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Prog 1957 - A Crash Course in Mega-City Law Enforcement!

Started by IronGraham, 13 November, 2015, 01:55:00 PM

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IronGraham

I chatted to Peter at TB and he had some of the pages so of course I got one
We're werewolves not swearwolves

wedgeski

Ate this one up.

LOVED the one-off Dredd. These are really strong at the moment.

Pat Mills' writing on Defoe is really starting to stand out for me. Nothing like a little 18-cert violence to get the juices flowing.

Brass Sun has become one of my favourite modern 2000AD strips. It was one of the ongoing series when I came back to the mag last year, and I really didn't like it. The art put me right off, and the story wasn't exactly noob-friendly. Since then, I've come to adore and admire Culbard's art, and the current strip's focus on the pain of its protagonists has got me by the throat. Brilliant.

Bad Company seems like it's treading water, but at least it's starting to peek into the shadows a bit. Looking forward to an explosive resolution, but fearing that it may be a bit of a fart.

Proudhuff

Top Proggage! A Dredd tale for the runners and a Dept of Monsterology compo... Ya Beezer!

Terror Tale is top hole too, even Defoe clunking can't drag the prog down  ;)
DDT did a job on me

Dark Jimbo

Loving this run of done-in-one Dredds, and this was the best yet. Worley's got a slightly better ear for Mega-City speak than Carroll, and the more like Kev Walker the Richardson art droid gets, the more I like him! An awful lot packed into this episode, and some laugh-out-loud moments.

Glad Jeffries hasn't bowed out of Defoe just yet - would have seemed a waste of a top historical wrong 'un, of the sort that brings out the savage best in Uncle Pat. 'Top of the ballads' verily made me chortle. Seems a bit late in the day to introduce a new sub-plot, but the idea of a murder-mystery (of sorts) with the Vizards as the suspects and Defoe as Poirot is irresistible! Can't wait for next week!

Very much enjoyed Night Shifts. Daft but fun. But the time John Smith spent writing this could have been used to scribe new Indigo Prime--!

Enjoying Brass Sun well enough without it setting my world on fire. Still finding the dialogue a bit on-the-nose this time out.

Bad Company still doesn't quite click with me. There's a bit of a disconnect between script and art this week; the crying pilot asking them to think of the dead man's family is clearly intended to be quite a heavy moment, but Rufus' art is designed for knockabout fun more than serious drama and it doesn't quite come off.  Also - did I miss something re: Golgotha Joe? This new character was introduced with a bit of fanfare as the long-lost original member of Bad Company and then completely vanishes four pages later...!
@jamesfeistdraws

robert_ellis

Another Superb Dredd - I'm loving these one-offs. Good to see John Smith back in prog with nasty Terrortale. All stories pretty good, although Bad Company doesn't get anywhere despite lovely art. I'm guessing there are only 2 episodes left? Simply astonishing wrap around cover...

Goaty

I am sorry but Bad Company went so confused like Tank Girl in Meg :(

Bolt-01

Jimbo- I think Golgotha Joe was one of the members of the troop set that included Kano, when Kano was taken (something to do with the Min massacre, i think) and then he hid on the Golgotha plains till the war was over.

IMO- He's effectively a plot device used to manouvre the lads and so it was decided to make him a homage to Brett.

I'm along for the ride on this, but Pete will have to have a killer climax for this to really be worth the effort.

Proudhuff

Indeed, I'm hopeful for a grand twist rather that Bobby/Kano climbing out the shower....
DDT did a job on me

Magnetica

After a run of really strong Progs comes a bit of a dip for me this week I'm afraid.


Dredd was ok but not as good as the last two weeks for me. I like Karl Richardson's art, so that was nice. Highlight of the Prog was the almost Iron Maiden lyrics - well ok the second part of the song, but definitely not the first. Don't think that was the intention though.

Defoe - as we were, which is fine.

Terror Tales. Hmmm - at the risk of being run off the board - I have never liked these and I'm not really a big John Smith fan either. As for this taking time away from writing a new Indigo Prime series, well I'm not exactly sitting here in eager anticipation of that; I'd rather have more Sinister Dexter. I know these won't be popular opinions in some quarters, but there you go.

