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Multiver-City One: 2000 AD Prog 1909

By and | November 26th, 2014
Posted in Columns | % Comments

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Welcome, citizens, to this week’s installment of Multiver-City One! Every Wednesday we examine the latest offerings from Tharg and the droids over at 2000 AD, the galaxy’s leading producers of Thrill-Power entertainment! Between the weekly “2000 AD” itself, the monthly “Judge Dredd Megazine”, an extensive library of graphic novel collections, and new US-format one-shots and mini-series, they have decades of zarjaz comics for you to enjoy.

There’s a new Prog this week, so we’ll jump right in after this quick public service announcement!

I. AN EARTHLET’S GUIDE TO 2000 AD

We understand that having that large of a selection to choose from can make knowing where to start with 2000 AD seem 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?

So to help new & potential readers, we’ve put together An Earthlet’s Guide to 2000 AD. A regularly updated FAQ, The Guide will collect everything you need to make your initial foray into the 2000 AD Thrill-verse as simple as possible.

And as another way to help new readers, 2000 AD has made free downloadable sampler PDFs of previous episodes from Judge Dredd, Stickleback, & Kingdom, and Greysuit & Ichabod Azrael available.

II. NOW DEPARTING

Kingdom: Aux Drift, Part 9

After two months of violence and non-stop action it appears that Gene the Hackman has finally found what he’s been looking for. It’s been a hard road, and there have certainly been tolls to pay, but this chapter of ‘Kingdom’ has come to a close.

This week’s strip felt like it had a little bit of a different tone to it. Almost serene.  Well, serene after the giant explosion. Given the pace of the story, I’m going to say that this is definitely a calm before the storm situation. There’s no set date for Kingdom’s return, but here’s hoping it’ll be back before too long!

Credits: Dan Abnett (script), Richard Elson (art), Abigail Ryder (color), Ellie DeVille (letters)

 

III. THIS WEEK IN PROG 1909

Cover by Cliff Robinson

 

Judge Dredd: Block Judge, Part 10

So long, Gramercy Heights, it’s been a blast!

This week Wagner and Ezquerra wrap up their latest Judge Dredd collaboration with a neat little bow. It seems that all the pieces have fallen into place for Dredd and he’s ready to pass the baton to Gramercy’s next Block Judge. The gangs have been broken, the drug traffick is interrupted, and the block’s citizens seem to have gained a sense of pride in where they live. But at what cost? Is this new peacetime worth the constant surveillance and loss of privacy? Is Dredd’s bending of the law acceptable because of his results? Will this success make future judicial overreaches even easier? And does the strip’s conclusion show us that the unrest still exists?

I’ll say no, no, yes and yes.

I really enjoyed ‘Block Judge’. It’s the type of story that will give you as much as you’re willing to take. It can easily be read as an all-surface action thriller with plenty of head busting action. Or maybe you want to read it as a Wild West-style new-sheriff-in-town story. Or better yet, you can dig in deep and take in all the satire and meta-commentary on the ever-present police state.

For those of you that’re bummed to see this glorious Wagner/Ezquerra collaboration come to a close: fear not! They will be joining forces again in a few months to tell a new Strontium Dog tale.

Credits: John Wagner (script), Carlos Ezquerra (art), Annie Parkhouse (letters)

 

Stickleback: The Thru’Penny Opera, Part 10

It’s weeks like these that remind me how little I know about some of these strips. We see the aftermath of last week’s battle between the Sisters and the Empress of Limehouse, and suffice it to say, things did not go well for the good guys.

We saw at the beginning of ‘The Thru’Penny Opera’ that the Stickleback everyone sees is not Stickleback as he really is, physically or emotionally. Sure you could say that for basically any character, but the gap between public and private persona is more pronounced here. And since Stickleback has been out in public for most of this strip, it’s the Pope of Crime mask that we’ve been getting most of the time. But that mask (as well as one other) comes off this week, and it’s a doozy of a reveal. Longtime readers probably noticed the connection we see here last week, if not sooner, but I was sure not prepared for it.

Continued below

Edginton really leans on D’Israeli this week for the not only rubble & destruction, but emotional wreckage as well. And I have to say that he really pulls it off. It’s no secret that I am a big fan of his art in this strip, but if there is a drawback to the style it’s that the type of nuanced expressions that can sell quieter moments seem much harder to pull off; you wouldn’t use this particular tool in the toolbox for a Kevin Maguire story, for example. But through some specific panel choices, framing, and acting, I had no trouble feeling the gut punch Edginton threw at me. So…thanks?

We’re quickly approaching Prog 2015, and therefore the end of ‘Opera’, but I want Stickleback to get some payback before then even more then I did before. Because I guarantee, after this week, he is definitely looking to get some.

Credits: Ian Edginton (script), D’Israeli (art), Annie Parkhouse (letters)

 

Greysuit: Prince of Darkness, Part 9

John Higgins, I think you win comics this week. Those four panels make my stomach hurt.

This might be my favorite chapter of this story so far, and it’s not just for the man bashing his own face in. Mills introduces a new character this week, and he’s got what I’m going to call a unique disorder. I can’t be sure, but I don’t believe ‘song Tourette’s’ is an actual affliction. I tried searching it, but all that came up were Nirvana lyrics.

This week’s strip is somewhat of a departure in that its humor is a bit less black and a lot more out in the open. Mostly from the Tourette’s guy. Mills is the type of writer that makes you think he’s being quite serious, but then wonder in hindsight if he’s actually been telling stories that are mostly absurdist humor. It seems that this week he’s tipped his hand a little to let us all in on the joke.

Credits: Pat Mills (script), John Higgins (art), Sally Hurst (colors), Ellie de Ville (letters)

 

The Grievous Journey of Ichabod Azrael (And The Dead Left In His Wake): One Last Bullet, Part 9

I am going to miss that horse. I mentioned to Williams on Twitter a few weeks back how much I love that horse and would love to see Tharg commission a spinoff strip for him. Williams tweeted back “Sarcastic Horse. Coming in 2015″ far too fast for it to be something he had to mull over for longer than a split-second. I know he was joking; I really and truly do. But that doesn’t mean I don’t hope to see that series show up in a ‘Thrills of the Future’ promo every week, and lose a little slice of hope every time it doesn’t.

Interesting factoid about the daughter. Her name, Ahtunowhiho, is primarily a Cheyenne boy’s name meaning ‘One who lives below”. According to SheKnows.com (and how fitting is that for this series:

People with this name are excellent at analyzing, understanding, and learning. They tend to be mystics, philosophers, scholars, and teachers. Because they live so much in the mind, they tend to be quiet and introspective, and are usually introverts. When presented with issues, they will see the larger picture. Their solitary thoughtfulness and analysis of people and world events may make them seem aloof, and sometimes even melancholy.

Indeed.

Also? Neigh.

Credits: Rob Williams (script), Michael Dowling (art), Annie Parkhouse (letters)

 

IV. OUR DAILY DREDD

The first Judge Dredd newspaper strip, The Daily Star, August 29 1981

The 2000 AD archive droids have been put to the ultimate test: locating, scanning and collecting every Judge Dredd newspaper strip to ever see print! What’s that? You didn’t know that there was a Judge Dredd newspaper strip? Honestly, up until a few months ago, I didn’t either.

Between August 1981 and December 1986, Judge Dredd would grace the pages of The Daily Star each and every Saturday. There were even stretches where the lawman would make weekday appearances. Predominantly handled by Dredd veterans John Wagner, Alan Grant, and Ron Smith, these Dredd strips were yet another avenue for readers to discover these thrills of the future. It’d be easy to imagine that such a time-consuming task would be farmed out to writers and artists who were maybe a little lower on the totem pole, freeing up bigger name creators to work on the weekly Progs. But that wouldn’t have been enough to please Tharg the Mighty.

Continued below

Pages 4 and 5 of the first Judge Dredd strip, 2000 AD Prog 2, March 5 1977

Seeing as how these strips had the chance of reaching new readers, then-2000 AD assistant editor Richard Burton went straight to the source. In what I can only describe as a Herculean feat, Burton took the very first Dredd story, a five-pager from Prog 2 drawn by Mike McMahon, and distilled it to a terse nine panels. You can click the images above to get a feel for how Burton went about doing this. While a number of these newspaper strips have been reprinted in various collections, this is the first time this remixed first chapter has been reproduced since it first ran over three decades ago.

This collection of hyper-compressed strips is quite impressive. We so often commend 2000 AD writers and artists for their ability to to tell tightly-woven and compelling stories in just a few pages. But to see Wagner, Grant, and Smith pare down to just a handful of panels? That’s some impressive comic booking!

“The Daily Dredds” is now available in the UK and will be released in the US next month.

V. ALSO THIS WEEK

This week sees the release of “Dredd: Uprise” #2, finishing off the US-style reprinting of the second Dredd-movie comic sequel that just wrapped up its run in the Megazine last week. How’s that for expediency? You can read our coverage of all five parts here, here, here, here, and here.

But wait! On the off-chance that ‘Uprise’ isn’t enough for you, Tharg has also authorized the inclusion of ‘The Man Comes Around’, a Dredd story by Rob Williams and R.M. Guera that ran in “Judge Dredd Megazine” 344 last year. You can read our review of it here, but just as a head’s up: it’s fantastic!

“Dredd: Uprise” #2 is available in comic shops everywhere today.

VI. 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 1909 and “Dredd: Uprise” #2 are on sale today and available from:

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


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