Ranks 9-7: still not perfect, but getting better...

Rank 9: Prog 2010,
dated December 2009,
falling in between Progs 1665 and 1666

What’s in it?

Two Dredds, one a seasonal one-off, the other the mid-part of a small piece of a larger epic.
A Future Shock. Bold choice, Tharg.
Stickleback, the first part of a new series
Nikolai Dante, the first episode of a new series
Zombo, a one-off although you could call it a prologue for a new series
Ampney Crucis Investigates…, the first episode of a new series
Low Life, a one-off Xmas-themed story

PLUS:
A feature on how selected covers of 2009 were created
A selection of pin-ups
A handful of trailers for thrills to come
A letters page

Analysis

Look, there’s pretty strong emphasis on new thrills in this Prog, balanced out by a deliberately retro Judge Dredd episode. Kind of a shame that none of those new thrills are totally new, although I do appreciate the ‘victory lap’ feeling of giving second series to three upstarts from the last year or so of Proggage. But does that make the whole thing feel special?

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

Front cover by Greg Staples
A course correction from the last couple of years, here we get both a giant Tharg AND a selection of beloved characters, all superbly drawn. Bonus point for the chessboard motif, points removed for somehow featuring just 2 out of 14 characters on that cover who appear inside the Prog itself. There’s an unintentional hint of ‘2000AD – the comic that hasn’t produced any memorable new characters in 10 years!’.

9/10

Judge Dredd: Tour of Duty: Gore City part 3 by John Wagner and Colin McNeil

A weird one, this. Tour of Duty is the Mega-est of all Mega-Epics, and as such was always going to spill over into the Xmas Prog. The set up is so detailed that all Tharg could do in the mini-intro in the Nerve Centre is explain that Dredd is out in the Cursed Earth, so the reader is REALLY dropped into the middle of things here. Still, it’s Wagner and McNeil and there’s space for a mix of Dredd and Rico mucking about with mutants and some Council of Justice intrigue, and it’d certainly pique my interest as a casual Dredd reader. But it very much tests the limits of ‘this is a special Prog’ with ‘this is a regular Prog that just happens to be very big’.

8 out of 10 (let’s not get into my scores for Tour of Duty as a whole 😊)

Future Shock: Whatever Happened to the Green Pedestrian Palm? By Chris Weston

2000AD: refusing to take superheroes seriously since... 1977
Art by Chris Weston

This isn’t actually a completely leftfield thing to do, chucking in a Future Shock. Tharg had once before used a past master to write and draw a one-of story in an Xmas Prog, one Bryan Talbot. Weston, too, is more known as an artist but has some writing in him, for sure. But really, this story isn’t up to anything beyond a) showing silly superheores in silly, and rather British, situations, and b) sending up the old ‘Green Cross Code’ comics adverts once drawn in Progs of yore by Dave Gibbons. And, I suppose, c) having a final panel that is literally the only way the story could have ended – but it’s still satisfying.

7 out of 10

Stickleback: London’s Burning part 1 by Ian Edginton and D’Israeli

Really, instead of being series 3, this could have been episode 1 of the first ever Stickleback. I mean, it’s got the main character in full glory on page 1, it’s got a clear setting, and a neat encapsulation of a bad-ish guy versus some worse guys with some other unknown baddies waiting in the wings, all with a mix of Victoriana and steampunk whatnot. Immaculate D’Israeli scratchings too, of course. If it loses points, that’s purely because, personally speaking, I’m just not that inspired by Stickleback himself (regardless of who he turns out to be).

9 out of 10

Nikolai Dante: Hero of the Revolution Part 1 by Robbie Morrison and John Burns

I can’t remember how close we are to the end, but this really has the feel of the beginning of the build up to the finale for Nikolai Dante. We get re-introduced to an old enemy, looking likely to be the main henchman baddie to beat, and then we watch Dante gather round himself a group of ‘friends’ who will, finally, overturn the tyranny of future Russia. Or die trying. One can’t really ask for more (well, except for Simon Fraser, who at this point must be getting a bit miffed that it always Burnsy whose tapped for the Year End specials)

Say, isn't that Captain Phasma from Game of Thrones?? Uncanny.
Art by John Burns.

10 out of 10

 Zombo: Merry Christmas, Mr Zombo by Al Ewing and Henry Flint

This episode of Zombo has very little connection with the rather sombre David Bowie / Ryuichi Sakamoto movie referenced by the title.
Art by Henry Flint

The first Zombo series, although pretty obviously a hit, didn’t end in a way that made more outings a sure thing. This Xmas special is essentially a reward for the creators on their success, and a transition from ‘Zombo is a dark comedy about people trapped on a Death Planet, that ends up featuring a zombie character’ into ‘Zombo is an out-and-out comedy about anything its wants to be about, starring a polite but still murderous cannibalistic zombie.’ I confess that much as I LOVE Flint’s artwork and sense of fun on this series, Ewing’s comedy is hit and miss. It’s like a pinball bouncing from a flipper marked John Wagner to another flipper marked Garth Ennis. Both flippers do keep the ball out of the hole, at least.

8 out of 10

Ampney Crucis investigates… the End of the Pier Show by Ian Edginton and Simon Davis

This is pretty much the ideal version of Ampney Crucis – a pastiche of all things British from the 1920s, and for good measure, this episode even manages to send up contemporary costume dramas set in that era. There’s the ‘upstairs’ bit at the start, with Ampney and his Aunts, portrayed as British acting royalty™, then moving onto the ‘downstairs’ bit, with Cromwell taking Ampney to a seaside resort to hang out with the working class (sadly not portrayed by the Carry On team, missed a trick there…). Oh, and of course there’s some nudity and eldritch horror, because Simon Davis. But, crucially, no mucking about with uncertainty about which dimension Ampney is in, and what the bloody hell is going on.

More stories should begin over a civilzed breakfast.
Art by Simon Davis

9 out of 10

Low Live: Jive Turkey by Rob Williams and Cam Smith

This might just be a key episode in the wider ‘Low Life’ narrative, marking the point at which SPOLIER goes from being the hero of the story to the villain. Except the actual story is too silly for that, isn’t it? The idea that undercover cops have a hard time at Xmas is a neat one, but trying to play it for pathos and laughs at the same time doesn’t really work, when that pathos is predicated on one character being concerned for the wellbeing of another, who is living in the wrong half of the same comic, tonally. Still, the funny bits ARE (mostly) funny, and the sad bits ARE sad.

7 out of 10

Judge Dredd by Al Ewing and Paul Marshall

In case you haven’t read this one in a while, I guarantee you’ll remember it – it’s that one which starts as a pastiche of SUPER early Dredd, with Marshall doing an amazing Ron Turner meets Mike McMahon impression, that segues seamlessly into a ‘Tour of Duty’ episode, while simultaneously being a clever and funny Xmas story riff. Need I do more than namecheck the villain of the piece, Frankie Scentz?!

It's definitely Paul Marshall art, but he's being clever with his layouts to make it really feel like a 1970s Dredd.

 10 out of 10

Onto the non-thrills!

Look, there’s a REALLY good letters page this year, which is a rare thing to call out. For starters there’s there the bizarre tale, that I had utterly forgotten, about a reader who had spent an hour on the 4^th plinth in Trafalgar Square dressed as, and acting like, Judge Dredd. With photos for proof! Even more mind blowing is the letter explaining that Justice Dept, in the story Judge Dredd, actually has more in common with Marxism-Leninism than it does with fascism. It’s weirdly convincing. (And yes, of course we’re aware that the difference between the two, on some levels, is rather slight. But still, more writers should run with the idea of Judge Dredd as an extreme socialist sometime).

Otherwise the main feature is a long-form description of the creation of a number of covers from the previous year. I confess I have marginal interest in this sort of thing. Which leaves the pin-ups. A cracking ‘Dredd in the snow’ from Paul Marshall, but also a weirdly retro dare I say childish double-pager from Robin Smith showing Tharg and various droids and characters at a Christmas Party. What is this, the 1979 annual?? Nice to see Droid Matt Smith get an airing, at least.

What’s NOT in the Prog?
Well, quite a shake-up here as, for the first time in a decade, there’s no Sinister Dexter, nor even anything by Dan Abnett (although SinDex are present on one of the covers in the feature)! And still no sign of Gordon Rennie, for the secon year in a row. No Pat Mills (aside from a Savage cover in the feature). By 2010, the only hardly perennials are John Wagner and Robbie Morrison.

