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Abslom Daak, Dalek Killer (from Doctor Who Weekly, written by Steve Moore and drawn by a sixteen year old Steve Dillon) was the first character I know of that had a chainsword. He debuted in 1981, so he had one WAY before it was cool.

Captain Haddock just following orders there.

I thought that was Commander Lex O'Malley from Dan Dare (you can see him walking down the stairs with the Theron Ambassador in last episode's grail page) rather than Captain Haddock, although admittedly they do look rather alike.

Or possibly he's the officer who orders the HMS Nemesis to attack Charlie at the end of The Terra Meks.

2000AD and Starlord Prog 96: We're gonna hit him! That guy's dead... unless he's – Superman! Eject into hell with – Angel!

A new non-human Deputy Chief Judge!  Exodus!  The ruler builds a wall!

2000AD and Starlord Prog 97: We take... a giant step for comic-kind every week!

Ginger dies!  Don't worry, he'll get better...

Ginger's story in Ro-Busters is lifted more or less directly from the novel Black Beauty, by the way - Beauty's fiesty friend Ginger is systematically broken down with over work and is eventually spotted being carted off to the knacker's yard, because it's a Victorian morality story and they're unrelentingly grim.

There's a racehorse called Harry Angel now. It regularly beats Zarjaz. It's all terribly confusing...

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I don't think Zenith sounds like Rick Astley - he was a rather awkward and shy guy who had an amazing singing voice, Zenith seems more like Stefan Dennis (a soap opera actor given a record contract because that was the fashion of the time) or that bloke in the boxer shorts from that jeans advert. I think Zenith's voice is probably quite low down in the mix.

Hard to believe you're finished with Mean Team already - that seemed to drag on for a lot longer when it was in the prog at the time.

This one'll annoy you!

As a stereotypical posh tory arse-type, Peter St John almost certainly pronounces his surname as 'Sinjin'.

"Zenith - Yay! It's like Watchmen but not Watchmen!"

Ah, Zenith and Watchmen were published simultaneously at the same time so I don't think either of them could have influenced the other (although I suppose Morrison could have seen the first couple of issues of Watchmen if the 2000 AD commissioning and creation process went uncharacteristically quickly on this occasion).

Yeah, Mind Wars is, as ever, drawn by Jesus Redondo.  (As ever apart from that one episode that has a shared credit with Ian Gibson.)  Not entirely convinced by the Mike White theory - next time I come across his work (in my chronological reading) I'll try to remember to dig out this episode, compare and contrast.  As for the balancing - everyone knows Wagner and Grant took turns taking credit, though I've not heard of the same for Wagner and Mills before.  I'm holding off reading Thrill-Power Overload (the old version), The Mighty One and Be Pure, Be Vigilant, Behave until I get to their release dates.

For some reason, the first four fourth Doctor comic strips from Doctor Who Weekly are credited to both Pat Mills and John Wagner, even though they didn't actually colaborate on them  - 'The Iron Legion' and 'The Star Beast' are credited to 'Mills and Wagner' even though they were written by Pat Mills, and 'City of the Damned' and 'The Dogs of Doom' are credited to 'Wagner and Mills' even though they were by John  Wagner on his own. No one seems to remember why they did it that way, though...

2000AD Prog 84: Ant Wars rages on! "For they shall inherit the Earth." H.G. Wells
Great news, readers!  ...and you know what that means for a British comic!  No sooner does Slade find Smokin' Joe than he takes a break.  Cliffhanger - Dredd, Tweak and Spikes defending against the mek army and one must die!  And then another one will go missing!  Cliffhanger - Villa is in the lair of the ant queens and sees something!

Star Lord No 21: Guardian of the Dark Star!
Cliffhanger - is Ardeni dead?  Cliffhanger - bad guys are in control of Ro-Busters and Miss Marilyn gets threatened!  Cliffhanger - Johnny and Wulf have to defuse the ultimate weapon!  Cliffhanger - Hunter is surrounded by alien zombies!

I think maybe that the merger has disrupted the credits - I'm absolutely certain that isn't Mike White on Mind Wars, but those zombies in the otherwise uncredited Holocaust definately look like his work, even if the colour two page spread appears to be by someone else entirely. And the credit given to TB Grover for the Cursed Earth episodes may just be a way of balancing the books, as Pat Mills was given the writing credit for the first part of Burger Wars even though he didn't write it (Dredd's Last Stand is credited to Pat Mills on every reprint I've got access too, though).

That letter from those two kids at boarding school is absolutely heartbreaking, and the language is probably the most dated thing ever printed in Star Lord. It's look looking at a different planet. What are 'lead joints', anyway...?

Did anybody work out what was supposed to be so revolutionary about Dennis, seeing as clones (and accelerated cloning) were already in use at the time?

Frankenstein is clearly following the long established tradition of inventing something that already exists but doesn't work quite as well as the original, just like Alan Sugar.

Poor Dennis. He was ugly before it was cool. Mabel would have been all over him eighteen months later...

I live quite near Alton - that's brilliant! 

I know, right? That was in about 1996, too, so he couldn't even blame it on a sat-nav. It must have taken real dedication to get THAT lost and confused...

I know someone called D'Antiquis and they pronounce it 'Dee ANT-tick-QUIT-iss', although as it's an Anglicised version of a Dutch name I think your guess is probably as good as any - I know about a dozen people and at least four place names called 'Broughton' and every single one of them pronounce it differently (even though two of them are actually cousins).

I was once in the Hampshire village of Alton (a place mainly know for Sweet Fanny Adams) and was stopped for directions to Alton Towers - I couldn't give exact directions, because they're about a hundred and fifty miles to the north, on the other side of Birmingham. Then I got glared at, as though it was MY fault...

The end of Inferno - as rushed as the last episode of Harlem Heroes, but the characters ain't going to be coming back again.

It's probably for the best that Louis was killed off so abruptly - in a world where they have humanoid androids so convincing that Zack actually falls in love with one of them, Louis chooses to have a transparent glass head so that you can see his brain sort of... sloshing about. Pretty sure that's a sign of being a real baddie.

Star Lord No 10: Death at Warp Factor 9

The twins arrive on Earth!  The Strontium Dog three-parter has a predictable but enjoyable ending.

The song in Ro-Busters is based on 'Cool' from West Side Story by Bernstein and Sondheim - shame they didn't use a Rodgers and Hammerstein tune, really - or had another pair of robots, army surplus ABC Warrior Burn-Stein (armed with a flamethrower) and his pal, Soundhelm (some sort of talking hat or something), who in turn introduce their friends, Gill-bot (some sort of frogman-like ABC Warrior) and Surleyvan (a bad tempered transit van with a Bronx accent).

Thanks, Frank: looks like an unused cover.

Part of it is the cover for the Megazine 2.13 - it is indeed credited to Dean Ormston.