Prog 1365 - 5 November 2003
Cover by Boo Cook

Synopsis and review by Gavin Hanly
2nd Opinion by WR Logan

Summaries and reviews contain spoilers for this issue.

GH: Boo Cook is certainly one of the up and coming artists of 2000AD, and has already managed to grab a couple of 2000AD covers (even for Lobster Random - something which the series artist Carl Critchlow didn't get to do). This is an OK cover and although dynamically laid out suffers from fairly dull characters (a spin-off from the series inside). Nice job on the braying mob, though, and top marks for the puntastic headline.

WRL: This week's prog sees only the 2nd cover from Boo Cook. Is it going to appear on the 2000AD web sites list of top 20 covers? No, but then again it's also not going to ever appear in the list of 20 thrill sucker covers either. I have an idea of how covers should look, they should contain an image of a character that appears in that weeks prog, they should depict a scene from the story and they should make you want to pick it up and turn straight to it. Boo's cover does that. It features Jude & Holden fighting, and that’s exactly what you see when you turn to the story, so for me it does what a cover should do and that’s a rare thing these days.

How many covers truly set the Thrill circuits buzzing, how many are just bad or generic? A great 2000AD cover is a rarity these days. Good ones you see more regularly, but you see an equal number of bad ones. It seems as if Boo Cook attempts to follow the simple rules for prog covers (his other one was for Prog 1342) and I hope he gets more to do, as he seems to be an artist who puts real effort into them.

The Nerve Centre

WRL: The Nerve Centre doesn't usually appear in peoples reviews, but it should from time to time, just to remind people that it still exists and isn’t just something to skip over.

I love the Nerve Centre and along with the Input page is a part of 2000 that can be done so well, but for along time just seems to be an over designed after thought. A few lines from Tharg, recap boxes for the current crop of thrills and a thrills of the future image or a competition, that’s the Nerve Centre and it's so in need of an overhaul. There's so much space that isn't utilised. (The design Droids get a mention. I wish I could get paid and a credit for a few squiggles at the top of the page, some lines down the right of the page and deciding where to put the cover image credit info)

Tharg's missive should be part of the Prog, something that you get as much fun from reading as anything else. What about a plug for the Megazine, what Graphic Novels are coming out, Comic Conventions where Droids will be appearing, or magazines that interviews or features will feature in. How many 2000AD readers know that Sinister Dexter strips have appeared a few times in "Metal Hammer" Magazine, that the "Game" web site was doing a 6 page original Dredd story to tie in with the release of the game and the numerous articles and interviews that the droids have done prior to the release of the game?

There are readers who would like to know what else is out there, others would track them down, Tharg’s Nerve Centre should be just that, The Nerve Centre of 2000AD fanship, instead of the wasted space that it is.

GH: Following on from Logan's comments, I have to say I agree with all of them. The Nerve Centre is wasted space these days. The opening editor's letter in the Megazine is far more entertaining, and actually manages to give some interesting information to the reader as well as, gasp, even an opinion! The short synopses are wasted space, and would be far better utilised as top banners for each story, something which would allow the Nerve Centre to get on with building the fan base of the comic. OK, "Thrills of the Future" is always welcome, but so much more could be done with this space.

And Logan makes some valid comments about stuff that's missed here. The Megazine did a nice piece on fan sites (hell, this site got a mention, so I'm biased), but the news pieces and more are sorely missing from the main comic. Editorially, 2000AD could learn a lot from the Megazine in its current incarnation.

Meatmonger - Part 1

Dredd hits the streets

Synopsis: A series of unnatural disappearances are happening the world over. The judges are trying to gag the press, but riots are starting in hot spots around the world. Tek Division is looking into it but has no leads - Dredd suggests they only call him when they do. Back on the streets, Dredd arrests a Church of Grud fanatic, as the crazies start to come out of the woodwork. On day 9 of the phenomenon Dredd visits Felix the Filth, a prize bitefighter for more information on the bitefight ring he ran. But in the middle of the interrogation, the lights dim and havoc plays with the electrics. A bright light flashes and Dredd and Felix disappear.

GH: Smith seems to be using some of the fast plotting he learned in his recent Waugh epic in the Meg recently to very good effect here. In a weekly dose, I'm sure this will go down much better that Waugh has, given the poor placement of a fast moving story in a monthly magazine. Already I'm more intrigued by this than I have been in a Dredd story in a while, and this certainly makes me want to pick up next week's prog fast (which given the lateness of this one shouldn't be long...). So, as ever with a new story it's early, but promising days. Only complaint was one of page 2 & 3. As the strip suddenly moved over to a horizontal read taking in two pages, I was completely lost at first. Some of this confusion may be down to the artwork, though.

And so onto the artwork. I'm often quite astonished by the depth of feeling against Siku in some of the 2000AD forums. There is a deep dislike of his style which I don't understand. Part of this seems aimed at his artistic impression of Dredd - but hey, I quite like it. I see the an artist's interpretation of Dredd the same way as artists approach Batman - i.e. they all leave a stamp of originality on the character that makes some of the more quirky styles highly enjoyable. And that's how I see Siku's artwork here. His Dredd looks vastly different from many other attempts and it's miles better that the last time he took on the lawman. Like most former painters, Siku's art has grown from an going back to a combination of ink and painted/computer colours. Whereas some of his previous painted stuff could look quite confused, partly due to the printing (Fetish is a good example here) the inking style here mixed with some great computer effects brings a fresh look to Dredd's world. And it's this sort of approach to Dredd that should be encouraged. After all, people commend McMahon, and his style isn't what I'd call down-to-earth.

WRL: Part one of a story by John Smith & Siku. Well, if any of you have read any of my old reviews or see me online will have seen my thoughts on Siku's artwork many times, and all I can say is that this is the best art that Siku has ever produced for a Dredd strip. I know people will be shocked, but the trouble is that his best still isn’t good enough. Where to begin? Dredd’s chin: has he been to a face change clinic and asked for something he can spike perps with? His head in comparison with the rest of his body is just tiny and in places the art looks unclear and unfinished. What happened to the days when the best of the best did Dredd and not whoever is free. John Smith gets our attention with this opening episode and lets see where the fantastical mind of Mr Smith takes us.

Part 3

Jude makes an impression..

Synopsis: Dreadnought informs the governor that Jude is fighting again. She's taking on Holden in the exercise yard, reminding him that she's "top bitch". After a bitter fight, Jude is close to killing Holden when she's stopped by Dreadnought. He makes Morgan take her back to work herding Zombies, while offering Holden an explosive, and the chance for payback. As she and Morgan enter the zombie enclosure, an explosion rips through the tunnels, and they're trapped - along with all the zombies...

GH: The completely unsympathetic character of Jude is starting to become a serious problem for the series. How are we supposed to be rooting for her escape when it's becoming more and more clear that she probably belongs behind bars, given her sudden bloodthirstiness? How are you supposed to warm to a series when it has no moral center? Are we supposed to be siding with Morgan, who seems more and more set for a highly unfortunate end? God know's he's the only slightly-less-than-psychotic character here. This all seems a shame because plotwise, this has a lot going for it. There are enough ideas to shape into an interesting series here. It's seems that this isn't that series.

As ever, Boo Cook continues to be "one to watch" as well a being "one who badly needs a killer story to work with".

WRL: If Gavin had asked me to write a review four weeks ago my take on Dead Men Walking may have been quite negative and along the lines of Harriet Twenty On The Low Rock. However, I find that as the weeks go on I’m getting more into this story. It's never going to appear on my list of top thrills but the jury’s still out and this may be one of those stories that I enjoy more once its finished and I can read it in one sitting. The plus side for the story is that I really like Boo Cook's artwork: it's different, cartoony and Boo seems to put a lot into his work. I’d like to see Boo do a Dredd tale, as his style would suit a story with fatties, uglies or some new Mega City craze.

The most disturbing part of this week’s tale was definitely seeing the fat governor discovering she’d drowned her intimate cleaning slave.

Downtime 3 - Ness

A new member of Caballistics Inc.

Synopsis: In the Iraqi desert in 1991 a group of commandos reach a nest of bunkers. There they find Ness - machete in hand surrounded by dead monsters. Back in Bedfordshire in 2003, Ness has escaped from a mental asylum and is visiting the politician that was responsible for sending him to the bunker, telling him and his crew that Scud command was there. But it was a temple steeped in monsters who killed his crew, and Ness barely got out alive. Rather than receiving a commendation, he was locked up in a home. He takes his revenge on the politician, beating him to death with his gun. After he completes the job, the phone rings. It goes onto the answering machine and a voice speaks: "Mr Michael Ness? Please pick up the phone." It's Ethan Kostabi with a job offer.

GH: Part of the beauty of Caballistics inc. has been the way that Rennie has been left alone to take his time with building up the supporting characters while just edging the main story along. What originally looked like being a basic "spooks" style team vs the undead has evolved into much more than I had originally expected form the series. It's developed into one of the best things in 2000AD in the past few years because of this unlikely path that it is taking. With luck, this will be a very long running story in 2000AD, and god help the editors if they let Rennie get snapped up on a DC exclusivity contract before he's able to finish this off. As I've said before, Dom Reardon has grown into this series. His initial artwork seemed quite inconsistent in the early episodes, but he's been developing his strengths, namely his characters, and also shows much improvement in panel layout too. One of the most visibly improving artist in 2000AD this year.

