2000AD Prog 1607 - 8 October 08

Cover by Clint Langley

Stephen Watson :  I don’t really like this cover by the normally reliable Karl Richardson. My main concern is the lack of dynamism - it looks like Dredd is rubbing the bad guys’ heads together rather than smashing them. Dredd also has forearms like Popeye and a tiny head, relative to his shoulders. The bad guys are better and have some great detail but overall this has to be a narrow fail for me.

Charles Ellis: Dredd hitting ugly people while the cover text threatens us directly – always a fun choice (but a pity it doesn’t fit the content of this week’s Dredd!).

The Informant Script: Robbie Morrison Art: Paul Marshall Colours: Chris Blythe Letters: Annie Parkhouse

Zac makes the best of it...

Synopsis: Zac Castro, unemployable, is bequested the "Biggabum Club" in his uncle's will - the roughest bar in Mega City One. After a bust by Dredd, he's turned into an informant, but it's not too long before his regulars realise what he's up to. After a nasty run in with some mobsters and electrocuted testicles, Castro sold the club and returned to hanging around the welfare office. At which point Dredd decides to keep him on as informant looking out for welfare fraud...

SW: I quite enjoyed this throwaway Dredd from the sometimes shaky Robbie Morrison. Of course the idea of a Justice department snooper is nothing new but there was enough new spin added to keep my interest. The character of Zac Castro was a good one and I’m glad his option to return has been left open. His Shaggy out of ‘Scooby Doo’ look was too exact to be a coincidence but at least he wasn’t as annoying as his doppelganger.
 
I liked the ‘Bigga Bum’ club, an obvious parody of the ‘Sopranos’ Badda Bing strip joint, but I was less keen on the seemingly untouchable bad guy who pulls a gun at the first sign of trouble. Why didn’t the Judges do a simple stop and search on him and save poor Zac all that hassle? Dredd’s role is strictly background here and that’s not necessarily a bad thing. This citizen’s eye view of Justice department is a timely reminder of how unfair and manipulative the Judges can be when it suits their cause.
 
Paul Marshall does his usual good job on a lighter strip and he can certainly draw a nice ass! I don’t think this tale will live long in the memory but it stands up well as an enjoyable filler piece that delivers a few laughs and a nice self contained story.

CE: As with Firestorm, this is an “old school” type of Dredd; unlike that story, we get just six pages and Dredd in antagonist mode, and it works a lot better. It’s a fun one-off and Zac’s an amiable sort that you can’t help feel sorry for (while still finding it funny to see him suffer), and the twist at the end is very Dredd. Little touches in art and lettering help keep this fun and light: the “Drokk you Dredd!” and “Rapid Fire!” exclamations being a sound effect and logo respectively, Zac’s protective helmet when working. 

And in a obsessive nerdy note, I like the presence of mutants at the bar; that’s a nice continuity touch. 

Scablands Script: Arthur Wyatt Art: Robin Smith Letters: Simon Bowland

Home alarm systems had progressed...

Synopsis: Jack Hayden's gang walks into the town of New Hope and learns about a weapons cache, guarded by a gunman. They burn the town and encounter the gunman who turns out to be a robot. The robot gunman proceeds to kill all of the gang but Jack Hayden himself. Jack finds the cache, only to discover it contains hundreds of robot gunmen - all with him in their sights...

SW: Why did Tharg have his name taken off the Future Shocks? - they weren’t all that bad really!
 
This effort by Arthur Wyatt is pretty much in the old school tradition and that’s a good thing as far as I’m concerned. Too many of these tales try to cram whole new worlds and concepts into the five allotted pages and quite often the only thing shocking is the fact that they saw print in the first place.
 
This tale is a simple one concerning a quest for a cache of weapons, an idea that has been done before (’It’s the thought that counts’ from my first ever prog - 442) when the reveal about a mind reading device being the best weapon of all was far better and more thought provoking than the outcome here. That said, this effort is not half bad although some generous padding is needed to make the simple idea last the full 5 page term.
 
I liked the off-worldly Wild West setting and to have the cowboys juxtaposed against the android was an interesting idea. I’d liked to have seen a bit more development of the plot concerning the source of the weapons and the rumours concerning their uses but once the quest is laid down you can basically skip to the last page and miss little.
 
