Prog 92

Hard to believe that a month passed since I last updated the blog. Things have been fast and furious here, with an urgent trip to Tokyo for a family matter. I thought I might have time alone with my comics, but it wasn't to be and I find myself now back in rainy New Zealand playing catch up. It was a shock to pick up this week's comic and reacquaint myself with the storylines, I had to read through twice to remind myself where we were, and perhaps my overall opinion of this week's comic suffered from the brief break in continuity on my part. However, I'm back into the swing of things now, and my eyes are already glancing across at next week's issue.  

Prog 92

25th November 1978

The insane Judge Cal has become Chief Judge of Mega-City One, while Judge Dredd has escaped into the city. In the first pages of this issue, we see Judge Cal assert his power with a range of brutal panels showing his Judges cracking down on the city's citizens. 

This insanity peaks when Judge Cal has his goldfish proclaim a new law, a series of bubbles from the fish's mouth, before enforcing it with the death penalty for those who don't obey. 

Meanwhile, Dredd has linked up with a group of wounded Judges, all of whom are prepared to join him in resisting. Preparing to fight Cal's Judges, Dredd tells his men that the other Judges were once good, and they can be good again. With this thought foremost in his mind, he commands his men to shoot to wound. However, they can kill if they must and without hesitation. 

Dredd and Giant lead the way, and after a couple of skull-cracking pages, we see Dredd and his band of Judges preparing to take control of the broadcasting. As Dredd rightly asserts, take control of broadcasting and they can raise an army of millions. 

This plot is moving in the right direction, although this week I found I had reservations about the art. It felt slight for the story being told and apart from the final image of Dredd staring out at the reader, there was very little for me to get excited about. On the other hand, the story took a leap forward with Dredd and his rag-tag band of men engaging the enemy and offering some resistance. We saw just what an evil bastard Judge Cal is in the first panels with his crackdown on the citizens, and it was stirring to see Dredd give some backbone to those too weak to fight back. Things are coming to a head, and with some strong art next week we should be reaching the pinnacle of this story soon. 

Rating: 6.5/10

Best line: "Today we fight other Judges. I don't know what kind of hold Cal has over them, but they were good men once - and they'll be good men again!" 

On the pages of Strontium Dog, Johnny Alpha, Wulf, and Gronk escape the Wolrogs using one of the Wolrogs' nuke-torps. 

The Wolrogs don't take this lying down, and open fire from their main blaster and blow the planet that Johnny Alpha is behind to smithereens. 

It's a serious mistake, and Johnny and his friends make an escape in the debris, while the Wolrog responsible pays for it with his life. 

Twelve hours later, our heroes come across a battle between the Wolrogs and a Sandorian attack cruiser. Johnny has only one thought, to help the Sandorians. He and his crew quickly don vacuum suits and exit the ship, leaving it on a collision course for the Wolrog vessel. The Wolrogs realise what is happening all too late and they are destroyed in the resulting blast. 

Satisfied, Johnny watches on as he floats nearby with his crew. Safety is near at hand as the Sandorian ship approaches, intending to pick up Johnny and thank him for saving the situation.

A low-key episode this week. On paper, it sounds exciting and action-packed, but that didn't translate onto the comic page and I felt we cruised through the story this issue. Johnny escaped, a planet was blown up, and the Wolrog ship was defeated, but none of it felt terribly important or dramatic. It was a soft read, and even the art felt slight. Not to say I don't like Johnny Alpha and his adventures, just that this story stayed in second gear and didn't deliver the same level of high-octane drama I have become used to.    

Rating: 6.5/10

Best line: "Send out a catcher. Whoever they are, I wasn't to shake their hands."

Flesh has taken a turn, with the conflict onboard the fishing vessel put to one side as the much larger scheme of smuggling tourists from the future using Trans-time Corporation's time travel shuttle is revealed. 

Carver quickly cuts himself in on the action and sees the time shuttle as his opportunity to escape with the gold he has hidden. While the tourists are out on a fishing trip, Carver makes for the cave where he has stashed the gold. 

It doesn't go to plan, the tourists are attacked and killed by Big Hungry, while Carver finds that the gold is no longer where he left it. 

The situation worsens in the final panel as we see the blood in the water has attracted giant scorpions, and next week Carver and his men will have to face this new menace. 

The best panel of the story appeared early and showed one of the tourists harpooning a prehistoric fish. The rest of the story never came close to living up to this, and it fell flat on many levels. We saw the machinations of Carver, but he wasn't the main focus. The giant scorpions at the end weren't as threatening as one might expect, mostly because we never actually see them. We are given a glimpse of their claws coming out of the water, but that is all there is. The scenes of Big Hungry attacking the tourists were good, although once again it felt rushed and could have been stretched out longer. However, one can't complain too much with the story moving quickly forward, and the giant scorpions next week should be a sight to behold. 

Rating: 6/10

Best line: "It don't take much to bribe some guys to get us to a time shuttle, and it takes even less to interest some suckers in taking a trip to the past!"

I'm sad to see that this week is the final part of Hammer-stein's war memoirs in Ro-busters. It starts with a grim scene reminiscent of the First World War, with Hammer-stein crouched in a muddy trench with other soldiers. The detailed art is spot on, with many references and signs that could well be drawn directly from that conflict. 

Hammer-stein's comrades are still present, and we are reacquainted with Harrison who thinks he is an aeroplane and is now sporting a propeller hat. In a nice touch, he has a Biggles book in hand, something that greatly appeals to me as I collect these books myself. 

A new officer arrives and instantly takes a dislike to the men, and rest assured, the feeling is mutual. In the best traditions of trench warfare, he sends the men over the top to seize Hell Fire Hill, little caring about what will happen to them. 

Needless to say, they are decimated, with eighty per cent casualties reported. We see the death of several of Hammer-stein's comrades, with Baby-face the first to fall, followed soon after by Sergeant "Country" Joe.

However, with Hammer-stein immune to the flamethrowers deployed against them and fighting with a furious inner rage, the battle is won and the hill is taken. Later the officer tells them that the hill is no longer of strategic importance as they broke through further along the line. 

After this, we learn that the men were pulled out of the war, and from here on it would be robot armies fighting.

At this point, Ro-Jaws interrupts the story and we are abruptly brought back to the present. Ro-Jaws says we have heard enough of this war rubbish and it's time to move on to something else. A timely appearance by their human secretary, the beautiful Miss Marilyn, moves us forward, calling for Ro-jaws and Hammer-stein to come help move her desk. The story finishes this week with the robots doing as asked, and Ro-jaws just about to tell us his memoirs.

I'm a sucker for a good war story, and I enjoyed the images of the soldiers preparing for battle in the trenches, and the various tropes that were drawn in. The snottty officer, the young men falling, and then the revelation that it was all for nothing, has been seen before, yet it still remained powerful in this abridged form. This particular story could have been spun across three issues, but even as is I appreciated every panel. This story is just three months before the appearance of Pat Mill's Charley's War, a story that sees him mine the same material in a far richer and in-depth environment. This is a nice pointer towards that, and I can't help but wonder how far Pat was down the track with his writing of Charley's War when he wrote this issue. I have no idea what Ro-jaws memoirs will entail, I can only hope that it is every bit as good as Hammer-steins and just as rewarding.

Rating: 7.5/10

Best line: "Er- it seems the hill is no longer of strategic importance- we broke through further along the front. However, you put on a fine show, men. I take back what I said..."

Prog 92 final ratings:

Overall: 6.5/10

Best Story: Ro-busters

Best Line: "Take broadcast control and we'll have an army of 100 million!"   

Best Panel: