2000ad Sci Special 1986

[Colin YNWA]

Well that's a great turn around.

This one has a fantastic Dredd, as has been true to form up to now. Unlike the previous specials however this one backs it up with some brilliant other strips.

The Dredd is one of my all time favourites. It falls firmly into the tread of the time of having Dredd as an utter bastard but really worked well and was beautifully realised by Steve Dillon.

Similarly the Milligan Rogue Trooper story is a winner and the Future Shock has always been a favourite of mine too. Heck even the reprint material takes a step up and with a cute one page Slaine by Fabry this is a great read cover to cover.

Alas it doesn't last and while there are some good John Smith tails (pun intended) in the following years the quality continues to be very variable until a bit of a low in '90. I like Armoured Gideon and Bix but these were pretty poor examples and the only thing that held up was a very nice Summer Magic story. Heck the Dredd is even reprint, however good, by this point. I'm a little worried by whats to come if the Dredd in the Annuals is continued!

[Greg M.]

I just re-read this one the other day. The Rogue strip is great (and is very notably Milligan's template for the Bad Company story 'Simply', the Prog 601 'drawn live' four-pager - they're very similar strips.) Fabry's early take on Balor is quite interesting, though I'm glad he developed him into the even more monstrous version that eventually saw print. Judge Dredd - 'Beyond the Wall' is also great - who would have guessed it would turn out to be such an enduring story, with a sequel by Garth Ennis and then reappearing several times in connection with Banzai Battalion?

And as for the visit of tv show Splash to the Command Module, with an appearance by Madness... it's like the entirety of being young in the 80s compressed into four pages.

[O Lucky Stevie!]

The Dredd is one of my all time favourites. It falls firmly into the tread of the time of having Dredd as an utter bastard but really worked well and was beautifully realised by Steve Dillon.

A rose for Rosie, right?
This is strip marks the exact moment where Stevie, having gone from Dredd being his least favourite thrill in the nascent Prog to something that he enjoyed depending upon the artist to the funny ones are  great, aren't they? (having prefered the Robo-Hunter & Ace Trucking Co pole of Wagner & Grant's output),  finally arrives at Aha, so this is why it says "Featuring Judge Dredd" on the cover.

Phenomenal stuff.

Similarly the Milligan Rogue Trooper story is a winner

The Fanatics, right? Reread it recently & still maintains all of it's power to this day. Both this & the Moore/Redondo annual story made  this reader sit up & take notice of the strip for the first time since Colin Wilson was channelling Chris Foss.

Alas it doesn't last and while there are some good John Smith tails (pun intended)

John & Peter Milligan, for the most part,  are pretty much what made those 1990s specials worthwhile. Stevie's going to disagree with your assessment of Bix Barton there as, after the first 2 stories in the prog, it's in it's concentrated 5 pager form that the strip works best.

Variable is the key word for the remainder of the content, but some other tasty morsels that stick to one's fingertips whilst rustling around the bottom of the prog packet include Leviathan's Farewell, a Chris Weston Nemesis, a Kev Walker Blackblood & a Hughasmic Tale from Beyond Science.

The Action Special was the most consistently aces of the lot.

Oh, & for those who are quick to diss Jim McCarthy – what other artist  else have you seen give a full English breakfast gravitas?