Prog 1729 : IN THE BELLY OF THE BEAST!

[Cactus]

I think I understand what it might have been like to write this as a kid in '77.

This is what you meant to say, right? 

No. I mean that I wasn't born then and came to 2000ad relatively late in life (around 13, I think) and have only read a few episodes of the original Flesh but this episode, with its dinosaurs, gore and cowboy heroics, gives me an idea what it would have been like to experience such thrills at, say, age 8.

Thanks for the recap Dark Jimbo. I think I remember that meandering subplot and I didn't care for it.

[House of Usher]

But you do know that Jared was joking, don't you?

As far as I can see, what Jared is suggesting is that this 'capsule of fun, jokes, violence, dinosaurs and cleavage' is rather like something an eight-year-old might have written in 1977.

[TordelBack]

Cor, I think I got more value out of this thread than I did from the Prog, which isn't to say that wasn't pretty cool itself.  Three B&W strips this week?  Thargy baby you b'in reading my mail.

I drooled on the Cover, so gave up on the idea of slabbing that bad boy and just read it instead.

I laughed heartily at Droid Life, but feel the implicit ephebophilia and borderline racist abuse of the last panel didn't cause enough outrage on this thread - what's wrong with you people, has the Daily Mail taught you nothing?  Just because it's a robotic washing machine doing the perving doesn't mean it's funny.  Oh, wait, it really does.    

I marvelled at Leigh Gallagher's art on Dredd:  What the Hitler Saw.  I love the weight he's given all the weapons, particularly the thick barrel and wide bore of the murder weapon, and the Lawgiver Mk. 2 has never looked more serious.  His Hitler lookalike was brilliant throughout, continuing a long-standing 2000AD tradition of authentic-looking Fuhrers, but was I the only one to think that Judge Bennett looked a teeny bit like Mr. G himself?  Ortiz block gives good props.

The story itself felt a bit slight after a great setup, but it was a good yarn.  The kid falling did give me pause on first reading, I do hate the stomach-churning empathy these things engender now, but that's my problem not Al's.  I wonder if the story might have worked a little better if things had been changed so that Dredd had been in a position to catch the boy, and thus be seen to be heroically averting some of the mayhem, rather than just commenting on it.  I note Al adopting the Dredd-and-partner model of many of the non-Wagners, the better to exposit through dialogue.  

I devoured Flesh with eager eyes and sticky paws.  I'm really enjoying this story, the very best kind of gory retro marvel, with beautiful, beautiful dino art.  However, there are some problems this week.  While I never thought I'd be saying this, dinosaurs just aren't that big.   I had my doubts about some of the beautiful Ceratopsids, but the Quetzalcoatlus last week was the start of the problem, and the Alamosaurus this week went totally nuts -  even Argentinosaurus is only about 35m long, using the cowboys for scale that thing must be over 60m!  Deep down McKay knows this too - look at the size of the cowboys in Old One Eye's rending maw compared to the tiny ones arrayed in front of her legs.  While exaggerated size is no bad thing in a dino-comic, a lesson from Father Ted might be in order. Which is not to say I don't absolutely adore the look of this, or the insanity of the Alamo set-piece.  

As to the T-Rex laying its eggs inside its prey, well hmmm...  Many modern birds have egg-gestation periods of about 20 days, and some research on sauropodomorph eggs suggests 1-2 months for dinosaurs (http://www.nature.com/news/2010/100629/full/news.2010.319.html), but maybe Rexes have an extremely short egg stage .  I can totally buy T-Rexes bringing food back to the nest close to hatching time, and placing it over the eggs, or re-placing eggs within it, for the reasons Pat alludes to, but as Usher suggests its hard to see how leaving eggs in meat for a month or more is going to do anything other than attract scavengers.  Maybe Gorehead is actually remembering pushing his way out of the egg into a freshly-deposited carcass, but the narration doesn't really convey that.  Madly brilliant all the same.

I felt validated while reading the Twisted Tale, reassured that my belief that Bob Byrne can do no wrong is plainly correct.  Love these wordless gems, just love them.  

I was puzzled by Dandridge - why don't I like this more?  Its just not clicking with me the way the first run did.  

Finally I felt patronised by Red Seas. I've never done a big Red Seas re-read, but this slightly clumsy recap irritated me.  There must be better ways to re-convey the plot than have the main character recount it, and then his pointless brother clarify it for no apparent reason.  I do like Red Seas in general, but two opening episodes of effectively pure recap is pushing it.   Also, fig leaves?  Really?  Isn't that a bit 16th C for Hephaestus?

Oh the full gamut of emotions, all human life is here.

[helm]

Pat Mills explanation of Gorehead was the writer at his mental best.   What other writer would come up with a crazed T-Rex being caught in a time blast and covered in the blood of another dinosaur! That's so inventive. Brilliant stuff, Mr Mills. 2000AD at its best.

Also, this week's Flesh episode links it to the original book and makes it feel like a proper sequel. The story has been fleshed out.

And that was a groaner of a pun.  

[Grant Goggans]

Enough of this nonsense about falling children and wooden-fingered men!  We should all be much more concerned about the fact that our favorite Betelgeusean bampot is going senile and can't count.  This was the twelfth Twisted Tale, not the eleventh!

Twisted Tale One, prog 1536
Twisted Tale Two, prog 1537
Twisted Tale Three, prog 1538
Twisted Tale Four, prog 1565
Twisted Tale Five, prog 1566
Twisted Tale Six, prog 1599
Twisted Tale Seven, prog 1615
Twisted Tale Eight, prog 1639
Twisted Tale Nine, prog 1643
Twisted Tale Ten, prog 1647
Twisted Tale Eleven, Meg 294
Twisted Tale Twelve, prog 1729

Oh, horrors!

(And it was great, too, wasn't it?)

Although, seriously, Yeowell could have done a better job giving the wooden-fingered dude some clothes that didn't look just like the clothes that Dancer was wearing.  You know, zip-a-tone his shirt, or cross-hatch his vest or do something.  Yeowell's a genius, but seriously, he is getting lazy as hell with his inking lately.