Cover by Cliff Robinson

RC: This to me is what 2000AD is all about. This cover is just about as far from conventional as you could possibly get. I mean, who would have thought that a close up of someone’s feet would make such a great image? But it does, and this is all down to Cliff Robinson’s astonishing eye for detail. Time and again, you find your eye returning to the drawing, finding more each time. The clips on the inside of the left boot holding the boot knife sheath, or the rivets along the knuckles of Dredd’s glove. There have been some brilliant covers this year - but for me this is the best one so far.

And like with the McMahon cover on the last Meg, this serves to highlight just how long it has been since this droid has illustrated a full length strip. Get him one, Tharg! 

MC: Another month, another stock Cliff Robinson cover. I’ve nothing against this per se, but rather it doesn’t have a lot to do with the contents, and Robinson always feels somewhat of an easy option for a cover artist – It’s Bolland-lite and stock shots can go on the front of whatever prog we need them for. Nice low angle shot, composition is fine – it’s the scheduling that vexes me here.  

The Incident Script: Robbie Morrison Art: Richard Elson Letters: Annie Parkhouse

Dredd puts the boot in...

Synopsis: Undercover judge Lisa Ferrara appears to have had her cover compromised, while investigating Harry Trask, a corporate man suspected of involvement in a number of armed robberies. Ferrara was fitted with an implant wire - supposedly undetectable, but it she still seems to have been discovered all the same.

While spy-in-the-skys search for her assailants, Dredd goes to interview Trask, but gets nothing from him. They manage to track her to a hov-transporter on the move and Dredd kills both her attackers. However, it's too late as they had used a nano-virus to corrupt the implant wire - giving her irreparable brain damage.

Dredd requests to have the Trask investigation added to his caseload...

RC: An interesting Dredd  tale this week. There are elements of Dredd’s character that for me always stand out. His tenacity for one, and we see it here at the end of the strip when he asks for the Trask case to be added to his books. Now, this may be a clever bit of nest feathering by Morrison as he ensures himself further Dredd strips, and Trask may not be the most charismatic and interesting villains we’ve seen, but further episodes in this arc will be welcomed, well by me at least.

The other aspect of this tale that I find interesting is the camaraderie and loyalty the Judges display when one of their own number is in trouble. Dredd seems to have an unspoken and self imposed responsibility for the well being of the rest of the force, particularly the younger Judges.  

That’s not to say the strip is without its problems. Only one photo exists of Harry Trask? Okay, I can buy that, even in a society as monitored as MC-1. But if he is so enigmatic, I suspect it would have been harder for Dredd to get a meeting with him.

Elson’s art is always a welcome addition to the prog, and here he puts in his usual high quality work, with only a couple of niggles: the strange pointy hand of the PSU Judge on the first panel, and the suspiciously high proportion of gingers in the strip. Has this artist got some kind of red haired agenda..? I think we should be told!

MC: People grumble about Robbie Morrison Dredds and, while this doesn’t really go any further for me, it’s got some lovely Elson art. Morrison keeps getting to write Dredd stories so one can only assume that Tharg sees a writer with some great Dredds in him that need to be coaxed to the surface. Practice makes perfect, remember. That or it pays to keep the writer of Shakara & Dante happy. This is a perfectly functional Dredd, no better or worse than most of Gordon Rennie’s ‘out of continuity’ Dredds, and after origins and the heavy stories that followed, this is a welcome change of pace. 

Script/ Art: Bob Byrne

Science in action...

Synopsis: A tyrant lives in luxury while his people starve, rioting over a single apple that he throws to them. In his palace, his scientists show him an experiment that allows him to massively increase the size of food. But instead of using this to fix the food problem, the dictator uses it to make more gold. This fails, and the tyrant throws the scientist through the machine - which has the effect of shrinking him. The tyrant considers his dilemma and decide that the best way to fix his problem is to shrink all the poor people and let them live in a tiny community in his garden... still starving and clamouring over a single dropped apple...

RC: Before I start, I would like to point out that I am absolutely delighted to have this series in the prog. It is different- and to me that’s enough of a reason for it being there.

But is it any good? Well… in places. I’m a huge fan of textless strips. They always demand more attention from the reader, making them pause, to notice the art more than they usually would and to concentrate on absorbing the story.

The only trouble with this comes when the story is not strong enough or not well told enough with the pictures. And this has been the difficulty with this series. Every episode has been too long. Shaving a couple of pages off each of them would have made each of them stronger and punchier.

But that’s the series in general- what about this weeks? It’s good, but also too long. And it also doesn’t make a whole lot of sense. It makes food bigger, but doesn’t work on gold, and when you chuck someone through it the wrong way they shrink? Fair enough. I can figure that they guys making the machine are doing it to grow food and save all the starving people. But why are they doing this in the palace of an evil dictator? And the evil dictator himself is a puzzle. Clearly delighting in the suffering of his people at the beginning, but in the end, even though he has shrunk them, he has provided these same people with a means of survival by feeding them.

I’d like to see more of these for sure, but they need to be tighter.

MC: Or, What Bob Byrne really thinks of Robert Mugabe. Again, there’s nothing wrong with this, although the failure of this strip to hit the heights of Mr. Amperduke disappoints. One other thing though – strict 12 panel page layout: not often that happens in the Galaxy’s greatest! 

Part 5 Script: Ian Edginton Art: Steve Yeowell Art: Chris Blythe Letters: Ellie De Ville

Detonator X's powerful foot odour...

Synopsis: Detonator X is being thrown around by the huge monster - and they seem to have no way of fighting back. However, the monster throws them into the area where the Dominators were previously defeated. Chung tells Mackay that he needs to shape up and beat the monster - coming back to Earth as a hero. He takes control of Detonator X, rips off the arms of a downed Dominator and prepares for "unarmed combat".

RC: Big Stompy Robots fighting Giant Lizard Monsters. On Mars. I love this. I love Edginton’s writing. His ear for dialogue is second to none, and I don’t get the complaints that this strip is going nowhere. To me it’s galloping along at a tremendous pace. ‘Unarmed combat’! Genius!

I love Yeowell’s art too. He’s always been one of my very favourite artists. Coupled here with Chris Blythe’s colours he’s doing some super work. The sense of movement and of scale is spot on. Layouts nigh on perfect… yeah, I’m a fan, so do not expect me to find any fault in this art.

MC: Anthropomorphism. Not only is it a very long word, but it’s an important factor in helping us relate to the characters in a story. Take the Transformers for instance – giant robots, who look Human. Megatron even had Eyebrows. With the upcoming movie the characters look less human and more ‘alien’. Pay attention Michael Bay – even when portraying the least human of characters, it’s useful to allow the audience to in some way recognise themselves in what they are watching, especially if they are to relate to the characters. Detonator X (the character) has no face, but has little people inside him who we can see as ourselves. That’s why we still care about a strip that is effectively robots vs. monsters: to the death. With possibly the best cliffhanger yet, I’ve been promised by Tharg that this will take a while to play out. It’s going to make a truly awesome trade collection one day. 

The Doctor is In - Part 4 Script: Dan Abnett Art: Simon Coleby Colours: Len O'Grady Letters: Annie Parkhouse

The wonders of future medicine...

Synopsis: Sinister and Billy clean out the rest of the house while Ronko prepares to kill Dexter. However, Dexter has already regained some of the feeling in his legs and manages to defeat Ronko himself. Sinister and Dexter head back to Downlode with Billy and the Surgeon realises that Apellido has "no idea what he's unleashed"...

DL: I’m loving this too. Abnett has rejuvenated this series incredibly since Malone, with an energy and pace that hasn’t let up since then. And the knowledge that all this cool action of late is nothing but the precursor to the Big Story that’s coming our way makes it all the more exciting. I don’t even mind that fact that Dex is apparently walking again.

Colbey’s work on this has been exceptional. To me, it’s been like he’s a good artist who’s been needing a great script to bring out the best in him, and with this latest run on Sin/Dex he’s found that. Brilliant layouts, confident and clear action scenes and best of all- really cool looking big guns all go together in a lovely big ball of violence and mayhem. All that and a great splash panel of Dex killing someone from an operating table - he’s That Hard! Beautiful colouring from O’Grady too.

MC: Unlike most people I never really tired of pre Malone Sin/Dex, but stories like these have made me realise how good the strip could be. Not that it wasn’t before, but it really hits the spot when it wants to, from the bang-bang shootiness of the first page to the wanton kitchen carnage of pages 2&3 leading to the scissors in eye/naked Ramone goodness that is page 4. Page 5 offers more hints of what is to come and leaves me regretting that this isn’t a 6 page strip. Oh well, more next week. 

Thieves' World - Part 1 Script: Robbie Morrison Art: Simon Fraser Colours: Gary Caldwell Letters: Annie Parkhouse

Dante sets out his agenda...

Synopsis: The Tsar reveals his intention to reintroduce serfdom as a means of eliminating poverty - something that Arcady is to be in charge of. After the announcement, Jena returns to her transport's quarters to find Dante there waiting for her. After arguing about her father's latest atrocity - they argue about their own future. Jena says that she's afraid about what her father will do to Dante if they get involved again - but despite this they kiss. As they do, the transport is hit by gunfire and Jena is badly injured and knocked out. A group of attackers announces their intention to take Jena but Dante starts attacking - taking no prisoners...

RC: I feel like I need to have a lie down. Thrill Power levels are in danger of overload so far this prog, and I still have to read Dante! Are you trying to give me a haemorrhage, Mr Tharg?

You only need to know two words to figure out just how good this is: Simon Fraser. This is no slight on Burns’ work. It is lovely. But Fraser… well, it’s his strip, isn’t it? And you can see the class oozing from every panel of this strip. Look at the colouring! The shading on the faces as it subtly brings out the emotions of the characters. And that’s only the first three pages! Then we get to the meat of the episode, and an astonishing last couple of pages. The apparent death of Jena, Dante’s fury in those final few pages and the promise of ‘Bloody Retribution’ next week. Bloody hell this is good. 

MC: My favourite kind of Dante is Simon Fraser Dante, no questions asked. It’s not even that he gets the best strips to draw, it’s just that it is so obviously ‘his’ strip. There’s a clear sense that this is moving towards its logical climax, and I don’t think for a second that Jena is dead, but to threaten Dante with losing something so soon after he reclaimed it is just waving a red flag in front of a bull – you deserve everything you get, and after that whole mess of storylines at sea, we deserve to see Dante kick some ass for a few progs. Oh, and how nice of Jena to get rid of that nasty shade of pink in her hair since last week. 

RC: very good prog, with only Twisted Tales dropping the ball and preventing maximum Thrill Power output. 

Best Story: Nikolai Dante

MC: Still not a weak link here. Dante stands over the rest, but Detonator X is just getting warmed up, Twisted tales falls into that ‘something different’ category and Dredd & Sin/Dex truck along nicely. Something for everyone, and the prospect of more Caballistics inc. soon! 

Best Story: Nikolai Dante