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 Megazine, so let’s get right to it!
This week’s cover is by Jake Lynch.
In case you missed it, we spoke with Jake last week and he gave us an exclusive look at the creation of this cover. There’s a good bit of process talk, so if you’re into that (I know we are!), you surely want to check it out.
I. THIS WEEK IN PROG 1895
Judge Dredd: Cascade, Part 2
Things have gotten very interesting.
With the conclusion of this strip (don’t worry, no spoilers!) it seems that Carroll has been playing a long game over his last couple of Dredd stories. We’ll get more into who’s revealed themselves next week, so you have time to go sift through your back Progs (1850-1854 and 1883-1887) and investigate where seeds have been planted.
Another interesting appearance in this week’s strip is Dolman. He’s been assigned by Dredd as an escort to Major Indira Knight. Dolman has spent a lot of time off-planet and only recently returned to The Meg. He’s not a Judge, but he is one of Judge Dredd’s clones. So that’s close enough, right? I mean, he’s almost sorta the grandson of Mega-City One’s first Chief Judge.
You see, the Judicial System was founded by Eustace Fargo, who was cloned to create Judge Joseph Dredd. And also Rico. But not the Judge Rico who’s running around currently; that one is another Joe Dredd clone, I mean Rico Dredd. Confused? Well, this is only the start of Dredd’s wacky family tree. It’s all this cloned craziness that’s got me excited to see Dolman pop up because it means there’s a chance things are going to get pretty screwy.
Credits: Michael Carroll (script), Paul Marshall (art), Gary Caldwell (colors), Annie Parkhouse (letters)
Brass Sun: Floating Worlds, Part 8
Wren and the rest of the bunch are in trouble deep this week. Or trouble ‘Deeps’, as they are stranded on a floating world. Their ship has been taken over and stolen by the Sweet Sisters, and one of their ranks took a gun blast to the chest. Good thing they were on a mission to get gaseous clay, a material with healing powers, right?
Maybe. No one really knows how that stuff works, so it might fix the sucking chest wound or it might not. But it’s definitely not going to let them all grow wings and fly to safety. If only someone had a cunning plan…
Cue Ariel and her old ship, abandoned that last time she was stuck here. Mind you, the ship has seen better days. And is no longer air-worthy. And has most of the original crew still at their posts, as you can see above.
Credits: Ian Edgington (script), INJ Culbard (art), Ellie de Ville (letters)
Aquila: Carnifex, Part 6
Aquila’s quest has brought him into contact with representatives of several pantheons from Roman times. The Egyptian had bone-rending claws. The Jewish one was a straight-up golem. But now he’s calling out Jupiter, aka Zeus, aka the lightning-bolt-throwing head of the Roman/Greek gods. Jupiter doesn’t take kindly to his acolytes being murdered, so he sends Sparky the Gladiator to put Aquila in his place.
While that’s going on, Triscus and company are hiding in the city sewers. We saw a good amount of them in the last Aquila strip, including The Great Mother, a huge female wolf who is one of the original gods of Rome. Chances are we will see her again, I’m pretty sure.
Credits: Gordon Rennie (script), Leigh Gallagher (art), Dylan Teague (colors), Annie Parkhouse (letters)
Black Shuck, Part 5
The parallel narrative continues. Past Shuck finds a new player entering the scene, while Present Shuck has a difference of opinion with his father about the best course of action to lift the curse he just found out he’d inherited from his Viking father’s rash decisions.
Continued belowCredits: Leah Moore & John Reppion (script), Steve Yeowell (art), Chris Blythe (colors), Annie Parkhouse (letters)
Jaegir: Circe, Part 3
The exchange pictured above was an interesting one. Jaegir encounters some young soldiers, really still just kids, off to Nu-Earth to fight for Nordland. They’ve been caught with some sort of illegal narcotics, which seems like something she should frown upon and punish these young troopers for. But look at what she does instead. Jaegir turns to the accused and, instead of reprimanding them, offers advice about the consumption of these narcotics on the field of battle. She speaks as if she’s got the experience to know what she’s talking about.