On the other hand, there’s a double-helping of Al Ewing, at this point still something of a new voice in the Prog, and it’s exciting to see part of the ‘new’ bit of tan end-of-year special being about a new voice rather than a new thrill – although Zombo would’ve been quite a delightful new find for any readers who only pick up the specials. Ampney Crucis too, come to that. That said, outside of Dredd pretty much everything in this Prog is ’new’, in the sense that there are no thrills harking back to the first Golden Age. Good that Tharg doesn’t feel the need – but for my tastes, a truly great Prog does cater for the nostalgia crowd just a little more than that one, admittedly wonderful, Dredd pastiche.

Final scores are high, let down by a lack of extra features and, partly realted to that, a dip on 'specialness'.

Average thrill-score: 8.5 out of 10
Non-thrill score: 2 out of 5
Balance of thrills old and new: 1 out of 5
Standalone specialness score: 7 out of 10
Cover score: 9 out of 10

Overall overall score: 28.5 out of 60

Rank 8: Prog 2001,
dated December 2000,
falling in between Progs 1222 and 1223

Tharg is often vain, but has he ever been quite so pleased with himself as here?
Art by Henry Flint

What’s in it?
A one-off, extra-long Dredd
Zenith, a one-off tale that’s basically a lark
Sinister Dexter, a one-off
Nikolai Dante, a one-off tale that acts as a bit of light relief in the middle of the Tsar Wars saga, and, for the first time in these Xmas progs, an actual Christmas story.
Strontium Dog, a one-off set in the classic era
Bad Company, a one-off but really a prologue for a new series that didn’t start until 2002
Necronauts, opening episode to an all-new series
Tharg the Mighty, a mash-up story of ‘Tharg saves the day’ and ‘behind the scenes at the Nerve Centre’.

PLUS:
Tharg’s guide to wannabe writers and artists on how to do those, and more specifically how to send them in to 2000AD for consideration.
New star scans and fact-file pages for Sam Slade and Halo Jones
A random star scan of Judge Dredd vs Bad Mother (villain in this Prog), which has the feeling of maybe being a cover that wasn’t quite right for the bumper Prog..?)
A decent chunk of adverts for future thrills, including some beginning in the next prog
And a letters page.

Analysis
Prog 2000 had a very specific job to do: prove the bastards wrong, 2000AD WOULD still be going in the Year 2000. (And, as a secondary challenge, it’d be a celebration of as many of 2000AD characters and creators as it could possibly squeeze in). Prog 2001, had a rather different job to do. It had to set the template for the future of the comic – not just ‘blimey, we’re still going’, but ‘look, we’re in this for the long haul guys, strap in’. With a side order of, perhaps, attempting to be an even better single issue than Prog 2000 had been.

And maybe another side order of trying to fulfil promises made by Prog 2000 that were not carried through – specifically I think this is the main reason why there’s a Bad Company and a Zenith story in here. Tharg knew he owed it to the readers, and presumably moved various mountains to make it happen (or maybe he was waiting on work that he’d commissioned two years earlier, who knows!).

And then yet another side order of squeezing in some characters and creators who hadn’t quite fit into Prog 2000? Hence Ian Gibson providing new art for Slade and Jones.

The point is, Y2K Tharg is trying to cram an awful lot, even into 100 pages. How well does he succeed?

Front cover: Hmm. Tharg dominating the cover is a tradition on anniversary Progs, and to an extent the Xmas specials are like those. And it’s a great Tharg rendering from Henry Flint (if suspiciously similar to the opening pose from the Tharg strip from inside the Prog). Shoving snippets from most of the strips inside gives it a magazine-y feel, which as I recall the team was actively trying to do in this era. It’s fine. And the colours used do mesh well with the ultra-glossy paper stock. To some extent, it’s hard to fault them going for something simple after the epic cover from Prog 2000.

6/10

Judge Dredd: Bad Mother by John Wagner and Cam Kennedy
This suffers a little from the ‘be careful what you wish fors’. It’s Wagner and Kennedy doing what they did SO WELL in the mid 80s – skewering an aspect of contemporary pop culture. ‘Big Brother’, the TV show, was then super new – the first series was presumably still airing as Wagner and Kennedy were working on this story, and in the early days it wasn’t obvious that the show would become a worldwide phenomenon. ‘Bad Mother’ in fact, is more akin to Celebrity Big Brother, a concept that didn’t make it to actual telly until early 2001, after this story printed!

But being current or even ahead of the curve isn’t enough to make a Dredd story great. This tale is merely OK, and somehow the ending is a little unsatisfying. Maybe it’s because the celebrities picked for satirizing don’t get to do enough, beyond having funny names and ok caricatures from Kennedy. Alan Titchmarsh and maybe Gazza are the only ones who generate actual laughs during the story.

I’m inclined to wonder if Kennedy is one of those artists better in black and white – or maybe he’s just not symaptico with 2000 era Chris Blythe?

6 out of 10

Zzzzzenith.com by Grant Morrison and Steve Yeowell

Look, I’m on record as saying that I like the episodes of Zenith that are about him being a bratty pop star, and not so much the ones that are about deconstructing superhero tropes or fighting elder gods. So in theory this story should be right up my street! It isn’t. I mean, it’s fine, and the basic idea of having an aged-up Zenith be a bit like Millennium-era Robbie Williams makes sense. The joke about Peter St John being a puppet master pulling Tony Blair’s strings makes sense, too.
But what’s all the nonsense about there being a serial killer who may or may not have killed Britney Spears and who may or may not be Acid-addled Robot Archie? I think I just don’t get it – but I also have no idea how Grant ‘multiple story arcs’ Morrison was ever going to tell a satisfying story in just a few pages, either. Yeowell’s art does the job at least.

6 out of 10

Sinister Dexter: Bullet Time by Dan Abnett and Simon Davis

When I think of early Sinister Dexter, this story is like the ultimate version of that. It’s got keen art by Andy Clarke, and is built around a narrative and writing-style conceit in which Dabnett tells the story of a gunfight from the point of view of the bullets. Masterful. (If slightly let down by some murky colouring/printing)

The gunplay isn't gratuitous - it's the whole point of the story!
Art by Andy Clarke

 9 out of 10

Tharg the Mighty: the Great Thrill-Power Overload by TMO (Diggle, probably) and Henry Flint (himself, definitely)

On the one hand, this sort of story makes a special Prog ‘special’, because you wouldn’t get it in a normal weekly Prog (at least not since 1983). On the other hand, it isn’t very good, as it’s not really a story. It’s a nice excuse to get Henry Flint to draw a handful of 2000AD characters run rampant in Piccadilly Circus, which is fun – but you can sort of tell Flint’s heart isn’t really in it. It’s also a nice excuse to get droid renderings of the current Nerve Centre, with Cyber-Matt, Dig-L and even the Kingsley brothers on show.

But what the story really is – at least, this is what comes across – is a chance for the editorial droids to tell their old bosses from Egmont what they think of them. An exit interview, if you will. As a piece of vitriol, it’s kinda childish. But at least there’s precedent for this sort of thing, most obviously in Prog 500’s ‘Tharg’s head revisited’.

Why is Mean Angel headbutting a robot-esque version of the Kingsley brothers?
Art by Henry Flint

5 out of 10 – mostly for the art, but also for the peek behind the curtain. Minus a point for that panel where a dude says “and such a great subscription service!”.

Button Man III part 1 by John Wagner and Arthur Ranson

I’m sure this was teased, but this came a LONG time after Button Man II and I don’t think anyone was expecting to see it. This opening episode doesn’t give much hint of the action epic to come, but it’s a cracking opener, very much in the vein of a late 90s erotic thriller, with double-crosses expected to come thick and fast. Think ‘The Last Seduction’ if it had starred Mel Gibson…

Really a lot of nudity in these early Xmas Progs, I'm telling you.
Art by Arthur Ranson

10 out of 10

Bad Company: Down among the Dead Men by Pete Milligan, Brett Ewins and Jim McCarthy

Everyone is really TRYING with this story. It directly calls back to the status quo from the end of Bad Company II, and starts to poke at the idea of Danny Franks kind of becoming a god, and what thinking about that sort of thing does to Kano. On it’s own, it ends up not really having anything to say – but it does work as a prologue for the story known as Bad Company 2002. Perhaps you can tell from the name that this story didn’t start for another year…

There's a version of Bad Company to be written somewhere which is all about
the different forms of white privilege experienced by Kano and Danny.

7 out of 10

Nikolai Dante: one last night in the House of Sin by Robbie Morrison and John Burns

A silly romp, but in context some light relief. And yes, there IS a lot of nudity in the House of Sin.

8 out of 10

Necronauts part 1 by Gordon Rennie and Frazer Irving

The obligatory all-new thrill, for a second year in a row provided by Gordon Rennie. It’s a lot better than Prog 2000’s Glimmer Rats! This opening episode in particular is a real showcase for what Frazer Irving can do with a bag of ink and brushes. I remember people getting super excited for this at the time, and it's not talked about enough anymore. Overdue for an airing on the Mega City Book Club, methinks.

Ghost stories for Christmas, it's a great British tradition.

10 out of 10

Strontium Dog: the Sad Case by John Wagner and Carlos Ezquerra

There’s a tiny footnote at the start of this story that suggests we’re continuing the idea of retelling the secret history of Johnny Alpha – but really, this is a pure slice of the past, and after this point Wagner would give up pretending otherwise, and get on with telling fun tales of our old pals. This one centres around sad sack Kid Knee. It’s quite funny, but your tolerance for Kid Knee’s constant whining may vary.

9 out of 10

Onto the non-thrills! And there’s really only one feature this time around, the guide to writers and artists. I’m torn. At the time, I remember this being a pretty big deal. Not so much for the ‘how to do it’ stuff – although that’s always helpful, and this edition seems more thorough and practical than some previous similar things had done, it’s not the most useful thing. But what is/was a big deal was the very clear ‘please, 2000AD fans, put in your best work and you WILL have the chance to become part of the comic.’ Along with super detailed instructions on what sort of things to send, and where to send it. And I can’t be sure that this feature was the cause, but over the next decade (even two decades) 2000AD did seem to pick up a lot of new talent specifically from the UK, often people who were very clearly fans of the comic and who may well have read and been inspired by this feature.

The thriving small-press scene around this time surely played a large part, too, as did the ‘Pitch-fests’ for writers at Dreddcons of the era – but this feature feels like part and parcel of all that.

But, y’know, as a re-read curio from 20 years ago, it’s all kind of irrelevant. The basic advice on how to write and draw comics is still sound, though!

The two star scans and data files from Ian Gibson land feel like a bit of a hangover from Prog 2000, but as there are only two they’re perfectly welcome; the Dredd star scan from Dermot Power is seriously weird, though. It features Bad Mother, from the story in this very special, which on the one hand makes sense, but on the other hand doesn’t feel very special – it’d make more sense to have great artists redrawing pages from favourite stories of yesteryear – which in fact would start happening in many Specials going forward.

What’s NOT in the Prog? 

Given that this is still the very early days of the Xmas Prog, a certain level of character and creator curation is expected. You could argue he was over-represented in Prog 2000, but where oh where is Pat Mills? (Actually, he is mentioned quite a lot in the letters page as readers gush over Deadlock, and Tharg advises people that the latest ABC Warriors story is coming soon. There’s also a tease for ‘Satanus Unchained!’ coming soon. That’ll be a Pat Mills story, surely??)*

But really, with a mix of thrills old, new and brand new, this special gives a good balance, including the return of two much-loved thrills that everyone thought well and truly done. A shame neither Zenith nor Bad Company yielded memorable episodes, but in these specials the promise counts as much as the actual thing (a bit like Christmas, in many respects).

One final observation – this Prog is from that brief window when the paper was tall and narrow. Still bigger than an ipad screen, but it’s noticeably weird compared to Progs of old, Progs today, and almost all reprint editions.

Perhaps the most important question – can I read and enjoy this one Prog as a single thing?
Answer: sure.

Final scores…

Average thrill-score: 7.8 out of 10
Non-thrill score: 3 out of 5
Balance of thrills old and new: 5 out of 5
Standalone specialness score: 7 out of 10
Cover score: 6 out of 10

Overall overall score: 28.8 out of 40

*Oh no it won’t! It may or may not be the key factor in the Mills vs Diggle enmity, which informs a big part of the narrative in the documentary ‘Future Shock!’.

Rank 7: Prog 2111, (which would be ‘Prog 2019’ under the old numbering system)
dated December 2018,
(falling in between Progs 2110 and 2112, obviously…)

What’s in it?

