Ranks 12-10: average all rounders

Rank 12: Prog 1961, (which would be ‘Prog 2016’ under the old numbering system)
dated December 2015,
(falling in between Progs 1960 and 1962, obviously…)

Ian Kennedy, not Simon Bisley


What’s in it?

Two Judge Dredds, one a seasonal one-off, although it’s also a sort-of epilogue to the previous year’s mega epic ‘Enceladus’. The other is a text story. Ugh.
Absalom, a non-seasonal one-off.
Kingdom, first part of a new series.
Bad Company, final part of the latest ‘surprise comeback’ series.
The Order, the first part of a new series
ABC Warriors, the first episode of a new series
Sinister Dexter, a one-off although it’s also something of a reset for the series
Future Shocks, but notably, a sequel to a VERY old Future Shock
Strontium Dog, the first part of a new series

PLUS:
A selection of pin-ups

A handful of trailers for thrills to come
A seasonal double-page poster
A letters page
-just barely qualifying as extra features, then...

Analysis

OK, so here’s the first Bumper Xmas Prog to be numbered as if it’s just a normal weekly Prog. Not because it isn’t special, but because the old numbering system is about to get super confusing because the ‘real’ Prog 2000 is now coming in a few months, and the next 15 Progs after that are going to have identical numbers to what has gone before. All this is totally irrelevant to the merits of this individual Prog, which is still bigger, better and more special than any given weekly. Or is it..?

Right, let’s get into the blow-by-blow.

Simon Bisley, who is not Ian Kennedy

Front covers by Ian Kennedy and Simon Bisley

OK, so two different covers exist for this comic, both highlighting Judge Dredd. The ‘normal’ one, a wraparound by Ian Kennedy is bright and airy and gently Sci-Fi-ish. The ‘Previews Exclusive’ cover by Simon Bisley is macho 90s hyperviolent Grimacing Dredd with bullets and robo-gore... and it's a little less Sci-Fi-ish. Both are decent, neither are really ‘special’, apart from the rare treat of getting artwork from either beloved veteran. Either version, I'm scoring it…

7/10

Judge Dredd: by Rob Williams and Henry Flint

This isn’t a sequel to or epilogue to the Titan / Enceladus sequence. What it is, is a pastiche of classic UK Xmas TV staple, the Snowman. But it hinges on the fact that living snowmen have become a possibility in Mega City 1 because of the Enceladus invasion of alien snow-energy monsters. It further hinges on the fact that Dredd and Hershey have serious reason to really hate living snowmen, and believe that they are deadly dangerous. And what it’s really about is a young, cheery, red-haired lad learning to love the awesomeness of living in the future (not his own future, but a world that is the future compared to us, the reader), and also to hate living with a load of bullies being in charge of everything. A Christmas message for us all, in the 2000AD manner 😊

It's not Christmas without a small red-headed child and their snowman pal.
Art by Henry Flint

9 out of 10

Absalom: Family Snapshots By Gordon Rennie and Tiernan Trevallion

Look, I’ve been reading through these Xmas Progs in order, and to an extent this outing suffers from ‘more of the same plate spinning’ BUT taken on its own it’s a very fine episode of Absalom, which at some point stopped being about a gang of London coppers enforcing an accord with demons, and is basically about Absalom’s personal plan to rescue his grandkids. And the point of this exercise is to winder how much pleasure one gets from reading these Progs in isolation. And, as far as this story goes, that’s high.

9 out of 10

Kingdom: Beast of Eden part 1 by Dan Abnett and Richard Elson

I could say the same thing again – if you have been reading Kingdom, you could argue this is more of the same, right down to the punning title and punning names of characters. But, taken on its own, it’s a prime slice of Abnett scripting (a new reader could happily jump in here) and Elson painting and general Mad Max movie referencing. Cracking – if not quite as enticing as the earlier stories, because this one has too many humans in it.

