Choosing one out of 2283 (@ print) possibilities is always a daunting task. This one of those votes that might be more of an opinion than a vote. Let's ask the question what is your best/favorite prog?
Maybe something like prog 335:
- Dredd The Graveyard Shift Part 1
- Nemesis Book 3 Part 1
- Rogue From Hell to Eternity Part 1
- Slaine Warriors Dawn Part 1
- Strontium Dog The Moses Incident Part 1
(http://www.2000ad.org/covers/2000ad/mediumres/335.jpg)
So yes, this is a very open-ended vote here. You have 2283 plus choices here.
What a way to return - WOW! How are we meant to get to a decision here?
For now I'll go Prog 1634, which I always us as the marker for the new Golden Age (tm). Zombo start we have Cradlegrave, decent Dredd, Savage and prime Dante.
BUT if I get time I want to look for any The Out + Brink Progs (Barney doesn't go that far alas!)
I'm going to say Prog 2282, simply because I like to think of the comic as an ongoing concern that I enjoy each week with the same shiver of thrillpower as I have done since I was six. That is tempered by the fact that I haven't been overly impressed with much this year so far, and thus this week's having a five for five hit rate immediately puts it in the top tier and served to show me that no, I'm not just going off it. When it does a prog like this week's, it's the best thing on the stands.
SBT
Quote from: SmallBlueThing(Reborn) on 23 May, 2022, 01:11:44 PM
I'm going to say Prog 2282, simply because I like to think of the comic as an ongoing concern that I enjoy each week with the same shiver of thrillpower as I have done since I was six. That is tempered by the fact that I haven't been overly impressed with much this year so far, and thus this week's having a five for five hit rate immediately puts it in the top tier and served to show me that no, I'm not just going off it. When it does a prog like this week's, it's the best thing on the stands.
SBT
That sir is a great call.
And reminds of the answer I gave to a similar question not that long ago being - the next one. As there's nowt better than looking forward to another great Prog.
Here was me thinking I was going to be original by saying "the next prog".
My best prog, though, would have to be the first one I read - because it got me hook, line and sinker:
(http://www.2000ad.org/covers/2000ad/hires/146.jpg)
A Bolland cover, advertising the classically dystopian "New Year is Cancelled" in Judge Dredd. Then The V.C.s, with art by the art god striding the Earth that is Cam Kennedy. The Stainless Steel Rat (Ezquerra), some Blackhawk madness (Massimo Belardinelli) and finally an introduction to the editor with What Tharg Did on Sunday.
I've told the story before, but we were at a party and some other kid wanted to steal my first prog - there ensued a tug of war and it got ripped in half (in a wonderful metaphorical display of the negative results of conflict and greed).
128
dredd arrests an entire sov ship.
the full on apparent horror of the mess is unleashed in the abcs.
gfd continues to have rude non-canonical invasion fun in a flooded england.
belardinelli sculpts some freaky dreams for our favourite space-faring roman gladiator.
the mind of wolfie smith evokes some real evil in the form of matthew hobb.
captain klep!
writers - john wagner, alan grant, gerry finley-day, tom tully and pat mills
artists - massimo belardinelli, ron smith, carlos pino, ian gibson and brendan mccarthy (with a zarjaz colour spread).
what a roster.
oh man. and what a brilliant cover by ron.
This is really hard, not least because I know which stories are my favourites, but not necessarily what was running in the Prog at the time.
I like to thing Progs in the mid 220s when you had Nemesis book 1 and Judge Death Lives are right there.
Also 178 sticks in my mind.
Or Progs from 335 onwards where you have Nemesis, Slaine and Stront all at the same time.
I'm also going to put 167 forward: Comic Rock (Nemesis/ Terror Tube), Judge Child, Robo-Hunter Day of the Droids and the Stainless Steel Rat Saves the World. Oh and it had the Mind of Wolfie Smith as well.
I've been over this at some length (https://2000adbestever.blogspot.com/2021/12/best-prog-ever-contenders.html)
where I managed to whittle it down to this lot:
(https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEh3_5JQky9_25lC0iGro_J_c_uPGcHADmvTJhW78yu-V0hEIR8pclqxDyeh43Es9CEx0yrj9-Jw8z9Nxr6_c04oQS7Z8VGBRXWEe4hAPKkT8DftQ_BDRtnXDCAukc_bRyU9ic2dxWtorIfVYyP4xxVt-941gyLJKMXklSZ-3ZXP9RPGqrf4y_JmvjrW=w640-h452)
For the sake of picking out one Prog, I'm plumping for Prog 1506:
(http://www.2000ad.org/covers/2000ad/mediumres/1506.jpg)
Not a great cover, but the insides include the wonderful final episode of Banzai Batallion, an early episode of Origins when the excitiment was still palpable, top tier Dante, eye-popping body horror art in Stone Island, and a certain twist ending in Malone...
The only thing wrong with Prog 335 is that the cover is a bodge-job from other pics. It's impossible for me to detach it from my personal nostalgia as, while it wasn't the first one I read (308) or the first one I bought (330) it's still in my fledgling squaxx summer.
1506 is also the issue I got back on board with after my wilderness years - so that's an excellent choice!
I would have added 2100 to the list but unfortunately it does contain another arc of Skip Tracer
(https://images.rebellion.click/productVersion/d3/6c/00.default.jpg)