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Prog 2009: The Cannibal Run

Started by Trent, 26 November, 2016, 10:57:23 AM

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Pyroxian

Quote from: Nic_Freeman on 28 November, 2016, 11:32:49 AM
This is going to be controversial, but I really don't think Pat Mills has produced a good script in some time. The stories feel very slow and dated to me. Lots of two dimensional anti-hero types fighting generic two dimensional facist states. Maybe it's just having two of them in the same prog, but I just find it hard to care what happens in either.

I'm still enjoying Savage - fighting fascist states is pretty much what the story's about... Although given that Britain is now liberated, I'd much rather it was rebranded into something like Invasion: Europe!, and turned more into a proper Volgan War prequel. By all means have Savage turn up in it, but not as the central character. Hell, have him turn up as a rogue protaganist hindering the actual resistance - that would make things interesting...

Would rather Flesh just got back to dinosaurs eating cowboys though...

Trent

Both stories have sadly lost me.
Not really enjoyed the Flesh return from James McKay's scratchy art to Clint's murky photo story but mostly due to the interminable non-plotting that Mill's now seems to produce. The once exciting and dynamic ABC Warriors and Slaine are both suffering from it too.
Such a shame that stories with such potential and great concepts are mired in dull stories that don't seem to lead anywhere, or if they do, it takes half a dozen 'books' to get there.
I thought the 2000AD philosophy was a 'shotglass of rocket fuel'. Not been that for a while imho.

James Stacey

Defoe still has me but pretty much all of Mr Mills output other than that has long lost me. Savage was the last to go with some good stuff up to this current arc but really not feeling the current story.

Jim_Campbell

Quote from: Trent on 28 November, 2016, 12:45:17 PM
I thought the 2000AD philosophy was a 'shotglass of rocket fuel'.

Heh. That was an edict from Andy Diggle's short tenure as editor and about whom you'll struggle to get Pat to say anything positive.
Stupidly Busy Letterer: Samples. | Blog
Less-Awesome-Artist: Scribbles.

Hawkmumbler

Well as peevious threads have indicated i'm no fan of Flesh. Teite, dull, slow, tedious, ugly and utterly lacking in it's potential. Very sad.


I, Cosh

Quote from: James Stacey on 28 November, 2016, 01:01:43 PM
Defoe still has me but pretty much all of Mr Mills output other than that has long lost me. Savage was the last to go with some good stuff up to this current arc but really not feeling the current story.
Almost exactly what I think. I definitely see a correlation between this and the relative age of the strips. Defoe, clocking in at a spritely 9 years old, still feels fresh and interesting and the hero's Leveller past a great vehicle for both the writer's political concerns and tension within the story.
We never really die.

Trout

Tremendous Dredd story and excellent Rogue. I enjoyed the Future Shock, and that's the first time I've said that in a looooong time. The twist made me smile, but perhaps I'm too immersed in corporate culture.

Savage has lost my attention a little, but the art is still cool, and Flesh is for people who are not me.

- Trout

Keef Monkey

Think I must have just been distracted the last couple of weeks reading Dredd, because it wasn't really doing much for me and this last episode was brilliant. Will need to read the whole thing in a oner now, a very strong finale!

That and Hunted were the strongest points for me. I've loved Hunted, in large part because PJ does such a fantastic job with Rogue stuff, and it's just a very cool spin on the series. Been a load of great moments in it, hope it comes back with the same team.

Future Shock was fun enough, it did feel like a very Arnold Rimmer career path and as such was quite amusing.

Savage hasn't been grabbing me this series as a story, but I do enjoy the action scenes, and this was a good one. Plus, there weren't any cringey song lyrics crowbarred in this week that I could see.

And I have no idea whatsoever what's going on in Flesh this week, for some reason it just didn't seem to scan for me. The lines at the start seemed really out of place and the panels are so big that almost nothing happens week to week, and then my interest wanes so that when something does happen I have no idea why it happened. I guess it's alright, just not for me.

TordelBack

This year's proggage is wrapping up in good health, even if every other thing in the universe has gone to shite.

Cover: as non-specific Dredd covers go, this one is lovely and lively.

Dredd: A proper little Dredd tale, sinister and silly in the correct balance, and with really terrific art from Lynch, his best to date.  Wyatt uses the three parts well, keeping everything flowing between episodes and yet keeping them self-contained, while still leaving room for a return engagement: not an easy trick.  My only regret would be that the baddie didn't have a memorable name - I can't remember it now and I just put the prog down - and it wasn't even mentioned this episode!  Something that rhymed with cannibal would have been good... Annabelle Unger, maybe? Desiree Longpig?  (Well, you can see why I don't get to write Dredd...).
 
Flesh: If this had been the first episode of the current run, I'd be reasonably happy: some shooty stuff happens, there's a dinosaur eating people, Pastor Sunday has (hopefully) gone to join the Choir Invisible, even if I'm not even vaguely believing Vegas has been shot off screen.  But this is the eighth episode, and for a story that includes a time-travelling T-Rex, Claw Carver and Earl Reagan, and the K/T extinction event itself, it just hasn't been enough.

Hunted: Legacy characters shoved back into the prog, apocalyptic setting, grudge-match standoffs... why this is just like Flesh!  Except it isn't - I can see what's going on, it's exciting, I want to see more.  A great surprise of a strip, I hope a follow-up is in the works already. 

Future Shock:  Very enjoyable story, great cheeky designs, clever twist.  All horribly familiar, and not just because of the setting.

Savage: A very entertaining slice of utter bollocks, with beautifully-drawn action.  No problem with this, every book of Savage has been satisfyingly different from the last, and long may it continue.

Spikes

No smudged pages, but a few that look washed out. Savage, and the Future Shock.

Nowt too major, but noticeable.

Lovely cover by the Staz droid. When was the last time he was in the prog? Prior to the Day of Chaos I'll wager.

Dredd concludes nicely. All told a fun tale, which brought the Lynch droid firmly to my attention.

Not read the rest.

Satanist

As the prog trundles along to the year end bonanza I'm left thinking it would be stronger if they didn't have 2 Mills strips at the same time.

Oh and I've really enjoyed Hunted and looking forward to seeing how Counterfeit Girl wraps up next week.
Hmm, just pretend I wrote something witty eh?

jacob g

I never gave ma opinion in spoilers even even though I'm a weekly reader (actually biweekly but it's other matter) so it's time to change it.

First of all, I enjoy most of the recent stories with one exeption, I totally don't get Flesh. Maybe because I never read Flesh in the past but I just flip through the pages. The same situation I had with Return To R-Busters few months back (but ABC Warriors and RO-Busters I knew before) I just can't get into the story, I'm cold.

But on the other hand Savage is ok.

I'm confused.
margaritas ante porcos

TordelBack

Quote from: jacob g on 01 December, 2016, 11:21:21 AM
...I just can't get into the story, I'm cold.

There is no story. Occasionally something happens, mostly everyone stands around in stock poses and snarl at each other about some old grudge while gurning at the camera, and if you're really lucky a very pretty dinosaur will emerge from the book and eat someone. That's your lot for this book. Please let me drown before the giant scorpions get to me, that's all I'm saying.

TordelBack

For "book" read "murk". I spend more time correcting predictive text than it could ever possibly save me.

Magnetica

Quote from: Satanist on 01 December, 2016, 10:45:00 AM
As the prog trundles along to the year end bonanza I'm left thinking it would be stronger if they didn't have 2 Mills strips at the same time.

I am not sure that having two strips by the same writer is of itself a bad thing.

There was a time when the Prog was mostly written by the Wagner Grant combo and Mills e.g  Dredd, Stront, Robo Hunter Ace Trucking by Wagner- Grant and Mills with Slaine and Nemesis plus the odd story by someone else.

Plus IIRC every story in Prog 1 was by Mills!

More recently there were times when the Prog has seemed to have been mostly written by Dan Abnett and Ian Edginton (Dredd aside of course).

Now, you are entitled to not like a particular writer, but it's fine by me to have more than one story by the same writer running at the same time.