Multiver-City One: 2000 AD Prog 1934

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 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 1934

Cover by Simon Davis

NOW ARRIVING

Judge Dredd: Blood of Emeralds, Part 1

Man, I love the stuffing out of Colin MacNeil’s art, particularly his work over the last decade or so. He’s an artist who’s reinvented himself over the course of his career, with his most recent work sharing very little with the stories that launched his career 25 years ago. If you compared this week’s strip to the first installment of ‘America,’ it’d be easy to think that you were looking at the output of two different artists, one a painter and the other a cartoonist. His use of lighting has become less realistic and more baroque; his figure work and character design more exaggerated. There’s still a lot of his ‘America’ process still there, but he’s clearly on the move.

Now, while the differences between MacNeil’s earliest and most recent works may seem drastic, it’s easy to see his progression. Stepping back and comparing ‘America’ to, say, his work on Devlin Waugh, you’ll find a still very painterly artist, but one who’s also begun to experiment with techniques more commonly seen in cartooning than painting. By the time MacNeil’s made it to ‘Cadet,’ the third and so-far-final installment in the ‘America’ storyline, we see that he’s completely done away with painting and found himself using pen and ink to tell his stories. From this point on, we see his work becoming inkier with each passing story. His contribution to “Insurrection,” particularly the later chapters, are darker and heavier than anything I can remember seeing from him previously.

MacNeil’s works today has a noirish heft to them. His lighting casts deep shadows across his scenes that gives readers a sense of what life under the Justice Department is really like. He’s also taken to giving his Judges adornments that are chunky and cumbersome. He utilizes distinct shorthands to convey motion and depth, and does so using the least amount of lines possible and spotting black at every opportunity. Surveying his body of work, I see a storyteller who, after establishing himself as a meticulous and enormously talented painter, has turned face to become a master cartoonist.

Michael Carroll’s back in the driver seat and I’m curious to see where this one is going. By the time he wrapped up ‘Cascade’ a few months ago it had become plain to see that he was tying together a number of his Judge Dredd runs. When the assassin showed up in this week’s strip I wondered if there was any relation to the masked assailant from the beginning of ‘Cascade,’ but after going back and rereading that scene it seems unlikely. What’s clear is that he’s established the mystery that’ll propel the reader through this story, and Judge Dredd out of Mega-City One!

Credits: Michael Carroll (script), Colin MacNeil (art), Chris Blythe (colors), Ellie de Ville (letters)

Helium, Part 1

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It’s a pretty safe bet that, with any given Prog or Megazine, you the hume reader will be getting some pretty solid comic-booking. Tharg picks his droids well, he does. And one of the safest bets among those art/script pairings is the duo of Edginton & D’Israeli. You’ve seen their names here before on strips like ‘Stickleback’, ‘Leviathan’, and ‘Scarlet Traces’, and now they’re back with a BRAND-NEW Thrill for you!

It’s three hundred years after the Great War. There’s a gas cloud covering 85% of the Earth’s surface that, well, isn’t too compatible with humans, as you can see above. Mankind has moved to the mountaintops above the killing smoke to survive, but what about what was left beneath its surface?

This is going to be one of my favorite Thrills in a long time. I can feel that right now. The book looks, as you can see above and imagine, fantastic. D’Israeli is going 180 degrees from his B&W ‘Stickleback’ style to this color approach. The world humans have built above the gas feels completely real and familiar while still being enough of a step removed to invite interest. Edginton gives us a protagonist to root for in Constable Hodge; nothing like a little competent-cop-plagued-by-bureaucratic-BS to add some understandable identification to your hero. It’s probably a toss-up between her and her partner as to who has more mettle (or metal), and that’s always an inviting trait for me.

Credits: Ian Edginton (script), D’Israeli (art), Ellie de Ville (letters)

Absalom: Under A False Flag, Part 1

I haven’t read too much Absalom, so we’ll all be wading into this one together. Unless, of course, you’re already familiar with the character and his history. In that case feel free to chime in down in the comments!

From the jump this strip checks off a lot of boxes for me: a weird training sequence, a possibly evil old priest, cryptic dialogue…and that’s just in the first two pages! I was particularly interested in the priest, who seems to be in charge of whatever organization is interested in/funding the person who is training. Is he from some splinter sect of the church? Or a cult leader? An Abnett-esque science priest? I can hardly wait to unwrap this one!

And, of course, we meet our titular character: Absalom. He’s a cocky old investigator who is summonsed when a crime involving the occult or dark arts is discovered. From the little I’ve read before this I get the impression that no one really cares for him, but he’s good so he’s tolerated. When Absalom makes his appearance it is to investigate a corpse that’s been turned to ash and the arcane-looking dagger found at its side.

Tiernen Trevallion’s art is a real treat. His line work is clean without feeling slick. His attention to detail is obvious, but he knows precisely where and when to suggest form and texture without actually completely rendering it all out. This is clear three pages in, as we see Absalom and his entourage walking up the street. The building they’re in front of is clearly brick, but Trevallion has actually brawn very few lines on the building’s facade. It’s this type of nudging that is typical of a confident artist. He’s only presenting you with what you need and not concerning himself too much with anything beyond that. Does the reader miss those undrawn bricks? No, I’d be surprised if most people even notice something like that. But is there enough information present for us to get a sense of place as we breeze through the panels? Absolutely.

Credits: Gordon Rennie (script), Tiernen Trevallion (art), Simon Bowland (letters)

Sláine: Primordial, Part 11

That…thing…on the cover? That’s Sláine. No, really. It is.

You see, Sláine has the ability to undergo ‘warp spasms’ that literally transform and distort his body into this gargantuan figure that gives absolutely zero flips about the well-being of anything around it. As one of the series’ catchphrases notes, when in the throws of a warp spasm, Sláine can and most likely will kill almost anything around him, “and won’t think it too many.” We’ve seen Sláine try this at least once in the earlier chapters of ‘Primordial’, where he was ultimately prevented from going full-on aggro by Lord Weird. But here? No such difficulty.

Continued below

Simon Davis makes a few choices here that I particularly enjoy. The first is that while we get quite the look at the warped Sláine on this Prog’s cover (and the final page of Prog 1933’s strip), we don’t get a splash page or pin-up of the transformed man in this actual chapter. Davis uses that distance to let us see Sláine in motion, such as in the ax-wielding leap we see above; definitely not the movement of a hulking slab. And as I’m sure long-time readers will anticipate me saying, I absolutely love Davis’ choice to give the warped Sláine’s figure so many sharp angles. His body isn’t just expanded or puffed out; it is warped beyond what should be possible in this three-dimensional universe we live in. Davis runs, again, straight into Kevin O’Neill territory with just how far he pushes the distortion of Sláine, and I can’t think of a better influence to incorporate into a style as realistic and life-like as Davis’ is most of the time as ‘Nemesis’-era O’Neill.

Pat Mills doesn’t let Sláine’s slaughter of Trojans dominate the whole chapter, however. He gives Sinead a nice little counterpoint to previous chapters where she was the half of the duo out-of-mind and Sláine had to find the human being inside the shell. Mental manipulations also continue between Lord Weird and Gort, while Lord Weird continues to prepare for the coming of the Primordial. If this chapter shows us the upper limit of what kind of a warrior Sláine is (with all his distorted savagery), and the Primordial has been created or crafted to be his superior, I can’t wait to see what kind of monstrosity Mills and Davis have cooked up for us and Sláine.

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

III. OF INTEREST

We mentioned our own podcast last week, so it’s probably a good idea to check in with another show that covers Tharg’s missives: the appropriately named 2000 AD Thrill-Cast!

Released biweekly (or each fortnight, if that’s the unit of measure you’re most comfortable with), The Thrill-Cast is produced by Tharg’s own PR droid Molch-R and has access to a truly thrilling pool of droid talent to talk about all things 2000 AD. So for instance, when he wants to talk about Sláine and how the barbarian has changed over the years, he gets to have Pat Mills and Simon Davis on hand to do so. Tharg’s Rolodex is mighty, indeed!

Some of the other episodes & guests the Thrill-Cast has been able to line up so far include:

Ian Edginton on ‘Helium’ (but probably not on helium, if you know what I mean…)
Emma Beeby
Alan Grant on ‘Shamballa’
Kev Walker
Carlos Ezquerra
Colin MacNeil & Douglas Wolk on ‘America’

You can listen to past episodes as well as subscribe to new ones here. Zarjaz!

IV. ~~RECOGNIZE~~ KNOW THE LAW

It’s no secret that there are a great many flavors of Judges from a great deal of Mega-Cities, so we’re aiming to use this space as a way of exploring as many types of Judges as we can. Did you know that in Mega-City One there are Accounting Judges? And Exorcist Judges?

Knowing what a Judge looks like will only get you so far, citizen. In order to stay right with the law, you must know the law! Be like Judge Dredd and study The Book of Law at every opportunity. He is strong arm of law and order, so if you do not want to earn his ire, keep your nose clean!

Lesser known (but no less punishable) Mega-City One Laws:

Profanity: Conventional swearing is illegal in Mega-City One; “Drokk” is the legal alternative that suffices for every occasion.
The Dredd Act: The Dredd Act bans all animal experimentation within Mega-City limits.
Possession of controlled substances: All citizens are forbidden from possession or consumption of sugar and caffine
Pranking: The Justice Department has a zero-tolerance approach to pranking and other such activity
Running on a walkway: It is a walkway, citizen. Your safety is our priority.

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Fat Control: During times of ration, segregation of ‘Fatties’ may be enforced.
Section 32: Judges may incapacitate large numbers of citizens in order to apprehend a perp hiding in their midst.
Illegal Scientific Activities: All scientific activities and medical practices must be approved by the local Sector House and be practiced under Judicial supervision.
Public Health Act of 2087: Judges may destroy any property that poses a significant health risk to the environment.
Political Activism: Only sanctioned political parties may operate within Mega-City One. Citizens and organizations may not lobby the government, nor may they attend rallies or other politically-minded events without express written consent from their local Sector House.

Keep in mind that Judges are authorized to enforce the Law as they see fit. Punishments, while having suggested parameters, are at the sole discretion of the arresting Judge. In the case of perceived wrong doing where no law may exist, Judges may create new laws on the scene and punish perpetrators retroactively.

That’s gonna do it for us this week! “2000 AD” Prog 1934 is on sale today and available from: