Review by: Kevin Reilly The reprint of Si Spurrier’s Judge Dredd feature continues this week with Numbercruncher #2. If you haven’t read the series, it follows a world in which the afterlife revolves around numbers. The main character, Bastard Zane, is an employee of the Grand Calculator in the afterlife.

Without spoiling the continuation of the plot too much, Numbercruncher #2 is just about as good as the first one. Zane is now on the hunt for the Mathematician, who came back to the real world too late but lived a second, good life either way. It’s a high concept that works better than imagined. Again, a lot happens in the book that I’d rather not go out and say, but if you liked the first one it’s a must-read.

The art and coloring of the book are really smart as well. Scenes that take place in the real world are presented in conventional, full color. The afterlife is darkly penciled, and in black-and-white. The slightly unfinished look gives a really nice contrast to the real-life stuff, whose heavily inked and clean look quickly recalls Chris Samnee’s recent work on Daredevil. In the black and white sequences, there’s an incredible amount of gore that’s really well-rendered.

Numbercruncher is a really, really strange book that quickly reminds me of something we’d see a place like Vertigo publish in the mid nineties. It’s fun, it’s weird, and it gets graphic when it has to. It’s a miniseries, so I recommend waiting for the paperback collection coming out at the end of the year.

Score: 4/5

Writer: Simon Spurrier

Artist: P.J. Holden

Publisher: Titan Comics

Price: $3.99

Release Date: 8/21/13