9 out of 10

Bad Company: First Casualties by Peter Milligan and Brett Ewins

Bad Company - that story where the fans prefer the lie to the truth...
Art by Rufus Dayglo

This is an altogether different beast. It’s the final episode of a new series of this classic and much-loved thrill. Readers at the time were rather vocal about how much they didn’t like this series for various reasons (although plenty of people, me included, liked it enough to get a second new series), chiefly that it seemed to violate the original series’ ending (take your pick of Book I, Book II part 2, or even Bad Company 2002 for which was the ‘definitive’ ending).

Oddly enough, if they/anyone just reads this one episode in isolation, it kind of puts paid to that whole argument, by outright stating that ALL versions of the events of Book I are totally unreliable, especially the bits about certain characters having died. I’m torn about how to rate this one episode without considering the series as a whole – it’s certainly thought-provoking, I’ll give it that, and it’s impossible not to be charmed by Rufus Dayglo’s passion for the story and characters he’s drawing.

8 out of 10

The Order: Court of the Wyrmqueen by Kek-W and John Burns

No point in wondering if any given episode of the Order is easy to follow – it’s pretty much baked in to the series that it’s a weird mess, being as it gleefully embraces the idea of alternate histories, while also expecting readers to have at least some familiarity with the people and events of ‘real’ history. Anyway, it’s the sort of bonkers nonsense that gives 2000AD it’s name, and I love it – although this opener to series 2 lacks the awesomeness of a Ritterstahl.

8 out of 10

ABC Warriors: Return to Ro-Busters by Pat Mills and Clint Langley

Another story here I think best read in isolation. It’s pretty much exactly what the title implies, at least in this opening episode – the telling of a tale that’s set at about the same time as the moment Ro-Busters sidled over from StarLord and into 2000AD, with a full-on Terror Tube setting. The side-plot about a pervy driving instructor letching on a young student I could do without, but the comedy of humans and robots just not understanding each other is rather wonderful. Clint Langley deserves extra credit for drawing in a style that manages to evoke 1978 and 2016 in equal measure – not switching from one to the other, mind you, just doing both at once.

Nothing like a head on a plate to interrupt a sex crime.
Art by Clint Langley
 

8 out of 10

Sinister Dexter: Blank Ammo by Dan Abnett and Simon Davis

Gosh, it’s a treat to see Simon Davis doing Sinister Dexter after a long break. And it’s done with deliberate purpose here. The whole point is to establish that the series is (sort of) starting from scratch. Our two ‘heroes’ are back in Downlode, but no one knows who they are. And Davis pulls of the trick of redesigning their faces while leaving them totally recognizable – to us, at least. And gives us a burst of nudity that the Xmas Prog hasn’t seen since its first decade, too, if you’re into that sort of thing. All that praise aside, it’s an odd story to read on its own – it basically only works as a bridge from what came before to what will come next, and otherwise feels like a weirdly sober pastiche of the early days.

Sinister and Dexter's new look -same as the old look, kinda...
Art by Simon Davis

8 out of 10

Future Shocks: The Mighty Mykflex by Martin Feekins and Jesus Redondo

Gotta love a 1977 punk
Art by Jesus Redondo

This fills the slot of ‘Classic thrill making a surprise comeback’, although I can barely remember the details on ‘the Domino Theory’ to which this is a sequel. That said, having Jesus Redondo on art is itself a throwback that I CAN recall with great detail, and fondly. The story itself is pretty silly, ending up as a wannabe creator runs into Tharg thing. I like the 1977 period detail, at least.

6 out of 10

Strontium Dog: Repo Men part 1 by John Wagner and Carlos Ezquerra

After the endless efforts of getting Johnny Alpha back from the dead, and coping with the fallout of a second mutant War, Wagner and Ezquerra had finally, FINALLY got to the point where they could basically tell classic Strontium Dog stories, but now with the added (if minor) frisson of us readers not knowing for certain that Johnny and Co would survive intact to the end of the adventure. The set up in this episode is decent enough, but sad to say by this point I’ve grown a little less excited about seeing Johnny catching up with his old army pals, and mixing it up with Stixes. Still, it IS Strontium Dog, so it’s not bad as such.

7 out of 10

Onto the non-thrills!

Let’s start with the text story, which is inherently a NON-thrill. It’s only three pages, and has a lovely Dredd picture taking up a lot of space, and it’s actually well-written. But nothing makes it work better as prose than it would as a comic strip, and the ending, although sound, is one Dredd readers have seen more than once before, I think even in the context of a Christmas story.

Far more interesting is the double-page Xmas part poster by Jake Lynch that can’t help but look as if it’s a third option of the cover. Albeit a cover that would likely appeal to long-term 2000Ad readers but perhaps not to casual browsers, who might wonder why Dredd is rather small and what the reason was for picking certain characters to show.

Also worth mentioning is a response to a letter asking for 2000AD colouring books, which I think DID come to pass?, referring to an advert in the Prog for ‘something readers have been long demanding’. I imagine this must be a reference to the toy collectible miniature Lawmasters. If you’re into that sort of thing, I guess it’s a big deal!

What’s NOT in the Prog?

Well, there’s no ‘all-new’ thrill, which always marks a Prog down for me, but apart from that this one does have a bit of everything – your top creators from now and yesteryear, and a mix of returning new thrills to hits of nostalgia, and quite the range of art styles. And there’s nothing actively bad in here (one can easily ignore a 3-page text story, which isn’t a bad example of the form, it’s just not something I want in a comic). And the stories themselves are almost all Very Good – I can definitely recommend this as a Prog to pick up and enjoy on its own.

Final scores…

Average thrill-score: 8 out of 10
Non-thrill score: 2 out of 5
Balance of thrills old and new: 4 out of 5
Standalone specialness score: 7 out of 10
Cover score: 7 out of 10

Overall overall score: 28 out of 40

Rank 11: Prog 2004,
dated December 2003,
falling in between Progs 1370 and 1371


What’s in it?
A seasonal one-off Dredd

The Red Seas, the first episode of a new series
Monsters of Rock, a one-off
Slaine: Books of Invasions: first episode of the latest part of this epic
Sinister Dexter, a one-off text story
Nikolai Dante, a one-off
Caballistics Inc, a seasonal one-off
Samantha Slade Robo-Hunter, the first episode of an all-new series (sort of)
Nu VCs, first episode of a new series
Three Tharg’s Alien Invasions, all one-page one-offs

PLUS:
New star scans and fact-file pages for Shako and Chopper

A handful of trailers for thrills to come
A letters page
A reader survey

Analysis
More business as usual here, still very much aiming to be a Prog lapsed readers can enjoy and perhaps be tempted back into the fold with. It’s an especially strong jumping-on point, with even the returning thrills feeling pitched easily for readers who have no previous knowledge of the story.

Right, let’s get into the blow-by-blow.

Front cover by Duncan Fegredo and Graham Rolfe
My favourite of the ‘Tharg, but BIG’ era of these covers, largely thanks to Duncan Fegredo providing a facial expression that isn’t trying to be too cool. But the basic idea of the Big Tharg is one that rarely turns into ‘best ever cover’ material…
8/10

Judge Dredd: the Good Man by John Wagner and Jim Murray

The story is decent, with Wagner exploring the trope of the bad man trying to atone for his sins and perhaps, by the end of it, actually becoming a good man. But being as this is a Dredd story, there can only be one ending which kind of puts too much of a downer on the concept. Meanwhile, Jim Murray is delivering by far the best art he ever did for Tharg, having all the fun with scumbags, mutants and snow. A dour Christmas tale.

The panel description read as 'Dredd on snow-bike'
Art by Jim Murray

8 out of 10

The Red Seas, Twilight of the Idols part 1 by Ian Edginton and Steve Yeowell

I still remember when The Red Seas was a new and charming thing, not a series that seemed to keep on returning and never quite getting anywhere. Anyway, this is the opener to the second series. One imagines Edginton had no idea he was going to get a second crack at this idea, and you can tell he’s SO excited about it. Yeowell, too, is definitely trying super hard to keep up. Overall, this second series might still be my favourite. In this first episode, there’s loads to admire, especially the art. There are some big, detailed scenes here, not so much of crowds, but perhaps even harder than that, rooms half-full of people. So you can’t hide anything. Technically you can’t fault it, but Edginton manages to fall into his favourite trap, being so excited about all the toys he wants to play with, and so keen to highlight his characters’ flaws, that he doesn’t quite get us invested in who they actually are and what they’re trying to do.
9 out of 10


Monsters of Rock:
by Gordon Rennie and Frazer Irving

Police brutality! Always funny, or never funny? You decide.
Art by Frazer Irving.

The third and final one-off from a series about teenage vice and how it’ll be the death of you. It’s a funny idea overall, but it never really produced a winner, and frankly, this story of rock festivals ending in dearth by violent, possibly demon-possessed coppers is the least of the three. Still Irving’s art is fun and Rennie’s gleeful lampooning of both moral guardians and vice-fueled teens gives it a frisson of thrillpower. 

6 out of 10


Slaine: Books of Invasions: book 3: Scota: part 1: revenge of the colons
 by Pat Mills and Clint Langley

Jokes about the awkward naming convention for this series aside, it’s a belter of an opening episode, with naked fury on every page, except for the pages with people who have seamonsters strapped to their heads (technically they’re naked too I guess). Mental. Langley’s new style is  much improved since Book 1 began in Prog 2003. Not giving full marks seems churlish, but, you know, Slaine has really been SUPER amazing at times, and this is not quite at that level.
9 out of 10

Sinister Dexter, a one-off text story by Dan Abnett and Simon Davis

So unlike Prog 2003’s SinDex text story, this one actually IS a pastiche of Famous Five type stuff. Not very elegant, and with a very stripped down plot. But it’s a quicker read and feels more acceptable. But it’s still a text story, and therefore FUNDAMENTALLY unacceptable. Move along.
3 out of 10
(because, you know, for what it is it's a decent example. And pretty pictures)

Caballistics Inc, a seasonal one-off by Gordon Rennie and Dom Reardon

As a story within the wider context of Cabs Inc, it’s near perfect. We get occult action, gentle drip-feeding of both characterization and back story, and some major character moments. As a one-off story in a Prog with little context, I imagine it’s rather tough to make sense of. Still, this is very much my thing, so I’m giving it a high score.
9 out of 10


Nikolai Dante: the Sea Falcon
by Robbie Morrison and John Burns

Mucking about in boats with Spatchcock and Flintlock – and the return of Lulu Romanov. As with Caballistics, it’s a decent one-off in the context of the whole series. As a single story for someone who doesn’t know the story, it might be a little baffling. Sure, you could read the teeny synopsis on the contents page, but a) who does that, and b) in this case there’s SO MUCH backstory it doesn’t even really help.

He didn't think it too many...
Art by John Burns

8 out of 10

Samantha Slade Robo-Hunter: Like a Virgin part 1
by Alan Grant and Ian Gibson

I’m trying desperately to remember what this was like first time I read it. I mean, it’s Ian Gibson back on Robo Hunter, with the ‘proper’ Hoagy and Stogie. (With a nod to the Hogan/Hughes era, which was fab.) Did we know ahead of time that the strip was coming back? And did we know which Sam Slade it would be about? Anyway, I love the original series very much, so I’m sure I was invested. And you know, there are little moments here where that old magic is back. Alongside other moments where it’s not. Starting, sad to say, with the dire logo that also gives the game away. And continuing into the VERY weird choice to take the talking Cuban/Andorran voiced cigar robot, dress him up in Rasta drag, and have him singing what is described as ‘rap’ but is in fact pretty straight up Blues. CHOICES WERE MADE. As I recall the rest of this story was decent enough, but this opener is not. The art, mind, is to die for.

Dig that groovy night-time blue wash. Sumptuous!
Art by Ian Gibson

7 out of 10

The VCs: Down by Dan Abnett and Anthony Williams
More beautiful art on display here, coupled with a story that is basically good but also rather weird and quite hard to follow either to a complete newcomer – who may remember the original series – and also to the current reader, who is up to speed on what’s happening with the new crew. Or rather, is not up to speed because the point of this story is that we, like Smith, don’t really know what’s going on, just that lots of people are dead and things don’t look good. So yeah, a strong hook to come back next week!
9 out of 10


Three Tharg’s Alien Invasions
by Henry Flint

The imagination on that Henry Flint...