Judge Dredd, a seasonal one-off.
Caballistics, Inc, a belated final episode.
Fall of Deadworld, a one-off
Skip Tracer, first episode of the latest series
Slaine, a one-off
Brink, the 12th episode of the latest series
Fiends of the Western Front, first episode of a new series
Durham Red, a seasonal one-off

PLUS:
TWO interview-based text pieces, both with ex-Thargs
A handful of trailers for thrills to come
A pin-up/competition winner
A letters page

Analysis

Something of a ‘business as usual’ Xmas Prog, this, but no less special for that. It’s definitely trying to do the classic thing of putting Tharg’s best characters and creators in one issue, to excite current readers and show off to lapsed readers what 2000AD is still capable of. Best EVER Prog material, though? Let’s fine out…

Front cover by John Higgins

Dredd and Tharg in a Christmassy pose, in a fun but not especially special kind of way. Dredd is holding a ‘naughty list’ with actual names printed on it – one assumes friends of John Higgins? Or possibly Tharg? It’s a weird touch that I guess is amazing if you are one of those people, but might’ve made more sense if the names were of 2000AD creators/characters?

7/10

Judge Dredd: Jingle all the Way by TC Eglington and Boo Cook

This one really goes for it, telling the tale of a City Block in which Christmas has taken over all year round. The block in question is named Gareth Hule, which is some kind of pun based around ‘yule’ but I’m damned if I can make sense of it. Is it a Welsh thing? Anyway, manic energy from Boo Cook and a real mix of comedy and tragedy from Eglington make this fun if still a bit forgettable

7 out of 10

Caballistics, Inc, Visiting Hour By Gordon Rennie and Dom Reardon

A decade earlier, Cabs, Inc had a pretty regular slot in the Xmas Prog. After an epilogue of sorts, it then disappeared from the Prog entirely (for reasons Rennie explains in this Prog in a little intro interview). It felt unfinished. Here, at last, is the finish! Except of course we now know this isn’t really a ‘final’ episode at all, it’s a transition as the series soon morphs into the Diaboliks. Either way, it’s a neat story and always fun to catch up with some old, beloved characters – and how many thrills from the 2000s can boast that?

10 out of 10

Fall of Deadworld: Running Scared by Kek-W and Dave Kendall

More snow-bound horror, and this one is a bit more intricately plotted than the previous Xmas one-offs, (it’s flashback-based structure is quite had to follow) but ends up being more hard-hitting. It also helps that this features a really VERY nasty incarnation of Judge Fear. W and Kendall use the original Dark Judges very sparingly in this series, and it’s nice to save them up for special occasions such as this.

9 out of 10

Skip Tracer: Louder Than Bombs by James Peaty and Paul Marshall/Dylan Teague

So in this world, male hipsters all have beards, while female hipsters are topless?
Art by Paul Marhsall & Dylan Teague

The third series of Skip Tracer threatens to be interesting, but doesn’t quite get there. To an extent, its hard to take issue with this opening episode. The one thing that has always been good about the series is the setting – a giant, people-filled cube in space. And Paul Marshall can certainly deliver decent architecture as well as detail-focussed madness, which is what the scene setting requires. What neither seems to achieve is any interest in the lead character(s). And despite the efforts of this opening episode, which is actually pretty decent, I still don’t get Nolan Blake’s deal. He’s some kind of bounty hunter, and has some sort of psychic powers – but in the vein of many 2000AD characters, he doesn’t use them much, preferring to rely on his wits? I dunno, there’s definitely something here, but it has yet to spring to life. Still, with no context and as the first episode, this one leaves room for that to come later, so I’m not penalizing it for the whole serieses faults.

7 out of 10

Slaine: the Bogatyr by Pat Mills and Chris Weston

Now THIS is how you do a one-off episode. It ticks so many boxes! Get a great artist in who’s work we don’t see so often, and put him on a much-loved character that he’s never tried before. (Chris Weston). Have the story sort-of be about revealing the past of a much-loved character whose past has barely been explored at all. (Ukko). Have the story itself finish off in this episode, but also tie-in to the current setting of the series at large (The Bogatyr never returns, but we DO learn more about Brutus’s New London). Throw in a bit of actual myth (Karelia/Russia/Estonia; Baba Yaga, Zmei dragons), and also some cool ideas (designing cities to look like brains). And to cap it all off, just do some great comics, where the setting, body language and dialogue all communicate loads about each character without needing reams of captions. A masterclass.

Bill Nighy as Ukko! Inspired casting.
Art by Chris Weston

10 out of 10

Brink: High Society part 12 by Dan Abnett and INJ Culbard

Culabrd communicates so much with, seemingly, so few marks. Astonishing.

Another of those rare experiments where Tharg just lets a long-running series continue right through the Xmas Prog. Honestly, as a stand-alone episode it’s good, but I bet it’s tough for newcomers to follow. That said, I actually like this trick and think Tharg should do it more often – if there’s even a hint that you’re intrigued by Brink, then surely this is what will prompt yout to read back Progs, or buy a collection, where a first episode might just leave you thinking ‘OK, pretty good, maybe I’ll see where it goes.’ Still, it’s not something I’d relish re-reading again and again within the context of a single Prog

8 out of 10

Fiends of the Western Front part 1 by Ian Edginton and Teirnen Trevallion

Tharg must have a LOT of faith in this story, because it runs a full 20 pages – 4 episodes’ worth in one! Fiends had recently run in the Prog, but any lapsed readers might well not know this, and as such it’s a neat ‘blast from the distant past’ story. Only this time it’s WW1 instead of 2. Also this time, there’s the return of a character from the even more distant past, one Black Max. Honestly, I hadn’t heard of him before this story, and still haven’t read any of his original exploits – and at the time it bugged me that the story seemed to be very pleased with itself for this reveal. I don’t mind it now – the main thing this story is doing is saying ‘what if there were vampires in the War, but on BOTH sides? And they hate each other?’ Which is fun. Trevallion, meanwhile, brings the horror. The scenes of bats biting chunks out if pilots mid-flight are really very unsettling.

Gothic horror, no architecture required!
Art by Tiernan Trevallion

9 out of 10

Durham Red: Three Gifts by Alec Worley and Ben Willsher

Durham Red is one of those characters that so obviously demands her own series that it makes sense Tharg has tried so many times. But it’s also nigh impossible to work out what makes her stories different from general Strontium Dog. She’s a bounty hunter, so she hunts down criminals. That’s kind of it. The difference writers try to get into is that she’s also a vampire, is a bit more evil than Johnny Alpha (maybe), and there’s a sort of horror-themed angle to it all that artist often lean into. But it never quite works to play up the vampire thing, as it’s a mutation not a gothic horror thing. So the writers end up just telling more elaborate bounty-hunting stories, with nastier, more human villains than Johnny and Co usually fight. Worley is a very clever writer, and does everything he can to make this story twisty and Christmassy and just a little bit nasty. But it’s never going to have the thrills of a straight up Strontium Dog tale, I fear.

Gold, Frankincense and... DEATH
Art by Ben Willsher

8 out of 10

Onto the non-thrills!

Two interviews means LOTS of pages of text (and the odd comics panel extract). On the surface, this is unforgiveable. But, in the detail, Tharg gets away with it because of who and what they’re about. Basically, this is more behind-the-scenes stuff, with Kelvin Gosnell talking about the origins and early days of how 2000AD was made, then Richard Burton talking about the glory days – and then the inglory days of later 20^th century 2000AD. They’d both make excellent supplement chapters to Thrill Power Overload, I reckon.

But it doesn’t leave room for any other bits of surprise fun, except for a one-page poster that is in fact the winning entry in the 2018 art competition, a new thing begun that year. It’s a really good poster, and who doesn’t like to see fan celebrated?

Also of some note, a trailer for the new Slaine story that will neither appear in 2019, nor be titled ‘the Web of Weird’.

What’s NOT in the Prog?

No Wagner, no Ezquerra, no Sinister Dexter, and no all-new thrills means this is never quite going to function as an all-timer – but actually, it’s a great Prog overall. Not really much to say in summary, but it DOES feature two 10/10 one-off stories (to my eyes, anyway), and a decent array of different thills. This is certainly a Prog I’d recommend to old readers and casual fans alike, despite the low scoring under my system...

Average thrill-score: 8.5 out of 10
Non-thrill score: 3 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: 29.5 out of 60

Next time, we finally find some Xmas Progs that reach scores above 30 out of 40. That's 75% of full Zarjaz!