Andrew Newton reviews 2000AD Prog #1908…
Borag Thungg Squaxx dek Thargo. Prog 1908 greets us this week with part 9 of the excellent ‘Block Judge’ storyline by John Wagner and Carlos Ezquerra with Ezquerra once again proving how effective his artwork is at bringing Dredd’s world to life. In part 9 of ‘Block Judge’, Dredd is doing his usual superb work in Gramercy Heights and with the help of others is bringing order back to the Block, albeit slowly. I just can’t wait to find out what’s brewing in the Gramercy Heights Arena.
Next in the issue comes part 9 of Stickleback: The Thru’penny Opera. Excellently written by Ian Eddington, Stickleback is really building up to the big action now and although I’m no big fan of D’isreali there is no denying that the artwork adds the perfect atmosphere to the story. The sad thing is, after 9 parts I’m still not feeling anything for the protagonist, there just seems to be something missing in the character development. Still, despite that, I feel that we are building up to a big finale. Have the witch sisters plans to conquer the world come to fruition?
The latest episode of ‘The Grevious Journey of Ichabod Azrael (And The Dead Left In His Wake)’ once again grips you firmly by the brain and yanks you into the story. Rob Williams’ fourth wall breaking tale continues from last week as the herd of buffalo that swept through Atonement plummet over the cliff taking Azrael with them. Can he be saved? In the meantime, trouble brews in Atonement. I can’t wait for next part.
Taking final story position in prog 1908 is Kingdom Aux Drift part 9 by Dan Abnett and Richard Elson. I love the ‘what you see is what you get’ approach to the storyline. There is no depth to the characters, nothing to build up empathy for the plight they face and you know what? That’s fine with me. The whole story has been action all the way and this episode is no different as our heroes finally get to take on the Alpha Them.
Scrotnig Tale of the week
Greysuit part 8 wins Scrotnig tale of the week for me this week. I’m thoroughly enjoying this wonderful story written by Pat Mills. I’ve got to admit I’m a bit of a Mills fanboy and have loved his work since I first started reading 2000AD back in the very early 90’s. This is typical Mills writing at its best and with artwork from the very talented John Higgins reinforcing the story for the UK’s covert ops agent it’s obvious that these two work well together.
In this episode, we take a step back from the non-stop action and focus a bit more on the covert details as our ‘hero’ closes in on his next target, ‘The Family Man’.
Special mention must be made to the teaser art for a storyline coming later this year featuring Mega City 1’s most notorious villain. Am I excited you bet I am.
Andrew Newton
Originally published November 19, 2014. Updated April 13, 2018.
