This is next week’s 2000ad with amazing wraparound cover by D’israeli (I subscribe so get it 4 days early). Not content with celebrating 35 years worth of publishing, the Dredd3D film and Prog 1800 in 2012, the comic has gone into uncharted territory in what is proving to be a golden year for them.
2000ad is an anthology title with four or five different strips running each week featuring characters in – usually – unrelated worlds. Without warning a month ago events in three of the strips suddenly began to intertwine and form a much bigger story which has grown to epic proportions since. Centered around Judge Dredd and the fallout from the equally epic ‘Day of Chaos’ story earlier this year, they’ve managed to outdo themselves AGAIN with this slice of storytelling.
Comics have crossed over before and plenty of universes and characters have fought with and against each other over the decades but the beauty of 2000ad is that they’re all contained in one place. To have several all suddenly tie together without even a single mention is genius. In any other comic this would have been trailed and trumpeted for months preceding its arrival in the hope of attracting press and attention for the title. Rather than underestimating their reader’s intelligence 2000ad has chosen to sneak this upon us with no warning and this is why they’re still the galaxy’s greatest.
Also this week, the other two strips not part of the tri-story arc have now concluded, leaving next week’s climax to play out across the whole issue! I’m looking forward to seeing how they intertwine the three strips and different artist’s styles – will they be separate stories or one huge strip with contrasting panels on each page? Whatever they do it will be the end of an incredible year for the title which concludes with their annual 100 page 2013 issue in 2 weeks before taking a break for Xmas. There’s never been a better time to be reading this, either physically or digitally.
UPDATE: There’s a fascinating post over on Pete Wells‘ 2000ad Covers Uncovered site about the making of this stunning cover.
Still waiting for this Prog to arrive (and 1808)… I’ve got some serious catching up to do. Nice to have a small stack of Progs to work my way through, but the wait is driving me nuts.
props on sharing this and providing a summary of events for peeps – can’t wait to read this issue and the next!!!
The bit where one strip broke into another strip was amazing, it’s probably the best it’s been in my memory of reading it since 77 and to top it off Ro-Busters was on last weeks cover. So happy I can get it on a tablet easily these days.