Cover by Steve Roberts

AC: Steve Roberts is beginning to grow on me. I don’t know why it should have taken me so long to warm up to his style; I always say art with a “face” is the best kind of comic art… the same way you can recognise certain writers by certain signatories, it’s just as much of a pleasure to be able to see art and say definitively that it’s Kevin O’Neill, or Simon Fraser, or The Carlos etc.

Steve Roberts has plenty of “face”, but it has nonetheless been an incremental process of gradual appreciation for me. His cartoony style lends itself better to the chrome of Black Atlantic, and also to the cleverly muted colours of this cover. It’s the same sort of intuition that is winning fans in the weekly’s Kingdom. 

AF: A well-formed cover that nicely showcases Roberts's way with the weirdo. Sadly, it's a bit too grey, and for all that I applaud showing scenes that actually appear in the comic, it's a shame not to show a main character on the front. 

Shadowkill - Part 2 Script: Robbie Morrison Art: Lee Garbett Letters: Annie Parkhouse

Dredd prepares to fade to black ...

Synopsis: Adam Troy's doppelganger has killed Warren Cohen, the man who tried to have Troy removed from the board. Troy would be chief suspect except that he was under surveillance by judges the whole time.

Meanwhile, Troy lets his doppelganger take over his daily movements and, after stopping the foundation's charitable donations, kills Warren Cohen's widow after she spurns his affections. Dredd comes after him as Troy revels the existence of his dark matter doppelganger and pleads with Dredd to save him from it. After a fight, Dredd draws it into the mirrored training room, where Troy turns on the lights, leaving no shadows for it to hide in. Dredd destroys the creature with an incendiary, but Troy is now committed as a basket case, jumping at every shadow as night falls.

AC: Rather an abrupt end to this little story. Lee Garbett is an up and comer in Tharg’s stables, and brings a smooth verve and dynamism to his projects that serves the narrative flow very well. I’m not as big a fan as some, but his work at contrasting the clean chrome and bronze of Adam Troy’s world with the dark reds and black of the entity’s is nothing to be sniffed at.

Not much else to say; Robbie Morrison’s script boasts the usual competence, but the tale is ultimately a negligible one. 

AF: A bit of a throwaway Dredd tale this month. Last month's set-up had a bit of menace to it. This month's pay-off is not so great. Sure, it's fast-paced, full of action and very competent, but it's not classic Dredd. Rennie-lite scripting from Morrison, and Quitely-lite art from Garbett. That said, it's all probably quite good if you haven't read much Dredd before, or if you're 12 (there are still youngsters reading these comics, aren't there?) 

Meet the Jetsams - part 3 Script: Dan Abnett Art: Steve Roberts Letters: Simon Bowland

Email gets his test ...

Synopsis: Teach and his crew are being pursued by Jeremy Gizzard and his fleet of ships, but Teach soon realises that Gizzard will catch up with them. They mine the sea behind them while they head out into the Black Atlantic fog and the international shipping lanes. Teach gets Email to give them an accurate fix on their position and gives the details to a contact called "Emmaline." Hours later, Gizzard catches up with them only to be destroyed by a huge metafreighter - the "Emmaline" which used Email's data to run them down. Email had proven his worth to the crew.

AC: “We’re gonna get screwed with our pants on!”    

Yeah cheers, Teach. And cheers to Dan Abnett, who seems to be unstoppable at the moment. When Black Atlantic was first announced in Prog 1500, I was glad to get more Abnett goodness, and it’s been worth the experimentation provided by moving Steve Robert’s caricaturial renderings into monochrome. This three part entrée was entertaining fare, and even reminded me somewhat of short lived sci-fi show Firefly with its mix of humour and laconicism; no mean comparison for me to make, what with it being my favourite show.    

“Mad propz” for the imagery of Emmaline’s tanker; it’s what you don’t see that caps it. 

AF: Abnett and Roberts round out their pilot series with a lovely visual joke. There is certainly scope for more fun on the black seas, although 'email' is going to hate to stop being a fish out of water sometime soon (Hey Abnett doesn't have the monopoly on rubbish puns, alright) 

Innocence & Experience - Part 3 Script: John Smith Art: Peter Doherty Letters: Peter Doherty

Waugh's schooldays...

Synopsis: The intruders in the garden refer to their leader as "The Heresiarch" as they near the house.

Inside, Devlin continues his tale of his school days, mixing group masturbation with occult practices. However, during one of their sessions, they are caught by one of the senior boys who reported them to the Senior Chaplain, Mr Urquaght who, in turn, gave the boys a caning. Devlin continued to be bullied and the pent up emotional turmoil unleashed poltergeist activity and left Devlin a wreck. His father decided to take over his training, leaving Stella in charge of Freddy. Devlin was tutored at the Kem Kwong Monastery and gradually learned his craft. Devlin returned and struck up a friendship with Conrad, suffering his unrequited love in silence. But just as Devlin thought life was improving, Conrad appeared to be being abused by Urquaght, and Devlin's father then committed suicide. At the funeral, one of his father's friends, Mr Bliss, gives him a cigarette case that his father gave him.

Back in the present, the intruders have set off another guard device...

AC: It seems everybody’s getting with the Origins movement; Judge Dredd leads (Oy…), ABC Warriors follows (Wow!) and now we have John Smith’s glorious far future saga of sorcery and sci-fi to trace back to its genesis. A singly compelling hero is our man Waugh, just as ready to seduce his mother’s biographer as he is to launch into a bout of fisticuffs, and Pete Doherty more than ably accommodates his delving into the past.

