The All New Comics Thread 2017+ Edition

[Mister Six]

Oh! Ha, yes, I'm a dummy. I'll tweak the posts...

[Small Man Big Horse]

I think with Necropolis the whole point is that without Dredd, Mega-City 1 just falls apart - and once Dredd comes back, the city rights itself (well, he rights it) pretty much straight away. By this stage of the series there's no real point in having a big drawn out climax: once Dredd is back, he'll save the day - and he does. The story is about Dredd being brought low by doubt in himself and the system and turning his back on the city, and once he overcomes that and realises he's needed, the rest of the story is just mopping things up.

(the version of this story where there's a big drawn-out struggle with Dredd battling the rulers of the city is The Day the Law Died / Judge Cal)

It's interesting that at this stage of the series all the "other" Dredds - original Rico, Kraken - turned out to be flawed compared to the original, whereas now there's a new Rico who's proven up to the task, Dolman (a Dredd who didn't want to be a judge) is a good egg, and so on. There's more of a sense now that Dredd isn't unique, whereas the whole point of Necropolis is that nobody can do what he does and nobody can take his place.

Wagner's always had a somewhat idiosyncratic approach to pacing the mega-epics though. City of the Damned was cut short when he (and Alan Grant) decided it wasn't working, and much later on Day of Chaos pretty much does everything it's going to do before we actually get to the "Day of Chaos".

That's really interesting, I can definitely see that in the story, though I feel Anderson should be given more credit, she's essentially the one who provides Dredd with the information he needs to get rid of the Sisters and provides an essential distraction so that he can save the day. But even ignoring that (as I guess Anderson only recovers thanks to Dredd's help) I still find it frustrating that it's wrapped up quite so easily, and that Dredd's issues with the justice department are dealt with outside of the main strip.

Edit: I just re-read Tale Of The Dead Man and it doesn't really address Dredd's changing his mind about Mega City One, so I'm guessing / hoping that will be tackled in the aftermath of Necropolis...

I didn't know that about the other Dredds either, I will one day (hopefully) work my way through all of the case files and may even catch up to the present day, but, well, we're probably talking about that taking a good decade or two given everything else I'm reading!

Given that Cameron's been accused of grooming teenagers, that seems unlikely.

Oh fucking hell, I didn't know about that, but after a quick google search I found some very grim reading.

[13 schoolyards]

Edit: I just re-read Tale Of The Dead Man and it doesn't really address Dredd's changing his mind about Mega City One, so I'm guessing / hoping that will be tackled in the aftermath of Necropolis...

I don't think it ever is fully explained - he discovers the city needs him and goes back, and once he's back it's like "well, guess I'd better not do that again". But that said, Dredd's vague questioning about Mega City 1 and the Judges becomes a bigger deal later on, though never quite back up to pre-Necropolis levels.

Wagner's Dredd (which in the more recent stories starts to drift a little from the Dredd everyone else writes) eventually becomes... hardly a reformer, but someone who at least sees that the system isn't 100% perfect, and can get away with the occasional question because his status in the department means he's (almost) above reproach. So yeah, keep on reading!

[Small Man Big Horse]

I don't think it ever is fully explained - he discovers the city needs him and goes back, and once he's back it's like "well, guess I'd better not do that again". But that said, Dredd's vague questioning about Mega City 1 and the Judges becomes a bigger deal later on, though never quite back up to pre-Necropolis levels.

That's a shame, especially as it all kicked off with Oz and Dredd's failure to shoot Chopper, so for it not to have a proper ending after all that time seems like a missed opportunity.
 

Wagner's Dredd (which in the more recent stories starts to drift a little from the Dredd everyone else writes) eventually becomes... hardly a reformer, but someone who at least sees that the system isn't 100% perfect, and can get away with the occasional question because his status in the department means he's (almost) above reproach. So yeah, keep on reading!

I absolutely will, Dredd's always been my favourite ongoing 2000AD character, but I've a feeling I might jump forward a bit now as I did read 2000Ad up until around issue 1000 (and only stopped then due to heading off to university) and I fancy reading some of his stories that I've not read before.

Superman: Birthright (I've got the trade paperback, but have so far only read the first 3 issues) - Mark Waid retells the origin story and then jumps forward to Clark just as he's about to turn 25 but before he's put on the famous red cape for the first time. And it's great, I wasn't sure I could stomach another origin tale but Waid has made this pretty fascinating reading, and perhaps even more importantly, it's really fun in places, as it lets Clark actually enjoy his powers at times, and the artwork's really superb too.

