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.
We’ve got the last new Prog of 2014 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 such a large selection of comics 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 both new and potential readers, Mike & I 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 to make jumping onboard this week’s Prog as easy as possible, 2000 AD has made free downloadable sampler PDFs of previous episodes from Judge Dredd, Stickleback, & Kingdom, and Greysuit & Ichabod Azrael available.
II. THIS WEEK IN PROG 1911
Judge Dredd: Mask of Anarchy
Sometimes people don’t realize that there’s a strong element of comedy in Judge Dredd. Black comedy, to be sure, but comedy none the less. This week’s Dredd strip leans hard on the humor to deliver an extremely satisfying one-off story. The premise is simple: jewel thief on the run, Dredd gives chase. It would have been easy to tell this as a straight-ahead tale, but Worley and Gallagher expertly set up Dredd as the straight man in a world gone mad. The humor in this story glides between subtlety and absurdity as the gags come fast in both the dialogue and art. Even Ol’ Joe himself gets to deliver a joke, albeit unintentionally. The whole thing wraps up with a plot twist into an O. Henry ending, complete with a gross final panel.
‘Mask of Anarchy’ is a perfect example of the range possible with Judge Dredd. It’s easy for those unfamiliar with the character and these stories to think that it’d all be one-note action comics, but strips like these can quickly and easily show people that those assumptions could not be further from the truth. I think this was the perfect little palate-cleansing story before ‘Dark Justice’ kicks off next week. I’m expecting a lot of things from that strip, but a laugh isn’t one of them.
Credits: Alec Worley (script), Leigh Gallagher (art), Chris Blythe (colors), Annie Parkhouse (letters)
Stickleback: The Thru’Penny Opera, Part 12
I don’t know; that sure looks like the end to me.
With only three strips running this week, ‘Greysuit’ and ‘Stickleback’ end up getting extra pages to play out their finales with. In the case of ‘Stickleback’, Edginton and D’Israeli use their 10 pages to stretch some storytelling legs. For example, where they would usually have only a panel or (if they were lucky) a page to get across just how absolutely hosed London is, this week they get three pages. Thankfully for the readers, their storytelling instincts still lean towards economy, so instead of empty (though no doubt stunning) splash pages & double-page spreads, we still get useful panels, just more of them.
This being the last installment of the run, I’m tempted to talk about the ending. We’ve done that before in the column; throw up a “SPOILER” tag and give our thoughts. But I don’t want to spoil the last-panel reveal, and there’s no real way to do talk about this without doing that. So we’re going to table the big talk for now, for that reason and that I want to go back and catch up on ‘Stickleback’ up to this run. The two collections out so far (England’s Glory and Number of the Beast) should bring you right in line with ‘The Thru’Penny Opera’ if you want to play along at home. And I recommend doing so, because this strip has been one of my absolute favorites of 2014 and I can’t imagine the stories leading up to it being anything less than that.
Continued belowCredits: Ian Edginton (script), D’Israeli (art), Annie Parkhouse (letters)
Greysuit: Prince of Darkness, Part 11
Mills has used ‘Greysuit’ as a platform to get a lot of stuff said. He’s cleverly taken ideas often mocked and condescendingly labeled ‘conspiracy theories’ and, putting them in a comic book, is now able to freely examine subjects like government overreach, the power and influence of wealth, imperialism, and false flag ops without having to pull punches or suffer those who immediately shut down at the mention of anything that would be considered conspiracy.
Overall, I enjoyed this run of ‘Greysuit’ very much. There were a couple of weeks that fell a little flat, but I believe that once this story is collected into a single edition that problem should smooth right out. Even though this is a wrap, we’re left with a bit of a cliffhanger, so here’s hoping that ‘Greysuit’ returns to the fold sooner rather than later!
Credits: Pat Mills (script), John Higgins (art), Sally Hurst (colors), Ellie de Ville (letters)
III. COMING SSSOON…
After months of teasing, The Dark Judges will be returning next week in Prog 2015! That issue not only kicks off John Wagner and Greg Staples’ ‘Judge Dredd: Dark Justice’, it brings back some other fan-favorite characters to these hallowed pages. Personally, I can’t wait for the new ‘Lowlife’ story by Rob Williams and D’Israeli. I loves me some Dirty Frank! The issue will have nine strips in total and clock in at 100 pages when all said and done. And on top of that, there’s going to be a new “Judge Dredd Megazine” issue hitting shelves right beside it! Between the two, that’s over 200 pages of zarjaz new comics to carry you into the new year.
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 1911 is on sale today and available from:
- The 2000 AD Newsstand app for iPad and iPhone,
- 2000ADonline.com in print or DRM-free PDF and CBZ formats,
- Select US newsstands, and
- Finer comic shops everywhere
So as Tharg the Mighty himself would say, “Splundig vur thrigg!”
