 for this issue - next week... Dirty Frank! Yay!

[TordelBack]

Short on time, short on review:

Cover: Not doing it for me, nice art but dull subject.

Dredd:  Love Harrison's bubbly art, particularly the funky colours and block designs, and the all-new gangly version of Dredd.  As to the story, yeah it's engagingly written from the start, but another amnesiac construction worker sleeper agent? Leaving aside the cleverly referenced Total Recall, we have robotic Ueno Hama in almost identical (if mirrored) circumstances back in Our Man in Hondo.  Still, that's not to say I didn't like it, and Dredd's sparing-us-pages-of-stupidity in instantly working out what's going on was particuarly refreshing.

Brass Sun: Everything is proceeding exactly as I have foreseen it.  Fabulous stuff, but: Was that an inappropriate downblouse shot there on the first page?  And if Wren can see the elements of the orrery from her window within one of its spars, why couldn't her grandfather see it from the surface of the planet?

ABC Warriors: It's Howard Quartz, it's the balls bazooka, it's terrific nostalgic stuff.  Loved the retro-phone gag, but wondering how Quartz's kid brother (subsequently seen as the decrepit ancient antagonist in Starlord issue 22 (I think), fact fans), fits into all this.  Of course the President could be a different brother ('Ebeneezer Quartz' is going a bit far as a name on an election poster, even for the Republican Party.  Mind you, 'Mitt Romney'), but he'd still have to be about 100 in 2067 (assuming this is a year before RoBusters starts). 

Simping Detective:  A very welcome return, Coleby an entirely worthy successor to Irving.  Love the shattered look of Angeltown, love the restraint in the narration.

Grey Area: Yes, this story has improved as it has gone along, and there is a hint of promise at the end.  But it's taken a very long time to get here, the only interesting character so far has been killed (note: it wasn't Captain 'Cypher' Kanzen), and for one of the very best dialogue men in the business, Abnett's characters don't half sound like they're in a school play.



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