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Prog 1928 - Adding local Colour

Started by A.Cow, 25 April, 2015, 02:59:01 PM

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A.Cow

Blimey!  Up to ol' bovine chops to start the thread again?  This must be my lucky fortnight.


Cover:  Mark Harrison channelling Jim Baikie!

Dredd:  Exposition a go-go.  All becoming clearer now.  Good stuff.  Although you'd think former judges would know better than [spoiler]to just line up in an easy-to-shoot group[/spoiler].

Bikelok:  Please make it stop!

Slaine: The Brutannia Chronicles, Book Two: Primordial (part Five):  Erm ... did anything actually happen this week?

Grey Area:  Entertaining.

Strontium Dog:  Woah, there!  [spoiler]Steamy Alpha action????[/spoiler]  Where did that come from?

Inside back cover ad:  That's a nice figure.  Took me a while to work out that the mysterious hole-in-his-face is a cigar.  Liking the cloth.

Dark Jimbo

Love that cover!

Well, I think Dredd takes the crown for me this week. Not sure if [spoiler]Aimee and Sinfield are dead[/spoiler]; part of me hopes they are, part of me hopes otherwise. Surprised to see it end so soon, but the New Life subtitle suddenly makes sense if we're going to get another Enceladus story sometime soon. God, I hope we don't have to wait long!

I've tried, I really have, but whoever thought Orlok, of all characters, needed ressurecting in order to star in a wacky comedy strip a-la Ulysess Sweet wants their head examined. It has its moments and I'm glad others are enjoying it but a big ol' miss for me.

I've enjoyed Slaine's adventures on Mondah thus far, but the promise of some actual events next week, as opposed to more chat, really got me excited. The idea of a Trojan manhunt is very cool indeed. Hope Pat delivers (we know by now that Simon will.)

Grey Area continues to be jolly good fun in a way that Orlok is attempting but not quite managing. Surprised by how much I'm enjoying this one week-on-week.

Stront is a class act. Dispels all my reservations about the return of the Stixes, sets up a new mystery, points the way forward to future adventures and deepens the twists and turns of the ongoing Jing Jong job. All that plus three pages of blood n' violence and some 3-boob cheesecake. This is how you do comics, people!
@jamesfeistdraws

Ghost MacRoth

Cover:  Loads going on in the BG, nice draw to the FG with the colour splash.

Dredd:  Kinda rushed to the finish there.....thought it was gonna go a bit longer, but still good.  Interesting to see what will happen in the next installment.

Orlok:  Getting sillier.  I'm not sure, is it a comedy thread or not? 

Slaine: 
Quote from: A.Cow on 25 April, 2015, 02:59:01 PMErm ... did anything actually happen this week?
Yeah, there was....erm.....like...ah.......you know the bit where....ummm.......Panthers with dragon breath!  There you go.

Grey Area: Starting to become a bit 'Tango 7 Cash', but in a good way!  Light and nicely presented, it's hard not to like it.

Strontium Dog: Finally he's cheered up!  Lovely panels of action to get outta Stixville, and some ahem....different action later on. ;)

Good Saturday fare!



I don't have a drinking problem.  I drink, I get drunk, I fall over.  No problem!

Colin YNWA

While I really enjoyed last weeks Prog I thought this weeks was absolutely fantastic.With a really good line-up like this its the little things that make the difference. This week the main difference is that Orlok has a real up week. Really enjoyed it this week, in fact the only real problem with the thrill as a whole is its timing. The 'gag' at the end of last week makes perfect sense this week, it made none last. The first series had this problem throughout with only the last episode making everything really fit together.Even this week had one of those moments [spoiler]Black Widowers return[/spoiler] just felt a bit jarring. Not as bad as last week as you can kinda brush that sort of thing off but I bet next week it makes more sense. So yeah its like Arthur Wyatt isn't really writing this well for the episodic nature of a thrill, but when read as a whole he's clearly writing good thrills. Anyway this week it really works so for all my mindless woffle, good episode.

Everything else is on blinding form. Grey Area is a bit of a down turn this week and things get a little more actiony, but its still really really good. Slaine continues its real upturn that began last week and has a fantastic episode with a real promise of things charging forward next week too. Strontium Dog is quite brilliant, a bit of action romp, a bit of the other romp, plot building, story going really, really nicely. Top stuff...

... and yet not top thrill, that is Dredd.Arh Mr Williams and Mr Flint are nothing but big teases. The 'To be continued...' this week implies that that's that for now (I might be wrong) and if that is right its an almighty tease of the best kind. Oh sure we get a very satisfying end to this part of the story, a really good end on so many levels BUT oh my I can't wait for this to be back, even if it is next week as it sets up so much. Just top rate thrilling this.

Brilliant brilliant Prog.


Geoff

Another strong Prog.

Wasn't that keen on the cover at first, but it's grown on me.  There's lots of detail in the background to enjoy and that little beastie on the girls leg is a nice touch.

