2000AD- PROG 1943: New story sends bitter, right-wing comic book reviewer to Cloud Nine

Writers and artists: Numerous
Publisher: Rebellion
Released: 12th August 2015



Here we go again, then, another week of comic book reviews, and as usual, I’ll start with this week’s 2000AD.

Ah, the cover, it looks alright, very 2000AD, very PC, very SJW, a mohawked woman, with a gun, large and in charge, actually so in charge that the cover would be perfect for the identity politics obsessed US comic book industry right now. It’s a good cover, but I know the story that it depicts, and I dislike that story. Oh well, on I go.

Let’s see what Tharg has to say for himself this week: Not a lot, and that’s that.

Let’s get to Dredd. The story is simplifying now, and it’s pretty much your basic comic book story of revenge crazed loopy villains versus the heroic judges. The Judges (cops) are portrayed as cops are always portrayed in comic books, as the mythological protectors of the poor innocent helpless, defenceless people. Remember kids, cops are heroes, cops protect you from bad guys, following orders is good, bowing to uniforms is good, join us, join us, join us.

The art in Dredd/Enceladus looks great, it looks like a blizzard, but the ideological meat of the narrative supports the status quo slavery system that we are all currently living within, and supporting with our taxes and cowardly, indifferent acquiescence. This ideology exists as subtle mind-control, pushing the message that you need uniformed order followers to keep you safe from the monsters of anarchy and real freedom. But hey, that’s Judge Dredd. If you love order following murderers in cool Nazi-esque uniforms, then Dredd’s the man for you.

Oh dear, Helium got a bit too serious this week. It has a very harsh last panel, one that doesn’t really fit with the light-hearted nature of the story at all. When you have playful dialogue, big bright and colourful art and colouring and a sense of fun about everything the last thing that a reader expects is a gruesome suicide and brain parts splattering all over the page. I’m still enjoying the playful banter, the big smiles and the fun, but that last panel was ill-judged, and hopefully that will be the first and last piece of needless gruesomeness that the story contains as it continues to progress.

Outlier is a tale of two moments of dialogue this week. The first (‘We need to get them fighting back.’)
is something that I can agree with.

I live a life surrounded by people who acquiesce to the world that is around them. They live their lives with their heads down. They see the shapes available in the wall, look for a gap and try to fit in, trapping themselves, and blocking others that want to tear the wall down.

How many control, and how many chose to be controlled? It’s the biggest problem in the UK today. Millions of slaves and a handful of slave masters. People need to stop joining, and they need to start fighting back. The people say yes, it’s time that they said no.

The second quotation (in Outlier) was the final quotation of the strip, a deliciously memorable and tension packed,‘That’s not your son,’ a phrase that is perfect in that it encapsulates everything that is happening within the narrative, and leaves the reader in eager anticipation for next weeks instalment.

That’s two pieces of dialogue. The former is something that I can get my teeth into and riff/rant on, and the later is something perhaps more traditional, some easily digestible narrative meat that everybody will enjoy. That’ll do, I can take that. I can rant, and I can enjoy. That’s what I do.

The next story in PROG 1943 of 2000AD is Cloud Nine, a vision of a world that has natural balance, nature laws of cause and effect and natural justice. However, the world has been hacked by a vampiric parasite that feeds on the creative, imaginative, free thinking people that live there. It takes them into itself, stealing their flesh, moulding it onto itself, satiating itself, renewing itself, living off of the life energy of those that would be free to use it for themselves.

You know what I’m going to say next, right? I’m going to compare Cloud Nine to government, aren’t I? Well yes, but not only government. Look at any parasite. Look at the comic book industry, the music industry, the movie industry, heck, just look at any industry that needs new recruits, that feeds on them to regenerate itself, cough, army, cough, cops, cough. Yes, Cloud Nine is one to watch. It’s going big picture, and this start is a bloody good one.

Nope, I’m still not getting anything out of cover star Jaegir. This month it’s all about inside the mind of the female protagonist. She’s worried that her failure will prove other’s right, that she is letting down her dead relatives. I never warmed to her in the first place, probably because she’s just an order following soldier, so going into her mind where all she is worried about is essentially herself, doesn’t really do anything for me at all.

2000AD ended with a whimper this week with an indifferent offering of Jaegir, but there was something new within PROG 1943, something that resonated deeply within me, shining like a beacon of liberty in a world obsessed with order following statism.

That beacon was Cloud Nine. It looked great, and it said a lot. An enslaved populace, being fed on by a centralised vampiric entity, hey man, that’s not fantasy, that’s reality, and I love seeing it being reflected in this week’s edition of 2000AD.

My comic book reading week has officially begun, and I’m smiling, but I haven’t read any Marvel or DC books yet. That’s tomorrow, when the US comic books are released. I love that country, and I love the people that live there, but man, their comic books are almost completely dominated by progressive libtardness these days, so wish me luck in finding a glimmer of sanity in their echo-chamber world of PC/SWJ nonsense. I try, I really do.


Rating: 7/10 (Get it for Cloud Nine)

Review: 2000AD PROG 1930- Recognise the beast, stare it down, strike it, slay it

Publisher: Rebellion
Released: Writers and authors: Numerous
13th May 2015


PROG 1929 of 2000AD jolted me. It reminded me that those working in contemporary comic books are more often than not the most asleep people in the world today. I’ll keep this brief, explain, and then I’ll review PROG 1930.

There was a general election in the UK last week. People had the choice between a couple of identical slave masters. Their vote meant supporting neo-liberalism because all of the political parties are neo-liberal parties. Okay, that’s good if you want neo-liberalism, but what is neo-liberalism?

Neo-liberalism is tax cuts to private banks and corporations, the state funding of all risk, with all profit going to those banks and corporations. Neo-liberalism is privatisation, austerity, endless foreign wars (very profitable for arms manufacturers) and less and less human rights as the fake war on terror is used to justify a Police surveillance (money again) state.

That is what neo-liberalism is, that is what UK voters were voting for last week, and what did 2000AD tell their readers to do?

It told them to vote for neo-liberalism, using the tired old cliché that voting is the only way that they will have a voice.

Do you get why that might have upset me? Do you understand then why I might be so pitched off with 2000AD that I would refuse to review their comic book?

Now it’s a week removed from the election. Guess who won? Yes, neo-liberalism won, and now it has the consent of the governed to carry on raping and pillaging all over the UK.

Thanks 2000AD, thanks for telling your readers to vote for it, now the government can do whatever it wants under justification that it has a legitimate mandate to screw us all over, because, well, that’s what we voted for.

Okay, I need to put this behind me, so I’ll end it here. I’ve been reminded of the statist asleep mindset of 2000AD in 2015, but that doesn’t mean that the book is completely worthless, so let’s jump into PROG 1930 and see what’s in store for voter/slaves this week.

Judge Dredd opens, as he always does, with the tale of a man getting screwed over by a system designed to maximise profit, and to use and discard human beings as ‘human resources.’ Sounds familiar to me. It’s a strong story, but the main protagonist lacks likeability, so seeing him get revenge on the selfish people who screw him over isn’t as satisfying as it should be. It is a good reminder however that rats in a cage attack each other as the actual evil that caused their situation (the scientist) is out of reach. Try to be nice to each other people, we are rats, let’s try to make the cage as liveable as possible, and how about we get that scientist (that would be the politician working for his corporate overlords) instead of attacking each other?

Talking about scientists experimenting on caged animals, that’s exactly what we have in the second story this week. ‘Terror Tales- Phase Shift,’ is an old school black and white sci-fi/horror tale, and just my cup of tea. I grew up with these tales. These are the stories that got me into comic books in the first place, not the superhero stuff that snared most kids.  I was always a fan of the creepy stuff. This tale is great, it has a mad scientist, gruesome experiments, a cat obsessed dead Mom ghost, and a delicious sting in the tale that should delight every fan of horror shorts. I loved it, the art was great as well, and I’d like to see much more of this old style excellence within the pages of 2000AD.

