Interview: “Big, silly, cosmic stories with a heart” Ned Hartley & Mike Walters talk Department K: Mecha-City One
23rd July 2024
When the dimensional barriers break down and the nasties and the weirdos come through, there’s only one team strange enough in all of Mega-City One to deal with them – yes, it’s the return of Department K!
We’ve seen them deal with multiversal madness, put the interdimensional invaders in their place, and generally keep the big Meg safe from everything that breaks through the fabric of reality on a semi-regular basis in the pages of the Prog. But now they’ve landed in the pages of Judge Dredd Megazine with the brand-new creative team of Ned Hartley and Mike Walters for the three-parter, Mecha-City One…
Created by Rory McConville and PJ Holden, the team of intrepid Tek-Div specialists of Department K have been busily bouncing across the dimensions for the last couple of years now, with artists Dan Cornwell and Nick Dyer joining in the fun.
Department K return for Mecha-City One, taking them out to another big Meg, where it’s mechs, mechs, and nothing but Mechs. How will Judge Kirby, Mechanisno Judge Estabon, alien Judge Blackcurrant, and Judge Intern Afua cope in a strange new world?
Only one way to find out and that’s to talk to that new creative team of Ned Hartley and Mike Walters…
Hello Ned, hello Mike! In the pages of the new Megazine we’re getting the second episode of a whole new Department K adventure with the pair of you as the brand-new creative team.
I suppose the first thing we should do is to ask you just what Department K is all about and what to expect from Mecha City One?
NED HARTLEY: Department K is such a fun idea – Mega City One has been attacked from different dimensions, most notably from Judge Death and his mates. The Justice Department created Department K, and their job is to protect Mega City One from invasion from different dimensions. They’re quite a proactive department, so they spend a lot of time travelling to other realities to put things right.
Department K is made up of Afua who is the new recruit, leader Kirby, Mechanismo unit Estabon and Blackcurrant who is some sort of alien.
How many parts do we have to look forward to?
NH: Mecha City One is a three-parter and then we’ve got some really fun one-shots coming up. There are so many different dimensions for this team to visit and adventures for them to have, we’re sending them to lots of very, very strange places.
That first episode from last month really had it all – a great reintroduction to this quartet of Tek-Division Judges – but it also rather put the cat amongst the pigeons with it’s ending and with Estabon making a difficult decision.
NH: One thing that I could possibly tease is that everything in Mecha City One is not quite what it seems to be. Something that we wanted to explore in this story is the idea of home and belonging, and I think that maybe Estabon wants to fit in a little too hard.
It’s obviously not easy for Estabon in Mega City One, he’s a really smart guy and Mechanismo units are still treated with suspicion in the Justice Department. Maybe with some reason because of the history of Mech Judges, but that’s another matter.
Department K are a very close-knit team, so it’s not a decision that he would take lightly. I think the question for him is – What is your family? Is it the people who look like you and think like you, or is it the people who understand you?
MIKE WALTERS: Estabon certainly remains very central to the story (I could probably draw him in my sleep at this point) but of course it wouldn’t be Department K without Kirby, Afua and Blackcurrant. The story goes from one crazy scenario to the next, I don’t think I’ve ever done anything that’s made me say, “How am I gonna do this?!” quite as much as this strip has.
The basic setup of Department K is a great one, playing in the Dreddverse but also, by their very nature, able to go outside of it and explore pretty much whatever you want them to.
And it’s also definitely at the lighter end of the Dreddverse, with something more cosmic, adventurous, and comical – was all this part of the thinking when you put together this first storyline?
NH: I love the range of stories that you can tell in the Dreddverse, but also how we are at the fun, brighter end of the Dreddverse, which suits me perfectly.
I think there are so many incredible creative teams telling wonderfully dark, gritty and unsettling stories in the Dreddverse so I wanted to plant our flag somewhere else. My feeling is that Department K stories should be colourful and action-packed, and that they should be able to be enjoyed by everyone. I love telling big, silly, cosmic stories that have a heart.
I’m really lucky that I get to work with Mike, who is so brilliant and thoughtful and talented in the way that he approaches these absolutely wild ideas that I put in the scripts!
In all the Dreddworld stories, I think this one, by its very concept, has the potential to go really wild. The shorthand from Matt was ‘Doom Patrol in the Judge Dredd Universe’, wasn’t it? But Marvel kids could also just as easily make if work as the Dreddverse Fantastic 4 – that whole group of beings challenging society, being outside the norm, doing all manner of fantastical things, yet always gelling as a family unit of sorts.
Is that something you’re planning on leaning into?
And just as an aside – Grant Morrison & Richard Case’s Doom Patrol was a very special series, wasn’t it? I absolutely loved it when it was first released and it holds up so very well.
NH: I love Rory, Dan, PJ, and Nick’s Department K stories because they really lean into the Fantastic Four elements and it’s so big and cosmic. I’ve tried to keep those elements and steer in towards the Morrison/Case Doom Patrol vibe, which means being a bit playful with form and structure while also not being afraid of being weird and slightly unsettling!
I really like the idea of seeing Department K as a dysfunctional family of sorts, which is why the Fantastic Four works so well – we can all understand what it’s like to fight with family members, which is why those comics are so universal. That was the reason that I wanted the first comic to be about Estabon leaving the team, I wanted to raise the stakes as much as possible. The most devastating thing that a family member can do is decide that they don’t want to be part of the family any more, this is a cosmic version of that!
But yeah, those era Morrision stories are amazing, I love his Animal Man stuff, too. There’s an idea of playing with what comics (and fiction) is capable of, just pushing the boundaries because you can. There’s an electricity in that work that you don’t see anywhere else.
MW: The entire time working on this strip that’s exactly how I’ve viewed it, well, more leaning toward Fantastic Four than Doom Patrol personally as I’m afraid to say I haven’t read it! But this strip really allows me to lean into the more American-style comic, with artists like Jack Kirby being very influential to the overall feel of this rather cosmic story (Eternals and Fantastic Four in particular spring to mind).
Now, taking over a strip this way – is it a difficult thing? Or is it more something that excites you, getting the chance to take on what Rory, PJ, Dan, and Nick have done and stamp your own mark on it?
NH: I love it, it’s like being handed the keys to a race car that’s in top condition. Rory, Dan, PJ, and Nick have set up this team so well that all the heavy lifting has been done for me! This setup is just a factory for creating great stories. I’m really looking forward to delving into the backstories of these characters and finding out a bit more about what makes them tick.
MW: Upon being offered this strip I was very excited by it, having read some of the previous stories before I was already aware of the characters and style of what I was getting into. PJ, Dan, and Nick all draw how I wish I could draw, so it was a case of just trying to keep up with what they had previously done without aping their styles completely.
And how did it come about that you got to be the new creative team?
NH: I’d written a Cadet Dredd and a Future Shock for Matt, and he asked me if I wanted to try out for Department K, so I jumped at the chance. Getting partnered with Mike was such a lucky break!
MW: As for how it came to me being the artist, I just got an email out of the blue, I’d just bought a stack of comics, journeyed home to read them, and opened my phone to find an email from Matt with the offer to work on Department K. Needless to say, the stack of comics I bought went unread for a few days while I did layouts and preliminary stuff for the strip.
And what’s the etiquette for this sort of thing – did you get in touch with the strip’s creators to see if you had their blessing and that sort of thing?
MW: Not sure if there’s a specific etiquette but I spoke to both Dan and PJ in person at Lawless in Bristol, both of whom gave their blessing and said they were looking forward to seeing what I’d done with it (no pressure at all haha). I spoke to Rory over Twitter (sorry, Elon, but I’ll never call it X) and he too gave his blessing, comic people are very nice I have learned haha.
NH: I did drop Rory a line to let him know that I was going to be writing Department K. He was incredibly gracious about the whole thing and said that he looked forward to reading it. I’m a huge fan of his work, so that was very cool indeed.
We’ve seen a fair few Department K stories now from Rory/PJ/Dan/Nick and they really took us into all manner of cosmic adventuring, rather playing with a whole Jack Kirby vibe. Are you going to keep going with that or take things in some other direction?
MW: This story is certainly less cosmic than the previous ones, particularly the one Dan did before me which was very reminiscent of Marvel’s Eternals. But I’m still trying to incorporate some of it where I can, being a big Marvel fan, I just can’t help myself! I have drawn some wacky stuff in this story though, for the second episode I don’t think I’ve ever looked at mushrooms so much in my life.
And of course, there’s the one thing that was left hanging when last we ventured into the strange world of Department K – the small matter of Cadet Afua managing to get herself rather entangled with those interdimensional cosmic beings – are you going to be picking up those threads here at some point?
NH: Not at first. I definitely want to be respectful of the established continuity and continue any plotlines that Rory has set up, but I wanted to start with a few cleaner stories that don’t involve much knowledge of backstory.
I wanted to establish Department K in the Megazine as something readers could enjoy without any prior knowledge, then build from there. Afua will definitely have her own plots and we’ll be expanding the multiverse, but I think the most important thing is to keep the stories nice and contained at first.
MW: Being that Estabon is the more central figure in this story, it really is his tale so that thread is left hanging for the time being.
After Mecha-City One, have you plans afoot for more Department K tales?
NH: Absolutely! We’ve got some more shorter stories coming up after this one. I love writing Department K, there’s so much scope, I could write these stories until the end of the multiverse!
MW: I’m currently working on another Department K story at the moment, it’s a great deal of fun and again, a lot of things I’ve never really drawn before.
Department K has had an interesting publishing history – and all the way through, it’s managed to be a really great sci-fi adventure all-ages in the best way – universally accessible, full of huge concepts, never talking down.
You’re not going to suddenly take it to dark places, go large on the grim and gritty now that you’re doing it in the Meg are you?
NH: We’re very, very committed to keeping it fun and accessible to absolutely everyone. I see it as being All Ages in the the broadest possible meaning of the term, I think that young and older readers should be able to pick up these stories and enjoy them.
We’ve worked hard to make sure that this isn’t exclusive, it’s not just for kids, it’s not just for adults, we want to make sure there’s something for everyone.
MW: I think the important thing when doing all-ages comics is to not dumb it down, but conversely it’s not necessary to go grim and gritty either. Regardless of the intended audience I think good story will always shine through, whether you’re tackling something extremely heavy and/or grim, or something very lighthearted. I think the reason Department K resonated so much is because it’s just a fun story with well-written and likeable characters.
In fact, would you say it’s actually harder to plot out stories like this, retaining that all-ages appeal, than it is to go dark?
NH: My background is in writing all-ages material, so I really feel at home here. I mean, I’ve worked on Simpsons Comics, Monster Fun, WWE, the Beano, loads of all-ages comics, I’m always trying to make the appeal as broad as possible. Department K naturally lends itself to fun, dimension-hopping stories so it works really well.
Both of you have been involved in the Rebellion all-ages projects – Mike came onboard for the second half of the 2000 AD series Lowborn High and Ned’s been involved in the Monster Fun comic, not to mention the Beano.
Talk to me about how you think all-ages material can be all things to all readers, how it shouldn’t mean dumbing down and how you can do all manner of interesting stories while still being accessible to all.
NH: That’s a really good question. I think there’s the obvious things that you can’t be too violent or sexual or sweary, but also you have to be a little cleaner in your storytelling.
You’ve got to be very careful about things like flashbacks or parallel narratives because younger readers might not be as aware of storytelling conventions. I think it’s important not to confuse the reader, so you have to be clear about what you’re doing. That’s not to say that you can’t use clever ways of telling the story, you just have to do it in a way that you don’t lose the reader.
MW: Again, I feel that all-ages doesn’t necessarily mean that you turn something into essentially the Teletubbies, there’s no need to dumb things down to a point where the average reader can’t enjoy it due to being “childish”. As I said before good story shines through. At the end of the day much of the older classic comics were written and created for young boys, such is the case for the likes of Marvel in the 1960s, however the stories are well told, so young or old, anyone can enjoy them for their own reasons.
In Department K certainly there’s a real fine element of comedy running through it, something that was there right from the start but something you’ve perhaps brought more to the fore?
MW: Whenever something humorous comes up in the script I immediately think of the best way to portray it visually, without flat out looking at the reader and saying “this is the funny part”. So in my case it is very much about body language and expression. That panel of a robot judge patting Afua on the head in episode one came in an instant, in both the expression and posing involved. So in many cases it’s easy to play off what Ned has written and (hopefully) emphasise that with the art.
Although the second episode goes rather more serious and brings us into the adventure in exploring Estabon’s new world, there’s gag after gag in the first episode – Blackcurrant checking the poison gas levels a little too late, the very idea of a very different ‘Block War’ & the whole ‘where do I get a replacement arm?’ ‘A second hand store of course!’ gag that’s just got classic sit-com written all over it.
MW: Reading that I’d be drawing the actual blocks themselves fighting as giant robots certainly took me by surprise and made me say “how the *REDACTED*” out loud haha. It was certainly a challenge to say the least.
NH: I wasn’t sure about the “second hand store” gag at first. I liked it, but I worried that it was a bit too broad. I think it works in context and it sets out the stall that the tone one of this comic is going to be a bit silly and fun.
When you’re in the Meg with a lot of other brilliant and dark comics, sometimes you have to signpost that the tone of this strip is going to be a little different.
In fact, in addition to the obvious comic comparisons, it’s also got that classic small team book vibe of every character having a very different personality, allowing them all to bounce off each other – which of course is exactly the perfect set-up for a sitcom – maybe a sci-fi Young Ones, or a fantastical Friends.
Again, was this something that immediately came to mind when you’re thinking of the characters and how they fit together in classic sit-com fashion?
NH: I was reading an interview with Mitchell Hurwitz (the creator of Arrested Development) and he said that the stock characters that every sitcom needs a patriarch, a matriarch and clown and a craftsman.
The Simpsons are the best example of that because you have Homer the patriarch who sets plots going, Marge the matriarch who consoles and gives advice, Bart the clown who is an agent of chaos and Lisa the craftsman who is always plotting to improve her life. It’s a great way to look at sitcoms.
Each member of Department K takes on different roles at different times, Kirby can be the patriarch and the matriarch in different times in the story, while Estabon is often either the patriarch or the craftsman. Afua and Blackcurrant swap the roles of clown and craftsman as needed, but Blackcurrant tends to be the clown more and Afua tends to be the craftsman more. It’s not scientific, but it helps me think about dialogue and plot.
What difficulties are there in making comedy this way as part of a comic double act of writer and artist?
NH: It’s a bit of a comedy triple bill because we’ve got fantastic letterer Jim Campbell onboard. It’s so hard to get comedy right on the page and I think that Jim ties it all together so well.
Of course, full credit to Jim as well!
NH: It’s a cliche that you don’t appreciate letterers because when they are good at their job you don’t notice what they are doing, but Jim clearly understands comedy and just makes the page sing.
I love Mike’s art, it’s so funny and Jim makes sure that the jokes flow properly. I’m in awe of both of them, it’s such a hard thing to get right and they make it look so effortless. I love working with them both and I want to keep making comics with them for as long as possible!
MW: From the art perspective it’s tricky getting across what the panel entails, the focus of what’s needed to tell the story, but doing it in such a way that you not only tell the story, but in a way that amplifies the humour or the particular joke. In the case of the aforementioned scene with Blackcurrant checking the poison gas levels, Kirby and Afua both have a look of horror on their faces, with Afua specifically covering her mouth. So in this instance it was important to show the three characters, but perhaps more important were the expressions to (hopefully) amplify the joke.
And speaking of great comedy stips – Ned, one of your Monster Fun strips, the reinvention of Steel Commando with Dan Boultwood is out this week (17 July) – I know this is about Department K but feel free to wax lyrical about Steel Commando and what your thinking behind it was and the things Dan has brought to it.
