Prog 1764: Customd & Exos

[TordelBack]

Comments much appreciated, but let's get this thread back on track before I'm overwhelmed with guilt...

Cover:  Stonking, exactly the kind of cover I like - bright, composed with the logo/dress in mind, shows you something happening in the Prog that you might actually be interested in reading.  Amazing shade of red on the hair draws the eye, and Richardson delivers a sort of hyper-detailed version of Elson in terms of design. My 5 year old, who despite enjoying Flesh isn't that interested in 2000AD in general, demanded to read Grey Area based on a glimpse of the cover.  Unfortunately he opened the Prog on the page of Hawksmoor strangling her subaltern in the nip, but that's another story...

Nerve Center:  Tharg tries to convince us that a price hike is as nothing when Zaucer of Zilk is on the way.  I'm inclined to agree, sight unseen.

Dredd: Haven't seen any Day of Chaos stuff since Dredd didn't get his head blown off by Nadia, but it doesn't feel like I've missed much:  Sov engineered bug, check, twin psi cadets, check, sleeper agent judge, check.  That said, it worked very well as a single episode for someone unsure as to what was going on in the wider plot.  Gallagher's art is wonderfully grim, and I really liked seeing Dredd's signature doggedness in the opening sequence.  Bit surprised to see that Beeny has drifted from half Puerto-Rican to southern Indian and Logan's prosthetics are now fully concealed, but hey, I've been away a while.

Grey Area:  Builds on the promise of the opener, with sumptuous art, nice design and plenty of tantalising hints interspersed with rough and tumble.

Nikolai Dante:  As mentioned elsewhere I've just finished Vol 10 of the TPBs in my Dante re-read, and I am on fire for this.  Simon's splash of the Winter Palace is just gobsmacking, further cementing his reputation as one of the top artists for future architecture, right up there with Cam Kennedy.  Top stuff, and easily Best in Show.

Past Imperfect: H Battalion:  A simple idea, very nicely worked into an atmospheric story, with wonderful art by the great Warren Pleece.

Strontium Dog:  The other big hitter, but a strange one.  Very dense stuff, with a huge amount of dialogue hemming in the slowly-growing-on-me style of the combined Ezquerras.  Not sure I care for the existence of the new Knee, but I sure as hell want to know what happens next.


Input:  Ah.  I see Tharg addresses the Beeny skintone issue.  Sort of.
   
Back Cover:  Gotta get me one of those smart-deelies.  But why is it always zombies?

Like I said, a great Prog to make you forget your woes, bursting with a mix of new and old.

[Proudhuff]

The above says it all a fine prog indeed, 

TB stick in there, hopefully things will improve, deep breaths!!

[Simon Fraser]

Glad you're enjoying the Progs TordelBack, hang in there.

[George Dread]

Before the thread gets buried under the weight of this weeks, I wanted to comment on Leigh Gallagher's artwork for Dredd. As he's often used in darkly sinister story lines, he gave a lot of added mystery to this thrill. Good effort.

You deserve better TB.

[Alien Goodness]

This Prog is now on Clickwheel so I can now read it along with the rest of the Squaxx. I enjoyed this one.

Judge Dredd: I sometimes think that the use of Psi-Judges are a bit of a lazy shortcut so with them out of the way maybe we'll see some good old-fashioned detective work instead.

Grey Area reminds me of District 9 but I like the premise of this story. Good artwork, especially the cover.

Dante: Having been away from 2000AD for twenty years, I've missed the development of the Nikolai Dante story. I gather that he's a very popular character, but I cannot see his appeal. Yet. Lovely artwork again.
A side issue - why can't Clickwheel scan double-spread pages as a single panel? It's irritating. And is there a way I can work around this such as joining them together myself? I noticed this with the wraparound covers as well.

Past Imperfect: Brilliant short story. Reminds me of Future Shocks. This is why I prefer 2000AD's anthology approach to the standard Marvel/DC comic.

SD: Now Johnny Alpha is a character I remember from the early days of 2000AD and I have warm memories of him. I'm confused by his latest appearance and gather that there's plenty of back story I need to catch up on. But the feel of this story reminds me of the early SD stories.

[judgefloyd]

Dredd is always a good thing, Strontium Dogs always a very good thing.  Dante's okay.
  The problem with the psi judges is that there is still detective work. There are psi judges but also heaps of stories in which Dredd is looking at footprints and bits of chewing gum etc.    Of course, there's no reason why you can't just have your cake and eat it too in fiction, especially something as sprawling as the world of Dredd. 

[Proudhuff]

Dredd is always a good thing, Strontium Dogs always a very good thing.  Dante's okay.
  The problem with the psi judges is that there is still detective work. There are psi judges but also heaps of stories in which Dredd is looking at footprints and bits of chewing gum etc.    Of course, there's no reason why you can't just have your cake and eat it too in fiction, especially something as sprawling as the world of Dredd.

But as we all know the Psi are unreliable, every thing from the Judge Child to Day of Chaos has had some iffy Psi work, hence not too much reliance on them