Prog 1975 - top cop for the chop?

[Citi-Def_Joe]

Cover: Bright bold and fun, loved it
Dredd: Moving along nicely, enjoying the cursed earth stuff very much.
Survival geeks: I am enjoying this, despite myself  fun and some nice artwork despite it not being to my taste. Definetly winning me over.
3RILLER: i enjoyed this story overall but found this last part a bit weak.
Tainted: I like it and the artwork is great, starting to get a wee bit confused but sure all will be revealed soon
Aquila: Like it but would prefer a  bit more action

[Link Prime]

Couldn't resist checking out the preview for this Prog over on CBR, seems Mike is all about the judicial bromance lately; Giant / Joyce, Dredd / Rico and (forthcoming) Rico / Koburn.
I like it.

[Hawkmumbler]

Couldn't resist checking out the preview for this Prog over on CBR, seems Mike is all about the judicial bromance gay's lately; Giant / Joyce, Dredd / Rico and (forthcoming) Rico / Koburn.
I like it.

FIFY. 

A cracking prog a thought, only the 3riller let te side down, leaving me somewhat conffused as to the cause of our hero's survival and even more beffudled by the "cliffhanger". Lynch once again prove's his worth as new upcoming talent, even if this might not be his best work to date, but sadly the whole tale was just kind of...there, for me.

Everything else was fantastic, how bloody brilliant is Dredd right now? Carroll and MacNeil knock it out of the park with a splendid action sequence and one hell of a story to carry it. Bloody good stuff. Survival Geeks is growing on me but the heavy handed references can become somewhat tiresome after awhile, yeah, we get it, a Star Trek siren thingy. Googe is one hell of an artist though, bloody hell is this man good.

Tainted is possibly the most morbid thing in the prog since...well, the last run on Deadworld. It's bloody fantastic stuff though, and feel very much like the Judge Death (or, more so, Deadworld) back story i've been wanting to read for years. And is it me or did Sydney get a little nod in this weeks instalment. Meanwhile Aquila...does it's thing. And for all it's short comings, simple plot and disjointed narrative i'm still really enjoying it.

[TordelBack]

There's some primo stomm going on in Tainted. I don't know how the genius is apportioned between them, but Kek-W and Kendall work a sick magic together - like Tales of Deadworld before it this strip makes me physically queasy with its utter wrongness.  And again I'm completely convinced that this is how it was. Poor bastards.

Elsewhere, Dredd is massively stylish fun even if the food crisis seems strangely out of place, Survival Geeks is so gorgeous to look at that it's a modern marvel (and is that Poe/Finn's jacket I see? So sequels but no prequels?). Great prog, and I've yet to even get to the 3riller and Aquila!

[ZenArcade]

Cover: Jeez, that's some good paintin'.  The cover alone will shift a lot of units.

Dredd: McNeill never disappoints. The food issue in the story just doesn't square (meal) with me....ok sh*te joke.  It seems insane for an enclosed city state, which is ruled by a bunch of almost psychotically calculating, meticulous, control freaks to allow one of their strategic supplies to lie out in a lawless wasteland, They've had four years to plan for this!!

3RILLERS: Not really gripped by this, the arts not bad however.

Survival Geeks:  It has its audience, again art is pretty nice.

Tainted: Just fantastic. Brutal, unsettling, how good is corrupted and warped. this is head and sholders above anything I have read recently. Double oil rations for the Droids involved.

Aquila: Enjoying this immensely as well.

Three cracking stories; five cracking pieces of art; one wonderful cover.  Good stuff.Z 

[Darren Stephens]

A prog full of great strips, fronted by probably my favourite cover so far this year. Top strip for me is Tainted. That Kendall droid sure paints some sick pics ( I mean that in more ways than one!) 

[Magnetica]

Cover - great to see a true legend like Brendan McCarthy do something for the Prog. I certainly wasn't expect him to be in the Prog so that was a nice surprise.

Overall, not a great run of stories for me at the moment. It is telling when Survival Geeks is the best thing after Dredd. I have grown to like Neil Googe's art on this, and it fits the feel of it every well. I would actual say this is the most interesting SG story yet, but it could be that I just much prefer it over the other 3 stories.

3Rillers: Repossession Orders. Sorry this just does nothing for me. Now I might just be being thick but I don't really understand what is meant to have happened, and having read each episode 2 or 3 times I don't think it was worth much more effort. On a positive note at least it has finished and Slaine well be along in a week or so.

Deadworld: just not grabbing me at all.

Aquila: yet to really get going. Now this is more to do with last week, but I don't want bump that thread - presumably the whole point of going to the arena to see those gladiators was to get information on where Tortrix was, but Aquila didn't ask then any questions. Or where they just meant to magically guide the the chariot to him once Aquila had dispatched them?

[I, Cosh]

Aquila: yet to really get going. Now this is more to do with last week, but I don't want bump that thread - presumably the whole point of going to the arena to see those gladiators was to get information on where Tortrix was, but Aquila didn't ask then any questions. Or where they just meant to magically guide the the chariot to him once Aquila had dispatched them?

The plan was to get information from the coachman. Having inadvertently killed him, Aquila hits on the idea that the cart horses, left to their own devices, would naturally follow the familiar route back to their home stable.

[Jim_Campbell]

WHERE'S MY M[spoiler]U[/spoiler]THERF[spoiler]U[/spoiler]CKING PROG?

