And so we come to the year end and traditionally 2000AD have a year end bumper edition. And after what they’ve put us through this year with Dark Judges, ABC Warriors and 3-way storylines we get something for everyone!
We kick off with a one shot Judge Dredd story – still dealing with the after effects of Chaos Day in a winter setting. I enjoy these stories – they seem to take Dredd away from his comfort zone and I love the art with the wrap Dredd wears.
The story ends with about as much Christmas spirit as Dredd can muster!
In between we get a teaser of what is to come in 2013 and as it’s already been released I have no problem with putting it here:
Pretty good!
Next up we have Absalom: Dirty Postcards which is as much an un-christmasy story you can get. Genuinely disturbing in many ways. Stories with kids always get me! In a traditional 2000AD style in black & white the tone is excellent with a suitably spooky ending!
In addition to the stories, in the digital edition 2000AD have also provided some ‘behind the scenes’ with sketches and more which make it interesting
We return to some classic stories with a new volume of Savage – this being book 8. This brings us the underground storytelling we have come to expect from Savage, so expect battles, robots, aliens and betrayal! Not a huge amount to go on here, but enjoyable!
We get some more strange storytelling with Ampney Crusis Investigates with parallel dimensions, blood and the British Government! Again, as is the manner of this prog, we only get a little to go on, but its a good ground floor level introduction to a character I don’t know too much about!
We get some WWII action with a twist with Ack-Ack Macaque. Although this is a done-in-one story, we do get references to things to come with this character, which I like the look of – Nazi walking machines too!
The Red Seas returns! A story I am not too fiond of, but you’ve got to give it credit – it keeps going (I’m allowed to like some and not the others!) This part one of ‘Fire Across the Deep’ feels like an ending and a beginning of a beginning!
The preview story style continues in Aquila: Quo Vadis Domine set around Rome with many gods – including Christian and Roman – as well as demons from below. I liked this story and it’s set up, I hope to see more of these!
I think this is a new character (at least to me!) in The Visable Man: Scars which starts an imprisonment and escape story. Easy to read and nicely paced this looks like a fun read!
Finally we get the return of Johnny Alpha in ‘The life and death of…’ The SD story is a favorite of mine, and Alpha’s back story is rich for mining – this gives a look at the plight of the mutants and a new mutant too!
