2000AD surges into summer like a squad of Intestinauts falling upon a bacterial cluster in your upper colon! June is upon us and the Thrills are hot, hot, hot! (Even if the weather is not…)

In this week’s edition of the Galaxy’s Greatest Comic, featuring a knockout cover by PJ Holden and Pye Parr, Judge Dredd edges closer to a confrontation with the Undercity entity known as Iron Teeth; Kurtis and Lind wrestle sigils in “Brink“; the net is closing in on “Proteus Vex“; the microbial cover stars the “Intestinauts” come face to cerebellum with the mysterious Dr Globulon; and “3riller – Blue Skies Over Deadwick” reaches its explosive finale.

All in all, another packed prog of searing sci-fi to fry your imaginations!

Also out this week: Best of 2000AD Volume Six, the latest in what Rebellion describe as a landmark series, bursting with our greatest stories for a new generation of readers.

2000AD Prog 2385

JUDGE DREDD // IRON TEETH, Part Four
Script: Ken Niemand / Art: Nick Percival / Letters: Annie Parkhouse

Mega-City One, 2146 AD. Home to over 200 million citizens, this urban hell is situated along the east coast of post-apocalyptic North America. Crime is rampant, and only future cops the Judges — empowered to dispense instant justice — can stop total anarchy. Toughest of them all is JUDGE DREDD — he is the Law! Now, a band of juves have headed into the Undercity to seek an mythical monster and Dredd’s in pursuit…

BRINK // CONSUMED, Part Eight
Script: Dan Abnett / Art: INJ Culbard / Letters: Simon Bowland

The late 21st century, and through environmental catastrophe and industrial overload Earth has been reduced to a wasteland. Mankind finally evacuated the planet in 2072 and millions were housed in a number of deep-space Habitats. But life on these cramped, overcrowded stations is tense, often spilling over into madness. Sects are rife, and Bridget Kurtis of the Habitat Security Division is investigating their reach…

THARG’S 3RILLERS // BLUE SKIES OVER DEADWICK, Part Three
Script: David Baillie / Art: Nick Brokenshire / Letters: Annie Parkhouse

Three episodes, one complete, self-contained story — a condensed hit of super-charged Thrill-power beamed to you directly from the Nerve Centre! Earth, the far future. The settlement of Deadwick, last refuge of the humans, is under constant assault from gigantic robots, and to defeat them they must be climbed and their brains deactivated. But still the mechanoids come, under the mysterious direction of an unknown entity…

INTESTINAUTS // BUSTED FLUSH, Part Four
Script: Arthur Wyatt / Art & Letters: Pye Parr

For stomach upsets, future tech has developed nano-robots called INTESTINAUTS, who fight parasites in the gut. These micro-droids are ingested orally, then once their battle against the various horrors that can be found in the stomach is over, they take the Big Flush, ready to be uploaded back to headquarters. Now, the lab has been compromised, and they face the terrifying Omega-Genocide-Four…

PROTEUS VEX // DEVIOUS, Part Eleven
Script: Mike Carroll / Art: Jake Lynch / Colours: Jim Boswell / Letters: Simon Bowland

The far future. The centuries-long war between the Alliance and the Obdurate people is over, a conflict ended when the Alliance teleported a dying white dwarf star into the Obdurate system. Imperium agent PROTEUS VEX — who is operated by a flesh-pilot — became an enemy of the Alliance when he released info about past war crimes. In the wake of the war with the Scorchers, Vex has been presumed dead, but he’s alive…

2000AD Prog 2385 is available in print from: 2000AD webshop, book stores, Amazon, and comic book stores via Diamond | Available in digital from: 2000AD webshop, 2000 AD app for Apple & Android

Don’t forget that if you buy an issue of 2000AD in the first week of its release then postage in the UK is free

Best of 2000AD Volume 6: The Essential Gateway to the Galaxy’s Greatest Comic
Creators: Various, inc. Alan Moore, Dave Gibbons, Robbie Morrison, Henry Flint, Pat Mills
Scheduled for: 4th June 2024
Paperback, 192 Pages
ISBN: 978-1837862023

Every Best of 2000AD contains a mix of modern classics and gems from the vault. In each edition you’ll find an explosive new Judge Dredd adventure, fresh essays by prominent popular culture writers, a graphic novel-length feature presentation by global legends and a vintage Dredd case.

