2000AD Prog 1606 - 1 October 08

Cover by Clint Langley

Gavin Hanly: Some of the best things about The Volgan War have been the excellent covers and double page spreads from Langley. The last Steelhorn cover was admittedly a little messy, but he comes up trumps for a moody shot of Zippo, the mysterious (possible) 7th Warrior.

Robert Frazer: Langley's art has enjoyed many superlatives before now, and I can only add to them.

While I would have enjoyed a portrait of Zippo to match the series of covers that ran during the previous book of the Volgan War, that doesn't diminish this composition. The urban wastes are dark and the character is in shadow, but the scale of the background with the addition of mist as it withdraws into the distance successfully prevents it from being disaffectingly turgid and grim. Zippo himself has an classically rugged pose which his bandana only emphasises, and of course his truly tremendous chin would put Dredd himself to shame and set Tharg's heart a-flutter.

The "Make Waste Not War" tag is an ingeniously play on the traditional slogan which conveys an anti-authority intent without having "love" ridiculously jarring with the punk-industrial atmosphere. Finally, the "writing on the wall" tagline reflects how Zippo's graffiti is playing with fire admirably!

A thorough success, and definitely a contender for cover of the year.

Firestorm - Part 3 Script: Robbie Morrison Art: Sam Hart Colours: Len O'Grady Letters: Annie Parkhouse

Dredd gets close and personal...

Synopsis: Bloodstone starts ejecting passengers from the ship so Dredd decides to hand himself in, holding his guns out in front of him. However, Nova starts using escape pods to destroy the pirate ship and Dredd takes the opportunity to kill Bloodstone and all his crew.

GH: It can't be an easy thing, writing Dredd while rabid Dredd fans watch from the sidelines, waiting for you to slip up. But unfortunately, Morrison appears to have walked straight into a banana peel with this strip, one which seems to have stretched a single part story into three.

2000AD fans, like myself, will say that Morrison doesn't get Dredd. Defenders will say that Dredd is multi faceted and it's more about what the different writers bring to the story. The reality is really somewhere in between. Morrison is certainly capable of bringing something to Dredd and has proved this on other occasions, mainly when writing around the man himself and focusing on the citizens. But the problems occur when trying to establish Dredd as an action hero. While Wagner speeds into the distance, effortlessly balancing continuity with full-on action scenes, others who take on this facet of Dredd seem slightly mired in the 70's version of the character - all action hero, full of grit and pithy one-liners - but with no real soul.

And that, unfortunately, is the case here. Dredd merely goes from a-b in this three parter, and also doesn't feel as if he's really achieved anything. In some ways, bringing the whole crew back alive would have been far more impressive.

I've mentioned it before, but it bears repeating - Dredd tales could really benefit from a stronger continuity that all the writers on the strip could tap into. There's no reason why Morrison couldn't write an offshoot of the mutant crisis, or perhaps pick up on the character of Rico over Dredd. The strip badly needs something to fill in those gaps for when the "real story" goes on hiatus. If 2000AD can somehow make the guest writers part of the overall picture - then they's have something really strong to start off every week. It's something that has be achieved in American comic characters with multiple books, where different runs have completely different stories - but they all feed in the whole. Certainly something needs to be done to cover for Wagner down-time and tackle head-on the readership belief that non-Wagner stories "don't matter".

As for the art - Hart is certainly competent and does his best with a slight story, but it does all feel a bit old-school to me. Still, not at all bad for a first showing.

RF: "Firestorm" has sustained substantial criticism in past weeks, but I feel that it's unjustified. The action-focused content of this adventure has not essentially been any different from that which occupied the majority of the preceding "Mutie Block", except in that "Mutie Block" had ties to an overarching plot arc to lift it up in people's estimation (and, in all fairness, some character moments which are absent here).

A lot about the Thrill's mood can be elucidated from O'Grady's colouring - the recurrent cricle-patterns that overlay the artwork grant it a vibrant, quirky, forthright and bold pop-art pizzazz that really suit the punchy action-adventure thrills'n'spills. Parkhouse is also an asset in encouraging this atmosphere - I've criticised her sound effects in previous Thrills, but here they're greatly improved and have suitable solid body to them (notably the "BDAM" of Dredd's Lawgiver reports.

In any case, it's not as if the action seen in "Firestorm" is particularly implausible. While you do have to wonder why we bother having warships when mere escape pods can rain utter devastation like God's wrath upon Gomorrah, in all other respects Dredd has certainly faced down mass arrays of criminality much more fearsome than Bloodstone's motley mob.

Altogether, there's nothing wrong with kicking back, slouching easily and casually bopping a few baddies on the bonce... 'CAUSE HE'S JUDGE DREDD!

Old Gods - Part 7 Script: Ian Edginton Art: Steve Yeowell Letters: Ellie De Ville

Once again, charming...

Synopsis: After some arguing with the Norse Gods, Dancer and his crew finally get some guidance from Odin's wife. She tells them to get help from the halflings of Asgard - who hide in the great hall...

GH: Along with Lobster Random, the Red Seas is doing the job of holding up the comic at the moment. Not a great deal has happened over the past few weeks, but the grumpy Norse Gods have been a fun diversion and have given Yeowell the chance to show off some nifty deity designs in the process. It's not the kind of strip that will change your life, but it's entertaining and raises a smile - especially with Odin's failure in smiting Jack Dancer at the end.

A pleasant diversion that will hopefully build up into something more.

RF: I was quite critical of Red Seas in my previous review, but this visit to Asgard has certainly elevated the quality of the adventure and restored my enthusiasm for the Thrill.

The dialogue is a delight, with the opportunity for some apt and intelligent punnery ("bitter oak and sour ash") and, of course, the inspired crotchety petulant vitriol of the gods themselves to match it. While I wonder why the gods should be completely impotent seeing as they still have a tribe of Indian believers on Earth, perhaps they just prevent Asgard from fading out of existence entirely. 

Yeowell's art has also improved in my estimation. His chess-piece deities are wonderfully characterful, as well as matching the internal explanation of them resembling what Dancer and his crew himself know. While we haven't quite banished the unfortunate problem of half the cast blundering about playing blind man's bluff, our heroes themselves demonstrate a great and skilful range of expression, from Bill's lidded disdain to Jack's own cheeky flirtation with Frigg.

The last few weeks have led me to something of an epiphany of how to read "Red Seas". It's not action, nor even really fantasy, at least in the way we understand it post-Tolkien - it is classic adventure for boys, with all of the bluff amiability, rugged intrepidness, stern moral fibre, dry wit and valuable instruction that entails, and a happy thing to have in our more pouting cynical era. 

Volgan War 3 - Part 6 Script: Pat Mills Art: Clint Langley Letters: Simon Bowland

Zippo searches for a petrol station that sells lighter fluid at this hour...

Synopsis: Inspektor Sturn is preparing to destroy Zippo. Zippo flashes back to his days of fighting the G Men and street cops and covering the city with his tag - as inspired by the mysterious figure - Kroll...

GH: Oh dear, oh dear. What the hell is going on here, then?

As far as I can tell, Mills seems to be finally getting round to telling the backstory of Zippo, who appears to be part Chopper, part cigarette lighter. As mentioned with regards to the cover, there's some excellent work by Langley here - with an amazing cityscape - but all of the graphical delights can't hide the fact the the story is indeed a complete load of rubbish (or perhaps "Biol-ix") and simply isn't going anywhere.

Is Mills really seen as that important to 2000AD that he's allowed to get away with the sort of naval-gazing that has been prevalent in the Volgan War? It's a shame, as I really enjoyed the Shadow Warriors - but this is all style and no substance.

It's about time Mills was forced to do a few Future Shocks and remind himself how to pace a story...

RF: Anthology comics often demand a faster pace of storytelling in order to communicate events in a restricted page count and sustain interest across frequent interruptions, and this leads to compressed art. Heaven knows that I've struggled with the same in my efforts at scriptwriting. The current ABC Warriors story, then, is something that only Mills himself could write. Only someone of his lengthy career and consequent eminence could possibly have the influence to persuade Tharg to indulge in the grand profusion of splash pages and double-spreads that we've had lavished on us throughout all three books of the "Volgan War" series. I'm glad to have become a Squaxx at a time when things like this are possible. 