Brass Sun - the dark side of Septimus. I can't quite remember the incident, but I seem to recall we have seen a glimpse of this before, but he went too far this time and there are bound to be consequences. I wonder what Wren would think if she found out?

Bad Company. As we were.

Over in nit-pickers corner:
- it's "Hawking" if that is who was being referred to, and I'm pretty sure there is nothing in current theories that could lead to the development of "hyper-surface" travel
- the nearest star is over 4 light years away, so there is no way you could reach Ararat in months at sub-light speeds.

Ok these are minor points, but it annoys the physicist in me...



TordelBack

Quote from: Magnetica on 19 November, 2015, 07:30:13 AM
- it's "Hawking" if that is who was being referred to, and I'm pretty sure there is nothing in current theories that could lead to the development of "hyper-surface" travel
- the nearest star is over 4 light years away, so there is no way you could reach Ararat in months at sub-light speeds.

It's good to know that everything else in Bad Company adheres to current scientific principles. I'm off to swap my dog's brain into something more bipedal, try to control an alien race and the geology of their home planet with my mind, and then I think I'll animate some warzombies and go on a space adventure with my long-dead comrades. Pass the brain bow, vicar.

Proudhuff

How come Johnny Vegas gets a Block name?

Its not like he's Fred Gee or Max Jaffa or :



one o these guys!

DDT did a job on me

Magnetica

I wasn't saying that there shouldn't be fantastical elements or elements that are beyond what is scientifically possible based on our knowledge today. Indeed you absolutely need to have these elements in order for a story to be a fantasy or Sci-fi. What you do need is a set of boundaries around how those elements work that is consistent. I don't even need them to be explained. It is enough that there is a method of inter stellar travel. Equally I don't need an explanation of how Dog Brain, Fly-Trap or the Krool Heart "work". So long as the story stays within a logically consistent framework that it establishes, then I am absolutely ok with that.  And think Bad Company does do that.

That wasn't the point I was making. It was calling it the "Hawkin (sic) Shift" that was what I was commenting on.

Some works have attempted an explanation of how say inter stellar travel works e.g. warp drive, hyperspace, worm holes etc. and I don't have a problem with that. Where it starts to lose credibility is when an attempt is made to say the theories of a real, named scientist could lead to such things (spelling not withstanding).

Now Stephen Hawking has done work in areas such as cosmology, quantum mechanics, relativity, black holes etc. but the point is, it is a massive leap from where we are now (whether based on Hawking's work or others) to being able to engineer a working inter stellar travel capability.  If it is possible at all – which I doubt.  So please don't call it the "Hawkin shift". Just make up a fictional future scientist.

At least in Star Trek they came up with a fictional inventor of the warp drive in their (future) time line.

As for the sub-light travel to Ararat in months, well that's just plain wrong.

TordelBack

I don't know what to tell ya, man - I'm all for a bit of scientific consistency in my fantastic fiction, but I've never detected whiff one of it Bad Company prior to this, and that was before a bunch of long dead characters set off from one destroyed planet to another.

Magnetica

I wasn't really trying to comment on the consistency or otherwise of Bad Company as a whole, just the reference to the Hawkin Shift and sub light travel.

Frank

Quote from: Proudhuff on 19 November, 2015, 04:44:49 PM
How come Johnny Vegas gets a Block name?


Jake Lynch gotta eat. Why do you think Dredd strips feature Judge Burdis visiting addresses adjacent to Pete Wells block?





It's a gorgeous image; definitely my cover of the year and testimony to how far Lynch has traveled, so soon. Can't wait to see him apply his new skill and confidence to his first major strip work.

Leigh Gallagher and Pat Mills devise one of those nasty sequences combining gore and lyricism the latter made his trademark on classic-era Sláine. Maybe the reason recent Mills has relied on exposition is that this kind of sequence requires absolute confidence in an artist's ability to tell the story in visuals.

In Leigh Gallagher and Simon Davis, Mills once more has collaborators capable of making the narrative heavy lifting look effortless while reveling in the flesh ripping from skulls and eating of brains that I looked forward to in the work of Fabry and O'Neill. Nice to see Tom Rowland (sic) namechecked among the zombie horde.