The 2000 AD Prog Slog Blog
Being the reacquainting of Paul B Rainey with the first 1188 editions of the weekly science fiction comic, 2000 AD, and associated publications. This time, The Slog drifts into 1989.
The Blind Spot
Prog 599, posted Mon 18stAug 2008
Moon Runners has been running for nine weeks now; a story of a space trucking firm and the vying for its ownership between a group of over affluent and bitchy women. Sounds a little like ACE Trucking Co to me. Hell, it even has the same artist, Messimo Bellardinelli. But Moon Runners, written jointly by Alan McKenzie and Steve Parkhouse, is a straighter and camper strip (if that isn’t a contradiction in terms).
I couldn’t stand Moon Runners first time around. I couldn’t understand how anyone could think this combination of ACE Trucking Co and Dynasty would appeal to the readers of 2000 AD. Why is Tharg commissioning strips like this when he could be running mash-ups between Flesh and Knight Rider or MACH 1 and The A Team instead? Now that I understand that the comic seems to be in the midst of a half arsed and misguided attempt to appeal to female readers as well as the long standing it isn’t so confusing. I actually quite enjoy it. At least it makes lot more sense than the impenetrable Tyranny Rex Soft Bodies by John Smith and Will Simpson which is also currently running.
In this prog’s episode, handsome Captain Flynn stumbles across a naked Carroll Nash in one of the ship’s cabins, her bits tastefully concealed by objects and angles, at the same time that the Spirit of St Louis docks to receive cargo. You would have to be the most socially backward Squaxx dek Thargo not to have picked up of the sexual references established by the inter-cutting and yet, in comparison with the tit-fests and semi-ons that feature in twenty-first centaury editions of 2000 AD, it’s remarkably subtle.
Moon Runners occupies what I think of as 2000 AD’s ‘blind spot’; slap bang in the middle of each week’s episode of Judge Dredd, irritating like a kidney stone. Now that Dredd is in colour throughout, his stories begin in the centre spread before continuing five pages later. I wonder how many episodes of Moon Runners got missed by readers eager for their complete dose of future law.
It’s for Charity, Mate
Prog 601, posted Tues 19stAug 2008
Thanks to Band Aid, Live Aid and Comic Relief we, in the UK, were suffering from what the press referred to as "charity fatigue". I liked "charity fatigue". It made charity uncool and provided me with justification for not giving my money away to needy people. Before, I never really had a good excuse worked out.
In this prog, a four paged one-off Bad Company strip appears drawn by Brett Ewins, Steve Dillon and Tom Frame at UKCAC 88 (the UK’s Comic Art convention) to raise money for children’s charities. Incredibly, except for Pete Milligan’s script which was written in advance, it took them four and a half hours to produce the strip. What took them so long? I guess they must have stopped for lunch half way through. Nearly £150 was raised from donations from attendees as they worked. I was at that UKCAC and I seem to remember avoiding the room during the period in which they worked. The groats Tharg would normally pay creators for running the strip in the comic are also going to charity and the original artwork will be sold at a later date to raise even more money.
I think the artwork looks very impressive considering the brief period of time in which it was produced. I find myself wondering what the result would have been like had the annual 24 Hour Comic Day been happening in 1988 and they had taken part. Above average, I imagine. Most of all, I find it heart warming to think that at the time they were editing the UK’s coolest comic Deadline, Ewins and Dillon found the time to raise money for charity. Good on you, chaps.
Rogue Dummy
Prog 603, posted Wed 20stAug 2008
The latest in the ad-hoc series of Rogue Trooper stories, Hit Four, concludes this prog with his targets all being killed as instructed earlier by his mysterious benefactor. This time, Rogue and his bio-chip buddies have had to wipe out The New Moral Army in its entirety; an organisation of both South and Nort deserters who have united under a religious extremist.
At the moment, Rogue Trooper by Simon Geller and Steve Dillon is pacey, action packed and accessible. The problem with it is that it helps to emphasis the problem with this period of change that 2000 AD is going through right now. As the comic aims for an older and broader audience characters such as Rogue who established themselves in the guts of the comic’s boy biased past seem somehow to shine a light on the cracks in the current tone.
Rogue never wonders about the moral implications of just unquestioningly appearing and killing his targets. There never seems to be a satisfactory explanation as to why the victims keep the war rolling and are therefore targets in the first place. The bio-chips are chirper these days and never seem to hint at any sort of trauma at having experienced full body loss. Basically, the strip is dumber now than when Gerry Finley-Day wrote it.
If 2000 AD continued to be aimed at ten years olds as it once was, then a dumb strip like this would be perfectly acceptable, but now it’s aimed at seventeen year olds and somehow the redirected Rogue Trooper, along with most of the other newer strips, seems less intelligent than what came before it.
Richard Branson Hijacks Sub
Prog 606, posted Thurs 21st Aug 2008
Zenith Phase II ends this prog after an eighteen week long run. In it, the rock star superhero fights his Ed 209 bound father and foils an attempt by Richard Branson to bomb London from a lo-jacked nuclear submarine. Also, he confronts his creator, Peyne, just like Marvel Man did in his second book.
