Comic review: 2000AD-PROG 1946: Fire ain’t supposed to be so wet

Writers and artists: Various
Publisher: Rebellion
Released: 2nd September 2015



I began the day so inspired, bursting with creativity due to a musical experience into sweet, dark atrophy, begat from seduction, led through conformity, ending with a sigh as the masses dig their own graves, as they do. I was inspired, crazy with passionate, emotional drive, and I put down the words, the review, and it’s here, on the blog, for all to see.

I’m talking here about my review of Aphotic by Jupiterian. I really enjoyed both the album, and the review. The music was great, and the review came easily. But now it’s time for PROG 1946 of 2000AD, and all I feel is tiredness, and an urge to get it over and done with. Statism, collectivism, conformity and hiding under pretty pictures, throw in some disregard towards Christianity and reality, and that’s all there is here. Oh well, let’s get it over and done with.

Tharg begins with info about the new big hitter in 2000AD, ‘Dreams of DeadWorld.’ He talks it up, making it sound like something that you can’t afford to miss, but what is the reality? Read on, and I’ll let you know.

First off is Dredd, and its all about ice monsters and the Judges that are shooting them. The ‘dead’ Dredd returns as a hero, of course he does, and that’s it.

I talked about the sweet art in ‘The Alienest’ last week. It’s still good this week, but what of the story? A Christian relies on his faith to save him. He dies, and is called an idiot. Nobody will comment about this. Nobody will even care. I’m not a Christian, but I’m not an idiot. Making Christians look like fools is very PC in the west today, and I don’t like it. Christians are not fools. Atheists are fools. Believing in nothing is idiotic, but when are atheists made to look like fools in mainstream comic books? Does it ever happen? No, of course not, because atheists believe in the new ‘God’ of science, and if you don’t believe in their new God then you are to be mocked and scorned.

Well, here’s a message to the faithful followers of the new God of science. Your heroes are government-funded tools, and you wouldn’t know truth if it hit you over the head with a signed copy of the bloody God Delusion by his holiness Pope Dawkins. You are dimwit dupes, and you don’t even realise it.

Apocalypse Anonymous settles down into the story that I feared it would be. It’s set in Syria in 2015, but there’s no reality here. US Special forces are now fighting monsters. By ‘monsters’ I don’t mean ISIS, I mean comic book monsters, demons from a different reality that have been drawn to Syria because of the (western backed) fight against the Syrian government.

How do you make US Special Forces that are fighting to take down the government of a sovereign country look good? Easy, you chuck in a monster and make out that they are saving the world. Is the monster an allegory for ISIS? Perhaps it’s a clever tale where it will be shown that the US created said monster (accidentally, cough, cough) and are very sorry for doing so, and will now do all they can to defeat it? That would have been a good story, don’t you think? It would have been, but that’s not what you are getting here. What you are getting here is quips and monsters. Oh dear, next story please.

That next story is Grey Area, and apart from some casual blasphemy it wasn’t exactly memorable this week. Jokes and people sitting around chatting, that’s all you getting, but it’s a calm before the storm moment in the ongoing narrative, and it’s been a pretty decent series so far.

So, here we go, onto the main event story, the Tharg pushed, ‘Dreams of DeadWorld- Fire.’ The art is sweet, dark, painted gothic nastiness. It looks ill, diseased, unwell, sickly, and as coal black as a Goth falling down a well, on Halloween night, in a Graveyard. The story though is a bit threadbare, and it doesn’t hold together as an analogy. It follows a character called ‘Fire.’ He’s a bit of a lovesick teenager, experiencing rejection and concluding with an emo moan about feeling ‘nothing.’

That’s not how fire feels. Fire feels hunger, the need to consume, the need to destroy in order to sustain itself. Fire doesn’t do emo self pity. Fire exists to consume.

Fire is me on a perfume bender (I love perfume, did I mention it?) looking for the new flacon, but never satisfied, submerged in capitalism, hating the need, the desire, but feeding on it, and feeling alive whilst doing so. If fire feels nothing it dies, and it’s no longer fire, it’s soggy wood, so nope, it didn’t work for me. The art was great, but the story, fizzled, and the writer took the concept of fire and instead of doing something interesting with it, turned it into a depressed, damp, dull and dreary teenage boy. That’s not hot, that’s wet, very wet.

Wow, what an epic moan. How did I manage to say so much about so little? I amaze myself sometimes. Okay then, 2000AD PROG 1946 wasn’t exactly great. None of the stories shine, and the only noteworthy, or commendable aspect about the entire book was the artwork in ‘DeadWorld- Fire.’ That’s the thing about 2000AD. Sometimes it’s great, and other times it’s the absolute pits. Get it if you want some cool Gothic artwork, but if you are looking for a decent story, sorry guys, there’s very little on offer this week.


Rating: 4/10 (For Dave Kendall’s art in Dreams of DeadWorld-Fire)