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Multiver-City One: 2000AD Prog 1919 and Judge Dredd Megazine 357

By and | February 25th, 2015
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.

This week marks the 38th anniversary of everyone’s favorite Thrill-Mag. Prog 1 hit newsvendors on 26 February 1977, and has been blowing minds and electrifying spines every week ever since. So raise a glass tomorrow to Tharg and the crew for 38 years of Thrill-Power! Just don’t overdo it; you’ve got Judge Dredd’s birthday next week to celebrate!

We’ve got a brand-new Prog this week, as well as last week’s Megazine, so we’ll jump right in after a 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 1919

Cover by John Higgins

 

Judge Dredd: Dark Justice, Part 9

The crime is mass murder! The sentence is… corn mash?

This week’s strip is another one of those perfect encapsulations of what “Judge Dredd” really is. Here, in the midst of a fight for his life, Dredd lets fly with a sliver of unintentional humor. Immediately following the incineration of innocent bystanders, Judge Fire sees the end of his physical form whilst finding himself on the receiving end of a sick burn. It’s humor like this that, while being crucial to Dredd’s overall characterization, is something easily overlooked by some. While rarely meant to garner belly laughs, Wagner seems to really enjoy these little moments of levity and uses them to give readers just the tiniest bit of shelter in an otherwise serious storm.

Another thing that stood out for me during the Dredd-vs-Fire showdown was that big ol’ full-page splash in the middle of it. Stuff like this is a rare treat in the pages of “2000 AD”. Well, rare when compared to mainstream American comics. Anyhow, it was great to see that giant page of Dredd suplexing Fire in an epic climax to their duel. Then on the next page, there’s that humor we were talking about. Perfectly placed to ground everything that had just gone down.

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

 

Survival Geeks: Steampunk’d, Part 2

Week two of ‘Survival Geeks’ sees a marked improvement in the strip. I think it’s really just because we weren’t being slapped in the face with what huge geeks these guys are. While this week has its share of geek-culture references, it all seems to be handled with a subtlety that was sorely lacking last Prog.

As was the case last week, Googe and Caldwell are tearing it up. This art has so much life and fluidity to it, it’s like everything on the page is in constant motion. It’s impressive how much range Googe is putting on display here. He’ll really stretch and push his anatomy to exaggerate emotion or action, but then buckle down and render the shit out of a cityscape. He’s obviously able to lay a ton of detail on the page, but has enough restraint to know when that’d work against the story he’s helping to tell.

Credits: Gordon Rennie & Emmy Beeby (script), Neil Googe (art), Gary Caldwell (colors), Simon Bowland (letters)

 

Tharg’s 3rillers: Station to Station, Part 2

That’s such an awesome downward panel. The way the wall ends but all the wiring continues off of the page, the eerie lighting, the stroke around the figures, all of it. This story is giving artist Darren Douglas a lot of room to stretch. Besides interesting perspectives, he’s got extraterrestrials, military uniforms, and psychedelic hallucinations to put down on paper.

Continued below

Since this is just a three-parter, and seems to be an intergalactic tale, there’s a lot of ground that needs to be covered. Last week was all about setting the story up, and this week is all about explanation. Who is causing the disturbance in the Underground? Where do they come from? Why is it happening? We find all of that out here. So next week? Expect a twist!

Credits: Eddie Robson (script), Darren Douglas (art), Ellie de Ville (letters)

 

Savage (Book 9): Grinders, Part 9

Mills & Goddard have been building to this VV-Day parade for a while, and as we started to see from last week, everything is coming to a head.

I mentioned it before a few weeks back, but one of the reasons Goddard excels in strips like ‘Savage’ is his commitment to the location setting. We are completely on the parade route this week, with almost every panel giving multiple planes of action. The background detail level varies from panel to panel, but Goddard’s choices are always predicated on what’s best for scene clarity. In the few panels where he reduces the background crowd to a simple outline, the resulting spot-white where there would have been detail instead gives an emphasis on an aspect of the foreground character; in this case, Monk’s fingertip flamethrowers.

Goddard scales up from that minimalism to bits of drone-induced carnage that are rendered with JUST enough detail to give that person’s predicament an immediacy. A woman’s posture throwing her head back & arms wide with small pock-marks on the ground from strafing bullets, or a man throwing his arms over another woman’s head for protection as they try and duck & run; these aren’t shown in gratuitous detail, but Goddard never lets you forget that absolutely all kinds of hell is breaking loose.

The carnage continues (and escalates) next week, with some real, no-turning-back consequences. But Mills has Bill have a little point-of-no-return epiphany this week, so make sure you grab every installment of this strip to get the full effect!

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

 

The Order, Part 9

The wurms are here to save us?

That’s what Anna Kohl’s newly resurrected father, still dripping ooze from the cloning vat he just climbed out of, tells her. The Order wasn’t formed to stop them, but ensure a future where machine-men like Ritterstahl have enslaved mankind.

Does she believe him? Do her compatriots?

On the one hand, that seems pretty convenient coming from a guy brought back to life by the very creatures The Order happens to be hacking & shooting & RPG’ing their way through at the moment. On the other, Ritterstahl is clearly from the future. And as denizens of what Anna would call the future, we all know the possibility of mankind ending up slaves of sentient machines is, at best, pretty likely.

Still though, awfully conspicuous timing for this little nugget to be brought up…

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

III. THIS MONTH IN JUDGE DREDD MEGAZINE 357

Cover by Clint Langley

 

Judge Dredd: The Cop, Part 2

The story is called ‘The Cop’, but which cop is it referring to?

We’ve seen several already, starting with Judge Dredd himself. Makes sense, given he’s the other title character. And Ewing gas already given us a little mini-arc of sorts for Dredd in the context of this story. The prologue showed us a Dredd on assignment in Euro-City, early in his career and full of even more piss & vinegar than we’re used to. Last month brought things to present-day Dredd feeling the weight of the nearly 50 intervening years and recognizing the post-Chaos Day failures of institutions he served for so long.

But while some institutions are struggling, others have adapted to the new city order. The mob, the company, the organization…that institution is still plugging along, headed at least in part by a man named DeGuerre. DeGuerre went by a different name when we first saw him in the prologue, partnered with Dredd: Detective Jean-Luc Guillory. That case put the Euro-City cop on the road to Mega-City One mobster. Is this his story?

Continued below

What about Detective Thibault Guillory, his son? Newly arrived from Euro-City with a middle to put a bullet in his corrupt father? Is this HIS story?

So many questions…

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

 

American Reaper III, Part 3

The twists and turns come fast and furious in this strip. It’s one thing to have characters turn out to have other identities, but when you’re dealing with personalities being implanted from one body to another, that just increases the confusion exponentially. But two things work in this strip’s favor:

One is that confusion is built into the premise of the strip and never gets too convoluted. It’s actually a fairly thin line to try and not go over, but Mills stays just on the right side of it. The Reapers are very good at being able to decipher when illegal implants have taken place, so camouflaging those implants is, at best, a convoluted proposition. But since drama is born out of complication (i.e. If things went according to plan, we’d have no story) then that proposition is bound to be complicated even further. Was there actually an implant? How can you tell? What if the person is just SAYING they’re someone else? Pretty easy to see how the situation can go from normal to pear-shaped in no time at all.

The other thing going for “American Reaper” is the art. I know I was a little unsure of things a few months back, but I think I’ve figured out why this art style can work here. Stories like this rely on artists being able to not only clearly differentiate between characters (especially faces) but do it consistently panel after panel. With all the identity swapping going on, tracking people by dialogue alone is no good. A photo-realistic style that depends so heavily on modeling does have the benefit of locked-in models for the characters, making recognition easier.

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

 

DeMarco, P.I.: Deja Vu, Part 3

Man, DeMarco is really getting put through the wringer. Broke, beat up, and on the run, she’s been slowly piecing together what exactly happened to her for months now. Well, months for us. For her it’s probably only been a few days.

This is the close of “Deja Vu,” and Carroll and Yeowell are going out with a bang. On the writing side of things, Michael Carroll really hits home on what a natural detective DeMarco is. With this type of story it’s easy to flub your way through, putting people and clues right in front of our amnesiac hero, leading them to a heroic conclusion. But not Carroll. No, he sends DeMarco down the hard road and puts every obstacle in front of her that he can. In the end, this is a story about DeMarco’s tenacity that reminds readers why she’s such a prominent character in Dredd’s world.

And as far as Steve Yeowell is concerned? The guy’s a master. It’s a tough thing to visually show readers that single panels are meant to be flashbacks without some clunky piece of exposition spelling it out. Even tougher is when your art is the economical, black & white cartooning that Yeowell does. But he does it. This week’s strip also sees a bunch of awesome looking robots running around in a futuristic dream parlor. So there’s a lot to look at!

I really enjoyed “Deja Vu,” and I must say that I’m a little sad to see it go. Hopefully we’re not too far from DeMarco’s next (mis)adventure!

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

 

Angelic, Part 2

I’m getting the impression that Texas City is a hard place inhabited by some hard folks. I mean, I’m pretty sure that everywhere in this world is some form of tough, but Texas City is a whole other type of mean. To put it another way, I don’t think I would ever be able to live there. Mega-City One? Yeah, I can see myself living out of a block apartment and dressing like some Mega-City weirdo. I mean, truthfully, it’s not that much of a stretch. But Texas-City? No way.

