Today I’ll be reviewing 2000AD’s PROG 2112 anthology, lets dig in.
This story follows our hero as he pursues a criminal into a resort similar to Westworld where vacationers pay to experience past times in Earth history. The twist here is that a number of background extras have been stolen from time to add to the authenticity of the experience.
There isn’t much meat to this story, it starts fun enough appearing to be a viking saga when Dredd and the perp make their sudden appearance. Its fairly typical of what you expect of such a short Dredd story, a little action, a bit of world building and some fun. The art work is solid maintaining the Dredd aesthetic of looking more gritty than futuristic despite setting. The colors are mostly desaturated and just dirty enough for a Dredd tale and the man himself is as grim, grizzled and lanky as ever. A good start to the anthology.
BRINK: HIGH SOCIETY -Â Dan Abnett, INJ Culbard, letters Simon Bowland.
Part two of a previous issue where humans have left Earth and live in deep space habitats has undercover investigator Bridget Kurtis, captured by a strange sect. The story itself is difficult to review coming into the middle like this but it is interesting enough that I did want to know more. There is a mystery at hand involving a cult like group and Bridget shows her self to be clever protagonistt. The art is good, reminding me very much of works seen in Heavy Metal. The colors are a primary, muted pastel and the panel gutters are almost a hot pink giving this story an art deco meets new wave look.
SKIP TRACER: LOUDER THAN BOMBS -Â James Peaty, Paul Marshal, colours Dylan Teague, letters Ellie De Ville
Nolan Blake is a tracker with psi abilities aboard the Cube, a deep space city that is used to deal with universal housing but is now overflowing with criminal activity. Continuing from the previous chapter Nolan demonstrates his telekinesis dealing with a suicide bomber. Reflecting current affairs the Cube is dealing with a mass immigration of refuges and the problems caused by this. The story gives the impression of worlds like Blade Runner wherein a rough edged hero in a future setting deals with street level issues. The art has that sort of scifi/blue collar feel and the colorist mimics water color lending to the appeal of the story aesthetics. The world and Nolan have some real history to them that I cant help but want to know more of.
THARG’S 3RILLERS: THE SCORCHED ZONE -Â Eddie Robson, Nick Brokenshaw, colours ”“ Gary Caldwell, letters ”“ Ellie De Ville
Global warming has made certain areas of the world uninhabitable but a solution might have been found in the year 2109. This story starts very scifi as a team has been sent into the scorched zone to discover why the robots containing devices made to deflect the sun’s heat away from the Earth have suddenly failed and quickly adds mystery before taking us into horror as it is discovered that zombie/mutants(?) have destroyed the robots.
The art is once again quite good and very appropriate for these sorts of future scenarios. This story like the previous ones is more Mad Max and less Star Trek and so shares the gritty and apocalyptic art of the previous tales. The colors in particular serve the story from panel to panel to evoke times, settings, conditions and moods expressed in the narrative. This is another solid entry in the anthology.
FIENDS OF THE WESTERN FRONT: PART 2 -Â Ian Edginton, Tiernan Trevallion, letters ”“ Annie Parkhouse
Vampire soldier Captain Constanta is captured by the German pilot the Black Max during WW I. Max is seeking to use the vampire to revive a race called the Bat People who were supplanted by vampires as the top human predators. The art and story are a nice change of pace from the previous entries and homages Mignola while retaining its own charm and style. Cleverly the story is presented in black, white and gray tones in what may be a nod to the black and white horror cinema of the past.
FINAL THOUGHTS
There’s a lot of good in this book, and I would recommend it to anyone who likes apocalyptic scifi settings. I give it an easy 5 out of 5 stars.
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