2000AD Prog 1612 - 12 November 08

Cover by Simon Davis

Martin Charlton: A nice cover by Simon Davis, who seems to have adopted a more subtle style than in the strip proper (or indeed this month’s Megazine cover), perhaps suggesting the smooth, measured nature of Ampney Crucis himself. The juxtaposition of the two backgrounds show not only the central conflicts of the strip, but writer Ian Edginton’s favourite things – the 1920s and hideous monsters.

Chris Landless: An elegant, restrained cover from Simon Davis this week.  It captures the mood of Ampney Crucis Investigates while showcasing Davis's talent for characterisation – Ampney looks like a right cocky git, the sort of bloke you love to hate. It's much better than Davis's "Man considers a Rubber Duck" cover for the Meg this month.

Mutopia Part 2 Script: Al Ewing Art: Simon Fraser Colours: Gary Caldwell Letters: Annie Parkhouse

Things get out of hand...

Synopsis: Dredd reveals that he knows the identity of Clavier and sows the seeds of discontent by telling the "mutants" that one of them is a real mutant and a spy. The hostage takers start shooting each other and Dredd himself takes down Clavier. The remaining perps are sentenced to over 900 years due to the crimes that their actions will be directly responsible for...

MC: Finally, a sense of an author who sees the subtleties of Judge Dredd as a gift, not a curse.

We’ve seen many a talented writer be given a shot at Dredd recently, and while writers like Robbie Morrison and Simon Spurrier are incredibly gifted scribes, Dredd just doesn’t seem to be their thing. Al Ewing, on the other hand, seems to have produced a story that could be a deleted scene from the JD Case Files. Hardly pushing out the boat, but Ewing deposits himself as a worthy replacement for Gordon Rennie, and while it’s sad to see Simon Fraser in an issue that also features Dante, his work only adds to the sense of chaos in this strip.  

CL: A pretty solid instalment of Dredd by Al Ewing and Simon Fraser. Mutopia ties in neatly with the ongoing mutants in Mega City 1 saga while remaining a fairly light, accessible tale with neat dialogue. I'd like to see a lot more Dredd scripts by Ewing in the future.

I'm a big fan of Fraser's artwork on Dante, and he delivers the goods here – nobody does action scenes like he does, and the wannabe mutants are truly hideous. Strangely though, the Judge uniforms don't look right to me. In particular the eagles on their right shoulders are wrong, I don't know if this is deliberate or not, but it does prove a little jarring. Or maybe I'm just being too pedantic.

Part 13 Script: Tony Lee Art: Jon Davis-Hunt Letters: Ellie De Ville

Holland strikes a pose...

Synopsis: The broodship attacks the human cruiser in space, while another battle erupts on the ground. The Commandant tells Mother that he's going to destroy the camp and the humans realise the Snakes are going to nuke the planet...

MC: This has been like many long strips for me – I abandoned this a few weeks ago, before rereading it in one sitting to get back on speed.

People seem to be being polite about this now, following "poogate". I’m not one of those people, in that I actually like this. Granted, it’s not going to feature in my ‘top thrills of the year’ list, but it’s been fun start to finish, with enough clichés for me to enjoy it as it comes. This week is the ‘just as our heroes are about to be saved, the lead bad guy announces his ace in the hole’ part of the story, but it’s still got the classic 2000AD feel.

The art, on the other hand, seems to have been done for a 2000AD fanzine in about 25 minutes. The lack of backgrounds is a typical gripe, as are the expressions and the variable anatomy. More fun in this issue is the rising and falling mud on Holland’s shirt, much like a glass in a movie that keeps filling and emptying from shot to shot. Poor.  

CL: And so Stalag 666 marches on to it's thirteenth week, in the face of almost universal hostility, which in part it deserves. Except the poo hate mail though, which obviously is a bit extreme.

The plot doesn't really stand up to any kind of scrutiny – why plant a spy in a POW camp? What was all that Raider stuff about, and why did Chapman go along with it? Then of course there's the plot developments that you can see coming a mile off – Chapman's busy being a coward on the Earth ship, while the Snakes are aiming a super weapon at the camp. It doesn't take a genius to see that there's a last minute redemption looming for the self serving pilot. The art too is pretty rough round the edges, mostly fine but there's the occasional frame where the characters look deformed.

Strangely though, I've developed a grudging admiration for this series, and lately, I've actually started to enjoy it. I want to see the prisoners escape and the bad guys get killed. It it's own, slightly rubbish way, Stalag 666 is quite uplifting, and maybe 2000AD needs old fashioned thrills like this, where the good guys are heroes and the bad guys are villains, to balance out the regular stream of smartarse anti-heroes like Lobster Random and Sinister Dexter. I can also say I've read every episode of this so far, when I gave up on Lobster Random weeks ago.

Stalag 666 then – it's not that bad.

The Volgan War - Vol 3 Part 8 Script: Pat Mills Art: Clint Langley Letters: Simon Bowland

Hmm - could Mills be referring to a real city..?

Synopsis: Kroll and Zippo come under attack, and the G-Men track them down. Kroll reveals that he originally built Mekana and the Mars is making him deface it as penance. The G-Men tell him "It's our city now..."

