The Weekly 2000 AD Prog #2373: Dredd’s Rainy Day Ride Out

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.

Okay, that is a stunning cover from Stewart K. Moore. The details on it are simple incredible, one of those you can just dive into and see all the little extras that Moore adds in every time he gets a cover. Gorgeous Dredd in the rain – wet, but just as deadly.

Well, after last week and the finale to A Better World, we’re back with another one-and-done by Ken Niemand, joined by Nicolo Assirelli for R.U.R., a droid tale that I imagine Niemand will be returning to in time. Elsewhere we have the penultimate episode of The Fall of Deadworld: Retribution plus continuing thrills in Indigo Prime, Full Tilt Boogie, and Thistlebone. But opening it all up we have another of the irregular Droid Life strips by Cat Sullivan, giving us a little cinema trip…

 

Prog #2373 is out on 13 March in the UK. You North American readers should get to their local comic shops and demand they get the four-weekly Prog bundles in – you really are missing out on a treat!

 

JUDGE DREDD: R.U.R. – by Ken Niemand and Nicolo Assirelli, colours by John Charles, letters by Annie Parkhouse

And now, as they say, for something completely different. We had the epic and brutal finale to A Better World last Prog, now we have Niemand and Assirelli with a quick done-in-one of Dredd and droids.

Like I said, I imagine it’s one that Niemand’s going to revisit, but here it’s just playing with another aspect of the MC-1 experience, doing that thing he does so well of filling in the details of daily life and giving us a good look at the life on the ground of your average cit.

 

Although, it has to be said, Roz of Roz’s Universal Robots isn’t exactly your average cit. She’s out there on the streets rescuing and refurbing old, dumped droids – and doing a damn fine job of it as well. In fact, when it comes to extracting info and memory from the illegally-dumped units, she’s better than the Tech Div grunts, something Dredd’s quick to utilise in the never-ending fight against crime, whether that’s illegal droid dumping or a droid witness to a murder case with a bullet through the memory circuits.

As for Assirelli, in the past I’ve been critical of how he structures his stories – beautiful artwork for sure but often just too expansive, art overwhelming story and leaving you wanting something more constrained and meaty to read. Well, as you see here, put on Dredd and into a tightly plotted single episode from Niemand, there’s all the great artwork packed into a six-pager with plenty of panels to let the story unfold. Hell, there’s even room for one almost full-page bit of great art without it taking any depth from the story.

 

INDIGO PRIME: BLACK MONDAY – PART 3 – by Kek-W and Lee Carter, letters by Jim Campbell

Okay, I have to say it, I am really enjoying the way Kek-W and Lee Carter are playing in John Smith’s world right now in Indigo Prime. It’s one of those where you sit back a little and just go with all the craziness, accepting that it’s all going to be pulled together, giving writer and artist plenty of rope and enjoying it when they don’t hang themselves with it – which is exactly what they’ve done in just the four episodes – prelude and three parts of ‘Black Monday’ – that we’ve had so far.

There’s a joy to the sense of things just being this close to completely out of control yet having everything moving nicely forwards in the aftermath of Clive Vista’s death and the move by ICP to stripmine all of Indigo Prime’s resources.

Right now we have Tyranny Rex coming face to face with her ICP employers, who aren’t too happy to be told that she couldn’t find the IP data they contracted her for. Thankfully, she’s got her last soft body clone to keep them busy.

Meanwhile, Tyranny’s gets a rescue from a rather messed-up Dwayne Lobe, another character back from the dead, albeit with a sizable and nasty hole in his face. A bit of bio-sculpting later and he’s almost as good as new, talking about all of this being about the legacy of Indigo Prime and the long game Vista had in mind against ICP. His pal, Jerry Foundation, is also around, with even less of his face remaining, with additional ice lolly…

 

And of course, there’s still Mickey Challis, Vista’s son, out there somewhere doing God only knows what with the data he grabbed from Tyranny. Yep, all of it perfectly restrained and great storytelling and art whilst giving the impression of absolute chaos, a great start to the strip.

 

FULL TILT BOOGIE: BOOK 2 – PART 7 – by Alex De Campi and Eduardo Ocana, colours by Eva De La Cruz, letters by Annie Parkhouse

A few episodes ago now, before Tee went in and grabbed the crystal for Achilles, we had the delightful prospect of Grandma headed out into Tanzigar looking for a card game to put her share of getting the FTB back into the air. And now we’re back at that bit… just a quiet little game of cards between some older ladies, a little harmless fun, right?

Well, not quite, as these particular old ladies play dirty and aren’t all that keen on seeing Grandma walk out with her winnings. Thankfully, she’s got cat with her. Although it looks like the threat might not be over quite yet…

 

Back at the hospital, there’s a recovery for Nix and a little bit of truth telling to come out, complete with a whole new threat with the seventh Titan turning out to be the Empress of Luxos…

 

Yep, there’s plenty of story to be told in De Campi and Ocana’s wonderful little world, one they’ve spent time and effort to make into something really worthy of that space opera tag, with Ocana’s artwork absolutely glorious whether it’s all tight figure work as it is here or huge space stuff kicking off. There’s such a lightness to his line, an absolute delight to see in the Prog each week.

 

THE FALL OF DEADWORLD – RETRIBUTION – PART 11 – PENULTIMATE EPISODE – by Kek-W and Dave Kendall, letters by Simon Bowland

Well, you couldn’t get two more different and distinctive art styles than the light, Euro-infused line of Ocana in Full Tilt Boogie and the magnificently dark and nasty grotesqueries of Dave Kendall’s work on The Fall of Deadworld – but that’s all part of the appeal of 2000 AD for me and many more, just seeing all that variety and diversity in just one 32-page comic.

Yes, Dave Kendall is a perfect artist for something as grim and unrelenting as The Fall of Deadworld. He takes a strip that’s mired in failure, descent into the inevitable, and something that could easily, in a lesser artist’s hands, turn into a muddy swathe of all-too-dark artwork. Instead, he gets all the gory details, all the nastiness required and yet still manages to give us beauty in all that. This series has been a particularly great example of that, packed with horrors but also so much gorgeous detail in there and some absolutely vivid colours that lift this so high.

As for where we are, well we had a bit of a shocker at the end of last issue – Jess Childs under the dead influence of dark sisters Nausea and Phobia. Say it ain’t so!

 

Well, seeing as Jess has a load of what passes for the good guys here looking to draw her back from the dead sisters, I don’t think I’m spoiling anything really by saying it’s not quite the end for Jess yet.

Basically, it’s more over-the-top nightmarish things happening in Deadworld against the never-ending (although we know what they don’t, that it will end sometime and not end well) struggle of the few living fighters against the forces of the Dark Judges.

 

THISTLEBONE: THE DULE TREE – PART 10 – by TC Eglington and Simon Davis, letters by Simon Bowland

The ’70s horror film we’re following here, tapping into the past nightmares of Harrwovale, nightmares that we’ve seen infect the villagers in different ways in Thistlebone prior, is now on its knees with a director looking at having the monies pulled and facing having to shut the whole thing down.

Not that he’s telling the cast any of that, nasty little manipulative bastard that he is…

 

Meanwhile, screenwriter Callum is having a little wee drinkie in the pub. It didn’t end well last time and you can’t see it turning out any better this time, especially as the cast and crew make the best of the location shutdown and start planning an end of shoot party. Alcohol, egos, a director out of control – and all with the spirit of Thistlebone popping up again and again. That’s not going to go down too well at all is it?

Again, we’re a whole 10 parts in now and there still isn’t a definitive thing or person you can point at and go ‘that’s who’s going to lose it and do the Thistlebone thing.’ But that’s also the thing that’s making this one so absolutely an edge of your seat experience, with the chill creeping down your spine every time you see Davis’ incredible artwork and read Eglington’s fine words from a really fascinating group of characters. It is, quite simply, absolutely great stuff.