Columns 

Multiver-City One: 2000 AD Prog 1915 and Judge Dredd Megazine 356

By and | January 28th, 2015
Posted in Columns | % Comments

MVC1 Title

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 both a brand-new Prog AND Megazine 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 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.

II. THIS WEEK IN PROG 1915

Cover by Greg Staples

 

Judge Dredd: Dark Justice, Part 5

This is bad. I mean, ‘Dark Justice’ is fantastic comics, but the situation out in space on the Mayflower? Bad. Very very bad. The Dark Judges are a force of nature and have been running through the ship unchecked for 12 days. Dredd, Anderson, and The Verminators are walking into an absolute death trap.

Greg Staples has turned in yet another batch of unbelievably gorgeous pages. And I mean ‘unbelievably’ in the literal sense of the word; it is startling how good this art is. Of course Death and company look great, but what caught me by surprise was the deep space imagery at work in this week’s strip. The way Staples renders light in these pages gives the reader a sense of how stark and unforgiving this environment is. You can almost feel the vacuum of space in some of the exterior panels. I recently picked up a print copy of Prog 2015, and good gracious was that a treat. Staples’ art looks fantastic on the iPad (I read “2000 AD” almost exclusively digitally), but seeing it on those big, magazine-size pages was a different experience all together.

Credits: John Wagner (script), Greg Staples (art), Annie Parkhouse (letters)

 

Savage (Book 9): Grinders, Part 5

So it looks like ol’ Bill managed to survive his encounter with the Hammersteins only to meet up with the business end of the group of Grinders we saw back in Prog 2015. I’m pretty sure the trick he used on those Hammersteins isn’t going to work here. But as much as Blackblood beating the hell out of him is bad, the person Bill comes face-to-face with afterwards is worse. Someone Bill thought was dead a LONG time ago.

And I know we mention this often, or at least I do, but we while get review copies of the Progs a week before these columns go up, we are (for the most part) depending on Wikipedia and some judicious researching to try and make sense of things that are purposefully being left vague by the storytellers in order to build suspense (and rightly so). So I know who that person is, and I know what we are going to find out about that person next week (and its pretty awesome, just as an FYI), but I’m still not sure if that is something that was known before and is being reiterated & expanded on for newer readers, or if its revealing previously unknown material. That sifting of information and filling in backstory is one of the perks of this job covering the 2000 AD Thrill-verse; I don’t know it to nearly the degree that I do the DC or Marvel universes, so I get to be that kid again trying to fill in the gaps.

Speaking of being a kid, the kid and adult me is more than a little creeped out by the way Goddard draws those hoses under Blackblood’s skin. They icked me out when I saw them going in back in Prog 2015 and they ick me out every time I see them. Again, he makes everything so tactile in his art that all of these body-mods the Grinders have going for them just FEEL painful even if we’re not told that they are. Ugggghhhhhhhh…..

Continued below

Credits: Pat Mills (script), Patrick Goddard (art), Ellie de Ville (letters)

 

The Order, Part 5

That old saying about never bringing a knife to a gun fight? This might be where that saying comes from. Time and time again the rag-tag members of The Order (either Anna with her father’s pistol or Schmidt here with his double-barrel) are beset upon by various knights and miscreants armed with knives or swords, and time and time again they meet those blades with gunpowder, and walk away unscathed. So I’m thinking word of the disparity quickly made its way through Europe.

But knife, gun, tooth, or claw; it all looks good under the pen and brush of John Burns. Kek-W continues to weave technology and science into what we automatically think of as ‘primitive’ times, as well as throwing in a good amount of supernatural elements for fun. Well, fun for us, not exactly fun for the people who tend to get eaten by them. But their loss is our gain!

Credits: Kek-W (script), John Burns (art), Annie Parkhouse (letters)

 

Ulysses Sweet, Maniac For Hire: Psycho Therapist, Part 5

Does Ulysses Sweet getting all serious like that make anyone else uncomfortable?

After some slapstick handling of what could easily be a pretty dark series of events, we get a little peek behind the veneer of the character of Ulysses Sweet to see that there may actually be a bit of depth there. The scene pictured above can lead readers to believe that Sweet, in contradiction of everything we’ve seen so far, is not nearly as oblivious to all the carnage he leaves in his wake as he seems to be. Adams’ dialogue and Marshall’s art works in perfect concert to convey Sweet’s manic duality. His words are casual and he uses a relaxed vernacular to describe his many murders, while his face becomes darker with the passing of every panel, until his eyes are only deep black voids. Then, almost instantaneously, he snaps back to the detached-but-humorous Sweet that we’re much more familiar with.

It seems that we may be nearing the end of this chapter of Ulysses Sweet’s story, but I get the distinct sense that Adams and Marshall have slyly planted the seeds of what’s to come for the character.

Credits: Guy Adams (script), Paul Marshall (art), Chris Blythe (tones), Ellie de Ville (letters)

 

Orlok, Agent of East-Meg One: Eurozoned, Part 4

Orlok, still operating under the pseudonym ‘Oberon’, has certainly been making waves and earning some attention in Euro-City. This week we see Orlok forge a new working relationship and aid in the execution of a series of clones. Things may not actually work out so well for our protagonist, though, as it seems he may have tipped his hand to his enemies. But we’re talking about Orlok here, so it’s safe to say that he’s probably playing a long-game here. This is sci-fi super-spy action at its finest!

Jake Lynch continues to impress the hell out of me with this strip. The ragged linework combined with all that screentone makes ‘Orlok’ feel like it is either a throwback to classic 1980’s “2000 AD” or the most forward-leaning art in the magazine.

Credits: Arthur Wyatt (script), Jake Lynch (art), Simon Bowland (letters)

III. THIS MONTH IN JUDGE DREDD MEGAZINE 356

Cover by Alex Ronald

 

Judge Dredd: The Cop, Part 1

We talk a lot about John Wagner and how he’s the Dredd writer that everyone else takes their cues from. And rightly so, because he’s not only co-creator but also the writer who’s handled Dredd the longest. But it bears repeating that he’s certainly not the only writer has handled Dredd well, and strips like this show that writers like Al Ewing are more than capable of handling The Meg’s top cop. Take the internal monologue we see above, for instance. For most of the page, the rhythm of the text really sets up an introspective look at this horrible situation that is Mega-City One post-Day of Chaos. But the snap of the last panel’s text shuts that down like Dredd giving some perps the business end of his Daystick. There’s a great sequence following this where we see Dredd realize that the law has utterly failed one of the citizens, and he comes about as close to bending the law to make amends that someone like Dredd can. It’s really nice to see, even if it doesn’t last long and is possibly being used to counterpoint some truly heinous actions later on. But I’ll take what I can get.

Continued below

But, lest you think this is all fun & games, Ewing does bring things back around to connect with last month’s prologue by the end of the strip, as well as tie them in with even the opening scene. Almost like he planned it that way…

Credits: Al Ewing (script), Ben Willsher (art), Adam Brown (colors), Simon Bowland (letters)

 

American Reaper III, Part 2

I’m usually pretty good at being able to figure out who did what on a comic page; reverse-engineering the credits page to give credit (or blame) where it’s due. But for this strip, even when we have a companion piece handled solely by one of the artists for this strip, I still can’t quite put my finger on where Langley stops and where Dalton begins (or vice versa).

Last month I think I ended up giving Dalton more credit for the deep texturing and rendering than Langley, but having seen her solo story in this issue, I feel like I need to reverse that. My gut tells me Dalton is doing more of the layout/foundational work for Langley to then build off of. We’ll see if that hypothesis holds up in a month’s time.

(It also just struck me as hilarious that for a strip so focused on identity and two minds in one body, that I’d be so obsessed with figuring out which ‘personality’ in the artist credit is doing what part of the work.)

Mills, thankfully, is still just Mills. Which is great because I don’t know anyone who could work with him and not end up just getting in the way of him being what we all want and need him to be: himself.

Credits: Pat Mills (script), Clint Langley & Fay Dalton (art), Annie Parkhouse (letters)

 

Reaper Files: The Man Who Murdered Himself

In a bit of world building, Mills comes to bat with a second consecutive strip in this month’s issue. Building out the idea of identity transplants, this one-and-done story wrestles with a part of the societal impact the procedure could have. If one person hurts another, only to later have another person’s mind transferred into their body, can they still be considered guilty? I mean, even if their memories and consciousness are different, their body was still physically there. So can you justifiably say that they were present for the crime? Seems some people think so.

Fay Dalton’s art is absolutely fantastic on this strip. Her ability to capture the look of a mid-century modern world make the decision to feature a stewardess on a Pan-Am-styled rocket a perfect one. Each of her collaborations with Mills so far have featured characters and settings that are wonderfully suited for Dalton’s painterly, Rockwell-esque art, and this one keeps the streak going.

Credits: Pat Mills (script), Fay Dalton (art), Annie Parkhouse (letters)

 

DeMarco, P.I.: Deja Vu, Part 2

DeMarco’s memories are fractured and her bank accounts depleted. How long has it been this way? How exactly did she find herself in such dire straights? This month’s chapter of ‘Deja Vu’ leaves us with nearly as many questions as DeMarco must have.

What’s making things worse for DeMarco is that, even though she’s having memory problems, there are plenty of folks in The Meg who know exactly who she is. Whether it be for her billions of creds, her time as a Judge, or later, her time as a private investigator, she’s made an impression on lots of people. So when she finds herself in a less-than-affluent neighborhood, someone’s going to recognize that face.

Credits: Michael Carroll (script), Steve Yeowell (art), Ellie de Ville (letters)

 

Angelic, Part 1

This is the story of Pa and Linc Angel. Living out in the Texas-City radlands, they’ve been living out a “Lone Wolf and Cub”-type existence. On the run from The Law, Pa seems set on showing Linc his first dead Judge. This is, of course, a feat that is easier said than done. Things get bad pretty fast for this father-&-son team of outlaws, as The Law brings their merciless fist down upon them.

Continued below

I’m quite interested to see where Rennie and Carter take this thing. The Angel Gang should be familiar to anyone with the least bit of Dredd-world knowledge, and it seems as if this story will show us the series of events that cement them into the bad-ass family we all know today. Without getting into spoilers, there are a few things that happen in this strip that really surprised me. Granted, The Angel Gang and Texas-City are a bit of a blind-spot for me, but I don’t know that Pa ever– well, let’s get into it next time. I did say ‘no spoilers,’ after all!

Credits: Gordon Rennie (script), Lee Carter (art), Annie Parkhouse (letters)

IV. MEGAZINE FEATURES

Besides scheduling, there’s a big difference between a Prog and a Megazine. While each weekly Prog acts as a comics anthology, “Judge Dredd Megazine” is more of a, well, magazine. In addition to all the comics (new and reprints), a variety of contributors write articles focusing on topics that, while usually related to the Dredd-verse in some way, spread the scope of the Megazine beyond the obvious cast of characters and into topics, both Meg-centric and real world, that would be of interest to the readership as a whole.

New Books: Robbie Burns Witch Hunter by Matthew Badham

Witches need to watch their steps, because in addition to witchfinders like Sir Edward Grey (from the BPRD-verse) and the Witchsmeller Pursuivent (from Blackadder), it turns out that famous Scottish poet Robert Burns did, in fact, moonlight as a witch hunter. Gordon Rennie, Emma Beeby, and TT have chronicled this unknown chapter in the poet’s life as a bawdy tale sure to give uninterested students a new way into understanding the man and his work. Maybe.

(Multiversity Comics would like to take this opportunity to remind readers that any claims made about “Robbie Burns Witch Hunter” as an educational tool are solely those of the GM-initialed columnist writing that sentence, and do not reflect the position of the site as a whole. Any failing grades resulting from accepting said claims as true are therefore not the responsibility of the site, and therefore not something we can be sued for.

That said, the book does look like a pretty fun romp!)

New Books: Johnny Nemo by Matthew Badham

If you thought “Johnny Nemo: Existential Hitman from the Future” was an old “2000 AD” strip being reprinted, you could be forgiven for thinking so given the comic’s premise, dark humor, and creative pedigree. Writer Peter Milligan and artist Brett Ewins were part of Tharg’s regular droid army during the strips publication in the 1980’s, but “Johnny Nemo” actually bounced around in other places like “Deadline” and its own self-titled magazine. But Titan Comics is now putting out a hardcover collection of the entire series, plus unreleased material featuring work by Rufus Dayglo, Ashley Wood, and Jock! You can find out why this series is a must-read in this month’s Megazine, or you could just take my word for it and check it out yourself!

 

V. MEGAZINE REPRINT

Every month, Tharg finds a little something from the back catalog to include with the Megazine. This month it’s “Red Fang” from the team of Steve Moore, Steve Yowell, Chris Blythe, and Ellie De Ville.

“Red Fang” takes place in the 31st century, in a far-off Earth colony called Oro City. The story focuses on Fang (the head of an organized crime family), Phoenix, (that family’s executioner), and the cops who want nothing more than to tear the whole thing down. There are some points where “Red Fang” reminds me a bit of “Lazarus”, with Phoenix filling a similar character role to Forever Carlyle. While I’d say that “Lazarus” is the stronger of the two, “Red Fang” is a good read and plenty of fun. It’s got some of the flavors of a 70’s kung fu movie blended with science fiction action. It’s great to see a piece of “2000 AD” publication history reprinted for readers, like us, who missed it the first time around.

VI. RECOGNIZE THE LAW

Continued below

With the new year comes a brand-new feature here at Multiver-City One! We’re retiring the weekly ‘Perp Files’ and replacing it with ‘Recognize the Law’. It’s no secret that there are a great many flavors of Judges from a great deal of Mega-Cities, so we’re aiming to use this space as a way of exploring as many types of Judges as we can. Did you know that in Mega-City One there are Accounting Judges? And Exorcist Judges?

While we’ve already been off-planet, this week we’re looking at our first non-Mega-City One Judge. North America is home to three Mega-Cities. On the east and west coasts of what is today the United States lies Mega-Cities One and Two, respectively. But between the two, along the western coast of the Gulf of Mexico, sits the former Mega-City Three: Texas City! While there are Judges that dispense law on the interior of the city, Texas City also has a number of Rangers that patrol the surrounding radlands. There are many dangers lurking in this uninhabitable zone, so Rangers must be the toughest Judges Texas City can find.

Elements of a Texas City Ranger Judge’s Uniform:

  • Non-issue duster, adorned by Texas-issued Ranger star
  • Eagle on right shoulder
  • Left shoulder pad
  • Elbow pads w/ rigid plastic shell
  • Lone Star shield bearing Judge’s surname, chained to zipper pull
  • Gloves w/ pockets and knuckle reenforcement
  • Utility belt with Lone Star buckle
  • High-impact knee pads
  • Heavy-duty boots with holster for Lawgiver (right) and sheath for utility knife (left)

Texas City Judges can lawfully carry personal sidearms while on duty. While not mandatory, nearly every Judge elects to do so.

That’s gonna do it for us this week! Both “2000 AD” Prog 1915 and “Judge Dredd Megazine” 356 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


  • 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 »

    -->