Four entirely new runs of stories in this week's Prog! Brass Sun is back! I loved the first volume of Brass Sun and think that it is a deeply clever series that maintains its originality by staying on the outskirts of a lot of different tropes. Edginton and Culbard know how to build a compelling, original world, and despite how jarring it is to be thrust back into a series after months of it not being serialized, they pulled me right back in. The newest arc of Brass Sun will undoubtedly benefit from the fact that the protagonists are totally boned and it will be exciting to see how they save themselves.
The series returning which I know the least about but am now the most excited about is actually Bad Company, almost entirely because of the pencils and inks of Rufus Dayglo and Jim McCarthy respectively. I'm not even joking: Prog 1950 is an excellent all-around issue, but worth picking up solely for Bad Company. Dayglo's pencils on this series have a weird way of preserving some of the excellent things about early 90's Liefeld-esque stuff, while he still puts his own edgy, contemporary, massively detailed spin on things. I'm very excited to just smash my eyeballs into this art every week.
PJ Maybe might (just maybe) be back in the pages of Dredd, but I'm mostly excited for the return of the MacNeil/Blythe artistic team. That's not to say that there's been any shortage of great art on Dredd lately (or ever, really), but I thought that their last particularly Irish run on the title had some features that really made it stand out. This introductory chapter was VERY talky, but I can't complain about the necessity in Dredd to set up the detective end of things. Soon, I'm sure there will be more shooting and intrigue than any one person can handle.
Zombies just ain't my thing, but Leigh Gallagher's art on Defoe will be enough for me to give this zombie thriller a chance. There is not a single page of an arc which has previously appeared in the Progs but, be warned, if you aren't caught up on your Brass Sun, you will have absolutely no idea what is going on, and that series should really be read from the start, I think. The other comics aren't as demanding in terms of continuity, though, so this is still a good Prog to jump on with the help of a wiki or two.
And seriously, appreciating Dayglo and McCarthy's work on Bad Company only requires eyes that mostly work.
Score: 4/5
2000 AD – Prog 1950 Writers: Various Artists: Various Publisher: 2000 AD Price: £1.99 (Digital) £2.49 Release Date: 9/30/15 Format: Weekly; Print/Digital