Prog 32

 This week's issue of 2000AD is strong, even if the main stay Judge Dredd doesn't deliver. I have enjoyed the consistency of 2000AD thus far, I don't recall reading a poor issue. Some have been average, but nothing has struck me as anything less than worthwhile and while the different stories ebb and flow, they remain of high quality. 

Prog 32

1 October 1977

I'm a big fan of this week's Invasion story. It's darker, contains some gripping plot twists and ends as a multi-part storyline. The very first panel sees Bill Savage looking wilder than he ever has before as he continues hunting Volgs through the highlands. However, the Volgans are about to do something about their Bill Savage problem and bring in Colonel Volgaska. Colonial Volgaska proves to be the worst kind of Volgan and is soon torturing local Scots in a most frightful manner, which of course draws Bill Savage from his lair as he seeks retribution. Slipping into Inverness and setting up a firing point on a hill to take out Volgaska via a sniper rifle, it seems Bill Savage has things in hand. However, things take a turn as an old woman they met earlier in the story appears and stabs Savage with a poisoned spike. The twist is this old woman is Colonel Volgaska - the Colonel is a woman. Surrounded by Volgans and paralysed with the poison, things look grim for Savage and we'll have to wait until next week to see the outcome. The artwork is well suited to this week's story with the twisted expressions of the Volgans to the fore throughout the whole story, and especially the face of Cononal Volgaska on the final pages. Faces etched with evil and distorted into hate, one can feel the pain they are inflicting radiating from the page time and time again. Even Savage is brushed with this terrifying expression, and in the first panel of the story he seems just as terrifying as his opponents. I appreciate that once again this story has time to breathe, and I can't wait to see where we will go next week as the story unfolds further.       

Rating: 9/10

Best Line:  "'Ere-that's the same old dear we saw down below! What's going on? Oi, you - Granny!"

Judge Dredd feels low-key this time out. A fully automated hotel has started killing all its guests, with the main computer bent on wiping out all inefficacies. The story unfolds in a straightforward manner, Dredd attends the hotel opening, but later he notices he hasn't seen any guests, unbeknownst to him the hotel computer has been killing them in a variety of manners around the hotel. Dredd overcomes the computer's attempts at killing him, and once he gains access to the main computer room shoots the computer to pieces with his gun. There are some snappy lines that grease the wheels of the story, but overall it doesn't carry the weight, nor the humour, of some of the other Dredd stories. A light read, I can't deny I enjoyed it, but my expectations are always sky-high for Dredd and this is merely filler until something better comes along. 

Rating: 5/10

Best line:  "You are still alive human? This is interesting- I shall examine you personally..." 

Shako took several interesting turns last week as the story deepened and expanded with more interested parties thrown into the mix and Shako facing a range of new perils. This week the story reverts to form. Left tied to a helicopter heading to the bottom of the ocean, Shako makes a quick escape on the first page as the cold water revives him and he chews through the cables binding him, Reaching the surface, he hauls himself aboard an ice floe to recover. Later he is awakened by the sounds of seals, and investigating he finds a group of seals being slaughtered by men. From here on in it is typical Shako and he chews and fights his way through the men, leaving no survivors, and reaps the rewards of a seal feast in peace. This feels like a completely different type of story from last week, but I find I enjoy it for its simplicity. It is unhurried and entirely focused on Shako. In the past, I haven't always been a fan of stories which are just bear versus man, but this one is back to basics and a nice reset after all the non-stop action of the last few weeks. With its soft pace and clean artwork it's a nice palate cleanser after the busyness of Invasion and unsettled future-feel of Judge Dredd. 

Rating: 7/10

Best Line: "A polar bear! Gotta get to the guns!" 

