Welcome, citizens, to this week’s installment of Multiver-City One! Each and every Wednesday we will be examining the latest Prog from Tharg and the droids over at 2000 AD, and giving you all the pertinent information you’ll need headed into this week’s Thrill-Zine! It’s a double-header this week, as we’ve got both a new Prog and a new Judge Dredd Megazine, so let’s get right to it!
This week’s cover is by Karl Richardson.
I. NOW DEPARTING
Tharg’s 3rillers: Voodoo Planet, Part 3
Sometimes, there’s just no saving the day. And that’s all right, so long as you’re the one who wants things to remain unchanged.
When this strip began we were thrown into a frantic chase scene. Secrets had been uncovered. A sacrifice was made to ensure others could succeed. Insurmountable odds were faced. We readers were bearing witness to the end of an era of control and suffering. Or so it seemed. Guy Adams managed, with this final chapter, to script not only the dashing of hopes, but also expose our conditioning as readers. Just as President Frank controlled his subjects, Adams controlled us through our expectations. It’s easy to believe that, in fiction, the underdog is made to overcome oppressors and claim victory. And I did, at least until the powers that be won the day.
Holden really nailed this chapter. Everything we see appears to have been meticulously planned and designed, from chameleons to tentacle monsters to soldier’s uniforms. His line work is bold and weighty, throwing deep black shadows over character’s faces to ratchet up the drama. This looks like he’s taking everything he’s learned from the first volume of “Dept. of Monsterology” and using it to make this next leap forward, which only makes us very anxious to get more of that book!
And, of course, Steve Denton’s color work really cinches the whole thing. His palette of rich, earthy tones with unnaturally vibrant accents pushes all that PJ’s done over the top. It’s pretty tricky to be strong but not overpowering, but Denton pulls it off.
The whole team did a hell of a job on this story, and we cannot wait to see where they land next!
Credits: Guy Adams (script), PJ Holden (art), Steve Denton (colors), Simon Bowland (letters)
II. NOW ARRIVING
We’ve got two new strips kicking off this week!
Judge Dredd: Student Bodies, Part 1
Boo Cook is back!
The last time we discussed Cook’s work, we mentioned not being able to wait for his return. Turns out we only had to wait four weeks! Between Cook’s approach to Dredd, his landscapes, his tech and vehicle design, and his color choices, this is one fantastic-looking strip!
And it seems redundant to keep saying, but it is still the truth that John Wagner can write a hell of a first chapter! As he’s known for doing, this story centers around a present-day societal woe. Bigotry and discrimination have been a problem for as long as we’ve had societies. So, as far as we’re concerned, forever. But as much as tolerance and acceptance becomes not only expected but demanded by the majority of people living in those societies, we can never really seem to be rid of this pox. Not completely. People adapt and change, but not always for the best, it seems. So instead of being overtly racist or bigoted, people now express these feelings in more subtle ways, or in private. They lie about what they really think. Which is exactly what the group of students at the opening of our story are doing. But, as he says, Judge Dredd does not ride his bike backwards. He sees through the double talk and omission, and he will get to the bottom of this new mystery!
Credits: John Wagner (script), Boo Cook (art), Annie Parkhouse (letters)
Aquila: Carnifex, Part 1
Aquila was one of the strips we kicked off Multiver-City One with, and it’s great to be able to check back in with the immortal Nubian and his Roman surroundings. This week’s re-introductory chapter gets you up to speed on what’s happened since the last time we saw Aquila back in Prog 1855. At this point he has become the Carnifex, or “butcher” in its original translation, to Emperor Nero. The reasons he has for doing this were laid out in the previous stories; it’s not super crucial that you know why at this point, and I’m interested to see how it’s relayed this time around, but just know that there is a reason for this seemingly independent operator to be working for an absolute time-bomb of a maniacal human being (for as long as he is human).
Continued belowAlthough the (dark) comic relief Felix Fortunatus doesn’t make an appearance, Rennie does give a fair amount of page-time to Triscus the Diviner, who was a favorite of mine from this strip’s last run. Triscus is the closest thing we have to a detective in this urban Roman drama, and Rennie uses his occupation as a way to impart healthy amounts of exposition in an enjoyable way, couched in Triscus’ sarcasm at his slave’s expense. The bit about not feeling to good about the idea of a vacation to Pompeii was a nice touch as well.
