Prog 9 - Flesh

To stop the kid from being further physically abused by his father, and to stop the father from being further mentally abused by his son...Slick Parsons, the tour courier, steps in to diffuse the situation. He takes the brat, Orville, to the drivers cab in the front of the train so he can see how the train is run. But Orville is still running his mouth off. Arrogant punk!The driver shows Orville the Tryanno Horn, the horn bellows like a huge female tryannosaur and causes the other dinosaurs to panic and stay off the tracks. Of course, the driver lets Orville try it as the train comes to a stop so the 'tourists' can get off and stretch their legs as well as get snapshots of the dinosaurs. Bad idea!

Meanwhile, not so far away...Reagan, Claw and Joe hear the tryanno horn. Claw thinks it's another tryannosaur but Reagan recognises the sound as that of the 'Dino-Express'. They come out of the clearing to see passengers walking around outside the train. Reagan can't believe it...he yells at the tour guide to get them back on the train.
Orville tempts fate...
Back in the pit where Old One Eye was left to die...she was too big to fall fully to the bottom and, hearing the Tryanno Horn, she's incensed that another female tryannosaur might be moving in on her territory, she manages to climb her way out of the pit.

She makes her way towards to train.
The passengers get back aboard the train as more Tryannosaurs, attracted to the trains horn, join Old One Eye. Carver takes charge...
With everyone back on board and Claw holding them off the train takes off with Reagan in the drivers seat. The Tryannosaurs can't catch up to the train.

In her frustration, Old One Eye lashes out with her tail causing a rockslide. The avalanche covers the tracks in front of the train and there's no way the train can barrel through them. The train comes to a grinding halt...

The tyrannosaurs have caught up...and Old One Eye will have her feast!
This episode seems to be more of a cautionary tale. The annoying brat kid, Orville, gets eaten in the end and his abusive father gets eaten before he can get back on the train. (Well, I'd like to think that was him getting the chomp!) I fully believe that if Old One Eye didn't eat the little prat then Claw carver would definitely done something to put the kid in his place.

Again, we have Reagan being a complete moron by not checking that Old One Eye was dead. Then again, he's not the only one...Carver should have checked too. I get he feeling that it's one time too many for Reagans screw-ups and it's eventually going to return to haunt him.

I also can't figure out how Old One Eyes tail could cause an avalanche, and an avalanche in front of the train with the train already speeding away from her. Creative license, I suppose.

And am I the only one to think that a time travel holiday like this one is a really, really bad idea!

The art by Boix is really good. I love the image of Carver firing the guns from the train. That would make a great T-shirt image. Top notch stuff.

Prog 9 - Invasion

Silk tells Savage that he has a surprise waiting for him when they return to their base. The surprise is a Royal Navy Underwater team. They have scuba gear and limpet mines and they're going to blow The Volga out of the water.

Silk was an ex-army officer and he was trained in underwater demolition. He tells Savage that he can't join the party because he doesn't have the necessary skills.

Later, at the docks, with The Volga approaching, Silk and his team dive into the water. Savage watches from a distance. He has a plan just in case Silk and his crew fail to sink the ship.

As Silk and his frogmen approach the Volga, the Admiral onboard has been informed that six frogmen are approaching their vessel. He gives the order to use the ships sonic weapons.
Silk is the only survivor. He is taken onboard the ship for interrogation. After witnessing Silks failure, Savage executes his own plan. Using the cranes on the docks...Savage and his men swing into action. As Savage sweeps the deck clear of Volgans. The Admiral makes himself scarce and hids below deck. Savage swings aboard his special cargo...oil! This should take care of everything. Savage orders his men off the ship and he ignites the oil. Mission accomplished!
Fairly run-of-the-mill Invasion story. Nothing much to say here. Although the Bil Savage saying 'Hello Sailor...' is all kinds of disturbing!

The art by Carlos Pino is serviceable but kind of forgettable.

Prog 9 - Cover

A classic 2000ad cover.
One of my favorites. Everything about this cover just screams cool for me. Dave Gibbons art just pops from the page. A definite stand out on the newsstands.

Prog 8 - Bonus

How cool is it to have one of your own designs fully drawn out by Kevin O'Neill and published in a comic book for all your friends to see?

Another reason why 2000ad is the Galaxy's Greatest Comic.

