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. 

Comic Review: 2000AD-PROG 1928: Three? That’s just being greedy.

Writers and authors: Numerous
Publisher: Rebellion
Released: 29th April 2015



PROG 1928 of 2000AD is a bit of a laugh, and features a pleasingly juvenile obsession with breasts. I like that, and I like the fact that in a world obsessed with neo-liberal definitions of political correctness a comic book can still be just as silly as they used to be in the gloriously sexist comic book days of my youth.

The PROG doesn’t begin so humorously though, with Judge Dredd injecting some unpalatable, but essential truth into it’s narrative. That truth being that the state (in the form of its uniformed goons) will murder you if you fail to obey its commands. We are seeing this in the US at the moment, whether the protesting crowds realise it or not.

People in Baltimore are rightfully angry right now because Police are not being punished for their murderous actions, but the people appear to be under the mistaken belief that the murders are race related. They are not. They are power related.

The state (as embodied in it's uniformed agents) murders, because that is what states do, and when you vote for the red or blue liars you vote away your freedom, giving them the power to legally murder you if you fail to comply with their directives.

‘They know the law, and they know what happens if you break it.’ 

So says Judge Dredd, the order follower in a uniform, the man empowered by the state; the state empowered by the voter. The message is clear. Vote and you vote for state violence. That violence will be used against you if you fail to comply with the orders of the state. It’s not about skin colour; it’s about giving away your rights. That is Statism. That is what you are voting for.

Orlok had a special guest appearance from a slap headed female character who looked a lot like Tank Girl this week, but apart from that there was little going on. I’ll give it a pass though, as the story is usually interesting, it’s just a bit threadbare this week.

Slaine features the fantastically named villain ‘Lord Weird,’ and more insight into how childhood trauma creates a pacified and obedient adult.

Some adults use drugs to anaesthetise that childhood trauma. Others put on a uniform and ‘serve’ the authoritarian control system, masking their pain by causing pain to others, feeling like they are powerful when they are little more than traumatised children looking to gain power by joining a human slavery system.

Slaine is a rare man, a man who refuses to repeat the mistakes of his father, refuses to hurt people because he has been hurt, refuses to join a control system, defiantly shouting, ‘I am my own man.’ 

Slaine represents freedom, and his message is that to be truly free you have to fight to be free.

Slaine has unbelievably art, everybody knows that, but it’s also saying something important, something that needs to be said, especially in our increasingly enslaved, pacified times. That is rare, and that is why it is (and I’ve said it before) reason alone for you to be spending your money on 2000AD in 2015.

PROG 1928 of 2000AD starts to get funny now, and the last two stories (Grey Area and Strontium Dog) are tremendously amusing in a boyish, juvenile, let’s see what we can get away with, kind of way. Two is good, but three? That’s just greedy. Sorry, I’ve said too much, just get the book, have a giggle, and thank me later.

2000AD has been exceptional recently. I always get a lot out of it, and this week’s addition adds some giggles to the mix alongside the more serious, adult, let’s think about the nature of authority stuff that I always go on about in my reviews. It’s a tremendously entertaining book, and the perfect to way to start your new comic book week.


Best story: Slaine/Primordial: 10/10 (Still awesome)

Worst story: Orlok/Rasputin Caper: 6/10 (A bit tepid this week, but it’s still a good story)

Overall rating: 9/10 (Heavy giggle factor this week and a lot of fun)