Writers and Artists: Various
Publisher: Rebellion
Release Date: 14th October 2015
Dredd hunts serial killer, readers yawn, joke saves the day. Defoe collectivised zombie poor kill rich. Is Corbyn there? Religious villain in ‘Brass Sun’ mentions “Clockwork Jihad.” Getting somewhere. Sinister Dexter is sci-fi Miami Vice, with violence of US television. Sick. Bad Company conjures Ghost of 2000AD past. Nostalgic smile.
Rating: 9/10
Dredd//Serial Serial is pretty stupid, but I’m starting to enjoy it now. The best thing about it is the joke at the end. It turned my frown, upside down. Dredd always was ridiculous, and this story is in touch with that sense of the absurd that rescues Dredd from statist hell and turns it into an absurdist comedy that looks at the ridiculousness that is totalitarian uniformed authority figures. Defoe//London Hanged has old school horror quality art, and the story about a risen underclass of zombie villains returning to fight against the rich, well, that just reminds me of what’s happening right now in the UK labour party. Labour (post Bliar, post Iraq) is unable (due to ineptness and neoliberal consensus) to sell itself to the UK public, so it’s going back to the zombie dead of it’s failed ideological past. Electoral failure is guaranteed, but perhaps that’s the whole point? Miliband no 2 is lurking. Brass Sun is interesting, and the mention of ‘Jihad’ in a religious/bad guy sense, is very brave of writer Ian Edginton. Nice one mate. Sinister Dexter is pretty much a US television show, but in comic book form. It’s all about cool, and brutal death scenes. I’m not a fan, but I’m not the audience for this one as I find contemporary US television to be pretty much unwatchable. Bad Company reads like something that I’d read as a kid back in the mid 1980’s. It’s funny, not in modern way, but in an old fashioned way. That’s rare, very rare these days. I’m a big fan. Funny old stuff makes me smile.
P.S
Check out the very cool ‘Bad Company’ merch available here:
