The Helltrekkers

The Helltrekkers

2000 AD / Rebellion

'The Helltrekkers' (128 pp.) was published by 2000 A.D. / Rebellion in December, 2023. It compiles the series that originally ran in 2000 A.D., progs 387 to 415 (October 13, 1984, to April 27, 1985).

'Helltrekkers' was a spinoff of sorts from the Judge Dredd universe; the story is an updating of the Wagon Train narrative of the American West.

Fed up with life inside Mega City One, a group of would-be settlers decide to pool their resources and make for the promised land; namely, The New Territories of the West, where freedom awaits. The only problem is, getting from Mega City One to the New Territories means crossing 2,000 kilometers of the Cursed Earth.......!

And the Cursed Earth is no happy place. It's infested with ravenous dinosaurs and homicidal mutants. Gruesome diseases can strike at any time. And the terrain itself can be lethal: 'dust devils' of radioactive dust; streams and lakes of impassable lava; and acid rain that can strip flesh from bone, all present challenges to our intrepid settlers and their convoy of 'Rad Wagons.'

The writing, by 2000 A.D. stalwarts John Wagner and Alan Grant, is basically an exercise in sarcastic humor, as they come up with inventive ways to whittle away at the 111 people and 28 Rad Wagons that exit Mega City One. Some sequences had me laughing out loud, while others have a tone of pathos that occasionally crops up amidst the uniquely British humor on display in 2000 A.D. I won't disclose any spoilers, but I will say that not everyone in Lucas Rudd's wagon train makes it alive and well to the New Territories.

The artwork is a mixed bag. The inaugural episode of The Helltrekkers was illustrated by Jose Ortiz, whose pencils can impart a gritty sensibility, without sacrificing legibility. However, every succeeding episode was penciled by Horacio Lalia, whose cruder style is not well-served by the low-res printing process of the original magazine, nor by the scans of those pages that (presumably) were used to provide the content of this trade paperback. Too many panels in 'Helltrekkers' are over-inked and underexposed and as a result, it's often difficult to make out what is being represented.

Murkiness is a problem with more than a few of these vintage UK comics (I observed it in the 2018 compilation of 'El Mestizo' comics). I can't help wondering if 'The Helltrekkers' would have benefited from being printed in a larger size, as its dimensions of 7 1/2 x 10 inches can't help but give the book a cramped presentation. 

I note that Rebellion took care to print its recent compilation of 2000 A.D.'s 'Summer Magic' on glossy paper, at a dimension of 8 1/2 x 11 inches.........

The verdict ? While fans of 2000 A.D. of the 1980s may find this compilation sparks nostalgia, it's difficult to see modern-day comics readers responding well to the grainy artwork and facetious humor and violence that characterizes the book (as well, I suspect some aspects of Helltrekkers, such as the Asian family, will draw criticism for being non-Woke). This is too bad, because 40 years after its first appearance, 'The Helltrekkers' has an irreverent sensibility that is refreshing compared to the overindulged narratives showcased in contemporary American comic books.