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Prog 2012 - Gone to Texas

Started by Dandontdare, 24 December, 2016, 12:03:34 PM

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Frank

Quote from: JamesC on 08 January, 2017, 09:46:02 AM
Hope for the Future is enjoyable but I'm a little uncomfortable with how reminiscent it is of Hellblazer

The trenchcoat goes with the period and the gumshoe genre, but if you're going to publish a comic about a magic detective with a sardonic wit and spirits who follow him around, maybe you don't give him blonde hair? Even Carver Hale had that thing over his eye*.

Like much of Dan Abnett's work, Hope is a mixture of genres and cliches that aren't really my kind of thing, but the quality of execution and interesting subsidiary elements - in this case, the alternative history of US politics and Hollywood's golden age - keep me entertained.

Broxton's unshowy artwork is fantastic; his clever use of repeating pattern and texture is more subtle than the overt symbology that overlays Hopey's derivative ruminations on the price exerted by magic, and suggests - in a less overt manner than the narration - that there's more going on beneath the surface.

I'm almost certainly reading too much into gestural tics of the inking style, but the way patterns and textures repeat across characters' clothing, furniture, iron work, and landscape reminds me of the Great Beast of Northampton's belief that Ditko was encoding every panel of Dr Strange with his personal arcana.



* Tharg thinks he's earning brownie points with Alan Moore by not letting other creators mess with Halo Jones, but when Moore walks into town to pick up the latest prog - his every step cheered by socially conscious market traders; adoring, ethnically diverse street urchins, thrusting copies of Promethea under his nose to be autographed; and old grannies congratulating him for sticking one to the Tory government and Northampton Town Council (for are they not one and the same?) with the latest issue of The League Of Extraordinary gentlemen - he must wonder why the Galaxy's Greatest keeps giving British creators a chance to show DC what a great job they could do writing the adventures of John Constantine.

Then he thrusts a £20 note into the hand of a tramp, buys a veggie ready meal from Marks and Spencer, and walks home to build a ten-skinner while he waits for the microwave to go >ping<

Smith

Interesting question,is Alan still following the prog? :)
I got a bit of a The Big Sleep vibe from Hope.

Magnetica

Ok you asked, so..... For me The Order is ok. Not great, but not poor either.

For me what holds it back is the large number of characters, some of whom seemed to look very similar in the last run, which leads to "who is that again?". Aka "Black Shuck" syndrome. :lol:

Frank

Quote from: Smith on 08 January, 2017, 01:45:38 PM
Interesting question,is Alan still following the prog? :) I got a bit of a The Big Sleep vibe from Hope.

Little Buster Ritz is screwing his way around Los Angeles, filming porno while whacked out his gourd on heroin? Controversial. Broxton's characterisation seems more Sterling Hayden than Bogart or Mitchum.

Laughing Al Moore kids us fans that he no longer has any interest in comics. Thankfully, he seems to have adopted the same approach to quitting writing comics as alcoholics and smokers take to kicking the habit - just this last one ...

He certainly doesn't appear to read comics published by his former employers. Maybe he'll make an exeption for daughter Leah's Black Shuck if Tharg comps him a copy of the trade paperback.



Smith

I said,a bit of a vibe,I didnt say they copied the film. :|

Colin YNWA

Quote from: Magnetica on 08 January, 2017, 02:16:32 PM
Ok you asked, so..... For me The Order is ok. Not great, but not poor either.

For me what holds it back is the large number of characters, some of whom seemed to look very similar in the last run, which leads to "who is that again?". Aka "Black Shuck" syndrome. :lol:

Damnit I knew someone would do that!

TordelBack

Quote from: Frank on 08 January, 2017, 01:14:48 PM

The trenchcoat goes with the period and the gumshoe genre, but if you're going to publish a comic about a magic detective with a sardonic wit and spirits who follow him around, maybe you don't give him blonde hair? Even Carver Hale had that thing over his eye*.

Except that JC of Latter Day Milligans had that too...

Not sure if I'm missing some humorous transposition thing, but Hope is Gadams, not Dabnett - although if a genuine mistake, I doubt that Adams would be insulted!  I think Adams and Broxton have that got Edginton and Brooker thang goin' on, and long matpy it continue.


Frank

Quote from: TordelBack on 08 January, 2017, 06:18:56 PM
Hope is Gadams, not Dabnett

I realised it read awkwardly, but decided that didn't matter. I meant that my experience of Hope has been similar to my response to Don't Call Me Anette's recent work - apathy toward the general premise; won over by a secondary element of the strip.

From the stock premise and characters, I really didn't expect much of Brink. The dialogue in Fanny Lightbox's debut scene and the expertly sold dummy of the strip's title/apparent title character won me over to the extent that I forgave the Empire Strikes Back non-ending.

Same with Hope*. The hackneyed narration about the NWO and the terrible toll magic takes on its practitioners is so ripe it deserves a yellow price-mark-down sticker, and 2000ad already has a weary cynic in a trenchcoat whose kid's been taken by demons.

Despite all that, it has a sense of humour and enough original ideas to make it the strip I enjoyed most this week. I'm interested to see whether Wallace succeeding Roosevelt as POTUS, rather than Truman, is more than an incidental detail of the alternate history.


* Still hate the title/subtitle ...

Dash Decent

Nitpick: the boss of the trison drive has a right-hand drive car.  I suppose it's not unheard of but I wonder if it's intentional (better flow for the dialogue/layout) or just a slip.

Anyway, good to see Brit-Cit's exporting cars again post Brexit.
- By Appointment -
Hero to Michael Carroll

"... rank amateurism and bad jokes." - JohnW.