Columns 

Multiver-City One: 2000 AD Prog 1892

By and | July 31st, 2014
Posted in Columns | % Comments

MVC1 Title

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! We’ve got a new Prog this week, so let’s get right to it!

This week’s cover is by Colin MacNeil 

I. NOW ARRIVING

Judge Dredd: A Night in Sylvia Plath, Part 1

Walter the Robot! Mrs. Gunderson! Judge Death!? Holy Grud, there are a lot of familiar faces in this strip!

This week’s story opens with a scene that simultaneously warmed and broke my heart. Judge Dredd is called to a disturbance at one of The Meg’s grocery stores, only to find on his arrival that it’s Walter the Robot who’s causing all the trouble! But the poor little guy seems to be suffering from some sort of malfunction. He’s breaking bottles, talking nonsense, wearing a bathrobe, and is just pretty filthy looking. On top of all that, he doesn’t even recognize his old “fwiend” Judge “Dwedd”! But, all that aside, talking with Walter brought a smile to Joe Dredd’s stoney face (see above).

If you don’t know who Walter the Robot is, aside from being one of John Wagner’s many colorful contributions to the Dredd mythos, here’s a quick sum up. Once a Robo-Janitor at the Grand Hall of Justice, Walter was the first robot to be given freedom and all the rights of a human. He exercised this freedom by devoting himself completely to his hero “Dwedd” and becoming his robot butler. He’d cook and clean, run baths and make dinner, all the usual robot butler stuff. Walter was a pretty prominent character in the early days of this strip, but was shuffled away in the 80’s. He’s made several appearances since then, and has been serving Mrs. Gunderson for a while now.

Oh yeah, Mrs. Gunderson is in this story, too! Which is a really great bit of timing, seeing as how Judge Death has been spotted at several residences recently. Why’s that good, you ask? Because Mrs. Gunderson used to rent a room to Judge Death! And she was just so fond of him! Wouldn’t it be neat if he showed up at her doorstep again? Just like old times?

If any of this Walter and Mrs. Gunderson talk has piqued your interest, I’d suggest you check out The Day the Law Died and The Life and Death of Judge Death.

Credits: John Wagner (script), Colin MacNeil (art), Annie Parkhouse (letters)

II. NOW DEPARTING

Sinister Dexter: Congo, Part 4

Before taking a break from the Progs, Sinister and Dexter meet up with an old friend this week and lay it all out on the table. And I do mean all of it.

The whole ‘Generican Dream’ story has been a weird one for months now; weaving its way through a suburban landscape while skewering all manner of that landscape’s manicured but ultimately hollow lifestyle. And just when it’s coming to a close, Dan Abnett reminds us there is, in fact, a point to the story he’s writing and the fate of all things hangs in the balance. This is what Abnett does best: telling a tale about the highest, largest concept he can muster, but doing it through characters at ground level.

On top of that, there’s a hell of a cliffhanger here, and we can’t wait for this strip to return!

Credits: Dan Abnett (script), Jake Lynch (art), Ellie de Ville (letters)

III. THIS WEEK IN PROG 1892

Brass Sun: Floating Worlds, Part 5

“The Team-Up You Never Expected!!!”

That phrase has been plastered onto the covers of more comics than I can count. Almost always the combination in question was, while maybe not the first pairing one would think of, within the realm of possibility. Spider-Man and Dr. Doom? Mildly surprising. I would always joke that teaming Spider-Man up with, say, Jesus? That would be something I never expected. Jesus showing up in “2000 AD”, though, happened last month in ‘Indigo Prime’ and could happen in ‘Aquila’ at any moment given how that strip’s been going.

Continued below

Wren teaming up with Kurt Vonnegut, however, is something I literally did not expect to ever happen.

Slight spoiler (although you can probably grok this from the above image): that’s not actually Kurt Vonnegut. Which is not to say that INJ Culbard just drew some random dude and the combination of lines he put down happened to repeatedly resemble Vonnegut like a million monkeys cranking out book after book of The Complete Shakespeare. Just that the being Wren is speaking to in her poison-induced coma is not the actual author of “Slaughterhouse-Five” and “Breakfast of Champions”.

Kurt Non-negut’s appearance does have a meaning in the story, though. And I bring this up as reason #438 of why you should be reading this strip: you keep seeing things you never expected to see.

Credits: Ian Edgington (script), INJ Culbard (art), Ellie de Ville (letters)

Aquila: Carnifex, Part 3

No Vonnegut or Jesus appearances here, although the latter does get name-dropped a few times. But that doesn’t mean this strip doesn’t bring a surprise of two!

Aquila has been working through his orders from Nero, collecting the heads of seven religious figures to power the emperor’s ritual of attaining godhood himself. And since Aquila is immortal himself, not to mention absolutely deadly with a blade thanks to his gladiatorial experience, getting those heads separated from their necks has been no big thing. But when it came time to rob Peter the Apostle of his head, paying Aquila a visit is a straight-up golem. And as gladiatorial opponents go, Aquila didn’t rack up much time going up against them.

This should be interesting.

Credits: Gordon Rennie (script), Leigh Gallagher (art), Dylan Teague (colors), Annie Parkhouse (letters)

Black Shuck, Part 2

Black Shuck, aka barbarian Angle kidnapped from home by Vikings and brought to his father’s besieged fort, wastes no time in taking up the sword against the invaders. Yeah, it might not be your own home you’re defending, but when trolls show up, they don’t care if you’re a native or just passing through. Defend yourself or you’re dead, no questions asked.

A big question for the reader is what happened to Black Shuck after his abduction. He first appeared last Prog by an empty boat, saying all the others (Viking and captive alike) were dead. Moore & Reppion are intercutting the present story with flashbacks of his journey from one land to the other, which keeps things interesting as you have double the story points to choose from.

Yeowell and Blythe do just as good a job this Prog as last at handling the visuals. Grounded and desaturated without being flag and dull, if I were looking for a way to describe it. With the promise of gold next time, the aesthetic already in place should help that pop even more.

Credits: Leah Moore & John Reppion (script), Steve Yeowell (art), Chris Blythe (colors), Annie Parkhouse (letters)

IV. DREDD ILLUSTRATED SCRIPT

Growing up, I bought a few illustrated screenplays. Home video was around at the time, so these weren’t the only ways to see a movie outside of the theater, but they were an interesting way to experience them, especially if you liked some parts of the movie but not others. There was usually an intro by the director or screenwriter, the script itself with some production photos interspersed, and then an afterword or some text pieces on the production. So when I cracked open my copy of 2000 AD’s “Dredd: The Illustrated Movie Script & Visuals”, I thought that’s what I would be getting. But like everything else about this movie, I got more than I was expecting.

I got Jock’d.

I knew he had worked in the film as a visual consultant. And not just as a basic designer, but as someone with a ton of Judge Dredd history himself. I also knew that he’d done up some of Alex Garland’s script in comic-form to give everyone in the production a sense of what they were going for. What I didn’t know is that he did the WHOLE script. And not just as storyboard after storyboard, but as actual sequential art, which pages laid out and different panel sizes and the like. So if you saw the “Dredd” comic sequels 2000 AD has put out and wondered, “That’s great and all, but I wish they’d have done the movie, too”? They did.

Continued below

As you can see above, this is not Jock at his most polished, but it is him doing a damn readable comic from a non-comic script. The book is laid out so that every comic page on the right has the accompanying script page on the left. Sometimes the script descriptions show up as captions in the comic, sometimes not. But like I said, it’s really readable. An interesting note is that the comic work was done before most, if not all, the actors were cast. So Ma-Ma, for example, has a completely different look and build here than in the film.

And if you like your Jock with a little more finish and shine on it, then they’ve got you covered as well, because integrated into the script pages is the rest of the artist’s design work. It’s the type of production artwork you (or at least I) expected to see. Painted costume studies; back matte mock-ups; the works. You can see the Judges’ uniforms go through a couple of different iterations from classic garish to the dark-on-dark used. Good stuff.

Unlike the illustrated script books of my youth, this book packs about three books worth of material into one. And the regular edition coming in at around 30 bucks means letting this one pass you by is an automatic ten years in the Iso-Cubes to think about your mistake!

V. FUTURE PERP FILES

dredd cpu

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 1892 is on sale today and available from finer comic shops everywhere, from the 2000 AD Newsstand app for iPad and iPhone, and from 2000ADonline.com in print or DRM-free PDF and CBZ formats. So as Tharg the Mighty himself would say, “Splundig vur thrigg!”


//TAGS | Multiver-City One

Greg Matiasevich

Greg Matiasevich has read enough author bios that he should be better at coming up with one for himself, yet surprisingly isn't. However, the years of comic reading his parents said would never pay off obviously have, so we'll cut him some slack on that. He lives in Baltimore, co-hosts (with Mike Romeo) the Robots From Tomorrow podcast, writes Multiversity's monthly Shelf Bound column dedicated to comics binding, and can be followed on Twitter at @GregMatiasevich.

EMAIL | ARTICLES

Mike Romeo

Mike Romeo started reading comics when splash pages were king and the proper proportions of a human being meant nothing. Part of him will always feel that way. Now he is one of the voices on Robots From Tomorrow. He lives in Philadelphia with two cats. Follow him on Instagram at @YeahMikeRomeo!

EMAIL | ARTICLES


  • Columns
    Multiver-City One: Judge Dredd Megazine 466 – Shoot ‘Em Up!

    By , , , and | Mar 27, 2024 | Columns

    Welcome, Earthlets, to Multiver-City One, our monthly look at the “Judge Dredd Megazine!” Let’s get right to it.Judge Dredd: Ravenous Part 3Credits: Mike Carroll (script) Anthony Williams (art) Annie Parkhouse (letters)Matthew Blair: All seems lost for the heroes of Mega City One. They’re facing off against the perfect predator and nothing they have can stop […]

    MORE »
    Columns
    Multiver-City One: 2000 AD Prog 2375 – Bumper Issue!

    By , , , and | Mar 27, 2024 | Columns

    Welcome, Earthlets, to Multiver-City One, our “2000 AD” weekly review column! Every Wednesday we examine the latest offerings from Tharg and the droids over at Rebellion/2000 AD, the galaxy’s leading producers of Thrill-Power entertainment. Let’s get right to it!This Week in 2000 AD Judge Dredd: Next Man Up Credits: Rob Williams (script), RM Guera (art), […]

    MORE »
    2000 AD Prog 2374 Featured Columns
    Multiver-City One: 2000 AD Prog 2374 – A World of His Making!

    By , , , and | Mar 20, 2024 | Columns

    Welcome, Earthlets, to Multiver-City One, our “2000 AD” weekly review column! Every Wednesday we examine the latest offerings from Tharg and the droids over at Rebellion/2000 AD, the galaxy’s leading producers of Thrill-Power entertainment. Let’s get right to it!This Week in 2000 ADJudge Dredd: A Dimensional Travelers Guide to Mega City One Credits: Ken Neimand […]

    MORE »

    -->