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! Let’s get right to it!
This week’s cover is by INJ Culbard.
I. NOW ARRIVING
We’ve got not one, not two, but three new strips kicking off this week! Here’s what’s starting in this very Prog:
Judge Dredd: The Heart Is A Lonely Klegg Hunter, Part 1
The sequence above made me laugh out loud (that’s LOL for the kids out there). From the juggernaut team of Rob Williams and Chris Weston, this week begins a new Dredd adventure starring the Klegg who’d never eat a human: Sensitive Klegg!
For those who don’t remember, Sensitive Klegg was a low-level employee of Overdrive Inc., who would end up being promoted to Rear Admiral by Wally Squader and new Overdrive majority shareholder Judge Dirty Frank. He’d also end up saving Frank’s life before crash-landing on his new home, Mega-City One. Now an authorized citizen of The Meg, Sensitive Klegg is just a guy trying to make it on his own. But the fact that Kleggs are generally considered to be horrible space monsters because of how many humans they eat, SK hasn’t really been able to find a place to fit in. Even though he’d never eat a human! And all this is, well, rather isolating. And Judge Dredd won’t return his calls! It’s a lonely life SK finds himself leading.
Rob Williams once again nails the tone I love to see in a Dredd strip. There’s humor, but you kind of feel like a jerk for thinking it’s funny. SK is completely alone because everyone who sees him shrieks with fear. That’s humorous. But then you see how that loneliness is really affecting him and, well, it’s not so funny anymore.
And of course there’s Chris Weston on art. I don’t think I can properly put into words how amazing his art is in this strip. SK is an anthropomorphized creature with an alligator-type head and a peace t-shirt. His expressions and mannerisms are cartoonish, but he’s realistically rendered on the page. Every face in a crowd Weston draws is unique, every window on every building is visible, but then Dredd’s scowl and chin are exaggerated just enough to make them impossible. Surprisingly though, in his brief appearance Dirty Frank kinda seemed like the most realistic looking character in this whole strip. Go figure.
Credits: Rob Williams (script), Chris Weston (art), Annie Parkhouse (letters)
Brass Sun: Floating Worlds, Part 1
‘Brass Sun’ has been a favorite of both of ours, so it’s great to see it come back to the Prog after an almost six-month absence. We catch up with Wren, Septimus, and their companion six months into their new occupations as the crew of the Nominal Charge, a skyship captained by the pirate Ariel O’Conner on the world of Hot Air, one of the many planets in the clockwork solar system Orrery where the title is set.
At the end of last series, the three were captured by another pirate crew, the Sweet Sisters, as they were making their way across the Orrery to rewind the Sun. During their captivity they befriended Ariel with the promise of treasure. This got them away from the Sisters (who are sweet in name only), but threw them in with her and her fortune. Which, considering Chairman Pei, the head of the Mercantile Guild, wants her to either run a near-suicide mission or have a death warrant carried out on her, doesn’t leave them too many options.
‘Brass Sun’ doesn’t quite look like anything else on the stands and Edgington writes it not quite like nothing else. It’s an adventure tale in the vein of stories we don’t get to see much of anymore. Action and adventure get lumped together as a single genre too often, when they really are two different things. Action is easy to pull off (just add explosions), but real adventure is hard. But Edgington and Culbard are showing us it’s not impossible.
Continued belowWelcome back, fellas. We missed you.
Credits: Ian Edgington (script), INJ Culbard (art), Ellie de Ville (letters)
Tharg’s 3rillers: Voodoo Planet, Part 1
Mind control. Horrifying solders with flaming machetes. Unspeakable genetic horrors. This going to be a hell of a three-parter!
If I can jump right to the art discussion here: Holden’s “Dept. of Monsterology” work looks fantastic, but ‘Voodoo Planet’ is letting him stretch things artistically. He’s playing with camera angles and perspective to give this story a real sci-fi/horror angle. He’s pushing in really tight for detail panels, which serves to ratchet up the feeling of uneasiness when the ‘Big Bad’ is introduced. I don’t think he’s ever looked better.
Speaking of stretching out, this strip sees Adams continuing to explore different types of classic 2000 AD stories. Regular readers will remember he wrote the over-the-top ‘Ulysses Sweet’ last year, followed by the one-off ‘Rogue Trooper’ in this year’s Sci-Fi Special.
All told, this is a hell of a first chapter from these creators. A lot happens really quickly, as is the nature of a 3riller, and I can’t wait to see where this is all going!
Credits: Guy Adams (script), PJ Holden (art), Steve Denton (colors), Simon Bowland (letters)
II. NOW DEPARTING
This week’s Prog sees ‘Grey Area’ coming to a close, so let’s give it a proper send-off, shall we?
Grey Area: Nearer My God To Thee, Part 5
That is certainly an ending.
Now, whether that’s an ending to just this story or to ‘Grey Area’ in general remains to be seen. I’m going to take a wild guess that we’ll see Bulliet and the rest of the ETC again (helped by the fact there’s a question mark after ‘THE END’ on the last page) but Abnett’s not making that easy. We’ve followed these characters since the start of Multiver-City One, or longer if you were reading the Progs before we began, so the thought of this strip without them is a tough one. But Abnett’s premise for the series allows for a new cast. Like any cop or military show; don’t get too attached to anyone because they may not be around long.
I would say that he sets up a pretty definitive deck-clearing in this Prog. And “2000 AD” is known for its willingness to not pull punches. Just ask three-quarters of Mega-City One. Oh wait, you can’t, because all hundreds of millions of them were wiped out. A squad of sci-fi cops doesn’t even rate an eye-batting.
That said, stranger things have happened in “2000 AD”. I’m just hoping we don’t have to wait too long to find out.
Credits: Dan Abnett (script), Mark Harrison (art), Annie Parkhouse (letters)
III. COVER (ARTIST) STORY: INJ CULBARD
INJ Culbard has been a very busy artist these past few months. His name seems to be attached to some new project every time I look around. This coming September readers will be treated to no less than three series featuring his art, from three different publishers. Culbard is swinging for the fences, it seems, and he’s well on his way to becoming a household name in comics on both sides of the pond. So let’s have a gander at this incredible artist’s career so far, shall we?
As far as we can tell, Culbard’s first published comics work was with Dark Horse Comics as a part of their “New Recruits” anthology. From there, he’d start popping up in the pages of “2000 AD”, but what really seems to have given him a foothold in the industry was his work adapting classic literature. Culbard spent a few years working on turning the works of H.P. Lovecraft, Edgar Rice Burroughs, and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle into comics, both with collaborator Ian Edgington and flying solo. While his distinct voice is already present in the work, readers can still see the progression at work as Culbard hones his craft.
From here it was time for Culbard to create a work all his own.
“Celeste” would be his first foray into writing and drawing a story completely his own. Released by SelfMadeHero, a small-press publisher based in the UK that Culbard had already done the bulk of his H. P. Lovecraft adaptations for, “Celeste” would be a work unlike anything most had seen from him up to this point.
Looking at the works we’ve already discussed here, there’s been a theme that unites them all: They’re in the past. Or, at least, they look like they are. “Brass Sun” doesn’t really have a period it exists in, at least not one that relates to our world, and everything else he’s done has really been set in the late 19th/early 20th century. Culbard was beginning to be seen, at least by me, as an artist that only did old-timey art. Which is in no way intended to be a slight; he does that stuff really well, and consistently well over a long period of time. But then comes “Celeste” and the game is completely changed.
There’s an astronaut on the cover. There are views of planets from space. Characters are dressed in modern clothes. “Celeste” really feels like a coming-out party for Culbard. He’s telling a story with depth that isn’t afraid to lean heavily on his immense artistic talent to move the narrative.
I’d say the world needs more of Culbard’s solo work, but Dan Abnett keeps me from saying it needs only his solo work. They were a hell of a team on The New Deadwardians, and are going to be beginning two different mini-series in the coming months.
Set in the early Middle Ages, “Dark Ages” is a story about an alien invasion at the start of The Hundred Years’ War. The preview art for this series is incredible; seeing the combination of what is obviously heavily researched weapons and armor sharing space with all manner of space monster. When I first saw this cover in Previews I thought that Mignola and Arcudi had snatched him up to do a BPRD spin-off. Culbard is really channeling everything he learned doing those Lovecraft books and plunking it all down right in the middle of Medieval Europe. It is going to be interesting to see the religious beliefs of that era clashing with the sight of an extraterrestrial invasion.
This is Culbard’s second collaboration with Abnett, and it looks like it’s going to be a hell of a ride. These two creators seem to work really well together. Abnett’s knack for high concept is a perfect pairing with Culbard’s ability to draw seemingly anything, anywhere. “Dark Ages” #1 will be hitting shelves in August form Dark Horse Comics. Then come September, it’ll be running concurrent with another series from the same team: “Wild’s End”.
Set in the idyllic English countryside, in a village called Lower Crowchurch, there lives a rabbit, a dog, and a fox. But they’re anthropomorphic. And there’s also an alien invasion. Wait, what?
Continued belowThis new series sounds like it could be a bit of a departure for both creators. It’s set in the 1930s, so this’ll be yet another era for Culbard to sink his teeth into. It’s also interesting to see his approach to character design for this comic. Yes, all the characters are anthropomorphic, but it’s really only their heads that seem to reveal their animal side. Other than that, they’re all built and proportioned like regular people. Not only is the creative team for this book piquing my interest, but the basic premise is reeling me in as well. When a series is described as “‘War of the Worlds’ meets ‘The Wind in the Willows'”, I think it’ll end up turning a few heads.
So that’s INJ Culbard in a nutshell. A sort of big and wordy nutshell, but a nutshell none the less. He is truly a comics creator to keep an eye on, if not to watch him rise in notoriety, then at least to take in his fantastic art!
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! “2000 AD” Prog 1888 is on sale today and 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!”
