Prog 1944 - House of the Unholy

JamesC · 15 August, 2015, 12:14:49 PM

Cover - lovely image by the mighty Cliff Robinson (I was wondering where he'd got to). I really like the colours on this too.

Dredd - a really exciting, action packed instalment and a fantastic double page splash - we should have more of these on Dredd (I'd quite like to see it back on the centre pages actually).

Helium - loved the opening page, carrying straight on from last week. Really fun with ridiculously great art. Part of the fun of the strip is taking in all of Disraeli's vehicle, tech and clothing designs. Brilliant.

The Alienist - the Rennie/Beeby team do it again. This was a great opener and felt very cinematic - I could easily imagine it as a Hammer production! Lovely art too - very reminiscent of Cliff Robinson which makes it a great fit with the cover.

Outlier - skipped for now but I'm intending to read it all in one go (after recapping from the previous series).

Jaeger - a fairly low key ending but filled with foreboding for the future. Great stuff and lovely to look at as always.

All this and a Droid Life and letters page too. Excellent prog.

Ghost MacRoth · 15 August, 2015, 12:51:43 PM

Cover: Nice to see Robinson back! Would love to see him do a Dredd tale again.

Droid Life: Meh.

Dredd: Heating up (boom, boom!) nicely, but again, that leap of logic just jarrs terribly. In one sentance ''It's the Titan inmates'', and in the next...''They're not Human, What are they?''.....a tiny point of criticism in an overall wonderful tale both in art and writing.

Helium: Dunno why it took me so long to realise...but it reminds me of Tin Tin. I didn't like Tin Tin.

The Alienist: Really nice art, and as James says, almost a ringer for Robinson's style, which is no bad thing! Great opener, and again, James nails the comparison with classic 70's Hammer. Not expecting any great surprises in the events of this, just a classic stroll down a familiar, but very enjoyable, path.

Outlier: Yeah, probably would benefit from a binge read to see if I can connect the dots again....just lost the reasons to care on this one unfortunately. Quite a flat ending. Lovely to look at though.

Jaeger: Looks like this may have simply been a building block for a greater story arc, and that is no bad thing. Great run.

Eamonn Clarke · 15 August, 2015, 12:52:32 PM

Posted from me phone while at the southern contingent gathering in forbidden planet

Buttonman · 15 August, 2015, 01:19:13 PM

You know, the good thing about a letters page is that it showcases the great and the good of Tharg's readership. The boorish, illiterate underclass aren't welcome and it is a fine reflection of what the readership thinks and demonstrates their skills of construction, language, humour and insight.

Mmmm Prog 1944...WTF! McCosh and Burdis! Is it Comic Relief Day already?! I didn't know letters in crayon and drool were allowed!

At least I have evidence of a classier outing for Dreddlines, although my Megazine has yet to appear to confirm this. A full autopsy will follow!

philb · 15 August, 2015, 04:52:26 PM

Not so much a review of the prog, but I had the unexpected return of Flesh (well a scary dinosaur) in my copy. Due to a printing anomaly the centre 16 pages of my prog are missing, to be replaced with a Barney colouring-in comic!!! Anyone else have this problem??? See pic...

Ghost MacRoth · 15 August, 2015, 05:04:03 PM

Collectors item!

Where'd you get yours, and could you get any more? I'd buy one off ya just for the hell of it!

philb · 15 August, 2015, 05:06:51 PM

It's a subscription copy, looks like its's a one off, so will keep a hold of it... although I maybe tempted to colour it in, which would ruin the value!

Tjm86 · 15 August, 2015, 05:08:40 PM

Quote from: Buttonman on 15 August, 2015, 01:19:13 PM

Mmmm Prog 1944...WTF! McCosh and Burdis! Is it Comic Relief Day already?! I didn't know letters in crayon and drool were allowed!

At least I have evidence of a classier outing for Dreddlines, although my Megazine has yet to appear to confirm this. A full autopsy will follow!

Now now, it takes a very high standard of grovelling and toadying to get a letter printed, especially with the low frequency of their appearances these days.

Ghost MacRoth · 15 August, 2015, 05:11:39 PM

Quote from: philb on 15 August, 2015, 05:06:51 PM
It's a subscription copy, looks like its's a one off, so will keep a hold of it... although I maybe tempted to colour it in, which would ruin the value!

Lol, lucky devil!

Colin YNWA · 15 August, 2015, 07:51:42 PM

Ha! PhilB's printing error is hilarious (well as long as he doesn't mind having to pay out another 2.45).

Anyway elsewhere the Prog has a bit of a downturn for me. I wasn't blown away by either of the endings, nor the beginning. The two highlights where by far and away Dredd and Helium that continue to be brilliant. The trouble is when stuff is brilliant for the 5th and 10th (I think) week running there's not too much new to say and so I'll focus on the bits I wasn't so keen on, which will make this sound quite whiny... oh well this is the Internet I suppose.

Neither ending was particularly bad as such BUT both, (Outlier and Jaegir), felt a little like set up for the next parts, which quickly boxed off what was happening. I'm happy that both are returning as I've enjoyed both strips and I'm happy with the set up of whats to come (I'd guess) but just a shame that in doing that both episodes did seem to rather box off what had gone before, in a bit of a hurry.

