Multiver-City One: 2000 AD Prog 1917

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 this 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 1917

Cover by Jake Lynch

NOW DEPARTING

Orlok, Agent of East-Meg One: Eurozoned, Part 6

Jake Lynch closes out “Orlok” in a big way, as he turns in not just a fantastic-looking strip, but also this week’s cover. If there was ever a perfect example of the range Lynch is capable of, it’s this issue. His sequential work is black and white, harkening back to “2000 AD”‘s golden age. He leans on screentone and hard lighting to make this strip feel as unique as it is exciting. Then compare that to his cover work, which is painted and in full color. Unlike his interiors, there is not a contour line in sight; instead, this painterly approach uses light and color value to give objects shape and dimension. Lynch is a chameleon with immense talent, and only just begun to show us what he’s capable of.

The last few weeks of “Orlok” have been building the story’s tension, and this installment sees all the plot threads being pulled in tight and tied into a neat little bow. Arthur Wyatt expertly wove seemingly disparate events in Orlok’s life together to reveal the covert agent’s much, much larger objective. This story has done wonders for this seemingly fringe, but enormously important, Dredd-verse character.

With all of the US-formatted issues 2000 AD has been turning out over the last few months, I’d like to imagine that “Orlok, Agent of East-Meg One” would be an obvious and welcome addition to that publishing line. I hope that the next time Orlok surfaces it will be with Wyatt and Lynch at the helm.

Credits: Arthur Wyatt (script), Jake Lynch (art), Simon Bowland (letters)

Ulysses Sweet, Maniac For Hire: Psycho Therapist, Part 7

Remember last week, when talked about how hard Guy Adams and Paul Marshall were comic booking on this strip? Well, if that two-page spread isn’t a prime example of how much fun these guys were having putting together this strip, I don’t know what is.

Adams and Marshall really pushed this story to the limits of what can possibly considered suitable for print. Between the rubber bodysuit, crucified assassins, and violence against children and the elderly, this strip became more and more indecent with every turn of the page. And I loved every second of it!

This second Ulysses Sweet story saw Adams and Marshall find a groove, and I just don’t mean narratively. These creators seem to be working as one, finishing each other’s jokes and embellishing one another’s gags. But it wasn’t all fun and games. A couple of weeks back we caught a glimpse of a much darker, far stranger Ulysses Sweet than we’ve seen thus far. There was a brief moment where readers were shown that maybe “Ulysses Sweet” isn’t as much of a surface read as it may have seemed at first.

With the successes Adams and Marshall have seen with this story, I have no doubt that we will have to wait very long for the strip to return.

Continued below

Credits: Guy Adams (script), Paul Marshall (art), Chris Blythe (tones), Ellie de Ville (letters)

Judge Dredd: Dark Justice, Part 7

There’s a war on now, and it looks like both sides can expect heavy losses. Judge Death has lured Dredd and Anderson far away from Mega-City One, putting the vacuum of space between them and any sort of support. If Dredd were even capable of calling for back-up, it’d be nearly two weeks before reinforcements would arrive. So it’s up to Dredd and Anderson to make a stand. Either they stop The Dark Judges right here and now, or they die trying.

I’m of two very different minds in terms of what I think is reasonable to expect from this strip. The long-term superhero fan in me thinks, “well, of course Dredd is going to win the day. It’s his story, after all!” But then I think about John Wagner, and I start to feel like maybe Dredd won’t walk away from this. Or worse yet, Anderson. Over the last few years, it’s felt more and more like Judge Dredd has been flirting with death. Now, this week, we see him fist-fighting with it!

Credits: John Wagner (script), Greg Staples (art), Annie Parkhouse (letters)

Savage (Book 9): Grinders, Part 7

The Volgans have surrendered. Britain is finally out from under their rule and looking to move forward for the first time in over a decade. So why is it that things seem more complicated than ever? Pat Mills certainly does a good job of keeping several different plates spinning at once in terms of conflicting agendas, even among “allies”.

You’ve got newly returned Jack Savage, supposedly aligned with the Grinders to use them as a human-controlled counterpoint to the robotic Hammersteins and drones making life-or-death decisions about the populace they supposedly guard (but it turns out he’s a Volgan agent). Then there’s the two Quartz brothers; one is basically a cross between Tony Stark without the armor & Richard Branson without the British citizenship, while the other is the President of the United States. They sent the Hammersteins/drones to Britain in aid of Bill Savage and the resistance, but aren’t too keen on that country’s desire to go full-on democracy rather than a return to constitutional monarchy.

And then there’s Bill, the one guy who’s seen it all and just refuses to quit. He doesn’t like the robots either, and would love for things to go right back to pre-Invasion status. But does that make him trust either the Americans or his conveniently not-dead brother Jack? Not on his life, which everyone seems looking to end before its time in this series…

Credits: Pat Mills (script), Patrick Goddard (art), Ellie de Ville (letters)

The Order, Part 7

Can you remember the last time worms showing up in science fiction were a good thing? Maybe in Dune? Yes, they’re part of the cycle of creating the spice that allows interstellar travel and all that, but (1) look at all the trouble that causes, and (2) the sandworms themselves just crash into everything and break things. They certainly aren’t in Tremors or in Wrath of Khan. And I know they were actually called ‘eels’ in that movie, but close enough for the purposes of my point here today. Worms? Not good.

Wyrms, in the other hand…aren’t really something you want showing up either. Wyrm is basically another name for a dragon, and nine times out of ten those are more trouble than they’re worth. But Kek-W and John Burns have been building up the arrival of wurms from beyond space and the catastrophic effect that would have on our reality. No hiding on a rock or in an ornithopter to get away from these bad boys; if they show up, we are screwed.

Luckily we have a fierce young maiden warrior, two retiree-aged ex-fighters, A powder-snorting inventor who can see things no one else can, and a robot knight on our side to keep that from happened. And just in case you don’t think gets enough, be advised that they are, as you can see above, packing heat!

Continued below

Credits: Kek-W (script), John Burns (art), Annie Parkhouse (letters)

III. OF INTEREST

First it was a website. Then an iOS app, followed by an Android one. Now, Tharg’s latest digital venture to spread the word of and about Thrill-Power is here: the 2000 AD Thrill-Cast!

Hosted by Michael Molcher in his official capacity as PR-Droid Molch-R, the Thrill-Cast is a fortnightly (or bi-weekly, depending on what side of the Atlantic you call home) podcast bringing you insight on all manner of things 2000 AD. The first half-dozen or so episodes will focus primarily on Judge Dredd books, to coincide with the first few releases of the Mega-Collection that we mentioned here a few weeks ago. But after that, the net gets cast farther and wider to snag other Thrill-powerful topics.

But in case you feel like waiting until then, think again! Molcher wastes no time and lines up a discussion of the pivotal Judge Dredd story ‘America’ for the first episode. Who does he have on tap to have that discussion with? Judge Dredd historian/writer Douglas Wolk and the artist of ‘America’ himself, Colin MacNeil! Definitely worth listening to, although there are spoilers dropped towards the second half of the episode. So do yourself a favor and read the story before listening to get the full effect!

After that, Molcher talks with main editor Matt Smith and designer Simon Pye about the Mega-Collection in episode two. They go into detail about why certain stories were chosen, how the unified trade look was decided, and a whole lot more.

So don’t wait another second! (Well, don’t wait another second after you finish the column!) Subscribe to the 2000 AD Thrill-Cast today!

IV. RECOGNIZE 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?

Cal-Hab (short for Caledonian Habitat) is the area we know today as Scotland. Although still under Brit-Cit rule, Cal-Hab has its own force of Judges. The Cal-Hab Judge uniforms, while sharing several of the same elements as those worn by Brit-Cit Judges, is distinctly and instantly recognizable as its own.

Elements of a Cal-Hab Judge’s uniform: