With a new Dredd arc and a rather unexpected finale to Tharg’s 3Rillers, this Prog has plenty to offer. First up the the Law-man…
Judge Dredd – Student Bodies – Part One
Script: John Wagner
Art: Boo Cook
Letters: Annie Parkhouse
Dredd doesn’t like bullies, as some unfortunate students find out in this first episode in a new arc. What starts out as a routine missing person detail looks to be ending up as a rescue mission. Featuring sublime art from Boo Cook, whose precise pencils provide brilliantly detailed panels and a nicely subdued colour palette. This new story from Dredd supremo John Wagner deals with weighty issues such as racism and prejudice, all delivered in the customary swagger of our favourite law-man. 
Sinister Dexter – The Generican dream – Part Two
Script: Dan Abnett
Art: Jake Lynch
Letters: Ellie De Ville
Starting with an action-packed and rather manic escape by Finnagan Sinister from the dodgy Congo corporation, the boys receive a mysterious phone-call inviting them to a barbecue. Dan Abnett is keeping the suspense up and the violence suitably graphic as artist Jake lynch delivers the grimy visceral action brilliantly.
Brass Sun – Floating Worlds – Part Three
Script: Ian Edginton
Art: Ian J Culbard
Letters: Ellie De Ville
This series continues to bewitch with it’s intoxicating mix of steampunk fantasy and sublime art. As Wren and captain Ariel continue on their do-or-die mission for chairman Pei, pursued by his minions, they descend in a forest with all manner of floating and flying creatures. Edginton deftly manages to maintain the tension as Culbard mesmerizes us with his eye candy visuals.
Aquila – Carnifex – Part One
Script: Gordon Rennie
Art: Leigh Gallagher
Colours: Dylan teague
Letters: Annie Parkhouse
With brutal, bloody action amidst Roman history, Aquila returns, this time serving as the carnifex (butcher) of that most mad of emperors, Nero. On a quest for the aforementioned pyromaniac loon, that involves seperating some heads from the necks of their owners, writer Gordon Rennie gives us plenty of exposition in between the gory action, as Trisus the Diviner elucidates on the mad and bad plan Nero has to make himself into a God. With Leigh Gallaghers precision pencil work given the necessary dark and foreboding tone by Teague’s colours, Aquila makes a welcome return to the pages of 2000 AD.
Tharg’s 3Rillers present Voodoo Island – Part Three
Script: Guy Adams
Art: PJ Holden
Colours: Steve Denton
Letters: Simon Bowland
With an ending that you most assuredly would not see in an American comic, writer Guy Adams twisted tale of survival and megalomania amidst a fantastically creepy jungle world, brilliantly realised by artist PJ Holden, ends unexpectedly and rather refreshingly it has to be said. A story about conditioning and pre-programming and one girl’s attempts to escape it, with his ending Guy Adams ingeniously highlights our (as readers) own conditioning through our expectations by essentially taking a hammer to them. Superb stuff.
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