Winter Special

[Eamonn Clarke]

Cover by Templesmith is fantastically creepy and unlikely to be as controversial as the a summer special cover.

Dredd. Another special and another relic with weird powers, or maybe it's all in the perp's head, or maybe it's a movie. Confused and didn't care too much.

Rogue Trooper. Lovely art and the chips are fine but Rogue should know better than to mess with a likely booby trapped battlefield corpse. Still hoping he gets a return to the regular Prog.

Alienist. Bad timing that this comes just after the episode of Who where Clara got to play the Doctor. Nice idea and looks good though.

The Terror Tale is suitably nasty and bloody for this gory issue.

Defoe. Mills and Gallagher are as great as ever and it's an interesting prequel. Best of the bunch for me.

Anderson. Looks great but it's another day at the psychic coal face for Mr and Mrs Anderson's little girl. Nice to see Justice department using resources instead of just locking them up in the psych cubes.

Overall I thought the Summer Special was slightly stronger but it was a good read for Halloween week. And fantastic Percival art to finish off as well.

[I, Cosh]

Good stuff. I thought. Interesting to see Burchielli's take on Dredd just as I'm halfway through DMZ.

The Anderson story was a decent laugh and I enjoyed seeing Darren Douglas tackling a strip. His take on Cass was halfway between the Dowling and Cook which seemed to work well for this kind of tongue in cheek story/

Standouts for me were Defoe, consistently my favourite Mills story for years now, and The Alienist. I know writers get all antsy when quizzed about the biographical basis of their fictions, but surely a new story from the Rennie/Beeby team concerning a gin soaked old fraud playing the front man for a more talented lady is too good to ignore?

[Dark Jimbo]

I know writers get all antsy when quizzed about the biographical basis of their fictions, but surely a new story from the Rennie/Beeby team concerning a gin soaked old fraud playing the front man for a more talented lady is too good to ignore?

[Frank]

Rogue Trooper. Lovely art and the chips are fine but Rogue should know better than to mess with a likely booby trapped battlefield corpse. Still hoping he gets a return to the regular Prog

Rogue Trooper occupies the same position as Black Boab text stories in The Dandy - it crops up in annuals for old time's sake, but it's not the kind of thing that would make it into the weekly anymore. I know Current Tharg reckons that door has closed, but it's almost inevitable a future editor and a young writer eager to make a name for themselves will try to bring back what's still an iconic 2000ad character for another stab at a Norty's neck regular series.

[Eamonn Clarke]

Here's the pretty positive ECBT2000AD review.
http://2000ad.wordpress.com/2014/10/29/review-the-2000ad-winter-special-2014/

[Spaceghost]

Here's the pretty positive ECBT2000AD review.
http://2000ad.wordpress.com/2014/10/29/review-the-2000ad-winter-special-2014/

No, it's not just you. I couldn't stop thinking that The Alienist was a hastily re-tooled Doctor Who story. Even before the psychic paper made an appearance I was getting Who vibes, but that just sealed it.

That's not to say I didn't enjoy it, I just found the, ahem, borrowed plot elements a little jarring. Once it starts proper and we focus more on the interplay between pompous, blustering actor and incognito Time Lord...sorry, extra-dimensional alien woman, hopefully it'll find its own voice.

And yes, the art was tops.

[TordelBack]

Not in my newsagents either.   

[Colin YNWA]

Not in Smiths in Sheffield, I'll try Rotherham tomorrow.

[Dodsy]

Having trouble getting hold of this 

[Richard]

I thought this was brilliant. Not one dud story. I hope this becomes and annual event.

Even Rogue Trooper was good, and I don't usually like it. Can anyone remind me what else Guy Adams writes? Anyone who can pen a good Rogue story must be talented!

I liked The Alienist. Looking forward to seeing the series which has doubtless already been commissioned...

Nice to see Jeff Anderson back. Been a while. Would like more Nick Percival too.

A very good effort all round.

[Dark Jimbo]

Can anyone remind me what else Guy Adams writes? Anyone who can pen a good Rogue story must be talented!

Ulysees Sweet.

[Frank]

remind me what else Guy Adams writes

Ulysses Sweet, and a bunch of prose.

[Link Prime]

Not in my newsagents either.   

Our friends in Big Bang had a decent stock in, Tordel- I was down in D24, but drove that 'extra mile' to pick up a copy this evening.

Great special, and a meaty read too for the humble price tag.
Personal fave was the Rogue Trooper story by Adams & Carter- very well executed.
You won't loose the image of Rogue carrying around his comrades body parts as equipment for quite some time.

Tharg knows talent when he sees it, and the newly constructed DarrenDouglasDroid (sorry, DanDontDare), received not one, but two nods of approval for his excellent work on Anderson. I definitely wanna see more from him.

Thumbs up all round.

[TordelBack]

Our friends in Big Bang had a decent stock in, Tordel- I was down in D24, but drove that 'extra mile' to pick up a copy this evening.

Good stuff, may have to brave The Horror that is mid-term at Dundrum.

[Jim_Campbell]

Just to add to the general chorus of approval... ordered this from the Future Shop a couple of days ago and it arrived in a prompt fashion. Read it last night and it's great. Nice to see artists not associated with the pre-existing characters bringing something new to them and the stories, without exception, are tightly-written and thoroughly entertaining. Not a dud in sight.

More specials, please, Mighty One!

Cheers

Jim