Previewing ‘The Best Of 2000 AD Volume 6’: Bringing The Ultimate ‘2000 AD’ Mix-Tape To A Perfect Close

by Richard Bruton

The sixth and final volume of Best of 2000 AD, a perfect end to a truly great introduction to the wide world of 2000 AD.

Well, six volumes in and this has just been a tremendous success. Designed to showcase the wonderfully diverse and entertaining world of 2000 AD, past and present, this Best Of… series has done everything you could have wanted and more.

For new readers, it’s showcased, through classic cuts and more modern fare from the near five-decade archive of the comic, everything that’s so good about 2000 AD, just as I tell you, week in and week out in the Weekly 2000 AD feature. And for older readers, it’s hopefully been a pleasant journey through the archives to remind some that have perhaps forgotten just how varied and diverse 2000 AD has always been.

The brilliance of it has been how it’s selected such a perfect diversity of stories. It’s all too easy to think of 2000 AD as just Judge Dredd, or maybe Dredd, Nemesis, Strontium Dog, Rogue Trooper, just the classic, big-name characters. But that misses the simple point of 2000 AD – nearly 50 years old and packed with so much more, classics in practically even genre, every way of storytelling, whether that’s time travelling comedy, utterly depraved and dark social horror, all possible ways of telling great sci-fi tales, historical adventures, and everything else you can think of.

Modern Dredd – Tempus Fugitive by Ian Edginton and D’Israeli

And so here’s the sixth and final volume, and it ends just as it all began, full of tales old and more recent, everything from the full range of genres the comic’s covered over the years, and packed with everything that perfectly showcases 2000 AD for new and old.

Of course there’s Judge Dredd – a couple of full-length tales, one classic from the archives with Dredd taking a group of cadets on ‘The Hot Dog Run‘ by John Wagner & Alan Grant, featuring some absolutely perfect art by the oft-times underrated Ron Smith, and one more recent tale – ‘Tempus Fugitive‘ by the team of Ian Edginton and D’Israeli. Just in those two you have a great mix – where ‘Hot Dog Run‘ is classic, high adventure, questing Dredd, ‘Tempus Fugitive‘ paints a picture of the ridiculousness of the world of Dredd, as he tracks down a time-traveller who just can’t catch a break.

Classic Dredd – The Hot Dog Run by John Wagner & Alan Grant, art by Ron Smith

There’s more classic 2000 AD material in a trio of absolute perfection. First, one of the very best of the short stories that 2000 AD is just perfect at – ‘Chrono Cops‘ by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons. Then there’s an over-the-top classic in Shako – the snowy nightmare of a beast turned manhunter as the only polar bear on the CIA’s death list by Wagner, Pat Mills, with art by Ramon Sola and Juan Arancio. And finally, the one-page comedic delights of DR & Quinch’s Agony Page by Jamie Delano, Alan Davis, and Mark Farmer.

Again, just in those three we have a trio that run the gamut of so much that 2000 AD does so well – snappy short fiction of done in four, five, six pages in Future Shocks, Time Twisters and the rest, out-and-out action stuff with a ridiculous twist, and then comedic brilliance. Can’t get better than that.

One of the greatest of all the shorts – Chrono Cops by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons – twisting and turning time travelling magnificence

The only polar bear on the CIA’s death list – SHAKO! by Wagner, Mills, Ramon Sola and Juan Arancio

And more classics – DR & Quinch’s Agony Page where sides split and silliness takes hold – by Delano, Davis, and Farmer

Wait a moment – did I just say ‘can’t get better than that’?

Well, scratch that, because in the final couple of stories here, both of them full tales, complete graphic novels both. You have Robbie Morrison and Henry Flint’s Shakara The Avenger and John Smith and the late, much-missed, so-talented Edmund Bagwell’s Cradlegrave.

One is a galaxy-spanning sci-fi epic of retribution where a universe trembles in fear in the shadow of the unstoppable killing machine known only as Shakara The Avenger. In a story by Morrison that’s just blisteringly action-packed and full of epic spectacle, you’re left breathless by it all, not least the incredibly kinetic artwork from Flint, who’s gone on to become one of the finest of Dredd artists. It’s a perfectly crafted thing, the definition of epic sci-fi and exactly the sort of strange, unexpected sci-fi that 2000 AD is full of.

As for Cradlegrave, it’s one of the greatest of all 2000 AD tales, perhaps a lesser-known one at that. John Smith and Edmund Bagwell, both creators who burnt bright in their time at the comic – with Bagwell sadly passing away barely into his 50s – gave us one of the finest horrors, absolutely chilling, a stone-cold classic of its type, where something’s very rotten at the heart of a council estate during one long, hot summer.

A name no one in the galaxy ever wants to hear… Shakara – by Robbie Morrison and Henry Flint

True, gut-wrenching, absolute horror – Cradlegrave by John Smith and Edmund Bagwell

So, six volumes designed to showcase the incredible depth and breadth of material from the entire archive of 2000 AD. Full credit here to all involved, particularly series editor Owen Johnson, for putting this together. They all succeeded and exceeded the brief. Best of 2000 AD? Damn right it is.

BEST OF 2000 AD VOL 6 – published by 2000 AD on 5 June 2024
Cover art by Ian McQue and Anand Radhakrishnan,

Design by Tom Muller

Compiled by series editor Owen Johnson and designer Gemma Sheldrake

Stories include…

JUDGE DREDD: TEMPUS FUGITIVE, SHAKARA THE AVENGER, THARG’S TIME TWISTERS: CHRONO COPS and more.