The Weekly 2000 AD Prog 2235: The Silliness & Strangeness Of Dept K

The Weekly 2000 AD, Comicon’s weekly preview of all the thrill-power the UK’s finest sci-fi comic has to offer…

Time to bed in with the three new strips that began last Prog, the wacky weirdness of Mega-City One’s last defense against interdimensional intrusion of Department K, the space-bound adventures of Chimpsky in The Talented Mr Chimpsky, and more from the mechanical and diabolical in Mechastopheles. As well as that we get the penultimate episode of the great Feral & Foe II and a brand-new done-in-one Judge Dredd with a little bit of MC-1 romance amongst the perps.

2000 AD Prog #2235 is out on 9th June. Remember, your local comic shop needs you to stay in business; keep your social distance, keep wearing the masks.

Okay then, Prog 2235 is waiting for you, how about a bit of a preview?

 

JUDGE DREDD: BRIEF ENCOUNTER – Ken Niemand, Dylan Teague, letters by Annie Parkhouse

Last week we had a brilliant little done-in-one Dredd from Chris Weston, this week it’s Niemand and Teague’s turn to give us six pages of wonderfully well-done little MC-1 moments.

First off – that Dylan Teague artwork… it’s rare we see it in the pages of the Prog, but damn it’s good when we do, a deftness of touch, the subtle beauty of both the line and the colouring… lovely stuff.

Six pages of MC-1 modern romance, between two perps hooked up to holding posts and waiting for the catch-wagon to turn up, much to the annoyance of Dredd.

But while your having to wait to be picked up, there’s always time to make a little small talk between holding post neighbours… who knows, something special might come out of it.

Although, this being MC-1 and with Dredd involved, there’s little chance of anything like a happy ending for this pair of not quite star-crossed lovers.

Of course it’s a wonderful little moment of pretty much Dredd-less Judge Dredd, although he does turn up to be his usual grumpy self at the end, party pooper that he is.

MECHASTOPHELES: THE HUNTING PARTY – PART 2 – Gordon Rennie, Lawrence Rennie, Boo Cook, letters by Annie Parkhouse

After that first episode where we found out that the demon bound to the Mek that is Mechastopheles was wanted down in hell, it’s time to catch up with the humans onboard Mechastopheles – the last of humanity.

Of course, you put any of humanity in any enclosed space and bad things happen, such is the nature of us as a species. And it’s no different here, with warring factions at each other’s throats and a child’s disappearance threatening to make things even worse.

The fascinating thing about Mechastopheles thus far is getting used to the scale of things – this is no normal mech, this one is huge, city huge, home to so many. Quite where the storyline’s going, we’re not sure yet, but it’s a hell of a lot of fun seeing Boo Cook’s artwork, with all the organic nightmares found inside the infernal machine.

DEPARTMENT K: COSMIC CHAOS – PART 2 – Rory McConville, Dan Cornwell, Colours by Len O’Grady, letters by Simon Bowland

So, Department K are on the case of an interdimensional incursion, after getting a call for help last episode. We’re straight into things, with Judge Kirby taking matters into her own hands, after all, it was going to end up as their problem sooner or later…

So off they go, knowing that it’s going to have something to do with the ‘Locusts,’ the impossibly huge God-like beings who show up on worlds in trouble.

Action and adventure across the dimensions, a lot of fun to be had here with McConville in charge, alongside Cornwell doing some wonderful work.

FERAL & FOE II – PART 11 – Dan Abnett, Richard Elson, letters by Jim Campbell

Okay then… where were we?

Oh yes, the end of last episode…

That’s exactly where Wraith, Bode, and Krodgun find themselves here. Who would have thought making a deal with a Necromancer would have been a bad idea, eh?

So, the chalice of malice could bring back something rather unspeakably bad, Haggart Morn, or something far worse could happen. Well, you’ve read enough of Feral & Foe by now to understand that Abnett’s going to take this one as bad as it can get.

And he does, oh yes he does… and suddenly Wraith and Bode have a really serious problem to deal with.

It really has been so much fun, this second series of Feral & Foe, Abnett playing around so well with all the comedic nature of the characters, but he’s also stuck with the fantasy elements, all so well brought to life by Elson’s artwork. So, it should be no surprise to see our not so heroic heroes going into the last episode next week with their backs up against the wall.

CHIMPSKY’S LAW: THE TALENTED MR CHIMPSKY – PART 2 – Ken Niemand, PJ Holden, colours by Chris Blythe, letters by Simon Bowland

Noam’s well away from MC-1 now, up on the Jepperson family space mansion, home to the tax-exiled family who first created the intelligent apes, guilty of killing so many in the process and enslaving so many hundreds of thousands.

And yet Noam’s mission up here, thanks to that mysterious message from some unknown mystery man or woman, is probably going to involve saving the lot of them, as well as all the ape staff.

Great couple of episodes to start us off, with PJ Holden’s artwork just perfect for the series. As much of a shame as it was to not see him on his other co-creation, Department K, these new adventures of Chimpsky are making up for it.