3 out of 5

There was a nice even keel to this month’s batch o’ progs: while it’s true that none of the stories really knocked my socks off the whole way through, each of them was interesting and readable.  At 4 to 5 contributions each issue over 4 issues, to be able to to say that each and every piece was good or a notch above good is pretty notable for compilation mags / comics of this type.

The Dredd contribution, Traumatown, is almost awesome, and has a really wonderfully creepy buildup of Dredd seeing flashes of things that aren’t there – very Event Horizon-y violence – which looks especially dreadful (in a positive way, and no fucking Dredd pun intended) when done via Nick Percival’s (what looks to be) computer-painted art, and writer Michael Carroll does a fair job of bringing a fairly standard twist into things rather organically, concluding matters with an awesomely gloomy 2000 AD final panel.  But the downside of painted art (and computer painted art) happens in parts four and five, when Dredd’s nightmares start to spread and the action ramps up: painted work is generally great for paintings, or more static panels.  When motion is required (especially in large spreads), the work looks murky, and moves like molasses.

Indigo Prime also appears to be using computer-touched artwork (by Lee Carter), very similar to some of Beltran’s work under Jodorowsky in Metal Hurlant, which means the figures always look rather stiff.  This felt right in Jodorowsky’s weird world, but John Smith writes much more naturalistic than Jodo (to my eyes / ears), so it’s not quite the right fit.  Though the story – multi-dimension police are escorting around some criminal who “hi-jacks” timestreams – is oddball enough – and tosses some Lovecraft in – that the art’s definitely not a horrible mismatch, but maybe a more formal pencil-based artist would be good – like a Brian Talbot, or Chris Weston.  I am professional.  This is a perfect 2000 AD tale in terms of tone – it’s the kind of sci-fi that thrives here – but even at 8 parts I didn’t feel like we were getting a whole story.  It’ll be cool to see more of Prime at a later date.

A 12-part Slaine tale concludes here.  I can’t weigh in on Slaine, since I’ve only read like 3 progs of the classic character (and only a couple of those – including in these progs – are by creator Pat Mills), but the hack-n-slash was good and here’s where painted art (Simon Davis) can feel dynamic – Davis’ paneling and framing allows Slaine and the various baddies to glide across the pages.  Some artists can just pull this off.

Lastly, more space police with Dan Abnett’s Grey Area – the ETC squad watches over an area in Arizona where alien immigrants are all melting-potted.  Religious fervor has hit the streets, and then God – in the form of giant spaceships – appear around the globe.  The last Grey Area bit I read was fairly generic, but I gotta’ admit that Abnett has me intrigued with this one, and though Mark Harrson’s sketchy art can be a bit hard to follow with the excessive computer light-flares all over the page, the panels nonetheless communicate a breathy sense of action that works for the strip.  This story isn’t concluded in these progs.

Elsewhere we get some Time Twisters and 3hrillers, the former almost always a worthy Twilight Zone-esque few pages, the latter still, to me, a somewhat flawed experiment of modern 2000 AD (3 interconnected tales that can be read individually), but I appreciate the attempt to deliver isolated stories.