2000AD Prog 1608 - 15 October 08

Cover by Carl Critchlow

Pete McCosh :  A typically busy Critchlow cover which takes the surprisingly uncommon approach of summarising a number of elements of the current story rather than a stock character drawing or action pose. It might not make a lot of sense, but there can be few reasonable people who, on being confronted with such a tableau of bizarre images, would not immediately want to ascertain what it all means.

Despite the lack of a background, the drawing is large and well composed enough to hold the attention without seeming isolated and forlorn in a sea of white. A nice cover then, with lovely rich colouring. Of which more later. 

Robert Cornell: Out of the envelope. It’s a big pink blob. On closer inspection; it’s Lobster Random. The regular artist does a scene from the story. Not very inspiring. There’s nothing wrong with it either.

Still Mental After All These Years Script: John Wagner Art: Cliff Robinson Colours: Chris Blythe Letters: Annie Parkhouse

Mental no more...

Synopsis: After many years, our favourite "Mental" card holder returns, only to have his card revoked. He goes to a budget euthanasium to end it all, but gets caught up in a violent robbery. He helps Dredd catch the perp but then uses the perp's gun to try and kill himself - but once again fails. Dredd sends him away for 6 years, but reinstates the mental card...

PMC: Well, it’s John Wagner and Cliff Robinson on Dredd, so they might as well replace the creator credit box with a BSI kitemark as a guarantee of quality. Once again, Wagner brings back an old character and finds a nice new way to play with him. Here, the owner of the fabled Mental card returns in a story that owes something to Joseph Heller. At least he gets a happy ending. Comparitively.

As with every elitist, I always appreciate a story that refers back to things I remember from twenty years ago (it’s just a shame that the Case Files are putting this material into the grubby hands of every Johnny-come-lately who claims he wasn’t even born then) and I don’t even mind the gentle digs at my expanding waistline. The one question I do have is what characters are we going to be seeing popping up in ten or twenty years? It might seem crazy given the quality of writing on Dredd at the moment, but I sometimes worry about how much of what’s going on is reliant on characters who’ve been around for twenty years. Who’s going to take over once they’re gone? Where are all the new wacky little one-off characters? Why am I over-analysing a fairly simple story which, on its own terms, is a well made slice of light relief? 

RC: Oh no, it’s one of those funny filler Dredds we get between the meatier Wagner stories. Except… well, it’s written by the man himself. Most writers struggle to incorporate, or more often ignore completely, Dredd’s suppressed humanity. Wagner, not surprisingly has the character nailed. I especially enjoyed his, “you were a pleasure to bust,” comment as well as the “happy” ending. Lightweight perhaps but a pleasure to read. The perp is a tragic figure ironically driven to normality by a city that makes of its citizens insane. As always, the City itself is the villain.

I’m not keen on the Stallone-esque grimace but otherwise I really like the Robinson Dredd. Good faces. Nice use of blood.

Hunters Script: Nicola Jean Art: Yann Valeani Letters: Simon Bowland

In need of breath mints...

Synopsis: Detective Richard Valandre saves a soldier about to be killed by a woman with a snake coming out of her mouth. He uses the soldier to help chase after the woman and sees her meeting a man with an insect coming out of his mouth. Valandre tells the man to shoot the insect, which turned out to be a traitor in the fight between the insects and snakes. Valandre himself also has an insect in him and uses it to take over the soldier...

PMC: What this superficially reminded me of was that old film The Hidden, where an alien criminal ends up in New York possessing people and, memorably, a dog to try and evade its pursuers. Setting aside the clear lack of canine abuse I thought this was a decently crafted short story, solidly illustrated. It might not have the most surprising of ending but that’s really a problem with a format which automatically has the reader suspecting every character of having an ulterior motive.

I don’t think I’d be doing the creative team a disservice if I was to describe them as French. I don’t say that to be xenophobic, but because I felt the setting for the story was quite interesting. While it can be taken as a random wild place where body-snatching monsters are found, I assume the West African setting has some of the same sort of post-colonial associations for a Frenchman that basing the story in India or Kenya might have for a British writer.

The art is of a solid standard, although I always like to see a bit more distinctive stylisation in my prog. I don’t mean to sound negative: this is the second decent story in short order for this pair, so hopefully Tharg’s grooming some new blood from an unexpected source and they’ll be able to develop over the next couple of years. 

RC: I see Future Shocks/Terror Tales as a necessary evil. Five pages need to be filled. A new batch of stories must be synchronised. New writers have to have a doorway into the system. I got a strong sense of déjà vu from this one but it was competent without being remarkable. I preferred the suitably yucky artwork to the story.

The Forget Me Knot - Part 8 Script: Simon Spurrier Art: Carl Critchlow Letters: Annie Parkhouse

Damn straight...

Synopsis: Random tortures Veldt and discovers that they are fighting a "Cosmic Omnidevil" trapped in a pocket universe at the heart of the Vort - sealed in by a knot which Lobster recently "loosened". A spectral figure appears out of the goo and takes Random, Bless and Klik into the heart of the Vort - and Random's tracking device starts working again...

PMC: Previous series of Lobster Random have left me cold, but I’ve been enjoying this one a lot more and I can’t really explain why as the writing, particularly Lob’s voice, seems much the same. I didn’t really see the point of the manufactured surprise element of The Vort, but it’s good to see things that were set up there now being fully exploited and explored here and I’m certainly looking forward to seeing what’s down this rabbit hole.

One aspect where I really can see a marked improvement here is in Carl Critchlow’s art. I’ve always found his work to have far too many lines: he did a Dredd set in the Cursed Earth a while back that I found quite horrible as there seemed to be lines everywhere. Here he seems to have toned that down a bit while still managing an impressive level of detail. The colours which were previously dull and washed out have also taken on a far richer tone with the lovely deep reds and pinks reminding me of winter sunsets.

Good stuff all round. Now bring back the claws. 

RC: Oh lord, where to start?

There's a feeling amongst TV producers that adding the word "celebrity" to any concept will automatically result in entertainment. The sad thing is this approach actually works in 2000 AD. “Dirty Harry in the Future” and “The Magnificent Seven with Robots” are classics so why not “The Great Escape in Space”? A similar previous story, Harry Twenty on the High Rock (“Escape from Alcatraz... in Space!”) wasn't the most sophisticated tale but Harry had a bizarre escape plan, was surrounded by colourful characters and was never taken too seriously.

I have to ask the question; "has Tony Lee actually READ 2000 AD?" Larger than life is a minimum, wasting three panels over a conversation unacceptable and taking things too seriously a capital offence. What’s disappointing about Stalag 666, as distinct from the just plain terrible, are the colourless, unlikeable characters. This set-up should have been a gift. Perhaps Tharg should have tested him on a couple of Future Shocks first.

This week's episode is possibly the least bad so far. For the first four pages anyway. At least it has some kind of monster thingy. Then Blondie gives Raider a girly slap, denounces him as a fake (well, duh) and makes some kind of vague threat. The problem is; there's no more tension in this than the (forgotten?) “shoot one in ten prisoners” threat last week. (For a start, we haven’t SEEN any other prisoners.) To put it bluntly, I couldn’t care less.

Hunt-Davis’ lizards and monsters are OK but the people are all over the place. The action scenes just sit there on the page; literally and metaphorically two-dimensional. It's hard to believe this is the same artist who did such a dynamic job on Tempest.

Part 9 Script: Tony Lee Art: Jon Davis-Hunt Letters: Ellie De Ville

The prisoners appeared to be on a 50's B movie planet...

Synopsis: The escapees fight off a monster, but Mother is badly injured in the fight. He stays behind to hold off the Snakes - while Holland confronts "Raider" Chapman telling him that Raider was a myth told by the old man who never existed...

PMC: I’m finding this so tedious that it was a real struggle to reread it so soon for the review. Either Jon-Davis Hunt feels the same way or he simply hasn’t been given much direction on the environment of the planet as he can’t seem to summon up the energy to fill in much background. A definite step backwards after Tempest.

We’re clearly meant to believe the doctor is the traitor so I’ll go out on a limb and say it’s anyone but him. Maybe even everyone but him, all separately and for different reasons. In my view, this is easily the worst thing in the prog since Bison and even that had a brain-snatched hitman waking up in a teenage girl’s body. I can’t see anything that interesting coming here. 

RC: Two tribes of Squaxx face each other over an unbridgeable chasm. Each shakes their heads sadly at the other's inexplicable folly. “Lobster Random is genius!” shouts one tribe. “Lobster Random is cack!” replies the other. “Lobster Random is okay I suppose!” is not heard.

Admittedly, so far this hasn't been the best, or most coherent, Random story but basically I wouldn't mind five pages of Lob sitting in a room, standing on his head as long as he sarcastically narrated the experience. He's just plain hilarious. "Your spectral wisdom leaves me bollockised.” “A-ha bingasm." No? OK, suit yourself.

This week we get Random's party trick: To torture the untorturable entity. It's the highlight of the current run and the highlight of this week's prog.

Critchlow’s artwork is very much part of the love/hate experience. It isn't pretty but it's not supposed to be. Much like Lob himself. I do like Critchlow's artwork but does it have to be so pink? Gah! My eyes!

Old Gods - Part 9 Script: Ian Edginton Art: Steve Yeowell Letters: Ellie De Ville

A handy coat to have...

Synopsis: Jack and his crew return to Earth only to find all the Viking descendents have been slaughtered already. They use the gifts of the Gods to destroy the undead attackers and prepare to confront the Jotun...

PMC: Another great Red Seas adventure moves towards its climax with an episode full of action after the heavy talking of the last few weeks. This story has gone some way to answering the questions that were raised by the gang’s WW2 outing with the promise of more to come and I’m hoping it still has a few episodes to go as there seems to be quite a lot still to get done to tidy up the current story if it isn’t going to end halfway through like Underworld did a couple of years ago.

As always, Steve Yeowell shines and I think Ian Edginton has now wrested the ridiculous battle-cry crown from Pat Mills. “Steep the earth in their red juice” indeed. Marvellous. 

RC: I always enjoy The Red Seas but I should be enjoying it more. Previous adventures have started slowly then taken off in the last act and this seems to be following the pattern. Plenty of action this week with the nicely grim touch of the off-page massacre although I'm not keen on those weapons of mass destruction our heroes have picked up. It all seems a bit Dungeons and Dragons to me.

Yeowell has probably taken the minimalist approach too far but at least it’s deliberate. If it doesn't work then it's the concept that's bad not the execution. That said, it should be possible to tell zombie Vikings from the normal everyday Viking on the street. That’s just common sense.

A final thought; this is supposed to be The Red SEAS. When did we last see so much as a puddle?

PMC: Another fine issue with Stalag 666 the only bad apple in the barrel. I’m so used to lavishing praise on Red Seas that I’m rather surprised to find Lobster Random duking it out for the top and taking the points decision on the grounds of more talking. Keep it up Tharg. 

Best Story: Lobster Random

RC: I've been as guilty as anyone with the whining but is 2000 AD really going through such a bad patch? Lobster Random has the love/hate thing going. The Red Seas has been punching a little below its weight. Dredd's suffering from a Rennie shaped hole that needs filling. Stalag 666 is so soul-destroyingly awful it sucks thrill power from the stories around it. I would say, judged over 1608 progs, the current run is no worse than average.

Best Story: Judge Dredd