| Home
¦ Features ¦ 2006AD
Review
Best (non-Dredd) one-off
Ruddler's Cuddlers
|
|
Gavin Hanly: I'm
going to go for the nastiness of Ruddler's Cuddlers for this one. One of the
best stories in a series of one offs that put the (non-Ewing) Future Shocks to
shame.
James Mackay: Simon Spurrier’s
contribution to the ongoing Tales of the Black Museum strand, Ruddler’s
Cuddlers, gave me shivers in places I didn’t know I could get shivers. A
great, cold-hearted tale, with really lovely art.
Robert Cornell: Ruddler’s Cuddlers – Tales
from the Black Museum
I must admit that these didn’t impress me on the whole but I’ve voted
for this one simply because it’s so NASTY.
Alex Frith:Not much in 2000 AD to choose
from, but this year's Meg was blessed with 'Tales from the Black Museum', which
were nearly all contenders. But Mr Amperduke from the small
press section wins the prize for being so inventive and beautifully nasty - nastier
than any of the museum's horrors.
Stephen Watson: Tales from the
Black Museum - God of Gamblers from Megazine
252.
This format has been a disappointment but this one off bringing back the
devil was excellent.
Linton Porteous:
Small Press – Mr Amperduke. With a plethora of darker stories this year
(Tales from the Black Museum, Black Siddha, Fiends of the Eastern Front & Chiaroscuro),
this one-off from Bob Byrne surpassed them all as a tale of genuinely disturbing
horror, made all the more frightening by it's innocent believability.
Go Machine |
|
Bryan Coyle: Go-Machine was
a three-part Future Shock if anything, but it was short and punchy as a series. The
individual components don't inspire confidence - washed-up fighter, cyborg deathmatches,
human rights commentary and evil politicians using violence to control the masses,
but the end result was more than the sum of its parts.
Which was just as well, as the last time I saw the sum of
those parts was Alan McKenzie's Mean Arena.
Adam Crabtree: Al
Ewing’s Spaceland takes the prize for best one-off, displaying
everything that’s wowing the
throngs at the moment with this particular writer. That I happen to be in complete
synchronicity with him over the state of modern pop music certainly oils the
gears (to quote the strip; “Every song in the charts is a sample of a cover
of a remix of a sample- there’s no original sound.”), but as if this
wasn’t enough, the breathtakingly talented Edmund Bagwell facilitates an
awe-inspiring journey to an alien culture with wonderful texture and duskiness,
where the rituals are a little more grounded in fact than you might think! As
much as anything, that back cover coda is as much a reason to get prostrate yourself
before the mighty green beast-phizog of Al Ewing’s talent.
David Knight: Mr Amperduke.
Whether the small press section of the Megazine, or for that matter the reprints
of Charley’s
War, count as part of the 2000AD canon is debatable,
but Bob Byrne’s wordless tale Mr Amperduke in Megazine 247 was
the most startlingly original story I and many other 2000ad readers read all
year.
Droid Life from 1472 |
|
Jordan Smith: Harry
Kipling Prologue. Why?
Although confusing enough that I had to read it a couple more times, it turns
out to be very fun indeed. And could we have asked for a cooler looking character?
I think that's near impossible. And how about a better artist for the job? Although
I feel that the great art of the prologue and the second story has disappeared,
I still feel that Boo Cook's art is brilliant with some very cool colours.
Martin Charlton: Mr.
Amperduke. Not the best
of praise for the Meg when the best non Dredd strip all year has been a small
press offering. Delightfully bizarre, with a rigid panel structure and a silent
narrative. If you missed this, I’m sure it’s available online somewhere…
WR Logan: Prog 1472,
Droid Life.
Pete McCosh: There weren’t many to choose
from here, but Al Ewing’s Gifts
of the Magi was the pick of the bunch. Real nasty British sci-fi.
Joseph Saxton: I’m voting for Optimal here, this was a great example of how well a future shock can be handled, I won’t
say much as I reviewed it so if you really want to read my opinion look that
up, needless to say I heaped both script and art with praise.
Part 2 of the yearly review arrives tomorrow...
|
