2000AD Prog 1584 - 30 April 08

Cover by Colin MacNeil

Pete McCosh: I assume Dredd is supposed to be leaning off his Lawmaster, but it looks more like he’s pole-dancing. In addition, the front wheel appears to come to a point, which would seem to make it rather more difficult to drive. Despite this, it’s a reasonable action composition which, unfortunately, contains everything I dislike about MacNeil’s art: the murky colours, the penchant for overlarge chins (without the obvious stylization of, say, Siku) and the stiffness of the central figure all serve to render it flat and dull. 

Very poor. 

Robert Cornell: Dredd on a bike, shooting something. An exercise in blandness from MacNeil. There’s nothing wrong with it but you’d have expected more.

Road Stop - part 3 Script: Gordon Rennie Art: Dave Taylor Letters: Annie Parkhouse

That'll prove important...

Synopsis: Dredd drives back the attackers who look for another way in. He walks out to see if there are any survivors and sees that one of the vehicles' boot is open - and it's containing 3 severed heads with bullet holes. With contact to the city down, he can't find out whose vegicle it is. Meanwhile, Dredd discovers that another of the citizens has gone missing, while the serial killer starts offing people and the attackers find another way in - unaware that a monster is lurking behind the door they're about to blow open...

PMcC: At the moment, every week that doesn’t have a Wagner Dredd continuing the Maybe/Fargo arc seems like a missed opportunity, but this Rennie tale is turning into a really fun diversion. The isolated, haunted house set up works well and I’m getting a kick out of the way each citizen’s secret just amps up the problems for everyone else around them. Great pacing from Rennie and enough laughs to keep me happy too.

Dave Taylor’s art is also quite something. In his recent Anderson story, I felt the lushness of his background cityscapes was masking the characters who should be the main focus of a story, with Cass herself being particularly poor. Here, however, his work is much stronger with all elements working in harmony and the besiegers – especially the glowy robot thing – fit to take their place alongside Cursed Earth weirdoes like The Doomsday Dogs and Father Earth.

RC: A busy week for Old Stony Face and excellent work all round from Rennie, blending three plot threads nicely and using a plausible set-up to build tension from the race against time. Especially good was Dredd’s interaction with the cits; contemptuously dismissing their offers of help and generally pushing them around. For their own good, of course.

Things seem to be reaching the boil quite nicely. Mutant attack, serial killer and Thing in the Cellar. What’s not to like?

The Guv'nor - Part 8 Script: Pat Mills Art: Patrick Goddard Letters: Ellie De Ville

Savage rounds up the troops...

Synopsis: Savage's superiors tell him that all units are to cease-fire, despite his warning about Steak-Knife. The press are supporting the new president, while pitting out stories that Savage is a wanted extremist terrorist. Savage meets with his American contact Alison who tells him that they know that Steak Knife is attacking from King's Cross. Savage rounds up his crew to look for Steak Knife while there's still time...

PMcC: I didn’t much care for the last Savage outing, so the unexplained change of setting didn’t bother me so much as the fact that it had returned at all. Rereading this instalment to write this, it certainly seems that there are interesting things going on (the internecine differences in the resistance, collaboration vs. reconciliation, where and when do you simply stop and accept defeat) and they’re actually being portrayed without the usual info-dumps, but through people speaking to each other. So far, so good.

The problem arises because, in trying to fit this into a ten or twelve part story, we’ve had to endure frequent jumps of time and place with little explanation and a whole host of identical-looking characters. I still can’t tell whether the guy on Page 3, Panel 6 is supposed to be Bill or Steak Knife. Now maybe that’s the point: to further muddy the waters and make us question whose on the “right” or “wrong” side, but I prefer to just blame the artist. 

RC: Savage showing a big, big improvement this week, not least because Bill is faced with a problem he can’t solve with a quip and his shoota. How you gonna get out of that, Guv'ner?

The potential involvement of the Americans is intriguing. I’d like to see Mills develop this aspect of the story, rather than the repetitive cycle of commando raids that’s set in since the clumsy “reset” in Book Three and a Half, as the strip shifts into a higher gear for the big finish.

Goddard’s artwork is adequate for the purpose. Naturally, I miss Adlard’s definitive work.

Part 7 Script: John Smith Art: Lee Carter Letters: Simon Bowland

Getting ready to take on the Neanderthals ...

Synopsis: Danny and Geoff are shown round the underworld by Unther, who communicates by telepathy. They discover that they still practise Trepanation, to heighten their brain functions. They are also introduced to the "Drovers" the UFOs that Danny and Geoff can see and feed off human sickness. As Kellet and his crew prepare to move in, Danny and Geoff are brought back to the surface where a Neanderthal orgy appears to be taking place...

PMcC: I’ve been trying very hard to like this. John Smith is the only one of the trio (Milligan and Morrison being the others) that, for me, revitalised 2000AD who is still regularly contributing and I always like to see his name in the credits. Unfortunately, this current story has become a bit of a stinker. Unthur’s dialogue and purpose seems to be a direct lift from the aliens/antibodies/Barbelith in The Invisibles, most of the dialogue is expository, mystical codswallop of the type I normally like to have a go at Pat Mills about and the coterie of politicians and scientists who are clearly destined for a comeuppance when there plans to try and control the secret powers of the Earth backfire is simply cringeworthy.

The artwork runs both hot and cold and I think the dimness that it sometimes has is down to the reproduction and would be greatly improved in a reprint - as The Books of Invasions was – so I won’t hold that against it. Individual panels are good, but they don’t always seem to run together to tell a story especially well. Then there is a beautiful splash page halfway through that makes me sit and marvel for a minute.

Ultimately, it’s frustrating that a story with all these elements should end up so boring.

