Rebellion Releases — 10 March 2021

Richard Armitage, Sheila Atim and Joseph Fiennes star in new audiobook adaptations of legendary 2000 AD comics, including Judge Dredd and Halo Jones – now available of Audible! 

The Handmaid’s Tale and Shakespeare in Love star Joseph Fiennes stars as the legendary future lawman Judge Dredd in a brand new series of audiobook adaptations from Penguin Random House and 2000 AD. 

The Underground Railroad’s Sheila Atim plays the lead in the adaptation of The Ballad of Halo Jones, Alan Moore and Ian Gibson’s groundbreaking feminist space opera, while The Hobbit’s Richard Armitage and His Dark Materials’ Nina Sosanya will star in Dan Abnett and INJ Culbard’s space-noir Brink. 

The five new dramatic audio adaptions of the best-selling 2000 AD graphic novels are performed by an ensemble cast, and accompanied by an original score and immersive soundscapes. These action-packed audio recordings will take fans on an immersive listening experience like no other!

Written by some of the biggest names in comics – including Alan Moore (Watchmen, V for Vendetta, League of Extraordinary Gentlemen), Dan Abnett (The Legion of Super-Heroes, Aquaman, Guardians of the Galaxy), Pat Mills (Marshal Law), Simon Bisley (Lobo) and John Wagner and Carlos Ezquerra, co-creators of Judge Dredd – the series of five new audiobook adaptations includes: 

Judge Dredd: America featuring Joseph Fiennes (The Handmaid’s Tale, Shakespeare in Love), America is long considered one of the most important stories in British comics history; a story about freedom, terrorism, and armed struggle against an oppressive totalitarian police state. Wagner and Colin MacNeil’s groundbreaking story confirmed Judge Dredd‘s place as one of the most politically charged and nuanced series in comics. 

Judge Dredd: The Pit featuring Paterson Joseph (Neverwhere, Timeless), The Pit is an epic police procedural saga infused with action, politics, and corruption – The Wire meets Britain’s home-grown superhero Judge Dredd. Alongside a supporting cast of Judges, Dredd must clean up the dirtiest sector in Mega-City One. 

The Ballad of Halo Jones featuring Sheila Atim (The Underground Railroad), is a galaxy-spanning adventure story, a feminist space opera, and an epic written by arguably the world’s greatest comic book writer, Alan Moore. 

Sláine: The Horned God featuring Colin Morgan (Merlin, Humans), is an exhilarating mix of Celtic mythology, violence, and heroism, telling the story of the Horned God’s journey of death and rebirth, as Sláine leads his tribe in the service of the Earth goddess.

Brink featuring Richard Armitage (The Hobbit, Captain America) and Nina Sosonya (His Dark Materials, W1A) from hit comics duo Dan Abnett and INJ Culbard sees humanity living in vast space platforms and on the brink of extinction in this atmospheric space-noir. 

“It’s an incredible feat to be able to turn a visual medium like a comic into audio, and it was something I just had to be part of, especially after dipping into the comic book world in Captain America. 2000 AD has an incredible legacy in British comics, and it’s a thrill to bring these stories to life. Brink is such a wonderful space-noir drama, and I loved stepping into the shoes of Carl Brinkmann.” – Richard Armitage

These adaptations in audio have been produced by the award-winning Penguin Random House Studios. Working closely with authors and editors at 2000 AD, all 300 characters in the graphics novels have been voiced by over 40 narrators, alongside mesmerising sound effects and original music.

OUT THIS WEEK

2000 AD Prog 2222
Cover: Brendan McCarthy / Len O'Grady (cols).

Cadet Dredd: Who Killed Captain Cookies by Kenneth Niemand (w) PJ Holden (a) Quinton Winter (c) Annie Parkhouse (l)
Nakka of the S.T.A.R.S. by Brendan Mccarthy (art+story) Roger Langridge (script) Len O’Grady, Brendan McCarthy (c) Annie Parkhouse (l)
Thistlebone: Poisoned Roots by TC Eglington (w) Simon Davies (a) Simon Bowland (l)
Proteus Vex: The Shadow Chancellor by Mike Carroll (w) Jake Lynch (a) Jim Boswell (c) Simon Bowland (l)
Durham Red: Served Cold by Alec Worley (w) Ben Willsher (a) Jim Campbell (l)

Major Eazy: The Italian Campaign by Alan Hebden & Carlos Ezquerra
Rebellion ISBN 978-178108981-1, 4 March 2021, 160pp, £14.99. Available via Amazon.

