Monday, May 19, 2014

Retro review - Prog 310

Prog 310 from April 1983 and looking pretty good for a comic that is 31 years old.
Cover is by Mike McMahon and it's another arresting image which tells us all we need to know about the story inside.

In the Nerve Centre Tharg breaks the grim news that the price is going up to 20 pence an issue. Those were the days.

Invasion of the Thrill Snatchers by Tharg, Massimo Belardinelli and Steve Potter
Tharg's body gets invaded by the pesky blighters and we get an alien version of the Fantastic Voyage movie all done with Belardinelli's usual charm. It's nonsense but it looks lovely.

Time Twisters: Chrono Cops by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons.
One of the all time classic single stories that Moore wrote for 2000AD with Gibbons' lovely figures and beautiful backgrounds to behold as well. The multiple time lines involved and the importance of keeping an eye on what is going on at the back of the panels was something that this pair would later weave into the world of Watchmen. It's almost like this is their try out for that later epic, while at the same time serving as an amusing parody of Dragnet.

Then we have an Action Video two page text piece about the latest cutting edge games from Atari. Shame they all ended up in landfill sites.

Judge Dredd: The Starborn Thing part 2 by John Wagner, Alan Grant, Carlos Ezquerra and Tom Frame.
Here is an earlier version of Dredd versus the beastie from Alien, or a thinly disguised version thereof. This one is not orally fixated and prefers to stick some nasty brain controlling spikes in your spine instead so Dredd's investigation of the crashed alien spaceship goes horribly wrong, leading to the scene played out on the cover.

The colours on the centre spread are so vibrant that they bleed through onto the next page and you know what, that's quite all right with me. Wagner, Grant, Ezquerra, Frame and a vicious creepy crawly makes this one a winner again.

Rogue Trooper: Fort Neuro part 19 by Gerry Finley-Day, Cam Kennedy and Bill Nuttall
This is the final chapter of a Rogue epic as the GI leads the successful defence of the Fort and Nort General Vagner is carted away in a strait-jacket raving about blue warriors. There are some typically 2000AD whacky robots and the story ends with the solitary Rogue once more striding off into the mists of Nu Earth. Not too dissimilar from what's currently happening in IDW's Rogue Trooper title.

Skizz part 3 by Alan Moore, Jim Baikie and Tony Jacob.
I've recently reviewed the Skizz trade so can't add much more other than to say this is the episode where Roxy first finds Skizz hiding in the garden shed and gets to utter the classic line "You're not from round here, then?" I love Skizz, always have,always will.

Back cover is a Cam Kennedy Rogue Trooper pin-up.

Pick of the prog is Chrono-Cops, partly for its future significance but also because it's a really funny story. And the Whittle circular panel count is again 3.

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