Prog 1874 Review – Orlok

First past the post this week (suck it, monkeys!), here is Orlok with his review of the latest jump on Prog. 

COVER:
Edmund Bagwell can do no wrong even in the sight of a nit picking sociopath like me. If I were to have a gun pointed at my head and be forced to make one criticism it would be that Dredd looks a little too gaunt and short (look at his height compared to that of Sinister).
Slaine is front and centre here which works as he is carrying a huge fucking axe and nobody is going to argue. Brainbiter is gloriously rendered and you can see the damage it has suffered with countless skirmishes. I don’t know if it is my digital copy but Slaine looks strangely buck toothed.
We get a look at the newbies too with Jaegir showing off her scar, somewhat spoiling the reveal inside. Both Sinister (as physically thin as his appeal as a character) and Dexter (black rather than Hispanic this time) are carrying unfamiliar weapons, reflecting the story inside.
The colours and background are both beautiful.
This is just what a jumping on cover should be, showcasing not only the talent of the artist, but the thrills inside.

Inside, Raging Tharg tells us what we already know and we have a forward look at a Megazine strip called El Maldito. Not sure what it is about (maybe the cut throat world of tacos) but some guy’s head is being turned into chunky salsa and Carlos is drawing it.

DREDD:
A citizen working for Section 7 goes AWOL, taking some uber-secret info with her. Dredd is called in to assist.

This was a very strong and interesting start, with a palpable sense of threat and underhand naughtiness throughout. There are clear parallels here with the flight of Edward Snowden and the age old choice of morality versus duty and there is even a reference to “Manning” (presumably Bradley/Chelsea now doing 35 years for an act of good conscience). We even get an Eric Blair Block to hammer the point home.
It is not yet made clear what the Judges are up to but considering the situation the city finds itself in with a diminished population it could be anything, including messing about with the gene pool.
When Erika Easterhouse’s dissent is noticed (love the idea of heart rates being monitored) she is invited to attend a precautionary re-assessment with the brilliantly named Judge Mugabe, which is not a good sign, she does a bunk taking some data with her to release to Mega City Confidential.
The Judges interrogate her spouse, who has seemingly done nothing wrong other than love the woman they seek. After a robust Q&A which leaves the floor soaked in his blood he is handed over to Dredd who uses his killer rep to try and discern more.
It remains to be seen how far Dredd will go on this with regard to the Security Of The City Act. Prior to his disconnect with the Department he had been complicit in the tranq gassing of citizens and the crushing of Democracy using underhand methods. We have seen before that where he has a moral objection he will do the right thing (see The Cal Files) even if it means hacking off those in charge. Will that kick in here or is the city too vulnerable for such conscientious action?

MacNeil’s work here seems heavier and darker lined than we are used to, probably in reference to the shadowy tones of the story. In fact, shadows feature very heavily in this instalment as the Big Meg is viewed very much through noir spectacles, especially with regards to the internal layout of Section 7. The flashbacks are given a slightly lighter wash to differentiate them and MacNeil uses some spectacle reflection in here to good effect, almost in an effort to remove the humanity of the Department and in particular Judge Styler. It reminded me of The Man With No Eyes from Cool Hand Luke.
There are a lot of Scottish references in the bar (The Ginger Rodent) what with the sporran, bagpipes, Bay City Rollers tartan turn ups and Cal Hab OK sign. Come September I bet Colin will be voting for the compulsory eating of deep fried Mars bars and the return to clan warfare. Is this independence a reference to what the Judges are up to?
If memory serves, Easterhouse is an outlying suburb of Glasgow that is on par with Albania for life expectancy. My lot were originally from Paisley so I have little to feel superior about.
One of the best panels in this strip is the sight of a Judge on a Lawmaster near the bar on page 4. This officer may or may not be following the Easterhouses but regardless that Judicial presence, shadowy and menacing, is felt. The panel itself shows a play of blue light from the screen of the bike and the post nearby. It is beautiful.

SLAINE:
Slaine and his mate come across some thieves. Decapitations are handed out.

Though I had little doubt after seeing the teaser image a while back, Simon Davis is a great fit for this story and infinitely preferable to Langley’s work. Sorry, but there it is.
Right from the splash page map showing that Scotland is “Grim” and Norfolk is home to a brand of johnnies to the last panel that has an expression speaking volumes, this is just brilliant.
Loved the expressions throughout and the little artistic touches such as the decorative golden nose on one of the Glibbes are ace.
The decapitations had just the right amount of claret (thanks in no small part to the contrasts with the blues) and the panels on page 6 are just inspired. I refer of course to the negative image of Slaine standing above the shield, which carries beautifully into the next panel as he peeks below it. That’s eye catching and smart work.
My only quibble is the penchant for using the face of the artist for the character. That just seems self-indulgent.

The pace of the story is great and I was overjoyed to read a Slaine story I actually liked. The joke telling to bookend the story was clever and the historicity was just enough to not feel forced. Pat Mills could be on a return to his genius form here and that gets me excited.