That wizened experience will betray Jaegir in this strip though, as she acts with anger instead of training. The conclusion of this strip seems like it will show us whether the advice she gave earlier really was from firsthand experience.
Credits: Gordon Rennie (script), Simon Coleby (art), Len O’Grady (colors), Ellie de Ville (letters)
II. THIS WEEK IN JUDGE DREDD MEGAZINE 351
This week’s cover is by Ben Wilsher.
Judge Dredd: Dead Zone, Part 2
Henry. Fucking. Flint. Every time I see his art it surprises me. He’s in this mode right now that’s part Paul Neary on ‘Hunter’ and part ‘Apocalypse War’-era Carlos Ezquerra, but with something new and impossible to define in words. It’s almost like he’s approaching Judge Dredd as a horror comic, with lots of grit and eerie accent colors. I think I can say, without hyperbole, that he’s one of the most-talented artists working in comics today. I know that that’s a big claim, but I’ll be damned if Flint doesn’t have the chops to back it up.
The Radlanders (such an awesome name) camped outside of the Chaos Day memorial continue to excavate the mass graves for buried treasures, even as Judge Dredd sniffs around in the wake of a murder. It seems there’s a lot for him to sort through, but as one character says, “Judge Dredd is very thorough, I’m sure he’ll get to the bottom of it.”
Credits: John Wagner (script), Henry Flint (art), Annie Parkhouse (letters)
Lawless: Welcome to Badrock, Part 2
I knew this strip would be good. With Abnett and Winslade on it there’s no way it wouldn’t be. But it’s even surpassed those high expectations I had going into it.
This second installment sees Colonial Marshall Metta Lawson becoming acquainted with a key figure in Badrock. Lawson made note of the absence of Aldis Brotherly last month when she was greeted coming into town. You see, Brotherly is the head of Munce Inc., which is basically the reason the town is growing the way it is. Munce Inc. runs a crystal mine and employs most of the town’s workforce. But Brotherly’s conversation with Marshall Lawson shows that he doesn’t regard Badrock or his employees very highly.
Duty cuts the conversation short as it calls Lawson away from Brotherly and towards the town’s scrap sheds. Seems there’s a land and property dispute in need of settling, which serves as a vehicle for Abnett to give Lawson some wonderful character moments. This is the type of stuff he does best: the day-to-day minutia of characters living in fantastic times and places. By doing this, he turns otherwise unrelatable scenarios into familiar situations, giving readers small, first-hand accounts of the world the story takes place in.
Credits: Dan Abnett (script), Phil Winslade (art), Ellie de Ville (letters)
The Man From The Ministry: Part 4
So we’ve seen Henry Morningside doing his best to keep The Green and Pleasant Land green and pleasant in the face of invaders from space. We’ve seen him do it with weapons and tools one step up from World War I-surplus gear, and we’ve seen him do it without complaint. Well, without much complaint. But when the Slithoks invade the Ministry’s secret base located beneath an abandoned 1960’s film studio (i.e. Hammer Studios), Morningside finally gets to do his job with something other than a pop gun and some dynamite. As Rocket Raccoon might say, “Oh. Yeah.”
Continued belowAnd on the topic of Slithoks, you don’t need to know anything about their backstory other than the fact that Hopgood comes up with a really simple-but-great design for them. If DC ever needs a re-design on Starro and his conquered minions, they would do worse than taking a cue or two from the Slithoks. Strong star design with the added bonus of a balance between being just humanoid enough to be relatable, but just alien enough to have a head that unfolds into a frickin-laser-beam-shooting star pattern.
While Morningside vents his frustrations, we find out some more about the Quatermain family (both Professor Edward and granddaughter Sally) and the newly returned Guy Britton.
Credits: Gordon Rennie (script), Kev Hopgood (art), Simon Bowland (letters)
Dredd: Uprise, Part 2
The next story set in the Dredd movie-verse continues!
The Oemling Corporation is building a low-occupancy, high-amenity mega-block in The Spit, one of the worst areas of Mega-City One. It essentially amounts to a gated community right in the middle of a ghetto. And with the rest of the Meg jammed to the gills with people on top of people on top of people, the residents of The Spit aren’t taking too kindly to this monolith of upper-class privilege being dropped in their backyard. But I’m sure their frustrations can be accommodated peacefully, and that no one would even think of taking advantage of their outrage.
Absolutely sure of it.
No way that could happen.
Ever.
Would it be a spoiler to say that it happens? Didn’t think so.
But more shocking than that is the fact I think I spotted a smile on Dredd’s face in this issue. Now, I don’t want to get your hopes up and make you think we get to see Joe Dredd’s pearly whites or anything. But there is a decidedly non-frown on that famous mug. Something bad happens (surprise); Dredd gets an assessment over his commlink, but when Judge Conti offers a differing opinion that Dredd can tell came from actual observation and deduction, the chiseled features soften just a tad. Which is good, because the rookie really hadn’t been performing all that well up until now. Might have bought herself a few more years on the force with that one. If she survives the story, that is.
Credits: Arthur Wyatt (script), Paul Davidson (art), Chris Blythe (colors), Simon Bowland (letters)
III. 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: Guy Adams by Karl Stock
We’ve been covering “2000 AD” comics for about as long as Guy Adams has been writing them, so it’s exciting to see him get this kind of spotlight. This piece interviews the writer about not only his Prog work, but also his prose writing, work habits, and how he ‘broke in’ to comics (spoilers: he just asked Matt Smith). The interview almost gives the impression that Adams found his way into comics like Mr. Magoo finds his way through construction sites: it just kinda happened.
I was more than a little bummed to read Matt Smith’s feelings on the viability of a new Rogue Trooper series.
…says Adams. ‘I ended up speaking to a mate who I hadn’t met in years, I told him I was writing for 2000 AD and he said, “You have to do Rogue Trooper because we used to play the boardgame together.” So I asked if I could do it and Matt said no, that the character might have had his day.’
Hopefully that idea changes soon. Between Adams’ Rogue Trooper strip in the Summer Special and the ‘Jaegir’ strip returning to the weekly mag, I’m feeling pretty primed for some new tales from Nu-Earth.
Continued belowThere’s also a little bit of talk about Goldtiger, the faux-reprint comic Adams’ and artist Jimmy Broxton successfully Kickstarted. It looks great, and the premise sounds pretty solid.
Interrogation: Neil Roberts by Matthew Badham
Artist Neil Roberts has done exactly one strip for “2000 AD”. So why is he getting the spotlight? Because he’s also done a lot of Prog covers, as well as worked extensively with “2000 AD” mainstay Dan Abnett on the covers for his “Warhammer 40,000” novels as well as the graphic novel ‘Macragge’s Honor’ set in that universe. Also, look at the guy’s work. That’s why he’s getting the spotlight.
Badham makes sure to ask the cover guru what he thinks makes a killer cover, something I’m sure creators on either side of the pond would do well to keep in mind.
Obviously, a cover’s job is to entice people and, hopefully, persuade them to pick a comic up. You need an image that is going to grab potential readers with its wow factor or make them speculate about what’s happening inside the comic, or, in a perfect world, do both.
And while his Prog interiors have been limited to a single ‘Chrono Cabbie’ strip, don’t rule out a return to the Progs just yet. Badham makes sure to ask Roberts what conditions would have to be to get him to do something other than covers, and gets an answer. All that, how much lens flare is too much lens flare (a question someone should ask JJ Abrams), and a lot more in this interrogation.
New Comics: Anderson, PSI Division by Karl Stock
It’s finally here! We’ve ran interviews about it and gave you all an exclusive sneak peek, and now the new IDW series Anderson Psi-Division is here! This article talks to “2000 AD” EIC and series writer Matt Smith and artist Carl Critchlow about what it was like creating this new series for Judge Dredd’s US publisher.
The first issue hit stands last week.
IV. 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 “Valkyries” by Steve Moore and John Lucas!
This month’s Megazine reprint is in tribute to the late Steve Moore, who died earlier this year. Steve wrote for “2000 AD” since the 70s and is credited with writing the first-ever ‘Future Shock’, back in Prog 25. To celebrate his life and career, Tharg and his archive droids have assembled a collection of some of Steve’s work.
