2000 AD #2312

I am The Mighty Tharg, all-powerful alien editor of this award-winning SF anthology — prepare yourselves for Xmas overload!

The traditional bumper, end-of-year prog celebrates your planet’s festive season and also cap another scrotnig twelve months of circuit-frying zarjazness!

We’ve unfortunately had to bid farewell to a number of beloved creators this year, such as Ian Kennedy, Garry Leach, and most recently Alan Grant and Kevin O’Neill, so this issue has something of a melancholic feel, with fellow writers and artists paying tribute to Alan and Kevin, who were so enormously influential in the Galaxy’s Greatest’s development. You’ll also find inside what turned out to be Kevin’s last work for 2000 AD, as he teamed up with Garth Ennis to revisit that scourge of the spaceways, Bonjo From Beyond the Stars, a strip he originally created for this pulse-pounding publication well over forty years ago.

Elsewhere, an old face from Dredd’s past turns up in ‘The Last Temptation of Joe’, there’s the start of new series for Joe Pineapples, Proteus Vex and The Out, a complete Rogue Trooper story, and much more.

Have a Thrill-packed Christmas and New Year, Earthlets!

Cover: Andy Clarke

• Judge Dredd - The Last Temptation of Joe (Ken Niemand - Lee Carter)

Mega-City One, 2144 AD. Home to over 180 million citizens, this urban hell is situated along the east coast of post-apocalyptic North America. Unemployment is rife, and crime is rampant. Tensions rest on a knife-edge and only the zero-tolerance Judges can stop total anarchy. Toughest of them all is JUDGE DREDD — he is the Law! Thirty-nine years ago, Dredd locked up the Devil himself in Iso-Block 666, where he’s remained...

• Rogue Trooper - Brothers (Kek W - Warwick Fraser-Coombes)

Nu Earth, site of a galactic war between the Norts and the Southers, where use of chemical weapons has rendered the atmosphere poisonous. So the Southers created the Genetic Infantrymen, bred to be immune to the planet’s lethal cocktail of pollutants — G.I.s like ROGUE TROOPER, the last of his kind. Together with biochip buddies Helm, Gunnar and Bagman, they’re searching for the traitor that sold them out...

• Bonjo From Beyond the Stars - Solids in the Bile Tube (Garth Ennis - Kevin O’Neill)

Over forty years ago, the alien entity known as BONJO arrived on Earth, and set about causing carnage. A creature with an insatiable appetite, who grew to Godzilla-sized proportions, he caused an inordinate amount of damage to the planet, and it seemed nothing could stop him — other than his grumbly gut when he consumed something that disagreed with him, which was pretty often...

• The Out - Book Three (Part 1) (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 1) (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 9) (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...

• Ace Trucking Co. - Untrenched (Karl Stock - Nick Dyer)

The universe is a big place, and if you want cargo delivered from one planet to another you’re going to need a shipping company you can rely on. Fortunately, there’s ACE TRUCKING CO., the premier courier service for all your transportation needs. Captain of the Speedo Ghost is Ace Garp, and together with his engineer Feek and bodyguard GBH they’re the galaxy’s most tucker truckers!

• Judge Dredd - Troublemaker (Gordon Rennie - Robin Smith)

Mega-City One, 2144 AD. Home to over 180 million citizens, this urban hell is situated along the east coast of post-apocalyptic North America. Unemployment is rife, and crime is rampant. Tensions rest on a knife-edge and only the zero-tolerance Judges can stop total anarchy. Toughest of them all is JUDGE DREDD — he is the Law! There’s one perp the lawman has been wanting to get his hands on: the troublemaker Alvin Gaunt...

• Proteus Vex - Crawlspace (Part 1) (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...