Go on patrol with Major Eazy, the laid-back British officer who always completes his mission! Before Judge Dredd and Strontium Dog for 2000 AD, comic maestro Carlos Ezquerra created an iconic star character of bestselling British war comic, Battle. Now, collected in order for the first time, Rebellion is proud to present all of Major Eazy's adventures remastered and from the beginning. From pulse-pounding invasion of Sicily to the German surrender at Brenner Pass, Major Eazy Volume 1 collects all of the character's adventures across the Italian arena of war.

Review: Misty Winter Special 2020

Charlotte Baker, a newcomer to Lewin Girls’ Academy, writes in a journal. A science scholarship girl, Char (as she prefers to be called) is picked on by others in her dormitory and feels excluded. Teacher Mr Marks tries to persuade her to give the school a chance, but Char begins to notice small, odd things, like the way the girls hold their pens, the odd rituals and changing rules. She might have believed that they are just trolling her, but everything seems so elaborate and coordinated.

When she approaches the headmistress, Ms. Goldwyn, she finds her words twisted against her and is told that it is she who has the bad attitude, leading her to put up defensive barriers. Ms. Goldwyn advises her to join it, that the quirky nature of the school is because they have no timetables or formal structure.

Char continues to study the problem scientifically, through observation and evidence, writing up her thoughts in her field journal. Although it is not allowed, when the chance comes to read the journals of the other girls, she takes it—and discovers that they are all full of rambling, fearful paragraphs, troubling  and repetitive reflections and a fearful preoccupation  about an outbreak of TB that killed many pupils nearly two centuries earlier.

The aptly named 'Infection' by V.V. Glass & Anna Savory is a genuinely creepy and surprising story and has an ending that, like Picnic at Hanging Rock, doesn’t tie everything up in a nice bow.

In 'Home For Christmas', a babysitter, Martha, finds herself stuck in a smart house – a former orphanage – on Christmas Eve when the parents of her two wards cannot return home. The story has all the right ingredients for a holiday horror yarn: a well; a power cut; a creepy boy; a smart phone that shouldn’t be calling; and a terrible secret.

Delightful stuff from Lizzie Boyle and artist David Roach.

Review: Edwardian Comic Papers by Alan Clark

Edwardian Comic Papers is a step up in production value from Clarke’s other recent book. It reveals, in exquisite colour, how comics developed during the brief tenure of King Edward, the son of Victoria who grew from being known as the ‘prince of pleasure’ to a much-loved monarch.

The comics published during his reign – 1901-1910 – also went through an astonishing transformation. The late Victorian comics were weekly papers containing cartoons and and humorous features, satirical stories and caricatures, and were aimed at adults. Advanced print technology became the norm, with photo engraving replacing woodblocks and colour printing becoming economical for the first time.

What many might find surprising is just how colourful these magazines are. Experiments with colour comics date back to 1896 and the first regular colour title, the clue being in the name The Colour Comic, dated from 1899.

In his introduction, Clarke charts the many changes that occurred in society in the early years of the new century and how these were exploited by publishers, who expanded their output with magazines and papers for all classes and all ages. There were stumbles along the way—even the beginning of the Edwardian era was delayed six weeks because of the King’s appendicitis—but, for the most part, comics expanded in a market that was ready to be entertained by smart, satirical drawings by the likes of Ralph (“Yorick”) Hodgson, W. F. Thomas and Tom Browne.

Many other artists are celebrated throughout the book, including some names that might be little known to modern readers: Oliver Veal, Leonard Shields, Will Spurrier, Frank Holland, Julius Stafford Baker, George Davey, Tom Wilkinson, Percy Cocking, Alex Akerbladh, G. M. Payne, Charles Genge and H. O’Neill, with sidelines into a number of American contributors like George McManus and James Swinnerton.

The book is very heavily illustrated throughout, with rarely seen images from a wide variety of penny papers and tuppenny coloureds.

Privately published, it can be purchased via Ebay: https://www.ebay.co.uk/usr/boris9999494?_trksid=p2047675.l2559.

Edwardian Comic Papers by Alan Clark
Alan Clark, 2021 [December 2020], 190pp (A5), £15.00.

Review: Blade Runner 2019 Volume Two: Off-World

Blade Runner 2019 has earned much praise for its pich-perfect blend of hardboiled noir and grungy sci-fi that meant it hit all the right notes with fans of the movies. Little wonder, as its co-writer, Michael Green, was also the co-writer of the sequel movie, Blade Runner 2049. 

The first volume, comprising the first four issues of Titan’s Blade Runner spin-off, was set in Los Angeles and introduced Aahna ‘Ash’ Ashina, a Blade Runner. The initial storyline ended with Ash leaving Earth with Cleo Selwyn, a young girl who is being sought by the Tyrell Corporation for genetic experimentation.
 
As volume two opens, the year is 2026 and the two are hiding out with new identities at a mining colony. Snatched by a group of rogue Nexus 8 models, Cleo bargains her way to Ramanuja and the possibility of escape. Ash, meanwhile, meets Hythe, a British Blade Runner who threatens to arrest her for the murder of Isobel Selwyn unless she helps track down Cleo. With a newly restored cybernetic back-brace to help her walk, Ash accepts, but there are still twists and turns to go through before the three are reunited… but which three?
 
While Andres Guinaldo’s anime-tinged artwork is superb, this volume lacks that little something special of the first volume. The bustling, rain-soaked streets of Los Angeles are such a part of the original Blade Runner movie, that distancing the story from Earth – necessary for the plot – unfortunately, also distances the story from the noirish nightmare world of the Blade Runners, something that the next volume promises to remedy.

Blade Runner 2019 Volume Two: Off-World by Michael Green, Mike Johnson & Andres Guinaldo
Titan Comics ISBN 978-1787-73192-9, 15 September 2020, 112pp, £13.99. Available on Amazon.

Review: Jeff Hawke's Cosmos: The Epilogue (January 2021)

The final issue of Jeff Hawke's Cosmos is a bumper package, clocking in at a whopping 158 pages. It has a nice package of features to run alongside the final three comic strip adventures of Jeff Hawke, some additional colour and even a celebration of the contributors who helped put together the magazine over its 18 year history. I was one of those contributors in the early years, and I'm proud of the association.

But my contribution was the tiniest fraction of the totality that is Jeff Hawke's Cosmos. William Rudling and his crew—chief amongst them Duncan Lunan and Ian Pillinger—deserve three rowdy cheers for their perseverance and patience in putting together over 30 issues and specials. It's an astonishing feat, as anyone who has tried to put a magazine together will tell you. There are lots of moving parts and any one of them can go wrong!

This issue is 'The Epilogue' and it contains four stories: 'A Message For Medusa' (1986-87); 'Time's Jest' (1987); 'Out of the Ecliptic' (1987-88); and 'Song For Methuselah' (1988). As always, each story is accompanied by Duncan Lunan's notes, which also extend beyond the last story, which was cut short when The Daily Record axed the strip on 30 April 1988. Lunan discusses two potential stories that went unpublished, although details have appeared previously on the Jeff Hawke Club blog. [You will need to dig around, but the notes start in September 2017.]

As a prelude the stories, Rudling writes briefly of Syd Jordan's days at the Strathmore Studios before Syd himself picks up the story of his career in Fleet Street. There's a brief interview with Syd courtesy of Chris Tubb before we reach the main course of the magazine, the first of some 90 pages of comic strips.

Duncan Lunan supplies the last of his 'The Sky Above You' columns before tackling the intriguing problem of episode numbers that were attached to Jeff Hawke and Lance McLean stories. How many episodes were published of the strip(s)? It would appear that the grand total was 10,209.

Roger Ley discusses Britain's future role in space exploration—inconclusive but Roger remains optimistic, while I'm more pessimistic following the current government's decision to pull out of the Galileo and EGNOS programmes, which means losing access (for instance) to the EGNOS SoL (Safety of Life) service from 25 June this year. The government also admits "UK-based businesses, academics and researchers cannot bid for future EU GNSS [Global Navigation Satellite System] contracts and may face difficulty carrying out and completing existing contracts." But that's an argument for another day.

There's an interesting look at some of the guest appearances that have made their way into Jeff Hawke's adventures, from friends and family to Boris Karloff, Sydney Greenstreet and Princess Di, and Sandy Morrison writes on crewed exploration of the solar system. The colour pages at the back of the issue include numerous photos of Syd Jordan's attendances at talks and conventions and a couple of nice colour prints are available... as are back issues of the magazine and its special issues.

That is not the very end, as there are plans for a further issue, indexing the magazine and collecting some previously unpublished episodes.

Meanwhile, you can find more details about back numbers at the Jeff Hawke Club web page or by contacting william AT williamrudling.co.uk.

Review: Illustrators #30 (November 2020)

This issue is definitely at the pulpier end of the artistic scale, with articles on Mort Künstler, Earl Norem, Norm Saunders and men's adventure magazine illustrations.

Künstler makes his second appearance (previously in #17, reviewed here) with an interview about his years of illustrating adventure magazines. Born in 1927, Künstler began freelancing in 1950 and found work on periodicals that replaced the pulps in the aftermath of the Second World War, slick magazines with tough tales of adventure and action, where fiction often masqueraded as "true adventure". They published some of the best writers (Hemingway was a contributor) and artists around, and had  circulations that reached as high as two million readers an issue, attracted by story titles like 'Hitler's No. 1 Sex Castle' and 'Saigon Sally's Sin Barracks'.

