Best of Milligan and McCarthy – Preview Pages

By John Freeman on September 3, 2013

Dark Horse Comics have very kindly sent us some preview pages from Best of Milligan and McCarthy – a deluxe collection of hard-to-find gems from Peter Milligan (Hellblazer, X-Statix) and Brendan McCarthy (Judge Dredd, The Zaucer of Zilk), due for release on 14th September.

There is still nothing else like Freakwave, Paradax!, Skin, and Rogan Gosh, and this 260 plus page volume from Dark Horse Comics, is the ideal starting place for new readers, collecting 20 years’ worth of the pair’s finest work from Vanguard Illustrated, Strange Days, 2000 AD, and Vertigo, including some early, archival snippets from The Electrick Hoax and Summer of Love.

As we previously reported, included in the mammothcollection are Paradax, a modern superhero for the modern eighties; Rogan Gosh; The Electric Hoax; Freakwave; Strange Days; fan favourite Mirkin the Mystic; The Summer of Love; The Hollow Circus; and Sooner or Later, which continued Milligan and McCarthy’s fascination with the working-class outsider and appeared in 2000AD.

This mammoth colletion rounds off with Skin, originally scheduled to appear in Crisis, which Peter Milligan describes as “the most controversial story we ever produced” and was finally published by Kevin Eastman, co-creator of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and centres on a young skinhed deformed by the drug, thalidomide, a story that began with Brendan, who grew up around skinhead culture.

• The Best of Milligan and McCarthy will be available from all good book shops online stores, Waterstones and signed copoies will be available from Forbidden Planet after their signing at the London Megatorie on 14th September

• Peter Milligan’s official web site: www.petermilligan.co.uk

• Brendan McCarthy’s official fan site: www.brendanmccarthy.co.uk

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.