It’s the monster mash-up! The 2000 AD Sci-Fi Special is out now and packed with action-packed mash-ups of your favourite 2000 AD series, from Judge Alpha to Rogue/Dog!
On this episode of The 2000 AD Thrill-Cast, we talk to writer Al Ewing and artist Boo Cook about jamming together two Thrill-powered classics: Harlem Heroes and Zombo! The gang also delve into the allure and challenges of sports comics, and whether Ewing might soon return to the pages of 2000 AD!
Then it’s the return of the deep dive as Steve Morris introduces critic Tiffany Babb for the first in a new series exploring 2000 AD classics old and new. Steve and Tiffany swash their buckles and prepare to board Ian Edginton and D’Israeli’s The Red Seas – available now from the 2000 AD webshop and app: https://bit.ly/3Wcl5KZ
The 2000 AD Thrill-Cast is the award-winning podcast that takes you behind-the-scenes at the Galaxy’s Greatest Comic with creator interviews, panels, and more! You can subscribe to the Thrill-Cast on your favourite podcast app, whether that is Apple, Google, Stitcher, or Spotify. You can also listen now at 2000AD.com/podcast or you can watch at youtube.com/2000adonline
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ATTENTION, EARTHLETS – The 2000 AD Sci-Fi Special 2024 is OUT NOW!
I am The Mighty Tharg, all-powerful alien editor of 2000 AD – the Galaxy’s Greatest Comic!
Welcome, my Thrill-seeking Squaxx, to 2024’s Sci-Fi Special, a 48-page self-contained issue designed to entertain you Terrans through the summer months. This particular edition is something a little different – following a rupture in the space/time continuum, a wormhole appeared close to Earth, through which several objects fell into this reality from a parallel dimension. Amongst them were pages from an alternate version of my Mighty Organ featuring characters slightly different to what Terrans may be used to.
In the parallel edition, toughest of the Mega-City Judges is mutant Johnny Alpha, while Downlode duo Ramone and Finny are Robo-Sharks, hunting rogue droids! Such was my intrigue and interest in these alternate takes on some of the Galaxy’s Greatest’s most popular strips – witness Stickleback as the captain of The Red Wench, or Strontium Dog Friday seeking revenge for being betrayed, or an aeroball team made up of flesh-hungry zombies from the Zombo universe – that I thought you deserved to see them too.
So I compiled them into this unique special, where some of 2000 AD’s favourites are as you’ve never seen them before!
The 2000 AD Sci-Fi Special 2024 is out now from all good newsagents and comic book stores, plus digitally from our webshop and apps! Don’t forget that if you buy an issue of 2000 AD in the first week of its release then postage in the UK is free!
Cover Art: Mike PerkinsScript: Karl Stock / Art: Ben Willsher / Letters: Annie Parkhouse
JUDGE ALPHA // PORTRAIT OF A JUDGE
Mega-City One, 2146 AD. Home to over 200 million citizens, this urban hell is situated along the east coast of post-apocalyptic North America, with the irradiated wasteland known as the Cursed Earth to the west. Crime is rampant and only the zero-tolerance Judges can stop total anarchy. Toughest of these future cop is JUDGE ALPHA, one of a group of mutants given Special Dispensation to wear the uniform — he is the Law!
Script: Dan Abnett / Art: Anthony Williams / Letters: Jim Campbell
ROBO-SHARKS
Ramone Dexter is a ROBO-SHARK in the future city of Downlode, where life can be short and the streets brutally violent. If a droid goes rogue or you need your personal robot found, then he and his mek-partner Finnigan are the team to call. It’s a dangerous job, and Ramone’s never far from trouble — and to make things worse, robots are seeking to disguise themselves amongst humanity…
Script: James Peaty/ Art: Nicolo Assirelli /Colours: Jack Davies / Letters: Simon Bowland
ROGUE/DOG
In the twenty-second century, an atomic war left many survivors mutated by the Strontium 90 fallout. These mutants were feared and despised by the ‘norms’ and became a marginalised underclass, forced to live in ghettos. The only job open to them is bounty hunting, and these Search/Destroy agents — or Strontium Dogs — are sanctioned by the Galactic Crime Commission to hunt the most lethal of criminals…
Script: Ian Edginton / Art: Paul McCaffrey / Letters: Annie Parkhouse
STICKLEBACK // SECRET HISTORIES
In the eighteenth century, pirates often prey upon merchant ships for their fat bounties. No terror of the seas is more feared than the ruthless STICKLEBACK, captain of The Red Wench. Together with his second-in-command Ampney Crucis, they prowl the southern seas looking for prey. But Stickleback is secretly looking for a particular treasure, one that will bring him unlimited power…
Script: Al Ewing / Art: Boo Cook / Letters: Simon Bowland
HARLEM ZOMBOS
Aeroball is one of the most popular sports of the future, a violent combination of basketball and American football, played at high speed with the teams strapped into powerful jetpacks. But when the ZOMBO squad take to the skies, you’re guaranteed even more carnage — under the management of ‘living brain’ Louis, they’re a force to be reckoned with…
It’s the summer of true nuclear fusion as 2000 AD mashes and smashes its most popular strips together in the return of its pulsating Sci-Fi Special!
Exploding into shelves on 3 July in a 48-page supernova, the 2000 AD Sci-Fi Special will feature an all-thriller AND killer line-up of creators including Ian Edginton, Dan Abnett, Ben Willsher, Nicolò Assirelli… and the return to 2000 AD of the mighty Al Ewing!
This all-new Sci-Fi Special comes beamed from an alternate dimension – one in which familiar characters from the Galaxy’s Greatest Comic have been given a different twist. The Thrill-powered characters you thought you knew have been amalgamated into one other in strange and unpredictable ways, creating an all new version of the Galaxy’s Greatest!
In this sideways universe there is only one person who has the strength to enforce the law in Mega-City One… and he’s a high-powered mutant! With eyes which can emit piercing Alpha waves, JUDGE ALPHA makes sure that nobody messes with the Justice Department!
When robots go rogue and start causing chaos in the neighbourhood, who’re you gonna call? Sinister and Dexter, of course, the ROBO-SHARKS! Hired to track down and terminate troublesome droids, this pair of robo… hunters? never miss their targets!
The Search/Destroy Agency have a number of highly-trained bounty hunters on their intergalactic roster: but none were as skilled as Friday! Framed for a crime he didn’t commit, this ROGUE/DOG is now being hunted by his fellow bounty hunters!
Ahoy! When you’re out on the wild seas of the world, flag flying in the wind and your team of scurvy dogs on deck, no bounty goes unclaimed! But the Red Wench’s captain is a rather strange chap: who is STICKLEBACK?
And if you’re a fan of high-octane thrill-sports, there’s only one place to enjoy extreme and enervating combat! The most violent sport of the future features undead, flesh-eating teams… welcome THE HARLEM ZOMBOS to 2000 AD!
Priced at £4.99 for 48 pages of interstellar amalgamation action, the 2000 AD Sci-Fi Special 2024 is out on 3 July from all good newsagents and comic book stores, as well as the 2000 AD app and webshop! Pre-order your copy today!
