50-Word (comic) review: 2000AD-PROG 1959- Reflections on a world gone wrong

Writers and artists: Numerous
Publisher: Rebellion
Released: 2nd December 2015



2000AD, you really are spoiling me. What can I complain about when your stories are about Police brutality, political corruption, false justifications for war, resistance to tyrants and the ‘highest’ being questioned by the ‘lowest?’ This is how you get with the times. This is how you actually say something.


Rating: 10/10

Check out the following quotation from ‘Defoe//London Hanged’ by Pat Mills- 

‘By what authority are the highest in the land to be questioned by the lowest?’ 

Look at the front cover on this issue of 2000AD (by Cliff Robinson) where an unrepentant Judge Dredd is caught on a camera phone beating a civilian to death for the crime of talking back to him. 

Read ‘Bad Company//First Casualties’ a story where ex-soldiers find out that the war they risked their lived for was based on fear propaganda and lies. 

Something happened to 2000AD recently. I don’t know how or why, but something clicked, and rather than being lost in the silliness of identity politics (like US comic books) they started to reflect real world concerns within their narratives. 

When I read a typical DC, Marvel (and most of the 'indie' US books as well) I read nostalgia, style over substance, identity politics and the worship of collectivism and state authority. 

When I read 2000AD I read about individuality, resistance and the desire to be free from those that wish to enslave and control. PROG 1959 of 2000AD has three excellent stories: Dredd, Bad Company and Defoe. These three stories are UK stories. You will only get them in 2000AD. 

When people ask me- ‘Why should I bother reading 2000AD in 2015?’ I will point them to these three stories. If you care about the world around you, about what is happening now, then you will get a heck of a lot more insight from these stories than anything that you will read coming out of the almost completely worthless US comic book industry. 

For a story to excel, it has to reflect the times in which it is being written. We don’t live in the 1990’s anymore. The cold war is over. Things happened. They continue to happen all around us as I type these words. Comic books need to reflect these realities. We are not children, and we don’t need a ‘safe-space’ to protect us from harmful reality. 

When we get with reality, things change. Politicians cannot fob us off, as they always try to do, and they have to actually engage with the people that they are supposed to represent. 

That’s us, we are the people that are supposed to be in charge, not corporations, not banks, and not arms dealers. We get with reality and things start to change, so when I read 2000AD reflecting the real world of 2015 back into their narratives, that makes me very happy indeed.

50-Word Review- 2000AD-PROG 1955- A Wake-Up Call to the People of the UK (10/10)

Writers and Artists: Various
Publisher: Rebellion
Release Date: 4th November 2015



2000AD breaks through the doors of reality exposing Police state indoctrination of children, the hidden agenda of an elite group, a matriarchal tyranny, a blood, guts and gangsters gross-out television show and a false flag used to justify a terrible war. How about that for getting with the flippin times?



Rating: 10/10

What the Tharg happened to 2000AD? All of a sudden it’s woken up, realised that it’s 2015, recognised that we are living in a neo-liberal political consensus Police state, and decided to start talking about it. I’m shocked, and very, very happy. Judge Dredd//Islands (by Michael Carroll) is excellent. If you want to know how a Police state really operates, and how it indoctrinates and uses vulnerable children, then you have to get this book. The other stories also have a lot to say about the hidden nature of reality in a 2015 UK where the mainstream media delivers rancid turds to the public whilst telling them that they are eating caviar. That’s a metaphor, by the way. We live in a world of lies, and the more they lie to us, the more willing we are to accept their lies as truth. 2000AD is making one heck of a statement this week, and that statement is HEY UK. WAKE THE HELL AND SMELL THE BLOODY TYRANNY THAT YOU ARE LIVING IN. This is excellent news for reality obsessed truth nuts like myself, and I couldn’t be happier to give this book a very rare (for me) but much deserved, 10/10. Get this book NOW!!!! It’s essential.

50-Word (Comic) Review: 2000AD-Prog 1954- Bad Company Brilliance

Writers and artists: Various
Publisher: Rebellion
Released: 28th October



Dredd concludes Serial//Serial. Villain undetected, which is good. Don’t kill a star. Defoe is rich crooks versus poor crooks, happy enforcers enjoying their work. Bad Company old school art brilliance. Used up dogs of war refuse to hide painful memories with state mandated ‘medication.’ Now that’s something with contemporary parallels.


Rating: 8/10

Bad Company//First Casualties is the undoubted star of 2000AD at the moment. It’s a story that reminds me of the old days, the days when I first fell in love with 2000AD as a kid. The art is old school excellence, very 80’s, very cool. The characters are enjoyable, interesting, a bit wacky and a lot of fun. The story itself has a strong thematic core that resonates with contemporary concerns. It’s about traumatised veterans, and what happens to them when they are no longer of any use to the death cult state. 

The story is dealing with truths that a lot of people don’t even want to think about. The state is organised violence. It programmes young men, turning them into murderers, monsters, and spits them out when they are no longer of any use. Medals, parades and charity concerts cannot hide the truth. Bad Company//First Casualties is a story about what happens to soldiers after the war, and in a 2015 UK society full of traumatised young men returning from illegal foreign wars, it’s as contemporary, relevant and important as a ‘sci-fi’ story in a weekly comic book can get.

50 Word (Comic) Review: 2000AD-PROG 1953- I Want to Break Free

Writers and Artists: Various
Publisher: Rebellion
Release Date: 21st October 2015



Dredd story gets it. Chinny mocks uniformed order following authoritarianism. Defoe is class war, reanimation of dead ideology, collectivist Corbyn awaits guest appearance. Brass Sun hits religious collectivism. Dexter is mainstream television, cool people violence, yuck, don’t desensitise me Bro. Bad Company rejects drugged sheeple culture, awakening time. I approve.


