2000 AD Prog Slog

Prog Zero

2010-05-16T11:12:00.007+01:00

In November 2006, after an impetuous ill-thought out bid on eBay, I won the first 1188 programmes of 2000 AD. Rather than just have them sit piled up in my bedroom collecting dust tormenting me about how much money I had spent on them, I decided I was obliged to read them all. I thought, rather than just read them why not blog about the experience too. So, I started the 2000 AD Prog Slog Blog where I reviewed every other issue of the Galaxy’s greatest comic.

But it didn’t end there. In fact, I became a little obsessed with it, seeking out associated publications that hadn’t been included in the original win. A complete set of Star Lord; all of the annuals and Sci-Fi Specials; the first two volumes of Judge Dredd The Megazine; it seemed as if, contrary to what I said in The Slog, I never wanted it to end. In fact, as the end did eventually approach and some commentators asked if I would consider continuing the project beyond the originally planned prog 1188 limit I was actually tempted. During a fortnight of confusion a few months ago, I spent the time buying up auctions of Marvel UK comics on eBay thinking I could do something similar to The Slog with them.

When I started, I fully expected to enjoy the first ten years worth of 2000 ADs but after that for it to then be really hard work. The truth is that, over all, I enjoyed the following thirteen years as well. Reading so many comics in quick succession has made me tolerant of the failed thrills and more appreciative of the good ones. The truth is, 2000 AD has always been a good comic, it’s just less good at some times than at others.

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One of the cool things about writing The Slog has been the occasional feed back from creator robots I’ve received that has often been very nice and has always been reasonable. I’ve heard from Paul Kupperberg and Igor Goldkind in the comments section as well as directly from other creators via email. Another commenter has been ex-Tharg David Bishop whose recent appearance initially unnerved me a little as I had been having fun blaming him for driving me away from the comic I had once loved. I contacted David late Thursday offering him the opportunity to put right any unfair assumptions I had made regarding his time as editor of 2000 AD. As I suspected, I had left it too close to deadline. He did, however, kindly provide this note for this final Slog entry –

“Sigh. I'm sad to see the end of Paul's Prog Slog Blog.Though he's been taken my name in vain on a regularbasis, the PSB has been a fascinating trip down memorylane for me. It offers an interesting observer's POV on2000AD, a comic I was lucky enough to edit for a while.Curiously, the end of Paul's slog pretty much coincideswith the end of my spell as Tharg in terms of prognumbers, so there's a lovely symmetry to PSB ending here. In the meantime, Splundig Vur Thrigg, Earthlets- or however that old saying goes...

Let's Call Him David Bishop.”

Ha ha. Wicked.

Now, I want you to know that what I am about to say I had always intended to write towards the end of The Slog, that I don’t have a correspondence relationship with David Bishop which has provided me with any additional insider knowledge and so this is me completely assuming again but…

I no longer blame him for driving me away from 2000 AD. As I see it, he became editor around the time that the Judge Dredd film had kicked the legs out from under the 2000 AD brand leaving upper management scurrying around and wondering what to do with what they had seen as one of their big assets. For the majority of his time as Tharg, Egmont Fleetway was preparing the 2000 AD franchise for sale, which is why the line shrank, frequencies were lowered, page counts dropped and long, on-file thrills (one of which they no longer even had a script for) were published. Working in that sort of uncertain environment where your employers are demanding more for less is a nightmare for anyone, let me assure you. Now, I’m not saying that every decision David Bishop made was understandable in the circumstances, the Sex Issue being a good example, but I do believe that there are few people who could have lasted in the role in the situation I’ve imagined. He would have been under pressure to run a lean, tight ship and, in what I’m sure were very trying times, made some difficult decisions, some of which weren’t so good (replacing Tharg with the Men in Black) and others of which worked and stuck (Sinister Dexter and Nikolai Dante). It didn’t matter who was editing 2000 AD at this time, I’m almost certain I would have stopped buying it anyway. David Bishop is the man who stepped forward and suffered the slings and arrows for decisions that either he didn’t make or had little choice but to. As far as I’m concerned, he was the man who got the comic into the shape that enabled it to be sold on to Rebellion thus securing its future. We probably have him to thank for 2000 AD still being here today.

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Believe it or not, 2000 AD continued to be published after prog 1188, and continues to appear on limited newsagent shelves to this day. Now, let me tell you a secret; although I no longer buy the comic, I flick through the latest issue every week in the one Milton Keynes shop that I know stocks it and let me tell you something; it looks pretty good. The art is always spectacular and I’ve no reason to think that the scripting isn’t either. And yet despite this, I have absolutely no intention of returning. I feel when it comes to slowly accumulating large piles of comics in my bedroom that I’ve been there and done that. However, once my brain has cooled down (which may be some time), I have every intention of catching up on Judge Dredd stories collected in graphic novels since. I want to read all of the newer thrills written by John Wagner and Pat Mills. I might even track down collections of Nikolai Dante, the strip that I originally disliked but grew fond of during The Slog, and other stories I’ve heard good things about. One thing is for certain though; I’ll be reading them for pleasure and not writing about them here.

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However, despite my version of this blog going into total lock down after today’s entry, it doesn’t mean that The Slog is over. Regular commenter, David Page, has agreed to continue the project beyond prog 1188 and I’m more than happy to pass it over to his more than capable hands. David has already introduced himself and declared his intentions so see you all over there hopefully.

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Finally, I want to thank everybody for reading my Prog Blog Slog, especially those of you who left feedback in the comments section. I’ve been genuinely surprised by the amount of comments The Slog has received and delighted how positively you all seemed to enter into the spirit of the project. Some regulars run blogs themselves that I strongly recommend. Checkout Grant The Hipster Dad’s Thrill Power Thursday . I also enjoy Mark Cardwell’s Bad Librarianship. Apart from being very funny, Mark seems to have a preference for my favourite era of 2000 AD and frequently posts about the work creators from then are doing now. I should also give special mention to official 2000 AD website, Barney, from which I lifted most of the cover scans I used in my Slog. Barney is a terrific resource for 2000 AD readers. Every single cover to 2000 AD and related publication seems to be there, even the shit ones. Pete Ashton is an active and always interesting presence on the internet so check out his website here. If you want to keep abreast of all the current British comic news then you should be visiting the Forbidden Planet blog and John Freeman’s Down the Tubes regularly. They are both excellent sites. If you’re interested in what comics I’m making now and in the future then please visit my website or subscribe to my news feed here. And don’t forget, David Page is continuing The Slog from where I’ve left off at his blog.

Thank fuck that’s over with. Goodbye.

Prog 1188 12/04/00

2010-05-14T15:33:00.003+01:00

Item: In Blood Cadets, Judge Dredd assesses another rookie, only this time it’s his own clone. Remember that story from years ago where Dredd teams up with a confused Mean Machine Angel to rescue some Justice Department babies from a felled ship in the Cursed Earth. Well, young Dredd is one of them now grown up. As this is the last prog of 2000 AD I’m reading for The Slog, it’s nice to see a story referenced that, when I first read it during the early eighties, gave me an adolescent rush.

Item: When I wrote about Missionary Man The Promised Land a couple of entries ago, I commented on how much better the story would be had we known more about the wider cast Preacher Cain is supposed to be helping. Well, in the final episode this prog, writer Gordon Rennie goes some way to rectifying that. We find out all about Josef Guzman as he gets an axe in the head, Mikhal Danr as a spear pierces his throat and Big Suh as he’s overwhelmed by mutants. Better late than never, that’s what I say.

Item: I’ve just noticed that David Bircham draws Slaine, the ancient Celtic warrior, wearing skin tight leather trousers. Don’t get me wrong, and I appreciate that these stories take place in a magical realm, but even skin tight leather trousers are probably beyond the capabilities of the tribal tailors of this time. Whatever next? Brainbiter being drawn to look like an electric guitar? He’s also wearing a pair of Bat Man styled leather forearm protectors which, although even more unlikely, look pretty cool.

Item: If there’s one thing I’ve learned from doing The Slog, it’s that there is absolutely no point trying to anticipate what’s going to happen in a John Smith scripted thrill. Take Pussyfoot 5 for example; you just have to accept that the bad guys are harvesting all of the creatures that hatched out of the infected passengers of a leisure space ship as weapons for an alien race. Just sit back and enjoy the crazy ideas and perfectly drawn bottoms.

Item: This is the last prog of 2000 AD that I have read for The Slog… EVER! I know, amazing, isn’t it? I can’t believe that it’s nearly all over. It feels a bit like the last day of term today. Anyway, please report back over the weekend for my farewell entry which, amongst other things, features news of how The Slog is continuing elsewhere and a message from an ex-Tharg.

Prog 1186 29/03/00

2010-05-13T18:37:00.002+01:00

Because The Slog is rocketing towards its end, I’m looking at thrills a lot earlier in their runs than I might usually do. For example, Slaine The Secret Commonwealth is only four episodes in and here I am, already talking about it. In The Secret Commonwealth, Slaine returns to his tribe after his travels through time and his death. On his return however, he discovers that his tribe’s magic has been drained away from the land leaving them, basically, without their mojo.

Slaine’s travels through the eras weren’t as successful as previous stories and so returning him to his tribe, particularly as the flashback tales to his years as High King had proven to be better, makes total sense. What I find most interesting about the thrill at this time is the art by David Bircham. We’ve grown used to a fully painted art being deployed on Slaine so it’s surprising to see a more contemporary style being used. Bircham’s work is big and spacious and it looks as if Pat Mills is scripting the story taking this into account. The result, so far, is a refreshing reading experience.

Also hitting part four this prog is Nikolai Dante The Rudinshtein Irregulars or, as it’s also known, Tsar Wars (somebody must have been really pleased with themselves when they came up with that one). All out war has broken out in the empire and Dante, as usual, is trying to do the right thing by everyone.

It’s undoubtedly another engaging script by Robbie Morrison (that I won’t see the end of this time) but it’s the art that wins this for me. Co-creator Simon Fraser is drawing the current Judge Dredd story which might seem wrong to some Squaxx dek Thargo when he could be drawing Dante. However, John Burns more traditional art style, certainly when compared to Bircham’s Slaine work, looks stunning to me. Just look at the cover to Prog 1183 he painted reproduced alongside today’s entry. That’s how good the artwork looks all the way through. No offence to Fraser, but I’m glad it worked out this way on this occasion.

Prog 1184 15/03/00

2010-05-12T17:25:00.002+01:00

It’s still a few issues away from its conclusion but because The Slog only has a few progs to go, I wanted to do a bit of clear up before the end. In Missionary Man The Promised Land, a Hell Trek crosses The Cursed Earth to where their religious elders believe to be, well, the promised land. Despite knowing that this wonderful place doesn’t exist, Preacher Cain agrees to be their guide so that they can get there and back with as few casualties as possible.

It’s another journey across The Cursed Earth adventure, and the convoy encounter all sorts of weird and scary things on their route as you would expect. Writer Gordon Rennie provides us with some real Judge Dredd like set pieces, such as the town Americaville, that cherry picks from the American constitution for its own bigoted convenience, and the genuinely unnerving Gila Bruja tribe.

The Promised Land tributes the very original Cursed Earth story by using a strong team of rotating artists such as Alex Ronald, Trevor Hairshine and Colin MacNeil. However, it reminds me more of a poorer HellTrekkers. In HellTrekkers, John Wagner and Alan Grant created a wide cast that the readers couldn’t help but invest in. In The Promised Land, Rennie hasn’t done this, so when we learn that another five travellers have died, my instinct is to shrug my shoulders and think, ‘well, as long as Cain is all right’. It’s a shame, because in every other sense the story works.

Prog 1182 01/03/00

2010-05-11T17:29:00.002+01:00

Ending this prog is Glimmer Rats, the other dimensional war story that paints it fully as hell. A team of convicts enter the ‘Glimmer’, a Hell like dimension, like so many criminals before them, and battle almost hopelessly as their comrades burst like skin-sacks of offal and blood around them. Their only hope is a rumour born from desperation of a way home, but the nearer they get, the likelier they are to die. The reality is the Glimmer only kills them when it wants to and even then it doesn’t allow the release of a proper death after all.

Gordon Rennie does a pretty good job of conceiving the story and the grim remorseless logic of the place. Glimmer Rats often reminds me of Bad Company only gorier and with less clearly defined characters. Mark Harrison’s fully painted art is as spectacular and as difficult to decipher as his work on Durham Red. It’s often impossible to see what is going on and there are only the occasional characters that I can tell apart from each other. Funnily enough, the effect of the art is to make the whole war zone seem even bleaker and crueler than Rennie’s script already does. However, I might have had more empathy towards the cast had they been more clearly defined by both the artist.

Also concluding this prog is Badlands, written by Dan Abnett and painted by Kevin Walker. Badlands is a Western and Dinosaur mash-up in which a gun-slinger and scientist find themselves trapped in a land that time forgot. Badlands reads like only a partly formed idea that might have been quite good had the creators lived with it for a bit longer. Instead it’s an unchallenging thrill that could have read a lot better with more work but still manages to look beautiful.

Prog 1180 16/02/00

2010-05-10T17:34:00.004+01:00

Eight episodes into The Keeler Conspiracy and Strontium Dog is going on a break until May which is really annoying as it’s February now and the thrill isn’t due back until after The Slog finishes. I’ve been pretty much enjoying the character’s return despite the absence of Wulf Sternhammer.

In the story, the spaceship that Johnny Alpha is transporting his bounties on is hijacked by a group of anti-mutant arseholes who abduct the genetically curious pilot and leave the passengers and crew for dead. Only a small group manage to survive, led to safety by our steely focused hero.

Apparently, this is an adaptation by John Wagner of a script he wrote for a proposed Strontium Dog film that never happened. It does feel as if the overall arc is being considered more so than the rules that might normally apply to episodic story telling. Also, this is a reboot, and already a more successful one than Rogue Trooper and Robo-Hunter that precedes it. There’s also been some continuity rejigging going on and the inclusion of Milton, a sort of sarcastic iPhone that Alpha carries. I imagine that there are many readers irked by the return of a character killed off years earlier. Personally speaking however, I think as Strontium Dog’s creators, John Wagner and Carlos Ezquerra are morally entitled to pretend that death never happened, especially as they aren’t the ones who killed the character in the first place.

Prog 1178 02/02/00

2010-05-09T17:28:00.002+01:00

I don’t know what has been psychically worse for 2000 AD; the Judge Dredd movie or reaching the year 2000. Content wise things are improving but this doesn’t change the fact that truthfully, nobody expected the comic to last this long. I remain amazed that the title is unchanged. Instead of representing a future that will happen during our life times, it now looks like a stale old comic set in a past that never even happened.

To be fair, the title 2000 AD might get a second wind in a few years time just as the eighties has been popular this last decade and the seventies during the one before. Unfortunately, this will be a short lived fascination. And I’m assuming here that a nostalgic interest in the last millennium will result in increased interest in 2000 AD. In fact, the comic was at its peak during the eighties so any sales boost due to a retro curiosity should be happening right now, surely.

Keeping the title as it is because it’s a recognised brand (this is an argument I’ve heard, incidentally) is nonsense if the sales of the comic over the last few years have been as low as rumoured. Originally, 2000 AD sold well and was bought by a broad range of boys of a certain age. Now, however, I don’t think it’s unfair to say that the comic sells mainly to hardcore Squaxx dek Thargo and cult TV and film fans. If the title were to change these readers are likely to stay with it whilst new customers might be more inclined to get onboard. I genuinely can’t see how re-launching the comic as 3000 AD could result in a product whose content and sales are worse than they are now.

Prog 1176 19/01/00

2010-05-08T20:41:00.002+01:00

Item: Alan Grant has written a couple more Judge Dredd one-offs since his cryptic John Wagner tribute in prog 2000. Grant’s other recent thrills, Anderson PSI Division and Mazeworld, haven’t worked as well as I feel he’s capable of while Judge Dredd, as brilliant as it often is, has been caught up in it’s own continuity a bit too much for my tastes. So, it’s a pleasure to be able to say how much I’m enjoying his recent Dredd’s. It’s like he’s pulled the character into his workshop, brushed away the cobwebs and oiled all of the squeaks. This prog’s Doledrums feels contemporary, successfully satirical and is unexpectedly cheerful. More importantly, it feels a little like somebody’s opened the window and let some fresh air in.

Item: Something else I’m delighted to see return is Strontium Dog by the original creative team of John Wagner and Carlos Ezquerra. Tonally, everything looks just right except… where’s Wulf? I thought we were pretending that both characters hadn’t died. I love Wulf. I want him back.

Item: Of all the current generation of young writers, Gordon Rennie is the one that I have the biggest soft spot for. So, I’m happy to see that at present, he’s setting 2000 AD’s tone being responsible for writing 75% of the comic. New thrill Glimmer Rats and the double length return of Missionary Man.

Prog 2000 15/12/99

2010-05-06T17:06:00.003+01:00

What happened? Have I accelerated into the future or something? This is prog 2000 already! It seems like only yesterday when I was reading prog 1173. Of course, what this really is is a celebration of the comic that for the last twenty three years has obsessed itself with the year 2000 and has at last reached it. A one hundred paged celebration that is the size of three regular progs and sits in the place of four. Personally, I would rather this existed in addition to rather than instead of four weeks worth of issues but that’s just me.

The thrill content is great. Dave Gibbons returns to Rogue Trooper and confirms that Tor Cyan is actually a descendant of the genetically enhanced infantryman. Mike McMahon draws the opening Judge Dredd. Johnny Alpha returns as Strontium Dog which might annoy some people that cried because his death all those years ago but personally speaking I’m happy to see him back. Kevin O’Neill draws the very final episode of Nemesis the Warlock. There are newer thrills in there too such as Sinister Dexter and Nikolai Dante, which unnervingly, don’t look out of place alongside their older colleagues. The oddest thrill is Alan Grant and Cam Kennedy’s tribute to Judge Dredd head writer John Wagner. In it, Dredd goes to arrest his co-creator but Wagner flies away in a bath, gets shot down and ends up as brain in a jar. I can’t help feeling that this is some coded comment on how Wagner feels about his relationship with the character but I’m just too thick to interpret it.

The whole package is inside this sexy cover drawn by Brian Bolland. Bolland draws a selection of 2000 AD characters hoisting up a flag atop a huge pile of British comics, all of which are no longer published. You could interpret this as 2000 AD having weathered the storm that otherwise saw the end of the British comic industry. Or you could see it as 2000 AD being partly responsible for its state at the time. I’ll let you decide.

Prog 1173 08/12/99

2010-05-05T17:45:00.002+01:00

It feels like years since the last appearance of Nemesis the Warlock and perhaps ten since the last book. When we last encountered the characters, it felt as if the thrill had become circular; constantly referring to itself and going over old ground. Still it’s great to see it back, partly because we all know that this is definitely the end.

In Nemesis Book X, Termite, the hollowed out Earth, has at last turned against its chief bigot, Torquemada, and put him on trial for his crimes. However, as Nemesis acknowledges, Torqumada is at his most dangerous when the odds are against him. In this penultimate episode, he escapes by operating on and stealing Nemesis’s Blizspear Seth, intending to detonate a ‘Doomsday Device’. Sounds sinister.

I don’t know what took Pat Mills so long to eventually decide that the saga of Nemesis and his feud with Torquemada was worth ending. Perhaps he spent years thinking that there were many more stories to tell, if he could just think of them, before eventually realising that it wasn’t going to happen. Perhaps he had decided never to write a Nemesis story again but was persuaded by Squaxx Dek Thargo or Tharg himself to revisit character one last time. Or perhaps he’s been so busy that it’s taken him this long to get around to it. Whatever the reason, it’s pleasing to see a classic reach a natural conclusion when so many previous thrills, such as Dan Dare, Halo Jones and Rogue Trooper, remain incomplete.

For the final episode published next week in prog 2000, original artist Kevin O’Neill returns. It will be great to see him back but it will also be a shame considering just how stunning Brother Henry Flint’s work has been on the story up until this point. It’s a super detailed tribute to the original artist which also features bursts of Flint’s own unique flare. It’s not often I say this during this era of fully painted art, but Flint’s work is so great that it couldn’t have been reproduced in anything other than black and white.

Prog 1170 17/11/99

2010-05-03T17:39:00.001+01:00

While Judge Dredd has been freeing Mega City One from robot control, Sinister and Dexter tracking down their late boss’s murderer and Devlin Waugh breaking all of our minds, Nikolai Dante has been experiencing a saga of his own. All of these great big epics make me feel as if all business if being cleared away by Tharg before the start of the year 2000.

In The Courtship of Jena Makarov, the love of Dante’s life is violently kidnapped the night before her wedding. Dante is arrested for it but everyone knows that the charge is bollocks as it’s just the excuse the two great Russion dynasties have been waiting for to go to war with each other. It’s another sweeping adventure driven by acts of cruel inhumanity, slight innuendo and peppered with tiny acts of tenderness written by the increasingly likable Robbie Morrison.

Head Dante artist Simon Fraser is back for this story. His work reminds me of the more European artists that Tharg used during the comic’s early years. He certainly looks a lot less influenced by American comic book artists than his contemporaries. Fraser’s characterisation and acting is strong but it’s his building designs that excel. He builds these great scene setting structures that reek opulence. They must take him ages to draw.

Prog 1168 03/11/99

2010-05-02T20:34:00.002+01:00

In Devlin Waugh… um… er… well, lots of stuff seems to be happening. I’ve been feeling slightly intimidated by writing about the character’s first 2000 AD run mainly because I’m not entirely confident I know for certain what’s going on. It starts with the theft of Herod’s Skull from the Vatican. Then the summoning of a supernatural monster that can travel through mirrors, that looks a bit like a walking, gnarled old tree and is killing everyone born on July the 23rd. Now, Devlin and his shrinking team of supernatural specialists anticipate the arrival of July the 23rd when creatures from Sirius are expected to be summoned to Earth by Hekt where upon they will take over every human being like they’re old suits waiting to be put on.

This Devlin Waugh story is as a great big mash up of fantastical characters (including a pre-cog lying in a bath, spouting nonsense. Battlestar Gallactica, anybody?), fantastical genres (including horror, science fiction and superhero) and spiritual belief systems. It’s as if John Smith has decided to write his own logical conclusion to giant cross over comic strips such as Crisis on Infinite Earths or Zenith Book Three and it’s only right that some Aleister Crowley and Philip K Dick should be in there too.

The art is great. Steve Yeowell (with colours provided by D’Israeli) is the perfect artist for this sort of mentalism. You want a guy drawing this sort of thing that gives it to you straight, free of all embellishments. The visuals remind me of silver age Marvel Comics drawn by Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko at their most crazy. Yeowell seems to know when to leave the art alone and as the reader I find myself looking at something that he’s drawn and wondering where did that come from?

It’s great to have John Smith back too, who hasn’t been writing much for 2000 AD recently before this. He seems to have got over his preoccupation with meat during his time away and replaced it with a celebration of the fantastic. All of the characters he has created here are brilliant and I love the dynamic between them. Of course, Devil Waugh remains the best of them all, overeating to the threat and yet remaining, worryingly, the best equipped to deal with it all. Like I say, I might not be following this story as well as I feel I should, but I’m loving every single panel of it.

Prog 1166 20/10/99

2010-05-01T19:38:00.003+01:00

It occurred to me recently that perhaps Sinister Dexter, or Downlode Tales as it’s now called, is more in tune with old school 2000 AD that I had previously given it credit. It’s not like one of those thrills that Titan Books kept in print in one form or other during the eighties and think of as a classic, it’s more like one of those forgotten thrills such as, well, I can’t think of one off the top of my head because they’re, by definition, hard to remember. Perhaps I expect a higher level of quality from it because it comes after the likes of Halo Jones, Zenith and Slaine The Horned God rather than before.

Currently, Sinister and Dexter are reunited after weeks of looking for Demi Octavo’s murderer in their own idiotic way. Dexter has been helping an ineffective police unit while Sinister has been shooting up the city with a bunch of guns for hire. What I want to know is why everybody cares so much? They all operate on the dodgy side of the law; you’d have thought that they would be used to seeing bosses getting knocked off by now.

Eventually, when the characters are reunited and they’re facing off against each other with their guns out (because they couldn’t just bump into each other in the supermarket or at a friend’s birthday party) and I’m a little embarrassed to say I found it a bit thrilling. I knew they weren’t going to shoot each other and that Dan Abnett was egging the pudding but I realised that as irritating as the characters and the logic of the strip can be sometimes I’ve grown to quite like it all. I can understand why people like it.

Prog 1164 06/10/99

2010-04-29T17:47:00.001+01:00

Congratulations to Hayden Nash who has won the 2000 AD script writing competition. Although, it should be noted that this script doesn’t conform to the 2000 AD standard. Normally, the writer writes the script and then the artist draws the strip from it. In this case, the art already existed in the bottom of a draw in Tharg’s office. It’s Steve Dillon art to an unpublished episode of Hap Hazzard from ten years before to which the script has long since been lost. So, in this era of austerity where all on-file strips have to be run, even those only half finished get to see print. In fact, turning wordless comic art into a script writing competition is an act of genius on behalf of Tharg, or should I say David Bishop… or Andy Diggle?

I entered this competition and may I say, Nash’s entry is probably much better than mine. It’s very clever in places with strong lead-ins, characterisation and dialogue. It actually reads like an episode of Hap Hazzard, only better written. My only criticism is that it ends on a cliff hanger that, as far as I’m aware, never gets resolved. A really clever writer would have scripted it to look like the conclusion but I imagine, like me, Nash is hoping he’ll be called back to wrap the story up.

Prog 1162 22/09/99

2010-04-28T17:27:00.002+01:00

I’m not sure where we are in the current Judge Dredd epic. 2000 AD has this practise at the moment where, every now and then, no matter how long the tale is, announcing that the episode that you are reading is part one to an implied new story. Not so long ago, a ‘new’ Judge Dredd story picked up exactly where the previous episode had apparently ended; with Orlok the Assassin hitting Joe in the chin. I’m not even sure what the overall story arc is called, although later on I seem to remember it being titled Doomsday. When The Pit ran, it was sub divided into smaller story runs but at least the epic’s title icon was still present making it clear what you were reading.

Muddying things even further is the fact that Doomsday is, as far as I’m aware, running consecutively in The Megazine. Unlike previous epics that have done this, this isn’t officially a crossover. In fact, at the time, it was promoted as being the same story told from two different view points. A reasonable compromise between commercialism and story telling you might think, but does it make sense?

My answer is sort of but not enough. In Doomsday, or whatever it’s called, Dredd is dragged of to what’s left of East Meg One to answer for his supposed war crimes. By the time he escapes, he learns that crime lord Nero Narcos has taken over Mega City One with a robot army. Dredd’s team of Anderson and volunteer Brit Cit Judges set about freeing the city.

Enough of the information is there for it to make sense but there’s a feeling of having missed a lot of it. Further more, the pacing feels wonky, as if John Wagner has had to hold himself back a couple of times for fear of moving ahead of events in The Megazine and then suddenly accelerating to catch up. There’s also been a heavy rotation of artists, most of whom have been great, but the look of the supporting cast have been inconsistent. The result is a Judge Dredd story that’s harder than usual to invest it.

Prog 1160 08/09/99

2010-04-27T17:30:00.003+01:00

The third and final (as far as I’m aware) Mazeworld book concludes this prog with Adam Cadman waking from his coma and returning to Earth with the devil inside him. Earlier he had been journeying to the heart of the maze only to learn that he was the very demon he was searching for while on Earth, over enthusiastic doctors experimented on his brain and sawed off his hand.

Early episodes of Book One saw art robot Arthur Ranson design the page as if the panels made part of the maze themselves, but he quickly dispensed with this practice. Indeed, as the story progressed, his work seemed to become loser. That’s not to say that his art hasn’t continued to be absolutely brilliant throughout but it’s given the impression to me that initial enthusiasm very quickly gave way to pragmatism. Three sixty paged books is a lot of work after all.

The emotional signifiers in Alan Grant’s story have been affective. Cadman’s journey from apparent bad man to good man, the character’s almost palatable internal wrestling with what he has done and what he is fated to do and the medical profession’s total lack of ethics have all been involving. However, the flaw for me has been the fantasy aspect of the story. The world and Cadman’s journeys to and from it have been ambiguous. Like in his Anderson PSI Division, because boundaries aren’t clearly defined, when something exceptional happens, such as Cadman bringing a demon back with him to Earth, I resent feeling that I am expected to just accept this. In a black and white strip reproduced on news print paper for a cheap price I can accept all of this but in a high end pricey comic reproduced on cover stock and where the creators own the rights I expect more for some reason.

Prog 1157 18/08/99

2010-04-23T17:06:00.002+01:00

In Rose O’Rion, aliens kidnap the master thief’s sister and blackmail her into stealing a space folding device. She manages to do so by successfully boarding a spaceship parked in the heart of a sun. However, it’s all one big double cross. It looks like the aliens don’t have her sister after all and they’re using the device to launch an invasion by warping into Federal Space. Of course, one of the reasons Rose is so good at what she does is she trusts no one and so, hopefully, has a few tricks up her sleeve to save the day.

Like DR and Quinch starting out as a one off Future Shock before her, Rose O’Rion has been promoted from a single Pulp Sci-Fi to her own thrill. To be honest, Pulp Sci-Fi often feels like a testing ground for on-going thrills just as much as it is about pop ideas. I’ve developed a soft spot for strips written by Kek-W who often reminds me of a more accessible Pete Milligan or John Smith. Rose O’Rion itself feels even more traditional a thrill than I would expect from him, it not looking tonally out of place had it run during 2000 AD’s first four years. Andy Clarke and Dylan Teague’s art is detailed when it needs to be and is always professional. The story telling always comes first and it’s a relief to see a female character not being drawn with huge knockers, exposed arse and getting in to impossible positions where you can see both at the same time. This is definitely a thrill in which the character and creative team show a great deal of promise.

Update: In yesterday’s entry, I speculated that the D in DUR referred to in Downlode Tales probably stands for Downlode. Well actually, it stands for Department; Department of Urban Racketeering. So, there you go.

Prog 1155 04/08/99

2010-04-22T17:45:00.002+01:00

Item: Last prog saw the return of classic art robot Mike McMahon drawing an episode of Judge Dredd. Even though he’s produced very occasional work for The Megazine over the last decade, it must have been at least fifteen years since he drew anything for 2000 AD. His art continues to be amazing, although it might now look a little eccentric to newer readers unfamiliar with his work. Personally, I love it and if he’s back contributing regularly it almost makes all the tits, asses and sex issues of recent years worthwhile. Almost…

Item: Advertised on the back of last prog was the 2000 AD year 2000 diary. It seems an obvious idea so why limit the quantity to just 2000 copies? On the surface, the over reliance on the number 2000 looks like a missed opportunity to me. Except the diary retails for £29.99 which seems a little pricey to me. On top of that, the £29.99 doesn’t include the cost of post and packing. They’re charging an extra £3.25 for that. Which, if you think that eBay in 2010 won’t allow comic sellers to charge more than £2.75 for P&P is an amazing price for over ten years ago. I remember seeing the diary at comic conventions and thinking that it looked disappointing. But, you have to remember I was pretty much out of love with 2000 AD by that time.

Item: Sinister and Dexter are back, rotating as characters in Downlode Tales. Sinister has put together a team of professional assassins called the Whack Pack and is investigating the murder of Queenpin Demi Octavo while Dexter is helping the police to bring order to the city. He’s aiding a special unit called ‘DUR’. I don’t know what the U and R stand for but I’m pretty sure that the D stands for Downlode… or Dexter… or duh…

In this prog, Dexter opens up emotionally to Weld, telling her that he wants to bring peace to the city. He thought he could do this by killing people for money but that didn’t work so now he’s helping the police to see if that will do the job. It’s funny he should mention that because for a while, I thought I could bring peace to Milton Keynes by robbing Post Offices and kidnapping children. Unfortunately, that didn’t work. So now I do voluntary work for charity. Hopefully, that will contribute positively in some small way.

Prog 1153 21/07/99

2010-04-21T17:41:00.001+01:00

For the last few weeks, 2000 AD has been running quotes from Heat Magazine across its cover. ‘High on irony, low on camp.” “The requisite blend of wit and darkness.” I’ve read many copies of Heat Magazine in dentist waiting rooms over the years and let me tell you, it’s hard to imagine a feature on 2000 AD ever having appeared in it. Mind you, this is just before the start of Big Brother so perhaps all these celebrity obsessed publications of the time have to crawl around for something to write about.

Earlier in The Slog, I felt able to contextualise the progs I was reading, remember what was happening around the time they were published, because usually I had read them before. Now, however, because this is the first time I’ve encountered this final run of issues, I don’t have that insight. So, when the comic runs quotes from Heat Magazine across its cover it’s hard to think of it as anything other than the cynical and opportunistic trash-mag it is today. For all I know, it might have been an entirely different beast in 1999.

It’s nearly impossible to forget, however, how excited everyone was about the new Star Wars film The Phantom Menace. This prog features a page long review which I can’t be bothered to read properly but does feature Cyber-MATT suggesting seeing it at least three times so you can assimilate all of the movie’s information. I don’t blame Cyber-MATT for thinking this, after all, many of us were so enthused by the prospect of the film that the idea it might be shit was difficult to comprehend. What strikes me as interesting about the presence of this review is, in a way, it’s 2000 AD turning full circle. It started out as a publication exploiting the success of the original Star Wars film (now re-titled A New Hope) and it’s still here, to wave hello now that the ugly-faced franchise has returned. Haven’t they changed?

Prog 1151 07/07/99

2010-04-20T17:35:00.002+01:00

There’s nothing quite like a re-launch prog except, these days, they seem to be happening less and less frequently. There was a time when a re-launch seemed to happen every twelve weeks, but now… well, I can’t remember the last one. Instead, we get these progs that look and smell like a re-launch but actually they aren’t. For example, last prog was a special 48 paged long issue and featured a twenty paged Judge Dredd episode, part one to Devlin Waugh Chasing Herod and a ten paged, self contained Nikolai Dante. Except the Dredd story was the latest part of The Trial and the Devlin Waugh episode was a follow on from the previous prog’s prologue. Seventy five percent of a prog featuring mid-stream stories do not a re-launch make. In this prog, there are four thrills altogether, suggesting it’s week two of a re-launch roll out, but only two of the thrills are new stories. This prog’s Judge Dredd episode is titled Trial of Strength Part 1 as if it’s a brand new story. However, it picks up exactly where last week’s episode ends with Dredd and Orlok the Assassin brawling. (It feels as if these two have been fighting with each other for weeks now). I appreciate that a re-launch probably requires the height of editorial coordination but faux reboots like these just make me think that Tharg isn’t as bothered as he used to be.

Prog 1149 16/06/99

2010-04-19T17:33:00.003+01:00

I’ve remarked here before at being impressed at how prolific artist SB Davis is but even he seems to be pushing it a bit with his current work on Judge Dredd The Trial. His art here really does look loose and sketchy. Dare I say it even looks only partially done? Davis is better known for his painted work in 2000 AD but on this occasion he’s opted for good ol’ fashioned ink. The result is pretty baron and, often, depressing looking. The colour is provided by Charlie Adlard, who also has a reputation for producing quality work quickly, so it makes me wonder if this episode was drawn in an emergency.

Despite the shaky start to this prog, the art overall is amazing. Siku draws a sword and sorcery themed Pulp Sci-Fi and although loose and sketchy it never looks hurried. One of the masters, John Burns, paints a particularly strong Nikolai Dante story where the masked rogue liberates some citizens from a slave ship and, seemingly, encounters his mother. Callum Alexander Watt’s art on a Downlode Tales one-off is the most impressive work I’ve seen him do. In fact, it’s stunning and reminds me of Geof Darrow. Finally, Steve Yeowell is back, this time drawing a new Devlin Waugh adventure. Yeowell has occasionally worked in a looser style recently so it’s great to see him back producing more substantial work here.

I don’t suppose I should be too surprised that the artwork for 2000 AD continues to be strong. At this time, there isn’t much of a British comic industry anymore, certainly not one comparable to the seventies or eighties, so it makes sense that all of the new and established comic artists are going to approach Tharg with their portfolios. Great art, normally, and reproduction, more recently, isn’t a bad thing for a comic to have.

There's No Time Like The Present part 12

2010-04-18T18:00:00.003+01:00

I am interrupting normal Slog service to announce the release of part 12 of my long comic, or ‘graphic novel’, There’s No Time Like The Present. This is an exciting issue for me because after years of hard, and some not so hard, work it features the penultimate episode.

Now available for £2.50 from my website using Paypal or contact me here for alternative methods of payment. If you’re unfamiliar with my comic, then there is more information, including a preview, here. All previous parts are still available and can be purchased from my shop here. All prices include P&P to UK destinations.

Prog 1147 02/06/99

2010-04-17T18:12:00.002+01:00

Item: Ever since Captain Britain made an unexpected return as a supporting character in Hulk Comic’s Black Knight strip back in the seventies eighteen months after the cancellation of his own comic, I’ve had a soft spot for comebacks done this way. At the moment, something similar is happening in Downlode Tales with Sinister and Dexter returning as characters in different stories. Admittedly, it’s only been a couple of weeks since we saw the guys last, and there is something premeditated about it all, but it’s fun just the same.

Item: The more Pulp Sci-Fi strips appear the more they remind me of Future Shocks without Tharg. This prog’s, written by Mike Carey, sees a criminal being operated on so he can never die and then being sent back in time to the Big Bang so he can serve his seven billion year sentence. That feels to me like classic Future Shock if ever there was one. I’m not complaining. In fact, I’m very pleased.

Item: As you know, I don’t really read the editorial or letters pages anymore. Having said that, I noticed the response to a letter commenting on how a character’s nostrils are drawn would expose hairs, broken blood vessels and bogies. “You think so? On my home world Quaxxann, bogies are considered the epitome of beauty.” This is the most in character letter response from Tharg I’ve seen for ages. What’s going on?

Prog 1145 19/05/99

2010-04-16T17:43:00.002+01:00

In Mercy Heights, Dendrellian Fadayeen terrorists slaughter their way to the centre of the space hospital like a swarm of merciless, suited up, unstoppable bastards. This second run for John Tomlinson’s thrill makes the first look like Last of the Summer Wine.

Unfortunately for me, I’ve completely lost track of who’s who in the story. I can remember the needy, black doctor and his hostile lady colleague he fancies; I can remember the genius but arrogant surgeon and, of course, Tor Cyan, the big, blue guy who might have been Rogue Trooper in a previous life; But after these guys everyone else is pretty much a blur. It means when a less established character pops up and does something momentous there’s a part of me that wonders if this is the first time I’ve met the little critter. It’s a shame really because it’s clearly a tightly written thrill that has an impressive selection of artists working on it including Trevor Hairshine, Lee Sullivan and Neil Goodge. Unfortunately, different artists drawing the characters differently only make recognition even harder.

During its original run, every episode was accompanied by a status update which not only recapped the story so far but also reminded us of the characters and their back grounds. I guess that one of the reasons it is absent now is that 2000 AD is at least four pages down every week since the thrill’s first run. Normally, I’m resistant to status updates of this size but the reality for me is that Mercy Heights needs it more than any other strip. Like Missionary Man, I hope it returns for a new story after this run just so I get another chance to get more fully onboard.

Prog 1143 05/05/99

2010-04-14T18:14:00.003+01:00

Item: As is often the case with The Slog, I make a bold statement and then, shortly after, something happens in the prog I’m reading to throw doubt onto it. You probably remember me saying recently how John Wagner doesn’t use Judge Anderson or PSI Division very often in his Judge Dredd stories anymore because of the ambiguities of their powers. Then, of course, the story Return of the Assassin begins and she’s in the thrill more often that Dredd is.

What’s interesting to me about Return of the Assassin is it refers very much to Alan Grant’s Anderson stories from the Megazine a few years ago in which she established a relationship with Orlok. In this story, a reward for Dredd’s capture is posted by the exiled government of East-Meg One because of his involvement in the nuking of the city during The Apocalypse War resulting in the deaths of half a billion people. This is small potatoes compared to the billions he ordered nuked off the face of the planet during Garth Ennis’ Judgement Day and yet no reference, so far, has been made to this. It’s as if Wagner has selective reference when it comes to Dredd-world stories written by other writers. Alan Grant, good; anybody else; not so good. Of course, now that I’ve said this here, I fully expect it to be disproved in a few progs time. I’ll let you know if this happens.

Item: I remember a big deal being made in the UK comic press during the eighties after Bryan Talbot was asked by Tharg to white-out what he saw as excessive blood splattering in a Nemesis the Warlock panel. How things have changed because in this prog I wretched at the sight of Egbert Balls reaching into the Obliterator’s insides through his mouth and, over a succession of panels drawn lovingly by Kevin Walker, pulls out a long line of pink, normally internal organs. One thrill later, Mercy Heights, and a Fadayeen Terrorist’s internals burst out through his mouth in a colourful line after the armour he tries on suddenly contracts with him wearing it. What a coincidence, eh?

Prog 1141 21/08/99

2010-04-13T17:39:00.002+01:00

Item: Judge Dredd begins Return of the Assassin, advertised as a seven part story that actually continues into a new epic. Like most epics of recent years, this one runs in both 2000 AD and The Megazine but unlike them, they run in a consecutive manner that means you don’t need to have read one to appreciate the other. In the interests of full disclosure, I’ve read both versions of the story having bought the graphic novel collections published a few years ago, and I still happen to have a copy of the edition featuring the Megazine strand of the epic. For Slog authenticity, I’m just going to read the story in the progs, but it’s reassuring to know that the graphic novel is there should things get confusing.

Item: Nikolai Dante seems to have taken over the position of the double-episode run previously occupied by Sinister Dexter. Of the two, I much prefer Dante. It’s always a lot more fun and less eager to please. However, don’t panic SD fans feeling pangs for the thrill thanks to its absence as satires of the characters appeared in the previous Dante story, The Hunting Party. Snake Lonnegan and Roaul Duke were hired to assassinate the mother of the Romanov clan (who also happens to be their aunt – don’t ask) but failed thanks to Dante’s roguish interference. Fortunately, before being put out of their misery, Lonnegan and Duke share one last passionate French kiss. Homage, piss take and pretty damn obvious but fun just the same.

Prog 1138 31/03/99

2010-04-12T17:41:00.001+01:00

I’ve said here before how I like the idea of the occasional prog long episode of a thrill even if, so far, those issues have been a tad disappointing. That was when they occurred sparingly and given over to classic strips such as Judge Dredd and Slaine, not, like in this prog, to upstarts like Sinister Dexter.

In Eurocrash part 12, the wedding of convenience between Demi Octavo and Hector Guapo is ruined, inevitably, when the hired dancers start shooting the place up. But the story ends in shock when, after Sinister and Dexter disagree with how to proceed, both groom and bridegroom are shot dead.

Eurocrash part 12 is not a self contained story like in previous prog long thrills; it’s not even quite the thrilling climax of the saga; rather, it is just an extra long episode. It highlights a flaw in the idea of these occasional progs; if you normally buy the comic for everything but, say, Sinister Dexter then an issue filled special of gun shark tomfoolery is an ideal one to skip. And breaking the habit once makes breaking it permanently at some point in the near future all the easier.

Dan Abnett writes this prog like it’s an American comic which, I suppose, in spirit, it more or less is. It’s a swifter and breezier read than five episodes of the thrill stitched together might be. And I continue to be impressed SB Davis’ prolific artwork. But Eurocrash has failed to change my mind about longer Sinister Dexter stories. I still prefer the shorter, pithier, single yarns. Having said this, I’m made curious enough by the end of this story to see how the survivors’ relationship moves on from here.

Prog 1137 24/03/99

2010-04-11T18:15:00.002+01:00

In Judge Dredd Banzai Battalion, a troop of tiny droids designed to destroy garden pests have to stretch the parameters of their original programming when their elderly owners are taken hostage by a group of nasty criminals. It’s another good example of how John Wagner works. He creates a whole new concept that most other script robots would think of as a thrill in its own right and then uses it as a short run, three part Dredd tale. During 2000 AD’s thirtieth anniversary coverage, I remember reading an article that commented on Banzai Battalion representing the aging interests of Dredd’s writer; originally it was anti-establishment and punk, now it’s gardening. But actually, Banzai Battalion reminds me of more old school thrills and isn’t any more comfy early Ro-Busters or Robo-Hunter.

In Anderson PSI Division Horror Story, Anderson and Rookie Judge Evayne encounter a powerful and apparently terrifying old enemy from earlier in her career that I don’t remember. I must be getting jaded by The Slog because the story, like most Anderson tales these days, pretty much just washed over me. The problem is that I’ve never understood the limits of the character’s PSI power so I’m rarely convinced by the jeopardy that she’s supposed to be in. Bad guy swaps body with Anderson and then Judges shoot dead the bad guy’s body? No problem, something I missed or not foreshadowed happens at the last minute and everything’s okay. I like Alan Grant, I like the character, I like the way Steve Sampson paints her, but there’s a fundamental flaw with the conceit which perhaps explains why Wagner refers to PSI Division in his Dredd stories less and less these days.

Prog 1135 10/03/99

2010-04-10T17:38:00.001+01:00

In Sinister Dexter Eurocrash, Queenpin Demi Octavo’s control over the underworld has become fragile thanks to the organisation fragmenting into various feuding gangs. Personally speaking, I can’t understand how she became Queenpin in the first place and I’ve been reading this strip from the beginning. She’s so nice and dainty looking that it’s impossible to imagine her ever having done any of the dirty work required to rise to such a lofty position. In fact, if you wanted to make a play for head of Downlode’s crime organisation all you would need to do is wait until SB Davis is painting her, steal her sun block and then ask her out for a walk in the sunshine.

In Nikolai Dante The Cadre Infernale, Dante encounters another society obsessed with sex. This time it’s the Hellfire Club, a group made up of society’s elite taking part in all sorts of debauched and perverted acts of sex allowed to take place in a comic that pretends to be grown up but isn’t really. Dante, being the character we’re supposed to relate to, is pretty much disapproving of the organisation. “Any club that wants me as a member isn’t worth joining,” he says. However, he wasn’t so reticent about getting stuck in when he was onboard a floating cat house a few progs back. I don’t remember him once checking if any of the women he was cavorting with worked there under their own free will and weren’t being coerced in any way.

Prog 1133 24/02/99

2010-04-09T18:10:00.002+01:00

Artist Cam Kennedy returns to drawing Judge Dredd after Grud knows how long away this prog. It’s great to see him back even if the reason for his return might be because American publishers are no longer offering him the level of work they once did. His Dredd looks great. Helping is D’Israeli who colours Kennedy’s black and white art. It’s amazing to think, especially when you see his amazing full artwork on twenty-first centaury thrills for 2000 AD, that some of D’Israeli’s earliest work for the comic is colouring.

Also making a return is Judge DeMarco in an ad for a new story beginning in the latest issue of The Megazine. “She’s about to uncover a mystery that will tear the city apart…” This is very frustrating to me because I dropped The Megazine from The Slog at the end on volume two. The thought that narratives I’ve been sucking up from 2000 AD Judge Dredd stories are being continued elsewhere is very annoying.

Another return this prog is the Rogue Trooper who may or may not be the Rogue Trooper we all know. Tor Cyan is back as a cast member of space hospital drama Mercy Heights. I must confess to being a little surprised by its return. Not because I don’t think it’s good but because it’s been away for a while. Currently, 2000 AD works hard at making readers like newer thrills by running them as often as possible and encouraging familiarity. Compared to Sinister Dexter and Nikolai Dante, Mercy Heights is a denser, more complicated strip that would feel the detriment of a long break more acutely. Interestingly, now that it’s back, it doesn’t even feature the status update page that it used to every week during its first run to remind readers as to what was going on.

Prog 1131 10/02/99

2010-04-08T17:28:00.004+01:00

The Balls Brothers looks to be John Wagner’s equivalent of Garth Ennis’s Hit Man or The Boys. A pair of grotesque, super strong thugs is released from the mental asylum where they’ve spent most of their lives and decide to become superheroes. However, the superhero community is an elitist and judgemental one and The Balls Brothers find themselves brawling, Mitchell Brothers style, with satirical versions of Superman, Spider-Man and Mr Fantastic.

I never knew that Wagner liked superheroes enough to be able to satire them as cruelly as he does here. Perhaps this knowledge has been brought to the project by artist and co-creator Kevin Walker. He certainly seems to relish drawing the scenes where Rocky Balls ties one end of the stretchy guy to a lamppost and the other to a bus.

Wagner’s masterpiece remains Judge Dredd, currently at the penultimate part of The Scorpion Dance. In it, Dredd tracks down mutant PSI Vitus Dance who has escaped from the cubes. Meanwhile, Deputy SJS Chief Munchie is being manipulated by the head of Public Surveillance Unit Edgar into proving an inapposite relationship between DeMarco and Dredd. The Scorpion Dance is a great, brooding tale beautifully painted by John Burns that develops on themes and relationships that Wagner started to establish all the way back in The Pit.

Prog 1128 20/01/99

2010-04-06T18:52:00.004+01:00

Item: That’s more like it; Not Dan Abnett setting the comic’s tone by providing three stories but John Wagner doing it, this prog, with two. Wagner writes Judge Dredd, obviously, and new thrill The Balls Brothers. It’s too early for me to comment on The Balls Brothers just yet but the thought of John Wagner being the dominant script robot makes the comic feel more like 2000 AD to me.

Item: The sinister atmosphere in current Dredd story Scorpion Dance is so thick you could slice the end off and fry eggs in it. Wagner’s writing is menacing, mature and very effective. Or so I thought until I saw the cover to next week’s prog painted by Jason Brashill advertised on the back of this and reproduced here for your perusal. Painting DeMarco with her knockers pretty much out demonstrates to me either a limited reading ability or the sort of sexual disorder suffered by the drivers from On The Busses.

Item: Graeme Mitchell asks in the Input page if readers are getting shorter as WH Smiths has moved 2000 AD from the top to the middle shelf. Amusingly, Tharg replies, “/2000 AD/ isn’t a top shelf /comic/ - despite Bish-OP’s best efforts to the contrary.” If Tharg’s intention was for 2000 AD to be racked next to Loaded then he must be disappointed as my local WH Smiths has been racking it in the cult TV and film section for years. For me, the comic being associated with Starburst and SFX is worse than when it was with Viz because at least it’s a comic. Ideally, of course, it should be in the same section as The Beano, The Dandy and those Panini Marvel reprint comics, like it used to be in the good old days.

Prog 1126 06/01/99

2010-04-05T17:29:00.003+01:00

I’ve had to pause for a moment to realise that 2000 AD is in the midst of an era where the comic is ruled by the presence of Judge Dredd, Sinister Dexter and Nikolai Dante. It’s very definitely a different comic to the one that I grew to love fifteen years ago and even to the comic I became despondent with seven years later. It almost feels as if 2000 AD could have been cancelled and re-launched shortly after as an altogether different title, Judge Dredd being present as a cautionary nod to the past in the same way that Dan Dare was in prog 1.

Dan Abnett’s voice is becoming increasingly loud. In this prog, there’s a S&D one off called Reservations which, actually, is quite sweet, but there’s also a spin off from the strip called Downlode Tales. Is Sinister Dexter so popular that readers want double the standard amount as has happened often recently? Is it conceptually strong enough that it can actually support more than one strip? I don’t think so but then this isn’t really 2000 AD so I don’t know what the rules are anymore.

Next prog, in spite of my feelings that there’s only space for one story per prog written by him, Abnett scripts three strips including the Pulp Sci-Fi. This prog however, we have the second to date both written and painted by Mark Harrison. Given how long 2000 AD has been going for now, there have been very few thrills both written and drawn by the same creator. Jim Baikie’s Skiizz and Skiiizz spring to mind. I like to see an artist write their own stories every now and then. Often, they are more capable than we give them credit for and they have a greater sense of what subject matter and story telling styles result in better work from them.

Prog 1124 16/12/98

2010-04-03T15:52:00.002+01:00

Item: A 48 paged issue for Christmas might make the season feel a little more special except that, actually, it’s supposed to last us for two weeks. I guess this is where the long standing practise of the holiday break for 2000 AD starts. Really, I shouldn’t have any feelings on the matter given that I had stopped buying the comic by this time but if I were to be pushed well, every week missed for the comic is a shame.

Item: In Christmas Angel, Judge Dredd comes close to catching The Euthanasia Serial Killer. She’s the latest of Mega City criminals who reoccur in the thrill by managing to constantly avoid capture. I don’t know what you think but every time she reappears with her idiot husband there’s a part of my heart that sinks. I think, ‘this story’s only gonna be worthwhile if the get her this time’. They didn’t again on this occasion, which means she’s back soon for at least one more killing spree.

Item: Missionary Man’s latest story ends this prog with Apocrypha in which New Orleans burns to the ground and Texas City’s Deputy Chief Judge dies from a slow and painful revenge. It’s a shame I think that my feelings about the character’s 2000 AD run remain pretty much the same as when I last spoke about it. All the rhythms of the tale are well pitched but my ability to engage with it was compromised by the episodes I missed from The Megazine. I hope it returns for a new adventure just so I have another chance to get back on board.

Prog 1120 18/11/98

2010-04-02T18:10:00.002+01:00

Tharg’s current favourite, the thrill he’s working hard on making succeed, Sancho Panzer, finishes another story, Worms, this prog. Sancho Panzer is set on a planet wracked by civil war. Panzer and his maintenance man, Tool, drive around a really big tank for hire mainly to small peaceful communities for who the war is encroaching upon. On top of this, they’re being pursued by an over eager journalist, Henry McGee in The Incredible Hulk style, determined to expose the mythology of the tank and its driver.

Sounds great and looks great too. This thrill seems to have been co-created by the excellent Henry Flint, or with him in mind at least. Admittedly, I feel the tank looks ridiculous with its giant wheels for speed but every other aspect of the strip is as visually pleasing as you would expect.

However, it’s written by Dan Abnett whose Sinister Dexter, as you know, I find enjoyable and annoying in equal measure. A recent episode of S&D features the two characters laughing for its entire length at the name of Caribbean mob boss, Uranus Hertz. These are characters whose writer constantly fills their world with lame innuendoes. They drink in a bar called Floppy Dicks for God’s sake. I would have thought they would have been used to it by now.

Sancho Panzer is fun and a touch intriguing but Abnnet’s irritating penchant for innuendo and laddy humour is becoming more apparent with each new episode. I feel that there’s only enough space for one Abnet thrill of this type in the comic.

Prog 1118 04/11/98

2010-03-31T17:14:00.003+01:00

Item: In Judge Dredd Virtual Soldier, a tap gang find what they think is a games console amongst their booty but is in fact a remote control for a war robot. As is often the case with a John Wagner scripted Dredd story, it’s a neat idea that’s over in two episodes. I can’t help wondering, however, if in the hands of a more contemporary writer if it would have been turned into a six part creator owned series released over three years in the hope that the film rights get sold.

Item: I know I’m writing about Slaine a lot recently but I’m really enjoying it at the moment. In Macha, he is denied the chance to take place in the chariot race in case it brings bad luck on the tribe. The only fun thing he is aloud to do is to sleep with newly married women on their wedding day. But even this doesn’t work out for Slaine. The first bride is unattractive and the second’s new husband objects. As a compromise, Cathbad the elderly druid sleeps between the pair. Okay, I accept that I’m not telling this very well, but I laughed out loud at this scene, which is something I haven’t done reading 2000 AD for a long time.

Item: The Quote of the Week has changed from featuring lines from forgettable, crappy little movies to actual thrills. I’ve even got a couple right recently. However, I still have this sense that Tharg, let’s call him David Bishop, is reaching blindly into a pile of back progs and sticking a pin in a page that it falls open at. Last week’s quote was ‘No! No! Not… The Teeth!’ which, apparently, comes from Judge Dredd super epic, The Cursed Earth. Now, is it me who thinks that of all the quotes one might decide to use from The Cursed Earth, ‘No! No! Not… The Teeth!’ isn’t one of them.

Prog 1116 21/10/98

2010-03-30T17:44:00.002+01:00

It continues to impress me after all these years that stunning new artists continue to appear in 2000 AD. It’s as if Tharg has a tap in The Nerve Centre that he just needs to turn on for a great new original artist to pour out of. We recently had Wayne Reynolds paint a couple of beautiful Slaine stories and now we have brush master Andy Clarke just finishing Nikolai Dante The Octobriana Seduction.

In The Octobriana Seduction, Dante and his mute brother Viktor are sent to France to investigate the death of one of the Tsar’s spies. There they meet the mistress of seduction, Octobriana for whom Viktor takes a special shine and Dante, like a good brother, helps to seduce.

Octobriana seems to be a non-copyright Russian character that pops up in comics every now and then. Although I don’t quite get what the appeal of her is, I did experience that silly little thrill of recognition. “Oh, look, it’s her. What’s her face from Luther Arkwright.” The Octobriana Seduction is another fun Dante story written by Robbie Morrison in which the characters continue to become increasingly likable.

Prog 1114 07/10/98

2010-03-29T17:34:00.003+01:00

I can’t express enough how pleasing it is to say here how improved Slaine has been since the thrill started to focus on his time as the High King. His adventures set later with him and Ukko travelling through time became plodding and formulaic. Now they seem fresh and promising.

In The Swan Children, we learn that Slaine has many wives and adopted children. One of those wives, Aeife, is jealous of one of the children and so turns her and three of her siblings into swans. Slaine is pretty pissed off with her and a fight with a giant snake ensues (obviously) but it’s the reaction of other cast members which is a revelation. Ukko seems particularly saddened by the change in the children and concerned for their fate.

Siku paints all three parts of the story. His interpretation of the character seems to sit half way between the modern and original lean versions which I like. I haven’t always enjoyed his previous artwork but for The Swan Children everything about it is pitched perfectly from the story telling to the page composition to the colour.

