This week, Multiversity Comics is celebrating its fifth birthday. We here at Multiver-City One want to thank each and every one of you reading this, as well as all of our fellow contributors and columnists. It’s been a blast doing these articles, and we hope to be able to continue doing so for a good long time to come!
In case you don’t know, 2000 AD publishes two anthology comics in a magazine-sized format. There’s the weekly 2000 AD, which runs five short, serialized strips in every issue. Judge Dredd is always in the pole position, supported by a plethora of other comics. 2000 AD has a heavy sci-fi bend to it, but there’s also plenty of horror, action, and suspense stories to go around. The weekly’s sister title is the monthly Judge Dredd Megazine. While the Megazine has more of an expanded Dredd-world comics line-up, don’t think that Dredd is all it has to offer! Within those pages you’ll also find articles, interviews, the occasional prose story, and a slot reserved specifically for a creator-owned series. While both publications share some similarities in voice, they’re each a unique reading experience in their own right!
To help us celebrate our five-year anniversary, 2000 AD PR-Droid Molch-R has sent along a few images from Tharg himself, teasing what we can expect to see in their publishing line-up in the near future. There is some very exciting stuff on the horizon that we want to share with you (DARK JUDGES!), so let’s have a look, shall we?
I. COMING SOON TO 2000 AD
Judge Dredd: Traumatown, by Mike Carroll and Nick Percival
Nick Percival will be drawing Judge Dredd in a Prog for the first time in 19 years (those years presumably spent wandering The Cursed Earth). From what we can gather, this story is going to be taking a hard look at Dredd’s sanity as he begins to hallucinate. Could this harken back to some of what Rob Williams was doing a few months back? Maybe all those mind wipes on Titan are coming home to roost. Maybe that weird horse was the first sign of trouble? We won’t have long to wait, as this story kicks off in June.
Indigo Prime: Perfect Day, by John Smith and Lee Carter
This story kicks off in this week’s Prog 1880 and is absolutely bananas! Multi-dimensional science fiction at its finest, with hyper-realistic art to boot! The first chapter opens with Jesus getting crucified, then throws to a world where Nazis control a present-day United Kingdom. You can tell that they’re in charge because they have the taxidermied bodies of Queen Elizabeth and Prince George on display at their Buckingham Palace fancy dress party. I’m pretty certain this isn’t the “Perfect Day” Lou Reed had in mind.
Brass Sun: Floating Worlds, by Ian Edington and INJ Culbard
This is the third story in the Brass Sun series Edington and Culbard have been giving us. We spoke pretty highly of this strip the last time it was running, so we expect Floating Worlds to be a real treat. If you haven’t read this yet, 2000 AD is reprinting Brass Sun from the beginning as single comic-sized issues, the first of which will be on shelves May 28. Keep an eye on Culbard, because he is way too good at comics. Between this, his work on New Deadwardians, and his previous graphic novel adaptations of works from Arthur Conan Doyle, Edgar Rice Burroughs, and H. P. Lovecraft, plus his forthcoming solo graphic novel Celeste, he’s on his way to big things.
Aquila: Carnifex, by Gordon Rennie and Leigh Gallagher
Aquila returns! The last Aquila story began running in Prog 1850, the same week we launched this article, so it’s got a special place in our hearts. If you like demonic soldiers, sand-and-sandal epics, and sword-and-sorcery stories, then this is for you! Emperor Nero is collecting heads because doing so will somehow make him a god on Earth. You’d think that unkillable Aquila would stand in direct opposition to that. So why is he working for Nero instead?
Continued below
Black Shuck, by Leah Moore, John Reppion and Steve Yeowell
There’s a war happening between Trolls and Vikings. We don’t really know much more about this story than that, but how much more do you really need with that first sentence and this art? Sold!
II. COMING SOON TO JUDGE DREDD MEGAZINE
Judge Dredd: Dead Zone, by John Wagner and Henry Flint
This story will begin in July’s Megazine, which is a special jump-on issue. Every story in the issue will be a first chapter, and that’s pretty awesome. Dead Zone sees Wagner continuing to hammer out the world of Judge Dredd post-Chaos Day, this time joined by the incomparable Henry Flint. The story will be about the mass graves out in the Cursed Earth where the millions of Chaos Bug victims are buried. It’s a grizzly subject to be sure, so I have no doubt that something horrific will be going down here.
The Man From the Ministry, by Gordon Rennie and Kev Hopgood
This creator-owned series by Rennie and Hopgood will be an alternate take on the British space program. Seems that a space hero from the 1950s has returned many years later. British comics have a long pedigree with space heroes, starting with Dan Dare, as well as re-evaluating those heroes, like Grant Morrison & Rian Hughes’ Dare mini. With that kind of lineage, we’re really excited for this one, as anyone who’s read Rennie’s Dept. of Monsterology would be!
Dredd: Uprise, by Arthur Wyatt and Paul Davidson
This is the second strip to spin out of the Dredd movie. In a part of Mega-City One known as ‘The Spit’, there’s been a fair amount of social unrest brewing. So we’ll be seeing Judge Dredd sent into a tinderbox, which always has interesting results!
Lawless: Welcome to Badrock, by Dan Abnett and Phil Winslade
Mega-City One loves setting up space colonies, and Dan Abnett loves writing about them! Badrock is a lawless frontier town, and Colonial Marshal Metta plans to bring it law and order! The story will be told as a western, which seems fitting. The premise is really exciting, and Abnett is absolutely the guy to be writing this. Winslade’s crisp black and white art adds a cold starkness to this deep space colony that is fitting.
III. WAGNER’S FAREWELL TO THE FEARSOME FOURSOME
Judge Dredd: Dark Justice, by John Wagner and Greg Staples
Holy smokes. Is this really it? Is Wagner really going to take Judge Death off the board? Can he do that? Especially after Greg Staples makes the character look that good? This has been teased and teased, and it looks like readers will finally get this story in December. Get excited!
As each of these stories roll out, we will surely be covering them here at Multiver-City One, along with tons of other news and commentary related to the world of 2000 AD!
