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.
This week’s Prog is a PERFECT jumping-on point for new readers because every strip inside starts a new storyline! And to make it even easier, Tharg has commissioned a background page for each strip to bring new readers completely up to speed before reading. It has literally never been easier to start reading “2000 AD”! We’ll jump right in to the goodies after a quick public service announcement!
I. AN EARTHLET’S GUIDE TO 2000 AD
Prog 1924 is an excellent place to start your 2000 AD adventure. But what do you do after that? We understand 2000 AD’s huge back catalog can make knowing which Thrills are right for you out of over 38 years of continuous publishing daunting, to say the least. 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 even like Judge Dredd? (Absolutely!)
To help new & potential readers make an informed decision on the best way they can partake of the Thrills, 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 1924
Judge Dredd: Enceladus – New Life, Part 1
Starting with last year’s Prog 2014 and rolling right on into the weekly “2000 AD”, Rob Williams and Henry Flint came together to tell one of the greatest Judge Dredd stories in recent history: ‘Titan’. If you’re new to either the pages of “2000 AD” or this column, we covered each chapter of that epic here: part one, part two, part three, part four, part five, part six, part seven, and part eight. In brief, after communication between Mega-City One and the Judge’s prison on the Saturn moon of Titan went dark, Judge Dredd was tasked with traveling to the distant moon with a team of Space Marines and investigating. Dredd discovers that Titan was a worst-case scenerio and that, despite careful planning, no one was adequately prepared to handle the situation. After surprise appearances from former Wally Squad Judge Aimee Nixon and Former Chief Judge Sinfield, it seemed as if this could finally be Judge Dredd’s undoing. In the end, all parties barely evaded doom. Dredd would be rescued and returned to Earth, while Nixon and several hundred former Judges would escape to an environment even more hostile to human life than Titan: the even-smaller moon Enceladus. ‘Titan’ was a story rich with blasts from the pasts and an emphasis on an aging Dredd.
The art on ‘Enceladus’ is just as astounding as the art on ‘Titan’. Henry Flint is, in my mind, one of the best artists working in comics today and one of 2000 AD’s brightest stars. His linework is bold and heavy enough to make you feel every ounce of a Judge’s uniform and the complete depth of Dredd’s frown lines. Picturing a cross between Apocalypse War-era Carlos Ezquerra and Keith Giffen’s Trencher will give you an approximate idea of his line. Flint’s also a hell of a colorist. His palettes and textures give the art an earthy grit, like everything in sight is covered in soot and rust. To give the pages depth he throws in accents of deep reds or sickly greens and yellows. I can’t think of anyone who uses color quite like he does.
Williams uses this first chapter to establish a baseline status quo. The prison on Titan is being rebuilt, the Enceladus refugees are presumed dead, there’s an unidentified ship over Titan, and there’s something up with Judge Dredd. And I’m not trying to be coy and dance around spoilers, it’s just that this first chapter leaves a lot of question marks. There are ideas being seeded here that will begin to sprout over the next two months.
Continued belowAs with ‘Titan’. the way the pacing and art of ‘Enceladus’ mingle with one another gives this story quite an eerie feeling. Even though we’re dealing with a lot of big science-fiction ideas, I can’t help but feel like these are clearly horror stories. The most vivid memory I have of ‘Titan’ is the space debris scene, and if that wouldn’t be labeled ‘horror/suspense’ I don’t know what would.
Credits: Rob Williams (script), Henry Flint (art), Ellie de Ville (letters)
Sláine: Primordial, Part 1
So while every strip in this issue is designed for new readers to be able to jump right on in, some of them are actually picking up right where we last left these characters. In Sláine’s case, we find him still rescuing Sinead from the Drune Lords. Although, really, how much rescuing can you actually accomplish on your hands and knees waiting for the captor to come over and decapitate you? For Sinead’s sake, that better be part of a pretty cunning and about-to-be-sprung plan, Sláine.
Thankfully in the case of ‘Primordial’, we’re also picking up where we left off with the same creative team as well. So Simon Davis is back at the drawing board for this one and I can say that it’s a true pleasure having him back. Yes, I’ll have to come up with new ways of saying “That’s awesome!” and all that, but really? Small price to pay. Davis isn’t even more than five pages into ‘Primordial’ and he’s already brought out a visual trick I saw and raved about back in Prog 1883, so I know that for all his wonderfully naturalistic portraiture in these panels, we’re definitely in for some barbarian savagery that comes with the territory for Sláine.
And for those of who just coming in, with Pat Mills writing it, that’s not just your average Conan/REH-knockoff savagery. It’s some bizarre, hysterical, mind-altering druidic, skull-crunching, torso-cleaving badassery. With face-paint, because that’s how they do it over in Tir Na Nog.
Credits: Pat Mills (script), Simon Davis (art), Ellie de Ville (letters)
Grey Area: Another Day On The Job, Part 1
‘Grey Area’ takes place in an intergalactic customs and immigration office. If this is your first time reading this story, but are familiar with Dan Abnett’s work, then you know that this is surely going to an interesting tale!
When last we saw Bulliet and the rest of his ECT squad, they had just detonated a massive nuclear bomb that seemed to have killed not only God, but themselves as well. Well, it wasn’t GOD God, or even A god. It was more like a giant spaceship that released empathic pulses to make people believe it was God. However you want to slice it, bomb went boom, the skies became clear, and our cast had seemingly given their own lives to save the world. That was June 29, 2045.
