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Prog 1952 - Suspended Sentence

Started by Eamonn Clarke, 10 October, 2015, 10:08:27 AM

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TordelBack

#30
So, probably the strongest Prog in a good while for me - a 4.75/5. 

The cover was another great Defoe design. I know Leigh is doing all the hard work, but yet again. I'm struck by Pat's ability to create singularly striking characters and scenarios that seem to inspire the very best in artists. Story was great this week too, as Butch points out, truly the Millsiest of Mills.

Dredd was one of those episodes where you never want the story to end: Wagner and MacNeil in perfect harmony, recurring characters and procedural, MC-1 craziness and Dredd's frustration. Particularly excited to see Block Judge's Corrigan crossing paths with, errr, Bender's Bender. Personal theory:[spoiler] Bender himself is the slab suit slasher[/spoiler].   So good it's ridiculous. So since Roberto's prints are on the stagehand's murder scene, PJ is unlikely to be dark jugdified in any significant way. You would think that a world with facechange tech could stretch to fingerprint changing, but then you'd also think our favrit genyus could wear gloves...

Brass Sun was another intriguing episode that was streers ahead of the preceding run, SinDex was a nice mix of humour and ultraviolence (I'm not getting the Woody Fougery pun... Little help here?), but Bad Company was just sublime, and strangely affecting. Rufus and Jim have hit a sweet spot in terms of keeping the look and design of the original, while injecting the whole thing with a lively fresh energy, so that every panel is exciting. Great stuff, really.

TordelBack

Gagh, that bit in bold in the middle is supposed to be spoiler tags, for all that it's uniformed speculation.

Dark Jimbo

Quote from: Tordelback on 14 October, 2015, 11:37:46 PM
So since Roberto's prints are on the stagehand's murder scene, PJ is unlikely to be dark jugdified in any significant way. You would think that a world with facechange tech could stretch to fingerprint changing, but then you'd also think our favrit genyus could wear gloves...

If they've found PJ's prints then you know it's because PJ wanted them to...
@jamesfeistdraws

sheridan

Quote from: Tordelback on 14 October, 2015, 11:37:46 PM
Brass Sun was another intriguing episode that was streers ahead of the preceding run, SinDex was a nice mix of humour and ultraviolence (I'm not getting the Woody Fougery pun... Little help here?),

That one stumped me as well, I tried repeating it in my head in a few different tones and accents, but nothing rang true...

sheridan

Quote from: Magnetica on 14 October, 2015, 10:51:03 PM
Bad Company. I know the art is meant to be a tribute to Brett, but it doesn't actually look as much like his as I thought it did. It also doesn't have that trade mark thing Brett did in the original Bad Company of re-using the same panels e.g. with a close up. And he hardly ever used the "loads of dots shading effect" (sorry I don't know what the correct term is).

The artistic technique is pointillism, though I don't recall Brett ever using it.  Possibly you're referring to (what I assume were) artefacts of the afore-mentioned re-use of panels (not familiar with which technologies would have been available in the mid-eighties, I always figured were achieved by photocopying the originals).

TordelBack

Quote from: Dark Jimbo on 14 October, 2015, 11:58:41 PM
Quote from: Tordelback on 14 October, 2015, 11:37:46 PM
So since Roberto's prints are on the stagehand's murder scene, PJ is unlikely to be dark jugdified in any significant way. You would think that a world with facechange tech could stretch to fingerprint changing, but then you'd also think our favrit genyus could wear gloves...

If they've found PJ's prints then you know it's because PJ wanted them to...

Indeed, but why would he blow the Roberto identity? Some 'Ambrose' DNA would have been calling card enough.  That pile of favours he can draw on in CB has to be getting thin by now...

@Sheridan: I think pointillism is something quite different (see Seurat's and Signac's work), this is just screentone (see Dave Sim and Eddie Campbell). But you're dead right, the dots in Bad Company 1 were mostly  just newsprint/halftone dots enlarged by photocopying. 

Muon


Magnetica

Quote from: Tordelback on 15 October, 2015, 12:47:58 AM
@Sheridan: I think pointillism is something quite different (see Seurat's and Signac's work), this is just screentone (see Dave Sim and Eddie Campbell). But you're dead right, the dots in Bad Company 1 were mostly  just newsprint/halftone dots enlarged by photocopying.

Yes it is screentone I am referring to too. It is (obviously) used a lot in the new Bad Company; I was going to say Brett never used it, but then I flicked through "Goodbye Krool World" and it appears something like twice in the entire thing.  Given that Brett (almost) never used it, for me, its use is a bit odd given that it is meant to be a homage to him.

The other thing I was referring to was Brett's re-use of the same panel (sometimes more than one) to provide a close up. He also once re-used the same panel of Kano several episodes later in a flashback sequence. I am (almost) certain that was done by photocopying; indeed I am pretty sure I read somewhere that was how it was done.

Jim_Campbell

Quote from: Magnetica on 15 October, 2015, 06:40:27 AM
Yes it is screentone I am referring to too. It is (obviously) used a lot in the new Bad Company; I was going to say Brett never used it, but then I flicked through "Goodbye Krool World" and it appears something like twice in the entire thing.

Firstly, Brett used Letratone a lot — it's all over his Rogue Trooper work, for example. If it's less in evidence on the original Bad Company books, that was a choice made by Jim McCarthy, who did the inking.

Secondly, I've just put 'Brett Ewins Bad Company' into a Google image search and there's plenty of Letratone in evidence...  maybe not as much as Rufus is adding, but I think "(almost) never used it" is a stretch.

Cheers

Jim
Stupidly Busy Letterer: Samples. | Blog
Less-Awesome-Artist: Scribbles.

Greg M.

Brett used it a lot in Bad Company - when I look through my original art for the series, it's on almost every page.

TordelBack

Quote from: Magnetica on 15 October, 2015, 06:40:27 AM
Given that Brett (almost) never used it, for me, its use is a bit odd given that it is meant to be a homage to him.

The other thing I was referring to was Brett's re-use of the same panel (sometimes more than one) to provide a close up. He also once re-used the same panel of Kano several episodes later in a flashback sequence. I am (almost) certain that was done by photocopying; indeed I am pretty sure I read somewhere that was how it was done.

I've never seen the photocopy thing done as well as in BC -  far from seeming like a shortcut it brought an almost hypnotic quality to the strip, as we reprised the same image at different scales. Very cool.

As to the new strip being a homage, it certainly is but surely not in the sense of pastiche - Rufus and Jim are a very different team to Brett and Jim, and while they clearly use the visual lexicon of the original, their art is very much its own thing. An exciting, even important thing. A tribute, maybe?

For me Rufus has always occupied ground somewhere on a Ewins-McMahon axis, and it's great to see him flex his muscles more in one direction here, while still retaining that light airyness in his art (something neither McMahon nor Ewins could be accused of).

I'm certainly loving it more than any BC since the original run ( although I have a soft spot for The Bewidlerness).

Jim_Campbell

Quote from: Greg M. on 15 October, 2015, 09:44:12 AM
Brett Jim used it a lot in Bad Company - when I look through my original art for the series, it's on almost every page.

Fixed that for you!

Cheers

Jim
Stupidly Busy Letterer: Samples. | Blog
Less-Awesome-Artist: Scribbles.

Greg M.

Quote from: Jim_Campbell on 15 October, 2015, 09:47:08 AM
Fixed that for you!

D'oh! I just woke up, that's my excuse, and I'm sticking to it.

robert_ellis

I really don't want the Bad Company art to ape Brett. I think it has a punkiness & energy that is similar without in any way copying Brett. Loving the halftone!

Adamskilad

This is my favourite spread of stories this year. The Dredd packs so much in without ever coming across as an exhausting read.

Defoe is gorgeous (and those inclined may think the same of Defoe now he's cut down on the pasties).

Brass Sun will need a full re-read when the thing is done.

Sinister Dexter's the light and frothy walnut whip in the mix.

Bad Company is intriguingly odd and a hundred times better than the phone-it-in series of 2002, where we skipped the A to B of reaching the Danny/Krool-heart by Kano snorting drugs? (if I recall rightly).