Part two of Dan Dare on a planet inhabited by Vampires. Last week was a cracker, and this week begins with Dan aware of his host's nefarious intentions but in need of letting his men know what's about to happen. He has a solution at hand to snap his men out of their revelry, spiking their drinks with primer fluid they are soon heeding his call to action as they take the fight to the vampires, first with their fists, and then with their guns. Blasting their way out of trouble, they make it back to their ship where they face one final hurdle, some spacecraft blocking their escape, but this is dealt with with a lightning-fast attack from below which sees them reach a safe orbit. There is a lot to commend in this strip, the scene of Dare's crew fighting in hand-to-hand combat is great, as too are any panels showing the vampires baring their fangs. I was interested to see that Dan Dare's ship was called the Eagle, complete with the Eagle logo from the original Eagle comic on its side. Was this a new development? I don't recall seeing it in previous Dan Dare stories, so I'm not sure if I missed it previously, or if the writers and artist just added it in now. I can't recall Dan ever referring to his ship as the Eagle, so I may have to go back and re-read some of the previous issues later today. I would have liked to have seen this store stretched further, to perhaps three or four issues, but I am most satisfied with what we have here, a monster of the week piece with some thrilling action and the right guys coming out on top. A little old-fashioned, but a lot of fun.     

Rating: 8/10

Best line: "Then use your fists, spacer..they're the finest short-range weapon ever invented!"

I thought last week's M.A.C.H. 1. was wild but this week's one takes it up another notch. With the alarm in the UFO sounding, and more UFOs approaching, Probe makes a run for it. What he misses seeing is the aliens taking control of the local sheriff and the dead body of Dutch who he killed off last week. With the sheriff under alien control, the county is sealed off as the remaining UFOs attack Pine City. John Probe chances upon the sheriff, who takes him back towards the trouble, and the story ends with Probe realising the sheriff isn't what he seems just as Dutch rises from the back seat and grabs him around the throat. It's bonkers, yet brilliant, and matches the previous Dan Dare for page-turning excitement. There isn't a lot of John Probe using his abilities, but there is plenty of story crammed into the pages and this is just as gripping as seeing John Probe in action. The wild looks of the possessed bodies work well for me, and once again I find myself already anticipating picking up next week's story. 

Rating: 8/10

Best line:  "Mother O'Riley...they're attacking me!"

Tharg's Future Shocks comes as a two-parter this week, and the first set-up is just to my tastes. In the future, time travelling vacations are the norm, and we see a couple of men watching the destruction of Pompeii before travelling forward to the future. Planning their next trip, the travel agent suggests England during the Witch Hunts, something they readily agree to. With the wheels set in motion, we will have to wait until next week to see what happens, but I like what we have here so far and I'm all on board. A clever premise, it holds promise for a great ending, fingers crossed it will deliver.  

Rating: 7/10

Best line:  "They used to scream a lot, didn't they, I like to hear 'em scream!"

Prog 32 final ratings:

Overall: 8/10

Best Story: Invasion

Best Line: "Cry, my friend...cry like a broken beast. Colonel Volgaska has mastered you!"

Best Panel:

Prog 31

 24th September 1977 I had just turned four years old, reading comics was still in my future, as was the concept of blogging about them on the internet. Yet here we are, I'm all grown up and reading comics daily, and thanks to modern tech I'm able to share my humble Prog Slog with anyone who might stumble across it. Living in the future isn't quite like the comics, it's both better and worse, but I'm pleased to have stuck around long enough to experience some of the highs and lows as the pages of the calendar slip by. So today, back to reading a comic from forty-five years ago. Four-year-old me wouldn't have appreciated it, by rapidly-approaching-fifty me sure does.

Prog 31

24 September 1977

One of the things I like best about Invasion is the way the writers plant a seed on the first page, and then follow through with it to give us a nice circular story by the time we come to the end. In this case, it is the Volgans speaking about Savage as a hunted animal, a theme that will thread its way through the story before paying off on the final pages. With Bill Savage and Silk trudging through the snow of the highlands the story is chilled, but things warm up soon enough as they come to an abandoned ski lodge. This is the perfect location for the action that propels the story in the next couple of pages as Bill defeats Volgan snow troops with a variety of implements that are close to hand. It's always fun to see him adapt to his surroundings and use the environment around him, and I take particular delight in seeing him skewering a couple of Volgans with ski poles, not pleasant but it is an image that sticks in the mind after reading. With a Volgan snowcat arriving at the scene, we are all ready for a final set piece that will tie a bow to all of this. Bill and Silk watch on as the Snowcat ploughs into the building, only for the Volgans to be attacked by some Highland Wildcats which have made the lodge their home. Thus the theme of hunted wild animals is complete, along with the nicely worked pun of the Volgan snowcat being attacked by wildcats. All I can do is applaud this cleverness, something that appeals to me immensely. I don't rate the action quite so highly, there were some sweet spots as I mentioned, but this week wasn't crammed full of action as we have seen some other weeks. Overall it is good, but never quite great.    

