Oliver Davis reviews 2000AD Prog #1906…
Borag thungg, Earthlets! This week’s Prog has dog fighters (literally), private school bashing, a vast, inter-dimensional eye and a talking horse. Some are great, some are dragging their feet; others, like Dredd, are just plain fun.
Judge Dredd is still playing babysitter/social engineer/Block Judge at Gramercy Heights. It’s always to see Dredd written and drawn by original creators John Wagner and Carlos Ezquerra. They bring an effortless understanding of its protagonist to the strip. There’s no overt effort to make it dark or tortured. It’s simply Dredd doing what he does best: being a hardass (a year at a Cursed Earth Correction Facility for one citizen with a Taiwanese Sexmek – a mekanoid rendered illegal “UNDER THE INDENCENY ACT OF 2029” – being one harsh example).
A subtle joy about the Block Judge story is the montages. Initially they were slightly tedious, listing petty crime after petty crime in the Gramercy. But as the weeks have progressed, so have the quality of the catch. Now they’re busting high-powered drug lords and money men. Dredd’s methodical dismantling of crime is wonderful to behold.
Dan Abnett is a fantastic world-builder, but the universe he’s created in Kingdom is oddly annoying. Based on the Australian outback – though an outback populated by humanised dogs who fight ‘Them’ (giant, bug-like creatures) – all dialogue and narration is written with an Aboriginie inflection who has a poor grasp on the English language. Phrases like “OR THEM’S GONNA BITE US DEADER’N DEAD” and “GENE, HIM HE WENT OUT FROM AUX DRIFT” are initially rather charming, but quickly become frustrating. It’s all just so surface-based.
Stickleback’s The Thru’Penny Opera continues its tour-de-force of old timey, East End dialogue. Ian Edginton (he of Brass Sun excellence) excels at writing accent-based speech, and coupled with D’Israeli (one of 2000AD’s best artists), the strip has a distinct identity. It’s a shame, then, that the identiy is Stickleback’s; a character difficult to love, being neither heroic or dastardly-enough. The Thru’Penny Opera’s storyline is intriguing, London’s landscape slowly being altered into a landing strip for an unholy, other-dimensional deity, but the protagonist drags it down.
Greysuit graces the front of 2000AD this week, an angry strip from 90s punk writer and good friend of Grant Morrison, Pat Mills. After finally turning against his employers last week, John Blake now swears to bring down Prince. The speaking of Blake’s past (Prince drove his best friend to suicide at private school) to his present (he breaks out of his brainwashed agent mould) is handled well. The disdain for the private school class drips in every frame, but this installment is only a filler episode to advance the plot. From now on, it seems, Blake will start picking off other greysuits.
Scrotnig Tale of the Week
The Grevious Journey of Ichabod Azrael (And The Dead Left In His Wake). The title alone is enough to make Rob Williams’ afterlife western the best strip each week. Thankfully, there’s much more than just the name to enjoy.
Last week, Ichabod was saved from The Hunter by the sudden appearance of a frame – separating the two characters into side-by-side panels on the page. The moment was transcendant, the protagonist slowly realising he exists in a constructed world. There is nothing so overt in this issue, but Chekov’s gun is visually mentioned again, and in one instance, when asked to be the town of Atonement’s new sheriff, Ichabod replies in the same comic as Judge Dredd, “I AM NOT THE LAW.” Williams’ reflexivity knows no bounds. A fantastic work.
Oliver Davis is one of Flickering Myth’s co-editors. You can follow him on Twitter (@OliDavis)