Continued below

This story takes place in two different points in time: today and a number of days ago. The strip opens with Angel in a, let’s say disagreement, with a Texas City Ranger, with flashbacks bringing us closer and closer to the present. Rennie is filling in the gaps by showing us someone’s memories, but it’s not clear whose they are. It’s certainly not Judge Hess’ recollection of events. No, he’s too removed from the events to have any knowledge of them. Most would probably say that these are Angel’s memories. It wouldn’t be a stretch to see it that way. After all, he is one of the central characters in this thing. My inclination, if the whole thing isn’t actually third-person omniscient, is that they’re Linc’s memories. Rennie seems to be setting the kid up to be more than just an ordinary baby, so I think it’s possible. I guess we’ll find out more next month!

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.

Interrogation: Roger Langridge by Matthew Badham

This is one of my favorite Interrogations in quite a while. And not only because it gives us that Thrill-Muppet artwork above. (Although, seriously, there needs to be a Muppet-staffed 2000AD anthology series immediately. Publishing rights be damned – I need this!)

Ahem…

Roger Langridge is a cartoonist’s cartoonist. From his own “Fred The Clown” and “Snarked!” comics, to his work on The Muppets and Popeye, to his writing “Thor: The Mighty Avenger” for Chris Samnee to draw, the Londoner-by-way-of-New Zealand has a way of hitting just the right tone and line with his work to make it fresh and appealing to readers of all ages. Matthew Badham got a chance to really delve into Langridge’s career and thoughts on comics. You’ll find out about his early 2000AD work (which I didn’t know about), his unpublished ideas for a Captain Britain revival (which I also didn’t know about), why he’ll never do a Wolverine story (didn’t know that one either but it doesn’t surprise me), and a lot more. All that, plus a bunch of great art selections, and Langridge drops some references to other wonderful all-ages material that inspired him, so do yourself a favor and read this Interrogation!

 

V. MEGAZINE REPRINT

Every month, Tharg finds a little something from the back catalog to include with the Megazine. This month it’s “Harlem Heroes” by Michael Fleischer, Steve Dillon, and Kev Walker.

Originally created by Pat Mills and Dave Gibbons, Harlem Heroes dates all the way back to “2000 AD” Prog 1. So it’s a concept that’s older than Judge Dredd! Seeing as how this week is the 38th anniversary of the thrill-packed magazine’s inaugural issue, it seems fitting that this month’s reprint is a reimagining of that early strip.

Usually the Megazine reprints are dedicated to stories that haven’t been previously collected and are otherwise lost in the mix of nearly four decades of comics. After reading this Heroes collection, I can’t believe that this falls into that category. I mean, with Kev “Thunderbolts” Walker and Steve “Preacher” Dillon’s art alone you’d think that this stuff would be available in some sort of collection. The older Harlem Heroes strips are collected, but not this stuff. Well, until now, at least.

It’s also interesting to note that Fleischer was one of the very few American-based writers to work for “2000 AD” on a more than one-off basis. He’s perhaps best known for his run of stories featuring DC’s ‘The Spectre’ with Jim Aparo from the 1970’s that showed the character in such an extremely twisted manner it earned him the praise of Harlan Ellison, being described as “bugf–k” for being able to go to such dark places untouched since the days of EC horror comics. Fleischer ended up not seeing that as the compliment it was intended as, and eventually sued Ellison and “The Comics Journal” (where the interview originally ran) for libel. But his predilection for being able to go “out there” with stories made him, on paper, someone ideal to write for “2000 AD”.

Continued below

‘Harlem Heroes’ opens in a subterranean prison camp where we’re introduced to the modern-day Harlem Heroes. After a harrowing escape from the prison, the Heroes find themselves in another type of forced labor: as agents of the shadowy government organization known as The Office.

The art in this strip is amazing. Dillon and Walker are credited simply sat ‘artists,’ so I’m not sure which of them did what. I think that Walker may have been inking Dillon, but I can’t be certain. Either way, this looks unlike any comics I’ve seen from them before. There’s a LOT of hatching on these pages, but not the terrible, over-rendered way the technique is most often used in comics. No, the hatching here is done the right way, giving the viewer a sense of shape, texture, and light quality. Reading this was an absolute delight, and I can’t wait to get volume two with next month’s Megazine!

VI. OF INTEREST

Every so often, Tharg will give us a sneak peek at upcoming stories bound for the Progs. These are never attached to a specific date, but rather for some time in the coming year. “Thrills of the Future”, they are called. Well, Tharg dropped another one this week and that future can’t turn to now fast enough IMO, because we’ve got ‘Helium’ waiting for us.

As we were only given the image above with no additional information, I will don my speculation cap for just a second. My guess is that this is another entry into the expanding world that Edgington & D’Israeli already have going with ‘Stickleback’ and ‘Leviathan’, as well as Edgington & Yoewell on ‘The Red Seas’. It might even be a direct sequel to ‘Leviathan’, but my reading on that is a little too spotty to confirm. If it is set there, it would be the first to be full-color, which would be awesome.

Exciting stuff indeed!

That’s gonna do it for us this week! “2000 AD” Prog 1919 and “The Grievous Journey of Ichabod Azrael (and the Dead Left in his Wake)” #1 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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