Welcome, citizens, to this week’s installment of Multiver-City One! Each and every Wednesday we will be examining the latest Prog from Tharg and the droids over at 2000 AD, and giving you all the pertinent information you’ll need headed into this week’s Thrill-Zine!
I. THIS WEEK IN PROG 1854
Brass Sun: The Diamond Age, Part 5
An orrery is a mechanical representation of a solar system, complete with the sun at the center and the planets revolving around it, connected by metal rods and each traveling at its own speed; wind it up and let it go. But what if there was an orrery that wasn’t a scale model of a solar system, but rather a planetary-sized one? And what if that orrery’s sun was winding down, with the requisite slowing of the planets and freezing of first the outer worlds, than the inner ones? You would want someone to grab the key and crank that thing back up to speed, right? Well, in Brass Sun, the job of key-finder and sun-fixer falls on series protagonist Wren.
This week’s strip really helps hit home the scale of the task Wren has in front of her, as she searches for the other parts of the key to restart the clockwork sun. That sweet Culbard architecture and sense of scale you see above? Not even the most impressive use of this in the strip. Think needle in a haystack…the size of North America. Better bundle up, kids!
Credits: Ian Edginton (script), I.N.J. Culbard (art), Ellie De Ville (letters)
II. 2000 AD at New York Comic Con
2000 AD stormed New York Comic Con last weekend, and Multiversity Comics was there to greet them! We were able to snag some time from their busy schedules to secure plenty of interviews and Dredd history, so be sure to check in regularly with Multiver-City One so as not to miss a bit of it.
While Tharg had his minions boxing up their various creators to ship over the Atlantic, they managed to squeeze in some pretty impressive new hardcover collections. Besides the Trifecta collection (which we talked about a couple of weeks ago), there was also a stack of the giant Art of Judge Dredd books, as well as the super-impressive looking Nemesis the Warlock. All of these books are something to behold, but I was stunned by the colors in Nemesis. Every other collection of this book has been collected, as it originally appeared, in black and white. But when Eagle Comics began reprinting a whole mess of 2000 AD strips for the American market in separate titles, Nemesis was colorized (or ‘colourised’) in what can only be assumed to be an attempt to make an American audience more comfortable with the material. So who’d they get to color Kevin O’Neill’s incredible and beautifully grotesque art? Why, Kevin O’Neill, of course! His palette, carried over from the reprints to the new collection, is vibrant and creepy and fits the world he and Pat Mills created perfectly. The whole book is such a treat to read and something not to be missed!
III. AN ORAL HISTORY OF JUDGE DREDD
The tale of Judge Dredd has been continually published since 1977, and has been brought to us by some of the most creative minds to ever work in comics. As a result, there have been some out-of-this-world story beats woven into the fabric of the character. We thought it would be interesting to talk with the writers and artists behind Mega-City One and see what their favorite bits of Dredd’s history are. This week Simon Fraser joins us to talk about cloning, Judge Dredd, and the two clones named Rico.
[audio:http://traffic.libsyn.com/robotsfromtomorrow/simon_fraser_1.mp3]
IV. FUTURE PERP FILES
ATTN: ALL CITIZENS OF THE MEG! Be aware that there is always a Judge watching you. Each sector is equipped with millions of HD-CCTV and bioID units. They are there for your protection. If your intent is upright citizenry, then you have no qualm with our surveillance. And remember: if you see something, you are now an accessory to a crime. That’s six months in an Iso-Cube, creep! Random CPU algorithms has selected this citizen for immediate surveillance and assessment…
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That’s gonna do it for us this week! Prog 1854 is on sale today and is available from finer comic shops everywhere, from 2000ADonline.com, and via the 2000 AD Newsstand app for iPad and iPhone. So as Tharg the Mighty himself would say, “Splundig vur thrigg!”
