Multiver-City One: 2000 AD Prog 1971

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.

Cover by Tiernan Trevallion

I. THIS WEEK IN PROG 1971

NOW DEPARTING

Strontium Dog: Repo Men, Part 11
Credits: John Wagner (script), Carlos Ezquerra (art), Simon Bowland (letters)

Last week, I said that time seemed to be running faster than Johnny Alpha and the Dogs could keep up with it. Little did I know how true that would be; here I thought this was a 12-part strip, but this week sees the end of ‘Repo Men’ with part 11! Given the time crunch, were the Dogs able to stay one step ahead of the Galanthans? Out-twist the Twister Sisters? Avoid the dangers of Castor Limax and all the perils of his wretched hive of scum and villany?

Let’s say, for the sake of argument, the answer to all those questions is ‘yes’. Would it mean that ‘Repo Men’ was a disappointment? Absolutely not! For starters, seeing Wagner & Ezquerra clearly have a blast with this strip is alone worth the time investment. I’ve said it before but it bears repeating: the ‘Strontium Dog’ strip spent a lot of time after its 70’s and 80’s heydey either getting away from what made it work, or course-correcting back from those tangents. Given how often “2000 AD”’s publishing schedule cycles strips in and out of the Progs, that ‘wilderness period’ can be measured in years. So now that the (admittedly enjoyable) grunt work has been done, readers can and should kick back and enjoy some straight-up Strontium capers. We saw that in ‘The Stix Fix” last year and we’ve just seen it in ‘Repo Men’: Wagner & Ezquerra having some flat-out fun.

Oh, and before you think things are going to end up all hunky-dory for Johnny Alpha based on my earlier statement, I will remind you of one thing:

Shaggy. Poor, poor Shaggy.

Judge Dredd: Undercover Klegg, Part 3
Credits: Rob Williams (script), D’Israeli (art), Annie Parkhouse (letters)

Rob Williams always writes “Judge Dredd” with a healthy helping of comedy. Granted, it’s generally black humor that’s been steeped in satire before being dredged in a dramatic batter, but it is comedy none the less. But now, as “Undercover Klegg” is showing us, that’s not the only the writer knows how to get chuckles out of the reader. So for, this strip has had more of a slapstick, straight guy/fall guy rhythm to it. Sensitive Klegg is an idiot, so Dredd gets mad. Sensitive Klegg continues to be an idiot, so Dredd gets even madder, which sets him up for a proverbial pratt fall. Like the embarrassment of a Judge being hoisted up onto a Klegg’s shoulders being compounded by an earnest, but enraging, song.

“He’s not heavy, he’s my heroic judicial brother…”

I think that, for as comedic as Williams has been, it’s D’Israeli’s art that puts this strip over the top. His version of Dredd is so idiosyncratic, so unconventional, that it brings an air of surrealness to the whole affair. Just take Dredd’s helmet as an example: more bowl than bucket, like it’s been squashed under the weight of duty, which is in stark contrast with the narrowed and elongated shield it sports. It all has a sort of funhouse mirror feel to it. Add to that an ultra-saturated, technicolor palette, and you’ve got art that’s perfectly paired with its narrative.

Three weeks in and I’m loving every bit of this strip. Thank grud that the Sensitive Klegg is back!

Kingdom: Beast of Eden, Part 11
Credits: Dan Abnett (script), Richard Elson (art), Ellie de Ville (letters)

Ok, so I can’t quite say I expected any of that!

Continued below

Deep in the gigantic hive of their enemies, Neuman tells Gene that, since they’re all facing death anyway, to allow him to try and talk to the beasts they’re facing. Gene gives his blessing and, wouldn’t you know it, a real conversation happens! It’s not exactly what you’d call fluent, or even coherent, but it’s something. What sort of something, you ask? Well, a distraction, of course!

The discussion between Neuman and the giant bug monster is really just one of a few surprises that Abnett packed into this week’s strip. There are a couple of twist that I did not see coming, which pulls “Kingdom” away from the barbarian-action-epic I knew it as, towards something that feels much larger than I ever figured it could be.

The Order: In The Court Of The Wyrmqueen, Part 11
Credits: Kek-W (script), John M. Burns (art), Ellie de Ville (letters)

The battle is joined!

