Ken Harrison: You were a film journalist before you wrote strips for 2000 AD (and my understanding is that you still write journalism). How much was that a help or a hindrance to you when penning comic scripts? I’m thinking that studying and thinking about films may have helped develop your visual literacy.

Alec Worley: I was a film journalist for about six years before I got into comics. I wrote for all sorts of magazines, from Sight & Sound to Zoo. When I went freelance back in 2000, I had this tragically naïve plan that niche journalism was going to pay the bills in between writing comics, novels, screenplays and wotnot. Suffice to say, many bitter lessons were learned trying to make that work! These days, I do the odd film piece for SFX, but the film writing’s fast losing ground to the comics work, to be honest.

I studied film under my own steam just before I left school. I pinched a massive book on film theory from the library – not cool! – and studied it cover to cover and back again. In a way, I got into reviewing as a way of finding out more about how films and storytelling work, which is something I’ve always been interested in. People often make the comparison between films and comics, but the similarities are mainly in editing, I think, between ‘the cut’ in film and ‘the gutter’ in comics. Moving from shot to shot and assembling meaning as you go along. But yeah, studying and writing about film definitely sharpened my instincts for visual storytelling, when to cut to a close-up, an establishing shot, how to shape the story and what have you. Having said that, I think I came to comics with a certain amount of arrogance, in that I knew I could write, I knew how stories worked and I knew the genres. But after receiving some of my very first amends from Tharg The Ever-Perceptive it soon became apparent that I had a lot to learn. And always will.

KH: How long had you been trying to sell scripts to 2000 AD before you sold your first Shock and did you have any other experience of writing comics?

AW: I decided to lay siege to 2000 AD in Christmas 2006. The plan was to spend the next few months writing nothing but Future Shocks and to write them as though they’d already been rejected. That way your head is clear to just write the thing without worrying about whether it’ll get accepted or getting bummed out when it gets turned down. Based on my previous ventures into submission hell, I assumed I’d never hear back or a rejection would turn up a year or so after I’d forgotten ever having written to them. As it turned out, Tharg got back to me within a week. I think I was lucky enough to have started submitting just as the Nerve Centre was commencing its periodic shovel through the slush pile.

Anyway, Tharg said he liked the idea but it needed revising. I’d written two more Shocks by then and was on a bit of a roll. So instead of reworking the first one, I just sent the next one the same day I got the reply from Tharg. That one got rejected a week later by a chap called David Leach, who said I should definitely send more scripts and whose feedback at the time was invaluable. By now, I’d written a stack of Shocks and when David received submission three he got back to me a few days later saying, ‘Christ, you’re keen!’ He said the script needed reworking but the idea and the twist were solid.

I dutifully tweaked it several times, but a month later, having completed the final pass, David moved on to Titan and my finely tuned Future Shock tumbled into a Thrill Vortex never to be seen again. I continued writing Future Shocks until I had a stock of about five or six, which I fed into the slush pile over the next few months. Eventually, Tharg began picking some of these up, by which time I was writing a film review column for the Megazine.

I’d previously attempted to get into some other UK comics including those by Panini, Titan and Games Workshop. That Warhammer Comic folded three days after I sent my submission! I very nearly got into Commando, whose then-editor George Low, was fantastically encouraging. I also had a few scripts picked up by some excellent small press comics, including FutureQuake, Something Wicked and The Girly Comic.

KH: Why comics? Why not prose fiction or screenplays or some other form?

AW: I’ve always loved comics, but I never thought they were a professional option until I realised some of them actually took submissions. I remember doing these sample scripts for Panini. I had Spidey and Black Cat vs. the Lizard in a museum full of animated dinosaur skeletons. Night at the Museum came out a year later, dammit! And another one with Spidey and Ghost Rider vs. Carnage on a runaway train. I was surprised at how easily the ideas came, how naturally the process flowed and how much it felt like I already knew how to do this even though I’d never done it before, which was a bit spooky.

Other than that. I’d pitched tie-in novels, screenplays, radio plays and everything else that involves you having to write 30,000 unpaid words based on the vaguest possible guidelines on the off-chance that an editor might say ‘yes’ to a project that will consume your life and end up paying you less than if you were stood at a set of traffic lights cleaning car windscreens with your tongue! No, the freelance experience hasn’t left me feeling at all bitter. Why do you ask…?

The thing is, in my experience, the try-everything-and-see-what-sticks approach rarely works. I found it really helped to focus on one thing at a time, gather momentum and have a body of work – published or not – to stand on. Comics was really the first time I’d ever done that.

KH: You’re talking about something in your answers here that I think I haven’t seen talked about much by comic creators: the importance of cultivating a relationship with an editor. How important do you think it was to show you were ‘serious’ about comics writing by regularly submitting scripts?

AW: I guess you prove you’re ‘serious’ by actually being serious, by just doing your job as effectively as possible, by being practical and thinking ahead. When I was Future Shocking, I was scoring one commission for at least one rejection, so it was important to have a pile of finished scripts to shovel onto the fire. I figured any that got bounced would still have been good enough to polish up according to Tharg’s feedback and sent to find a home in the small press. That way nothing was wasted.

I think in terms of being ‘serious’ about what you’re doing, I remember reading an interview with Ken Loach in which he said if you want to be a successful filmmaker you’ve got to be more in love with filmmaking than with the idea of being a filmmaker. And it’s the same with writing, or art, or music or whatever it is you’re into. Getting starry-eyed and full of yourself or starting to think about developing your ‘brand’ or whatever will only distract you. When I got the greenlight to write the first series of Age of the Wolf, I spent the first few weeks in a daze, thinking, ‘Bloody Hell, I’m actually gonna be writing a series for 2000 AD! How awesome is that?’ I got so carried away with the romance of what I was doing I lost sight of the best way in which to do the job and my first draft of the series breakdown suffered because of that.

Luckily, Tharg The Wise And Munificent has always been on hand to keep me on course. Since my very first commission, every single bit of feedback has been noted and referred back to. Having constant pointers from a detached and experienced editor makes it easy to deal with bad habits and blind spots. It can be embarrassing when your editor points out that you’ve made a goof, but it’s a good way to learn.

KH: Did the movie review column help in terms of getting work at 2000 AD in that you were in regular contact with Matt Smith?

AW: I’m not sure exactly how much the movie column helped. I guess you’d have to ask Matt. But my always being a good boy couldn’t have hurt, always meeting the deadline and the word count, and making sure the copy didn’t read like it was written by a stoned orang-utan with a Wikipedia fixation – and I’ve done enough sub-editing in my time to know how often that’s the case! In that sense, writing for the Meg and the Prog is the same as writing for any other outlet. As a freelancer, it’s your job to make the editor’s life as stress-free as possible. And when it comes to writing comics scripts, I’d extend that to the artist and the letterer too.

KH: How did the review column come about?

AW: I was early for a screening for another magazine and was mooching around Borders where I found a copy of the Megazine featuring a review of X-Men 3. I didn’t realize the Meg published reviews and, as a jobbing film journo, you’re always on the look-out for paying outlets that may be small enough to not have a dedicated film writer on their books. I sent a query email to the 2000 AD website and Matt got back the following day, asking if I could do a round-up of the month’s genre releases. He never asked me to stop, so I kept going for almost three years.

It was a bit of a dream gig, but orchestrating the screenings, check discs and images was a nightmare. In the end, the organisational side got too much to handle and I had to let the column go. Some of the bigger magazines for which I was writing were dying off and I suddenly found PR departments bullshitting me more often than usual, until I was almost literally fighting for a seat in the preview theatre. I’ll never forget that screening of Aliens Vs. Predator… It got to the point where I was pretty much paying to write the column.

Of course, the other thing was I wanted to concentrate on writing scripts for the Prog. Film writing was only ever meant to be a means to an end, so it was time to call it a day. I explained all this to Matt, who was brilliant and asked me to find a replacement. Luckily, I was friends with Andrew Osmond, who is a much higher profile journalist than me and has no problem getting past the velvet rope. Plus, he’s one of the most articulate, knowledgeable and insightful film journalists in genre circles right now, which helps.

KH: Why didn’t George Low being enthusiastic about your scripts turn into an actual gig at Commando? What’s the story there?

AW: The feedback I kept getting from George Low at Commando was that he’d published stories like mine a zillion times before. Unsurprising, really, given that the comic’s been around for five decades. No matter how much research I did or how offbeat I made the story, I just couldn’t get a submission accepted. George Low was really positive about my writing and said he wanted to see more from me, but in the end it felt too much like stabbing in the dark. Commando turned out to be a bit of a Moby Dick for me, to be honest, and I’m planning to give it another go soon.

KH: Which of your Shocks/Terror Tales are you proudest of and why? Conversely, which would you like to go back and re-write?

AW: I’ve hidden behind some of the best artists in the business. If I had to pick a favourite, I’d probably say the Terror Tale, Lost Property, which I did with artist Warren Pleece and letterer Ellie De Ville. This was the one about a guy who returns lost property to the ghosts on the London Underground. Actually, it was Tharg who came up with the idea of the ghosts needing specific artefacts in order to move on. And my wife came up with the ending. Warren’s a terrific storyteller and character artist. He’s also great with atmosphere. I was also really pleased with the Tharg’s 3riller I did with Death Sentence and Rex Royd artist Mike Dowling. I’ve never worked as closely with an artist on a comic as I did with Mike on that one and we were really in synch over what we were out to achieve.

Having said that, I’d happily rewrite everything! I’m one of those insecure writers who can’t read anything they’ve had published without seeing anything other than the mistakes I feel I’ve made, and I just squirm at the thought of anyone reading them. Having a new series coming out tends to fill me with dread. When a comic I’ve written comes out, I’ll set some time aside to see what I’ve got wrong and take notes. I started out with a two-page Word document listing the things to remember when writing a comic. Five years later, I’ve got 200+ pages in a ring binder stuffed with Post It notes, clippings and scribbled down quotations.

KH: Looking back specifically on your first Future Shock, A Terrible Hunt, what are your thoughts and feelings about it?

AW: This was the one that fell into a black hole after David Leach left Rebellion. I got to resubmit it once Tharg started commissioning some of my other stuff. It turned out to be my first published script, but the second commissioned by Tharg (after Adventures in the War Trade, which I did with Staz Johnson and Annie Parkhouse).

I think Terrible Hunt actually works quite well. The low squirm-factor on my part may be due to PJ Holden’s artwork. I’ve only just noticed, he put a sea monkey head on the wall of the trophy room! Sweet!

KH: I got the impression reading your movie column that you’re a big fan of horror stuff. I was a bit surprised to find during my research that you hadn’t written more Terror Tales (my memory had tricked me and told me you’d written a whole lot more). Which do you prefer, Terror Tales or Shocks, and why?

AW: I think Terror Tales are generally easier to write than Future Shocks, which can be a real challenge to anyone who’s still finding their feet. But then again, nothing beats a Future Shock that can pull off a fresh idea – or at least a fresh angle on a hackneyed idea – and a well-delivered twist. Terror Tales can get away with just a satisfying climax, which isn’t quite as demanding as a twist – which is a very specific type of satisfying climax.

I reckon good twist stories are like mousetraps and you really need to have an understanding of narrative engineering in order to set up a good one. I got mine right maybe once or twice, and even then I tended to overcomplicate stuff. I learned a lot by reading short stories by writers like Saki, John Collier and O Henry, who all keep their tales dead simple. One of the things I’ve noticed in their stuff is that the twist is usually in plain sight the whole time! I hate it when writers pull a twist out of a hat at the end with no reference to anything that’s gone before. You can’t have the main character suddenly reveal at the end that he was his own clone from the future all along without having established that cloning or time-travel are possibilities within the story!

I think twists use the same psychological tactics as magic tricks and street hussles, and part of the pleasure in reading them is in being ‘had’. But what makes the Future Shock writer’s job so difficult is the fact that the reader is actively looking to catch them out from page one! And this makes it harder to foreshadow the ending without giving it away. We’re all so bloody smug and postmodern these days, aren’t we? I’ve found that Terror Tales don’t put you under quite as much pressure. It’s enough for a Terror Tale to be scary, unsettling or shocking. But there’s a reason these things are considered an apprenticeship at 2000 AD. It’s because they’re all so bloody hard to write, but also a great way to learn how to write comics.

KH: Were you surprised when Dandridge received his own series? What would you have changed about that first one-off if you’d known he was going to return?

AW: I’d actually conceived Dandridge as a series from the very beginning. I love British ghost stories and used to read all those Usborne ‘World of the Unknown’ books when I was a kid. I got to thinking about all these ‘real’ ghosts from around the country, the Enfield Poltergeist, Borley Rectory and so on, and how they all felt like individual personalities, like these unique little treasures. So I figured what if people collected ghosts in the same way they collected antiques? In what kind of world could such a market exist? I also had this feckless dandy character floating around that I really wanted to write, and from there the whole thing just clunked together like a Transformer.

Ideas just kept coming and coming, all these scenes and characters and adventures. I thought if I ever get the chance to do a series for the Prog this is what I’ll pitch. But at the time, I hadn’t had anything published and getting a shot at a series seemed a bit pie-in-the-sky. So I got it all down in this horrendously overstuffed Future Shock, which ended up as a Past Imperfect alternative world story. Once the story had reached the twist, I still had to resolve Dandridge’s character and the easiest way to do that was to kill him off. As it turned out, this was the perfect thing to do.

I assumed that if the series ever came about, then I’d have to set it in some kind of Edwardian steampunk era. Until I saw Simon Davis had done this beautiful teaser picture for Ian Edginton’s Ampney Crucis and my heart just sank. I love Edginton’s work – really elegant, literate stories full of these really slick ideas – and I figured there was no way I could compete with that and that Dandridge was going to be just another case of, ‘Oh well, someone got there before me’. But in the end it forced me to think harder about how to make Dandridge different.

So I focused on an idea I had about exploring a sort of post-steampunk world, one in which all that scientific certainty and imperialistic optimism had given way to irrationality and the supernatural and everything had just gone to shit. The British Empire had failed and become a ghost of its former glory. This world could easily be the ‘Ghost Town’ described by The Specials, but with Dandridge as this sort of Adam Ant figure, full of charm and life. The shallowness and the romance and the politics of the eighties made it a perfect fit for Dandridge, so everything I’d set up in that Past Imperfect turned out to be just right.

KH: Why the change of artist, from Warren Pleece to Jon-Davis Hunt?

AW: I was in the middle of writing Return of the Chap, which was the five-part launch series, and I knew Warren was on board. I also knew Dandridge, who was now a ghost, had a magic jacket that would allow him to take on a physical form. And I knew the coat could transform into all these different outfits like a pop star with an unlimited wardrobe. But I needed some kind of default setting, some sort of iconic ‘costume’ for Dandridge. I had all these elements in mind, but no idea how to combine them into a coherent look and I didn’t want to dump all my notes in Warren’s lap when he was on a deadline.

So I asked Jon, since we’d just finished working on Age of the Wolf, how I could possibly make this work. About five minutes later he’d come up with this sketch, which was just perfect. The white frock coat and the red sash just said it all. I could imagine Peter Wyngarde or Johnny Depp swaggering about a haunted house dressed like that. So I included it in the script and Warren went with it. Tharg gave the following five-parter, The House That Dripped Devilry, to Jon, which came as a nice thank you for his contribution to the first series.

KH: What do you think makes a good comic artist/writer? What qualities are needed?

AW: I know very little about artwork beyond ‘Oooo, that’s lovely’ or ‘Errr, that looks a bit wonky’. But from what I’ve picked up listening to artists, I think nice splash pages are all very well, but storytelling has got to be key. You can tell when an artist has really thought through the action taking place in the script. Looking at Tiernan Trevallion’s work on Absalom in the Prog recently, he’s got all these telling details: the Sellotape around Harry’s mobile, the dead pot plant in his flat, the open flick-knife on the dashboard of his car. I don’t know how much of this stuff was in the script, but it all gives an insight into the story and its characters and the world, and brings everything to life without you even realising. I think character expression is also important, since the characters are the reader’s portal into the story. Again, look at what Trevallion did in Absalom and what D’Israeli did in Low Life. Just an extra line on a character’s face can make all the difference between the reader ‘getting it’.

As for writers, I think – again – storytelling is crucial. Going back to Absalom and Low Life, the writing on these is so simple and direct. It’s not cluttered. You know where the story is on every page. You know where the characters are going, what they’re driving towards. You’re not at any point fuzzy as to what the hell’s going on and yet it’s all happening in a completely unexpected way and the story is constantly surprising you.

But also what makes these two series stand out for me is how they deal with character. I think you’ve got to work really, REALLY hard to make a character feel alive within the space of five pages of action-heavy comics, to make them linger in your head long after you’ve put down the book. And it would be so easy to let characters like Absalom and Dirty Frank become these one-note, one-joke ciphers, but as you’re reading them, you’re really seeing who they are and why they do what they do. And then to find yourself identifying with and even liking a character who’s completely mental or a complete shitbag. That to me is really great writing. And when a writer and an artist are in synch like that the whole story just sings, the pages can’t turn fast enough and you find yourself poring over them again and again when you’re supposed to be doing the ironing or whatever.

KH: How did Age of the Wolf come about?

AW: This was another cherished idea that I hoped to pitch as a series one day. I wanted to do something that explored a different angle on werewolves. One of my favourite movies as a kid was The Company of Wolves, which I ended up getting a bit obsessed about at the time, probably because the lead actress looked just like this girl I fancied at school. Anyway, what I love about this movie is the way it explores ideas about the werewolf and moulds them into all these different stories and meanings. A bit like Clive Barker did in the Books of Blood, taking these genre tropes and mutating them into something completely different. As soon as I started researching werewolf folklore, I found out that what we consider these timeless werewolf legends are really only a very narrow cultural strain that didn’t really come about until the 1940s with Lon Chaney Jr in The Wolfman. The idea of this cursed guy who turns into a wolf every full moon is all well and good, but it’s really limited dramatically, there’s one way a story like that can end. And it doesn’t explore this wealth of wolf and werewolf folklore that runs through Britain, France and Northern Europe, stuff which is really gnarly and disturbing and more akin to Fight Club than The Wolfman.

Anyway, I pitched the series out of this paranoid fear that someone else would come along and write it before me – or even worse, write it better! I got very excited and perhaps a little too carried away with my own ideas, thinking I’d better get this in now as I may never get another shot. There were whole sequences I had to drop in order to make the thing fit. I had this big siege in the mall on Oxford Street and a lot more stuff with Pete the homeless dude. I think Jon’s spectacular artwork got me out of a lot of trouble.

KH: Did you write that first series with a sequel in mind? And has the sequel taken the direction you planned or gone off in another direction?

AW: The first story kept growing until I couldn’t fit everything into the first series. And it wasn’t long before I had this whole other story about a ‘Mad Maxine’-type character doing all this Robin Hood parkour stuff in a post-apocalyptic forest. Once the first series of Age of the Wolf was finished, I queried Tharg on the possibility of doing another. He said he’d be interested in seeing two more, which we could headline as the ‘three ages’ of the wolf. Since the story is based on all these Norse ideas of wolves and fate and stuff, I thought it might be interesting to take Rowan through the three forms of the Norse fates – the three women who spin the threads of our lives – the maiden, the mother and the monster. In the first series, Rowan’s the sacrificial maiden. In SHE IS LEGEND, she’s this protective mother of the people, and in the last one she’s going to be… something else…

But I also wanted to give the reader something different with each series, so each one could stand alone and let anyone pick it up without having to have read anything before it. So far, it’s all gone pretty much according to plan, although the characters in She Is Legend ended up taking the plot in some unexpected directions.

FPI would like to thank Alec and Ken for sharing their thoughts on the blog, thanks also to Tharg’s human avatar Matt Smith and to that man Matt ‘Madman’ Badham; the Megazine #324 is in store and available online now.

“But here’s a deal for you. If you’ll do it, so will I. 2012 will be the year I read 2000AD. 2012 will be the year YOU read 2000AD.”

It says Block War on the front of that Karl Richardson cover (don’t like it – never been a huge fan of that fully painted look),  but there’s very little of that in here. This is the desolation of the aftermath, we’re looking in on a Mega-City One on the ropes, in flames, gutted, looted, falling to pieces.

But damn, it’s looking good. But only for the reader. Dredd and co have problem after problem to deal with, and it just seems to be getting worse – the plague and the riots are decimating the city. The brief appearance of the Dark Judges last issue can’t have been all Wagner has in mind either.

Chaos Day is just around the corner now. Nearly there, nearly there. Wagner’s Dredd is something special, and Colin MacNeil’s artwork is matching it pretty much every step. So far on the 2000AD adventure I’ve seen Wilsher, Flint, and MacNeil on art duties – and to be honest I couldn’t really pick one – definitely a great time to come on board.

(Dredd – Wagner & MacNeil)

So Dredd continues to lead strongly from the front. An epic in the making, one of “those” strips we’ll be talking about in years to come.

At the other end of this issue we have a Cadet Anderson strip by Grant and Yeowell that’s the polar opposite of what’s going on up front in Dredd. This is very much the straight-forward, simple thing, never going to really set the world on fire, but for what it is, it’s very well done. Yeowell’s big panels and clean lines work really well on this sort of tale as well…

(Cadet Anderson – Grant & Yeowell)

See what I mean. Just really nice, very simple stuff. A straightforward case for the young cadet. Enjoying it for what it is.

Which I suppose you could say for The Zaucer Of Zilk by Al Ewing and Brendan McCarthy as well. Except what it is is a visual delight from Brendan McCarthy wrapped alongside what is a pretty straightforward tale, more about tones, thoughts, mood, than it is about plot really, and that’s not an issue at all. The key with 2000AD, just as with all anthologies, is the variety that it has to have, it’s the way 2000AD’s survived so far.

(Zaucer Of Zilk – Ewing & McCarthy)

And if Zilk looks and read well, then sadly Flesh just lets it all down. After initially reeling me in with almost childlike simplicity – big dinosaurs, Big Dinosaurs, BIG DINOSAURS! – It’s lost me now. Carry on Cretaceous is a little harsh perhaps, and I’m sure someone’s used the gag before, but it’s there, and it’s pretty much true at this point. But looking back over previous issues, previous reviews, I was genuinely excited with the simplicity of the concept and big dino-action of the artwork. It’s all gone now.

(Ooooh matron. No, stop it. Flesh by Mills and Mackay)

And finally….. The Tharg’s Time Twisters this issue is The Stitch by Simon Spurrier and Simon Gurr. Haven’t read much of Spurrier’s stuff so far, and can’t recall ever seeing Gurr’s artwork. But in 5 pages they deliver something very impressive, self contained, open, expansive, packed full of ideas, a time-travellers tale with a twist.

Brilliant little 5-pager, and Gurr’s art really mixes it up – multiple styles, nothing hugely overt, but it’s there in the different lines, different touches. More please.

“But here’s a deal for you. If you’ll do it, so will I. 2012 will be the year I read 2000AD. 2012 will be the year YOU read 2000AD.”

Another week, another 2000AD, another week spent trying to avoid simply shouting at you about how bloody good I think Judge Dredd Day Of Chaos is.

John Wagner and a series of great artists, currently Colin Macneil, are delivering a huge, monumental epic of a storyline, with Wagner throwing more and more into the mix, culminating last episode with the reintroduction of Judges Fear, Fire, and Mortis.

Where he’s taking it… I have no idea to be honest. And I don’t think that’s because I’ve only been playing in the 2000AD sandpit for a little while, I think it’s down to Wagner’s willingness to not put any limits on where he’s taking this. Or at least that’s what I hope he’s doing. I really do. As it is, I’m so pleased to be along for what feels like a really important part of Dredd history.

In fact, it’s so good I actually feel slightly sorry for the other strips in the mag at the moment.

Dredd even manages to eclipse (and I’m amazed I’m saying this) McCarthy and Ewing’s Zaucer Of Zilk which, although still looking gorgeous, and developing something more of a dark edge alongside the psychedelia, is still just a story. It loses out to a Dredd epic.

The rest of the issue suffers as well in comparison; Grant and Yeowell’s Cadet Anderson works well, looks fine, reads fine, and just feels like a standard, well done strip. That’s not bad, sometimes the world forgets that average is fine most of the time. And if Anderson is a good, yet average, sort of strip, sadly Flesh is dropping to below average. Now the “oh wow, huge bloody dinosaurs” effect is subsiding, there’s not too much to interest me behind it, as anything Mills is trying to say about time travel is rather lost in being annoyed with Mckay’s continued insistence on upping the cheesecake. Not what I was here for.

No new strip this time, instead, it’s a Tharg Time Twister. Which is actually rather good, and a nice example to a lot of comic creators out there in how to deliver start, middle, and end in just 4 pages whilst also having something approaching a satisfying level of story.

(Zaucer Of Zilk by Al Ewing and Brendan McCarthy)

(Cadet Anderson by Alan Grant and Steve Yeowell)

(Flesh by Pat Mills and James Mckay)

(Tharg’s Time Twisters – Contractions by TC Eglington and Lee Carter)

Next week…. or right now if you’re a subscriber (and I refuse to do that – still enjoying the nostalgic novelty of the newsagent every Wednesday) … DREDD and Block Wars again:

“But here’s a deal for you. If you’ll do it, so will I. 2012 will be the year I read 2000AD. 2012 will be the year YOU read 2000AD.”

(Cover by Henry Flint)

And here we go….. THE big storyline, the thing that’s been all over the media, the thing Day Of Chaos has been building up to…. the return of the remaining Dark Judges; Mortis, Fear, and Fire, all brought back to Mega-City One by those Sov agents still holding a grudge for the time Dredd destroyed their city.

There’s not that much to say really, it’s everything you expect at this point, a final blow-out of the whole Sov agent storyline, yet another thing to assault Mega-City One, the final part of what’s been one of those annus horribilis things for Dredd and co.

Funny thing is, like I said a few weeks back, now that I’ve got the whole Day Of Chaos: Eve Of Destruction storyline, I’m actually enjoying John Wagner’s incredibly tight storyline about Mega-City One and the response to the terrorists. The irony is that bringing the Dark Judges into it will give me the huge disaster I was looking for when I first took up this 2000AD pledge, except right now I’d actually really like the Day Of Chaos to hold off just a little more.

No matter – one thing I’m beginning to learn is that John Wagner is on fine, fine form with this, what looks like his last Dredd for a little while. Reading this CBR interview with him I was taken with the absolute chaotic approach he’s bringing to the storyline:

“I hadn’t intended to use them in “Day of Chaos,” but as the story developed, I saw they would fit in very nicely. The idea was to start off slowly and gradually build up to a thoroughly chaotic conclusion. By the final days, I was holding nothing back. Dark Judges? Sure — stick them in the pot and give it a stir.“

(Dredd by John Wagner & Colin Macneil)

Meanwhile, over at the other piece of brilliance in the issue, Ewing and McCarthy have dropped some of the technicolour psychedelia of The Zaucer Of Zilk, and take us deep into damp, dismal despair of the world of Raine where we get to see a little of the reasons behind his villainy.

Sure, it may be a little darker than it was before, but by heavens it still looks gorgeous, and there’s a sense of tone and mood here that’s turning a wacky concept into something far more interesting and involving.

(The Zaucer Of Zilk by Al Ewing & Brendan McCarthy)

Cadet Anderson by Alan Grant and Steve Yeowell strikes me as one of those strips that’s not going to be anything more than a un-championed, low-key adventure serial of  Psi-Judge Anderson’s younger days. The solid and dependable sort of story, unlikely to ever be held up by many as the pinnacle of 2000AD, but enjoyable enough in and of itself.

Which was also what I initially thought of The Age Of The Wolf as well. but then I read the first couple of chapters and rather enjoyed it for a great little storyline and some cracking artwork.  Over the last 9 weeks I’ve seen the adventure follow the journey of Rowan Morrigan in an England under permanent moonlight and wolf invasion.

This episode Age Of The Wolf sees Rowan deal with the little problem of the Skinners. And then….. well, that’s the problem, because that’s it. Nothing else, just an ending, a mysterious voiceover, and the report of Rowan’s disappearance with a promise of more to come. In all honesty it’s actually quite stylishly done, and if it would have come at the end of episode 15, or 20, all would possibly have been okay, but as episode 10 it all seems a little too truncated.

Finally Flesh is still going, and just as with last week and all previous episodes it’s a damn sight more fun when it’s full of giant bloody dinosaurs hurting each other and the people take a back seat.

(Cadet Anderson by Alan Grant & Steve Yeowell)

(Age Of The Wolf by Alec Worley & Jon Davis-Hunt)

(Flesh by Pat Mills & James Mackay)

That’s the cover to Prog 1781, art by Henry Flint, featuring Judges Mortis, Fear, and Fire….. and over at 2000AD Online Tumblr they’ve had a great time this week putting up some great Dark Judge artwork. Here’s a selection of faves….

(Brian Bolland)

(Ashley Wood)

(PJ Holden)

and finally…. all three trailer images from Pye Parr:

This Wednesday…. they return:

(Prog 1781, cover by Henry Flint, posted at the great ECBT2000AD blog)

“But here’s a deal for you. If you’ll do it, so will I. 2012 will be the year I read 2000AD. 2012 will be the year YOU read 2000AD.”

Okay, lets get straight into this…. that’s a gorgeous cover by Edmund Bagwell, understated, yet striking, and the process that built it up can be seen over at 2000AD Covers Uncovered.

Now, onto the insides, and we’ll start with what may be, if some rumours are to be believed, John Wagner’s swansong on Judge Dredd. Or perhaps just him taking a break from the character. Whatever it is, he’s promising something major:

This is from his Facebook: “Really looking forward to seeing what other writers do with what I’ve left them. It’s a new ballgame – I expect to see some spanking good scripts.”

A while back I was wondering when the real action would start, but since Jez Higgins pointed out just how extensive and involved the story had been so far, I’ve found my reading of it has shifted. It’s become, quite simply, a masterclass in writing a tense, involved and involving political thriller.

The real beauty of it in many ways is that it’s a Dredd story in name only. This is a story of the city, and it’s a city under dire threat right now. Not only is the Chaos Plague still out there, but the threat of the Sov Block terrorists is only just beginning, with traitors revealed right at the heart of the Justice Department:

That’s about the sum of the action here. It is so beautifully composed and constructed that Wagner is telling his story through reportage, through events unfolding. There’s simply no need to have lots of big action sequences, and Wagner, along with Henry Flint’s excellent artwork, is merely laying everything before us, as we watch it all unfold, as amazed and bewildered as the Judges and residents of MC1.

This will be one that joins the ranks of the very best Dredd epics. Yet the incredible thing is that it doesn’t feel like it’s going to be over any time soon. And personally, I’d not complain if it took the remainder of the year to play out.

(Judge Dredd by John Wagner and Henry Flint)

New this prog is Cadet Anderson by Alan Grant and Steve Yeowell. This means that 2000AD currently has the triumverate of John Wagner, Alan Grant, and Pat Mills writing strips. The more things change etc etc.

This is very thoughtful, intricate stuff, a return to Judge Anderson’s cadet days. First episode is very well done, Yeowell’s art perfect for the more thoughtful, character based story. I may be alone on this, but although I do love his artwork, there’s still occasionally a stiffness to it that means action sequences come off somewhat stilted and uncomfortable. Minor flaw at best though.

(Cadet Anderson by Alan Grant and Steve Yeowell)

If Cadet Anderson is a slow and steady thing, all character poses and intricacies, then Zaucer Of Zilk is every bit the psychedelic, non-stop, out and out piece of weird everyonee, including myself, was hoping it would be. Visually stunning, with McCarthy excelling on practically every page, the story by Ewing and McCarthy is fair trundling along as well. Nothing as deep as Dredd sure, but a hugely entertainly strip.

(Zultan Of Zilk by Al Ewing and Brendan McCarthy)

Age Of The Wolf II keeps going with the kinetic action adventure, and it’s certainly well done stuff as Rowan finds herself in another scrape. It’s nothing particularly deep, nothing that will set the world alight, but it is a decent enough A to B to C post apocalyptic romp, which is pretty much what it needs to be. There’s nothing wrong with doing something like this, genre stuff that does the basics and does it well.

But one problem with it – Jon Davis-Hunt’s art is pretty good for figure work, but occasionally it’s felt and looked sloppy in the storytelling for the action setpieces. Like this below. I’ve looked and looked and looked, and I think I know what’s meant to be going on. But I’m jiggered if I can match what I think is meant to  be going on with what Davis-Hunt draws here:

(Age Of The Wolf II by Alec Worley and Jon Davis-Hunt)

Next complaint: Flesh. Now this was going on at a fair old pace so far, lots of big dinosaur action sequences each episode, artist James McKay drawing them big, rough, and impressive. But this episode we’re down to human scale, and it all rather falls apart. Heaving bosoms alone do not good figure work make.

(Flesh: Midnight Cowboys by Pat Mills and James McKay)

Okay, so I’m starting to pick some of the strips apart now, maybe because I’m comfortable with the weekly form and feel I’m no longer the newbie who needs to sit back and get used to the rhythm? Maybe because I see Dredd, Zilk, and to a lesser extent Anderson being done so well, and it just points out the failings of the two lesser strips all the more?

Whatever it is, it’s certainly worth noting that overall, the 2000AD experience is still a real weekly treat. Frankly, especially with Dredd being so strong right now, I’m kicking myself for leaving it until now.

So don’t make the same mistake. join me on my pledge. Give 2000AD a try. The great thing about it is that there’s always a jumping on point. It happens every Wednesday. Sure, you may be lost slightly for a week or so, but you’ll soon pick it up, and with the comic so good right now, you’ll soon, just like me, be looking forward to Wednesday with near childlike expectation.

Graeme Neil Reid notes that former 2000 AD artist Kevin Cullen’s son Jack is selling around fifty pages of Kevin’s artwork from his time on the Galaxy’s Greatest Comic, including Judge Dredd work, Hershey, The Creep, Vector 13 and other pages – if you are interested then drop Graeme a line via his blog or contact Jack at jack-cullen (at) live (dot) com. Graeme also promises that in the near future he is planning to write a post about what happened to Kevin.

“But here’s a deal for you. If you’ll do it, so will I. 2012 will be the year I read 2000AD. 2012 will be the year YOU read 2000AD.”

Cover by James Mckay

Here we go again then, with another so so cover, nicely done sure, but a little indistinct, not enough wow.

However, once we get inside, there’s wow aplenty in Dredd, where everything that can go wrong has gone wrong; the rejected proposal for mass poisoning the victims of the chaos plague has been leaked to the press, the city has erupted, rioters flood the streets, the Judges are overwhelmed, and Mega City One looks in trouble.

The thing is, given the ending, it may be that the trouble has only just started…..

(Dredd – Day Of Chaos by John Wagner and Henry Flint)

Yes, it’s chaos, everything’s going wrong, there’s nowhere near enough law enforcement to go round, android auxillaries, even temporary executive powers for the military just aren’t enough.

But Wagner doesn’t just throw all the chaos at us, that’s just the start. Against the backdrop of the chaos there’s a thrilling socio-political storyline that’s far more important, and far more interesting, with Wagner spinning out the story of a rogue Judge and the Justice Department’s struggle to find him before he does something very bad indeed. How bad? Oh, bad, very bad.

Dredd: Day Of Chaos has turned turned from something where I hoped it would explode into action to something where I’m absolutely thrilled that it hasn’t, all thanks to Wagner’s practically perfect storytelling, a master at delivering lowkey brilliance.

Okay, I hadn’t meant to go on so much about Dredd, so we’ll quickly whip through the rest…

(The Zaucer Of Zilk by Brendan McCarthy and Al Ewing)

(Flesh – Midnight Cowboys by Pat Mills and James McKay)

We’re right in the middle of both Zilk and Flesh, and they’re both doing what they do so very well, both hugely enjoyable, even if they’re diametrically opposed in what they’re doing; Zilk looks spectacular whether it’s the bright and light wonders of Zilk’s world or the dismal damp and dreary backdrop above, and has a suitably bizarre and spectacular story to go along with it, whilst Flesh is out and out dino action all done in effective b&w.

As for She Is Legend, it’s all kicking off Red Riding Hood style, with Grandma and the wolf under a lovely full moon, and initial Preacher comparisons still apply, very nice all round, good little action strip with a twist.

Finally, it’s John Burns’ last ever art on Nikolai Dante in this penultimate story, and part 6 of The Dante Gambit resolves everything rather nicely. It’s slowly winning me over. Too late for me perhaps, but the idea of picking up the collections is certainly getting more appealing, if only to quieten some of you lot who love it so!

(She Is Legend – Age Of The Wolf II by Alec Worley and Jon Davis-Hunt)

(Nikolai Dante by Robbie Morrison and John Burns)

That’s it then, another week of 2000AD, and another damn fine week. Dredd just gets better and better, and the rest are close to it in terms of enjoyment right now…. even Dante. Damn you all for making me continue and enjoy it.

From SFX on Thursday:

“We were sent the above poster today, for a new indie Brit flick called Monster Project that has just gone into production, from writer/director John Shackleton (Panic Button). Described as a “cross-genre” film, Monster Project follows six teenagers who undergo a harrowing transformation into monsters, imbued with various abilities and ailments, and are forced to go on the run, fighting for their survival.”

Always nice to see the creative industry screwing each other over.

Monster Project’s poster certainly appears to have completely ripped off Edmund Bagwell’s design for his Cradlegrave cover to the 2009 Prog 1633 of 2000AD. 2000AD Covers Uncovered even put up a blog post in 2010 showing the creation of the cover, so it’s definitely Bagwell’s work they’re stealing here.

It’s only at the initial poster stage right now, so hopefully, they’ll see reason. Or maybe just realise Rebellion’s lawyers aren’t going to stand for this.

John Shackleton is directing  Monster Project as part of Movie Mogul Films – website, twitter. Always nice to be able to get in touch with these people to let them know when they’re stealing someone else’s work.

UPDATE: 21st April 2pm:

Movie Mogul twitter account in reply:

“concept art mix-up, not rip-off. We have apologized, and recalled offending image”

This is good news. Nice to see it sorted.