It's also something that only Langley could do draw - Flint can match him for sheer marvellous intricacy (although he's the only artist in Tharg's stable who can), and while I'm normally critical of digital colouring, here it eminently suits this tale of robots. When seen on the scale that Mills has let Langley loose on regularly throughout this Thrill, the effect is nothing short of mesmerising. With it, we are truly graced with something all too rare in the Galaxy's Greatest Comic - grandeur. 

This week's double-spread is particularly notable for it having narrative sense as well, not just being a landscape. The suggestion of challenge and defiance between Zippo, with the mists framing him like a halo and his foreground placement, gives him great stature despite his actually being a tiny figure. The scowling skull-faced tower glares at the interloper from across the industrial gulf. The figure of Sturn also shows how Langley has improved since the last book: his humans then were rather too obviously photo manipulations, but now they're entirely integrated with his art proper. The only criticism I can level at Langley is that the final panel of page one seems to have a loss of resolution, as though he's zoomed in on a panel rather than drawing it fresh, but that's only a minor niggle. 

Mills also contributes some strong dialogue, notably the appropriate "hard fish" analogy and the clever pun between "Der Tag" and that the fact that Zippo spends his time tagging graffiti.

ABC Warriors has been a continual delight, and I always look forward to the next instalment with anticipation. 

Part 7 Script: Tony Lee Art: Jon Davis-Hunt Letters: Ellie De Ville

Thankfully remembering each others names, an awkward situation was avoided...

Synopsis: The prisoners responsible for the tunnel are put into a truck with Keester driving. They overpower and apparently kill Keester, and the guards start firing at them. Corden charges at Andrews, forcing him into the electric fence - killing them both. The others break through in the truck...

GH: And then we come to Stalag 666...

Now, Tony Lee's been around a while and is apparently doing a rather good job of the new Doctor Who comic from Dynamite. So maybe it's another Tony Lee who's been tasked to write this POW tale, which started off poorly and has gotten ever more ridiculous since.

Endless amounts of exposition seem to have replaced decent action. Numerous characters who all look the same certainly hasn't helped us empathise with the prisoners. And then there's the events of this week - the five prisoners are led, un handcuffed, into a truck manned by one unarmed snake. Maybe (and let's face it - hopefully) it's a set up to allow them to escape but, if so, it's done so ham fistedly that the reader just marvels at the stupidity of the events as opposed to cheering on the "daring" escape. And that's before we even get to the one man who somehow avoids the fire of dozens of snakes (and "leave him" is just a stupid excuse here), and runs across the courtyard to give Davis-Hunt another opportunity to draw some guts spilling on the courtyard.

It's not even halfway done yet, as we are getting 15 weeks of this. Does Lee have some dodgy polaroids of Tharg. hidden away? I'm hoping the second half improves, but it'll have its work cut out.

RF: Farewell, Keester, we hardly knew ye... and that, unfortunately, is the problem with all of the deaths in this week's instalment.

In the sudden, surprising exit of a character we were following closely and anticipating further development from, I assume that Lee was trying to replicate the resonant shock of Orlok's dose of hollow-point realism into the back of Judge Giant. An important difference, though, is that we had four years to invest in our friendship with Judge Giant, whereas Keester, while being quite well-developed in what little time he had, is nonetheless still only a new associate of scarcely a month and half's acquaintance. Consequently, his death generates bafflement and bewilderment more than sadness and sorrow, and Lee's hoped-for emotional impact misfires.

Andrews's own death is similarly weighed down by wasted potential. In Part One, we had the promising suggestion of development of the relationship between the Mussolinis and the Snakes when the Stalag's own Il Duce grumbled "oh lord and bloody master". Unfortunately, in his subsequent appearances this was completely ignored and he was just an empty thug, so it's hard to summon up much enthusiasm for his demise.

