Cover: Mike Perkins
Publisher: Rebellion
Judge Dredd
Script: Rob Williams & Arthur Wyatt
Art: Henry Flint
Letters: Annie Parkhouse
Special Judicial Squad hauls in Chief Judge Logan, Judge America Beeny and Dredd to interrogate them over the Maitland Experiment. Dredd discerns that there’s a deeper conspiracy at work, and he aims to find out.
Despite four interrogation subjects across six pages, interviews are kept clear by using either red, green or blue as a midtone, so it’s never unclear whose interview we’re seeing. Peering out, at the right of every page, Judge HQ bleeds. Without reading A Better World, the greater context is lost on me, but part one of The New Future sets such an ominous tone that I must seek it out.
Azimuth
Script: Dan Abnett
Art: Tazio Bettin
Colours: Matt Soffe
Letters: Rob Steen
Rebooters attack Al the Jargonaut’s ship on the Hypotheseas. But Anderson, Dexter and Suzi Ninemil fend them off.
Gleeful use of puns abound, par for the course for Abnett, but the sheer density of them is overwhelmingly fun. For certain readers, I could see it being grating, but it’s good to see the first page so rammed with puns to make it clear that this will continue throughout. I delighted in the previous Azimuth arc, so I can’t wait to see what this seafaring volume brings.
Silent Hill: Townfall
Script: Jon McKellan
Art: David Roach
Colours: Emily Roach
Letters: Rob Steen
A lighthouse keeper knows every inch of the dock house intimately, so when a spiral staircase leading down appears, he follows it until he finds a disfigured fisherman. The monster follows him upstairs, barfing water all the way, until he fills the room and drowns the keeper. At the end, Simon Ordell appears on the dock.
David and Emily Roach make Silent Hill feel atmospheric and muted, much like how I imagine the game feels. I’m a Silent Hill noob, but this seems like a good trailer for what we may expect from Townfall.
Durham Red: Hungry City
Script: Alec Worley
Art: Ben Willsher
Letters: Simon Bowland
Durham Red awakens in the aftermath of a brutal massacre, of which she may or may not be the perpetrator, with a giant rabbit’s severed head on her lap. Armed goons turn up, and she escapes. She finds a motel keycard in her pocket and sets off.
The action-packed intro features Willsher’s fearless colour palette, which makes the story feel bold and futuristic and draws our attention to Peacock wherever he can, so I’m sure Peacock will come into play again. Having never read Durham Red, I have nothing to hang my curiosity on, but once she begins to find out about her circumstances, I’m sure I’ll get drawn in.
Thistlebone: The Witchfinder’s Apprentice
Text & Page Design: TC Eglington
Painted art: Simon Davis
William, the eponymous witchfinder’s apprentice, listens as his master’s tales get taller and taller in the pub. William helps his master to bed, but cannot sleep, kept awake by jealousy, so he hears the landlady leave at night. All of the village women join her. A line forms and animals join it as they make their way to the forest. There, entranced, William witnesses them all dancing and shedding their clothes, then their flesh, before he snaps a branch with the cross of his necklace. In the morning, the witchfinder finds his apprentice, his cash, and his trinkets all gone.
Lovely wee story peppered with local vernacular and punctuated by Simon Davis’ ethereal art. Davis’ work shows the perfect moment at which ultimate reality hits William, and it’s his perspective we take as the witches, the familiars and Thistlebone itself see us. The foreground women remind me of Gustav Klimt’s sketches, while the forest is painted in watercolour, and Thistlebone is there in the gaps between all, looming like oil on water, but we’re drowning.
Ghosted
Script: Guy Adams
Art: Megan Huang
Letters: Simon Bowland
Chant wakes to an alert. There is an extraterrestrial sound felt rather than heard. Amerika replies first and is bombed for it.
I’m confused. America was wiped off the map. So why don’t I care? Is it because Kinshasa was introduced as a setting, then the camera flew off to Sweden, Japan and America? Is it because I didn’t see a character in America to feel for before it got blasted? This chapter does a good job of introducing Chant, but I’m not particularly compelled to find out more about her.
Herne & Shuck
Script: David Barnett
Art: Lee Milmore
Colours: Quinton Winter
Letters: Annie Parkhouse
Herne drinks some podcasters under the table before setting out to find his foster daughter Caris.
Long-term readers of mine may remember that I don’t love Herne & Shuck. I find its pace a bit slow for my taste, but it’s nice to see that part one of Storming the Stone has recapped quickly so that we can get into the business of rescuing Caris.
Overall: 6/10
Tony Holdsworth is a comics writer based in Dundee, Scotland, who reviews 2000AD each week.
His comics can be found here: https://tonyholdsworth2.wordpress.com/category/portfolio/
