Multiver-City One: Judge Dredd Megazine 388 – This Means Waugh

Welcome, Earthlets, to Multiver-City One, our monthly look at the “Judge Dredd Megazine!” Let’s get right to it.

Cover by Alex Ronald

Judge Dredd: Collateral Damage
Credits: TC Eglington (script), Nick Dyer (art), Eva de la Cruz (colors), Annie Parkhouse (letters)

Ramon Piña: Well, this might be a hard topic. How many lives are we willing to sacrifice in the war against crime? And, how to hold the law enforcers accountable for their mistakes or negligence? That’s the theme of this story from TC Eglington, who keeps adding tales to his Rebellion curriculum. He’s teaming up for the second time for a Dredd story with artist Nick Dyer, another regular contributor of both magazines.

In this story, we follow Jeremy, a guy that lost his wife on the crossfire of a standoff between Dredd and some organ-leggers. Jeremy mourns his wife arguing that collateral damage is unacceptable, –you know, everybody would hate the idea of a lost loved one being turned into a number of a statistic–. So he teams up with other mourners of a survivor group and together they try to protest Dredd’s actions.

Eglington makes an interesting observation about guilt, and how far could the victims go before they become perps themselves, trying to fight against injustices. Jeremy’s actions end up backfiring regularly; to the point to even prove Dredd, a facist, right: how far can you go before being a risk to the society?

Good luck next time Jeremy!

Anderson, Psi-Division: NWO, Part 4
Credits: Alan Grant (script), Paul Marshall (art), Dylan Teague (colors), Simon Bowland (letters)

Rodney Ortiz: Being a newcomer to the world of Dredd, it was interesting to see that there is an entire running subplot geared around Judge Anderson. Given the hyper-violent atmosphere that surrounds all of Dredd and the Dredd Universe it is always good to have a strong female lead that is not at the constant mercy of their physically larger male counterparts. To my understanding this was not always the case, as her interactions and thus plotline impetus revolving around Judge Death left her very much at his mercy. Nevertheless, Judge Anderson has been empowered throughout the years, and personally I think that can only be for the betterment of the character and her place and importance within the Dredd Universe.

In this installment we pickup Judge Anderson during Part 4 of ‘NWO.’ The main gist of the storyline is that Rothman MacCallum, a prominent Mega City player is causing all sorts of turmoil across the city. Running the gamut from disrupting transportation to emptying the banks, the guy is causing chaos and it’s only a matter of time before the shit really hits the fan. What’s a Judge to do then? Hunt down his sadistic son Keir MacCallum and use him to track his dad before shit gets any worse.

It’s an entertaining entry in the arc and it definitely leaves you waiting for the next installment. If you haven’t had a chance to check out Judge Anderson, you should! It’s a tight read, the artwork is legit and it does what any great comic should do. Leave you on a cliffhanger.

Devlin Waugh: Blood Debt, Part 1
Credits: Rory McConville (script), Mike Dowling (art), Simon Bowland (letters)

Kent Falkenberg: More than anything else, ‘Blood Debt, Part 1’ acts as an elegant, albeit visceral, re-introduction to 2000AD’s vampiric main man. For more than a decade, Devlin Waugh has been nestled deep into someone’s pocket. And that may be why Rory McConville and Mike Dowling orchestrate a reveal of the world’s greatest occult investigator in a manner that’s every bit befitting of a man claiming that title.

Full-page splashes are luxury not often afforded to these types of strips. Within the confines of a taut 10 pages, that sort of lavishness must be used judiciously (if at all). But the way Mike Dowling centers Devlin on the page – descending stairs, smoking blaster pointed skywards – imbues him the precise amount of gravitas and pretense required for an easy bead on exactly who he is as a character. Say hello to the man, the myth, the moustache.

It doesn’t hurt that McConville mirrors that essence with a snappy cadence to Devlin’s dialogue that straddles a perfect line between pithy and smarmy. I imagine those around him can only do their best to tolerate the affectation, considering he’s built as broad-shouldered as a cement plant. Plus, the whole vampire thing. That probably buys him some slack, too.

“My brother has embroiled me in one of his unfortunate misadventures and it’s imperative I track him down and give him a stern talking to, post-haste,” he tells his handler at the Vatican – oh, he applies his special brand of occult investigation as an outside contractor for the Vatican. It’s a quick summation of where the ‘Blood Debt’ arc will be headed. McConville has a deft knack for delivering the requisite information both for a decade-in-waiting resurrection, as well the opening of a fresh arc, without ever losing the character’s voice or the reader’s burgeoning sense for who that character is.

And for all the economical writing, it’s simply a wondrous strip to behold. Mike Dowling’s art has a detailed minimalism that’s Quitely-esque, although significantly rougher around the edges. But his sense of scale within the pages makes Devlin, and the goons he tussles with early on, seem massive. And the settings this plays out across seem expansive. And most evocatively, Dowling is able to capture punches to the face with just the right smack of crunching discomfort that makes it possible to feel the blows without the needing the page to be drenched in blood and spit teeth.

McConville launches Devlin out of the blocks with style and verve. And Dowling ensures that we’ll feel every fist along the way. Paying down debt isn’t supposed to look or feel this good, but “Devil Waugh” is setting up to do so with panache.

Comic Auteurs: Frank Miller
Credits: Colin Smith (script)

Rowan Grover: Retrospectives are always a tough one to tackle, and it’s even tougher to tackle the subject of controversial comic creator Frank Miller. However, Colin Smith presents an interesting way of doing so. Structured as a chronological exploration of his career, we’re first introduced to the hard-working, everyman personality of Miller who we feel sympathetic for as an auteur and someone with fresh ideas for the industry. There’s some context added about these early years in which he produced violent fanzines, something that I’ve personally never heard much about and would’ve been interested in delving further into.

Smith goes straight from there into Miller’s professional career, deconstructing Miller’s landmark works. The usual is presented here – Miller’s “Daredevil”, “Elektra”, and “The Dark Knight Returns” are all cast in glittering light, rightly so. Smith gives each one enough real estate to explore what influenced each work, what Miller was trying to tell with them and how they influenced the industry as a whole. I’m a little scathed by how Smith joins the masses in dismissing “Ronin”, as it is a personal favourite Miller work of mine, but it’s a small thing. What I find most interesting is that from here, Smith portrays Miller more as a degrading figurehead. Miller’s political ideas are more forthcoming – his poor female representation becomes more notable and his dismissal and poor representation of queer culture is on the rise, and all the while the sales exceed expectations. I think it’s great that while Smith acknowledges his great talent purely at a structural level, he isn’t forgiving of his personal and creative choices simply because of this.

Smith presents here a great dip into the widely divisive work of Frank Miller, and love him or hate him, it’s hard to ignore the impressions he left on the western comics industry. The essay as a whole is accessible to anyone, and gives a solid, unbiased report of the man himself and the work he gave the world.

New Books: How Comics Work by Dave Gibbons and Tim Pilcher
Credits: Karl Stock(script)

Greg Lincoln: Dave Gibbons is a name I think I know well. I know what I’m getting when I pick up a book by him as a writer, an artist or both. He is a storyteller and cartoonist that I trust. Karl Stock reviewed for Gibbons’s book “How Comics Work” co writer by Tim Pilcher and it proves like Jon Snow, I know nothing. At least I know nothing about Gibbons’s process, his influences and his work ethic all which are well worth knowing if you have interest in the creator side of comics.

Karl Stock compares “How Comics Work” to “Understanding Comics” by Scott McCloud and “Words for Pictures” by Brian Michael Bendis and it seems one worth to be added to that list. The article revealed to me that Dave Gibbons was a mostly self taught artist giving me hope for my own attempts in that vein. Gibbons with his friend of three decades Pilcher went through his design work over his career and Gibbons discovered an internalized system through which he creates stories which they detail in this volume. Stock says of the book that it it “…hugely detailed and readable, and offers a depth of inspiring knowledge of its own.” It sounds to be a valuable resource for storytellers developing their own style to see how a skilled sequential artist trained themselves and developed their unique voice.