Corden only had about four lines of dialogue prior to his own end, so it's hard to assign him any more concern than we would have for a redshirt.

They're significant criticisms given that this instalment has been the most violent one to date, but this review is not all malignity. Bastard is not just A Bastard, he's a Magnificent Bastard: his wonderful condescending sneer, and shifting a gear in his squirming legalese to kick Mother in the proverbial shins with "your Concordance is worth shit" is cutting. Yes, it's a trope character, but it's a continually entertaining trope. The mention of the Gestapo is laying on the World-War allusions a little thick, but we already have "Mussolinis" so it's not really out of place. 

Davis-Hunt continues to be exuberantly lurid with his violence and gore. There's nothing wrong with this in and of itself, and it speaks well of Davis-Hunt's attention to detail, but unfortunately I can't really take such scenes seriously anymore since I saw "Tropic Thunder" at the cinema last week. Its hilarious lampooning of graphic death scenes with hosepipe arterial spray and actors toying with miles of latex intestine intrudes on my mind and robs the violence of drama...!

The Forget Me Knot - Part 6 Script: Simon Spurrier Art: Carl Critchlow Letters: Annie Parkhouse

Lobster gets a history lesson...

Synopsis: Random is rescued by the Froggys and given a drug that helps him to remember what happened. He apparently got two Froggy brothers to take him to the vortex where some mysterious ball of energy awaited - which Random called "My Lord - I have come as I was called". He was fried by the energy and rescued by one of the Froggys, but the other was possessed by the evil... which eventually took over the planet.

GH: The Vort was undeniably great, so it's good to see the story being properly continued in the main Random strip - with Critchlow well capable of recapturing the madness of the planet. It's still a bit head scratching - but I'm assuming that all this is harking back to the mysterious character that was watching Random from afar at the end of this last adventure. Whatever - it's still a much-needed excellent way to end the issue.

RF: 'm sorry, Spurrier. You're one of my favourite writers, and I want to like "The Forget-Me-Knot", I really do - but it just isn't happening.

Lob's dialogue has improved - thankfully dialling back on the laborious portmanteaus while still giving him a distinctive voice that gives the character greater definition. However, the story he narrates is still fairly humdrum. Also, while it's good to see Bless's "observational hardass" event from the other side of the fence, it's lost the shock of the new. 

This, I feel, is the essential problem of the "Forget-Me-Knot", apart from the title being anachronistically shuffled across from an episode of "The Avengers". "Lobster Random" was advertised to me as a playground of madcap invention, but with this story focusing on a return to the Vort it's retreading old ground and really betraying its mission statement.  

What say you write me another nice Warhammer 40,000 novel and we can leave this unpleasantness all behind us?

In fairness to the strip I should admit that I may be suffering from being a new reader here, though - I get the impression that Lob is supposed to be not so much an anti-hero as an utter scumbag, so him actually apologising for something may have more impact on a veteran reader than it has on me.

I'm afraid that I can't reconcile myself to Critchlow's art, though - it still looks like unseemly scrawl. While the shifting liquid effect of the vision panels is well-done and worth applause, the glaring continuity error of the disappearance, reappearance, and disappearance again of his diamondcord leash in the first and second pages is just plain lazy. Dragging along a robot in fishnets was a fun joke at first, but now even Critchlow seems to feel that it's wearing thin...

GH: Despite ending on a high point with Random, and a decent turn from the Red Seas, the other three strips have dragged the comic down badly.

It's been said in the past that 2000AD can get away with one or two of the strips turning off some of the readers, but over half of the comic is just poor and this doesn't make for a good reading experience. Here's hoping ABC's hiatus allows something stronger to take its place, and that Morrison gets a better hold on Dredd next week.

Best Story: Lobster Random

RF: A positive prog overall. While "Lobster Random" is regretfully underwhelming, the other strips compensate for it. Dredd is enjoyable, "Red Seas"is fulfilling, and while it's not a dynamite Thrill "Stalag 666" chugs along competently. ABC Warriors is head and shoulders above them all, though - a joy and a revelation, a sheer unadulterated delight.

Best Story: ABC Warriors