A tribute to the Galaxy's Greatest Comic!

We've MOVED!!

2011-01-11T07:43:00.000-08:00

Probably should have mentioned this before, right?

Anyway, for all the stuff about the podcast plus reviews of the progs and other junk, go check out the website here

ECBT2000ad Ep32

2010-09-07T21:43:00.000-07:00

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ECBT2000ad Ep31

2010-09-07T21:42:00.000-07:00

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ECBT2000ad Ep30

2010-09-07T21:40:00.000-07:00

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ECBT2000ad Ep29

2010-09-07T21:39:00.000-07:00

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ECBT2000ad Ep28

2010-09-07T21:38:00.000-07:00

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ECBT2000ad Ep27

2010-09-07T21:37:00.000-07:00

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ECBT2000ad Ep26

2010-09-07T21:36:00.000-07:00

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ECBT2000ad Ep25

2010-09-07T21:35:00.000-07:00

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ECBT2000ad Ep24

2010-09-07T21:33:00.000-07:00

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ECBT2000ad EP 23

2010-06-28T20:46:00.000-07:00

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ECBT2000AD Ep 22

2010-04-01T05:14:00.001-07:00

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ECBT2000AD Episode 21

2010-03-15T12:39:00.000-07:00

In this episode, Rich and a virtual Flint talk to 2000AD’s Graphic Novels editor Keith Richardson after bitching about not being able to get certain trades in the last one. Wanna know whats coming out over the next year? Wanna know how the Meg stories will feature in the Case Files? Wanna know who’s been cast as Dredd in the movie? Its all here… well, apart from the last bit anyway.

Direct link :
http://media.libsyn.com/media/geeksyndicate/ECBT2000AD-21.mp3

ECBT2000AD Episode 20

2010-03-04T00:41:00.001-08:00

In this one the guys look at progs 1671-1673 in their own unique (stupid) style. Richard once again annoys the Dante fans and Flint annoys everyone else. As always expect spoilers throughout and non-kiddie friendly language.
Badly read out issue synopsis provided by 2000ADReview.co.uk

Direct Download
http://media.libsyn.com/media/geeksyndicate/ECBT2000AD-20.mp3

ECBT2000AD Episode 19

2010-02-11T00:50:00.001-08:00

For the first time in AGES we are up to date, so as well as looking at 1669 & 70 the guys also delve back to April 1977 to get stuck into Prog 10. They also find time to talk about PJ Holdens non 2000AD work on Battlefields, offend as many people as possible and question Richards heterosexuality ...a lot.

As always, spoilers throughout and non kiddie friendly language.

Direct Link : http://media.libsyn.com/media/geeksyndicate/ECBT2000ad19.mp3

ECBT2000AD episode 18

2010-02-10T08:16:00.000-08:00

Everything comes back to 2000AD episode 18 where the guys look at progs 1666-68 (because they are the newest ones) , the The Megazine #293 (because they are shallow and get mentioned in it) and The Dead : Kingdom of Flies (because Rich loves the Bisley). As usual spoilers and non kiddie friendly language throughout.

Direct Download Link

2000AD forum discussion

ECBT2000ad Episode 17

2010-01-08T11:21:00.000-08:00

Only two weeks after the sodding Prog came out the guys are back to talk about the 2010 special edition. To make up for their lateness they present the gift of Stacey Whittle who joins them to discuss all things 2000Ad with a slight sideline into the new Doctor Who’s horse face. Have you seen the new redhead assistant by the way? Jeez, she is hot… but I digress.

As always expect spoilers throughout and language not suitable for the kiddies.

Direct download: ECBT2000AD17.mp3

ECBT2000ad Episode 16

2010-01-08T11:20:00.000-08:00

In this one the guys look at progs 1663-65 as well as checking out the new Judge Anderson collection. After complaints received last time Flint is much nicer about stuff this time round (and even likes Necrophim!) and Richard is back on the beer.

As always expect spoilers throughout and language not suitable for the kiddies.

Direct download: Everything Comes Back to 2000AD #16

ECBT2000ad Episode 15

2010-01-08T11:17:00.000-08:00

After surviving the terrors of parental visits and swine flu, the guys are back to tackle progs 1659-1662. As usual expect spoilers throughout and language not suitable for the kiddies.

Direct download: ECBT2000ADep15.mp3

ECBT2000AD 14

2010-01-08T11:10:00.000-08:00

With Flint unavailable Rich does the only sensible thing and gets in two girls to replace him. Between them they look at progs 1657 and 1658 and discuss important topics such as “Does Johnny Alpha look prettier with or without his helmet”.

Contains spoilers throughout and more swearing than you would expect from two young ladies of breeding.

Direct download: Everything Comes Back to 2000 AD – Episode 14

ECBT2000ad 13

2010-01-08T11:08:00.000-08:00

In this episode the guys look at progs 1655 and 56 as well as this years Halloween Special. They also chat about some of the 2000AD Audio books available and Richard tries to remember what went on at BICS this year apart from the drinking.

Direct download: Everything Comes Back to 2000AD – Episode 13

ECBT2000ad Episode 12

2010-01-08T11:06:00.001-08:00

In this one the guys look at progs 119 (as chosen by 2000AD artist Henry Flint) and progs 1653 & 54. As usual expect spoilers and language not suitable for the kiddies and in this episode that age old question is finally addressed… how DO you f**k soup?

Direct download: Everything Comes Back to 2000 AD – Episode 12

ECBT2000ad Episode 11

2010-01-08T11:02:00.000-08:00

In this one the guys look at prog 9 then get up to date with the big jump on issue 1650 and also 1651 and 1652.

Listen in to find out why Will Ferrell isn’t funny and why flip-flops don’t cut it if you are trying to look sexy.

As ever expect spoilers and language not suitable for the kiddies.

Direct download: Everything Comes Back to 2000 AD – Episode 11

ECBT2000AD Episode 10

2010-01-08T10:59:00.000-08:00

It’s another interview episode and this week the guys talk to 2000AD artist extraordinaire Leigh Gallagher and get his inside story on Defoe, his views on internet critics and the UK convention scene, but unfortunately not his sisters phone number.

WARNING : Due to the levels or raw manliness in this episode women are advised not to listen in order avoid unwanted pregnancy. Thank you.

Direct download: Everything comes back to 2000AD episode 10

ECBT 2000ad: Episode 9!

2009-08-26T06:32:00.000-07:00

Click Here!

Everything Comes Back To 2000ad Podcast!

2009-08-24T06:12:00.000-07:00

Here's the links to the best thing since sliced bread!
Episodes 1 - 8!
Click Here!

Prog 10 - Cover

2009-06-24T10:57:00.000-07:00

Nice cover by Carlos Ezquerra. Dredd facing off against Call-Me-Kenneth.

This would be Ezquerras last Dredd for almost five years. Ezquerra would go back to drawing for Battle and would then go on to create 'Strontium Dog' with John Wagner for Starlord before coming back to 2000ad.

Prog 9 - Flesh - Bonus

2009-06-24T10:54:00.000-07:00

More artwork for the 'Flesh' game!

Prog 9 - Judge Dredd

2009-06-24T10:03:00.000-07:00

Our story opens up at the 'Robot of the Year' show. An onlooker comments that the robot looks like it's crying tears. The salesman confirms it. Yep! It's crying tears...it's a new model of robot that's almost human! It can think, it can feel, but most of it all...it obeys!

Dredd and another Judge observe this hideous act.
Suddenly, the perp they were looking for makes his play and starts gunning down guards at the robot show. Dredd and fellow Judge, Diablo, respond.

Their perp is a cripple in a robo-chair! The judges bullets can't penetrate the chairs shield. The perp is angry because the ransom wasn't paid and releases a poison gas into the air. Dredd manages to pull down his respirator but for Diablo, it's too late. To save the rest of the people at the show, Dredd blasts a hole in the showdome and the gas is let out. Mega-City's air purification system should take care of it.

But it's too late...
The perp had dropped a blanket in the confusion and now Dredd has a 'Police Bloodhound Robot' to take up the scent.
The bloodhound follows Dredds orders and informs Dredd that they'll intercept the perp in a matter of seconds but, disturblingly, asks Dredd in a proud way 'Am I not clever?' Dredd tells the machine to get on with it's job.

Dredd catches up to the perp and realising that he can't shoot through the robo-chairs shield...he can still shoot the robo-chair!
The robo-chair swerves off the road and crashes, killing the perp, and Dredd makes an astute observation.
A nice precursor to the first Dredd 'mini' Epic 'The Robot Wars'.

The Robot Wars signals the return of John Wagner to writing Dredd although this wasn't his first Dredd script. His first was 'Brainblooms' from Prog 18.

Typical early Wagner Dredd is Dredds comment to Diablo after they see the show robot melt...'I prefer old fashioned robots! Stupid things with no feelings. They cause no problems!'. Which probably goes a long way to explain Dredds 'relationship' with Walter.

The artwork on this strip is by Ron Turner. Turner is totally unsuitable for a Dredd strip and tries his best but it's not good...it's awful. He even manages to make Kevin O'Neills designs for the Heavy Metal Kids look dull and lifeless and that 'Bloodhound Robot' looks all kinds of out of place.
Turner is probably best known for his Rick Random:Space Detective strip, which is quiet good...but his Dredd...the less said the better.

Prog 9 - Mach 1

2009-06-24T09:10:00.000-07:00

MACH 1 is back in the thick of the action in Turkostan, which is in the middle of a bloody Civil War.

What is he doing there? All is revealed on the second page...
Probe grabs one of the soldiers from the destroyed vehicle and gets the information he needs...the whereabouts of the Professor. As he's getting the information, he sees the reflection of another soldier about to 'sneak' up behind him.

Probe spins around and despatches the guy with a hyper-powered bitch slap!
MACH 1's computer brain reminds him of the seriousness of his mission. He must get to the scientist before he can develop a home-made atomic bomb and trigger World War Three!

Probe sneaks into the Black Mosque and breaks into the vault where Nansen is in hiding. After killing the guard with a hyper-powered chop to the neck, he strangles Nansen until he falls into a mild coma, throws the professor over his shoulder and makes his escape!
But it's not going to be that easy. Nansen managed to get a call out to the military, and now three tanks are blocking Probes way. They tell Probe that they will blow him away if they don't let the Professor go. Probe, realises that even he can't fight three tanks...but his computer brain gives him an idea. He puts Nansen in one of the jeeps. Nansen is still out cold. A countdown has begun for Probe to hand over the Professor, but MACH 1 is having none of it. Initially having trouble to start up the jeeps...everything falls into place and Probe goes on the offensive.
As the jeeps reach 70mph, Probe slams one of the jeeps into the pillar causing it to destroy the three tanks...
...and Probe makes his getaway, with Nansen unconscious, in the second jeep.

Run of the mill stuff for MACH 1. I liked that he was back in Turkostan because it adds some sort of continuity to the strip.

His banter back and forth with his computer is getting more interesting for me. He seems to be always reming his brain that he's human and has a right to get angry, tell jokes etc. The machine is constantly reminding him that he can't consider himself human anymore because of his hyper-powered body and mind.

One thing does puzzle me though...why would the tanks fire on Probe if Nansen is so important? Oh well, it didn't spoil my enjoyment of the strip...just struck me as odd.

The script is by the ever reliable John Wagner and the art is by John Cooper. Again, Coopers art is fantastic and really suits the MACH 1 strip.

Prog 9 - Dan Dare

2009-06-09T10:31:00.000-07:00

Dan has agreed to betray his comrades. Monday doesn't take to kindly to Dares sudden betrayal and proceeds to strangle the life out of him by using the ancient Martian art of Vi-Kin. Dare's Living Axe watches on waiting to be called by his master as Monday holds Dare in a Death-Lock!
Dare whispers to Monday that he was playing the Biog Mind and Monday agrees to surrender on behalf of all his crew. The Biog Mind is pleased. Meanwhile while the Odyssey is being attacked by Biogs...
Dan orders the Odyssey to stop firing and when he gives the word they are to warp themselves off planet asap! Commander Milton tells Dare that they tried warping out before but the ships hull won't take it. Finally with himself and the landing party onboard, Dan tells Milton to feed all the ships power to the warp drive including the power for lights and airsystem etc.

The Biog Mind, betrayed, screams in pain as the Odyssey warps (burns) its way out of the Biog Mothership!
Milton congratulates Dare and Monday...he thinks the worst is over and done with as a mass fleet of earth starships arrive. But it's only the beginning of a bigger battle and Dare and crew are caught in the middle.
So ends another craptacular episode of Dan Dare.

The Biog Mind is one dumb alien. Why didn't the Mind have some Biogs escort Dare to and on the ship to make sure he complied with the Minds wishes?

Again the crew refer to Dare as DD. Way too casual and they take orders from him even though Monday is their commanding officer. Monday has been relegated to being Dan Dares bitch!

And is that a shower head that Rodann is using on Milton? Weird!

One cool thing from this progs strip is The Living Axe waiting in the wings to be called to his masters side. That was cool...a shame the axe didn't follow Dare back onto the ship. It would have been great to see it pop up now and again in future Dare stories.

Prog 9 - Harlem Heroes

2009-05-05T08:24:00.000-07:00

Hell bent on destroying the Heroes, Artie walks straight out of a second floor window. The medics congratulate themselves on a job well done on programming Artie...although they don't know who paid to have them bring Gruber back and why they would want the Heroes dead.

Meanwhile the Heroes have arrived back in the States and are given a fantastic welcome home by the people of Harlem. They even have a flying kid escort. Giant wonders how the kids can afford those jet-packs and he gets his answer...Ulysses Cord!

Cord had bought the superliner for the Heroes and now he's equipped the kids of the ghetto with jet packs so they can welcome their aeroball stars in style. Giant is a bit uncomfortable whenever Cord is around.

Cord lays on the patriotism real thick as he congratualtes the Heroes on beating the 'hordes of Soviet Russia!'.

He tells Giant that he has a ten million dollar side bet with Cyrus Teegarten, a millionaire rancher and owner of the 'Montezuma Mashers' that the Heroes will win their next game against Teegartens team.

Two days later...the Heroes are getting ready for their game.
Giant gives Hairy a brief history of Cyrus Teegarten and how he created the Ancient Order of Aztecs when he found out that his ranch lay on the site of an ancient Aztec temple. Now the stadium is a trendy site for the filthy rich to hang around in. They're so rich that they decorate their masks (masks used to protect their faces from stray aeroballs) with with gold and jewels.
Artie Gruber has disguised himself using one of the face masks and takes his place among the crowd as the 'Montezuma Mashers' make their entrance.
The Heroes can't believe their eyes at how 'zany' the Mashers uniforms are. Zack says that they look like 'armoured Turkeys, just askin' to be plucked!'

In typical eccentric millionaire style, Teegarten offers his team a thousand dollar bonus for whoever gets the most airstrikes against the Heroes.

The game starts and Artie makes his move.
What an entrance by one of my favorite early 2000ad villians - Artie Gruber. Artie doesn't even bother to stop and chat. He's got a one track mind...Destroy the Harlem Heroes!

Nice episode. The story seems to be gathering a bit more pace. Arties intro is hilarious because he doesn't even stop to find out where he is, what's going on etc...he just has murder on his mind. The medics that revive him seem to be total idiots. They never asked who wanted Artie revived, why does the mysterious person want the Heroes dead?...and now they could be accessories to murder.

Artie is so whacky that he wears a face mask to sneak into the stadium but then, once inside, discards it. What was the point of wearing one in the first place?

I like how Tully writes about Teegarten..the guy is so filthy rich that he sets up his own 'Ancient Order' and in complete showboating of how rich he is...he offers a huge bonus to any player that gets the most airstrikes. I love how the stadium is so built for snobs that the outside temple steps are actually elevators into the stadium.

Nice writing and great artwork by Gibbons. I love Artie Grubers overall look and design.

Fantastic!

Prog 9 - Flesh

2009-04-29T08:57:00.000-07:00

To stop the kid from being further physically abused by his father, and to stop the father from being further mentally abused by his son...Slick Parsons, the tour courier, steps in to diffuse the situation. He takes the brat, Orville, to the drivers cab in the front of the train so he can see how the train is run. But Orville is still running his mouth off. Arrogant punk!The driver shows Orville the Tryanno Horn, the horn bellows like a huge female tryannosaur and causes the other dinosaurs to panic and stay off the tracks. Of course, the driver lets Orville try it as the train comes to a stop so the 'tourists' can get off and stretch their legs as well as get snapshots of the dinosaurs. Bad idea!

Meanwhile, not so far away...Reagan, Claw and Joe hear the tryanno horn. Claw thinks it's another tryannosaur but Reagan recognises the sound as that of the 'Dino-Express'. They come out of the clearing to see passengers walking around outside the train. Reagan can't believe it...he yells at the tour guide to get them back on the train.
Orville tempts fate...
Back in the pit where Old One Eye was left to die...she was too big to fall fully to the bottom and, hearing the Tryanno Horn, she's incensed that another female tryannosaur might be moving in on her territory, she manages to climb her way out of the pit.

She makes her way towards to train.
The passengers get back aboard the train as more Tryannosaurs, attracted to the trains horn, join Old One Eye. Carver takes charge...
With everyone back on board and Claw holding them off the train takes off with Reagan in the drivers seat. The Tryannosaurs can't catch up to the train.

In her frustration, Old One Eye lashes out with her tail causing a rockslide. The avalanche covers the tracks in front of the train and there's no way the train can barrel through them. The train comes to a grinding halt...

The tyrannosaurs have caught up...and Old One Eye will have her feast!
This episode seems to be more of a cautionary tale. The annoying brat kid, Orville, gets eaten in the end and his abusive father gets eaten before he can get back on the train. (Well, I'd like to think that was him getting the chomp!) I fully believe that if Old One Eye didn't eat the little prat then Claw carver would definitely done something to put the kid in his place.

Again, we have Reagan being a complete moron by not checking that Old One Eye was dead. Then again, he's not the only one...Carver should have checked too. I get he feeling that it's one time too many for Reagans screw-ups and it's eventually going to return to haunt him.

I also can't figure out how Old One Eyes tail could cause an avalanche, and an avalanche in front of the train with the train already speeding away from her. Creative license, I suppose.

And am I the only one to think that a time travel holiday like this one is a really, really bad idea!

The art by Boix is really good. I love the image of Carver firing the guns from the train. That would make a great T-shirt image. Top notch stuff.

Prog 9 - Invasion

2009-04-20T10:10:00.000-07:00

Silk tells Savage that he has a surprise waiting for him when they return to their base. The surprise is a Royal Navy Underwater team. They have scuba gear and limpet mines and they're going to blow The Volga out of the water.

Silk was an ex-army officer and he was trained in underwater demolition. He tells Savage that he can't join the party because he doesn't have the necessary skills.

Later, at the docks, with The Volga approaching, Silk and his team dive into the water. Savage watches from a distance. He has a plan just in case Silk and his crew fail to sink the ship.

As Silk and his frogmen approach the Volga, the Admiral onboard has been informed that six frogmen are approaching their vessel. He gives the order to use the ships sonic weapons.
Silk is the only survivor. He is taken onboard the ship for interrogation. After witnessing Silks failure, Savage executes his own plan. Using the cranes on the docks...Savage and his men swing into action. As Savage sweeps the deck clear of Volgans. The Admiral makes himself scarce and hids below deck. Savage swings aboard his special cargo...oil! This should take care of everything. Savage orders his men off the ship and he ignites the oil. Mission accomplished!
Fairly run-of-the-mill Invasion story. Nothing much to say here. Although the Bil Savage saying 'Hello Sailor...' is all kinds of disturbing!

The art by Carlos Pino is serviceable but kind of forgettable.

Prog 9 - Cover

2009-04-16T13:20:00.000-07:00

A classic 2000ad cover.
One of my favorites. Everything about this cover just screams cool for me. Dave Gibbons art just pops from the page. A definite stand out on the newsstands.

Prog 8 - Bonus

2009-04-16T13:16:00.000-07:00

How cool is it to have one of your own designs fully drawn out by Kevin O'Neill and published in a comic book for all your friends to see?

Another reason why 2000ad is the Galaxy's Greatest Comic.

Prog 8 - Flesh - Bonus

2009-04-16T13:08:00.000-07:00

Artwork for the 'Flesh' game cards!

Prog 8 - Judge Dredd

2009-04-16T12:27:00.000-07:00

Dredd gets the call from HQ just as the car drives past him. Dredd turns off his lawmaster lights, switches on his infra-red night sight on his helmet and follows at a distance behind the stolen car..er..piece of art. It's not the first car 'Art theft' in that sector and he wants to get to the Mr. Big and his cronies behind the crimes.

The car pulls into Krilz Kars Auto Market...as Krilz appears he notices Judge Dredd walking towards the building. He shouts for the doors to be shut...but Dredd uses a high explosive and blasts the doors apart. He enters and tells Krilz that he's under arrest. Krilz orders one of his men to shoot Dredd with his 'plastic skin spray-gun' Dredd is blinded and Krilz men move in for the kill, but before they do, they want Dredd to remove his helmet...Dredd obliges, to the shock and horror of Krilz and his gang.
With the gang in shock...Dredd guns them down. He removes the plastic from his helmet, puts it back on and pursues an escaping Krilz!

Outside Krilz is on a high speed 'walk-eezee' (A moving sidewalk)trying to escape Dredd. He shouts at Dredd that he'll never catch him. Dredd has other ideas and orders the walk-eezee to go in reverse. Dredd gets his man.

This is the worst Dredd story to date. Dredds quip at the end about the law should never be put in reverse just made me groan out loud. This was Charles Herring's only Dredd story and thank Grud for that. This was simply horrifying. Herring only wrote one more script for 2000ad and it's a MACH 1 script in Prog 12....my money is on it being really bad too.

The problem with the script is...everything! Since when is grand theft auto a 'art' crime? Doesn't make sense, and then we have Dredd take off his helmet to reveal his face. I think at this time they were toying around with the idea that Dredd is a cyborg or an alien or something that makes his face so shocking for people to look at. Really stupid idea. It's not the first time Dredd would remove his helmet but the other times make more sense than this idiotic one.

It seems that Mills was scraping the bottom of the barrel to run this story. He must have sighed a huge sigh of relief when Wagner returned with 'Robots' in the next prog.

Art wise, it's horrible too. Not Belardinellis best work and it looks totally unsuitable for Dredd. It's so lifeless and stale. You can tell that Belardinelli was trying his hardest to imitate McMahon in some of his Dredd poses. It just didn't work for him.

Prog 8 - MACH 1

2009-04-16T11:38:00.000-07:00

Probe sets off to hand over the ransom. His contact arrives on a motorbike. Probe asks where the girl is and the contact tells him that he has only one thing for him and he pulls a gun. But Probe is quicker than his would-be assassin...
Probe asks again where the girl is. He tells Probe where they are keeping her. Probe knocks him out. (Although, it looks like he's breaking the guys neck in this panel...maybe they decided to censor it and have John just 'put him to sleep for a while' instead.)
MACH 1 then disguises himself as the bike rider and drives up to the villa passing a guard on the way. But not everything is going to work out the way he wants it. Two guards ahead of him flag him down. They want to know if he got the money. Probe doesn't stop and drives right past them. The guards now know he's an imposter and open fire.

Inside the Villa the rest of the kidnappers hear the shooting outside. Pilar, they're leader, has Maria by the hair and holds a knife up to her throat.

Probe is going to have to move fast...
and he does...
The bike crashes on top of the gunmen. Pilar is all that's left. Pilar tells Probe to back off or she'll cut up Maria's face so badly that she'd look beautiful in comparison. Probe is having none of it. He tells her to go ahead and while she's carving up Marias face to take note of what he can do to her when she's done. He lifts up the motorbike he crashed into the villa with and crushes it with his bare hands in front of her.
With Pilars surrender and Maria saved, Probes 'mission' is over.
Wow!

This episode was a tough one to leave any artwork out. John Coopers pages are so dynamic and action packed. He did a really fantastics job at making the story flow at a breakneck speed. His page layouts are fantastic for this five and a half pager.

It's a fairly straight forward MACH 1 story. Although, I wonder what happened to the guards that were chasing Probe before he reached the Villa. Seems like a loose end that didn't get tidied up.

No real advancement of Probes character here, it's not the first time that Probe has done a mission for 'personal' reasons, and it's a basic 'paint by numbers' plotline. It's Coopers artwork that really makes this average story shine.

Fantastic stuff.

Prog 8 - Dan Dare

2009-04-14T09:37:00.001-07:00

Ziggy has incapacitated the Shepherd and she takes control of the ship by plugging the ships controls into her head! She closes all the airlocks, crushing and stopping the Biogs from entering the ship.
She wonders how long they can hold out before the Biogs break through. Meanwhile, Dan and the rest of the Jupiter survey party have seen the Odyssey get swallowed whole by the Biog ship and Dan decides to follow them, even though a member of the crew wants to cut and run.

They enter the Biog ship and embark to find the Odyssey. As they make their way to find the ship, they are 'attacked' by the Biog ships anti-bodies.
They are taken to what looks like a vast junction of veins...it's the ships brain! The 'blobs' dissolve and a huge voice booms in the 'spacers' minds..."Hear me. intruders...I am the mind of the ship..you are at my mercy.." Dare is obstinate...the 'mind' lashes out.
Dare asks the 'mind' what does it want. It responds..."FUEL!". It tells Dare that if he can get the crew of the Odyssey out of the ship that he will reward him with 'everlasting life'. Monday is amazed that the 'mind' has displayed a human characteristic...Betrayal.

To the crews amazement, Dare thinks it's a good idea. Hmmm...Seems that after last issues coolness of the Living Axe we've gone back to mediocrity. Oh well. Only Belardinelli's funky cosmic art is saving this strip at the moment.

Prog 8 - Harlem Heroes

2009-04-14T09:00:00.000-07:00

Giant has saved himself from a deathly fall. Holding on to a Siberian Wolf he manages to grab hold of the aeroball between his legs and score an airstrike. As he scores, he lets go of the player and falls again...but this time Slim has maneuvered himself underneath Giant and Giant is saved again!
The Umpire allows Giants score to stand even though it was highly irregular. Giant calls a time-out so he can get a replacement jet-pack.

At the relaunch of the game, it's becoming obvious that the Heroes are tiring. Each Russian players is a fresh subsitute and it's having it's toll on the Heroes. The Wolves smash through the Harlem defence but Giant kicks the ball out from the opposition players hands, it slams agains the recoil-surface and falls into the hands of Slim...who puts it away for another strike!
To the Heroes relief the time-up buzzer goes off and they have won the game 3-1! They've booked themselves a place in the second round!

The team fly down to the pit crew to change. Giant asks one of the crew what was wrong with his jet-pack. The crew member tells him that there was nothing wrong with it. Giant chalks it down to dirty fuel but King interjects that it wasn't dirty fuel. That Giants hunch about the team getting bumped off is true. First it was the road crash, then the faulty jeptpack...Giant now knows that something else is coming down the line.

They leave the Russina Aerodrome and head back Stateside.

Meanwhile...
Another great early 2000ad villain is about to make his entrance...Artie Gruber!
Gruber is a murder crazy cyborg lunatic that hates the Harlem Heroes and Giant in particular. I'm really looking forward to reading the next part of the Harlem Heroes. Gruber was always one of my favorite villains and one who I had fond memories of. Lets hope when I re-read this story, he has lived up to the hype of those memories.

Again, really good storytelling by Tully and Gibbons. We also get confirmation from the last couple of panels that Louis and Giant aren't paranoid. Someone is out to kill off the Heroes!

Prog 8 - Flesh

2009-04-13T10:02:00.000-07:00

Reagan pushes Carver aside and rushes to try and help the doc. Carver tells him to leave him, that he's only dead weight. Reagan kills the snake but for the doc...it's too late.
The 'somethin'' coming through the jungle is none other than Old One Eye. She has picked up the humans scent again.

Reagan, Carver and the three rangers that are left hop on a raft and start to make their way across the river away from Old One Eye...but...
The raft is too heavy and it's not going fast enough. Old One Eye is going to catch them unless they do something. Carver obliges by pushing one of the rangers into the water claiming it was accidental...that he 'slipped!'

One human down, four to go.
Reagan has had enough of Carver's treachery but Carver tells him to 'Quit beefing and let's go...we can travel faster now!'

But there is another threat to Reagan and company. A Phobosuchus flips the raft over. The men try and swim for the shore.

Another man gone, three to go!
Joe helps Carver, who can't swim, reach the shore safely.

Meanwhile, Old One Eye and the Phobosuchus turn on each other.
The battle is short. Old One Eye wins and continues her pursuit of the hated humans.

Meanwhile on the far side of the swamp, Carver thanks Joe for saving his life and hopes to return the favor some day. Reagan is sick and tired of Old One Eye hunting them down...there has to be a final reckoning. Carver taunts him...

Reagan tells Carver to put his money where his mouth is. He has a plan. There are some spike plants in a pit up ahead. While Old One Eye is feasting on the prehistoric crocodile, he's going to cover the spike plants and then, hopefully, Old One Eye will fall into his trap. They get everything prepared just in time as Old One Eye approaches.

Old One Eye stops in her tracks. Something doesn't look right to her. Hidden,Reagan, Carver and Joe watch from a distance. Carver tells Reagan that it's not going to work. She's suspicious.

Reagan breaks cover. maybe if Old One Eye catches sight of him...
Reagan is right. Old One Eye has fallen into the trap.
Good episode.

The death count for Flesh must be pretty high by now. Three people bite the dust in this installment and not all of them by Old One Eye. You get the sense from this strip that death can come for you at any time and no-one is safe...not even Reagan, Joe or Carver.

Now that Reagan has caught Old One Eye...what's next?

Prog 8 - Invasion

2009-04-08T09:34:00.000-07:00

Savage and a small convoy of buses are stopped at the entrance to the airport by Volgan soldiers. A soldier tells Savage that civilians aren't allowed into the airport. Savage tells him otherwise...
After shooting the Volgan in the face, Savage goes full throttle towards the Concorde MkIII. His second in command, Silk, and the rest of the Mad Dogs are onboard the bus...they smash the bus windows and fire on the Volgan troops.

Silk thinks Savage is crazy to try and hijack the Concorde because the concorde is Marshal Vaskhovs personal plane and it is heavily guarded. No problem for Bill...he swerves the bus right into the guards.
With the guards gotten rid of, Savage starts unloading the buses and ushering the refugees onboard the Concorde. Their destination is Canada. A refugee tells Savage that he'll give the 'King across the water' his regards.

One of the refugees is a trained pilot. He tells Savage that once they get airborne, nothing can stop them from getting to Canada.

The concorde is ready for take off. Savage and his men get back aboard a bus and make themselves scarce before more Volgans arrive. As they leave the airport they see overhead...
Savage tells Silk to forget about the refugees and enjoy the fireworks. Silk is outraged...He thinks that Bill is a cold hearted swine, that the refugees will be massacred!

The Volgan jets launch their heat seeking missiles. The concorde looks doomed but...
Another decent episode of 'Invasion'. I like Savages inventiveness here. It shows that he's not just all brawn and we are given another glimpse of the reason Savage fights and why he fights so hard.

It is interesting to me that people keep underestimating Savages intellect. The brigadier did when he first joined the resistance and now Silk has. Savage just seems full of surprises. It's like he was born to cause mayhem. I find a lot of similarities between Bill Savage and Marvel Comics Punisher 'Frank Castle'. They seem to be both cut from the same cloth.

Gerry Finley-Day has turned in a good script and Mike Doreys art suits it perfectly.

Prog 8 - Cover

2009-04-07T10:54:00.000-07:00

What a shame! We've had two good covers in a row and we end up with this one. It looks kind of slapped together for me. And they really should have tried to get Sola to do the cover and not Boix. Sola's dinosaurs look so much more menacing!

Prog 7 - Flesh - Bonus!

2009-04-06T11:13:00.000-07:00

An ad for next issues 'Flesh' game. Obviously this was filler. The cartoon gags look completely out of place for 2000ad and more suited for 'Buster' or 'Monster Fun'.

Prog 7 - Judge Dredd

2009-04-06T10:34:00.000-07:00

A gang of muggers are working over a victim near the Statue of Judgement until Dredd arrives.
Dredd kills one, another surrenders and the last member makes a run for it. The gang member that surrenders asks Dredd to let him go because he was forced into going along with the gang. But Dredd isn't buying it "and they forced you to take your share of the loot, too? Don't make me sick!"

Dredd has the regular cops take the criminal way. Meanwhile, the escaped gang member, Ringo, has hijacked an 'air' taxi, basically a flying cab, and starts shooting up the city. Ringo hates the Judges and "all they stand for".

Dredd takes his lawrifle from his lawmaster. Ringo is raining down bullets on Dredd...but Dredd is calm.
He goes to the top of the Statue of Judgment, takes aim, and blasts Ringo out of the sky. Ringo falls...impaling himself on the Statue of Liberty.
And we end with typical Dredd humor.
Very straightforward Dredd story.

It features the first appearance of The Statue of Judgement and it's appropriate that it towers over the Statue of Liberty.

This must have been drawn before Ezquerras cityscape was done because it looks like the buildings were added in later into the background on the splash page. We have police officers show up to take away the lawbreaker. The police weren't phased out that this stage.

Also of note is the criminals comments that "He ain't a robot - he's human! I think!" The reason is that the further Dredd develops...he seems more machine than man.

Prog 7 - MACH 1

2009-04-06T09:32:00.000-07:00

Mach 1 creates a diversion so he can sneak into Armstrongs hotel.
He tells Armstrong that he has come on behalf of Her Majesty's Government and he is to take him back to London. Armstrong stares in disbelief...Probe is just one man and he's not going to risk his life with 'schoolboy heroics'.

He calls in a guard to arrest Probe. Probe does what's neccessary to convince Armstrong.
Armstrong is convinced. Probe lowers him on rope out of the window. He steals an army truck and both men are on their way out of the city. Then, Probe spots a secret police car with an escort. He tells Armstrong to keep his head down. He doesn't want them to recognize him. But Probe spots something else...
He turns the truck around and goes back to help Pepe. Armstrong is enraged! How dare Probe endanger his life for a 'dirty peasant brat!'

Probe smashes the truck into the side of the Secret Police car. He leaves the truck and engages the escort.
Inside the car is the Bolavian Head of the Secret Police - Colonel Villarcho. He can't believe his eyes. Mach 1 is killing all his men! He orders his driver to lock all the car doors...but Pepe smiles and tells him that that won't stop 'Senor Johnny.' And he's right. Probe rips off the car door to free Pepe...but Colonel Villarcho is cunning.
Mach 1 surrenders. Villarcho takes him, Pepe and Armstrong to the secret police H.Q.
Probe decides to have his computer brain shut off his hyperpower. He wants to give them the impression that his power has left him. Villarcho thinks he's faking and has a doctor examine him. The doctor tells him that Probe is not faking, that he is in fact 'as weak as a baby!'

Villarcho takes advantage of the situation. He punches and kicks Probe around. After the beating, they dump Probe into a cell...tomorrow they are going torture him.

Alone in the cell...Probe orders his computer brain to switch his hyperpower back on.

The next day he is brought in front of Villarcho. Villarcho has his men tie Probe to two pillars. He tells Probe that what he is about to feel is 'beyond the normal meaning of pain.' The whipping begins...but with Probes hyperpower back to fool strength, the whipping feels just like a tickling across his back.

Probe makes his move and breaks free...
The toppling of the pillars causes the building to cave in...Probe rescues Villarcho. He uses Villarcho as a human shield while he sets Armstrong and Pepe free. Villarchos' troops won't shoot as long as Probe has him in his grasp.

Probe commandeers a chopper and they escape. But what to do about Villarcho?
Problem solved! That wraps up another chapter in John Probes life.

We get another fictional country here...Bolavia. Gosh, I wonder what country that could be? ;-) And something I didn't think Probe could do. He turned off his power. I didn't know that he could that. It will be interesting to see if it is explored further in the series. My memory is a bit fuzzy and I can't remember if they address this again.

Good writing by Mills again and solid art by Enio.

Prog 7 - Dan Dare

2009-04-03T10:57:00.001-07:00

Dan kills the Shepherd guards and Monday sets free what was left of the landing crew.
Now defenseless, Dan attacks the Mother Biog with his Living Axe!
The Biogs and their city are totally dependent on the Mother Biog. As she is dying...everything begins to fall apart. Dan has to get his crew off-planet before the Mother Biog explodes. The Shepherds try and stop him and his landing party from reaching their ship.
They escape from the planet but something else awaits them in space...
The Living Axe is such a bizarre concept only Belardinelli's artwork can do it any justice. This episode was pretty fast paced and moves the story along beautifully.

Another nice cliffhanger. One thing that I loved 2000ad for, was it's cliffhangers. They always made me eager to rush down to the newsagents each week and find out what's going to happen to my favorite heroes.

Prog 7 - Harlem Heroes

2009-04-03T10:07:00.000-07:00

The Siberian Wolves score! But in doing so, the player has electrocuted himself. Usually when a player hits the electrified score tank they are sent to the penalty pen but in this guys case...he's sent to the hospital.
Giant tells the rest of the team that the Wolves don't care how many players get injured, as long as they win. And everytime someone does get injured they just replace them with a player that's "fresh and rarin' to go!"

Giant wins the ball from the blast-off and throws it down to Zack who is attempting a ground attack. One of the Siberian Wolves tries to stop him at full speed...
Two more Wolves zero in on Zack but Zack hits his afterburn button and the two Wolves hit each other head-on. Zack kicks the ball to Slim and Slim scores!
The Heroes fly into their famous 'H' formation and bust out a rhyme...
"The Wolves are fast and full of guts,
but do their thinkin' with their butts!"
Meantime the three 'Borises' are carted off to get medical treatment.

The game restarts and Giant tries to grab the aeroball but he's going to fast!
Nothing much to say about this episode. Solid art by Gibbons and nice cliffhanger by Tully. Further evidence that the Heroes are being targeted for elimination.

Prog 7 - Flesh

2009-04-03T09:28:00.000-07:00

Reagans' men, a good distance outside Carver City, want to rescue Reagan and Joe but the controller refuses. They have a herd to get back to the Fleshdozers.
Meanwhile Reagan is fighting for his life against Old One Eye. He grabs a big chunk of wood and wedges it between Old One Eyes jaws.
She breaks the wood in two. Reagan looks doomed but...
Unable to see, Old One Eye smashes out of the dome.
She then turns on the alamosaur. She's not killing for food now, She's killing because she has gone completely mad!

Back in Carver City a lucky Reagan faces off with Carver again. Just as they are about to renew hostilities, the doctor intervenes. He calls them both "dumbheads" and that they still need every man they can get to the Trans-Time base safely.

Reagan agrees. They leave Carver City and make their way to where Reagans' men should be encamped...but they're gone.
Another good Flesh episode.

Reagan got lucky in this one. He should be tryannosaur food.

The next few progs have the potential to be really interesting as Reagan, Carver and co trek their way back to the base. You just know that there will be plenty of backstabbing and bloodshed.

Gosnell did a good job on the script and Solas artwork is still top-notch.

Prog 7 - Invasion

2009-04-02T10:37:00.000-07:00

The Volgan troops comandeer a train. They joke that the British have no more fight left in them.

An hour later a Volgan armored column is making it's way to Oxford. At the front of the column is Volgan Field Marshall Zinski. The column comes to a halt at a railroad crossing. They wait awhile until eventually the barrier is lifted for them to cross. The Field Marsahll isn't to happy with the lenght of time it took the signalman to raise the barrier. He'll be glad when when "his kind will be replaced by efficient Volgans."

But the signalman is none other then Bill Savage! He radios his men..."The Fly is in the web!" He lowers the barrier again...this time trapping Zinski's car.
They realise that it's a trap..but too late! There's a train coming down the tracks. The soldiers in the car run for cover. Zinski is too slow. He's fat and can't seem to move quick enough...and...
...that's the end of Field Marshall Zinski!

Savage radios his units and they come out from the surrounding wheatfields where they've been hiding and take the Volgans by surprise. The Volgans haven't the stomach for battle and turn and flee.

Just as Savage decides to pull out Volgan gunships arrive! Now it's Savages' turn to be taken by surprise.
The elite Spyder Troops armed with flamethrowers are destroying the Resistance. Savage knows that they'll all be burned alive unless he can take out the Spyder Troop chopper. Armed with a rocket launcher...he shoots and hits one chopper causing it to crash into the second chopper. They're saved!
Something is bothering Savage...how did the Volgans know the resistance would strike at the railroad crossing.

Later back at the base, on Londons Isle of Dogs, Savage gets his answer. Listening to the Volgan News broadcast, it's revealed that thanks to a last minute tip-off the Volgans were able to destroy most of the resistance despite losing Field Marshall Zinski.

Savage and his Mad Dogs were betrayed!

After an investigation, a new member of the resistance confesses that he sold them out for money. Savage is pissed! Half his men were wiped out because of the traitors greed.

The Resistance has to get tougher if they're going to drive out the invaders!
Good installment.

It shows Savages' first setback. Even though they killed a lot of Volgans, the price was too high. The fact that a traitor was discovered amongst Savages men adds an extra dimension to the strip. Not everything in 'Invasion' is going to be so straight forward and black and white.

I like Mills structure to the script. The train on the first page is the train that gets derailed later on.

The Volgan arrogance and disregard towards the conquered is really emphasised here with Zinskis comments on shooting the signalman and also by the Volgan troops in kicking the civiians off the train and making them ride in cattle cars. Mills is definitely making comparisons with the Volgans and Nazis.

Mills script really shines. As for the art...I don't really care for it. Sarompas does an okay job but it feels lifeless...I can't put my finger on why...it just does.

Prog 7 - Cover

2009-04-02T10:27:00.000-07:00

The covers are getting better! Belardinelli did and excellent job on this one. I love the speech balloon too...a nice sense of shock and danger to it.

Prog 6 - Judge Dredd

2009-04-01T12:28:00.000-07:00

Seriously!

Who calls themselves Frankenstein 2? What is he, a sequel? Then again this is Mega City One, so it's probably not all that unusual to have citizens with whacked out names.

Anyways, Dredd follows in hot pursuit. The control cameras have been keeping tabs on Frankesteins goons. The control center tells Dredd that the stolen ambulance went into a subway but never appeared on the other side. Dredd blows out one of the subway walls knowing that there has to be a secret entrance to Frankensteins hideout and that's why the ambulance disappeared.

Frankensteins cronies are waiting for him.

But they are no match for Dredds awesome firepower.
Dredd dismounts his lawmaster and enters the hideout. The hideout is like a huge cold human storage room. Bodies are lined up in rows no doubt awaiting Frankensteinto touch. Dredd interrupts Frankenstein 2 as he is finishing with a millionaire client.
Frankenstein tries to bribe Dredd by offering him any spare parts he wants when his own fail him. Dredd refuses 'You can't bribe a Judge!'. Frankenstein was just playing for time, he throws a light switch in an attempt to blind and confuse Dredd.
But Dredd's anti-dazzle visor protects him and he takes down Frankenstein. Typical final last words from Dredd. Nice dark humor.

This strip was McMahons first ever drawn Dredd. Not first published, but first drawn. You can tell that he was probably told to ape Ezquerras' style. Eventually McMahon would branch out into his own style and it would make him a legend to 2000ad and Dredd fans everywhere.

This is also the first time we learn that Dredds helmet visor is anti-glare.

The crime of 'bodysnatching' or 'Organ Legging' would be revisited again and again in Dredds world.

Another interesting note here is that the strip was probably censored. Because it was McMahons first Dredd...it predates all the other stories published so far. Dredd would have just blown Frankenstein away instead of arresting him. You can see from his pose in the above page that Dredd, in all likelihood, shot and killed him in the original pages.

Prog 6 - MACH 1

2009-04-01T10:57:00.000-07:00

We open with MACH 1 coming to the aid of a friend. But he's too late! His friend is dead and now Probe is determined to beat Kreuzer and his 'Werewolves' to the Nazi gold.

Probe arrives at Lake Constance and dives right in. He can't waste time because Karl had told him that Kreuzer and his men where planning on lifting the gold that night. He approaches the wreck of the sunken ship.

He rips the ships hold apart to get the gold but something isn't right...
The 'Werewolf' divers have been using the nazi corpses as cover.
Probe has a fight on his hands. He smashes one of the divers heads with his hand instantly killing him. More divers arrive armed with spear guns. One spears probe in the arm. MACH 1 has to end this quick or else he'll be in serious trouble. If it's the gold they want...they can have it...
Probe swims to the surface and sees Kreuzers boat skimming the lake. He decides to pay Kreuzer a visit...Hyperpower style!

Probe swims so fast towards the boat that the crew onboard think that it's a torpedo that's been aimed at the boat. He attaches himself to one of the hydrofoils and breaks it off. The majority of the crew jump overboard in a panic.
Probe pulls himself onboard the ship even though his computer brain advises against it. He takes out the last member of the crew before he can get off a shot...
And then comes face to face with Kreuzer. MACH 1 rips the spear from out of his arm. Kreuzer can't believe his eyes..the strenght of MACH 1 has him rattled.

Probe wants all the details on the Werewolf Organisation...
Kreuzer hands him a dossier with all the details as the ship heads full steam ahead towards some rocks.
...and that's all she wrote.

Decent episode the only problem I have is that Probe tells Kreuzer to say 'Hello' to his dead Werewolf thugs and also to his friend Karl when he joins them in the afterlife. Why would Probe do that unless he thinks Karl is in hell with Kruezer and co? Strange one that.

Mike Dorey did the artwork on this. Dorey was never one of my favorites but the job he did on this is really exceptional. His drawing Karls beaten face is quite gruesome. You can really tell that the Werewolf thugs went to town on him.

Pat Mills writing is top notch even if the script at the end seems out of place.

Prog 6 - Dan Dare

2009-03-31T17:56:00.000-07:00

The Thing has total control of the Odyssey and Dan, Monday and whats left of the landing party have been taken to the Biogs base. They are released from their captors stomach and now they face a welcoming committee of aliens that are identical to the 'Thing' that has taken control of the ship.
The creatures tell Dare and company their backstory. That they are a race of aliens called 'The Shepherds' and they live to serve their masters The Biogs. The Biogs lived on a planet called Zircon and The Shepherds on their moon. The Biogs grow their houses and machines from living tissue and they use live fuel to do this. When The Biogs conquered their race they made some of them slaves and the rest the Mother Biog turned into fuel. But sadly The Shepherds home planet can't produce enough fuel for them so they set up a new home on Jupiter and plan to use it as a base to take over the Earth and use humans as their fuel source.

Dare doesn't fancy being turned into fuel and insults The Biogs by calling them 'slimy bugs'. The Shepherds are deeply offended by this and they attack Dan. They're going to kill him. Dan fights back.
A Shepherd then attacks Dan with a Living Axe...
A Biog turns red and the Shepherd holds off his attack on Dare. The Biog is angry that the Shepherd is wasting fuel and the human must be taken to the Mother Biog and be 'converted'.

Monday sees his chance and runs the alien through with one of its own spears. Dan grabs the Living Axe and they decide to fight their way to freedom.
This wasn't too bad. Not any of the usual craziness of the past few episodes. Although a Living Axe is pretty wacky. Now we know why the 'Thing' was aboard the ship. It's trying to steer to ship to the Mother Biog so the human crew can be 'converted' to fuel.

The problem though is, in the first episode, the ship was broken apart and the humans seemed to be sucked down to the planet. Why didn't the Biogs do this with the Odyssey instead of beaming a Shepherd on board? Makes no sense to me.

Also, we have the usual cliched 'I'm going to tell you our whole backstory before we kill you' speech. Which is fine because 2000ad was a publication catering totally to young kids back then. Probably wouldn't fly to spill the whole can of beans in a couple of pages today though. Storytelling has gotten a little bit more complicated since then.

A fun episode and a definite improvement on what went before.

Prog 6 - Harlem Heroes - Bonus!

2009-03-31T17:38:00.000-07:00

I love cutaways!

It seems to be a a standard thing in British comic books. I really don't know where it started. I remember that the 50's Eagle had them and Look and Learn.

This one is by the awesomely talented Kevin O'Neill. I always have a laugh at the cheesy rhyming they added to the Heroes strip and this cutaway is no different. Although 'Curse' and 'Reverse' are tough to make into a smooth rhyme.

Prog 6 - Harlem Heroes

2009-03-31T13:26:00.000-07:00

The Heroes make their way through the transatlantic tunnel. After beating the Bulls, their next opponents are the Soviet Unions 'Siberian Wolves'.

The idea of a tunnel connecting continents is not a new idea but with Gibbons art we get to see what something like that would look like. Probably the closest thing to the Transatlantic Tunnel in the strip is the Channel Tunnel that opened in 1994 connecting Britain to France and the rest of Europe. For more info click the link...Channel Tunnel

The Heroes road liner driver Artie puts Giants mind at ease just in case there's a disaster in the tunnel. Artie tells him that the liner converts into an air tight super sub for such an emergency.

Giant, satisfied, takes the team to the onboard gym and goes over tactics.
Giant tells them that they don't know much about their opponents because the Russians have only been part of the World Aeroball Association for the last five years.

Later after the team talk, Giant and Slim go pay Louis Mayer a visit in the liners medic room. Giant asks Louis again if he's sure that it's sabotage that caused the last road liner to crash. Louis says that he's never been more sure of anything and that they'd better watch their backs or they'll end up like him...a floating brain in a jar!

The liner speeds across Europe to Moscow. The Harlem Heroes are the first foreign team ever to enter the Soviet Union. The Heroes transfer from their road liner to a smaller satellite vehicle. The liner is so big that it could damage and knock down a lot of the Soviet monuments.

They arrive to a rousing Russian welcome at the Soviet 'Palace of Aeroball'.
They are greeted at the steps of the stadium by the Soviet Minister of Sport. Giant asks the Minister why none of the Soviet players took part in the parade. The Minister responds that the players are not encouraged to seek public applause but rather their desire should be to serve Mother Russia in the arena of Aeroball combat!

The game is about to begin. The Heroes walk out into the arena are are surprised to see the size of the russian 'pits'. The Russians must have a whole army of substitutes. The Wolves make their entrance...
and there are a lot of them. There must be fielding at least thirty men.
The amount of players confuses the American commentator...
The game begins and the Russians are really hell bent on winning, so much so, that one player is going so fast to hit Giant from the blast-off that Giant manages to roll him. The player can't stop and smashes into a rebound pad.
The injured player is removed from the field. Giant is concerned. The Russians are going all out and they don't care how many players they sacrifice as long as they beat the Heroes.
Interesting episode because of the time period. In this future, the Soviet Union didn't fall but carried on and the Cold War is alive and well. I suppose when the script was written in the 70's there was no way anyone could predict the fall of the USSR.

As a result, it's great that 2000ad now has an alternate timeline that stretches into Dredds world. In Dredds world the Soviet Union is still alive and kicking and the tie that binds both strips is 'Giant'.

One thing that's not made clear in the strip, maybe it will be made clear later, is that we don't know how many subsitutes are allowed on one team. My impression from reading this episode is that there is no limit. Which is unusual because all sports have a limit to the amount of subs a team can use.

I find the commentator to be hilarious. He can't figure out who's who so he calls the Russian players Boris 1, Boris 2 etc. Funny when I read it now, but he has to be the worst commentator ever! He'd never get a job on ESPN!

The scene with Louis telling Giant he's sure that the liner crash was sabotage is pure padding. It's totally unnecessary as it doesn't advance the story at all...then again, if your reading the strip from week to week...it does act as a recap.

And we end with the, now standard, Harlem Heroes next prog rhyme...
"2000ad - it's thrilling and new
Big- picture power - programmed for you.'

Prog 6 - Flesh

2009-03-30T11:28:00.001-07:00

Carver faces off with a 'terrible claws' that has broken into the general store.
The poor critter doesn't stand a chance against Claw Carver!
After Reagan and Carver finish off the 'terrible claws' they grab the fuel cans and head back to the surgery room. The doc appears with Joe. Joe is on the mend...which is great news especially for the doc...Joe is the first patient he hasn't killed yet. Reagan tells the doc to leave with Joe. He and Carver are going to burn the town down to the ground to get rid of the dinosaurs.

Meanwhile, Old One Eye and the rest of the dinosaurs are rampaging through the town.

One unlucky guy thinks he's safe away from Old One Eye. He's on top of a building and she can't get at him. A pteranodon swoops down to grab the cowboy, misses him, but knocks him off balance. The poor fool falls straight into the jaws of Old One Eye!
As she is devouring the human she is attacked by...her own son! She dispatches him, after all 'In her long life...Old One Eye had given birth to many...the death of one meant nothing to her!'

Carver and Reagan are successful. The town is beginning to burn. The dinosaurs are being driven back. All except for one...Old One Eye has picked up Reagans scent and in her hatred of this human she is braving the flames to get to him. Carver has made this observation and decides to give the Old hag what she wants. His truce with Reagan is over.

Now, they can both burn!
Another good episode of Flesh. This one was written by Kelvin Gosnell, which is a nice surprise because his writing on Dan Dare is well below par. Ramon Sola's artwork is still top notch.

Prog 6 - Invasion

2009-03-30T10:25:00.000-07:00

After seeing the live executions on TV, Silk asks Savage what should they do. Everytime they hit the Volgans, they take hostages and execute them in retaliation. Savage's answer is 'Simple - Hit 'em harder!'

Bill leaves his 'Mad Dog' crew and goes window shopping!

Later a Volgan patrol hear a looter breaking into store. A Volgan soldier quips that only Volgans can have the luxuries found in these stores. They arrive at the store front and see only shop window dummies...
After mowing down the patrol, Savage continues looting the store, grabbing clothes off the racks.

The next morning in the West End of London, the Volgans gather up civilians, they will make them pay for the 'outrage' of the previous night!
The Volgans don't even bother searching the civilians, in their arrogance they think that they're not dangerous.

The hostages are brought to Wembley (Victory) Stadium where they are to face a firing squad. The execution is being broadcast Live all over London on big viewing screens.

As the firing squad take aim...the old man, that they'd picked on earlier, falls over. They laugh at him and say he will die where he falls. But this isn't any 'old man'...it's Savage!
And the other 'hostages' are his men in disguise!

Now, that they have the element of surprise they take out the Volgans in the stadium!

What follows is kind of bizarre...they sing football (soccer) songs as they wipe out the Volgan firing squad.
Savage and his men clean out the stadium of other Volgan troops. The 'Volgan' television presenter decides to take out some of the resistance. But Savage is quick. He may be out of bullets but he's still got his knife! On live broadcast from the stadium Savage addresses the public in yet more soccer cliches. he talks about his killing of the Volgans inside Wembley as a qualifying match and that the BIG match is coming soon and then he leads them in a sing song!
Savage and his Mad Dogs leave before more troops arrive.

Gerry Finley Day wrote this one, so it kind of makes sense that it would be a bit bizarre. Finley Day was notorious for his all-over-the-place scripts. His scripts always had heavy rewrites.

Whats' truly strange is the resistance chanting football slogans/songs as they kill Volgans and then Savages address to the nation ending in a rendition of 'You'll never walk alone!'.

Really strange.

The artwork is by Ian Kennedy. It's pretty standard fare but probably too clean for a strip like Savage.

Prog 6 - Cover

2009-03-26T11:55:00.000-07:00

Nice cover by Mike Dorey. Can't really go wrong with Undead Nazis and Nazi gold!

Prog 5 - Judge Dredd

2009-03-26T11:00:00.000-07:00

Dredd is relaxing, reading a law book, in his apartment when he is rudely interrupted by a 'Sensor-Round' display. Maria, Dredd's cleaning lady enters the room with one Kevin O'Neill, the Senor-Round salesman. Dredd wants the 'ferret faced parasite' thrown out of his apartment. Maria nags Dredd, all he ever thinks of is the law and never has fun.

A group of citizens enter Dredds apartment. Dredd isn't too pleased until one of them tells Dredd why. There has been a murder on the 200th floor - the President of Sensor-Round is dead!

Dredd investigates. It seems the President has been killed by some 'monster!'.

Over the next few days other top Sensor-Round executives meet strange deaths.
Dredd is on patrol when he gets a call from HQ saying that they have identified a voice print from the scene of the last murder. The voice belongs to the curator of the Movie Special Effects Museum. Dredd decides to pay the curator a visit.

At the museum Dredd sees bloodspots on the robot 'monsters'. Everything makes sense to him now. The curator has been using these movie monsters to kill the Sensor-Round executives. The curator and killer turn out to be the Sensor-Round salesman - Kevin O'Neill!

O'Neill confesses to Dredd. He killed those executives because they ruined the movie monsters of old. Nobody wants to see those monsters anymore because Sensor-Round offer dream-worlds in their stead. O' Neill flees. Dredd follows in pursuit...but O'Neill has activated the greatest movie monster of them all - Krong!
The mechanical monster breaks out of the museum and smashes his way across the city to destroy the Sensor-Round building. Dredd follows in his lawmaster desperately trying to stop the giant robot ape.

Krong reaches the building and begins to climb it - ripping it apart at the same time.

The only way Dredd can stop it is by ramming his lawmaster down it's throat! It works and the creature falls landing on a hapless Kevin O'Neill.
Even though he left 2000ad, Carlos Ezquerrah came back to do this strip. This is his first published Dredd.

The 'Robot Ape' story was inspired by the 1976 remake of King Kong and the 'Kevin O'Neill' character in the strip was named after 2000ad's Kevin O'Neill. O'Neill was heavily into movie special effect back then and had even done a King Kong fanzine.

This story also contains the first appearance of Maria, Dredd's landlady. Although here she's referred to as a cleaning lady. Maria was introduced to give Dredd a mother figure and some sort of balance. Dredd was so robotic that Mills felt that Maria would humanise him more.

Prog 5 - MACH 1

2009-03-26T09:39:00.000-07:00

Probe is on a well earned vacation and needs to burn off some energy. It ain't easy being a MACH man. Nice Popeye reference.

Later on the beach, Probe is approached by a stranger. The stranger had seen Probes display of hyperpower swimming. MACH 1's computer brain informs Probe that the stranger is Otto Brandt, an illegal weapons dealer and advises Probe to exercise caution because Brandt wants to find out the secret behind his hyperpower.

Brandt is planning a party and wants Probe to join him as his guest. Probe declines. Brandt 'persuades' him to change his mind... Probe agrees to go with Brandt. His computer brain disagrees with the decision and reminds him that with his hyperpower he could have taken out Brandts' goons. Probe responds that every second doing that would have cost more lives.

They board the boat plane. The 'party' starts. Brandt's goons lay into Probe. They beat him. Brandt asks Probe to be sensible...how much more punishment can he take? Probe says that he's not 'one of your old fashioned heroes - I'll tell you everything - If the money is right!'

The guards relax and Probe picks his moment for...
One guard gets blasted out of the plane...
He finishes the other two guards off by hyperpunching them. Hyperpunch equals instant death!

Brandt is now flying the plane. Probe is making his way toward him. Brandt calls Probe a fool, that they both could have been rich by cashing in on his Hyperpower. Brandt turns the plane so fast that Probe is shot out the side. MACH 1 takes it all in his stride and grabs onto the planes float.

Brandt shoots at probe. If he can't have Probes secrets alive...dead will do. Probe responds with a great line...'cos you got me angry in my skull!'
The plane heads inland and Brandt is going to do his best to make Probe roadkill. He flies the plane dangerously close to the ground trying scrap Probe off. But, a truck turns the corner and is heading straight for the plane. Brandt can't pull up in time and...
We leave Probe pondering that his hyperpower is more of a curse than a blessing.

Nice episode because we get to understand what a burden hyperpower can be. If Probe hadn't burned off some hyperpower by swimming as fast as he did, he wouldn't have attracted attention from Brandt, and the holiday makers that were gunned down would still be alive. It wouldn't be the first time that Probe would question the negative effects of having such power.

John Cooper's art is really suitable for this strip. His work has a totally 70's look to it. Cooper would draw a few Dredd stories too, but his work always seemed out of place for me on Dredd. He was way more suited for MACH 1. Cooper is probably best known for his work on Johnny Red for Battle...
and on John Wagners classic cop - One Eyed Jack for Valiant.

Prog 5 - Dan Dare

2009-03-25T10:41:00.000-07:00

Dare and crew are face to face with Jupiters resident aliens. You'd think if you wanted to open up some decent communication with alien life forms you'd stop referring to their appearance as 'vile'. Oh well, not that it matters as the aliens attack anyway.

One crew member gets sucked up alive! And another creature turns to attack Dare. With Mondays help Dare cracks off a huge hunk of titanium crystal and as the alien attacks he shoves it up the aliens vacuum hole! (I know,it sounds really weird right?) With it's air passage blocked, the alien...explodes!

Dan and Monday are knocked unconscious. When they come too, they realise that they've been sucked up inside one of the aliens. (So much for their plan of shoving crystal up their blowholes!) Officer French is there too...but alas, he's dead!
Monday comes to the conclusion that the aliens are using their stomachs to transfer them to their base. How he comes to this conclusion, I haven't a clue but he does remember an old earth story...
Could Monday be referring to Jonah? I think so, and he called him insane. Nice bit of religious subversion there.

Meanwhile back on the Odyssey...the thing from Jupiter is trying to take control of the ship.
The thing manages to take over the 'control' bubble...and now commands the Odyssey!
Pretty standard installment of Dan Dare and not too wacky when compared with the previous episodes.

It's still pretty ridiculous, though. Why would the thing need a spaceship? Maybe that question will be answered next prog.

Prog 5 - Harlem Heroes

2009-03-25T08:59:00.000-07:00

The Heroes come out after the half-time interval and smoke the opposition. Louis Mayers' revelation that the road-liner crash was sabotage has got them riled up.

They trash the Baltimore Bulls 6-1.

After the game Giant tells them that they'll know more about the alleged sabotage from Louis later. Louis is planning on touring with the team as they try and win the World Championship.

As they leave the Aero-drome they are approached by the head of Trans-World Network - Ulysses Cord.
Cord wants to offer the Heroes sponsorship for their World Championship attempt. It would be great publicity for his company if the Heroes can bounce back from the brink of disaster to win the Title. He offers them a state of the art road-liner, a 'hotel on wheels', designed with all the latest tools they'll need to keep fit for their Championship challenge. The team are elated except for Giant. Giant is suspicious of Cord. But he buries it for now and the Heroes head off for their next match against the Siberian Wolves as soon as they pick up Louis. Check out the rhyme on that 'to be continued' panel. I guess the writer is trying to evoke a Harlem Globetrotters feel to the strip. I find it to be pretty funny. Some of the dialogue reads like a blaxsplotation movie. I suppose that's what you get when you have a white British writer trying to write 70's African Americans. Even Ulysses Cord suffers from an over-the-top American stereotype. It looks and reads dated...but it is a lot of fun.

Again, nice solid artwork by Gibbons, especially the two page opener. Gibbons packs in lots of action in those two pages. You definitely get the impression that the Heroes are pissed off and there's a sense of urgency to the page layout. Nice touch to have the crowd sing and watch as their larger than life heroes take center stage.

Prog 5 - Flesh

2009-03-20T11:30:00.000-07:00

It's meal time for the Tyrannosaurs as they invade Carver City. The population is in a panic. A group of men grab the robot sheriff and demand their guns back to defend themselves but the sheriff is programmed not to allow guns in the city. As they are remonstrating a dinosaur attacks.
Meanwhile Reagan and Old One Eye continue their battle. Reagan needs a gland from the tyrannosaur. He attacks her from her blindside and gets what he wanted. As she writhes on the ground shaking off the pain, she crashes into the saloon. Reagan rescues the doctor before Old One Eye unleashes her rage. She chomps down on a drunk who thinks he's dreaming because there's not supposed to be dinosaurs in the city.
While the doctor is taking care of Joe, Reagan decides to head back outside to try and get rid of the tyrannosaurs.
Old One Eye and her pack have more than Earl Reagan to deal with...Pteranodons and 'terrible claws' have also entered the cracked dome and the dinosaurs begin to turn on each other.But they are no match for Old One Eye and her pack. Back at the doctors surgery room, Claw Carver burst in. Him and Reagan have some unfinished business. Claw tells Reagan that they're all going to die because of him. He makes a swipe at Reagan with his claw, but Reagan is quick and lands a hit of his own.

Reagan tell Claw to get a grip and they form an uneasy truce until they've freed the town from the dinosaurs.
Some nice scenes in this episode.

I love the dark humor of the robot sheriff, after it gets it's head taken off by a tryannosaur, telling the townspeople that he's not programmed to deal with the situation of rampaging dinosaurs. That was funny.

We get inside Old One Eyes head and we can almost feel the anger she has towards humans. The parts written from her point of view are fascinating.

As for Reagan, he's a bit of a puzzle this episode, he leaves the Doc to go sort out the tyrannosaurs and he doesn't do anything. He just goes back to the surgery room. Maybe he's thinking that the dinosaurs will pick one another off. Which is kind of stupid. Just like the time he left Old One Eye alive thinking she was just knocked unconcious. He seems to be making mistake after mistake. I'm sure his latest farce, the truce with Carver, will come back to haunt him.

I can't blame Claw Carver being pissed off about Reagan. I mean, this ranger (Who he never liked anyways!) brings a dying man with the plague into your town, which could in all possibility, spread to the population, and then, on top of that, a pack of Tyrannosaurs have followed the dumbasses scent to to the town and started a bloody massacre simply because the idiot ranger didn't kill the pack leader when he had the chance. I'd be mad as hell too!

Having said all that, Flesh is probably the best strip for me in these first five issues. It's just so raw and violent when compared to the other strips. Ramon Solas art is a joy in these pages.

Prog 5 - Invasion

2009-03-17T10:14:00.000-07:00

At the Gants hill checkpoint Savage and his Mad Dogs go on a killing spree!
An armored car arrives on the scene and Savage takes action.
The resistance overpower the Volgans and take control of the checkpoint. Savage grabs some explosives and orders his crew back into the van.

Onlookers are in disbelief, they can't believe someone is fighting back against the invaders. They're elated, but their cheering is short lived...Volgan security cops have arrived on motorbikes and are running the civilians down for cheering the resistance. They give chase. Savage orders Silk to take off his jacket. He has a plan to stop his pursuers. He throws the jacket out of the back of the van. The Volgans think one of the resistance have fallen out of the vehicle. But they're mistaken...
Savage has wrapped the jacket around some explosives.

Scratch one squad of Volgans!
But it's not enough for Savage. He decides that instead of laying low he's going to Trafalgar Square to try and rouse the populace. Meanwhile, in New Scotland Yard, the headquarters of the Volgan Secret Police, Marshal Vashkov has been informed of Savages escapade and where he's planning to go next. Vashkov orders his heavy armored units to converge on 'Volga' (Trafalgar) Square.

Savage has reached the square and addresses the crowd through a loudspeaker.
His rally is interrupted. Volgan tanks have arrived. Savage asks one of his men to rig the rest of the Volgan explosives around Lord Nelsons column. With the explosives set up, Savage retreats to a safe distance. The tanks enter the square and Savage unleashes hell!
Savage leaves knowing that he did a job well done. They drive to the abandoned docklands and set up their new base of operations.
A very quick paced episode. We see what kind of mayhem Savage is capable of when he leads a team. A couple of interesting things from these pages too...one, the Volgans are renaming landmarks, which means they see their occupation as long term, and two, from their point of view the resistance are 'terrorists'. Those two observations add more depth to the strip now that I reread it as an adult. There's only one part that brings it back to a 'kids' strip...it's when Savage asks one of his men to set the explosives up. He's conveniently called 'Blaster' because he used to work demolition.
It's like calling a team mate coffee lad because he used to work in a coffee shop. Then again, it makes sense because it's Gerry Finley Day that wrote the script. He's the writer that created Rogue Trooper, who's name happens to be Rogue and Bagman who happens to be a bagman etc.

Prog 5 - Cover

2009-03-11T08:53:00.000-07:00

Judge Dredd's first cover!

Dredd is so tiny, he might as well not appear on it at all. It's hard to get a sense of danger for him because the reader is so distant from the action. The cover must have been drawn before the first published Dredd story because the city doesn't resemble Mega-City One at all. It looks too static and not 'organic' enough. Heck! Some of the building look like martini glasses!

It does get bonus points for featuring a giant robotic ape though.

Below is Brian Bolland's cover for a US Dredd reprint title. The title reprints the 'Krong' Dredd story inside and while Prog 5's cover tells the story better, the cover would have stood out more if the artist (Barry Mitchell) or management had approached it the Bolland way. Artwise, it's unfair to compare both (not many people can compete with a Bolland cover) but just from a layout perspective, not necessarily the humor angle, it's definitely more up close and personal.

Love that Bolland cover. Krong does make a re-appearance 30 years later in a Judge Anderson story: Big Robots (Judge Dredd Megazine 257 - 264).

Prog 4 - Flesh Bonus!

2009-03-10T10:46:00.000-07:00

Here's a really cool 'mock' ad for Flesh. The fantastic fun art is by Kevin O'Neill. Love the nice touches like the registered trademark of Trans-Time Corporation and the ad jingle.
'Flesh is fresh and good to eat...Flesh is lots of juicy meat!'

Prog 4 - Judge Dredd

2009-03-10T10:01:00.000-07:00

Mutants break into Mega-City One and Dredd is there to stop them. He looks like he's having a lot of fun killing them too judging by his dialogue in the page above.

Dredd quips as he blows them away that fighting the mutants is 'just the sort of soft job a judge like him needs!'

The mutants are getting massacred by Dredd and retreat back into their territory outside the city.

Dredd is informed by Justice HQ that the mutants, The Brotherhood of Darkness, have kidnapped the Mayors son and he must follow the mutants and rescue him.

Dredd adopts a disguise. He puts on a robe, probably from one of the fallen mutants, and decides to fool his way into the Brotherhood as they trek their way outside the city.
We get our first glimpse of what lies outside Mega City One. It's an atomic wilderness. A radioactive nightmare as a result of the Atomic War.
Dredd gets his insects screwed up. In the first panel, it's a Praying Mantis and in the panel where the Brotherhood are barbqueing...it's a grasshopper, not the mantis he saw. I guess they don't teach that sort of thing at the Academy.

Dredd sees that the Mayors son isn't the only Mega City citizen the mutants have kidnapped and while the Brotherhood are feasting, he makes his move...
After getting rid of the guards he frees the Mayors son.
He's in the process of freeing the other captives when the Brotherhood spot him. He puts the lawmasters lights on full beam, temporarily blinding the mutants and throws a few flares for good measure.

Dredd makes his escape with the rescued slaves back to Mega City One.
This story is important for two reasons. One, it introduces Mutants into Dredd's world and two, the Atomic wasteland, which would later be named the Cursed Earth.

The script was written by Malcolm Shaw. Of the first fifteen Dredd stories commissioned by Mills, Shaw wrote seven of them. Of course Mills probably, heavily rewrote them...like he did with all the early scripts.

Prog 4 - MACH 1

2009-03-09T17:57:00.000-07:00

I love the title of this MACH 1 installment, 'In 24 hours a President must die!'

John Probe is on a mission to eliminate the President of Irania, (No prize for guessing what country 'Irania' is based on.)before the President can launch an invasion on their neighbors Turkostan. It's going to be a tough mission. The Presidents palace is heavily guarded.

Rather than waste time, Probe tries the direct approach.
He's arrested and taken to the secret police headquarters and is interrogated by a Colonel Krall.
The Colonels henchmen are surprised that Probe has no weapons. Probe responds that he 'doesn't need fancy gadgets. I'm going to kill the swine with my bare hands!'

Krall says that Probe is full of it and he's going to skin him alive. The interrogation begins... Thanks to MACH 1's hyper-strength, he's able to withstand the torture with a minimum of discomfort. The interrogation is interrupted by an officer that informs Krall that the President is curious about his British prisoner and would like to see him. Krall chains Probe, he wants to make sure that he can't carry out his threat to kill the President.

Probes gamble has paid off...now, he will get face time with the dictator.

President Mudar is just as vicious as his underling Krall. Probe tells him, quite nonchalantly, how he is going to die.
Mudar is interrupted by one of his men. The officer tell Mudar that his invasion force is ready. Mudar has no time to waste on Probe and orders that he be taken back to Colonel Krall for futher interrogation. MACH 1 makes his move. He snaps the chains that bind him and kills Mudar's men.
And true to his word, Probe kills Mudar by a hyper-powered karate chop!
Krall has been watching and decides to take Probe out with one of his hunting guns. A gun so powerful it can stop a charging rhino! Probe races forward in an effort to stop him...but too late. He takes the brunt of the blast!
With his hyper-power depleting, Probe takes a huge risk, he charges forward, crashing both him and a stunned Krall, through a window.
Krall is dead and MACH 1 makes his escape. He steals an armored car, crashes it through the palace gates and makes his way across the border. We end the strip with Sharpe paying Probe a visit in hospital where he's recovering from his wounds.
He has completed his mission. By assassinating Mudar he has stopped Irania from invading Turkostan.

Lots of good stuff in this strip.

We see that Probe is human after all. He barely makes it out alive. And his computer brain has a weakness...it doesn't have any working knowledge of old weaponry. When Probe steals the tank, it can't give him any data on it because it's an old tank, it can only give him data on 'new' vehicles.

The strip ends with a conversation between Sharpe and Probe and we're left with the impression that Sharpe is glad that Probe made it out alive because he's cost the government so much money. It speaks a lot about Sharpes character.

Nice fun script by Mills and decent art by Enio.

Prog 4 - Dan Dare

2009-03-05T10:46:00.000-08:00

Seriously!

Can Dan Dare get much worse? The script on just the center spread alone is atrociously bad! Kelvin Gosnell wrote the script for this crap. Thank God he got waaaay better with his adaptation of 'Stainless Steel Rat'.

Check out the dialogue on this page. We have a crew member referring to Dan as DD! Maybe it was hip to refer to people by their initials! I would have smacked him for the lack of respect. Then again, Dare does have his initials in big bold letters on his chest!

And Dare is 'posi-sure' he can land the craft. What the heck is that language. Posi-sure?!?

And poor Neil Armstrong gets forgotten about in the future. Not bloody likely...but there you go. Also, Dare is a 'spacer'...now, I don't know about you but when I was growing up a 'Spacer' was slang for a lunatic or whackjob!

This center spread just reads so weird and on top of the freaky dialogue we get Dare landing on an island of crystal titanium floating on a sea of boiling metal!

Seems like Mr.Gosnell has been smoking the funny stuff!

After safely navigating through the storm, Dan lands the craft on Jupiters surface. The crew put on their space suits and venture outside. The suits have been adapted to survive the rigors of Jupiters high gravity.

'Spacer' Logan picks up readings of a power source nearby. Monday, Dare and crew follow Logan's lead. But the power source is too strong for Logans suit to handle and we get where the cover idea for this prog came from...
Which makes me ask the question...Why are the rest of the party still alive? Surely, they have the same type of spacesuits on!

The crew come face to face with the power source and Dan, more or less, tells Monday to shut his face while he wants to know what the alien is planning on doing with them and what connection it has to with the creature back on the 'Odyssey'. We leave Dan to ponder what's next and switch back to the Odyssey and the Medic Sector. Doctor Ziggy can't figure out what the purpose of the creature is. While she's trying to figure that out...the creature manages to get itself loose from it's glass cage and surprises the good doctor. Again, Dare suffers from bad script writing. Not even Belardinelli's wonderfully bizarre alien creatures can save it.

Hopefully, the next episode will be better.

I live in hope!

Prog 4 - Harlem Heroes

2009-03-05T09:32:00.000-08:00

Zack is plummeting to his doom!

Just as he's about to crash into the crowd, Giant and Hairy save him, and the spectators, from certain death!
They carry Zack into the pit where firefighters extinguish the flames from his jet-pack. The Heroes suits are made of fire-proof material and that's why Zack wasn't hurt by the flames.

Meanwhile, the Baltimore Bulls have taken total advantage of the situation with Giant and Hairy too busy rescuing Zack, and not being able to call a time-out...the Bulls have scored.

Giant is pissed off. If it wasn't for Zacks cockiness they might have been able to stop the Bulls. He gives Zack the hairdryer treatment.
Giant and Hairy get back into the game. The Bulls are dominating. They're just about to score again when the ball is intercepted by Harlem's Chico. The Bulls are playing tough...to tough. They give away a free throw for a challenge on Chico.
The Umpire interrupts the game and informs Giant that they're short a player and he has thirty seconds to make up the squad. Giant is beside himself. All he has is what's already out in the stadium. There are no more Heroes left! Or so he thinks...
Giant decides to give Zack another chance.

The free throw is taken by Giant. Slim provides a decoy, while Zack Harper grabs the ball and smacks it down to Giant..but the Bulls are onto him quick and there's a pile-up!
In the chaos, Giant manages to score the equaliser by kicking the ball off an opponents face and into the goal. Just in time for the Half-Time interval.

In the pit, Giant receives a call on the holo-phone from Louis Mayer. Mayer tells Giant that he's had a lot of time to think while he's been in hospital and that he believes the road liner crash was no accident. Someone is trying to kill off the Heroes.
The Second Half begins!

Another good installment here. I like that, on top of the challenge to try and win the World Championship with a rag-tag team, Giant and crew have also got to deal with the fact that someone is trying to kill them off. Who and why, we'll find out later.

Nice to see Giant put Zack in his place, but to be honest...he had no choice but to let him rejoin because they'd probably have to forfeit the game if they couldn't field enough players. Giant knew exactly what he was doing to get the best out of Zack.

And it was also good to see another member of the Heroes, Chico, getting some page time!

I'm really looking forward to the next chapter.

Tom Tully is a master at writing sports stories.

Prog 4 - Flesh

2009-03-04T07:57:00.000-08:00

I was seven years old when I first saw the above page...and it rocked my world! What a great piece of art by Ramon Sola. Flesh had to be one of the most violent strips I'd ever read as a kid and Sola's scratchy loose artwork just blew me away and his style added to the horror of the strip.

We last left off with Reagan and his rangers making their way to Carver City to get the rookie Joe some medical attention. Joe had suffered from a tyrannosaur bite and it was infected. Reagan thought he had killed the Tyrannosaur but all he did was gouge it's eye out and stun it. Now, the newly named Old One Eye has Reagans scent...and she wants revenge.

There's that crazy word 'Kronj' again!
Reagan decides that only he and Joe should enter the city because it's run by maniac called 'Claw' Carver. Reagan explains to a member of his crew that Carver used to be a trail Boss like him and made so much money from slaughtering dinosaurs that he retired and set up the 'Carver City' trading post.

Leaving the rangers and the herd behind, Reagan approaches the city dome and is greeted by a robot sheriff. The robot tells him that no guns are allowed inside the dome and also tells him the whereabouts of the trading post doctor. No surprise that the crusty old Doc is at the saloon, drinking and gambling. Reagan sobers him up the tough way...
The doctor examines Joe and tells Reagan that he's suffering from an infection from the dinosaur bite and that the only cure is take a special gland from a tyrannosaurs mouth and inject the fluid into Joe. But Reagan has another problem...by bringing the infected ranger into the dome he's risked the whole city catching plague. The doctor tells him that Claw Carver ain't going to like it when he finds out.

But it's too late. Carver already knows...and he's fighting mad! (If you look at the above image, in the right hand corner, you can see that Carver was sitting, playing cards with the Doc, at the table when Reagan entered the saloon.)

Looks like Carver and Reagan have a history. Carver gives Reagan a nice welcome.
Both men go brawling out into the street.
The robot sheriff appears and he's programmed to shoot the men if they don't stop fighting. Just as the sheriff is about to fire, Reagan kicks Carver on top of him and he fires wild, hitting the dome of the city and cracking it.

Outside, Old One Eye and her pack have arrived. She sees the flash of laser fire and the crack in the dome and breaks through. She chews on a human but isn't satisfied, it's not the human she'd been looking for, and then she smells it...the scent of the human she'd been tracking, the human that took her eye.

Carver is nowhere to be seen and Reagan and Old One Eye face off! Great cliffhanger! This episode had everything...robot sheriffs and a bar room brawl interrupted by bloodthirtsy dinosaurs and the first appearance of a great 2000ad villain, 'Claw' Carver!

Carver would get his comeuppance at the end of 'Flesh Book II' and his origin story wasn't told until 30 years later in Prog 1526(2/28/2007) in 'Hand of Glory' written by Pat Mills and drawn by Sola.

Prog 4 - Invasion

2009-03-02T18:58:00.001-08:00

I absolutely love this splash page. A really cool cut-away to reveal the insides of the resistance Headquarters and the text box on the bottom right saying that the location can't be revealed for security purposes. It's those neat touches that really involve the reader in the story especially the code stuff.

The brigadier asks Savage what he thinks of the underground fortress. Savage isn't all that impressed he wants to find out with all this weaponry why aren't they killing more 'Dirty Volgans!'

The Brigadier brings Savage into room full of men like him - rough necks! Although, the Brigadiers attiude comes across as a bit insulting.
The Brigadier tells Savage that the volunteer roughnecks are men like him...dockers, mechanics, electricians that have all passed tests that he himself had set up to make soldiers out of them.

Savage has a test of his own. He asks the men assembled to show them his hands.
On inspection he sees marks left from hard work, he knows that these men are who they claim to be...except the man claiming to be a miner! His hands have no marks and looks like he's never done a days hard work in his life.
He's been rumbled. He's no miner...he's a Volgan spy! The spy grabs the Brigadier and threatens to kill him unless they let him leave.
The spy and his hostage enter the elevator and start to ascend to the surface. Savage is having none of it. He grabs the dockers hook and latches himself onto the bottom of the elevator.

The elevator stops and Savage springs his surprise!

Savage has now more than proven how valuable he is to the resistance. So much so, that the Brigadier gives him his own resistance group to lead. The codename for the group is aptly called 'Mad Dog'. Bill also gets a pump action shotgun as a bonus. He won't have to reload so often now!

We then cut to a scene at a Volgan checkpoint on the road to London. The soldiers wave down a civilian van to check out what they're carrying. But this isn't an ordinary 'civilian' van.

It's carrying Savage and his 'Mad Dogs!'
Now that Savage has his team and they're all fully armed...the Volgans are going to be in for a hell of a time.

Let the mayhem continue...

Prog 4 - Cover

2009-03-02T16:03:00.001-08:00

A pretty unremarkable cover.
They do get a nice dig in at the Marvelous and Distinguished Competition though 'Better than Super Heroes...Hyper Heroes!'
I have nothing to else to say about the cover, except...thank goodness they get better!

Prog 3 - Judge Dredd

2009-02-28T16:19:00.001-08:00

The problem Pat Mills faced with Dredd initially was creating crimes for this Lawman of the Future to deal with. That's why he rejected 'The Bank Raid' script. It was too ordinary a crime for Dredd to deal with.

This chapter, 'The New You' was written by Mills and was McMahons second drawn strip. McMahons first Dredd strip was 'Frankenstein 2' from Prog 6.

From the splash page we learn that New York is now part of Mega City 1. There's a dangerous criminal Scarface Levine...and he's on the run. He reckons that by getting his face changed he'll be able to escape detection from the law. The face change clinics are really a great concept. Wagner would later have some fun with this idea when Dredd has one of his 'moon' adventures. The criminals in that story have their faces changed to resemble classic comedians.

Levine forces 'A New You' face change clinic staff member to change his appearance and minutes later he's back on the streets. But Levine is arrogant. He realises the 'law cameras' can't identify him and decides to pull one over on Dredd. (The law camera have the words 'Police Control' on it, obviously Judges haven't taken total control of the law yet.)Big mistake...Dredd recognizes him. Levine panics and races away. Dredd pursues him.
Another point of interest is that Dredd's bike is now referred to as a 'Lawmaster'.
Dredd manages to jump on top of the speeding vechicle. Levine tries to shoot him off...but he is no match for Dredd and the judge administers justice. Dredd hops back onto his lawmaster before Levines vehicle crashes. Notice Levines face in that last panel above. Initially he was drawn with the bullet going through his head but because of the recent fallout over 'Action' it was censored and the ending of the strip was changed. Dialogue was altered so that Levine was slowly dying from the shot and he would be put into a timestretcher jail instead of just being blown away by Dredd. Dredd explains to Levine how he knew it was him, even though his face had been changed.
and we end with a classic Dredd line.
I say 'end' even though there is one more page. The last page was drawn by Carlos Ezquerra for the rejected pilot 'Bank Raid'. Mills thought that the artwork was so good that it would have been a shame to waste it and it was also on the back page of the comic which would have been in color. So, it would make for a great poster of what Mega City 1 looked like. He wasn't wrong. It's a great piece of art...and it has another classic Dredd line.
You'll notice the kid eating the ice-cream with his mom. From the 'Bank raid' script the kid tells his mom that he wants to be a Judge when he 'grows up' and she says 'Hush Tommy! and for goodness sake don't drop any litter or you may never grow up!'

Another reason why Mills tacked this page on was to give the impression that Dredd's pursuit of Levine was no big deal and he carries on his patrol as if it was nothing new. It's all just part of everyday law enforcement when you're a Judge.

Prog 3 - Mach 1

2009-02-25T17:52:00.000-08:00

We're treated to two strips of excellent artwork this issue by Massimo Belardinelli.
Belardinelli would hit his stride later drawing strips like Inferno, Meltdown Man and the absolutely hilarious ACE Trucking Co. Oh, and I actually like his Slaine work.

The latest MACH 1 story opens up with a flashback of a NATO battleship sinking to it's watery grave. Some days later MACH 1 and his superior Sharpe arrive with recovery vessels at the scene of the ships last reported spot. But there's a fishing trawler there. Probe asks Sharpe why the British Navy doesn't intervene. Sharpe replies that they don't want to risk an International incident if the trawler does turn out to be a harmless fishing vessel.

No, this investigation is a job for MACH 1!

Probe dives into the water. No wet suit for this guy! Wet suits are for wimps!
As he nears the 'trawler' Probe notices that the men on the trawler are armed. It's just as Sharpe suspected...it's a ruse. But why and who could be behind it?

There is no way that MACH 1 can get aboard the ship, there are no holds for him to get a grip...so, he gets onboard...
...dolphin style!
Once onboard, Probe sees that the 'trawler' is trying to raise the NATO ship to reveal it's secrets and that he wouldn't be surprised if the 'trawler' crew are the ones that sank the ship in the first place.

He decides to stop them from recovering the ship by blowing up the engine room. But he's stopped in his tracks! He's grabbed by a 'trawler' crew member in a power assisted diving suit!
A fight ensues! No matter how hard Probe punches the diver...it does no damage. The divers suit is made from high-stress titanium can!

MACH 1's computerised brain tells him that there is no solution to beating his assailant. This pisses him off...he gets mad and the extra adrenalin enables him to overthrow his opponent.
He throws the diver into an electric cable and the diver is fried instantly!
Knowing that his actions have alerted the rest of the crew, Probe makes his way down to the engine room.
He breaks the Oil lubrication pipe...forcing the engine of the ship to seize up and blow it to kingdom come...but the computer tells him that it may come with a price...his life!

On fire from the explosion...Probe jumps off the ship and swims to safety! The ship explodes and Sharpe is not pleased. He reminds probe that he was sent to 'investigate' not 'annihialte'. It won't be the first time Probe and Sharpe have a disagreement.
We end on an omnious note that God help us 'If ever MACH 1 turns against us...'

Nice episode. Nice artwork and the script develops the relationship between Sharpe and Probe. The relationship turns frosty at times and eventually leads to a breakdown between both parties.

Check out the 'please don't imitate this at home kids!' box. Love it!

Prog 3 - Dan Dare

2009-02-25T08:32:00.000-08:00

The thing from Jupiter goes on a rampage!
Commander Monday wants it dead...Dare thinks otherwise.

He attacks the creature, trying to subdue it...but it has enormous strength!
The strength of a Super-Nova Star!
Dan figures that it's weak spot must be it's 'horns'...so, he pulls on them. Which leads me to the question...how the hell did he know that? The writing is so bad on this strip, it's actually amazing! I'd love to see Frank Miller rewrite this as 'All Star Dan Dare'!

Anyways, Dan's crazy move works and the creature is knocked unconscious. What a stupid place to put a weak spot. They could have picked anywhere, but no, they go for the most visible place...the 'horns' on it's head!
Looks like the creature had an orgasm. Well, so would you if you had your horn pulled!

With the creature unconcious they move it to the medic bay where doctor Ziggy Rodann (Seriously, that's her name!) examines it. She comes to the conclusion that the creature was biologically engineered because of it's strange physiology. The thing has no mouth and can communicate telepathically, it also has a brain three times the size of a normal human and it has built in solar panels on it's stomach that replenishes it's energy!

And it also has...extra muscles. Which leads to our crazy named doctor stating the obvious!Which, again, leads me to another question. How would the good doctor know the muscles are extra if she's never seen a creature like that before?

Dan and Monday decide to find out whereabouts on Jupiter the creature came from but not before the doctor decides to throw an insult at her commanding officer. The next two pages are of Dan, Monday and crew entering a craft to go land on Jupiter. Nothing much happens on the two pages, just descriptions of what type of craft they're using and the strangeness of space...yadda, yadda, yadda!

But we can't leave the strip without a cliffhanger, and the last panel provides it. As the craft approaches Jupiters atmosphere...it's hit by a jovian radio storm!
And that's it till next time.

I can see why Dan Dare was the weakest strip in the 2000ad line-up. It's written so badly and Dare himself doesn't seem to have any good characterization. It's such a disappointment. Even though 2000ad would later try and revamp Dare again with a Dirty Dozen/Star Trek take, and yet again with a Superhero take, it's not hard to see that Dan Dare in 2000ad is like trying to fit a square peg in a round hole.

It would become even more obvious as the strip went on in comparision with other strips.

Prog 3 - Harlem Heroes

2009-02-24T09:06:00.000-08:00

Enter The Baltimore Bulls!

Giant has got a full team at last and now they face their first opponents since the road liner crash. What could be a bad sign of things to come judging from the splash page is, an aeroball team is comprised of seven members, yet here, we only see the roll-call of five. Doesn't bode well for the two 'missing' team-mates. Maybe or maybe not. Time will tell.

The Bulls make their impressive entrance and to add an extra bit of spice to the game...the Bulls are an all cop aeroball team!

Zack is obviously on edge because he's playing against a team comprised of cops. Again we're reminded by the fans about the impossible odds the Heroes face.
The game starts and already Zack has lost his discipline.
He breaks formation and crashes into Giant giving the advantage to the Bulls. Just as the Bulls are about to score...Conrad King blocks the shot...but at a price! He has hit the electric prods around the score holes and must spend three minutes in the 'Penalty Pen'.
King is pissed! Zacks recklessness is going to cost them the game!
Giant takes control of the game. He intercepts the ball and goes for an air-strike...but the ball bounces off the rim.
How the heck can they afford such a big screen in the slums!!!

Anyhow, Zack picks up the rebound by kicking a player in the back of the neck and punching another one in the face, all the while hurling insults at the cops!

He shoots! He scores!

But, it's disallowed. Apparently you can do all sorts of violence in Aeroball except kick a player in the back of the neck. It's a dirty foul and now Zack has got the cop team pissed! After the fracas, the game restarts. Zack, eager to please snatches the ball from the Bulls again...but this time he's going way to fast and it looks like he's going to end up kissing the arena floor in a blazing ball of flame!
More predictable and fun stuff from Tully and Gibbons. You could just tell from Zacks attitude in the last chapter that he's going to be a handful for Giant to get some discipline into. And that the opposing team is a team of law enforcers, doesn't sit well with Zack either, considering his run in with the law and the fact his old man is in jail.

