Prog 1737 - Punk and Disorderly

[Pete Wells]

Cover - Ha, love the tag line of the cover! The image itself is the Sean Phillips image we saw a few weeks beck. It's a nice painting...

Dredd - Frikkin' BRILLIANT art by Lee Carter, the city looks alive! The multiple heads effect on the scream victims is super effective and every lawmaster shot has so much movement it's dizzying. It looks like I'm going to get my wish and see Dredd up against some scary looking, Lee Carter perps next week too, yay! Lee has totally captured the feel of the city and the Justice Dept, gush, gush, gush!

As for the script, it's a cracker by Grennie which has Dredd and a psi tracking down a drug gang. Lots of signature Megacity madness and grumpy Dredd (loved the off panel beating of the juves in the car) and an ending that harks waaaaaaay beck to the early days of Dredd. Superb.

Terror Tale - ahhhh, the return of Jesus Redondo and very nice it is too. An intriguing script with a decent payoff, I liked it. Isn't David Ballie normally an art droid though?

Anderson - my goodness! That panel on page 1 made me splurt out my cuppa! Beautiful art by the Ezquerras and a superb script by Grant, phwooor, that Malinda's a bit of alright isn't she? It struck me as I was reading this that Anderson was scrapping with Shark Man, is this Carlos' way of thanking our Legendary Shark for organising the 'Get Well' comic? I hope so. Good stuff all round, looking forward to finding out about Mel's past and seeing the job she has in store for Cass...

Red Seas - a great episode bursting with ideas, the ending was particularly satisfying with Jack being a real cool bastard. It's all good!

Absalom - is an absolute git! More superb writing from Gordon and spine tingling art from TT. I'm dying to know what Harry is scheming, it must be big with the sacrifices he's prepared to make for it. Another brilliant last panel too, Mr Critch is brilliantly designed and Harry's drinker's nose is perfect!

Star Scan - a rather extreme Dredd by Clint Langley, it very much reminds me of John Hicklenton's work. A cool image beautifully coloured.

[House of Usher]

You lucky **stard! You must be right at the front end of your postman's delivery route!

[Pete Wells]

Not really. My prog doesn't usually land until after 10 o clock, my postie must have had her Weetabix this morning!

[House of Usher]

Yess! I'm Progged up. Sadly, the promise of Cadet Anderson undercover as a hooker on the front cover isn't followed through in the story.

 

[Darren Stephens]

Very good issue.

Cover: Good to see Sean Phillips  work again.

Dredd: Petes right, some brilliant art from Mr Carter. We've been treated to glimpses of this on his blog, so it's great to finally see the full flavoured version. Whats cool artwork in a comic without a good script? Mr Rennie dilvers that to us here. Looking forward to the next episode.

Terror Tales: Another top name from tooths past returns. I love love love Redondos artwork. This was a very nice surprise. Scriptwise, it's an above average Terror Tale, though I saw the ending coming.

Cadet Anderson: Hah, yeh, that panel on the first page...beautifully drawn! Pretty
good stuff all round from the Ezquerra duo and Alan Grant.

Red Seas: That last page was a surprise. The way the conversation was going, I expected a cop-out. Good job I was wrong!

Absalom: Love everything about it. TTs artwork is grand. The script matches this awesomeness. Thats all I can say!

Star Scan: He's gonna take someones eye out with that Eagle shoulderpad....

[bluemeanie]

Been hoping we'd see Lee Carter do a Dredd and DAMN if this wasnt worth the wait. You can still tell it's the same artist as Necrophim but everything is just so more dynamic ARSOM and and... as Mr Wells said... gush

Recording the podcast with Flint tomorrow. Expect at least 3/4 to be devoted to Lee's art and THAT Anderson panel 

[Bluecube]

Damn! Mine was delivered this morning and I'd forgotten about it! Whoops...

[Emperor]

Isn't David Ballie normally an art droid though?

Although ECBT2000AD calls him a newcomer, he wrote the Future Shock in 1611 but he has written and drawn a couple of things elsewhere (including some self-published mini-comics):

www.comicbookdb.com/creator.php?ID=18642

He also wrote a number of the small press features in the Meg:

http://2000ad.org/?zone=droid&page=profiles&choice=DAVIDBA

[Jim_Campbell]

www.comicbookdb.com/creator.php?ID=18642

I just want to mention that the comicbookdb link throws up a pop-up ad which is currently advertising MacKeeper. Mac users need to be aware that this is a very iffy piece of software that will attempt to install itself if you click through the pop-up.

Cheers

Jim

[demos99]

Cover - Sorry, not a big fan of the cover artwork this week; in fact, the word 'ugly' sprung to mind when I first saw it. Still, the tagline's pretty witty though.

Dredd - Pretty good. Lee Carter's greywash art on Necrophim was a bit murky in places but here, with a full colour pallet to exploit, it's a big improvement. And Brainblooms! I remember those! What a blast from the past!

Terror Tales - And speaking of blasts from the pasts, Redondo's back! Woo! Admittedly the art's not quite as polished as it was on Mind Wars, Return to Armageddon or Nemesis Bk 2 but it's still recognisably Redondo. And Redondo's chicks are as sexy as ever. More of this please. Oh, and David Baillie's script was also good as well.

Anderson - Not a lot to say about this; it's Ezquerra doing what he does best though the upskirt panel rather threatens to overwhelm the rest of the episode. Plotwise Grant moves the story on slightly but I sense there's still more revelations to come before the wrap-up. (Mind you, my psi abilities never were up to much really.)

Red Seas - It's a good episode but I still struggle with Yeowell's minimalist art; would it kill him to put some backgrounds and detail into his panels? I suspect that I would find Red Seas easier to read if it was coloured, which makes it one of the few B&W strips I'd say that about.

Absalom - Ouch, nasty. Still, Rennie's script is a cracker and Tiernan Trevallion's artwork does all that things that Yeowell's doesn't for me.

Star Scan - Hmm, Langley's Dredd clearly been over-indulging on the steroids by the looks of it (bad Judge Dredd!) but if you can't go OTT in a Star Scan where can you?

Overall: 4.5/5

[Martin Howe]

Dredd - Brainblooms! Hell YES! Very good way of using an old dog for a new trick.

Terror Tales - Gripping tale, shocking ending!

Though I suppose not really a terror tale by the end and in fact the story asks more questions than it gives answers. How did "grandfather" die? And anyway... I mean what would YOU do in that situation, having thought and lived and behaved as a human all your life? Just commit suicide? And how would you do that anyway if you are an undead creature from the abyss; hire a Rabbi to exorcise yourself? Heck, you've learned magic, have a rich person's estate at your disposal, a glittering academic career ahead of you and women falling over themselves to be yours! Why not just enjoy mortal life for its pleasures while you can?

Anderson - Not sure how she avoids detection, but the story is passable.

Red Seas - Good one, following through at the end; could have been a cop-out there, but no mercy.

Absalom - Cool. Not sure about tit for tat being valid under the accord, but makes for a good story.

[Colin_YNWA]

Its hard not to get distracted with the art in a Prog that looks this good. Fantastic to see Lee Carter's long anticipated Dredd and he produced a strip as great as I was hoping, Steve Yeowell is as fantastic as ever and Carlos goes that extra step with Anderson vault shot that really is a distraction! Trevillion's work is nice as ever but its the return of Jesus Redondo that's the real headline stealer and its great to have him back in the Prog with a fantastic style that I for one am loving.

All that said the art shouldn't distract from the stories as its all pretty entertaining. A great opening Dredd setting things up nicely, a solid terror tales and episode of Absalom. The highlights for me though are Anderson which continues the high quality of last week and Red Seas. Anderson really has found its feet with Cass under cover (or not in some panels!) but its Red Seas that in the absence of Dante wins the day for me I've really enjoyed this story and the swashbuckling this week really hits new heights.

Good Prog.

[Dark Jimbo]

Anybody know what's due in the new line-up? Now that Dante's gone tbe only thrill that's really, er, thrilling me is Absalom, and even Dredd feels like it's coasting a bit until the next 'arc.' The others I can take or leave at the moment - no disrespect to the creators, they just aren't grabbing me enough to really get me caring what happens from week to week.

[Pete Wells]

Off the top of my head - new Wagner Dredd epic, Sinister Dexter, Zombo, the new Kek W/John Burns strip and something else I can't remember, Ichabod perhaps?

[Mikey]

I was initially non plussed with the Philips cover, but it's a grower alright - I love it now! I like this 'looser' colouring. And the 'Punk and Disorderly' tag brought back happy memories of the compilations of the same name - go and buy them, they're lush.

Dredd - Brilliant. Absolutely cracking colour job and scribbles from Carter and a quality opening installment overall. Brainblooms indeed! I like how MC1 had a much more familiar look - it really felt real if you know what I mean? This is going to be good, I can tell.

Cadet Anderson - Great. Building nicely with superb pacing from Grant, natch.

Red Seas - For a 'talking heads' episode, this was pretty engaging and nicely portentious.

Terror tale - Redondo is so underated imo, so it's great to see him back. He hasn't lost it you know. I saw the twist coming, but it was no less an enjoyable yarn. And if you found out today that you weren't actually a human, it'd be a bit of a kick in the balls, no?

Absalom - There's only so many times I can can say this is fantastic, but it is. Best by a mile in a strong prog. Bloody marvellous.

Great Prog, Tharg! Is it next week yet?

M