Series co-creator Leigh Gallagher is back with this Prog, and while Patrick Goddard did a great job with this strip in her absence, he brings something a little different to the table on his return. He and Goddard look to have a very similar starting point for their work in terms of giving the figures and settings a real sense of weight. But Gallagher adds just a little bit of scratchiness to it that fits in well with the age of antiquity this strip is set in; the civilization is advanced enough to have all these trappings of modern society, but it edges aren’t finished off to the razor-sharpness that our modern technology allows us.
And Dylan Teague handles the colors very well, particularly in their background rendering. As Aquila delivers the coup de grace on Goat Boy in the image above, Teague doesn’t just use flat colors, but gives them spray droplet patterns that, either consciously or subconsciously, adds an extra bit of movement to the static image.
Well done, all around.
Credits: Gordon Rennie (script), Leigh Gallagher (art), Dylan Teague (colors), Annie Parkhouse (letters)
III. THIS WEEK IN PROG 1890
Brass Sun: Floating Worlds, Part 3
Forest? More like floating smorgasbord for all manner of antigravity beasties to graze from, with tasty treats like Wren’s airship!
Well, the Nominal Charge is not actually Wren’s ship but Captain Ariel O’Conner’s, who incidentally is quickly becoming one of my favorite air pirate this side of Lady Sabre. Roped into this expedition by a combination of Wren’s promise of future wealth and Chairman’s Pei’s threat of future death (immediate, as opposed to far-off future), Ariel is now in her element, and Edgington shows off to the readers as much as Septimus, Wren, and “Pretty Boy” just how she’s managed to stay one step (or balloon-length) ahead of all the parties gunning for her.
(And yes, he has a real name, but I hear Ariel rattle that off with a Han Solo-esque sarcasm worthy of ‘your worshipfulness’ that just cements it as his name to me forevermore.)
Culbard’s art this week turns horrible. Seriously, there are some ghastly panels the likes of which I’m not going to be able to shake off and will undoubtably see again later when I’m sleeping. Thanks INJ! The real problem here is that Culbard is so practiced at rendering Lovecraftian monsters (from the ever-growing library of HPL adaptations he’s done) in a pared-down but solid style that you can’t just glide the eye over them and move on. They glom on to you like a Mynock and don’t let go. Which is exactly what you want for a strip like this, to sell the danger our protagonists find themselves in. Bravo for that, but did we have to sacrifice my mental well-being to get there?
Credits: Ian Edgington (script), INJ Culbard (art), Ellie de Ville (letters)
Sinister Dexter: Congo, Part 2
So last week, things got a little out of hand. With Sinister involved? Shocking, I know. But after he was discovered snooping around a Congo shipping depot, all hell broke loose. Not only that, but someone else was already attempting to do what Sinister and Dexter set out to do! Well, this week things smooth out a bit so the guys decide that they should go to a barbecue. Wait, what?
We’d be remiss if we didn’t throw some propers to Jake Lynch, who did not shy away from anything Abnett thew in the script! Between last week’s warehouse interiors and this issue’s vehicles and architecture we are pretty impressed with what Lynch is turning out here.
Continued belowCredits: Dan Abnett (script), Jake Lynch (art), Ellie de Ville (letters)
IV. THIS WEEK IN JUDGE DREDD MEGAZINE 350
This week’s cover is by Brian Bolland.
If ever there was a time to jump into the world of Judge Dredd, it is right now! This month’s Megazine is as solid as they come, with an almost entirely new line-up of stories done by some of the finest creators on the 2000 AD roster. This issue explores Judge Dredd’s home town of Mega-City One, visits one of The Meg’s space colonies, and returns to the Dredd movie continuity with a brand-new tale.
Judge Dredd: Dead Zone, Part 1
The opening chapter of this story is set outside the walls of Mega-City One and serves to remind readers of the state of The Meg. Some time has passed since Chaos Day, an event that killed hundreds of millions of citizens and decimated the Judges, but there is still plenty of rebuilding left to do. A giant memorial park has been constructed and The Meg is taking in new citizens from The Cursed Earth to replenish its population, so long as they can pass a health exam.
