Prog 2001 - Hungry for Thrills

[Colin YNWA]

Well it had a lot to live up to didn't it and lets be honest it didn't quite make it. It gave it a damned good shoot and in some strips there was the quality that was needed. Dredd was a nice atmospheric opener with an intriguing mystery and an action packed finale. Fantastic stuff and I'm looking forward to seeing how we progress, but a revenge mission... now... really... we'll see.

Counterfeit Girl is a multi-coloured, high octane, delight. The only question remains when its wearing its theme so openly will it sustain interest. So far so good though and I look forward to finding out.

Flesh... fleshy, flesh, flesh, flesh... oh dear. I've loved this series to date and maybe the theory down thread about this being to support a trade or hardcover down the line is right but really 6 pages of flat, unapologetic recap, in a Prog after one would hope an audience boost of Prog 2000. Someone as experienced as Mr Mill could surely have provide a more imaginative, less direct way of achieving this? Maybe its there to showcase the art change... and we'll see how that goes when there's an actual story to tell.

Hunted was a strip I was really looking forward to after prog 2000 but its didn't quite work for me for some reason. Dron being kinda splashed in (has he appeared in previous Rennie Nu-Earth stories and my addled memory is letting me down) felt unecessary when we had The Traitor General to focus on. Still might not have gelled with me as a single episode but the idea is still something I'm pretty bought into so still looking forward to seeing how this one develops.

Finally Savage, well while not Mills at his best, it did rather over egg the Bill ain't coping angle was fine stuff and I'm always happy to have this series back so plenty of time for this one to pick up.

So yeah strangely even though his wasn't a great Prog for me there's still enough in the line-up to give me much hope that things will spring into life when each story finds its feet proper. Just seems a shame that a couple of exceptions aside the episodes aren't as strong as they might have been to build on what we got a week ago.

[Richard]

recap, in a Prog after one would hope an audience boost of Prog 2000.

That seems to me to be all the more reason to have a recap.

[Trent]

Heard it is at home but not seen it yet.
Love the idea of a follow up to Enceladus wherever it goes, particularly with Hairsine on dury.
Fancy re-engaging when th Flesh after the last series left me adrift. Never really 'got' McKay's artwork so a change is welcome.
Otherwise ambivalent, particularly Savage which lost me several books ago. Pat Mills has produced some of 2000AD's finest moments and strips but his current model serms to be to spin out tales interminably with clumsy artificial cliffhangers and predictable malificent seven type stories.

[Colin YNWA]

recap, in a Prog after one would hope an audience boost of Prog 2000.

That seems to me to be all the more reason to have a recap.

A egotisitcal self quote in reply.

Prog after one would hope an audience boost of Prog 2000. Someone as experienced as Mr Mill could surely have provide a more imaginative, less direct way of achieving this?

[Magnetica]

It was always going to be hard to follow Prog 2000 and lest we forget, under normal circumstances this would have been the much heralded jumping on Prog.

Dredd was shaping up nicely until that last panel. So the mission is to murder / carry out lawful sentence (delete according to your point of view) a load of Sov Judges. Doesn't seem like a very noble mission to me. And yes I get he isn't a hero, you are not meant to be cheering for him blah blah blah, but even so this seems a bit extreme. Hope something else is really going on.

I never would have recognised Trevor Hairsine's art. Seem like a complete shift in style.


Counterfeit Girl: the jury is definitely out on this one.

Hunted: after the fresh take on the Rogue Trooper universe that was Jargir, I can't help thinking this is a backwards step. Preferred Richard Elson's depiction of the Traitor General too.

ABC WarriorsFlesh: I was ok with the recap. Which ever way it is done it is going over old ground so it's never going to be ideal. Pat has previous for doing them in story, going all the way back to the Black Hole, which when I read it I was going "yeah yeah we know all this, just get on with it". How they are viewed I think depends on how necessary they are. People often say they can't remember what is going on in a strip. So there you go - here is a recap. The in story ones for me don't really work either.

With the way it has been done, you do at least get some new art and it is better than a page of text - it is a comic after all.

As ever I am torn on Langley's art. It should be the best thing ever but it's (IMO) slightly static nature holds it back.

Savage: as with others I was slightly losing the thread of the plot over the last few books. Hopefully with the relocation this will be a new story arc. Oh and how long til Clint Langley starts doing the art for this as well?

One last thought: it is quite a thing that more than 2000 Progs in we have an issue in which 3 strips originated in Progs 1 and 2, and two others from the first 5 years.

[Eamonn Clarke]

My pick of a thrill packed Prog is PJ Holden's superb art on Hunted. I confess I don't know as much about Rogue's world as I should do (Chris Thompson will be filling me in on an upcoming podcast) but I'm instantly grabbed by Rennie and Holden's premise.

Top thrill for me

[IndigoPrime]

I suppose at least Flesh wasn't yet another book about getting the gang back together, which seems to be a recurring theme every few years in ABC Warriors. As for recaps, I'm not against them, but six pages? And they were so boring to read.

[user2000]

 

Postie's been again, still no Prog 2000 and no sign of Prog 2001 either...

[CalHab]

The Flesh re-cap didn't exactly inspire me to hunt down the original stories. Did it make any more sense in those?

I am very optimistic about the all-action start to Where Eagles DareDredd. Counterfeit Girl looks like being a great story as well.

[IndigoPrime]

The Flesh re-cap didn't exactly inspire me to hunt down the original stories. Did it make any more sense in those?

Sort of. Flesh has its fans, but I thought the new run was messy, preachy, occasionally unnecessarily sexist, and just not all that exciting. I love the concept, and enjoyed bits of the original Flesh run from 2000 AD's dawn. But this newer stuff has never really clicked with me.

[JUDGE BURNS]

I'm still progless for 2001, on a Tuesday.  

I managed to speak to the postie and he reckons its the KILMARNOCK sorting office that could be  delaying shipment of the progs to us in Ayrshire fro some reason.

[user2000]

I'm still progless for 2001, on a Tuesday. 

I managed to speak to the postie and he reckons its the KILMARNOCK sorting office that could be  delaying shipment of the progs to us in Ayrshire fro some reason.

Yep, I spoke to my postie too and he says basically they are in disarray at the Kilmarnock sorting office, of course I wouldn't land my postie in it but he has told me some hair raising stories over the years!  He's a decent sort as well, always dread (see, I resisted there) when he is on holiday or days off, generally anything heavier than a letter gets left for his return, poor guy!

I sent a message on the shop page and got a lovely reply back basically getting a rush job on my missing two progs, reassurance that I am in fact eligible to get the prog and a looksee at what might be happening - was told the warehouse change should speed up late prog probs that I've been having over the last couple of months, but it seems to have made it worse.

Some Royal Mail ass kicking is needed and I'm sure it's better coming from the sender rather than the recipient, especially if the sender is a volume customer such as Rebellion.


Oh well, first world problems, eh? 

[sheridan]

Good point about collected editions as well. I wouldn't be too shocked if the Mills/Langley Flesh tales were collected ahead of Midnight Cowboys/Badlanders/Grinders - the hardback, more Euro-friendly Slaine/ABC books certainly seem to be successful enough to justify their continued prominence in Rebellion's publishing plans, and I could certainly see this version of Flesh joining them - and in that case a more extensive recap like this would make sense. It definitely still feels a bit too much in the prog though, but I take the point 

Mills has form - The Horned God had a one-episode recap at the beginning, and that was also after a long gap (can't remember quite how long, but between Slaine the King and The Horned God, 'Steve' Bisley managed to chuck out The ABC Warriors - The Black Hole).




Dug out my collected edition - Slaine the King began in Prog 500 and was finished by 520 (the 'birthday' prog) while Horned God began in 626 - so about a two-year gap.  There's about eleven pages given to scene-setting for Ukko and Nest in Dinas Emrys mixed in with a recap of just about all the major events from the series so far.  After that we get into the actual story.

[sheridan]

Dredd was an interesting opener.  Looks like Williams is taking to the wider Dredd conflict world for this run.  Hairsine / Kitson on art duties is an interesting collaboration.  Nice enough set up.  We'll just wait to see where this goes.

Kitson back on art duties?  Flippant woman in the hood?  Sov judges?  Such a combination hasn't been seen since Hour of the Wolf...

[sheridan]

One last thought: it is quite a thing that more than 2000 Progs in we have an issue in which 3 strips originated in Progs 1 and 2, and two others from the first 5 years.

Don't think I follow your counting - Dredd, Flesh and Savage are the strips originating (with a name change) from the first couple of progs, while Hunted originates from the first five years, but the remaining of the five strips* is one week old.


* not including Droid Life, featuring characters which originated in another comic a few years after 2000AD debuted.