The ‘2000 AD Sci-Fi Special’ — Your Summer Thrill Power All Sorted

It’s summer, so it must be time for the 2000 AD Sci-Fi Special, the annual collection of all-new tales …

Every summer in my teen years, 2000 AD‘s Sci-Fi Special filled up a dull, grey, rain-filled British summer with a jolt of technicolour sci-fi. I wasn’t a weekly reader back then (not till about 2012 — but, you know, the zealotry of a convert), but somehow, usually on holidays, I’d always find a copy of the Sci-Fi Special somewhere. Well, I’m no longer a teen, and summers in Britain are now alternatively bakingly hot with a humidity that pretty much liquifies you into a thing composed primarily just of sweat or non-stop rain for days. But somehow, the Sci-Fi Special keeps on coming out. This is, of course, a very, very good thing.

So, let’s take a little dip into this year’s Sci-Fi Special …

The 2000 AD Sci-Fi Special was out in the UK on 22nd July. Thanks to the wonders of the Lunar Distribution deal, it’s also out over in the Americas on 19th August. Head down to your local comic shop there and ask them to order it in for you. Consider it rather a cool little introduction to the world of 2000 AD for all your American folks!

Judge Dredd: Must Try Harder — By TC Eglington and Boo Cook, Letters by Annie Parkhouse

It opens, of course, with Dredd, just as 2000 AD always does. This one-off strip is a visual delight, of course it is, after all, Boo Cook’s one of the finest artists, specialising in the bizarre organic weirdness.

And that’s just what we have here, as Dredd responds to reports of creatures on the loose. Like Dredd says, “Chemical agent causing hallucinations or there are actual monsters running round the block.”

Cut to 41 years ago, and twins talking about creating a tissue printer and bringing back all the extinct beasties to Mega-City One. Treated as a joke, the twins grow up; their invention, once derided, is now busy creating all manner of strange things, as they harvest their neighbours for the organic building blocks they need.

It’s a cool little one-off Dredd, but it’s really all about Eglinton writing something that lets Cook play in the Dredd sandbox again, a story where Cook gets to go mad with the strangeness that’s always been part of Dredd’s world.

Stickleback: Lithe Spirit — By Ian Edginton and D’Israeli, Letters by Rob Steen

Well, anything that opens with a play on words of Noel Coward’s play automatically gets bonus points. And seeing as it’s Edginton and D’Israeli returning on Stickleback, their Napoleon of crime with London in his hands in Victorian times, this is more than welcome.

Of course, things have moved on a LOT since then, and Stickleback’s tale took a very strange turn back in 2014 with The Thru’Penny Opera (2000 AD Progs 1900-1911), with something of a huge reveal about just who Stickleback was, or is… where the arch-villain actually turns out to be … well, no, it might be over a decade since that particular revalation, but it doesn’t need to be spoilered for this latest Stickleback tale, so why spoil your fun when you read the collections — and you really should read the collections. Suffice it to say, it was one of those jaw-to-the-floor moments, and damn well done by Edginton and D’Israeli. I mean, who’d have thought the arch-criminal of Victorian times would actually have turned out to be him?

So, here we get Stickleback of old, the tough as old boots, the arch-criminal, telling a tale of murder, of fraud, a charlatan, guided by Stickleback, showing just what a nasty piece of work Edginton and D’Israeli’s creation truly is.

It’s a tale that sort of works as a stand-alone piece, but if you’ve got knowledge of all that’s gone before, it’s so much better.

It is, of course, beautifully done by D’Israeli; his use of subtle tones amongst the black and whites are just a thing to behold, showing us, yet again, that he’s truly one of the greatest artists we have. Absolutely gorgeous work all the way through this.

Of course, with this one-off, we (I) have to ask, when the hell will we be getting a new Stickleback series? Soon, I do hope. It’s too good a series to just let lie.

Young Death: Body Of Evidence — Kek-W and Anthony Williams, Letters by Rob Steen

These Young Death tales, all one-off things, the last one coming with Prog 2463, the Christmas 2025 bumper Prog, are adjacent to the Kek-W and Dave Kendall Fall of Deadworld tales. It’s just that, where Fall of Deadworld brings us the last days of the planet that would become Deadworld, home to the Dark Judges, Young Death is the years leading up to Fall of Deadworld, focusing on a certain Sidney De’ath as he makes his way through the Justice Department of this world.

Again, we know where it’s all headed. We know De’ath becomes Judge Death and we know that this alt-world is falling, inevitably, destined to become Deadworld. But knowing where it’s going isn’t the point here; it’s being along for the ride.

So, it’s the young adulthood of a superfiend here, Kek-W taking great delight in showing us just how much of a manipulative psychopath De’ath was, even before he transformed into the personification of evil whose only wish is to see all life extinguished.

Following the events of last time, De’ath’s under a little suspicion from his higher-ups, but he doesn’t care; he now knows he’s been chosen by extra-dimensional entities to be their avatar.

He’s now on a personal mission, one that he won’t allow stopped, so his next step is to swing by Tek-Div to take care of the incriminating samples, where a meeting with an old friend transformed turns into De’ath staking his claim to truly becoming the avatar of the Sisters of Death.

These little one-offs are really building into something much bigger, something pleasingly adjacent to The Fall of Deadworld, adding plenty to that particular little nightmare. And, given that each one-off stands alone, the shifting of artists isn’t an issue, with Anthony Williams’ art here really getting the spectre of all that is De’ath just right.

Future Shocks: Day 404 — By Andi Ewington and Gary Welsh, Letters by Annie Parkhouse

Future Shocks, the workhorse filler of 2000 AD for nigh on 50 years now. A done-in-one thing, beginning, middle, and an ending with a twist, possibly the most difficult thing in comics to do well. And, thanks to that nigh on 50 years of stories being told, it’s damn difficult to come up with a Future Shock that actually does shock you with the twist any more. [And, as I’ve said before, you can blame the brilliance of Alan Moore for that particular issue]

Anyway, here we are, five pages of a fine, fine little Future Shock. Setting the scene, a biolab, 15 years of research that had yielded, well, not all that much, and those funding it all are after results or the plug’s going to be pulled.

Mack ignores a call from his daughter … it’ll add a pleasing little moment of humanity, ironically, given where we’re at, come the end of this one.

They’re looking into next steps of evolutionary technology, but the breakthroughs haven’t come, years of animal testing failing to deliver results, and human testing is explicitly banned by the funding company.

Well, you know where this is going, don’t you?

But just because you know where it’s going, it’s not an issue, as Ewington and Welsh do all this really well.

And, after all, we’re living in a world where AI is seemingly doing its level-best to live up to all our expectations of it — I mean, this BBC news article bodes real well, doesn’t it?

So yes, a Future Shock where you can see the twist is hardly new, but it’s still a damn fine little Future Shock.

Stontium Dog: The Royal Mess — By Karl Stock and Colin MacNeil, Colours by Jim Boswell, Letters by Simon Bowland

And to end, something rather lovely, a perfect little Strontium Dog tale by Karl Stock, given life by the great Colin MacNeil, where Johnny Alpha, greatest Stontium Dog, greatest bounty hunter of them all, is on a mission to Upminster, the floating palace of the government of New Britain.

Into the court of King Dickie then, somewhere Johnny’s been before …

Well, now, the King with the ears has a quandary, all to do with an illegitimate heir, whom good King Dickie wants rid of…

Cue some great bits of MacNeil art, and then, wouldn’t you know it, the monarchy wasn’t exactly telling Johnny the truth, and Prince Dickie is far more than what Johnny was expecting.

A fine little stand-alone tale of one of 2000 AD‘s greatest characters (well, Starlord’s, but you’ll get my point). Stock and MacNeil giving us something that works really well, 10 pages of classic 2000 AD.