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.
This week’s Prog ties up loose ends and clears the decks for next week’s Prog 1924, a PERFECT jumping-on point for new readers because every strip inside starts a new storyline! We’ll give you a quick rundown of which Thrills are lined up later in the column, so let’s jump right in to this week’s Prog after a quick public service announcement!
I. AN EARTHLET’S GUIDE TO 2000 AD
We understand 2000 AD’s huge back catalog can make knowing where to begin 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 even like Judge Dredd? (Absolutely!)
To help new & potential readers make an informed decision on the best way they can partake of the Thrills, 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 1923
NOW DEPARTING
Tharg’s 3rillers: 1%
The fact that billionaires are funding research that’ll unlock how to transfer a human’s memories and consciousness almost seems too fantastical to be true. Whether or not it’ll happen as quickly as some imagine is debatable. That said, it’s hard to imagine that in our world of quantum computing breakthroughs happening alongside unprecedented wealth accumulation we’re not a research grant away from immortal humans.
Robson seems to have touched on all of these ideas in “1%.” I wish this thing had at least a few more chapters to really explore some of these ideas in more depth. In addition to wealth and artificially elongated life, there’s also a sprinkling of how laws mean less for the monetarily well-endowed. All of these big, scary concepts feel more fiction-than-science when seen through Culbard’s brush. His character designs and technicolor palettes give this tale the feel of impossibility, almost a false sense of security.
This strip exemplifies everything that makes “2000 AD” great. It’s the marriage of nigh-impossible science-fiction with industry leading art, presented in the tightest narrative bursts you could imagine. It’s my hope that these creators can visit this world again in the very near future.
Credits: Eddie Robson (script), INJ Culbard (art), Ellie de Ville (letters)
Survival Geeks: Steampunk’d, Part 6
After a bit of a rough start, I can safely say I’ve come around on “Survival Geeks.” While Googe’s art plays a big role in all of this, I’d be doing Rennie and Beeby a disservice if I didn’t tip my proverbial cap in their direction. When they weren’t leaning hard on the fact that the cast was a bunch of stereotypical ‘geeks’, they were penning some snappy dialogue and spinning a fast-paced yarn that was full of sci-fi adventure.
Don’t let me mislead you; tropes abound in this final chapter. They even went so far as to use “Get a room!” while rounding out Sam and Simon’s final scene. That said, it all played into the unashamed joyfulness found in the last two parts of the story. The last few weeks have left me optimistically wondering when we’ll encounter the “Survival Geeks” again.
Credits: Gordon Rennie & Emmy Beeby (script), Neil Googe (art), Gary Caldwell (colors), Simon Bowland (letters)
Savage (Book 9): Grinders, Part 13
When Savage let Howard Quartz get pummeled in retaliation for an earlier crime, shit got real.
But now that Quartz is back and sporting a ‘Robbie the Robot’ makeover? Shit just got insane.
‘Savage’ takes a pretty far-fetched concept and tries to ground it in, if not reality, then at least enough realism to keep you from poking too many holes into the concept. There are robots, yes; but they’re either drones that look just a generation or two down the road from what’s in national arsenals at the moment, or larger humanoids that still look like something our military would deem sufficiently imposing. It’s a tough line to stay on the right side of. Mills and Goddard have been good so far, but in retrospect, they were likely just trying to build up capital with the readership in order to cash in with the “new model” Howard Quartz.
Continued belowIt shouldn’t work. It should be jarring. Laughable. And I admit to laughing out loud when I saw it. But I was laughing with the creators, not at them. Mills and Goddard picked this one spot to cut loose on in a series trying to hard to be taken seriously, and instead of bringing everything down like a house of cards, it just tied the room together, so to speak.
Human Quartz looked Richard Branson-charming on the outside, but Dick Cheney-scheming on the inside. Now? Those two halves match. There’s no sheen of respectability or cool with him; he’s an unmistakable science fiction B-movie monster. (I can just hear rotors turning when he picks up one of the phone receivers from his chest to contact someone, can’t you?) And yes, I know Robbie the Robot was from “Forbidden Planet” and that is certainly an A-list film, but the exposed brain-pan and chest speaker just screams drive-in bottom-of-the-bill schlock.
But you can tell, even from the little bit we see of him, that this is liberating for him. There’s no pretending anymore. When his sheepish brother-who-happens-to-be-the-US-President tells him he looks like, “well, there’s no other way to put this…like a fat, evil bastard,” Howard’s response is, “I know. It’s good, isn’t it?”