In this volume Judge Dredd makes a Tempus Fugitive of literature’s most famous time-travel enthusiast; tremble as Robbie Morrison and Henry Flint deliver galaxy-wide carnage at the hands of the retribution of a dead race, Shakara The Avenger; during a long, hot summer something rots at the heart of a council estate in John Smith and Edmund Bagwell’s Cradlegrave; Dredd sends his cadets into the Cursed Earth to face The Hotdog Run; The government agents of Ice Station Delta find their problems snowball when they tangle with Shako, the only polar bear on the CIA death list!

Available in print from: 2000AD webshop, book shops, Amazon, and comic book stores via Diamond | Available in digital from: 2000AD webshop, 2000AD app for Apple & Android

Coming Soon…

Kelpie the Boy Wizard: 60th Anniversary
By Ken Mennell with art by John M. Burns
Out: 19th June 2024
Paperback, 96 pages
ISBN: 9781837861705

Rebellion is to publish a 60th anniversary collection of “Kelpie the Boy Wizard“, first published in the weekly anthology comic Wham! in 1964 and 1965, written largely by Ken Mennell with art, and a new cover, by John M. Burns.

In days of old, when King Arthur reigned over Britain, there was at royal Camelot an apprentice sorcerer by the name of Kelpie.

Together with his venerable master, the great and powerful Merlin, Kelpie uses his magic to protect the kingdom from evil doers including The Raven and the Weird Sisters of Doon.

First published sixty years ago by Odhams Press in Wham!, the complete saga of “Kelpie the Boy Wizard”, a new 96-page collection, “channels Arthurian legend through a Harry Potter filter”, say Rebellion, which, it has to said, is a little bit odd given that the strip predates JK Rowling’s boy wizard by some 30 years.

The strip, presented throughout its weekly run in black and white, was the work of John M. Burns, whose death has, sadly, just been announced, but who created a new cover for the collection before he passed.

Ken Mennell had an extensive career as an editor for Fleetway, working on a variety of classic comics. He had a hand in creating several strips, including “The Steel Claw” and “Black Max”.

However, he wasn’t the only writer on the strip. Editor and writer Keith Chapman, also known as Chap O’Keefe, who now lives in New Zealand, who knew colleague Ken Mennel as a script editor during his early days as an editorial junior at Fleetway, wrote the “Kelpie” story in the first Wham! Annual 1966 published in two colour, and tells us he doesn’t know if this was the only Kelpie yarn not to come from Ken Mennell. “Burns’ depiction of my Macbeth-like witches was superb!” Keith told The Tainted Blog back in 2011.

John M. Burns’ painted art graced several 2000AD series, notably “Judge Dredd” and “Nikolai Dante”, as well in as his own co-creation, “The Bendatti Vendetta”. He also contributed to “Black Light”, “Doctor Sin”, “The Scarlet Apocrypha”, “Vector 13” and “Witchworld”. Outside the Galaxy’s Greatest Comic, he pencilled Eclipse’s ESPers and the James Bond miniseries, A Silent Armageddon.

July

Rogue Trooper: Blighty Valley
by Garth Ennis and Patrick Goddard
Scheduled for 2nd July 2024
Hardcover, 96 Pages
ISBN: 978-1837861958

An all-new standalone Rogue Trooper graphic novel, written by Garth Ennis (The Boys, Preacher), perfect for readers unfamiliar with the character and for old fans of Rogue Trooper’s classic adventures in 2000AD.

Nu Earth is the site of a galactic war between the Norts and the Southers, and the Genetic Infantrymen like Rogue Trooper have been created solely for this war. However, after the betrayal of the Traitor General Rogue is the last of his kind, and together with biochip buddies Helm, Gunnar and Bagman, they’re searching for the traitor that sold them out. 

But now the black hole above Nu-Earth causes a time-rift, and Rogue must team up with British soldiers from World War One to fight both the Hun and the Norts, fix the time barrier, and get back to his original mission. 

Garth Ennis writes this new, standalone Rogue Trooper adventure – melding together historical action with the sci-fi adventure that is the core of 2000AD – drawn by Patrick Goddard, who brings the character back in a style reminiscent of the classic Rogue Trooper artists.

2000AD SciFi Special 2024
Out: 3rd July 2024 | £4.99 | 52 Pages
Available from all good newsagents and comic book stores, as well as the 2000 AD app and webshop

It’s the summer of true nuclear fusion as 2000AD mashes and smashes its most popular strips together in the return of its pulsating Sci-Fi Special!
 
Exploding into shelves on 3rd July 2024 in a 48-page supernova, the 2000AD Sci-Fi Special will feature an all-thriller and killer line-up of creators including Ian Edginton, Dan Abnett, Ben Willsher, Nicolò Assirelli… and the return to 2000AD of the mighty Al Ewing!
 
This all-new Sci-Fi Special comes beamed from an alternate dimension – one in which familiar characters from the Galaxy’s Greatest Comic have been given a different twist. The Thrill-powered characters you thought you knew have been amalgamated into one other in strange and unpredictable ways, creating an all new version of the Galaxy’s Greatest!
 
In this sideways universe there is only one person who has the strength to enforce the law in Mega-City One… and he’s a high-powered mutant! With eyes which can emit piercing Alpha waves, JUDGE ALPHA makes sure that nobody messes with the Justice Department!
 
When robots go rogue and start causing chaos in the neighbourhood, who’re you gonna call? Sinister and Dexter, of course, the ROBO-SHARKS! Hired to track down and terminate troublesome droids, this pair of robo… hunters? never miss their targets! 
 
The Search/Destroy Agency have a number of highly-trained bounty hunters on their intergalactic roster: but none were as skilled as Friday! Framed for a crime he didn’t commit, this ROGUE/DOG is now being hunted by his fellow bounty hunters!
 
Ahoy! When you’re out on the wild seas of the world, flag flying in the wind and your team of scurvy dogs on deck, no bounty goes unclaimed! But the Red Wench’s captain is a rather strange chap: who is STICKLEBACK?
 
And if you’re a fan of high-octane thrill-sports, there’s only one place to enjoy extreme and enervating combat! The most violent sport of the future features undead, flesh-eating teams… welcome THE HARLEM ZOMBOS to 2000AD!

2000AD Vs Battle Action: Comics Collide!
by Kenneth Niemand, Geoffrey D Wessel, et al.
Scheduled for 17th July 2024
Paperback, 128 Pages
ISBN: 978-1837861897

THE CROSSOVER 50 YEARS IN THE MAKING!

What if the old Battle Action comic was merged with 2000 AD in the early ’80s? That’s the question posed by this all-new collection that reveals the answer is – action-packed thrills by the bucket-load. It takes old Battle Action strips and reworks them as 2000AD-appropriate adventures, while remaining true to their original concept and continuity. 

This kick-ass crossover sees Judge Dredd feature in a reimagining of Action’s most controversial strip – Kids Rule O.K., and also includes Darkie’s Mob, Death Game 2049 and Major Eazy, amongst others. 

Written by Ken Niemand (Judge Dredd), Geoffrey D. Wessel (War Birds), Chris Weston (Rogue Trooper), Karl Stock (Fiends of West Berlin), Arthur Wyatt (Dredd), Gordon Rennie (Judge Dredd), Mike Carroll (Dreadnaughts), Alec Worley (Robo-Hunter) and Alex De Campi (Archie vs. Predator), with art by Simon Coleby (The Authority), Nick Dyer (Tales from the Black Museum), Paul Marshall (Sinister Dexter), Jake Lynch (HAVN), Dan Cornwell (Rok of the Reds), Nick Percival (Slaine), Kieran McKeown (Crime Syndicate), Staz Johnson (Vikings) and Patrick Goddard (Battle Action).

• 2000AD, Treasury of British Collections and Specials – 2024

John Freeman

The founder of downthetubes, which he established in 1998. John works as a comics and magazine editor, writer, and on promotional work for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. He is currently editor of Star Trek Explorer, published by Titan – his third tour of duty on the title originally titled Star Trek Magazine.

Working in British comics publishing since the 1980s, his credits include editor of titles such as Doctor Who Magazine, Babylon 5 Magazine, and more. He also edited the comics anthology STRIP Magazine and edited several audio comics for ROK Comics. He has also edited several comic collections, including volumes of “Charley’s War” and “Dan Dare”.

He’s the writer of “Pilgrim: Secrets and Lies” for B7 Comics; “Crucible”, a creator-owned project with 2000AD artist Smuzz; and “Death Duty” and “Skow Dogs” with Dave Hailwood.

Categories: 2000AD, British Comics, Comic Previews, Comics, downthetubes Comics News, downthetubes News

Tags: 2000AD, downthetubes News, Judge Dredd, PJ Holden, Pye Parr, SF Comics