The Weekly 2000 AD Prog 2344: Maxwell’s Demon, An Infomancy Machine Possessed!

Since 1977 2000 AD has been the UK’s greatest sci-fi weekly comic, and every week we give you a glimpse inside the new Prog… it’s the Weekly 2000 AD.

 

This week, all five strips staying the same. Judge Dredd continues tracking down Kyle Asher in a cracking thriller, ‘A Fallen Man‘, there’s more nightmares of a zero-hours contract worker with a difference in Portals & Black Goo: Night Shift, the continued travails of Hershey & Dirty Frank continue in ‘The Cold In The Bones‘, and there’s more strange wonders to be seen as Dexter tries to figure out Azimuth in ‘The Stranger’. And of course, there’s the middle chapter in Tharg’s latest 3Riller as everything gets nasty in ‘Maxwell’s Demon‘.

Again, and I’ll keep saying this until you all agree, there’s nothing out there like 2000 AD, no comic that gives you the variety and the talent you’ll find inside each weekly Prog.

Prog #2344 is out in the UK and on digital on Wednesday 9th August. In the USA things are, of course, different, and you’d be best to insist your local comic shop orders you the regular monthly bundle of Progs through the distributor. Our time in Bruton Mansions (Dudley version) is coming to an end and there’s still so much to get done. So of course there’s a case of something nasty going round that we’ve caught that’s stopping us getting the important stuff done.

Okay, enough… let’s have a look inside…

 

JUDGE DREDD: A FALLEN MAN – PART 4 – by Ken Niemand and Tom Foster, colurs by Chris Blythe, letters by Annie Parkhouse

Well, if ‘A Fallen Man’ is anything like ‘A Penitent Man’ and ‘An Honest Man’, we’re on part 4 of 6 here – so it’s no surprise to see that Dredd’s caught up with Asher here, although he still doesn’t have that definite ID yet. But it’s coming, you know it’s coming.

Asher’s still trying to do the right thing, even if it involves doing bad things along the way. Your classic complicated, messed-up Mega-City One citizen.

 

As I’ve said before, Niemand’s writing here is classic Dredd stuff. It’s far too easy to get caught up in the big Dredd stuff, the long epics over the years. Yes, they’re great to read, but Dredd readers can’t live on epics alone. John Wagner was the absolute master of doing Dredd in his city taking on case after case and dispensing justice. And Niemand seems to have a real handle on how to get them done as well. It’s bread and butter Dredd done so very well.

Of course, Foster’s art is a big part of all this, confident, expressive, tight artwork that’s perfect for showing you the variety and fascinating world of Dredd.

 

PORTALS & BLACK GOO: NIGHT SHIFT – PART 5 – by John Tomlinson and Eoin Coveney, colours by Jim Boswell, letters by Simon Bowland

Kroy’s trapped in the Dybbuk’s dimension, finding out what’s happened to others, friends included, who’ve fallen foul of working the night shift. He needs to get out and he’s got very little idea how.

As for Noma and her pathetic little stalker, Stuart, he’s finding out that you really don’t want to piss off a vamp. And after his run-in with the morons, Magister Dain’s getting an idea that something big is happening on the Estate, something that’s stirring up all the natives.

 

It’s difficult to pull off this sort of multi-faceted strip, taking in three different yet connected storylines within just the few pages each week and make it work as well as this. But Tomlinson and Coveney have pulled it off every episode so far and continue to deliver a different sort of strip, but different in such a great way.

 

THARG’S 3RILLERS: MAXWELL’S DEMON – PART 2 – by David Barnett and Lee Milmore, colours by Quinton Winter, letters by Annie Parkhouse

The first three panels here are just perfect. Barnett pulls off a simple recap with style and comedy between Shuck and Herne. It’s indicative of how they’re both managing to make this second series of just 15 pages work just as well as the first series with Herne and Shuck, The Scary Man.

The key thing is that they’ve gone with a self-contained thing, a story all about the next step in Herne and Shuck’s rescue of Caris. This 15-pager in three parts will be all about Maxwell’s infomancy engine and getting shot of the demon inside.

 

But just because it’s all self-contained, it doesn’t mean that it can’t be bloody well done, and this really is. And there’s still time to introduce another wild card, Jordy, the woman the village hired to get Caris back and kill Herne – note to one and all, in the magical realms, never piss off an ex.

And more than that, try not to get sucked into the demonically-possessed infomancy engine that you’re trying to exorcise. That would be really bad.

Yes, 10 pages done, five to go. It’s a lesson in doing it tight and concise and managing to make it full of great ideas, interesting characters, and great storytelling. And, as I said last time, Milmore’s art really is on the next level here. A future 2000 AD star in the making methinks?

 

HERSHEY: THE COLD IN THE BONES – PART II – EPISODE 4 – by Rob Williams and Simon Fraser, letters by Simon Bowland

Another episode, another incredible set of colour schemes pulled out of the hat by Simon Fraser. It really is quite something to see, brilliant artist doing brilliant things.

As for where we are, well last episode ended this way, with Hershey putting out the call…

 

Now though, Hershey’s locked-down Antarctic City, taken control by sheer force of will, as the Enceladus spiders take over, these new hybrid beasts executed their plan to get the infection out.

And Hershey, well, it’s looking like this is her ending now. The pills are out, so maybe it’s time to go out fighting? At least that’s what she thinks.

Hershey, through all the parts of it, has been just as tight as you can get. Simple idea, one last mission for a dying ex-Chief Judge, wiping out the vestiges of what happened on her watch. But the execution is just so good, Williams and Fraser going for it full-throttle and making this an ending, if that’s what it is, that’s fitting for such a great character.

 

AZIMUTH: THE STRANGER – PART 3 – by Dan Abnett and Tazio Bettin, colours by Matt Soffe, letters by Jim Campbell

So here we are, Ramone Dexter’s in Azimuth. But he knows it’s just a deluded and delusional Downlode, the rogue AI creating something strange inside itself perhaps.

And it’s sure a beautiful kind of strange, thanks to Bettin’s artwork that’s just such a revelation here. It’s also thanks to Abnett’s writing, giving Bettin the space and time to show us all the strange beauty of this data city that’s hiding its secret from all that live inside it.

Here, it’s Dexter, along with ever-present, never seen by anyone but Dex, AI Lilith. And of course, Dex is in trouble with the natives. But although they’re all augmented creatures of the fantastic, Dexter’s one of the old school. Simply put, they’re about to learn that you don’t funt with this man.

Of course, what you get there is Abnett giving Bettin more space to show us just how good he is at everything it seems. We had a tour of the city last episode, now we get a fabulously choreographed bit of action as Dex takes down the Azimuth locals.

 

Sure, it’s a strange one the way it’s gone down, a tricky Abnett selling us one thing and mixing it into SinDex. But it’s a bloody enjoyable strange one and no mistake. I imagine we’re headed for Dex coming face to face with the AI at some point. But that’s for the future, right now I’m just really enjoying every twist and turn they give us here in Asimuth.