Multiver-City One: 2000 AD Prog 2001

After last week’s extra-sized, landmark 2000th issue, it would have been understandable if Tharg decided to kick up his feet and bask in the glow of his accomplishment. But no! The thrills must continue! That’s why this week’s installment of The Galaxy’s Greatest Thrillzine brings us a full roster of fresh, new series. “Counterfeit Girl” is no longer the only new kid on the block, as Gordon Rennie and PJ Holden’s “Hunted” enters the fray. This is alongside a double-dose of Pat Mills with “Savage” and “Flesh,” Rob Williams’ return to “Judge Dredd!”

Before we get into things, I want to bid a fond farewell to long-time Multiver-City One co-writer Greg Matiasevich, who finished up his regular Prog duties with last week’s installment. Greg and I launched this column back in September of 2013, and I think I can say it has lasted far longer than either of us ever thought it would. A weekly column ain’t easy, especially with the type of word count we can wrack up, but we made it work for a solid three years, logging more than 170 entries together. Of course, he’ll continue his duties co-hosting Robots From Tomorrow with me. A blood oath must be fulfilled, after all.

I. THIS WEEK IN 2000 AD

Cover by Clint Langley

Judge Dredd: Get Sin, Part 1
Credits: Rob Williams (script), Trevor Hairsine and Barry Kitson (art), Dylan Teague (color) Annie Parkhouse (letters)

Mike Romeo: The second panel of this strip features Judge Dredd, in Siberia, wearing a cloak and riding a moose. So yeah, it’s got my attention.

After a number of months away from the character, writer Rob Williams is back on “Judge Dredd,” and he’s brought not one, but two fantastic artists along for the ride: Trevor Hairsine and Barry Kitson! Being a comic book and all, the art is going to be the first thing readers absorb, and there’s a lot to absorb here! The Kitson/Hairsine duo look so damn good together I can harpy stand it. I’m assuming one is penciling and the other is inking, but they both have so much experience doing each it’s hard to tell who did what. The duo’s approach to these pages is spot on, as they’re doing everything they can to sell the frozen, inhospitable Siberian terrain to readers. On top of that, a squad of cloaked Judges on moose back is not only badass visual, it also appears to be something that Hairsine and Kitson really enjoy drawing. If their art doesn’t hook you by page one panel two, I’d suggest checking for a pulse.

Beyond the line art, colorist Dylan Teague helps solidify the feel of this environment. His range of cool grays hammers home on the fact that this is not a place for humans. This is made all the more apparent when the narrative cuts to interior shots, which Teague slathers in reds and oranges. Coupled with the green glow of computer monitors, his work communicates a warmth that’s more omitted from a litany of plastic computer terminals than anything else. It’s not a warmth intended for comfort, but more a by-product of the job.

If I’m not mistaken, the last time we saw Williams on “Judge Dredd” it was for a Sensitive Klegg story. A bit of a humorous palate cleanser after the end of his “Titan” run, which was an end of sorts for his multi-year Aimee Nixon saga. Now it seems as if Williams is returning to the long-form narrative he’s nurtured, as this strip picks up threads from the aftermath of “Titan.”

There’ll probably be some spoilers after this, for both this strip and Williams’ collected body of Dredd work. I’ll try to go light, but things will be said.

If you’ve read this column with any regularity, you’ll probably know that Williams is one of my all-time favorite Dredd writers. There’s a real spark in his writing that I respond to, and I think that comes from a genuine enjoyment of writing these stories. It’s the same spark I see in his creator owned comics like “Unfollow” and “Ordinary,” which is interesting because Judge Dredd is by no measure William’s own character. He shares it with a number of other really talented folks, but is still forded the room to run where he pleases. So while Dredd is a company-owned character, Williams can do almost anything he wants with him, and that freedom allows Williams to do what he does best: write high-minded, nuanced comics.

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When considering Williams’ entire body of Dredd stories, there’s very clearly a thread that connects the majority of them. This is common practice amongst the Dredd brain trust, but Williams seems to approach the idea differently. While the narrative is continuous, his focus is not. A stretch of stories focused on Aimee Nixon, another on Dirty Frank, bot Wally Squaders. Of course there are plenty of tales starring Judge Dredd himself, but the old lawman doesn’t seem quite as necessary to the overarching narrative as one would think he is. The result of all this is a comic world that truly feels expansive. That the city has stories that don’t need to start with the titular character. Of course, Dredd’s got gravity, so if you do anything big enough it will end up in his orbit, and Williams certainly plays with that. But he’s also spent his time nibbling the edges, exploring what it’s like just beyond Dredd’s reach, but still within his influence.

So, after all that, let me be clear and say that “Get Sin” is firmly a Judge Dredd strip, and it is firmly planted in William’s recent work. If you read “Titan,” you’ll recall that the off-planet Judicial prison was destroyed by The Sovs. This resulted in the death of hundreds of former Judges, and now Dredd want revenge. To get it, he’s lead a team of Judges (and one or two mystery players) across frozen terrain with the intention of a direct conflict. I was a little surprised by the brashness of it, but it’s in line with William’s vision of the character: stubborn, unrelenting, a little vindictive, and susceptible to tunnel vision. Of course, I expect the unknown characters on the stage to play a serious role in Dredd’s plan, because for all of the flaws Williams teases out of the character, he also writes him as a meticulous planner.

Between art and narrative this is as good of a start to a new Dredd story as you can get. I cannot wait to see where this one goes!

Counterfeit Girl, Part 2
Credits: Peter Milligan (script), Rufus Dayglo (art), Dom Regan (color) Ellie de Ville (letters)

MR: Where last week’s strip was an introduction to the world, I feel like this week we’re given more insight int the character we met as ‘Lulu,’ and what life is like for her.

I’m really impressed but the storytelling in this series so far. It’s got a lot going on, both in narrative and art, but never does it lose it’s clarity. It’s busy, and seemingly hyper-dense storytelling, but the team behind it is skilled enough to pull it off. Art and narrative inform and reinforce one another, each helping the other sell the ideas that make the strip come alive.

Rufus Dayglo and Dom Regan are turning out the most vibrant and bombastic art of all the strips currently running. Their collaboration results in my favorite type of interpretation of the future, where technology is crammed into and bolted onto whiter can support it. It’s a busy blend of infrastructure and necessity that readers can just fall into and linger on. To compliment Dayglo’s linework, Regan leans hard on secondary colors to give the final product an eerie sort of pop art feel.

To match the energy of the art, writer Peter Milligan cuts loose with punchy dialog that secures the punk-infused tone the team is striving for. Future technologies are dreamed up and given snappy names, while every character we meet seems t have a more outrageous pseudonym than the last. It’s stellar storytelling all around, and I find it to be a real jewel in an exceptional line-up of stories.

Flesh: Gorehead, Part 1
Credits: Pat Mills (script), Clint Langley (art), Ellie de Ville (letters)

Adrian Johnson: In the afterglow of the anniversary Prog 2000, Pat Mills returns to one of the first stories presented in 2000AD in Prog 1 with ‘Flesh’. I had seen mention of the original ‘Flesh’ strip in reading David Bishop’s book ’Thrill-Power Overload’. It seems perhaps a bit cheeky to modern audiences, but I can see how it would be tantalizing to see T-Rexs eating people to the readership of predominantly young boys in 1977. Despite its surface, I think ‘Flesh’ is perhaps one of Mill’s most original concepts.