Prog 8 - Flesh - Bonus

Artwork for the 'Flesh' game cards!

Prog 8 - Judge Dredd

Dredd gets the call from HQ just as the car drives past him. Dredd turns off his lawmaster lights, switches on his infra-red night sight on his helmet and follows at a distance behind the stolen car..er..piece of art. It's not the first car 'Art theft' in that sector and he wants to get to the Mr. Big and his cronies behind the crimes.

The car pulls into Krilz Kars Auto Market...as Krilz appears he notices Judge Dredd walking towards the building. He shouts for the doors to be shut...but Dredd uses a high explosive and blasts the doors apart. He enters and tells Krilz that he's under arrest. Krilz orders one of his men to shoot Dredd with his 'plastic skin spray-gun' Dredd is blinded and Krilz men move in for the kill, but before they do, they want Dredd to remove his helmet...Dredd obliges, to the shock and horror of Krilz and his gang.
With the gang in shock...Dredd guns them down. He removes the plastic from his helmet, puts it back on and pursues an escaping Krilz!

Outside Krilz is on a high speed 'walk-eezee' (A moving sidewalk)trying to escape Dredd. He shouts at Dredd that he'll never catch him. Dredd has other ideas and orders the walk-eezee to go in reverse. Dredd gets his man.

This is the worst Dredd story to date. Dredds quip at the end about the law should never be put in reverse just made me groan out loud. This was Charles Herring's only Dredd story and thank Grud for that. This was simply horrifying. Herring only wrote one more script for 2000ad and it's a MACH 1 script in Prog 12....my money is on it being really bad too.

The problem with the script is...everything! Since when is grand theft auto a 'art' crime? Doesn't make sense, and then we have Dredd take off his helmet to reveal his face. I think at this time they were toying around with the idea that Dredd is a cyborg or an alien or something that makes his face so shocking for people to look at. Really stupid idea. It's not the first time Dredd would remove his helmet but the other times make more sense than this idiotic one.

It seems that Mills was scraping the bottom of the barrel to run this story. He must have sighed a huge sigh of relief when Wagner returned with 'Robots' in the next prog.

Art wise, it's horrible too. Not Belardinellis best work and it looks totally unsuitable for Dredd. It's so lifeless and stale. You can tell that Belardinelli was trying his hardest to imitate McMahon in some of his Dredd poses. It just didn't work for him.

Prog 8 - MACH 1

Probe sets off to hand over the ransom. His contact arrives on a motorbike. Probe asks where the girl is and the contact tells him that he has only one thing for him and he pulls a gun. But Probe is quicker than his would-be assassin...
Probe asks again where the girl is. He tells Probe where they are keeping her. Probe knocks him out. (Although, it looks like he's breaking the guys neck in this panel...maybe they decided to censor it and have John just 'put him to sleep for a while' instead.)
MACH 1 then disguises himself as the bike rider and drives up to the villa passing a guard on the way. But not everything is going to work out the way he wants it. Two guards ahead of him flag him down. They want to know if he got the money. Probe doesn't stop and drives right past them. The guards now know he's an imposter and open fire.

Inside the Villa the rest of the kidnappers hear the shooting outside. Pilar, they're leader, has Maria by the hair and holds a knife up to her throat.

Probe is going to have to move fast...
and he does...
The bike crashes on top of the gunmen. Pilar is all that's left. Pilar tells Probe to back off or she'll cut up Maria's face so badly that she'd look beautiful in comparison. Probe is having none of it. He tells her to go ahead and while she's carving up Marias face to take note of what he can do to her when she's done. He lifts up the motorbike he crashed into the villa with and crushes it with his bare hands in front of her.
With Pilars surrender and Maria saved, Probes 'mission' is over.
Wow!

This episode was a tough one to leave any artwork out. John Coopers pages are so dynamic and action packed. He did a really fantastics job at making the story flow at a breakneck speed. His page layouts are fantastic for this five and a half pager.

It's a fairly straight forward MACH 1 story. Although, I wonder what happened to the guards that were chasing Probe before he reached the Villa. Seems like a loose end that didn't get tidied up.

No real advancement of Probes character here, it's not the first time that Probe has done a mission for 'personal' reasons, and it's a basic 'paint by numbers' plotline. It's Coopers artwork that really makes this average story shine.

Fantastic stuff.