Multiver-City One: 2000 AD Prog 1992 – Dunwich Horror!

Welcome, Earthlets, to Multiver-City One! Every Wednesday we examine the latest offerings from Tharg and the droids over at 2000 AD, the galaxy’s leading producers of Thrill-Power entertainment! Between the weekly British sci-fi comic “2000 AD” itself, the monthly “Judge Dredd Megazine”, an extensive library of graphic novel collections, and new US-format one-shots and mini-series, they have decades worth of zarjaz comics waiting for you to discover and enjoy.

This week brings us a brand-new Prog, so let’s get right to it!

Cover by Alex Ronald

I. THIS WEEK IN PROG 1992

NOW DEPARTING

Brink, Part 15
Credits: Dan Abnett (script), INJ Culbard (art), Simon Bowland (letters)

Adrian Johnson: In this closing installment of the first arc of ‘Brink’, investigator Bridget Kurtis is debriefed after her ordeal and shooting of three perpetrators who intended to execute her for discovering their plot to engineer civil unrest aboard their orbiting habitat. The civil unrest was triggered by psychoactive agents added to the food supply and added to the already tense situation of cults in the habitat; of which murders by same were being investigated initially by Kurtis and her now-deceased partner Brinkmann.

I hate to see this strip ending for now as it had been one of the best pieces I’ve read in the Progs in a while. However, Abnett does some brilliant dialogue here to wrap up things in Kurtis’ debriefing. The exchange between Kurtis and her superiors is tense, pointed and filled with nuance; while possibly setting up the next story arc with a last panel reveal that may see us explore this world outside of the habitat. For me, a dangling thread is the investigation of the cult murders initially by Kurtis and Brinkmann. The murders served to exhibit the ruthlessness and abandon of the cults, but I don’t know if the cults were landed on properly outside of giving chase to Kurtis and driving her to inadvertently discover the plot of the three citizens to taint the food supply. The conversation between Kurtis and one of her superiors in the debriefing lays out that the activity of the cults goes deeper than anticipated. I’m hoping that Abnett unravels the cults further as he has set up a very interesting social eco-system that ripe for future stories. I’m looking forward to re-reading this arc in a collected edition as there are likely nuances that were set up and it will read even better in one sitting.

Culbard closes out this arc with his usual sterling art and colors. Of note, there is one panel during the debriefing where we see that the left side of her face is bruised and the left eye is bloodied after her ordeal. I that was a very nice attention to detail and storytelling. It also reminds me of the closing scene of many an action movie where the lead is bandaged or arm in sling after dispatching the villain. It must be said that I am definitely a fan of Culbard’s after reading ‘Brink’. This was actually my first exposure to his work. His simple linework, rich colors and wonderful storytelling with pacing and body language really impressed me. My fellow reviewer and buddy Greg Matiasevich also advised me that Abnett and Culbard have collaborated previously on other stories. I think I will track those down to tide me over before the next arc of ‘Brink’.

Black Shuck: Sins of the Father, Part 10
Credits: Leah Moore & John Reppion (script), Steve Yeowell (art), Chris Blythe (colors), Ellie de Ville (letters)

Greg Matiasevich: We’ve reached the end of another shaggy ‘Black Shuck’ tale, so SPOILERS as we wrap this puppy up!

As much as I’ve enjoyed parts and pieces of ‘Sins of the Father’ over the weeks, I can’t help but feel let down by the ending. It could have happened for a number of reasons, but this strip feels like it was originally plotted out for a different number of parts, and was then switched up to end on Part 10 at some point once it started running. The pieces of a successful story were there, for sure, but the disconnect came from this weird sense of being both pressed for time AND running out the clock in this last installment, which is not something you get all that often. It’s usually one or the other, not both. Here’s how I think this happened:

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If we think of ‘Sins of the Father’ as having three climax points (Shuck vs the Scucca, the saving of his children at birth, and the Eadwald/Coenwulf battle), then the expectation is that they will climax at the same time, or that they will be paced in order from smallest to largest. Prog 1991 showed us the first two: the spirit-capturing birth being the more successful of them, as Shuck defeated the Scucca a mite bit easily for my taste. But I thought that was just clearing the decks for a few Progs worth of back&forth between Eadwald & Coenwulf. A battle with several tide turns hanging perilously close to collapse for the Dunwich crew until Shuck arrives to flip the script one last time? Nope. We get another present-day narrative frame that feels a beat too off for the amount of page-space it got in ‘Sins’. I half-expected and wanted the narrator to have been a descendent of Shuck showing the curse had come back to his line in the intervening centuries. No such luck.

The faceoff between Coenwulf’s forces and the Eadwald/Shuck militia should have been bigger, and going on simultaneously with the other two parts. But instead of having a three-way Jedi-style climax (cutting between the birth, Eadwald battling Coenwulf, and Shuck fighting the Scucca), Moore & Reppion give us two and then one. A decrescendo rather than a continuing crescendo. Here’s where combining Coenwulf and the Scucca characters would have made more sense, because it would have naturally brought those two plot points together and justified spending the page-space to showcase them. Unless you, say, went from twelve installments to ten, in which case there might not have been that extra 10-12 pages to spare.

A shame, really, because there was a lot to like in this run of ‘Black Shuck’. Hopefully Tharg gives Moore, Reppion, Yeowell, and the rest another shot at the character…or his descendants.

