The 2000 AD Prog Slog
Where the first 1188 editions of boys’ science-fiction adventure weekly 2000 AD and associated publications are read within a contracted period of time when compared to the rate at which they were originally released. This time, Paul Rainey begins to ebb.
Diamonds Are For Fogherty
Prog 713, posted Tues 25th Nov 2008
This prog’s Future Shock isn’t necessarily a memorable one but does seem typical of those we’ve seen in general recently. It’s drawn by Ron Smith for starters who isn’t by any means the regular artist but does seem to have done a number of them over the last few months. The Shocks seem to be being given over to new writers, in this case Jim Clements, but established artists at the moment.
In Treasured Companions, Fogherty holds an extravagant dinner party in his vast mansion for some old school friends. He recounts to them the story of how he amassed his vast fortune. It involves him bravely leading an expedition to a planet where he discovers a river that turns whatever is dropped into it to diamond. In good old fashioned Future Shock style, the pictures tell a different story. Fogherty is held hostage by a pair of criminals on the run and stumbles across the river by chance. The story ends with him walking his guests down to the basement where he shows them his kidnappers, now turned to diamond but still alive and having tiny chunks of their bodies sawed away.
It doesn’t make sense that Fogherty on one hand would lie about the circumstances under which he amassed his fortune but on the other show his friends that, basically, he’s torturing two men in the basement for it. This however, is the thing about the Future Shock; a little internal logic can be dispensed with for the sake of an entertaining twist at the end. And of course, Ron Smith’s over acting always helps. At a time when 2000 AD is reworking its established strips so that they have a greater reality to various degrees of success, it’s fun to see that the Future Shock remains non-precious about its ideas and fundamentally silly.
Hair Brush Assault
Prog 715, posted Sat 29th Nov 2008
Junker reaches Grud knows what episode this prog as they’re not numbered for some reason. Whatever, it’s been running long enough for me to feel able to say that despite it being written by Michael Fleisher I don’t dislike it as much as I expected to. In fact, I would say I’m indifferent to it. Whether this is because my expectations have been lowered by Fleisher’s recent run on Harlem Heroes, I cannot say.
Dennehy is a Junker; a guy who salvages space wrecks for money. In this story, he and his lizard like partner, Raz, have been lumbered with escorting an alien woman to her home planet. The woman, whose name Donnehy has trouble pronouncing so calls Veejay, is carrying something in her handbag that makes anyone exposed to it delirious and sick. The twist, if it can really be described as one, is that Donnehy is a misogynist due, we learn this prog, to his ex-wife throwing her hairbrush at him once. I can understand why he feels this way about women. Yeah, the hairbrush missed him, but those things are heavy and it could have really hurt.
The best thing about Junker is the wonderful art by John Ridgway and Tim Perkins. I’m presuming that Ridgway does the black and white work and Perkins applies the paint. The result is lavish and wouldn’t look out of place running alongside The Trigon Empire in Look and Learn just as long as you don’t pay too much attention to the words.
Command Module Attend Rave
Prog 717, posted Mon Dec 1st 2008
Thanks in part to the letters page now appearing after all the strips, I find myself reading less printed correspondence from the Squaxx Dek Thargo. I still, however read Tharg’s editorial and, I have to say, he seems to be losing touch with his readers increasingly with each passing week. Maybe Ig-Roid has taken the wind out of his sales now that he has been tasked with writing about droid appearances and sister publications leaving Tharg with little else to talk about.
This prog, Tharg rattles on about a rave organiser who has used, on occasion, the 2000 AD logo and, Grud forbid, the image of Roxilla on promotion for their events. Obviously, Tharg makes it clear that 2000 AD has absolutely nothing to do with them. He’ll be telling us next that those little tabs with Dredd’s face printed on them that were on sale there are unofficial as well.
I would like to suggest that the only people reading this editorial who encountered this unofficial association with 2000 AD were the current Tharg, the real Roxilla and, perhaps, script writer Alan McKenzie. Any readers who encountered it would have been old enough to understand that the use of the images was unofficial and any that did attend believing it to be real are stupid and we don’t want them associating with the rest of us anyway.
Deaf Aid
Prog 719, posted Wed Dec 3rd 2008
I was looking forward to writing all about Garth Ennis’ first Judge Dredd story, Death Aid, but five episodes in and it went on an "interlude". That’s what happens when you get Carlos Ezquerra to draw a multi parter, even a short one, so soon after completing thirty weeks of consecutive artwork on Necropolis. The bones in the poor bloke’s drawing hand must have turned to dust after that. The one-offs that filled the space until Death Aid’s return this prog were all written by John Wagner which must be a little intimidating to Ennis whose big Dredd premier is not only failing to appear in one single lump but the fillers in between were also written by the master.
