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Prog 2002: Retaliatory Strike!

Started by Leigh S, 08 October, 2016, 08:45:57 AM

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Steve Green

Ads tend to be from within the Rebellion stable, their books, games or for licensed product.

I can't remember the last time I saw an ad that was outside that group.

Frank

.
You can plot the correlation between declining readership and the disappearance of ads. I started buying in 1987, when the back page regularly saw corporate food and electronics giants targeting the 100-120,000 kids who bought the comic.

By the start of the nineties, readership had plunged to 70,000 (due in part to a change of distributor) and the only ads you would see were interior page plugs for local comic shops or the occasional hopeful punt by the World Wildlife Fund.

By 1995 (50,000 readers and dropping), Tharg has sunk so low that the back page of the prog was the only time I have ever heard mention of the (presumably terrible) straight to video Sean Young vehicle Dr Jekyll and Ms Hyde.



Steve Green

You've also got other stuff like the Urban Strike strip, and tie-ins like A life less ordinary and Shaun of the Dead.

Frank


Maybe Dredd could occasionally mention how much he enjoys the smooth, clean taste of Marlboro lites, or wear sponsorship, like other superheroes:


Timothy

It looks like Anderson has lost her spiffy new shoulder badge thing, but Gerhart has gained one. Still no idea what they signify.

I, Cosh

Quote from: Taryn Tailz on 11 October, 2016, 01:32:51 AM
Quote from: sheridan on 10 October, 2016, 08:58:41 PM
Quote from: Eamonn Clarke on 08 October, 2016, 09:34:10 PM
Quote from: Leigh S on 08 October, 2016, 08:45:57 AM
COUNTERFEIT:  Very Milligan set of ideas make this ideal for Rufus - always love a prog that spills out onto the back page!
Love it too. When was the last time we had a story go to the back cover?
I can't actually think of one since the Cam Kennedy Traitor General / Bland and Brass story (I want to say Eye of the Traitor but not too sure).
...I seem to recall one of the last Nikolai Dante stories went to the back cover...so sometime around 2013?
The Dante Gambit in Prog 1776.

It was pretty popular around then, as the one before that was the end of the first chunk of Day of Chaos, Prog 1749 and before that it was Dante again in 1731.

Quote from: Banners on 11 October, 2016, 03:42:56 PM
Funny to think that the novelty of a strip going onto the back page was done so we could all enjoy the majesty of a page featuring six near-identical images of empty shelves.
HA! Clint has a modelling agency to feed.

Quote from: Steve Green on 11 October, 2016, 06:47:46 PM
Ads tend to be from within the Rebellion stable, their books, games or for licensed product.

I can't remember the last time I saw an ad that was outside that group.
You get the odd one for Free Comic Day or the bigger cons but that's about it.
We never really die.

Hawkmumbler

Behind a gorgeous cover we get an excellent Dredd that hurls itself towards some kind of finale for the Williams time line. I hope this isn't him clearing the deck for good.

Flesh is ugly as fuck to look at and the dialogue is cringey as all heck. And as pretty as Savage is it's plot switch for Bill is leaving me cold.

Both Counterfeit Girl and Hunted however are really top thrill material, cracking stuff.

Frank

Quote from: Timothy on 12 October, 2016, 01:11:00 PM
Anderson has lost her spiffy new shoulder badge thing, but Gerhart has gained one. Still no idea what they signify.

WHAT DOES IT MEAN
AND WHEN WILL
THIS MADNESS END?!!!




Timothy

Well I'm not sure I'd put it that strongly. Just mildly curious.

Trout

I'm loving that Traitor General story. He has motivation! Wow! My favourite thing in the prog.

Also Savage keeps my attention, partly because I like this sort of b&w line art, and partly because, like the soundtrack, it's sinister.

I was a bit puzzled by the Dredd story (why does a cloak make a uniformed judge undercover, when they all wear outfits designed to anonymise them?) but I'm going with the flow. General applause for keeping these plot threads running through several stories.

- Trout

Trout

(And ads only pay off when you sell them in sufficient volume to meet the cost of sales staff, plus a profit. Otherwise, just rely on other revenue.)

Frank

Quote from: Trout on 12 October, 2016, 04:46:02 PM
(And ads only pay off when you sell them in sufficient volume to meet the cost of sales staff, plus a profit. Otherwise, just rely on other revenue.)

... and the wages of those sales staff used to be shared across all IPC titles, with the same people selling real estate in Woman's Drudgery, Top Caravan, and ZX-81 Power!

I wasn't kidding about the shield eagle thing, Timothy - I want to know what Tharg's up to. When Dyer did it I wrote it off as artistic eccentricity, but now Hairsine's doing it, it's clearly an editorial mandate.

I suppose it's been a while since anyone made a significant change to Dredd's uniform, but Tharg seemed content to let that develop organically. Will Carlos treat this differently to editorial tinkering with the gun and the bike?

In a weird reversal of normal circumstances, I'm quite enjoying everything and y'all seem unnecessarily sniffy. Page 1 of Flesh was visually dull, but you'd have to wilfully dull yourself not to get a chuckle out of Spaghetti Western Bolognese. Art's on the right side of Photocollage.

PJ Holden's Hunted art is the opposite of Deirdre's Photo Case Book, with either him or Len O'Grady* making excellent use of the digital Letratone. There's a visual variety and level of invention here that was absent in Lion's Den, with TG a constant treat.

Milligan fudges how taking on someone else's identity means contracting non-genetic disease, but there's that great line about skidmarks of discarded personas and a sweaty sock virus that inverts nurse Pauline Cafferkey's case of malignant Katie Hopkins.

Moaning you've lost track of the story is the reflex response to Savage round here, but what else do you need to know to enjoy this story except Bill likes blowing away Volgs with his shotgun? Interesting to see Yulia Tymoshenko's thrown her lot in with the Volgan invader.


* Maybe O'Grady's just a better fit for Holden's aesthetic than the otherwise excellent Adam Brown

TordelBack

Not really doing it for me this week, but it cheered me through a midweek slump all the same.

Cover: Bright, inviting.

Dredd: So at first i thought we missed a chance for Dredd to remind Sinfield that he would never abandon a judge, regardless of who it was. Then I read on, and realised that that would have been highly inappropriate given the actual nature of the mission. Really lovely art, and I bet the Sovs were surprised that one (and possibly two) Apocalypse Squad veteran hasn't acquire a single wrinkle in 35 years...

Flesh: Moving swiftly on.

Hunted: Terrific art choices from PJ mean this feels more like classic Rogue than Jaegir, which is nice. But I'm not really that interested in the TG himself yet.

Savage: bogged down in too many cool lyrics from cool uncle Pat, even if love all the sources.

Counterfeit Girl: looks really great, but feels very dated somehow... the danger of using 'contemporary' jargon to represent future tech.  And after only three episodes feels a bit repetitive?


James Stacey

<pedant>Bit confused as to why Bill had to pick up the shotgun carts from the floor. Doesn't he use a double barrel which wouldn't automatically eject them unless he chose to stand there and reload.

Alien Goodness

Loved the Jim Murray cover. Nice composition and use of colours.

And am I the only one who likes Clint Langley's black & white artwork for Flesh? In fact I like it better than some of his colour work.

Also enjoying Patrick Goddard's black & white artwork for Savage.

My favourite story this week is Dredd. My thrill-circuits are buzzing - why are they on such a high risk mission? Not convinced by the explanation offered so far in this story...