2000AD Prog 1641 - 24 June 2009

Cover by Patrick Goddard and Chris Blythe

Darren Stephens: Great wraparound cover from Savage artist Patrick Goddard. I would question whether this really needed to spread to the back cover too, as the front works much better on its own. A striking image, none the less. 

Pete McCosh : Having already sneaked a peek at this week's cover through the miracle of Barney, I nonchalantly tore open my subs envelope to grasp the thrills within with barely a thought about the cover. Imagine my surprise on realising that the vibrant, D-Day themed image was a wraparound cover even though it wasn't by Clint Langley. I'm not totally sure the second half adds much, but I'm happy to see more of this please Tharg. The next step is one that's not for a Pat Mills strip. And doesn't give away a big part of the story inside.  

High Spirits - Part 2 Script: Ian Edginton Art: Dave Taylor Letters: Annie Parkhouse

Lamia sees another side of Symberline ...

Synopsis: Exorcist judge Lamia frees Peach from the grip of the demon, but Peach is now in a coma. She says that she's investigating the disappearance of dead spirits throughout the city. Dredd also surmises that Rahls could have seen the demon that possessed Peach and that was why he went mad.

They head to Aetherworks, where the perps worked and are introduced to the alien administrator Symberline. Dredd tells them that they're going to interrogate Rahls and Lamia later tells him that she noticed that half of Symberline's soul looked like a rotten conjoined twin. She also tells him that she can see the dead...

DS: A Dredd filler from Ian Edginton, featuring an alien cult and the souls of Mega City One's dead perps. It's an interesting enough tale and new Exo-Judge Lamia could be a great addition to the strip's support cast.

Dave Taylor's art is fantastic. He does probably the best version of Dredd currently doing the rounds, and his cityscapes are mind blowing.  

PMC: Ian Edginton's previous Dredd stories haven't done much for me and this one's done nothing to change that opinion. I don't remember ever reading about exorcist judges before - although it seems they have been around - and I think I'll have forgotten all about them again in a few weeks time. 

A lot of forum space has been taken up lavishing praise on Dave Taylor's vision of MC1 and there's no doubt his cityscapes are fabulous. Dense, lush and disturbingly organic, just as they were in the Anderson story he drew; this is a distinctive and original take on the Big Meg. Unfortunately, I find other aspects of his work undermine this element. A specific criticism is his efforts to age Dredd. A matter of individual taste, for sure, but to me it looks like it's The Dead Man under that helmet. More generally, I find he struggles to maintain a coherent look for characters from one panel to the next. Characters relative sizes fluctuate weirdly. Breasts move, jiggle and protrude at odd angles. That's quite alright in the boudoir, but not in a static comic scene. It’s still nice work, but it doesn’t blow me away completely. 

1984 - Part 10 Script: Pat Mills Art: Patrick Goddard Letters: Simon Bowland

Damaged goods...

Synopsis: As Savage fights off the Volgans, 1000s of Hammerstein-like robots land at Fishguard. He later tells Cath that he knew all along about the set-up but didn't know if he could trust her, so told her they were landing at Holyhead. He says they still have to work out what the Volgans are doing at St Pancras. Meanwhile, a damaged allied robot shoots up a hospital ward...

DS: Book 5 draws to a close. I've really enjoyed this run of Savage, having not really bothered with the previous 4. The introduction of the robots has set things up for a great sixth run.

Patrick Goddard gets better and better also.  I see great things in the future for this guy. Possibly away from the house of Tharg? That would be a great shame.

PMC: I'm usually against this sort of crossover but, in this case, I can accept that the links have always implicitly existed, I've enjoyed the current book enough to let it go and the introduction of the robot soldiers in this way let’s Pat draw all sorts of comparisons  

After a bravura revival, I felt Savage had gone downhill drastically and could do with being retired on a Volgan lead pension. However, this latest story has been a great improvement on the previous couple and I'm very surprised to find myself enthused not just about the possibilities for the future of the strip but for some of the Mills political commentary. It looks like the next installment will focus on whatever's going on in St Pancras, but I'm actually more intrigued to see if Bill’s finally gone too far and alienated some of his own team and how the American Invasion 2009 will play out. Will it end up like Iraq or Afghanistan; will Bill have to take up arms against a new occupying force?

Part 9 Script: John Smith Art: Edmund Bagwell Letters: Ellie De Ville

Skully shows them who's boss...

Synopsis: Shane manages to appease Skully (who's daughter is in hospital after being run over by Cal) but he now has them doing as he pleases. Shane realises they will have to get rid of Ted, while Craig is visiting Mary by himself...

DS: 2000AD's strip of the year is almost at an end. Probably the greatest thing I've had the pleasure to read from the pen of John Smith. What started as a kitchen sink tale of miss spent youth has spiralled into a stomach churning, vile and brilliantly disturbed thrill. Gross and engrossing!

It's all illustrated by an artist I hadn't heard of before this kicked off nine weeks ago, Edmond Bagwell. His work is perfectly suited to the script, easily showing us the everyday scenes and the horrific, in great detail. When this strip ends, I'll look forward to re-reading the whole thing straight away - something I rarely do.

PMC: After last week's cliffhanger, I'd convinced myself that Scully was going to be the one to bring the real horror so it was a surprise to have the rug pulled from under that particular menace. In truth, the lack of any retaliation seemed unlikely but we don’t yet know exactly what plans he has for the lads.

I think it's the ordinariness of everything outside Mary's room that makes this strip so special. It throws the strangeness into relief and enhances the atmosphere to the point where you feel maybe it's all just a product of the heat and the decay (both physical and spiritual) that the estate is steeped in rather than the other way round. John Smith's last big outing in the Prog, Dead Eyes, started from a similarly contemporary situation before spiralling off out of control and it seems to me that the difference between the two stories is illustrative of the difficulty in pulling that off. In the latter, the dialogue continually felt slightly off; I've never been on a Lancashire housing estate (for the record, I've never been in a chthonic Neanderthal megacity either) but here everything sounds pitch perfect, the trademark Smith linguistic tics played down slightly and smartly moved into third person narration so as not to break the epistemological barrier.

It's common for horror films to use the weather to build a mood, but it's usually the wind and the rain: "It was a dark and stormy night" as the cliché goes. Cradlegrave has gone the opposite way. Like the Texas Chainsaw Massacre, it uses the dead calm and oppressive heat of high summer to create tension. Page four's riff on that BBC/Children In Need video brilliantly reinforces, without needing to beat us around the head, what we all know: that beneath the surface there's something deeply diseased and wrong in this world. Mr. Bagwell’s art has to take a lot of credit for enabling this mood. I don’t pretend to know how it’s done, but the “real” elements of the art are integrated and denatured to a sufficient degree that they are recognisable without being jarring. 

This has been the best new story in 2000AD in ages (it’s how utterly unlike anything else it is that makes it a perfect fit) and is up there with the very best of John Smith’s previous work. A lot will depend on whether the ending can deliver on the palpable tension that’s built up but with Tharg’s sickest droid - that’s meant as a compliment - at the helm and the door to Mary’s room left unlocked at last I am anticipating a classic. 

Script: Pat Mills Art: Leigh Gallagher Letters: Annie Parkhouse

Another way to dispatch a troublesome zombie...

Synopsis: Defoe and his crew methodically take out the super Reeks, while Servitor and Defoe head after the Queen...

DS: An all-action episode this week as the gang are all introduced one by one as they take on a huge dungeonful of zombies. Mills's script is as reliable as always. Nothing spectacular , but very enjoyable. The whole thing is way over the top, all action zombie blasting fun and shows a different side to Mills writing than the other of his strips in this issue. Leigh Gallagher's art is pretty damn cool too.

PMC: Following last week's cliffhanger it seemed like this was going to be a classic Pat Mills episode, setting up a crew of powerful opponents to face off against our heroes over the rest of the story's run. Instead, it's the, equally familiar, episode which showcases the range of outlandish weaponry which Pat has dreamed up. For some reason, I have an enormous feeling of goodwill towards Defoe and I'm perfectly happy to let a week slip by in an extended action scene, particularly one which allows Mr Gallagher to exercise his talents for oppressive interiors and viscous gore.  

I do hope that the current run allows for some development of Defoe's team of reek busters, rather than piling on more elements as the second book did. The good thing about a decent sized group is that the reader is a lot less sure about the likelihood of any particular character surviving, but we have to care about them first for this to work and there were several hints dropped about mysterious secrets which have yet to pay off. 

DS: Great prog this week. Just like last week...and the week before! So far, this year has been a top quality one as far as 2000AD goes at least! 

Best Story: Cradlegrave. It's made me feel physically sick on more than one occasion. Great!

PMC: A pretty decent prog with a fairly weak Dredd but nothing I actively dislike and everything in the shadow of Cradlegrave. This one needs to be reprinted in a full size hardback Tharg. 

Best Story: Cradlegrave