Künstler's main employer was Martin Goodman of Magazine Management, but the uncertainty that commissions would come through meant that artists would always take on more work. So prolific was Künstler, in fact, that he was also able to work for Harry Steeger's Popular Publications using the pen-names Emmett Kaye and Martin Kay.

Given a brief by an editor, the writers of these magazines (among them Mario (The Godfather) Puzo) would then write a story around his artwork. One daft idea from an editor was to have a German tank launching itself over the gap between the rising bascules of a bridge. Another tank has already dropped through the gap and has hit the water. Künstler argued against the stupidity of the idea, but he was proved wrong when the magazine outsold all others that month.

Robert Deis explains in his article that over 160 different titles battled for space on newsstands. With competition fierce, editors demanded more sex and violence from cover artists as an endless stream of Nazis fought busty girls in their lacy undies, and muscled men fought every creature on the planet, from squirrels to the infamous 'Weasels Ripped My Flesh'. Deis offers a tribute to the masters of these kinds of thing: Wilbur Hulsey, Norm Eastman, Basil Goger, Norman Saunders and James Bama.

Earl Norem  is another master of that era. A self-taught artist who went into illustration after his military career ended in Italy when he was wounded, Norem's time in the sweatshop of men's magazines made him the perfect choice for Marvel's Savage Sword of Conan and other black & white comic magazines which required a realistic cover.

Finishing off the issue, Norman Saunders left the men's adventure mags behind when he started working for Topps where he painted the infamous Mars Attacks and the barmy Batman based on the TV series.

As ever, this issue is superbly illustrated with some especially fantastic images due to the subject matter.

For more information on Illustrators and back issues, visit the Book Palace website, where you can also find details of their online editions, and news of upcoming issues. Issue 31 will have features on Jason Edmiston, Hannes Bok, Luc Cornillon and Rowena Morrill.

Comic Cuts — 5 March 2021

Two of my favourite bands have announced new albums are to be released over the next couple of months, and I'm listening to a side-long track that features members of both as I write this, so I couldn't be happier.

As an old hippie-proggie-metalhead I listen to a lot of bands that are anything up to fifty years old—I kid you not. Hawkwind celebrated their fiftieth birthday and recorded a live album during their November 2019 tour. I saw them forty years earlier at Hammersmith Odeon when Dave Brock relaunched the band post-Hawklords with Huw Lloyd Langton, Tim Blake, Simon King and Harvey Brainbridge.

I was listening to their new album only the other day, made during lockdown and entitled Carnivorous  (an anagram of Corona Virus) and thinking that it's a bit of a return to form after a couple of iffy recent outings (The Machine Stops, Into the Woods, Road to Utopia).

Live, they're still a power to be reckoned with and hopefully they'll have a resurgence studio-wise. Gong managed it. Following the death of Daevid Allen they've put out two brilliant albums: Rejoice! I'm Dead! and The Universe Also Collapses, plus a box-set of remasters and old live recordings.

Big Big Train have a new old album due on 25 March — a remastered version of The Underfall Yard, released with new material recorded especially for a second disc.

And then Frost* have an all-new album, Day and Age, coming out on 14 May. Unbelievably, the last (third) Frost* album was released in May 2016, since when we've been teased with possible release dates for album four. Someone once said that the one thing you need to be a Frost* fan is patience. Also you have to be a bit of a detective, because they pop up all over the place. Their Soundcloud page is inactive, but there's a new website, Frost Life has appeared. You'll note that the new website reveals that the new album is due in February 2021. See what I mean about patience?

Transatlantic have just released their album and Mark Kelly's Marathon was released a month or two back, both good albums, and I also hear that Marillion are working on a new album. What can I say... like rats in New York, you're never far away from a decent Prog album.

The track that links Frost* and Big Big Train is, of course, the title track of The Underfall Yard, to which Jem Godfrey contributed a frantic keyboard solo.

You'll have noticed a slew of reviews appearing. Some of these were written a while back when I had hopes of getting BAM! out in November last year. But as Christmas approached, it seemed smarter to leave it to the new year. Then it took longer to resolve some technical problems than I imagined it would, revamped the Bear Alley Books website, revamped my Amazon seller account, set up a Lulu shop, started writing and indexing again for future articles... and then realised that some of those reviews were getting more and more out of date.

More reviews will be appearing over the weekend and into next week. Can I say that I thoroughly enjoyed taking a couple of days off just to read and scribble notes. At one point, I even decamped from my chilly office and sat in the living room with a pen and paper, with music videos playing in the background. That's close to how I imagined my life would be as a writer. I didn't imagine I'd be this broke, obviously, but I'm not far off my perfect life.

When I realised yesterday (Thursday) was World Books Day, it reminded me that my first book came out in 1991, so I have been publishing books for thirty years. I don't know how many I've done, because it's tricky working out what counts: I've edited and co-edited quite a few books along the way, and written many others that might be classified as chapbooks rather than full-length titles. I think the last time I counted I'd published about 80 books, and written nearly 1,600 features, the earliest published in 1981... so forty years ago!

Better get back to the grindstone.

Review — Beyond: A Ron Turner Special (February 2021)

The latest publication from John Lawrence takes a step away from his recent Space Ace magazine reprints and concentrates here on some more recent material. Much delayed by the pandemic (Lawrence planned it for April 2020 and it is dated November of last year), it is a welcome return.

The 40-page magazine format suits these stories, showing off Turner's artwork and John Ridgway's colouring at their best. The only negative thought I have is that it's a shame that there isn't more depth to the stories. 'The Killing Zone' is previously unpublished and crams an interplanetary war into seven pages — a little like squeezing the original Star Wars trilogy into a twenty minute short. While it's fun at a certain level, there's room for nothing more than plot, and that's heading in one direction with no deviation.

Andrew Darlington, on the other hand, managed to create a far better story in the six pages of 'Terror From Moon 33' by limiting its focus, although it, too, has its problems. When two spacemen discover an ancient alien spaceship, they try to sell artefacts from it at Callisto City. However, without authentication, they cannot find a buyer and, instead, throw the alien tech away, only for it to come to life.

But that isn't the story. The story — actually an extended joke — is that Brett and Tom, introduced at the bottom of page 3 are bored and decide to leave dull Callisto completely unaware that the city is battling alien technology. Meanwhile the tomb raiders have returned to the alien spaceship, only for it to blow up... an event witnessed by Brett and Tom who dismiss it as "one less piece of useless orbital junk."

Unfortunately, the joke doesn't land. Few readers (or spacemen, for that matter) would casually dismiss a citywide riot and an exploding moon as boring. But, then, we know nothing of the levels of excitement Brett and Tom are used to, hinted at by the fact that they were originally intended to be Jet-Ace Logan and Plumduff Charteris, reviving the old Fleetway (Comet, Tiger, Thriller Picture Library) characters. Reintroduced in a different story and with a few more adventures under their belt, the lack of any engagement between the strip's heroes and this particular plot might have worked.

The problems of these first two stories are not visible in the final two. 'Lone Eagle' relates an incident in World War Two where an R.A.F. pilot aids ground forces and is then helped in return, a neat little yarn told in four pages that are seeing the light of day for the first time. Lawrence's story notes offer some poignant background to Turner's own war exploits.

Wrapping up the volume, 'Bonde Bombshell' is an adventure told over thirteen pages, its hero a sex-starved interplanetary freight hauler called Joe McGurk. The pilot is unaware that he is carrying a surprise for the intended recipient on Titan. Things look up when a space storm accidentally activates a sex robot. Turner clearly had a lot of fun drawing the strip, which features a lot of nudity (but nothing more) as it was aimed at Heavy Metal. Rejected at the time, it's good to see a story that has languished in a drawer for 25 years come to life with Ridgway's always excellent colouring. A fine way to bring Beyond to a close.

Beyond is priced £9.50 (UK) £12.95 Europe and £14.95 (Int) and you can make Paypal payments to spaceace.54@virginmedia.com.

John tells me he still has copies of Space Ace #s 1, 10 and 12, so if you have gaps in your collection, now's the chance to fill them. Just drop him a line at the above address. The good news is that he has more classic Turner material in preparation for the future

Commando 5415-5418

Commando comics’ International Women’s Day specials are out today! Featuring a line up all written by female writers!

5415: Miss Hellfire
Inspired by a British military legend and the first woman to join the French Foreign Legion, Susan Travers, Issue 5415 is a desert adventure with high-octane thrills. The heroine Petra Stone is set apart from her peers by her gender and station, but she’s a heck of a driver and determined to help in the war effort, racing across enemy lines, dodging Axis’ bullets and landmines along the way!
Jaume Forns’ meticulous interior art brings charm to the characters and studious detail to the action, while Ian Kennedy delivers another spectacular cover to add to his remarkable catalogue.

