judge dredd megazine 364 feature Columns 

Multiver-City One: 2000 AD Prog 1948 and Judge Dredd Megazine 364

By and | September 17th, 2015
Posted in Columns | % Comments

MVC1 Title

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. This FAQ collects everything you need to make your initial foray into the 2000 AD Thrill-verse as simple as possible.

II. THIS WEEK IN PROG 1948

Cover by Dave Taylor

 

NOW DEPARTING

 

Grey Area: Deadline

As quickly as it appeared, Abnett and Harrison’s “Grey Area” comes to a close, and on a heck of a cliffhanger at that! The battle seems lost, but the strip will return, so you know that Abnett’s got a trick up his sleeve to get Bulliet and the rest out of harm’s way.

Even though it feels like ‘Grey Area’ is wrapping prematurely, I’m willing to accept it if it means that Mark Harrison has the time to make the strip look as good as it does. There’s nothing else in the magazine that looks like this, and the guy’s a special talent that belongs on this story. He brings a life and vibrance to the story that literally glows. His lighting and color choices play so well with his line, giving his pages an eerie other-worldliness that I adore. Can’t wait to see this one come back!

Credits: Dan Abnett (script), Mark Harrison (art), Ellie de Ville (letters)

Judge Dredd: Ghost Town, Part 1

Oh man, Dave Taylor’s art is superb. His line and figure work, combined with stellar color choices and a gift for mute design, made this strip a real treat. Taylor’s Dredd has a classic feel that sits well with me; a little more gaunt than usual and with a helmet that’s a little more of an orb, less of a bucket. His interpretation of The Big Meg feels almost like ruins found out in the desert, abandoned and baking in the sun. It really helps to cement the feel of the story, with massive stretches of the city left uninhabited after a double-shot of tragedy.

I like Edginton’s set-up here, with the Justice Department turning their focus towards the looting of droids. It feels like something almost petty, the idea that Judge Dredd would have to investigate simple theft of Department property, but here we are. And to add insult to injury, non-Judicial rangers are being brought in to help. It’s a sad state of affairs for Justice.

The only downside to this strip is the dialogue. It feels a little stiff, and the exposition came across as unnatural. After hearing Rob Williams voice the characters for the last couple of months, everyone in ‘Ghost Town’ came off to me as just a bit too chatty and stilted.

On the plus side, this strip helps to serve as a reminder of how absolutely awful the Judicial System is. No spoilers, but this story ends with no doubt about what kind of man Judge Dredd is. Dredd is in place to be the unflinching tip of the Judicial spear, and Edginton did well to put the inhumanity of the system on full display.

Credits: Ian Edginton (script), Dave Taylor (art), Annie Parkhouse (letters)

 

The Alienist: The Haunting of Hex House, Part 5

Just in case you forgot, distracted by his dramatic bearing and stage-honed presence, when the giant monster shows up and is ready to eat you, it’s not Sebastian who’ll be the one to save you…it’s Madelyn.

Continued below

Coveney continues to do fine work in this strip, and I’ve noticed another influence in his style (or at least a similarity of approach when it comes to figures and framing angles): Claudio Castellini. An Italian artist, Castellini did a lot of work for Marvel & DC in the late 90’s/early 2000’s, including half of the “Marvel vs DC” miniseries. His figures tend to have an elongated quality to them that Coveney reins in, and Coveney looks to be more comfortable in adding fine background crosshatching than Castellini, but they share a certain fondness for that slightly stretched face, cocked to one side and viewed mostly from below. Sebastian in the last panel on page 1 strikes me as a Castellini look through and through.

One week to go, one civilian still alive, and one house looking to make sure none of them get out alive!

Credits: Gordon Rennie & Emmy Beeby (script), Eoin Coveney (art), Simon Bowland (letters)

 

Dreams of Deadworld: Fear

Has there ever been a more terrifying version of Judge Fear? Kendall’s redesign presents the bat-like wings that adorn the Dark Judge’s helmet as flowing cobwebs hanging from a pair of horns. Not only that, but we actually get a look behind his faceplate, and it is not pretty!

While ‘Dreams’ so far has played with the idea of loss and what it means for a harbinger of death, this week’s strip presents Fear as an isolated and paranoid madman. He’s set traps for his fellow Dark Judges, and frets over whether or not one of them is trying to get the drop on him. Like the two before it, this chapter was a fascinating look at a long-running character who’s never been examined in this depth before.

Next week things wrap up with the inevitable: Death!

Credits: Kek-W (script), Dave Kendall (art), Ellie de Ville (letters)

 

III. THIS MONTH IN JUDGE DREDD MEGAZINE 364

Cover by Carlos Ezquerra

 

Judge Dredd: El Maldito, Part 4

Contained? Oh, HELL no. Now that Dredd’s on the scene interior monologues some hardcore “Academy training tells you to never give up” lines? That scene is most definitely not contained.

And even if you think to yourself that Dredd is still just one man, and a wounded one at that, I will remind you he’s got backup in the form of El Maldito. Not a whole lot of conversation between the two, to be sure, but they’re more than ready to let the irons on their hips to the talking for them.