[Ron Maels Moustache]

I absolutely will, Dredd's always been my favourite ongoing 2000AD character, but I've a feeling I might jump forward a bit now as I did read 2000Ad up until around issue 1000 (and only stopped then due to heading off to university) and I fancy reading some of his stories that I've not read before.

Yeah, you might be better off skipping the Ennis/Millar/Morrison era, a real nadir for Dredd as well as being a fairly bleak time for the comic in general. But after that you've got The Pit which is Wagner getting his second wind creatively and finding a whole new direction to go in, and the 2000s has some cracking stuff in general.

[Small Man Big Horse]

Yeah, you might be better off skipping the Ennis/Millar/Morrison era, a real nadir for Dredd as well as being a fairly bleak time for the comic in general. But after that you've got The Pit which is Wagner getting his second wind creatively and finding a whole new direction to go in, and the 2000s has some cracking stuff in general.

Thanks for the recommendation, I do have a vague memory of some of Garth Ennis's stories and not being that impressed by them, and the Pit seems to have come just as I was stopping reading the comic so it'd be a good place to pick up again.

[13 schoolyards]

Seconded re: The Pit. It's a great story in itself, and it sets out a solid new direction for the character and the strip in general.

It's really only been the last few years that Dredd has dropped off a bit again, and even now it hasn't hit the rock bottom depths of the early 90s post-Necropolis. It's had an amazingly strong and consistent run over the years.

[Ron Maels Moustache]

Seconded re: The Pit. It's a great story in itself, and it sets out a solid new direction for the character and the strip in general.

It's really only been the last few years that Dredd has dropped off a bit again, and even now it hasn't hit the rock bottom depths of the early 90s post-Necropolis. It's had an amazingly strong and consistent run over the years.

I think the problem for a while has been an overall lack of direction for the strip. While Wagner was still the most prolific writer, there was a sense of forward momentum in the storylines, and a feeling of progression in the characters and situations. But now the big guy is semi-retired, and contributes generally less and less every year, it's kind-of left things in stasis in a way, as everyone tends to defer to him as to what important developments actually matter in the ongoing series.

There's a rotating regular crop of writers who contribute at the moment, most of whom are decent, but a lack of consistency between them. It's like they all have their own takes on Dredd which don't necessarily correlate to each other, which can make a lot of stories feel annoyingly inconsequential.

It's a bit like the situation when the creators of TMNT stepped away from the title after about twenty odd issues and it became a vehicle for guest artists/writers to do one-off stories, and the ongoing plot just went on hold for several years.

For a while it looked Rob Williams was going to emerge as the stand-out contributor as his run of stories ending with The Small House in 2018 was excellent, but he seems to be too busy on other projects to write the character regularly (and also his last big story, End Of Days, was a bit shit unfortunately).

[Small Man Big Horse]

I think the problem for a while has been an overall lack of direction for the strip. While Wagner was still the most prolific writer, there was a sense of forward momentum in the storylines, and a feeling of progression in the characters and situations. But now the big guy is semi-retired, and contributes generally less and less every year, it's kind-of left things in stasis in a way, as everyone tends to defer to him as to what important developments actually matter in the ongoing series.

There's a rotating regular crop of writers who contribute at the moment, most of whom are decent, but a lack of consistency between them. It's like they all have their own takes on Dredd which don't necessarily correlate to each other, which can make a lot of stories feel annoyingly inconsequential.

It's a bit like the situation when the creators of TMNT stepped away from the title after about twenty odd issues and it became a vehicle for guest artists/writers to do one-off stories, and the ongoing plot just went on hold for several years.

For a while it looked Rob Williams was going to emerge as the stand-out contributor as his run of stories ending with The Small House in 2018 was excellent, but he seems to be too busy on other projects to write the character regularly (and also his last big story, End Of Days, was a bit shit unfortunately).

That's a real shame, I mean in some ways it's amazing its lasted this long without the quality declining hideously (I certainly can't think of any other major superhero character who hasn't had a period where it's been absolutely dogshit), I guess Matt Smith is worried about upsetting Wagner but it's a shame he won't set up a sort of "showrunner" position to oversee Dredd in both 2000AD and the Megazine.

[Wentworth Smith]

I don't think it ever is fully explained - he discovers the city needs him and goes back, and once he's back it's like "well, guess I'd better not do that again". But that said, Dredd's vague questioning about Mega City 1 and the Judges becomes a bigger deal later on, though never quite back up to pre-Necropolis levels.

It isn't explained in a 'and then Dredd realised being a fascist future cop was great!' way but the idea that the system doesn't work and Dredds issues with it are a continual theme to this day, it's just that Dredd (the character) can't handle it, so doesn't. Even when he doubts the system the most he is still a hard-line arsehole who loves order and can't imagine any other way of doing things.

Change with Dredd the character is sloooow, but in a good way I think and is curtailed to some degree by the comic itself: the essential strip is hard copper in future city and it will always return to that. Within that Dredd can only go so far with his doubts: he can't flip and go against the system or premise completely.

After the end of Necroplis I would read the The Devil You Know/Twilights Last Gleaming Garth Ennis: it isn't very good but ends the democracy story which for me is entwined with the Kraken/Dark Judges stuff

Spoiler alert

a trick was missed here, the vote should have gone the other way and we could see how Dredd would deal with a democratic system for a few years until it switches back. I guess it could only work with Wagner at the helm, Ennis at that time wasn't up to the task.

[close]

Regarding what to read going forward Small Man Big Horse I would go for America/ the Mechanismo storylines and then you can skip it until the Pit. Later on Origins is good and raises more of the Dredd doubts. Chaos Day is also great but the consequences are never really picked up on in a satisfactory way.

Agree that it is a bit aimless at the moment. As has been mentioned all the writers seem to have their own little Dreddiverses and never the twain shall meet. It's not shit but could be much better than it is.

[Wentworth Smith]

On another note recently read loads of the Jonathan Hickman Avengers... and wished I hadn't. Shows that the militarist super hero needs a big rest for a good few years. Totally humourless, almost characterless and has a plot which literally goes on for years which you get the feeling would have been a three parter in 1976.

[Small Man Big Horse]

Regarding what to read going forward Small Man Big Horse I would go for America/ the Mechanismo storylines and then you can skip it until the Pit. Later on Origins is good and raises more of the Dredd doubts. Chaos Day is also great but the consequences are never really picked up on in a satisfactory way.

Agree that it is a bit aimless at the moment. As has been mentioned all the writers seem to have their own little Dreddiverses and never the twain shall meet. It's not shit but could be much better than it is.

Thanks for that, I've read America more than once, and a quick google (https://judgedredd.fandom.com/wiki/Mechanismo) suggests I was still buying 2000AD and the Megazine up to the Mark IIA Mechanismo stories, but I've no memory of that so will check them out, along with your other suggestions.

[13 schoolyards]

The big problem with recent Dredd is that a lot of the time it feels like the writers aren't all that interested in Dredd. It might just be with Wagner still around they don't feel like they can play around with Dredd much, but even the bigger stories often end up actually being about some new side character rather than the guy with his name on the strip.

It's hard to nail it down exactly - Dredd had a bunch of spin off stories when it was Wagner writing it - but when he used to do it a side character would get up to their own story but Dredd would step in to wrap things up while still feeling like the driving force even when off-panel. Now a lot of recent stories feel like backdoor pilots setting up new characters in Dredd's world. Dredd at the moment feels like it needs a strong editorial hand to supervise and keep things on track, but if that was going to happen it'd have happened by now.

It's a real shame Al Ewing went on to fame and fortune in the US, of the recent crop of Dredd writers he seemed to be the one who was best able to tell his own stories without leaving Dredd like an intruder in his own series.

[Ron Maels Moustache]

The big problem with recent Dredd is that a lot of the time it feels like the writers aren't all that interested in Dredd. It might just be with Wagner still around they don't feel like they can play around with Dredd much, but even the bigger stories often end up actually being about some new side character rather than the guy with his name on the strip.

Yeah, that's a good observation. In Wagner's strips he often shows Dredd's thought processes via his internal monologue as he goes about his business, which makes him feel more fleshed out to some extent (or as much as Dredd can be). Most of the current writers don't do that so much, so he feels more like a distant, antagonistic character who tends to be on the periphery of stories revolving around other people.

[bakabaka]

Apropos of nothing whatsoever, I hope some of the more dedicated readers here enjoy this, which still cries out for a relisten every few years.

[Artie Fufkin]

Apologies if I'm being a lazy twat; is there an actual 2000ad thread on here? Do we think there should be one if not?

I'm really into it again now. Every strip is so good. Absolutely loving Brink. I must read the first 2 (I think) volumes. So clever.

[13 schoolyards]

I reckon there should be a dedicated 2000ad thread, though ironically I've just canceled my subscription down at my local comic shop - everything I've liked since Pat Mills left* has been (or is being) collected and it's a lot easier to store (and cheaper to buy) a handful of graphic novels than 50 issues a year every year.

*I guess I'll be back when and if that Joe Pineapples solo story turns up

[Small Man Big Horse]

Apologies if I'm being a lazy twat; is there an actual 2000ad thread on here? Do we think there should be one if not?

I'm really into it again now. Every strip is so good. Absolutely loving Brink. I must read the first 2 (I think) volumes. So clever.

I only dip in once in a while but I think a new thread would be a good idea, as long as discussing stories from throughout the comic's history is okay then I'm sure I'd contribute pretty regularly.

Peter Panzerfaust (issues 4, 5) - The image series that reimagines Peter Pan fighting in the second world war, the first three issues didn't impress and with the fourth and fifth I'm extremely disappointed it. As mentioned, I loved Wiebe's Rat Queens but this feels off, the dialogue doesn't feel like it'd be the kind of thing kids in the nineteen forties would say, the war setting doesn't feel real, and it's weirdly boring and humdrum a lot of the time. The art's quite poor too, with a few of the lost boys looking all but identical, and I won't be bothering with any further volumes. 2/5.

The Strange Talent Of Luther Strode - A kind of what would happen if you followed one of those "Charles Atlas, I Can Make You A Man" guides (ignoring that Grant Morrison had already done that with Flex Mentallo) this sees a weak and scrawny teenager become insanely strong very quickly, and he also has the ability to predict what someone will do when fighting and can move shockingly fast as well. It's all very silly, but it's quite well written and there's a few nice ideas in it, the ultra violence gets a bit ridiculous towards the end, but I can't deny enjoying reading it, and I'll get the other two volumes at some point in the future. 3.25/5

[Small Man Big Horse]

Desolation Jones by Warren Ellis - I know, I know, Ellis is a complete shite of a human being, but I bought this ages ago from a charity shop so it's not like he financially gained from it. I really liked it too, Jones' is essentially a psychopathic version of John Constantine but the story is interesting, and while the pornography aspect initially seems included to shock and or titillate, Ellis does a good job of exploring how horrendous the industry can be. 4/5. Sorry.

[Mister Six]

When he's on form, Ellis is a genuinely good writer, so I don't think there's anything wrong with enjoying something he wrote, any more than it's wrong to admire Chinatown or something just because the director ought to be banged up in chokey.

Desolation Jones was, I think, the last thing of his I read even though I liked it a lot, partly because he has a particular voice that's very entertaining but also very samey, but also because it was during that post-Transmet period when he was obviously in dire need of a good source of ritalin or adderall or something, as he was constantly starting new, exciting sounding projects then getting bored and sacking them off after six issues or so. I don't think he ever completed the second Desolation Jones arc.

Just shameful shit, really (although obviously not the worst thing he ever did), and the editors were happy to let him keep sacking off projects because idiots like me would keep buying his endless stream of doomed issue 1s.

[13 schoolyards]

Ellis rapidly losing interest in whatever he's doing seems to be a core character trait. It wasn't really until he started being Marvel's go-to guy for short series that would revitalise a character (Moon Knight) or series (Nextwave, Thunderbolts) that his career started to pick up again after Transmetropolitian. And even Transmet was at its best when it was one-off stories - the last couple of years when he was trying to tie everything together sometimes felt like a thinly scripted slog.

He seemed to realise this himself a decade or so ago, as his more recent long work was more obviously made up of bundled together short series and one offs. It didn't hurt that he went back to writing other people's characters, where he couldn't just do the exact same Spider Jerusalem riffs he'd been doing for the previous ten years. It's a shame that his last finished work - The Batman's Grave - was a 12-part dud, as everything before that (especially Injection and The Wild Storm) was among his best work.

But yeah, there was a real period there where he never finished just about anything he started, whether he got bored or had "computer problems" or whatever. I re-read Doktor Sleepless semi-recently and in hindsight it was really, really obvious that it was running out of steam before it reached whatever excuse he had for dropping it (the artist ran off or something?).