It’s great to see Pat Mills softening his pagan militancy and focusing more on story, ideas and characterisation. I understand from The Slog comments section that, at this time, nothing other than Slaine commissions were being accepted from the writer which, at first, seems amazing considering his history with 2000 AD, but if this sort of story is the result then maybe it’s not such a bad thing.

Prog 1111 09/09/98

2010-03-28T16:35:00.002+01:00

There’s nothing quite like a re-launch prog although I’m not sure that this qualifies seeing as how each of the thrills is a self contained story. It’s a 48 paged special issue the theme of which is death. When we had the sex issue, the word was plastered in big writing on the cover, but for this prog I just happened to notice from reading the strips. I had to skim read the Nerve Centre for confirmation. In fact, you could be mistaken for perhaps thinking that the theme of this issue is actually Sex from the cover. Just change the colour of the blood dribbling from Durham Red’s mouth and between her cleavage and, well, if you don’t know what I’m implying here then I’m not going to tell you.

Batman Judge Dredd Die Laughing

2010-03-26T17:56:00.003Z

Some say this is the second, or the third, but I say this is the fourth team-up between DC Comics’ Batman and 2000 AD’s Judge Dredd. The reason there is ambiguity is Die Laughing was years in the making, work on it supposedly having started around the time that Judgement on Gotham came out. My God, that was years ago. Two more team-ups were written, drawn and published in the meantime.

In Die Laughing, The Joker has managed to partially beam over to Mega City One and free the four Dark Judges. Now immortalised through Judge Death’s Dark Judge making process, Dark Joker and his new friends get sealed up inside a nuke proof dome with ten thousand hedonists. Thank God that Batman followed him to the Big Meg and got inside with Dredd before the shields came down.

Die Laughing, despite being bigger than earlier team-ups, is a little under whelming. The story by Alan Grant and John Wagner feels as if it was written years ago. It ticks all of the right boxes but lacks the vitality I associate with their early parings or the depth that Wagner’s more recent Judge Dredd stories have since developed. Clearly, the advantage of a team-up such as this is it’s an opportunity to sell Judge Dredd to the Americans (us British readers don’t need Batman selling to us) and that’s how this, and all the team-ups feel. It’s not helped by the fact that by this time Dredd’s perception amongst comic readers is on the descent thanks, mainly, to the movie from a few years before. Die Laughing feels like a contractual obligation, probably because it is.

I’m not so sure that the art is as great as, in theory, it should be. Glenn Fabry’s pages look too dark to me, which is surprising given the paper that it’s printed on, but then I have the smaller sized American editions and, for all I know, the UK version might look fine. It’s down to Fabry, I understand, that Die Laughing was so long in the making and, although I don’t know why, it doesn’t look like he had much fun on this gig as this doesn’t look like his best work to me. I much prefer Jim Murray’s pages. They’re bright and even garish in places but I can pretty much see what’s going on.

On the one hand, I’m relieved that Dredd’s meetings with Batman are over, but on the other, I still like the idea of him taking out Superman with a Kryptonite bullet or The Incredible Hulk trashing Mega City One. I guess I’m just a sucker for this sort of thing.

Prog 1110 02/09/98

2010-03-25T17:45:00.001Z

Judge Dredd story Beyond the Call of Duty ends this prog after ten episodes, twelve if you think about the double length opener and closing. In it, Judge DeMarco from The Pit has been made Chief Judge of Sector 303. Dredd has been drafted in temporarily, on the surface as a low level street judge but actually has been tasked with reporting his operational observations back to the new chief. During this period of change, 303 is also troubled by a vigilante group who feel that the Judge system is too soft.

It’s perhaps wrong to think of this as a sequel to The Pit. Judge Dredd has evolved over the years into a more substantial strip, expanding the cast and taking the time to flesh out characters. So DeMarco has appeared a few times since her premier and this is the latest instalment in her narative. Judge Dredd is a thrill that’s had to grow, if only for the sanity of its head writer who’s been here since the start. As a character, he has had to become more flexible, more tolerant, more accepting of the idea of the world not fitting into how he thinks it should work otherwise, after twenty one years, the strip would have become very repetitive. Besides, John Wagner writes these sorts of stories so well.

One of the threads of the tale sees DeMarco make an unsuccessful pass at Dredd. The rule that prevents Judges from having physical relationships has become a theological discussion point for the two characters, although I’m not so sure that Dredd wishes to take part in it. I love this narative and I hope Wagner revisits it. It’s a great analogy not just to celibacy in the Roman Catholic priesthood but also to our expectations of people in authority in their private lives.

Dredd’s reaction to DeMarco’s advances show just how attitudes have matured in the strip. In the past he might have arrested her but, now, he walks away and tries to put the incident out of his mind, beyond the call of duty. Perhaps this is the final ending to Judge Dredd Wagner plans to write just before he retires from the character for good; Rules on physical relationships between Judges are relaxed and the lives for the citizenry in Mega City One improve simply because everyone in the judiciary is getting laid.

Prog 1108 19/08/98

2010-03-24T17:41:00.002Z

According to the cover banner, this prog features a preview of the long awaited fourth team-up between Judge Dredd and Batman. Now, I don’t know about you, but my idea of a preview is something more substantial than a quarter-page sized ad for the comic. If this were a motivator for me to buy this prog, I would have been very disappointed.

In The Great Game, Nikolai Dante races across the Romanov galactic empire to track down the stolen Darkstar device, a weapon so deadly, so powerful it can destroy entire planets within minutes and, who knows, maybe even the solar system it’s a part of. Dante has become reacquainted with his estranged wife (who knew?) who, in this episode, dies in his arms as the planet starts to implode around them.

There’s a moral high ground that 2000 AD has always had over its American peers and that is its refusal to rest on its laurels. While Marvel and DC continually churn out comics starring characters created thirty-five, fifty, even seventy years ago, 2000 AD, despite its restricted space, insists on presenting its readers with new ideas and thrills. Had it curled up into a frightened commercial ball we would have had constant reinventions of Ro-Busters, Flesh and Zenith over the years and we wouldn’t have got something as excellent as Nikolai Dante. Robbie Morrison and Simon Fraser have created a great contemporary thrill that has all of the imagination, excitement and emotional pull of strips all of us Squaxx think of as classics.

Fortunately, Tharg also recognises the attraction long running thrills such Slaine have. Since my comments about his prog long adventure in 1100, it’s as if the strip has reinvented itself as domesticated sword and sorcery. We’ve already seen Slaine brawl in a pub with some sea creatures, now, this prog, he and his wife are summoned to their son’s school because of his out of control behaviour. I’m interested to learn if upcoming stories see Slaine down the bookies or worrying about the gradual influx of people from other tribes to the local area.

Prog 1106 05/08/98

2010-03-23T17:40:00.002Z

I’m six parts into the second Mazeworld story The Dark Man and I’m still feeling that it’s not as good as it could be. I love Arthur Ranson’s artwork, obviously, and I remain intrigued by the idea of the Hooded Man seeking redemption in a possible fantasy world but that’s pretty much where it stops. The world itself and its characters remain insubstantial to me. Furthermore, the internal logic of the thrill seemed compromised recently by a scene where doctors tending to Adam Cadman’s comatose body in the real world saw a maze appear on the monitor recording his brain activity. It just seemed stupid to me.

In Sinister Dexter Slay Per View, Dexter had convinced himself that he is Downlode’s serial killer because he’s been having dreams that mirror the real life murders. It was Sinister who worked out that the TV implanted into Dexter’s brain has been picking up signals from the real killer just in time before he shot himself. There’s a part of me that wishes he hadn’t.

I’m surprised that more isn’t made of Dexter’s implant. It’s become like Maggie on the Simpsons; it seemed like a good idea at the time but, actually, exploiting it story wise is really difficult and sometimes it’s better to forget that it’s there. Anyway, the two guns for hire are now helping the police to track down the real killer as if they have some sort of moral high ground because they only kill people for money. Personally, I think the serial killer is the good guy here. At least he (or she) isn’t doing it for commercial gain.

Finally, yesterday I expressed surprise at the height of Slaine’s son, Kai, given that he’s spent twenty years in druid school. Actually, he’s only spent seven of his twenty course years there, so there you go.

John Hicklenton

2010-03-23T12:47:00.003Z

According to several news sites including Forbidden Planet, artist John Hicklenton has passed away. As you may know, especially if you watched the award winning documentary about him Here’s Johnny, he had lived with MS for many years.

John Hicklenton came to the notice of 2000 AD readers as the new artist on Nemesis the Warlock during the late eighties. His work was striking, challenging and subversive. As you will see if you look back over The Slog covering that period, I had difficulty adjusting to his style initially. However, his comic strip work improved at a rate that matched my adjustment so that by the end of the eighties he had become one my favourite artists of the expanding 2000 AD line. His Judge Dredd work for The Megazine during the early nineties was both fresh and expressive.

I don’t think I encounter anymore of his artwork for The Slog project. I did, however, see a strip he drew for The Megazine a couple of years ago. I was impressed at how intricate and yet undeniably John Hicklenton it was. He seemed to be an artist who never stopped improving which is amazing given how most comic artists tend to settle into a grove after a while and his illness.

My thoughts are with his family and friends.

Prog 1104 22/07/98

2010-03-22T17:40:00.002Z

I’m surprised to see the return of Slaine so soon after his extended appearance in prog 1100. I thought all of the re-launch thrills were bedded in and, for a moment, I couldn’t work out which of them it had replaced. It turns out that Anderson PSI Division Lawless was just a two part story. I hadn’t even noticed it had finished.

In Lawless, a mysterious anarchist commits creative anti-authoritarian acts in Mega City One that manage to humiliate the Chief Judge. Despite her sympathy for the mysterious law-breaker, Lawless (that’s his codename) manages to escape and, well, that’s how the story ends. I imagine Anderson will return in the near future for a new run that picks up where this tiny one left off but then, I’m still waiting to hear more about all those kids that walked out of the city a couple of stories ago. It’s a shame it finished as soon it did as Lawless was drawn by Trevor Hairshine whose interpretation of Anderson I was really enjoying.

I know it’s only one episode in but Kai already feels like an improvement on recent other Slaine stories. Seeing a crew of sea creatures trying to fool Slaine and Ukko into thinking that they are normal humans was enough to make me feel that. At the moment I’m slightly confused as to how Slaine is back in his home era or how, after twenty years of training to become a druid, Kai looks no taller than a twelve year old but I’m hoping it will all be revealed as the story unfolds.

Prog 1101 01/07/98

2010-03-21T18:54:00.003Z

There’s nothing quite like a re-launch prog except, increasingly these days, they’re less memorable. There’s a new procedure to the re-launch process that basically protracts the jumping on process to beyond a single week. Week one, as with prog 1100, runs an issue long solo story. Week two (this week), launches three new strips, a couple of them with extra long openers. Week three (which sometimes can leak into a fourth week), starts the remaining one or two thrills. Actually, it’s a nice little re-launch method. Well done, Tharg (let’s call him David Bishop).

I’m really looking forward to Judge Dredd Beyond the Call of Duty, which starts with a double episode and looks to be a sequel to The Pit. You can tell that it’s by the old masters John Wagner and Carlos Ezquerra; the story starts so well. I’m also surprised to see the return of Mazeworld. When I last wrote about it here, I was convinced that the strip never returned. Hopefully this follow up goes someway to substantiating the world that Alan Grant and Arthur Ranson have created.

Prog 1100 24/06/98

2010-03-19T17:32:00.003Z

I’m finding it increasingly difficult to find anything to say about Slaine these days. There was a time when it seemed like the most exciting thrill from the Nerve Centre but at the moment it feels middle aged; the very thing that the strip seemed to once stand against. Ukko, the only real ray of sunshine anymore, summed it all up during Secret of the Grail when he said, ”…Slaine and Niamh are in love…. And, indeed, boring us with it for all eternity.”

To celebrate this prog’s centenary, there’s an issue long Slaine story called Lord of the Beasts written by Pat Mills (of course) and painted by Rafael Garres. Instead of exposing us to more of Slaine traipsing up and down through time after the continuously resurrecting love of his lives, we’re treated to an untold tale from his days as the High King of Ireland. There was a time when the idea of Slaine being stuck in his warp spasm form would have been exciting to me but I’ve grown so used to what this strip has to offer now that it’s just another thing I expect from it.

Slaine continues to be well written and painted but it occurred to me recently what it reminds me of now. There was a time when it was described as ‘the thinking man’s Conan’ but these days it actually looks as contrived, like those old covers to The Savage Sword of Conan magazines that Marvel UK published during the seventies; Elaborately painted over muscled men with usually at least one woman wearing a metal bikini hanging off a leg. Those old comics were pitched at ‘older readers’, which I wasn’t, and that is how Sliane feels to me now; like it’s being pitched at somebody else.

I can’t think what it would require to revitalise the strip but whatever it takes I hope it happens soon. As fond as I remain of Slaine it seems as if it’s being usurped by newer and more vital thrills such as, and I can’t believe that I’m saying this, Nikolai Dante. The suggestion from the Goddess in a recent adventure that the past is as uncertain as the future doesn’t bode for this revitalisation happening soon.

prog 1097 03/06/98

2010-03-18T20:24:00.003Z

Item: I’ve seen some pretty freaky Judge Dredd chins during my time on The Slog but the latest painted by Julian Gibson (an otherwise fine comic artist in the painty style) has to be the freakiest. It looks like the stump of an arm. In fact, I’m beginning to wonder why nobody is throwing Dredd out of Mega City One for severe mutation.

Item: After really enjoying the last Sinister Dexter story, Dan Abnett manages to write one that irritates me from beginning to end. Queenpin Demi Octavo goes to her local gym to use the sun bed there (which goes some of the way to explaining her flip-flopping skin tone but doesn’t explain why someone of her affluence doesn’t have their own sun bed at home). She’s been tipped off that somebody’s out to whack her there so she’s taken Sinister and Dexter with her for protection. (If you know somebody’s out to kill you, then why go in the first place?) The two gun sharks that pride themselves on their professionalism start behaving like elderly hormonal boys from the Carry On films, peeking through the door at a naked Octavo (cor!) and getting distracted by big titted lady assassins (pheor!). At one point, Sinister is mesmerised by the button between a lady’s cleavage pinging off of her top to the actual sound effect of ‘poink!. Abnett and Paul Johnson aren’t even being ironic here. It’s supposed to be funny in a ‘I can’t get any work done in the gym because it’s filled with sexy women’ and ‘we get like this, don’t we, lads; incapable when there’s a sexy woman nearby’ way. This is how witless this episode is; it even ends with Octavo walking back to the car when all the brouhaha is over in a dressing gown. What, doesn’t she wear clothes to the gym or does she throw them away after every visit?

Item: Now that Vector 13 is pretty much over, the new series of one-off thrills with a twist is Pulp Sci-Fi. It’s pretty much the same as Tharg’s Future Shocks except without The Mighty One. If Tharg were present, then that might suggest that 2000 AD is aimed at less mature readers and we can’t have that, can we? (See the Sinister Dexter story referred in the item above). Actually, the two I’ve seen so far have been pretty good and if this new strip features more stories written by Kek-W then I’ll be more than happy.

Prog 1095 20/05/98

2010-03-17T17:33:00.002Z

Another enjoyable Judge Dredd story finishes this prog. In Down on Sausage Tree Farm, Dredd encounters a feud between Cursed Earth meat farmers and local mutants. The farmers have redirected the only water nearby from the mutant settlement and have decided that their retaliations are all the justification they need to slaughter them. It’s one of those stories where despite normally sentencing litterbugs to cube time you know Dredd will do the right thing on this occasion.

Down on Sausage Tree Farm is slightly reminiscent of an old ABC Warriors story in places. The one where Martian farmers grow strawberry flavoured meat on artificial cow frames. The Sinister Dexter story, Mother Lode and the Red Admiral, which also concludes this prog, reminds me of those Judge Dredd and Strontium Dog tales where the hero assembles a team of likable misfits and losers for a special mission. In the case of Sinister Dexter, it’s to lead an assault on the Zanya-Peshdin Nuke Plant where the Red Admiral is holed up and holding the city to ransom. As you know, normally it’s not hard for me to find something irritating in the most enjoyable of Sinister Dexter stories but on this occasion, I couldn’t. I liked it so much that I didn’t even try.

The problem with Missionary Man Mardi Gras for me is there are a bunch earlier stories that appeared in The Megazine that I haven’t read. So, I don’t really know how Missionary Man got to be the sheriff of New Orleans and I don’t fully appreciate why Texas City Justice Department hates him so much. However, there’s no denying that there’s something about an individual of unshakable principle standing up against the apparently overwhelming forces of corruption that is fundamentally core 2000 AD. It grabs you right there; by the gut.

Prog 1093 06/05/98

2010-03-16T17:14:00.002Z

Item: Lady Squaxx, Ms L Tomlinson, will hopefully still be reading 2000 AD because this prog’s episode of Slaine goes someway to counter balancing the amount of scantily clad female characters appearing in the comic recently. In it, Slaine dreams he is trying to cross a chasm using a ‘sword bridge’ without any clothes on. Throughout the account, we see pretty much everything, except for his genitals which get conveniently concealed by his axe and other objects (thank the Goddess). Later, there is a picture featuring some nude women at a feast but it’s only a single panel whereas Slaine’s dream occupies an entire page. So, I hope that makes her feel better.

Item: Once again, Finnigan Sinister is back to his pasty white look in the current Sinister Dexter story, Mother Lode and The Red Admiral. Like I’ve said before, all of this flip flopping back and forth between his pale and pink skin looks is confusing. When S B Davis first painted characters this unhealthy tone, I could explain it away as comic artist shorthand, but once other art robots started to do it also, it implied something more meaningful is going on. So who tells the artists, in this case Callum Alexander Watt and Alan Craddock, to colour Sinister the way they do? Is it Dan Abnett’s script directing them, is it Tharg interfering in something they shouldn’t be or is it the artists deciding for themselves? Things get really confusing in this story when Queenpin Demi Octavo appears and her skin tone is now a healthy pink. Consistency; that’s all I ask for, consistency.

Prog 1091 22/04/98

2010-03-15T17:37:00.002Z

The good; I like that Missionary Man is now appearing in 2000 AD from this prog instead of in The Megazine. I suppose this is because of budgetary cut backs and The Megazine running mainly reprints at this time. Missionary Man is one of the few Megazine strips that I liked and I was missing it a little.

The bad; I suppose that it’s also down to budgetary constraints that the back of each prog now reproduces the artwork to the next issue’s cover. This is a practice that The Megazine engaged in that I never liked. When I walk into the shop to buy my comic, I like to be surprised by the cover, not thinking that it’s last week’s prog racked the wrong way ‘round. Surely, it doesn’t take much to knock up a ‘coming next prog’ page that maintains that cheap newsagent thrill I like so much.

The status page that preludes the appearance of Missionary Man features artwork by Duncan Fegrado. It’s lovely looking artwork that, in two progs time, is also used on the cover. Surely Tharg, let’s call him David Bishop (actually, is it still Bishop at this time?), could have used artwork from The Megazine that many Squaxx might not have seen.

The ugly; Ms L Tomlinson writes to comment on how few clothes Durham Red wears in comparison with the male characters in her adventures. Tharg doesn’t seem surprised like I am that 2000 AD has any female readers left anymore after all the arse, tits and old-boyism that’s been taking place here recently. Typically, Tharg misses the point of her letter entirely and responds by pointing out that when Red visited an ice planet once she wore a very big coat. Grud help us all.

