2000AD Prog 1428 - 2 March 2005
	Judge Dredd (Wagner / D'israeli) Second City Blues (Kek W/ Pleece) Tiger Sun Dragon Moon (Parkhouse) Nikolai Dante ( Morrison / Burns) Low Life (Williams / Coleby) Synopsis by David Knight Review by Gavin Hanly 2nd Opinion by WR Logan Summaries and reviews contain spoilers for this issue.

GH: An early contender for cover of the year from Henry Flint adorns this week's issue. Everything from the vibrant colours to the fuel-powered guitar makes this one of the best he's done. And when topped off with a highly inventive version of the cover logo, this makes for a near perfect cover. Far more of this inventiveness in design would be welcome.

WRL: Just to know that artwork by Henry Flint is going to appear as any part of my weekly dose of Thrill Power is enough to get my Thrill Receptors buzzing and when the art appears on the cover even more so.

Then why does the cover to Prog 1428 fail to register more than a slight tingling? I haven't been enjoying the latest Low Life story and Dirty Frank is a character I'm not that interested in seeing more of but not liking the cover cant be down to those factors, surely? The garish colours didn't appeal; I found the font hard to read on my initial scan of the cover but again, is that enough to put me off a Henry Flint cover?

After spending quite a bit of time trying to come up with a reason for not liking the cover I have to admit that there's one simple reason and no matter how long I look at it trying to find other grounds to write here I have to admit defeat and say that's its simply not inspiring.

Horror in Emergency Camp 4 - Part 4

Nosferatu revealed ...

Synopsis: The judges discover that the Nosferatu alien has returned to the emergency camps in a vehicle belonging to one of its victims. A sniffer drone picks up its trail, and the judges are quickly in pursuit of the creature wounding it with gunfire. The creature kills a woman and child, and changes shape to disguise itself as the mother. Judge Dredd recognizes the woman’s shoulder injury as a bullet wound, and sees through the monster’s disguise.

The alien tries to flee, but its clothes are trapped under the tyre of Dredd’s bike. Revealed in its true form, the alien lunges at Dredd, who loses his gun. An angry mob surrounds the creature, but untrained citizens are no match for it. Judge Dredd picks up a spike off the ground and fights the creature with it, forcing back onto a campfire and finally staking it through the heart. The mob hold the burning monster aloft on skewers, and Dredd declares the case closed.

GH: At heart, this is pretty much a "wrapping everything up" part of the story. There are however, a couple of moments to point out such as the gruesome killing of the mother and child. While that was "off camera", the Nosferatu's casual discarding of the dead child was a nasty scene indeed. Maybe, as I'm getting older, I find these scenes a little more distasteful - but then it helps to keel the morality on a level playing field. The Nosferatu only want to get home, but on its way it leaves a trail of wanton violence. At the end, it's difficult to work out whether we should feel sympathy for it or not - something which seems to be Wagner's aim.

Wagner does, however, get a little heavy-handed towards the end with Hurst's speech about the Nosferatu's intentions feeling a little too contrived. We'd already learned it was trying to get home last week - did we have to get it rammed home again here? That whole panel came across a little weak, and a little cutting down could have made the ending much stronger. That said, this has been a fun ride, and it's always fun to see small elements of Dredd continuity revived without the reader needing an encyclopedic knowledge of Dredd's world.

D'israeli's contribution to this story cannot be underestimated either: both he and O'Grady deserve another run on Dredd as soon as they can. D'israeli seems to have an innate understanding of the importance of the design of the city and the citizens in presenting Mega City One as a much more cohesive entity. The series is also much more of a success due to his design of the Nosferatu, which brings out the "cornered animal" nature of the beast. His Dredd is improving too, replacing the stick-thin figure of his early work with a much more natural Dredd.

WRL: The last part of the continuing fall out (excuse the pun) from the recent Total War story sees D'Israeli turning in another 6 pages of top notch artwork. D'Israeli certainly does a good Mega-City and it's great to see the weirdness of the city included in the artwork which adds another dimension to the story as your eyes wander over each panel to ensure that you catch everything. I know artists like to add their own spin to things but I would like the Nosferatu to have looked more horrifying as it has done in other stories it appeared in, but that's a small quibble in the scheme of things.

The only thing that I didn't enjoy about D'Israeli's artwork was his depiction of Dredd and the Lawmaster which at times didn't look right. The Lawmaster's just weren't imposing enough and Dredd seemed far too small.

