Beano No.3874

Cover art by Nigel Parkinson.

Here's the cover and a few preview panels to this week's Beano, that the editors shared on Twitter this morning. 

There's the final exclusive Top Trumps card free inside, plus all the regular strips. (No Ivy the Terrible this week for some reason but she'll be back next week.) There's another Pup Parade by me in there too. 

Beano No.3874, out now, only £2.50.

Faceache, Marney, Leopardboy, One-Eyed Jack... coming back!

Marney the Fox © Rebellion A/S. Art by John Stokes.

I've known about this for a while but was sworn to secrecy, but now the news is out there. Rebellion have announced which classic Fleetway strips they're bringing back to print this year, and they're all glorious. The collective name for the books is The Treasury of British Comics...

You already knew about One-Eyed Jack by John Wagner and John Cooper, but today Rebellion have announced that other books will include:

Misty Book 2: The Sentinels and End of the Line. 

The Leopard from Lime Street drawn by Mike Western and Eric Bradbury.

Marney the Fox: the wonderful adventure strip from Buster by Scott Goodall and John Stokes. 

...and... just drink in this great news...

Faceache by Ken Reid, from Jet and Buster. 

Are you excited yet? For more info, check out this link:
http://www.thebookseller.com/news/2000-ad-revive-childrens-comics-70s-and-80s-496121


UPDATE 28/2/17: Comics journalist Heidi MacDonald now has expanded details of the books, and more artwork, on her excellent blog The Beat:
http://www.comicsbeat.com/2000ad-launches-the-treasury-of-british-comics-line-with-classic-brit-comics/

Titan launch new UK Batman comic

Titan Comics are launching a new Batman title to be sold in newsagents. All-Star Batman No.1 will reprint stories from DC's All-Star Batman and Nightwing titles. There'll also be a double-sided pull-out poster in every issue. 

According to their PR, All-Star Batman No.1 is out now. Here's the content info for issue 1...

 ‘My Own Worst Enemy' - Parts 1 and 2
 Batman is taking one of his most duplicitous villains out of Gotham City to a mysterious destination, but when a bounty is put on Batman’s head, any villain with something to hide is on their tail. The scene is set for a cross-country chase, with everyone gunning for Batman!

Nightwing – ‘Rebirth’

After the events of the 'Robin War', Dick Grayson tries to decide on who he really is – is he Robin, Agent 37, or is he Nightwing? With a little help from Damian, Batmanand his ‘arch-frenemy’ Midnighter, Dick has to find a new purpose in life! But what are the Court of Owls planning?

Titan also publish a long-running Batman comic... if you can find it. Some branches of WH Smith (such as my local one) haven't stocked it for about a year, and claim it doesn't exist! I can only assume it's been wrongly deleted from their database. Hopefully All-Star Batman won't suffer the same fate, but to make sure of your copies you can always subscribe directly from the publishers at this link:
https://titan.subscribeonline.co.uk/subscriptions/all-star-batman?offerCode=DCNEWS

Tank Girl goes to war

Tank Girl first appeared in the British comic Deadline back in 1988, with the punky, boozy, anarchic character immediately proving to be a success for its creators Alan Martin and Jamie Hewlett. Although Deadline folded in 1995, you can't keep a good Tank Girl down and the character has resurfaced in several comics and mini-series since. 

These days, London-based Titan Comics publish brand new Tank Girl comics, and her current mini-series, Tank Girl Gold, concluded this week. However, it leads right into a new mini-series, World War Tank Girl, starting in March. 

One of the stunning variant covers to issue 1 is shown above, with art by Chris Wahl, which I'm sure you'll agree is worth the cover price alone. 

World War Tank Girl, which sends the character back to WW2, will be written by Alan Martin and illustrated by Brett Parson, whose art has proven to be perfect for the series. I really like his work, which is why I'm happy to promote the comic here. Here's his regular cover to issue one...

If you've never read a Tank Girl comic before, give it a go. Its irreverent humour may or may not be to your tastes but a well-crafted comic is always worth looking at and you'll be supporting British comics. Hopefully you'll be hooked! World War Tank Girl No.1 will only be available in comics shops, not newsagents, and will arrive on March 29th.

For more cover images and info of upcoming Titan Comics visit their website:
http://titan-comics.com

40 years of Judge Dredd!

You wouldn't know it from the cover but this was the issue of 2000AD which featured the very first Judge Dredd strip, on sale exactly 40 years ago today. It was issue 2, which appeared in newsagents on Saturday February 26th 1977.

Four decades later, Dredd is as popular as ever, with its black humour being a great part of that success. The appeal of the strip may fly over the heads of some, (usually people who have hardly ever read it) but the character's longevity proves that many people appreciate the balance of gritty science fiction and socio-political satire and insight.

Clearly no one back in 1977 knew that Dredd would swiftly become the comic's biggest hit. Indeed they were still promoting Dan Dare as the main attraction with the cover illustration showing the monster from the Dare strip, but Dredd's debut had something that set it head and shoulders above other UK adventure strips at the time. I for one had been a little bit indifferent about issue 1, but this issue hooked me for life, mostly due to Judge Dredd I think.

Created by writer John Wagner, Dredd was designed by Carlos Ezquerra, (who drew the first strip that was shelved for later use). The first published Judge Dredd story was drawn by Mike McMahon. It's a powerful opening chapter.

Back then, Dredd's adventures were self contained. Not only did this help make the strip more accessible to new readers it also gave the writers the opportunity to explore different aspects of Mega City One every week, building up the foundation of Dredd's world. The initial story concluded on the back page, giving us our first glimpse of Dredd's uniform in colour, using the basic primary colours available for newsprint at the time.

The rest of the issue featured more of the strips we'd seen in issue one, including another dynamic centre spread by Massimo Belardinelli. A far cry from previous IPC adventure comics which had featured tame strips such as Billy's Boots (Scorcher) or Phil the Fluter (Thunder) in the centre pages.

This issue also included another debut, - the first published page Kevin O'Neill drew for 2000AD. This was a feature on Harlem Heroes Power Gear, situated opposite the latest Harlem Heroes by Dave Gibbons.

If you're wondering what the free gift looked like, here it is. Biotronic Stickers! Back in the days when free gifts were simply placed inside the comic, not Sellotaped to the cover or sealed with the comic inside a plastic bag.

I remember when Judge Dredd's popularity prompted readers to ask if he'd ever get his own comic. Such requests were politely dismissed. Back then the reasoning was that removing Dredd to his own title would severely weaken 2000AD. It was felt that the alternative of using Dredd in both comics and finding new writers to do the additional Dredd stories wouldn't match the standard of John Wagner's scripts. But eventually they found a way and launched Judge Dredd Megazine whilst keeping Dredd in 2000AD as well, and having John Wagner write the stories for both comics in most issues.
Judge Dredd is one of the few comics characters who has aged in real time and is 40 years older than he was in his debut strip. 22nd Century science has aided him in that respect to keep him active, but readers have long wondered if Dredd's clone may replace him on the beat. Time will tell! 

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This is an updated version of a blog post from five years ago. Images are scanned and photographed from the issue I had then, but I've since sold it to a collector for over £600. Someone must have really liked Judge Dredd!