The 2000 AD Prog Slog
Being the re-encountering of 2000 AD issues (or "programmes") one through to 1188, along with selected spin off publications. This time, The Slog dispenses with the year 1991 and embraces 1992.
What’s in a Name?
2000 AD and Judge Dredd Yearbooks 1992, posted Mon Feb 2nd 2009
This year, the annuals are now called Yearbooks and they are no longer hardbacks but soft covers. I’m not really sure why publishers Fleetway decided to make this dramatic format change. My memory is that the style magazines at the time where producing yearbooks in this way and now that 2000 AD is aspirational it wants to be associated with publications like The Face rather than The Beano.
Visually the effect is impressive. The covers on both books fold out to create a panoramic scene, stunning as much due to its size as to the quality of the artwork. The interior is much like the old style annuals in that there is a mixture of black and white and colour art but the reproduction is big. The binding is also better allowing you to open the book wide and view it properly without having to worry about the spine-glue snapping and the pages falling out.
The content is a similar mix of both originated and reprint material but, overall, is an improvement on the quality of the last couple of years’ worth of annuals. There’s a nice surprise when Glen Fabry provides the art to a new Slaine story for the 2000 AD Yearbook. It looks as though he has actually painted the artwork in grey-tones.
My favourite strip is Sleeper, by John Wagner and Geoff Senior, the lead in the Judge Dredd Yearbook. In it, we become reacquainted with Walter the Wobot, now a successful businessman. I found watching the dynamism and self respect bleed out from the character thanks to the reappearance of Dredd in his life almost heartbreaking. It goes to show how rarely we see Wagner write stories of standard US comic length and how effective he can be when given the space. Either that or I’m going through the change.
Beast Meets Best
Batman Judge Dredd Judgement on Gotham, posted Tues Feb 3rd 2009
Let me tell you, a lot of comic readers from this period spent much of their time getting over excited about upcoming Batman projects which, when they arrived, usually late, disappointed. I’m referring to Killing Joke which, as good as it might be, didn’t really qualify as a graphic novel, and Arkham Asylum, which turned out to be an expensive clash of themes. However, Batman’s first meeting with Judge Dredd, Judgement on Gotham, delivered on its expectations.
Firstly, Simon Bisley’s art is stunning. I imagine American readers, unfamiliar with Slaine The Horned God, must have been amazed when they saw it. Typically, the book was late and there are some of Bisley’s signature short cut pages of blue wash over pencils towards the back done, I imagine, due to deadline pressures. However, he more than compensates with the many impressive single images that work like big budget movie special effect moments.
Alan Grant and John Wagner always write a strong access story when the need arises and Judgement on Gotham is a very entertaining introduction to both Judge Dredd and Batman’s worlds. All of the characters get fairly represented although I’m not so sure that Judge Death performing a song on stage at a heavy metal concert is a good idea.
After Judgement on Gotham, cross company efforts become increasingly common place during the nineties and less eventful. Seeing Superman fight Predator and Doctor Strange mashed into a single character with Doctor Fate deadened the thrill of it. However, for us British comic readers, Judge Dredd’s meeting with Batman at this time said that not only was our favourite comic character better than what had come before it, such as Dan Dare and Dennis the Menace, but now he is on a par with the international established greats.
The Reveal Revealed
Prog 751, posted Wed Feb 4th 2009
After a couple of weeks away reading The Magazine and other associated publications, it’s actually quite nice to be back with 2000 AD again. Although this is a time of re-launch which can fool even the most cynical of Squazz dek Thargo into thinking things are better than they actually are. As you know, there’s nothing quite like a re-launch prog.
Currently the Judge Dredd story The Devil You Know is running in which democratic groups and the judiciary campaign to win the upcoming referendum. It’s a pretty good tale by John Wagner and Jeff Anderson despite me remembering the outcome of the vote not from seventeen years ago but from the 1992 2000 AD Yearbook which I read a couple of days back. There’s a story in there in which Dredd thinks back over the events of the last year in Mega City One including Necropolis and the results of the referendum. The thing is that I seem to remember exactly the same thing happening at the time of publication.
In Robo-Hunter by Mark Millar and Anthony Williams, Sam Slade visits his mother to break the news to her of his upcoming marriage to Cutie, his robo-metre. Ignoring this troubling turn in Sam’s love life, I’m surprised that he has any still living relatives left at all. In the 1992 yearbook (that again) we are introduced his gran. You might remember that during the original stories, Sam started out as a very old man whose journey through hyperspace resulted in him becoming young again. This makes me think that Millar’s Robo-Hunter is a complete reboot of the character which has jettisoned the Wagner, Grant and Gibson stories altogether. At least with Rogue Trooper Tharg told us it was a reboot but with this we have been left to work it out for ourselves.
Mystery of the Former Owner
Prog 752, posted Thurs Feb 5th 2009
Free with this prog is Tharg the Mighty’s Database; a Panini album in which the trading cards free with the last two progs can be placed along with those bought separately. What I think is interesting about my copy is that it was still sealed and had to be opened by me to continue with The Slog. It makes you wonder doesn’t it? Was the guy I bought this collection from on eBay now just buying the comic and chucking it into a box without reading it? It’s understandable if this is what was happening. The previous two to three years had been a particularly turbulent period for 2000 AD and now, although things are better, it still lacks most of the vitality it had during its first decade, a period he clearly experienced. Maybe he continued to buy it in the hope that it would return to its former glory and he wanted to be there for it. Or maybe 2000 AD was now a habit for him. Or maybe he was a completist who, by prog 1188, had come to his senses. Or maybe he just forgot to read prog 752.
What If all Comics Strips Remained Un-Credited?
Prog 775, posted Fri Feb 6th 2009
In Judge Dredd Twilight’s Last Gleaming Part 2, we officially learn the result of the referendum after the story in the 1992 yearbook spoiled it for us. Yes, the judges beat the democrats fair and square. It’s been a mature story that refers not just all the way back to that first democrat single prog tale several years ago but also to an Error in Judgement before then. It’s Dredd’s personal journey which has forced him to ask about the appropriateness of the system of rule that Mega City One has and if it is what the citizenry really need or want. I guess if you’re John Wagner fated to write this character on and off for thirty years, it makes sense for him to grow if only for your own sanity.
Except, although the opening The Devil You Know was written by Wagner, Twilight’s Last Gleaming is being scripted by Garth Ennis. I found myself wondering after finishing the Judge Dredd story in the 1992 2000 AD yearbook (not that again) if all the stories were from this point onward un-credited if I could work out who had written what. (The Dredd story in the yearbook was un-credited and I had to look it up online). When I notice, two episodes in, is that it’s being written by Ennis and not Wagner I find my opinion changing. When the monologue thought by Dredd last prog or the doubt expressed by democrat leader Blondel Dupre this issue was written by Wagner I decided that they were great moments of insight. When they turned out to be written by Ennis, they became ponderous and dull. Of course, it’s good no matter who wrote it. It does go to show however that when Ennis isn’t busy paying tribute to stories from the past and I forget about proving my initial conclusions about his time on Dredd for The Slog by just giving in to what I’m reading, then he compares favourably with the master.
Ex-Editorial Droid Works in Bar
Prog 757, posted Mon Feb 9th 2009
ABC Warriors Khronicles of Khaos Book One finishes this prog. In it, Deadlock takes the team to the planet Hekate to enlighten them in the ways of chaos. This means killing overzealous priests and evil vivisectionists in what Deadlock thinks of as imaginative ways but I often feel to be sadistic and a bit tedious.
The good news for everyone is that, after a ridiculous period of time where he seemed to be just inking other artist’s pencils, Kevin Walker is painting the strip. His work is bold and colourful and loyal to the story and compensates for the failings in reproduction that has affected other recently fully painted work.
The bad news is that, for a story that’s supposed to be extolling the virtues of chaos, it feels a little obvious. Since the ABC Warriors returned to their own strip, the characters seem under utilised. It’s as if every time we encounter them now they neither develop nor shine. The fact that Ro-Jaws, a character who at one time was so popular that he occasionally sat in for Tharg in the Nerve Centre, is left to work in a bar to book end the story is amazing to me. Also, I’m slightly fed up with feeling that it’s not Deadlock tying to convert Hammerstein to the ways of Chaos (Or "Khaos") that we’re reading about but writers Pat Mills and Tony Skinner trying to convert us.
It’s another example of the reality of producing a fully painted strip by a single artist balanced against expectations resulting in story that we feel we are being drip fed. Just as you think it is getting going it disappears off on a break for Grud knows how long leaving us feeling a little disappointed. Furthermore, perhaps Mills’ current workload, which includes work for America, means that this script written with Skinner reads less in shape than we’re used to from him. Instead of their partnership being greater than the sum of its parts it feels like they bring out a cynical side in each other. The result isn’t a story that’s bad; it just doesn’t match up to what we know them to be capable of.
Wrong!
Prog 759, posted Tues Feb 10th 2009
Max Brewster’s time hanging out with Tim Kelly from the old Kelly’s Eye strips from the 1960s in Universal Soldier The Indestructible Man ends this prog. The story written by Alan McKenzie has washed over me a bit, I’m afraid. All I can remember is that Brewster goes in search of Kelly, finds him, they have a couple of fights together and then it ends. Had I been more familiar with the original Kelly’s Eye then I might have had a frame of reference that made this story feel more exciting perhaps.
However, McKenzie seems to be very good at writing a script that complements the artist and Brett Ewins comes out of this looking very good. The art on The Indestructible Man is charming and is what really makes this run particularly enjoyable.
Unfortunately for Mark Millar, I am familiar enough with Sam Slade Robo-Hunter to know that he’s writing it all wrong, wrong, wrong. I’ve already mentioned the confusion over Slade’s apparent age, haven’t I? There seems to be an obvious absence of robots in Sam’s day to day life too. For example, he has human friends with him on his stag night and a human taxi driver going home. The real Sam would have been driven back by some crazy ol’ droid after spending a miserable evening with Hoagy and Stogie (who, incidentally, have only made cameo appearances so far).
Anthony Williams’ art on this run has been enjoyable; all loose and cartoony, but Millar seems to be writing a different strip altogether that’s then been forced through a Sam Slade shaped gauze. The result, unlike the Harlem Heroes and Rogue Trooper reboots, doesn’t make me cross or fill me with dread; it just leaves me feeling a bit baffled.
Strontium Diva
Prog 761, posted Thurs Feb 12th 2009
If Alan Grant’s intention by killing Johnny Alpha off was to leave Strontium Dog in such a way that it couldn’t continue without him, then he failed. It’s back, been re-titled Strontium Dogs, and is being written by one of the current voices of 2000 AD, Garth Ennis.
Monsters, which finishes its run this prog, follows Feral’s hate driven attacks on the paramilitary occupiers of Parnell’s World as his own mutation develops. As the story rolls on and we learn that the paramilitary and the Mutant Liberation Front (MLF) have a mutually beneficial relationship, Feral falls in love with Bet, a norm rebel old enough to be his mother.
I feel a bit sorry for Ennis. His seems to be inheriting the high profile strips that occupy big places in the hearts of the Squaxx dek Thargo. With Strontium Dogs, he does the right thing by not trying to replicate or tribute what has gone before but write it in his own voice. The result is a tale that lacks the same quota of amusing grotesquery that we’re used to from our Strontium Dog stories but succeeds in making the character of Feral likable, something his creators Alan Grant and Simon Harrison failed to do.
What makes this first Strontium Dogs story particularly memorable is Steve Pugh’s art. Although drawn to the wrong page shape for some reason, his work is big, bold and beautiful. Pugh is one of my favourite new artists of this time. I could happily while away the hours just looking at his comic work. Although this cover he did for earlier in the run makes me think he spent too much time drawing pop divas during the eighties.
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Paul Rainey