Welcome, Earthlets, to 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 British sci-fi comic “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 worth of zarjaz comics waiting for you to discover and enjoy.
I. THIS WEEK IN PROG 1976
ONE WEEK ONLY!
Future Shocks: Tour Guide
Credits: Rory McConville (script), Joshua George (art), Simon Bowland (letters)
Adrian Johnson: This installment of the one-and-done Tharg’s Future Shocks features a tour guide named Cyro offering Martians and expatriated Earthlings virtual excursions to a near-deserted Earth. Cyro struggles to get by until she gets a private request she simply can’t refuse.
‘Tour Guide’ really satisfied me, and I think that had more than a little something to do with the formula similarities between the Future Shocks line and the EC Comics stories of the 1950s; particularly with the eight-page story length and the twist endings that the venerable comics line was known for. But a lot of people try to make that formula work and fail; why did it succeed here?
Well, the artwork by Joshua George definitely felt akin to the efforts of artists Al Williamson or Wallace Wood; both of whom drew some of the more memorable science-fiction stories for those EC comics. The choice to exclude color in lieu of black & white worked to a great extent in keeping the story stark and focused. Rory McConville’s scripting was very tight and I found his ‘future-speak’ to be very convincing.
Judge Dredd: The Grindstone Cowboys, Part 4
Credits: Michael Carroll (script), Colin MacNeil (art), Len O’Grady (colors), Annie Parkhouse (letters)
Mike Romeo: Welp, didn’t see that coming!
This week it finally feels like Carroll hits his stride with this strip. With all the necessary exposition cleared away, he can now get down to expertly weaving his narrative. The Council’s narration over Dredd and Rico’s action is flawless, building up a real tension through the strip that culminated in the final panel.
I’m going to give everyone who needs it a SPOILER WARNING. We’re getting into this one, so scroll on down to ‘Survival Geeks’ if you want to be spared.
Dredd’s ultimate fate is something that I’ve been thinking a lot about these last few years. Since his story has moved in real-time over nearly 40 years, the implication exists that, at some point, Dredd’s going to meet his end. If it doesn’t happen in the line of duty, then it’ll eventually be old age. I mean, the guy’s pushing 70 by now. The only reason he’s still active is all of the medical advances of his time, but the time will come when even science will reach it’s limit.
There have been plenty of Dredd-gets-wounded cliffhangers over the years, but this one feels a bit more… important than usual. Maybe it’s because of how important Hershey thinks he is to the city, or because he’s out in the field with Rico, his younger clone. Or maybe it’s because Wagner has gone on record saying that he’s fixing to off someone big…I dunno. But I will say, if this is it, I’m surprised it’s not Rob Williams who gets to drop the hammer. That guy’s been emphasizing Dredd’s mortality for years now. And I’d be shocked if Williams got to do the deed over Wagner. Yet here we are. Maybe…
I can’t help but notice that, for the entirety of ‘The Grindstone Cowboys’, we’ve yet to see Dredd and Rico face-to-face. I mean, they’re clearly out there together, but their scowls have yet to share a panel. After a month of this, I’m feeling like there’s no way this is unintentional. Carroll and MacNeil are too smart of storytellers to have accidentally stumbled into that, and I’d imagine that Dredd nose to nose with his identical-yet-younger self is too much fun to pass up drawing.
Continued belowEven with the narrative clues set aside, Dredd just got shot clean through his torso by some large caliber weapon. Plus, he’s not only out in The Cursed Earth, but he’s also in the middle of a war zone. He’s tough, and has come back from a lot, but the deck’s stacked against him on this one.
Survival Geeks: Geeks Fatales, Part 4
Credits: Gordon Rennie & Emma Beeby (script), Neil Googe (art), Gary Caldwell (colors), Ellie de Ville (letters)
Greg Matiasevich: The titanic battle promised at the end of last week’s segment did not go particularly well for the Geeks of either dimension. The ones you don’t see wading waist-deep in something better left unmentioned are now prisoners of the Napoleonic Mouse Brigade of Doom, with their rescue left in the hands of… well, probably blind luck at this point. Although blind luck armed with sporting goods, so maybe they have a fighting chance. We’ll just have to see, won’t we?
Can we talk about Neil Googe some more? Because I am really digging what I’m seeing from him in this strip. I mentioned last week that Googe doesn’t have a single body type that he just clones and tweaks per character. While I wouldn’t necessarily say his models are as diverse as an artist like Amanda Conner or Kevin Maguire, one of the things that helps give Googe’s characters distinction is their perpetual acting. With a lot of artists, the acting in a panel is limited to the focus figure, with possibly an outlier here and there. Googe not only tweaks his POV angles to give readers different groupings of characters than your standard one- or two-shot, he makes sure everybody showing up is doing SOMEthing.
Look at Howard in the art above (as if you could miss the adorable little Cthuloid…). It’d be easy to forget he’s there when the rest of the characters are all a few feet taller than him. But Googe drops the camera to water level or goes bird’s eye to keep track of him. And while the Geeks are having their Charlton Heston epiphany, Googe counterpoints their horror with Howard’s glee. Of course the aquatic monster-to-be would be splashing around in ‘water’ with a frankly creep look on his maw; action revealing character. Howard is my favorite 2000 AD animal character since Sarcastic Horse in Rob Williams & Mike Dowling’s last ‘Ichabod Azrael’ strip. You know the one.
Tainted: The Fall of Deadworld, Part 4
Credits: Kek-W (script), Dave Kendall (art), Simon Bowland (letters)
MR: Looks like the necrosis is spreading!
This week’s strip gives us a little more insight into not only the state of the world, but Fairfax’s personal life as well. He seems to have been a messy bastard of a person before we met him, and has made himself known to the wrong people/beings/whatever.
But I think the biggest takeaway from this strip is not that this is the beginning of things for Judge Death and company, but that it’s only a stop on the road to the total destruction of life. How long has this been going on? In how many dimensions and universes?
Aquila: Charon’s Mercy, Part 4
Credits: Gordon Rennie (script), Paul Davidson (art), Len O’Grady (colors), Ellie de Ville (letters)
AJ: Looks like trouble for Aquila and Felix as they penetrate the lair of the Big Bad, Tortrix The Necromancer. As a result of having spent last week hacking their way through the undead guards and grotesque experiments of Tortrix’s castle, the pair find themselves entered into a dire predicament in this Prog.
Gordon Rennie, as always, delights with his scripting; particularly with the conversation between Aquila and Tortrix. I’m finding Rennie to be the rare scripter who is able to consistently deliver exposition while moving the story forward. The art chores by Paul Davidson and Len O’Grady also continue to shine. O’Grady’s hues convey the dank bowels of Tortrix’ castle to a great effect with the compliments of greens and oranges (and dashes of bloody red of course). Davidson’s linework is also solid and effectively with the facial expressions of the characters. His storytelling conveys the impending dread while being absolutely clear. The cliffhanger here is quite the doozy and I’m beyond anxious to see how it plays out.
Continued below
II. ALIENS & PREDATORS: REPEAT OFFENDERS
GM: When it comes to Judge Dredd’s run-ins with the Yautja and the Xenomorphs (or as they are more commonly known, the Predators and Aliens of the 20th Century Fox film franchises), they’ve ended up being both stand-up fights AND bug hunts. The “Predator vs Judge Dredd” miniseries finished off with Dredd literally going mano e Yautja with his foe, while the “Judge Dredd vs Aliens: Incubus” followup contained all the close quarter/dark tunnel terror that made the early entries in that franchise such a treat. You can catch up on both series in the aptly titled “Judge Dredd vs Predator vs Aliens: Incubus and Other Stories”, but if you thought that volume would be the final word on those properties crossing over, you were wrong.
As announced at ECCC this past weekend, Dredd will be going up against both species at the same time in the upcoming “Predator vs Judge Dredd vs Aliens” miniseries starting on July 27th. “PvJDvA” will be written by John Layman, drawn by Chris Mooneyham, and published by Dark Horse Comics. In addition to the convention print by Glenn Fabry, Dark Horse also released this interior spread from issue #1 by Mooneyham:
We will, of course, be reviewing the mini as it comes out, but my initial thoughts lean towards the positive on this one. Layman has shown with “Chew” that he can balance absurdity with drama, something that all good Dredd writers need. Both he & Mooneyham have done tours of duty on the 20th Century Fox properties, so no worries there. Layman’s quickie pitch in the linked io9 interview seems bonkers enough to give us a thrill (or Thrill) ride. It will be interesting to see how Dark Horse’s handling of Dredd differs from IDW’s and 2000 AD’s. I don’t think there’ll be massive differences, but I have noticed that each property handler has their own emphasis & nuance to portraying Mega-City One’s top cop. Haven’t quite worked out how to articulate it yet, but it looks like I’ll get an opportunity soon enough!
III. AN EARTHLET’S GUIDE TO 2000 AD
At Multiver-City One, we understand trying to figure out to start with a selection of almost 40 years worth of comics can be 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?
To help all you new & potential readers, we’ve put together something we call 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 easy and simple as possible.
That’s gonna do it for us this week! “2000 AD” Prog 1976 is on sale this week 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, and
- Finer comic shops everywhere
So as Tharg the Mighty himself would say, “Splundig vur thrigg!”