The last story Steve told in the pages of “2000 AD” was ‘Valkyries’, which ran back in 2004. Teamed with John Lucas on art, Len O’Grady on colors, and Ellie De Ville on letters, ‘Valkyries’ is part sci-fi adventure, part Norse myth, and all cheesecake. In addition to lots of ladies, the blending ancient architecture and stylized spacecraft gives Lucas’ art plenty of room to shine. This strip teeters between action and comedy and is a lot of fun to read.
To round out this collection, we have a pair of Moore’s ‘Future Shocks’ from the early 80s. The first has art by Mike White (pictured above) and the second features Alan Langford.
V. ARTIST AUGUST: 2000 AD EDITION
Multiversity is currently running Artist August, a showcase of the graphics side of comics and the men & women who bring life to the writer’s words and their own ideas through pencil, ink, color, pixel, or any combination of those elements. I thought that was a fantastic idea and wanted to play along, so without further ado, let the showcasing begin!
Colin McNeil has had quite the career as a 2000 AD art droid. When PR droid Molch-R reached out to us about spotlighting Jake Lynch’s cover for this week’s Prog, he couched it in terms of Lynch’s work having a real Colin MacNeil vibe. And we certainly agree. We’ll get to his Dredd work in a second, but let’s take a look at some of the other parts first.
Continued belowMacNeil started with the Progs in the late 1980’s on strips like ‘Future Shocks’ and ‘Strontium Dog’. Already we’re seeing the textured, painterly style in use.
Like every artist who picks up a pencil (or stylus nowadays), MacNeil had a Batman story in him, So with the help of Abnett and then-partner Andy Lanning, MacNeil got to flex a little artistic muscle on a character his normal subject would have absolutely no use for.
It’s interesting to note that MacNeil didn’t keep that style for the interiors. Most likely as a way to save time, but it shows that he isn’t a one-trick pony. Composing full-page static images is one thing, and certainly not something anyone can do. But being able to do that AND interiors is the hallmark of a versatile comics artist, which MacNeil most certainly is.
He teamed up with writer James Robinson for this Marvel one-shot, released in the wake of the hugely successful “Marvels” by Busiek and Ross. Definitely hitting that Chris Moeller-vibe here, along with other influences.
While all that was going on, MacNeil continued his 2000 AD work, inside and out. Here is an interior page from Prog 1178 on the strip ‘Missionary Man’ with ‘Aquila’/’The Man From The Ministry’ writer Gordon Rennie.
But where’s the Dredd, you ask? Well, here it comes. First off? Space Dredd. Tharg wanted to bring some of that “Warhammer 40,000” energy over to the Megazine, so he tapped Dan “I’m everywhere all at once” Abnett to do the honors. Abnett brought in MacNeil, and voila!
MacNeil continues to draw for the Progs to this day. His last appearance was earlier this month in the ‘A Night in Sylvia Plath’ strip. One of the things I liked about that work and the way his art style has evolved is that he’s adapted to the new tools available to him without losing his ‘voice’. If you compare these samples to his earlier interior work above, the line quality has become thicker and more deliberate over the years. Adding to that his use of digital coloring to enhance that approach and you get work even bolder and more primary than it’s ever been.
But Tharg would send the hit-droids after me if I didn’t mention what has to be, even more than 20 years later, a career highlight for MacNeil: his work on the ‘America’ strip with John Wagner. Running in the first seven issues of “Judge Dredd Megazine”, this story is cited by many fans as the best Dredd story ever.
We’ve talked about it here in Multiver-City One, we’ve heard it from creators we’ve talked to; it’s like the “Dark Phoenix Saga” of Dredd in that nothing was ever really the same since. And while a lot of that has to do with co-creator Wagner steering the ship, MacNeil completely matches him in terms of pulling off a story that is ominous and heart-wrenching.
If you haven’t already, you can hear Karl Urban read the opening monologue from the strip in-character here.
VI. 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 1895 and Judge Dredd Megazine 351 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!”