This is about the time where Henry Flint moved up from ‘promising young artist who has the uncanny ability to channel Carlos Ezquerra and Kev O’Neill at the same time’ to ‘stalwart artist whose brain is the distilled essence of 2000AD.’ Let’s brush over the fact that he’s a better artist than he is a writer, and move straight into the ‘my goodness, the imagination of the man!’. The three comedy tales here all have glorious visual inventiveness and a rather strong jolt of the horrific, if you linger on some panels for too long. But the punchlines don’t all land. But they’re all complete stories told on a single page, and are a definite treat, one of the better surprise special treats.
8 out of 10

Onto the non-thrills! Not much to discuss this time out. Some super pin up art from Jock on Shako, and Andy Clarke on Chopper, but at this point the ‘Fact file’ of old thrills just seems pointless. Progs 2000 and 2001 could make a case that they were very much celebrating the best of 2000AD, and doing everything they could to find room for artists and characters who didn’t merit a full strip. But beyond that it seems to me that either these should be teases for returning thrills. And in fact, Chopper IS trailed to return in 2004 (shame that story wasn’t very good). Shako is pointedly touted as not likely to return (and who can blame 2003 era Tharg for not forseeing the 2019/2020 slate 😊). But that’s kind of it for the Prog. The teasers for thrills to come in 2004 are decent enough, and having a reader survey leads one to hope there might be some sort of infodump in a future Prog about which thrills readers actually like (well, the sorts of readers who respond to surveys, anyway). The results of such a survey – that’s the sort of extra I like to find in an end-of-year special…

What’s NOT in the Prog?

So here’s the thing – this Prog has more strip pages than usual, which ought to be a good thing. But I confess I miss the unpredictable extras that traditionally come around. Of the strips themselves, it’s hard to fault the selection of thrills and creators involved, all delivering good if not best-ever work (with a couple of exceptions). The return of Robo-Hunter, with Alan Grant and Ian Gibson at the wheel, truly WAS a special event, definitely ticking that ‘classic thrill’ box. And the VCs continues to be one of the best ever re-inventions of another classic. But I do keenly feel the lack of something totally ALL-NEW. I guess you could argue that Samantha Slade is a new character, and that Flint’s ‘Alien Invasions’ are a new concept, but neither quite has the impact one hopes for. And any benefits of having extra pages of comics are cancelled out by the decision to include that text story…

Perhaps the most important question – can I read and enjoy this one Prog as a single thing?
Answer: yes, very much, but there’s no one story or thrill to lift it above the pack.

Final scores…

Average thrill-score: 7.6 out of 10
Non-thrill score: 1.5 out of 5
Balance of thrills old and new: 4 out of 5
Standalone specialness score: 7 out of 10
Cover score: 8 out of 10

Overall overall score: 28.1 out of 40 (and no, I can't believe a Prog with a text story in it ended up this high either)

Rank 10: Prog 2005,
dated December 2004,
falling in between Progs 1422 and 1423


What’s in it?
A seasonal one-off Dredd

Sinister Dexter, a one-off
Nikolai Dante, the first episode of a new series
Tales from the Leviathan, a one-off
Samantha Slade: Robo-Hunter: a one-off
Slaine: first episode of the latest series
Caballistics, Inc, a one-off
Second City Blues, first episode of an all-new series
Three Alien Invasions, all one-page one-offs
...and Droid Life, making its first appearance in the Xmas special!

