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I really enjoyed them all, but...

1: THE ENIGMATIC DR X - Queen and Country
2: LOBO BAGGINS - Praise The Lord
3: EAMONN1961 - The Frog of War

Holy crap, Homestar Runner is back? And they're dropping Dredd references? Alll my Decemberweens have come at once!

1: warwick fraser-coombe - Iok Sotot
2: james newell - Raptaur
3: James Dilworth - Howler

Honourable Mentions to everyone, but especially:
Steven Austin - Kano
Neil McClements - Hastur
juddafett - Torquemada
Dog Deever - Judge Prager
DoomBot - Scarlet of Durham

Oh darn, have I missed the deadline? It's still October!

Thanks! Yeah, there's some amazing stuff in there. The Dead Man was pretty comprehensively spoiled by my online research, but reading about that arc was probably what convinced me to buy them, so I can't complain   

The second series feels like they were working out an obligation - either to the publisher or to their artist, the incredible Massimo Belardinelli - and they take the ultimate easy way out of wrapping things up *.

* SPOILER: the writers were in the process of leaving to work for US publishers and their own projects, and were [spoiler]killing off all their characters so other writers couldn't use them[/spoiler]

That explains a lot. Here's what I wrote in my prog slog diary after recently reading Mean Team for the first time, censored to protect the innocent: "A dumb story with a F-you ending."

Digging those out to check reminded me of the great prog 532 controversy, when Massimo Belardinelli's cover depicting Bad jack and Henry Moon scrapping was wrapped around a prog which didn't actually feature the strip.

That week's prog featured a reprint of an old Alan Moore Future Shock instead of the scheduled episode of The Mean Team, so presumably Massimo had a heavy night on the vino and uncharacteristically missed his deadline. That didn't faze Tharg, though:

What's made Henry so angry with Jack? Could it be he's finally noticed that Jack is wearing a replica of Henry's face on his junk? Not cool, man.

It's funny, I think there's a certain nostalgic charm to the biro'd names on my eBay-sourced early progs, but I'd never accept it on a new comic. And if a newsie turned his nose up at my reading taste I'd take my business elsewhere. I think I'd use those exact words, actually. I might throw in an I bid you good day, sir for good measure.

To be fair, your newsagent's reaction to the latest cover is probably exactly what Dave Kendall was aiming for...

I usually get mine from my local comic store on my way home from work, or, failing that, WH Smiths. Never had any issues with either of them but I'm 90% sure I'm going to take out a subscription this weekend since Tharg's been threatening to put the price up!

Hello world!

The short version: I came to 2000 AD relatively late in life but I'm enjoying catching up. I've been reading since Prog 2014, I'm slowly making my way through my eBay-bought collection (Prog 250-1400!) and lately I've been seriously considering subscribing.

The long version: Despite being a British comics reader I haven't read a lot of British comics. I picked up a few progs and megs in my late teens (around 2000) but somehow it didn't stick and I gravitated towards Vertigo, manga, and (more recently) indie comics by Dan Clowes, Chris Ware etc.

Anyway, a friend of mine is a former 2000 AD reader with particularly fond memories of ABC Warriors and for his birthday last year I decided to get him some old progs to replace the collection his dad threw out when he left home (Judas!). Figuring out which issues to buy him involved subtle questioning and extensive internet research. While scouring Barney, Dredd Reckoning and Paul Rainey's Prog Slog, I caught the bug - there's something very compelling about 37 years of continuity to immerse yourself in - and found myself buying not only progs 750-759 and 780-791 (Khronicles of Khaos, Button Man) for my pal* but progs 650-700 (The Horned God II, Song of the Surfer, The Dead Man, Necropolis) for myself.

Since then I've expanded my collection to progs 250-1400 and the first 40 or so Megazines, thanks to some some lucky eBay bargains (I managed to win progs 250-500 for £17.50, and that included £12.50 p&p - feel free to hate me). I started buying the prog from my local comic store with Prog 2014, the Megazine from Meg 350, and I'll probably get myself a combi subscription before Tharg puts the price up.

*He was very happy to see his old favourites again, but I haven't managed to get him into the new stuff. I'm giving him America and Origins this year; if that doesn't convince him, nothing will...