Cover by Arthur Ranson

SW: I’m a great fan of Arthur Ranson but this isn’t one of his best. The Dredd pose is a bit awkward and not dynamic in any way. The darkness and shading are fine but they don’t serve well on a cover, making it look somewhat dull. The news that Arthur is off the art chores on Buttonman 4 was bad news indeed and I just hope this isn’t the last we see of him for some time.

DK: This is my least favourite cover in quite a while. I’m not a great fan of Arthur Ranson’s style, perfect though it may be for Button Man. The city background is amazing in its intricate detail, but goes unnoticed on the newsagent’s stand; while Dredd himself looks strangely proportioned. His right arm looks rather too short, for one thing. 

Judgement - Part 1 Script: Gordon Rennie Art: Ian Gibson Letters: Annie Parkhouse

A new style judge rides into town....

Synopsis: Judge Dredd and SJS Judge Ishmael are called to the scene of a crime. Apparently a citizen and his girlfriend, Bonetta Vale, were attacked by a tap gang - and the citizen was killed. The gang were about to finish off Vale when a ghostly judge figure appeared and killed the tap gang, dispatching the last with a "guiltseeker" round that went through Vale without harming her, but killed the perp who was using her to shield himself. An investigation of the rounds fired seems to indicate they came from an old Lawgiver Mark 1, 40 years out of service, which has left no way to track it back to its owner.

Elsewhere, Judge Anderson wakes from a nightmare of what appears to be a judge on fire and being executed by another judge. She receives a call from Dredd.

Elsewhere again, the Judgement Killer strikes again...

SW: Gordon Rennie was kind enough to reveal on this very site that Origins has been delayed for some time and that this 6 part tale has been brought forward. Although I lament the absence of Origins I’d rather it was late than rushed. The first two filler strips have been of negligible quality albeit with some redeeming art. It’s therefore been a bold move by Tharg to quell any speculation and bring this multi part effort forward.

And I’m glad he did! The story has a strong opening with multiple murders and a good bit of intrigue. Add to the mix the welcome appearance of a decent SJS judge (they can’t all be Gestapo clones!) and Anderson and we have the makings of a pleasurable interlude.

I’ve been wrong before so I won’t speculate but the faceless judge and his ancient ammo offer some interesting possibilities.

Gordon Rennie has long been seen as the Wagner in waiting and this strip only adds to his CV. Of course it’s early days but a promising scenario has been laid out and I’m looking forward to seeing where it takes us.

Ian Gibson’s art, especially the backgrounds, have been a bit sketchy recently but he does deliver the goods here, most noticeably in the first page which has some great figures and colours. The rogue ‘judge’ looks a bit undefined but that’s surely deliberate.

All in all the best Origins interlude to date and that bodes well seeing as there are five parts to go.

DK: How very curious! This off-beat story perfectly captures the flavour of vintage Judge Dredd, evoking the simpler, still-evolving backdrop of Dredd adventures from the first two years of 2000AD, many of which were drawn by Ian Gibson, whose art fits this story like a glove.

It’s not just the artwork and the visual referencing of antique judge uniforms that give this story its retro feel; it’s also the creepy mystery element that recalls Mutie the Pig, Judge Death and The Haunting of Sector House 9. I’m enjoying this, and I’m sure it’ll strike a chord with younger readers who may be turned off by stories that put justice department procedures, interrogations and long-standing continuity centre stage. 

Mother London - Part 7 Script: Ian Edginton Art: D'israeli Letters: Ellie De Ville

Len tells a story...

Synopsis: Bey and Chipps take a breather in a local pub while Chipps fills in the blanks. He says that he doesn't know who set the fire on Bey's house, and tells the story of the City Fathers. He says that they've been in power for centuries behind the scenes - an order that wants balance in the city, whether between law and order, rich and poor etc, all centered around rituals involving the worship of an old oak tree.

Chipps was brought into the order when he stood up to the bribe taking in the police department and was beaten half to death. Lime offered him a way up in the force as they attempted to bring back "old fashioned values". But soon the city fathers realised that the only way to stop crime was to be part of it. However, the rot soon set in and they became worse than the criminals they were trying to bring down - even being responsible for Thynne's death. Chipps says that their only hope is to leave the city while the Midsummer Solstice is on as the City Fathers will be distracted. However, Bey thinks it's the perfect time to investigate. Chipps says that he'll need an oak tree pendant to have any hope of getting close and decides to go with him.

Lurking over in the corner of the pub, Stickleback's men, Peepers and Lug, have been listening in...

SW: I had high hopes for this period drama and Ian Edginton and D’Israeli have delivered in black and white spades. Edginton is for me the future of 2000AD writing and it’s great to see his cast expanding while still staying within his familiar realms. The Edgin-verse has the best stable of character introduced to the Progs in recent memory and it’s great to see them overlap albeit slightly. ‘Guest stars’ can ruin a strip but to see nods to ‘The Red Seas’ and ‘Leviathan’ add to the mystery and sense of bigger things to come.

Stickleback has taken a few weeks to get into gear but it has been well worth it. The sinister London replete with it’s secret societies and conspiracies is marvellous as are the clearly intimidated leads. The master criminal has kept to the shadows and is clearly using his mystique to shape his empire - that’s if he really exists of course!

Tales in this genre always get labelled ‘Sherlock Holmesian’ but I feel enough is done to unsettle the reader and to demonstrate that a simple deduction will make no difference to this baddie.

The script is excellent and crackles along with some excellent dialogue and bizarre situations. The art is quite stylised with certain characters having exaggerated grotesque features that add to the unease. Clearly these are two men destined to work together and long may it be for the house of Tharg.

DK: I can’t help thinking I should like this more than I do. Stickleback has a good setting, which it shares with Sherlock Holmes and the Whitechapel ‘Ripper’ murders; but it’s a setting that can be wheeled out routinely these days as a ready-made playground for any exceedingly slight drama an author could care to dash off without expending too much effort. I’m not suggesting that’s what Edginton and D’Israeli have done here: they have clearly given some considerable thought to characters and plot to come up with a story worth reading. However, it seems it’s just not for me.

D’Israeli’s Victorian London doesn’t appear as fully realized as the 1940s Britain he depicts in Scarlet Traces: The Great Game or the outlandish London Kevin O’Neill conjured up in League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. The plot and characters haven’t grabbed me either. Stickleback, as an alternative ‘Napoleon of Crime’, shows promise, as did Thyne in part 1; but I can’t really bring myself to care where this story is going. With any luck, when this caper is over, I’ll enjoy Stickleback volume 2 a lot more.

The Volgan War - Vol 1, Part 7 Script: Pat Mills Art: Clint Langley Letters: Simon Bowland

Joe loses his head ...

Synopsis: The focus moves to Joe Pineapples and his recollections of the war. He was sent to Volgow to kill Volkhan while the Vashkov day celebrations continued in Red Square.

Upon his entry into the city he was given a bomb tag which would explode if he went within 5km of the celebrations. He took a taxi to a distant cemetery where he killed his robot taxi driver and disassembled him to create a huge sniper rifle.

The procession continued in Red Square with Blackblood and his Straw Dogs, as Pineapples took aim...

SW: The ABC Warriors version of Origins lumbers on with sniper Joe Pineapples taking centre stage this week. This series has been great to look at but has offered precious little in the way of character development or plot. The stories been related here have been told before, and the actual purpose of the reminisces is flawed - they are robots after all!

That’s not to say there isn’t a lot to like. Joe Pineapples  is probably most peoples’ favourite warrior with his cool look and Spartan dialogue and his origin is the least familiar. The tale of him assassinating the Volgan leader is pretty thin but it was an enjoyable (taxi) ride while it lasted. It was pretty obvious that he’d have smuggled a gun in but it was funny to see the taxi driver’s cannibalised parts making up the rest of  his rifle.

