Multiver-City One: 2000 AD Prog 1931 and Judge Dredd Megazine 360

Welcome, citizens, to this week’s installment of Multiver-City One! Every Wednesday we examine the latest offerings from Tharg and the droids over at 2000 AD, the galaxy’s leading producers of Thrill-Power entertainment! Between the weekly “2000 AD” itself, the monthly “Judge Dredd Megazine”, an extensive library of graphic novel collections, and new US-format one-shots and mini-series, they have decades of zarjaz comics for you to enjoy.

We’ve got a brand-new Prog AND Megazine this week, so we’ll jump right in after a quick public service announcement!

I. AN EARTHLET’S GUIDE TO 2000 AD

We understand that having such a large selection of comics to choose from can make knowing where to start with 2000 AD seem daunting. What do they publish? Where can I get it? What’s up with Judge Dredd? Can I still read “2000 AD” if I don’t like Judge Dredd?

So to help new & potential readers, we’ve put together An Earthlet’s Guide to 2000 AD. A regularly updated FAQ, The Guide will collect everything you need to make your initial foray into the 2000 AD Thrill-verse as simple as possible.

II. THIS WEEK IN PROG 1931

Cover by Ben Willsher

Judge Dredd: Breaking Bud, Part 3

So look, I’ve never seen an episode of Breaking Bad. I know that some would gasp in disbelief at such a proclamation, but it’s the truth. That said, I’m sure that there must be all kinds of parallels and Easter eggs in this strip harking back to the hit AMC series. I just don’t know what they are. Sorry?

But what I do know is Judge Dredd, and it looks like that guy is having a pretty good week.

Ever since the future bracelet has disappeared Dredd’s had his dander up. Firstly, this bracelet being loose means that whoever’s got it is in control of immense power. Dredd, and as an extension the Justice Department, just cannot allow someone to be in personal possession of an item like that. There is a lot at stake for Justice, and Dredd knows it. This is his primary focus now, and he is going to throw as many resources as he can at this case to wrap it up.

But something else is bothering Dredd. There’s something about this whole situation that doesn’t add up, and the more he uncovers the less sense he can make out of it. This week’s strip sees Dredd’s suspicions confirmed as he finally finds a foothold in this case, which is something that happens a lot with Dredd. He’ll lock on to a hunch and ride it out until he’s unraveled the case. It’s stuff like this that makes me wonder: is he just that good of a Judge, or has he been dealt a little extra luck in life? I’m not implying that the guy may have some Black Cat-esque luck powers or anything, but good golly is this guy right. A lot.

Credits: John Wagner (script), Richard Elson (art), Ellie de Ville (letters)

Sláine: Primordial, Part 8

Now THAT is an axe. Brainbiter, ladies and gentlemen!

From that image, I have to assume the head of that thing is made from sharpened stone rather than a type of metal. I did a little internet digging and saw that Sláine originally used a stone head for Brainbiter, but then switched to a metal one after breaking the previous fighting a dragon. Different artists seem to depict the weapon with differing types of blades, but I’ve always felt Simon Davis had his Brainbiter as stone all the way. “You know where you stand with stone,” is something Sláine has been known to say. So Brainbiter is closer to a sharp Mjolnir than an Excalibur (without the magical enhancement).

Which means that thing probably weighs a ton. So with the weight of that thing and the fact Sláine can still lop off heads with it, he has to be swinging it with a tremendous amount of force, which is probably a great workout. Taking on a legion of black ops Trojan soldiers with that thing (as Sláine has been doing the past few Progs) has to be a real calorie-burner and a great way to work on that upper body musculature. Providing you survive the reps, that is.

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While Davis is giving us Sláine in equal parts posing and mid-action, Mills keeps things from devolving into too much of a slaughterfest. He still has Sláine trying to bring Sinead back from the flower-induced haze that Gododin made her crave when she was his captive. Plus we see a blast from Sláine’s recent past (Prog 1874, to be precise) that came as a surprise to both columnists and axe-wielding Celtic barbarians alike.

Credits: Pat Mills (script), Simon Davis (art), Ellie de Ville (letters)

Grey Area: Talk Down

This week is the last “Grey Area” strip we’ll see for a little while, as Abnett and Harrison break to begin work on the series’ next arc.

