Welcome, Earthlets, to Multiver-City One, our monthly look at the “Judge Dredd Megazine!” Let’s get right to it.
Judge Dredd: Plunder
Credits: Michael Carroll (script), Karl Richardson (art), Annie Parkhouse (letters)
Christa Harader: We’re on the high seas again in “Plunder,” which kicks off a nautical salvage story with a bit of a bang. Dredd’s off on a salvage mission – part of Luna-2 to be precise – when pirates arrive and bullets start flying. As they do.
Carroll establishes an interesting narrative in the first couple pages and quickly switches over into swashbuckling action, while Richardson gets to play with some interesting architecture and overlapping panel layouts that build tension well in the back half of the installment. This style of layout can often feel like a formatting error, but Richardson doesn’t float panels in a sea of white and makes good use of the space to cover a big cast of characters and detail some good action. The steely blues and grays of the flat ocean quickly give way to a more varied palette as the pirates arrive, but everything hangs together well with characteristic grimness. Parkhouse’s lettering is, as always, economical and easy to read. Balloon placement is good and there are a few fun sound effects to liven up the battle scenes as well.
Carroll, Richardson and Parkhouse don’t waste space in this intro. There’s just enough backstory to create intrigue, but not so much that we’re drowning in narration from the get go. “Plunder” traps our characters, introduces an interesting antagonist and ultimately succeeds in establishing what promises to be a fun story.
Devin Waugh, A Very Large Splash, Part 1
Credits: Ales Kot (script), Mike Dowling (art), Annie Parkhouse (letters)
Gustavo S. Lodi: It takes a certain dose of madness, and even more talent, to create something as absurd and eerily coherent as “Devin Waugh,” and this is exactly what the script by Ales Kot has in spades.
Kot had already worked on the character before (as the great interview preceding this story will explain), and it surely feels like a return to the former’s (mad) house. Devin is as charismatic as a character as he is encapsulated in fantastic situations. It is his charm, calm under pressure, and sharp knack for dialogue and double entendre, that should capture readers.
Plot-wise, the interaction between Devin and his newfound friend, a demon trapped in the shape of a rubber dildo (yes, really) is surprisingly endearing. Through dialogue and situations alone does Kot develop both characters and their blossoming friendship (again, yes, really).
Dowling on art is no slouch either, quite the contrary. There are some gorgeous pages and panels with distant vistas and landscapes, from a hotel on top of a cliff off the Amalfi coast, to a prolonged sequence where Devin wins in the open sea. The main character himself is drawn like a strong man of old (Flex Mentallo surely comes to mind), and it is all rendered consistently.
A great first chapter to the continuing adventures of Devin Waugh, ‘A Very Large Splash’ certainly deserves your attention.
Blunt III, Part One
Credits: T.C. Eglington(script), Boo Cook (art), Simon Bowland (letters)
Rowan Grover: “Blunt III” kicks off with some more connections to the wider “Judge Dredd” universe and starts to deal with the aftermath of the last volume. Already, the first two pages with the Judge’s ship foreshadows conflicts to come on Getri-1, and involving droids into the equation should make for an interesting conflict. Most of the character moments in this issue, however, comes from Blunt himself and his heavy pathos. He tells the story of his original arrival to the colony for the first time, and this unloading of truth is visually represented cleverly by Blunt unloading and stacking dead bodies onto a huge pile, his veritable skeletons coming out of their closet. The back and forth between him and Ilya makes the decision to destroy the remains and leave the planet even more momentous, which makes this first issue that much more impactful.
Boo Cook does some fantastic stuff in this first chapter. The V.R. droid rally at the start is interesting to pick apart with plenty of uniquely designed droids scattered around the virtual environment. Having the droid’s ship also float around in a swirling purple void also sets up the distinctly alien tone of the series for newer readers well. What I really enjoy, however, is the weight that Cook gives to each of Blunt’s movements. The first page we see this has a close-up on Blunt’s face that shows the effort he’s putting in and the sadness that is bearing down on him, before panning out nicely to show the huge amount of work he’s done already. Cook shows him constantly moving and stacking throughout the rest of the sequence, tying in well with his just-get-it-done attitude.
Continued below“Blunt III” is off to a great start, dealing with new potential threats and tying up loose ends from the last volume. This was one of my favorite 2000 AD stories of the last year, and I’m excited to see it continue.
The Returners: Chandhu Part 7
Credits: Si Spencer (script), Nicolo Assirelli (art), Eva de la Cruz (colors), Simon Bowland (letters)
Brian Salvatore: I really don’t like saying the same thing in every review of a strip, but “The Returners” leaves me no choice. This is the most decompressed one-shot I’ve ever read. Seven installments feel like six too many, and while the strip had a satisfying conclusion, it doesn’t erase just how painful it was to get here.
Si Spencer thinks up a pretty ingenious way to have the team get out of this jam alive, but does it with such little fanfare that it comes off about as underwhelming as a conclusion can. Most of the important stuff happens far away from our main characters, and there isn’t enough consequence given to the action itself. After sitting around doing nothing for so long, Spencer rushes the ending.
Nicolo Assirelli continues to do fine work in these pages, but isn’t given enough room to play here. Again, a very fun reveal happens in this installment, one that would be an artistic blank canvas, allowing Assirelli to really stretch and make something unique. However, the mechanics of the story give that ‘new’ reality less than 3 pages to show off before being taken away.
I really enjoy the idea of this strip, but for it to grab me again, it needs better pacing.
Lawless Boom Town: 01
Credits: Dan Abnett (script), Phil Winslade (art), Jim Campbell (letters)
Matthew Blair: Welcome to the town of Badrock, a free-trade pioneer town on the newly colonized planet of 43 Rega and under the jurisdiction of Marshal Metta Lawson. It’s a bustling town filled with people looking to start a new life for themselves, although the small town certainly has its fair share of big problems.
The script for “Lawless Boom Town: 01” comes courtesy of one of Britain’s most prolific and capable writers of comic books and sci fi: Dan Abnett. Abnett’s talents are on full display here, managing to make the town and the people who run it feel very lifelike and down to earth. While it’s clear that Marshal Lawson and her crew are good at their jobs, there are a whole bunch of great little quirks and details about the way they act and talk that humanizes them all. Also, Lawson’s interactions with the very alien merchants that make first contact with the colony, along with the equally intimidating and almost alien Judges of the Special Judicial Squad who want to shut her down, go a long way towards establishing her as a character who is capable, but walks a fine line between being in control and overwhelmed by the responsibility and challenge of it all.
While Abnett’s writing on “Lawless Boom Town: 01” is fantastic, the real highlight of story is Phil Winslade’s artwork. The comic makes the bold choice to go black and white, relying on pencils and inks to tell the story and the end result is amazing. The very first panel of the page is a massive crowd scene that must have taken ages to draw and the super fine line and hyper detailed shading on everything from the vehicles and clothing are simply awe inspiring. It’s the kind of artwork you can easily get lost in and spend ages just looking at the details of a single character’s coat.
“Lawless Boom Town: 01” is a great start to what essentially looks like Judge Dredd, but in the Wild West. The setting is both familiar yet different, the characters are well developed, the conflict is immediate and the stakes are high, and it’s all presented with gorgeous artwork that enhances and compliments the story beautifully. It’s going to be an interesting ride.