The script is too pedestrian for my tastes, but I may be jaundiced by the fact that I already know these histories. Although the details flesh out the back story it still give the impression of a non consequential filler story. It’s a shame that Clint Langley’s peerless artwork is being used on such a script, as it would be nice to see it applied to a block busting new adventure. The only problem I have is the use of real faces pasted onto the drawn characters - at times it’s like an old Jackie photo story!

DK: Full marks to Clint Langley for making this so pretty to look at, especially the Vashkov Day parade (and kudos to Pat Mills for getting General Blackblood’s Straw Dogs in the scene, too). 

But the story makes me think “No, no, no! Bad Pat! Naughty Pat!” – the past just isn’t sacred to Pat Mills, is it? When I’ve read a story and committed it to memory, I like it to stay the same, not to be changed every now and then when the author decides to add bits at a later date or to say “actually, it didn’t happen like that at all; it happened like THIS”. Over the years, loyal (read: too old for comics) 2000AD readers have ground their teeth while reading Pat’s revisionist accounts of Rico Dredd’s return from Titan, Hammerstein’s service in President Booth’s robot army, umpteen re-tellings of Slaine’s battles against the Fomorians. 

So, why do I object to Joe Pineapples wandering around in broad daylight behind enemy lines on an assassination run? Because we’ve seen no evidence that robots as sophisticated as Joe Pineapples were created by 2080 for any purpose other than warfare. Because Joe Pineapples here appears to be on holiday – to all intents and purposes a free agent, of independent means, without a human owner. Because he’s apparently ‘neutral’ (???). Because there is a war on: the most horrendous war in history; and foreign visitors are welcome in Russia during the Vashkov Day parade. Because the authorities are alert to a potential security threat, but put their confidence in security technologies instead of just closing their borders. Because Volgan officials can speak of nothing but the danger to their leaders from enemy snipers, and they aren’t immediately sent to the gulag for spreading enemy propaganda. And lastly, because the security forces are ignorant of the fact that a taxi robot contains all the components necessary for the construction of a sniper’s rifle. 

Actually, that last bit was quite cool. On the whole, an entertaining read nevertheless; and Clint Langley’s artwork makes up for the idiosyncratic plot.

Part 7 Script: Dan Abnett Art: Richard Elson Letters: Ellie De Ville Colours: Steve Roberts

His master's voice...

Synopsis: The human, Symons, tries calling the other outposts to warn them that the bugs have built a land bridge allowing them to get close, but no one responds. He tells Gene that they were hiding in Antarctica (what Gene calls Anachticy) but that was a failure. He says that Gene and his crew were part of Gene Breeding tech created to help fight back the bugs which evolved to become the dominant species and had started a war which left the humans in the world numbering only 40,000. They were put to sleep to wait for the bugs to die out, with the War Dogs to protect them. Symons shows Gene the armoury, just as the bugs break through the perimeter...

SW: Kingdom arrived with no fanfare but has slowly crept it’s way up the rankings to be one of the hits of the year so far. The tale started with more questions than answers and that has mushroomed to the present position of it being a right old mystery indeed. To strip things back you could argue that this many part saga is nothing more than a bloated Future Shock but to do that would be to deny us some great  build up, characterisation and drama.

Initially it looked like the main event would be who was to lead the pack but things have jumped far ahead in recent weeks. We now learn that it’s the year 3965 and that the human race is in cryo-sleep. The purpose of Gene and his pals is becoming clearer but the ultimate premise and the enemy remain tantalisingly out of reach.  The war between the engineered troops and the bugs looks like being mankind’s’ key to survival and the land bridge to where is obviously paramount.

The always reliable Richard Elson delivers a competent art package, which although lacking in action this week still keeps things interesting despite the surfeit of dialogue.

I’ve no idea if this will be a one arc story or ongoing thrill but it clearly has potential to run and run.