[Small Man Big Horse]

When he's on form, Ellis is a genuinely good writer, so I don't think there's anything wrong with enjoying something he wrote, any more than it's wrong to admire Chinatown or something just because the director ought to be banged up in chokey.

Desolation Jones was, I think, the last thing of his I read even though I liked it a lot, partly because he has a particular voice that's very entertaining but also very samey, but also because it was during that post-Transmet period when he was obviously in dire need of a good source of ritalin or adderall or something, as he was constantly starting new, exciting sounding projects then getting bored and sacking them off after six issues or so. I don't think he ever completed the second Desolation Jones arc.

Just shameful shit, really (although obviously not the worst thing he ever did), and the editors were happy to let him keep sacking off projects because idiots like me would keep buying his endless stream of doomed issue 1s.

I absolutely hear you on the separating the art from the artist situation, but it's something I struggle a lot with as Ellis had acted in such a deeply unpleasant way with so many women. I only wish that when those who set up the SoManyOfUs website Ellis had spoken with honest and genuine regret as they hoped he might, but now I'm not sure he's capable of such a thing.

I'm with you and 13 Schoolyards about his shitty attention span too, and you're right, only two more issues of Desolation Jones were published before it was abandoned in the middle of a story, and there's loads of things that he never finished that I really liked, and of course never will now.

[Mister Six]

Ellis rapidly losing interest in whatever he's doing seems to be a core character trait. It wasn't really until he started being Marvel's go-to guy for short series that would revitalise a character (Moon Knight) or series (Nextwave, Thunderbolts) that his career started to pick up again after Transmetropolitian. And even Transmet was at its best when it was one-off stories - the last couple of years when he was trying to tie everything together sometimes felt like a thinly scripted slog.

Yeah, there's an issue of later Transmet (in the Dirge arc, I think) where I'm pretty sure the script went "Pages 1-21, Darick just draw a big storm with lots of shit getting fucked up, yeah?"

[Artie Fufkin]

I re-read Doktor Sleepless semi-recently and in hindsight it was really, really obvious that it was running out of steam before it reached whatever excuse he had for dropping it (the artist ran off or something?).

I bloody loved Doktor Sleepless. I even bought a t-shirt. Such a shame it just fizzled out how it did. Will read again at some point.

[letsgobrian]

The Ellis fizzling out on his comics period is also around the time when he was writing a bunch of mediocre cartoons (and presumably other TV projects that went nowhere).

Somehow the computer accident that destroyed the remainder of newuniversal didn't spare mankind from the likes of G.I. Joe: Resolute and the Marvel Anime project.

[madhair60]

I really liked Fell.

[13 schoolyards]

Ellis is one of those writers where the financial side of his career never quite made sense to me. He was (and going by his newsletter, still is) doing all this Hollywood work and he actually had a movie made with Red (plus a sequel), so you'd think he'd be relatively sorted for cash considering he seems to live in a shack in the wilderness.

And yet a lot of his comic career reads like he's taking any job he can, often turning up writing throwaway arcs in established series. I guess that's his preferred way of working, but you'd think if he was financially secure he'd focus on more personal stories that meant more to him than just another X-Men or Secret Avengers script.

I suppose he eventually did go down that path a bit with Trees and Injection. Maybe he's just a writer with not a lot to say beyond "bastard" characters and a good sense of pacing and action?

[Artie Fufkin]

I really liked Fell.

My fave Ellis output. Definitely.

[Sex Festival Organizer]

It's been a long while since last I logged on to Comixology, so imagine my surprise when I found out it's now been subsumed entirely into Amazon's shit-tier ecosystem. And boy, is it shitty. The purchasing process is more convoluted than before, and the new online reader is just utter, utter crap. In the previous online reader, which is how I preferred to read my comics, you could read panel-by-panel and have each panel cover more or less the entire screen, but now each panel is shown in the middle of the screen, with a sea of white on each side and black bars above and below, and there seems to be no way to change this, because there are basically no options! Is there something I'm missing here?

I know I've basically asked for this by giving that bald gnome my money, but if you are reading this, Jeff Bezos, I hope your next space jaunt ends up with you crashing on the moon with two broken arms, so that you can't even wank while you slowly suffocate!

[bgmnts]

Aw man that's genuinely gutting. Got a lot of my independent one offs and Dark Horse stuff from comixology.