Rating: 8/10

Judge Dredd// Serial Serial is fast becoming the best Dredd story that I’ve read in a long, long time. Writer John Wagner really gets the absurdity that is Judge Dredd and he’s putting a lot of humour into this daft story about a serial killer and his cliché taunting letters to the cops. It’s a great send up not just of Dredd, but the entire ‘serial killer’ genre itself. I missed this at first, but I’m well on-board now. Defoe//The London Hanged is a slow builder, and there’s real meat in the rich versus poor story-line, as it ties into what is happening in the real world UK of 2015 with a largely unrepresented and disaffected tax netted population being ripped off by a bunch of Eton educated toffs, and with the only alternative being a Labour party that is going back to their dated Marxist ideology of the 1970’s. Brass Sun//Motorhead is getting to that part of the story where individuals rise up against the collectivist controllers. If only we would do that in the real world. Sinister Dexter// The Taking of the Michael is graphic blood and violence with the gross-out realism that you get on ‘cool’ mainstream US television programming. I don’t like it. I don’t like US television, and I don’t like to read it in my comics either. There is nothing ‘cool’ about shooting somebody in the head. Bad Company// First Casualties is old school 2000AD. It has top retro art, a wry sense of humour and the plot itself is a boys own adventure tale about a group of buddies getting off their drugs, clearing their heads and starting to fight back against the collectivist, lying control system that has used and abused them. In other words, it’s a story about retired soldiers realising that they have been used like dogs, and have been put into a drugged up retirement home as they are too damaged to be of any more use to the sociopathic state. I love it, and I love 2000AD this week. I disliked only one out of five of the stories, and that’s a very good strike rate, or whatever that American term is. 

2000AD-PROG 1952- Fifty-Word Review: Bad Company? You’re Bad Company.

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: 

http://www.plastichead.com/catalogue.asp

The Fifty-Word Review: 2000AD-PROG 1951- Serial killers and potential

Writers and artists: Various
Publisher: Rebellion
Released: 7th October 2015


Dredd opens with serial killer yawns, then Defoe versus zombies, could be saying something about class warfare, onto Brass Sun with a twist at the conclusion, to Sinister Dexter and a world of douche bags, then Bad Company Kano in a chaotic romp that recalls days of 2000AD glories past.

Best: Bad Company//First Casualties 8/10

Worst: Judge Dredd//Serial Serial 2/10 (See previous post on my blog for more details about that one)

Overall rating for PROG 1951 of 2000AD: 6/10 (Defoe has potential, Bad Company is old school fun)

Judge Dredd//Serial-Serial: Is it time to kill off the serial killer genre?

Judge Dredd//Serial Serial (2) is written by John Wagner and published in PROG 1951 of 2000AD.



A very, very long time ago I decided to write. I did so in an attempt to escape the apathetic emptiness in which I was existing. My writing was a desperate, hopeless and ultimately fruitless attempt to connect with the world around me, a world that felt empty and devoid of all meaning and hope.

I was a young guy, rudderless, with no mentor, and with very little experience of real human 'adult' interactions. So, with no practical experience of life, no insight into anything really, and with nothing to say about the world other than- ‘I’m hopelessly adrift here,’ what could I possibly write about?

I looked at the world around me, and saw apathy and people stuck in routines. I saw dull faces and dull lives. I could have written about that, and probably should have, but the last thing I wanted to do was to relive the disapointingly mundane world around me. So, making the first in a long list of bad life decisions, I decided to write scary stories about the easiest narrative protagonist that I could think about. That protagonist was the ‘serial killer’ a villain loudly lauded over all mainstream media, in films, books, television shows, and just about every other form of mass media entertainment.

Another creative death in a moribund genre.

The serial killer was cool, exciting, menacing, infamous and most importantly, very easy to write fictional stories about.

I would sweat all day in a soul-sucking job, and spend the evening writing ‘cool/sick’ stories about serial killers, in the misguided hope that the stories would offer me a connection to the world.

Everybody loved serial killers. How could I fail?

Guess what? I failed. The connection with the outside world never happened. I wrote my stories, they were ignored, and my isolation from the world around me continued. My stories were terrible, and I feel embarrassed now that I was so blinded by the apathy of the world around me that I used to write such meaningless tosh.

Now zoom forward to October 6th 2015 and imagine my reaction to a ‘new’ story arc in 2000AD that features a serial killer sending cryptic, taunting messages to Judge Dredd, as the big chinned cop looks out into the empty city sky-line asking:

‘Who is he? Where is he? How do we identify him? How do we stop him?’

That short example of dialogue in ‘Serial-Serial’ by John Wagner is the kind of nonsense that I was coming out with twenty years ago, the kind of generic serial killer cliché crap that says nothing about the world, because it’s not even trying to. It is the kind of dialogue that you would expect to come from a lonely, isolated young man, not a professional writer working for a long time established comic book like 2000AD.

When I read stories like ‘Serial-Serial’ I get this horribly despairing feeling that twenty years have flown by, and nothing has changed, that humanity is just as purposefully blind and dumb today as it always has been.

I got over ‘cool’ serial killer stories a long, long time ago. Today, when I read them I am taken back to the lonely lost kid that I was, and I don’t particularly want to go back to those empty, useless times.

I do however understand why John Wagner is writing a story about a Serial Killer.

Serial killer stories offer thrills, twists and ‘cool’ whilst safely avoiding all of the important issues of our time. They are easy to write, uncontroversial, and simple. They are stories for children. A heroic cop chases a crazy villain. Spin it out for a bit, throw in some bodies, have a twist at the end, wrap it up, then onto the next villain. They are stories wearing reality blinkers, refusing to look at the world around them, refusing to reflect the reality in which they are being produced, and if that’s what 2000AD wants, that’s what they’ll get.

A veteran writer like John Wagner will find it ridiculously easy to write these generic bad guy stories, and if 2000AD publishes them, who’s to blame, the writer or the publisher?

A celebration of sickness and authority in uniforms

I blame the publisher. They should demand more, and reject this kind of story. They should have higher standards. They should want their stories to say something, to reflect something, and not just settle for mediocre 90’s thrills to pay their 2015 bills.

The last thing I want is reality obsessed stories featuring stony-faced crowds staring like zombies into their I-phones, but I would prefer blank pages over the tired, lazy, useless, anachronistic, dull, sad and pathetically childish nonsense that is the ‘serial killer’ genre.

Is ‘Serial-Serial’ a bad story? No, it’s not bad. It’s something worse than that. It’s a competently structured story that is pushing suspicion of strangers and dependency on authority figures. That pushing of suspicion makes the world less friendly, people less approachable, and reinforces the sense of isolation that I myself felt as a young man. It’s a story that tells you that the world is scary, and that you are probably safer keeping yourself to yourself, doing what you are told, and relying on the ‘authorities’ to keep you safe from all of the imaginary evils that exist in the world.

That’s not a good message. It keeps people afraid, isolated and dependent upon authority figures. It’s a message that benefits the state, and damages social interaction and overall human happiness.

Today I look at this kind of story and it makes me feel sad, sad because the fear porn lies are the same, and sad that 2000AD is still prepared to publish them.

I’ve lived a little, and learnt a lot in the past twenty years, but when I read stories like ‘Judge Dredd//Serial Serial’ it’s like the world has stood still. Serial killer stories are silly and lazy, they always have been, and all they do is reinforce social isolation and dependency on uniformed authority. I have no time for them anymore. I used to write them, but that was a very long time ago. I changed. I grew up. I stopped wasting my time. I moved on. I started to live, and to write about life. Is it asking too much of 2000AD to do the same?

2000AD-PROG 1949- The comic book fear of anarchy

Artists and writers: Various
Publisher: Rebellion

Released: 23rd September 2015

Judge Death and Judge Dredd work together like liberals and conservatives, creation the illusion that you have freedom of choice, just as long as your choice is an acceptance of authority, and a lack of personal freedom and liberty. You can choose a controller, and that means that you are free. Both Death and Dredd are symbols of control, they block alternatives to mainstream status quo thinking, and channel you into a slaughterhouse of collectivised, state control.

Was it always so? Probably, but it’s really noticeable now. Dredd murders to uphold the law, and Death does exactly the same. Check out the following quotation:

‘I will teach them the virtues of order and discipline. The rule of law.’

That quote comes from Judge Death, but it could just have easily come from Dredd. In ‘Ghost Town- Part Two’ Dredd massacres dissenters to the rule of law with no feeling other than his need to maintain control over the population. He doesn’t mind killing people, its just part of the job.

In ‘Dreams of Deadworld-Death’ Judge Death shows his lieutenants who is boss, killing one before carrying out a massacre of his order following minions. This is the kind of thing that always happens when a dictator purges his own party of troublesome thugs that he no longer needs. The most famous recent example being Hitler’s purge of his own brown-shirt thugs (the 'Night of the long knives') shortly after he gained the footing his needed to control the population of Germany.

Judge Death murders so he can sit on a throne (as is shown on the excellent front cover of this comic book) whilst Dredd murders in order to serve and maintain the centralised state collective.

Looking at the differences between the two Judges is hugely illuminating, as it shines a spotlight on an assumption that is central to the ideology contained within western comic books. That assumption (an idea pushed to the idea of a cliché, but an idea that is constantly reinforced as truth through repetition) is that freedom in the west means not having a dictator.

We don’t have a dictator, so that must mean that we are free, right?

What is being pushed here is the idea that the collective tyranny of democracy (the rule of the majority, or two wolves and a sheep deciding what’s for dinner) is the best that humanity can hope for. It’s the idea that individuality must be consumed by the collective, that the collective is held together by law, and that it’s up to uniformed order followers to enforce that law, at the point of a gun.

This is the legitimisation of collectivisation, of centrally controlled tyranny, of a small group of people who know better than you, and so will tell you what to do, for your own good, of course, and if you don’t obey them, then it’s death or jail for you.

Oh, and by the way, don’t forget that you are free.

Judge Death then is a perfect villain as he reinforces the idea that the only thing that we need to fear is the dictator, and that the collectivised tyranny of Judge Dredd is how things should be, because after all, we don’t want to fall into chaos or ANARCHY, do we?

‘Only the zero-tolerance Judges- empowered to dispense instant justice- can stop total ANARCHY.’

That line always appears in the ‘In This Prog’ section of 2000AD, and it’s very telling, giving the reader a social assumption, an agreed upon lie, in order to frame what happens within the narrative of the Judge Dredd strip. The lie is that anarchy equates to chaos and murder, and that without order following murderers in uniform then it will be a big free for all with babies being murdered in the streets.

That is the assumption, and it’s an assumption that comes from the mindset of an indoctrinated, fearful slave to the state. It’s an assumption that hates humanity, and assumes the very worse of people. It is an assumption that is reinforced, without evidence, that the only way to stop us murdering each other in the streets is for us to all live in a giant prison state, for our own good, of course.

Fear of anarchy, and a willingness to accept the collectivised tyranny of the state is an ideology that runs like a stick of rock through 95% of western comic books. It is an ideology that assures the slave to the state that the system s/he has been born into is legitimate. It backs up a machine of violent coercion a machine that has made the world the boiling Hellhole that it is today.

The idea that the only thing to fear is a crazy dictator, is a straw-man argument. It’s a socially programmed assumption that works because comic book writers push it without even realising what they are pushing. They know somewhere deep within their souls that a centralised, collectivised system of violent coercion is morally wrong, but they justify it by looking at the alternatives. A lack of courage, and imagination gives them only two: 1- A villainous dictator. 2- People being murdered in the streets. That’s Judge Death, and that’s Judge Dredd. Both follow the law, both wear uniforms, both exist to control you. One of them is a cartoon villain, and the other is an agent of the collectivised state.

Judge Death makes you fear dictatorships, and Judge Dredd makes you fear anarchy, or the lack of a centralised control system. The two fictional characters represent false real-world choices, like the red and blue parties, keeping you fearful, dependant, and safely imprisoned within the collectivised neo-liberal corporate/state reservation.

I’ve already written enough this week, so I’ll leave it there, and no, this is not a typical comic book review, and it isn’t supposed to be. I’m not being paid to knock out a boring review, so I’ll talk about what I want to talk about. This week I wanted to talk about the similarities between Death and Dredd, and how they are used to reinforce the current system of collectivised state tyranny in which we all live under in the west. I think that I managed to say something worthwhile. I think that what I said was more interesting than a review about panels, colouring and personalities. Thanks for reading it, be nice to each other, and have a great comic book reading week.



Rating: 8/10 (Judge Death and Judge Dredd, a one-two punch to the face of humanity)

Comic review: 2000AD-PROG 1948- Judge Dredd as the villain that he always was

Writers and artists: Various
Publisher: Rebellion
Release Date: 16th September 2015



No messing about this week, let’s get straight into the content of 2000AD PROG 1948.

Writer Ian Edginton gets the character of Judge Dredd spot on, portraying him as a sociopathic murderer, using the magic words of arbitrary ‘law’ to justify his immoral actions. In ‘Ghost Town-Part One, Judge Dredd is shown for what he actually is. He’s not cool, he’s not tough, he’s not a hero, he’s a drone, not a man, but a machine, programmed with ‘law’ that gives him the excuse to murder anybody that fails to comply with his programming.

Joe Dredd is not a good man. He is not even a man. He doesn’t deserve to be called a man. He is a perverted stain on humanity, the kind of machine man who always backs up government, in all of its sick forms, and he deserves nothing but utter contempt. Ian Edginton writes him as a programmed murder machine, and it’s the most brutally realistic portrayal of Dredd that I’ve read in 2000AD since I came back to it over a year ago.

I usually hate Dredd stories, so to see him portrayed as he actually is, that’s a huge thing to me. Here’s a Dredd story that I can get something out of. It’s a Dredd story that refuses to excuse his behaviour, and instead addresses it head on. That is what you should be doing with a programmed, uniformed, sociopath like Dredd, and I’m extremely happy to see it being done here.

The Alienist Part 5 continues to look great, plus it has a very interesting plot reveal, a reveal that resonates with me personally, a reveal that gives a very convincing argument as to the nature of evil and the spiritual realm and creatures that inhabit it. I won’t spoil it, but I will recommend it. Last week I was unnerved by the lack of empathy shown towards it’s deceased characters, but this week I can let that go and enjoy a good idea played out in an interesting story.

Grey Area-Deadline concludes with an apocalyptic battle and final page reveal. I’ve enjoyed the arc, the dialogue has been very funny, and I did appreciate the sly dig it was having at the ‘new-age’ community, the peace loving types who do nothing whilst the world around them burns.

‘Dreams of Deadworld-Fear’ has a strong theme from beginning to end. The theme is that those that use fear will inevitably become victims to it themselves. It explores attitudes towards fear, and reveals how it can be defeated. Fear is a weapon that can be used against those that use it. Fear only works when people are consumed with it, and they let it rule their lives. Fear is the one thing that controls OUR lives RIGHT NOW. The state needs fear to control the slaves stuck within its tax net. Without fear we are free, but how many people do you know who live a life without fear? Do you know any? I don’t. Let’s change that, right now.

The key to defeating fear is to catch it, and throw it straight back into the faces of those that use it as a means to manipulate and control. Hey television, I’m looking at you, turning you off, and poof, your power is gone. Hey government, I don’t need you, I will not give my consent to be governed, poof, their power is gone. That’s how fear works. Reject it, live free, throw it back in their faces, and let it consume those that would use it against you.

PROG 1948 of 2000AD has achieved the impossible. It has published a Judge Dredd story that I actually like. I like the story because Dredd is portrayed as the villain that he actually is. There is nothing cool about him here. He is shown as the sociopath murderer that he actually is. Dredd is the law, a law based on the threat of violence, not choice, not morality, not humanity, but violence.

Dredd never was a hero. Dredd is the law, not natural law, but the law of the state. If the law states that you must be executed for wearing a hat, he will execute you on the spot. Judge Dredd is not a good person. Judge Dredd is an immoral drone, a weaponised murder machine. He is the uniformed face of tyranny, and that is how he is finally being portrayed in 2000AD.


Rating: 8/10 (Finally, a Judge Dredd story that I actually like)

Comic review: 2000AD PROG 1945- A Pleasurable Diversion

Artists and writers: Various
Publisher: Rebellion
Released: 26th August 2015


It’s Tuesday afternoon, it’s raining, and I’m listening to black metal music whilst writing up my review of 2000AD PROG 1945.

Life is good.

As usual with my 2000AD reviews, I’m reading and writing as I go. So first off, the front cover. It’s pretty bloody good this week, featuring a feral looking Dredd, crouched, battle scarred and ready to explode into a violent assault on whatever unlucky bloodbank (aka every enslaved human being currently living under neo-liberal corporate statism) that is threatening his uniformed authority.

Nice one Mr. Jake Lynch.

Let’s see what Tharg has to say- Oh dear, he’s still describing reality as ‘mundane,’ and applauding himself for diverting our attention from the world around us. Not good Tharg. Reality is never mundane. Reality is fascinating. Reality is awesome. Reality is the one thing that the good sheeple (yeah, I use that word) need to get more attuned with, because if they don’t, it’s bread, circuses and slavery, FOREVER.

Oh Tharg, you are either very dim, or are just as caught within the neo-liberal matrix as 90% of the comic book readers themselves. A good story doesn’t have to deal with ‘mundane reality,’ but the best, the very best, always deals with it, that’s what makes them great, that’s what makes them a cut above the rest, and that’s what every writer working for 2000AD should be striving for.

Take precious, delicious reality, take something that you see in the every day life that you lead, stick it in your narrative, and say something that needs to be said.

Judge Dredd gets us off to a bad start. It’s all about the heroic cops (Judges) and how they are temporary down, not out, and about to fight back against the evil villains. The art (as always in this arc) looks great, but what is the story saying? To me it’s saying, support uniformed authority. That’s all that I’m getting here, and that’s not a message that I have any respect for.

The Alienist Part 2 utilises a story telling technique that makes it a very involving and enjoyable read. The technique is to show the inner thoughts of the main protagonist, giving readers the pleasure of being a spy within her mind as the narrative progresses. That’s extremely reader friendly, and I love it when writers think about the reader first. I already mentioned the art last week, it’s great, black and white, old-fashioned horror, very cool. This story might not be saying anything, so it will only ever rise to good, but it’s a very enjoyable good, so all credit to everybody involved.