MC: ABC Warriors appears to have jumped the shark. We all know some of the finest Dredd stories hardly feature the big man himself, but to marginalise the central characters in this strip only highlights how cardboard/ homogenous the supporting cast are. Little more than ciphers for dialogue that Mills thinks is good. Sometimes he’s right, and sometimes the dialogue is off by a million miles (We’ll take them by surprise. Put it in parking orbit and let’s… Download).

Langley’s art is good, but for so long now he’s been hampered by sub-par scripts that I struggle to get excited by his work anymore. And yet still this trundles on. Sigh.  

CL: Shouldn't the ABC Warriors actually be in this series at some point? It is kind of named after them, after all.

That minor niggle aside, I'm quite enjoying this series now that it's not bogged down in flashbacks to the Volgan War. The revelation that Kroll was the architect who built Mekana, and his subsequent punishment by Medusa, were great ideas. The G Men also look pretty cool. I just hope it doesn't get degenerate into typical Pat Mills madness in the next few weeks.

Clint Langley looks like he's addressed the one big flaw in his artwork – the jarring use of photos for human characters. His artwork is still a bit dark and murky, but that's to be expected given the setting, and the city of Mekana looks stunning.

Vile Bodies - Part 2 Script: Ian Edginton Art: Simon Davis Letters: Ellie De Ville

Ampney pays a visit...

Synopsis: Ampney arrives at the police station where he runs into an old school acquaintance, Ambrose Chutney, who was paying a fine for the previous night's stag do. Ampney then visits Lady Wykes, his ex Fiancee. She tells him that Lord Wykes got caught up with explorer Sir Devon Redfers who gave him an aphrodisiac - which turned him into an actual monster.

Later, Cromwell and Ampney enter the Wykes mansion looking for clues, and come across a giant insect...

MC: More so than any other writer, Ian Edginton is the hit or miss man, for me. I’m yet to fully decide here, but the signs are good. The mysterious Lorelli, the hints at an interesting back story, the trademark reference to Leviathan, and a large amount of time given to the Ambrose Chutney character, who I find it hard to believe doesn’t have a greater significance.

The bulk of this episode is little more than five pages of expositional talking heads, but is rendered in such beauty by Simon Davis that it’s hard not to be swept along in the tale. Take the bottom of the second page, as Lady Wilkes folds completely into a larger Ampney from the preceding panel, displaying the dynamic between those characters that even if we don’t explicitly acknowledge it, in some way we feel it. Pure class.  

CL: I wasn't a big fan of Stone Island, but the same creative team seemed to have turned out a much better tale here. It's early days on this strip, but it's looking good so far, the unusual setting and plot has plenty of potential to exploit and Ampney's a promising lead character. Just why did his sanity go south?

 The story suits Simon Davis's art far better than Stone Island ever did, and the lush English countryside and period details are far easier on the eye than desolate alien landscapes and miserable prisons. Plus he still gets to draw horrible monstrosities as well.

Prisoner of the Tsar - Part 1 Script: Robbie Morrison Art: John Burns Letters: Annie Parkhouse

Jena still couldn't pick a side...

Synopsis: Sergeant Kurakin just manages to escape from the Tsar's men after a warning from Papa Yeltsin. Meanwhile, news is spreading that Dante has been arrested for an attempt on the life of the Tsar. Jena tries to visit Dante, and is only let through after Arkady's help. She sees Dante chained up, naked, bruised and bloody from the torture...

MC: And so, the master returns.

I’m not sure if I’m talking about Dante himself, or writer Robbie Morrison, but there’s something masterful about this script. Every weak element of the other strips in the prog can be solved by looking long and hard at Dante. The wide-ranging cast of characters are introduced without us thinking ‘who is that guy again?’, and the build up to seeing the main character is such that we are almost sweating with anticipation.

Good Dante, when it appears, is truly without equal, standing head and shoulders above anything other than perhaps an excellent Wagner Dredd. More than anything else, it’s hard to describe how important Dante is to 2000AD, which beyond Dredd can vary wildly.

Save the best till last indeed.  

CL: A promising start for Prisoner of the Tsar, but can it live up to Amerika? It's too early to tell at the minute, and Dante himself only shows up in the last panel. He's looking in remarkably good shape considering last time we saw him he was burnt to a crisp and has spent the intervening time being repeatedly tortured. His beard has even grown back!

John Burns has turned out some of his top class artwork he reserves for the serious storylines, rather than the rather rushed work he uses on the light hearted Dante strips. It looks great, but I'd still rather have Simon Fraser providing the art. I guess that's down to personal taste though.

MC: The new set of stories instantly rises above the previous run (not that that’s saying much), and the return of Dante makes 2000AD the high point of my week again, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.  

Best Story: Nikolai Dante

CL: A pretty high quality prog this week, all of the strips are at least entertaining, including Stalag 666. Looking at the line up, I'm surprised that Nikolai Dante, Ampney Crucis Investigates and ABC Warriors weren't held back for Prog 2009, I thought this was supposed to be a filler period? It makes you wonder what Tharg's got lined up for the imminent future…

Best Story: Ampney Crucis Investigates