2000AD Prog 1426 - 16 February 2005
	Judge Dredd (Wagner / D'israeli) Second City Blues (Kek W/ Pleece) Tiger Sun Dragon Moon (Parkhouse) Low Life (Williams / Coleby) Nikolai Dante ( Morrison / Burns) Synopsis by David Knight 1st Review by Iain Nixon 2nd Opinion by Leigh Shepherd Summaries and reviews contain spoilers for this issue.

IN: It does look very nice. The image itself looks cool, though it seems to show one (maybe two) characters that haven’t been featured yet (the samurai with the gun could just be a standard warrior). I like the colouring, so it’s no surprise that the colouring’s the work of Chris Blythe.

LS: It's very...red. It perfectly illustrates the story inside, I suppose, though most prominence is given to a rather boring looking samurai chap, rather than the giant robots and skull faced assassins.

Horror in Emergency Camp 4 - Part 2

Nosferatu on the prowl...

Synopsis: In a camp for citizens displaced by the Total War bombing campaign, the judges arrest the perps guilty of selling cannibal meat contaminated with alien toxins. Judges find the remains of the corpse butchered by the meat sellers, partially dissolved by alien digestive enzymes. A Nosferatu, nearly extinct on its homeworld of Garlokk, is believed to be stalking the camp.

The judges find the bodies of a murdered couple not killed by the alien. A judge examines the bodies and declares the killing not to be the work of the vampire they’re searching for. Word spreads through the camp, and soon the citizens are gripped by a vampire panic, and a perp is staked to death as a vampire after stabbing a fellow refugee.

The judges use a sniffer drone to follow the alien’s trail, but reach a dead end. Meanwhile, having disguised itself using its shape-changing ability, the Nosferatu lures a bare-knuckle fighter and would-be mugger to a dark alley and drains his life force.

IN: Well, compared to the other story featuring a shape shifting alien (Nikolai Dante) this one wins hands down. I guess this is because in Dredd there are the side effects of the rumours of the Nosferatu in the shanty town/camp as well as the job of hunting down the shape changing beast.

A quibble though, I thought the nosferatu looked a bit too comical with the hat on, and I didn’t really like the panel with it changing shape, given the size of the panel, the shape changing could have been straddled over two panels (each one showing the nosferatu in one form- mid transformation, then real nosferatu) It’s only a small quibble though, it’s still a good story with great art in all other respects.

LS: Let's talk about Disraeli's art because, although the story is interesting enough, the art is the real draw here. Some people on the official site have complained about Dredd being too skinny. This is madness of the highest order, as skinny Dredd is the only Dredd I recognise! They've also muttered about the Nosferatu looking a bit rubbish. Now this one I can see to a degree, but for my £1.60, the carnival mask version we have here is as sinister as we've seen the Nosferatu (most especially in the transformation sequence).

But the thing that pretty much everyone agrees on is that Disraeli's art is top notch. The level of detail we see here puts just about every other artist on Dredd of recent times to shame, and very few have come close to just how "right" Disraeli's Mega City looks. From citizens to vehicles and buildings, everything convinces as part of the same world that was depicted by the likes of McMahon, McCarthy and Gibson.

The storyline itself may not be the most original, but it more than makes up for that in terms of atmosphere, with a great storytelling device in the last two pages when the action alternates between the false vampire and the real victim.

Part 5

The ball starts tripping

Synopsis: The Blues play a league match vs the Roundheads, a team dressed as Cromwellian soldiers in body armour. Blues player Shakespeare using the Roundheads’ Ironsides armour against them by grabbing hold of the Roundhead with the ball and crossing anti-grav boards with him. The inertia-less drives cancel each other out and the heavier Roundhead player falls to the ground, leaving Shakes in possession of the ball. After a momentary hesitation, Shakespeare overcomes the effects of a hallucinogen released by the ball and scores a goal. The game is drawn 1-1.

Minger leers at Shaila and Donna, having seen a holo-porn projection of Shaila. Danny takes Shaila aside and tells her they’ve seen her in ‘The Karma Sutra Girls’. Shaila explains to Danny that in desperation she allowed a pornographer to make a bitmap of her for holo-porn, and that the images Minger downloaded weren’t real. Danny tells Shaila he knew it wasn’t her because he knows her mannerisms too well, and says it wouldn’t have mattered to him if it really had been her in the holo-projection. Shaila kisses Danny out the nose and embraces him for being such a good friend.

Elsewhere, things are not as they seem. The image of Shaila embracing Danny appears in an imaging apparatus connected to a series of headless bodies lying in a laboratory or chamber.

IN: This is not as bad, now I’m used to it. Maybe it’s a grower, maybe my defences have worn down, I can’t put my finger on it. The match sequence was more entertaining, and at last there seems to be a bit of character development Danny the horse face and Shaila, even it does turn out that she’s from a stereotypical Asian family.

The best part of the story, is the last panel. It raises a good amount of speculation. Are Danny et all just part of a virtual reality game ? Are their abilities being downloaded to create another team ? Or something else ?

LS: There's always a problem with sports strips - how do you actually depict the action in a way that is exciting, without tons of exposition explaining every rule point? It's exceedingly difficult, and you get the sense that Kek-W, knowing this, is sensibly trying to move the focus onto the characters instead. However, the danger with this is twofold.

Firstly, it makes the sports action rather anti-climactic, with yet another match called off, and the dull result of a draw for the team. Secondly the characters have to be strong enough to engage your sympathies, and they've failed to do that (with Minger being the only character I could actually name without referring to the strip).