NH: Steel Commando is a robot soldier from World War II who has a best mate called Ernie, and in our story he gets thrown around through time so he meets superheroes and spacemen and dragons.
It’s been brilliant fun to work with Dan Boultwood. I love Dan. He’s brilliant. We’ve been friends and drinking buddies for decades and I’ve always wanted to work with him, so I was so happy that Keith Richardson from Monster Fun teamed us up together. Dan’s one of those artists who has such a brilliant style and he’s always, always working to develop his art. He’s one of a kind and I think he’s so good.
I’m so proud of the work we did on Steel Commando, the graphic novel is out this week and it looks amazing. We’re doing a comic strip called Peaches’ Creatures for Monster Fun at the moment and it’s just a joy seeing Dan’s pages come in.
How’s it been working together on Department K?
MW: An absolute blast from start to finish, fun scripts joined with great characters and an amazing setting. What more could a guy ask for?
NH: An absolute joy. Working with Mike has really made me up my game, he’s working at such a high level that I don’t want to let him down with my scripts! We’ve been messaging each other and he’s such a welcoming, thoughtful collaborator.
It was something that Tharg put together rather than both of you chatting and pitching it to Tharg. Once he brought the pair of you onboard, was it one where you were always talking about things from the get go or was it more of a traditional thing – Ned does script, hands over to Mike for the art?
MW: If memory serves I had finished drawing the first episode when Ned and I initially got talking over Twitter, from that point there was definitely a back and forth about the story and so forth, although I tried to not interfere too much with the story itself. I’m not a writer, that’s why I draw haha.
NH: I did the first script and once I knew that Mike was involved I dropped in a line on Twitter and we got chatting. It’s been amazing working with him, he’s such a generous and fun collaborator.
I tend to try to stuff as much stuff in a script as possible, and he’s risen to the occasion every single time. It’s a little easier writing now because I know his style and the kind of things that he likes to draw. He’s fantastic at big action set pieces so I want to give him as much fun stuff to draw as possible.
After working together on this, have you chatted about the possibility of working on more things – both Department K and others?
MW: If Ned has more Department K stories I’ll draw every one of them, I’m having so much fun with the characters and I feel like I know them at this point. How they move how they act and so forth.
Beyond that we have discussed pitching to Tharg in the future and a few story ideas have been passed around, but at least on my end, nothing much beyond that.
NH: Watch this space! We’ve been chatting and I’m working on something now. I’d love to keep working with Mike, he’s a superstar!
Ned, always good to get the writer’s view on how the artist’s hard work has paid off (after all, you writers have it oh so easy and it’s the artists who do all the heavy lifting – right Mike?).
You’ve seen the finished strip now – what do you think of what Mike’s brought to it?
NH: He’s amazing, isn’t he! I love how Mike is able to do the big fight scenes, but also get the emotional scenes brilliantly, too. It’s really hard to get comedy and drama right and he does both so well.
I feel sorry about putting in so many scenes that require such complicated backgrounds, but I know he’s going to make them look so good. Mike brings such a love of the medium, he really knows his comics and he really knows 2000 AD. He knows just the right angles to make a scene work.
Mike, Department K is merely the latest of your art being in 2000 AD, all coming from your winning of the 2020 Thought Bubble & 2000 AD Art Droid contest.
Now, you’re here in the Megazine with the delights of Department K. Is it still something that rather surprises you or has it finally sunk in that you’re pretty darned good at all this?
MW: You’ll never convince me I’m any good at this, that’s one thing I’ll make clear from the get-go. And it’s not this bullshit false modesty people sometimes have I just genuinely can’t stand most of the work I do. It’s not because of the content or anything that way, but because it’s so far removed from the world-changing amazing work that I initially see in my head. Unfortunately, by the time it reaches my hands, it’s mine.
That being said, I am eternally grateful to Tharg and to everyone I have worked with during my time at 2000 AD, it honestly is a dream come true and I still smile broadly upon seeing my work online, in WHSmiths or any shop where 2000 AD/the Megazine are sold. It brings me so much happiness and I know that isn’t gonna go away anytime soon. I’ve shared pages with some of my favourite artists and honestly, I can die a happy man just knowing that.
With your art on Department K Mike, have there been any modifications made now that you’re playing in Dreddworld?
MW: The biggest modification (if you can call it that) is that I’m colouring myself, which I haven’t done for 2000 AD prior, it’s always been either black and white or has been coloured by Pippa Bowland in Lowborn High’s case. So, there is definitely some consideration that needs to go into that side of things, but beyond that I just draw and hope it’s good!
It’s the second time now that you’ve come onboard a strip where the style and characters have already been established – it was Anna Morozova on Lowborn High and the trio of PJ, Dan, and Nick here on Department K.
What additional problems does it cause for you as an artist to do this?
Do you find yourself slightly adapting your art to, for want of a better phrase, ‘fit in’ with what’s gone before with previous artists? Or is it more a case of looking at prior strips to get a feel for things and then going your own way?
MW: Well in the case of Lowborn High and following Anna there was a huge amount of trepidation, I was terrified. It’s the main reason I can’t stand my first episode that I did; the deadline was fairly tight, and I just didn’t know how to approach it, whether to attempt to ape Anna’s style or to do my own thing.
By the second episode, I’d realised I just wasn’t going to do it any justice by trying to ape Anna’s style because, well, she’s just a better artist for a start, but the style itself clearly has much different inspirations than mine does.
In the case of Department K, I’d say PJ and Dan, but particularly Dan, draw how I wish I could draw. So it was fairly easy to go into Department K, I just had to say, “Okay, draw it real good and you’ll be fine”.
Can you go through the process of this one with us, from basic concepts and sketch ideas through to the finished colour pages we see?
MW: In terms of concepts there aren’t any – everything is completely on the page! But as you’ll see from the imagery, my so called “pencils” can be pretty horrific, in that I think I’d be a bastard for someone else to ink.
As I’m inking myself and working digitally on top of that, I see no point in prolonging the process there. So much of the actual final drawing tends to be in the inking stage. Before that, there’s just lots of scribbles that loosely resemble characters.
Ned, Mike, how did you first get into comics and at what point did you decide that it was going to be something that could be a career?
MW: I got into comics when I was around 17, so I haven’t been into them as long as some others may have been. I’d always drawn but had no real motivation of where to go with it or anything beyond that, but I was obsessed with movies and videogames – in particular the stories they could tell visually.
I had no idea at the time why certain things spoke to me more than others, but it turns out I was attracted to the idea of visual storytelling. Years later, I realised that comics could be the same thing and I could possibly do them myself.
All of a sudden, it became very interesting. Add to that I grew up with the likes of the X-Men movies and such, they were always gonna creep in some way or another. Beyond that it just became a process of trial and error, lots of free time, and many, many hours of drawing essentially anything I thought was cool. Somehow that works out as a job in comic books. Figure that one out haha.
NH: I’ll let you know when I manage to make this my career! But seriously, I first started working in a comic shop when I left university, which was Forbidden Planet in London. I then moved to the head office and started working for Titan, so I went from selling comics to making comics. The rest is history!
What were the earliest comics and characters that you got into?
NH: Probably the Beano and the Dandy. I remember reading my brother’s X-Men comics and thinking they were pretty special.
MW: My first comic that I bought was Jim Lee’s X-Men #1 from 1991, having grown up with the movies it was an instant draw (no pun intended) and Lee’s art was just spellbinding. Beyond that I got into Batman in a big way, both for the art but also the detective side of things, something that most of the movies seem to ignore in favour of “Man dressed as bat punches baddies”.
At what point did 2000 AD rear it’s head?
MW: The first prog I ever bought was Prog 2001 (a little late, I know). At that point I honestly didn’t get anthologies for some reason, it just didn’t click at that time. Beyond that time I would pick up the odd Prog here and there but then at a certain point something just clicked, and so now, like some kind of junkie, I just can’t wait for my next hit of Thrill Power each week. The stacks are growing and growing, and I don’t think they’ll stop anytime soon.
NH: I loved those big black-and-white collections of early Dredd stories when I was quite young, they were so cool. There was something so exciting about how 2000 AD just didn’t look or read like any other comic that I’d ever seen before. It was just so funny and violent and exciting. I was absolutely hooked. I remember taking that issue into school and excitedly showing all my friends. There’s nothing quite like it and I’m so proud to be part of this world!
How about influences along the way?
MW: Many of my artistic influences are from American comics I have to say, biggest guy for me being Greg Capullo, his art style and storytelling chops are just second to none.
In 2000 AD it’s all the obvious guys, Bolland, McMahon, Gibbons. But I try not to look like any of them, just to borrow little bits here and there.
NH: I think I’ve always been influenced by writers who can use humour to undercut drama at the right time, people like Garth Ennis or Alan Moore do that really well. I love Pat Mills’ work. I’ve just been rereading Nemesis the Warlock and it’s amazing isn’t it? I think that level of fearless storytelling is quite breathtaking.
I love it when you see a writer and an artist both willing to have fun and be experimental. It’s just brilliant.
One I always like to ask – if you could have carte blanche over 2000 AD and all its characters and history, what’s the one story, one character, one strip you’d love to get your hands on? And what’s the story you’d tell?
NH: ABC Warriors, but I would make them ABCD Warriors: Atomic, Bacterial, Chemical and Digital!
MW: It would have to be out of continuity or something, but I’d love to do a sort of Old Man Logan with Dredd. Kind of his final days and so forth, make him really beaten up and on his last legs. Kind of how Hershey recently died in the prog but with Dredd. I know he’s far too valuable a character to kill off so yeah, would have to be out of continuity.
And finally, what sort of things do we have to look forward to from both of you for the future?
MW: More Department K! Beyond that I’m doing work for the fabulous folks over at The77 Publishing where I’m practically in everything they put out, so go buy their stuff cause it’s awesome.
NH: More Department K for a start! Then the collection of the Steel Commando comics that I wrote comes out in July, then hopefully next year we’ll see the collection of the Peaches’ Creatures stories that I’ve been doing in Monster Fun with Dan Boultwood.
I wrote a book about how to make comics which is out in 2025, I’m really excited about that. I’ve also been working on some books that are younger versions of classic sci fi stories, and the first one of those “The War of the Worlds” and that’s out in August.
Oh, and the US edition of the prose Spider-Man book that I wrote is out in August, it’s called Spider-Man: The Bug Bite That Changed Everything. I’m sure there’s more coming out that I’m forgetting, too.
Thank you so much both Ned and Mike for taking the time to chat to us – you can find the second episode of their Department K right now in Megazine 479, and you can find that in the 2000 AD web shop and everywhere Tharg’s monthly thrills are sold!
As Ned says, you can get hold of his and Dan Boultwood’s Steel Commando right now, and Mike Walters, Anna Morozova, and David Barnett’s Lowborn High has been out since April – do yourselves a favour and get both!
And for even more Department K delights and to see the earliest adventures of this fabulous team of geeks, robots, and misfits, be sure to pick up the first volume, Interdimensional Investigators, containing the stories Department K, Stranded, and Cosmic Chaos, by Rory McConville, PJ Holden, Dan Cornwell, Len O’Grady, Jim Campbell, and Simon Bowland.
And if you want to know where to find ALL the Department K tales, we’re here for you as well…
Department K – 2000 AD Regened Prog 2196 – Rory McConville and PJ Holden
Stranded – 2000 AD Regened Prog 2233 – Rory McConville and PJ Holden
Cosmic Chaos – 2000 AD Prog 2234 – 2243 – Rory McConville and Dan Cornwell
Crisis of Infinite Estabons – 2000 AD Regened Prog 2296 – Rory McConville and Nick Dyer
Mecha-City One – Judge Dredd Megazine 469-471 – Ned Hartley and Mike Walters
We’ve run a couple of Department K interviews already that you’ll be wanting to cast your eyes over – first with Rory, PJ, and Dan in 2021 here about two tales, Stranded and Cosmic Chaos, and then we talked to Rory and Nick Dyer about Crisis of Infinite Estabons here.