PLUS:
A review and behind-the-scenes chat about the new Rogue Trooper video game
A proto version of Covers uncovered
A star scans and fact-file page for Ace Trucking Co
A handful of trailers for thrills to come
A letters page

Analysis
There’s a real formula to the specials by this point, the 6th year in a row. Chuck in the reliable trio of Dredd, SinDex and Dante, a dash of Rennie, a hint of Mills, one all-new thrill, leaving room for a couple of lucky dip thrills. Make it a bit special with some Henry Flint chaos, and you’re done. Sadly, this version of the formula doesn’t have anything else going for it, so you really need all of those thrills to come out strong or you might have a dud on your hands…

Front cover by Mark Harrison
Look, here’s the thing. I love almost everything about this cover. The idea is super charming. The layout is spot on. The little details everywhere are delightful. It’s clever and funny and there’s a neat selection of characters all pulling the right sort of funny Christmassy faces. But there’s one small (big) problem – I don’t quite like the way it’s actually drawn. This is Mark Harrison doing his caricature ultra-cartoony style. In some ways it’s an early version of the sort of work he’s doing nowadays on Grey Area and The Out, which is amazing. But in 2004, it’s just not quite there…

9/10

Droid Life  by Cat Sullivan

Seeing your name in print - not the soul-lifting event it's made out to be :(
Art by Cat Sullivan

Look, it’s absurd to evaluate a short gag-based strip and give it a score alongside the regular multi-page thrills. But it’s also important to note how fun and exciting this strip was in its first year, and seeing P14 get an extra-large helping in the Xmas Prog raised a smile then and still gets one now. And in fact, this entry is a good, even philosophically deep one. Spare a thought also for the ‘Damage Report’, which also makes its Xmas debut here, albeit not under that name.

Judge Dredd: Christmas with the Blints by John Wagner and Andrew Currie

John Wagner's sense of humour is darker then yours.
Art by Andrew Currie

My goodness, this story opens with an amazing piece of dark comedy, an Xmas-themed advert for euthanasia, aimed at the lonely. Wagner at his most Wagnery! Sadly it never quite reaches those highs again in this send-off for Oola Blint, the Angel of Death. She couldn’t escape Dredd’s clutches forever, and was never quite as fun as PJ Maybe, but you feel her undoing comes perhaps a little too easily. Currie’s art, typical for his work of the time, is equal parts exquisite cartooning and rather hurried cartooning. I think I just don’t get on with the way he draws Dredd as a tiny helmet perched on a massive chin. His caricatures of famous actors continue with Morgan Freeman as a Brit-Cit Judge helping Dredd, and Homer Blint having face-changed his way from Steve Buscemi to William H. Macy. The story, meanwhile, doesn’t do anything wrong but can’t live up to the opening, or indeed to the charm of Oola Blint’s previous appearances.

8 out of 10

Caballistics, Inc: Weird War Tales by Gordon Rennie and Dom Reardon

The one where Prof Brand visits the super evil Michael Magister on a remote island and learns the secret history of the WW2 era equivalent of Caballistics, Inc. If I’m honest not my fave Cabs tale, it’s a little generic plotwise, but works real well as a one-off.

8 out of 10

Sinister Dexter: Dunce Macabre by Dan Abnett and Simon Davis

I mean, immediate bonus points for not being a text story. But I’m not sure it’s vintage Sinister Dexter. Abnett leads us through a series of anecdotes about people the pair have killed involving gross stupidity. But the puns and idiocies are merely amusing rather than proper funny. Davis’s art is top top notch, mind.

7 out of 10

Slaine Books of Invasions Tara part 1 by Pat Mills and Clint Langley

We’re technically in the middle of a long, drawn-out epic but that doesn’t really matter. What this episode seems most interested in is lurid imagery, whether its topless, tattooed ladies or hideous beasties merging into hapless humans, with more than a hint of Hellraiser-esque cenobite flavour. Oh, and alongside all that there’s a super simplistic romantic comedy going on involving a drooling idiot man and a ragingly jealous woman which leaves a slightly sour taste.

So many golamhs!
Art by Clint Langley

7 out of 10

Samantha Slade, Robohunter: The Davinchy Code by Alan Grant and Ian Gibson

A one-off that fits the bill of being a silly action comedy about a private eye solving a case. Unfortunately, ‘fitting the bill’ is about the limit reached here. The story is not memorable or witty as so many older Robohunters had been, the jokes are moderate, and compared to Prog 2004 stunningly painted opener, Ian Gibson just is not trying very hard. I can’t entirely blame him but at the same time I can.

6 out of 10

Tales of the Leviathan: Chosen Son  by Ian Edginton and D’Israeli

Completely shorn of the context of the original series, this is a weird one. It’s a Christmas themed tale, to be sure, and the basic set up of Leviathan is so tasty that this story is not unwelcome – but I’m not sure it does anything to inform the themes of the original series, or anything other than providing a particularly grisly punchline. Still, the art’s great.

7 out of 10

Second City Blues part 1 by Kek-W and Warren Pleece

Secon City Blues is OBJECTIVELY better than 'Trash'
Art by Warren Pleece.

Hooray! An all-new thrill. And a sports story, too, something that feels very old school but is actually refreshingly new. I’ll try to ignore my memories of the story as a whole to focus on this opening episode only. There’s a hint of ‘episode 1 itis’ here as Kek-W has to introduce us to a huge cast of characters, a setting (future Birmingham), a future sport (Slamboarding), while also emphasizing the idea that our heroes are poor ne’erdowells with hearts of gold (ish), AND making it clear that there are at least two kinds of racism going on, anti-alien and anti-talking horse, partly achieved by pointedly having a multi-ethnic set of humans in the leading roles. So essentially, there’s no way around a certain amount of expository dialogue and people leaning into personality stereotypes to make sure we can follow the action. If that sounds like a gripe it really shouldn’t. It’s tons of fun this story, and Pleece’s art does a lot of work to make the world feel lived in. (Of course, both Pleece and Kek-W would get quite a bit better at their jobs in years to come.)

9 out of 10

Nikolai Dante: Agent of Destruction part 1 by Robbie Morrison and John Burns

Good solid Dante, immaculately painted by John Burns. Notable in that, aside from a brief flash of Dante’s bio-blades, this entire story could be an 18th/19th century high seas swashbuckler with no science fiction notes at all.

8 out of 10

Tharg’s Alien Invasions by Henry Flint

Once again, the man’s imagination knows no bounds, and he sure knows how to structure a visual story But the actual set-us and punchlines are, frankly, not on the same level. I will spare a thought for Stan Pare and his sentient ears.

7 out of 10

Onto the non-thrills!
Not much to write home about, really. The main thing is a feature on the upcoming Rogue Trooper video game, which I gather was one of Rebellion’s more successful efforts, but one I haven’t played and don’t intend to. I will say that the stills make it looks miles ahead of Dredd vs Death. Then there are a couple of reasonably enticing trailers for forthcoming thrills, both with, to my mind, rather poor art choices to represent the final story. Arguably the most interesting feature is a one-page bit about the creation of the cover, which gives some insight into how artist and designer work together. But the absolute star of the show, for me, is Boo Cook’s obscenely stunning star scan of Ace Trucking Co, who get this year’s nostalgic ‘data byte’ spread. But with each year further on from the original Prog 2000, these nuggets of nostalgia just don’t quite sit right.

And that's how you pay homage to Massimo Belardinelli!
Art by Book Cook

One quirk of fate that does this Prog no favours is that one of the in-house ads is for a new set of Graphic Novel collections, specifically: Wardog, Bison and Atavar (a collection which does not include the final book). Have there been three less-loved collections in the Prog’s history..?

What’s NOT in the Prog?

If there’s one thing missing, it’s the lack of general celebratory stuff about the long history of 2000AD. There’s that fabulous Ace Trucking page, but otherwise no excuse found to wax nostalgic. Once again the choice was made to use the three Alien Invasion shorts instead of what you might call ‘filler’, and one can’t complain about extra strip content, not really – except there still is some filler in the issue and it’s not what you might call ‘special’.

Honestly, there’s nothing wrong here, and a number f the one-off episodes do thread the needle of being stories you can enjoy on their town terms, while also feeling like they’re part of a wider narrative – in other words, not quite as throwaway as too many stories from the old specials and annuals. But it’s all a bit safe…

Final scores

Average thrill-score: 7.4 out of 10
Non-thrill score: 2 out of 5
Balance of thrills old and new: 4 out of 5
Standalone specialness score: 6 out of 10
Cover score: 9 out of 10

Overall overall score: 28.4 out of 40

So now we've reached the Top Ten Biggest Best Progs Ever...

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