Dredd, to be continued....argh!! Was really enjoying that.  I agree with our bovine friend that judges, even weakened ex-judges wouldn't be quite so amenable to the murderous Sovs.

Orlok, always a bit touch and go and I can't get the image, put there by a fellow boarder, of it being done by Brendan McCarthy out of my head.

I think the story in Slaine will only really have the necessary pace when it's collected so I'm just going to relax with it and enjoy the art.  Love the Belardinelli style warp-spasm on the first page!

Grey Area, ok this week.

Stronty Dog goes from strength to strength! It's good to see Johnny having some fun and keeping abreast of developments in Freedonia.

Good show Tharg.   

GermanAndy

A mixed bag.

Dredd: Well, that was weird. It just stopped. Or does it continue next week? And wouldn't the [spoiler]attack of the Sovs be seen as an act of war?[/spoiler]

Still this is great work.

Orlok: No, this doesn't work for me at all. Neither the story nor the art.

Slaine: I gave up on this – again.

Grey Area: Still not convinced this is the best material for Harrison's strength. And this episode feels a bit like treading water.

Strontium Dog: This was fun. The story is unpredictable, the balance of action and introspective is much better then in the last SD tales. The shootout was very well drawn, and Johnny getting some action was also nice to see. After all the endless grimness and depression it made Mr. Alpha much more relatable as a character.

Ghost MacRoth

Quote from: GermanAndy on 26 April, 2015, 01:22:40 PM
Dredd: Well, that was weird. It just stopped. Or does it continue next week? And wouldn't the [spoiler]attack of the Sovs be seen as an act of war?[/spoiler]

Don't think so, as it was on the breakaway cons at an abandoned base.  Mind you, the carpet bombing from MC-1 could be seen that way I'd say!  ;)
I don't have a drinking problem.  I drink, I get drunk, I fall over.  No problem!


Dark Jimbo

Quote from: Geoff on 26 April, 2015, 01:12:24 PM
I agree with our bovine friend that judges, even weakened ex-judges wouldn't be quite so amenable to the murderous Sovs.

I don't really see why they would follow Sinfield, either. If the Judges are genuinely bad-news types like Manners and Bender, who spent their careers embezzling, murdering and intimidating, why would they give a fig for his former authority? And if they were generally good Judges who were loyal to Justice Department but got caught having an unjudicial liason or the like, wouldn't they despise him for bringing their beloved Department so low?

One way or another, it made more sense for him to be the very lowest in the pecking order.
@jamesfeistdraws

Frank


From the role Sinfield has played in both stories to date, I'd guess he was only included because readers would be expecting him to be there. Try imagining the story without him and it doesn't make a great deal of difference.

If he hadn't featured at all we would have been asking where he was and why a former Chief Judge was letting a bent undercover cop take the lead in a situation where he was the most obvious figure of authority. A one panel dismissal * probably wouldn't cut it, and nobody can kill Sinfield in case Wagner wants him to use him again.

It would have been more plausible if Sinfield had been the sole antagonist of these stories, but Nixon is Williams's character and he has more freedom to use her in a way which serves the purpose of his narrative than he would have done with Sinfield as the instigator and leader of the revolt. I've enjoyed the stories, so I'm not carping.


* showing a furious Sinfield locked in an iso-cube by Nixon, so he can't challenge her authority. Or something.

Dark Jimbo

Well, yeah, it was an in-universe gripe really. I certainly get why Rob Williams used him in the strip - he's the only notable Titan resident apart from Nixon, and we'd all have been whining about him not appearing if he hadn't.
@jamesfeistdraws

Frank

Quote from: Dark Jimbo on 26 April, 2015, 05:18:57 PM
Well, yeah, it was an in-universe gripe really

I've thought a bit more about it and I think you're right that Sinfield doesn't make sense as some kind of Spartacus figure. He was a nearly man bureaucrat who gathered the support of enough fellow bureaucratic nearly men to end up in the big chair by default.

Nobody would ever have followed him; he makes much more sense as the whispering side man, insinuating himself into a position of power, than as a rage filled Grice figure actively taking power for himself by force or even by force of personality.

Despite his protestations, maybe that was the long game he was playing in acting first as Nixon's intermediary with Justice Department then as her consigliere. He's the polar opposite of the titular Titan, which Williams said referred as much to Dredd as to the prison.



ZenArcade

That's about right: He is essentially a Machiavellian politico type. It wouldn't matter where or what situation he was in, he would still be found near to the leadership. Unless of course he had an epiphany on Titan; but this wouldn't really sit well with his essentially manipulative nature.Z
Ed is dead, baby Ed is...Ed is dead

robert_ellis

Loving the prog at the moment - Stront pips best strip, but loving Dredd, even if it has been a tease. Grey Area is the big surprise for me... It's great, more fun than ever. Really like the art on Orlok but it's just silliness - which is odd considering the (future) history of the character. Slaine has amazing art but I wish it had a more accessible storyline. But what a great mix of thrills!