The Weekly 2000 AD Prog 2224: As ‘Chimpsky’ Ends, ‘Feral And Foe II’ Begins
by Richard Bruton
The Weekly 2000 AD, giving you a weekly glimpse inside the thrill-powered pages of the UK’s finest sci-fi comic. No matter how bad it might be out in the real world, 2000 AD keeps delivering the thrills…
Just four thrills coming your way in Prog 2224, as the debut of Feral & Foe II gets a double-sized opening instalment. We have more chills in Thistlebone: Poisoned Roots and the finales of both Who Killed Captain Cookies? in Judge Dredd and the last of three in Nakka of the S.T.A.R.S..
2000 AD Prog #2224 is out on Wednesday 24th March. Get out and support your local comic shops where you can. If you’re still in lockdown remember that your comic shops still need you, so hit them up for mail ordering your regular comics right now.
JUDGE DREDD: WHO KILLED CAPTAIN COOKIES – PART 4 – FINAL PART – Ken Niemand, PJ Holden, colours by Quinton Winter, letters by Annie Parkhouse
The latest Noam Chimpsky strip concludes with some particularly fine looking PJ Holden artwork. You should take the time to go read PJ’s blog, as he’s always so insightful about his work and his reaction to them. For example, here’s one for his Dredd in Prog #2223 where he’s honest about the fact that sometimes the art doesn’t flow as easily as he likes.
But I’ve long been a fan of Holden’s Dredd. Well, long been a fan of Holden’s anything really. And his art on these Chimpsky Dredds always hits the mark for me.
So, everyone’s favourite new simian vigilante rounds up those drugged up baddies for collection by Dredd, who’s relegated to just mopping things up and, out of character for Dredd, just taking it all at face value, accepting the facts as Chimpsky’s laid them out for him.
THISTLEBONE: POISONED ROOTS – PART 4 – TC Eglington, Simon Davis, letters by Simon Bowland
Seema’s dive into the strange occurrences around the Thistlebone cult and Harrowvale woods continues. And as she looks back on the goings-on in the woods, we see familiar little touches, most obvious that elderly woman with the eye injury – all harking back to the horrors we saw in the first volume.
But as she puts all her research together, there’s one that jumps out at her – the 1984 scouting trip, giving Davis another opportunity to switch up the artwork to that rather incredible children’s book style.
Of course, with dead badgers and a scoutmaster perhaps getting that little bit too close for comfort to little Malky, it’s anything but children’s book friendly, all of which adds to the inherent creepiness of Thistlebone, especially when it all seems to coming back to Malcolm Kinniburgh, who’s still right in the middle of everything going on in the woods. Seema’s problem is that she’s got no real evidence and that means she’s going to have to go even deeper into really dangerous territory… but that’s one for next episode.
It’s still just bubbling along so brilliantly, with Davis’ art the really obvious star of it all, but let’s give credit to the whole team on Thistlebone for giving us a seriously good series.
THARG’S 3RILLERS: NAKKA OF THE S.T.A.R.S – PART 3 – FINAL PART – Story and art by Brendan McCarthy, Script by Roger Langridge, colours by Len O’Grady & Brendan McCarthy, letters by Annie Parkhouse
Inspector Nakrosky (Nakka) and his assistant Penny Z8E/4891 get to the end of their three parts of typical McCarthy weirdness with a rogue robotic vicar breaking up the bowls match on the village green before poor Penny gets pummeled into parts (again!).
Now, I suspect reader’s enjoyment of this one’s going to depend on how much you’re down with McCarthy just giving us whatever’s passing through his imagination at the time of conceiving and drawing this one. It’s certainly not anything that has profound depths, but dammit, it’s just fun sometimes to take your feet off the pedals and freewheel and that’s exactly what Nakka has given me. It’s light, it’s inconsequential, but it’s been fun.
FERAL & FOE II – PART 1 – Dan Abnett, Richard Elson, letters by Jim Campbell
So, you remember the end of the comedy-fantasy fun in the first series of Feral & Foe – when Wraith and Bode found themselves with no way out, looking certain death riding in on a mammoth?
Well, there’s no need to go back and look it up, as Abnett plays a blinder in giving us a recap, with Wraith & Bode’s comrade, Krodgun, popping up at open bard night at a local tavern, all the better to give you a hint of what happened and, more importantly, whether our Feral & Foe co-stars managed to get out alive.
No spoilers… they did. Although how they did and what happened to them, that’s where the fun of this double-length first-part happens.
Abnett and Elson are obviously really enjoying themselves with this one, making a really great looking/reading comedy-fantasy where the gags and the fantasy come thick and fast. Although whether anyone’s had the particular fantasy you’re going to see played out in the second part of this double-length opener… well, that’s another thing.
