1209 Thrill power overload 6/9/00

Very short entry today as I am still ill but I promised to be back on track and I never break my promises ever…..



Frazer Irving contributes this progs stunning cover which kind of gives away the ending to the Future shock it is from. Now in the past (and in the future you have been warned gang) I have always moaned about covers that give away the plot of a story. But there is something so awesome about this cover that I genuinely cannot moan about this one. Okay I tell a lie that is a terrible pun in the circle at the bottom….

Inside Ramone Dexter is busy talking to a shrink to unload all his problems. The discussion then takes a turn and turns into the origin of how sinister and Dexter first became gun sharks. Finnegan was a street punk who met Dexter in an earlier flashback story where Dexter saved his brothers life. To repay him he said that if Dexter ever needed a gun shark come to him. In this story Dexter takes him up on that when his father is killed by a gang boss. He is of course horrified to learn that Sinister is not a gun shark at all and he even barely remembers making that promise….

This is one of those rare Sinister/Dexter stories that genuinely goes into the minds of the two characters instead of relying on bang, bang, shooty plots….sure there is still some of that but the much needed background on the two characters is a rare treat….



One final note during my flu influenced last slog entry I accidently said that Steve Moore was responsible for road kill. As pointed out in the comments It was of course Dan Abnett who wrote this story. That was the first ever correction on this slog. Let’s hope it’s the last….

Next prog slog: That Maybe boy is back and he is causing problems for Judge Dredd...

1205: Squids in 9/8/00

You would think a story which involves a double dealing backstabbing crime lord and his attempts to rule all crime in a futuristic city would be interesting wouldn't you?

Unfortunately it really isn't and it sadly is another lemon in Steve Moore’s 2000ad comeback (believe me there’s a fair number of them coming up....)

It is truly sad in Red fangs case. Some of the characters are genuinely interesting and could have worked in stories of their own but they are truly wasted in this story...

As Grant Goggans points out though there is a truly nice table in the story...

The fact that I am talking about another bloggers thoughts on a piece of furniture kind of shows you how much I felt about this story...



Elsewhere inside the prog Steve Moore writes a genuinely cool future shock which involves Jesus crashing onto an alien planet and attempting to get the aliens (which look like the monkeys from 2001....) to be more civilised. There is more to it than that but it’s just too funny to spoil....

The big news on this future shock is a genuine comic superstar artist made his first appearance in the prog with this story and that superstar is the fantastic Frazer Irving...

Just check out his art...


It was clear Dig-L knew he had found talent as he commissioned Frazer to do a second future shock (and a cover for the story, A rarity in the past few years) but more on that next slog.

Next prog slog: Insanity in the quite nice bar and another Steve Moore car crash (literally)

Prog 1190 Triumph and tragedy for Nikolai Dante:26/4/00

Man a time when the matrix was still pretty fresh and it hadn’t suffered the matrix reloaded syndrome yet. Its weird blogging about stuff that happened ten years ago sometimes…..

This issue heralds the triumphant return of Thargs future shocks….err sort of space dust doesn’t actually have the banner of Thargs future shocks but it’s pretty much a return to those kind of stories after the dour vector 13 which seemed to infect the middle half of the 90s.

So anyway space dust is a rather insane one off which has the earth bombarded with bizarre space dust (well the clues in the titles friends!) after a meteor is destroyed over the earths atmosphere. The effects of the dust turn the world into one large hippy commune for a few days until it wears off and everyone returns to normal. Blaming one another for using the dust as some kind of chemical agent the world ends up beginning world war 3 and then the aliens show up to fleece the planet of everything they’ve got.

It’s a fun little one off which was according to Grant Goggans Thrill power Thursday site was written by a regular at alt.comics.2000ad (which I think was the precursor of the current message boards which exist today) It’s a shame Andrew Ness never wrote anything else (to my knowledge anyway feel free to challenge me on this commenters!) I think from the strength of this story alone he had potential. Sikus art (which usually bugs me) is quite good in this too.



Meanwhile Mother Russia begins to bleed as the epic Tsar Wars reaches the end of its first act. Nikolai is now fighting on the front lines of the war alongside his new regiment nicknamed the RUDINSHTEIN IRREGULARS. In this first story the Irregulars and Dante go on a treacherous mission to destroy the tsar’s conqueror cannons. One of the most dangerous weapons the tsar has. Dante hears that Ingrid Wagner (The Romanov spy Dante himself had created and who was partially responsible for the war starting) is being held in the same fortress as the cannons And breaks off the mission in an attempt to save her. The mission is a success and Ingrid and the irregulars return victoriously.

But there is no happy ending in this story as the guilt Ingrid feels is too much….



and on that slight downer of a note the slog ends for today....

Next prog slog: The rather unfortunate nickname an american friend of mine had for Steve Moores Tales of Telguuth....

10 Progs till the rebellion begins....