Cover And Contents Of ‘The Best Of 2000 AD’ Volume 5 Revealed
by Richard Bruton
The Best of 2000 AD series has been THE perfect intro to the comic and its history of splendid strips. Now we have the covers and contents for Volume 5, which will be available for pre-order on September 27th and goes on sale on February 13, 2024.
As with all the volumes, there’s a healthy mix of the vintage strips and the more up-to-date, giving you a great taster of a unique comics experience, home to some of the greatest comic stories of the last 45+ years.
Best of 2000 AD Volume 5 comes with a new Annie Wu cover for the main edition, plus a webshop exclusive cover by Evan Cagle. Take your pick, both are rather striking.
As for the contents, we have a great modern Judge Dredd, Elevator Pitch, by Rob Williams and Chris Weston, a prefect example of the more ridiculous sort of Dredd that introduces the ‘Poshtube’, where the “exorbitantly, offensively rich” can live way, way above the “troglodyte scum” of the usual City Blocks. Cue a mutie ape gang looking to rob the place blind, giving Williams the chance to drop this little nugget of dialogue brilliance on us…
“Control! Got a 454! Synthi-banana riot at the Poshtube.”
“Son, I know you’re eager but you just invented that call.”
Following that, the classic Judge Dredd story ‘The Art of Kenny Who?’, by John Wagner and Cam Kennedy, does the thing so much Dredd has done over the years, a blistering satire that manages to accurately predict events we’re all dealing with, in this case the rise of AI-generated work.
There’s also the complete (and completely hilarious) first adventure for Al Ewing and Henry Flint’s Zombo, Devlin Waugh investigates a vampire outbreak in an underwater prison in ‘Swimming in Blood‘ by John Smith and Sean Phillips, a Missionary Man tale by Gordon Rennie and Frank Quitely and reportedly something (I’m presuming something DR & Quinch-like) by Alan Moore and Alan Davis. (Although to be honest, seeing as we’ve had the Jamie Delano & Alan Davis DR & Quinch Agony Page to sign off each volume so far, I wouldn’t mind betting it’s actually that.)
And of course, before Volume 5, we have Volume 4 coming at you on 11 October – we’ll do a full preview a bit sooner release date of course. But that one’s got covers from Marguerite Sauvage and Glyn Dillon (a wonderful tribute to his late brother, Steve Dillon, and the Cry of the Werewolf classic).
Inside Volume 4, the modern Dredd is ‘Mega-City Confidential‘ by John Wagner and Colin MacNeil, The Order by Kek-W and John Burns, the truly out-there, bonkers in the nut Hewligan’s Haircut by Pete Milligan and Jamie Hewlett, more DR & Quinch Agony pages by Jamie Delano and Alan Davis, and the absolute perfection of Judge Dredd: Cry of the Werewolf with an all-time Dredd classic by John Wagner, Alan Grant, and Steve Dillon.