Rating: 7/10

Best Line:  "They're our own British cats, Volg! Highland Wildcats!"

My feelings about Judge Dredd are mixed. It has some fantastic panels (the final one in particular) and the story is well told, but overall I get the feeling we have seen this all before in different forms. The story comes across to me as a Judge Dredd remix, rather than something truly original. For all that though, it is not bad.  We have a recurring character from Prog 2, Whitey, who is plotting his escape from prison. With the aid of another prisoner, he manages to turn off the Mega-City weather controller, something we came across in an earlier story, and the city is brought to a halt by snow, something the citizens haven't seen for decades. The rest of the story is about Dredd battling the elements and Whitey, before the inevitable conclusion which sees the lawman triumph. We see Dredd use his brains and brawn throughout the story, and the snow-filled panels add an extra layer of drama to the tale. This week's story was always going to live in the shadow of last week's 10/10, but it is good enough in its own right without ever crossing over to essential reading. 

Rating: 5/10

Best line:  "We programmed a hot sunny day- but whoever is jamming us has programmed snow!" 

Shako picks up considerably this week, and the pages are alive with action. With Shako creating havoc on the Soviet ship in his search for food, the story at first appears to be another devoted to Shako devouring humans in a variety of colourful ways. However, it's not to be, and after an initial page of such panels, the story spreads its wings with the KGB taking a hand and knocking Shako unconscious, before the Americans make a surprise entrance and steal Shako away on their helicopters. This isn't the end of the matter and on the final page, the Soviets shoot the helicopter out of the sky, leaving Shako heading to the seabed and possibly a watery grave. This story is much brighter and faster-paced than the previous week, and with a range of characters steering the action, it isn't as two-dimensional as some other issues. It's not the best Shako episode I have read, but it does up the tempo and opens the way for more thrilling action in the coming weeks. It feels like we have turned the corner, and I'm enthralled by this new direction that had previously been hinted at but never followed up on. 

Rating: 7.5/10

Best Line: "And this here is an American bear. We're just recovering our stolen property!" 

Reading last week's Dan Dare I made mention of Star Trek, and I'm going to do so again here as the plot in this issue could well have been drawn directly from Captain Kirk's Captain's log. Dan Dare and his crew land on a planet inhabited by what looks like Ancient Romans. They are a peaceful people and request that Dan and his crew forgo all weapons, which the begrudging do. Things aren't quite what they seem, and after a welcome banquet Dan Dare finds two of his crew members killed, their hearts ripped out of their chests. Noticing his hosts have fangs, Dan realizes that he could be next on the menu, an event we will have to wait until next week to see unfold. Despite the thought that the writer had been watching reruns of Star Trek when writing this, I can't help but like it. If you're going to be inspired by old TV shows then what better inspiration than Star Trek. I enjoy this issue immensely. One could say it's corny or over the top, but surely that's what this is all about, and I wallow in every panel showing Ancient Romans and fanged foes. Odd that I faulted Dredd for retreading old ground, but I delight in seeing old tropes dredged up for Dan Dare. Perhaps that's because I value Dredd for its innovation, but from Dan Dare I just want to see a good old-fashioned adventure romp. Next week promises to be a corker, and I certainly want to see how Dan is going to extract himself from this situation.      

Rating: 8/10

Best line: "No wonder they don't need fighting weapons..they've all got fangs!"

M.A.C.H. 1. is getting wild. We last left John Probe in the woods with a crashed UFO on one side and a team of crazed lumberjacks on the other. From here it could go either way but it's the lumberjacks who make the first play - attempting to kill John Probe. The next few pages practically write and draw themselves as Probe fights them off in a variety of situations and with a smorgasbord of weapons, before the lead lumberjack, Dutch, comes to a gruesome end with his own chainsaw. I don't want to sound bloodthirsty, but this is one of the best panels of the story as are the preceding three for four, and there is nothing more satisfying than seeing a villain get their just desserts from their own weapon. Satisfied, I turn the page to see all attention directed to the UFO which now takes centre stage off the story. Firing laser beams in all directions, it takes out the remaining lumberjacks, although luckily enough not John Probe or Billy (Phew!)- some guys have all the luck. Sending Billy for Help, Probe enters the UFO and the story shifts again. The interior design is how I imagine every UFO to look, and the artist doesn't fail me in his interpretation of "UFO Int."  The story begins its wrap for the week here, as Probe discovers some organic material, just as a signal is sent from the UFO, calling four more craft to the area. It's hard to guess where we might go from here, right now it seems anything is possible. Perhaps John Probe will be carried into space, or maybe he'll fight them off, it's hard to say, but that's the beauty of this story right now. Nothing is predictable, and each week I turn the page never knowing what I will find next. M.A.C.H.1. is on quite a run and matches anything else in the comic recently. 

