As my anxiety over flying grows, so does the excitement for the forthcoming Forty Years of Thrill Power Festival! This week’s Tharg Note let in on a bit of interesting information regarding said festival, as it seems that there are a number of ancillary events being planned for that weekend. What could they be, I ask in a non-rhetorical fashion? Signings? Parties? Those are likely candidates, but I’m expecting some things that’re a little outside of the box as well. Guess we’ll have to stay tuned!
Meanwhile, in Comic Book Land, all five of our strips are in full swing. This is a really solid batch of titles to start the new year off, and are warming my days as snow and temperatures in the teens descend upon the northeastern United States. Let’s get to ’em!
I. THIS WEEK IN 2000 AD
Judge Dredd: Deep in the Heart, Part 2
Credits: Michael Carroll (script), Tiernen Trevallion (art), Annie Parkhouse (letters)
Man, I thought those trison from last week were impressive! Artist Tiernen Trevallion continues to impress, as he’s grown leaps and bounds in such a short amount of time. I’m not saying that his “Absalom” stuff was anything less than good, but what he’s doing here is next level stuff. He seems so full of ideas that he’s able to just put stuff in the background that he knows will be thrown away. I’m thinking especially of the McMonagle Brothers’ goons, a collection of mutants who look like a ton of fun to draw. There’s even a guy looking happy as a clam in a used car salesman’s suit and bondage mask, who surely wins the prestigious background character of the year award.
Trevallion’s accomplishments go beyond character work, though. He’s also shown himself to be a really well-rounded draftsman as he tackles some tricky architectural work. We saw a bit of this in the Megazine story he wrapped up last month, and is on full display this week as writer Michael Carroll gives him a deep-water oil rig to draw. The exterior of the rig is a tangle of platforms, piping and structural support that looks to be no small task for Trevallion to have planned out. Then, once Dredd is actually on the rig, the city it contains echoes the same sort of design that the exterior does. It has a cobbled together, function over form look to it, with ladders and tubing running along the walls, leading to and from who knows where. What Trevallion has done here is created an immersive experience, where readers are made certain that they are in a foreign place. It’s so easy for artists to draw every city as they would Mega-City One, but not Trevallion. He’s shown us two locations, each distinct in their differences with The Big Meg, which is a creative feat to do in a single story, let alone the first two installments of one!
In terms of narrative, Carroll is being Carroll. What I mean is, this feels like a familiar way for him to start a story: I’m left wondering if I’m missing pieces and things are moving at a very brisk pace. Now, I’ve read enough of the guy’s work to know by now that he deserves my trust, and there’s enough for me to grab on to while I wait for the thread to appear. His dialogue is snappy, and I really like his choice of locations. I don’t know if the rig city of Diana is a new creation or what, but carroll has presented it in a way that makes it feel as if it’s always been there. He gives just enough information to imply that he’s leaning on foreknowledge, which is a beautifully deceptive trick if he’s making this one out of whole cloth.
All in all, another fun installment in what feels like the next act in Carroll’s run of Dredd serials. I’m really enjoying this so far.
Kingmaker, Part 3
Credits: Ian Edginton (script), Leigh Gallagher (art),Ellie De Ville (letters)
This week’s tale took a turn I didn’t expect, though not in terms of narrative.
Continued belowIt’s not uncommon for a story’s narrative to flip between the protagonist and antagonist’s points of view. It helps round out both sides of the equation, right? No one is the villain in their own story, and spending time with the other side helps the reader to see that. So when we were taken aboard the space ship hovering above the Earth, it wasn’t so surprising. Instead, the surprise came from the drastic, yet graceful, shift in tone.
It really felt like both Edginton and Gallagher pushed themselves to make this week’s installment as different as they could. Where the last two chapters felt like sword and sorcery comics, this week readers are presented with a high-minded sci-fi epic. We’re introduced to characters who traverse the solar system in search of Quintessence, which to them is a source of power. Here on Earth we simply call it magic, and it turns out we are rich with it.
While Edginton tweaked the way he dialogs for this chapter, the most notable shift in tone comes from Gallagher’s art. For the last two chapters, his approach had been inky and heavy feeling, as the wizard and the orc fought their way out of danger and told each other a little of their tales. Now, for these pages, Gallagher employs a lighter approach to the page, using less spot blacks and more color holds to convey that there is light everywhere. Comparing the two, it’s clear that he’s made one side of the story weightier so as to feel Earth-bound, and the other light enough to float up there in the sky.
Hope: …For the Furure, Part 3
Credits: Guy Adams (script), Jimmy Broxton (art), Simon Bowland (letters)
There’s a lot to like about this strip, but the most obvious has got to be Jimmy Broxton’s art. He’s working with halftones in a way you don’t see all too often, harkening back to a bygone era in comics. I’m reminded of the pre-code crime stuff, like early Kubert but passed through a photocopier. The pages are so noisy, which helps to sell the tone that I think Adams is going for in his script. And the way that the magic sigils sit almost like artifacts in all the the noise and grit is really interesting. It almost feels like they’re something that came out of the printing process rather than the art, like the pages are cursed.
All that Broxton is doing couches Adams’ narrative in a nice way. There’s a tooth to this story, a pulpy goodness that Adams makes work really well. The rules he’s creating for how magic works in this world is interesting, and I appreciate the idea that it’ll make a user sick if they tap into it to often. It makes a sort of sense, doesn’t it? That there’d be a sort of exhaustion that comes from extended use, like a runner or binge drinker would experience?
The Order: Wyrm War, Part 3
Credits: Kek-W (script), John Burns (art), Annie Parkhouse (letters)
“Something so fantastical I can scarcely believe my sensors…”
That solid piece of dialog was spoken by a robot who loves and once wore the flesh of a Wyrm so as to look like a human. Writer Kek-W has been able to take a medieval setting and infuse it with what feels like 80s-era 2000 AD humor. This strip is irreverent while also maintaining an air of seriousness, creating a sort of surreal comedy that the characters themselves have no clue they’re a part of.
All the while artist John Burns continues to do some really great work. His painted approach adds to the dissonance, as it too feels very serious while portraying toothed worms and robot men in the dungeon of a castle.
Kingdom: As it is in Heaven, Part 3
Credits: Dan Abnett (script), Richard Elson (art) Ellie De Ville (letters)
This week Richard Elson gets to really stretch out, as the vast majority of the strip is a fight scene between Gene and another Aux. It was fun enough to read, but not a whole lot happens, besides one quite character defining moment. But it’d be a spoiler if I told you, so you’ll have to read to see it.
Continued belowThen… a trap? Too soon to tell, as we’re left with a cliffhanger. This installment of “Kingdom” feels different than previous, with its confined setting and slower pacing. Last go around, Gene had already rallied a band of solders and set out into the world to defend The Kingdom from giant bugs. This time, things are feeling slower and more deliberate, which gives me the same sort of trapped feeling Gene must also be feeling.
That’s gonna do it for us this week! “2000 AD” is sale today and available digitally worldwide via:
- The 2000AD app for Apple iOS,
- The 2000AD app for Android devices,
- The 2000AD app for Windows Mobile
- 2000ADonline.com in DRM-free PDF and CBZ formats.
They are available in print today from:
- 2000ADonline.com and
- Finer UK comic shops throughout the UK.
“2000AD” and “Judge Dredd Megazine” are available in print in North America one month after UK release from your local comic shop.
So as Tharg the Mighty himself would say, “Splundig vur thrigg!”