‘Another Day on the Job’ opens one month later and we’re back in the Grey Area. Or, more accurately, A Grey Area. Nothing seems familiar. Yes, there are Exo-Control agents and plenty of aliens, but it’s all… different. Add to that the arrival of some seemingly unexpected visitors, which is par for the course for ‘Grey Area’, and just like that, everything we previously knew about the strip has been upended.
‘Grey Area’ has used a few different artists so far, but I’m most excited by Mark Harrison’s interpretation of this place and its transient inhabitants. He puts down such bold lines and can get so gestural with his figure work, but doesn’t shy away from putting a finer point on things and render out details when they’re needed. Harrison also uses color to flesh out scenes and landscapes, relying on texture and lighting to build upon the framework that his linework puts in place.
And shout out to Annie Parkhouse for a neat lettering trick. She used tiny sound effects to give readers the sense of a constant murmuring amongst the herds of travelers in this Grey Zone. It perfectly conveyed what it needed to without becoming intrusive; well done!
Credits: Dan Abnett (script), Mark Harrison (art), Annie Parkhouse (letters)
Continued below
Orlok, Agent of East-Meg One: The Rasputin Caper, Part 1
It’s easy to forget that a place like Oz exists in Judge Dredd’s world. Centered on what is currently known as Sydney, Oz seems to be about as nice as a Mega City can get. I mean, you can swim in the ocean! It’s this sunny spot on earth that Orlok finds himself at the opening of ‘The Rasputin Caper’. After bearing witness to an unfortunate ‘accident’, the covert East-Meg One agent believes that he’s ready to leave this sun-drenced foreign land. It’s here that Orlok is slipped a note informing him of a second Down Under objective, and our story begins.
If the previous Orlok stories felt like Arthur Wyatt was dancing between the raindrops of continuity, then I’d say that he’s gone full Fred Astaire with ‘The Rasputin Caper’. He packs more story seeds, clues, and plain old fan service in the first five-page chapter than a lot of writers could muster for an entire issue. Between the location, Orlok’s target, and a number of surprise appearances, Wyatt has given us a lot of research to do for next week’s column!
Then there’s Jake Lynch, whose art has grown by leaps and bounds in the last year and a half. Don’t get me wrong, the guy’s never been a slouch, but he’s been doing something special with these Orlok strips. There’s an immediacy to his line that gives the story an incredibly lively, kinetic feel. And his use of screentone gives the pages a depth and texture that I love. Couple his art with a cunning sense of page design and it all makes for some solid storytelling.
Credits: Arthur Wyatt (script), Jake Lynch (art), Ellie de Ville (letters)
Strontium Dog: The Stix Fix, Part 1
Strontium Dog? More like Strontium Cat with all the lives Johnny Alpha seems to have at his disposal. And for those of you just joining us, I’m not talking about Eyeballs Magee getting shot in the face up there. He’s just another mutant byproduct of all the Strontium 90 left over from previous wars. Nope, I’m talking about bounty hunter and all-around badass Johnny Alpha, the man with the X-ray eyes and no concept of death unless it’s delivering it to other people.
Or so we thought. When we met up with Johnny in ‘The Stix Fix’, it turns out that he is ready to shuffle off this mortal coil. Again.
Johnny was miraculously found not dead after blowing up Parliament in the last series, and has been revived and rejuvenated in prison when the realities of a public execution for his crimes became too politically damaging for his captors. But someone has gone missing. Someone important to maintaining the stability of the world Johnny no longer wants a part of. Someone needs to be found, so Johnny is made an offer even he can’t refuse.
I’m actually a very late comer to Strontium Dog myself. This series feels like its an attempt by Wagner and Ezquerra to try and steer the strip back to what made it popular back in its heyday, now that the last series did its job of tying up loose ends from Johnny’s most recent resurrection. Not to say that ‘The Life & Death of Johnny Alpha’ wasn’t fun, because I guarantee you it was; just that you can only patch-up past mistakes for so long before readers get anxious for some forward movement, which it looks like we’re going to start getting here.
Credits: John Wagner (script), Carlos Ezquerra (art), Simon Bowland (letters)
III. OF INTEREST
In case you missed it, we think you’d definitely be interested in reading our talk with writer Dan Abnett on his return to ‘Grey Area’!
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?
Continued belowWhen the penal colony Mega-City One created for its wayward Judges was destroyed, the Justice Department had to act quickly to the off-world penitentiary rebuilt. To see that this monumental task was quickly completed, the world’s largest Mega-City had to ask for assistance from friendly cities. This week we’re looking at the garb of a Brit-Cit Space Engineer Judge!
Features of a Brit-Cit Space Engineer Judge:
- Synthi-glass helmet
- Full body space armor with life-support, personal atmosphere, vital systems monitoring, short and long-range communications array and waste management system
- Lion head shoulder pad (right)
- Ridged shoulder pad (left)
- Chest-mounted ‘black box’
- Plaz-rifle
- All-terrain elbow pads
- Union Jack shield with Judge’s surname
- Utility belt with zero-atmosphere compartmental storage
- Union Jack belt buckle
- All-terrain knee pads
- All-terrain off-world boots with surface cling™
That’s gonna do it for us this week! “2000 AD” Prog 1924 is on sale today and available from:
- The 2000 AD Newsstand app for iPad and iPhone,
- The 2000 AD app for Android devices,
- 2000ADonline.com in print or DRM-free PDF and CBZ formats,
- Select US newsstands, and
- Finer comic shops everywhere
So as Tharg the Mighty himself would say, “Splundig vur thrigg!”
