Preview: ‘Surfer’ — Another Bit Of Mega-City One Magic From Wagner & MacNeil

Collecting the two Surfer stories by Judge Dredd legends John Wagner and Colin MacNeil, this is just a great bit of Mega-City One storytelling, writer and artist on fine form.

This one’s out on Wednesday 15th August so you’ll have to forgive the tardiness of the preview. Hospitals are horrible places and trying to do this sort of thing while you’re sitting at someone’s bedside with intermittent and terrible wi-fi is hardly what you’d call ideal condition. But… I still managed to get a preview out before the actual on-sale date of Surfer – I’m taking that as a definite win.

Okay then, let’s start off with the blurb from the back of the book…

‘An all-new story from the creative team behind some of the most iconic moments in 2000 AD’s history (America, The Death of Johnny Alpha, Chopper: Song of the Surfer). John Wagner and Colin MacNeil have created a crime thriller featuring a young skysurfer named Zane Perks, who is hired by a film company to play the lead role in a recreation of Chopper’s Supersuf 7 victory (as originally depicted in Judge Dredd: Midnight Surfer).

However, after being double-crossed by the production company and arrested by the Judges, Zane sets out to clear his name and find out the secret behind the scam.’

That blurb does rather lay the entire plot of the first half of the book out there. Not only that but it’s actually wrong on the last point about Zane finding out the secret behind the scam.

But that doesn’t necessarily matter, because what you get here is effectively two incredibly good tales – the first being the thrilling Supersurf 7 recreation ending with Zane ending up in the cubes, the second being his release and subsequent manipulation by a mob boss to smuggle drugs into MC-1 from the Canadia border.

And as good as Wagner’s writing is for this one, the real highlight of Surfer is the artwork, page after page of fabulous stuff from MacNeil. It’s a book written for the artist and one that soars with Zane through it all, Wagner leaving so much space in his storytelling to let MacNeill really let loose.

It’s a tense and taut crime thriller wrapped up in MC-1 mythology, all with a sprinkling of some of the best MacNeil artwork for years. Definitely one to get, one to read and re-read. And one that I really would like to see Wagner and MacNeil return to for another Surfer tale.

Surfer – Volume 1 – by John Wagner and Colin MacNeil, colurs by Chris Blythe, letters by Annie Parkhouse and Simon Bowland. Cover by Stewart K Moore.

Published by 2000 AD on 15th August

Originally published in Judge Dredd Megazine #439-444, #449-454

So, now would be preview time, right? Well here you go, rejoice in that gorgeous MacNeil artwork…