RECOMMENDED READING: DAREDEVIL EPIC COLLECTION VOLUME THREE...

Images copyright MARVEL COMICS

Are you a comicbook fan?  Are you a MARVEL fan?  Are you a DAREDEVIL fan?  Well then, Melvin, your luck is in, as the newest EPIC COLLECTION of ol' Hornhead is now available from all good comics shops.  This is volume 3, but don't panic, volume 2 hasn't been released yet.  (They publish them out of sequence for some curious reason.)  Anyway, read the spiel on the back cover (below), sell (yes, 'sell', not 'tell' - it's not a typo) the wife or girlfriend, then rush out and buy this 'must-have' softcover book right away.

(You know it makes sense!)

RECOMMENDED READING: The AVENGERS #4.1...

Images copyright MARVEL COMICS

For all those who haven't yet latched on to MARVEL's The AVENGERS .1 series, above is the latest issue's cover to whet your appetite.  On sale now at all good comics shops.  If you're fortunate, you might still be able to pick up previous issues, but if not, start saving for the soft-cover collection.  There's bound to be one.

BABE Of The DAY - SALMA HAYEK...

Here's sexy, sensational SALMA HAYEK to

remind all you guys just what a real woman looks

like.  Put aside that bicycle pump you use to inflate

your 'girlfriend' and set your sights higher.  Salma is

'goddess' level - so not quite this high for you yet,

 h'mm?  (Maybe one day - if you're lucky!)

2000 A.D. 40TH ANNIVERSARY SPECIAL...

Images copyright REBELLION

Hell's teeth!  Has it really been 40 years since 2000 A.D. landed in newsagents' shops all across Britain?  Yup, sure has.  I must admit that though I took great professional pride in freelancing for IPC's top-selling title, it never really appealed to me as a reader.  I far preferred MARVEL U.K.'s line of weekly periodicals, short-lived though some of them were.

I probably gave up on 2000 A.D. after #3, the last of the initial free gift issues.  The comic was too bleak, too negative, too dystopian for my tastes.  There was nothing about any of the future scenarios displayed within its pages that was desirable, and in which any sane and sensible person would want to live.  PAT MILLS, the creator of the comic, had nothing but disdain (if not outright contempt) for superheroes, whereas it was my ambition to become one.  (Haven't given up hope yet.)

The cover of #1, 1977

So 2000 A.D. wasn't for me.  I collected a short run of issues around 1979, but jumped ship again when it reverted to cheap newsprint after having enjoyed superior printing for a while.  I didn't pick it up again until I began freelancing for the comic at the beginning of 1986, and the only real 'thrill-power' I ever experienced was seeing my name in print (or getting paid), as most of the stories failed to impress me.

Oh, they were competent and professional, but trying just a bit too hard to be 'down wiv the kids', who, it seemed to me, were attracted to the mag not for any quality of writing, but for the violence.  (I was once in a newsagent's, when I overheard two kids trying to persuade their parents to buy them an issue.  "It's great - you see people getting their arms and heads chopped off and being blown to bits!")

The cover of the 'dummy' issue

However, 40 years is 40 years, and I'm glad to see that 2000 A.D. yet survives. True, it sells nowhere near as many copies as it did in my day, and I suspect it's being kept going (on 'life-support') more for the potential exploitation in other media (movies, games, etc.) of its properties, than because of any profit brought in from the comic itself.  I still have a fond affection for it though, even if it's more from a former contributor's perspective than a reader's.  Which is why I made a point of picking up the 40th Anniversary Special when I saw it today.

I have to be completely honest - looking through its pages, I don't feel particularly motivated to read it.  Murky, muddy colour in the JUDGE DREDD strip, and trying far too hard to be wild and wacky, but in an embarrassing, 'drunk uncle at a party' way that doesn't do it any favours at all.  SLAINE rips off takes inspiration from the BLACK KNIGHT fight scene in MONTY PYTHON & The HOLY GRAIL and displays neither wit nor wisdom, serving only to reinforce the juvenile (if not infantile) humour aspect that permeated the title many years back, when writers who regarded themselves as too good for 'children's' comics started trying to be clever for their own amusement, and proved only that they were too far up their own @rses.

It was good seeing JOHNNY ALPHA and DURHAM RED again, drawn, as in my day, by CARLOS EZQUERRA, but it felt odd seeing the strip without my lettering. (After this post, there's no chance of that ever happening again, eh?)  To be frank, this issue seems altogether irrelevant and superficial, and I'd be surprised (though not unhappy) if 2000 A.D. ever manages to match The DANDY's or The BEANO's 75 year, British record-breaking run.

However, don't let me put you off from joining in the 40th Birthday celebrations - buy a copy today and make up your own minds.  Then give me hell in the comments section.  "Unleash the dogs of war!"  (But don't dare dirty the carpet with paw-prints or doggie-poo, understood?)

See?  Even THARG can lie