But this wouldn’t be a good Judge Dredd story, let alone a good Wagner story, if everything was that simple. Beneath all of the rebuilding is a carnal, human ugliness built on greed and selfishness. The city is deeply in debt, a camp is being built just outside of the memorial, and Dredd has been called to investigate a murder that’s happened there. Wagner’s lined up all the pieces, and next chapter we will begin to see where he plans on taking us.
Regular readers will know that we have nothing but praise for Henry Flint, and this strip is a perfect example of why we love his work so much. He tweaks his line and color work between the scenes in The Cursed Earth and the memorial to give readers a feel for what the atmosphere is like in these places. Every mark he makes on these pages is considered and nothing seems out of place. Well, almost nothing. The only criticism I can level against the art is the ‘Dedicated to…’ signage we see on the first page with the ‘Chaos Memorial’ feels very digital and almost like an afterthought. But, that aside, the art for this strip is absolutely fantastic. Wagner and Flint are a dream team.
The cliffhanger at the end of this inaugural chapter is a doozy, so the month we have to wait until the next installment will be a long one.
Credits: John Wagner (script), Henry Flint (art), Annie Parkhouse (letters)
Lawless: Welcome to Badrock, Part 1
It’s easy to forget how far The Meg reaches. Sure, it’s a city that spans from New England down to the Mid-Atlantic, but it has also staked out land beyond our atmosphere. There’s Luna-City One, of course, which is on our moon, and the Judges-only prison on Saturn’s moon Titan. But this story isn’t about either of those places. This is a tale of frontier adventure, where the idea of Mega-City One as a stand-in for the US is examined from a different, more historically aimed perspective.
Mega-City One is a society whose colonial expansionism reaches habitable places beyond our solar system, sending people and equipment out so they can set up shop and mine for resources. Sometimes wars are fought for these places, pushing out those pesky natives who stand in the way of progress. ‘Welcome to Badrock’ takes place in 43 Rega, one of those places; a planet at the edge of Mega-City expansion. And if old Westerns have taught me anything, it’s that places like this are filled with tough people who make trouble. I guess that’s why Colonial Marshall Metta Lawson is sent there.
Lawson is a type of Judge, almost in the same vein as a Wild West sheriff. She’s sent to this frontier colony to bring law and order to its people, and this is clearly not her first rodeo. As is made clear in this first chapter, Lawson is not what Badrock expected she’d be. She wants nothing to do with the guided tours and hand-holding planned for her; instead, she aims to explore the town’s inner-workings on her own recognizance at the place everyone goes: the saloon!
Continued belowOur introduction to Metta Lawson had me convinced this was a returning character, like Abnett simply picked off where an earlier writer left off. But as I came to discover, this is not the case! The way Abnett introduces Lawson speaks volumes about his skill as a writer. First off, in very few pages, readers are made aware of her experience doing this job simply from seeing her react to situations she’s put in. No space is wasted on exposition spelling out what she’s previously been through. We watch her carry herself with confidence and learn all we need through that instead. This leads me to another element of Abnett’s writing I appreciate: he doesn’t think his readers are idiots. He knows that we can pick up subtleties and inferences. He knows that he can string together larger ideas and our imaginations will fill in the gaps. This is some solid comic booking.
Joining Abnett on this story is Phil Winslade, an artist who’s black & white line work is doing everything this story needs. Winslade draws this deep-space colony with the same confidence that Abnett writes Lawson with: like it’s always been there and he’s just picking up where someone else left off after doing all the heavy design lifting. Every inch of this world is designed and considered like Winslade lives there. The background characters in the saloon aren’t simply people-shaped gestures, but rather all individual and unique. Lawson’s uniform looks like something she’s been wearing everyday for years and is totally comfortable in. And that gorilla!
We teased this story a few months back, and it was worth the wait! Abnett and Winslade are a hell of a team and they’ve set up a story that can go on for a good long time.
Credits: Dan Abnett (script), Phil Winslade (art), Ellie de Ville (letters)
The Man From The Ministry: Part 3
Answer? No. No there weren’t.
The mystery of Guy Britton deepens, as his twenty-seven hour interrogation leads to an interesting revelation or two about what might have happened to him during his 61-year disappearance in space. Also, we learn just how awesome Britain was in the 60’s, as Hammer Studios apparently not only had Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing cranking out vampire classic after vampire classic, but it also had a secret science base, complete with space-ready RAF Lightnings, directly under it. Because why not?
Also, being an alien isn’t all that bad. You get to dress in fancy suits and drive a Mercedes-Benz. You do have to watch out for the British civil servants, tho. Yeah, they don’t have the same type of firepower than Arcturian zombotroops are usually decked out with (those mothers are particularly nasty), but their budgets haven’t been cut enough to take away their service revolvers and the occasional stick of dynamite, which can kill you just as dead as any Arcturian.
FYI…
Credits: Gordon Rennie (script), Kev Hopgood (art), Simon Bowland (letters)
Dredd: Uprise, Part 1
The next story set in the Dredd movie-verse is here!
I don’t know if that makes “Uprise” into “Dredd 3”, but we could do a hell of a lot worse than having this story play out in front of us on the silver screen (or the home screen of your choice). Wyatt wastes no time in giving us new elements to add to our growing understanding of this version of Mega-City One. We start off in The Spit, a Meg block with few redeeming qualities, with Wallace, someone with an apparently not-all-on-the-up-&-up history with the old neighborhood he’s returning to. The writer plays it cool with Wallace, not going into info-dump mode, but rather letting his internal monologue slowly reveal things to us one piece at a time. Like Metta Lawson, it feels like we should know more about Wallace from a previous story, but since he wasn’t in the movie and (to my knowledge) not in Underbelly either, we’re getting to see him for the first time here. And I want to know more.
Dredd, though, we have seen before. And he’s just as bad-ass as ever. Although I thought Karl Urban was a fantastic Dredd, I don’t quite lock into hearing his voice whenever I read the character like I do for Kevin Conroy as Batman. But here, probably helped by the use of movie costuming, I totally shifted into hearing his gravely take on the Judge. And Davidson gives Dredd a really great entrance to the strip.
Continued belowThe whole endeavor really hews pretty closely to the aesthetic of the film without sacrificing good comic booking to fidelity. And that is no mean feat.
Also? I think I saw a Wally the Robot cameo. No joke.
Credits: Arthur Wyatt (script), Paul Davidson (art), Chris Blythe (colors), Simon Bowland (letters)
V. COVER STORY
This month’s cover, by the one and only Brian Bolland, is a call back to an earlier work the artist did.
This cover is the first issue of “2000 AD Monthly”, a short-lived title from the equally short-lived publisher Eagle Comics. You see, Eagle was launched back in 1983 as a way to sell 2000 AD comics in the North American market. They had a healthy run of Judge Dredd comics, and a few miniseries, but ultimately Eagle only lasted about three years. In that time they were able to introduce readers in the US and Canada to not just Judge Dredd, but also non-Meg titles like Strontium Dog, Nemesis the Warlock, and Robo-Hunter.
Despite not being done for a proper 2000 AD magazine, Bolland’s 2000 AD Monthly cover has gone on to become something of an icon. Pictured above is the cover to Prog 1771, which was the 35th anniversary for 2000 AD. Chris Weston did a wonderful job paying homage to Bolland’s work while simultaneously keeping the cover feeling fresh and relevant.
It’s so interesting to compare the two versions that Bolland produced. Examining the growth of his line style, the huge change in the way covers are colored, even the differences in trade dress and cover copy; there are a lot of striking differences between these two covers, sort of enhanced by the fact that they’re done by the same artist and use the same format. But one thing that’s remained is Bolland’s ability to draw characters in the same style as their original artist but ground it in the same way that his style always does. For example, take a look at the DR & Quinch from the earlier cover. If I didn’t know Bolland drew those, I would bet you cash money those were Alan Davis art inserts. Fidelity to someone else’s style AND your own at the same time is something only a truly superb artist can pull off. Luckily for us, Bolland is one of those artists.
