Look, we've reached the point where everything here is a good comic. Maybe not anything amazing just yet...
Snapshot by Andy Diggle and Jock
(Megs 322-330)
What was this? A creator-owned comic that a) feels a
LOT like a film pitch turned into a comic and b) is potentially the most 2012
comic possible. It’s deeply tied in to the idea of early smartphones that were
good enough to take photos with but not easily lockable in the manner of
today’s phones. And also the plot hinges around a kind of algorithmic
bank-trading thing that surely still exists but it less easily to manipulate
nowadays.
ANYWAY it’s a high-octane conspiracy style hitman chase
thriller, with lots of deeply improbable goings on that I think would be fine
in a straight-to-Netflix movie but somehow reading it as a comic you see the
absurdity a bit more. Possibly because it’s all played so straight, visually? I
mean, it’s set in the ‘real world’ and all the tech / action on show is
technically plausible, so maybe the utter implausibility of some of the running
and jumping and karate-chopping our heroes have to do to survive sticks out
more. It does a great line in shock endings and ‘what’s going to happen next’
cliffhangers – but also it suffers from a dickish main character.
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| Bantz. Words by Diggle; Art by Jock |
Dreddworld relevance? None.
Writing: 7 /10 Like, the mechanics are sound, and
there are thrills to be had, but it’s definitely lesser material than, say The
Losers. That action-comic has similarly clever ‘how to get out of scrapes’
ideas, but sets up a much more outrageous world in the first place, so you buy
into it.
Art: 7.5 / 10 Jock I think is deliberately testing how much info he can
convey with as few lines as possible. Which is an interesting exercise to
watch, but it lacks the vitality of e.g. Lenny Zero, and the sophistication of
e.g. Batman. But Jock is just one of those natural-born comics stylists that I
can never give low marks to!
Impact: I dunno, 4? ‘Impact’ is kind of a meaningless idea for these
creator-owned stories, I guess I’m trying to give a number based on a
combination of how much people seemed to like the story at the time (most
readers I’d guess thought it was decent), coupled with how often people ever
bring it up again in general 2000AD / Meg chitchat (nobody ever). Honestly,
given how much people love Jock’s work, I’d say this is more forgotten than
not.
Overall score: 18.5 / 30
Has it been reprinted? It has! It’s a 4-issue mini
series from Image, or else there’s a collected edition of the whole thing.
Harke & Burr by Si Spencer, and Dean Ormston
(with a bit of Gordon Rennie)
(13 episodes between Vol. 2 Issue 27 and Vol. 3 issue 7)
What was this? Very much a series imagined as comedy
shorts, with a gothic flavour. If the series name doesn’t give it away (it’s a
spoonerism of Burke and Hare), this is a) about puns and b) has a distinctly
Victorian and outré flavour. It’s notionally about an antique dealer and his
dogsbody, and the scrapes they get into as a result of some of the antiques
they find / the kind of people they deal with. Mostly set in the Cursed Earth,
but the bits of the Cursed Earth where there are fairly well-functioning towns
and communities, not the bits with roving bands of murderous mutants. Wouldn’t
mind more Cursed Earth stories set in functioning towns.
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| I cannot stress how much it appears each episode started with a last-page pun, and the story worked backwards from there. A perfectly good way to build a funny story if you ask me! Not so great if you're hoping to get your work translated into many languages. Words by Spencer; Art by Ormston |
Anyway, it’s silly and fun and always delightfully illustrated by Dean Ormston, who fully understands the job of being both moody and amusing. No single story was an all-time great but it’s a consistently joyful way to spend 8 pages an issue.
Dreddworld relevance? Minimal. It's set in the Cursed
Earth, and occasionally bits of Dredd lore crop up (including a guest
appearance by the Missionary Man), but this is all incidental.
Writing: 6.5/10 Spencer was just the right kind of
weirdo for this job.
Art: 8/10 Still early days for Ormston, and while the mood is impeccable,
sometimes the storytelling is a bit askew.
Impact: 4/10 This only managed 5 outings, (and across 2 volumes!) which
isn’t bad, but it’s not exactly an all-timer.
Overall score: 18.5/30
Has it been reprinted? It has! There are three stories in the floppy with Meg 350, or the whole lot in Hachette Mega Collection 27: Fallen Angels
Bato Loco by Gordon Rennie and Simon Coleby and
Andrew Currie
(Three stories in short bursts between Megs 208 and 291)
What was this? Another spin-off from a character who
first appeared in a Dredd story, and was considered fun enough to get their own
solo series (dangerously close to racist edition*). In this case, here’s an
undercover Judge from / working in the Mega-City 1 equivalent of, I guess, the
part of New York with a big Puerto Rican community?
Bato Loco (whose name roughly translates to ‘foolish and
crazy’, I think?) is the kind of character who is constantly getting embroiled
in situations – with criminals and gangs and Judges – that he absolutely cannot
control, and yet that always shake out in his favour, more or less. As with all
Wally Squad Judges, there’s a heavy emphasis on things he is allowed to do that
normal Judges are not, mostly fooling around with women. When Andrew Currie is
on art duty, the Benny Hill-esque antics come to the foreground. When Simon
Coleby is in charge, it’s perhaps a bit more focussed on Bato’s gurning face as
he rushes from one scrape to the next.
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| If you love 'How the heck is our hero gonna get out of THIS??' stories, Bato Loco is for you! Words by Rennie; Art by Coleby |
It’s also a bit of a whirlwind of tight plotting and comedic capers, which is one the one hand fantastically fun, but does occasionally dips into wearying, and also the dialect used strays from ‘appropriate to the context and amusing’ to ‘no, sorry, this is just a bit racist.’ One imagines the difficulty of sustaining the former mode, and concerns about falling into the latter mode, kept this to only four outings overall (including the original Dredd story).
Dreddworld relevance? It’s set in MC1.
Writing: 7.5/10 It’s not Rennie’s finest work, but
the plots are intricate which is not easy to pull off, and the jokes are as
often funny as not.
Art: 7.5/10 This is mid-period Coleby who had not quite reached his peak
but it’s still scratchy, gnarly fun. Currie, meanwhile, basically IS at his
peak (which I don’t happen to gel with but it works for comedy sexism if that’s
what you want)
Impact: 4/10 I imagine Bato Loco is better remembered than his small number
of stories would warrant. As a bit of character design married to story mood /
concept, it’s very impressive! You know exactly what you’re in for very
quickly, and each story delivers on exactly that thing.
Overall score: 19/30
Has it been reprinted? It has, a bunch of times! There's the bagged mini-trade with Meg 326 - which includes the original Dredd tales. Also it's all in the weirdly-titled Lenny Zero & the Perps of Mega City One (along with Lenny Zero, obviously and Slick Dickens, not even slightly obviously) It's also in Mega Collection 69: Mega City Underworld, this time bundled with Tempest and Marauder.
*See also Woo, Johnny.
The Streets of Dan Francisco by Arthur Wyatt and Paul
Marshall
(Issues 450)
What was this? The further adventures of ex-Chief
Judge Dan Francisco. After the events of Judge Dredd Mega-MEGA-epic ‘Tour of
Duty’, there was this cool character left floating, and I imagine ore than one
reader wanted to know what might have happened to Judge Dan Francisco. Also, he
came with a built-in point of distinction. As set up by John Wagner, he’s a TV
Judge, so he’s kind of like a Live-Streaming celebrity in Judge uniform.
Honestly, if Wagner had had this idea maybe 10 years alter it might’ve had more
legs, now that we live in the age of the Youtuber.
Anyway, Arthur Wyatt gets to follow up on what’s going on with a rather broken person, while also telling a fun cop caper with added TV cameras. Paul Marshall does his usual extraordinary job building up the set details, in service of fairly generic-looking characters. It’s fine, I wouldn’t be sad if we had more Francisco adventures (and indeed he gets another go around in a Dredd tale in Megs 433-436), but it seems there’s not quite enough to the ‘added TV camera’ angle to make his Judge stories different enough from Dredd's own. I will say this story does a sight better at that job than any of the old Hershey solo efforts!
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| It's like Judge Dredd, but with a camera following his every move :) Words by Wyatt; Art by Marshall |
Dreddworld relevance? It’s not just set in MC1, it’s picking up on plot/character threads from a recent Dredd epic.
Writing: 7/10 Solid, if not special
Art: 8/10 That one glorious intro spread scene alone gives this a ton of
bonus points.
Impact: 4/10 For a quite well-liked story, it has rather faded.
Overall score: 19/30
Has it been reprinted? Yes, the bagged mini-trade with Meg 398.
Chopper by various
(Vol 1 issues 1-6; Vol 2 issue 36… and then a massive gap to Megs 395-400)
What was this? The further, arguably un-asked for,
adventures of Skysurfing legend Marlon ‘Chopper’ Shakespeare. Chopper had in
fact had a couple of solo stories in 2000AD before the Megazine launched, (and
indeed had a couple more in the Prog later on) so I really oughtn’t include him
in this ranking. BUT as the first of them was in issue 1 I’m inclined to make an
exception.
This is not, I’m afraid, because that story was SO good it
deserves to be aired. But actually, it’s fine! People generally hate it because
it seems to ‘undo’ the ending of Song of the Surfer – in which it is
HEAVILY implied that Chopper had died. But, you know, that’s comics. That was
SUCH a good story, and Chopper SUCH a well-liked character, it made sense to
bring him back for the launch.
The reality is, though, that no one (not even John Wagner)
has yet managed to tell a Chopper story even half as good as Song of the
Surfer. This is probably the other reason ‘Earth, Wind and Fire,’
specifically is largely hated – because it is
nowhere near as good.
But, you know, it’s not bad either! It’s a classic bit of
early Ennis. Friends joking around with each other; petty-ish crime
shenanigans; sexist characters making sex jokes; nice characters calling them
out on this, kind of all adding up to a big nothing. With John McCrea on art;
sadly working in a painted style that was only OK.
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| Ohmigosh!! Is Chopper gonna be OK? Words by Ennis; Art by McCrea |
Martin Emond’s illustrations on a later hallucination-based story is far more interesting and weird. Brendan McCarthy’s work much later on is no doubt the best of the lot, also nicely hallucinatory (although he can’t seem to get his head around the idea that Chopper is not in his 20s any more). That most recent story has some fun sci-fi ideas, too, but all the Psychic-AI technobabble cleverness is jut not as fun as reading a sports comic.
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| Yes, Brendan McCarthy IS an avowed fan of Steve Ditko. He's kind of better at Ditko at drawing, too... (don't tell anyone I said that) Words by Baillie; Art by McCarthy |
Dreddworld relevance? He’s a major Dredd antagonist.
Writing: 6.5 / 10
Art: 7.5/10 a generous average, but really it’s all pretty good art.
Impact: 5/10 No denying that Chopper continues to be a fun character to
revisit, and the outback setting that features in the Megazine stories is one
that suits him. But there’s probably a reason no one remembers these stories
like the ones from 2000AD proper, with their sports / heist stories. But also
worth noting, a more recent Chopper spin-off story WAS rather more of a hit,
which counts for something. Some ideas and characters just won’t die!
Overall score: 19 / 30
Has it been reprinted? Yes! Not all in one place, though. You can read Earth, Wind and Fire in Classic 2000AD 8. Dead Man's Curve is in The Best of 2000AD Special Edition (2000) - the weirdest collection of stories you'll EVER see. Both stories are also in Chopper: Surf's Up. Wandering Spirits has its own collection.
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