While we’re all left to wonder about Bulliet’s plan to not die at the hands of a God-Star (or whatever the ‘hand’ equivalent is for such a being), we’re left with a strip that shows the team working together to tackle a smaller-scale problem. Abnett’s punchy and humorous inter-species banter is in top form, as Grey Area officers from two planets quibble over the scale of the problems at hand. Harrison’s art felt exceptionally enthralling this week. His color palette seems to have slid towards warmer hues with far more rich earth tones than he started this round of strips with.

Abnett and Harrison have been doing exceptional work together, and while I’m sad to see “Grey Area” go, this week’s strip was so good that I can’t muster the will to be mad. I can’t wait for this comic to return!

Credits: Dan Abnett (script), Mark Harrison (art), Annie Parkhouse (letters)

Strontium Dog: The Stix Fix, Part 8

When you’re a bounty hunter, you don’t make friends easily, but you can make enemies at the drop of a hat. And in a strip like ‘Strontium Dog’, those enemies can come in all different shapes, sizes, and appearances. Of course, so can the few friends you do happen to make. And it looks like Johnny’s got at least one of those looking out for him on this criminal-filled asteroid. But does it also have Jin Jing Jong, the man Alpha has been tasked to find? Or the Stix Brothers he thinks took Jin? I’m not telling.

But something I was thinking about as I read this week’s Prog was that there are a lot of “2000 AD” artist who are synonymous with certain strips; like Ezquerra for this one, or Simon Davis (at least for me) and ‘Sláine’. I wonder if there has been a Prog where artist played musical chairs specifically to shake things up, even if only for a single story. Would you want to see Ezquerra take on Sláine? Simon Davis on Judge Dredd? Maybe Colin MacNeil doing a ‘Strontium Dog’ story? Simon Davis doing a ‘Grey Area’ short would be awesome; I always dig those times when artists take on subject matter that you think would be a mismatch and they just kill on it. Ezquerra on ‘Sláine’ would be very interesting because I just don’t associate him with medieval books, but the devastation and post-apocalyptic neo-Dark Age vibe of the Cursed Earth stuff just tells me he’d be able to find a way to make it work.

Credits: John Wagner (script), Carlos Ezquerra (art), Simon Bowland (letters)

Tharg’s 3rillers: Commercial Break, Part 1

We’ve all heard those commercial jingles that immediately get stuck in our heads (call 1-800 steeeee-mer…), but have probably never had to worry about losing sleep because of it. We’ve also never had to worry about the person singing the jingle menacing us through the television screen. That’s because we’ve never seen an ad for Brixels™ before!

Eddie Robson, Mike Collins and Gary Caldwell have banded together to bring us the latest “Tharg’s 3riller” and this first chapter sure is a romp. The set up is almost like a popcorn-horror flick (or a ‘thriller,’ if you will) and introduces us to a cast of 20-year-olds on the day that their lives are changed forever. That catalyst for this presumed change is a late-night commercial that could possibly only have been seen by our protagonists. This is the first of three parts, so expect the story to move quickly over the next two weeks!

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Collins and Caldwell have done a hell of a job on this one. The linework is moody and bold, which contrasts nicely with the psychedelic color choices. The overall feeling of this strip could be described as technicolor-suspense; there are a lot of vibrant colors secondary colors that make the whole thing feel simultaneously cartoonish and unsettling.

Credits: Eddie Robson (script), Mike Collins (art), Gary Caldwell (color), Ellie De Ville (letters)

III. THIS MONTH IN JUDGE DREDD MEGAZINE 360

Cover by Glenn Fabry

Judge Dredd: The Cop, Part 5

We’ve reached the end of this six-part story (5 parts and a prologue), and Al Ewing is bringing everything together. DeGuerre, Deller, Dredd…it all comes to a head!

One of the marks of a solid Dredd writer, especially as the character and his world as grown, is being able to successfully pick elements from stories past and use them to full effect in the present. And it doesn’t have to be updating old concepts, which is sometimes necessary if the original execution was less than stellar; it can be literally plopping an old idea down smack-dab into the new story. Ewing and Willsher do this with the Holocaust Squad. Originally from Prog 124 by John Wagner & Ron Smith, the Holocaust Squad has had a handful of appearances in the last 36 years, but Ewing really makes use of them here without detracting from the characters we’ve spent the last 5 months following.

My favorite bit [spoiler]is having them mention that they drink real coffee (a benefit afforded them to offset the insanely high mortality rate of their job), no doubt brought to The Meg by DeGuerre’s organization. Oh the irony![/spoiler]

I’ve enjoyed the hell out of this story, and if there was any question that Ewing deserves to be counted with the other top Dredd writers working today, ‘The Cop’ should put that question to rest.

Credits: Al Ewing (script), Ben Willsher (art), Adam Brown (colors), Simon Bowland (letters)

Reaper Files: Happy Deathday, Detective Matherson

I did NOT know that wicker caskets were a thing. It makes sense because they are certainly biodegradable, but I didn’t know they were a thing. I didn’t seem to dig up anyone using them for cremation in my research, however. Which is what Det. Matherson might have been thinking when Mr. Soames tried to feed him that line about them being more bio-friendly during cremation. While that line does seem to make sense, seems like an awfully big expense for something you’re just going to turn around and burn. But using wicker to hold a body so it can still get oxygen makes a lot more sense. And certainly confirms Matherson’s suspicions that Soames is a looking to keep that body viable for the type of full-on identity theft that Mills, Langley, & Dalton have built ‘American Reaper’ around.

So what happens when the REAL Reaper shows up?

Seriously.

When your job is to collect the souls of the dead, and you start noticing that the number of souls showing up is decreasing but the number of deaths isn’t, you’re going to start wondering just what the hell is going on. You’re looking for some answers and probably more than a few souls to take back to the office with you after this fact-finding mission. You’re looking to make some changes, starting with taking Det. Matherson. Clearly his incompetence is to blame for the imbalance, and it’s time to take him out of the picture. Permanently.

Did I mention this is the last installment of ‘American Reaper?

Credits: Pat Mills (script), Clint Langley & Fay Dalton (art), Annie Parkhouse (letters)

Anderson, PSI-Division: Mutineers, Part 2

Boy, this strip was over before I knew it! This might be my favorite thing I’ve read from writer Emma Beeby and find myself wishing we could have spent a little more time with her take on Judge Anderson. That’s not to say that the strip felt rushed or incomplete, far from it, it was just good comics.

Anderson is an interesting character in the Dredd mythos. She can serve a number of functions, most of which come back to relatability; giving readers a proxy through which they can understand the non-emotive Judge Dredd, a way to easily and believably make Dredd see the perspective of the citizenry, stuff like that. But her psychic abilities give her another vital part to play: the teacher. As is shown in this strip, Anderson can be a patient and nurturing instructor in the field. While it can be easy to white he as a ‘mother hen,’ Beeby avoids that trap and instead delivers an Anderson that is unafraid to let a student learn through failure. Cadet Flowers gets put through the wringer in this one, and in the end it’ll serve to make hims better Judge.

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Speaking of Flowers, I can’t wait to see this guy back in action. It’s great to see Beeby, like so many Dredd-world writers before her, beginning to set up a cast of characters that she will shepard. Either as a Cadet or a full-eagle Judge, I’m looking forward to seeing Flowers working again at Anderson’s side.

Last month I took artist Andre Currie to task for his iteration of Anderson and I’m going to have to stand by that. Which is tough, because his art is so good. I thnk the easiest way to express how I feel about the version of Anderson is to simply say that she was ‘mis-cast.’ The wrong ‘actor’ was chosen for the role. It’s not an indictment of Currie’s talent, rather a flaw in the decision making that went into the production of this strip.

Credits: Emma Beeby (script), Andrew Currie (art), Eva de la Cruz (colors), Ellie de Vile (letters)

Tales From The Black Museum: Chester’s Web

Spiders are creepy and I do not like them. But I really liked this strip!

The Black Museum is where a great number of Mega-City One’s dark relics are stored. The trinkets and reminders of dark days and what was done in the name of justice reside here under the care of a sole caretaker. Think of him like Uncle Creepy or The Cryptkeeper. He’s there to reminisce, break the forth-wall, and tell stories directly to the reader. Today his focus is on the Black Plague of 2101 and the endless swarms of mutated spiders that caused it.