[Frank]

Looks like he's carrying it by the neck to me. A snake's taint must be tiny and very hard to get a hold of, but I suppose if you have to carry a snake at all, then that's as safe a part as any [1].

If Mike Carroll says MC1 is only five weeks away from starvation without supplies from the Cursed Earth work farms Dredd and John Wagner took all that time establishing in Tour Of Duty, that's the way it is. Use your imaginations [2] instead of moaning until editorial start wasting pages of Basil on the food economy of MC1.

Carroll's story is moving along at a pleasing clip, unburdened by characters beginning sentences with 'as you know, Cursed Earth farms account for 60% of our protei.. zzz ... zzz'. This week's episode took place on Endor, so it was appropriate that Dredd knocked someone off a speeder bike with a stick, like an enormous, fucked-off Ewok.

My only worry is that, since the bad guy turns out to be Bane, this is going to end in another punch-up where Dredd has to fight his way through bad Frank Miller descriptions of the mortal injuries he sustains. Just like the 90s epics that levelled MC1 every year, if every story involves Dredd being tested to the limits of his physical endurance, that trope wears thin.

I like the Small Mammal Army in Survival Geeks.



[1] Future prog coverlines will include Tainted Love, Taint of Killers, Return of The Taint, Utah Taints, Taint Pancreas, Taint Elsewhere, & Taint Vincent

[2] I'm rationalising it as '5 weeks until they run out of unreconstituted food, and the boys in Resyk have to start picking the peanuts out of monkey shit'

[Colin YNWA]

WHERE'S MY M[spoiler]U[/spoiler]THERF[spoiler]U[/spoiler]CKING PROG?

Have you looked under the sofa?

[TordelBack]

Lessee now, average annual food consumption in the West is about half a tonne per person per year, so say MC1 needs 500,000 tonnes a week. Futuro trucks can carry 100 tonnes of cargo across the Cursed Earth, so if as much as a fifth of its total food is produced in 'outposts' (if it's less than that, is its disruption likely to result in imminent starvation?) that's only 1,000 megatrucks worth a week-ish.  How many tonnes of let's say munce can each farm produce weekly? As much as 100?  200? So maybe one megatruck delivery weekly from each of 500 farms. 

Maybe Hershey could have spared more than a glorified Hotdog run to cover all that?

Also: All Taints.

[ZenArcade]

Yeah, f**k you Sauchie! Interrupting our nerd logistics /audit discussion! Z

[Frank]

MC1 needs 500,000 tonnes (of food) a week. Futuro trucks can carry 100 tonnes of cargo across the Cursed Earth, so if as much as a fifth of its total food is produced in 'outposts' (if it's less than that, is its disruption likely to result in imminent starvation) that's only 1,000 megatrucks worth a week-ish.  How many tonnes of let's say munce can each farm produce weekly? As much as 100?  200? So maybe one megatruck delivery weekly from each of 500 farms.

Judge Dredd: Grindstone Cowboys, by Michael Carroll and TordleBack

PAGE ONE, PANEL 1: DREDD AND HERSHEY ARE TAKING ON A GANG OF PUNKS

HERSHEY: As you know Dredd, Megacity One needs 500,000 tonnes of food per week (SLAMS FIST INTO MOUTH OF PUNK 1, SENDING TEETH FLYING IN A SNOW STORM OF DENTAL WRECKAGE AND BLOOD).

DREDD (kneeing PUNK 2 in the groin): Yes, but as you know, Chief Judge, Futuro trucks can only carry 100 tonnes of cargo across the Cursed Earth!


PAGE ONE, PANEL TWO

PUNK 3 FLEES SCENE WITH A BACKWARD GLANCE OF TERROR, WILDLY SPRAYING FIRE FROM A HAND CANNON, OVER HIS SHOULDER,  AS HE RUNS TOWARDS A NEARBY FUEL TANKER

HERSHEY (diving for cover behind a barrel marked TOXIC WASTE): And as you're aware, as much as a fifth of our total food is produced in 'outposts' - that's 1,000 megatrucks worth a week!

DREDD ( diving through the air to avoid the hail of bullets, while returning fire): (if it was less than that, the disruption would result in imminent starvation!


PAGE ONE, PANEL THREE

HERSHEY (kneeling behind the barrel and returning fire): That's 1,000 megatrucks worth a week-ish, Dredd!

DREDD (fixing grenade launcher attachment to gun): How many tonnes of let's say munce can each farm produce weekly? As much as 100? (to gun) RPG!


PAGE ONE, PANEL FOUR

HERSHEY: As you know, Dredd, 200 - INCOMING! (a round from the perp's gun explodes the barrel, covering Hershey in green, toxic sludge)

DREDD: So maybe one megatruck delivery weekly from each of 500 farms (the RPG round he fires hits the tanker, cremating the perp and sending a mushroom cloud high into the Megacity skyline)


PAGE ONE, PANEL FIVE

The toxic slurry has partially dissolved Hershey's leathers and body armour, but only reveals parts of her body that are titillating without being rude enough to get the comic placed on a higher shelf in W H Smiths

HERSHEY: As you know, I have always loved you, Dredd.

DREDD: I have always known, but a judge's place is here, delivering justice on the streets. I must refuse. (zooms off on bike nursing massive erection)

[ZenArcade]

Quick!  Someone call Henry Flint!! Z