Prog 1318 - 20 November 2002
Cover by Jock and Chris Blythe

Synopsis and 1st review by Gavin Hanly
2nd opinion by W.R. Logan

GH: Jock is one of the few artists that seems able to pull off a generic Dredd picture, and make it eye catching. Very nice cover indeed this week, with particularly atmospheric colouring from Chris Blythe.

WRL: A great Jock cover this week, but although Jock in my opinion only comes second to Henry Flint in his depiction of Dredd the cover loses some bite due to the mute colouring. When the prog's in your hands, the image of Dredd is very imposing but I doubt that the cover would have the same impact when staring out at you from the newsagent's shelves. Jock is a master at this type of pose, but I feel that he can do these "Dredd staring at the reader" images in his sleep and it can only be a matter of time before he draws a cover that will have readers talking about for years to come.

Open Justice
Synopsis: Convicted Felon Reiker J Ryan is writing his monthly letter to the Justice Dept, as part of Hershey's "Open Justice" system. He complains that he suffered a miscarriage of justice, that he was in the wrong place at the wrong time, and that Judge Dredd stormed in "spraying bullets around the place" and arrested him as he was going to hand over a gun as "potentially vital evidence".

However, the strip accompanying his letter shows the true events, with Ryan as the violent leader of a gang robbing a "cash-n-go". Dredd puts down his partners before wounding him as he tries to take a hostage.

The Judges take one look at the letter and decide it's definitely "kook-mail".

GH: I was quite harsh while reviewing Gordon Rennie's recent reinvention of Rogue Trooper. However, I feel completely vindicated whenever I see how good he is at writing Dredd. More than any other writer, he manages to capture the "lunatic" aspect of the judicial system in Mega City 1, and he's become a master of the one-off Dredd story, easily mixing dry humour with the action. This is a fun tale, and uses Dredd as a means to tell the story of a citizen, a Dredd storytelling method that is ignored by too many writers. It'd be interesting to see how Rennie could handle himself on one of the longer Dredd "epics".

Mike Collins provides able support and depicts MC1 and its denizens very well. However, his Dredd appears a little stiff in places - particularly on page 5. But generally, he's pretty good. Another good Dredd tale, then.

Under the Banner of King Death - Part 6
Synopsis: Isabella cuts herself and drops blood into the sea as a trail for Dancer. Doyle doesn't seem too bothered by this. Suddenly the ship is enveloped by a black storm cloud, supposedly the wrath of God who was able to find them after Isabella's trick. Angels start to attack, but Doyle grabs the tome and starts chanting, and the storm dissipates. They arrive at their island destination.

GH: When this series first started, I was expecting it to be the tale of Captain Dancer, and his band of jolly pirates. I was a little worried that that direction might have proved a little annoying, so I've been happy to see that the story has swayed over to dealing more with Orlando Doyle's machinations. Hopefully, he won't be killed off at the end of this series, as he's clearly the best thing in it. Dancer and Isabella seem a little cardboard cut-out compared to him, so any sequel would have to involve Doyle, or focus around another decent villain. Another good episode, in all, but hopefully we'll see the plot move on a little further next week. I'm also beginning to agree with WRL that this will work better as a one-off read.

Part 6
Synopsis: Holt is plummeting helplessly to Earth. Meanwhile, Megan realises what she's done, shoots Lombard's knee out, and goes to help Belly & Skunk. Skunk reveals his wings, and flies to help Holt. Belly breaks in to the alien torture chamber and throws a trooper into the generator, freeing the aliens who rise up against their captors. Meanwhile, Lombard reaches for his gun and trains it on Megan. But Holt is back, and stamps on his wrist...

GH: All hell breaks loose this week. It's still a fun story, but it almost seems to be winding up a little too soon. I can't help feel that a little more detective work by Holt would have proved more rewarding to the readers. But, that's perhaps nitpicking, as the story and art have proved very entertaining. My only concern with the art is that during action sequences, it's still sometimes hard to tell if someone important is being killed - and I had to look a couple of times on page 3 to check out whether that was Ashcroft's head or not. However, The falling sequence on page one is a particular standout moment.

The Red Menace
Synopsis: A man is being prepared to testify in a court appearance, and they go over his story. He tells them about a secret alien attack in the 50's in "that place in Texas", by aliens that could shapeshift. Apparently their world was dying, and they had come to earth to secretly infiltrate human society. They could make themselves physically indistinguishable from humans - but dissections were sometimes carried out to check. Everyone became paranoid, and the movie industry came under attack, with makers of "pro alien" films blacklisted - "I hear they're going after Ray Bradbury next". Finally he goes to testify, and the first question he's asked is "Are you or have you ever been Martian...?"

GH: A much better Past Imperfect this week, as Rennie once again uses the premise of mixing and matching fact and fiction. This works much better than his recent superhero tale, which I felt had been done to death elsewhere, and provides a compelling backdrop for the story. That's two Past Imperfect stories I've liked in a row - what's happening!! Meanwhile, Adrian Bamforth/Lee Townsend provide some really great art on this story too, and manages to put across the air of paranoia throughout. Again, Bamforth appears to be another artist who works particularly well in black & white, so let's see a bit more of him.

The Off-Lode Experience - Part 6
Synopsis: Sinister and Dexter are attacked by Bimbo Wing's crew. Dexter starts taking them out while spouting witty quips and puns. Billi and McCandless are back at the ship unawares. Bimbo tells Sinister, while they try to strangle each other, that he came there to lie low, while Sinister replies that they were there on other business. Dexter finishes off with a few more puns, and rescues Sinister, while Bimbo is sucked down into the mud.

GH: A funny issue, but a bit inconsequential. When it's just Sinister and Dexter having a shootout, it sees a little too familiar. But the "punning" side story is fairly funny, if a little painful at times. Davis works well in action scenes, though, and also manages to depict the idea of fighting in the rain remarkably well. it really does look like it's pouring, but the layout is still clear. Not an easy job to pull off.