2000 AD #1362
☆ Be the first to review + Add to your collection — Join freeProg 1362 is a double debut issue: it launches Synnamon, the only strip in 2000 AD history built entirely around the 'Emma Peel in an Iain M Banks universe' concept — a futuristic secret-agent character conceived by writers Colin Clayton and Chris Dows who had never before appeared in the Galaxy's Greatest Comic. Simultaneously, it opens 'The Empty Suns Book I,' the concluding chapter of Dan Abnett and Mark Harrison's celebrated Durham Red trilogy, closing out a story arc that began back in prog 1078 (1998) and had redefined Durham Red as a messianic space-opera figure rather than a Strontium Dog sidekick. Running two high-profile female-led SF strips in a single prog — alongside a Judge Dredd thriller — made this one of the more ambitious anthology packages of the Rebellion era and a snapshot of the editorial ambition of early-2000s 2000 AD.
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By late 2003, Rebellion had been the steward of 2000 AD for three years, and the line reflected renewed investment in new intellectual property alongside established franchises. The Synnamon strip was a brand-new creation by Clayton and Dows, brought to the page by penciller Laurence Campbell and inker Lee Townsend; co-creator Clayton later described the pitch as grounding a classic spy-thriller archetype in the morally complex universe associated with Iain M. Banks's Culture novels. The Durham Red component had deeper roots: Mark Harrison had been developing his distinctive computer-aided fully-painted visual style on the character since 1994, and 'The Empty Suns' represented his third and final extended Durham Red collaboration with Abnett. The prog itself was produced with a thicker-than-standard cover stock to accommodate an expanded page count, a relatively rare production decision for a weekly British anthology.
Trivia · 8 facts
- First appearance of Synnamon (real name Jahanara Kirmani), the top agent for Earth's External Security Directorate, set in the year 2123 amid a civil war between the United States of Earth and the Colony States.
- Synnamon was written by Colin Clayton and Chris Dows, with art by Laurence Campbell (pencils) and Lee Townsend (inks), colours by Gary Caldwell, and lettering by Ellie De Ville.
- The Synnamon strip 'Facing Mecha' ran from progs 1362 to 1370; the character returned in progs 1416–1418 ('Recalibration') and progs 1473–1476 ('Arc of Light'). The complete Synnamon run was later reprinted in Judge Dredd Megazine #368–369.
- Also debuts in this prog: 'Durham Red: The Empty Suns Book I, Part 1' (a double-length opening episode of 10 pages), written by Dan Abnett with fully painted art by Mark Harrison — the third and final arc of their Durham Red trilogy, following 'The Scarlet Cantos' (prog 1078, 1998) and 'The Vermin Stars' (prog 1250, 2001).
- The Empty Suns Book I ran progs 1362–1368 and was collected alongside Book II (progs 1382–1386) and Megazine-exclusive Scarlet Apocrypha stories in the Rebellion trade paperback Durham Red: The Empty Suns (October 2007).
- A Judge Dredd story — 'Inside Job' Part 1, written by Ian Edington with art by Steve Pugh — also appears in this prog, featuring Dredd investigating the murder of two Justice Department informers connected to the Lynch crime family.
- The cover of prog 1362 featured a montage of the three female leads active in the concurrent strips and was printed on a thicker paper stock, extending the issue by four additional pages — an unusual production choice for a standard weekly prog.
- Durham Red was originally created in 1987 by John Wagner and Alan Grant as a supporting character in Strontium Dog; Dan Abnett's futuristic reimagining — which placed her in suspended animation to wake 1,000 years in the future as a mutant messiah — began with The Scarlet Cantos and concluded with The Empty Suns.
Cast · 5 characters
Full credits
Reprints
Reprinted in Durham Red #2 (2007), Synnamon: Facing Mecha #[nn] (2016), Judge Dredd: The Complete Case Files #37 (2021)
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