Judge Dredd: Ladykiller, Part 2
Credits: John Wagner (script), Carlos Ezquerra (art), Annie Parkhouse (letters)

Mike Romeo: Last week we saw a number of cranks come forward with false information on PJ Maybe, all in an attempt to claim the hefty reward offered by Judge Dredd. In the midst of it all, a seemingly ill man called in saying that he not only had knowledge of Maybe’s whereabouts, but to also have been his lover. Being the gossip hound he is, Dredd couldn’t help but visit the man himself!

Throughout his life, PJ Maybe has claimed to be any number of people. Sometimes he’d kill someone and assume their identities, others he’d invent entirely new personas. With each change, Maybe drifted further and further away from whoever it was he started as. Over time, a pattern was created: Maybe would appear on the scene and be stopped by Dredd, only to slip away at the last possible moment. Once he’d evaded Dredd, Maybe would set about getting himself a new face and identity in preparation for his inevitable return. It seems to me that every time we see Maybe again, he’s already gone through his metamorphosis. All of his changes happened off-panel, between stories, putting the reader in Dredd’s position. Maybe could be anywhere or anyone. This time around, writer John Wagner has a different approach in mind.

In this week’s strip the reader was given a rare peek into Maybe’s time between stories. Through Budley Winterton, the aforementioned lover, we’re given a first hand accounting of Maybe’s reinvention. For the first time that we know of, PJ Maybe has assumed the identity of a woman, and it seems to have presented him with a bit of a challenge. Every change in persona comes with a list of behaviors that need to be re-learned. Cadence of speech, walking patterns, accents, mannerisms, any one of these things could be a tell that points to a former identity, and Maybe’s proven he can overcome each of these obstacles, though always as a male. Now he must present himself in a way he never has before, adding a new dimension to all of his usual new-identity considerations. Winterton mentions that, at first, Maybe wasn’t very convincing, though that’d change. Now Dredd’s got a dangerous person on the loose with a wider range of possible false identities than ever before.

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Outlier: Survivor Guilt, Part 3
Credits: T.C. Eglington (script), Karl Richardson (art), Ellie de Ville (letters)

AJ: The Alliance continues to battle the onslaught of the Hurde, an alien race bent on their destruction. However, the Alliance is fighting with the help of their developing ‘armourigami’ mechanized battle suits and intel from captured parties. One of the captured is a human woman named Jess; who formerly was a foot soldier for the Hurde. Under interrogation, Jess reveals more about the Hurde’s plan than the Alliance had anticipated.

Eglington’s script has been deliberate with its pacing and full of portent; which is to be expected of this type of sprawling galactic war narrative. The exchange between Jess and the interrogating lieutenant is very good; revealing more of the story that will hopefully set this arc in motion beyond the somewhat glacial pacing. However, Eglington is doing a great job working to balance the pacing between the dialogue and action. The art by Richardson continues to be very solid with some great atmospherics in his colors with the interiors of the Alliance headquarters and the exteriors of star cruisers patrolling in open space. The ruggedness of his linework is very much suited to action scenes and shots of the Alliance commanders making decisions. There is a bit of sameness of faces I’ve noticed with Richardson’s art; particularly with the scenes of the Alliance commanders conversing between themselves. Otherwise, I’ve been digging the mech designs and can’t wait to see Richardson cut loose with a big action set piece.

Scarlet Traces: Cold War, Part 5
Credits: Ian Edginton (script), D’Israeli (art), Annie Parkhouse (letters)

GM: Ahron gets to make a courtesy stop at home before shipping off to Venus, as we get to see how the refugee Venusian community is integrated into modern British society, and how some modern Brits are being less than welcoming.

Edginton continues to use science fiction to comment on current events (which are also, sadly, timeless in their repetition). The blue-hued Venusians are brilliantly colored stand-ins for any number of ethnicities that have made their way to the UK and made it their home, only to have done so under an overly suspicious and barely disguised xenophobic eye. Sure, in this case they actually ARE aliens, but as little story grace notes like these show us, they are human where it counts.

D’Israeli continues to astound with his color choices and at this point I can go on autopilot talking about how good this strip looks. You’d think with all the things he does right that it would be easy to find different aspects to focus on: the linework, palette choices, modeling, rendering, design work, storytelling, panel composition, etc. But he executes and integrates all of that so well that it reduces me to something akin to “Oooooooo purtee” when I see it. It actively works against my attempts to dissect it. *sigh* Oh well, there’s always next week!

(And a tip of the RAF flight cap to whichever creator suggest the Little Shop of Horrors nod…)

II. AN EARTHLET’S GUIDE TO 2000 AD

GM: At Multiver-City One, we understand trying to figure out to start with a selection of almost 40 years worth of comics can be daunting. What do they publish? Where can I get it? What’s up with Judge Dredd? Can I still read “2000 AD” if I don’t like Judge Dredd?

To help all you new & potential readers, we’ve put together something we call An Earthlet’s Guide to 2000 AD. This FAQ collects everything you need to make your initial foray into the 2000 AD Thrill-verse as easy and simple as possible.

That’s gonna do it for us this week! “2000 AD” Prog 1992 is on sale today and available digitally worldwide on: