Cover by Jock

WRL: We’ve seen Jock far too infrequently in or on the prog since he buggered off to the states for the Yankee dollar and as usual he doesn’t disappoint when working for the house of Tharg. Its not the first time that Jock has used a nations flag as part of a cover - he did some fantastic ones while on The Losers, especially the one for Issue 20 - but I digress.

The image of Dredd is a full pose but is so small that he takes up only a third of the page. It's slightly reminiscent of the cover to the first American Eagle reprint Dredd comic but the addition of the Scottish flag just makes this cover one of the most striking and best for ages. We're only in June and with Jock's first cover of 2007 he’s produced one that will probably still be in my top 5 by the end of the year. A great cover and welcome back. 

JM: Well, you can’t go wrong with a saltire, really, can you?  It’s an iconic design that’s inspired generations, including one of my next-door neighbours who regularly flies one from a small pole in his garden.  The small Judge Dredd and perp let you know what’s coming inside the prog.  All very nice stuff: not terribly exciting, but thoroughly functional.

Tartan Terrors Script: Gordon Rennie Art: Jock Colours: Chris Blythe Letters: Annie Parkhouse

Dredd appeals to the Cal Habbers...

Synopsis: Mega City One is hosting ‘Jock Day Parade’, with an official parade.  This includes “genuine Cal Habbers”.  With special dispensation for the event, there is traditional Cal Hab food and cultural events.  Dredd is informed of a mental tartan army plot and that there could be suspects in the crowd.  Unable to identify them via PSU, Judges are on high alert.  They spot suspects and a battle ensues with Dredd taking them both down.  With the end of the parade, the Cal Habbers leave before their visas expire.   

WRL: Jock on the cover, Jock on Dredd, a double page spread and the old style logo without even reading a word my Thrill Receptors were crackling like crazy.

Gordon Rennie lets loose with a story about his fellow countrymen and packs in every Scottish joke you can think of and it’s a hoot.

Jock shows why he’s been sorely missed since sending his artwork across the Black Atlantic lets hope we don’t have to wait another 5 1/2 years before we see him n a Dredd story. The best Dredd story since Origins.

JM: It’s nothing personal.  It’s not you, it’s me.  I’m sure there are – hell, no, goddamit, I know there are plenty of other guys out there willing to worship at your feet.  But I’m sorry, I just don’t swing that way.

All of which preamble is as a run-up to admitting a cardinal sin: I just don’t like Jock’s art very much.  It’s OK, it tells a story, it’s not bad in any way, but it really doesn’t do it for me.  Which is an opinion that really isn’t shared by a lot of people, particularly in the online fanbase, most of whom tend to view Jock’s infrequent returns to the prog as only just short of the Second Coming of Alan.  I don’t like his habit of hiding faces in shadow, I don’t like the scratchy lines, I don’t like the undercooked drawing of city blocks.  Like I said, it’s certainly not you.  It’s me.

The story that Jock’s illustrating doesn’t grab me much either.  Take every Scottish cliché ever uttered, run them over six pages with barely a plot to hold it all together, add a pretty out-of-character moment for Dredd (who seems to work best as the one constant element in a crazy world, not as a participant in the crazy), and you get a perfectly serviceable one-off that can now be re-used as pizza supper wrapping without being much missed.

Project Monarch - Part 1 Script: Pat Mills Art: John Higgins Colours: JH & SJ Hurst Letters: Ellie De Ville

Hopefully the man has a dental plan...

Synopsis: Blake meets the Fox at the Waterfall Café.  In the background, the secret police are observing young kids, break dancing.  Fox is there to buy tanks and Blake negotiates the deal, delivery and percentage profit.  The Police start to arrest the youngsters.  Some of them don’t obey and the Police use metal whips to beat them.  With the meeting finished Blake leaves and without knowing why intervenes.  He smashes the policeman’s face and yells at the kids to run.  His combat skills are due to his Delta Class assassin’s enhancements and training but he becomes concerned he’s jeopardising his mission.  Later in London, his slip is discussed, with checks on his booster and references to his conditioning.

WRL: I’ve always liked John Higgins’ artwork so it’s good to see him again on a new series. My only quibble would be the colouring. While it’s not bad, I don’t like it when every page is primarily the same colour, 4 pages or mostly yellow then finally one mostly blue. As it’s only part one of a new series there’s not much to go on yet but my mind keeps saying MACH 1 for the new millennium. 

JM: This clearly owes a debt to the late lamented M.A.C.H.1, but hopefully does away with that series’ attachment to acronyms (or will the agent turn out to be a Gorilla Raping Extermination Yeti with Superior Unsanitary Information Technology?)

This episode shows exactly why Pat Mills continues to pick up a regular pay-cheque, despite occasional grumbles from the readership.  There may well be no scripting droid who can create a scenario this instantly addictive, using standard – even clichéd – elements mixed with a bit of punk-attitude politics and a dash of pure originality.  It’s this skill that made 2000AD what it was at its beginning, and is largely responsible for its continuing success.  In my fantasy 2000AD (you must have played it: imagine that you win the lottery, buy the comic and run it your way), I’d have Mills in charge of nothing but series creation: he writes the first episodes, other writers come in to do the stuff that he’s far less consistently good at, such as plot and continuity.

Greysuit introduces a protagonist that you care about, a cynical world that you want to see made right, a secret you want exposed, and some shocking violence, all in a very tight six pages.   John Higgins’ art is breathtakingly good, with some genuinely horrible moments and instantly recognisable characters.  It’s aided by a spectacular debut from colourist team SJ Hurst, who really seems to have a feel for Higgins' work.

Thieves' World - Part 2 Script: Robbie Morrison Art: Simon Fraser Colours: Gary Caldwell Letters: Annie Parkhouse

Dante tempts fate...

Synopsis: Dante’s progress in taking over the gambling, sex trafficking, fight circuit with humiliating efficiency is being reported to the ruling Council of the Thieves World.  Karl expresses his concern over Dante knowing their ways and implies that the leader of the Council has an infatuation with Dante.  Karl is quickly dispatched by being force fed alcohol until he drowns.  The Council leader informs them that he’ll ask Nikolai to go away, once.   Meanwhile Dante is reporting to the Tsar and assuring him that the money will all be going to the Tsar’s coffers.  After the transmission the Tsar asks Arkady to keep an eye on his half brother.  Dante heads to the ‘Fatal’ nightclub, where he is confronted by what his weapons crest informs him is the Solonkin Assassin Society led by Renko Solonkin who informs Dante that they are not there to kill him but as body guards.  They start to fight but are stopped by the appearance of the Countessa.

WRL: This has been my fave ongoing story of the past few months. This may be only part three of this arc but everything is so linked that it just makes you want more. Simon Fraser continues to prove that Dante is his. While I love John Burns work, Simon brings something to Dante that I can’t put my finger on. I hope he continues as there was too long a gap when we didn’t see him working on the Russian Rogue’s stories. 

JM: I’m not sure that even Judge Dredd can be relied upon to beat this series when it’s at its very best.  At the moment, this Thieves’ World series seems to be one of Dante’s lighter escapades, those one-offs that only advance the overarching plot by a small amount, but can be relied on for some good jokes and naked humiliated fat blokes.  On that last – has anyone commented on just how many humiliated naked fat blokes there are in this series?  Maybe Robbie Morrison has a secret fetish?

Dante shows off one of its best qualities this week, by disposing of four set-ups that other writers could have stretched out over four weeks (Tom Tully could probably have managed ten) in a mere four panels. Yeltsin is by no means my favourite villain of this series, but he is nonetheless a worthy opponent for Dante.  And with the Contessa, who has bested our hero on nearly every occasion, re-entering the picture, one scents the possibility that Dante may have some trouble completing his mission.  Cracklingly good repartee, and some good facial expressions on Dante, make this an extremely entertaining read.

Part 6 Script: Ian Edginton Art: Steve Yeowell Art: Chris Blythe Letters: Ellie De Ville

Mackay gets the short straw...

Synopsis: While Jared is collecting the tissue samples from the Detonator.  Dr Chung is trying to identify why the creatures appeared at this location.  Holt brings Chung coffee and they discuss the reasons for the colonies leaving earth and the vast requirement for energy.  While there Chung identifies the matter as Zygote, part of a large being, a ‘god’ who has returned to use this dimension as a breeding ground.   He finds out reason for the incursion is that they’ve been mining the energy from the other dimension at all the colonies and that the incursions could create a huge rift in time.  Before he can raise the alarm he realises Holt has poisoned him and appears to die quickly. 

WRL: From time to time there are stories that appear in the Galaxies Greatest Comic that just don’t click with me, so I pile them up by the bed and wait until they’ve finished and read them or attempt to read them in one go. Detonator X is unfortunately one of those stories. 

JM: What a horribly bland tale this is turning out to be.  Steve Yeowell’s art is well below his normal standard – all the faces look the same – and Ian Edginton really hasn’t provided any kind of hook to engage reader interest.  There’s nothing wrong with it, in the way that Babe Race 2000 or Junker clearly had something wrong at their most basic level.   It’s just terribly, terribly dull.  And no story involving Giant Robot-on-dinosaur action should ever be dull.  Even the death of a main character failed to shock or surprise me, which really is unusual.  It seems to me to have the same problem that Stone Island did, of simply not caring very much about the subsidiary characters.

However, there’s probably still time for the story to turn around and improve.

1666 - Part 1 Script: Pat Mills Art: Leigh Gallagher Letters: Ellie De Ville

Black Death in action...

Synopsis: Two guards at the door of a house, inside is a family who are discussing their neighbours who have become the living dead.  They are not concerned as they have checked the house.   However they tear their way through the wall and the guards don’t let them.  Mr Defoe arrives and the guards are relieved.  He apologizes for his delay, and while he enters the property is questioned by a journalist who he asks the guards to remove, but he still persists.  He asks questions as Mr Defoe dispatches the living dead within the house.

WRL: I'm getting bored of the living dead and, although this is only part one, I don’t see anything in these 6 pages that makes me think this will be a great Zombie story. From the first part, it looks like Bill Savage with a hat and a cloak. The artwork isn’t my cup of tea but does seem to suit the story.

This really had me wishing the prog had ended with a different strip and left me on a high was the last page.

JM: Zombies as metaphor for the Black Death?  Superb art – and I mean SUPERB art, with a glorious opening page and some fabulous character shots – plus fast moving undead flesheaters plus a seventeenth century bastard with a big gun?  I’m staking my reputation as a tipster here and saying that this is going to be absolutely freakin’ brilliant from beginning to end.  

One slight criticism, unusual for a Pat Mills story.  A poster on the 2000adonline messageboard has already pointed out that Isaac Newton didn’t receive his knighthood until long after 1668.  It should also be noted that the name “Defoe” didn’t exist until later.  Daniel Defoe was at the time only a few years old, and only a plain old “Foe”: he added the “de” to sound grand later on.  Hopefully these are only little niggles and there won’t be any great honking anachronisms later on in the story.

That aside, I’m really looking forward to seeing where Mills goes with this.

WRL: Picking a best story should be easy - the return of Jock on both cover and Dredd, a centre page spread, old style Dredd logo, fantastic art and layouts. But then there’s Dante. A great ongoing epic of an adventure, Simon Fraser still proving that he’s ‘the’ Dante artist, Robbie Morrison turning in story after story that makes me want to see more Dante, it’s an impossible decision. The Law versus the Russian Rogue, Monastic virtues versus the obsessive seducer of women, Day Stick Versus Bio Blades and its going to be won by the return of Jock but by the smallest margin

Best Story: Judge Dredd

JM: Pat Mills creates two new (and potentially iconic) characters in a prog that also contains a Fraser-illustrated Dante?  Monsewer Tharg, wiz zees treats…

Best Story: Defoe