‘Apocalypse Anonymous’ is very interesting. The story is about Special Forces operating in Syria, in 2015. Yes, you heard that correctly, 2000AD are actually featuring a story that references real world events that are happening right now. How are they going to get around that without upsetting anybody? How are they going to have westerners look like the good guys when we all know that our callously evil western governments deliberately created ISIS in the first place?

This story solves that problem in two ways. Firstly, it doesn’t mention ISIS, instead it just refers to ‘rebels,’ whoever they are, and then focuses on western Special Forces and what looks to be an upcoming fight with alien monsters. Will ISIS be mentioned late on in this three-part story? Will it bring up the fact that the US is working with ISIS to get rid of the leader (Assad) of a country that has done nothing to anybody other than wanting to be free from corporate western hegemony?

Will it mention that Syria is ran by a largely secular government, and that the so-called ‘rebels’ are Sunni Muslim extremists, otherwise known as Al Qaeda, or ISIS? Will it mention that western governments are on the same side as these Sunni extremists? Will it mention that the fight is Sunni Islam and the west versus Shiaa Islam and Russia? What do you reckon? My bet is that the next two episodes will have the western Special Forces fighting monsters and that nothing of any consequence will be discussed. That’s what I reckon will happen, but I’ll wait and see. I could be wrong. I hope that I am.

Grey Area/Contact is very amusing, very wry, and very entertaining. The story is concise, easy to follow, straight to the point, witty and fun.  It’s a nice piece of writing, very clever, very enjoyable and even a reality obsessed bore like myself couldn’t help but enjoy it. Nice writing Mr. Abnett, you are a talented, clever bloke and your dialogue is as sharp as an Oscar Wilde brand of razor blades.

I was a bit dismissive of Helium last week, but it’s usually enjoyable and the big bright colours and playful tone always makes me smile. This week’s episode begins with a gorgeous purple background and big happy faces. The narrative itself begins with a joke and ends with a very serious cliffhanger. Are our heroes doomed? Tune in same time, same 2000AD channel next week folks. I love it. That’s how you are supposed to finish a comic book.

Looking back at PROG 1945 of 2000AD it’s looking like a ‘good’ issue. Good means that it was fun, that it entertained me, that it diverted me. It didn’t say anything, but it didn’t try to. I look for excellent in my comic books, but good is certainly better than bad, and 2000AD was far from bad this week. The best story was Grey Area, and the worst was Dredd. Next week should be good. Helium has a delicious cliffhanger that will be resolved, that new arc (Apocalypse Anonymous) will show whether it’s going to touch reality, or not, and there’s something new called ‘Dreams of Deadworld’ that looks to be very intriguing indeed.



Rating: 7/10 (Not much reality, but 2000AD is a good, diversionary comic book this week)

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)

Comic review: 2000AD PROG 1942- Spider Monster in the Snow

Writers and artists: Various
Publisher: Rebellion
Released: 5th August 2015


Last week I tried something new. No, I didn’t buy all of the Marvel and DC books about young girls, government agents and identity politics, load up on aspartame and overdose on mental illness masquerading as normalcy. No, what I did was a lot more sensible, and enjoyable, than that.

What I did was put on some Black Metal music (the new album by Abyssal is awesome, and not as bleak and despairing as I though that it would be) and read 2000AD, story by story, stopping along the way and reviewing the book as I read it.

This resulted in a disjointed and slightly odd review, with me making my mind up about the book in real time as I read, and reviewed it. I enjoyed the experience, so that’s what I’m going to do again this week, so on goes Antikatastaseis, and let’s get into PROG 1942 of 2000AD.

There’s a really nice front cover this week, with Dredd in what looks like an evil version of Superman’s fortress of solitude. Nice job Glenn Fabry. Now lets open up this beauty and see what we have inside.

Tharg is talking about downloading the comic this week. I’d rather touch something than look at it, so it’s always going to be the hard copy for me.

Onto my old nemesis, Judge Dredd, lost in the beautiful, poetically pure snow, so although I might dislike the old uniformed control freak, at least his adventures are going to be pleasing to the eye.  The narrative read pretty well this week. The story is getting increasingly simplified, and I like that. It’s about a Judge hating monster, looking for revenge against the trigger happy Judges. Go on monster, you can do it. Kick their authoritarian backsides, you will be doing us all a favour. The artist on this one is Henry Flint, and he’s doing an excellent job. His snow monster is part alien, part arachnid and it looks awesome.

That’s a good start then, let’s get on to the second story.

Oh crud, it’s the ever annoying, old man media student lame cultural reference machine that is Harry Absalom, the most irritating fictional character outside of a Kevin Smith movie. Okay then, here I go.

Two references to old television shows and a bit of Christianity bashing, insinuating that all of the priests are sex abusers, that’s what’s on offer this week. Good news though, as this is the end of the story.

It should have been something that I enjoyed, but the Christianity bashing (lame, easy and ubiquitous in atheistic 2015 UK) and main protagonist killed it for me. It was supposed to be about institutional child abuse (see the breaking news about ex UK PM Ted Heath this week) but all it actually did was have a go at Christianity. Not big, not clever, and it distracts from the real life paedophile MP’s that actually did abuse kids in the UK, and continue to do so today. It’s not the Church. It’s the state, dummy.

Hang on. I need to brush my teeth to wash out the foul taste of Harry, back in a sec.

Ahh, that’s better, minty fresh, now on to the next story, the happily colourful and always enjoyable Helium.

Good news, it’s enjoyable again this week, the dialogue is fun, and it ends with a villain determined to end the life of our sparkling heroine. This is a good one. There’s a lightness and sense of gaiety to it, and it makes me smile. It’s the subtly of the writing that does it, but the art certainly helps as well. It’s big, bold, colourful and fun. I like it, how could I not?

Oh good, the next story this week is the steadily improving Outlier. It’s going to be good. I’m starting to have confidence in this one. Is that breasts? Yes, there are definitely breasts in this one, so if you are a fan of the mammary glands you’ll want to pick up 2000AD this week. I jest, but not about the breasts. It’s good, it’s green, it has breasts and it’s all action. So another win for Outlier, and the story continues to be a lot better than I thought that it would be.

Oh dear, the last story in 2000AD this week is Jaegir. I haven’t been enjoying this one, although last week it did show how you cannot expect uniformed order followers to investigate their fellow uniformed order followers and get magical results that transforms immorality (following orders) into morality. Fingers crossed, wish me luck. I’m going in.

Oh, a brilliant start, with our protagonist explaining that following orders is actually a good thing because it saves lives. Nice one, I see what you did there. Turning immorality into morality based on blind trust in ‘leadership’ and authority figures. This really is army indoctrination going on here. Hey kids, be your own man. Don’t let them tell you that they are doing it for your own good. Don’t believe the lies, break from the programming, be free, be independent, be a real man.

Oh, it gets even better now, with the leader girl admitting that she is ashamed, that she was responsible for condemning three hundred people to death, but as she is doing this she is still talking about ‘duty’ like that is something that everybody should be proud of. What is this? Oh yeah, I know. It’s militaristic collectivism, but dressed up as heroism because the protagonist is a woman. Yuck, this one is starting to really get my gander up. Do I have to read on? Okay then, I’ll try.

I made it, just about. The story really is a piece of work. It’s a right muddle of messed up morality and justifications for wearing a uniform, following orders, doing your duty, fighting to survive and just about every other idea that comes straight out of an army recruitment video. I didn’t like it at all, and it leaves me feeling a bit depressed as I finish up this week’s 2000AD.

Okay then, happy face on, and now for a quick summary. I’ll ignore the muddled morality of Jaegir and the irritating Absalom, and give PROG 1942 of 2000AD a solid thumbs up. The art in Dredd was great, and the story isn’t as annoying as usual. Helium made me smile and Outlier continues to be a bloody good little story. Add in the great front cover and that makes 2000AD well worth purchasing this week. I’ll leave it here with happy thoughts, all of the bad is fading already, as I’m looking at the front cover, smiling and feeling pretty good about the book as a whole.



Rating: 7/10 (Some bad, but the good wins out.) 

Review: 2000AD PROG 1941- Outlier/Dark Symmetries is starting to get really good.

Artists and writers: Various
Publisher: Rebellion
Released: 29th July 2015



Here’s a new writing experiment for anybody reading this ‘review’ to enjoy, or dislike, depending on how it goes.

What am I going to do is write this review as I read the comic. One story at a time, I’ll let you know what I think.

First off, the main cover looks pretty nice. The colours work well, and the concept of creeping evil invading mundane reality is both creative and interesting.

Inside the book then, here I go. The little cartoon strip ‘Droid Life’ is a joke about antagonism towards technology. It’s silly, and slightly funny, though not exactly something that I will remember as being particularly insightful or hilarious.

Tharg’s spiel is always worth reading, mainly because he frames the context into which the preceding stories should be read. Let’s see what he has to say this month. Err, not a lot, he’s just saying that the people working on 2000AD work hard and that they appreciate their publishers. You’re being a bit dull this week Tharg, a bit dull. We know that they work hard, so do bin-men.

Onto Judge Dredd, the hero of 2000AD, and a perfect symbol of the morally vacuous, order following society that we are living in today. Here we go again, with the assumption that order followers in uniform exist to serve and protect the poor, innocent, helpless civilians. I hate that assumption for one reason. The reason being that it is a lie. After that assumption the story washes over me. I enjoy the art, but this pushing of an authoritarian anti-freedom, anti-humanity lie is all I can take from the story. This lie needs to be exposed, not reinforced, and all this story is doing is reinforcing the illusion that those in positions of authority serve the people, and not the corporate state. We all know whom they really serve by now. Don’t we?

Next story is Absalom/Under a False Flag, the most smug, self-satisfied, self-aware piece of media student post-modernism since fatso Kevin Smith arrived on the scene. Oh crap, I’m not looking forward to reading this one. Let’s see how many safe 1980’s references I get in this week’s instalment. Okay then, he starts with a reference to ‘kettling’ and ‘hippies.’ That’s a weird amalgamation of modern Police tactics with a 1960’s CIA sponsored movement. It’s very odd that he thinks that modern protestors are ‘hippies,’ because as far as I’m aware most hippies are either dead or very elderly in 2015.

Oh well, on I go. It gets even weirder. A supposedly ‘anti-authoritarian’ and ‘rebellious’ Police detective gets to act like he’s helping out abused kids, when in reality everything that I hear about the real-life UK child abuse cases involves the cops refusing to investigate high level paedophiles, not exposing them. This story takes a huge leap of faith and assumes that cops act as some sort of independent body that properly investigates and prosecutes child abuse. Here’s a reality check, they don’t. The Police are the dogs of the state. They investigate what they are told to investigate. In the real world ‘mavericks’ like Harry Absalom might try to investigate, but if they get too close to those in positions of power (see the case of fat bas**** paedophile MP Cyril Smith) then they will be taken off the case, demoted and sent packing. That’s the real world, and I’m not seeing it in this comic strip.

Next story is Helium, and I’m already smiling before I’ve even read the strip, as it’s so bright and colourful, and such a nice contrast to the dowdy black and white drabness of Absalom. I’m going to read it now, hope it’s good. Okay, now I’ve read it, and it’s like a WW1 aerial battle war movie, but with horrible men after a brave female. That’s okay, I know how it works now. If you read contemporary comic books you are always going to get young females as the feisty, brave and independent protagonists, acting like men, in the driving seat and taking control. It can get a bit much, but I like Helium and the feminism is just simmering in the background of the narrative, and not bashing you over the head as many Marvel and DC titles do today.

I also appreciate the fact that Helium is a simple story, lacking in Absalom style self awareness and smart arsery, and instead preferring to tell a fun story, keeping it simple and keeping it reader friendly.

Next up is Outlier, a story that took a while to get going, but was actually pretty enjoyable last week. Let’s see how it goes this week. I tell you what, it has a great start, with a narrative structure that is very enjoyable and works very well. The rest of the story is really good as well, as it’s getting me very excited for what is going to happen next within the narrative. It’s hooked me, and I’m really enjoying this story. This is a bit of a surprise as this one started slowly almost lost me, but now it’s getting really, really good, and the art is pretty sweet as well.

Last story in 2000AD this week is Jaegir, a story that to me is reading a bit like a child’s war story, but with a modern style female heroine as the main protagonist. I haven’t particularly enjoyed it so far, but I’ll keep my fingers crossed and hope for the best this week. Okay then, read it now; here’s what I thought. ‘I bring war criminals among my own people to justice.’ That’s the first quote of this narrative, and already it’s ignoring how the real world actually works. Since when do countries do this to their own people? A few low level soldiers perhaps, but the real criminals, the people who gave them the orders? No chance mate. See Tony Blair, George Bush, WMD’s and Iraq for more details.

How can I take this story seriously when it is putting forward the idea that countries properly investigate war crimes, and then prosecute those responsible like they are some kind of unbiased, fair and moral third party. That doesn’t happen. What actually happens is that war breaks out, one side wins, and the other side loses. The winning side then sets up show trials (see Saddam Hussein) and executes anybody on the losing side for ‘war crimes.’ The war crimes committed by the winning side are ignored, and all those responsible for them get promoted and then get to write books where they tell lies about what went on, and those lies are then called ‘history.’ That’s reality, and that’s how the world works.

I give Jaegir credit though, as the female responsible for investigating war crimes committed by her own people ends up almost being killed, by her own people. That makes a lot of sense, so I guess that the story is saying something after all, in a roundabout way.

Flicking back through PROG 1941 of 2000AD I didn’t really enjoy the first two stories, the third was simple, colourful and fun, the fourth was really good, and the final story was better than usual. That’s alright, I’ll take that, and with the very nice front cover that’s just about enough to give 2000AD a thumbs up this week.


Rating: 7/10 (After a slow start, Outlier is getting surprisingly good)

Comic review: 2000AD PROG 1940- Is Judge Dredd a Nazi?

Writers and artists: Various
Publisher: Rebellion
Released: 22nd July 2015


There’s some fun to be had in PROG 1940 of 2000AD. Here’s a quick scan of what it has to offer:

Judge Dredd is all snowy this week, and snow always looks good in comics. It features a poetic omniscient narrator telling the tale, and the voice works really well, injecting moments of philosophy and poetic colour into the tale as the story unfolds. It’s still a book about order followers though, the worst kind of people, villains that are routinely portrayed as heroes within out toxic corporate culture.

This has always been my main problem with Judge Dredd, the fact that an authoritarian order follower is portrayed as a cool, empowered hero. This portrayal drips down into our own world where cops and soldiers are routinely portrayed as heroes, when in reality they are dogs on a leash, a leash controlled by corporate/ banking interests. Judge Dredd makes wearing a uniform look cool. That is very dangerous.

Having said all of that, I read Judge Dredd very closely this week, and noticed an acknowledgement of reality, a sentence that reminds readers of what Judges actually are:

‘They were all ‘yes’ men. They’re Judges after all. Respect the chain of command. Respect the badge.’

Do you know what that sounds like to me? It sounds like an acknowledgement that Judge Dredd is an order following Nazi. Am I calling Judge Dredd a Nazi? Yes, yes I am, because that’s exactly what he is. All order followers are Nazi’s. As long as you do what you are told, with no regard to whether it’s right or wrong, that automatically makes you a Nazi.

Absalom has a cheap pop at the IDF this week and references a television personality (Frank Bough) who last had a presence on UK television in 1993. There are lots of references in this story, and they’re all old, or safe. This is a perfect example of how to appear edgy, whilst pushing views that wouldn’t be out of place on suicide inducing daytime television. This is bland, bland stuff, and the veneer of rebellion is as see-through fake as Question Time on BBC One.

Helium is better, mainly because the main protagonist is likeable, and the dialogue is fun, as opposed to self satisfied and irritating. The art is big and colourful and I’d have to be a right old grump to dislike it. I don’t. It’s good, enjoyable stuff.

Outlier is better this week. The story is easier to follow and I’m finally getting into it. This one took some time to get going, but it has its hooks in me now.

Jaegir still isn’t doing anything for me. It’s still a daft story about an order follower investigating other order followers. It’s pretty stupid, as we all know that those in uniforms pretty much do whatever they like, as long as they follow the dictates of their masters. The only order followers ever thrown under the big bus of statism are low level morons, and pretending that is not the case just means that you are deliberately not paying attention to reality, and how things actually work.

I don’t like to admit it, but I actually enjoyed Judge Dredd this week. The snowy art helped, but there was something about the omniscient narration that made it more enjoyable than usual. Helium and Outlier also read well this week, so that’s good enough for me, and enough for me to give PROG 1940 of 2000AD a ‘thank goodness it’s not all about feminism this week’ thumbs up.


Rating: 7/10 (Not great, but better than it has been recently)

Comic review: 2000AD PROG 1938- Still in love with the cult of the order follower

Writers: Various
Publisher: Rebellion
Released: 8th July 2015


2000AD has gone a bit sleepy, liberal, statist, feminist and irrelevent at the moment, so why should I waste my time constructing a detailed review when all I will do is repeat what I said about it last week?

Judge Dredd, an icon of authoritarian cool.

If you want to know what I think about Judge Dredd and female protagonists punching men in the face and bossing everybody about then look at my previous reviews. I’m not going to repeat myself, so I’ll keep this week’s review of 2000AD PROG 1938 short, and to the point.

The cover (by Neil Roberts) is nice. I like the layout, the blur and unconventionality to it, it’s a good one, and that’s coming from somebody who hates Judge Dredd.

Absalom has one panel with our heroes (the Police) rushing off to capture a dangerous criminal. As their van thunders through the streets they knock somebody of his bike. This is not going to be a big part of the narrative, it’s a minor detail, but it’s the best thing about the story, as it shows a truth about the Police.

Cops don’t actually give a s*** about people, it’s just fun and games to them, a case, a puzzle, a promotion, whatever, people don’t really matter, it’s all about them and their precious careers, not the people that they pretend to serve.

Cops are not there to defend the public. They are there to protect the status quo, the corporate overlords, the political minions and the demonic banks that control them.

If politicians decided that the wearing of a hat was now a criminal offence punishable by a lengthy prison sentence, cops would happily arrest you for wearing one, and send you to a gulag to rot away forever.

Order following thugs portrayed as heroes

The truth about cops is that they are not good people, they are order followers. Order followers are never good people. All cops are bad cops because they have chosen to disregard personal moral responsibility for the selfish pursuit of a career and money.

Don’t believe television cop programmes and don’t believe comics, books and all of the other media that portrays cops as heroes, because that is not based on reality. Cops are order following, selfish, immoral cowards. They always have been, and they always will be. That’s the truth, like it or not.

That’s all that I want to say about PROG 1938 of 2000AD. All of the stories have cops/soldiers as protagonists. Order followers all, there are no heroes here. If you are still under the misapprehension that order followers are good people then pick up a copy of Mein Kampf, and carry on as before. I have better things to do with my time.

Order followers are bad people. You will not sell me on the virtue of being a Nazi. It cannot be done. Comic books that portray cops and soldiers as heroes to children are doing a disservice to humanity. They are infecting the minds of the young, instilling in them a disease that maintains the evil, immoral, world that we live in today. I will not promote disease. I will not bow down to the immoral cult of the sociopathic order follower. Humanity needs to recognise truth, and to stop promoting, and bowing down to agents of the state. Cops and soldiers are order following servants of the satanic ‘elites’ that enslave us all, and it doesn’t matter how they are portrayed in mainstream media ‘programming’ vehicles. Truth will eventually out, and humanity will not be enslaved forever.


Rating: 3/10 (The narrative in Helium has a tame correlation with the many resource wars that the corrupt western elites have engaged in since 2001)

Comic Review: 2000AD PROG 1933- ‘I can’t close my eyes to the truth anymore.’

Writers and Artists: Various
Publisher: Rebellion
Released: 3rd June 2015



2000AD is the one comic book that every UK comic book fan should be reading. Forget Batman, forget the Avengers, forget the bored office workers in their 90’s fight club, 2000AD is the place to be, so let’s jump in, shall we?

Poor old Bud was always too average looking to have a happy ending, and so it proves in the concluding part of ‘Judge Dredd- Breaking Bud,’ as he’s carted off to jail in front of his disapproving wife. The story instead gives the happy ending to a far prettier antagonist, a girl who like Bud was also a criminal, but all of that if forgotten in a final panel as she celebrates with her equally as attractive boyfriend.

It’s a hard fact, but looks are important in this world, and it’s a different set of rules for the beautiful people. Ordinary looking blokes like Bud are the losers, that’s their role, and the only surprising thing is that he was giving such a prominent role in this Judge Dredd story at all. There was hard reality in this story, most of it unintentional, but what it said about poverty (caused by corporate/government policy), law (it serves the rich, and protects the wealthy) and attractiveness (pretty girls have more value than downtrodden average looking men) had a lot of truth about it.

Slaine starts with a quote that reminds me very much of my own life and how people react to me when I talk about concepts such as truth and reality. ‘You really need to stop thinking, Gort. It’s bad for you.’ It always surprises me how prevalent this mind-set is, the idea that yeah life is horrible and corrupt, but don’t worry about it, don’t think about it, just do what you can to get ahead and succeed. I could never get with that, to me it was a selfish, callous, evil way of thinking, and I didn’t want to live like that.

The real world has a lot of problems, but the main one is the mindset of normal people. Imagine a world where everybody is only looking after their own interests, not caring about anything but themselves. That would be a horrible place to live in wouldn’t it, but look around the world and what do you see? I see that mindset as dominating, and the only way the world will ever change is if we change it, that change is up to us, we can do it, but only if we really want to. It’s up to the individual, the man or woman that refuses to join, refuses to stop thinking and refuses to join evil for a career or pay cheque.

I’ve already talked at length about how great this story is, so I’ll leave it there this month. One quote, one section of the story and I’ve just written a large section about it. I would find it easy to write 3,000 words a week on Slaine where I go through it panel by panel, but who would read that? It takes huge discipline to say so little about something so great, but I’ll finish here. Read it, it’s great.

‘Future Shocks- The World According to Bob,’ starts off with a bloke lying on his CV, saying that we’ve all done this, not me of course, but I always was a bit weird. I enjoyed the story. It had truth to it, a continuity of government, lies becoming reality and history being constantly re-written in favour of the winners. Sounds like everyday life in the morally bankrupt UK of 2015 to me, now what’s on the BBC tonight?

‘Tharg’s 3Rillers- Commercial Break’ is more silliness and aliens and fluffiness, and even though the aliens end up getting burnt alive it still reads as inconsequential and more of a pose-down featuring pretty butt kicking girls more than anything else. It was cute, but I didn’t see the point, perhaps as a light counterbalance to the other stories? Perhaps, but this one won’t linger long in the memory.

‘Strontium Dog- The Stix Fix’ concludes 2000AD this week, and it’s time to let the dog off the leash. The Dog doesn’t believe in second chances, you act badly, you get what you deserve. It’s brutal, and it finishes the story on a high, showing that the Dog is no joke, and leaving the reader with the slightly awkward and guilty feeling that although the bad guys got what they deserved, did they really deserve all of that?

I was going to do a Blitz Review (very short and to the point) of 2000AD this week, but it just didn’t happen. The book always leaves me with a lot to say, and look at what I’ve just done again, another long review where I go on and on and on. Congratulations if you got to the end of it, thanks for reading, and I’ll see you all again, same time, next week. I intend to be briefer, but you know what I’m like.


Rating: 8/10 (Dredd had a good ending, and Slaine is as spectacular as ever)


*Quote in the intro to this review is from Slaine by Pat Mills. It's in this book, get it now.