Covers Reveal And Advance Preview: ‘The Best Of 2000 AD’ Volume 6 — The End Of The Best Intro To The Galaxy’s Greatest Comic

by Richard Bruton

All good things come to an end, and so it is with the sixth and final volume to the best darned introduction to 2000 AD there’s ever been… The Best Of 2000 AD.

The first five volumes of The Best of 2000 AD have been quite wonderful things, absolutely fulfilling that remit of being the perfect gateway into 2000 AD, something that’s historically been seen as a problem with the long history of the comic. This was designed to be the answer to anyone asking the question: Where do I start with 2000 AD? And it’s answered it in style.

Just as with the rest of the series, this sixth volume is totally self-contained, containing complete series from the pages of the comic, some way back in the classic archive, some more modern, all of them containing some top, top comics talent and really great stories and art.

Volume 6 is no exception to that rule either, with full-length features in Shakara The Avenger by Robbie Morrison and Henry Flint and Cradlegrave by John Smith and Edmund Bagwell. Both are strips that I was hoping would make it into this series, both just damn fine, completely different examples of what 2000 AD is capable of. In Shakara, it’s a case of extreme space opera with galaxy-wide carnage at the hands of the retribution of a dead race. Whilst Cradlegrave is always mentioned in terms of one of the scariest strips 2000 AD‘s ever put out, with something very rotten at the heart of a council estate.

As usual, there’s two very fine Dredd stories, the modern ‘Tempus Fugitive’ by Ian Edginton and D’Israeli, and something classic from John Wagner, Alan Grant, and Robin Smith in ‘The Hotdog Run’. And whilst we’re talking classics, one of the greatest Time Twisters ever, ‘Chrono Cops’ by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons appears alongside a very, very angry polar bear at large and on the CIA’s death list with Shako!Under two brand-new covers, regular from Star Wars concept designer Ian McQue and the 2000 AD webshop exclusive cover from Anand Radhakrishnan, Best of 2000 AD volume 6 is saying farewell in the finest way possible!