The next story is Slaine, and it begins with the cry of the elites,
‘He’s just one man, what can he do to us?’ Oh, I can do a lot, in my silly little reviews, read by a handful of people, I can get people to think, and to take up the fight against the neo-liberal status quo, to talk to their children, to unmask the demon, and to eventually defeat it. That’s what little people can do, we are not as little as we are led to believe. Slaine is the comic book embodiment of average, every day people in the UK today. After the election, we are told that it is all over for us, but it’s not over. We will rise up, all of the 'little' people, rising up to slay the demonic neo-liberal horde that is destroying our country whilst telling us that we voted for it, and so therefore have no option other than to step aside and let it wreck everything. No, we will not do that. We will not vote, then go back to sleep. We will fight. We are Slaine. We are immortal British warriors, and we do not give up. We will fight, we will fight, we will fight, and in the end, the beast of neo-liberalism will fall and be banished from our shores, forever.

Grey Area is about silly aliens, it’s funny, some light in the dark. There’s a message here as well though, the message being that big strong creatures have allowed themselves to be placed within a softly spoken BBC style friendly zoo. Hey, sounds like your typical newspaper buying, television watching, football supporting voter to me. I bet they love watching Question Time in their prison. Watch how red blames blue, blue blames red, the circle repeating for infinity, it will be fun.

‘So…are you going to stay in this zoo, beating on the other animals penned with you, until the God-star snuffs you all out?’ 

That’s the question of our times, and it links perfectly with what I was saying about Judge Dredd. We need to realise that we are caged, then we can formulate an escape plan, the problem of course being that the vast majority of television heads don’t even realise that they are in a cage at all.

PROG 1930 of 2000AD concludes with good old Strontium Dog. There’s something of the Return of the Jedi about the story at the moment, with Johnny in a fat gangster’s boudoir, a gangster that looks suspiciously like Jabba the Hutt. I like Star Wars, so I’m okay with this ‘homage.’ It’s coming back this year with Han Solo and Luke Skywalker in it, so I'll take this story as an appetiser for the main course. Johnny Alpha is pretty much Han Solo in this book, and that’s okay with me. Some will attack it for a lack of originality, but I don’t really care, it is funny, enjoyable and provides a nice soft landing to what has been a pretty intense, rough and ready ride in starship 2000AD this week.

Last week they told you to vote for slavery, but this week I detect some fighting spirit within the pages of 2000AD. There isn’t a weak story here, and a couple of them really are saying something. Slaine is not just a treat for the eyes; it’s positively brimming with angry muscular defiance, rebellion and immortal British revolutionary fire. Slaine embodies the rebellious spirit of a man who refuses to buy into the mainstream media pushed lie that individuals are powerless to change the world around them. The corrupted neo-libeal elites want us to be in that 'little me' mode of thinking. They want us to vote, give away our power, and then return to our hovels and await the raping and pillaging that is to come. Slaine is the defiance that refuses learnt helplessness, rejects cowardice and fights to reclaim freedom and liberty from the control system that exists to enslave us all.

Do I forgive 2000AD for last week? Not quite, but PROG 1930 is a brilliant comic book, and perhaps after time I’ll learn to live, and yes, to even forgive, but I’ll never forget. The fight continues, and it would be nice if the editorial team of 2000AD recognised what is going on rather than limply going along with the flow of the neo-liberal blood, disease and garbage-polluted stream. The writers though, Pat Mills and Dan Abnett in particular, know what is going on, and truth is bleeding from every panel of their excellent stories, making 2000AD the one essential comic book that should be at the top of every comic book fans weekly pull-list.

Rating: 10/10 (Essential)

UK election 2015 special: 2000AD PROG 1929- Review- A vegetarian at the all you can eat meat buffet

Artists and writers: Various
Publisher: Rebellion
Released: 6th May 2015


For a sci-fi comic supposedly set in the future 2000AD isn’t exactly very forward thinking or revolutionary in it’s thought processes, actually it’s about as old fashioned statist and status quo enforcing as the Sun newspaper or the BBC.

PROG 1929 comes on the eve of the largely pointless neo-liberal UK election of 2015 where voters get to choose between political non-representatives who care not a jot about their voters lives, but care a heck of a lot for the private corporations who fund and control them.

It’s a pointless election because there is no choice available. It would be like a vegetarian going to an all you can meat buffet, told to sit down and eat. After all, he has a choice, doesn’t he?

2000AD takes the mainstream view that the vegetarian at the meat buffet has a choice between different kinds of meat, and is therefore free to eat whatever he likes. Worst of all, 2000AD would then insist that if the vegetarian chooses ‘none of the above’ then he is not making his opinion count, and is therefore wasting the precious gift that is democracy.

DO YOU NOT GET IT 2000AD?

When there is no choice the voting process is meaningless. It’s like voting in a totalitarian state where there is only the ruling party to vote for. That is the situation in the UK today, a vote for neo-liberal, or neo-liberal. That is not a choice.

In this 2015 UK election there is no choice. The political parties are not serving the people; they are serving private corporate interests.

This is not a 'conspiracy' and only the most stubbornly dense of ‘earthlets’ can fail to understand this incontestable fact.

If you are voting today then you are not just voting for more statist slavery, but you are voting for neo-liberal statist slavery.

Your vote gives your tacit consent for more austerity, more war, less freedom and less prosperity. You are voting for more privatisation, more corporate raping and looting of the UK, more banker bailouts, more state subsidies of corporate losses and all of the rest of the criminal misdeeds that have been going on SINCE THE DAYS OF MARGARET BLOODY THATCHER.

WHAT IS THERE NOT TO GET??

And so, to protest the ridiculous level of deliberate ignorance and mainstream pandering that is happening in 2000AD PROG 1929 I’m going to refuse to review it. It’s harsh, because it’s a decent book, but I want to make a statement here.

When the mainstream media sham that is the UK election 2015 finally comes to an end, and it’s slavery as usual for the people of the UK, all I can do is hope that the people (2000AD included) finally begin to wake up and understand what is happening.

A vegetarian (that’s the voters) eating at an all you can eat meat buffet (that’s the election) is never going to get what he wants. This is a harsh reality to accept, but we have to get it through our thick skulls.

We need to open our eyes, engage, stop bloody voting for neo-liberal slavery like mindless automatons, and start doing something to regain some freedom around here.

Putting a cross on a bit of paper every four years or so and then spending the rest of the time ignoring ‘mundane reality’ (as 2000AD describes it) is passive, ignorant, lazy, childish cowardice. In short, it's the mindset of the enslaved. Comics are great, but it’s about time we grew the Tharg up.



PS- Slaine is still awesome. 

Review: 2000AD PROG 1925: It’s a lovely spring day in England, and all is right in the world

Writers and authors: Numerous
Publisher: Rebellion
Awesome Cover Art by: Simon Davis
Released: 8th April 2015



Last week’s 2000AD was great, it gave new readers a perfect jumping on point, and gave long-term readers a tremendous feelings of optimism for what is to come next, so let’s get straight down to it and see if this week’s 2000AD can build on that promising opening.

Judge Dread- Enceladus/New Life has some nice red colouring and a tension packed story-line involving whether or not the Judges will shoot down an out of control spaceship as it hurtles towards the city centre. There are echoes of a certain (suspiciously disintegrated) United Airlines Flight 93 here, and the end result also plays into what happened on 11th September 2001. Do you really think that they would allow what is essentially a flying bomb to hit buildings and kill innocent lives? That’s the question, and the answer is in a document called Operation Northwoods (See link at the end of this review).

Here’s the sad truth. Yes, they would allow it to happen, but NO, they wouldn’t tell you about it when they do. This 2000AD fictional story ignores all of that pesky real-world reality stuff of course and the good guy judges do what you would expect them to do if you spend all of your time watching mainstream television. They save the day, just like they don’t do in the real world where life is essentially meaningless to government order followers in silly uniforms. Anyway, it’s an okay strip, the plot has intrigue and I enjoyed it. No ‘truther’ stuff, but I don’t expect to see any in a comic book that I can buy in WH Smith’s, which is bloody depressing, but there you go. The corporate whore state is nothing if not predictable. No truth is allowed in the mainstream, but you already knew that, right?

The second story in 2000AD this week is Orlok, the psychic painter bloke. It begins with your usual comic book portrayal of a violent anarchist. Poor old anarchists are always portrayed as violent criminals in comics, because anarchy means freedom from centralised control, and comic book writers (99% of the time) are slavery loving statists. Oh well, no surprise here then, so let’s see how this violent anarchist is dealt with, yawn. Ummm, the anarchists kidnap the psychic artist bloke, and actually get away from the cops. Keep your eye on this one. Perhaps it’s not going to be as formulaically statist worshipping as I thought? Yeah, I know, I’m hoping for the impossible, but that’s what I do.

Third story is the awesome Slaine- The Brutania Chronicles where our hero is fighting against a crazy religious cult leader who likes chopping people’s heads off for the demonic sacrifice demanding god of his nutty religion. Sounds familiar, don’t you think? Now, what other crazy cult followers can you think about who are slaughtering people for their demonic false little god?  If you don’t know what I’m talking about then off to the Google machine, or just pick up a newspaper. That real world bloody death cult is quite busy right now, and they are getting plenty of good PR support in the corporate whore mainstream newspapers. Back to Slaine. Everything about it is fantastic, from the art, the story, to the hidden meanings behind the narrative themes. It’s excellent, and you need to buy 2000AD for this story alone.

Grey Area is the next story and it also interested me in that it appears to be about a planet of new ager aliens who don’t appear to recognise that there are nasty things out there who will do them harm, and that if they don’t defend themselves then they are going to get their friendly, tolerant, peaceful, spiritually awakened heads kicked in. It’s a book about ignoring the self-defence principle, at last that’s how I’m reading it so far, and for that valuable lesson alone I’m both enjoying the story and having a bit of a laugh with it as well as I get to know more about this ridiculous left liberally tolerant mad universe that’s about to get it’s arse kicked.

I don’t really like the art in the final story (Strontium Dog) but the main protagonist is an old childhood favourite of mine, and I’m enjoying the story which is essentially a p*** take of what a future world with China and North Korean crazy dictators in charge would look like. Much like what we have now I would suggest just without the pointless fake elections that they insist upon every few years or so. But I digress. I enjoyed this one as well, it was funny, silly and the plot has elements of real world stuff in it that I (obviously) found very interesting as well.

I began this review by asking whether or not 2000AD could build on last week’s excellent jumping-on PROG of new story arcs. The answer to that question is a stomping and trumping Elephentine YES. They’ve kept the momentum going brilliantly. PROG 1925 is an excellent comic book that has lots of things going on, a fantastic feature story (Slaine) and very little weak points in between. Spring 2015 is looking very bright indeed, the day has been lovely, I’ve just read a fantastic comic and I couldn’t be feeling better. Oh dear, things are looking far too good. I’m starting to get a bit worried now.


Overall rating: 9/10 (Just as great as last week’s awesome Spring 2015 opening)

Best story: Slaine: 10/10 (Weird and wonderful)

Worst story: None. They are all pretty decent. 


Info about Operation Northwoods:
http://io9.com/5838778/operation-northwoods-the-1960s-government-plan-to-fake-terrorist-attacks-on-the-us