Part 10

Minger takes action...

Synopsis: On team manager Salter’s orders, Minger MacReady’s drugs are stolen from his locker, and without them he is frantic. In another effort to sabotage the team, Slater has also injected the alien ball with stimulants. Salter’s alien customers want his players to injure themselves to provide them with vicarious sensory experiences.

The Blues’ last match of the season is played against the Buccaneers. The Blues must win to have any chance at playing in the 10-system championship. Without his drugs, Minger is unable to stop the Buccaneers scoring an easy goal. Minger falls to a tackle by the Goreman Naust, and in desperation punches the drive unit on the Buccaneers player’s slamboard. Minger suffers a seizure and is taken off by medics.

While Salter is electronically transferring money from his alien clients, Minger’s gangster dad arrives outside the stadium with an armed gang, and they’ve come looking for Salter.

GH: After my assertion last week that there should be more sub-plots and less action, I'm beginning to see the other site of the coin. Of course, this is the first episode of Second City Blues where something genuinely interesting started happening in the game and it all starts to feel a little more dangerous. Perhaps this has been the problem with some of the earlier games? All these future sport stories tend to hinge on the fact that playing the game can be very dangerous indeed. SCB seems to be hinting that too but we've seen very little to indicate that things can get really nasty. This episode moves slowly in the right direction and there are a couple more to go - so perhaps things will end up in an almighty ruckus, especially if the ball gets crazy enough.

Apart from that, the strip ambles along being a fairly entertaining diversion but little more. Perhaps there was an opportunity to make this whole strip in to more than the sum of its parts, but as of yet there's little to indicate that this deserves a second run.

WRL: On the surface this doesn't look like a Thrill that would appeal to me - sports stories have never been a fave of mine as they generally follow some very formulaic plots and never keep the readers attention for long. But there's something about SCB's that I'm enjoying but I just can't put my finger on why. The art's ok, the story ok so far but together they get my Thrill Circuits going so who am I to argue with that.

How could you believe me when I said I love you when you know I've been a liar all my life... - Part 1

Dante gets propositioned again...

Synopsis: Jena Makarov is on a state visit to Britannia as the guest of King Henry Windsor McKray. Despite the King giving his support to the Romanovs during the revolution, the Tsar has allowed him to continue ruling, accepting his plea of insanity.

During a royal procession, Dante swings from flying taxi and lands in the carriage occupied by Jena and the King. Dante’s former lover Jena holds him at gunpoint, until his half-sister Lulu attacks, unleashing a swarm of tiny gargoyles from her body, courtesy of her own Romonav weapons crest.

GH: After the last underwhelming Dante story, I was faced with a growing concern that the character may be in need of retiring. But after only one episode of the new tale, all such thoughts are pushed aside with Dante clearly back on form. Starting with the artwork, there's a marked improvement in John Burn's art from last week's tale. From the double-page spread depicting the ridiculously long title (which also shows a montage hinting at a larger role for Lauren), to the overall depiction of Britannia and its ruler, Burns looks like he's having fun with Dante and his lively art helps to draw the reader into the tale in a way that never really happened in the last series. Plus, Burns must be happy to get away from painting the sea for a while. On this showing, my belief in last week's review that he should be given a break is completely retracted.

With the script, there's more evidence of lively banter between Jena and Dante (the best Dante stories have kept these two characters to the fore) and the whole thing seems to have much more dialogue and plot than "Agent of Destruction" - once again bringing in the storytelling technique of "historical" excerpts to set the scene. This initial page of setting up the story is something that Morrison does incredibly well, and helps to make this series more of a jumping on point for new readers. Dante is truly back on form.

WRL: A new Dante adventure and does this one win the title for the longest story name in 2000 AD's history?

One episode in and this seems like its going to be a story that plays to John Burns' strengths. I always enjoy his Dante work more when there's a little bit of George & Lynne in the artwork. In recent times John Burns has made Dante his own but I would like to see another artist do the odd story once in a while and would especially like to see Simon Fraser get an arc. When John Burns took over the main duties on Dante I loved his take on the Romanov Rogue but in recent times we've seen that John's style doesn't suit every tale and I'd like to see the odd one by the original artist. The recent release of the DC/Rebellion 'Romanov Dynasty' book reminded me how great those early tales were.