Rating: 8/10

Best line:  "You mean this white stuff could be all that's left of the U.F.O. crew?"

Tharg's Future Shocks is slightly longer this week. With these stories, it is all about the final twist and although I like this story, it doesn't slap me in the face with its final panel the same way as previous instalments have. Earth is overcrowded, but there is hope as an offer goes out to resettle on a paradise planet. Crowds swarm to take up the offer, but Jed Orville is determined to be one of the settlers and bullys and fights his way to the front of the queue. This brings us to the conclusion, as he and the others that fought themselves to the front find themselves beamed down to a hostile planet, Earth all the better for getting rid of them. It's not the most dramatic twist, but it is a fitting end that I didn't see coming. I do like to guess how these stories might end each week and I get a kick when I don't guess it correctly, so on that front, I do enjoy this story. The artwork is also gritty and suits the dystopian future the story speaks of,  a fine match between word and image. A solid story again, but not to the same heights we have previously experienced. 

Rating: 5/10

Best line:  "This ain't paradise - it's a frozen hell!"

Prog 31 final ratings:

Overall: 7/10

Best Story: Dan Dare

Best Line: "What the..? They're dead! Their hearts have been torn out!"

Best Panel:

Prog 30

I didn't update the blog last week. I had a couple of wisdom teeth removed and was under the weather for several days - it's hard to enjoy comics when you're feeling miserable and every time I opened a comic I was taken out of the moment by the constant painful reminder of what had happened in my mouth. But, I'm back on board this week and happy to report that once again I am ready to drift off into the world of 2000AD for the next hour. Such welcome relief. 

Prog 30

17 September 1977

The late 1970s and early 1980s were crazy about jump jets and Invasion is consistent with the times with this week's story centring on a Volgan jump jet. Invasion has been on a good run recently, but there is a couple of cliches in this week's story that I can't overlook. With Bill Savage leading the Scots into the Highlands, and the appearance of a Volgan jump jet, the first page could have been drawn from a number of war comics of the era, and even the way they beat the jump jet feels like something I have seen before. We have a further cliche as Bill leaves two injured men behind at the pass, two men who will fight to slow the Volgans as Bill makes his escape. This is a trope we have seen in many war movies, and even though I enjoy it, I still think that Invasion can be better than this. Not every issue is going to be innovative and thought-provoking, and this is an inoffensive issue that stays safe within the genre that it had previously challenged.    

Rating: 5.5/10

Best Line:  "Leave us to hold the pass - we've had it-"

This is the best Judge Dredd I have read. True, we're only 30 issues in, but this one stands head and shoulders above all that has come before. The first panel and the opening line are brilliant, and the story has me lapping up every word, every nuance and every panel from the first page to the last. A mysterious man calling himself Judge Dredd returns to earth after twenty years on Titan, and soon enough we learn his back story. He is Rico, and he is bent on killing Judge Dredd. It is Dredd who explains more to us, Rico is his clone and the two of them trained together when they first became Judges. But while Dredd went on to preserve law and order, Rico became corrupt and began taking bribes. It was Dredd who caught him, and as punishment Rico has spent twenty years in the penal colony on Titan, waiting for his chance to come back and get revenge. In a final standoff, Rico is killed by Dredd, who then carries him out. There are too many great panels here to describe, and the plot carries far more emotional weight than my brief description. The panel of Dredd carrying Rico's body while proclaiming "he ain't heavy, he's my brother" is just one hefty moment in a story full of them. Every page has three or four panels worth mentioning, and by the final page, I felt like we had been on quite a journey with the characters. The artwork combined with the story is a powerful alchemy and I have no hesitation in rating the story as highly as I do. My first ever 10/10, and deservedly so. 

Rating: 10/10

Best line:  "I'll make it..! He-He ain't heavy, he's my brother!" 

Shako has devoured his way through a good number of Americans, and now he is bringing his ferocious appetite to the Russians. Captured by the Russians, Shako is taken aboard a Russian ship where he is in a seemingly hopeless position locked in a cage in the hold. However, there is no accounting for man's ego, and soon enough he is released by one of his Russian captors who fancies himself in a fight against Shako. While it looks like an even contest in the first couple of panels, Shako is not one to be trifled with and soon enough his opponent is dealt to and Shako is in the position we have seen several times already, exploring his new surroundings and eyeing up his next victims. We have seen a similar story play out a few weeks ago when Shako entered the American hospital, and this week feels the same, just with different badges on the uniform. There is no doubt that the story is progressing, especially in light of Falmuth and his KGB equivalent crossing paths, but essentially it is more of the same with Shako loose and looking for his next meal.  

Rating: 5.5/10

Best Line: "The fools! The fools!" 

Dan Dare faces a curious opponent this week. Landing on a desert planet with some of his crew, his sensors pick up lifeforms, but there is nothing to be seen anywhere. It is soon revealed that the planet is the life form as sand rises up and devours several non-essential crew members. Like any good Star Trek episode, it is the redshirts that are killed, leaving the key players fighting on. In this case, Dan Dare and the Bear climb back to their landing craft and smash open the water tanks, using the fascinating-looking astro-axes (nuclear axes - how exactly do they work?) leaving the surrounding ground swampy and ineffective for an attack. Once again, Pilot Polanski appears with his craft, scramble net at the ready, for Dare and the remaining crew to make their escape from the planet. An interesting enough story this week, and certainly an intriguing concept, but the story never grabs me as it should, and I remain an outside reader rather than someone who is enveloped in the story. A nice story, but this week it lacks the x-factor to elevate it to something more worthy.     

Rating: 6/10

Best line: "Yeah--it's made the dry sand into wet sand..quicksand! This planet's never seen water before..and it doesn't like it!"

Steven Spielberg's classic film, Close Encounters Of The Third Kind, was released in November of 1977, but here we have John Probe in M.A.C.H. 1. facing his own close encounter two months earlier. In a story titled "Close Encounter of the third kind," John Probe is sent to the wild pine forests of the Canadian/US border where a young boy of the local lumberjack community has seen a UFO crash. After joining a lumberjack team, John uses his special abilities several times, first to prove his mettle, then to save the boy from a falling tree, before we finally get to the crux of the matter - the UFO crashed in the forest. With the boy acting as a guide, John comes across the spacecraft, however, the lumberjacks he met earlier also arrive, threatening to destroy the ship, and John Probe if need be. Another strong episode of M.A.C.H. 1, and when I look at the time it came out, quite prescient. We only see John Probe's abilities a couple of times, and with the story more focused on the character, it is far more well-rounded than some of the ones we saw earlier in the run. We are moving away from the Million dollar man-type plots, and onto something far more interesting as the story continues to evolve. 

Rating: 8/10

Best line:  "A fat lot of good you are. I'm gonna look inside. One hyper kick and..."

Tharg's Future Shocks delivers once again. With a Starship approaching the galaxy's third quadrant we learn that a mighty space battle has taken place, and what they face now is the wreckage from when the aliens tried to take over the galaxy. Approaching the planet from where the aliens came from, one of the crew wonders why they didn't destroy the planet after defeating these war-hungry aliens. It is then that the captain tells us that the planet wasn't destroyed because of its natural beauty, and strange that such a beautiful planet as Earth should be home to such warlike creatures. I like the idea, and it is refreshing to once again look at mankind from an outsider's point of view. We have seen this before, but it still remains fresh and works well for these shock stories. Nothing too dramatic here, but nicely done and once again it rounds out the issue on just the right note.  

Rating: 7/10

Best line:  "Look! A graveyard of dead ships! All destroyed by the aliens that tried to take over the whole galaxy!"

Prog 30 final ratings:

Overall: 7/10

Best Story: Judge Dredd

Best Line: ""Anything to declare", huh? How about a heart full of hate for a man. Hate that's kept me alive through twenty long years of hell!"

Best Panel: