Worlds end and things get wrecked in 1986. Halo Jones ends, Anderson has to stop a boy being sacrificed, Bad City Blue starts and ends in brutal form! Strontium Dog has a massive change to its status quo and Rogue Trooper gets a new mission, whether he likes it or not!

Issues Covered: 2000 AD 451-502, 2000 AD Sci-Fi Special 1986, Judge Dredd Annual 1987

Judge Dredd

Issues Covered: 2000 AD 451-502, 2000 AD Sci-Fi Special 1986, Judge Dredd Annual 1987

There’s such a variety of Dredd stories, and a few things which are a definite sign of the times like a parody of Adrian Mole. It feels like we’re getting a bit more of a view of the people of Mega City One with Dredd often as an elemental force brought in at the end or as antagonist. It’s something I’ve seen more in the present, and it’s a good way of looking at the city with more perspectives.

The Warlord has the visiting Warlord of Ji, Shojan, getting disgusted at the state of things in Mega City One and demanding to speak to the manager, or barring that, the Chief Judge. Of course, this is 1986, so Shojan tries to raise his ‘Seven Samurai’ and is brought down by a ‘ninja star’, which was the thing of schoolkid’s dreams and parents’ horror stories at the time. It’s not great, but isn’t as racist as I feared it would be. 

Beggar’s Banquet has a group of cannibals trying to eat a beggar. They’re stopped and the beggar’s arrested, of course.

A Chief Judge Resigns shows us what happens when a Judge leaves the service and takes on The Long Walk.

The Secret Diary of Adrian Cockroach Aged 13 ½ actually stars a literal cockroach, which I guess I should have expected. Even this gets weird in Mega-City One

Letter from a Democrat introduces pro-democracy terrorists, something we’ll see more of as the series goes on.

Griblings is a kind of Gremlins/Tribbles style story, and it has some Barry Kitson art, which is always nice to see. The Griblings breed like crazy and eventually turn on their owner, I’m not sure if they’ll be back.

The Big Sleep has Flip Marlowe, a private investigator as the main focus, a delusional individual who ends up shot, dying and chased by a Judge.

The Exploding Man wanders into Mega City One and manages to blow up a Sector House before he’s stopped.

Beyond the Wall has a kid bump into Dredd after breaking into a garden. The owner doesn’t mind, but he’s going to the Iso Cubes anyway. Once he’s out, he’ll be welcome to visit the gardens again.

The Law According to Dredd features a phony Dredd out in Radburg, shaking down Helltrekkers for money. The real Dredd pops up and after some initial attempts to impress him, the fake Dredd’s expectations can’t be met and he tries to burn the original as an imposter. This has some incredible Kevin O’Neill art which really helps show the madness of the fake Dredd.

Paid With Thanks is the story of a ‘biller’ who sent bills to the estate of a dead guy, only to end up with several bodies mailed to her. Psi Division get involved, but not in time to stop a haunting turning deadly.

The Art of Kenny Who? follows Kenny, who travels to Mega City One looking for work and has been given a whole 24 hours to do it. Fate gets in the way, with hours of inspections, shots and then falling asleep. He goes to the MC1 equivalent of 2000 AD and The Big One has no interest in his work. Almost immediately he sees his work stolen by, “Jimmy Who”, headbutts Not-Stan Lee and gets shot by a ricochet bullet from Dredd and sent to the cubes.

Russell’s Inflatable Muscles plays on the old Charles Atlas adverts, with inflatable muscles to prevent local wimps from getting bullied. Unsurprisingly their attempt at using inflatable muscles doesn’t go well and their quest for revenge brings the Judges in. 

The Dredd Syndrome is the name of a condition people get where they imagine Judge Dredd attacking them. Unsurprising, and it’ll be interesting to see if there’s more of the Judge Dredd Psycho Unit in the future.

The Urge shows another Mega City One institution as Skid Mullard goes to Perp-Aid after fearing his urge to do crimes may get a bit too much.

The Fists of Stan Lee features a very different Stan Lee; a martial artist also known as Deathfist, who gives Dredd a run for his money. Dredd gets a bit racist and it seems like he’ll be back. This is an odd gag story.

Atlantis is a fun story which does a little something with perspective. We start with Judges finding a body in the weird underwater outpost between Mega-City One and Brit-Cit. Then we switch over to a family who have been murdering people, robbing them and dumping them in the water. Of course, things end tragically in the way you’d expect, but this is a fun story.

Report to the Chief Judge on the Accidental Death of a Citizen is a story from an annual and really takes advantage of the weird colours and longer page count as a shootout with the Hunchbacks gang in a building filled with chemicals ends up with Dredd tripping his balls off.

Meanwhile… has Dredd having to navigate a hostage situation and a traffic jam. There’s something oddly shiny about the colouring the story has, but Ian Gibson’s art and the strange pale colours on Dredd make for an interesting look.

Judge Dredd and the Seven Dwarves actually predicts The Expendables, but makes them all small. Their leader’s basically Rambo, trying to kill Dredd while retelling the story of his pursuit of them like a fairytale. I don’t really care for it, but Bryan Talbot draws a surprisingly good Rambo. There’s also a worrying law banning mutant dwarves, which luckily gets repealed before Rambo and his mates are imprisoned.

The Blockrite is basically an illegal boxing ring, but the Judges let it play out before breaking things up. It’s an odd moment of sort-of honour or respect they have.

Pinboing Relay is another wonderful, ludicrous setpiece which feels a lot like the old Arcade stories from Uncanny X-Men. Max Normal’s forced to lure Dredd into a trap; a giant Pinboing Machine with explosive balls! The Peeper shows what happens to folks going through a Rear Window situation.

Attack of the 50 Ft Woman kicks off with a woman called Belisha being gifted with chocolate from a ‘bio-lab’ which feels like the first warning. When she grows to 50 feet tall while her clothes don’t, she gets pursued for indecent exposure while seeking her boyfriend out for revenge. Ultimately she’s too big for the city and has to be let out. Again, will we see Belisha again, roaming the Cursed Earth?

The Dead Ringer has a mother mistake a person for her missing son who went out to the Cursed Earth some time ago, only for it to be only partially him.

Phantom of the Shoppera is a kind of mall-based Phantom of the Opera as a robot gets obsessed with a shop clerk, ending in tragedy.

Tomb of the Judges has Judge Trace knocked out and dragged to a weird Judge tomb, where robots are obeying an old guy in storing living Judges in sarcophagi. Gibson does some great robot art and we even get some Judge Anderson in the mix.

Hell’s Packers are some jetpack perps who lead to a fun aerial battle between them and Judges. There’s not much more to it, but it’s a fun visual.

The Witness is Prunella Bellhard, a masseuse who saw the death of the manager of a sportplex. She doesn’t seem to be the murderer, but in a twist, the murderer is an alternate personality and the Judges have set her free. 

A Real Xmas Story is a bizarre story where I guess the villain is the narrator. A Santa is transformed by the narration into a Christmas-hating psycho and oddly enough it turns into a love story.

Collected in: Judge Dredd Complete Case Files 9, Judge Dredd Complete Case Files 10 and Judge Dredd Restricted Files 02 

Strontium Dog

Issues Covered: 2000 AD 451-467, 469-499, 2000 AD Sci-Fi Special 1986

Strontium Dog has a small amount of long stories this year, and the status quo gets drastically changed. 

Max Bubba (continued from 1985), tells the story of Johnny Alpha and Wulf Sternhammer’s meeting when they both need to hunt down the criminal Max Bubba who’s hiding in Viking times. They kick his arse and Wulf ends up joining Johnny in the future. Then we fast forward to the ‘present’ of the strip when Max is back. He and his gang kill Wulf and brand Johnny, leaving him swearing vengeance.

Rage is the sequel to Max Bubba, Johnny’s on a quest for vengeance and hunting down all of the Max Bubba gang. I’ve already loved how he’s able to have emotions compared to Judge Dredd, and here he’s a raw, angry wound. When he finally catches up with Max’s gang, he gradually takes them all down one by one like a slasher from a horror movie.

Incident on Mayjer Minor is a bit of a reset and a bit of a classic Western story as Johnny meets up with a froggy mother and son being extorted on a planet. He helps them, albeit with a couple of hiccups and some typical Wild West hero style longer behaviour. Given what happened in Max Bubba and Rage, it’s understandable at this point. Even though he’s still emotionally wounded and angry, Johnny manages to use cunning to mess with the family who are exploiting the family.

War Zone! has Johnny and Middenface McNulty getting involved with a war specifically to hunt down some human mercenaries as part of a vengeance mission for McNulty. They killed is dog, so it’s time to go all John Wick on them.

Collected in: At some point the Complete Strontium Dog volumes will collect them, but until then, Volumes 34 and 43 of the Hachette series, 2000 AD: The Ultimate Collection. They’re not making new ones, but these are around.

Nemesis: The Warlock

Issues Covered: 2000 AD 482-487, 500-502 (continued in 1987)

Book VI: Torquemurder! Man, this story’s nuts. Nemesis, Torquemada, their partners, Ro-Jaws and the ABC Warriors are stuck so far in the future that all of humanity’s now just goo in vaguely human costumes and the world’s a primordial mess. It’s great, but really weird. 

Collected in: Nemesis the Warlock – Definitive Edition Volume Three

Rogue Trooper

Issues Covered: 2000 AD Sci-Fi Special 1986

There’s not much from Rogue, just The Fanatics, which is luckily a very good story indeed. Rogue only appears at the start and end of the story. After an initial attack from him, a pair of young Norts limp their way to safety. One’s blinded and the other’s jaded by the pointlessness of everything. He’s one step away from saying, “Are we the baddies?”

Unfortunately, this if Nu-Earth and life isn’t merciful. Rogue reappears again to finish the pair off. As far as he’s aware, they’re fanatics, despite what we’ve seen of them in the story. It’s brutal, and while humanising the Norts constantly would just make Rogue Trooper drag, this is a really good look at them. 

Collected in: Rogue Trooper The Complete Collection Book Three

Ace Trucking Co

Issues Covered: 2000 AD 451-471, 475-498

Whatever Happened to Ace Garp? brings Ace back apparently after popular demand. He’s in the ‘dead files’ with Black Hawk and others, grabbed out by Tharg with the promise of returning.

Doppelgarp shows what happens with Ace Garp. He’s brought back and put into a story just before everything went awry and he died. This means that there’s actually two Ace Garp now. The pair are interrupted by customs chickens, leading to them plucking some stray chickens and disguising themselves long enough to flee and take money which turned out to be forged. The story closes with Feek rightfully annoyed at them both dragging him into all this nonsense. I guess if you’re going to bring Ace back, this is one way to do it. One of them gets his tip cut off to show who’s who, not that it makes much of a difference.

The Garpet Baggers introduces Evil Guts, who looks a bit like Lobo. He’s apparently this universe’s version of Evil Blood and has a job for the Ace Trucking Co. They’re to go to Earth and find some treasure from a map. On Earth, Hollywood’s gone a bit off the retails and seems to be a massive space which is all movie-themed. They go through a fake Wild West. There’s a whole chase with Melvyn Barg, taking them through a silent movie wolrd and a horror world. Events even escalate to a Godzilla and King Kong showing up, although Kong seems to like the Aces. Eventually they find the treasure past a Dracula and it’s all Hollywood props. Evil Guts takes his rage out on the Aces by playing a ‘Concert of Pain’, only to get stopped by GBH. Was anything learned here? Probably not. 

Collected in: The Complete Ace Trucking Co Volume 2

Anderson, Psi

Issues Covered: 2000 AD 468-478, 2000 AD Annual 1987

I like Judge Death, but it’s nice that The Possessed is a story where Judge Anderson does more than fend off the Dark Judges. Instead she’s got a possessed boy and a cult who’s trying to do awful things. She chases the demon down and ends up going through a portal into a weird hell-world. The demon Gargarax can be hurt in the dimension, so it tries to put all sorts of things in the way, including some skeleton warriors.

As she catches up with the cult and the boy, Anderson ends up killing him before he can be sacrificed. She is a Judge, after all. And I guess, job done. It’s a good reminder of who Anderson is and how good she is at her job.

There’s also a short story in the 2000 AD Annual called Golem, where some kids inadvisably try to summon a trash golem.

Collected in: Judge Anderson: The Psi Files Volume 01

Sláine

Issues Covered: 2000 AD 451-461, 493-502, 2000 AD Sci-Fi Special 1986

Tomb of Terror (parts 5-15) continues the dungeon crawl both in the comic and the attached game which I resisted trying out. There are traps, cultists ‘sliming’ people and people getting infected with the seven deadly sins, which I wasn’t sure would have been a thing in Sláine times. They end up finding the hoard and Nidhug. The star creature inside the tomb’s already regenerating and smashing to tomb apart. While it’s a horror man wasn’t meant to see, Sláine’s warp spasm manages to drive it insane, allowing everyone to flee the temple.

The Spoils of Annwn has a whole other quest and weird historical journey across the Glastonbury zodiac, which Nest has dragged Sláine and Ukko to. The quest here involves going through all of the zodiac, such as a Minotaur for Aries, which Sláine immediately tries to fight, but has to muck out his stable. There are some horrific implications here. Virgo involves a tattooed maiden, along with a mother and crone. Scorpio’s represented by a serpent, Nest has to frolic in order to lure out a unicorn at one point and finally it looks like Sláine will ascend and become a master of the stars. Nest lied about treasure, but the real prize was enlightenment. That said, Sláine is still no different, thirsty for booze and song.

Sláine the King (part 1-3 of 12) kicks things off back on the unfortunately-named Tory Island with some ugly and deformed Fomorians in charge of things. Quagsline, of the infamous ‘nose tax’ has been taking from folks. It looks like Sláine’s got his work cut out for him in 1987.

While I’m not the biggest dungeon crawl person after too many years of AD&D, I did like these longer Sláine stories. The Spoils of Annwn was definitely the highlight, and I guess I’ll have to see how Sláine the King pans out.

Collected in: Sláine the Definitive Edition Volume 2, Sláine the Definitive Edition Volume 3 (preorder)

The Ballad of Halo Jones, Book III

Issues Covered: 451-466

She’s back! I didn’t expect Halo Jones to volunteer for an army job, but that’s her latest attempt to gain employment. As ever with 2000 AD, war is hell and unemployment is everywhere.

Halo ends up meeting Toy in the military and they’re dropped into a warzone where it turns out, war is really, really bad. Halo and Toy are injured and Halo drags her friend back, chatting away to her. It’s only when she reaches safety that someone points out that Toy’s been dead all this time.

After that horrific experience she leaves the army, then re-enlists after experiencing unemployment again. The next place she’s sent to has weird time and gravity, needing soldiers to be in special suits to survive the compressed time. The war doesn’t last too long though, leaving soldiers directionless and one even taking her life. Halo’s plagued with PTSD and finds out General Cannibal who she’s been sleeping with, has been up to massive war crimes using a Rat King. Where could he have got one from? The Clara Pandy in volume two, of course. She ends up sabotaging his spacesuit, letting him die.

Halo ends Book Three going out. Just out. And that’s it for Halo Jones. Some interesting, odd stories. I’ve no idea where Books Four through Six would have gone. 

Collected in: Ballad of Halo Jones Full Colour Omnibus Edition

Bad City Blue

Issues Covered: 468-477

Originally created by Alan Grant & Robin Smith

The first new title for 1986, which begins and ends in nine progs.

Blue is a button man in a ruined city in space. Something’s a bit off about him from early on, and worse with the city itself. There are a lot of fights in places which should have been populated and used normally, but it’s all a bit Bioshock.

Speaking of which, the upper class realised that the city was going towards disaster and left the lower 98% to their death. Of course things went weird. Blue gets operated on and has his neural implant removed by a scientist, then starts fighting some of the button men, but the city’s getting sucked into a black hole. There’s a moment of hope as he kills his way to the console, but it’s too late. He decides to rule in hell for the last moments before being pulled into the black hole.

I’m used to 2000 AD killing its protagonist, but this felt pretty brutal to Blue from the start.

Collected in: Bad City Blue (digital only currently)

RPG Ideas: There’s a Fiasco scenario called White Hole which is not a million miles away from this. Our Last Best Hope is a bit more of a disaster movie game, but could replicate this, especially as I’ve never succeeded at it each time I’ve played. Oh, and Bully Pulpit’s Desperation series would need a custom deck made, but it feels like the last days of a city going into a black hole would work for it.

Sooner or Later

Issues Covered: 468-499

Originally created by Peter Milligan and Brendan McCarthy

The back page of several issues of 2000 AD were given over to Milligan & McCarthy’s Sooner or Later, with a very 1980’s logo and another reminder of the state of Britain at the time.

Micky Swift is on the dole in Camden and miserable in 1986. He gets abducted by a Mr & Mrs Katsbreath and taken into the future after a case of mistaken identity, but can’t afford to get back to the present unless he gets a job. This leads him into scrape after scrape, including cannibal muggers who he gets abducted from, a street of many madmen and eventually even winning an election as the 30th century elects whoever gets the least votes. He managed to get home thanks to a cab on an eternal, deadly motorway, only to end up in the 80’s back on the dole again.

The series took a few progs for me to gel with, and being the back page feature has a lot of garish colour adding to the weirdness. There’s a great article in the latest Judge Dredd Megazine (491) which goes into greater depth about it all. 

Collected in: Sooner or Later

RPG Ideas: Cheat Your Own Adventure captures the wild swings of the plot and how Micky manages to fall from weird situation to weird situation.

Metalzoic

Issues Covered: 483-492

Originally created by Pat Mills & Kevin O’Neill

Here’s some of that big monster madness that I love in 2000 AD, and drawn by Kevin O’Neill too, which is always a treat. I’ve not seen Transformers Beast Wars, but this is what I’d want it to be. See also Horizon: Zero Dawn.

The world is overrun by robot animals and there are barely any humans left. Jool and Ngila get chased by a mugger bug and Ngila’s killed, only for the robot who killed him to be murdered by our co-protagonist: Armageddon. Jool wants to get to a planetary rescue centre and Armageddon’s going to help her. 

That rescue centre ends up also being a killer robot! Oh no! They next travel to a spaceport in Zinja, only to find that robots have been feeding on spaceships. It’s all looking pretty rough. Armageddon comes to blow with Amok, who hacks into Armageddon and we get some interesting insights into the history of this world. We also find out meteors are going to wreck everything. Jool and Armageddon survive as towers topple and the world looks like it’s going to end. The day is saved though, as robots can feed on the crashed meteors, sustaining them, with Armageddon as a kind of god-robot.

This is bonkers and I loved it. Apparently it was a DC graphic novel originally and then reprinted in 2000 AD. I’m surprised that it looks like it’s not been returned to at some point. 

Collected in: There is a Metalzoic collection, but I’ve only found it on AbeBooks here.

RPG Ideas: Where do I even begin? Maybe Legacy, as it covers real distant future things and different factions like robots and humans. Maybe Escape from Dinosaur Island if you’re just humans and the Earth is the island. Our Last Best Hope may be another useful pull.

Bad Company

Issues Covered: 500-502 (parts 1-3 of 20)

Originally created by Peter Milligan & Brett Ewins

I admit I don’t feel massively well-informed about Bad Company yet. It’s another science fiction war, but this time we’re following a group of people instead of a single rogue trooper. The 1st company division are defending Ararat from Krool. It all looks a bit doomed as the unit’s even facing war zombies. Kano’s their leader and looks like a kind of cyborg Frankenstein’s Monster and the rest of them are mainly weird misfits. I guess I’ll find out more about them next year.

Collected in: The Complete Bad Company (digital only)

RPG Ideas: I’ve no idea yet, so I’m going to give a shout out to The Yellow King’s “The Wars” campaign which is a little more steampunky, but if you want a weird war, then that’s a great one.

Conclusion

This was a really enjoyable year. Far too often I look at what came out and only judge it on whether Dredd had big stories. It didn’t, but everything else got shaken up. It’s a shame Halo Jones won’t continue after this. I don’t know what the original plan was, but it feels like the three different arcs were all leading to something much larger.

Wulf’s death was a brutal reminder of how 2000 AD loves to chew through its heroes, and next year I’ll meet another character who’ll get more coverage in the prog over the years with Durham Red. I’ve no idea where Rogue Trooper’s going with his mission, and hopefully one day we’ll get a return to Metalzoic as that was a great fun story. I don’t know if I’d say it was my favourite of the year, but it’s definitely up there.