2000AD is almost done for, and with 2020 – just like we are – and today sees the release of the last regular prog of the year (2211) in comic ships and newsagents across the UK. But Rebellion aren’t quite done with this horrendous year for many us, just yet… and the publisher has lots to offer in 2021, including details of its first digital-only release, a collection of the 2000AD tale, Armoured Gideon…

Inside this week’s Prog, we’re treated to finales of “Judge Dredd: Simply Normal”, “Fiends of the Eastern Front: Constanta” and “Dexter: The Funt Outta Town”, plus another “Vision of Deadworld” and a complete “Future Shock” – and a tantalising tease of Things to Come in 2021…

Next week sees the release of 2000AD Prog 2212 — one hundred pages of brain-frazzling Thrill-power the likes of which, says Tharg himself, “your diodes have never experienced before”. This mega-sized issue of The Galaxy’s Greatest Comic sees the start of brand-new series in the shape of “Sláine: Dragontamer” by Pat Mills and Leonardo Manco, “Durham Red: Served Cold” by Alec Worley and Ben Willsher, “Proteus Vex: The Shadow Chancellor” by Mike Carroll and Jake Lynch, and “Hershey: The Brutal” by Rob Williams and Simon Fraser.

Plus there’s the return of everyone’s favourite super-intelligent ape Noam Chimpsky, too, in “Judge Dredd: Three Kings” by Ken Niemand and PJ Holden… and Johnny Alpha and Wulf are back in a one-off Strontium Dog thriller from Rob Williams and Laurence Campbell.

Be ready for that – and a new Judge Dredd Megazine, too. Oh – and if you haven’t already bought it, don’t forget the Misty Winter Special 2020 is still on sale!

Here’s a guide to some of the more immediate releases, but we have a list of known 2021 books in the works from Rebellion here, including those delayed for print release this year.

This Week’s Rebellion Releases

• 2000AD Prog 2211 – 9th December

Cover by Steve Austin

Judge Dredd: Simply Normal by Kenneth Niemand (Writer) Steven Austin (Artist) Chris Blyth (Colourist) Annie Parkhouse (Letterer)

Mega-City One, 2142 AD. Home to over 140 million citizens, this urban hell is situated along the east coast of post-apocalyptic North America. Unemployment is rife and crime is rampant. Only the Judges — zero-tolerance cops empowered to dispense instant justice — can stop total anarchy. Toughest of them all is JUDGE DREDD — he is the Law! Now, he ’s raiding a controversial simp-reversal business…

Visions of Deadworld by Kek-W (Writer) Dave Kendall (Artist) Simon Bowland (Letterer)

The planet that eventually became known as DEADWORLD was once a regular civilisation existing in a dimension parallel to our own. But the end of days is coming, and creatures known as the Dark Judges are spreading their contagion, exterminating all life, which they see as a crime. Zombie ‘greys ’ are doing their bidding, having consumed the Dead Fluids, and other monstrosities stalk the streets, preying on survivors…

Dexter: The Funt Outta Town by Dan Abnett (Writer) Steve Yeowell (Artist) John Charles (Colourist) Simon Bowland (Letterer)

Gun-sharks Finnigan SINISTER and Ramone DEXTER were the best hitmen money could buy in the future city of Downlode. Having whacked Holy Moses Tanenbaum, a ganglord from an alternate dimension, they found killing him reset the continuum, meaning no one knew who they were. But now a rogue A.I. is at large, which took control of Sinister, forcing Dexter to kill him. He ’s fleeing through the Maul with Carrie and Billi…

Future Shocks: Indistinguishable From… by Joseph Elliott-Coleman (Writer) Richard Elson (Artist) Jim Campbell (Letterer)

Out in the vast reaches of the universe, there are an infinite number of stories waiting to be told. These cautionary tales pass from traveller to traveller in the spaceports and around campfires on distant planets, acquiring the status of legend, their shocking ends a salutory lesson in hubris. Anything is possible in these twisted trips into the galaxy’s dark side. Abandon your preconceptions, and expect the unexpected…

Fiends of the Eastern Front: Constanta by Ian Edginton (Writer) Tiernen Trevallion (Artist) Annie Parkhouse (Letterer)

In 1980, the diary of German soldier Hans Schmitt was discovered in Berlin, detailing events that occurred in 1941, when he encountered the terrifying vampire Captain Constanta and his Romanian platoon. But Schmitt was not the first trooper to meet Constanta — the vampire was on the Western Front too, in France in 1916. Now, in 1921, a British pilot, Lieutenant Tim Wilson, has travelled to Romania in search of him…

Available in print from: newsagents and comic book stores via Diamond | Available in digital from the 2000 AD webshop and apps for iPad, Android, Windows 10

• Judge Dredd: Control – 10th December

Coming Soon…

• Judge Dredd Megazine #427 – 16 December

• The Rise and Fall of the Trigan Empire Volume 2 – 24 December (note revised date)

January 2021

• We have a list of known 2021 books in the works from Rebellion here, including those delayed for print release this year

• Third World War Book Two: Back to Babylon – 5th January 2021

After her eye-opening experiences of corporate interference in Central America, Eve returns to Britain with a renewed political drive and determination to fight for what she believes in.

Written in the late 80s by Pat Mills (Nemesis the Warlock, Slaine), this incendiary second volume of the ground-breaking political comic not only contains contributions by legend Carlos Ezquerra (Judge Dredd,Preacher) but also introduces international comics stars Sean Phillips (Criminal, Kill or Be Killed) and Duncan Fegredo (Hellboy, Kid Eternity).

• Armoured Gideon (Digital Release) – 6th January 2021

Armoured Gideon is the first of a brand new series of digital-only 2000AD collections for 2021 – the adventures of fan favourite character Armoured Gideon are collected in a digital-only graphic novel for the first time. Armoured Gideon is a demon-slaying robot who only says one word… ‘Annihilate!’ His task? To protect our world from the demonic threat of a parallel dimension known as ‘The Edge’. This classic 2000AD story is presented in a new edition, aimed at fans new and old!

Available in digital from: Amazon Kindle, 2000 AD webshop & apps for iPad, Android and Windows 10

• 2000AD Regened – 7 January 2021

A collection of comics written for younger readers. Featuring all-ages re-imaginings of legacy 2000AD characters – including break-out fan favourite Cadet Dredd, a teenage Judge Dredd in training. Plus, discover how Johnny Alpha became a teenage bounty-hunter Strontium Dog, and alien delinquents DR and Quinch hijack Free Comic Book Day! All this and more new takes on old favourites! 

• King’s Reach – John Sanders’ Twenty-Five Years at the Top of Comics – 7 January 2021

From within King’s Reach Tower on the banks of the Thames, John Sanders masterminded the output of Britain’s biggest comics publisher over twenty-five years.

Overseeing the launch of hugely popular titles like Tammy, Battle and the revolutionary 2000 AD, Sanders fought corporate battles to expand the UKs’ comics output, faced down the government and the media in censorship battles and ultimately came up against a crooked business tycoon.

Leading an industry that at its peak sold 10 million comics per week, Sanders launched over a hundred new titles, faced massive social change and strove to keep comics relevant to generation after generation.

In this memoir he reveals, for the first time, his story and that of the medium that would go on to dominate global culture

• Hope… Under Fire – 19 January 2021

The second volume of the dazzling 2000AD debut – mixing Hollywood noir and occult magic! In an alternate post-war 1940s Los Angeles, where dark magic is a fact of life, Mallory Hope is a private detective haunted by his past…and by the occult forces he uses.

• Essential Judge Dredd: The Apocalypse War – 19 January 2021

When the citizens of Mega-City One’s massive city blocks declare war on each other, Judge Dredd realises it is merely a prologue to an all-out nuclear attack by East Meg One! As warheads rain down, Dredd leads a brave guerrilla resistance against the Sov forces, building to an earth-shattering decision that shakes his world to the core!

This second wide-screen blockbuster volume in the Essential Judge Dredd graphic novel series presents The Apocalypse War, the mother of all ‘epic’ Dredd storylines, which forever fixed the character in readers’ minds and ensured Carlos Ezquerra’s title as the definitive Dredd artist in comics’ hall of fame.

February 2021

• Judge Dredd: The Complete Case Files #36 – 2 February 2021

Mega-City One – a nightmarish enclosure located along the Eastern Seaboard of North America. Only the Judges – powerful law enforcers supporting the despotic Justice Department – can stop total anarchy running rife on the crime-ridden streets. Toughest of them all is Judge Dredd – he is the law and these are his stories…

Judge Dredd has brought countless monsters to justice but now the ultimate killing machines, cinema’s most famous xenomorphs, surface in Mega-City One and it may well be more than the Justice Department can handle!

• The Steel Claw – 2 February 2021

Louis Crandell was but a lowly lab assistant with a prosthetic, steel hand until an experiment gone awry results in a horrific explosion. Surging with electric charge which bestows Crandell the power of invisibility with the exception of his steel hand, so commence a series of uncanny thrills!

Written by stalwarts of the British comics industry, Ken Bulmer (Jet-Ace Logan) and Tom Tully (Roy of the Rovers, Janus Stark) and illustrated by the legendary Spanish artist, Jesús Blasco (Capitán Trueno), Rebellion’s Treasury of British Comics is proud to present the first in a series of graphic novels collecting together for the first time every strip of 1960s adventure comics like none other!

A special hardcover edition with cover by Brian Bolland will be available exclusively from the Treasury of British Comics webshop.

• Night of the Devil: War Picture Library – 16 February 2021

Two exciting and explosive war stories lushly illustrated by Hugo Pratt, comics legend and creator of iconic character, Corto Maltese!

In Night of the Devil, take a hallucinatory trip through the oppressive heat of the Burmese jungle along with British soldiers engaged in desperate skirmishes with the enemy. In Bayonet Jungle, Private Jack Green’s presence is seen as an omen of bad luck but he struggles to prove himself to the experienced soldiers of Third Platoon as they fight against the Japanese army that surrounds them.

March 2021

• Major Eazy Volume 1 – 2 March 2021
• Judge Dredd: End of Days – 16 March 2021

April 2021

• The Spider’s Syndicate of Crime – 15 April 2021
• The Vigilant – 15 April 2021
• Thistlebone – 29 April 2021

May 2021

• Devlin Waugh: Blood Debt – 13 May 2021
• Regened Presents: Fill Tilt Boogie – 13 May 2021
• Adam Eterno – 27 May 2021

• Check out 2000AD Online | 2000AD Web Shop

• We have a list of known 2021 books in the works from Rebellion here, including those delayed for print release this year.

We have a list of known 2021 books in the works from Rebellion here, including those delayed for print release this year.

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, downthetubes Comics News, downthetubes News

Tags: 2020, Armoured Gideon, downthetubes News, Judge Dredd, Judge Dredd Megazine, Rebellion, SF Comics, Steel Claw