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: A Dimensional Travelers Guide to Mega City One
Credits: Ken Neimand (script), Joe Curry (art), Annie Parkhouse (letters)
Greg Lincoln: This one off story is really pretty and makes some very pithy observations about Mega City One and the universe in which it exists. Ken Neimand posits that there are many bright cheery universes around the grim one in which Mega City exists and dimensional travelers erected a wall to keep other safe from visiting it, mostly. We get to see Judge Dredd’s city from a real outsider in this story and it’s clear it’s a place worthy of zero stars for travelers.
Joe Curry makes this I’ll advised trip one that’s really worth seeing. The characters he created including our host and the nere-do-wells that they encounter engaging and unique. The landscape of dirt and grime on Dredd’s beat take new light in the bright colors Curry chose. It is honestly like seeing the well trod streets of the slab and alleys of Mega City one from new eyes. The green skinned host Carrie’s a range of bright shines and honestly laugh out load funny “weapons” to use to subdue the locals. It’s all done in inks and colors that are too pretty to take any issue with.
The best moments have to be the way the hosts glowball on maximum love setting twists the reality around Dredd in ways that are embarrassing and hysterical. It is really a shame that our green skinned guide got clipped, if they didn’t we wouldn’t know that the Judges have a bunch of dimensional travelers in the cubes, but you can’t help but wishing they had made it home.
Indigo Prime: Cracked Actors, Part 5
Credits: Kek-W (script), Lee Carter (art), Jim Campbell (letters)
Chris Egan: Equal parts referential silliness and weighty, universe breaking concepts, this week’s entry is again shaking things up. While, at the very least, that would be enough to make reading the series each week worth it, the fact that the story continues to be engaging, if not a little over the top, even for a multiverse adventure is where its greatest strengths stand.
The combination of fun science fiction adventure and violent adult storytelling continues to work as well. It has struck a balance that has worked since the first week. Kek-W’s script continues to throw around big ideas while still being a quick read and Lee Carter’s art meets the needs to the story to be sure. The fantastical elements make up some of his strongest work on the series.
It’s great to see a comic strip like this make odd choices and take risks and there is no shortage of wild insanity with “Indigo Prime.”
Full Tilt Boogie: Book 2, Part Eight
Credits: Alex De Campi (script), Eduardo Ocanna (art), Eve De La Cruz (colours), Annie Parkhouse(letters)
Michael Mazzacane: Alex De Campi and Eduardo Ocanna do the small little interpersonal moments so well in this strip. It creates that feeling of history and connectivity between the cast so that even if I hadn’t read the first strip when this started up, I understand the general relations of everyone on an affective level. Even Tee’s benefactor and his husband, two entirely new characters (one of whom is on life support), the small moments and intimacies in Ocanna’s artwork show the depth of their relationship.
Now that the crystal is in hand it is time to turn off the life support … and maybe something magical is going to happen judging by the cliff hanger. But more importantly this bit of intimacy and death is contrasted by Nix and Lilac’s joy about seeing some television. All told these two sequences are both single pages one right after the other. I return to recognizing Ocanna’s art for making these single page sequences feel like they have more length and depth. Go and study the way facial expressions are drawn. To some degree the line work comes through so clearly because the color rendering isn’t overly fussy, at least for figures. The environments are a bit more rendered, note the shrubbery in the courtyard and the folds of the fabric on the hospital bed. Character figures are more often rendered pretty flat. There’s no real sign of them interacting with an environmental light source. The colors aren’t overly bright as to stand out but it pushes the lines and figures to the foreground in some interesting ways.
Continued belowI’m not sure “2000 AD” is the place for several strips of grieving, that seems too straightforward, but with this creative team I’d be down for it.
The Fall of Deadworld: Retribution, Part 12
Credits: Kek-W (script), Dave Kendall (art), Simon Bowland (letters)
Brian Salvatore: This chapter of “The Fall of Deadworld” wraps up here, with most of the ‘heroes’ making an escape that seems like another delay to the inevitable march of death and destruction that this book foretells. The difference between this part and others is that this gives Dave Kendall a little more space to uncork and really throw out some interesting creations. But, it is in Kendall’s restraint that everything really cooks. When three of the characters create a ‘triad,’ a term with no real explanation, but none really needed, Kendall gets to draw a page with a ton of possibility, but that shows almost nothing. The imagination of the reader does all the work here, but doesn’t feel unsatisfying or undeveloped.
The reality of “The Fall of Deadworld” is such that it never quite feels final or even paused, but it just keeps trucking along. If you’re a fan of this book, that is a very good thing. However, if this book feels like a slog to you, this can seem interminable. I suppose that’s true of just about every comic out there, but the nature of this book makes it even more pronounced. Thankfully for some of us, this is the end, for now.
Thistlebone The Dule Tree: Part 11
Credits: T.C Eglington (script), Simon Davis (art) Simon Bowland (letters)
Matthew Blair: We’re in the middle of the closest thing this film is going to have to a wrap party and things don’t look that bad. Most of the people seem to be having a good time and there’s even a chance of mending fences and fixing things with the locals.
However, there are still quite a few unresolved issues, and there’s still a sense of despair and anger over not getting the film done and letting strangers into the town. Naturally, the only things that can calm the mood are drugs, booze, dark magic, and simmering resentment.
What could possibly go wrong?
The violence of the story’s climax kicks off in a rather mundane fashion, and writer T.C Eglington does a great job of addressing the emotional powder keg he’s been building since the beginning in “Thistlebone The Dule Tree: Part 11”. Eglington does a great job of crafting a believable and brutal meltdown by starting with the character who has the most to loose: the director. His outbursts are a volatile mix of ego, despair, and drunkenness that is equal parts relatable and terrifying. Meanwhile, Eglington does a great job of ramping the weirdness up with a drug trip, and we finally start to see the supernatural elements and hints really pay off.
A lot has been said about Shane Davis’ talents as an artist and “Thistlebone The Dule Tree: Part 11” is a chance to cut loose and showcase a creative talent that hasn’t been seen in a while. While the usual hallmarks of Davis’ talent are on full display here, the real treat comes when Davis gets to draw a drug induced hallucination that looks very surreal and warped. There are some moments where the blood and mayhem of one scene looks a bit off, but this is still a story filled with great visuals and creepy supernatural stuff.
“Thistlebone The Dule Tree: Part 11” ramps up the aggression and crafts the first part of a meltdown that threatens to get even more ugly and violent. While it may sound awful to say this, so far it’s a very satisfying climax to the story filled with well established character beats and the promise of some really interesting and trippy visuals.