Oh and I'm also making the assumption that Outlier is coming back, but you have to think it will as there's a lot still to be played with. I'm also assuming that Jaegir will come back as... well as said before, set up etc etc, so lets hope Gordon doesn't go all Cabs on us, he does seem to have a lot of stories on the go at the moment!

Speaking of which The Alienist starts off this week, from Rennie, Beeby and Coveney and this is close to being good, but for whatever reason didn't quite hit the notes of openers of late. It all felt a little flat. I have to be honest I'm not 100% sure why either. Storywise it sets up characters to be saved (or not) by our protagonists and hints at the threat they will face. They make a nice enterance... just it didn't grip me. Maybe the set up feels a little uninspiring ... I honestly can't pin it. Art wise, I think I should be loving the art, technically its quite fantastic, but something about it is again a little flat? Maybe cos I didn't enjoy the story too much, how it was presented had an up hill battle. Maybe there was something off with the page design, not dramatic enough? I really can't pin it. It might be as trivial as the way the art bleed to the edge of the page which I don't think suited it. Funny one that sometimes I don't mind not having page boarders, sometimes I do, rarely think about it, but with this cos I really couldn't pin why the art wasn't screaming trimpuh to me, which on first look I thought it would, I've over looked at it.

Who knows, still early days and plenty of time for both story and art to get to me more and I'm optimistic they will.

So yeah, nowt massively wrong with the prog, just when the Prog has been as good as it has of late, I tend to notice these slight downturns... or maybe I'm just a whiney bugger cos I'm not going to see John Wagner at Sheffield Comic Con this weekend...

Dark Jimbo · 15 August, 2015, 08:44:28 PM

Dredd takes the top spot this week. Great stuff, although I could do without the constant wisecracking from the Judges - there's a time and a place, guys! The 'we'll leave you alive to watch your friends suffer' bit with Hershey was a cliche too far for me, especially when Dredd and Frank were about to arrive in the nick of time anyway.

Helium reminds me of a six-part Pertwee-era Doctor Who. Heroes get captured and imprisoned; escape; get captured again; escape again, etc. It's feeling a bit samey and the fascinating premise and world haven't really been explored to their full potential. When your world is this interesting, and your artist is the design maestro D'Israeli, why would you get him to draw prison cells week after week?

Hard to know what to make of The Alienist on first outing, but it certainly offers something really different to the rest of the prog in tone and style, so glad to have it in the line-up.

Outlier briefly dallies with a really interesting avenue - the trauma and loneliness of being removed from the Hurde hive mind; that those rescued might actually prefer to be slaves. But it gives itself no time at all to explore this before it's suddenly setting up another idea - that their actions might have called the wrath of the Hurde down on humanity. But there's no time to explore that either, before it rushes through Caul's betrayal and apology and also (sort-of) sets up the next outing. So it's hard to care about any of it.
That's Outlier all over, really - too much crammed in for its own good and never quite knowing where its main focus of interest should be.

This has been my least favourite Jaegir outing - enjoyable, but unmemorable. I was looking forward to finding out some more about the Kashan legions, but they remained a fairly bland bunch - and the strigoi feel a bit tired as foes, now. Cracking last page, though.

COMMANDO FORCES · 15 August, 2015, 09:46:19 PM

I'm on a mission to beat you to 100 Buttonman, after you laid down the gauntlet, so be afraid, be very afraid

Buttonman · 15 August, 2015, 10:20:13 PM

Bag o' shite!

My yet to be confirmed Dreddlines hit this week will see me to 90 - only another heart episode can save you. So by my count you are 4/6 favourite!

Eamonn Clarke · 16 August, 2015, 09:39:17 AM

I always enjoy a Cliff Robinson cover with lovely colours from Dylan Teague. Looks like the new female ghostbusters have arrived just in time.

The Dredd epic continues to be my favourite thing in the prog with those glorious splash pages from Henry Flint. I wonder which art dealer has snapped them up. I don't think the Chief Judge should be on the front line, or that the other Judges would let her but I'll let Judge Burdis give his views on that in a future podcast.

Helium is lovely stuff as they pull off the Consider Phlebus hanger trick and make their escape.

It's early days for the Alienist so I'll sit tight for now. The setup of the disparate individuals gathered in the most haunted house in ..... dates back to Shirley Jackson and beyond to the legend of Borley rectory but it's not a bad start.

The other two strips finish and I need to reread the whole story to get the fuller picture. Atalia's future meeting with her bonkers Dad looks interesting.

Oh and there's a lovely letters page as well.

What do we get next week?

Darren Stephens · 16 August, 2015, 11:56:57 AM

Quote from: Dark Jimbo on 15 August, 2015, 08:44:28 PM
Dredd takes the top spot this week. Great stuff, although I could do without the constant wisecracking from the Judges - there's a time and a place, guys! The 'we'll leave you alive to watch your friends suffer' bit with Hershey was a cliche too far for me, especially when Dredd and Frank were about to arrive in the nick of time anyway.

Got to agree with this. Having said that....still the best thing in the prog. Flints on fire, if you'll excuse the pun......