Comic Review: 2000AD PROG 1919- Feeding on the souls of the alienated, television entranced masses.

Writers and artists: Various
Publisher: Rebellion
Released: 25th February 2015


Last week I reviewed PROG 1918 of 2000AD to discover whether or not it’s narrative content resonated with a 2014 UK that has been hit by a cross party consensus of neo-liberal austerity policies. The review was a little longer than I would have liked, but I feel like I managed to make at least a few interesting points along the way.

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Because I enjoyed writing that review, and also because I feel that it’s worthwhile me doing so, I’ll now be reviewing 2000AD on a weekly basis.  My goal is to monitor whether or not the writers are dealing with issues that resonate with what is happening in the UK today. That is the only reason for the review, and I’ll leave discussion of narrative and artwork to others. So with that intention in mind here’s what I made of PROG No 1919 of 2000AD.

Judge Dredd ‘Dark Justice’ is a narrative with zero complexity. The state (as represented by the Judges) is protecting defenceless civilians from villains. The Judges are the law, the court, the jury and executioner. Villains talk about the unfairness of this, but are attacked with violence and eventually subdued. The message of the piece is that you must obey those in positions of authority. You will obey, the Judges are the law, and if you disagree then that makes you the villain. It’s always been this way with Judge Dredd, and that’s probably why I instinctually disliked him as a twelve year old boy reading this comic. To love Judge Dredd is to love the state, and to love the state is to love slavery. That’s why I dislike him, and even when the artwork is as beautiful as it is here, I still feel great unease when reading a tale in which he and his order following, uniform wearing authoritarian gang members are portrayed as the heroes. Cops are not heroes like the television would have you believe. That is why whenever a country goes into tyranny it’s referred to as a ‘Police’ state. Don’t let the programming fool you. The Police are there to protect and serve, but it’s not you or your family who they are protecting or serving, it’s the state. It is their job to maintain the status quo and to protect the rich and powerful. That is their role, always has been and always will be.

‘Survival Geeks- ‘SteamPunk’d’ is the comedy relief strip in 2000AD. The characters are dorks, and girls are not interested in them, but you know that eventually they’ll get the girl, and unlike real life (girls are repelled by men who lack confidence and hide in geek culture) they’ll prove that being a geek is cool (it’s not) after all. This issue had a geek being rejected by a girl who very understandably (and real life convincingly) decided to procreate with a self-confident male instead. It didn’t make me crack a smile, but perhaps that’s just me.

‘Station to Station’ had a great panel where contemporary city dwellers were referred to as ‘Alienated, disconnected people.’ It suggested that a people so alone, so controlled by mass media disinformation and so isolated from humanity would be easy to control and manipulate by an external alien threat. Indeed they are, and that is why the UK is in the mess it is today with the alienated masses busy watching football, soaps and celebrities rather than getting together to do something about the austerity policies that are destroying the lives of them all. It’s an excellent script, and it’s worth purchasing PROG 1919 of 2000AD just to read this one story alone.

‘The Order’ features a moment where Christians are telling the truth and trying to help people who are being deceived by a manipulative alien threat. What? Christians as the good guys in a contemporary comic book? Yes, and even though I’m not a Christian myself that’s such a refreshing thing to read, especially when I’m used to reading Christianity bashing on a weekly basis coming from my US comic books. I’ve read enough crazy Christian bigot and cult leader story lines to last ten lifetimes, so it’s nice to see Christianity portrayed in a heroic light for a change.

‘Savage-Grinders’ features a panel with a character stating that he is going to get revenge for all of the children abused in the UK ‘care’ system. That sounds very familiar to me, and if you don’t know what I’m talking about just spend five minutes on the Internet and read about the dozens of recent cases involving establishment level paedophile rings and cover-ups involving children in UK care homes. This is one of the biggest scandals of our times, and I’m very heartened to see it obliquely referenced to in this excellent comic strip.  By referencing it writer Pat Mills has shown that he is in touch with the growing wave of unease in the UK as the public wakes up to discover that their political ‘masters’ are nothing more than a criminal gang of psychopathic, immoral, perverts, thieves and murderers.

That’s another great week from 2000AD then, and out of the five stories there were positive messages in four of them. Police state indoctrination, male ‘geek’ culture emasculation, city alienation, Christian truth and care home abuse, that’s quite a bag of goodies for anybody to get their teeth into.

2000AD is celebrating ’38 Thrill-Powered Years’ this week, so get yourself a copy of this Thargtastic title and let’s keep them going for at least another 38 years, and long into what will hopefully be an austerity and neo-liberal free future. 


Best story: Station to Station- 9/10 (Alien parasites feed on the alienated, television watching masses)
Worst story: Judge Dredd- 3/10 (I always find myself cheering for the ‘villains’ in Dredd stories)
Special mention: Grinders 8/10 (Our hero is starting to question the morality of the state) 
Overall rating: 9/10 (You need to get this one)


* Tharg is the fictional (or not?) editor of 2000AD, and it’s his voice that introduces each week’s collection of stories. Thargtastic is (probably) not even a word, but I feel that it fits here.