Prog 1089 08/04/98

2010-03-12T17:33:00.002Z

Dan Abnett’s opening Durham Red saga, The Scarlet Cantos, concludes this prog. In it, Red wakes up twelve hundred years into her future and discovers she has become the figurehead in a galaxies wide war between human and mutant kind. She then sets about, well, doing stuff, like exposing the fake Durham Red and telling the mutants what she thinks of them waging war in her name. (Just for the record, she’s against it.)

Abnett is a paradoxical writer to me. On one hand he creates an intriguing character set-up with Godolkin, a human fiercely loyal to Red but only because he believes himself to be under her supernatural allure, but doesn’t do much with it seemingly preferring to write in a matter of fact way about fake planets and imagined cultures. He does succeed, however, in creating a sense of universal scale in the story.

This sense of scale is helped significantly by Mark Harrison whose artwork is undoubtedly stunning. The recently improved paper stock really makes a difference here. However, my problem with it remains; I continue to find it difficult to follow what’s going on. It’s like the end of a big budget movie to me when the giant robots brawl or the space ships fight; I often find it so difficult to interpret what’s going on that my eyelids grow heavy and I have to fight falling asleep. Having said this, his style is very effective at illustrating how mystifying the far future should be.

Like I said before, deciding to set the strip even further in the future seemed initially like a good idea to me. However, I’m left wondering now that she is separated from the established Strontium Dog world if there has ever been enough to the character for her to support a solo series. She was okay as a counterbalance to intense characters like Johnny Alpha but on her own? Well, she’s just not all that.

Prog 1087 25/03/98

2010-03-11T18:59:00.003Z

I’m finding what colour Finnegan Sinister is supposed to be increasingly baffling. S B Davis established him as this pale, unhealthy light blue, along with several other characters, a while ago. However, during the recent Taking the Mick story (the title of which should probably be the subject of several Slog entries in its own right), Steve Yeowell coloured him in a normal fleshy white colour. Sinister looked so healthy that I nearly didn’t recognise him. And yet, just to confuse things more, Queenpin Demi Octavo pops up wearing the same pale blue skin Davis paints her in. In this prog’s story, he’s back to the blue skin and Albert Tatlock tipped nose look again. It’s all very, very confusing to me, that’s all.

In this prog’s Sinister Dexter story Hand Maid in Downlode, the boys are hired to protect a highly sexified robot lady, otherwise referred to as a ‘simulacrum’. Everyone is falling in love with her including Sinister and Dexter and she wants to be de-sexified. Here’s something you might like to try, robot lady; put some clothes on, that might help.

Sinister Dexter is a favourite of Tharg’s at the moment having appeared pretty much continuously in 2000 AD for months now and even, more recently, frequently being awarded double and, on one occasion, triple length stories. Personally, I continue to find the strip both enjoyable and irritating but having said that, Hand Maid in Downlode is a favourite so far. The friendship between the two main characters and the usually flexible code that they are supposed to work to is at its most convincing here. Having said that, the robot lady walking around dressed like that and moaning about everybody fancying her really irritated me.

Prog 1086 18/03/98

2010-03-10T17:37:00.002Z

Item: Yeah… well… umm… It appears I messed up. I got to the end of this prog after quite happily reading it when I realised that I had completely missed an issue. I had put prog 1085 on the other side of my bed, ready to read later, but had completely forgotten I had done this. There was a moment when I was reading this prog during Durham Red when I thought, ‘I don’t remember her being captured by the Tenebrae’ but I’ve not been into this story particularly and I decided that I had probably forgotten. The super-sized Sinister Dexter strip was a self contained episode but the Judge Dredd story was the conclusion to a two-parter and I didn’t notice. Anyway, as curator of The Slog, it’s my responsibility now to the read last prog next before continuing. That’ll learn me.

Item: The last few progs have been interesting because they have been running fewer thrills but with longer stories. This prog, as I mentioned, featured a fifteen paged Sinister Dexter while last, the one I skipped, ran a double sized Durham Red. Prog 1084 was a forty-eight paged twenty-first anniversary issue which ran longer versions of all the strips. It’s the sort of content experimentation I’m okay with to be honest. I’m not so sure about skipping weeks in the publishing schedule though, which is what happened after 1084. (Bit of a funny coincidence when you consider that I also jumped a prog here). It just feels like deciding to do so is poor practice for a comic that’s supposed to have a weekly frequency.

Item: I’m alarmed at the rate of improvement artist Alex Ronald is displaying. Each time I see a new strip drawn by him it’s vastly better than the one he did before. His work on Judge Dredd Headbangers in prog 1084was excellent and, although I don’t want to underestimate the role of Gary Caldwell’s colouring, at this rate of improvement, I fully expect to see Ronald in demand to draw everything by 2004.

Prog 1083 24/02/98

2010-03-09T15:38:00.003Z

Item: Take a look at this prog’s cover; Gives the impression that the men in black characters from Vector 13 are returning to their mother-ship never to return with their stale stories of conspiracies and aliens, doesn’t it. Unfortunately, inside, it’s business as usual suggesting that, even though this is the final story in the current series, Vector 13 is likely to return.

Item: The great thing about performing The Slog at this time is reading John Wagner scripted Judge Dredd stories that I’ve never encountered before. This prog sees the conclusion of Missing, in which Dredd is missing and presumed probably dead by justice department. Only a small team of characters from The Pit story are looking for him but the Chief Judge has given them a tight deadline. In fact, Dredd is imprisoned along with other exceptional citizens of Mega City One all of whom are the prisoners of a mad art collector called Cronix.

Missing reminds me of an old Avengers story from the seventies in which a super villain called The Collector gradually abducts members of the team over a period of issues for his collection of superheroes. It’s hard to imagine Wagner ever having encountered that story, however. Also, all those people communicating from cell to cell made me think of his short lived DC comic, Chain Gang War. If you’ve never read it, then a recommend keeping an eye out for it on eBay, I really liked it at the time.

Item: The Input page has started running a ‘Quote of the week’ feature in which a famous phrase appears and you need to guess where it’s from. It’s not a competition, it’s just for fun. Last week’s quote, “My vote is outer space. No way these are local boys” is revealed in this prog to be from the movie Tremors. That’s right, Tremors; that all-time classic sci-fi movie.

I should read the letters page more often. In response to a letter from Eammonn Lynskey, Tharg reveals that the Judge Dredd story In the Year 2120 was co-written by Alan Grant. That explains the overall vague Anderson PSI Division vibe to it. If Wagner and Grant co-wrote this story as Tharg claims, then I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that they used a different method to the one they did when they worked together back in the eighties.

Prog 1081 10/02/98

2010-03-08T17:39:00.001Z

When I wrote about Nikolai Dante before my focus on the vagina monster might have distracted Slog readers from my declaration that I’m enjoying the thrill. When I encountered the strip first time around, I didn’t care for it much, but now I’m beginning to wonder if I even read it at all. I certainly couldn’t have stuck with it for very long after an episode or two.

Currently, the thrill is in the midst of a story called The Gulag Apocalypse in which Dante is sent to supervise at the legendary prison in the frozen wastes by his new family. Accompanying him is a sexy (of course) female alien called Khara whose race has an arrangement with the Romanov Dynasty for the pure genes of the weaker prisoners. However, as they arrive, the prison is attacked by others of Khara’s race who have access to technology similar to Dante’s weapon’s crest. It’s all just a good excuse for a big morphing machines battle.

Writer Robbie Morrison has helped to conceive not just a highly likable lead character but also a fascinating fantasy world. Nikolai Dante manages to feel substantial at the same time as being accessible. The art for this story by Henry Flint is, obviously, terrific. When he draws a strip it looks like it could have appeared in an annual from the early eighties which is a good thing as far as I’m concerned. However, the real art robot star is Simon Fraser who normally draws the strip. His work is animated, expressive and stunningly detailed when the story requires it.

So, there you go; I enjoy Nikolai Dante. Although I maintain that many of the double entendres used aren’t particularly subtle and if the character happens to based on a real person I fully expect him to be imprisoned by now for sexual harassment.

Prog 1078 20/01/98

2010-03-05T17:37:00.002Z

There’s nothing quite like a re-launch prog yada yada yada. This time the script robot who owes me a pint, Dan Abnett, is responsible for setting the tone due to him writing four-fifths of this issue. Abnett is now the writer of Durham Red which opens with a double-sized episode. Setting the story twelve hundred years after Pete Hogan’s run seems to be pretty good thinking on the author’s part. At least it frees the character from the rest of the Strontium Dog-verse and opens it up to more possibilities. Mark Harrison paints it fully and I was right about the new paper, his work looks amazing. Like a great big special effect.

Sinister Dexter continues its long run with another one-off called Dressed to Kill. In it, we learn that Dexter considers himself to be the best dressed shark in Download City and is mortified when they encounter another hit man and a bunch of body guards all wearing the same suit. It’s not a surprise for me to learn that the characters have such shallow and narcissistic priorities which is why I feel that this thrill works better as a bunch of pop one-offs instead of longer stories where the lack of substance shows.

Abnett also writes a great little Vector 13 called Houdini. Set in 1993, a building contractor renovating an old theatre starts to receive phone calls from escapologist Houdini. I just think this is a great notion, the idea of Harry Houdini escaping death decades after he was supposed to have died. It seems almost a shame that more doesn’t get made of it. In fact, I think it’s very generous of Abnett to allow this cool idea to vent into our consciousnesses via a normally tedious series of five paged comic strips.

Prog 1077 13/01/98

2010-03-04T20:52:00.002Z

Things change this prog with cover paper stock now used throughout. I remember commenting somewhere at the time how 2000 AD now felt like a wall paper catalogue. Actually, it should hopefully put an end to that issue which has plagued the comic for years and that’s dark reproduction of fully painted artwork. It does come at a price though; a reduced page count by four, back to the original thirty-two. There was a time, a few years ago, when Tharg made a big deal about the comic being printed entirely on recycled paper; I don’t know if this is still the case.

Despite no longer buying 2000 AD at this time, I did return for this prog because I was intrigued by the issue long (twenty four pages) Judge Dredd story, In the Year 2120. After disaster being foretold in 2120 for Mega City One back when I was a little kid at the start of The Judge Child Quest the thrill itself has at last reached the actual day of truth, something John Wagner and the readers never honestly thought would happen. As far as I was concerned though, all of the threads from that premonition got tied up years ago at the end of the City of the Damned saga.

In the story, a smog has settled over the entire city resulting in an increase in violent crime and suicides. Dredd spots who he thinks is the Judge Child and races after him but Owen Krysler changes into The Mutant and all of the stuff seen in City of the Damned seems to start to come true. Thank God then for Judge Anderson who has a psi-flash, tracks Dredd down and helps him overcome whatever it is that’s happening inside his mind.

Jason Brashill draws the story and, I must admit, his work here is too fast and loose for my tastes. It’s surprising to me that in an issue where the paper for the first time seems best disposed for his more considered painty-style that he would chose his less attractive inky –style instead. As for John Wagner’s story; there was no need for it as none of us were really expecting it but, if it’s happening anyway, I’m disappointed something more satisfying didn’t result. Instead, at the end, we get fobbed off with the question, did mass anxiety about this day cause the smog or was it the other way around?

Prog 1074 23/12/97

2010-03-03T17:30:00.002Z

BLAIR 1; It started out as a fun, almost off the cuff joke in the 3000 AD free gift a couple of months back. Prime Minister Tony Blair imagined as early 2000 AD character MACH 1 who, in turn, was inspired by The Six Million Dollar Man TV programme. I remember commenting here that satirising Blair as Prime Minister before he’s even elected is a tad premature, or words to that effect. Well, now the strip is back, completing its opening four week run this prog and, I’m afraid to say, it’s not very good.

SB Davis is an artist I can quite enjoy normally but satire isn’t his strong point. Real life politicians aren’t represented particularly insightfully or even scathingly. Blair himself is painted with a permanently fixed grin, I suppose as directed by Alan Grant’s script, which as a piece of satire is already a cliché by this time and unoriginal as it was used as a short hand for President John F Kennedy decades before. Grant’s script is floppy and, ultimately, unfunny. It’s as if he’s not sought to be well observed or feels particularly strongly about the subject matter but instead wrote it after getting a general sense of things through osmosis.

On the one hand, I feel a bit sorry for Tharg, editor David Bishop, at this time. If I had his job and had been approached by the man who helped to provide years of great Judge Dredd, Strontium Dog and Robo-Hunter baring scripts for Blair 1 I would have found it difficult to say no to him. On the other hand, it does feel like another example of recent 2000 AD populism. New Labour hasn’t had the chance to implement any policies before this so-called satire appeared. Had everybody waited a couple of years they could have come up with something quite good. Instead, their over eagerness to get the boot in first looks like opportunism and reads like a slap by a wet fish instead of proper heart felt satire.

Prog 1072 09/12/97

2010-03-02T17:35:00.002Z

Take a look at that Judge Dredd mouth on the cover of this week’s prog painted by Kevin Walker. It looks like a flap cut into a slab of meat. It isn’t uncommon anymore for artists to take that early Brian Bolland scowl and exaggerate it even further like this. Inside, Paul Marshall reverses this trend with Dredd’s sneer. It looks more believable, more effective, and less ridiculous, less like a Muppet character.

Now I’m experiencing a run of progs that I haven’t read before for this final phase of The Slog, I’m really enjoying Judge Dredd. They’ve all been written by John Wagner which, as you know, is always good news. It’s amazing to me that he can still provide for the character and his world after nearly twenty-one years. The strip has also been blessed with a run of particularly strong artists recently, including this prog’s Marshall. Although he draws Dredd a bit over muscled for my liking, his interpretation of the character and his domain is so spot on otherwise that he has become one of my favourite artists on the thrill.

Another strip that benefits from a rotating team of artists is Sinister Dexter. This prog’s strip is painted by the always strong Paul Johnson. His character renditions, environments and use of colour are always a joy to see.

Sinister Dexter is far more acceptable at the moment thanks to it being in the midst of a run of self contained singles. There is still something fundamentally annoying to me about this thrill that makes anything longer than a short story very difficult to manage. For example, it irks me that we are supposed to find the relationship between the main characters charming despite them casually murdering people every episode. They don’t just kill people that ‘deserve it’ as this issue’s story, Long to Rain Over Us, demonstrates. A security guard and the inventor of the Climate Control System get ‘whacked’ because, at worse, one of them has annoyed a main character. Traditionally, successful thrills with a high body count have been self aware enough to know the difference between ’someone who deserves it’ and some poor working sap just doing his job. Sinister Dexter thinks anyone who peeves you off is fare game. I half expect an upcoming episode to feature a scene where someone installing a speed camera gets a bullet through the head. In fact, if it happens, you all owe me ten pounds.

Prog 1070 25/11/97

2010-03-01T17:41:00.002Z

Item: In the interests of full disclosure I would like to announce that I am no longer reading Tharg’s editorials for The Slog. They’re pretty much the same every week and I find the prospect of reading them depressing. I hope you’re not disappointed but I’ve done pretty well so far I think and, actually, I’m not that bothered if you are.

Item: For a strip that has some pretty good writer and artist robots working on it, Vector 13 is increasingly contrived and wearing recently. 2000 AD is supposed to be a comic and yet this ‘thrill’ insists upon telling stories in the first person narrative, pretty much ignoring speech balloons and often defeating the point of an artist altogether. The thought of an episode focusing on the assignation of US President John F Kennedy is a pretty depressing one given the weeks of obvious conspiracies that Vector 13 has churned out at us already.

At least writer Dan Abnett strips down the text and visualises the proceedings for this episode by having the narrator walk amongst the events as he tells the story. What makes this Vector 13 fun is it works more like a Future Shock in that the reveal has JFK being assassinated by gun sharks Sinister Dexter. I completely admire Abnett’s audacity on this occasion. Well done. Unfortunately, this prog’s cover by Steve Sampson pretty much gives the game away, which is a shame as artist Neal Brand had worked so hard at concealing it until the climax of the story. Ho-hum.

Prog 1068 11/11/97

2010-02-28T19:25:00.003Z

I’m in two minds about A Life Less Ordinary appearing in 2000 AD. On the one hand it really does seem to be faddish and inappropriate. It’s faddish because it looks like an attempt by Tharg, let’s call him David Bishop, to cash in on the popularity of Trainspotting by adapting its less memorable and successful successor. Inappropriate because this is supposed to be a science fiction and fantasy comic, categories which neither A Life Less Ordinary or Trainspotting fit into.

On the other hand, 2000 AD has adapted other media successfully before, The Stainless Steel Rat being an example, and thanks to the appearance of angels in the story I suppose there is a slight fantastical element to A Life Less Ordinary that makes it appropriate. It’s always great to see Steve Yeowell’s artwork and story telling skills while the un-credited scripted adaptation, co-written by David Bishop, let’s call him Tharg, is actually well done. On top of this, for all I know, because the strip is also supposed to be appearing on the movie website at the time, this might be an early and worthwhile experiment in mutual internet cross-promotion. Finally, I’ve never seen the film but, at the end of the day, I’m enjoying the comic strip version, which is good enough, right.

Prog 1066 28/10/97

2010-02-26T17:48:00.003Z

Groan. It’s the prog of no return; The prog that jumps the shark; The Sex Issue. Urgh. Even Tharg is ashamed of the whole thing as he hands most of his editorial over to Bish-OP. Although, Bish-OP is Tharg so why he would feel the need to do such thing, I don’t now. Perhaps Bish-OP knows he’s taking a risk with this issue and wants to manfully take responsibility for it should reaction be bad. However, I can’t help wondering if he sincerely expects it to be a raging success and wants to ensure full credit for it.

So, we get Judge Dredd in Attack of the Sex-Crazed Love Dolls which, actually, with a bit of tweaking could have appeared in a non-sex issue, Sinister Dexter in The Mating Game, more about courting than full on sex and A Life Less Ordinary in a business as usual, sex free episode. Space Girls appear in their final episode of this run in Bazzajan Quitly’s A – Z of Bizarre Sex. It isn’t just this issue in which this thrill has been lewd so for me to say recently that Space Girls could have appeared in a kiddie version of 2000 AD was really rather stupid of me. I’m glad it’s over and I hope it never comes back. The only thrill to provide anything that could be construed as only being appropriate with this prog’s theme is Nikolai Dante. Beautifully drawn by ‘Spaceboy’ (aka Chris Weston, perhaps even more ashamed than Tharg), Dante ends his story complaining of stubble burns after making love to a woman with a long beard. Now, ladies, maybe you can confirm something to me; I thought you only got stubble burn if your partner has gone a day or two without shaving and not once the beard has grown soft. But then, what do I know about sex.

It’s the cover stamp, ‘not for sale to children’ which makes the real statement this issue. There really is no going back from this point on as the semi-erect penis from a 2007 prog demonstrates. 2000 AD doesn’t appeal to grown ups as it imagines itself to. Instead it’s aimed at a narrow corridor of an age range; somewhere between fifteen and eighteen years old. As good as 2000 AD might be in 2010, the long term fall out of this period of the comic is a publication that doesn’t appeal to a casual adult customer and can’t be trusted to be appropriate for the ten year old sons of old Squaxx Dek Thargoes.

Prog 1062 30/09/97

2010-02-24T19:11:00.003Z

There it is, running across the cover above the logo for the entire world to see, should it choose to look, all the evidence we need. ‘2000 AD… Forever sinewy, pert and sexy – Loaded’. So, all of that hard work courting Loaded Magazine has at last paid off. It’s a shame that Loaded has past its peak by this time and is on the descent.

There’s nothing quite like a re-launch prog blah blah blah. This time we get a double-sized helping of Judge Dredd drawn by the continuously improving Alex Ronald, another dry Vector 13, a Sinister Dexter painted by the excellent Paul Johnson and, dare I believe my eyes, a strip called Space Girls?!

I’m not entirely sure what the thinking is behind commissioning a strip designed to exploit the popularity of girl group The Spice Girls in 2000 AD. We’ve established already that the comic is now aimed at ‘grown-ups’ so what is Tharg doing trying to appeal to twelve year old girls? It feels a bit like grooming to me. Besides, haven’t The Spice Girls already passed their peak of success with Geri Halliwell due to leave the group in just eight months time?

At the time, I remember seeing this prog’s cover in the newsagent and thinking how glad I was to not be buying 2000 AD anymore. But actually, if it were still an all ages comic, Space Girls would be a nice bit of pop fun. Writer John Tomlinson, always professional, manages to capture the flirty energy that the actual Spice Girls generated while Jason Brashill’s fast art style adds further momentum.

Prog 1061 23/09/97

2010-02-23T17:36:00.002Z

Sinister Dexter Murder 101 ends this prog with a double sized episode. Once again, it’s all been painted by the prolific SB Davis. Increasingly, I find myself mystified as to why some characters are painted with pale blue faces. It’s a skin tone that Davis seems to have applied to random characters that makes no sense to me at all. Murder 101 hasn’t been as good as previous Sinister Dexter stories as far as I’m concerned. It’s lacked the same rhythm of earlier tales, outstayed its welcome when it could have all been finished in eight episodes and Dan Abnett’s Americanisms have really irritated me. For example, last episode, one of the characters says, “do the math”. Apart from this being annoying to any intelligent person English or American, it’s especially irritating to read in a British comic in a strip supposedly set in a Europe sized city. It’s “do the maths”, with an S in the end!

Also outstaying its welcome is Anderson PSI Division Crusade. All of Mega City One’s children have wandered out into the Cursed Earth thanks to the lure of a powerful and seemingly kindly mutant. Because Alan Grant has decided to be lyrical with this idea, Crusade has become another story that could have been done in eight episodes. Children giving up on adults is an intriguing idea and had Grant decided to get us amongst the crowd and expose us to some of the kids instead of keeping a wishy-washy distance it might have been a more fulfilling story.

Also finishing this prog is the first run of Witch World. Co-created and written by Gordon Rennie, the writer responsible for one of the few successful Megazine strips not to feature Judge Dredd, The Missionary Man, this is his first major project for 2000 AD. Tharg has decided to use a rotating team of artists, a tactic that proved successful for Vector 13 and Sinister Dexter, but hasn’t helped here. Maybe because of its fantasy tone, its changing environments, the vagaries of the characters and the mystical monsters, more than just one or two artists makes it feel inconsistent, even if they’re all masters of their art such as John Burns and Will Simpson. Witch World is due to return, so hopefully it will hook me next time, but at the moment, I feel it to be an honourable failure.

Prog 1059 09/09/97

2010-02-22T17:45:00.002Z

Item: Well, The Slog is entering an all new era as I now encounter a run of progs that I’ve never read before. It means that, on the whole, it may be harder for me to contextualise them and I may now experience them in their own right. Whatever, I also have only just over three more months before The Slog is all over and then I’m FREE! Free, to read what I want, any ol’ time.

Item: Check out this ad for 2000 AD’s subscription service from this prog. Wha ha ha ha ha ha haa! Oh ho ho ho ho ho ho ho! A ha ha ha ha ha ha! Oh, Durham Red, what happened to you?

Item: I Was a Teenage Tax Consultant, by the mighty, old school team of John Wagner and Ian Gibson, finishes this prog. Jimmy Root is a young, motorbike repair man who, after being bitten by a rabid tax consultant one night, turns into one himself every full moon. I’ve been told that this thrill was original commissioned for elsewhere although it’s hard to imagine where. Perhaps it was drawn for the old shaped 2000 AD, as the entire series has appeared with a top banner running above each page to make it fit the current format.

Tharg, let’s call him David Bishop, has been describing this thrill as ‘bizarre’ and he’s correct. It’s not really sat right with me from the start, as if it’s an idea that Wagner should have lived with for longer, giving it the opportunity to evolve into something more… accessible. That’s not to say that it hasn’t been entertaining, but I’m glad that it hasn’t run for more than its sixty pages either.

Gibson’s art has been amazing on this one. We don’t see much of his work around the Nerve Centre these days. It’s probably some of the most beautiful work that he’s produced. My only criticism is that I’ve often found it difficult to work out what era the strip is supposed to be set in because of it. Sometimes I’ve felt Tax Consultant to be a satire the portrayal of fifties teenagers, other times I’ve wondered if it’s set in the seventies thanks to the gangs of bikers, and other times today (1997). I’m not saying that his artwork looks old fashioned but that this muddying of the time periods has only helped to make the strip seem even odder.

Prog 1057 26/08/97

2010-02-19T17:31:00.003Z

I think that this is the one. It might have been last prog or the next but I think it was this one. The last regular prog I ever bought. The one that broke a previously unbroken thirteen and a half year run. I don’t really know what happened. I think one Wednesday, instead of stopping off at the newsagent in the morning, I went straight to work and that was that.

Like I’ve said before, it wasn’t one thing that eventually drove me away; it was more a death by ice. There isn’t anything particularly memorably bad in this prog. Tharg, once again, opens his editorial by describing 2000 AD as a ‘fusion of science fiction and fantasy.’ (How many months has this been happening for now?) There’s another fatty contest in Judge Dredd. PSI Judge Anderson is still moaning about the children. ‘But what about the children?’ I don’t think I was even reading Witch World and Sinister Dexter (sorry, guys). In fact, I think I had been skipping thrills, such as Nikolai Dante, for months by this point.

I can’t really blame editor David Bishop entirely for this either. 2000 AD has been on the slide for ten years nearly, around the time John Wagner and Alan Grant split up, strips started being commissioned for girls and Harlem Heroes got rebooted. Before, to me, it was vital and defied expectations. Defying expectations when you’re a weekly comic printed on cheap news paper costing only 20p is easy but surpassing them by as far as 2000 AD did is extraordinary. What happened with 2000 AD is that its vitality waned away so that, in the end, even normally reliable creators seemed to be stuck in a funk. The longer this went on for, the more likely each successive editor was going to be informed by the pale imitation as well as its former self. By the time Bishop became editor, he had just as much below par 2000 AD guiding him as the good stuff.

All of the strips in this prog are okay. Judge Dredd’s Fast Food is a touching fatty story; Sinister Dexter a buddy farce; Witch World an intriguing fantasy; I Was a Teenage Tax Consultant a bizarre romp and Anderson PSI Division a colourful tale. But many of the ingredients that made 2000 AD a success to me, such as its self-deprecating wit, its hyper imagination, its sense of a whole, its vitality and its surpassing of expectations, are no longer present. Bishop, more so than any other Tharg before him, put himself forward to the loyal Squaxx as a provocative personality and it seemed clear to me that under his editorship, there was absolutely no chance of any of those qualities I missed ever returning. My only shame is, really, I should probably have stopped buying the comic ten years earlier.

Prog 1055 12/08/97

2010-02-18T18:55:00.003Z

Item: In the entry for prog 1050, I mistakenly claimed that Mercy Heights was co-created by artist Greg Staples when, actually, it was by Kevin Walker. Despite this error, I think my stupid point remains valid, right?

Item: In this prog, a series of difficult to decipher images of 2000 AD characters in attendance at the 1997 Tribal Gathering festival start to be serialised on the back cover. The first, appearing over two weeks, features the ABC Warriors raving and 3-in-1-oiling their bolts off in a painting by Jason Brashill. The next, by Dermot Power and appearing over four progs, features Ukko the Dwarf smoking a great big spliff. I went to this Tribal Gathering festival and let me tell you something, if you smoked a spliff their as large and as openly as Ukko seems to be, the organisers would have wasted no time in escorting you out of the event. Besides, isn’t more in character for Ukko to be pick-pocketing all of the spaced out ravers?

Tharg has made several mentions over the last few progs about how 2000 AD has a presence at the festival. What I want to know is, why? What is editorial, let’s call it David Bishop, thinking organising an out-reach stand at an event like this when it could be doing a similar thing at book festivals, schools and children’s day at the Milton Keynes Bowl. I know the answer to that question. 2000 AD readers are older now but not that old that it doesn’t worry about if people think it’s cool or not. Of course, what might have happened is, a bunch of artists who didn’t want to pay to get in to the event got together at talked Bishop, I mean Tharg, into exhibiting there.

I popped by the stand for a few minutes and I found the experience disconcerting. It might have been because I was feeling self conscious because I had just got my nose pierced at a stand around the corner. (My friends and I were one-upping each other with what we were getting done to ourselves. Fortunately, we were straight enough to stop shortly after my nose and not get anything daft done like a facial tattoo). It might have been because many of those in attendance, who may or may not have been creator robots, looked very much like Harry Enfield in Kevin and Perry Go Large; slightly too old for their clothes. Whatever, it was a blip in an otherwise very enjoyable day and night which, in my case, had the opposing affect to its intention on me as a long time consumer of their comic because, very shortly afterwards, I stopped buying it altogether.

Prog 1053 29/07/97

2010-02-17T17:49:00.004Z

Item: In Judge Dredd one off, Holiday Special, judges trace of an illegal narcotic from its arrival in Mega City One, to its selling and distribution, all the way to its actual users. It’s only at the end of the story, after everyone in the chain has been arrested, we learn that the narcotic is cigarettes and not coffee or sugar as John Wagner has used in this type of story before.

Maybe Wagner isn’t exactly repeating himself. Maybe he’s appalled at the number of adult readers of 2000 AD (we’re mostly adults at this time, right) who smoke. He wrote that story in the seventies where we learned that Mega City citizens are only allowed to smoke in the smoketorium and now, twenty years later, all grown up, we’ve forgotten that tale and are puffing away like fools. Maybe Wagner’s using this classic story to express to us that smoking is actual drug addiction and in a society that criminalises it cigarettes would be smuggled into it in a similar way that heroin arrives in ours today.

Either that or he is just repeating himself, which he is allowed to do considering how many damn fine and original Judge Dredd stories he has told.

Item: As you know, the average Squxx dek Thargo is older these days and it’s unsettling to me seeing the comic trying to deal with this statistic. Is the average age higher because 2000 AD’s content is aimed now at older readers, or would the readership still be older had the comic continued to principally be aimed at smart twelve year old boys as it was during its first decade? Is chucking a few bums, tits and vagina monsters into your story enough to recognise the maturing of your readership or is it off putting to them?

The idea I’ve had that long term creators who remember the good ol’ days would continue to produce work suitable for that first decade is disproved by John Wagner and Ian Gibson in their current thrill I Was a Teenage Tax Consultant. In last issue’s episode, Jimmy Root returns to a party the morning after the night before and enters a room full of attendees, greasy bikers and sexy young women, unconscious with, in general, their tops off. In this prog, he goes skinny dipping with his girlfriend.

Look, I know to some of you that this subject makes me look like a prude or an old man unwilling to accept that his favourite comic has changed but if 2000 AD is now more mature then some bums, tits and vagina monsters aren’t enough for it to be grown up. If we’re all adults now then why isn’t Tharg commissioning work by, off the top of my head, Los Bros Hernandez or serialising From Hell, for example? Why isn’t he doing a proper job of it?

Prog 1050 08/07/97

2010-02-16T17:25:00.002Z

Item: I must have been doing The Slog for a long time now as, increasingly, I’m dry on what to say in these entries. So, thank God it’s a re-launch prog. There’s nothing quite like a re-launch prog although increasingly these days there is. (And I feel as if I’ve already said that at least once recently). It’s now standard practise for a re-launch prog to feature just four thrills and for the slack to be taken up with status pages and ads. Thing is, I don’t really have an opinion as to weather this is something to be annoyed about or if it’s perfectly understandable in the circumstances.

Item: At the moment, Greg Staples seems to be one of Tharg’s favourites. Recently he co-created Mercy Heights and for this prog he’s credited as co-creator of Witch World whereas in fact he’s not drawing Witch World at all but off gallivanting all over this week’s Judge Dredd strip. I wonder if the chance to pitch thrill ideas to the editor is part of Staples and Tharg’s special relationship or if it’s something that’s open to all art droids. I know if I was a script droid, the prospect of Tharg telling me I have to write another thrill created by his current hot artist who isn’t even going to draw it would irritate the hell out of me.

Item: I’ll write a better entry next time.

Prog 1049 01/07/97

2010-02-15T17:46:00.003Z

Anderson PSI Division is back in the weekly after years away in The Megazine and like every other woman in the comic these days, she wastes no time in showing off her underwear. In Wonderwall, Anderson finds a homeless girl who has been exposed to such awful abuse that she has to take a trip into her head to save her mind. Rather tediously, she encounters the characters from Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland, partly for some meaningful reason but mainly because they’re out of copyright and in the public domain.

Actually, it’s really nice to see both the thrill and Alan Grant back. Grant has so totally made Anderson his own that it’s very difficult to imagine anyone else ever successfully writing the strip, even John Wagner. My old acquaintance, Steve Sampson, paints it, and it looks great. His artwork is colourful, clear, easy to follow, accessible and improves with each new strip he does.

So why a cover like this one, commissioned, I imagine, by the editor, let’s call him David Bishop, and painted by the popular Dermot Power, is used to mark the character’s return seems utterly idiotic to me. My first reaction is that it’s a tacky attempt to appeal to readers of Loaded Magazine. Then I think how out of spirit those knickers are. I thought it had been established long ago that Judge’s wear designated underwear. The men wear boxer shorts with big red spots on , so it seems reasonable that the female Judges would wear underwear that is equally contrasting and therefore amusing. Then I think, Judge Dredd has aged in real time in his strip, so hasn’t Anderson as well? Aren’t the frillies and the upper buttocks of a middle-aged woman the last thing we want to see? Then I think, is it appropriate for the lead character in a story about organised child abuse to be sexualised in this adolescent way? It isn’t enough for me that the strips in this era of the comic are quite good if the overall voice of 2000 AD is inconsistent, confused and often idiotic.

Prog 1047 17/06/97

2010-02-14T17:42:00.002Z

Further to my last entry, it’s not just Nikolai Dante that the adolescent sexual preoccupation I talked about is present; I just thought that this thrill was just a good springboard onto the subject. For example, the latest episode of Slaine The Grail War opens with a large panel of a giant woman exposing her arse to a bunch of worshipers. Naked shapely women are becoming increasingly common place in Slaine, often as an offer of what awaits the Goddess’ bravest soldiers in the afterlife.

In Slaine The Grail War, Slaine and Ukko join Simon De Monfort in his crusade against The Cathers in Southern France. The Cathers seem to be the forerunners to Judge Death believing, as they do, that life is Hell and the only way to escape it is by dying.

The Grail War might have been just another Slaine story if it wasn’t for the discovery that De Monfort is Niamh, his eternal love, reincarnated. Seeing the two mighty warriors react to the discovery like a pair of uptight rugby players in a changing room has been quite amusing in a strip where the main character has been a bit of a Goddess bore recently. De Monforte and Slaine‘s attraction is proving to be an interesting narrative that I find myself hoping sees the two of them get together by the end of, whatever genders they are.

Steve Tapper is the robot who provides the fully painted artwork. Tapper is a perfectly competent artist, who might not have the surface appeal of the likes of Simon Bisley and Dermot Power, but paints as a strong story teller and for reproduction. I would like to see him on Slaine more often, I think.

Prog 1045 03/06/97

2010-02-11T18:21:00.002Z

Nikolai Dante is a thief and a brigand who, a few episodes in, is bonded to the bio-crest, a sort of computer weapon thingumy, that apparently proves he is a son of the Romanov dynasty. I didn’t like this thrill first time around but I imagine, thanks to enjoying it for The Slog, this is because of my overall indifference to 2000 AD at this time. If I couldn’t follow a story, usually because there was a week between episodes, I could no longer be bothered to work at following it, and I suppose Nikolai Dante was a victim of that.

Simon Fraser’s art is very good. It has a wonderful, flick of the wrist flare to it that I really like. Some sequences are brilliantly naturalistically told. Nikolai Dante is also the first Robbie Morrison strip that I’ve liked. Previously he’s worked mainly for The Megazine and I’ve found his strips there convoluted. Here, his creation is accessible with a highly likable lead.

One of the problems I had first time with Nikolai Dante remains however and that is, is 2000 AD really the right place for something like this? The strip is packed with sexual innuendos, most of them unsubtle. In recent episodes for example, Dante fights a shape changer who, for several pages, looks like a giant vagina with tentacles and pointy teeth. In a way, this creature says everything about the poorly developed sexual psyche that the comic is trying to appeal to these days. The suggestion that Nikolai Dante is the antidote to more traditionally uptight characters such as Judge Dredd is a misunderstanding of the nature of the comic. At one time, 2000 AD seemed like an antidote itself to magazine like Epic Illustrated and Heavy Metal. These were science fiction and fantasy magazines that, if you were lucky, featured pages and pages of beautifully drawn, big titted, round arsed women for boys of a certain age too embarrassed to buy Men Only. The presence of Nikolai Dante suggests that the creators of Dredd have never been aware of the absence of sex from from the thrill where as I would say that that’s one of the main points of it. Nikolai Dante doesn’t fill a vacuum left by the other strips, like Dredd, in the comic. Instead, it goes to the place that during 2000 AD’s early years it avoided going to for a reason and in doing so helped to make it the success it became.

prog 1043 20/05/97

2010-02-10T20:38:00.002Z

A Judge Dredd trip out into the Cursed Earth is always worthwhile and The Hotdog Run is no exception. Dredd and Demarco lead a party of cadets across the irradiated wasteland in a test of their abilities that will either make or break them. Eleven episodes in, near to the end I believe, and so far they’ve encountered a town of cannibals, been thrown back through time to the day that the Atomic Wars started and hung out with a tribe of spider worshipers.

What makes the thrust of this John Wagner story so interesting is that it’s the first time we’ve seen a group of cadets dynamic be more representative of their age closer in the foreground. Previously, cadets have always surprised us because of their indoctrinated maturity. Here, they find mutant girls desirable or tease each other because of their nationality. It stops short of them worrying about spots, though.

The overall story has been subdivided into shorter runs drawn by different art robots all of whom are great. Sean Philips, Trevor Hairshine, Calum Alexander Watt and, my current favourite Dredd artist, Henry Flint.

Also nearing its end is another John Wagner thrill, Al’s Baby Public Enemy No. 1. Previously, Al’s Baby stories have appeared in The Megazine and it’s the first time it’s appeared in 2000 AD. In it, once again Al is pregnant. He’s also on the run from the mob and the law disguised as a woman. It’s whilst in hiding that Al becomes the focus of the over privileged and always persistent Rear Admiral Dagwood’s amorous advances.

Public Enemy No. 1 isn’t quite a sequel too far but it does feel like it’s a good place to stop. Apart from apparently forgetting to write in the character’s eldest child there have also been sections of the story that feel as they’re missing. A significant chunk of Al’s pregnancy has been skipped over altogether for example. Nonetheless, it remains a very entertaining read, especially Dagwood, and Carlos Ezquerra’s art, as always, is superb.

Prog 1041 06/05/97

2010-02-09T17:29:00.002Z

Mercy Heights reaches part 9 this prog. Set aboard a space hospital in a galaxy on the brink of war, Mercy Heights is like a soap opera in a comic where characters are more traditionally inspired by cop dramas, westerns and sword and sorcery. John Tomlinson’s plotting is tight and because there’s only one six paged episode an issue (the standard soap opera rate at this time is four 30 minute episodes a week) the pace is fast.

There’s no time for character subtlety. Lilla Ferro is an abrupt, out spoken woman on who the slightly naïve Leo Kintry has a crush but she’s already dating Stig Lydecker, who is arrogant and obnoxious and also, frustratingly, an exceptional surgeon. Each episode is prefaced by a page long roll call so readers are reacquainted with the cast that they might have forgotten about over the last seven days. Only the character Tor Cyan seems understated but he can afford to be. He’s a blue skinned, Mohawk wearing, grizzly war vet who looks to me like he might be the long, lost Rogue Trooper, if you consider just a few progs of absence long. He’s Rogue Trooper, isn’t he? Go on; tell us he’s Rogue Trooper. It’s been nine weeks now; you must be confirming he’s Rogue Trooper soon. The problem with Tor Cyan is that his very presence undermines the rest of the thrill. I’m waiting for his character to swell and take over the strip and for the rest of the cast to become his support and I’m getting slightly frustrated that it hasn’t happened yet.

Artist Kevin Walker co-created Mercy Heights and drew the first few episodes in his pencil and ink style which I much prefer. I think he’s a great comic artist when he draws this way. Andrew Currie replaced him after only a few weeks and is also doing a strong job. Taking over a strip with a large cast from another artist must be difficult but Currie’s done an excellent job of capturing the character likenesses without missing a step.

Prog 1039 22/04/97

2010-02-08T18:13:00.002Z

A relatively shorter Slaine story finishes this prog. In King of Hearts, Slaine aids William Wallace in his final battles against the English before guiding him onto the afterlife. This involves fulfilling Wallace’s painful destiny by having Ukko betray him to the English before Slaine spiritually consoles him as he’s hanged and quartered. (Slaine’s spirit leaves his body and appears next to Wallace as he dangles from the rope. He can do almost anything now. He’s like Superman.)

I like that editorial, let’s call him David Bishop, seem to be working hard at making certain thrills work by enabling and encouraging them to run continuously for many weeks. It’s a good way for characters to win the hearts of readers, I think. Slaine has been running for months now, with no breaks between sagas, and I like that. It makes an enlightened change form stories appearing in fits and starts. Pat Mills writes another fine tale in King of Hearts but ultimately the art lets it down. For most of the episodes, the reproduction of Nick Percival’s fully painted work is dark and murky and difficult to follow. What I find especially annoying about is that this sort of thing has been happening for years now.

ADDITION: At the back of this prog is a two page photo-feature on a recent Oxford Union debate for Comic Relief. Some of Britain’s brightest minds grappled with the question ‘Do blondes have more fun?’ and in attendance were Venus Bluegenes, Durham Red, Page 3 models and soft porn stars.

Two thoughts occur to me. The first is; 2000 AD is now a very different comic to the one I fell in love with. During the seventies and eighties, it felt as if it was aligned to the punk and indie attitudes of the time, both politically and creatively. Now it’s trying to be friends with readers of Loaded Magazine. Well, educated readers of Loaded Magazine. The second is; did many of the attendees even know who Venus Blue Genes and Durham Red are? No offence, but they’re hardly premier league 2000 AD characters are they. I can imagine the majority of attendees being baffled by the woman wandering around in blue body paint.

Prog 1037 08/04/97

2010-02-07T17:53:00.002Z

I can’t remember reading any of the stories currently appearing in 2000 AD which is a bit of a surprise considering I was still buying the comic at this time. I can only assume that it was now a habitual buy. That I would have been reading it but each story would have been going in one eye and out the other. I’m only a few progs away from the final one I bought and I’ve been trying hard to recall the last straw but it seems to have been, in the end, a death by ice. I grew so indifferent to it that I eventually stopped buying it.

What is it about 2000 AD at this time, when actually it’s quite good, with strong art throughout mostly, and when there have been periods in its recent history where the it’s been worse, that failed to keep me hooked? One of the reasons is that it’s post the Dredded movie. I was able to tolerate runs of Harlem Heroes and reprints because 2000 AD still had this sense of potential about it. After the film, it now feels like it’s the morning after the night before and there’s tidying up to do. It’s lost its sense of fun. It’s not as funny as it used to be. It’s taking itself far too seriously.

New thrill Mercy Heights sums up 2000 AD at this time in a way. It’s well written, well drawn, with a sophisticated plot and cast of characters but it’s absolutely impossible to get on board with from episode two. John Wagner stories, Judge Dredd and Al’s Baby, are easy to dip in and out of because at their core, conceptually, they are accessible. It only takes a caption recap to bring anyone who missed last issue up to speed. You can’t do that with Mercy Heights or Nikolai Dante. If you’re buying 2000 AD in a haze, week in, week out, when you eventually snap out of the funk and find it impossible to follow most of the strips it makes the decision to stop buying the comic easier.

Prog 1034 18/03/97

2010-02-05T17:32:00.004Z

I might spend a lot of my time here bitchin’ about the current state of 2000 AD and blaming, not always rationally, certain individuals, let’s call them David Bishop, for it’s condition but, let’s face it, this prog’s free gift is probably the best since the MACH 1 ‘bionic’ transfers given away with issue 2 in 1977. This time, we get a copy of 3000 AD, a cover version of the very first 2000 AD programme. It’s like a re-imagining where the conceit is what if the comic had started twenty years later than when it actually did.

So, in Invasion, Britain is invaded by Euro-forces instead of the god damn dirty Volgans (Russians). In Flesh, dinosaurs are farmed by crime cartels because eating meat has been criminalised in by the 22nd centaury. A couple of the thrills don’t work quite so successfully. Hike Harlem Heroes emphasises the sports sponsorship aspect of the strip but, if memory serves me correctly, that’s exactly what the original did occasionally. Dan Dare is simply re-established as being fifty years old. Besides, as good as artist Kevin Walker is, I can’t imagine anyone ever being able to come close to the impact of prog 1’s original centre spread by Messimo Belardinelli.

The most notable strip is BLAIR 1, a re-imagining of MACH 1 as political satire. It’s not necessarily very good satire and, at the time, I remember thinking, Christ, the bloke’s just been voted in; give the guy a chance to fuck up before you start ripping into him. Now, post Blair fuck up and with the benefit of hindsight, I can see that it’s nothing more than a fun collision of ideas. What amazes me most about the strip is that it’s painted by SB Davis. I am impressed by the artist’s apparent page rate. He provides three pages here after only recently finishing eight weeks on Sinister Dexter, six pages of Vector 13 and at least two covers. The man’s a machine!

It’s a shame I think that the front and back covers don’t have artwork on them instead of photographs of this chick from Tron. The logo’s a bit weak and the suspension of disbelief that this might be a comic from the future is destabilised by a page size house ad for the latest issue of The Megazine. As a whole, however, it’s visually impressive and a genuinely great little item.

There's No Time Like The Present part 11

2010-02-04T19:16:00.003Z

Normal Slog service is interrupted today to make you aware the latest issue of my comic, There’s No Time Like The Present. TNTLTP is my long comic strip or ‘graphic novel’ written, drawn and published entirely by me. The latest issue is Part 11, costs £2.50 and, if you order it from my website here, that includes the price of postage to any UK destination.

Although I’ve always known the overall story, I have usually written and drawn There’s No Time Like The Present a scene at a time. However, because of the way it concludes, I recently wrote it up until the very end and I can now confirm that the final issue of the series will be Part 13.

If you’re curious about TNTLTP, then the opening pages can be read online for free starting here. Also, all previous issues have been kept in print and can be ordered from my shop here.

Thanks for your time. Normal half arsed Slog service returns next entry.

Prog 1033 11/03/97

2010-02-03T17:33:00.003Z

Item: Tharg’s back in the editorial box and it’s like he’s never been away. Really, whoever writes Tharg’s voice pretty much uses the same tone as they did when they wrote the Vector 13 characters. But at least he’s back spiritually, superficially or whatever. Tharg returned last issue in a special episode of Vector 13 written by real editor David Bishop (although credited to ‘MIB’). In it, editorial robot Bish-OP is spared a visit to Mek-Quake by Tharg because all of the upcoming thrills he has commissioned are zarjaz. We’ll see about that, won’t we? Looking at my entry for Prog 1017, it might seem to some of you that I overreacted to him being replaced as he’s only been absent for twenty weeks but you have to remember that, for all I knew, the change was permanent.

Item: There’s nothing quite like a re-launch prog, although the previous owner of the copies currently being used for The Slog didn’t seem to think so. This and the next three issues are still shrink-wrapped with their free gifts. Was the guy I bought this collection off so jaded by 2000 AD at this point that even though he bought it every week he threw it straight into a box without reading it?

This issue comes with a format change. It’s now slightly narrower meaning, I guess, it’s more open to reproduction in the standard US comic format. That doesn’t happen from this point on but I do prefer the taller looking comic. The logo has been tweaked to look less dominating although, so far, Dredd’s name is still absent from it. We do get two Judge Dredd stories as compensation, though.

Item: Mercy Heights starts this prog. This is a thrill that I never got into, I suspect mainly because of my own increased indifference to the comic at this time. It’s going to be interesting over the next few issues to see if I actually like it or not. My intention was to read the opening episode for The Slog and see what I felt about it in its own right. To be honest, I’m not sure. The art is great and the story has a good momentum but there’s a lot of concept and characters to discover that the thrill could have made easier for reader. So, I’m still undecided. Sorry.

Prog 1031 25/02/97

2010-02-02T17:43:00.002Z

The second half of Slaine Treasures of Britain ends this prog with the latest quest completed and King Arthur restored to his former glory. I’ve enjoyed this story more so than other recent Slaine tales. One of the reasons is that Ukko seems to have returned to form. While Slaine strolls around being all serious and self important, Ukko gets into scrapes, not always of his own making, which brighten the proceedings.

Another reason is Dermot Power’s artwork. As you know, I’m not often inclined towards the fully painted art style, but this is because, those artists that use it aren’t always strong story tellers or have over estimated the quality of 2000 AD’s reproduction. Power’s work always looks colourful and well told. He certainly deserves to be more highly regarded.

Another painty artist who has all of the good qualities that Power has but his own very definite style is Paul Johnson, whose run on Janus PSI Faustus also ends this prog. Johnson is another artist I’m surprised isn’t thought more fondly of. There’s dynamism to his work that I’m very fond of. He’s like a painty artist who looks to have been more influenced by silver age comic artists and very early art robots. I love it.

Prog 1029 11/02/97

2010-02-01T17:34:00.002Z

Clarification: In my entry yesterday, I said that somebody, possibly editor David Bishop, had chopped up and spliced together Janus PSI Faustus for serialisation in 2000 AD instead of the Megazine which it was created for. I should point out that I don’t know this to be the case. I recently heard a rumour that this was, and the change in flow mid part 3 seems to confirm it, but the truth is I don’t know for certain that this happened.

Sinister Dexter: In Gunshark Vacation, the two hit men for hire are trying to keep a low profile in holiday resort Asbestopol. There, they are working as door men at the club Bawdwalk managed by transsexual Kilopatra. However, their ‘low profile’ means that they have got themselves involved in a feud with local mob-king, Philly O’Fisch. Things take a turn for the worse when they’re reunited with Demi Octava and realise that they’ve been set up by The Czar for one hell of a big hit against them.

Gunshark Vacation is different to previous Sinister Dexter stories in that a significant run of episodes have been painted by the same artist, SB Davis. I like Davis’ art style. It looks like the object he’s painted has gone through various distortions before it reaches the printed page. Like he’s drawn it, photocopied it, printed it onto canvass and then painted over the top of it. Whatever the process, the result is effective and surprisingly humanistic.

I’ve decided that I have absolutely no issues with this strip anymore. When previously I wrote about it here and told you my Dan Abnett anecdote, I think I was looking for something to complain about, to justify my previous reservations. The truth is that Sinister Dexter is a well executed strip that deserves to do as well at it does in the readers’ polls. Here’s to Dan Abnett, SB Davis and editor David Bishop (for running it in the first place). Cheers.

Prog 1027 28/01/97

2010-01-31T20:22:00.002Z

Item: In his editorial, the Vector 13 character announces the start of a new company called Fleetway Film and Television set up to develop and produce projects based on 2000 AD characters for the big and small screens. The Man in Black guy quotes a lot from what I presume to be the press release. “We learned from our experience with Judge Dredd that we needed a much more hands-on involvement with the development and production of movies based on our characters.” In other words, the Judge Dredd film was rubbish and the fall out from it has had a detrimental impact on both the sales of the line of comics and licensing. Just in case you’re interested, there have been no films based on 2000 AD characters since this announcement.

Item: Janus: PSI Faustus reaches part 4 this prog. Or is it part 3? I ask because this strip was originally commissioned for the Megazine but, for some reason, has ended up here. Normally, Megazine strips run at about seven or eight pages each and yet now, each episode has been running at the standard six. It means even though Mark Millar and Grant Morrison wrote the story in episodic form somebody, let’s for the sake of argument call him David Bishop, has chopped them up and spliced them together for publication here. It wasn’t more apparent than in last prog’s episode where halfway through the story jarringly jumped forward in time. This is appalling, especially when you think that there is no reason why it couldn’t appear here as it was originally intended. Fortunately, one of the advantages of reading progs in quick succession to each other for The Slog is it enables me to follow strips that when read a week apart would have baffled me and I can tell you that Faustus is delicious fun.

Prog 1024 07/01/97

2010-01-29T17:43:00.004Z

In Darkside, Judge Dredd is sent to Luna 1 with Psi Jusge Hassid. Hassid has a 72% accuracy rate and foresees experiencing a significant psi-flash there in Dredd’s Presence. At the same time, the zombie version of Dredd, the one that followed him back through time at the end of City of the Damned saga (remember that?), is also loose on the Moon having been smuggled there by a dodgy antiques dealer.

Of the third generation of writers, we’re used to seeing Garth Ennis and Mark Millar scripting Judge Dredd, John Smith however, not so much. Smith is focusing more on the action and story momentum for Darkside than he does usually although there’s still a bit of slicing, dicing and butchery going on. He pretty much gets the tone of Dredd right although the non-threatening and very likable Hassid speaks in a voice that reads a little clichéd at times. Paul Marshal’s art is terrific. Perfect visual and story clarity, his work is free of all extraneous detail, every line utterly considered.

Really, Darkside couldn’t go wrong where, when boiled down, the main character is brawling with a wrong version of himself. Also, the different location adds an extra frisson. In fact, here’s an equation I’ve devised for all of wannabe Judge Dredd writers to file away for future reference; wrong version of main character (zombie) + change in environment (Moon) = Zarjaz.

ASIDE: Here’s an interesting piece that draws comparisons between a classic John Smith and Paul Marshal thrill, Firekind, and James Cameron’s new movie, Avatar. I can’t really comment as I haven’t seen the film but what I’ve read about the plot does seem familiar now that they mention it.

Prog 1023 30/12/96

2010-01-28T17:44:00.002Z

Item: Well, after bigging up Rogue Trooper(s) a couple of entries ago, it turns out that it was all for nought as it’s run finished mid-story last prog never to return. Why this is I don’t know. Perhaps everyone just gave up on it. Ever since the character’s re-invention nobody’s really known what to do with it and I’ve always been slightly baffled by important aspects of it. (Like, is this the same Nu Earth the original Rogue was on or a different one? I thought it was a future version of our actual planet but there’s a black hole next to it). It’s all a little curious as it was only recently that they published a Rogue Trooper Special (which I couldn’t be bothered to cover for The Slog. Sorry).

Item: This issue is a Christmas prog and we’re celebrating by being charged an additional twenty pence for eight extra pages. However, we’re only getting an extra two pages of actual strip, the rest being taken up with bumf, and we have to wait two weeks for he next issue. Merry Christmas to you too.

Item: Mazeworld ends this prog after a ten week run. Over thirty years after the end of the capital punishment, Adam Cadman is hanged for the murder of his brother and then, after his death, is transported to a fantastical place called Mazeworld. Still in his hood and noose, Cadwell is mistaken (or perhaps not) for ‘The Hooded Man’ by the oppressed locals, a hero supposed to help them in their rebellion against the Maze-Lord. Unfortunately, Cadman is a selfish man concerned only for his own well being… or so it seems.

I like Mazeworld. It’s cosily reminiscent. It reminds me of half remembered thrills from the first year or two of 2000 AD when the comic was still forming. A protagonist of questionable morality with a hood stuck on his head and a noose around his neck that tightens whenever he does something selfish; it’s ridiculous, just like the Visible Man. A character transported to another world at the moment of death, just like The Meltdown Man. Arthur Ranson’s art is spectacular, packed with detail and intricate design. It’s probably some of the best work I’ve seen from him. Alan Grant’s story is strong but strangely incomplete. The world seems only glimpsed and I want to know more about the circumstances surrounding the restoration of the death penalty. It feels as if there are a lot more Mazeworld stories to come, none of which ever do.

Prog 1021 10/12/96

2010-01-27T17:43:00.002Z

Item: It must have felt like a scoop luring Garth Ennis back to 2000 AD considering his success in America with Preacher at this time. Unfortunately, he’s writing a second Time Flies story and not something as substantial as his Vertigo series. Little seems to have changed in Time Flies during its years away. The characters are still zipping up and down the eras and blundering into real events. What makes this series truly enjoyable is the art. Original artist Philip Bond draws the opening episodes in his chunky and energetic way. If you don’t like Philip Bond then you don’t like life, is what I say. Surprisingly though, when the unthinkable happens and he’s replaced by another artist, John Beeston, the art maintains that Bond momentum but with greater intricacy.

Item: In Mambo Fleshworks, Rachel Verlaine and Captain Rickard are investigating a series of murders that have taken place in Hyperspace by the comic’s creepiest villain for a long time, Skinhead. Hopefully, the current regime at 2000 AD appreciates the talent they have in a creator like Dave Hine who not only writes but draws his own strips. Fleshworks has a great balance between pop ideas, shocking moments, over the top abilities and character interplay. Although, I would like to point out, we never did find out how Jaydee and Rachel experienced their unlikely rescue floating in space above Fleshworld t the end of the last story.

Item: There seems to be some confusion behind the scenes of the current Judge Dredd story, Darkside. First, the opening two episodes are mistakenly credited to John Wagner instead of John Smith, then episode five is classified as ‘Part 4’ again. Tharg never made this type of error, know what I mean?

Prog 1019 26/11/96

2010-01-26T17:25:00.002Z

Although Rogue Trooper has improved a lot since the arrival of writer Steve White, it still wasn’t entirely to my taste due mainly to the over use of techno and militaristic babble. Recently, the use of jargon has been stripped back perhaps thanks, in part, to the arrival of co-writer Dan Abnett, although these changes occurred before his credit.

Another improvement has been the refocusing the enemy to religious extremists, The Karvanu. For such a substantial force for bad, they seem to have arrived from nowhere, but it’s a lack of foreshadowing I’m happy to overlook. I’m also pleased to have a break from the bio-chips. I talked here during the first half of the character’s re-invention about how they were an essential part of Rogue Trooper’s mythology but some time after their return I started to realise that I found their voices and over animated faces irritating. Hopefully, when they return again they will have calmed down a bit.

I’m not sure that I’ve bought into the re-branding of the strip as Rogue Troopers with-an-‘s’ just because Venus Bluegenes is in it a lot these days. Greg Staples draws the episodes starring just her and, like I said recently, his work is very strong. The Friday episodes are by Alex Ronald whose art has improved a lot since those episodes of Judge Dredd The Pit he drew. He’s drawing a more diverse range of character types and backgrounds here. Some panels look a little forced but, overall, it’s pretty good.

Prog 1017 12/11/96

2010-01-24T18:09:00.004Z

It’s four progs old already. The definitive demonstration that current editorial, let’s call him David Bishop, doesn’t fundamentally understand 2000 AD. Those shitty Men in Black characters from Vector 13 have usurped Tharg as the fictional editorial helmsman of 2000 AD. I can’t tell you how much I hated this first time around. Every week I was waiting for Tharg to return and dish out some righteous wrath on the blue skinned little bastards and every week, for what seemed like forever, there they still were droning on and on and on in the output box.

I have never read David Bishop’s book Thrill Power Overload. Not out of protest, I’ve heard good things about it and I’m sure it’s fine, but because I’ve got 2000 AD taking up enough of my life at the moment. However, when I’ve flicked through copies in the shop (it looks very nice, by the way), there’s one sound bite that leaps out at me every time, the one where Bishop describes Tharg as an ‘anachronism’.

Anachronism?! Tharg isn’t an anachronism! He’s the foundations upon which the comic stands! He’s the force whose arms hold the diverse range of characters together! You can run a sword and sorcery strip, a future cop strip, an ill conceived western strip all in the same comic and it makes complete sense thanks to Tharg. Give Vector 13 editorial credit for it all and the whole structure destabilises and starts to crumble.

Reading Tharg’s editorials for The Slog knowing this change is about to happen has been interesting because it’s clear that whoever wrote them, let’s call him David Bishop, couldn’t find the character’s voice. I’ve already said here that his tendency was to just list the strips in that issue, but they also read like he kept forgetting he was supposed to be in character. It’s like somebody would read the editorials he wrote and say, “David, you’re meant to be Tharg not David Bishop, remember? Stick a couple of ‘Zarjazes’ in there and refer to the writer and artists as ‘creator robots’ and you should be fine”.

I can imagine the circumstance that led to Bishop making this decision. Sales of the comic were dropping like a stone thanks, in part, to disappointment in the film and he was under pressure to do something about it. I guess that included thinking the unthinkable and dropping Tharg altogether. With the benefit of hindsight, I know that all things pass and eventually the mighty one returns. At the time, however, I didn’t just think this change was misguided but a display of absolute arrogance. Was the shake up going to be so dramatic that, by the end of it, all we had left were personality free strips such as Vector 13, Black Light and Outlaw?

Prog 1015 29/10/96

2010-01-23T19:51:00.006Z

ITEM: There’s nothing quite like a re-launch, but after the one that occurred last prog, I think that the patterns are becoming more transparent. One recent practice is the drop in the quantity of strips from the standard five to four. The slack is taken up with catch-up pages and ads. Interestingly, another pattern is that it’s thought of as an ideal time for a price increase, this time to a shocking £1.10. So, effectively, where once a re-launch prog was a special happy time for loyal Squaxx dek Thargo, it has become an occasion where you get less thrill for your buck.

ITEM: The God damn fucking X-Files! Okay, I watched most of the first season, and I remember quite liking the one with the guy who climbed out of the toilet, but I never really got into it. Besides, a few years earlier I read the excellent Silent Invasion by Larry Hancock and Michael Cherkas and if there’s one thing I learned from that about this type of fiction is the mysteries get more involving and circular and there are never any answers. Despite this, I can understand why 2000 AD might run a strip like Vector 13, as there is bound to be some overlap between its readers and the show. But for God’s sake; the free gift and article last issue, and now the free gift in this. I know, they say it’s a fine art print of Vector 13 by Kevin Walker but look at it. That’s Mulder and Sculley for certain!

ITEM: In this prog, it’s announced that John Wagner and Arthur Ranson have signed a deal with an American production company for Button Man to be made into a film. What’s interesting to me about this item is the remark, “The pair are hoping their character makes a more successful transition to the big screen than Dredd did”. It’s like an official admission from 2000 AD that the movie isn’t very good. It’s occurred to me recently that the most effective way for the comic to deal with the despondency as a result of the film is to accept that it isn’t very good and to make constant derisive remarks about it at every opportunity. “This week, non-scrots can win a copy of the thrill sucker invested Judge Dredd movie on video”. How good would that be?

ITEM: In a recent entry, I made flippant remarks about Greg Staples artwork. I just want to say that his art on this prog’s Rogue Trooper episode is a distinctive combination of his ink and his fully painted styles and I like it very much. Also, I want to give a special mention to Henry Flint for his art on Judge Dredd The Pack. If ever there was anyone born to draw Dredd it is him. It’s great.

Prog 1013 15/10/96

2010-01-22T17:47:00.002Z

In Rogue Trooper Rogue Alone, Friday has been running around the jungle without his bio-chip buddies trying not to be found by Karvanu troops. It’s been good fun watching him survive by his wits. Kudos to Steve White for choreographing it all so well. I’ve mentioned before that I normally find the current Rogue Trooper jargon and tech heavy so it’s great seeing him getting his hands dirty. It’s pleasing to see Callum Alexander Watt providing the artwork on a character that we’re more familiar with after first seeing him on RAM Raiders. He draws Rogue Trooper all shiny and muscley and clean. His work must be good if I’m willing to say that online.

Meanwhile, Outlaw concludes this prog and it really is as stupid as I first thought it was. The story ends with Outlaw keeping his title in the Deadliest Man Alive Contest only for the heads of the company who run it to kill his daughter and leave him for dead anyway. So although we now totally understand Outlaw’s motives for any future revenge he might decide to enact we do not for these company heads for who, earlier, it was really important that he defend his title but suddenly it isn’t in any future contests.

If I were to learn that Outlaw was created by an eight year old Blue Peter competition winner and then given to writer Paul Neal to make sense of then I wouldn’t be surprised. Instead, thanks to the feature a few progs back that I mentioned before, it looks like it might have been made up by current Tharg, David Bishop. On the positive side, however, the art has been relentless good. I want to give a special mention to Tom Carney and David Millgate whose episodes I enjoyed looking at especially.

Prog 1011 01/10/96

2010-01-21T17:19:00.003Z

In addition to Vector 13, Sinister Dexter and Outlaw, another thrill Tharg is working hard to make a success is Black Light. Black Light are a small, modern day, black ops team tasked with exposing corrupt goings on within the government, military etc, who report directly to the American President himself. Already they’ve stopped his assignation in the UK (that would have been embarrassing for us, wouldn’t it) and a super soldier programme. Currently, in Pandora’s Box, the team are trying to crack a ring of nuke smugglers.

The art for Black Light has been consistently good. Steve Yeowell, with colourist in residence Steve Craddock, is currently producing Pandora’s Box, and this is after we’ve already had Lee Sullivan and John Burns on previous adventures. The writing team Dan Abnett and Steve White are producing solid and concise stories of espionage and intrigue. The thrill, however, feels to me like it’s missing something. Judge Dredd is about a future law man but with more to it and Slaine is a sword and sorcery strip with more to it, Black Light is what it is and nothing more. The characters seem undefined. The leader, Emma Price, is a pretty woman with a cute facial scar, while other team members include a bloke with glasses and a black woman. Apart from their visual differences, none of them have their own voice or personality.

What makes Black Light notable is the appearance twice so far of one of Vector 13’s Men in Black characters. It’s not just the Marvel fan boy inside me that is a little thrilled by this cross over, it’s also the memory it triggers of me reading this first time around and thinking that there was a wider story arc for these characters and strips that will eventually be resolved. I don’t remember that ever happening.

Prog 1009 17/09/96

2010-01-20T17:39:00.002Z

Tharg’s editorials read these days as if from the hand of a tired man. All he seems to do is list stuff. Normally, it’s whatever’s in the current prog. A couple of weeks back he listed the results to prog 1000’s reader survey question, what is your all time favourite thrill? He does the right thing and tells us the top three, Judge Dredd, Slaine and Rogue Trooper, then makes special mention of the positions of current Tharg favourites, the ones he’s leaning on hard to make successful, Vector 13 (7), Sinister Dexter (10) and Outlaw (15). Any survey that has Outlaw coming in at fifteen in it after only just one episode has surely been established as unreliable and should be disposed of immediately.

Last prog, he was back talking about the Judge Dredd movie, thanks to the new widescreen video release. Apparently, it was the fourteenth biggest grossing film in the UK in 1995. “Alas, it was not so successful in the US where it grossed slightly less than The Goofy Movie – but more than Rob Roy!” Perhaps Tharg, like the rest of us, was so excited for such a long time over the possible and then definite Judge Dredd film that when eventually it arrived and turned out to be poor, it’s left us all feeling our relationship with both the thrill and 2000 AD was in doubt.

According to regular Slog commenter, Kennyevil, this was a period during which Tharg is giving serious consideration to dropping Dredd from the line up altogether. It seems unthinkable in 2010 but this a good example of the black reach that that movie had for a long time after its release. Currently, Dredd’s name has been dropped from the masthead and the thrill itself moved to the rear of the comic. Kennyeveil’s comment also reminded me that, despite the excellence of The Pit, I became increasingly disinterested in the thrill. If both Tharg and I feel this way then it’s going to be interesting over the next few weeks in The Slog seeing if John Wagner became as disappointed and fed up as the rest of us.

Dead Reckoning and Return to the Hottie House might have been shaky Dredd stories, however this prog’s Death of a Legend is anything but. In it, the Medical Jurisprudence Sub-Committee decide to put previous Chief Judge McGruder to death by lethal injection after her accelerated descent into mental illness. Unknown to them however, Dredd has smuggled her out of the city for one last mission in the Cursed Earth. Thanks to the cover, from the moment you read the first panel of the strip you know that McGruder is going to die but seeing her go in the line of duty in full Judge’s uniform makes this an unexpectedly moving story.

Prog 1007 03/09/96

2010-01-19T17:02:00.002Z

Slaine is good example of a signifier to me that I’ve been reading 2000 AD for too long. These days, the character is a timeless warrior travelling up and down in time, enacting the Goddess’s wishes. But usually I miss the old Slaine. The one that was banished from his tribe and wandered the Land of the Young getting into all sorts of scrapes thanks to money and lust. However, I seem to have come around to the current Slaine. I quite enjoyed Lord of Misrule and, so far, The Treasures of Britain seems pretty strong too.

In this tale, Slaine and his unfaithful dwarf Ukko arrive in Arthurian Britain. For Arthur and his knights, their heroic days seem to be behind them. On behalf of the Goddess, a united Morgan La Fee and Merlin task Slaine with finding the magical treasures of Britain to unite the land. But the likable Saxon warrior, Hengwulf, is also interested in the treasure, and he has seen in the runes that he triumphs.

The usual themes that we’ve come to expect from a Pat Mills story are present here, but the wider and stronger cast seem to bring out the best in him. Although at its root this is another Slaine-goes-on- a-quest-to-find-some-stuff story, Mills’ spin on the Arthurian legend, the environment that it takes place in, is entertaining in its own right. Dermot Power’s art is great. As you know, I’m not always inclined to a painty artist, but Powers work seems to have been made for reproduction and the colourful bold images haven’t been created at the expense of good story telling.

Prog 1005 20/08/96

2010-01-18T17:26:00.005Z

In Durham Red Night of the Hunters, Red sees off the last of the competition killers and says goodbye to a dying Fuzzy, the hairy mutant. I think this means that her and the Gothking can now declare a truce but there is an epilogue to go so who knows. I hope so; thanks to its stops and starts, it feels as if this story has been dragging on forever.

Like in the sister thrill Strontium Dogs, Peter Hogan is still in a mood with Tharg and writing using the Alan Smithee pseudonym. Mark Harrison’s art at first glance looks spectacular, like a giant special effect, but reading it is another matter. Red dispenses with one of the killers just before another runs at her from out of the jungle. Or is it the one that she’s just killed? It’s not always easy to tell what's going on.

Red’s competition is televised with tacky ads scrolling across the screen at inappropriate moments. It’s a great satire idea that doesn’t work, unfortunately, as the panel designs are jarring and the lettering difficult to read, which is a shame.

Greg Staples, another normally painty artist who works in the Simon Bisley style, this time just draws current Judge Dredd story Dead Reckoning. Even when he’s only pencilling and inking, his work looks a little like Simon Bisley’s when he’s just pencilling and inking. I prefer it when he draws Dredd this way; at least I can see what’s going on.

In Dead Reckoning, Judge Death escapes, possesses a very old lady’s body and is chased back to Deadworld’s recent past by a determined Dredd where he teams up with the four Dark Judges including himself. For me, Judge Death no longer has the scary attraction that he had when he first appeared and is almost just a comedy figure now. John Wagner might be trying to write it for laughs portraying Death as a feeble old lady this time but, if he is, Staples doesn’t get the joke because he draws her like a muscle man in a dress, which is a shame.

Prog 1003 06/08/96

2010-01-17T17:48:00.003Z

Last prog there appeared a fascinating article on the creation of new thrill, Outlaw. Apparently, writer Paul Neal pitched the idea to Tharg which he liked but couldn’t use because of its similarity to the upcoming Mazeworld. So instead, Tharg’s editorial droids decided to keep the things that he liked, the name and the sci-fi/western tone, and to work with Neal on a new story. Tharg stresses that the new thrill isn’t in anyway like Strontium Dog because Johnny Alpha’s motivation was bounty whereas Outlaw’s is revenge. Clearly Tharg’s memory is on the blink because he seems to have forgotten all about Alpha’s year long search for Max Bubba to avenge the murder of his norm partner, Wulf.

Anyway, the story that these great minds came up with is this; Five years ago, a teenager won a gun fighting competition which really annoyed everyone so they killed his family. He went on the run then fell in love with an alien and then they had a daughter together somehow. Now some bad men turn up and kill the alien and kidnap the daughter telling Outlaw (that’s his real name apparently) that he has to defend his gun fighting title or they’ll kill the kid.

What’s great about this setup is that it’s a fabulous example of comic strip contraction as it’s all done in three pages. Since that opening, the thrill has become a good example of protraction with episodes that are virtually dialogue free. The story follows Outlaw’s journey across the planet to the gunfight where he’s already encountered, shot and killed a grave robber, some guys who want him to take part in their alternative competition and ‘sand pirates’. It seems to me if this planet is populated entirely by arseholes it might have been a good idea for the kidnappers to give Outlaw a lift to the gun fighting competition that they want him to take part in so badly.

Most baffling of all to me is how Outlaw won the competition in the first place. When I think of gun fighting I imagine great speed and dexterity with a pistol and taking out your opponents with a single shot each. Outlaw seems to get himself out of his scrapes by producing a pair of great big cannons from which he sprays his opponents with ammo from a seemingly bottomless supply.

To be fair, Outlaw is only four episodes old so, who knows, maybe the strip has many surprises to come but Tharg’s feature certainly places unnecessary pressure on the thrill to be good.

Prog 1000 16/07/96

2010-01-16T17:24:00.002Z

Wow. One thousand progs. Who would have thought, over one thousand weeks ago, that 2000 AD would still be going? The best everyone hoped for was a few years out of it before it eventually amalgamated with a more popular successor. But look at it, still here.

Instead of this being a big celebration, it’s a little underwhelming and is at best just another re-launch prog, and one of the more forgetful ones at that. We’ve got Slaine in a one-off story, Durham Red picking up from when we last saw her, a new thrill called Outlaw and, tucked away at the back, Judge Dredd. In prog 500, we got a memorable creator robot jam cover and strip. In prog 1000, we don’t even get the full compliment of five thrills.

Judge Dredd isn’t even on the cover. Instead it’s a painting of the less known Slaine by Jason Brashill. It’s a nice painting but in typical David Bishop fashion (he used to do this a lot in The Megazine), the same image appears again on the Output page and on Slaine’s introductory page. I’m not going to mention the whole cover to prog 1000 appearing as is, blurb an’ all, on the back of 999.

And to top it all, Tharg mentions in his editorial that 2000 AD is moving from Saturday to Wednesday publication which means we have to wait another eleven days for the next prog and not just four. This reminds me of my millennium night; what a disappointment.

For The Slog, the sixteen page souvenir supplement that comes free with this prog is missing and so, of course, all of the celebration could be contained in there. But when I close my eyes and try to picture it all I can imagine is that Slaine picture page after page after page.

Prog 999 05/07/96

2010-01-15T17:26:00.002Z

The most satisfying Judge Dredd super epic for a long time comes to a double sized conclusion this prog with the sector wide riot being quelled, Warrens’ greed leading to his death, drug addict Lee dying in the line of duty, Patel contradicting Dredd’s leniency and sentencing his own father to one years suspended ‘encubement’, crazy Priest putting his gun to his own head and crime lord Fonzo Bongo being sentenced to twenty five years for non-payment of traffic fines. Sector 301, or The Pit as it was once referred, is as corruption free and well run as any other sector in Mega City One now.

It’s not been a completely smooth read however. As prolific an artist as Carlos Ezquerra is, even he found it impossible to provide all thirty, six paged (sometimes seven) episodes by the required deadlines. So, stepping in to help have been Lee Sullivan and Alex
Ronald.

It’s important in a story like The Pit which features a large cast of characters who look very similar to each other once in uniform that their defining physical features are maintained. Sullivan manages this and even though his style is very different to Ezquerra’s he proves himself to be a worthy understudy drawing the brutal landscapes, vehicles and characters that make up the Dredd-verse confidently. Unfortunately, Ronald doesn’t succeed so well. Many of the characters look very different and he seems less inclined than most artists to Dredd-land. Many panels are drawn at a dizzying forty five degrees perhaps to compensate for the lack of background or detail work in the hardware. Maybe this is down to deadline pressures and it does seem a little cruel of Tharg to push a brand new artist into playing with the headline act. However, every now and then, Ronald disarms me with a panel that feels utterly naturalistic suggesting that on a lower profiled strip with looser deadlines he will become a strong art droid.

Prog 997 21/06/96

2010-01-14T17:23:00.001Z

Pat Mills sets the tone this prog writing, or co-writing, the majority of thrills that appear in it. In Slaine Lord of Misrule, Marian calls on the Goddess and summons the spirits of the forest to come to her aid, while in Finn Season of the Witch, Finn calls on the Goddess and has an out of body experience. I’ve said here before that Finn often reads like a Slaine strip set in the near future to me. Sometimes I wonder what’s really going on here, though. Is Mills just being a little creatively lazy by revisiting the same themes over and over again in various thrills? Or does he actually believe this stuff which explains why reading his thrills can feel like being trapped on the doorstep on a Saturday morning with a religious enthusiast when there’s a cool science fiction comic waiting to be read indoors.

Mills also writes this prog’s episode of Vector 13 called Video Nasty in which various opposing religious deities possess everyday people around the world and fight each other to the death. It’s actually one of the better Vector 13 stories even if it has to conform to the dry format of the thrill. It’s especially nice to see Mills writing a self contained one-off after years of experiencing only long arcs.

I like Slaine and Finn but I sometimes feel that Mills’ strength lies in the conception of a thrill. All of the work gets done during the early stages and then, any stories that appear two, five, ten years later featuring those characters are generated automatically by the initial plan. The reason his Vector 13 story is so notable is that it’s great to see Mills using a creative side of himself that is seen less often these days.