Judge Dredd: Furies, Part 3
Credits: Arthur Wyatt & Alex De Campi (script) Paul Davidson (art) Len O’Grady(colours) Ellie De Ville (letters)

Michael Mazzacane: Mega-City One, a megalopolis sitting in the ruin of the Old World. So, begins just about every Judge Dredd related story. You can read that in the voice of Ron Perlman or Karl Urban, if you prefer. That opening narration builds the foundation for the satirical grimdark humor of these stories. It, and all the subsequent stories, tell the reader this is a Hieronymus Bosch painting in sequential form. A world where Law and Order always “win” and everything nihilistically persists. The conclusion to ‘Dredd: Furies’ twists that a bit and we get a “happy” ending. Well, happier than expected.

Artist Paul Davidson does an excellent job creating tension between the titular Furies, their captive Peral Martinez, and tech guy Bill Huxely, as they attempt an escape through the sewer system. He lets the cramped setting allow him to naturally fill the pages with smaller panels that emphasize little emotional beats or items. When things do pull out, Davidson separates Huxely and Peral from the “real” bad girls, whose first reaction always seems to be either shoot it or threaten to shoot it. In one panel, Davidson uses Peral and Huxely’s figures to hide the gun being pointed at them and just rely on their facial expressions to sell the freight of the scene. Their form isn’t quite Madonna and Child, but it’s the closest thing to grace anyone gets in this strip.

Davidson’s art and Len O’Grady’s colors come together to make for an early 2000’s feel. There’s the detailed line work nineties influence of everyone’s hair, even the monkish mohawk one of them sports is ultra-detailed. But their expressions and overall saturated coloring give things a contemporary digital texture. The bright colors also make the environment, no matter how noxious, to appear surprisingly hospitable dare I say normal by future city standards.

The creative team smartly play into the anonymous nature of Dredd and the Judges, they form the stocking horse of the piece. Always just off panel or a little bit behind but always gaining ground. They’re the proscribed ending for the Furies and they fulfil their duties with bloody results, with a little outside help.

These choices do a good job of giving the strip an emotional center in the form of Huxely as he struggles with the morality and ethics of what he’s gotten himself into. The City maybe a Bosch painting, but he doesn’t want to be eaten by fat demons just yet. He’s just a guy trying to get buy and support his family, but even that has its limits. This center gives the ending a melancholic feeling, but that emotion isn’t how a fair number of Dredd stories end. Which is interesting and worth noting.

Dark Judges: Dominion, Part 3
Credits: John Wagner (script), Nick Percival (art), Annie Parkhouse (letters)

Alice W. Castle: The Dark Judges are perhaps my favourite aspect of Judge Dredd lore. Not only did they give us the greatest Dredd panel of all time, but they’re just a fascinating concept. In an ultra-totalitarian world in which our prospective protagonist is a jack-booted fascist whose stories routinely revolve around how horrible humans are while stamping out the civil liberties and free will of citizens over minor offences, what kind of evil can such a man go up against to make him seem something close to noble? Enter the Dark Judges. Twisted reflections of the brutal justice doled out by the Judges, they see all life as a crime which can only be punished by death.

What “Dominion” explores is less of a conflict between Judges both Dark and Dredd, but more of a zombie apocalypse-inspired horror story in which ordinary people come face to face with the power of the Dark Judges. This third part follows Rosco as the world falls apart around her. People are dying or becoming infected, twisting under the powers of Death and Mortis, all around her and she must power through to survive. While it’s hard to undersell John Wagner’s writing here because, well, the man lives and breathes Dredd, the real star of the show is artist Nick Percival.

With a moody, evocative style that uses digital painting to create blurry, hazy layers of atmospheric effects, Percival creates a confounded snowscape haunted by nightmares. The level of near photorealistic detail Percival brings to these images, from the diffused lighting to the creases of winter coats and the blood-slicked, frost bitten steel of the hospital, helps ground this horror in a sense of reality. With one foot in a world of pure realism (albeit a science-fiction world), it allows Percival to go entirely over-the-top with the horror. Bodies litter damn near every page with sallow skin, bloodied stumps of limbs and torsos and sickening grime splattered over every surface. It’s a gut-punchingly brutal showcase of the horror of the Dark Judges, just in time for Halloween.

That’s gonna do it for us this week! “Judge Dredd Megazine” 388 is on sale this week 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, and
• Finer comic shops everywhere

So as Tharg the Mighty himself would say, “Splundig vur thrigg!”