Previewing ‘The Best Of 2000 AD’ Volume 5: More From The History Of The Galaxy’s Greatest Comic

If, after seeing the love for 2000 AD here at Comicon, your question is ‘Yes, but how do I get into it?’ – here’s the answer, as the Best of 2000 AD returns in February 2024 for its fifth volume, bringing more of the great strips that have made the comic an iconic thing for 45+ years now.

Under a choice of two covers, the standard one by Annie Wu and the 2000 AD webshop exclusive by Evan Cagle, this latest Best Of volume brings you a pick & mix of comic sweetness, some from the archives and the early days of the comic and some from the modern era. One thing that they all have in common though – absolute top-notch comic tales.

In this latest, we have the usual two Dredd tales, opening with a modern one, this time by Rob Williams and Chris Weston as Dredd has to deal with simian surprises in the realms of the Mega-City One’s super-rich in ‘Elevator Pitch’.

As for the classic Dredd, it’s the never more relevant than now ‘The Art of Kenny Who‘ by Alan Grant, John Wagner, and Cam Kennedy. In this modern world of AI threats to originality, here’s proof that 2000 AD got their first in the classic tale of an artist dreaming of greatness only to her ripped off and replaced at every turn.

Apart from Dredd, there’s three great modern tales in here, representing so much of what modern 2000 AD is all about.

Al Ewing and Henry Flint introduce us to the monstrous, weaponised (but dead polite) Zombo in ‘Death Planet‘, surely one of the funniest things we’ve seen in 2000 AD for many years.

John Smith and Sean Phillips bring us another introduction in Devlin Waugh: Swimming in Blood as their occult detective in Brit-Cit goes after a lifechanging vampire outbreak in the underwater prison of Aquatraz… all the debauchery, all the clever bon mots, all the bizarre adventures we’ve come to love from Devlin Waugh in this, his first tale.

And then there’s Gordon Rennie and Frank Quitely who take us on a ride out into the Godless wasteland of the Cursed Earth as they bring us Missionary Man, preaching faith through firepower in the Cursed Earth.

The Best of 2000 AD Volume 5 is out on 14th February.

JUDGE DREDD: ELEVATOR PITCH – by Rob Williams and Chris Weston, colours by Chris Blythe, letters by Annie Parkhouse

JUDGE DREDD: THE ART OF KENNY WHO – by Alan Grant & John Wagner, art by Cam Kennedy, colours by Chris Blythe, letters by Tom Frame

ZOMBO: DEATH PLANET – by Al Ewing and Henry Flint

DEVLIN WAUGH: SWIMMING IN BLOOD – by John Smith and Sean Phillips

MISSIONARY MAN – by Gordon Rennie and Frank Quitely, letters by Annie Parkhouse