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. This FAQ collects everything you need to make your initial foray into the 2000 AD Thrill-verse as simple as possible.
II. THIS WEEK IN PROG 1937
NOW ARRIVING
Jaegir: Tartarus, Part 1
Gordon Rennie pulls double-duty this week as he returns to ‘Jaegir’ with series artist Simon Coleby. If this is your first exposure to this strip, the series’ lead is Atalia Jaegir, a Kapiten-Inspector for the Nordland State Security Police. You may know the Nordlanders as the eternal enemy of the Nu Earth Southers, as seen in the pages of the “2000 AD” staple ‘Rogue Trooper.’ Jaegir works for the Office of Public Truth, a division tasked with policing the Nordland army as they fight their vicious war against the Southers. Her duties, which involve seeking out and punishing those committing war crimes in the name of their homeland, have often earned her the ire of those in power, so it’s fortunate for Jaegir that her father’s specter looms large, although she wants nothing more than to get out from under his shadow and questionable legacy.
This new story opens in a peculiar way, with Jaegir and her team bearing the insignia of the Nu Earth Southers! To complicate things further, it seems they’re being hunted by a fellow Nortlander. But this is no ordinary Nort, however; it seems that he may be suffering the effects of Strigol, or worse, turned into a Souther Genetic Infantryman! After this reveal, Rennie turns back the clock and takes us to the beginning of this mission. We see Jaegir wearing her Nort insignia here, so finding out how she winds up at the opening of this strip will be a journey we take over the next few weeks.
We’ve sung Simon Coleby’s praises plenty of times in the past, often for his work on this very series. He’s so perfectly suited for this story that every time I see a new installment pop up, I hold my breath until I see his name in the credits. Coleby’s rock solid on everything I’ve seen him attached to, but what he does in this world is magic. His use of spot black and hatching makes everyone seem so worn down by their duties, and every environment foreboding. Plus, we get to see hovercrafts, European-style castles, and dinosaurs all in one strip!
Credits: Gordon Rennie (script), Simon Coleby (art), Len O’Grady (color), Ellie De Ville (letters)
Judge Dredd: Blood of Emeralds, Part 4
I love that Judge Dredd is running around in his stocking-ed feet through this week’s opening sequence. It’s never called out, but last we saw his iconic green boots they were sitting on Judge Joyce’s mother’s front steps. Doubt he had time to slip back into them during all the excitement…
It was pretty plain to see going into this story that there were revelations regarding Judge Joyce and his late father to be had. While writer Michael Carroll has been hinting and nudging at them so far, this week opens up a wider view of things. In just a few short pages, Carroll flips everything we knew about the Joyces and The Emerald Isle upside down. Secrets and conspiracy abound!
Continued belowCarroll’s playing this one well, and it feels like he’s setting Joyce up to be a character with more depth than we’ve seen previously. There’s a moment in this week’s strip where you see him turn that last corner, fully embracing what it means to be a Mega-City One Judge and leaving behind the vestiges of his native country’s more provincial attitude towards law enforcement. When Joyce does return to his adopted home, I get the feeling he’ll be bringing a new outlook and focus with him. That is to say, if he returns home.
Credits: Michael Carroll (script), Colin MacNeil (art), Chris Blythe (colors), Ellie de Ville (letters)
Outlier: Dark Symmetries, Part 3
Why do we do things we know have an excellent chance of coming back to bite us in the ass? In fiction, a common explanation is that if said thing doesn’t happen, then there is no story. It’s the biting in the ass that we, as readers, are waiting for. The trick to keeping the audience engaged is that you eliminate as many other options as possible so they aren’t thinking of all the other things the characters SHOULD be doing, but rather hoping that the eventual ass bite they know is coming isn’t too devastating.
So Carcer is a detective that has Hurde technology implanted in him. There’s a Hurde ship that needs investigating. The government obviously wants that ship searched by someone who (1) knows how to look for details and (2) has some kind of link to the Hurde. Carcer is the obvious choice. But what are the chances that link to the Hurde Carcer has only goes one beneficial way? Somewhere between zero and none with the way this series has gone.
Cue ass biting in three, two, one…
Credits: T.C. Eglington (script), Karl Richarson (art), Annie Parkhouse (letters)
Absalom: Under A False Flag, Part 4
So maybe the Priest training teen assassins in the arts of murder and parkour isn’t such a bad guy after all? Or he is, it’s just that he’s combating something even worse?
This week’s strip is chock full of guilder knives and demon transformations as Absalom’s colleagues happen upon the type of murder they’ve been chasing all over Essex. But is it murder if the piles of ash they’ve been finding were actually some type of demonic entity? It’s too soon to tell, but this just keeps getting weirder and weirder.
Also this week: a new character appearance! I’d probably be more excited if I had read enough “Absalom” to recognize this fella, but oh well. His introduction allowed Rennie to script some extraordinarily English quips for Absalom to sling at his (presumably) old friend,
Credits: Gordon Rennie (script), Tiernen Trevallion (art), Simon Bowland (letters)
Helium, Part 4
With everyone looking to get a piece of Professor Bloom, town jail might be the safest place for him. Or it would be if one of those pursuers wasn’t bringing a fleet of armored tanks behind him in his search. The latest visitor from beneath the Poison Belt travels in the same vehicles as Professor Bloom but looks like one of the mutants his people are at war with. Said mutant was able to commandeer the tanks and put together (or repurpose) breathing apparatus to survive in clean air. Like Solace says, “Those stupid savages are driving and firing ironclads. I’d say they’re pretty fast learners.”
Edginton doesn’t ease up on the pace this week, but he does throw a few “things aren’t quite what they seem” curveballs at ex-Constable Hodge and her deputy (and my new favorite character) Solace. Obstacles, if you will, that Solace is more than willing to kick down with those massive metallic feet in superbly rendered D’Israeli action.
Next week promises to spill even more beans as Bloom has to convince Hodge not to hand him over to the fleet of tanks looking to level the town to get their hands on him. Cannot wait!
Credits: Ian Edginton (script), D’Israeli (art), Ellie de Ville (letters)
III. MEGA-CITY ONE BY WAY OF TAXI DRIVER
Continued belowI’m a huge fan of movie posters and poster designs. Nothing infuriates me more than the prevalence of cookie-cutter low-grade-Photoshop ‘artwork’ that now passes for mainstream movie posters. For every poster design that actually hits its mark, there are dozens that look like something an intern slapped together over a coffee break. But I haven’t thrown in the towel just yet; companies like Mondo keep me going with their stylish takes on movie and pop culture posters. Affording one of those bad boys is a real trick do to low print runs and astronomically high aftermarket prices, but hope springs eternal.
Why am I mentioning this? Because 2000 AD has partnered with Vice Press for a series of “officially licensed, limited edition, original, screen printed art prints featuring characters and titles from the pages of the galaxy’s greatest comic, 2000 AD and Judge Dredd Megazine.”
First up is Judge Dredd in “Urban Sprawl” by artist Raid71, available in regular and variant editions:
So that was the good news. The bad news is that the Regular edition is limited to 100 prints (18″x24″ on 100# Pop-Tone Banana Split Paper at £30/$47), and the variant to only 50 prints (18″x24″ 100# Construction Grout Grey Paper at £40/$63).
If you want one, you can only get them at the Vice Press Ltd website starting at 6pm BST/1pm EST on Thursday, July 2. Good luck!
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?
The Brit-Cit Psi Division seems to work a little differently than their Mega-City One counterparts. In The Meg, Psi Judges are usually partnered with a Street Judge for routine patrol, and are on call for when their specialties are required. Over in Brit-Cit, where magic and paranormal phenomenon are a little more commonplace, it would not be unusual to see a squad of Psi Judges dispatched to handle a case. Utilizing Judges with different psychic strengths, you may see a pre-cog, a kinetic, an empath, a telepath, and (in particularly troubling situations) an exorcist working the same case. These squads will usually have one or two helmets attached to them.
Elements of a Brit-Cit Psi Division Judge:
- No helmet
- Charcoal, high-collar Judge’s Jumper with button closure and white piping
- Lion shoulder pad (right)
- Standard shoulder pad (left)
- Elbow pads w/ rigid plastic shell
- Shield bearing Union Jack and Judge’s surname, chained to right shoulder pad
- Gloves w/ pockets and knuckle reenforcement
- Utility belt with Union Jack buckle
- High-impact knee pads
- Heavy-duty boots with holster for Lawgiver (right) and sheath for utility knife (left)
As is the case with Mega-Cities Two and Three, with the exception of some flourishes and localized iconography, a Brit-Cit Judge’s uniform has a lot in common with that of a Mega-City One Street Judge.
That’s gonna do it for us this week! “2000 AD” Prog 1937 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!”