Prog 3 - Flesh

2009-02-18T18:44:00.000-08:00

We left last issue with young ranger Joe fighting for his life against a Pteranodon. A couple of rangers in an air buggy see Joe is in trouble and shoot the winged dinosaur down. As the creature falls, it lets go of Joe, who hits the ground with just his ego bruised.
But the air buggy crew aren't paying attention, for behind them a massive dinosaur has them in her sights.
The huge tryannosaur she-devil makes easy work of the rangers and their vehicle.
After she snacks down on the fallen rangers, she turns her attention to Joe. Joe can't believe it! After his lucky escape in the air...he is now going to be Tyrannosaur food!

The tyrannosaur has the rookie's legs in her mouth when the calvary arrives in the form of Earl Reagan on horseback. Earls only chance to free Joe from the creatures jaws is to strike a goad into the head of the dinosaur...he succeeds and takes her eye out in the process!
And so...one of the great villains in 2000ad history is born...Old One Eye!

The rookie thanks Reagan thinking that they've killed the brute. Reagan tells him to forget it and that they'd better get moving.

Reagan decides to take a detour to Carver City because Joe's legs are bleeding badly and he needs a doctor. His crew start moving the herd of Alamosaurs towards their new destination.
(What the hell is a 'kronj' town? Looks like someone misspelt 'crazy'!)

Reagan has made a bad error of judgement...he thought he killed the Tyrannosaur pack leader...he was wrong...so wrong...and Old One Eye would be AVENGED!!!
Pretty fun installment with lots of action and the introduction of 2000ad royalty...Old One Eye. Her son and grandson, Satanus and Golgotha, would later give Judge Dredd and the ABC Warriors a few headaches. It's really fantastic that Pat Mills will eventually create a 2000ad 'universe' by tying in Old One Eye and her brood into other strips.

Also interesting is the notion of a city of time travellers set up in the prehistoric period. You just know that that's just asking for trouble down the road.

Prog 3 - Invasion Bonus!

2009-02-18T18:40:00.000-08:00

Here's an added bonus! The page with all the info on the Free wallet with this Prog!

Prog 3 - Invasion

2009-02-17T08:29:00.001-08:00

What a fantastic 'splash' page! You can tell the artist used photo reference but he uses it so good compared to a lot of artists working in the industry today. He didn't just trace the reference...he enhanced it. There's a huge difference. To see some examples of enhancing photo-reference, check out Eisner nominated artist Steve Bryant's blog.
http://atomictiki.blogspot.com/
Steve is great at showing how to properly use reference without using it as a crutch.

Back to our story. The Volgans are continuing their brutality on the general populace. Savage is in hiding in a room above a cafe watching tv. The face on tv is Simon Creepton, Creepton is the mouthpiece of Volgan propaganda.
As Bill is watching the 'news' a group of men approach the cafe. The leader of this gang is the shadowy figure that was following Savage from last episode. The cafe owner tells the men that Savage is in the room overlooking the cafe.

As they approach the room, Bill notices their shadows under the door. They crash into the room, pull back the bed sheets...Bill isn't there! Only pillows!

Savage has got the drop on them.
The ringleader explains that he is Lieutenant Silk, he's been watching him and he's come to recruit Savage for the resistance. Savage declines.

Unknown to Savage and co, at that same time a Volgan patrol arrives. The cafe owner has turned them in. Bill takes care of them with a little help from Silk and gang.
After the Volgs are wiped out, one of Silks crew tries to grab Savage's gun but Bill jams the idiots hand in the gun barrel. Bill realises how desperate they are to get him to join and he changes his mind...but if he's going to sign up, he wants things done his way!
Not a bad episode. We're reminded again why Bill is so single minded in wiping out Volgans and now that he's part of the resistance, he can take his 'revenge' to even greater extremes.

With Savage now part of the resistance...it's time for some organised bloodshed and mayhem!

Prog 3 - Cover

2009-02-17T08:17:00.000-08:00

Nothing much to say about this cover. It's very average...then again, there is a tyrannosaurus eating a cowboy on the cover!

This issue came with another, and the last, free gift. It's a decoder wallet. It was commonplace for british comics to do this. I remember DC Thomson doing the same thing with 'Bullet' and 'Warlord'. Fun gift. At the schoolyard you were either a 'Bullet' or 'Warlord' wallet carrier. Strange rivalry when I look back on it because both publications were published by DC Thomson.

2000ad at the time didn't have a 'rival'. It was the only sci-fi comic I can remember until 'Starlord' came along.

Prog 2 - Judge Dredd

2009-02-16T13:14:00.001-08:00

The first appearance of Judge Dredd occurred in Prog 2 because it was in development hell for a year and wasn't prepared for the first issue...which worked out fine for Pat Mills because it gave the readers another reason to pick up Prog 2.

A few things to notice here...It's New York and not Mega-City One yet. The text also says that the Judges were elected by the people to enforce the law. I always understood that the Judges took over to fill the power vacuum left by President 'Bad Bob' Booths Atomic World War fiasco. I don't think they were voted in at all.

The image of the Judge on the bike is a lifted piece of artwork from the original unpublished Dredd pilot 'Bank Raid' by artist and co-creator Carlos Ezquerra. The badge on the judge, if you look closely, just reads 'Judge'. It was decided later that the badges would have the Judges individual names on them so you could tell them apart. It wasn't caught in time for this splash page.

From the 'splash' we are infromed that there are a bunch of criminals holed up in the direlict Empire State Building. A judge is approaching to take them in...one of the criminals is afraid. 'Whitey' quiets him down with a great piece of dialogue 'Judges can bleed too!'. It is a perfect summation of how tough and near indestructable these 'new' law enforcers are. They're a special breed.

On page two Whitey is planning on killing the judge. One of the gang is hoping that the Judge approaching is Dredd, that Dredd is the 'toughest of the Judges!'. It's clear from the second page that Dredd is a name to be feared in the criminal world. His name is mentioned three times on this page before we actually see him.

Whitey kills the judge but is disappointed to find out that it's not Dredd but a Judge Alvin that he has murdered.
The scene changes to Justice HQ where we see Dredd in conversation with the Chief Judge.
The Chief Judge at this time is Chief Judge Goodman although here he is just called 'Grand Judge'. From the 'Grand' Judges dialogue we find out that Dredd is a damn good Judge. Crime is down because of him.

As they are talking a report comes in that Judge Alvin's bike has returned with Alvins dead body tied to it. There's a note attached to the body. It reads 'Who you gonna send against me now, punks. Judge Whitey.'

The 'Grand' Judge is mad as hell, he wants to bomb the building,that Whitey and gang are in, off the face of the earth!

Dredd steps in. He wants to go it alone.
Later, Whitey and gang hear the siren of the bike of another Judge come towards the building. Whitey is going to bag himself another Judge. But the bike is riderless. It's on automatic. It's just been a decoy.

Dredd appears behind them and takes out the gang.
Whitey, he leaves to last. Dredd punches Whitey knocking the judge helmet off his head. 'You committed the most odious crime of all, Whitey - killing a judge!'

Dredd has sentenced Whitey to life. Whitey is unrepentant. He tells Dredd that no prison can hold him and he'll bust out. He hates the Judges and all that they stand for. But Dredd isn't going to send him to just any old prison...no, Dredd is sending him to Devils Island for life!
On the last page we see Devils Island in all it's glory! The 'Grand' Judge thinks that Life on Devils Island is a stern sentence but in all reality the Dredd of later strips would just have executed Whitey for killing a judge.

What's interesting about the last page is that Dredd is hanging badges of the fallen on a wall..and there aren't many of them. The Judges weren't the dominant force here as they were in alter issues. In fact in later strips from this early Dredd period...it's seems as if there are just a handful of Judges and the Police weren't totally phased out yet.

It's interesting to note the 'Grand' Judges comment to Dredd about going out like Alvin because Goodmans days would be numbered. He is assassinated in 'The Day The Law Died!'.

All in all, a quiet opening for a character that would go on to be 2000ads most popular strip. Wagner and Ezquerra, co-creators of Dredd, didn't write or draw this strip. Wagner and Ezquerra had some issues with management at the time and walked away. Wagner would later return with his first Dredd strip 'BrainBlooms' and the magnificent 'Robot Wars' to take back over his creation. Ezquerra did have a Dredd story in the can before his falling out with management...but wouldn't come back to drawing Dredd until years later with 'The Apocalypse War!'

Prog 2 - Harlem Heroes

2009-02-12T08:45:00.000-08:00

The Heroes have been decimated after the road liner crash. Only three remain to carry on. (Four, if you count Louis Mayers brain!) Giant , Slim and Hairy are working out in the stadium when their game is interrupted by an old man. After an insult by Slim, the old man won't give the ball back until he shows this young punk some moves. And show him he does...
But that ain't no old man! Giant recognizes the old guys aeroball moves...thats retired veteran Harlem Heroes player Conrad King!

Conrad has heard out the Heroes troubles and has come out of retirement to help the team.
Giant needs three more players to complete the roster for their next game. So, the Heroes go to the Sky Slums of Harlem (where the current crop of Heroes where discovered) to see if there are any players good enough to compete.

We're informed that there are more than nine street levels to this futurisitc Harlem. That's a lot of slum!!! How depressing! The only hope for youth there is probably playing aeroball...then again, they can't be all that poor if they've all got their own jet-packs.
At the make shift stadium they encounter a young punk called Zack Harper who gatecrashes on the game that the Heroes are watching...
But there's a problem. Harper is using an illegal homemade jet pack. The jet pack has a blow out and it's Giants quick reaction that saves Harper from falling to certain death!
After saving him, Giant calms down the crowd that Harper gatecrashed on. Giant gives them his word that the kid won't bother them anymore. Harper thinks that Giant is going to turn him over to the cops but Giant has other plans. He sees a lot of potential in Harper and decides to give him a try out back at the Harlem Heroes Stadium..

The kid is a natural. Slim voices concern over the kids track record with street gangs and that Harpers old man is in jail for armed robbery. I guess Slims theory is that the apple doesn't fall far from the tree. Giant is willing to give the kid a break though and Zack Harper becomes a Harlem Hero.

Another turn of good fortune for the team is two players, Chico and Sammy, who were loaned out to another team, after hearing about the crash, are coming back to help out.

Now Giant has a full squad of seven players they can continue their pursuit of glory in the World Aeroball Championship...but first they must get by The Baltimore Bulls. We end this chapter with the Heroes forming their trademark 'H'.

Tom Tully is a master writer of sports stories. He's included every cliche possible and it's all summed up in the last panel... a rookie, two reserves, a forty year old veteran and opposition fans heckling the Heroes.

What's not to love!

Prog 2 - DAN DARE

2009-02-04T08:27:00.000-08:00

Dare, not waiting to be court marshalled, has stowed away on a ship heading to Jupiter. He wants to uncover the mystery of what happened to his last crew.

But...Dan has been spotted by a guard.

What's amazing from the center spread above is...look how crazy the inside of the ship is in that second panel! How the heck did Dare get spotted and how the heck do the guards manage to find their way around the ship?

It's an Escher-like nightmare!

And the guards are going to 'molecularise him 'on sight! A bit of a harsh penalty for a stowaway.

Dan fights the guard and delivers an awesomely bad/good punchline.
'It's called...FIST!'
Two other guards rush to help their compatriot but accidently get fried by the gun of the gaurd that Dan is trying to knock out. Notice Dan's matter of fact response...
The commander of the ship - Mr. Monday is getting a debriefing of Dares whereabouts when Dare appears. Monday asks Dan to explain himself and Dan relates the story of his last trip past Jupiter. Monday doesn't believe him because Jupiter is a hell-planet and is incapable of supporting life. He orders Dares immediate execution.

The ship is just passing Jupiter at the time when Dan is about to bite the dust when a wave of pure energy hits the ship causing a bit of chaos and then forms an alien creature in front of Dan's and Monday's eyes.

Enter the Thing from the Hell Planet....
And that's how we end this little chapter.

Again Dare seems to be the weakest strip in the early issues of 2000ad. It's not hard to see why..the dialogue is painful and a lot of the story doesn't make sense...the inside of the ship for example and the guards shooting on sight!

Also, if you were going to be a fugitive on the run wouldn't you at least remove the initials of your name from the front of your shirt.

Oh well...it does get better!

Until next installment...I leave you with a pic of my favorite martian...Mr.Monday!

Prog 2 - MACH 1

2009-01-28T09:03:00.000-08:00

We start where we left off last episode with a nice recap.

The art for this installment is by the talented Ian Kennedy. I like Kennedy's artwork but it looks a bit out of place in a comic book like 2000ad. His artwork seems more suitable for romance/war comics (Commando, Victor). But is probably best known for his work on the 80's revamp of Dan Dare. Below is a Ian Kennedy center spread from one of the 80's Eagle issues...
Notice the name of the writers...yep!..that's Pat Mills and John Wagner!

The only other strip I can remember Ian Kenndey drawing for 2000ad was a couple of Dredd strips around the 400's. And again it seemed not to fit. Now, back to MACH 1...

The strip opens up with MACH 1 having hallucinations while he tries to get to grip with controlling a bomber. Then we have a flashback to the events leading up to that moment.

MACH 1 boss, Sharpe, informs Probe that they can't shoot the bomber down because of all the nerve gas on board. Probe offers another solution.

And the solution is...

Take an RAF Nimrod...catch up to the Vulcan...jump out of the Nimrod...land on the Vulcan...tear your way into the plane and kill all the terrorists!

And Probe does just that!

After he rips his way on board...
he smashes open one of the terrorists skulls....
throws another out of the plane...
punches the last terrorist in the face causing instant death whilst...
suffering hallucinations by a leak in one of the nerve gas canisters...he safely makes an emergency landing and gets a debriefing by Sharpe!

See! Nice and easy!

Prog 2 - Flesh

2009-01-26T10:37:00.000-08:00

Reagan is showing the rookie Joe Brontowski the ropes when a Fleshdozer is sent out of control by a not-so-stunned Styracosaurus. To emphase how dangerous the job of a ranger can be...there's a death on nearly every page of this installment...starting with poor Huck!

What a way to go! A ten ton dinosaur dropped right on top of you. 2000ad was so violent for a kids comic and was always pushing the boundaries. I'm sure if most of the violence in 2000ad was printed today in a 'kids' comic...there'd be a national uproar at how comics are warping our children. Only adults get uptight about that...as a kid reading this stuff, I thought it was really cool.

On page 2 a friend of Hucks gets caught in a grabber and is thrown into the Fleshdozer. Reagan tries to warn him of the danger but it's too late.
Reagan doesn't bat an eyelid at the death around him. It's like an everyday occurence to him and he continues his little tour of the Trans Time facility. The disturbing thing is that now the meat has been contaminated with human flesh...but there's no reference to it. Hucks friend's bits and pieces get packed in with the dinosaur bits and pieces. I guess there's no quality control at Trans Time.

Reagan shows Joe (and the readers!) what happens with the meat after it's put into huge crates. It's beamed up the time stream to the 23rd century. And we also learn why the dinosaurs are extinct!
Reagan decides to head back out with his boys and round up some more dinosaurs. They come across a herd of plant eating Alamosaurs and proceed to round them up when their spotter planes are attacked by Pteranodons. Joe is flying one of the planes and his fellow crew man has his throat ripped out. Joe fires a shot but misses and is himself attacked by another of the winged monstrosities. He doesn't have time to shoot so he decides to strangle the fiend instead!
There you have it! What better way to end this installment by having a guy trying to strangle to death a flying dinosaur cliffhanger!

2000ad folks!
Not your average comic book.

Prog 2 - INVASION

2009-01-23T09:25:00.000-08:00

To be completely honest...one of the main reasons I wanted to do this blog was to show off some fantastic artwork. And this splash page is fantastic artwork!

An interesting note about Invasion is that the fictional Volgans were in fact supposed to be Soviet Union troops but the higher ups got cold feet and wanted fictional baddies instead. A bit of a shame really but worked out quite well in the long run for the 2000ad Universe. Pat Mills would later revisit the Volgans with the ABC Warriors and a more modern take on Savage.

The story opens with scenes of more Volgan brutality. The Volgans are killing the survivors of their nuclear attack on a major city (the strip says a midland city!) and hanging politicians from the nearest lamposts...which is not necessarily and bad thing. :-)

A group of Volgans are celebrating in a pub, rubbing the locals faces in it, when up pops Savage.

Savage proceeds to blast them to pieces and in totally bizarre fashion...he runs out of ammo and leaves the room to reload! The volgans come to their senses and try and rush Savage. Which Savage kills them all...leaves the bar...blows up their tank outside and walks off into the sunset while a stranger watches for the shadows and says...

The dialogue by todays standards is pretty funny. I couldn't help but think that the 'Stranger' is a Friend of Dorothy.

But that's not the only piece of dialogue that made me chuckle. Check out the panel below for some Dirty Harry inspired spoken words...but not as cool as the original.

Overall, it's pretty standard fare. The artwork is pretty damn good except for one panel. The panel I've posted below...It looks like Savage is shooting clones and the soldier in the middle is either doing a bizarre dance or has a huge headache!
One more thing of note. The tank crew that Bill offs in this episode are the
soldiers responsible for murdering Bills wife and kids. How Bill knows this...we
aren't told.

2000ad TV ad!

2009-01-21T13:51:00.001-08:00

Here's the ad they showed on tv to get kids to pick up 2000ad. Enjoy!

Prog 2 - Cover

2009-01-21T13:33:00.000-08:00

The covers for the first few issues of 2000ad were not the stuff made of legend. Fairly average fair, to be honest.

This did improve as the year went on when the comic started to get it's footing. Another fun free gift this issue...biotronic stickers that you stuck on your arm! I wonder how many kids punched walls expecting their arms to go through and got busted knuckles instead.

It's a kind of tradition for the first two or three issues of a new comic to have free gifts. Nowadays it's fairly commonplace to have more free gifts in a kids comic than to have content! Funny how things flip.

Nothing memorable about this cover at all. As you can see Dan Dare is still the main attraction. Judge Dredd does have his first appearance in this issue but I don't think the 2000ad gang were confident enough in the strength of the strip yet to give Dredd the front cover. In fact, if I can remember, Dredd was a bit of developmental hell for Pat Mills.

Prog 1 - Meet Tharg!

2008-12-16T15:23:00.000-08:00

Tharg is the alien editor of 2000ad or rather, the smart-ass persona that the Editors hid behind when readers pointed out mistakes etc.

Pretty fun concept to have a 'fictional' character as Editor. Tharg wasn't the only one either...Starlord had...well...Starlord and Tornado had Big E or rather Dave Gibbons dressed up in a Superhero costume (I kid you not!)

Tharg even appeared in a good few strips in 2000ad written by various writers including Alan Moore. Tharg is so much part of 2000ad culture that to get rid of the 'Green Bonce' 2000ad would never be the same.

Tharg had his own language too. For example - Splundig Vur Thrigg! meant Farewell!
Here's the list of 'Editors' that have been 'Tharg' over the years -

Pat Mills (1977)
Kelvin Gosnell (1977–1978)
Steve MacManus (1978–1987)
Richard Burton (1987–1993)
Alan McKenzie (1993–1994)
John Tomlinson (1994–1996)
David Bishop (1996–2000)
Andy Diggle (2000–2002)
Matt Smith (2002–present)

You also got money for each letter printed in the comic...waaaay better than Stan Lees 'No-Prize'.

The best thing on this page though is the promise of a great new strip in issue two - Judge Dredd!!!

Next up - Prog 2!

Prog 1 - Harlem Heroes

2008-12-10T13:49:00.000-08:00

Like MACH 1, Harlem Heroes had it's roots in Hollywoodland. The movie 'Rollerball' was very popular at the time and Mills had decided to include a Future Sport strip in 2000ad. So, Harlem Heroes was born!

Sports strips were always popular in the UK, In fact 'Roy of the Rovers'...a strip following a soccer players career from his teenage days all the way up to fatherhood and onwards was really popular. The strip ran from 1954 to 1995 and even was given it's own title.

Mills had a bit of a tough time writing the script for this and even tougher time finding an appropriate artist. One of the early drafts of the script had spectators hurling bottles at the players and one player bursting into flames. Those scenes were taken out so they wouldn't cause any controversy, especially after the Action witchhunt. (More on Action in a later post!)

So, Mills handed the writing chores over to Tom Tully. Tully was the perfect choice to write the strip as he was a comics veteran and he wrote a lot of sports stories...heck, he was the writer of Roy of the Rovers for most of 'Roys' career.

The original art for the strip was drawn by an artist called Trigo. His artwork wasn't what Mills wanted and he was taken off the strip. Another artist Barry Mitchell had a go and, again, it still wasn't what Mills had in mind. So, in stepped a young Dave Gibbons to save the day. You can see the sheer energy and fantastic layouts that Gibbons brought to the strip. Below I've posted a the splash page for comparison between Trigos effort and Gibbons published page. The only Trigo art to make the cut into the first issue was the last page of the strip.

The story starts right in the thick of the action as the Heroes are beating their opponents, The Greek City Gladiators 7 - 2 in the preliminary round of the World Aeroball Championships.

On the second page of the strip, the rules are briefly explained.

After a 80mph, Kung-Fu drop kick! (yes, you read that right!)The Heroes get another strike and it's game over. The Heroes are on their way to the first round of the World Championship.

They're optimistic that they can win the championship and are on their way in their Hover powered road-liner when the controls go haywire and they skid off the road.

All are dead save four!
Three of the remaining heroes go to visit the fourth member in hospital. It seems that the three escaped the crash without even a scratch but the driver and team-mate, Louis Mayer, wasn't so lucky. He survived the crash, but he's in a bad way. Bad way as in...he's got no body...only a brain! And thanks to the miracles of 'modern' medicine, he can still communicate with his fellow Aeroball players. The three remaining members have come to tell Louis that it's over. That the team is disbanding. But in true Heroes fashion, Louis wants them to continue on and win the World Championship!

And so the journey to the World Championship Final begins!

What's interesting about the 'Heroes' strip is, that I think it was the first UK strip ever to have it's main characters be all black. Also, later, the main Hero is revealed to be the father of Judge Giant in the Dredd strip. It was Mills way of trying to have a 2000ad shared Universe.

Also of note is that, on rereading the strip, it reminds me of the Munich Air Disaster.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Munich_air_disaster

In that disaster, a few of the players survived as well as the manager, Matt Busby. Busby rebuilt the team with the survivors and they went on to win the European Cup.

Coincidence, probably, but I reckon that the trajedy was still fresh in peoples minds back in the late 70's. That's how much of an impact it had at the time.

Prog - 1 MACH 1

2008-12-04T10:42:00.001-08:00

It's Steve Austin - The Six Million Dollar Man...er...nope!

It's John Probe - M.A.C.H.1

"MACH1 was the rock 2000ad was built on in the first months - not Dredd" Pat Mills

It wasn't unusual in British comic books to ape popular tv shows or movies...and 2000ad was no exception. Action had HookJaw inspired by Jaws and 2000ad had it's own Six Million Dollar Man, Mach 1.

Sci-fi wasn't all that big in the UK at the time and Pat Mills, the then editor, knew that for 2000ad to suceed he needed a straight forward action strip.

Enter John Probe! No bionics here...just some needles and a computer brain.

In typical British comic book fashion, the Origin of MACH1 is told in one and a half pages! We don't know much about Probe and his past. In fact I don't think at any point in the series is anything mentioned about Probes past or if he had any family.

Just as soon as the 'operation' is complete Probe gets his first test. Terrorists have attacked a RAF base and Probe is to go in alone. We see Probe shatter a Nuclear Blast Proof door with one kick and outrace a motorbike! Probe apprehends the terrorist to realise that the attack on the base was a diversion and that the terrorists were after a bomber with a cargo of nerve gas...no doubt to unleash it on a highly populated area.

This is the perfect six page intro to the character and the series overall. We get the 'origin' of MACH1 and also the shock that Probe has been turned into a very powerful killing machine and he doesn't really know if he likes it or not.(This theme reoccurs every now and again in the series). The computer banter between Probe and his 'brain' gets better and better as the series goes on too. At times Probe completely ignores what his computer is telling him to do.

As usual, we have a cliffhanger that appears at the end of nearly every 2000ad strip.

The 'Next Episode' computer type box would be replaced soon by a Next Prog box with really clever next issue tag-line teasers.

Prog 1 - DAN DARE

2008-09-23T10:36:00.001-07:00

The first ever 2000ad center spread!

Not really much to say on this strip. Dare seems to be the weakest in the 2000ad line-up, which is surprising because Dare was probably the main draw for a lot of adults to buy this comic book for their kids.

I'm sure fans of the 50's Dare opened up the center pages and recoiled in horror to what they've done with their childhood hero. Can't blame them really. This version of Dare was eons apart from the 'original'. Apart from Dares trademark eyebrows, and the presence of SASA, everything about the character had changed!

For information on the 'original' Dan Dare...click the link below.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dan_Dare

A shame really...but again it was the late 70's and 2000 was trying to be cutting edge, which I think they acheived for the most part.

Apart from this not being your fathers Dan Dare...the art by Belardinelli, even though his characters are quite stiff, is unbeatable when it comes to drawing anything cosmic.

In this strip Dare and his compatriots are passing Jupiter when there ship loses power and the crew are all killed save for Dare who manages to escape. The Fleet controller removes Dare from command because of the loss of the ship. (He doesn't believe Dares story of alien interference.)

Dare takes matters into his own hands and stows aboard another cruiser that's due to pass by Jupiter to get to the truth! And we end the first chapter on the usually 2000ad trademark cliffhanger!

As you can see below...the New 'Drokk' swearing Dare(that always seems so out of place for me to read Dan Dare using a 2000ad swear word!) is a far cry....
from the 'Original' clean cut, stiff upper lip Dan Dare.

Prog 1 - FLESH

2008-09-16T13:02:00.000-07:00

Another great in-your-face-splash page.
This strip combines two of the best things I loved as a kid...Cowboys and Dinosaurs!
Flesh was a strip that was waaay ahead of it's time. Before 'Jurassic Park' there was Flesh. The story was quite fun too.

The concept was really quite simple...In the 23rd Century animals have more or less disappeared and human are surviving on synthetic foods. But people want REAL meat. So, they go back in time and harvest dinosaurs. It doesnt't matter because the dinosaurs are going to be exstinct anyways.

This is actually a pretty cool concept because you can get a lot of mileage out of it...which is what Pat Mills later did with the other Flesh books. In this first installment we see how the cowboys round up the herd of plant eating dinosaurs and keep the tyrannosaurs at bay. Another interesting theme is how the arrival of 23rd Century man is upsetting the balance in the food chain. And in this episode we have the cliche of the poor sap who's finishing his tour of duty that day and is going home...but never makes it because...he's been eaten by a crocodile.

The smell of blood sends the tyrannosaurs into a frenzy and they attack the herd of Styracosaurs. Panicked, the styracosaurs blindly stampede towards the edge of a cliff. The cowboys do their best to contain them but it's the strips 'hero' Earl Reagan' that saves the day by prompting the leader of the pack away from the cliff edge. Earl looks a lot like Dean Martin from Rio Bravo in this strip.

The day is saved but at a high loss. Twenty rangers lost their lives stopping the Tyrannosaurs from destroying their payday. And Reagan leaves the reader with a ominous glimpse of what is to come.

What I remember about this strip as a kid and the intallments of 'Flesh' that lie ahead is, it was pure bloody carnage and mayhem. Everything a kid loves! As you can see from the crocodile panel and the panel below, 2000ad wasn't shy about showing the pure savagery of the dinosaurs or the ranchers...both vying for their pieces of the pie.

A great opening chapter to a strip that would get better and better as the progs went on..

Prog 1 - INVASION

2008-09-09T11:13:00.000-07:00

What a great splash page to begin a story with.

Invasion wasted no time in getting straight into the action. In 6 pages we get the invasion of Britain by an East Asian army -The Volgans -(no doubt based on the Soviet Union.) The reluctance of other nations to step in and help Britain, raping of Britains natural resources, a glimpse of how harsh living under a Volgan regime would be and finally, last but not least Bill Savage's 'origin' story. All that in 6 pages!

You can tell by the art on the strip that the artist used photo-reference a lot. But this is photo-reference done really well as opposed to some artists today that more or less trace the photos. Here's a panel with Angela Rippon-esque newsreader. To those that don't know or where too young to remember...Angela was the first female news anchor for the BBC.

Bill Savage was based on Stanley bakers character from 'Hell Drivers'.
Watch the trailer here...www.youtube.com/watch?v=X8qFD2s0Fwg

It wasn't unusual for Pat Mills, who was editor then, to loosely base ideas or characters on popular movies or actors. For example...the Harlem Heroes was Mills answer to Rollerball and Dredd was basically Clint Eastwoods "Harry Callahan'.

The basic story is this...In a war that took only 8 hours, Britain has been invaded by a harsh and brutal regime from Eastern Asia. Bill Savage is a lorry (Truck) driver who's returning to his family when he finds out that his family have been killed by a stray shell from a Volgan tank. Savage finds his shotgun and takes out the nearest Volgan patrol.

Britain may have surrendered but Savages war has only just begun.

Savage is Britains 'Punisher' or is the Punisher the USA's 'Savage'?

Prog 1 - Cover

2008-09-05T09:38:00.000-07:00

One of the major selling points for the launch of 2000ad was not only the free gift of the Space Spinner (Eagle did the same marketing ploy with it's relaunch in the 80's) but the return of Dan Dare.

I figure, the powers that be, decided to revamp Dan Dare for 2000ad to be a selling point for Dads to pick up the issue because they would have probably read Dan Dares adventures in Eagle when they were kids and wanted to share the same experience with their own children. But I bet they didn't expect this Dan Dare!

More on that later.

What I love about this cover is it's simple effective design, the 'coming straight at you' classic logo and the hyperbole text... 'Dinosaurs', 'Stop press: Great Britain Invaded', 'Hyper-Power' and of course the promise of a 'New' Dan Dare. What kid would not like all those things? Oh, and the neat little Kevin O'Neill drawn Tharg head!

On the inside we get a double page spread of what's coming next week. Notice that there's no Dredd in the ad even though he appeared in issue 2. There is an ad, however, in the back of the issue. I figure that they didn't have Dredd ready by then and they were still struggling with what to do with him. I love the nice curve and flow to this ad...there is a lot of information and in your face graphics. 2000ad really did pack a lot of punch...and of course the Free gift - stickers to make you look Bionic or 'Biotronic'.

Great Stuff!

Prog Slog!

2008-08-29T17:37:00.000-07:00

I've been inspired by the blog http://progslog.blogspot.com/
I'm going to throw my hat into the ring and do something similar.
So, look out for some more posts!

Songs from the key of Dredd!

2008-04-15T10:39:00.000-07:00

More 'music' from Dredd. Love that Bisley artwork.