Prog 486

Currently being serialised in 2000 AD is Metalzoic, the graphic novel by Pat Mills and Kevin O'Neill originally published by DC just the once a year or so earlier. Metalzoic is typical of strips created by the pair and, more specifically, Mills at the time in that the reader is exposed to the fully conceived idea for the thrill in the midst of it, not from the beginning, and left to work it out as the story unfolds. Robots have evolved to the point where they function like animals; herding together, hunting for fuel and defending their territory.

I was old enough in 1986 to think that 2000 AD reprinting material originally commissioned and published by an American company was untypical and surprising. As far as I am aware, this is a practice I have only seen occur in recent years for the tiny budgeted Judge Dredd The Megazine with Garth Ennis' and Steve Dillon's Preacher (but not for long) and the John Wagner, Alan Grant and Carlos Ezquerra Bob the Galactic Bum. I'm fascinated to know the circumstances that led to Metalzoic being reprinted in such a way during the more affluent 1980s. My guess is that the talent drain to America became increasingly noticeable to the editorial team and although new script and art droids were coming through it was thought that creators such as Mills and O'Neill are more intrinsic to the definition and success of 2000 AD.

Why this practice started and pretty much ended with Metalzoic, I don't know either, but I do find myself wondering how differently things might have turned out had 2000 AD gone on to serialise strips such as Outcasts, Marshal Law and Watchmen. Personally, I was glad that it didn't catch on; I had a little bit of disposable income at the time and it irked me that 2000 AD was reprinting a graphic novel I already had no matter how much better O'Neill's artwork looks in black and white on newsprint than it did on glossy paper in colour.

Judge Dredd Annual 1987

This year's annual is the first where all of the lead strips are drawn by different artists. Okay, the final strip in last year's was by John Higgins where the rest were by Carlos Ezquerra but there was a sense that this was only because of circumstances beyond Ezquerra's control. For the 1987 Annual, it seems like an attempt to showcase the best artists working for 2000 AD at the moment.

The most memorable is the sixteen paged Report to the Chief Judge by Brendan McCarthy with help from "Riot". In the story scripted by the usual suspects of John Wagner and Alan Grant, Dredd is exposed to a powerful hallucinogenic. The result is a strip that could have been a lot more trippy than it actually was considering the artist involved. Instead, McCarthy delivers the stunning graphics that current Squxx Dek Thargo were falling in love with him for.


However, my personal favourite is the opener, Meanwhile..., painted by Ian Gibson. Gibson goes to some trouble to render fully the faces of the characters as if they are caricatures of people he knows. The result looks like a tribute to those movie spoof strips in Mad Magazine at the time. It's amazing to think that the artist who produces work as strong as this and his time on Halo Jones is only inking someone else's pencils on the ghastly DC Universe cross over, Millennium, soon after.


On a personal note, my eBay purchased copy of the annual has been autographed by some of its contributors, Bryan Talbot, John Wagner and Robin Smith (I think) throughout. All of the creators go to the trouble of signing pages which contains their work except for Kevin O'Neill who doesn't contribute any work to this year's book but signs a Bolland drawing of Judge Death just the same.

Prog 484

This prog's notable first is the Future Shock, Blood Sport, written by Jamie Delano. Delano isn't a script robot that I associate with 2000 AD even though he goes on to write at least one regular strip that I can think of. At this time, I saw him as the only writer brave enough to follow Alan Moore on his runs (I'm thinking of Night Raven and Captain Britain specifically) and, consequently, his work often seemed disappointing to me. Obviously, a little later, he took over from Moore as the principal writer of John Constantine for DC comics and he did a totally memorable job there.

Blood Sport is slightly too densely packed to be a memorable debut for Delano. However, it benefits immensely by the art being drawn by David Pugh. It seems unfair that Pugh has been side stepped from Slaine thanks to the popularity of Glen Fabry when his work is this good.

Art robot Barry Kitson seems to be producing quite a bit of work for 2000 AD recently. This prog, he draws the Judge Dredd story The Fists of Stan Lee. At this time, he struck me as being not much better than an enthusiastic fan. However, encountering his work from this period again for The Slog I find myself impressed at how quickly he is improving. Kitson is great at the action stuff and at maintaining the story's momentum. Whenever I've encountered his art work since, I am always surprised on how much better it looks since the last time I saw it. Either that or I have a really bad memory.

Prog 482

ACE Trucking Co pushes the fourth wall again. As if seeing art robot Bellardinelli flying a bi-plane across a page a few months ago wasn't enough, now the Aces stop the story by invoking 2000 AD's alien editor Tharg and complaining about the attention Evil Guts is receiving in the current adventure. Personally, I hadn't noticed before but now that you mention it, I did seem to be enjoying the crew's visit to Planet Hollywood AKA Earth more than usual. When Tharg appears, Guts exclaims, "Splinter me sphincter!" as if he's decided that if his dialogue is going to be limited from now on then he's at least going to go out with a bang.

Over in Strontium Dog, Johnny Alpha at last finds the first of Max Bubba's gang who killed his norm partner, Wulf. Tattoo is now wheelchair bound and working as a tattooist on a remote part of Dragan’s World. Coldly, Johnny kicks Tattoo in the wheelchair backwards off a cliff. I don't know what is more amazing about this scene; A disabled guy being kicked off a cliff or seeing the chair smash through a wall between the kick and the fall without apparently losing any momentum.

Interlude

In case you didn't know, as well as whiling away the years re-reading old 2000 AD progs and writing about it, I also write, draw and publish my own comics. Since from before beginning The Slog, I have been working on my long comic strip, or "graphic novel" as some might call it, titled There's No Time Like The Present. This is the story of a group of friends with cult TV/movie leanings with a slight science fiction conceit. (By the way, I'm rarely any good at describing my own ideas and work). Every time I complete the next 24 pages or so of the story, I publish them and just this week, I've released Part 7.

It's a big week for me as I have also released a one off comic called Dear Robert and Partner. This is a story about a guy trying to deal with noisy neighbours and was my unsuccessful entry into the Graphic Story Short Story Prize last summer. The "actual reality" (printed) version contains what I call "extras"; behind the scenes elaborations on the main strip.

If you're interested in learning more about my work then you can visit my website here. The opening pages of There's No Time Like The Present can be read there if you wish to try before you buy. There are also lots of free strips by me for you to read there anyway, including by diary in list and strip form, Book of Lists.

If you're visiting this year's Comics Expo in Bristol over the weekend, then I will also be there selling lots of comics I've done in the past as well as giving away lots of free comics from my shady past. Come over and say hello.

That's it; plug over. Thank you for your patience. Normal Slog service will resume tomorrow.

Prog 479

ITEM: In the current ACE Trucking Co story, Ace, Ace, Cap’n Blood (this universe's version of Cap'n Guts) and Feek the Freak have travelled to Earth in search of some treasure. Despite the exitance of earthman Jago Kain in earlier stories, it's still a surprise to me to see Earth make an appearance in this thrill. Nearly as unexpected as, say, Earth popping up in Star Wars.

ITEM: I don't remember, first time around, script robot Grant Morrison writing as many Future Shocks as I've read by him recently for The Slog. In fact, I only remember one, just about, and I haven't encountered that one again yet. Presuming, in this case, that he is responsible for a good run of them, I'm surprised that Rebellion, the current owners of 2000 AD, haven't collected them together in a single volume yet especially given his popularity in recent years. Maybe there is a minimum amount of pages required to qualify as a legitimate trade collection and Morrison doesn’t quite meet it.

ITEM: Judge Dredd The Art of Kenny Who? concludes this prog. Comic artist Kenny from a remote part of Scotland sells his hab to finance a trip to Big 1 Publishing in Mega City One in search of a drawing gig. However, after a disconcerting encounter with Dredd in customs, Kenny has his entire art style sampled and stolen by the corrupt publisher. My understanding is that this tale, which goes on to inspire a number of sequels over the following years, started out as a satire of this tale's artist Cam Kennedy's experiences trying to secure work in America. I'm presuming Kennedy was told by one of the big publishers that they liked his style but they could get one of their America based, cheaper artists to draw that way if they wanted.

Prog 477

When you buy this prog for 26p you get thirty two pages of 2000 AD. I'm including the front cover in this and the single paged Nerve Centre so, excluding them, that's thirty pages of raw thrill power being piped into your brain via your eyes. And it's all thrill, no fill; we're not talking about hastily thrown together recap pages or strips by unpaid but very enthusiastic Squaxx Dek Thargo. You get five strips written by John Wagner and Alan Grant between them, you get great art by Brett Ewins, Robin Smith, Cam Kennedy, Messimo Bellardinelli, Carlos Ezquerra and Brendan McCarthy and, just when any other comic would fill out the remaining three pages with free promotions or readers art, a great Future Shock by Grant Morrison and John Stokes.

There are three main criteria that creators and editors of mainstream genre comics should think about when putting their publications together. I call them "The Three As"; Availability, Accessibility and Affordability. Availability: The customer should be able to wander into a local shop to find a copy and not have to seek it out. Accessibility: By all means run long serials but there should always be something in the comic that hooks the greenest of readers. Affordability: However much the customer has shelled out for your comic, always try to give them a sense of value for money. On the whole, for 477 progs, 2000 AD has ticked all the boxes every time.