Happy New Year! Between a Christmas visit from my wife’s family, followed immediately by a trip to visit my family, things have been pretty busy since my last post. Next post, in about two weeks, I hope to have more to say about looking forward to the New Year. This time around, things are going to be a little more brief. Mainly, I want to talk about the latest issue of 2000 AD, the annual bumper year-end issue.
For whatever reason, I have been receiving my 2000 AD progs 1-2 weeks late recently. I didn’t expect to receive this issue until we got back from our trip. Lucky for me, however, it arrived the day before we were scheduled to leave, and I devoured it as soon as my in-laws were safely on their plane back to North Carolina.
The lead story is the traditional Judge Dredd annual Christmas story. Written by TC Eglington and drawn by Karl Richardson, this tale of feuding families in Mega-City One during the holidays is filled with all the holiday cheer and cynicism that we’ve come to expect from these annual stories.
I loved it.
Next up was a bit of a surprise: Graduation Day, which is something of an epilogue to the long-running, recently-concluded Absalom strip. By Absalom creators Gordon Rennie and Tiernen Travallion, it’s a nice coda to that story. I haven’t received the new (and final) Absalom collection yet, but I hope this is included.
This issue also features a teaser ad for something that looks connected to Caballistics Inc, the supernatural horror strip from which Absalom spun out. It’s by Caballistics creators Rennie and Dom Reardon, so that’s something to look forward to.
This prog also serves up a new Zaucer of Zilk story, from returning artist/creator Brendan McCarthy and new scripter (but veteran British comics writer) Peter Hogan. Unsurprisingly, original writer Al Ewing is now too busy writing like 75% of Marvel’s comics to come back for this.
Like the original series, it’s visually spectacular and very weird. I can’t wait to see where this goes. And I hope once it’s done, we’ll have enough material for a proper trade paperback collection of the entire series. I think this is going to be a favorite in the coming weeks.
Proteus Vex, by Michael Carroll and Henry Flint, looks to be another new favorite. I love both of the creators, and this looks like another weird one that will reward rereading. Flint is an artist who always seems to push himself in new directions with each new project, and this is gorgeous. And I’m always excited to see new concepts and series launch in 2000 AD.
The ongoing Fall of Deadworld series gets a self-contained installment this week, focusing on Sidney De’ath, the young man who would become Dredd’s nemesis, alien superfiend Judge Death. The Fall of Deadworld series is one that kind of leaves me cold in individual installments, if I’m honest. The art is great, but I had trouble really connecting with it until I read the first collection all in one go. I’m more on board with it now.
Another new series, Feral and Foe, created by Dan Abnet and Richard Elson, premieres in this prog. I was a big fan of their series, Kingdom, and this looks to be a lot of fun as well. It looks like it’s set in a high fantasy setting, like Middle Earth or whatever, but from the point of view of the foot soldiers rather than the leaders of some epic conflict. That’s right up my alley, and, again, nice to see a wholly original concept than a revival of an older series. (Although I’m fine with returning favorites, too.)
Speaking of returning favorites, this issue also features the latest installment of Abnett’s long-running sci-fi noir series, Brink. And the issue wraps up with a wintery appearance from Durham Red, veteran 2000 AD vampire bounty hunter character, who spun out of the Strontium Dog series. This self-contained story, written by Alec Worley and drawn by Ben Wilsher, is fun.
And that’s about all I have this week! This year, I’m going to try to feature a highlight from the current issues of 2000 AD every week. Wish me luck!
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