Adventures in Thrill-Power #2: A most festive Christmas in the ‘2000 AD verse’!

Welcome to the second edition of Adventures in Thrill-Power!

If you somehow missed the debut, this bi-monthly offering is where we celebrate all things related to 2000 AD. The long-running British comics magazine has basically set the watermark for important indie comics since the late ’70s. (The magazine is also the birthplace of the eternally entertaining, often terrifying Judge Dredd.) In recent years, we’ve tried to lend a spotlight to 2000 AD‘s important work, and Adventures in Thrill-Power should help to open up this work to an increasingly hungry and ravenous comics audience.

In the debut edition of this column, we made your Halloween festivities extra terrifying/emotionally scarring with a series of tales about “alien super-fiend” Judge Death and his haunted cohorts. Now, in keeping with a similar festive tinge, we’re offering up a veritable Christmas bounty with two brand-new interviews. I’d like to see Santa Claus match that with his silly little reindeer.

Spanning Prog 2460, 2461, and 2462 (all of which are out now), writer Ken Niemand and artist Nick Percival recently reunited for “The Messengers.” Described as the “latest of their plot to bring back a little terror to Dreddworld,” the story sees the Judges “dealing with the aftermath of the events at Elisa Lam block, when the Shift entered MC-1.” Admittedly, it’s not exactly the most ho-ho-wholesome Xmas tale, but with Niemand and Percival back together, the real present is their unique and increasingly intense spin on Dredd and company.

Now, if you’re looking for actual Christmas cheer (albeit through 2000 AD‘s singular editorial filter), there’s The Christmas Issue 2025 (aka Prog 2463). More specifically, “MikMak’s Big Mega-City Adventure” (from Niemand and artist Stref), where an extra special visitor “risks danger” as they make their way toward Mega-City One. But what truly stands out about “MikMak…” is Stref’s vivid, cartoonish art, a truly peppy outlier in the extra dark world of 2000 AD. But then ’tis the season, folks, and the story itself is both unique and perfectly at home in the magazine’s seminal pages.

If you thought that’s all we had in our magic bag of Xmas gifts, you’d be more mistaken than Rudolph’s reindeer cohorts. Check back in early to mid-January for Adventures in Thrill-Power #3, which includes all sorts of seasonal goodies and even some big things to come for 2026 (potentially including a special Dredd story from a very special creator…)

Until next time, fellow Adventurers: read comics, punch bullies, and howl at the moon.

Ken Niemand and Nick Percival, “Messengers”

AIPT: You’ve previously worked together on “Shift” and “Iron Teeth.” How has the collaborative process developed over time?

Nick Percival: We actually started working together on [the] Judge Dredd “The House on Bleaker Street” story, which was where we started to establish some of the horror stuff that we’ve expanded in “Iron Teeth” and “The Shift”  — most notably the Judge Roche character that returns in “Messengers.” We’ve also collaborated on a couple of the 2000 AD/Megazine crossover stories as well.

Ken’s great to work with, and we often chuck emails back and forth to expand on ideas and so forth. We obviously have the same tastes in horror and it’s great to be able to co-create new characters and develop them together over time. Ken knows the type of stuff I like to paint, and 99% of time we’re on the same wavelength so it’s all good. He gives me a lot freedom visually and his scripts read really well, so it’s a nice team up.

AIPT: Both of those other tales leaned decidedly into horror. What’s the interest in placing Dredd in this context, and why does it work so well to further evaluate the character?

Ken Niemand: Nick and I both like horror, which has been a thing in the Judge Dredd stories since the early days. But I think there’s a feeling that the Dark Judges should maybe be rested for a while. So, if we wanted to do a Dredd horror story, we would have to do something new, with its own mythology. “Bleaker Street,” “Iron Teeth,” “Shift,” and now “Messengers” are all part of that, setting up this new dark mythology for Mega-City One.

NP: I think you can put Dredd in any scenario, but for me, supernatural horror works well as it takes him out of his comfort zone where all the hi-tech equipment and weaponry of the Judges is pretty much useless. We see a lot of the sci-fi world of Dredd on a regular basis, and sometimes he can blend into all that, a cog in a big wheel so to speak. When we see him in twisted horror environments such as the Shift, he stands out (certainly visually) and often has to rely on a different set of tools and methods to succeed. What’s nice is that he’s still Dredd, whatever the situation, but I like to think that over time with these supernatural stories we’ve maybe managed to make a tiny couple of dents in his psychological armor.

AIPT: Both Judges Rico and Giant are set to play a vital role in the “puzzle” within “The Messengers.” Why are those two interesting to pair with Dredd?

NP: Yeah, “Messengers” is three episodes of pure set-up but with all very important elements that will pay off big in the Mega Epic that’s coming. Rico is interesting to me because he’s a clone of Dredd but less experienced. When I’m illustrating him, it’s essentially Dredd (albeit a younger model – I have to remember to tone down his frown lines). We really start messing with his head in our next story, and the same goes for Judge Giant who has a lot to prove and things to live up to.

It’s nice to play those two characters off each other and have a bit of the “buddy cop” vibe going on. We are going to f**k them up (for want of a better term), but this will hopefully also lay the groundwork for some future stories with real consequences later on when (if?) the dust has settled.

KN: They’re interesting to pair together because of their different relationships to Dredd; Giant as the protege, and Rico as the younger clone/surrogate son. There maybe should be some rivalry or competitiveness between them, but I think of them more as brothers, uniquely knowing what it’s like to live in the shadow of Dredd. What’s coming in the big event that’s coming next year will test both of them, and either make or break them.

AIPT: You’re apparently building toward something big in 2026. Can you tease what that might be?

NP: Ken’s been planting the seeds to all this in the stories we’ve been doing together and elsewhere in some of his other work, so this finally all comes together later in 2026 in a huge Judges/Mega City related epic, “The Oubliette” and “The Black Tower.”

KN: We’ve been seeding references to it for a while now. The first reference to “The Oubliette” was in the 2023 Xmas prog Dredd story, which was all about Rico. There were more Oubliette references in the “Shift” story, alongside two new elements — the Black Tower and the Fathers. Messengers drip-feeds some more details about all three of these things.

We know that something bad is coming, but Dredd won’t be around to deal with it. He’ll be in the mysterious Oubliette, which we’re told is the worst place in the universe. Rico, Giant, and some other characters who have already been introduced will have to deal with the coming mega-crisis without Dredd, while he tries to survive and escape the Oubliette and get back to his disaster-hit city.

It all happens next summer, in two stories — “The Oubliette” and “The Black Tower” — running in the prog and the Megazine. Dan Cornwell and Jake Lynch are artists on the Oubliette part of the story, while over in the Megazine, Nick Percival takes us into “The Black Tower,” which is really the culmination of the arc we started several years ago now (although the repercussions of both storylines may continue on).

NP: I’ve been doing my bit to lay down a visual tone and style for the horror elements, and I really get to expand all that in this new saga. It goes to some very dark places with things linked to the history of the Judges and Mega City. There’s going to be some very cool narrative things structurally, and I think when all is said and done, it will hopefully stand up there with some of the Dreddworld’s greatest sagas. No pressure then!

AIPT: Here’s a fun but dumb question: What is Dredd actually afraid of more than anything?

NP: The day when there’s no crime? I don’t know — he’s such a solid, committed character, but I do like it when we maybe see a little doubt in his reasoning or decisions. Perhaps that would make him afraid — when he can no longer rely on himself or trust his own mind.

KN: Failing to protect his city. Which is what’s going to happen in these storylines.

Ken Niemand and Stref, “MikMak’s Big Mega-City Adventure”

AIPT: What was your experience with Dredd like before taking this story on? And why did you say yes in the first place?

Stref: I had read Judge Dredd before drawing the strip and seen the movies. He’s such a well-known character that you’re always aware of him. I think the first time I saw him would have been in the strips drawn by Ron Smith that appeared in the Daily Star. I was a huge Beau Peep fan when I was a child and used to cut them out of the newspaper and make scrapbooks out of them. I can remember loving the artwork on the Dredd strips from this time.

I drew a Dredd poster image for the Zarjaz Sci-fi Special 2024, and was delighted when Kenneth Niemand contacted me with the idea of drawing a Dredd strip…completely out of the blue! His idea was to do something different for the Christmas Special, and he fancied doing a strip in a Tintin-esque style. I published a graphic novel called Tara Togs: The Silence Of Unicorns in that style last year, so I presume he must have seen that, or something about it, on social media. I thought the idea of approaching Dredd in this style sounded like an interesting challenge!

AIPT: You’ve got a rather distinct, cheery style. What’s it like to apply that to the dark, intense world of Dredd?

Stref: I work in many styles, and always try to adapt to individual projects, which can vary widely. For example, I adapted J.M. Barrie‘s Peter Pan into a graphic novel, which is actually a very dark story itself, and drew another graphic novel called X, about a serial killer, which was less cartoony and incredibly gory. I’ve also worked in cheery styles on the The Dandy and The Beano comics and ghosted Dudley D Watkins on The Broons and Oor Wullie. I was asked to approach Dredd in a particular style, and wasn’t sure exactly how it would work until I got stuck in and just had fun with it.

It’s probably like nothing the readers have seen before, but I’m hoping they will have fun with it, too.

KN: The great thing about Dredd’s world is that it’s very adaptable. Yeah, it can certainly do dark and intense, and there’s plenty of variety beyond that, and fun and comedic is definitely also part of life in Mega-City One. “MikMak’s Big Mega-City Adventure” definitely leans hard in that direction. I wanted to do something fun for the Christmas prog, in contrast to what’s coming Dredd’s way next year, and Stref’s art style on his own Tara Togs books was exactly how I saw this story looking. There really wasn’t any other artist choice for it.

AIPT: What was that collaborative process like, and do you feel like you two have contrasting styles/approaches?

Stref: Kenneth was great to work with, and his script is really good fun. There’s a two-page spread of cover images in the story, and originally, Ken had written six scenarios for them. I thought eight would work better visually, so the middle ones weren’t landing on the fold, and he offered to write two more, and even asked if there was anything in particular I’d like to draw. I came back with some ideas, but he informed me that those would break continuity. He ran the idea past Tharg, who gave us the greenlight. The story is such a one-off, that I think it’s OK to bend the rules in it.

Niemand: There was some back-and-forth on the MikMak character design, but the story was already fully formed in my head before Stref came aboard. Like he says, he had some great requests for classic Dredd characters he really wanted to draw in what I think is the most fun part of the story…. so we added them in, despite how much their inclusion will no doubt annoy the continuity gatekeepers out there. But we don’t care, because it’s Xmas!

AIPT: Is there a favorite page or panel in this one-shot that stands out to you? Something that was fun to do or just thematically significant?

Niemand: Oh, definitely the sequence I just mentioned; a two-page montage of what MikMak gets up to when he’s loose in Mega-City, all done as retro-style graphic novel book covers, with titles like MikMak & The Robot Revolution,  MikMak & The Underground City, MikMak’s Cursed Earth Adventure, etc.

That was a blast to do, and Stref really hit it out of the park with the retro look he brought to these fictitious book covers and his outsider take on some classic Dredd places, moments, and villains.

Stref: I enjoyed making the city a character and gave it a bit of a German Brutalist vibe, as I think Herge might have done in his day. There’s a “hero shot” of Dredd that I think works well, and a block war panel that should provide a giggle. The Blocks are called Goscinny and Uderzo, so you can imagine what we tried to make them look like. Fin Cramb did an amazing job on the colours, and really brought it all to life. I’ve collaborated with him many times, and he always elevates anything he touches.

AIPT: Here’s a fun but dumb question: If Dredd sang Christmas carols, what might he sing and why?

Stref: Dredd would sing “Jingle Bell Drokk,” “Hark! The Herald Angel Gang Sing,” “Grud Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen,” and “Ding Stomm Merrily on High.” Sorry, I’ll get my coat…