Rebellion Releases — 29 October 2025

2000AD's fourth and final bumper issue of the year arrives this week, with 48-pages of blistering sci-fi action and excitement! Judge Dredd, Rogue Trooper, Void Runners, Brass Sun and Red Dragon are joined by two complete stories this issue, as Nightmare New York returns for another supernaturally-charged walk through the streets of the Big Apple.

Then, we have an exclusive BIG-ASS SWORD story from creator Andreas Butzbach, ahead of the release of his original graphic novel in November! 

And now, this week's release... yeah, it's the bumper issue mentioned above...

2000AD Prog 2456
Cover: Mike Dowling.

JUDGE DREDD // AND TO THE SEA RETURN by Rob Williams (w) Henry Flint (a) Annie Parkhouse (l)
RED DRAGON by Rob Williams (w) Steve Yeowell & Patrick Goddard (a) Dylan Teague (c) Simon Bowland (l)
BIG-ASS SWORD // DEFRAG PROCESS by Andreas Butzbach
VOID RUNNERS // BOOK TWO by David Hine (w) Boo Cook (a) Annie Parkhouse (l)
BRASS SUN // PAVANE by Ian Edginton (w) INJ Culbard (a) Simon Bowland (l)
NIGHTMARE NEW YORK // HARD TIMES by Kek-W (w) David Roach (a) Peter Doherty (c) Jim Campbell (l)
ROGUE TROOPER // GHOST PATROL by Alex de Campi (w) Neil Edwards (a) Matt Soffe (c) Jim Campbell (l)

Eagle Times v38 n1-3

After a short break in the supply chain, I'm back on the mailing list for Eagle Times and have been able to catch up on the latest three issues, which have included their usual diverse mix of articles about and around the classic Eagle comic of the 1950s and 1960s.

The magazine runs to 48 pages with colour covers and its contents are chiefly the work of David Britton and Steve Winders now that so many of the former contributors have passed on to ventures new or simply passed on. Sadly this will happen when you have a magazine that is (a) about a comic that debuted 75 years ago; and (b) is now in its 38th year.

I'll scamper through the contents of all three issues as some articles are multi-part ventures and a new number for the year will often see a spate of "part 1" episodes. In this instance we have the launch episodes of articles on Blackbow the Cheyenne, The Happy Warrior and Montgomery of Alamein (also the debut of a new tale featuring PC49, 'The Case of the Elusive Elvis').

The issue begins with another regular, 'The Way We Were', a selection of readers' letters from 1950 issues showing how attitudes to some things have changed over the years. Blackbow begins with a brief overview and then concentrates on a single story which David Britton considers well thought out by author Ted Cowan, with Frank Humphris providing some high quality artwork.

The Happy Warrior (Winston Churchill) and Montgomery of Allemein are two strips written by Clifford Makins and drawn by Frank Bellamy that should need no introduction. That's not to say that they don't deserve study, and Steve Winders certainly puts both under the microscope.

David Britton has been writing a series on female contributors to the Eagle group which now includes June Mendoza and Daphne Rowles as well as his ongoing study of Jeff Arnold.

One-offs on the subject of Cricket, the Eagle Dinner, Wrath of the Gods and a new debut in the autumn number, a look at Luis Bermejo's contributions to Heros the Spartan, are all welcome and fun to read. I would also recommend Eric Summers' feature in the Summer number on George Beardmore and Jack o' Lantern in which the author discusses how reading old Eagle strips can lead you down many a rabbit hole seeking out the historical truths of the stories. It is one of the reasons why Eagle Times has survived so long and has featured such a range of subjects over the years. The Summer number was, incidentally, the magazine's 150th issue.

Of special note is a fantastic cover on the Summer issue by Graham Bleathman showing the Anastaia flying over London with Dan and Digby piloting. The artwork was bought by the Eagle Society and is the subject of a raffle open to members. Any income above the cost of the artwork will be donated to charity. The results will be drawn at next year's dinner, so now would be a good time to join.

The quarterly Eagle Times is the journal of the Eagle Society, with membership costing £30 in the UK, £50 (in sterling) overseas. You can send subscriptions to Bob Corn, Mayfield Lodge, Llanbadoc, Usk, Monmouthshire NP15 1SY; subs can also be submitted via PayPal to membership@eagle-society.org.uk. Back issues are available for newcomers to the magazine and they have even issued binders to keep those issues nice and neat.

Comic Cuts — 24 October 2025

Running repairs might have been a theme of this week. I bought 200 polypropylene bags recently, so I've started cleaning, repairing and bagging some of my paperbacks. They are 5 x 7 3⁄8 inches, so good for, say, old Penguin crime novels, but not for a lot of the 1950s digest-sized paperbacks, which is what I actually want to protect. Not that they'll go to waste, as I have hundreds (maybe thousands) of books that will comfortably fit. 

I've bagged up some of the books on nearby shelves, although I've had to skip some—I bagged my Raymond Chandlers, but couldn't do Killer in the Rain because the spine is too wide and my Hamish Hamilton edition of Pearls Are a Nuisance, which is digest size. I bagged all my Hal Clement books, bar The Best of..., which (again) had a too-wide spine. Hopefully I can buy some slightly larger bags next year.

And one of my shelves was looking slightly drunk and was listing badly; the top shelf began 8 inches to the right of the bottom shelf because the backboard that keeps it upright had bowed because I had stacked too many books on the shelves, some magazines, and a couple of dozen hefty reference books. The nails that held the board in place had mostly come loose, so it was a case of emptying the shelf (thanks Mel!) lugging it out into the kitchen and hammering two dozen nails into it. The lower shelf is permanently warped, but I managed to get a few nails in to hold it steady and even managed to get the two boards to fit back into the bit of plastic that runs from top to bottom down the centre.

It is now back in place, looking good, and I have a small stack of books that I will sell off one way or another that are no longer causing the shelves to bow. 

Tuesday and Wednesday was my weekend—it tends to move around as Mel never has the same days off one week to the next—as I'd spent Saturday and Sunday going through the proof copy of the AIR ACE PICTURE LIBRARY COMPANION and ironing out some textual anomalies and tidying up a couple of bits that needed clarifying. I was back on the same text on Monday when proofreader extraordinaire (stand up and take a bow) Richard Sheaf sent me an embarrassingly long list of corrections and queries.

The text is now done and the book will be out next month. Quite when I don't know as I need also to sort out the contract for MYTEK THE MIGHTY Volume 4. This should be sorted out shortly, hopefully next week. Once I've coughed up some money to Rebellion I should be able to get a decent print run sorted by (hopefully) mid-November. Then it's full steam ahead with the ACTION Index. 

As well as the bagging and repairing of books and shelves, I'm also trying to clear the shelves of some book I no longer need, so you might find a few things turning up on Ebay. 

Ships of the Sky (extract), unpublished strip by David Slinn

Sad news arrived on Wednesday. My good friend and occasional collaborator David Slinn passed away at the age of 88. David worked for a variety of comics, including Eagle and Express Weekly. He was an amazing source of information as he had contacts with most of the comic publishers of the 1950s and 1960s and had an amazing memory for names and incidents. 

He was a delight to chat with, and a conversation could veer sideways into all sorts of areas: it might start with a focus on Cowboy Picture Library (to which he contributed) but could end up with a discussion about Bob Geldof's opinion on teenage girls' magazines. Email took over from phone calls, which meant scans, lists and research could be bounced around—often between David, myself and David Roach—hoping for a consensus of opinion on who an artist might be. Sometimes he could be elliptical with an answer: there is still a Cowboy Comics artist he identified but never got around to naming. "Think so-and-so" [I forget the name] he said, implying that I would recognise the similarities and then make the mental leap that he had. I hadn't a clue and still to this day those issues remain unidentified. (My particular skill when it comes to indexing comics has always been to listen to people smarter than myself and write down what they say.)

David had helped so much with the Ranger index that I thought he deserved a co-writing credit; that's not to say that his contributions to all the other indexes was any less welcome. David and I had launched into a new project, an index and history of (Junior / TV) Express Weekly and the first results were bounced between us in January of this year. I mentioned in my blog for 10 January that I had been writing an article on why newspapers were rationed for so long after the war, full rationing only ending in 1956. Yet new publications were allowed from 1950. Well, that's all part of the Junior Express story and the first thing I sent over to David. I wrote up a second part in April while I was waiting on paperwork for the first two Mytek books. Once that arrived I dived straight back into getting them ready for publication, unaware that David was not well, having been diagnosed with prostate cancer.

He spent his last few months in a hospice, where he was well cared for by staff and family. We chatted a couple of times on the phone and I sent him the second section of the Express Weekly history. Sadly, his condition deteriorated and he passed away on Wednesday morning.

His family will still be processing the news themselves, so it's too soon to write more. Hopefully I'll be able to share more in a week or two. 

• 23 Oct. “Basically, I’m hoping to please both nostalgia fans and those who enjoy pop culture critique!” – Paul Cornell on the Bronze Age Avengers, his first Commando comic, and new publishing venture Cosmic Lighthouse.
• 17 Oct. More Grant Morrison as they were involved in an "ask me anything" session on Reddit to promote the Batman/Deadpool crossover.  Asked (for instance) about what their plans were for an Arkham Asylum sequel, Grant answers "I may still write it, so no details yet." One exchange worth highlighting (and Rich Johnston did just that) concerned Zenith and 2000AD: "I'd have preferred if they'd left Zenith alone, but they can't help themselves. Due to their own administrative error, I didn't sign away my rights to the series, but they've been unwilling to acknowledge my position or offer me even a minimal cut while doing everything they can to sneak Zenith stuff in behind my back. If they'd been smarter, I might have come back for a new Zenith story. I'm sure Rob Williams will do a decent job and I have no beef with him, but I find the whole thing a bit distasteful and prefer to have nothing to do with it…. There are legal issues with Zenith that make any return unlikely."
• 13 Oct. Grant Morrison shows off a couple of pieces of artwork from his bijou collection. Grant was also recently interviewed in July for the Half the Picture vodcast, which was released in September (part 1, 1h 2m) (part 2, 1h 1m), and revealed his Desert Island Comics at the Lakes International Comic Art Festival by John McShane and livestreamed (video, 58m; interview kicks in about 2½ minutes into the video).
• 13 Oct. John Freeman heads down a rabbit hole to look at the career of R. Caton Woodville. 
• 4 Oct. Cartoonists Tom Gauld and Kevin Huizenga discuss inspiration and ideas at the SPX 2025 show. "How does each cartoonist organize their thoughts on paper? How does doodling enable them to talk through their process to a finished comic? In what ways do the images themselves convey the same meaning as words?" (video, 55m)
• 3 Oct. Daniele Tomasi interviews Alberto Foche, the Spanish artist who drew Titan's 2017 Dan Dare mini-series written by Peter Milligan. "It’s funny, because I knew the character from the comics, but especially from the Spectrum 128k game from the 1980s. When I spoke with my agent and then the editor to do the tests, I always had in mind the shooter game on that old cassette player."
• 1 Oct. PJ Holden is sharing his latest work, 'Terran Omega', one page at a time on his Patreon page. He discusses it here. "I can’t just afford to blow 50 pages of unpaid work on my own projects. So I figured, what if I did it as a weekly comic? I’d stick the pages on Patreon (which I’d tried successfully before when I did the Folklore Stories with John Reppion) and hopefully build enough of an audience that by the time I’m finished a good chunk of them will hop over with me to Kickstarter to help fund getting a book of it published (fingers crossed!)."
• 30 Sep. A comic that Mark Millar pitched when he was just 13 is to become a reality. Conquered, described as 'Independence Day' meets 'Game of Thrones', is being Kickstarted. The pitch was gently rejected by DC Comics editor Julius Schwartz, but 43 yeaers later Millar has been working with artist Valerio Giangiordano (Spawn) on the first of four planned volumes. Jon Del Arroz interviewed Millar for his JDA Talks Comics for a livestream on 10 October. (video, 59m)
• 26 Sep. Daniel Best is compiling as complete a bibliography of the published works of Jerry Siegel as possible. Eventually he'll reach The Spider... (Part 2) (Part 3) (Part 4)
• 23 Sep. Filmmaker Chris Shepherd discusses his first graphic novel, Anfield Road. "I had initially tried to make the project as a film. I wrote a feature-length script and pitched it, but I could never secure the funding. Then lockdown came, and I found myself with much more time to draw. Feeling determined, I decided to tackle the entire project through drawing.

Commando 5899-5902

Spooky season continues as creepy Commando Issues 5899-5902 go on sale from today, Thursday, 23rd October 2025!

5899: Frostbite

Caught in the chaos of the Battle of the Bulge, the 28th Infantry Division thought they had enough problems. But then, their comrades began mysteriously disappearing in the depths of the frozen forests.
    Tasked with finding the missing soldiers, Private Howard Kennedy and nine of his fellow troops were sent off into the snow in search of answers. What they found hidden among the frozen trees would haunt him for the rest of his days!
    A devilish debut from writer Julian Michael Carver, this first-person narrative puts you amongst the trees in Paolo Ongaro’s claustrophobic rendering of the Ardennes, and, with a cover like that from Marco Bianchini, you can’t help but shiver!
 
Story: Julian Michael Carver
Art: Paolo Ongaro 
Cover: Marco Bianchini

5900: Time of Terror

The sea mist clung to the three British Commandos as they paddled a rubber dinghy towards the dark French coast. Behind them, their submarine slowly vanished beneath the waves, leaving them to face any dangers that lay ahead. And of danger there would be plenty, for no plans had been made for bringing them back again!
    Motton’s story strikes at a squaddie’s worst nightmare — abandoned in France AGAIN. But there’s plenty of light comedy and charm in the trio’s banter and Gordon C Livingstone’s stellar artwork to turn this into a dream issue. 

Story: Motton
Art: Gordon C Livingstone
Cover: Gordon C Livingstone
First published 1971 as No. 544

5901: The Curse of the Zelda

Stranded in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, the surviving crew of the wrecked HMS Avon was starting to wonder whether they would ever see land again. But the sight of a ship on the horizon soon raised their hopes.
    Once on board the strange frigate, though, it seemed their troubles weren’t over. Not a soul was aboard the ghost ship, and some of the men were hearing things. Who was the mysterious figure glimpsed out of the corner of the eye? What had happened aboard the Zelda?
    A spine-tingling story from Rossa McPhillips where Juan Fernandez’s dream-like artwork oozes the occult. Plus, the issue hosts another cracking cover from Marco Bianichini, the master of the macabre!

Story: Rossa McPhilips 
Art: Juan Fernandez
Cover: Marco Bianchini

5902: Flames of Fear 

No man is completely fearless — everyone has something he’s afraid of. 
    Take three soldiers caught up in the fighting in the jungle, each with a fear to overcome. For one it was fire. For another, tanks. And for the third, it was a dragon!
    Goodness gracious great tanks of fire! There is plenty to fear in this frightful fable as CG Walker stalks a trio of haunted soldiers, certain they’ll meet their doom in the jungles of Burma. 

Story: CG Walker
Art: Ruiz
Cover: Jeff Bevan
First published 1984 as No. 1792

Rebellion Releases — 22 October 2025

Hot on the heels of the best-selling Rogue Trooper: Blighty Valley, Garth Ennis and Patrick Goddard return with a new standalone Rogue Trooper graphic novel which delves into the mythos of the character.

Nu Earth: an endless battleground between Nort and Souther forces – but Rogue Trooper is the sole survivor of the Genetic Infantry, and together with the bio-chipped “ghosts” of his dead comrades he hunts down the traitor who sold out his regiment.

Now, three years after the Quartz Zone Massacre which wiped out his platoon and stalled the Genetic Infantry programme, Rogue is drawn into a web of intrigue involving a genetic engineer’s attempts to kickstart the programme again, but with the bio-chips of the dead soldiers from the original massacre – with terrible consequences.

Garth Ennis (Preacher, The Boys) and Patrick Goddard (Judge Dredd, Nina Petrova and the Angels of Death) bring you an all-new adventure featuring the iconic 2000 AD character, combining intrigue and action, and delving into the backstory of Rogue Trooper. Following the smash-hit of Blighty Valley, the team are back for a hard-hitting and fast-paced action blitz which will see Rogue tested to his limit!

Alongside the standard edition hardback featuring a cover by artist Trevor Hairsine (Captain America) is a webshop-exclusive edition featuring a new cover from original story artist Goddard, featuring both Rogue and his re-gened comrade Gunnar as they blast the Norts! 

And to celebrate this huge milestone for Rogue Trooper, we’re proud to also announce a special limited-edition sketch edition featuring unique sketches from Goddard in each book. The Goddard droid will be hand-sketching inside fifty editions of When A GI Dies, and when they’re gone… they’re gone! These sketch editions will not be re-gened!

Only fifty of these limited-edition sketch editions will be made available, each one of them hand-drawn by Goddard, making this the ultimate prize for any fan of Rogue Trooper!

Continuing our run of modern classic stories featuring Rogue Trooper, When A G.I. Dies is a standalone story for anyone interested in reading more about the character – but also forms a formidable alliance when read alongside Blighty Valley! As the Rogue Trooper movie from visionary director Duncan Jones approaches in 2026, this is a brilliant way to get onboard with 2000 AD and sign up for the Nu-Earth war effort!

Releasing on 24th March 2026, Rogue Trooper: When A G.I. Dies continues the modern missions of the Genetic Infantryman! Pre-order now to reserve your copy! 

And now, this week's releases...

2000AD Prog 2455
Cover: Cliff Robinson, with Dylan Teague

JUDGE DREDD // AND TO THE SEA RETURN by Rob Williams (w) Henry Flint (a) Annie Parkhouse (l)
RED DRAGON by Rob Williams (w) Steve Yeowell & Patrick Goddard (a) Dylan Teague (c) Simon Bowland (l)
BRASS SUN // PAVANE by Ian Edginton (w) INJ Culbard (a) Simon Bowland (l)
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 Death 2025 Mega Special
Cover: Brian Bolland.

ENDGAME by Kek-W (w) Stewart K. Moore (a) Annie Parkhouse (l)
JUDGE DEATH // CRUEL MERCY by Dale Halvorsen (w) Tazio Bettin (a) Matt Soffe (c) Jim Campbell (l)
JUDGE FEAR // THE JUDGEMENT OF ANNI CRIP by Alec Worley (w) Leigh Gallagher (a) Simon Bowland (l)
JUDGE MORTIS // FADE TO GREY by Antony Johnston (w) Lee Carter (a) Rob Steen (l)
JUDGE FIRE // EMBERS by Alex de Campi (w) Mark Sexton (a) Dylan Teague (c) Rob Steen (l)

The Art of Judge Dredd by Jock
Rebellion ISBN, 22 October 2025, 304pp, £24.99. Available via Amazon.

Jock is a highly influential stylist, an in-demand film poster artist, and one of the most respected comic artists working in the medium.
    Collecting sketches, layouts, and final unlettered artwork, The Art of Judge Dredd by Jock illustrates the artist's processes across sequential and concept art, including his character designs for 2012's Dredd.
    From his earliest work to his latest 2000 AD covers, this book showcases the artistic evolution of one of the modern masters of comic art.

The Complete Full Tilt Boogie by Alex de Campi & Eduardo Ocana
Rebellion ISBN, 22 October 2025, 192pp, £21.99. Available via Amazon.

INTERGALACTIC MAYHEM!
Out in the deep reaches of the cosmos, teenager Tee - together with her grandmother and a cat (called cat!) - is a wannabe bounty hunter operating from her patched-together spaceship, the Full Tilt Boogie. After rescuing the Luxine Prince Ifan from his debtors' prison, Tee finds herself on the run from various new enemies, including sacred knights and a deadly Anubite warrior, as war and unrest spread accross the universe.
    This thrilling love letter to space anime sagas includes the complete run of the strip!

Comic Cuts — 17 October 2025

It's always nice to begin with some good news. On Tuesday I received three boxes filled with about 60 books, restocking a few titles that I was running low on but also the second proof for THE AIR  ACE PICTURE LIBRARY COMPANION, which is now being re-read yet again. I've also called upon the services of a second pair of eyes to make sure I haven't made any particularly egregious gaffs.

Proofing is a necessary evil. I'm not a fan... I'd rather get on with something new, but I also know I make a lot of mistakes. Not factual—I put a lot of time into research and double-checking facts wherever possible, but that can lead to glitches in the text. A lot of writers will belt out a first draft as ideas bubble up and, once that's written, will go back and revise. For the most part I revise as I go along, as I find new information or correct things that turn out to be wrong. I've been writing a lot of biographical sketches lately and nailing down dates is always a nightmare, especially on foreign strips which may have been published across Europe and South America at various times under various titles. I found myself constantly moving chunks of text around. 

Similarly working on the introductions for the new book, I was constantly moving information around to make it flow better and tell the story more clearly. This can be as simple as altering a couple of sentences, shifting a couple of paragraphs to an earlier or later place in the narrative, or cutting out a whole section and reworking it for elsewhere in the book. 

What this means is that, once I'm finished, I only rarely need to make any changes. I'll tinker with the text, but once it's done it's done. But it's vital to proof carefully because moving text around can lead to unexpected problems. A particular bugbear with writing about comics is describing what people do: they work, they illustrate, they paint, they draw... remove text and you can find that now you have adjoining sentences using the same word or phrase, and you don't want to describe someone as "illustrating an illustration" or say "he drew" followed by "he then drew" and "later he drew"—it might be factually right, but it reads like an unfortunate stutter on paper.

Proofing for me usually consists of weeding out these little artifacts left by shifting things around or adding / changing details as I come upon them. And typos. For a writer, my spelling isn't always what it should be. And I know what I meant to write, so I don't always see what I actually wrote. That's why a second set of eyes is necessary when it comes to proofing.

Getting this book and the fourth volume of MYTEK THE MIGHTY sorted has meant that my work on the ACTION INDEX has been a bit stop-start, although I have now got a list of the contents of the Summer Specials and Annuals sorted and I've scanned a whole bunch of covers. The next step is to read some of the later stories that I didn't read at the time as I was one of the readers who deserted the comic when it returned to the newsstands after a two month gap in publication.  You could instantly tell that something had happened and the stories were somehow less Action and more tale-end Valiant (which I had also given up on a year or two earlier). Anyway, that's a whole other story... which I'm sure will be told when I get the ACTION INDEX into publishable form.

My trip to Specsavers to see if I needed new glasses was last week's cliffhanger. Well, the (more) good news is that my prescription has barely changed, so my old glasses will do me for another two years. Phew! That money is better spent on books. As there is no Paperback & Pulp Book Fair this month, I've treated myself to a bit of retail therapy and bought a few odds and ends that I've spotted on Ebay and some polypropylene bags to put them in. I'll have to wait until next year before I can get bags that will fit digest-sized paperbacks, but I can get started cleaning some of my older paperbacks, doing little bits of repair work to stop them disintegrating, and bag them up to keep them safe—something I've been meaning to do for years but never gotten around to.

Time to get back to the grindstone...

Rebellion Releases — 15 October 2025

‘Tis the season for chills and thrills — and you’ll be positively horrified to find there’s up to 80% off comics and graphic novels collections in Rebellion's Halloween sale!

From terrifying entities in sinister woodlands to tower blocks controlled by malevolent A.I., and from classic horror comics aimed at girls to Judge Dredd battling the undead Dark Judges, there’s something for all tastes in Rebellion's seasonal scare sale.

And now, this week's releases...

2000AD Prog 2454
Cover: Neil Roberts.

JUDGE DREDD // AND TO THE SEA RETURN by Rob Williams (w) Henry Flint (a) Annie Parkhouse (l)
RED DRAGON by Rob Williams (w) Steve Yeowell & Patrick Goddard (a) Dylan Teague (c) Simon Bowland (l)
BRASS SUN // PAVANE by Ian Edginton (w) INJ Culbard (a) Simon Bowland (l)
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 485 — 35th Anniversary Issue
Cover: Laurence Campbell, with Chris Blythe.

JUDGE DREDD // LETTER FROM AMERICA by Rob Williams (w) Colin MacNeil (a) Chris Blythe (c) Annie Parkhouse (l)
MEGATROPOLIS II by Ken Niemand (w) Dave Taylor (a) Jim Campbell (l)
ARMITAGE // DROKK THE RIPPER by Liam Johnson (w) Staz Johnson (a) Quinton Winter (c) Annie Parkhouse (l)
ANDERSON, PSI-DIV by Alec Worley (w) Ben Willsher (a) Simon Bowland (l)
ROK THE GOD by John Wagner & Alan Grant (w) Dan Cornwell (a) Jim Boswell (c) Jim Campbell (l)
DREADNOUGHTS // QUALIFIED IMMUNITY by Mike Carroll (w) John Higgins (a) Sally Hurst (c) Simon Bowland (l)

Comic Cuts — 10 October 2025

Just in case you missed it, I posted an extra Comic Cuts column on Sunday about my exploits at the Colchester Comic Mart. Scroll down, or follow this link if you want to find out what happened.

You can probably guess how I spent the day after the Mart. Proofing and snoozing and watching the new Shane Black movie, Play Dirty. I've been looking forward to seeing this since it was announced because it's based on the Parker novels by Richard Stark (Donald E Westlake), which I like, and it was co-written and directed by Black, whose previous crime noir movies (The Long Kiss Goodnight, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang and The Nice Guys) have been excellent. 

This one, not so much. It was good enough for passing a Sunday afternoon, but no more than that. Too many car chases/train chases and not enough sparkling dialogue, some pretty ropy special effects and a John Wick level body count don't add to making this a Parker movie of note. I still rate Point Blank with Lee Marvin and the Director's Cut of Payback with Mel Gibson as the best Parker adaptations. The Jason Statham Parker wasn't bad, but I haven't felt the need to rewatch it. That probably puts it on a par with this new version.

Monday and Tuesday were madcap. I needed to get the proofing on the AIR ACE COMPANION finished and I still had quite a way to go. The rush was because I wanted to get a second proof ordered alongside my restocks—now you know what the takings from the weekend went on! More books!

I'd gone through the book by Monday evening and fired up my old PC on Tuesday morning to make all the required corrections. There was only one major gaff, where I'd managed to put some pictures over the text on one of the biographies. The only way to fix the problem was to drop a couple of pictures. That still leaves about 320 pictures, so the book is still a visual treat. 

I managed to get the new book order placed before midnight on Tuesday, so I should have some restocks, and the second proof with me before the month is out. Any further corrections needed can be done quickly and that puts me on course to get this out alongside MYTEK THE MIGHTY Volume 4 in November, in plenty of time for Christmas as promised.

The Post Office delivered their twice-annual present on 6 October, increasing the price of postage for all "large letter" parcels both domestic and international. I'm going to have to sit down and seriously look at my costs, because my print costs also increased in August and I ended up with an order that came through Amazon actually costing me money—once you totted up the cost of production, postage to get the book to me, then the international postage and packaging to get the book to the customer, it added up to more than what Amazon sent me after taking their large cut.

Talking of postage... Our local post box was found wrapped up in a mysterious move by the Post Office last Monday. Like most villages, we have a village shop that has a post office counter just down the road. The post box sits just outside. There are also a couple of other traditional tall round and smaller square boxes dotted around the place. I use the one nearest for convenience and the fact that it is the most likely to be emptied daily.

I know the people in the shop well (I'm posting stuff most days) and there was confusion and anger. Apparently this was done without warning and not even the Post Office employees sent out in their vans to pick up the post knew anything about it. All the staff were told was that the post box was going to be replaced with an automatic postbox of a kind that scans a parcel as it was posted and opens a drop-down drawer. They're solar powered (so no more knitted postbox toppers) and I might need a "Royal Mail app" to post things. And it might be three months before the new box arrives.

The staff in the shop were already having to face the ire of customers who wanted to post stuff out to North America (Royal Mail suspended shipments recently until a new duty system could be implemented) and  Canada (where postal staff are on strike). Now you can't post anything out of hours at that box, probably the most convenient one for the most people.

Visiting the shop yesterday, I learned that the box would soon be back to normal as it is in a conservation area and the Post Office aren't allowed to put in a new box; in other words, it now looks like the box has been dressed up in a Hallowe'en costume just for October.

I'm writing this Thursday morning as I have an appointment in town to have an eye check-up to see if I need new glasses. I'll leave that as this week's cliffhanger. Come back next week to find out... 

Commando 5895-5898

Spooky season is here as creepy Commando issues 5895-5898 go on sale from today, Thursday, 9th October 2025!

5895 Commando vs Zombies 4

Squatted out at sea, just off Nazi-occupied Europe, was a lonely and isolated island. On it, wrapped in fog, barely visible against the gloom, was a mansion with a dark secret. 
An elite group of highly-trained British Commandos paddled towards that island, unaware of what awaited them. They would be no match for the monsters hidden beneath that house of horrors!
    The living dead return in Georgia Standen Battle’s ongoing series — this time, the story is expanded with twists, turns and riddles alongside monstrous ghouls and zombie dogs drawn by Vicente Alcazar and Neil Roberts! 

Story: Georgia Standen Battle
Art: Vicente Alcazar 
Cover: Neil Roberts

5896 Sign of the Vampire Cat

In ancient Japan, a legend was handed down from generation to generation, a legend about a vampire cat whose presence meant certain death. 
    Now a specialist unit of Japanese airborne troops wore the sign of that vampire cat on their headbands. They were highly-trained killers, and wherever they landed, death stalked with them...
    The second of our creepy Commandos is a fan-favourite issue released from its coffin for the first time in over thirty years! But this is No-sferatu story about fanged Draculas after your haemoglobin — this story features bloodthirsty Japanese soldiers hellbent on destruction!

Story: RA Montague
Art: Franch
Cover: Ian Kennedy
First published 1975 as No. 918

5897 Raven’s Hollow

At the height of World War Two, a trio of strangers arrived in a tiny coastal village with a hidden purpose, only to be told a trilogy of dark tales from its mysterious past... Stories of a Roman Centurion’s plans for a new road through a sacred forest are disturbed, Viking raiders encountering something in the unnatural sea mist, and a conniving witchfinder getting more than he bargained for when he rides into town! Perhaps the newcomers should heed these stories, for Raven’s Hollow has ways of dealing with unwelcome guests!
    Daniel McGachey — the ghoulish master of the horror anthology — is back, with another three stories in a Commando — each spookier than the last. What’s more, this time McGahey’s twisted tales are brought to life by Mike Donaldson’s eerie artwork in his second-ever Commando!

Story: Daniel McGachey 
Art: Mike Donaldson
Cover: Mike Donaldson

5898 Strange Magic 

Against all odds, three men — an Indian, an Australian and an Englishman — had escaped death in the jungle. They had been brought together in a common cause by a man who knew exactly how they were going to fight from now on. And how did he know that? 
    Because he was a magician!
    It’s a kind of magic… in McDevitt’s story for Issue 5898! With a story that will have you HYPNOTISED and has mesmerising artwork from Ibanez and Philpott!

Story: McDevitt
Art: Ibanez
Cover: Philpott
First published 1984 as No. 1786

Rebellion Releases — 8 October 2025

In 1990 a seismic shock swept through the comics industry, as an upstart new comics anthology rumbled into production for the first time. Judge Dredd Megazine, a sister title to the legendary British comics anthology 2000 AD, was brought to life!

Thirty-five years later and the Megazine is still going strong, and this October we'll be celebrating 35 drokkin' years of awesome comics with a celebratory issue featuring the return of beloved characters and series, a celebration of everything that the Megazine has stood for across the last three and a half decades! 

"Thirty-five is an extraordinary birthday for any comic to have reached, let alone one that was tasked with expanding the universe of its older sibling's lead character and has been running neck and neck with it ever since," says Ben Smith, Head of Film, TV and Publishing for Rebellion.

"Such longevity would have been impossible without our editor Matt Smith guiding the Judge Dredd Megazine for more than half its lifetime, nor without the incredible artists and writers who have sustained it with classics, bold experiments, unexpected adventures, new characters, alongside the journalists giving us one-to-one interviews that cover the history and present of the comics medium in the UK. Most important of all, we are enormously grateful to the Megazine's readers; subscribers and newsstand regulars, both physical and digital customers who have ensured its ongoing success." 

From its debut at the start of the 90s, Judge Dredd Megazine has been home to some of the most acclaimed and beloved comics in 2000 AD history, including Judge Dredd: America; Young Death, and Judge Anderson: Satan, as well as debuting new series including Dreadnoughts, Lawless, Armitage, Missionary Man, and Devlin Waugh.

Current editor Matt Smith says "The Meg reaching its 35th anniversary is a fantastic achievement, and testament to the wonderful work being published in its pages that readers are still flocking to. It’s fair to say that before the turn of the millennium the Meg’s future was not guaranteed – but it’s flourished over the past quarter of a century, building on some of the stunning stories of the nineties to become the unmissable companion to 2000 AD. Lawless, Dreadnoughts, Megatropolis, Angelic, Spector and more have shown that the Meg may be approaching middle age but it’s stronger and more vital than ever.’

Judge Dredd Megazine 485 is out on the 15th October, and kicks off with a new one-off America story from Rob Williams and Colin MacNeil - who was the artist on the original ground-breaking America storyline which rocked the very first issue of the Meg back in 1990! America Beeny has aged in real time since she first appeared in that story, and was taken in by the Judges and trained to be one of them. Now an active Judge, Beeny and Dredd head off into the Cursed Earth to find a message from the past waiting for them...

Megatropolis, the alternate-universe retelling of Judge Dredd and Mega-City One from Ken Niemand and Dave Taylor, is another headline feature in October's Meg. Returning to the art-deco noir of this unpredictable universe, which debuted in Judge Dredd Megazine back in 2020, much-anticipated sequel will feature the final published artwork from co-creator Dave Taylor, who sadly passed away earlier in the year. Although he hadn't completed this story at that time, his pages are a reminder of the fierce and passionate flair that he brought to his storytelling - and 2000 AD have pledged to complete the run in tribute to him, with Chris Weston joining the series to draw the final pages.

Elsewhere Judge Anderson has a demonic new case to solve as well, returning to the Megazine which has been her home since 1992 courtesy of Alec Worley and Ben Willsher  After a film premiere is taken over by a demonic incursion, Anderson is on the scene, ready to take the psychic battle to the silver screen!

And if you're looking for hard-hitting political realism in your comics, the return of Dreadnoughts is just what you're looking for. This Meg-Original series has been critically acclaimed for exploring how we went from our current police system to the judge state that will take over in Judge Dredd's era. Mike Carroll, John Higgins and Sally Hurst head back into the darkness this issue...

Also returning is the gruff detective Armitage, who debuted in Judge Dredd Megazine #9 back in 1991. Working the tough streets of Brit-Cit, Armitage has a new case thanks to Liam Johnson and Staz Johnson which finds him exploring a serial killer whose patterns seem to replicate the murder spree of Jack the Ripper! And the anniversary line up is rounded off by the latest instalment of Rok The God, John Wagner, Alan Grant and Dan Cornwell's sci-fi sports series!

The ground-shaking anniversary issue of Judge Dredd Megazine delivers over 100 pages of hard-hitting action and features, and is a true celebration of an incredible run - which continues to thrill readers around the world decades after debuting. Don't miss this latest issue of one of the longest-running comics in history!

Celebrating 35 years of publication, Judge Dredd Megazine 485 will be published on 15th October 2025.

And now, this week's releases...

2000AD Prog 2453
Cover: Boo Cook.

JUDGE DREDD // AND TO THE SEA RETURN by Rob Williams (w) Henry Flint (a) Annie Parkhouse (l)
RED DRAGON by Rob Williams (w) Steve Yeowell & Patrick Goddard (a) Dylan Teague (c) Simon Bowland (l)
BRASS SUN // PAVANE by Ian Edginton (w) INJ Culbard (a) Simon Bowland (l)
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)

Scream! The Specials 1985-2024
Rebellion ISBN, 400pp, £49.99. Available via Amazon.

Enter our nightmare world at your peril! Following the acclaimed 40 Years of Scream!, this companion volume features previously uncollected material from the holiday specials spinning out of the main title.
    From the original run in the 1980s to the latest, oversized 40th anniversary issue, this collection completes the Scream! archives with stories by veteran writers and artists Dave Gibbons, Eric Bradbury, Barrie Tomlinson and Tom Tully, as well as recent revival strips including the work of Alex Paknadel, Torunn Grønbekk, Henry Flint, and DaNi.

Comic Cuts — 5 October 2025

Saturday's Colchester Comic Mart began on a bright note—Storm Amy had blown through on Friday and it had rained most of the day, but, fortunately, she cleared off into the North Sea overnight and the morning sun broke through the clouds as I was waiting for the bus.

I arrived at the show's home, the Presbyterian Church in Eld Lane around 8:45 and wandered in to find most of the tables already stacked with comics (I think the venue opened at 7:30) and organisers Karl Kennedy and Andy Yates (Stephen Hume having been unavoidably detained in Glasgow) had sorted out a table for me, generously paid for by Bear Alley Books... oh. hang on...

Karl had picked up some boxes of books from me on Monday, along with some artwork for the art show. (I don't drive, never have, as I've always worked close to home—close to the train station when I worked on London—or at home.) These I unpacked and spread out and, learning that one of the guests had fallen ill, managed to spread my wares onto the spare table. Then a new guest was announced and I had to unspread everything. But then we found a smaller table that wasn't being used, so I lugged that over to where I was stationed and once again spread out, as can be seen in the photo at the head of this column. Thankfully, nobody thought to charge me or I'd have had to try and recoup the costs from the publisher.

Doors opened at 10:00 and we were busy for the next couple of hours. I had a chance to chat to other guests, to my right, author Jim Swallow, and to my left, author Roy Rivett, both on the select list of people who have written for Commando. Jim is shortly to begin writing a new Commando based on an old Warlord strip from the early 1980s. I'd better not say what, as I don't think it has been announced. Roy had some of his old issues on sale along with the original scripts, which are always fun to compare, and see how an artist has interpreted a description of a scene.

Keith Burns has been a regular at these shows for at least the past three years. He always has some gorgeous art and prints to show off. There might even be a book cover for Bear Alley in the future... I'm saying nothing!

Other guests included Christian Hauth (who has posted some photos of the event on Facebook), and actors Chris Bunn and Ross Sambridge, who were signing photos. 

Always fascinating, Stuart and Ed set up a fantastic gallery with a little help from Karl Seaman and me. I said this on the day, but it's a shame the gallery was in a back room, where we used to have it at the back of the hall. I understand there were space considerations, but that doesn't alter the basic fact that some might have missed the chance to see an amazing selection of original artwork.

There were 62 people through the door, which might not sound like many, but they were came with full wallets and were prepared to spend. I'm never sure what to take. I think I took some of everything on my first show and sold only the comic strip collections; last year was exceptional as it was launch day for THE PHANTOM PATROL so that book sold especially well. Thanks to Karl's van, I decided to take a wider selection this year compared to last year, and thank goodness I did, because the indexes sold well... a couple of them actually sold out. I mean, I only had three copies of each on the table, but they sold as well as some of the comic collections.

With no new book to flog, and many of the regulars having already bought MYTEK VOLUME 3, I think the day went very well. I was about £100 down on last year, but still took a respectable amount. Costs are minimal (the table was £15) and I even won something in the raffle.

All told, a very good day for sales and an even better day for just chatting to people. 

Dogfight Dixon, Psycho Warriors and Swordsmen

One of the latest batch of hardback Fleetway Picture Library Classics from Book Palace reprints some of my favourite episodes from the pages of Thriller Picture Library. I was always a bit of a fan of Air Ace Picture Library and found by chance some reprints of Dogfight Dixon tales dating from around 1966-67. Many years later, my small collection of Thriller Picture Library is mostly issues of Jet-Ace Logan, John Steel and... Dogfight Dixon.

Four stories are reprinted here, beginning with Donald Oliver Graham (DOG... geddit?) Dixon looking longingly out of the window of his classroom, and even 500 lines can't dull the desire to take to the air. His father has other ideas, and wants him to join his Regiment, the Royal Light Infantry, where a Dixon has served since its formation two hundred years before. Injured, his father looks forward to seeing his son in uniform after learning of his enlistment... and a schism forms when he learns that his son has joined the Royal Flying Corps.

Posted to France, the newly nicknamed Dogfight is given the job of checking out the situation of an infantry battalion, pinned down by German shelling. Dogfight destroys a siege gun only to discover two more on the way and it requires all his flying skills and courage to take them out of action. And the stubborn Colonel who had refused any help from the R.F.C.—Dogfight's own father!

I'm always surprised at how good these old stories are, and the depth of emotion some of them managed to convey amongst the action. There is enough excitement and aerial action to thrill the schoolboy readership the books were originally aimed at, but they can be appreciated by an older audience too, for their fine artwork and the storytelling talent on display.

Dogfight's original writer was Ralph Coveney, with artwork by Dino Battaglia. The rest of the tales are the work of Donne Avenell, Ian Kellie and Michael Moorcock, with artwork by Aldoma Puig, Amador Garcia and Allen Pollack. Of these, 'Hawks of the Desert' sees Dogfight joining a mysterious Professor of Islamic Studies in a secret desert mission to stop Turkish forces sweeping into Cairo; 'The Phantom Camel' pits Dogfight against a German ace over Western Front; and 'The Zeppelin Menace' sees 13 Squadron escorting bombers on a mission to destroy Zeppelin sheds that fails badly, without a bomb falling on the target...

