PROG 2011 - Highly Explosive Thrill-Zone!

[Frank]

the issue didn't involve Sláine

Never stopped ThryllSeekyr before.

That floozy Weston obviously gets all the attention, with cheap, nasty detail and his characterisation hitched up to here, but Kingdom won my heart.

The cliché of the little girl who's told her dead dog has gone to live on a farm is cleverly inverted, and the cream cheese of a delighted Gene finding his owner and being told he's a good dog is more than balanced by his just having performed an original act of such gruesome and creative violence it read like a visual representation of a Frankie Boyle put down [1].

Genuine heart, big laughs [2], and an act of violence I'd never seen before. Difficult to find individually; seamlessly blending all three into six pages of comics can only be done by a master.


[1] If you dinnae shut yer mooth, am gonnae rip aff that hand and use the blade it's holding to slit yer fuckin' throat!

[2] Seizer and Michelle Barkman - I will never not find the doggy names funny.

[Bolt-01]

Seconded.

[dweezil2]

amazing how little response here to Tharg's Mighty Organ at xmas...

I'm pacing myself too-two weeks without Progedge is almost unbearable to contemplate!

So far up to The Order and all is good! 

[Proudhuff]

Seconded.

Thirded

[Keef Monkey]

I thought this was the best end of year prog in years personally, a real treat from cover to cover. Saying that, I skipped the Misty article with the intention of reading it later, and usually when I do that they never get read. I was just too eager to get on with the strips.

Kingmaker seems very, very cool and Aquila was super-badass and Dredd was great as always and just everything basically hit the mark for me, loved it.

[moly]

Just had prog 2012 delivered need to read 2011 early now 

[Tjm86]

Same here.  Nice little Christmas Eve pressie.  Just finished my reread of this year's progs so that was nicely timed.

I'm assuming that we are continuing the moratorium on the review thread in deference to our subscriptionally challenged peers who still have a few weeks to wait.   

All I'm going to say is: Tidy!

[Mattofthespurs]

Just had prog 2012 delivered need to read 2011 early now 

Just posted that up in it's on thread.
Sorry.
But a nice surprise none the less.

[Mattofthespurs]

I'm assuming that we are continuing the moratorium on the review thread in deference to our subscriptionally challenged peers who still have a few weeks to wait.   

Oops! In my defence I have not listed anything except to say that it's out there.
Mods feel free to delete my 2012 prog thread.

[I, Cosh]

I'm assuming that we are continuing the moratorium on the review thread in deference to our subscriptionally challenged peers who still have a few weeks to wait.   

Why would you do that? It's no different to subbers getting any other Prog early.

[Richard]

Yeah, if you don't want spoilers then don't look at the review thread. 

[Tjm86]

Or the recent posts thread!

[Richard]

Finally read that novel extract. It's utterly mental!

[Colin YNWA]

Spent the day slowly reading the Prog, having saved it. Now with the children safely in bed (with the exhausted Mrs Taylor) and the in-laws busy about their Christmas duties I have time to curl up with my favourite Internet lovelies (that's you lot before you think I'm visiting that sort of site) and share in the joy of Tharg.

Well that was pretty damned good thrillage wasn't it. I'll start with the two new thrills. It interesting that both seem to play with fimilar terriority, but with very different degrees of success. Hope for the future, while looking quite astonishingly good felt a little tired and cliche, the noir detective, beat up on life, trying to stay standing by being beat up by magic, just felt a little old to me. That said I still think this has potential, I'd just like it to move somewhere a little fresher. Kingmaker on the other hand played fast loose and fun with its cliched influences and merrily and very VERY successfully led us knowingly down one path to flip things gloriously on their heads with a few panels. Loved the playful way it did that BUT still has work to do to maintain it. Great start though.

Elsewhere Aquilia was a good fun little side step, while The Fall of Deadworld alas did nothing to endear this bleak story to me anymore than anything that's gone before. Mind Kek-W's other entry The Order has always been a firm favourite and this opening, while not its absolute best, was still great and I'm so excited to have this back. John Burns remains stunning like few others get close to.

Ace Trucking Co proved that this series is ready to escape the shackles of specials and one-offs and is due to graduate to a proper ongoing series now surely. Nigel Dobbyn's art is sublime and perfect for the series and this story was so much fun I think we deserve me... come on Tharg stop teasing us already.

There's much good stuff but the two standouts in an outstanding over-sized Prog were a simply fantastic Dredd, which covered so much ground in only 12 pages, great action, lovely comedy (that opening page is supreme), perfect character moments, I adored Dredd's visit to Vienna and some loving fan service, welcome back Barney. Its really is a masterpiece. As is that modern classic Kingdom and its return doesn't let us down with Abnett and Elson on masterful form. Just brilliant.

All that and so interesting text pieces... Mr Mills book seems... yeah interesting... the Misty history was good mind AND lego AND the promise of more Bad Company all in all a real Christmas cracker.

Thanks Tharg and Merry X-Mas you lovely lot you.

[Pop Culture Bandit]

Our bumper end-of-year review post is now live.

http://www.popculturebandit.co.uk/2016/12/2000ad-prog-2011-annual.html

Some absolutely brilliant thrills on show this time around. Ace introduction to Kingmaker, and The Order returns with a lovely 'Crisis on Infinite Earths' vibe to it.