I am The Mighty Tharg, Betelgeusian Thrillwrangler and hyper-powered editor extraordinaire!
…and we’re back! Welcome, my Squaxx, to the space-year 2023 — I trust you had a suitably zarjaz festive season and waved goodbye to 2022 in the customary fashion. I also presume your circuits have recovered from the Xmas overload that was Prog 2312, and are ready to download more scrotnig Thrills into your brainpans. This first issue of the new year contains the stunning second episodes of Proteus Vex, The Out and Joe Pineapples, the latest instalment of Hope, and the start of a tense new case for Judge Dredd courtesy of the Niemand and Assirelli droids as he investigates The Night Shifter…
I’m sure long-term readers will have become accustomed to my cosmic hyperbole, and when I say that you shouldn’t dare miss a single episode of the ghafflebette series coming your way over the next twelve months, they’ll remark, ‘But how will you top your forty-fifth anniversary year, Oh Mighty One? It’s impossible!’ Such a challenge is my galactic bread and butter, and so I’ll smile, glance at the artwork in the Command Module archive awaiting publication, and reply, ‘You’ll see, Terrans, you’ll see…’
Cover: Simon Bisley
- Judge Dredd - The Night Shifter (Part 1) (Ken Niemand - Nicolo Assirelli)
Mega-City One, 2145 AD. Home to over 200 million citizens, this urban hell is situated along the east coast of post-apocalyptic North America. Unemployment is endemic and boredom universal. Tensions run a constant knife-edge and crime is rampant. Only future cops the Judges — empowered to dispense instant justice — can stop total anarchy. Toughest of them all is JUDGE DREDD — he is the Law!
- The Out - Book Three (Part 2) (Dan Abnett - Mark Harrison)
The furthest edge of the universe, far into the future. Cyd Finlea is photo-journalist working for the publishers Global Neographic, travelling deep into outer space — otherwise known as THE OUT — and cataloguing the alien societies that she encounters. She left Earth ten years ago and has been seeking other ex-pat humans — but she discovered that she’d been contaminated by the Tankinar, turning her into a cyborg. Cyd has managed to break free...
- Joe Pineapples - Tin Man (Part 2) (Pat Mills - Simon Bisley)
Former war-droids, the ABC Warriors were reassigned to bring peace to the frontier planet of Mars. Comprising Hammerstein, Deadlock, Blackblood, Steelhorn, Mongrol and Happy Shrapnel, the Mek-Nifcent Seven’s sharpshooter was Joe Pineapples, a robot with more secrets than most. Needing a break from his comrades, Joe’s headed off across the cosmos with sewer-droid Ro-Jaws in tow..
- Hope - …In the Shadows - Reel Two (Part 10) (Guy Adams - Jimmy Broxton)
An alternate 1940s USA. WWII is over, victory having been secured by occult means, and consequently magic is a part of everyday life. Mallory HOPE is one such skilled operative, though calling on the dark arts takes its toll on the user. He’s also a P.I., hired for all manner of down n’ dirty jobs — and an investigation into a cursed movie has led to the reappearance of Hope’s missing wife, Alice, who has plans for the film...
- Proteus Vex - Crawlspace (Part 2) (Mike Carroll - Jake Lynch)
The far future. The centuries-long war between the Alliance and the Obdurate people is over, a conflict brought to an end with the deaths of billions when the Alliance teleported a dying white dwarf star into the Obdurate system. Imperium agent PROTEUS VEX — who is operated by a flesh-pilot — became an enemy of the Alliance when he released info about past war crimes. But now war with the Scorchers has broken out...
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