2000AD Prog 1601 - 27 August 08

Cover by Nick Percival

Stan Bastion: Nick Percival gives us a cracking portrait of Lobster Random, that's dripping with sci-fi spookiness. It's funny, I was reading some old Dredds the other day when I came across a Percival episode and wondered what he was up to these days. He's obviously spent a lot of time becoming very polished - I'd love to see him on some interior strips.

John Amans: A nice Nick Percival cover which offers a different slant to Lobster Random with a little more facial detail than usual.  Good to see a different interpretation of a great character with a different colour scheme to the one seen inside and drawn by the regular artist.

Mutie Block Part 2 Script: John Wagner Art: Kev Walker Colours: Chris Blythe Letters: Annie Parkhouse

Dredd cuts to the chase...

Synopsis: Dredd is arresting a mutant in the Norma Jean Baker mutant block but gets a bad feeling. He heads out to the terrace and sees armed attackers approaching below. He blasts at them with hi-ex, but can't reach Central as his comms are jammed. Some invaders start to scale the walls, while a wave of sky-surfers is next...

SB: Kev Walker is the UK's answer to Mike Mignola. His flawless figure work and loose cartooning fit perfectly with Dredd and, when he doesn't insist on all the Judges wearing rain macs, for my money he's one of the best modern Dredd artists. I love that he does his own sound effects – they really snap out of the page and make a nice change from the standard 'BLAM!' font that's used elsewhere in the comic. And by the looks of things Chris Blythe enjoys working with this art, as he turns in a superb job that makes the page glow.

As for Wagner's script – it's hard to fault the man, especially when he returns to the ongoing mutant integration saga that he's so obviously into. I'm especially enjoying the to-camera character sequences, lending it a mockumentary tone that somehow works!

JA: You can always depend on Dredd to offer both insightful commentary on today’s society and a fair amount of violence, explosions and death toll to keep an old reader like me happy. The whole mutant thread has skilfully been put together and now we have Dredd tackling the real consequences of the path that MC has chosen by letting in mutant, be it right or wrong.

After a great set-up episode we have Kev Walker’s simple but effective art that provides atmosphere and tension as the attack on Norma Jean Block unfolds. Dredd realises he is on his own against a whole horde of mutant haters, which if you read their comments carefully is genuinely quite disturbing and at times you forget it’s a comic. When I wonder why Judge Dredd is so good you only have to read an episode like this to realise why.

Brilliant stuff!

Part 2 Script: Tony Lee Art: Jon Davis-Hunt Letters: Ellie De Ville

Chapman makes friends...

Synopsis: "Raider" is revealed as Chapman, perhaps not the legend after all. He's a hotshot who wants to get out of Stalag 666. He doesn't trust Holland, who's friends with one of the guards, but is told by the others that he has to help them build a tunnel. They're hoping to reach a Snake landing pad and send a message to Earth. Chapman tells them there won't be time as the Snakes are getting ready to move them in three months...

SB: Oh dear. This isn't very good, is it? The dialogue is ropey, the plot forced and the characters uninteresting. In fairness I enjoyed this a lot more than last week's plodding double length first episode, and I am glad that it at least seems to be going somewhere. (It is, isn't it?) Oh and it had a typo as well, making me wonder if even Tharg was tired of reading it by page four.

The art is often very nice, the subdued colour palette working well, but occasionally a figure looks like it's been traced from a computer poser program or something – it doesn't have any 'weight' - and hands sporadically look like they've been mangled. I reckon Mr Davis-Hunt will be a red-hot artist in a few years though.

JA: Ok this does seem to be “the great escape” in space, but that isn’t necessarily a bad thing. After the double episode last week that set up a lot of the back-story we have another even paced episode that doesn’t have a lot of action but tends to further “bed in” the story and characters and the brown tones of the artwork nicely adds to the visual and feel.  Their is also some good development of the snakes into something less cartoon-ish villain via the Keester character. The last two frames I suspect will move the story on as time is against the humans before they are to be moved.

New stories are notoriously slow to get going and this is no exception. It is probably a little too early to pass full judgement on this.

Old Gods - Part 2 Script: Ian Edginton Art: Steve Yeowell Letters: Ellie De Ville

Washington's teeth were rotten than most...

Synopsis: Washington tells Dancer that he's heard of his exploits from Sir Isaac Newton. He needs his help to discover why Albany was attacked by Vikings, showing them an axe that was left behind. Erebus detects strong magic and Dancer agrees to help. Elsewhere Toten (last seen in a "future" Red Seas interlude) is digging for a monster hidden in the depths of upstate New York...

SB: Any strip that starts with a gag about George Washington's wooden false teeth is fine by me. Edginton kicks off an interesting tale after last week's pedestrian reintroduction to Captain Jack's world, and it's immediately interesting. I'm looking forward to seeing where this goes, and any memories of being let down by this feature in the past are almost forgotten.

Steve Yeowell's art works best when he has a lot of black on the page, and that's exactly the sort of mood he's in at the moment. I'd like to see what a colourist could do with this, but it looks great as it is.

JA: Another series of the Red Seas and I’m just thinking if this is falling into a rather familiar pattern, rather like the ABC Warriors. We have Steve Yeowell’s wonderfully detailed black and white art, the crew bump into some historical figure (who’s involved in some kind of secret society) a load of mythical/fantasy/supernatural creatures turn up, fight ensues etc, etc. Now thankfully the Red Seas has shaken off its “Pirates of the you know what” undertones of its early series and now seems to be a little more gutsy but I fear this tale set against the back drop of the American war of Independence will end up being a little too formulaic.

Like most of the prog very little happens this week as further back-up story is added with a few further teasers added in to give an idea of what will be happening in the coming weeks. Its ok, but hardly original, we shall have to wait and see.

Volgan War 3 - Part 1 Script: Pat Mills Art: Clint Langley Letters: Simon Bowland

No Pat, not heavy handed at all...

Synopsis: Zippo is about to me melted by the Volgans and the ABC Warriors are heading to the rescue. But there's just time for Steelhorn's war story, who tells them about his hammer that could make robots implode, and being accused of being a war criminal...

SB: Pat Mills is often maligned in 2000AD fan circles, and although I agree with some of the criticism hurled his way, I can overlook even his most self-indulgent storytelling excesses when it comes to the ABC Warriors. It all fits with these characters: the repeated rhyming mantras, the heavy-handed political allegory and even the protracted flashbacks (although I did wonder just how many we're going to get when Blackblood told us they were going to kill a couple of hours by chatting).

And in the absence of Kev Walker, Clint Langley is by far my favourite ABC artist. His photo manipulation/digital painting style brings the story to the boil with ease, and I even enjoyed spotting actors from Slaine making reappearances here. If anyone else had 'drawn' that last double page spread I'd have probably complained about not getting my money's worth.

JA: The Volgan War series of the ABC Warriors with the wonderful Clint Langley at the art helm seems to have been going on for ages. We’ve had a lot of episodic “chunks” of  flashbacks (with gorgeous artwork) and the ABC Warriors sitting around hurling insults at each other on the future Mars.

This current run obviously focuses on Steelhorn. Now I remember when Steelhorn first appeared emerging out of the flames to kill the human Volgan leader back in the mists of the early 1980s. “What a cool robot” I though then, but next moment he had turned into a pacifist and been melted down into the “mess”. I always thought he was a waste of a potentially great character. Now he is back in his original form and thankfully he may be done justice by Langley’s art and hopefully Mills’ script (but I wouldn’t bank on it).

My only fear is that this will be a retread of most of the other Volgan War tales. Lots of double page panoramic spreads of Volgan robots being smashed the obligatory appearance of Zippo and then bang onto the next war memoir!

I wait to be proved wrong.

The Forget Me Knot - Part 1 Script: Simon Spurrier Art: Carl Critchlow Letters: Annie Parkhouse

Ransom remembered one thing, all right...

Synopsis: Lobster's memory is still messed up from his time on the Vort - and Meridien Bless is having her parasite examined. The doctor can't remove it without killing her - and needs more tests. The ship lands at a space station and Random and Bless go for a drink. However, Random is detected by security who have decided to kill him for his crimes. Bless and Random flee for their lives, but Random is grabbed through an airlock and escapes in a ship, manned by his robot love Kilk...

SB: I wasn't a fan of writer Simon Spurrier until his recent 'ghost written' series, The Vort. Although I felt slightly cheated by the end of that tale, it still made me look forward to the return of Random more than I would have otherwise. Nothing much happens in this opening episode, but I enjoyed it nonetheless. Although I could have done without the mood wig, which I thought was naff idea.

Critchlow is a veteran artist, and it really shows. He knows how to lay out a page, there's always space for the speech balloons and even a less-than-average drawing is beyond criticism. I could have done with slightly more variety in the colouring, but that's a minor complaint.

JA: I was sort of glad to see the reappearance of Lobster Random at the end of the Vort. We now have Carl Critchlow doing the art and the typical witty Random dialogue and distinct visuals with Random’s amusing Robot fetish thrown in. This episode made me chuckle amongst the obvious crossover script from the Vort into a fully fledged LR story. This is its obvious flaw as it struggles to cross from one story to another and set-up the coming story.

I only hope that Simon Spurrier doesn’t just rehash himself but offers us something different this series that takes the story in a slightly different direction so it doesn’t just stagnate and be remembered for it first couple of great series.

SB: A good prog, I enjoyed everything except Stalag 666, and even that wasn't terrible. Of course there's only one contender for best story...

Best Story: Judge Dredd

JA: After last weeks reboot and double length stories it feels more like a normal prog and quite a packed one at that. With the introduction of 2 established series it felt a long read this week. Their seemed to be very little “flab” and generally this was a strong prog but had the air of a few too many stories bedding in. That is all apart from Judge Dredd, which is a continuum of the “mutant” tread that has been playing out for the last couple of years. All the other stories seem to be a little action light as the narrative is being built up

Best Story: Judge Dredd