Prog 1995 - Shoot on Psight!

[Eamonn Clarke]

Nice Anderson cover by Jon Davis-Hunt.

Dredd: The body count increases as the battle between Dredd and Maybe continues.

Scalet Traces. Lovely escape sequence and some grisly flying machines.

Tharg's Thriller concludes and I'm a bit puzzled. Time to re-read the three in one go.

Outlier sets up another escape sequence which is unfortunate timing, and Carcer is back.

Anderson has a nice reveal about the nature and history of the assassin and almost the pick of the Prog, but the Dredd, Maybe, Wagner, Exquerra combo is like a straight flush of thrill power,

[Trent]

Very satisfying prog.
Dredd looks like we might actually be headed towards the end of PJ, but who knows with Wagner.
3Thriller ends well, a solid 15 page tale that you had to keep your wits about you to follow.
Could say the same for Anderson which is progressing very well indeed, although the villain appears to be rather like Vitus Dance.
Outlier unread and Scarlet Traces being saved for a reread as I feel they were intended more that way.
Curious about how PJ will hit back at Dredd and also about the two mentions of Quite Nicely in the Prog.

[73north]

I really enjoyed all the stories -
the highlight for me , as ever , is the Wagner / Ezquerra story Hunt for PJ Maybe
the rest were really well done - and worthy of reading ...
the best news for me was in the very last part of Tharg's chat - apart from where he revealed of what
the land-mark issue 2000 will all contain - and that it will have  3 different covers -
its that JAEGIR IS BACK next Prog !!!

so looking forward to this story ( called War Child )

[Richard]

That was a great ending to a great 3riller.

[Colin YNWA]

Another great Prog. Dredd is a masterclass, wonderful stuff and love the way Dredd tries to  play with PJ and draw him out. Scarlet Traces continues to turn up the heat with a great action packed episode. I think the 3riller is wonderful, just need to re-read it to make sure I'm right and have read it correctly! Outlier is also superb with all sorts of things coming together, and you suspect things aren't going to end well for many of our characters there is so much to enjoy here. Anderson holds its own with its least successful episode in this good story, fine stuff.

If Prog 2000 is to be the stand out you expect it to be Tharg is setting his standards high with the galaxies greatests run in!

[Echidna]

Spoiler tags are probably unnecessary, but...

[spoiler] Maybe's threat has me worried about Vienna. Or... oh no! What if he's going after Walter?[/spoiler]

[Richard]

Or [spoiler]Hershey.[/spoiler]

[Hawkmumbler]

Or [spoiler]Mrs. Gunderson.[/spoiler] With Maybe, who knows.

[Leigh S]

Or [spoiler]Mrs. Gunderson.[/spoiler] With Maybe, who knows.

The "next prog" tag.... 

[Hawkmumbler]

Or [spoiler]Mrs. Gunderson.[/spoiler] With Maybe, who knows.

The "next prog" tag.... 

I don't get the prog until Wednesday, just saying IF Maybe offed [spoiler]Mrs.Gunderson[/spoiler] he'd be setting a presidence for dead old ladies.

[Magnetica]

As I have just returned from my hols I have read the last three Progs together, so this is really a comment on all of them.

Dredd - just superb. Dredd has been great for a while, but this is as good as it gets for me. Some-one mentioned that Carlos isn't a PJ artist and to be fair I can't remember him doing PJ before, but I just love to see him on Dredd and given his advancing age we never know how much more we will get.

Scarlet Traces - I am enjoying this far more than I thought I would and think I will actually go as far as to buy the collection of the previous stories when in come out (in January I think I read).

3Riller - sorry I didn't really like this. It might be me but I found it hard to follow and after the final panel had a sense of "was that it?". Not sure it is worth the re-read.

Outlier - really like this. A really solid "back up" thrill (more on this below). I really liked the idea of the Hurde creating their own army by transforming the population into Hurde. I was confused by the comment (in last week's Prog I think) that this had been done on a single individual before, Carcer. Hadn't Caul been transformed? And how come Caul is back to being (mostly) human again? (Must dig out those back Progs). Or had Caul merely been "experimented on" stopping short of a full transformation into a Hurde?

As much as I like Outlier I can't stop myself from thinking "so the Hurde take on elements / technology from other species and add it to what they have...hmmm sounds a bit like the Borg".

Anderson - as someone else has said it is nice to have an Anderson story that isn't just a battle in some-one's mind and actually explores how PSI powers can be used to police the city. I am liking Dyer's art. Others have likened it to Cam Kennedy, and for me Cam's Dredd art always harked back to McMahon, and I am seeing both of them it this. Not sure about the depiction of Cass herself though, she seems like a completely different character to me.

I agree with Colin's sentiments from last week - the Prog is great at the moment despite lacking any true stand out strips (apart from Dredd IMO). There is nothing as exciting anymore as early Nemesis, early Slaine etc, but the overall quality of the strips is just so high and there is very little poor stuff (yes I even liked Black Shuck). As an example of what I mean, consider Outlier. Some might say it's nothing special, but it reads well, the art is great and it it seems to be going some-where. Compare that to some early strips I have been reading lately (in my mission to complete having read everything 2000AD has printed) - a lot of those strips had a weekly structure of resolve last week's cliffhanger in two panels, introduce some unlikely danger / foe, overcome the danger / foe in some highly unlikely way / using some highly convenient item that just happens to be lying around, conclude with corny quip or set up cliffhanger. Outlier is miles ahead of that sort of strip IMO.

[Trent]

I liked Rogue Trooper back in the day (partly for Gibbons and Kennedy art) but it was often very repetitive.
SinDex took this aspect and almost made a virtue of it in their earlier tales.

[Frank]

As much as I like Outlier I can't stop myself from thinking "so the Hurde take on elements / technology from other species and add it to what they have...hmmm sounds a bit like the Borg"

ECBT2000ad's Steven Ross points out that the Hurde's M.O - testing the species they encounter then destroying/enslaving any that present a threat - is exactly the same as that of Ming The Merciless in ITV4 mainstay Flash Gordon (1980).

The climax of this series will see the Hurde trying to drug rape Carcer to a pomp rock soundtrack.

Outlier is one of those stories that's assembled from elements of other genre stories the author has encountered, claimed for himself, and bent into slightly different shape - making the Armourigami a pretty good metaphor for the whole.

There's nothing wrong with it.

[Richard]

Ezquerra has done two previous PJ Maybe stories, Monsterus Mashinashuns (Megs 231-234) when he becomes Byron Ambrose, and Mega-City Justice at the end of Tour of Duty.

[Frank]