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 2000AD
Judge Dredd: Snowballed
Credits T.C. Eglington (script) Karl Richardson(art) Annie Parkhouse(letters)
Michael Mazzacane: ‘Snowballed’ lives up to its name with a holiday themed strip that just keeps getting more and more out of control. That simple structure gives this strip an easy to read enjoyable rhythm as people begin a page preaching the spirit of the times before trying to gouge their neighbors eyes out in a violent rage. It also allows for a somewhat classic use of Judge Dredd, he is a non-factor to the drama of the strip (mostly,) instead he just sits back and comes in when it is necessary to play judge, jury, and executioner if need be.
Karl Richardson’s art does an excellent job of being simple and keeping the same basic structure without appearing overly patterned. Most pages are in that 5-6 panel range with the core of them all being the duality between the warring families the Spiegle and Kankelbregger’s. What starts out as potentially a one sided feud turns into blood feud mixed with the absurdist weaponry found in an Anchorman fight sequence. Richardson leans into the absurd, you have families fighting it out with logs of cured meat against people wielding ornaments as knives, but that absurd quality doesn’t inhibit solid action staging and storytelling.
The core visual element in these pages is Richardson tracking the cause and effect comedy. The elder Spiegle gets hit by a stray snowball and we see in hilarious detail the dissolution of his prized ornamental heirloom. Judge Dredd refusing a bribe of cured meat creates a hilarious chain of reactions that lead to disaster. Richardson gets a lot of mileage out of reading left to right and using that orientation to show change over time, capturing that sudden shift from saying don’t do something to joining the fray with reckless abandon. That sudden shift gives the strip the feeling of awkward family gatherings where, inevitably, some inccouous perceived slight turns things all Hatfield–McCoy.
T.C. Eglington’s script is solid and has a few good one liners, but the real weight of this strip is carried by the art. Dredd’s response to this whole mess is hilarious and utterly fitting his character.
The Zaucer of Zilk: Part 1 – A Zaucerful of Zecrets
Peter Hogan (Script), Brendan McCarthy (Art, Colors, & Story), Len O’Grady (Colors), Jim Campbell (Letters)
The Zaucer of Zilk returns in a new strip that, at both times, is a continuation of the Zaucer’s life and a re-introduction to this popular, yet seldom used character. The Tailor of Tales is here to recount this new chapter and the story opens in his shop. Although he has just finished creating a new tale of fiction, he knows that we, the reader, would prefer a true story. And so, he delves into giving us a little back story on who and why the Zaucer is, and then leaps forward into where the titular character is at in his life. It’s a fun opening that leans into the whimsical tone that is carried throughout, in both the words and the art.
This is a nicely done short that works whether your are familiar with this character and his world, or not. As a magician who is made of pure magic and can travel throughout dimensions, the Zaucer is a hero and later in life he is now the ruler of his realm. The opening of this strip does a great job looking at middle age, responsibility, and loyalty all through a magical filter. As the Zaucer seems to be losing his power, both magical and ruling, what looks like it should be wild and cartoonish quickly tailspins into a dark and depressing story.
McCarthy and O’Grady’s art and colors are so unlike most of what gets published in the 2000 AD books, that these twelve pages of rainbow explosions and loose and wacky line-work are a breath of fresh air in an otherwise static and darkly paletted magazine. Like Alice Through the Looking Glass mashed into Tron, and the land of Care-a-Lot, this is a psychedelic brain trip that is a treat for the eyes that is such an incredible counter-balance to what the story is actually telling us.
Continued belowA dark adventure through a world of rainbow colored settings and insane magic, “The Zaucer of Zilk” part 1 is fun, and a truly shocking opener to this new comic strip.
Brink: Hate Box, Part Thirteen
Credits: Dan Abnett (script), Inj Culbard (art), Simon Bowland (letters)
Rowan Grover: Abnett does a great job building up the Commissioner as a personal antagonist for Bridget in this chapter of “Hate Box”. The arc of the conversation has a smooth, arcing structure that starts to build as each character becomes more confident in what they’re talking about. I love that Bridget has seamlessly developed to this point that she can backchat to the Commissioner and have it feel natural and completely contrasted to her character at the beginning of this story. Her persistence to justice and the job even after this heady conversation is infectious and exciting, too. Bridget not only feels competent at this stage but still human, as Abnett has her go back to her home and unwind before a new threat shows up to remind readers that she’s a force to be reckoned with.
Culbard does some great acting work in this prog within the first few pages, especially from the Commissioner. We can visually see him bounce from slight irritation to full-blown anger as the conversation spirals upwards, with the camera angles zooming in for appropriate effect when he’s particularly maddened. The office setting also feels more like an office than it ever has in this sequence. There’s plenty of people present in the background, papers and documents are strewn about on desks, and there’s even a classic red-string pinboard for Bridget to gaze longingly at. The final scene with Bridget in her home uses a blue and orange palette really well, as the former gives a sense of homeliness whilst the latter color lends to a sense of alarm, which is appropriate for when the intruder shows his head.
“Brink: Hate Box” may be continuing to drag on for quite some time, but Abnett and Culbard still keep this story interesting. The characters and plot threads are all coming together in ways that surprise me each prog.
Proteus Vex: Another Dawn Part 1
Michael Carroll (script), Henry Flint(art), Simon Bowland (letters)
Greg Lincoln: Michael Carroll and Henry Flint start a brand new story in this year’s Christmas Special issue of 2000 AD. The “Proteus Vex” abounds with potential, it’s introduction hits us with a lot of exposition and narration, though necessary gets in the way of the storytelling. It’s a wild imaginative “far far away” space opera action adventure romp, Michael Carroll throws new ideas, characters, concepts and slang at us in with a Jack Kirby like speed and enthusiasm. There is a so much to absorb that the leaning curve is a bit steep leaving you feeling like you missed something along the way. Multiple readings are in order order for this strip to get to know the agent Proteus Vex and his world and it’s a good thing as you’ve got all that Henry Flint art to really appreciate.
Flint’s art is, as always, rich with lavish detail and totally worth diving into and exploring all on its own. He’s channeling Moebius with a little bit of Kirby, much like Carroll’s storytelling, with the imaginative aliens, characters and environments he’s created for their story. There is a pop art sensibility to his side signs and colors, everything is bright, vibrant and full of life. Despite the fact we are getting little more then an introduction to this world and it’s characters the creativity on the page makes you really want to know more then the tantalizing images and tidbits we have gotten thus far.
Flint and Carroll have given us connections and conflicts s plenty in these pages, a new world to explore and characters to get to know. “Proteus Vex:Another Dawn” is ten chapters long according to an interview posted on the 2000AD website and in those fifty coming pages let’s hope we do get more then just a glimpse of this apparently very intriguing world.
Feral & Foe: Part One
Credits: Dan Abnett (script), Richard Ellson (art), Richard & Joe Ellson (colors), Annie Parkhouse (letters)
Christa Harader: Bode and Wrath are in deep trouble. Knee-deep, precisely, on their soon-to-be-funeral pyre, awaiting the charges brought against them by a homicidal bureaucrat. Good thing they get to break free, kill a few dudes and broker a deal with Huntsinger to bring him an impossible bounty, right?
Abnett and Ellson put together a very entertaining introduction here, with enough wry humor and quips to set a convincing gallows-humor tone without sacrificing any grit. Bode and Wrath are interesting characters with unique, tortured backstories that haven’t diminished their propensity for sarcasm. Huntsinger’s a convincing murderous fop, down to the onomatopoeic cigar puffs and his dereliction of paperwork duty. Ellson keeps the layouts pretty standard and while there’s one page that has too many narrow panels to handle the lettering, the rest of the pages are precise and entertaining. The Ellsons do well with a very dire color palette as well, and mix enough browns, greens, greys and blues to get at that underworld mood without losing any detail in the art. Parkhouse adds style to Wrath’s balloons that helps her speech stand out without losing any readability or precision against the darker color palette.
“Feral & Foe” sets up a good blasted landscape that isn’t afraid to laugh at itself, both in its absurdity and its general pulpiness. If the quality of this first foray is any indication, what’s to come should entertain nicely.