Story | Kate Dewar
Art | Jaume Forns
Cover | Ian Kennedy
 

5416: Sands of Death

From the pen of legendary Commando writer, Mary Feldwick. Issue 5416 ‘Sands of Death’ gives you treasure, treachery and, most importantly, sand! Lieutenant Harry Brent was a man with a mission, to deliver a stash of gold to local tribesmen to convince them to fight for the British — if he could get it to them that is! With several shady characters on his tail, Harry had to fight tooth and nail to complete his mission and keep their grubby fingers off that gold!

Story | Feldwick
Art | CT Rigby
Cover | Ron Brown
Originally Commando No. 1426 (1980).
 

5417: The Girls on the Guns

It’s 1942 and Stalingrad’s anti-aircraft guns have boomed into action, protecting the city from attacks from above. They were crewed by mostly inexperienced and barely trained Soviet girls who had fire burning in their veins. But when tanks roared on the horizon, the gunner crews had to do the unthinkable, lower their barrels and fire point-blank at the rampaging Panzers, fighting shot for shot against the fearsome Nazi invaders.

Georgia Standen Battle’s story of bravery in the face of certain doom is brought to vivid life by Carlos Pino’s exceptional art, giving the audience a feel for why the Girls on the Guns could not take one step back.

Story | Georgia Standen Battle
Art | Carlos Pino
Cover | Keith Burns
 

5418: The Monster

If you were told that a car had a mind of its own and could judge the character of its driver to see if they were good or evil… you wouldn’t believe it for a second. Well that’s exactly what our second offering from Mary Feldwick is about! This particular vile vehicle is the centre of a Resistance plan to smuggle documents to the British — but can they pull it off? With a ‘wheely’ good cover by Jeff Bevan, you’ll be driven mad if you miss this one!

Story | Feldwick
Art | Franch
Cover | Jeff Bevan
Originally Commando No. 1711 (1983).

Rebellion Releases — 3 March 2021

From mighty warriors fighting through way across distant lands to the high-danger streets of the future megalopolis and bonkers Halloween monster fun - there’s something for everyone with the Rebellion comic book specials this year!

Rebellion is pleased to announce its roster of comic books specials for 2021, which will be available from all good newsagents and comic book stores, as well as from the 2000 AD and Treasury of British Comics webshops.

After her appearance in the Scream! & Misty Special, by popular demand the sword-swinging Black Beth is back in Black Beth and the Devils of Al-Kadesh! Written by Alec Worley (Durham Red) and drawn by DaNi (Coffin Bound), Beth is a warrior-woman born in anger and forged in rage. She and her blind aide Quido have travelled to the wicked city of Shadrivar, in search of the evil witch Anis-Amuun.

Many think that she is long dead, but a mage called Estevan believes otherwise. He charges Beth with a quest to destroy the witch, initiating a sea-spanning quest which pits Beth’s curved blade against all manner of mystical creatures…and possibly Anis-Amuun herself!

The 2000 AD Sci-Fi Special is back for a fantastic collection of original Dredd-world stories, all connected to the same over-arching narrative and plotted by writers Mike Carroll (Judge Dredd) and Maura McHugh (Anderson, Psi Division). Dive into the dystopian world of Judge Dredd as he brings law to the lawless on the mean streets of Mega-City One!

And the popular 1970s comic book Monster Fun is back for Halloween 2021! Join the Treasury of British Comics’ creepiest and coolest goblins, ghouls and vamps for brand new, HELL-arious comic strips in the The Monster Fun Halloween Spooktacular! Everyone's favourite monsters - including Frankie Stein, Kid Kong, Draculass, Teddy Scare, and the Hire A Horror crew - have returned, courtesy of creators including Tom Paterson, Chris Garbutt, Matt Baxter, Juni Ba and Lew Stringer! If that wasn’t enough, a brand new Leopard of Lime Street tale sees Selbridge’s premier superhero face off against a fantastic new foe!

Specials editor Keith Richardson said: “We’ve got an eclectic mix of specials this year from a whole special dedicated to swords-and-sorcery character Black Beth and a revival of Monster Fun, one of those fantastic all-ages titles from the 1970s.

“Despite the many obstacles put in our way last year, Rebellion’s 2020 roster of specials were a great success. While the world strives to resolve the terrible crisis that we still find ourselves in, we’ve scaled back the number of specials this year - but we’re keeping the quality high thanks to our roster of brilliant creators.”

Black Beth and the Devils of Al-Kadesh
Publication date: 23 June
Pages: 48
Price: £4.99

2000 AD Sci-Fi Special
Publication date: 7 July
Pages: 48
Price: £4.99

The Monster Fun Halloween Spooktacular
Publication date: 22 September
Pages: 48
Price: TBC

2000 AD Prog 2221
Cover: PJ Holden.

Cadet Dredd: Who Killed Captain Cookies by Kenneth Niemand (w) PJ Holden (a) Quinton Winter (c) Annie Parkhouse (l)
Sláine: Dragontamer by Pat Mills (w) Leonardo Manco (a) Annie Parkhouse (l)
Thistlebone: Poisoned Roots by TC Eglington (w) Simon Davies (a) Simon Bowland (l)
Proteus Vex: The Shadow Chancellor by Mike Carroll (w) Jake Lynch (a) Jim Boswell (c) Simon Bowland (l)
Durham Red: Served Cold by Alec Worley (w) Ben Willsher (a) Jim Campbell (l)

The Mean Arena Volume 1: All to Slay For by Tom Tully, John Richardson, Steve Dillon, & Johnny Johnstone
Rebellion, 3 March 2021, 104pp, £7.99. [Digital only release]

The Mean Arena is set in a dystopian vision of Britain where deadly games of street football are played in evacuated towns. Matt Talon plays for the Slater’s Slayers, and he isn’t just in the Mean Arena for the love of the game – he’s here for revenge! This classic 2000 AD story by Tom Tully and John Richardson – two legends of British comics – is collected in a digital-only graphic novel for the first time.

Roy of the Rovers: The Best of the Seventies — The Roy of the Rovers Years by Tom Tully & David Sque
Rebellion ISBN 978-178108804-3, 4 March 2021, 176pp, £19.99. Available via Amazon.

The second outstanding archive collection of the classic Roy of the Rovers comics! This volume collects some of the  best stories from the Roy of the Rovers comic, including Roy becoming a father and being offered the job of England Manager!

Eagle Times v.33 no.4 (Winter 2020)

The wrap-up issue for Eagles Times' 33rd year has the usual fascinating features based around the original Eagle comic and the era in which it was published. Being an obsessive collector of information about old British comics, my favourite piece in this issue is Jeremy Briggs' look at a Christmas issue of Girl... but this is a particularly interesting copy as it is an Odhams' office copy in which the payment details have been scrawled by a sub-editor.

So we can see that the two page colour strip, 'Susan of St. Bride's', earned writer Ruth Adams 16 guineas and the artists agency (International Artists) 70 guineas, which would have been split between Ray Bailey and Philip Townsend. Peter Kay earned 32 guineas for a single black & white pages, while the script earned Sidney James 12 guineas.

Other useful information comes from this kind of discovery. Gerry Haylock was paid 38 guineas for his back page biography of Gladys Aylward, and Harry Lindfield earned 10 guineas for story illustrations, both seemingly paid directly rather than the agency who had employed them in the early Fifties and before both joined another studio by the early Sixties. One presumes that there was enough regular work for both of them to risk not having a agent touting their work to publishers.

Elsewhere, Andrew Newman looks at how Eagle celebrated Christmas over the years, with changes to the Christmas issues ranging from having stories reflect the time of year or a simple scattering of snow and holly around the famous Eagle cover logo. (The article comes to a somewhat abrupt end, which makes me think there might need to be a part two in the spring.)

David Britton continues to look at Charles Chilton's stories of The Indian Wars, this episode being the third to cover the war with Geronimo. This detailed look at Jeff Arnold's adventures compares the story with the reality of the battles and sometimes finds them wanting (or at least vague). Also continuing is Steve Winders' examination of 'The Great Adventurer' from Eagle's earliest issues.

Other features include a P.C.49 story, a look at the Birnbeck Pier, a report on the Eagle exhibition at the Atkinson Art Gallery in Southport, and a ghost story for Christmas. On a sad note, this issue notes the passing of Keith Howard and Tony Cowley, two staunch supporters of Eagle Times who will be missed.

The quarterly magazine is the journal of the Eagle Society, with membership costing £29 in the UK, £40 (in sterling) overseas. You can send subscriptions to Bob Corn, Wellcroft Cottage, Wellcroft, Ivinghoe, Leighton Buzzard, Bedfordshire LU7 9EF; 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.

Review: Illustrators: Crime Comics Special

The latest Illustrators special begins with a whistle-stop overview of crime comics which leaps from tales of Jack the Ripper in the pages of The Illustrated Police News to the American comic book Detective Comics, the arrival of Superman in Action Comics, the development of colourful villains to fight superheroes and the rise of violent crime comics in the wake of Crime Does Not Pay.

The huge success of increasingly gory crime comics, the gateway to similarly gruesome horror comics, would result in the Comics Code Authority and the suppression of crime comics in America for thirty years.

While readers in Europe could enjoy ‘Torpedo’ (Bernet) or ‘Nestor Burma’ (Tardi), crime noir would only re-emerge in titles like Ms. Tree (1981-93), V For Vendetta (1988-89), Sandman Mystery Theatre (1993-99) and the works of Frank Miller, David Lapham, Brian Azzarello, Brian Michael Bendis and, especially, Ed Brubaker.

Brubaker’s regular collaborator, Sean Phillips, is the first subject of this special. Phillips was a rare comics’ prodigy, his first comic strip appearing in a local newspaper at the age of 12, working professionally for D C Thomson from his early teens and exploding into the pages of Crisis at the age of 23, just out of college but already a veteran of British comics. By the time ‘Devlin Waugh’ debuted in Judge Dredd Megazine, Phillips had already made his US debut on Hellblazer and would go on to draw Kid Eternity, Shade the Changing Man, and the graphic novel The Heart of the Beast before first teaming with Ed Brubaker on Scene of the Crime in 1999.

Their subsequent collaborations have included Sleeper, Criminal, Incognito, Fatale, The Fade Out and Pulp, mostly creator-owned and produced without any interference from publishers—resulting in a series of award-winning stories that exemplify the crime noir genre.

Included here are many illustrations that many may have missed, including Blu-ray and album sleeve art and examples of Phillips’ ‘Femme Fatale’ prints.

The story of Crime Does Not Pay has its roots in Lev Gleason’s talent-spotting abilities. In 1941 he offered Charles Biro and Bob Wood, alumni of Harry Chesler’s ‘shop’, staff positions and offered them a share in profits, unheard of in those times. Looking for something to make the Gleason line stand out on newsstands awash with superhero titles, Biro and Wood created a comic featuring “All true crime stories!” that would eventually sell a million copies a month.

Success led to exhaustion for the ever-busy Biro and a drink-and-gambling addiction for Wood. The first inkling of problems came in 1947 when the comic was banned in Chicago and the final bell tolled at the Senate Subcommittee on Juvenile Delinquency in 1954. Gleason’s publishing ventures were shuttered in 1956. The tragedy did not end there. While Biro found work in television, Wood went to prison for bludgeoning his girlfriend to death and later died under the wheels of a car. All true, as his comic once boasted.

‘Torpedo 1936’ also had its problems. Originally, it was offered to Alex Toth, who fundamentally disagreed with the notion of a merciless killer as hero. Instead, he rewrote Enrique Sanchez Abuli’s script to make him show remorse. Javier Mesón reveals how the classic hardboiled series was then taken over by Jordi Bernet, and the character went on to star in 15 albums and his own comic.

Always filled with an incredible choice of images, this crime special is another fine addition to the Illustrators range.

Illustrators Crime Comics Special by various
Book Palace Books ISBN 978-191354801-8, October 2020, 144pp, £25.00.

Review: Roy of the Rovers: Pressure

The latest graphic novel completes the 2019-20 season, delayed from its planned release in July due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Each season consists of three illustrated novels and three graphic novels. Thus, season two of the newly relaunched saga has played out over five books already (On Tour, From the Ashes and Rocky in text form by Tom Palmer, Transferred and All to Play For in graphic form) and has seen Roy and his fellow striker Paco Diaz sold by unscrupulous chairman Barry ‘Meat’ Cleaver to Melchester’s arch rivals, Tynecaster.

Cleaver’s dodgy dealings have been uncovered and Melchester are stuck at the bottom of the League One table, thanks to a huge thirty-point deduction. Roy and Paco return to Melchester Park hoping to get to the bottom of Cleaver’s criminal activities, only to find the stadium on fire!

With the team’s captain Vic Guthrie benched, but relegation averted thanks to a review of the points deduction, Melchester enter the final leg of the season under instense pressure, with the chance of promotion to the Championship League in their sights. But who is going to take over the Rovers and rebuild Mel Park?

Another footballing legend steps forward to save the day…

This isn’t your dad’s Roy of the Rovers – your dad’s Roy is in a wheelchair and Roy’s mum is exhausted. It’s good to see that Roy of the Rovers has lost none of the soap opera elements that made it such a great read in the eighties, which was when I was last following the action, week in, week out. The artwork is super stylised compared to the old Barrie Mitchell and Mike White era, but has lost none of its attraction for it. Lisa Henke has a clear, clean line that is at home on and off the pitch. You can feel the ball-bending power of a Racy’s Rocket in the flattened curves of her artwork.

Roy of the Rovers: Pressure by Rob Williams & Lisa Henke
Rebellion ISBN 978-178108764-0, 29 October 2020, 56pp, £9.99. Available via Amazon.