Welcome, citizens, to this week’s installment of Multiver-City One! Each and every Wednesday we will be examining the latest Prog from Tharg and the droids over at 2000 AD, and giving you all the pertinent information you’ll need headed into this week’s Thrill-Zine!
This week’s cover is by Dylan Teague.
I. THIS WEEK IN PROG 1872
Judge Dredd: Squirm, Part 3
This week’s gut-buster comes to a close, leaving a trail of corpses in its wake. As the overgrown tapeworm weaves its way under the city, new revelations about its motivation surface. It’s eating people, with the time between attacks growing shorter and shorter. Is this a hungry animal attacking at random? Or is it something more? Plus: a last panel gross-out!
Credits: Michael Carroll (script), Nick Dyer (art), Chris Blythe (colors), Annie Parkhouse (letters)
ABC Warriors: Return To Mars, Part 11
A robot can only take so much for so long before he stops being nice and starts being real. As mentioned last week, there is a strong “Unforgiven” vibe with this strip, telling the tale of Tubal Caine, former ABC Warrior Harry Shrapnel. Like the former outlaw William Munny, Tubal had put his past ways of ‘wickedness’ behind him, and was content to simply repair robots rather than fight them. But Quartz kept pushing and pushing, even sending Mek-Quake after Tubal. Was that the one that pushed the right button? And is it a button Quartz is going to be happy he pushed?
Credits: Pat Mills (script), Clint Langley (art), Annie Parkhouse (letters)
Tharg’s 3rillers Presents: After The Vengeance, Part 2
Credits: David Baillie (script), Jon Davis-Hunt (art), Gary Caldwell (colors), Ellie De Ville (letters)
Future Shocks: The Modular War
Another one-and-done from Eddie Robson. This one posits a human race fighting a space war where the citizens of the losing side have to have their identities wiped to be incorporated into the side of the victors. As you can see above, not everyone is keen for that to happen. Check out this story to see if they have their minds wiped, or wiped out!
Credits: Eddie Robson (script), Robin Smith (art), Simon Bowland (letters)
Grey Area: Visitation
Patrick Goddard gets a break this week, as Damnation Station alum Mark Harrison steps up to illustrate this one-off story. Capt. Bulliet has had a subplot building since the strip returned about the repercussions of his actions in the previous set of stories. Turns out Bulliet killed Ambassador Uuveth while he was representing the Arakshu on Earth, even though he had diplomatic immunity. Bulliet felt that immunity didn’t apply to Uuveth murdering innocent people. The blowback from this incident has been teased but not shown. Until now.
Credits: Dan Abnett (script), Mark Harrison (art), Ellie De Ville (letters)
II. OF INTEREST
2000 AD’s Tumblr is a wealth of previews, teasers, and history pertaining to the galaxy’s greatest thrill-zine. A few days ago these came across my dashboard. The art is by 2000 AD staple Mike McMahon, and they’re part of the Collector’s Edge series of Dredd/2000 AD trading cards.
Judge Dredd vs. Satanus in a Cursed Earth showdown! And yes, the T-Rex’s name is Satanus!
In another Dredd face-off, he’s battling a giant toad by the name of Sagebelly. I know nothing of this Sagebelly, but desperately want to change that!
Pre-Chief Judge Hershey, as only McMahon can present her!
Straight out of Texas City, it’s The Angel Gang!
Let’s solo out that crazy fella with the arm, shall we? It’s none other than Angel Gang tough guy: Mean Machine!
And just to spread out a little, here’s Hammerstein of The ABC Warriors. Not only is there a fantastic ABC strip running right now (see section I), but there’s a hardcover Mek Files collection of their early adventures on it’s way to a shop near you!
There are even more of these beauties to behold, and it looks like a little internet search shows complete sets are available for not a lot of creds. There’s even a case of them for sale on eBay. If anyone scoops that up, we wouldn’t mind being passed a box or two. Just sayin’.
III. 2000 AD FOR DUMMIES
In lieu of an Oral History this week, we’re bringing you a special audio 2000 AD For Dummies from comics retailer James Sime: The Ballad of Halo Jones by Alan Moore and Ian Gibson!
[audio:http://traffic.libsyn.com/robotsfromtomorrow/sime-on-halo-jones.mp3]
How can you not want to pick up a book that did all that?!?
We’ll come back to Halo Jones next week with a more in-depth look, but if you want to get a head-start on reading one of 2000 AD’s best stories in one collection, you can grab a hard copy or PDF/CBZ edition over at 2000 AD’s online store.
IV. FUTURE PERP FILES
ATTN: ALL CITIZENS OF THE MEG! Be aware that there is always a Judge watching you. Each sector is equipped with millions of HD-CCTV and bioID units. They are there for your protection. If your intent is upright citizenry, then you have no qualm with our surveillance. And remember: if you see something, you are now an accessory to a crime. That’s six months in an Iso-Cube, creep! Random CPU algorithms has selected this citizen for immediate surveillance and assessment…
That’s gonna do it for us this week! Prog 1872 is on sale today and is available from finer comic shops everywhere, from 2000ADonline.com, and via the 2000 AD Newsstand app for iPad and iPhone. So as Tharg the Mighty himself would say, “Splundig vur thrigg!”
