Prog 1988 - Front Toward Enemy

[Colin YNWA]

At least I think that's what the tagline says - the font ain't all that clear.

Anyhoo inside we have 3 winners and 2 losers, can you guess which is which?

Well to be fair one winner is just a solid intriging start, nice and exposing plenty of potential but Scarlet Traces is scene setting. Mind having read the previous stuff I'm confident we have exciting things to look forward to.

Lets get the losers out the way. Black Shuck is just unfolding, or rather unravelling in front of me now. I've completely lost it, the strip means nowt to me. Here's hoping re-read serves it better than episode as i have the feeling once you get past the beards there's something to enjoy here.

Slaine's up and down run ends with a solid downer. I mean jez after a great episode last week which crushed Slaine and left him a broken and shattered man ready to be mauled what we get this week essentially boiled down to (and I do hate using spoiler tags in a spoiler section but... We [spoiler]won[/spoiler], it [spoiler]ran fast.[/spoiler] Oh [spoiler]brill[/spoiler] I feel better and can [spoiler]go back[/spoiler] to my [spoiler]miracle bowing shooting.[/spoiler].. elsewhere... oh [spoiler]poo we lost [/spoiler]BUT I have [spoiler]another army to throw at[/spoiler] Slaine. Isn't that exciting... well to be honest if it was for the promise of more glorious Simon Davis art no it wouldn't be at all.

Still we have two winners. I loved Tordelback's observation of we're at the cliche Dredd put the gang together phase of the mega epic. But cliche or not its working a treat.

Brink continues to be an absolute master class, all be it with a sci-fi cliche of its own with the shot the gravity off trick. Again don't care I ADORE this brilliant strip and I'm really intrigued about the 'good guys' plot and where that might take things.

So 3 winner 2 losers a middling Prog then.

[Colin YNWA]

Oh and I'll warn you now I mis-fired on me spoiler tags - bolding one and completely missing another about Brink. So if you haven't read the Prog avoid my post...

... many would say avoid it anyway!

[A.Cow]

Cover: Like Colin_YNWA says, the font isn't easy to read.  Thought it said "Front Forward Enemy" at first.

Dredd:  What isn't there to like?  And ... POW! Carroll hits another blast from the past with [spoiler]secret judge dot-and-line codes[/spoiler].  Loving it.

Brink: Still not getting this.

Slaine: The Boretania Chronicles, Book Three: Psychopomp (part ten), paragraph 5 subsection 3(ii):  Week 7 of "Slaine fires some arrows".  Simon Davis is a fascinating artist but it's like someone leant on the photocopy button for a month.  And then threw in a pointless double-page spread.  Please somebody make it stop.

Black Suck:  Don't know; don't care.

Scarlet Traces:  Great stuff, especially the Gerry Anderson UFO-style moonbase.  And the mug.  And [spoiler]David Bowie[/spoiler] turning up at the end.

[Eamonn Clarke]

[M.I.K.]

Call that a hard to read font?

Pah! Today's generation clearly aren't reading enough 17th century manuscripts!

[McNulty]

Here's my input:

Dredd: Coming along well, with both sides moving their plans forward. Question though, Where is Judge Anderson in all this? Has Dredd contacted her or has she been gotten at by the Texans?

Slaine: Old Slaine has seemed to be treading water for a while now for me. Not been a great fan since the anniversary series. This latest outing hasn't been much for me. Each to their own though.

Black Shuck: I find this an interesting story set in a time and place not normally covered by such stories. As a Scot, I am naturally drawn to Celtic myths and legends, but I find that this is a nice change to hear about other stories from the British Isles past. My only concern is that this story will be used to depict Christianity in a poor light, like other 2000AD stories.

Scarlet Traces: I must admit, I have read every Megazine since the start and I do remember the original story set in Victorian Britain but for the life of me I cannot remember the follow up series Tharg mentions in his Nerve centre explanation. That being said, I did enjoy the feel of this opening episode. It is very reminiscent of Gerry Anderson's Thunderbirds and Captain Scarlet (He had problems with Martians too).

Blink: I just can't get into the story or the art of this strip. This week, the art was dominated by two colours. It just didn't do anything for me. But I do acknowledge that it has its fans, and I respect this. As I said, each to their own.

[Dandontdare]

I'm loving this current Dredd epic, because it's fast moving and exciting, but I'm surprised about just how weak MC1 seems to be. I was a bit confused about these psi "screamers" - is this something we've seen before? (rings a bell, but I have a terrible memory). Can't wait for the Texans to get their comeuppance, and I hope Hershey survives as I love the dynamic between her and Dredd.

Black Shuck _ not read this yet as I have the last few to catch up with from when I was on holiday. I never skip strips, but this one really feels like a chore. C'mon Leah- your dad gave us an entire series about two girls going shopping and managed to make it exciting - you've got werewolves, vikings and all kinds of cool folklore stuff but it's just not engaging at all.

Brink - didn't like this at first but it's won me over - I really don't know where it's going, which is a good (and rare) thing. Culbard's art suits this strip more than Brass Sun, whose big concepts I think deserve something grander.

Scarlet Traces - I'm in heaven. Love the nods to UFO, and can't wait for the rest of this. Yum!

Slaine - as always, looks pretty, makes bollock sense

[Frank]

Blink: I just can't get into the story or the art of this strip. This week, the art was dominated by two colours

What a rip off. Say what you like about Black Shuck, but at least it uses all the colours.

[Tjm86]

I was a bit confused about these psi "screamers" - is this something we've seen before? (rings a bell, but I have a terrible memory).

I was thinking that Screamers previously were PSI's that worked for gangs, implanting images etc in their victims mind IIRC.  Double checking it turns out I was wrong, it was Psykers.  I'm the same though as you, the name / practice rings a bell.

Scarlet Traces: I must admit, I have read every Megazine since the start and I do remember the original story set in Victorian Britain but for the life of me I cannot remember the follow up series Tharg mentions in his Nerve centre explanation. That being said, I did enjoy the feel of this opening episode. It is very reminiscent of Gerry Anderson's Thunderbirds and Captain Scarlet (He had problems with Martians too).

That threw me as well, I didn't think the Great Game got an outing, or the War of the Worlds for that matter.  Dark Horse did them (and some very nice hardback graphic novels to boot).  I thought it was only Scarlet Traces that got the Meg treatment.

The nod to UFO (as DandontDare points out) raised a chuckle.  What I did love was the typically British run down look of the control room.  Patched up panels and rusty edges everywhere!  Is it just me though or is the art work a little scratchy compared to the earlier outings?

[moly]

Great to see scarlet traces but slaine please put this out of its misery it's just awful now, nice art though

[James Stacey]

I was confused for a while what 'Front Joward Enemy' meant.

[JUDGE BURNS]

Arrived back home on Saturday night for the Glasgow comic con, NO PROG  grrrrrrrrrrrrrr.

Monday , arrive home late on from my house calls and NO PROG AGAIN....WTF  (sorry) is going on with the Royal Mail????    Me not happy as I'm now 3 days overdue for my thrill power charge up..


Think I will go and knock some heads at the local sorting office...

[Proudhuff]

I can see Donald Dewar's sneaky fag in that photo!

[Keef Monkey]

Dredd is great right now, love the way things are brewing. Lost the thread of the Slaine story yonks and yonks ago, but at least these big battles are very nicely painted (even if I don't really know or care what's going on). Not really been able to follow Black Shuck either, again the art looks really nice but I'm not sure what's going on in the story. Possibly I'm not giving it enough attention because it's just not my cup of tea mind you.

Great to see Scarlet Traces back, always really, really liked that back in the Meg (to the point my band had a song called Scarlet Traces at the time).

But really I'm posted to say...how bloody good did Brink go and get?! It was always good, but it went from 'intriguing new thrill' to 'best thing in the prog' for me pretty fast. Loving it.

[Frank]

.



In our timeline, page 3 girls first appeared in 1969. Who could have guessed that one of the consequences of the Martian invasion of Victorian England would be that Rupert Murdoch booked his passage a year sooner.

David Bowie seems to have arrived on Earth a little early too, judging by the survivor's pallour, bad teeth, hair and cheekbones quip. Seems like fun, and Disraeli's improved UFO interceptor manages to be B-wingcredible and Slave-1derful too.

I thought Lion's Den felt like a two and a half month long holding pattern, so I'm glad Reclamation is inching towards some significant action. Time to sit back and enjoy MacNeil's wonderful art and Carroll's caper on their own terms [1].

Simon Davis's double page spread of terracotta warriors is fantastic; presumably Book Four will be 8 weeks of Sláine unsuccessfully blunting his scissors on the Archons' stone army, before Sinéad suggests wrapping them in paper.

Blink looks like an Altern-8 video, and Black Shuck can be enlivened by singing its subtitle - Sins Of The Father.


[1] Just kidding. Taking Hershey for a shower seems a bit contrived, and has Dolman been established as a whizz at Sniper Elite in previous stories?