RC: Dead Eyes is bad in so many ways that it’s tough to know where to start. Let’s try page one: a conversation that goes something like:

Man: “I can hear your thoughts.”

Cave man; “Yes, it’s telepathy.”

Thanks for clearing that up. This is followed by two pages of mystic piffle as our non-descript heroes are given a tour as if they’re the Queen and Prince Philip opening a new hospital wing. The reason comic book characters talk so much while they’re fighting is so that the plot can be explained while something more interesting to look at is going on. It could have been done in one page, or maybe three if combined with a jelly fish attack or something.

This section also appears to have been painted with mud. At least let’s hope it’s mud.

Pages three and four feature another conversation. This one goes like:

Military type: “Shall we attack?”

Masonic baddie: “No. Let’s stand around for a bit.”

[Military type is justifiably angry about this and is going to attack anyway so he won’t be around for long.]

Page six features shagging, the last resort of any dull story tangled up in its own tedious internal mythology. Dead Eyes managed to catch my interest early on but now it just makes me feel tired. I can’t help feeling that the post-apocalyptic wolf buggery was the way to go.

Make Believe - Part 7 Script: Robbie Morrison Art: Shaun Thomas Letters: Ellie De Ville

The Ten Seconders make a break for it...

Synopsis: Malloy usess the weapons of the F15 to attack Arachne, and blow him to bits. However, he soon appears to be rebuilding himself, so the crew take off in the fighter, only to be followed by Arachne, who leaps on. He's about to attack when Malloy hits his ejector seat, taking Arachne with him...

PMcC: Another change of artist and, while we knew it was coming and the shift isn’t as jarring as last time, I was hugely enjoying Shaun Thomas’ stuff so it’s a shame to have it snatched away. The story seems to be getting somewhere this week, as it’s allowed to focus on a single group of characters and we get quite a nice bit of writing setting up a satisfying bit of self-sacrifice. Long memories are required, but the same can be said of Savage or any returning series given the frequency we see these days. 

RC: OK, it’s not quite up to the standards of Book One, but The 10 Seconders one was an instant classic with big ideas, big artwork, lots of action and a twisty-turny storyline to keep us guessing.

This week’s instalment is an action set piece with nicely judged humour in the dialogue. Plotwise, perhaps it’s all becoming a little bit clearer. (Some might say, “about time, too.”) Personally, I’m prepared to take it on faith that it will all make sense in the end and enjoy the roller coaster.

We’ve found out recently that there are plenty of good reasons why an artist can’t complete a story but the story feels it badly when it’s necessary. Oliver’s artwork this week seems clearer to me than the previous two artists, although it’s not in the same class as Harrison’s.

Part 2 Script: Al Ewing Art: PJ Holden Colours: Eva De La Cruz Letters: Annie Parkhouse

Kolnikov gets hacked...

Synopsis: Kolnikov is attacked and fights back, but the visions disappear after shooting him. However, despite Virgil saying that there was nothing there, Kolnikov has an actual wound to go with his vision. Virgil says that the goggles have been hacked and hardwired into his brain - and the only way to break the connection should be to do a reboot. Virgil turns off the goggles, but when Kolnikov wakes up, he appears to be in a contemporary hospital, surrounded by staff - and one of his legs and arms is missing...

PMcC: Well, there is a twist. It works very well, as a twist. Which is to say, you don’t see it coming. At the moment, all it really amounts to is the old: “It was all a virtual reality prison.” Mr Ewing seems to be quite keen on these kind of cliff-hangers, so I trust we’re going to see something a bit more original develop from this.

It’s often hard to know how much or how little to read into a story, but there certainly seem to be a lot of mythological overtones here. Given that the hero’s just been attacked by a load of Odin’s, it’s hard not to see the little engineer who fixes his weapons as Alberich and, from there, it’s only a short hop to see the cross Marc’s got painted on his jacket as the one that proved fatal for Siefried. On the other hand, the techy bloke is called Virgil, which might make him the storyteller. Then again, what was that “Interstellar Rendezvous..” stuff about.

Plenty of possibilities and solid art from PJ Holden make this one eminently readable but not particularly exciting so far. 

RC: Wow. Just wow. A great 2000AD moment that flips the story onto its side with a turn of the page.

Ewing certainly knows how to set up interesting new worlds and flesh them out quickly. His plotting style is uncomplicated and economical, and he has a flair for action set-pieces. If he has a weakness it’s characterisation. Our brush-haired hero is a bit of a generic cyberpunk. Perhaps that will come with time.

And a round of applause for Mr PJ Holden, please. His lively style hits just the right note, even if it’s a little bit dark this week and, with Eva De La Cruz’s sharp change of palate, he nails the twist with a nicely judged change of style.

PMcC: The Prog’s a bit murky at the moment both in terms of art and content. I habitually read a weekly Prog a couple of times, then go back and read most stories in full but, for the last month or so it’s only been Dredd that’s getting more than a once-over. Of course, that then compounds the problem as I start to lose track of what’s happening in stories I wasn’t too keen on in the first place and before you know it there’ll be a new line up and everything will be right.

I do think most of the current strips have a good element and will be more satisfying read in full, they just aren’t firing on all cylinders. However, with an excellent Dredd to tide us over for the next couple of weeks until the current run wraps up, I’m happy enough.

Best Story: Dredd

RC: Let’s not forget Cat Sullivan’s chucklesome Droid Life.

One of the top progs this year. Two excellent stories. One on the up. One sick puppy ready for euthanasia. (There’s always one, isn’t there?) I’m looking forward to some dramatic final flourishes in the next couple of weeks before the summer assault.

Best Story: Dead Signal