In the twenty-first centaury we talk about decompression in comics as if it’s a new thing but in Zenith Phase II two decades old examples of it can be found. Grant Morrison wrote whole episodes where it seemed that barely anything happened or was uttered as Zenith swaggered around the Scottish complex he was being held captive in or wrestled with his dad.
Steve Yeowell’s art for the strip looks simplistic throughout. During these almost silent chapters, his figure work is solid but his backgrounds are almost non-existent. It’s as if he found blacking out huge areas of the artwork with a brush the most satisfying act in the world.
Yet, despite Phase II being my least favourite of all the Zenith books, it is still the best thing that has appeared in 2000 AD recently. Morrison and Yeowell not trying very hard is still better than other new contributors at this time trying their best.
The Hierarchy
Prog 608, posted Mon 25th Aug 2008
From the point of view of The Slog, not all thrills are created equally. Therefore I should make clear that although I enjoyed the recent run of Moon Runners, compared to Zenith Phase II, which I was critical of, it was not very good. There is a hierarchy of strips in 2000 AD from which more is expected at the top which includes Judge Dredd (obviously), Zenith and Nemesis.
In Nemesis Deathbringer, the characters arrive through the time wastes to modern day (1988) Britain (alternative Earth). There, Torqumada seems to be both in charge of a particularly bullying section of the police force and a property landlord. Nemesis, perhaps pissed off at the murder by Torquemada of his son but perhaps not, is closing in on him. At the same time, Purity’s memory has returned and it looks like she might actually switch sides.
Writer Pat Mills has succeeded in giving the Nemesis stories a mythic quality thanks, in part, to having the characters racing through history but, unfortunately, there is also often a really annoying element to them as well. Deathbringer, for example, has the relationships of a group of young characters weaved throughout. These self obsessed, time consuming little bastards (or "dastards" as someone from a Nemesis book now might say) are made all the more objectionable thanks to them being Goths. Surely it’s a failing if when reading Deathbringer the reader is aching for the obviously despicable Torquamada to take his chainsaw to each of the down to earth, working class, Goth cast.
John Hicklenton’s art style is undeniably memorable but his story telling, although improved, has a long way to go. I still have to work hard at deciphering what visually is going on. For example, one of the Goth characters, Jennifer, plays an important role in Deathbringer and yet she is drawn to look exactly like the other major human character, Purity.
So, in summary; Nemesis Deathbringer is mythic, annoying and difficult to follow but better than Moon Runners.
Tharg Just Doesn’t Seem to be Trying Very Hard
Prog 611, posted Wed 27th Aug 2008
We may have had strips like Zenith feature recently but 2000 AD is going through its most thrilless period in its history so far. Prog 520’s format upgrade seemed to signify a change in editorial attitude towards its content but since the arrival of the glossy cover and four extra pages with prog 591 the approach seems to have changed again to, well, not trying very hard.
For example, the majority of progs since 591 have featured a reprint of some sort; either a run of Daily Star strips or, in this issue, a Walter the Wobot one off from one of the annuals. Cross promotion ads seem more common and less amusing. Next prog, The Best of 2000 AD, reservation coupons, they’re the same every week; Tharg looking at you from over his Ray Ban sunglasses and saying exactly the same words that he did last time and the time before that.
Future Shocks seem to lack the same pop pizzazz that they once had. This prog’s, by Mike Collins and Simon Jacob, features a prospective writer trying to come up with ideas for stories. I mention this because the writer is a human being and not a robot. Newer strips, examples this prog being Night Zero and Zippy Couriers, are at best straight and often bland.
Why I continued to buy 2000 AD during this period is probably the subject for a Slog entry itself but this prog’s Judge Dredd, Our Man in Hondo part 4, is probably part of the explanation. John Wagner’s solo Dredd might have a more dour tone to it but it remains excellent whilst artist Colin MacNeil seems to have been born to draw the character. Although, those chin-off covers are a bit of a cliché by 1989.
The Traditionalist
Prog 613, posted Fri 29th Aug 2008
In Night Zero, cyborg cab driver Tanner has been hired to protect Allana, a beautiful woman in fear of her life, and with good reason. So far in the story, Allana has been killed twice and is now down to her last clone. Any murdering actioned upon her from now on is permanent.
Night Zero seems surprisingly traditional, especially when you consider how out there some of the work by newer 2000 AD creators has been recently. The story is told by writer John Bronson and artist Kev Hopgood with absolute clarity. Even the first person narrative is kept to a minimum which is surprising given the pulp novel influence on the strip and the fashion for it in mainstream comics in 1989.
Night Zero is undoubtedly professional. All of the rough edges have been filed away and any of the creators’ personalities seem to have been drained off. What’s left is a thrill that wouldn’t seem out of place had it appeared during the comic’s first ten years.
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Paul Rainey