A Bumper Week of Releases from Rebellion, leading with 2000AD and the return of Sexton Blake!

2000AD and Treasury of British Comics 2020/2021 Promotion

There’s plenty of comics cheer from 2000AD publisher this week, not just with the release of the latest issue of 2000AD – Prog 2209 – today, on sale in all good newsagents, but we get some great new books and a Sexton Blake Special, too!

I’d be accused of bias if I pushed you towards buying the Cor!! Buster Bumper Fun Book, given I wrote the lead strip, drawn by the amazing Lew Stringer, so instead, let me point you toward the excellent The Return of Sexton Blake, the latest magazine special from the Treasury of British Comics, which offers a fantastic introduction to one of the most popular British characters of all time.

A terrific mix of old and new, the special includes the Sexton Blake strip first published as “Victor Drago” due to now non-existent copyright issues in the short-lived adventure comic, Tornado, the title restored to its true name. Written by Chris Lowder (writing as Bill Henry) with art by Mike Dorey it’s great to see this thrilling strip back in print, with Dorey’s art well suited to telling a wonderful whodunnit tale set in a creepy mansion.

The Return of Sexton Blake - Sexton Blake by Chris Lowder and Mike Dorey
The Return of Sexton Blake - Sexton Blake by Chris Lowder and Mike Dorey
Sexton Blake by Chris Lowder and Mike Dorey

Award-winning writer Mark Hodder, keeper of the invaluable Blakiania resource online, introduces Blake to a new audience, and George Mann and Jimmy Broxton bring us the first new comic in decades. Plus, Karl Stock interviews the writers and artists. Well worth tracking down!

Rebellion have also released further details of some upcoming projects for early 2021, including more on the incoming Steel Claw collection, with a special hardcover edition with a Brian Bolland cover on offer from the Treasury of British Comics web shop. Read on for the latest updates!

The Steel Claw - 2021 Collection - Hardback Cover by Brian Bolland
The Steel Claw – 2021 Collection – Hardback Cover by Brian Bolland

INCOMING FROM REBELLION

Most book links for 2000AD and Treasury of British Comics titles below are AmazonUK Affiliate Links – using these helps support downthetubes – thank you

On Sale This Week

2000AD Prog 2209 - Cover by Tiernen Trevallion
2000AD Prog 2209 – Cover by Tiernen Trevallion

2000AD Prog 2209 – Cover by Tiernan Trevallion

In this issue:

Judge Dredd: Simply Normal by Kenneth Niemand (Writer) Steven Austin (Artist) Chris Blyth (Colourist) Annie Parkhouse (Letterer)
• Stickleback: New Jerusalem by Ian Edginton (Writer) D’Israeli (Artist) Jim Campbell (Letterer)
Skip Tracer: Hyperballad by James Peaty (Writer) Paul Marshall (Artist) Dylan Teague (Colourist) Simon Bowland (Letterer)
Fiends of the Eastern Front: Constanta by Ian Edginton (Writer) Tiernen Trevallion (Artist) Annie Parkhouse (Letterer)
Hook-Jaw by Alec Worley (Artist) Leigh Gallagher (Artist) Simon Bowland (Letterer)

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

Cor!! Buster Bumper Fun Book – 24 November

Britain’s golden age of humour comics returns for the 21st century, with brand new stories by today’s top talents. Featuring characters like Kid Kong, Grimly Feendish, Faceache, and Frankie Stein are given new life in this compendium of hilarity!

Creators: John Freeman, Lew Stringer, Tom Paterson, Leila O’millar, Alec Worley, Tiernen Trevallion, Ned Hartley, Steve Mannion, Lizzie Boyle, Abigail Bulmer, Simon Bowland, Gráinne Mcentee, Sammy Borras, Paul Goodenough, Neil Googe, Matt Smith, Tanya Roberts, Robin Etherington, David Follett, Keith Richardson, Pye Parr, Cavan Scott, Mike Hoffman, Karl Stock, Andy W. Clift, Lee Langford, Edward Whatley, Ken Reid, Hilary Barta, Wesley Wong, John Lucas, Mick Cassidy, Rositsa Vangelova, Edward Whatley, Olivia Hicks, Shelli Paroline, Braden Lamb, Brett Parson

The Best of Sugar Jones – 25 November
By Pat Mills (Writer) and Rafael Busóm Clúa (Art)

Sugar Jones is seen by the world as a charming twenty-something host of her own late-night variety show, beloved by viewers up and down the nation.

Only her overworked and underappreciated assistant, Susie Ford, knows her secret – that Sugar is really a selfish, sour, old schemer who’ll do anything to look good on television! – and though Sugar’s own ambition and vanity frequently rebounds on her, Susie continues to do her best to protect Sugar.

The advance cover for “Death Squad”, a strip created for Battle-Action by Alan Hebden and Eric Bradbury

Death Squad – 25 November
By Alan Hebden (Writer) Eric Bradbury, Carlos Ezquerra (Artists)

An all-out all-action, complete-in-one brutal war story from the pages of the classic war comic, Battle, hugely influential on Preacher and The Boys creator Garth Ennis. Meet the deadliest band of fighters on the Eastern Front! During world War Two the Eastern Front was hell on Earth. German Punishment Battalions were thrown into the thick of the conflict where they were expected to fight well and die hard. In these harshest of conditions only the strongest warriors survived. Enter the Death Squad – Grandad, Swede, Licker, Gus and Frankie. Alone they were failures and outcasts, but together they were one of the most formidable combat units the Russians ever faced!

The Return of Sexton Blake – 25 November
Cover: Tiernen Trevallion

As brilliant as Sherlock Holmes, as daring as James Bond, he was the Jack Reacher of his day and now Sexton Blake is back!

Written by Chris Lowder (Dan Dare, Judge Dredd) and illustrated by Mike Dorey (“Hellman of Hammerforce”), presented in this 100-page special for the very first time in its full glory is the Sexton Blake comic strip originally published under the title “Victor Drago” in Tornado.

Sexton Blake by George Mann and Jimmy Broxton
Sexton Blake by George Mann and Jimmy Broxton
Sexton Blake art by Edourd Goult
Sexton Blake art by Edourd Goult

Then the adventure detective is back in action as George Mann (Doctor Who, Star Wars Adventures) and Jimmy Broxton (Hope, Doctor Who) brings us the first new Sexton Blake comic in decades! Meanwhile, Philip K. Dick Award winning writer Mark Hodder (The Burton & Swinburne Adventures) introduces Blake to a new audience and Karl Stock (Thrill-power Overload: Forty Years of 2000 AD) interviews the writers and artists.

All this week’s releases are available in print from: book shops, Amazon, and UK comic book stores via Diamond | Available in digital from: Treasury of British Comics webshop & apps for iPad, Android and Windows 10

COMING SOON…

On Sale in December

• Misty Winter Special – 2 December

• The Rise and Fall of the Trigan Empire Volume 2 – 8 December
By Mike Butterworth (Writer) Don Lawrence, Ron Embleton (Artists)

The second thrilling omnibus lost SF classic from the 1960s the New York Times called “highly detailed visions of fantastic worlds”. Among the distant stars, fractious tribes come together to found a mighty empire that will wage war against aggressive kingdoms, battle alien invaders, and conceive of incredible new technologies. This extraordinary volume continues to chart the glorious Rise and Fall of the Trigan Empire.

A landmark in British comics history, painted by the legendary Don Lawrence in stunning, classic style, and springing from the grandiose pen of Mike Butterworth, this is an epic tale that creates a new far-future science fiction mythos that captured the imagination of a generation.

Features an introduction from one-time Don Lawrence apprentice Chris Weston.

Judge Dredd: Control – 10 December
By Rob Williams, Chris Weston (Writers) Chris Weston, (Artist) Dylan Teague, Chris Blythe, Mike Dowling (Colourists) Annie Parkhouse (Letterer)

Writer Rob Williams follows up his smash hit Judge Dredd: Small House with a brand new collection that sees him at the mercy of Judge Pin – his most sinister opponent since Judge Death! The psychopathic SJS Judge murders officers that fall short of her standards, and Judge Dredd is in her sights in this collection of stories featuring flesh-eating Kleggs, hijacking ape gangs and out of control war robots reprogrammed by insane accountants in tales ranging from deathly serious to outrageously funny, all from one of the most popular contemporary Dredd creative teams – Rob Williams and Chris Weston. Entirely drawn by Weston, the talented artist for DC Comics (The Filth), Image (Ministry of Space) and Marvel Comics (The Twelve), this storyline is a game changer for the Dredd universe

On Sale in January 2021

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

2000AD Regened

• 2000 AD Regened – 7 January 2021

By: Matt Smith, Chris Weston, Rory Mcconville, Alec Worley, Leah Moore, John Reppion, Cavan Scott, David Baillie, Ned Hartley, Karl Stock, Owen Johnson, Colin Bell, Henry Flint, Arthur Wyatt (Writers) Neil Googe, Chris Weston, Ilias Kyriazis, Ben Willsher, Davide Tinto, PJ Holden, Nick Roche, Rob Davis, Tanya Roberts, Brett Parson, Luke Horsman, Indio!, Henry Flint, Pye Parr (Artists) Gary Caldwell, Len O’Grady, Chris Blythe, Pippa Bowland, Jim Boswell, Abigail Bulmer, John Charles, Dom Regan (Colourists) Annie Parkhouse, Sam Gretton, Simon Bowland, Ellie De Ville, Jim Campbell, Maz Smith, Colin Bell, Henry Flint, Pye Parr (Letteres)

2000 AD Regened is a collection of comics written for younger readers. Featuring all-ages re-imaginings of legacy 2000 AD characters – including break-out fan favourite Cadet Dredd, a teenage Judge Dredd in training. 2000 AD Regened is a collection of comics written for younger readers. Featuring all-ages re-imaginings of the all-time great legacy 2000 AD characters! Join Cadet Dredd in three astonishing caper! Discover how Johnny Alpha became a teenage bounty-hunter Strontium Dog! 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
By: John Sanders

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 2000AD, 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
By Guy Adams (Writer) Jimmy Broxton (Artist) Ellie De Ville, Simon Bowland (Letterer)

The second volume of the dazzling 2000 AD 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
By John Wagner, Alan Grant (Writers) Mick McMahon, Brian Bolland, Steve Dillon, Ron Smith, Carlos Ezquerra (Artists)

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.

On Sale in February 2021

Essential Judge Dredd: The Apocalypse War

• Judge Dredd: The Complete Case Files 36 – 2 February
By John Wagner, Gordon Rennie, Andy Diggle (Writers) Siku, Ben Willsher, Ian Gibson, Paul Marshall, Mick Mcmahon, Jim Baikie, David Millgate, Simon Fraser, PJ Holden, Carl Critchlow, Mike Collins, Dylan Teague, Staz Johnson, Henry Flint, Anthony Williams, Carlos Ezquerra, John Ridgway (Artists)

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 - Standard Cover

The Steel Claw: Invisible Man – 2 February 2021
By: Ken Bulmer, Tom Tully (Writers) Jesús Blasco (Artist)

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
By Tom Tully (Writer) Hugo Pratt (Artist)

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.

On Sale in March 2021

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

On Sale in April 2021

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

On Sale in May 2021

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

Most book links for 2000AD and Treasury of British Comics titles above are AmazonUK Affiliate Links – using these helps support downthetubes – thank you



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