Davidson’s art is the real star of this strip. He takes Worley’s already creepy and unsettling ideas and gives them life. The way he draws spiders with their legs reaching out in every direction gives me the creeping terrors. Also, his art caused me to make up a thing called ‘the creeping terrors.’ Anyways, besides the spiders, Davidson’s character designs and settings are great. From the goons to the Kingpin-like figurehead at the head of a crime-family, everyone looks great. Well, they’re all pretty ugly, but Davidson did a great job at making everyone look so awful!

Worley and Davidson really pulled it out for this one. I know we say it a lot, but these short, one-off strips are not only a staple of 2000 AD, but a sign of it’s quality. It’s not easy to tell a complete and satisfying five-pager, but the droids at 2000 AD do it pretty regularly.

Credits: Alec Worley (script), Paul Davidson (art), Annie Parkhouse (letters)

IV. MEGAZINE FEATURES

Besides scheduling, there’s a big difference between a Prog and a Megazine. While each weekly Prog acts as a comics anthology, “Judge Dredd Megazine” is more of a, well, magazine. In addition to all the comics (new and reprints), a variety of contributors write articles focusing on topics that, while usually related to the Dredd-verse in some way, spread the scope of the Megazine beyond the obvious cast of characters and into topics, both Meg-centric and real world, that would be of interest to the readership as a whole.

Interrogation: Andrew Currie by Karl Stock

American readers will recognize Currie’s name as it keeps appearing next to “Ultimates” artist Bryan Hitch’s in the credits page; Currie has been a favorite inker of Hitch’s for years since Currie switched over to inking at the start of Hitch’s run on that title in 2000. Currie’s inks have also found their way over to childhood hero Neal Adams’ work as well as a few other artists, but that doesn’t mean Currie can’t hold his own when it comes to solo storytelling. This Interrogation fills us in on what the man has done on both sides of the Atlantic, from Marvel to Marvel UK to 2000 AD to other companies large and small.

Fiction: Back-Up Required by Robert Murphy

Once again, we get another two-page quickshot of prose fiction starring Judge Dredd. This time, Dredd is out road-testing a new Lawmaster motorcycle when he gets a call from a lone Judge requesting back-up from an out-of-the-way block in the middle of Chaos-Bug ravaged territory. What Dredd finds there isn’t a pretty picture, but that’s OK because Tharg made sure to have this little tale run with a very pretty Colin MacNeil illustration for us readers.

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V. MEGAZINE REPRINT

Every month, Tharg finds a little something from the back catalog to include with the Megazine. This month it’s “Interceptor” by Ian Edginton and Steve Pugh!

“Interceptor” is packed with all sorts of crazy visuals: Old ladies and Japanese schoolgirls who are (surprise!) horrific alien monsters, people who are robots but don’t know it, and a wild array of future tech. It’s got unrelenting action, snappy dialogue, and fantastic art, none of which we’d have probably never seen again if it weren’t for these packed-in reprints.

Also in this month’s reprint volume is the fourth installment of Michael Fleisher, Steve Dillon and Kev Walker’s original run of “Harlem Heroes” strips.

VI. THRILLS OF THE FUTURE

The table of contents in every Prog tends to be a wealth of goodies. Of course, there’s always the missives from Tharg the Mighty (all hail his hallowed words,) which is always accompanied by the subversive ‘Damage Report.’ Plus there’s frequently a little “Droids’ Life” strip which is good for a chuckle. Now, all of that is great, but another regularly occurring piece of the TOC puzzle are the ‘Thrills of the Future,’ which gives readers a glimpse of comics is to come. We’re given a ‘Thrill’ this week, and boy oh boy does it have my attention!

Last we saw PJ Maybe was back in Prog 2015. He was living with an incredibly wealthy eldster and had trapped a Dark Judge or two in a wine bottle. Things were probably pretty good for Maybe, until Judge Death arrived at his doorstep! Death had come to collect his fallen comrades and was, assumedly, none too happy with ol’ PJ. But then that was the last we saw of the guy. Death went off to have a space battle with Judge Dredd, but we were never told what state he left PJ in. Well, it looks like the answer to that question is on the horizon!

That’s gonna do it for us this week! “2000 AD” Prog 1931 and “Judge Dredd Megazine” 360 are on sale today and available from: