2000 AD: Mike Carey (1999—)

2000 AD: Mike Carey (1999—)

Author: Mike Carey | Illustrator: Various | Credits (to date): 25 Progs

I've featured quite a lot of author Mike Carey's comic work over the years. It's mostly been his output under DC's successful Vertigo imprint. I bypassed his work for 2000 AD because the quality is variable, but I'm filling that gap now.

Besides a few Future Shock-esque anthology pieces, he co-created two original series for the magazine: Carver Hale and Thirteen, both of which received a standalone collected edition.

01. Before I get to those, his first published work in the magazine was a one-shot under the Pulp Sci-Fi banner, titled Eggs is Eggs in Prog 1145 (1999), with Cliff Robinson (artist), Chris Blythe (colourist), and Annie Parkhouse (letterer), later reprinted in a Judge Dredd Megazine supplement (#296, March 2010).

Set initially in a futuristic bar and grill, it uses the flashback narrative to tell a blackly humorous tale that has giant, intelligent bugs living alongside humans. It's just five pages long, which wasn't unusual for the 2000 AD format, but it's only really memorable for the dynamic artwork and solid colour scheme.

02. His next appearance was another five-page Pulp Sci-Fi strip, titled Doin' Time in Prog 1147 (1999), with Ben McCloud (artist), Sam Carlisle (colourer), and Ellie de Ville (letterer).

Interestingly, both stories feature a bank, but are very different tonally. Doin' Time is the better of the two, but the artwork isn't as good. It features a beat cop named Leon, with an attitude that's partway between a Mega City Judge and a hardboiled noir cop. It fits into the 2000 AD world well, with a twist that feels like something John Wagner might do in a Dredd story.

03. A five-page Future Shock followed, in Prog 1230 (2001), titled Inside Job, with John Charles (artist), and Ellie de Ville (letterer), and not to be confused with a Judge Dredd story of the same name in Progs 1363 + 1364 (2003). It involves an unusual bank robbery and has some light commentary on disparity in the workplace. It could've easily been set in the Big Meg itself, but all direct references to such are carefully excluded. It's a fun short that plays up to its title.

04. Carey's one-shots must have satisfied Tharg well-enough because his next featured work was the eight-part Carver Hale with Dylan Teague (artist / pencils), Mike D. Perkins (occasional inks), and Ellie de Ville (letterer) in Progs 1236-40 and after a short hiatus resumed in 1247-49 (2001). All eight parts were subsequently collected and published as a thin hardcover TPB titled Carver Hale: Twisting the Knife (2005 / 44 pp).

Carver works for a London mob boss, a high profile criminal who's more than what he seems. When a rival group attack their HQ, Carver gets plunged into a world that heretofore he didn't even know existed, with supernatural entities that have an agenda all of their own.

It feels like an origin story for a character that would grow and change over time, but, to date, no further adventures followed. Thematically it resembles what Carey would later excel at when writing Lucifer and Hellblazer, so can be said to fit the Vertigo world a little better than it did the 2000 AD one. It's easy to imagine Carver being an associate of Constantine, especially when he says things like "Don’t try ta think, Eddie. You'll just give yerself a nosebleed."

The beautiful B+W art is the real star, though, in a mix of traditional and 'broken' panels.

05. Hardly worth mentioning — but I will for sake of completeness — is a ten-page Tharg the Mighty strip celebrating the magazine's 25th Anniversary in Prog 1280 (2002). Titled A Night 2 Remember, its setting is a party at Ministry of Sound in which many of the magazine's characters meet up for drinks, etc; i.e., the kind of 'meta' crap that wasn't unusual for a TtM story.

Basically, it's a bunch of single-page strips that are set collectively in the same location, created by some of 2000 AD's most notable names. The roster is impressive, including contributions from Alan Grant; Garth Ennis; and Pat Mills on writing duties, with Ian Gibson; Jock; Kevin Walker; and Simon Davis on art duties. In both cases that's just a sample, not a full list.

Carey's page, which features delinquent duo D.R. and Quinch, Tharg, and Carver Hale, was illustrated by Anthony Williams, with lettering by Tom Frame.

06. A second Future Shock appeared in Prog 1287 (2002) titled Right Back at Ya, with John Charles (artist) and Annie Parkhouse (letterer). It begins in the same bar and grill as Eggs is Eggs (and perhaps Inside Job) as a story of overconfidence in a 'real world' setting. For me, a lot of Future Shocks feel like they were written in less than twenty minutes, perhaps as a break from writing something more elaborate; Right Back at Ya is that kind of story. It has an interesting set-up and a smattering of black humour, but the ending is a let-down.

07. Next up came the full colour, eleven-part 13 (or Thirteen) in Progs 1289–99 (2002), with Andy Clarke (artist), and Annie Parkhouse (letterer). It received the TPB treatment in softcover, stylised as Th1rt3en (2005 / 96 pp) for some reason - perhaps because leet was perceived by some publishers as being more 'punk' than regular language. Personally, it looks stupid to me.

Its protagonist is Joe Bulmer, a London-based punk with, as the cover art suggests, a standard 'F**k You' attitude. Joe's only standout feature at the beginning is his telekinetic powers, which are slight, used primarily to give him an edge in self-serving situations such as gambling.

Like Carver Hale, something happens that opens Joe's eyes to a world that exists alongside our own, unknown to most. The biggest difference is that it's more sci-fi than supernatural.

My interests favour sci-fi more than crime fiction, so I expected to connect with 13 more than I had with Carver Hale, but, put simply, the story wasn't as good. Joe lacked the traits that make an anti-authority type anti-hero likable and it was badly paced for the 2000 AD format.

I should add that it's not wholly sci-fi, there are elements of fantasy here and there, including an ambiguous female character that seems as if she styled herself on a HEAVY METAL magazine cover painting, but those aspects also failed to grab hold of my imagination well enough.

The artwork often leads the storytelling, with some great angles, but the colouring is of the sort that makes every strip look the same, with very little discernible identity of its own.

RELATED: Carey was the focus of an Interrogation article in Judge Dredd: The Megazine #293 (2010). It explores his move into comics, in his own words. The interview is by Joel Meadows.

- Covers of some mentioned Progs, only one of which features a character written by Carey. -