‘El Maldito’ the strip has been an enjoyable story. Well, not for the people in it. Most of them have been beaten, gassed, shot, stabbed, killed, or generally oppressed for the most part. Some people have even died more than once! But Rennie has kept the plot moving at a fast enough clip to keep readers happy and give Ezquerra enough excuses to fit in as much Western iconography as he wants. Between the taciturn protagonists, high body count, and the dusters worn under hats, I’m half-expecting to have a QR code show up for playing “Ecstasy of Gold” or some other Ennio Morricone music during some if these scenes. Na-ni-na-ni-naaaaa wa-WA-waaaaa…

Credits: Gordon Rennie (script), Carlos Ezquerra (art), Annie Parkhouse (letters)

 

Demon Nic, Part 4

You know things are getting out of hand when a nun and a demon sit down for a drink together. Especially if that nun killed the demon earlier that day, and the demon still needs her around. But that’s where Nicodemus and Sister Mercy find themselves. A Singing Stone has turned up, and someone’s looking to use it to free the demon lord M’Gurk and cause all kinds of hell. Nicodemus was framed for the murder of a priest who had the stone last, and now he’s trying to get to the bottom things with the help of his combat nun friend (i.e. Someone he hasn’t had to kill yet).

I can’t think of a story Paul Grist has worked on that’s been only on only one end of the comedy/drama spectrum. From “Kane” to “Jack Staff” and more, there are always little sight gags or wordplay puns that break up the tension for the most part. Grist knows if you lean on one emotion too much, it loses its potency. Case in point: the imprisioned demon lord at the center of this is given a rather ordinary name. Maybe it’s just me, but I can’t read the name M’Gurk without hearing Gilbert Gottfried voicing Mxyzptlk in one of the “Superman” animated series eps calling out for his buddy of the same name. I think of this and I chuckle. Well, I did for the last few installments until Grist had Nicodemus tell us about the “fairy tale” of how M’Gurk, drinker of souls, was caught.

Continued below

Y’see, M’Gurk was laying waste to village after village, so one of the next ones on his list figured they would lay a trap for him: get him unconscious, drop him down a deep-ass well, cover it with an immovable boulder and BOOM…problem solved! Of course, to make sure M’Gurk took the bait, they needed bait he couldn’t resist, like innocent children. Grist doesn’t show anything grisly at all in this, just the building the children were placed in, the old hands locking the door once M’Gurk was inside, then a shot of M’Gurk drunk and “satiated.”

Kinda hard to chuckle at a name after that.

So don’t let the cartooning fool you. Grist’s style (with Phil Elliot’s solid palette choices) might look more simple and less biting than something like ‘Tales of Deadworld’ but he’s capable of going dark when he needs to. I think there’s a reason all the pages in ‘Demon Nic’ are drawn on black backgrounds…

Credits: Paul Grist (script/art/letters), Phil Elliot (colors)

 

Storm Warning: The Relic, Part 4

I love the strips that give us a look at how other city’s Judges operate, and “Storm Warning”is really delivering in that department. First, we had a good look ad the Brit-Cit Psi-Division, getting a glimpse at a squad of Psi Judges in the field. This week, we’re privy to the exploits of the Brit-Cit Special Forces as they support Judge Storm on a mission to locate a downed craft. It’s kinda awesome seeing Foster’s Special Forces designs. Each uniform is complete with shoulder-mounted spotlight and helmet cam, with members of the team sporting giant tanks of riot foam on their backs. The uniforms carry all of the hallmarks of a Brit-Cit Judge, but with tweaks and enhancements that give the look of body armor.

Moore and Reppion ratchet up the tension this month, as Storm and company enter a block from the top, planning to work their way down to where the transporter has crashed. Things go from bad to worse pretty quickly, and some decisive action is taken. Unfortunately, said action may not have worked out as well as planned. Psi-flashes and immanent danger abound!

Credits: Leah Moore & John Reppion (script), Tom Foster (art), Kirsty Swan (colors), Simon Bowland (letters)

 

Lawless: Between Bad Rock & A Hard Place, Part 4

If there’s one thing I love about these magazines, it’s that they have some of the best artists in the industry working on them. Hands down. It’s an embarrassment of riches, I tell ya! If you need proof of this, look no further than Phil Winslade’s work on this strip. Every month he seems to outdo himself, but this latest chapter of “Lawless” really sings. The attention to detail in the crowd scenes alone should earn him some sort of medal of valor. But then there’s the flawless page designs, his rendering of fabric, the way he conveys texture and material, the guy is doing unimpeachable work here.

And then there’s Dan Abnett. He’s been teasing a mystery from the very first installment of this series, and this week it finally bubbles to the surface. Abnett’s an enormously talented writer, and he does space drama like no one else, but when he settles into a colonial space drama? In my opinion, that’s where he shines the brightest. All of the different races, the class structures, the robots who have found god, he so effortlessly weaves these narratives that are small in scope and economical in narrative, but seemingly infinite in scale. It’s like he creates these wide worlds just to set a story in the tiniest nook nook he could find. In this world, Mega-City One is fighting a war in order to expand and secure resources, but that’s not the story Abnett chooses. Instead, he finds a little mining town and plops a Colonial Marshal in it.

Or, maybe, two Colonial Marshals.

Credits: Dan Abnett (script), Phil Winslade (art), Ellie de Ville (letters)

 

IV. MEGAZINE FEATURES

Interrogation: Scott McCloud – The Art of Comics by Stephen Jewell

I must admit, I was NOT expecting to see Scott McCloud as an Interrogation subject this month. But with the cartoonist’s first major fictional work in decades (“The Sculptor”) now released, it was only a matter of time before Tharg turned one of the droids loose on the “Understanding Comics” creator. And while you may have read either or both of those works, or any of his other books like “The New Adventures of Abraham Lincoln” or “Making Comics”, you should definitely check out this article. You might have known that McCloud grew up with future comics writer Kurt Busiek, but did you know that it was Mr. Busiek, rather than Mr. “Understanding Comics” himself, that was the bigger comics fan at first? Find out that little tidbit and a whole lot more, including what deciding factor lead McCloud to pick Eclipse over First Comics as the publisher of his “Zot!” series, how long he worked on “The Sculptor” before drawing a single finished panel, and whether he thinks his earlier works stand the test of time.

Continued below

Interrogation: Dave Kendall by Karl Stock

A teacher can make or break a student; in the case of Dave Kendell, it was a little bit of one and a little bit of another. The “Tales of Deadworld” artist had both kinds of experiences on his way to becoming an artist. Fortunately, it was the more positive one that came later and at a critical, make-or-break juncture in his career. Otherwise we wouldn’t have had any of his creepy, nightmare-inducing work to grace the pages of our favorite Thrill-mag. Although, considering the things I see when I close my eyes after finishing the latest “Tales of Deadworld” strip installment, maybe that’s not the best thing! I’m kidding, of course…

Fiction: The Dinner Party by David Baillie

With everything Mega-City One has gone through in the past few years, it makes sense that there would be little clubs like the DSC (Day of Chaos Survivor’s Club). But when this particular club meets, it’s not only to celebrate surviving the Chaos Bug, but also surviving the ever-present eye of Judge Dredd on their less-than-lawful activities!

That’s gonna do it for us this week! “2000 AD” Prog 1948 and “Judge Dredd Megazine” 364 are on sale this week and available from:

So as Tharg the Mighty himself would say, “Splundig vur thrigg!”

 


//TAGS | Multiver-City One

Greg Matiasevich

Greg Matiasevich has read enough author bios that he should be better at coming up with one for himself, yet surprisingly isn't. However, the years of comic reading his parents said would never pay off obviously have, so we'll cut him some slack on that. He lives in Baltimore, co-hosts (with Mike Romeo) the Robots From Tomorrow podcast, writes Multiversity's monthly Shelf Bound column dedicated to comics binding, and can be followed on Twitter at @GregMatiasevich.

EMAIL | ARTICLES

Mike Romeo

Mike Romeo started reading comics when splash pages were king and the proper proportions of a human being meant nothing. Part of him will always feel that way. Now he is one of the voices on Robots From Tomorrow. He lives in Philadelphia with two cats. Follow him on Instagram at @YeahMikeRomeo!

EMAIL | ARTICLES


  • Columns
    Multiver-City One: Judge Dredd Megazine 466 – Shoot ‘Em Up!

    By , , , and | Mar 27, 2024 | Columns

    Welcome, Earthlets, to Multiver-City One, our monthly look at the “Judge Dredd Megazine!” Let’s get right to it.Judge Dredd: Ravenous Part 3Credits: Mike Carroll (script) Anthony Williams (art) Annie Parkhouse (letters)Matthew Blair: All seems lost for the heroes of Mega City One. They’re facing off against the perfect predator and nothing they have can stop […]

    MORE »
    Columns
    Multiver-City One: 2000 AD Prog 2375 – Bumper Issue!

    By , , , and | Mar 27, 2024 | Columns

    Welcome, Earthlets, to Multiver-City One, our “2000 AD” weekly review column! Every Wednesday we examine the latest offerings from Tharg and the droids over at Rebellion/2000 AD, the galaxy’s leading producers of Thrill-Power entertainment. Let’s get right to it!This Week in 2000 AD Judge Dredd: Next Man Up Credits: Rob Williams (script), RM Guera (art), […]

    MORE »
    2000 AD Prog 2374 Featured Columns
    Multiver-City One: 2000 AD Prog 2374 – A World of His Making!

    By , , , and | Mar 20, 2024 | Columns

    Welcome, Earthlets, to Multiver-City One, our “2000 AD” weekly review column! Every Wednesday we examine the latest offerings from Tharg and the droids over at Rebellion/2000 AD, the galaxy’s leading producers of Thrill-Power entertainment. Let’s get right to it!This Week in 2000 ADJudge Dredd: A Dimensional Travelers Guide to Mega City One Credits: Ken Neimand […]

    MORE »

    -->