VI. MEGAZINE FEATURES
Besides scheduling, there’s a big difference between a Prog and a Megazine. While each weekly 2000 AD 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: Trevor Hairsine by Matthew Badham
This piece is an interesting overview of Hairsine’s career so far. With such an obviously talented artist it’d be easy to sing his praises, list his credits, and shuffle off to the pub for a quick pint before the next story, but that is not what writer Matthew Badham did here. Instead, we learn about what Hairsine’s life as a comics artist has really been like. He speaks candidly about wages, deadline difficulties, incomplete projects, and having to find work outside of comics. It’s the sort of candid industry talk that should be heard more in comics, as it could be especially helpful to young artists trying to break in. The article is never discouraging at any point, but does give readers a realist view of working in the industry. Plus, the whole thing is littered with Hairsine’s art in different stages. Some of it is just pencils, while other parts are inks, dressed covers, virgin covers; the selection really runs the gamut.
Interrogation: Kev Hopgood by Matthew Badham
Another Interrogation, another look into the life of a British artist. It would be nice if once and a while we got someone who made a real impact on American comics.
Continued belowJust give it a read. Trust me.
Oh, Hopgood drew “Iron Man”? That’s nice.
Back in the 1990’s? Huh, whaddya know.
He designed the armor that debuted in issue #281? Good for him. Now, can we get back to…
Wait a minute…wasn’t that the first appearance of…War Machine?!?!
Got your attention now, didn’t we?
As you’ll find out in this Interrogation, Hopgood’s career neither began nor ended with his work on that issue. You’ll also find out a few interesting things about the financial fallout that creation made on him. Plus the fact that he’s working on a comic about a Roman legion tasked with defending the Empire against occult threats. Plus some strip somewhere called the Man from Minster or Minipax or something like that with rockets, aliens, and garden implements. Sound like something you want to read?
Yep!
Good.
Interrogation: Leah Moore & John Reppion by Karl Stock
You ever wonder what it would be like to grow up with Alan Moore as your father? And end up writing comics for a living? Well wonder no longer, as this Interrogation goes right to the only person who can honestly answer that question: Leah Moore & her husband John Reppion.
But this article will show you one thing above all else: Leah is her own woman and the pair of them are their own creators, working in her father’s shadow only insofar as everyone in the industry is to one degree or another. They already have an impressive body of work built up, and are about to add to that with their upcoming 2000 AD strip “Black Shuck”. Find out more about and a whole bunch of other stuff, including which of her father’s works doesn’t sound like he wrote it to her ears.
VII. MEGAZINE REPRINT
Every month, the droids at 2000 AD find a little something from the back catalog to include with the Megazine. This month is the weirdly comedic Harke and Burr!
Harke and Burr originally ran in the Megazine in 1993-94, written by Si Spencer with art by Dean Ormston. It’s set out in The Cursed Earth and stars a pair of junk dealers named Mr. Harke and Mr Burr. Their adventures are bizarre and include run-ins with mummies, vampires, giant hamsters, giant hamsters who are also vampires, and polite Frankenstein robots.
The art in this comic is fantastic. It’s unconventional and heavy, which plays nicely against the humorous stories and phonetic dialogue. These irreverent, humorous tales are a nice reminder of the breadth of stories that creators are able to tell in the world of Judge Dredd. Setting these stories out in The Cursed Earth immediately gives them a familiar backdrop and tells us a little about who these characters are. The whole collection was a treat to read, and we highly recommend checking it out!
VIII. COMING SOON
Judge Dredd co-creators John Wagner and Carlos Ezquerra getting together for a new Dredd story? We are, not surprisingly, super-hyped for this one, and expect big things!
IX. FUTURE PERP FILES
ATTN: ALL CITIZENS OF THE MEG! Be aware that there is always a Judge watching you. Each sector is equipped with millions of HD-CCTV and bioID units. They are there for your protection. If your intent is upright citizenry, then you have no qualm with our surveillance. And remember: if you see something, you are now an accessory to a crime. That’s six months in an Iso-Cube, creep! Random CPU algorithms has selected this citizen for immediate surveillance and assessment…
That’s gonna do it for us this week! Both 2000 AD Prog 1890 and Judge Dredd Megazine 350 are on sale today and available from finer comic shops everywhere, from 2000ADonline.com, and via the 2000 AD Newsstand app for iPad and iPhone. So as Tharg the Mighty himself would say, “Splundig vur thrigg!”
