Prog 1755: A Loaded Magazine

[The Enigmatic Dr X]

Cover:

Lawgive gun porn. Ooh. Cliff Robinson, too. A real stand out for me. Great colouring. Would look good in WH Smiths.

DREDD:

Shades of Men-in-Black at the gun range, with Dredd training cadets. Funny enough, but we've seen the gag a million times (as the actress said to the bishop). Meanwhile, PJ does as PJ does.

AMPNEY CRUCIS:

A bit of Basil, done well. Nice creepy Cthulu pics. And a corking last panel. Me likey.

TWISTED TALE:

I am not a fan of these. I don't get them, I find them a little too long and they feel incongrous in 2000ad. I don't like comic strips you have to concentrate on to follow and to jump back and forth to figure out what is going on. This one is more accessbile, but feels hackneyed. Still, it's an anthology.

ANGEL ZERO:

Old school cool. This could have been in 2000ad 30 years ago. That is a Good Thing.

DEAD LIFE:

Filled with great lines. Pinnacle of the prog. Best line: "Sumo Physician Diet Thyself." But, really, there are many best lines. Oh, and Aimee pops up at the end and seems to be working for the Yakuza - but is she?

No letters.

[Pete Wells]

I love that cover. It's brilliant how Cliff thinks through objects from Dredd's world, that glove is genius.

[Dark Jimbo]

?

[Colin_YNWA]

AS has been said a fine cover with some lovely texture on the glove. Inside its much as we were, if a little steadier than last week.

Dredd continues in the same vein with the same positives and so far the same negatives as before. To be honest so does Ampney, though that much more expositiony (which clearly isn't a word yet?).

Had to work with the Twisted Tale but it was worth it. Do like these as Dr X says " they feel incongrous in 2000ad" but that's part of the appeal to me broadening the mix a little and a welcome intrusion.

Angel Zero continues to hurtle along but crams so much in seemingly effortlessly again as Dr X says old skool in the best possible sense.

Low Life is just brilliant as always and nice little moment at the end there.

Good prog

[Trout]

Lots of great stuff. The Dredd story's getting really exciting now. I can't wait for next week.

I'm also really enjoying the fast-paced Angel Zero, creepy and far-reaching Ampney Crucis and the action-packed Low Life. The Twisted Tale thing didn't really grab me. I saw the end coming.

- Trout

[DoomBot]

Covers OK. Prefer more dynamic covers personally.

Didn't like Twisted Tales. I'm not a fan of the silent comic strip so this was a waste of good paper IMHO.

Everything else was great. Angel Zero was the standout strip for me followed by Crucis.

Oh - and Droid Life was brilliant too.

 

[mygrimmbrother]

Cover - hmm, yeah I like it, although I kind of agree with Doombot.

Dredd - aces. Wagner and Flint could adapt Eastenders and I'd be reading it.

Ampney - I'm going off Simon Davis' art bigtime. The story is fine, especially now it's heading into multi-dimensional Lovecraft territory. I think it's his colour palette - fing the greens and purples to be a but crude, not pleasant at all.

Twisted Tale - have mostly enjoyed these in the past, but not this one. Some of those panels were sub-standard.

Angel Zero - hate to go against thetide of popular opinion again but I think I'm possible the only boarder indifferent to this. Story just seems so-so, nothing we haven't seen before, and once again I'm finding the art a bit of a slog. John Burns is a fantastic draftsman, but to me the colour is all over the place.

Lowlife - the saving grace once again. Utterly love this.

[DrJomster]

Low Life does indeed save the day again, just like last week. Loving the script and art. Lettering's just fine too.

Ampney's next up, as last week again. As mentioned above, that last panel was very nice. The art SO suits the story. Great stuff. Interesting looking at Beardy Cromwell and trying to see Non-Beady Cromwell underneath, particularly with this artist and his background in portrait work.

Dredd picked up a LOT from last week, thank goodness. I'm still not sure if more PJ so soon was the way to go, but wouldn't be at all surprised if the Wagner Droid pulls a blinder and I'm loving it in a few week's time.

