Multiver-City One: 2000 AD Prog 1930

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 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. 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 1930

Cover by Simon Davis

Judge Dredd: Breaking Bud, Part 2

Wagner laid the foundation last week, introducing us to Bud Biggard and doing well to give us a through understanding of his hardships. It was a clear statement on the relationship between bosses and workers, and an examination of wealth disparity in the Western world. Now that the stakes and motivation have been explained, we can start getting into the sci-fi madness!

Bud’s got a plan, and now that he’s acquired the bracelet there’s no stopping him. He’s moving quickly and working alone, which probably gives him an advantage over Judge Dredd. Speaking of Dredd, we don’t see too much of him this week, but when he turns up he’s mostly got his hand firmly on his chin. That means he’s in detective mode! I love seeing Judge Dredd the super-cop having to slow down and go digging through closets and garbage cans. Everything about his appearance gives the reader the impression that he’s just not physically meant to do this sort of thing, yet here we are. The best part of his time on page was him picking up a single strand of hair with those thick leather gloves on. Comics!

Richard Elson made a strong showing last week, but this week he really seems to be in a groove. Between Dredd the Thinker and Bud coming more and more unhinged, his sense of acting and how these characters would carry themselves really shines through. And he’s got a real knack for invisible mad violence!

Credits: John Wagner (script), Richard Elson (art), Ellie de Ville (letters)

Sláine: Primordial, Part 7

As you can see, Sláine is deciding to waste zero time trying to dissuade the Trojans from their pursuit of him and Sinead with words or logic, but rather just let his axe do the convincing instead and just leave the talk to such cool finishing smack talk as “I am the carrion maker!”. And oh, does it make quite the argument this week!

This week is a little light on plot and heavy on action, but that just gives Simon Davis more to play with. His color choices are their usual spot-on decisions (the bright red blood popping out ever so well against the green foliage). He also does something interesting with layout in this installment as well.

Davis breaks this week’s story into six pages of three equal vertical panels each. No deviation at all; no smaller panels, no insets, nothing. Obviously this wasn’t done by accident (either by Davis, or possibly a suggestion from Mills), so why do it? It could be to more closely mimic the environment the Trojans find themselves in; claustrophobic with large tree trunks giving everything a narrow field of view. You’d want to get a wider view and get some bearings, but the trees are like blinders. You can’t see that Sláine’s already given your buddy the axe and he’s dropping down from one of those trees Rambo-style to do the same to you. Panel composition as tension enhancement.

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Credits: Pat Mills (script), Simon Davis (art), Ellie de Ville (letters)

Grey Area: Locked In, Part 4

Looks like Bulliet, Birdy, and (most of) the rest of the ECT squad have cobbled together a plan for how to survive the impending God-Star attack. It seems simple enough:

1) Find the meanest alien you can,
2) Insult them by saying that you overcame their greatest shame,
3) Be cool,
4) ????
5) Profit!

Abnett’s handling of the English-to-some-alien-language translations are great. The approximations and equivocations that would naturally have to be there are all present and accounted for. I particularly enjoy seeing how the profanity, which so seldom matches up in Earth-bound languages, has to be considered for languages born light years apart. It’s often the case that Abnett is praised for his big-thinking and approach to science fiction, but less often do we hear about his humor. I guess that’s because he doesn’t set out to tell jokes, and instead treats humor the same way he treats drama: subtly. The magic is in the nuances and the beats that fall between the larger, more obvious notes.

Credits: Dan Abnett (script), Mark Harrison (art), Annie Parkhouse (letters)

Terror Tales: Phase Shift

Writer CB Harvey makes his first 2000 AD appearance with the four-page ‘Phase Shift.’ It’s a tale of mad science and all manner of cruelty that packs as much information into each page as possible. I mean, it has to, right? There’s a whole story to tell and just a few pages with which to do it!

This “Terror Tale” moves at breakneck speed. From the first panel to the last we’re given a story in full stride; there’s no warm-up or fall-out to be found. As is the nature of such a short strip, there’s a lot of context and exposition given to flesh out these characters and their surroundings. It’s easy to do that sort of explaining in a ham-fisted way, but Harvey is pretty clever about it. I particularly enjoyed how the cabbie commenting on how proud our main character’s mother must be was used to concisely convey that this is a person who has accomplished a lot in life.

Artist David Hitchcock plays a huge part in how well This story reads. He had a lot to cram in, and did it without ever losing readability or sacrificing storytelling. When space is so scarce, it’s up to the artist to communicate all that the writer cannot. Hitchcock, in his textured, graphite art, works well with Harvey and helps make this strip a success. It’s no small wonder, the last time we saw him was when he provided art for a Pat Mills ‘Visible Man’ tale back in Prog 2015.

All in all, this was a fun little strip that left me looking forward to seeing more work from these two creators.

Credits: C. B. Harvey (script), David Hitchcock (art), Ellie de Ville (letters)

Strontium Dog: The Stix Fix, Part 7

Having tracked the head-of-state-nabbing Stix Brothers to this hollowed out floating hive of villainy & scum, Johnny had to not only get on board, but be able to move around unhindered. That meant making an early appointment with the crimelord who runs the place, Jabba…err Limax. Johnny manages to avoid Limax’s double-cross through the use of his x-Ray vision (those dilated pupils ain’t Hy’s for show, you know), and gains access to the station.

We get to see more of Johnny doing his bounty hunter thing, including quipping against some former jobs who recognize him and don’t take too kindly to that fact. But one thing that just struck me about Johnny, particular seeing him in this element, is how much he reminds me to Tommy Monaghan from Garth Ennis’ “Hitman” series. They aren’t identical by any means, but that earlier x-Ray gaze trick with Limax totally felt like a Tommy move. And Garth, being Irish, grew up with “2000 AD” even before he came to write for it and even write Johnny Alpha in the ‘Judgement Day’ crossover with Dredd (drawn by series artist Carlos Ezquerra).

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Huh, now I’m curious to see if anyone else noticed a connection!

Credits: John Wagner (script), Carlos Ezquerra (art), Simon Bowland (letters)

III. GOODBYE TO PYE-01

As this column was going to press, we learned that Prog 1930 would be the final one for designer Simon Parr (aka design-drone PYE-01). For the better part of 13 years, since Prog 1289 (and since 1406 as head designer), Parr has been keeping the Galaxy’s Greatest Thrill-Zine, its Mega-City monthly companion, and various other 2000 AD-related items and goodies looking like the beacons of Thrill-Power that they are, so that you don’t even need to be able to put into words what it is, you can recognize it simply by sight. As much as all of the art-droids have been a part of that equation, so has Parr since 2002. He will be leaving the Nerve Center for the life of a freelancer, so we here at Multiver-City One wish him all the best in his future endeavors; we’ll be able to spot them from across the room because they will be the best-designed books on the shelf.

Always one to push on in the face of adversity, Tharg himself stepped in to handle interim design duties for next week’s Prog while another design-drone is found. We were able to catch a glimpse of Tharg’s work-in-progress for that Prog’s cover: