Prog 1942: Fost-----Nixon

[Ghost MacRoth]

Cover:  Nice, but odd.  Doesn't really look like the style of either artists involved!

Dredd:  Continues to be great, but I get the feeling that it's gonna be over soon.

Absalom:  Did not end as expected.....but no complaints really.  Just expected a bit more.

Helium:  No surprises, continues along familiar lines.

Outlier:  Only the art is keeping this one afloat now.

Jaegir: After the last couple weeks, some welcome action.  Loving Coleby's work on this.

[Fungus]

What a tag-line 

[Eamonn Clarke]

Glenn Fabry, colours by Ryan Brown.

"Let it go, let it go!"

[I, Cosh]

What a tag-line 

Aye. A beauty.

Really like that cover as well.

[ZenArcade]

Sweet stuff. Z

[UncleBaal]

The Dredd is great but it feels rushed - some slow menacing build-up to the city-wide snow storm and the reveal of the baddie would have made it feel more sinister and epic, I feel.

[TordelBack]

Hasn't the big freeze been building for many months, with sly references most recently in the opener of Mike's Emerald Isle story? I'm not a particular fan of the Titan/Enceladus storyline, or its perspective on a lost and powerless Dredd (although the art is magic and the allusions clever), but I certainly can't fault Williams (and pals) for the stealth-epic approach he's made his own. Far more believable and weighty than many citywide crises that have come and gone before.

Killer tag-line, BTW.

[Echidna]

What a tag-line 

It's a neat reference, but I hate the makeshift arrow made out of hyphens and a greater-than sign.

[Frank]

I'm not a particular fan of the Titan/Enceladus storyline, or its perspective on a lost and powerless Dredd (although the art is magic and the allusions clever)

I've enjoyed the stories, but they've relegated Dredd to the role of a passive victim, an object contested by others - Williams describes Dredd as a ghost haunting his own strip.  As Ichabod's meta-commentary on narrative demonstrates, Rob Williams understands the various roles and function of characters completely, so I'm sure there's a reason for making Dredd a Maguffin, rather than a protagonist.

So far, Titan has been a story about Dredd being talked out of shooting a fleeing perp by another judge, then Enceladus was about Dredd losing his shit watching another judge shoot a perp. Both have illustrated something about the limits and boundaries Dredd imposes upon himself, which make him what he is, and what it means when those boundaries are blurred, but the character arcs go to Gerhart and Nixon*.

I'm pretty sure the reason for looking at Dredd from such a remove isn't just down to the difficulty of writing the character, which Williams has commented upon before, and probably has more to do with the visual metaphor of Enceladus - which, viewed from afar, is an apparently dull and stable entity, but which turns out to have been shaped by occasional volcanic outbursts (of mysterious origin) from beneath its forbidding surface.

While we're looking at Dredd from afar, maybe we should consider what he sees when he looks at Nixon and why she has gotten to him in this way. Maybe she reminds him of the last time a former Titan with a breathing tube where their nose should be turned Dredd's world into an icy death chamber. That story turned out to be one of the most important in shaping the strip and the psychology of the character:




* the resolution will probably involve [spoiler]Gerhart using his new physiology to do an Anderson, containing the menace within himself - completing his trajectory from someone who hated Dredd but saved him out of dedication to his duty as a judge, to someone who recognises the importance of Dredd and sacrifices himself to save the city (and Dredd) to illustrate both his dedication to his duty as a judge and his enduring humanity[/spoiler]

[ZenArcade]

Just wow there Sauchie. Z

[Jim_Campbell]

I refer the honourable gentlemen to my previous remarks about Sauchie/Butch/WhateverTheFuckHe'sCallingHimself's tedious close-reading schtick. Seriously. Get over yourself, son.

Jim

[sheridan]

I've enjoyed the stories, but they've relegated Dredd to the role of a passive victim, an object contested by others - Williams describes Dredd as a ghost haunting his own strip... (snipped)

Nice theories, it'll be interesting to see how it pans out.  And thanks for posting that interview link - trying to remember if I saw it when the previous instalment of Enceladus was published...

[Eamonn Clarke]

I'm enjoying the comments on this fascinating Dredd story and the way Williams and Flint are portraying JD and Hershey.
Also looking forward to the collected edition which Rob Williams tweeted will be forthcoming.

Good work all round

[ZenArcade]

Well I get a lot out of Butch's observations, long may they last. Z

[Hawkmumbler]

I refer the honourable gentlemen to my previous remarks about Sauchie/Butch/WhateverTheFuckHe'sCallingHimself's tedious close-reading schtick. Seriously. Get over yourself, son.

Jim

Bit harsh.