[Proudhuff]

most has been said already, great cover, nice Dredd, AC invests really enjoying now, Angel Zero old school thrills and Dirty Frank wonderful top thrill.

[Lee Bates]

Angel Zero - hate to go against thetide of popular opinion again but I think I'm possible the only boarder indifferent to this. Story just seems so-so, nothing we haven't seen before.

No, I'm with you there. How many times are we going to have to read a story about a genetically engineered super killing machine who rebels against their creators? It's been done about a million times and this story is bringing nothing new to the table.

Wasn't keen on the Twisted Tale either. I was left with the overwhelming feeling of "so what?".

Jeeves and Wooster in the Land of the Bogey Monsters isn't holding my interest. Maybe the last few episodes will go supernova and knock my socks off. Maybe.

I enjoyed Low Life as usual and Dredd was ok again but I'm getting a bit bored of PJ Maybe now.

Not the best prog I've ever read by a long chalk.

[PreacherCain]

Cover: Interesting idea but I don't think it works. No, not for me.

Dredd: An improvement on last week. The 'elusive' PJ's internal dialogue was great. Was fun to see some cadet training from Dredd too. Still, can't shake the feeling that this story has already been done before. What's this Day of Chaos about then? And where the hell did the Russkies go!?

Ampney Crucis: You know what, this is really intriguing me. I liked this episode a lot. Am I right in thinking that Edginton is combining all his 'universes' with this story? Leviathan!? As in, the same creature from the rather brilliant 'Leviathan' series all them years ago by Edginton and D'Israeli!?

Twisted Tales: I'm a big fan of these and really enjoyed this one too. Lovely art and I'm a big fan of his character design. I really like the inclusion of these in 2000AD; they're a bit different and it's nice to mix things up.

Angel Zero: It's ok. I'd expect more to have happened by now.

Low Life: Brilliant, as usual. The monster enema was hilarious!

[vzzbux]

I think the day of chaos will give us a few strings and keep us guessing what it will be all about until election day and all will be revealed. The virus thing killing 99% of the population is a bit extreme, but nutty professor may alter the virus so it affects the mind rather than death, or PJ to throw out power throughout the city or something along those lines.




V

[SmallBlueThing]

At the moment im getting my weekly thrills from Low Life and Dredd- and im not even particularly convinced by Dredd- with Angel Zero being entertaining, but taking its sweet time going anywhere.

That continued this week- much fun in Low Life, a stronger Dredd than recent ones, and a vibrant episode of AZ. All good.

Ampney briefly thrilled with portentious mention of Leviathan. However, in this context i cant help but mentally add in a additional "The LORD... of the LABYRINTH!!" everytime it happens. Im having trouble accepting Ampney as part of the same universe as the sublime Leviathan; one of my favourite things in 2000AD ever.

Bob Byrne was back too. Sigh.

But Droid Life made me laugh, and the cover was spectacular... though i do wonder if lawgiver bullets are 'really' that big- he could only fit about six in that magazine, and would have to change mags roughly every ten seconds in an average day. But anyway, good stuff.

SBT

[Colin Zeal]

I'd say it was a good rather than great prog this week. Lowlife was top thrill by a mile, while Dredd, Ampney and Angel were ok. They're all ticking along nicely but going pretty slowly. TT was ok - not the best that has been in the prog.

[JamesC]

Pretty average prog for me.

I'm pretty fed up with PJ Maybe. It used to be cool to see someone beat Justice Department because the JD always seemed so un-beatable. We now have a situation where JD are shown to be incompitent and de-powered every time they're up against PJ which is just frustrating.
The bit with the cadets was good though.

I like Angel Zero. Not much has happened but it's atmospheric and has great art.

Low Life is slightly amusing but I find the Dirty Frank thing is wearing thin and I'm always frustrated by Dredd world strips that are ignored by the actual Dredd strip itself. I can't see the point in them - I'd rather we just had them set in another future city or something.

The Bob Byrne thing isn't even a story, it's just a barely fleshed out idea.

Ampney is alright but I really couldn't care less about any of these annoying characters.

Liked the cover and Droid life though.