The “present” narrative is going nowhere fast, with another instalment of Waugh’s would be assailants inching towards his manor, but the flashbacks are so colourfully narrated, and the whole affair executed with such inimitable style and flavour that you can’t help but love it.

AF: This is simply masterful. Devlin's origin story is now well and truly anchored in his reminiscences, with just a hint of the danger that lurks in the present day. The details of Waugh's schooldays are of course exactly what we had been expecting. Somehow, Smith still manages to make it a story worth reading about. The only odd thing is wondering how this version of Eton is expected to be 50 years into our future, rather than 50 years in our past. Doherty is also providing exemplary work, particularly on drawing out the sneers of snobbish teens and hypocritical schoolmasters. Not as funny as the similar 'Young Death', but much more honest, and as a result, more compelling. I hope it doesn't all end too soon! 

No Body, No How - Part 2 Script: Simon Spurrier Art: Frazer Irving Letters: Ellie De Ville

Jack Point roughs up the staff...

Synopsis: Point manages to survive his meeting with SJS Kovacs by getting her to run the interview in his office and by fooling her lie detector. She reveals that they are monitoring his sewage output at his apartment, so he can't dispose of the body there.

He remembers meeting up with Mrs Roth who was afraid of her husband and told him that she wanted out. She still seemed to recognise Point even if he didn't her.

Back in the present, Point drops in a sample of DNA to tek division to positively ID the corpse, and threatens Brevin, Daveez's flunky, believing the Sector Chief himself might be behind the murder. But Point gets a splitting headache and is forced to let Brevin go. Point returns home with the ID for the corpse on disk and settles down with some booze...

AC: We’ve barely gone outside our hero’s door, but Simon Spurrier (amazing; this is the only thing he’s got going on at the moment) has not let up with the darkly twisted narrative, hard boiled flashback routines and trademark dexterity of language. Don’t let the surface fool you; there’s a hell of a lot going on here, and it shows no signs of getting cramped in there, at least not with Frazer Irving on art duties. The amount of black space is almost decadent considering the business of the story, but thanks to the lack of padding, and a good sense of structure (every episode ends with the same frame) it’s more than sufficient. 

AF: That body in the bed just won't go away. Irving is really starting to freak me out with his constant repetitions of this gruesome scene. And I have to agree with letter-writer Mark Hunter that Spurrier is a champion at filling his allotted pages with so much story that each episode is a satisfying read in itself, no need to hurtle straight into the conclusion. It's not all perfect, though. The level of corruption in Angeltown, including in Justice Division, feels a little too unbelievable. Sure, that's the whole point of the series, not to mention a good running joke about the name 'Angeltown', but alongside the regular Dredd strip it feels too much. Jack Point himself remains a wonderful creation, and I'll keep rooting for him never to fall too far. 

Judge Dredd reprint: Awayday
Feature: watching the Detectives
Small Press - Trilithon
Dredd Files
Top 20 Self Publishing Tips
New Movies

AC: The small press article documents the much loved and very professionally produced Dog Breath, the world’s greatest Strontium Dog fanzine (save, perhaps Doggy Style). In contrast, we get the first Small Press piece that I have felt unambiguously ill disposed to; the script is packed with clichéd language, to the extent where you find yourself picturing a pack mule whose fragile spine is about to break. A cringe-worthy skit about a “Daddy Glover” TV show, complete with very mild language, and a plot that is essentially about nothing don’t exactly help.

We have a serviceable reprint, though not a particularly clever or memorable one, and it’s always confused me how the writers of Dredd can be so bizarrely stereotypical about writing British characters.

An interesting, chronological breakdown of the cop show makes for diverting bathroom reading, as does the twenty tips for self publishers (which contains surprisingly practical information).

The film reviews have impressed the editor, so as always they’re taking up page space, as do the pointless Dredd Files. People who are on the 2000AD payroll critiquing old 2000AD stories. Right. 

AF: Dredd reprint: really hits home the MC1 has nasty place and Dredd as bully angle. Simple and fun.

Small Press: Trilithon. There are rather too many small press efforts that seem to be trying to escape the super-hero genre by pastiching it. Yet again, this one isn't very funny. Nice art, though.

Watching the Detectives: I feel a bit like Bishop was trying so hard to mention as many detective shows as he could that he forgot to make much of a point, beyond the fact that such shows are popular. It was starting to get into an interesting discussion of sexism and the media, but then got side-tracked. Nice try, though, and as always from Bishop, worth reading.

Tips for self-publishing: Good, sound advice. Every time such a feature appears, it encourages lazy but theoretically creative people like me to have another go at writing/drawing my own comic. This in itself makes it a worthwhile feature, along with the small press reprint bit, of course.

Film Reviews: I get the impression I'm in the minority around here, but I love these reviews. Sure, I read Total Film, Empire and even the odd newspaper review anyway, but this kind of writing feels different, mostly because Worley isn't afraid to kick a film that he hates, and explain why, as well as explaining why he likes certain films, too. Keep it up, I say.

Dredd Files: I asked for 'em, I got 'em. I reckon three pages of this is pretty good going. And it's ideal that the stories therein are things I've recently read myself thanks to the Case Files. 

AC: A solid issue with a few laughs from Black Atlantic and the darkly thrilling Devlin Waugh. The Simping Detective also continues to provide a powerhouse of artistic and scripting skill. Everything else, like a glass of water, passes through harmlessly with little in the way of nourishment.

Best story: Devlin Waugh

AF: I'd say it's strangely encouraging when the worst part of the Megazine is the main Dredd feature. Dredd is pretty dependable, so it doesn't matter if it has the odd miss (and Shadowkill wasn't rotten, just average). A solid issue, and it looks like this will be a great year to be a Megazine reader. 

Best story: Devlin Waugh