2000AD Comic Books...

Speaking as someone who hardly bought any comics as a kid (but is getting into it now), I’ve found ‘comic book collections’ to be a great way of catching up on everything that I should have read but somehow never did. This is definitely the case with 2000AD, a comic that never made it into my house (I’d read it off the shelf when the newsagent wasn’t looking; I know, my karma took a real battering there...)
I’m making up for lost time and a couple of books that came through the post, recently, gave me the chance to catch up with some characters that I’d never really got to know all that well. Here’s what I thought of them...



‘Strontium Dog: Traitor to His Kind’ – John Wagner/Carlos Ezquerra

On the occasions when I did pick up 2000AD it was all about Judge Dredd dispensing justice on the streets of Mega City One and beyond. There were other characters there though who were just as worthy of a look and Johnny Alpha was one of these. In the UK of the 22nd century mutants are second class citizens living in the Milton Keynes ghetto (I’ve been to Milton Keynes and can see how this could happen to the town in the future!) but some are able to make a living as ‘Strontium Dog’ bounty hunters. Alpha is the best of these; now he must take on his toughest case yet in rescuing the kidnapped King of England. If he fails in his task then reprisals against the mutant population will be brutal and there are those who want him to fail for that very reason. If Alpha succeeds though, he will be taking away the one thing that his people can use to negotiate a better life for themselves. In order to save mutants in the UK, Johnny Alpha must go against everything he holds dear and betray them...

‘Traitor to His Kind’ (the title rather gives away how the story must end but you probably saw it coming anyway, especially if you’re collecting the trades because your comics are falling to pieces etc) not only tells the story of this case but also looks at how it has an effect on the cases that Alpha must take in it’s aftermath.
The main sequence is quite hard hitting as we see how it ties in with Alpha’s own (very) unhappy childhood and subsequent stance in the mutant riots. Guns never stop firing and betrayal is always a real danger. Having never read the story, when it was being serialised in the comic, this approach really kept me on edge and wanting to find out what happened next.

I didn’t turn the pages too quickly though as Carlos Ezquerra’s artwork is quite simply a joy to behold and not something that you want to rush over. This is a dark and gritty world and Ezquerra displays this brutality perfectly both in his characters and the backdrop. The only (slight) issue that I had was that maybe the colours were a little bright for something that is supposed to be quite dark...

The other stories are not quite as dark but are still full of the same level of break neck adrenaline and standoffs between villains and the forces of law. Alpha and his friend (Wulf Sternhammer) may not get the bad guy every time but it’s never anything less than great fun watching them try (I’m looking at ‘Shaggy Dog Story’ most of all!)

Nine out of Ten



‘ABC Warriors: The Volgan War Volume One’ – Pat Mills/Clint Langley

I’d only ever really come across the ABC Warriors, robots adapted for Atomic, Bacterial and Chemical warfare, in the ‘Gothic Empire’ story (Nemesis the Warlock) but I knew that they were something special as far as 2000AD went. The first volume of ‘The Volgan War’ storyline gave me a proper chance to get to know these characters but I was left feeling more than a little disappointed by the end...

Having deposited the psychotic Mek-Quake at the Broadband Asylum, the rest of the ABC Warriors make their way across Mars to meet the latest recruit to the team. Over the course of the journey; Hammerstein, Mongrol and Joe Pineapples pass the time by swapping old stories of the Volgan War...

The first thing you notice about this book is Clint Langley’s art, it is absolutely gorgeous. I’m not sure what the proper name for it is but the art is a mixture of digital and regular art the combination of which is a real treat to behold. The ABC Warriors have been going for a number of years now, so Langley has a lot of material to work from, but you can’t take away the fact that he really knows how to draw these characters; especially Hammerstein and Mongrol. I’ve often thought that it must be difficult, when drawing robots, to get their metallic and inflexible faces to show the emotions that the story says are there. Langley manages to convey all these feelings in style!

The problem I had though was that the art seemed to really take centre stage over the story itself; especially when you get gigantic two page spreads that were lovely to look at but didn’t really add anything else. There was a real imbalance here that made the story come across as having less depth than it actually did. Moments of real pathos (Mongrol and Lara for example) are lost under the glare of the art and the story doesn’t have a chance to breathe. At least that’s how it felt to me, this is only Volume One so looking at the book again a little later on when there are a few more books out (in it’s proper context) may make it a totally different deal altogether.
It didn’t work for me this time round though...

Eight out of Ten

P.S. The only image I could find, for the 'ABC Warriors' cover, isn't the one on my book. The one here isn't bad but mine is much better :o)