Were I to try and describe for you the chaotic ebb and flow of The Order’s assault on the now-discovered Wrymqueen, as rendered by John M. Burns, I would not be able to do it justice. Even allowing for a complete and spoiler-filled rundown of the ultra-violence, which we don’t do here at Multiver-City One (gotta leave something for the Prog itself, doncha know?), I’d still come up short. So suffice it to say that the Thrill-Power is in full effect during this attack by both land and sky. Medieval robotics, helium-powered air support, swordwomanship mixed with gunpowder and a hint of requited love, the nastiest wyrm this side of Frank Herbert, and the finest moustache in the Zaporhizian Hetmanate…Burns and writer Kek-W really let loose this week. And why should they hold back? Next week is the big finale!

In the midst of all that hullabaloo, the creators also managed to break away this week for a succinct but interesting flashback to the early life of The Order’s Ukranian member. Although possessing quite the moustache himself, the aforementioned facial hair of note actually belonged to his adoptive father Grozny Zhuk. Zhuk united the warring tribes of southern Ukraine and used their fealty to amass enough metal for the construction of a huge cannon he then pointed at…a large wyrm. Hmmmmm…seems like wyrmfighting just runs in some families, adoptive or otherwise. But while the wyrms are (thankfully) fictional, the Zaporhizian Host (or Cossack Hetmanate) was actually a real state inside the Ukraine of roughly this period in history.

Didn’t think something this action-packed could also be educational, did you?

A.B.C. Warriors: Return to Ro-Busters, Part 11
Credits: Pat Mills (script), Clint Langley (art), Annie Parkhouse (letters)

This week flips the ‘Return to Ro-Busters’ script, as we spend almost the entire strip in the present-day of a far-future Mars instead of the nearish-future Earth we’ve been flashing back to for the past 10 installments. Clint Langley gets to really stretch the color and rendering muscles in his art style, muscles that haven’t seen much use when Langley was showing the Ro-Buster-era events. It’s such a dramatic shift it almost seems like a different artist has taken over, but checking the credits tells us that, no, it’s still Langley. As much as I enjoyed those flashbacks (and we still get a small one this week), I’m looking forward to the return to color most of all.

Mills continues to be Mills, almost frustratingly so this week. ‘Ro-Busters’ has been a fun in-the-moment read, but at some point the retcons to set up future story have got to give way to that actual story. Thankfully it looks like we’ll finally be ready to rock with the next strip, but getting all the plot pieces in order to pay off then has kept ‘Ro-Busters’ from being as good as I hoped it would be. Especially since I don’t have the nostalgia of seeing the old Ro-Busters stories re-presented. Interest? Yes. Nostalgia? Not quite.

I know Mills’ schtick as a writer is not shying away from putting on blast those who deserve scorn and ridicule. Vitriol and fearlessness are wonderful traits in a storyteller, but so is subtlety. The James Grey/Edward Grey connection is fine in the abstract, and calling out Edward Grey’s role in instigating the First World War can’t help but lead people to question what we’ve been taught about him so far. But Mills had “Charley’s War” to make that case. At least to me, it drops into the robo-conversation with a resounding thud.

Continued below

But there’s one more week for Mills to pull things back on track. Can he do it?

II. OF INTEREST

This week we thought it’d be a good idea to check in with what’s been happening over at Tharg’s official podcast: the appropriately named 2000 AD Thrill-Cast!

Released biweekly (or each fortnight, if that’s the unit of measure you’re most comfortable with), The Thrill-Cast is hosted by Tharg’s own PR droid Molch-R and has access to a truly thrilling pool of droid talent to talk about all things 2000 AD. So for instance, when he wants to talk about Sláine and how the barbarian has changed over the years, he gets to have Pat Mills and Simon Davis on hand to do so. Tharg’s Rolodex is mighty, indeed!

The Thrill-Cast celebrated its one year anniversary back in January, and has been using the first part of its sophomore season to really kick things into overdrive. You might think covering two guests over the last four episodes would be a sign of padding out the schedule. But when those guests are Prog mega-editor Steve MacManus for one episode and the legendary John Wagner for a three-part behemoth of a chat, you realize that this show is crammed with Thrill-Power!

Some of the other episodes & guests the Thrill-Cast has been able to line up recently include:

Future Shock director Paul Goodwin;
Annie Parkhouse & Simon Bowland on the invisible art of lettering;
Dave Gibbons & Pat Mills on the ‘Dan Dare’ revival from the “2000 AD” early days; and
Henry Flint & Rob Williams on their Dredd stories ‘Titan’, ‘Enceledus’, and more.

You can listen to past episodes as well as subscribe to new ones here. Zarjaz!

III. 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.

That’s gonna do it for us this week! “2000 AD” Prog 1971 is on sale today and available from: