The Humble store has once again teamed up with the “Galaxy’s Greatest Comic,” 2000 AD, to offer 54 boos of comic collections for a knock down price as part of their Humble Bundle. In this special edition of the Goggler Pull list we take a look at just a some of what’s available/on offer.
If you’ve never heard of 2000 AD, the British anthology comic has been running since 1977 and is the home of Judge Dredd, delivering “Thrill Power” as its resident editor (and alien) Tharg the Mighty would put it, on a weekly basis.
“Thrill Power” is as good a description as any to describe the heady mix of art styles and stories that grace its pages each week. Its anthology format demands that any new stories get their point across quickly and succinctly before readers move on to the next strip (or lament the week long wait for the next installment). As a kid reading old 2000 AD’s cross legged on the floor of my older cousin’s bedroom, my imagination was set aflame by the stories and art within. One of my favourite movies of recent years is even based off a strip from the comic.
Over the years 2000 AD has included strips on everything from Robo-Hunters, to futuristic sports, from intergalactic truckers to genetically engineered soldiers gone rogue, from noble (ish) warrior robots to tales of dinosaurs being farmed for meat for the future. 2000 AD has been a breeding ground for British comic talent with the likes of Neil Gaiman, Simon Bisley, Dave Gibbons, Alan Moore, Kevin O’Neill, Mark Millar, and more having created strips for the comic. All of which were produced with a very British, often silly, anarchic, punk sensibility. Here are some of our best picks from the bundle.
Judge Dredd (Pat Mills, John Wagner, Carlos Ezquerra, Brian Bolland, and Mike McMahon)
2000 AD’s most famous son, Judge Jospeh Dredd, has been policing the under stimulated, often overly moronic population of Mega-City One for over 40 years. The post nuclear war city’s population is so vast that the justice system had to be totally overhauled to manage it. Cops, now judges, are empowered to act as judge, jury, and frequently executioner. Oh, and they’re also the government. Never far from satire, Dredd veers from fun futuristic adventures, to outright dystopian nightmare, to comedy, often in a single tale. Dredd is also pretty unique in comics that all his adventures in print are canon. There have been no reboots or retcons.
The bundle contains the first five volumes of the Judge Dredd: Case Files, a complete chronological collection of Dredd stories. Five volumes may seem like a lot, but they still only cover up until 1982. The series currently stands at 37 volumes! Usually on sale for USD$9.99 each, paying the minimum amount for the entire bundle, USD$25, is worth the price alone for classic Dredd stories such as The Cursed Earth, The Judge Child, and the introduction of Judge Death and the Dark Judges. The latter of which includes my favorite comic panel of all time:
The bundle also includes five volumes of the adventures of Dredd’s psychic sometime-partner Judge Anderson, Judge Anderson: The Psi Files, as well as a smattering of great spin-offs set in Dredd’s world from Judge Dredd: The Megazine (yeah, they spell it that way after the Mega Cities). This incudes the brilliant “America” which shows what it would really be like to live under the Judges totalitarian regime and reminds readers that Dredd is no hero.
Sláine (Pat Mills, Angela Kincaid,Massimo Belardinelli, Mike McMahon, and Clint Langley)
About as far away as you can get from a future lawman, the bundle also contains two books of Sláine. A heavy metal Celtic He-man, Sláine is a warped warrior of the red branch, who undergoes hideous warp spasms that twist his body horribly when he fights, but that give him great strength. Sláine defends ancient Ireland and the tribes of the Earth goddess from all sorts of demons and ancient sci-fi monsters along with his trusty (spoilers: not very) dwarf companion Ukko and his axe, Brain Biter. The two collections available here showcase the range of art work that has appeared in 2000 AD over the years, from the fine Black and White line work of his original appearances by Angie Kincaid, Massimo Belardinelli, and Mike McMahon, to the full colour blend of computer enhanced artwork and photography of Clint Langley.
Zenith (Grant Morrison and Steve Yeowell)
2000 AD’s weekly format allows it to produces some absolutely WILD concepts and stories, but that doesn’t mean it’s afraid to dip its toe into the kind of material more commonly associated with comics. One of my personal favourites is Zenith, one of 2000 AD’s takes on superheroes, and my own personal introduction to the work of Grant Morrison.
Zenith is the only active superhuman in the then present of 1987. A spoilt, fame hungry, bulletproof 19-year-old, who can fly, but is more interested in the sales of his latest pop single than fighting crime. Zenith finds himself dragged into all sorts of problems involving the birth of the superhumans in WW2, the 60’s supergroup who came before him, the disappearance of his parents, and the “many angled ones,” Lovecraftian monsters from beyond the realm of space and time. Zenith’s snappy design (by Brendan McCarthy of Reboot and Fury Road fame) rendered in Steve Yeowell’s perfect black and white artwork make it iconic. I’m staggered that Zenith hasn’t been made as a TV show or movie although that’s probably due to its past history of legal issues which left it out of print for years.
Zenith’s shallow protagonist and decidedly English take on superhumans seems tailor made for TV or movies, even more so now that it’s 80s aesthetic would make it even more unique.
I love Zenith, and for years hunted down copies wherever I could. Having the complete set of collected editions is, again, worth the asking price.
The 2000 AD “Frank Quitely Collection” (Feat. Missionary Man, by Gordon Rennie, and Hondo City Law, by Robbie Morrison)
If you’ve not heard the name Frank Quietly before, then quite frankly you are missing out on some of the most amazing comic art out there. Scotsman Vincent Deighan, frequent collaborator with Grant Morrison (Flex Mentallo, JLA: Earth 2, New X-Men , All Star Superman, Batman and Robin), has a clean, chunky, sinewy style all of his own that’s been present seemingly from day one. I first discovered his art in the pages of the Judge Dredd the Megazine and instantly gfell in love. Amazingly, this was some of his first comics work. His style is evident from page one. Missionary Man written by Gordon Rennie, tells the tale of Preacher Cain, a former Tex-City Judge bringing law and religion… of a sort, to The Cursed Earth, the irradiated, mutant filled wasteland outside the Mega Cities, that makes up most of the continental United States in Dredd’s world.
Essentially a western, like most of the comics in this bundle, it adds its own spin to the tropes and clichés of the genre, with the Preacher even facing off against what might be the devil himself.
Hondo City Law, meanwhile, contains Quitely’s work on Shimura, a story about the Judges of Hondo City. The future version of Japan, Hondo City is a warped take on aspects of Japanese culture, just as Dredd’s Mega-City One is a nightmare extrapolation of the worst of American culture, through a British lens. Technocratic, honor bound, but riddled by corruption, the first storyline in this collection, Our Man in Hondo, which doesn’t feature art by Quitely, is from 1989 and has a pidgin English narration aping Japanese accented English, but don’t let that put you off.
Shimura’s clean lines and action are dazzling.
It’s the kind of comic that makes your brain go
A follow up story, Babes With Big Bazookas, isn’t as sexist as it might sound and features what appears to be Quitely’s design for Emma Frost’s costume 5 years before he worked on New X-Men.
Shakara (Robbie Morrison and Henry Flint)
A prime example of the breadth and scale of ambition of the content available in the pages of 2000 AD. I knew nothing about Shakara before this bundle. The comic opens with the complete destruction of Earth and a very ignominious end for the last human left alive, before jumping into an outer space tale populated by terrors almost beyond imagination.
A lanky, buckle and spike covered killing machine, the Shakara of the title kills it’s way through multiple issues, taking out slavers, blackmailing black hole gatekeepers and mercenaries, without any detail whatsoever provided about the protagonist. All he (?) says is “Shakara.” All he does is kill. It’s brilliant!
The scratchy black and white artwork emphasizes the horror of this world, with the only flashes of colour being Shakara’s eyes and weapon blasts .The biggest problem I have with the single collection included in this bundle is that after saving money buying the bundle in the first place, I’m going to have to fork out more cash to get the follow up issues!
… And More
I’ve only just scratched the surface of what’s available in this bundle. It contains many more fantastic reads from across 2000 AD‘s history, such as all three volumes of Alan Moore’s Sci-fi epic, The Ballad of Halo Jones, the best of the Future Shocks, 2000 AD’s short story format that featured early work from creators like Peter Milligan, Grant Morrison, John Smith, and Neil Gaiman. The bundle also contains collections of comics I’ve never heard of like Absalom, Hope… for the Future, and Bec and Kawl, which I am very much looking forward to reading.
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