The art is probably hampered by the computer colouring, which looks like it's been transported through time from about 10 years ago. I've no problem with artists experimenting with computer colours, but (as with John Ridgeway's stuff over in the Meg) it's probably best if you experiment on your hard drive first, rather than the pages of the Galaxy's Greatest.

The only thing of real interest is the unusual cliffhanger, which at least has me wondering where the story is going - hopefully in a direction that makes it all a bit more exciting.

Part 1

Heads roll

Synopsis: A mutant army supported by giant battle robots and fighter aircraft attacks the Great Wall of China. The wall is protected by poorly armed garrisons; and a demonic fighter who moves seemingly like a ghost fights on the side of the mutants. In its wake the mutant army leaves no bodies. The mutant warlord Chang and his demonic champion Kabal discuss their progress and their search for a sword known as the Dragon.

Four days later, two of Chang’s scouts find the sword. Kabal appears out of nowhere and they hand it to him, only for him to kill them with it. Kabal pronounces that ‘Dragon Moon has returned’.

IN: As a first episode it’s a bit hard to judge it just yet. There seems to be an odd juxtaposition of futuristic, historic (ancient and 1950’s), and magical elements in this story. I do like the art for the most part, but I don’t feel the same about the colouring, it seems a bit flat in places, and odd colours seem to be chosen in places. It might just be me, but I think this would look better in black and white.

PW: It's always difficult to say much after just one episode, but there are already signs that this isn't really going to be my cup of tea. Firstly, the strip makes a lot more sense if you read the summary box in Tharg's Nerve Centre (It tells you who Chang is for starters), but read on it's own, it can be a little hard to follow who is on who's side - the mutants don't look very mutated, for example. Secondly, it's all very mystical, with ghostly beings popping up at the appropriate time to discover magical weapons, and kill people for daring to talk like Gollum.

I'm not a great fan of Parkhouse's art, so there's not much in this for me as yet, but there's time yet for it to develop.

Rock and a hard place - part 2

Dirty Frank rocks...

Synopsis: Dirty Frank is undercover as rock svengali Nick Rasputin, investigating a bombing campaign targeted at rock bands. Frank is asked to plat a tune to prove to the band Kill Kill Kill Kill that he really is Nick Rasputin before they will let him come on board as their new manager. He impresses them with his rendition of Klegg Meat Harvest, having downloaded Rasputin’s mannerisms earlier in preparation, and using a voice chip to sound like him. Frank reports to Thora, a fellow undercover judge, before going to stake out a performance by The Cursed Turf, his band’s only remaining rivals.

At the gig, Dirty Frank sees Kill Kill Kill Kill’s lead singer, Aarghhh, sneaking backstage. He is challenged by a security droid and immobilised by the neck. Dirty Frank comes to Aarghhh’s rescue, threatening the robot with unarmed combat.

IN: I'm really liking this strip, filled with lots of funny lines - for example: “Guitarist is called Bloodaxe. Seems to loathe Arrgh. Creative differences, largely related to cheese disagreements…”

I’m a fan of Simon Coleby’s art. It’s distinctive, but doesn’t jar with Henry Flint’s style either.

LS: Another out and out comedy story for Low Life. Given that Rob Williams has done some of my least favourite stories in the past few years (Asylum and Family), and Simon Coleby was once one of the artists that I really didnt look forward to seeing in my prog, this fills the issue remarkably well. It's all very silly, and the jokes are sometimes a bit too knowing (Wally squad Judges must be chosen from the ranks for their comic timing and quipping skills) but it's all good fun for the five pages it's there for.

Colebys art is miles away from his earlier stuff in terms of quality, and while it's still not my favourite art, and can still be a bit tricky to follow at times, it suits the strip very well.

Agent of Destruction - Part 5

Kraken had watched too many old Dracula movies...

Synopsis: Nikolai, Lauren and Marguerite are still on board the military research platform evading Kraken, who is possessed by the bio-weapon. Dante’s mother tells them she is going to board the platform but they tell her to stay away and keep Kraken isolated on the base. Dante instructs Lauren and Marguerite to sabotage all the base’s aircraft but one, which they are to use to escape. Marguerite sends Lauren to do the task alone, choosing to go with Dante instead, and confides in him that she is in love with his mother.

Kraken attacks Dante and Marguerite, and demands to know where Dante has hidden his children. Dante tells him he’ll never find them, and fires his Huntsman rifle at the oil platform’s apex, triggering an explosion.

IN: Marguerite says she has a thing for Dante’s mother and Dante is upset/sorry and it isn’t very clear. When he does say sorry, he looks very ill/quite a bit older all of a sudden, the Kraken attacks, and Dante shoots at the rig making it explode. There was a brief mention of Kraken telling us what he wanted to do (get the children, from the first episode.) All a bit boring and a bit annoying really.

LS: If I had enough time before reviewing this, I'd like to go back and read all the post Tsar wars stories. I'm aware of whats going on, with the various doublecrosses and such that have been set up, but I'm sure a refresher of exactly what the stakes are for Dante would help put this into perspective. As it is, this episode is just a bit of a runaround, with Batsputin another in a long line of quasi-magical plot points (like Dante's "magic" swords and gun-that-can-kill-anything-ever) that can threaten to undermine the more emotional and realistic elements of the story.

John Burns art does the job of pushing the story as it is along, but you sense that even he may be getting bored with the same old things to draw.