Death Aid is a confidant premier for Ennis. He seems to have the speech patterns, the characterisation and the tone of the strip cracked. My memory of his time on Dredd is that, overall, it was disappointing but re-encountering this story for The Slog contradicts that. It doesn’t, however, contradict the sense I have carried over from first time around of him mainly revisiting ideas devised by Wagner and Grant (in this case, writing a sequel to The Hunters’ Club story). I suppose that The Slog will tell if that one’s true in time.
Country Of The Bland
Prog 721, posted Thurs Dec 4th 2008
Rogue Trooper’s first big story since the album driven opening reaches part 10 this prog. Normally, if you’re a regular visitor to The Slog you will know, I like to do a little summary of what the story is that I’m referring to but in the case of The Golden Fox Rebellion I’m not entirely sure that there is one. Friday (that’s the name Rogue is known by these days) aligns himself with a group of soldiers against another group who are holed up in a fortress of some kind. As Rogue Trooper for the nineties seems to have dispensed with the idea of sides representing good (the South) and bad (the Norts) Friday’s decision as to who he teams-up with has been motivated entirely by Gaia, the only woman on the planet apparently, being amongst them which, now that I think about it, probably makes a lot more sense. Shame she got killed off a couple of episodes ago.
Given that I despised his reinvention of The Harlem Heroes but thought his stories for the Annual seemed okay, it’s a shame that Michael Fleisher has fumbled this opportunity to redeem himself by writing a Rogue Trooper story that I don’t find the least bit compelling. On the other hand, Ron Smith’s art is superb. It’s actually great to see him working on a character other than Judge Dredd and I love his pallet’s leanings towards yellows and lilacs.
Meanwhile, Brigand Doom’s first story reaches its penultimate episode. Obviously, Alan McKenzie is an artist’s writer which explains why I have difficulty with Bradley but enjoy Summer Magic. McKenzie’s decompressed story telling allows Dave D’Antiques’ black and white artwork to shine. It really is stunning. One of my favourite ever single lines of 2000 AD dialogue appears in this episode; "In the country of the bland, the one-idea man is king." Nearly as good as, "Grud on a greenie!"
Reboot
Prog 723, posted Sat Dec 6th 2008
There’s nothing quite like a re-launch prog. This issue is the ideal jumping on point for new readers and returning old readers as all the stories are first episodes… except for Rogue Trooper which runs the last part of The Golden Fox Rebellion. Any new readers won’t be particularly interested in what is going on there but, you know, neither are the rest of us.
This prog’s notable first is Mark Millar’s controversial run on Sam Slade Robo-Hunter. It’s a little too early for me to comment on just yet although I will say that if you can’t get Ian Gibson to draw it then Jose Casanovas is an acceptable replacement.
The colour page count has increased to 100 % which considering there has been no price increase is pretty good, I would say. In fact, since prog 700, that turbulent three year period of change the comic seemed to be going through looks like it might be over. Visually, 2000 AD has a healthy mix of fresh new talent such as Dave Hine, old school guys, such as Ron Smith, and Europe based artists, such as Vanyo. Overall, it has a better sense of what it is these days with the majority of creators pulling in a similar direction. In fact, tonally, I would say it has more in common with pre-prog 500 but with improved reproduction. Of course, let’s see how long Tharg can keep it up for.
Millar Promotes
Prog 725, posted Tues Dec 9th 2008
One of the stories about writer Mark Millar is that he wrote a script a day for six months until he started to successfully get work. This might explain why Ig-Roid feels that Millar has been around long enough for the entire first page of this prog’s Nerve Centre to be dedicated to him when he’s new to us, the loyal Squaxx Dek Thargo. It’s entertaining to see that Millar has the same sense of self promotion in 1991 as he does in 2008. When asked about his other current work in the questionnaire, he lists a bunch of projects, including Dr Paradox and The Sacred Skin of Sherlock Holmes, half of which never got to print as far as I am aware.
Carry On Overrated
Prog 727, posted Thurs Dec 11th 2008
Bix Barton’s latest ridiculous adventure, Carry On Barton, hits its penultimate episode this prog. Bix stories never run for very long, unfortunately, although, by Bix standards, six weeks is quite a length. In it, he is tasked with protecting three members of the aristocracy from the Carry On Club, other members of the upper class elite who like the Carry On films so much that they’ve even gone through cosmetic surgery to look like their favourite cast members. Basically, it’s a device to create a story where late comedy actors go on a murder spree.
It’s 1991 and the Carry On films are going through a period of ironic appreciation which started with students and has now reached the mainstream. It has already hit 2000 AD. Last years Judge Dredd Mega-Special featured a strip called Carry On Judging. I would say, of the two, Carry On Barton seems to be more successful as a pastiche, if in a sick way.
Personally, I find the fondness some people have for Carry On films a little misguided. I generally suspect, in fact, that the British public find the sight of elderly men lusting over very young women troubling, the jokes, in general, to be pathetic and Barbara Windsor’s bra pinging off across the camp site surprisingly sexless. Come on, admit it, whenever you read every few years of a new Carry On film is being made by the current wave of populist comedians, your heart sinks.
Oh, suit yourself, then.
Paul Rainey