WRL: For me this has to be the best new Thrill that Tharg has given us for ages: the teaming of Rennie & Reardon seems to be perfect. While Dom's artwork is not my usual cup of tea there’s something about it that suits Caballistics to a tee and now I cant imagine anyone else doing the artwork. If Caballistics is ever collected it’ll definitely be on my shopping list.

After having a pop at the design droids earlier, thought I’d just add that I don’t like the new credit boxes and they really don’t work on panels that are predominately white as with this weeks credit boxes on Caballistics and Dredd.

Facing Mecha - Part 3

Macauley suspects...

Synopsis: 7 weeks ago, McCaulay and Kassad met on the 3rd moon of Mecha to discuss an experiment to incorporate human DNA into the Mecha matrix. McCaulay isn't interested. They managed to populate a planet with their minds, but McCaulay still thinks that the step Kassad is suggesting is one too far. Back on Earth, however, Macaulay realises he was infected with the mecha virus by Kassad. Snapped back to the present he tells Synnamon that he has synthesised an inhibitor (the monstrous tumour that's attacking them) from cancer cells. she has an idea and shoves McCaulay into an observation chamber. Once in she disengages Ascheta's core shielding. It's power supply is based on fusion which destroys the tumour - but will mean that it will take 10 minutes to recharge. McCaulay suddenly injects her with something. She grabs him asking if it was inhibitor or virus. But McCaulay appears to have turned and replies "Guess."

GH: This is a much improved episode, providing some interesting backstory that doesn't look like obvious exposition - well, not too much anyway. Finally the plot is beginning to make a little sense, and we're being told a little more about the characters themselves. Much of this should have happened already, and I'm still a little irritated by the confusion that appears to reign with the character of Synnamon herself - but this is a step in the right direction. The art also shows improvement, especially with the slowed down beginning, and I'd like to see more of this slower approach to future episodes. As said before, Synnamon has potential, but needs to stretch a little more to achieve it.

WRL: Week four and I'm still not into this and can't put my finger on why. Is it the number of names in the credit box, the story, the art or just a combination of everything? For me, this is the weak link in the prog and that's saying something considering I thought that this latest "offensive" has been the worst since the powers that be decided on shorter stories and regular re-launch issues.

I'd much rather see a prog that has some stories starting, others near the end and others halfway through. The re-launch issues may be good jumping on points but equally when all stories end, it's just as easy for readers to not pick up the next weeks prog.

The Empty Suns - Book 1 - Part 4

A touching father/son moment.

Synopsis: We learn the tale of Mantell, a human world, one of the few left, that is trying to fend off extinction. Unable to breed, most of the planet is in its seventies, their lives extended by drugs and cybernetic implants. The Offspring comes to the planet. It was one of the most powerful mutants in history, and it was locked up by humans who feared it. Released by Durham Red, it was understandably a little pissed off at humanity and began wiping them out. Mantell was its latest conquest.

Back on the cruiser Zora, there has been no luck in rescuing Red from her feral delirium. But Haema has discovered that her son was fathered by Godolkin. He goes to visit the boy who tries to attack him, but he finds her Strontium Dog choker around the boy's neck - "the power to save her..."

GH: Yep - I'm still enjoying this one much more than I expected to. The background on the offspring was very welcome this issue because for the life of me I can't remember what happened in the last series. It's all just becoming a little more intersting, with more entertaining supporting characters than the last series (which too much concerned with constant dull infighting, if I recall). Still, I find the best thing about this series to be Mark Harrison's art, which I'm still finding wonderful.

WRL: I must admit to being a fan of Mark Harrison's paint & pixels style. For me, his work on Dredd: Conspiracy Of Silence (Prog 891 – 894) and Glimmer Rats (Prog 1174 – 1182) are on my best art list. I just wish I could appreciate it on Durham Red. Once more we have a multi-book story like the recent Sláine series. Like Sláine, these short tales followed by big gaps before we see the continuation of the story don't appeal to me. Durham Red will more than likely pile up by the side of the bed waiting for it to be finished and that may mean waiting for the whole saga to conclude before I can read it. If I write more reviews I may have to dig out the previous three weeks stories so that any review may have a big blank space but otherwise I wait for the wife to moan about the pile of Progs that will start taking over my bedside table.