Mytek the Mighty Volume 3 launch

I promised you a video... or threatened you with a video, depending on how you view these things. Please do view this thing!

Comic Cuts — 19 September 2025

Only a few weeks late—I'd originally planned for this to be released mid-August—MYTEK THE MIGHTY Volume 3 has arrived. Two hundred pages of magnificent robot ape action, penned by the insanely imaginative Tom Tully and drawn by Bill Lacey, whose glorious graphics illustrate the thrilling story of the return of Gogra!

Volume 3 is one massive story as Gogra builds his own huge robot in his own image—but he needs Mytek's learning brain to power the metal monster. If you thought Gogra's plans were the epitome of evil in previous volumes, here he is literally pulling the Earth off its axis to blackmail every country on the planet.

Phew!

By the time you read this, I should have everything in place so you can order MYTEK Volume 3. I should have had this ready by the tail end of last week, but there was a bit of a family crisis when my uncle went into hospital following a stroke and, frankly, I didn't want to face launching a book with that hanging over my head. A week on, and with visible improvements being made, it's time to fire up the Bear Alley Books web page and add the latest offering. It will also be available via Ebay, although I think it will work out a little cheaper if you pay via PayPal. If you're in Europe or North America, I'd suggest you pay by PayPal as Ebay's Global Shipping can prove expensive.

I'm still trying to figure out what to do about Amazon. I had an order this week from Singapore and it cost me money to fulfill the order, which came in from Amazon. A £16 book cost me £19 to post and Amazon charged the customer £7. I thought I'd be able to get a good deal posting internationally through Amazon themselves, but the only option they offered was DHL—who wanted £37. Call me cynical, but I think they're trying to drive people towards the Amazon fulfillment programme... but how much that would cost me on every book sold I don't know. Also, they've recently announced that their charges for the programme will go up when they're busy (Christmas, for instance). It's a cynical money-grab that I don't want to be part of, but, unfortunately, Amazon are a part of our lives now and such a big part of the book retail business that sometimes you have to find ways to deal with them. I'll figure out something eventually, but until I do, new books won't be available through Amazon.

I'll keep this short as I have the inevitable launch video to record. Actually there isn't much in the way of news. I'm gearing up for the Colchester Comic Mart on October 4th. Not long to go now! I wrote up the last of the biographical essays I needed, and that leaves one that requires some revision which I'll hopefully get to next week. I have family commitments that will slow me down over the next seven days and I might have to write the next Comic Cuts column on Wednesday, so it might also be very short on news. I'm never sure if "no news is good news" applies to a news column, but at least the news this week is good news not bad!

Rebellion Releases — 17 September 2025

It's here! The jump-on issue of 2000 AD is out this week, with every story starting with a fresh "Part One" - including a new Judge Dredd series by Rob Williams and Henry Flint! And To The Sea Return is an unnerving horror story featuring Dredd and Judge Anderson, who herself stars in a new two-part story which crosses over into the Meg this week as well! We also have the return of Brass Sun to the Prog after several years of lying dormant, while Rogue Trooper kicks off the massive Ghost Patrol storyline, Void Runners returns for more drug-addled revolution, and Thistlebone sneaks back into the comic for a one-off tale! 

Clearly this isn't enough Thrill-Power for you lot, so luckily Judge Dredd Megazine brings over a hundred pages of excitement to September as well! There are two new Judge Dredd stories in your Meg this week, whilst Anderson and Cadet Dredd both conclude inside the issue. We've a new Future Shock for you, the latest chapter of Rok the God - and next month, watch out as The Big Meg celebrates THIRTY-FIVE YEARS of publication!

And now, this week's releases...

2000AD Prog 2450
Cover: Mark Sexton.

JUDGE DREDD // AND TO THE SEA RETURN by Rob Williams (w) Henry Flint (a) Annie Parkhouse (l)
BRASS SUN // PAVANE by Ian Edginton (w) INJ Culbard (a) Simon Bowland (l)
ANDERSON, PSI-DIVISION // FLOWERS OF EVIL by Alex de Campi (w) Rob Richardson (a) Simon Bowland (l)
THISTLEBONE // THE VOICE IN THE HOLLOW by T.C. Eglington (w) Simon Davis (a)
VOID RUNNERS // BOOK TWO by David Hine (w) Boo Cook (a) Annie Parkhouse (l)
ROGUE TROOPER // GHOST PATROL by Alex de Campi (w) Neil Edwards (a) Matt Soffe (c) Jim Campbell (l)

Judge Dredd Megazine #484
Cover: Jake Lynch.

JUDGE DREDD // THE UNREALISTS by Karl Stock (w) Stewart K. Moore (a) Annie Parkhouse (l)
CADET DREDD // THE HAUNTING OF ISO-BLOCK 8 by Paul Starkey (w) Nick Brokenshire (a) Jim Campbell (l)
FUTURE SHOCKS: // THE COLLECTION by Andi Ewington (w) Nicolo Assirelli (a) Simon Bowland (l)
JUDGE DREDD // PUBLIC RELATIONS by Joe Ratcliffe (w) Jake Lynch (a) Emily Roach (c) Annie Parkhouse (l)
ROK THE GOD by John Wagner & Alan Grant (w) Dan Cornwell (a) Abby Bulmer & Jim Boswell (c) Jim Campbell (l)
ANDERSON, PSI-DIVISION // FLOWERS OF EVIL by Alex de Campi (w) Rob Richardson (a) Simon Bowland (l)

• 15 Sep. Front Row interviews Alan Moore about his new book and why the glut of comic book superhero films is a sign of an infantalised society.
• 9 Sep. Here's the catalogue for the Dave McKean exhibit in Brussels. 
• 5 Sep. Alan Moore promotes the paperback release of his latest book, The Great When. (video, 3m)
• 19 Aug. Garth Ennis talks to Forbidden Planet TV to talk about Battle Action. (video, 17m)
• 19 Aug. Tripwire catches up with Glenn Fabry. "’ve been smoking since I was 16 so I thought this is it; Blood tests x rays and cat scans ... anyway got the test results back, after I’d told my children I was going to snuff it, results come through 31st of March: No cancer!"
• 2 Aug. A Brian Bolland Judge Dredd cover for 2000AD has sold for over $50,000 (nearly £40k) at auction. 
• 2 Aug. JD Wetherspoons have taken the opportunity of refurbishment of The Navigation pub in Kings Norton to celebrate the work of Reg Bunn and The Spider.
• 30 Jul. Rich Johnston reports on Alan Moore's charitable work in Northampton, which has allowed two community hubs to reopen.
• 25 Jul. James Bacon is among the academics discussing the history of Irish comics at the National Library of Ireland in Dublin on Friday, 8 August. "Discover a selection of extremely rare comics dating from the 1930s -1960s, ranging from Greann — “The Only Irish Comic” – published in 1934, by Joe Stanley, 1916 Veteran and Printer, to 1968’s “Éamon de Valera, Hero Of Ireland” as drawn by legendary Fantastic Four artist, Joe Sinnott."
• 24 Jul. Showrunner Allan Heinberg discusses how the finale of The Sandman Netflix series lays the groundwork for a possible return to the Sandman universe. SPOILERS. "No comic book property I’ve ever encountered goes as deep or as wide as Sandman. It’s not an inexpensive show to make. And if we had a viewership that really demanded it and it made financial sense for Netflix, I could happily go on writing Sandman forever."
• 23 Jul. Si Spurrier discusses his departure from The Flash after 25 issues. (video 16m)
• 17 Jul. The Hollywood Reporter has revealed that Taika Waititi (Thor: Ragnarok) is to direct a new Judge Dredd movie, from a script by Drew Pearce (The Fall Guy, Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation). Can I be the 10,000th person to call for Karl Urban to be reinstated as Dredd.
• 14 Jul. Rich Johnston has noted that a scene in the new Superman movie seems to have been lifted from an episode of The Authority by Mark Millar and Frank Quitely. (Spoilers)
• 13 Jul. Loving the Alien is a new podcast, the first episode featuring Sean Phillips talking about his past work, Criminal and the upcoming Criminal TV series from Amazon Prime. (1h 5m)
• 13 Jul. David Lloyd, Carlos Yacolca and Alberto Rayo discuss the webcomic Aces Weekly at AIPT. "Apart from basic maintenance costs, online comics have no need to pay for repro, printing, packaging, and distribution. The pages are just files to be slotted in, sometimes just before the day they’re due to be read, and it’s all just sent down the super highway. And it looks better on screen — no bad printing to worry about — and you can have it really big on your smart TV! Sadly, the mass of comics readers are still hopelessly in love with their customary form on paper and cling to it with annoying tenacity, so despite all the good things we offer for a good cause, we’re still battling for it.”
• 10 Jul. Chris Weston reveals that the MCU is still using comics as concept art, writing on Facebook: "Wow. They've literally reproduced my cover from "Fantastic Four: First Family"! Come on, Marvel Studios, that's got to be worth a couple of free tickets, surely!
• 7 Jul. Al Ewing and Dan Cornwell take Judge Dredd on holiday in the upcoming 2000AD Sci-Fi Special. Ewing: "In some ways, it was like slipping back into an old and comfortable pair of shoes – or tight boots, maybe. Part of that is that it was quite a light brief ... I don’t have to worry that much about what Dredd’s been up to in the years since I last handled the character, or how the politics of Mega-City One have developed – it’s just Dredd being Dredd..."
• 7 Jul. The Sandman showrunner Allan Heinberg explains how the edecision to end the Netflix series after two seasons came about. "I had always thought of 'The Sandman' as a three-season show with 11 episodes in each season," Heinberg admits, but that plan changed once they made Tom Sturridge's Dream their protagonist.
• 5 Jul. Glenn Fabry and Simon Furman have been honoured at the London Film and Comic Con at Olympia and have been inducted into the LFCC Hall of Fame. Rich Johnston has photos at the link.
• 4 Jul. Comics by Perch interviews Mark Millar about his new project with John Romita Jr., Psychic Sam, which is available on Kickstarter now. (video, 59m)

Comic Cuts — 12 September 2025

I had hoped to have the next MYTEK book ready for release this week, but I'm going to delay it until next week as a couple of things have come up which might mean I can't get books out of the house as promptly as I would want to, especially given the problems I had with timely deliveries with the first two volumes. There's a family matter causing some concern and a couple of ongoing projects that I want to focus on for another week before all hell breaks loose (a slight exaggeration) and I spend a couple of days packing books.

It hasn't been all bad news, as I was planning to take things a little easier ahead of the book launch and I've managed to finish one book and start another, and I've caught up on some movies. 

The book, which I shot through in about ten days (quick for me) was Tatiana by Martin Cruz Smith, the eighth in his Arkady Renko series (the first was Gorky Park, which was filmed). The story has plenty of engaging elements, the murder of a translator, a journalist and a Russian gang boss, an unsolvable cipher in a notebook, a very expensive bike that has gone missing... Smith often deliberately obscured any clues to solving a mystery, but this one is fairly straightforward, but whodunnit isn't nearly as important as what were they doing and why.

There's also a progression in Arkady Renko's personal life that has been building up in the last book or three, his relationship with Anya and his adopted son, the chess prodigy Zehenya. Their presence is strongly felt and I look forward to seeing how things develop in the next book. (Sadly, I only have three more to read as Smith died earlier this year. I recently updated a cover gallery I put up some years ago.)

The films have been a mixed bag. At the end of most I've thought, "Well, I've watched it now and I never have to do that again." F1 had Brad Pitt and some high speed action, but a hackneyed plot about an old-timer teaching a youngster how to win—mostly by putting other drivers' lives in danger at every turn. The selling point of Nobody is that you believed Bob Odenkirk was just a regular guy and the pleasure in the film was discovering that he was extraordinary. Nobody 2 held no surprises and 90 minutes of Odenkirk punching his way through a family vacation wasn't as fun as I'd hoped. Exterritorial, or Die Hard in the US Consulate in Frankfurt, sees Jeanne Goursaud kicking the butts of every trained soldier she meets in search of her missing son. There weren't any surprises except that I thoroughly enjoyed it!

Pixar's Elio was disappointing. They've done the same kind of thing before and better and while it's a perfectly serviceable movie I spent quite a lot of it wishing I was watching The Incredibles. The Naked Gun also had me wanting to watch the originals, but while comparisons are inevitable, this wasn't as bad as some have painted. It had the same kind of silly jokes you'd expect of a Frank Drebin movie (and, best of all, the original Police Squad! TV series) and some laugh-out-loud moments. Liam Neeson plays it straight, unaware of the chaos around him.

And, finally, the film that kept me up until one o'clock this morning, Kansas City Confidential, a 1952 crime-noir about a bank heist that's blamed on an ex-con. The crooks are masked whenever they meet, so cannot identify each other or the Mr Big behind the job. The crooks are the usual bunch of cowards, tough guys and a sweaty sex-pest played by Lee Van Cleef; the hero isn't just in it for revenge—he wants some of the money, too. And Mr Big has his own plans to sell everybody out. I put this on planning to watch for ten minutes and then doze off, only to be sucked in for the full 95 minutes.

In between, I've been working hard on some biographies of artists. Having written up a British artist last week, I was back to Google Translate for the latest batch: two Italians and an Argentinian who went to live in Italy. I'm enjoying writing these little essays as it is exposing me to a huge amount of European and South American work that I wouldn't otherwise know about. It's a shame that I don't have three lives to live so that I could really indulge myself in reading these strips.

I began writing little biographical essays in the BEYOND THE VOID book and I've continued ever since; they're a feature in the AIR ACE COMPANION and will be a feature in this new index that I'm working on, which will similarly romp through the lives of a dozen or so key artists. 

Mind you, back in 2012 I did a book called NOT FORGOTTEN, which was a collection of 34 essays on comic creators who had died in 2009-10, and it bombed. In the ten years I kept it in print it sold two dozen copies. I kid you not. That's 2.4 copies a year! In the end I thought I'd pull it and one day I'll figure out where I went wrong. All I can say is, if I hadn't written it, I'd have bought a copy.

Maybe I should gather them all together with all the other essays and call it WHO'S WHO IN BRITISH COMICS (Volume 1). Or maybe set up a Patreon or a Substack so that I can earn a bit while I'm writing entries. Something else I need to think about.

Commando 5887-5890

Commando issues 5887-5890 on sale from today, Thursday, 11th September 2025, featuring hidden Luftwaffe bases, spies in Iran, the hangman’s noose and the return of V for Vengeance to comics pages for the first time in decades!

5887: V for Vengeance: Prisoner 7324

As air raids wreak havoc over the skies of Berlin, dread pervades the Nazi party. High-ranking officials are being assassinated one by one by the mysterious group named ‘The Deathless Men’. At the scene of each crime, the killers leave a list of future victims alongside a proclamation titled ‘V for Vengeance’. 
Desperately, those whose names are listed seek answers, but their only clues link each assassin to deceased prisoners of a concentration camp – are the dead returning to seek revenge?
    Commando welcomes the explosive return of the V for Vengeance series – first seen in the pages of The Wizard in 1942! Now brought to the black-and-white pages of Commando by Alberto Saichann, Dominic Teague’s Deathless Men are equally as bloodthirsty and hellbent on vengeance as the original series! 

Story: Dominic Teague
Art: Alberto Saichann
Cover: Marco Bianchini 

5888: Noose for a Hero

It was madness… a British patrol and a South African patrol hunting each other down like wild animals in the narrow moon-lit streets of a ruined North African oasis. Bullets sang through the gloom as men who had been friends only one hour before acted like savage enemies. 
The cause of all this was something that had happened on another dark night in 1899, in South Africa…
    Eric Hebden weaves a woeful tale of allies turned enemies in Issue 5888 Noose for a Hero, as the past has a way of coming back to bite you! With Victor de la Fuente and Jordi Penalva on artwork duties! 

Story: E Hebden
Art: V Fuente
Cover: Penalva
First published 1971 as No. 576

5889: Eagle’s Descent 

Iran, 1943. The ‘Big Three’ – Winston Churchill, Joseph Stalin and Franklin Roosevelt – were set to have a conference to decide the final strategy for the war against Nazi Germany and its Axis partners. But the Germans knew about the conference – and they were prepared to do anything in their power to assassinate the enemy leaders – even putting a spy in the American embassy!
    Rossa McPhillips spins a tale of spies, deception and intrigue in his latest issue of Commando. With so many spies around – how can anyone be trusted?! With artwork from the amazing Manuel Benet!