Moving forward in time to the Second World War, Jorge Moliterni's Psycho War Stories may be a slightly overstated title, but it contains some excellent tales from the pages of War and Battle picture libraries. Reading the introduction (a welcome addition to the book), it is editor Peter Richardson who found Moliterni's work compelling when he stumbled upon it at the age of nine. He went on to discover that Moliterni's stories often had a dark, menacing theme and characters whose pathological hatred knew no bounds. 

I first came across Moliterni aged 12 in the pages of another picture library, Top Secret, and loved his work. His work was still as dramatic as ever, and it's great to see where Moliterni's journey in the UK began with the reprinting of these earlier stories.

Fighting of a different kind can be found in By the Sword!, a collection of six stories from Thriller Picture Library featuring a variety of classic heroes, from The Three Musketeers and Rob Roy to Claude Duval and Dick Turpin. It's a fine volume that will also introduce you to a range of artists who began making their names around this period, including Graham Coton, CL Doughty, Fred Holmes, Patrick Nicolle, Arthur Horowicz and Reg Bunn. 

The latter, especially, will surprise fans who only know his work from 'The Spider'. As he was pushed to deliver more pages each week, he concentrated on foreground figures and used cross-hatching to fill the backgrounds on many pages. Here you can see Bunn putting in far more detail in his artwork, packing in far more characters (their faces unmistakable even this early in Bunn's career), and bringing far more polish to the pages. Not to dismiss his later work, but , given time, I've always thought that the Spider strip could have been even better than it was. 

There's a nice introduction to the various characters by Norman Wright, who probably knows his way around Thriller better than anyone. Introductions are a nice addition to these volumes of older material, and I hope that Book Palace will continue with them in future.

Jorge Moliterni's Psycho War Stories. Book Palace Books ISBN 978-191354864-3, 24 March 2025, 276pp, £25.00. Available via Amazon.
By the Sword. Book Palace Books ISBN 978-191354866-7, 24 March 2025, 272pp, £25.00. Available via Amazon.
Dogfight Dixon. Book Palace Books ISBN 978-191354867-4, 17 March 2025, 268pp, £25.00. Available via Amazon.

Comic Cuts — 3 October 2025

By the time you read this I will be shot full of vaccine to protect me from the flu and Covid over the coming winter months. Although I spend most of my life in front of a computer, Mel has a customer-facing job and I'm in and out of the local shops. While it's impossible to protect yourself 100% from catching something, you can reduce the risk of getting a bad dose. An ounce of prevention and all that.

Yes, the Seasonal Vaccine Programme began on Wednesday October 1st and I was booked in for Thursday morning. Just good luck, really; I knew it was coming and managed to book myself an early slot at a pharmacy in Colchester. If you're eligible, it's worth sorting out an appointment thought the NHS website as it's easy (must be if I can manage it), quick, and gives you some choice of when and where you get your jab(s).

Why all this talk of flu jabs? Frankly, it's for my selfish benefit, as I know that my audience here, and for the books I publish, skews towards the older gentleman. I have two books coming out in November and I'm hoping to have another one out not long after Christmas. Basically, I can't afford to lose anyone: a lot of you are repeat customers and I need every one of you to stay healthy.

And, yes, you didn't mis-read me. Two books coming out in November! I have a proof copy of THE AIR ACE PICTURE LIBRARY COMPANION in my hands, and I've had good feedback from the few people who have seen it. I've started proofing and should have a second proof before the end of the month, which will mean I can print the book alongside MYTEK Volume 4.

The other bit of good news is that I've borrowed a stack of copies of the second series of Action, post-ban, which means that I can hopefully finish writing, scanning and designing the ACTION INDEX over the next few months.

The folks who had to wait weeks for the delivery of the first MYTEK volumes might find it amusing to hear that I'm possibly in the same boat with a book I ordered recently. I have been looking out for an affordable copy of Mike Ashley's Rise of the Cyberzines, volume five of his history of science fiction magazines, which came out from the Liverpool University Press in hardback for £95 in 2022 and appeared in paperback in 2024 priced £40, which is too rich for my wallet.

So when I saw a copy on sale for £25 plus £2.95 postage, I jumped on it. The order confirmation stated clearly that the order was from a British company and would ship from the UK. Well, it would at that price. The next day I get a message from the seller saying that there was a delay on the order and it would not arrive until November 12th. No other explanation.

I contacted Biblio, the platform through which I bought the book. 24 hours later, they contact the seller asking for further information. Four hours later, I'm told that the book will be with me some time between the 3rd and the 8th of October. Whether it arrives or not... well, we will just have to wait and see. At least there's now a paper trail that should allow me to get my money refunded if the book doesn't turn up.

At the same time, I've now had two Evri packages go astray since Ebay introduced their "Simple Delivery" system, which is anything but. Back in the day, everything went out 48 hour tracked post and it worked. Now I have to use prepaid postage labels which cost the customer more and there's a fee added to the price of the books, plus VAT (yes, I know there's no VAT on books in the UK, but there are some VATable costs incurred through Ebay).

An order that arrived yesterday was for Myteks 1 and 2. Same buyer, same address, same price for the books. But when I downloaded the postage labels, they were for different services, one charging £2.75, the other £2.94, neither of which actually cover the cost of postage and packing: £2.70 for postage, 35p for the envelope and 4p for the label, bringing the total p&p to £3.09. Not a huge difference in the big scheme of things, but it will mount up over time. So the two books went off in different directions, one down to the Post Office in the village, the other around the corner to the Co-op, our local Evri pick-up point. I had to cue up twice! (First world problems, eh?)

The Colchester Comic Mart is on Saturday (4 October); the books have already been dispatched (thanks, Karl!) and copies of MYTEK and all the other titles from Bear Alley will be available. I'll even knock the cost of postage off.

The venue is the Colchester Baptist Church, which is right in the town centre—see map (click for a bigger version)—and easily accessible. There are car parks nearby, plenty of tea rooms, eateries and pubs within easy walking distance, and lots of see and do. We have a castle and it's just off the High Street. There are 12 charity shops and one good second-hand book shop.

Hopefully I'll see you there.