In. Sane.
And what about Savage himself? The war in Britain is over. Does he go back to being a lorrie driver? Back to the pub? What does a man do when he’s spent the last few years fighting and scheming and killing? He keeps on fighting and scheming and killing. The war may be over in Britain, but the Volgans still control a large chunk of central Europe. And Savage still has to pay them back for everything in his life they ruined. Just like Howard is looking for a little payback of his own.
I know this isn’t the last we see of Bill or Howard, but it is the last we’ll see of ‘Savage’ for a while. My only hope is that this little vacation is (like most of them) over before we know it. Because if the next arc is as good as this one way, I’ll be the one picking up the rotary phone to call Tharg and yell, “Get! Me! Savage!”
Credits: Pat Mills (script), Patrick Goddard (art), Ellie de Ville (letters)
This week’s issue also had two one-off stories to round out the bunch in preparation for the aforementioned jumping-on Prog next week! We’re getting closer to revealing what’s coming up, but now, let’s check in with ol’ Joe Dredd…
Judge Dredd: Perps, Crimes, and Videotapes
For some reason I really like seeing Judge Dredd reviewing paperwork. I always find it amusing, the imposing and unstoppable Lawman reviewing a permit or checking a license. We’re so used to seeing Dredd go to such extreme lengths to get his perp, that it can be comical to see him try and leverage bureaucracy.
I was surprised last week when we saw Simon Coleby pop in for a one-off. I thought it was great to see such a talent brought in for a quick dose of thrills. Tharg must have taken great pleasure in seeing how much we enjoyed A-list art on a one-and-done strip, because he’s pulled in yet another heavy this week: Carl Critchlow! It’s great to see Critchlow back after his stint on the IDW “Anderson: PSI Division” series last year. His linework and color choices were a real treat, combining with Worley to make this yet another fantastic in-between story.
Credits: Alec Worley (script), Carl Critchlow (art), Annie Parkhouse (letters)
Bob Byrne’s Twisted Tales
We last saw Bob Byrne and his brand of wordless tales back in Prog 1910. Byrne’s little one-off stories are good for these end-of-run Progs because they can be slotted in as needed for other strips to end when they feel like it, rather than arbitrarily saying every story has to have 12 or 13 parts to it, when there just isn’t enough story there to justify the length.
That said, the story Bob cooked up for us this time is certainly…twisted.
Continued belowYes.
I’d definitely have a hard time thinking of a more appropriate word for this than ‘twisted’.
Bob Byrne, lads and lasses. When you’ve absolutely positively have to twistedly entertain every bad mamma-jamma in the room? Accept no substitutes.
(Apologies to Odell Robie from “Jackie Brown”)
Credits: Bob Byrne (script), Bob Byrne (art), Bob Byrne (letters)
III. DON’T BE A FOOL! SPRING INTO THE NEW THRILLS!
That’s right, humes! Coming next week, we’ve got a whole new slate of Thrills to talk about, not to mention a new “2000 AD” cover by maestro Brian Bolland to drool over. Here’s the lowdown:
- Judge Dredd: Enceladus – New Life by Rob Williams and Henry Flint
- Sláine: Primordial by Pat Mills and Simon Davis
- Grey Area: Another Day On The Job by Dan Abnett and Mark Harrison
- Orlok, Agent of East-Meg One: The Rasputin Caper by Arthur Wyatt and Jake Lynch
- Strontium Dog: The Stix Fix by John Wagner and Carlos Ezquerra
For those of you who don’t understand why the rest of us are reading that list with our jaws dropped, it’s because that is a completely stacked list. The Dredd strip is a sequel to the 2013 story ‘Titan’ that is one of my all-time favorite stories about The Meg’s top cop. Sláine’s story continues ‘The Brutania Chronicles’ with born-to-draw-Sláine artist/painter Simon Davis. I don’t even know how the hell Dan Abnett’s going to top the end of that last episode of ‘Grey Area’. Wyatt & Lynch’s ‘Orlok’ has been a real treat, and Judge Dredd co-creators back together on their either hugely successful character means more Strontium-filled goodness for the fans.
And there will be recap pages for each strip, so you need to know absolutely ZERO about ANY of these strips before diving in and enjoying them. We’ll have more info on this next week, including a few surprises!
That’s gonna do it for us this week! “2000 AD” Prog 1923 is on sale today and available from:
- The 2000 AD Newsstand app for iPad and iPhone,
- The 2000 AD app for Android devices,
- 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!”