Story: Rossa McPhillips 
Art: Manuel Benet
Cover: Manuel Benet

5890: The Secret Base 

From the outside it looked like an old, deserted rocket site, with bomb-blasted buildings and debris scattered everywhere. But hidden underground bunkers concealed sleek, fast Arado 234 jet bombers which were being made ready for a very special top-secret mission. They had to be stopped - and quickly too!
    RA Montague’s story about hidden base holds a dark and deadly secret – the Nazi’s final plan to beat the Allies! What’s more, Denis McLoughlin’s gritty and detailed artwork had us biting our nails at the tension! 

Story: RA Montague 
Art: Denis McLoughlin
Cover: Jeff Bevan
First published 1984 as No. 1813

Rebellion Releases — 10 September 2025

In the rotting corpse of a city called Downlode, only the most ruthless people can survive. Finnigan Sinister and Ramone Dexter have made their mark working together as ‘gun-sharks’ (hitmen) for some of the underworld’s biggest mob bosses.

Having killed Holy Moses Tanenbaum, a mobster from an alternate dimension whose presence threatened the fabric of reality, Finnigan Sinister and Ramone Dexter have reset the continuum, and now no one knows who they are, except for the hacker, Billi Octavo. Hired to protect a sentient A.I. called Lillith, the duo has discovered that another rogue A.I. is at large in the city…

Connecting the dots and leading readers right up to the hit new series “Azimuth”, Sinister Dexter: Bulletopia, due for release 11 March 2026, is available for pre-order now from the 2000 AD webshop!

And now, this week's releases...

2000AD Prog 2449
Cover: Toby Willsmer.

JUDGE DREDD // TUNNELS by Rob Williams (w) RM Guera (a) Giulia Brusco (c) Jim Campbell (l)
THE RAVILIOUS PACT by T.C.Eglington (w) Steven Austin (a) John Charles (c) Simon Bowland (l)
SCARLET TRACES // EMPIRE OF BLOOD by Ian Edginton (w) D'Israeli (a) Annie Parkhouse (l)

Judge Dredd: One-Eyed Jacks by Ken Niemand (w), Ian Richardson, Kieran McKeown, Anna Readman (a)
Rebellion ISBN 978-183786606-9, 3 September 2025, 112pp, £16.99. Available via Amazon.

FIGHTING CRIME ACROSS TIME WITH HELP FROM THE BLOODLINE!

Mega-City One, 2145 AD. This vast urban hell on the east coast of post-apocalyptic North America is home to over 200 million citizens. Crime is rampant, and stemming the tide of chaos are the Judges. Toughest of them all is Judge Dredd – he is the Law! Dredd and Rico investigate a link between 1970s New York and the twenty-second century after antique items start to turn up in the 'Big Meg.' A trip back to the 'Big Apple' sets Dredd on course to come face-to-face with New York's toughest cop, Jack McBane and an undercover cop with a familiar surname - Eartha Fargo...

Robot Archie and the World of the Future by E. George Cowan (w) Ted Kearon, David Harwood (a)
Rebellion ISBN, 11 September 2025, 144pp, £16.99. Available via Amazon.

Originally built by Professor C.R. Ritchie, the mechanical being known as Robot Archie was employed to battle injustices around the world. First published in Lion comic, Robot Archie's adventures are now reprinted for the first time in over fifty years! This volume also includes a one-off story which finds Archie face-to-face with The Spider, The King of Crime.
    Together with the Professor's nephew, Ted Ritchie and his best friend Ken Dale, Archie is travelling in a temperamental time-machine called 'The Castle.' Desperate to get back to their own time, the trio land in the middle of a future alien invasion. Can Archie defeat the sinister Krulls on his own?

Invasion Colchester 2025

Invasion Colchester 2025 took place on September 6th, an annual event organised by ACE Comics which takes over the town centre for a few joyful hours of cosplay, kids play and collecting for charity. The money raised goes to St Helena Hospice, Colchester & Ipswich Hospitals Charity and Mind (Mid and North-East Essex). You can find out much more here.

This year's guests included comics legend Barry Kitson, Unfortunately, I missed him (probably on a break when I was wandering around the ACE Comics area) and it was crowded, hot and I was hungry. But both Mel and I took a couple of hundred pictures between us, the best of which we present here. You wouldn't believe the number of brilliant photos that were spoiled by someone wandering in front of the camera just as the shutter opened...