I’m not sure why the robot is dragging a coffin around but this sort of quirky detail keeps me interested. The reveal at the end wasn’t exactly expected by me but I knew it would be that kind of thing. Not particularly shocking but a decent readable effort. It was also good to see Robin Smith back and although some of the panels looked a bit sketchy, I hope this is just a prelude to more strips by him.

CE: Another simple old-school story, and another fun one at that. There’s not much character here, though Jack’s calm and practical amorality does keep my attention, but of course the draw here is seeing a mad robot fight Western bandits and then have that twist. And in retrospect it’s an obvious twist, but that didn’t stop me being surprised and amused the first time round.  

Robin Smith’s art helps a great deal here: the town is immediately obvious as a post-apocalypse Wild West (the exposition caption isn’t needed), the robot looks suitably menacing while still fitting with the Western look of everything else, and the fight is dynamic. More from him! 

The Forget Me Knot - Part 7 Script: Simon Spurrier Art: Carl Critchlow Letters: Annie Parkhouse

Lobster makes some friends...

Synopsis: Random realises that the main Froggy is a priest, trying to stop the infection that Random has unleashed on his planet. He decides to help them, and in order to find out how to do that, he and a team of Froggys capture Veldt...

SW: If you came here looking for insight into this strip I’m afraid I’m going to disappoint - I haven’t a fraggin’ clue.
 
I did like the strip initially when it was a bit clearer and stories had a definite structure and momentum. Following the Vort wrong-foot and the various revelations that have followed, I’ve lost the will to keep up. I admire Simon Spurrier’s writing skills but his descents into the weird and offbeat leave me cold, and despite having invested somewhat in the character I find that I don’t care enough to dig out my back progs and try to fathom out what’s happening.
 
I’m not suggesting the strip is any way bad and I feel off beat stories like this should appear in 2000ad, it’s just never been my thing to study each panel for a potentially major plot point hidden in the murk. I did study this week’s outing closely for the purposes of this review and there is a lot to like. Spurrier’s eye for dialogue is good and you couldn’t call him a lazy writer seeing as he invents at least 20 words an episode. Carl Critchlow also does a great job with his highly detailed art but, as one wise letter-writer suggests, the same colour palette can only serve to turn the reader off.
 
I hope when this series has run its course we’ll find Lob back with the claws and molesting robots and bad guys with equal vigour. Something different is fine but when it removes the strip so far from its core values that it’s a different beast you have to sell it all over again, and I’m not buying.

CE: Now this is getting to be a hard strip to follow: the deliberately weird dialogue, while funny, does at times impair the reader’s ability to get what’s going on. Once you’ve got it sussed though, there’s a lot crammed in here. We’ve got the secret behind the Vort, an evil supernatural force invading an alien heaven, culture shock, violence, a cliffhanger and some character development for Lob in just five pages, and that’s great work on Spurrier’s part. It’s interesting seeing Lob actually want to help someone for no financial or personal gain; is he softening, is it a side effect from his amnesia, or something else? 

The art’s a pain on pages four and five, as the saturated brown colouring of the Vort jungles makes it hard to decipher. Everywhere else, it works great.

(And the vomiting frogs are bloody hilarious) 

Part 8 Script: Tony Lee Art: Jon Davis-Hunt Letters: Ellie De Ville

Literally putting the boot in...

Synopsis: The prisoners escape from the snakes, heading deep into the jungle - although Mother is injured as their vehicle crashes. Meanwhile, the camp boss reveals that his spy is still with them - and it may be the doctor...

SW: This is a strange strip to find in 2000AD and it’s hard to see it as anything but a recycled Commando script with some aliens pasted in for sci-fi effect.
 
After 8 episodes the jail break has finally taken place but the identity of the traitor remains a mystery. To my mind it has to be Raider as he’s the only real good guy that we’re sure about! To be honest I don’t really care and any reveal that comes now is not going to be worth the effort of getting there.
 
The characters are wooden and the plot and situations are predictable and clichéd. Apart from their reptilian feature the aliens are essentially Nazis and the space setting offers nothing in the way of drama or plot advancement. I may be proven wrong with some great revelation about the camp being in Hell or something but if that happens we’ll simply have a 50 page Future Shock that screams out ‘so what?’
 
It is good that Tharg tries something new now and again but if you want a prison escape story you need some fantastic elements like ‘Harry 20’ had not a bunch of lizards acting all bad ass.
 
The art by ‘Tempest’s Jon Davis Hunt is perfunctory at best but to be fair he has little to work with, with the same ‘dramatic’ shooting scene happening three times in recent weeks. The main question I have is that if these aliens are so cold and remorseless why are they setting up prison camps in the first place? Kill ‘em all then there are no escapes to worry about!
 
Not a glaringly bad strip just one with nothing new to say and one I hope wraps up soon before Steve McQueen shows up on his motorbike.

CE: The strip’s not that bad, really – again, it’s the sort of thing you could see running in older progs and exciting young readers. It’s been moving really slow though and does not divert that much from prisoner-of-war formula, which has undermined it; Davis-Hunt’s art also has come off as flatter than his Tempest art and work on Titan’s Transformers, which is disappointing. 

To be fair, this week’s part moves at a fast pace and has things happening, so it’s possible we’re off into high gear now. Hopefully it’ll mean more snakes on quad-bikes with rocket launchers, which is a great visual. I am mildly curious as to who the spy is too – it appears to be the doctor, but because that’s where the strip is pointing it might be “Mother” instead. (After all, the doc and his poison is why they escaped, which he wouldn’t do if he was a spy) But generally, I can leave most of the humans – I want more of the Bastard, who’s just so over-the-top it’s brilliant. Stomping on a burnt guy and shooting him while announcing he’s hellbound, then ordered dozens of men shot! Excellent! 

Unfortunately, the strip has a major gaff this prog – Cordon’s huge intestines-showing wound has mysteriously vanished between progs, and he’s now burnt to a crisp and his fellow corpse has vanished. Eh?! 

Old Gods - Part 8 Script: Ian Edginton Art: Steve Yeowell Letters: Ellie De Ville

...would also make one hell of an apple pie.

Synopsis: Jack Dancer and the rest meet the smaller gods, and are given something to eat - from one of the apples of Idun. They are given the "lightning bow", a lance and a "winter coat" to help them in the battle that is to come. As they leave, the gods say they have done their job to give them Idun's apple - and they fade away...

SW: Captain Dancer and his men meet some people and eat a big apple and that’s it for this week. Sounds a bit dull? Not a chance! The Red Seas has cemented itself as my favourite ‘New’ thrill of recent years and this latest offering does nothing to lower its stock.
 
The pirates are casually strolling through the worlds of Gods and apples as if it’s just another day, but given their history you can see why. The amazing characters conjured up through research or imagination by Edginton are fantastic and you genuinely feel that you are taking a trip through myth and history with every episode. There is no action to speak of in this week’s outing but you still get several memorable encounters and some cracking dialogue.
 
The Gods fading at the end and the truth of the giant apple make for more interest ahead and frankly I can’t get enough. The series is of course a triumph for Steve Yeowell too, with his sparing line and character designs things of beauty. The best strip in the prog by several streets.

CE: (BEWARE - SPOILERS for future episodes here) The pace is slow and leisurely here, but it works: the characters are meant to be witnessing wondrous events and beings, after all. The pace is almost deceptive, in fact; you could easily go “nothing’s happening!” and completely miss that, while you weren’t looking, our heroes have been given a specific gift – tying back to the 1940s-set War Stories from 2007), and trapped in a specific destiny.

There’s also that nice sombre bit when Erebus realises the gods here are dead and near-gone, with their pirate replacements being completely oblivious.  

SW: I had the luxury of coming back from holiday to a 3 Prog feast and I really enjoyed the gluttony! The prog has it’s faults just now, but for me they are relatively minor and the whole package makes for a rounded and satisfying read. Add to the mix a full letters page and a fun Nemesis iPod advert and you have a pretty solid Prog.

Best Story: Red Seas

CE: Bit of a slow relaxed stretch at the moment, so the nod goes to...  

Best Story: Lobster Random