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I know I'll get hammered for this, but I still think in these days of needing every galactic groat and all that, I'm paying £5 for something that I don't want and won't read.

This issue is great... for kids. The stories are aimed at this audience (7-12 year olds?) and fair play 2000AD for supplying a comic for them that's bright and zany and wacky like the Beano or Whizzer & Chips.

I would just like to opt out of them please.

[Helium!]

From the Interview with Ian Edginton:

"The maestro who is Disraeli and I are finally embarking on the next series of Helium! It's true, don't faint!"


So there you go, it's been a while with THAT cliffhanger.


The full skinny on the new Fiends:

https://2000ad.com/news/interview-ian-edginton-talks-cold-war-fiends/?mc_cid=f4aaa55119&mc_eid=731f76366f

[Fiends']

Fiends' ...this 'protect queen and country from dark forces' is all a bit Absalom, dare I say?

Now that would be some very interesting linage...

[Fiends of the Eastern Front]

Is that a 'Zenith' reference in Fiends of the Eastern Front?

It would be interesting if it was, or it might just be a reference to Himmler and the Nazi Occultists, but you never know if Masterman / Maximan Serum gets banded about

Such a Great Cover by Tiernen Trevallion, as much as I liked his colour work, I think it's the greyscale where he excels and this is looking wonderful so far in the prog

[Dredd]

Dredd - Page two - the prescient panel two

That short snippet of dialogue and the action in the strip is quite spooky as happens from time to time. The writer being John Wagner just adds to the gravitas and I do often wonder how far removed from the conflicts around the world I am when I read about them in a comic or watch them on a screen.

Reminds me of the time around the London Bombings and the Charley's War reprints which were happening at the time and how the two stories converged as in the strip people were being told to get into the underground as it was safer there. This was in stark contrast to the devastating scenes of destruction by coordinated suicide attacks on the 7th July 2005 on the transport networks.

That day the threat be came closer than ever before and it breaks my heart to see some of the scenes in the Ukraine at the moment. When I first read The Apocalypse War it struck me how senseless it all was just for one man's lust for power, and today that is shockingly all too real.

The nuns literally turned her back into her old self again, a kind of anti-rehabilitation, so she could defend the nunnery from its attackers.

I recall, but I don't remember her being quite so "shoot someone in the head for the LOLs" in the last Smith story, say.

I just don't think that whole scene / set up really worked - the dialogue and the action just seemed all rather matter of fact and careless. Still the toys are well and truly out of the pram to be played with and I do often think of John Smith and how he must feel at times.

Saying that, I did appreciate how way back on a 'A Dying Art, Kek-W completed an unfinished story in a credible and respectful way and forged a head with what has always been one of my favourite concepts in 2000AD.

I look forward to the next installment, which lets hope isn't that far away so there might be a faint chance we can remember the prologue!

[Indigo Prime]

Indigo Prime this is deeply meaty stuff and needs a re-read - which it will get as it was aces - though leave Richard Dawkins alone ... and John Smith characters stuff come to that. This one at least makes perfect sense in the context of the story. Be careful with her though!

I agree, be careful with Tyranny and her cameo in IP certainly doesn't seem as jarring or out of place as Revere did. What is jarring however is why she appears and then shoots a the beloved character Dwayne (who never spoke like that previously I'm sure...) in an act of... um.. what?  Bit harsh ey? He's dead already though so might make a speedy recovery in time for next week's mash up.

Come to think of it I'm pretty sure Tyranny never spoke like that previously either. What next? Slaine as a Fatty in Dredd or Johnny Alpha as one of the villains in Stickleback?

[Saphir]

Saphir - I have thoroughly enjoyed this. It's absolute nonsense, of course, but having read that the conceit is that the whole thing is supposed to have a dreamlike quality, it makes sense and once you stop looking for the plot to be tightly written, it's superb. All the stuff like diving through mirrors to emerge from bathtubs is glorious - the whole thing has an ethereal dreamlike quality, nothing is explained and I love it. I do hope this returns. It goes without saying the art is fantastic.

Couldn't have said it any better, David Roach's art has always been sublime and the level of detail in the Saphir stories has been wondrous. I've long stopped trying to make sense of Kek-w and his work and so no need to try and fathom it all out, just go along for the ride and enjoy the visuals and this warming tale

Scarlet Traces was (only) a 112 prog wait from another tall cliffhanger.

I like all these stories - but waiting 2+ years between instalments is ... quite a wait.

Which prog did we last see Helium? The ending was pretty much written with a second series in mind I seem to recall, but then it was a very long time ago!

Also- moan moan moan- didn't like the cover at all.

It confused me, I was trying to figure out all the 2000AD characters on it... please tell me this years Christmas cover for the prog has 2000AD folk on it?

I found the forthcoming thrill box very exciting.  Had thst been announced before?  It was news to me.

Is that Wagner and McNeil's first surfer work together since 'Song? I presume it's Chopper, but perhaps it's not.

I'm currently reading the one where he goes to MC2 which is owned by Hondo and it's as bad as it was in 1995...

Yup, I agree it's ALWAYS been about personal tastes and I'm pleased that the prog is mixing it up to keep healthy after all these years and like I said, if The prog is needs to lower it's age bracket to survive then fair play. I'd rather it do that and carry on, than have old farts like me dictate to what it should publish and it go down the pan.

Again I've nothing against Pandora Perfect or some of the others and glad people like those younger types of strips whatever their age, but coming back to the the personal taste thing... nope, I really don't.

This isn't a last few weeks sort of head scratcher, as I've grown older I'm not really feeling it when I open the pages of 2000AD anymore and the arrival of more lightweight cartoony strips and the departing of stories such as Absalom and a few others has made me reappraise where I'm spending my money and time really.

All good things come to an end I suppose, even after 33 years and things change don't they. I would have loved to see a Wagner / McNeil Stronty Dog, but I don't think with the spin off's that will happen and I still might buy the odd collection if it's the right story.

I might also be interested to pop in now and again just to see how old Dredd is getting on and indeed how old he gets!   

I found the letter by Nic Freeman to be interesting, as it echo's some of my own concerns, albeit I wouldn't go so far as to call the Regened issues 'unreadable tosh'

What I do agree with however is that when the Regened strips were contained in the one-offs, they were aimed at a kids target audience and I didn't have to engage in reading them, so fair enough.

As many of these strips are now firmly established in the prog, I'm starting to disconnect from it somewhat. When I started reading 2000AD in 1988, comics were in a boom time of attempting credibility for adult readership and so became more 'mature in content. As a 13 year old, reading Crisis and 2000AD was great for my adolescent brain.

The prog is now going the opposite way, lowering it's age bracket and fair play if that what it needs to do to survive. I've nothing against Pandora Perfect per se, but it's clearly aimed at teenagers and not an greying 46 year old such as myself who has now started listening to Radio 4 (crikey!)

So I think as I'm growing older and 2000AD is growing younger, after 33 consistant years of collecting it week after week, it might be time to let go of a relationship, where we've both changed so much from when we started.

There are the odd gems here and there such as Scarlet Traces and I had decided to leave when Wagner penned his last Dredd, but I'm not sure I can keep reading after my subs runs out next summer dining on one or two scraps of quality.

Well that's a lovely cover, all be it with a clunky tag line!

How to crap on a classic cover, the font droid opts to choose four different type settings and the one at the bottom is a ripe old stinker!

Dredd picks up threads from previous Rob Williams stories and I like how Joe casually asks for a chat in a rather awkward but sweet way.

Always great to see the team behind Scarlet Traces return, nudging my Stickleback memories and thoughts towards a hopeful return of the Baker Street misfit.

The whole thing felt like a clumsy attempt at an all-ages Judge Dredd Megazine to me.

Good shout, clumsy is the word, although I'm not sure why the opening Dredd had to be so hard to read in that respect. Lovely to look at though, but the plot?. On the whole I thought it was a series of events lacking in any real story and pretty clunky dialogue.

The ending with Anderson floating about (from where did she come?) prior to which she states I can't do this anymore, had me agreeing with her. The last story was just bobbins in it's narrative and dialogue and failed to tie all the many lose ends. Dredds characterisation just didn't sound or look right and don't get me started on Develin Waugh...