OUTLIER:
An ex-cop attempts to solve a murder. With his eyes.

Not a bad set up this, but I’m reserving judgement until I see more.  The victim being fed his own riches is merely a facet of the main angle, which is revenge and there are some obvious parallels between Carcer and the assailant. It is revealed that the black blood is related to the alien race known as the Hurde, the same race who tore out Carcer’s eyes when he was a mere slip of a brick privy. Carcer is able to use his new peepers to read a crime scene and several of the poses held by Carcer are the same as those of the killer. We are clearly meant to think they are either one and the same or connected somehow by a psychic bond. Most notably we get the line “Funny, it almost sounds like you’re begging” topping and tailing the story which could be read either way.
We also get a back story of Lars ex-partner flipping out about everything being an experiment with two universes, etc. This could be a further indication of how things are going or simply world building to add depth to the hard bitten Lars.

Richardson’s art is still the same as always. He uses an almost identical panel layout in every story and once more his main character is a brick shithouse who could pass easily for Bulliet or Janzen from Grey Area. The colour palette seems exactly the same as his other stories too with the only standout being the before and after panels. The art is also lacking in any kind of dynamism so I dread to think what will happen in any action scenes we see.

SINISTER DEXTER:
Our heroes continue their dragged out story across Generica running afoul of a biker gang. Fugsmunts.

When I was a kid, my dad had a collection of scud mags he used to keep locked away. Being curious I would often procure one or two of these when he was out and ogle the bouffant topped lovelies within. Some of these would have what was laughingly called a “One For The Ladies” section which featured a naked bloke cheesily airing Mr Happy while trying his best to remain dignified. There was a falseness about all of this. Firstly, the only ladies reading this material would be either gay (and not interested in the beef bayonet on display) or being subjected to it by a sexually repressed partner who thinks that the sight of a flaccid bellend would immediately provoke a Pavlovian sexual response in their wife/girlfriend. Second there was the quality of the men. Unlike the blank stared dolly birds straddling the staples of the magazine, the men were not models and were usually exhibitionist readers or amateur shots that often featured beer guts, bad perms and a fair amount of body fat. I don’t know if this was to make male readers feel more secure about their own physiques or merely down to the readily available material but it was a dichotomy of some note.
The reason I mention this is because Sinister Dexter is the “One For The Ladies” of the Prog. I don’t want to see it and even if I did, the quality is poor and I can’t think of anyone who actively seeks it out.

In this instalment Finny and Ramone are trying to resolve the Holy Moses situation which has been going on for ten fucking years. They are doing this by driving across Generica and dragging this story out as much as possible. Abnett is taking the piss here at zen master level.
There are also blatant rip off homages to finer work on offer. Firstly there is the whole opening a bank account and being given a shooter (without ammo, of course) ideal, first brought to mass attention in Michael Moore’s 2002 Doco Bowling For Columbine. Then we had Chris Rock’s 1999 riff about gun/bullet control before a car conversation about an awesome burger eerily reminiscent of the movie on which the entire premise was ripped off from inspired by.

Smudge’s artwork is quite…basic though the panel layouts are very well scoped out. Not sure the black and white really works, but maybe this is a godsend as the biker gang leader seems unnecessarily ugly and colour might have made people vomit.
Minor quibbles- Tracy appears to have a different hair colour (she and Piper both had dark hair) and the headroom of the car they are driving seems excessive. I’ve driven in vans with less headroom than that.

JAEGIR:
A Kapiten of the Nordland State Security Police investigates war crimes and potentially uncovers some deeper naughtiness about her dear old dad.

Not a bad start. I had to google what a strigoi was. I’d seen the word before without understanding the meaning but it does offer a tantalising possibility.
The Norts have always been a bit one dimensional so it is pretty cool to see another side of the “enemy”. Up until now, you’d think they wouldn’t give a stak about war crimes but sometimes even the bad guys have a code of honour and Jaegir’s job is to enforce that ruling. Her fellow soldiers see her in much the same light as cops or members of the armed forces see internal investigators- a traitor of sorts working against the common maniac.
It did seem a little contrived that Jaegir would run into a bloke who knew her dad and said bloke was also in pursuit of the unfortunate mutation she had just stabbed in the face.
My only quibble was the dialogue heavy intro to this story, which might put newbies off a bit for the jump on. There was also a bit too much chatty chat-chat in mid combat for my liking.
Still, isn’t it about time Rennie created a story centred on a strong female investigator?

Coleby’s art is amazing and easily as good as his recent Dredd work. The reveal of the scarred face at the end was ruined somewhat by the cover and I don’t actually get why her facial scars were revealed so. It’s not like they define her as a person or had people reeling back in horror at what is essentially a three bag situation (one for her, one for you in case hers falls off and one for the webcam).
Of particular note are the colours here, which give a gorgeous view of the blighted, industrial world.

TOP THRILL:
Tough call but Dredd was utterly perfect and featured a sarky, bottle blocking robot.