Prog 1304.
Cover by: Jock & Chris Blythe

Pretty good cover image by Jock - who looks like he'll be a star of the future. 5 strips again - and as seems to be the norm - 3 colour - 2 black & white. Tharg's Nerve Centre is used as a plea to stop sending in unsolicited scripts. There have been very few new writers in 2000AD (excepting the current Bison), and the comic appears to be in need of new writing blood. Sadly Tharg doesn't hold up much hope for new finds from the scripts they've received - so it seems the old guard will be around for a good while longer.

A Buffy/Angel competition rounds up this prog.

Give Me Liberty -Part 1

Review: Gordon Rennie takes over writing duties of Dredd on this one, and does a pretty good job. Harking back to the old reliable basic story - Mega City citizens acting like complete idiots, this is a winner. And it's helped massively by the return of one of the definitive 2000AD artists - Ian Gibson. Great satire - which is what Dredd's best at.

Part 5 - You're Hit

Review: I can't remember the original VCs story - I only picked up 2000AD from "Judge Death Lives" onwards. But this is proving to be a welcome relaunch - fantastic artwork from the very under-used Henry Flint, together with a gung-ho "Dirty Dozen" style space marines story. If you're looking for a good future war story, then skip past Rogue, and come straight to this.

Part 4 .

Review: This seems to be getting poor reader ratings on the official 2000AD site, which may be a little unfair. The artwork shows promise, and the plot is certainly intriguing. Shame then that the story seems to be spiraling downwards into a sub "100 Bullets" gangster genre story. A lot of fun could have been had with the gender swap, but the writers prefer the old gritty revenge story that's been done to death. And the instant rehab pill - while clever, immediately gets rid of a potentially interesting sub-plot. Still - too early to write this one off.

Roadhouse - Part 5

Review: The best strip in the comic, without a doubt. The team of Wagner/Ezquerra can always be relied on to make any issue of 2000AD worth buying. While this strip doesn't make quite as much an impact as their last Strontium Dog story - which was far more dramatic - it showcases the humourous possibilities of the strip very well. Sternhammer makes a welcome return, and it feels like we're reading a long lost classic strip from the 80's. Once again - the Rogue Trooper team could learn from this. Just a pity the art couldn't be in colour...

What Lies Beneath - Part 4

Review: Hmm - I can see the reasoning behind bringing back the old style Rogue Trooper - after all he was a mainstay during the best years of the comic. Unfortunately this relaunch has all of the worst aspects of the old style - without any of the interesting aspects of the new Rogue. Writers seem to be forgetting that Gibbons' remake was actually extremely good in the beginning, offering an interesting take on an old character. This story is just a lazy rehash of a 15 year old storyline - with truly awful dialogue "Now we go back on-mission. Stay Rogue until we find the Traitor General". Dire. Is this really the same writer who wrote the preceding Dredd story?