DK: I’ve liked this series from the start. It has a nice, simple premise, well-executed. Here, the artificial warrior of limited intelligence meets the spokesman for its creator, and we find out more about the history of the world in which the story is set that we’ve been following these past weeks. That’s enough for me. Next? Gene the Hackman gets better weapons than we’ve seen him using hitherto, and the alien bug threat gets even closer to home. 

Dan Abnett and Richard Elson are a great team when it comes to depicting humanity or a sympathetic alien race or artificial intelligence under threat and heavily outnumbered by bug-eyed monsters. There’s a real frisson of excitement to be had from reading the last page of this instalment, and I for one don’t want the bugs to get past Gene the Hackman, as if he’s not only Operative Symons’s last line of defense, but mine too. 

Baby Talk - Part 3 Script: Rob Williams Art: Simon Coleby Letters: Annie Parkhouse

Frank makes his point succinctly ...

Synopsis: While Dirty Frank fights the baby ninjas, Mortal is put back into his cot by Springstein and Claudia. They are surprised by an old man called Nowlan who tells them that someone's been sniffing around. Thinking it might be the Justice Department. Nowlan decides it's time to clear up loose ends and kills them both. He takes Mortal, unaware that he's an undercover judge, with him to an operating room full of super intelligent babies. Mortal sets off his tracking device so Frank can follow him.

Frank has meanwhile been stabbed by one of the babies, but a ring of milk bottles he has strapped around him has stopped the blade. The babies are hypnotised by the spilled milk as Dirty Frank prepares to save Mortal...

SW: Low life has always been a hit or miss strip for me and this outing is so far off the mark that I could take my target back for a refund! There really isn’t enough going on to merit a three and counting episode outing.

Dirty Frank is a decent character but he has been totally unburdened by any development. He’s dirty and sweary and that’s it! The intelligence enhanced babies is a nice premise but it’s slapstick execution makes it somewhat farcical. I know it’s a humour strip but it’s not funny just faintly ridiculous. I did snigger at the ‘Ass is pierced’ line, but I’m not proud.

The battle with the ninja babies didn’t offer much in the way of laughs or danger while the counterpoint of the mad doctor clearing house just went through the paces. The ideas here would fill a two parter tops three plus is padding and the early goodwill the strip generated is ebbing away like Frank’s sex appeal.

Simon Coleby’s art isn’t to my taste, looking sketchy and rough. It may suit the ‘low life’ premise but to me it’s just a bit rushed and messy.

DK: I don’t find Dirty Frank as funny as many other readers seem to, and I don’t hold this series in very high regard on the whole; but it is doing a sterling job as a reliable regular strip at the moment. The apparent and unaccountable popularity of Dirty Frank suggests that he should be used as the main character whenever possible, and I must say that’s preferable to reading the adventures of dreary old Aimee Nixon. 

Highlights of this episode were Frank soldiering on with a ninja throwing star embedded in his forehead, and the thoroughgoing archness of the dialogue: “Dirty Frank thought ninjas were supposed to be silent, and less insulting.” “You should never have picked the nose of things that do not concern you, yes?”

SW: Four from five is a good return and the Prog is clearly miles ahead of the Megazine these days. The stuttering appearances of Origins threaten the story’s impact but it’s good that Tharg has the vision to have a quality replacement on standby. Apart from Low Life I’m enjoying everything at the moment and long may it continue.

Best Story: Stickleback

DK: I would venture to say that Prog 1523 was the single best Prog this year so far. It had a very good mix of stories. Some readers may argue that the best Prog of the year to date ought at least to have Origins in it. Well, I’m afraid you can’t have everything.

Judge Dredd and Low Life were both above par for recent weeks, even though Stickleback failed to raise a flicker on my thrillometer. Kingdom has reached a major turning point in the story, which can’t be bad; and ABC Warriors, whilst it has its faults, at least had no robots on horseback or secret agent flamethrower robots called Zippo. Judge Dredd, Kingdom and ABC Warriors are all contenders for my favourite story this Prog, there’s so little between them in terms of quality (despite all the reservations I have about ABC Warriors!). 

Best Story: Kingdom