This Wednesday (20th July) see the release of the 2000AD Summer Special 2016 – and it’s a cracker! Do your duty and pick this up, along with 2000AD Prog 1990 and Judge Dredd Megazine 374.
Crammed with thrill power , on sale in all good comic shops, newsagents and various digital platforms, this year’s special features “Judge Dredd: Night Zoom” by John Wagner, Brendan McCarthy, and Annie Parkhouse; “Ace Trucking Co.: The Banned Brand Stand” by Eddie Robson, Nigel Dobbyn, and Ellie De Ville; “Sinister Dexter: Shady as Funt” by Dan Abnett, Tom Foster, Ellie De Ville; “Robo-Hunter: The Droid Dilemma” by Alec Worley, Mark Simmons, and Anne Parkhouse; and “Rogue Trooper: Shore Leave” by Guy Adams, Jimmy Broxton, Simon Bowland.
Judge Dredd: Night Zoom” by John Wagner, Brendan McCarthy and Annie Parkhouse
A cracking Dredd tale of murder in Mega City One with an unexpected twist. Is it a ghost story, or something else? McCarthy’s art complements a fun script from John Wagner.
• More about Brendan McCarthy: http://artbrendan.com
“Ace Trucking Co.: The Banned Brand Stand” by Eddie Robson, Nigel Dobbyn and Ellie De Ville
This is a fun story with some terrific art from Nigel Dobbyn. Eddie Robson captures the characters perfectly in this tale of nanotech and corporate copyright shenanigans. I’d love to see more of this kind of thing in 2000AD, but its content has moved on a tad so it probably isn’t an easy fit (as if it ever was!)
• Find out more about Eddie Robson at eddierobson.wordpress.com or follow him on Twitter @eddierobson
• Check out Nigel Dobbyn at www.nigeldobbyn.com
“Sinister Dexter: Shady as Funt” by Dan Abnett, Tom Foster, Ellie De Ville
I’m hugely impressed by the art on this story, Tom Foster delivers with both barrels as the sharp suited pair take on a job for the Lizard King in a heat wave, tracking down a couple of air conditioning men who don’t seem very good at their jobs.
Tom first came to the attention of the Mighty Tharg back in 2013 (there’s an interview with him here on The Beat about it) and since then he’s just continued to impress, most recently with his first cover, for Prog 1986 back in June. His storytelling is top notch and perfectly captures the fun moments of the story Abnett excels at.
• Follow Dan Abnett on Twitter @vincentabnett
• Check out what Tom is up to here on DeviantArt or follow him on Twitter @jumblecashback
“Robo-Hunter: The Droid Dilemma” by Alec Worley, Mark Simmons and Annie Parkhouse
Another fun story that complements “Ace Trucking Co.” nicely, as Sam Slade take on robots of a mega corporation – and of course his robot chums unintentionally land him in a heap of trouble. Alec Worley weaves a fun script, with Mark Simmons on fine form, and I’m sure all the hilarious visual homage to a certain big screen SF film series is entirely unintentional… Love the last panels.
• More about Alec Worley at alecworley.weebly.com
• More art from Mark Simmons at www.ultimatemark.com or follow him on Twitter @toysdream
“Rogue Trooper: Shore Leave” by Guy Adams, Jimmy Broxton, Simon Bowland
Rounding off this fab special is a fast and furious mission for Rogue Trooper, with hardly a breath caught from start to finish as he seeks out some intel from a corpulent nasty. Fast-paced, fun and superbly executed art from an accomplished team all round.
There’s a glorious sense of summer fun to all the stories in this Special, for all the violence, mayhem, murder and dangerous robots included.
The knockout strips more than makes up for the mis-use of a capital “I” in “holiday” in the speech balloon on the cover, which will have some of my letterer friends shivering in horror. This is a terrific special, well worth your Earth pounds – or Galactic Groats, if buying elsewhere in the solar system…
• The 2000AD Summer Special 2016 is on sale in all good newsagents, comic shops (including Forbidden Planet, here) from Wednesday 20th July 2016
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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, British Comics - Current British Publishers, downthetubes Comics News, downthetubes News
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Brendan McCarthy makes this an essential purchase. Great write up – thanks!