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The story posits in the 23rd Century where cattle is becoming increasingly harder to procure for meat. Instead, ranchers devise a way to raise and rustle dinosaurs to become a meat supply. But how, you ask? The ranchers have developed time-travel technology to go back to the Cretaceous period and establish farms to raise dinosaurs. However, this is not without consequence on several levels; the prevalent of which is the danger of rogue dinosaurs being loosed like wild broncos and tearing a carnivorous swath of bloody carnage in the present. Teams of ranch hands and cowboys are equipped to rein these beasts with the most dangerous being a T-Rex branded with triple sixes — Gorehead!

Mills does an excellent of delivering an expository script that at once updates the essential premise and turns it into something incredibly viable and exciting for modern readers. Cowboys and T-Rexs seem like an unlikely combination, but boy does it work! The art by Clint Langley is dark and gorgeous. He makes a seamless blend of ink, computer graphics and photography which impart a nigh-cinematic feel to the story. It’s really beautiful and I can only imagine what it will look like once Langley cuts loose with the ongoing narrative. The art rounds out what promises to be a brilliant arc of stories from Mills and Langley.

Hunted, Part 1
Credits: Gordon Rennie (script), PJ Holden (art), Len O’Grady (color) Simon Bowland (letters)

MR: Whew, this is a hell of a start! Writer Gordon Rennie returns to Nort ranks to tell a tale set in the world of “Rogue Trooper,” and artist PJ Holden is there to bring these pages to gruesome life.

I’m pretty certain that this is a new series, another in Rennie’s exploration of the war for Nu Earth. The story kicks off with a bang, as the narrative tears forward from the start. No introductions, not a lot of names, but a bunch of set up in the handful of pages the strip os given. It’s a beginning that made me feel like Rennie was offering a challenge to readers to see if they can keep up. It’s the sort of thing I see complained about from time to time, but personally enjoy when done right. Clearly there’s a story here, and Rennie just wants to tell it without gumming thing up with exposition and other clumsy narrative tools.

And then there’s PJ Holden, who I think becomes more impressive with every new page I see from him. His page layouts and character design is outstanding, as is his acting. The horror element of the strip is made clear as Holden skews horizon lines and casts shadows with halftone and ink splatter. Oh, and then there’s the fact that our protagonist has a mutilated head and mechanical limbs. Monsters really help nail down the horror thing, don’t they? Of course, I’d be a fool if I didn’t lay some of the art credit at the feet of Len O’Grady, who’s colors solidified the irradiated feel of the world our cast has chased landed on. And his tones on the title page made Holden’s already grotesque character work downright had to look at!

Savage: The Märze Murderer, Part 1
Credits: Pat Mills (script), Patrick Goddard (art), LETTERER (letters)

AJ: As with the installment of ‘Flesh’ earlier in this Prog, Pat Mills revisits another of his stories that debuted in Prog 1 with ‘Invasion’. At the height of the Cold War Era, Mills wrote a tale of England being invaded by the Volgans (an obvious stand-in for the Russians) ruthlessly and stationed in garrison as the conquering army. As with most military occupations, there is an element of covert resistance to the enemy military. Of these freedom fighters is one man who dispenses terror upon the Volgans with his trademark sawed-off double-barreled shotgun — Savage!

Bill Savage appears in the very first ‘Invasion’ story as a shop owner whose family is killed by a Volgan tank. Upon this horror, Savage swears bloody revenge against the occupiers and proceeds to become renowned for his shotgun justice. Mills and others have written Savage through the years since his 1977 debut. But it is unique that Mills as the original creator is revisiting Savage and continuing his tale ostensibly as if he were writing from his version solely. The script here is somewhat expository as Mills relates where Savage is now and a brief recounting of the death of his family.

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The art by Patrick Goddard is just right for the starkness of the strip and the character Savage himself. Goddard renders in black and white with a ruggedness to his linework that I really like. Perhaps my only nitpick would be why Savage’s wife is wearing what seems to be a black evening dress with her children when they are killed by the Volgans. But that’s neither here nor there in terms of the overall effectiveness of Goddard’s work.

II. 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 2000 and Judge Dredd Megazine 376 are both on sale today and available digitally worldwide on: