The Weekly 2000AD – Prog 2108 Previewed: Small House, Big Effect

Another week, another great episode of 2000AD, which really is going through a purple patch this year, with a phenomenal range of strips, showcasing the great depth and breadth of writing and art in UK comics. Truly, it’s a shining light of sci-fi comics and something you owe it to yourself to start buying!
Prog 2108 is released in the UK and on digital on 21 November, but if you’re in the North Americas, you’re going to need to wait until the monthly 2000AD 4-pack hits your comic shops – so have a word and place a regular order now!
This week, there’s cuticle chaos going on with the Infestinauts cover from Pye Parr…

JUDGE DREDD: THE SMALL HOUSE – PART 9 – Rob Williams, Henry Flint, colors Chris Blythe, letters Annie Parkhouse.
The penultimate chapter of the best Dredd strip for many, many years. Something that, if Williams and Flint pull off the ending, will be talked about as a huge part of Mega-City lore for years to come.
At this point, I’m definitely not going to go too far into the storyline, because it’s something I want you to be able to approach with as much excitement as I do every week when the press preview drops. Suffice it to say, it’s quite brilliant. It’s Judge Dredd versus Judge Smiley, where long-hidden secrets are revealed and the history of MC-1 is raked over.
Williams’ writing is perfect, stark, clipped dialogue and captions, everything tense and taut. And Flint’s artwork is just stunning, the best of his career, cementing him as the Dredd artist of this generation.

SKIP TRACER: LEGION – PART 9 – FINAL PART – James Peaty, Colin MacNeil, colors Dylan Teague, letters Ellie De Ville.
Everything reaches an ending, in a bit of a hmmm way here in Skip Tracer. Nathan’s whole thing here was to save his brother. And the finale? Well, it sort of rushes things, does the easy out. Always the problem when you introduce a big bad, such as the Legion entity here. It’s been fun, but after two series of Skip Tracer, it’s still not firing fully for me. Good, not great.

BRINK – HIGH SOCIETY – PART 9 – Dan Abnett, INJ Culbard, letters Simon Bowland.
Unlike everything else in the current Prog, Brink is a series that’s carrying on well after the annual Christmas mega-Prog. And that’s fitting in a way, after all, it’s nothing like anything else in here.
Whilst Dredd in The Small House might be stunning with the excitement going on, Brink is a real slow build, week after week it’s all about the gradual investigation, the unfolding of the grand plan, the big conspiracy, with us all wondering just how much trouble Abnett and Culbard are going to throw Bridge’s way by the end. It is, quite simply, a magnificent thing, wonderfully written, beautifully drawn, with Culbard’s colour palette just a sublime thing.

THARG’S 3RILLERS: INFESTINAUTS ARE GO! – PART 3 – FINAL PART – Arthur Wyatt, Pye Parr
The battle for Dave Dwayneski’s nether regions rages on, and Dave, dumb bastard that he is, just keeps making things worse. As the Infestinauts, micro-warriors for skincare survival battle the existing malicious microbes, he’s going to add in a competing firm of Bowel Bots. The best bit of the whole thing… how Wyatt and Parr make you feel sentimental and saddened by the whole thing, just before a way too detailed zoomed out shot of Dave’s offending area!

KINGDOM: ALPHA AND OMEGA – PART 9 – Dan Abnett, Richard Elson, colors Abigail Bulmer, letters Ellie De Ville.
Last issue ended with a big boom. How big and what it all means we find out here. The Masters really don’t like things getting out of their control, do they? After this, it’s Gene doing what Gene does best, eviserating his way out of trouble… well, nearly. It’s very definitely Abnett letting loose, Kingdom the polar opposite to his writing on Brink, but it’s satisfyingly fast and furious.