This first episode has already got me looking forward to the following weeks, the return of Jena alone is enough to make me want to read more, but when we also get Lulu Romanov showing up then bring on the next Prog.

Part 3

Tiger sun revealed...

Synopsis: Following the air attack on the flying island of Ukiyo by Chang’s mutant army, the night passes peacefully for the most part, until Sukonami and General Mizo run to the aid of one of the Imperial children, Kiri, who is wakened by the appearance of a man coming in through her wall. Sukonami reassures her it was just a dream, while Mizo makes a security check and summons Judge Kai to meet him in the young Emperor’s room. General Mizo shows Kai and the emperor the sword Tiger Sun, a magical sword entrusted to him by the current Emperor’s father.

Suddenly Sukonami calls for help. The guard outside Kiri’s room has been murdered, and Sukonami and Kiri are surrounded by seven ninjas and their warlord.

GH: As the Dredd-related elements get pushed into the background, it becomes clearer that this would have been so much more initially palatable without the distraction of trying to shoehorn this into continuity. Indeed, some of the science fiction elements of the last couple of episodes looked out of place and this episode which concentrates more on the characters and less on the modern setting is a step in the right direction.

Parkhouse's art seems much more at home in the more sedate scenes on show this week and given that his strength often lies in characterisation, this should not come as a surprise. With a little more time spent on this aspect of the series, the whole thing could show signs of improving considerably.

WRL: When any story has the same Writer, Artist & Letterer it makes me worry that
some part of the story will be lacking, as there's not many people who can do every job equally as well when taking an idea through all stages of its development.

As yet I've not made my mind up about TSDM. The artwork looks good but it's
not been made clear yet how this fits in to Dredd's timeline. To me this looks like a story that needs to be read in one sitting and so the Progs are starting to pile up next to my bed waiting for the last episode so I can read it all in one go.

Rock and a Hard Place - part 4

Dirty Frank shows them how it's done...

Synopsis: Posing as rock svengali Nick Rasputin, undercover judge Dirty Frank is pushed on stage to front the rock band Kill Kill Kill Kill, after their front man has been rendered unable to sing. Initially paralysed with stage fright, Dirty Frank blacks out and begins improvising with such energy and vigour that the audience is immediately caught up in his performance. His performance incorporates urinating non-stop for at least 23 minutes. Bloodaxe, the guitarist tells Frank he’s a much better front man than Aaarghhh ever was. Bloodaxe lets slip that the two robots in the band are illegal military surplus druids reprogrammed for rock music. Frank checks with undercover judge Thora, and learns that the Harris-23 droids are bomb disposal specialists.

Aarghhh, afraid that Dirty Frank is trying to steal his band, wrestles Frank to the floor. Frank fights back and announces that there is a bomb under the stage, and orders the rhythm section robots to deactivate it. He reminds them they are contractually obliged to obey their manager.

The robots had carried out the bombing campaign themselves, as Bloodaxe had reprogrammed them with ruthless ambition alongside a thorough knowledge of rock history. The droids are taken away, and Dirty Frank arrests Bloodaxe and Aarghhh for robot smuggling and assault on a judge.

GH: So Dirty Frank goes out in style with a barnstorming performance at the Battle of the Bands. While perhaps not quite as funny as some of the earlier episodes, as a whole the Dirty Frank arc has shown that Low Life has almost limitless possibilities as Williams is able to concentrate on different character, and not just the main one - Aimee Nixon. I'd love to see a more serious Low Live tale next - but only if we get another Dirty Frank interlude later in the year.

More than anything, though, this has possibly been Williams' best writing to date. It feels like he's been having a great deal of fun with it, and there's an infectious enthusiasm that has been flowing though this tale. He's slowly building up to becoming one of 2000AD's top writers based on his efforts in Low Life - so if he can bring some of this to his other work, he'll be a considerable force to be reckoned with.

WRL: I enjoyed the first Low Life tale and I have enjoyed the artwork of Simon Coleby on recent stories he's worked on, especially his work on Rogue Trooper and Bato Loco but the exploits of Dirty Frank just didn't do it for me. The comedy side of the Low Life isn't what I wanted to read and although this was only four weeks long it felt a lot longer. I'm not bothered if we see more tales with Aimee Nixon but I'd like to see the more seedy side of living on city bottom and a longer run than we've seen so far so that there's room to explore the part of the city we seldom see.