1220 Rocket Dan! 22/11/00

Book 2 of the tsar wars strand of Nikolai dante concludes with a rather astonishing turn of events which shatter the Family Romanov forever. Nikolai in a shocking moment of ruthlessness stabs his brother Konstantine in the stomach.



Hmm don't really need to say more than that do I other than Nikolai Dante is awesome read the trades....do it....do it now!!!

Coming friday: prog 2001

1216: Drop dead Gorgous 25/10/00

Rain dogs is one of those done in one series that 2000ad likes to throw into the mix now and again. It is set in a flooded New York City populated by desperate scavengers, It is about one survivor in perticular and her attempts to get to safety from a crash by a fellow survivor. It is a great story By Gordon Rennie with truly fantastic art by Colin Wilson. It is one of a few one offs from this time that I felt could have been good ongoing series. Another such story is coming up in a few slogs time which was funnily enough written also by Gordon Rennie....

That was you mini slog for today....

Next slog: The most shocking ending to a Nikolai dante story (at this point anyway)

No slog today

But all next week I will be doing a slog a day which will take us to the first few issues of 2001 including the big prog 2001

In orbit every saturday

Yes you wearn't going crazy until I can free up a bit more of my time I can only do the slog on a saturday....

Sorry folks!

1215: blood brothers 18/10/00

This Issues Dredd begins an eight part story called Sector house which features the first full length appearance of an character who still appears in the Dredd strip today. That character is Judge rico a younger clone of Dredd himself. Similar in tone to classics like the pit and its sequel beyond the call of duty, Sector house follows the drama of a small group of judges who are not exactly pleased when Dredd the younger joins them....

Elsewhere Family troubles brew in Nikolai Dante when tensions between Dante and his Brother Konstantine finally explode!.

I know I seem to be mentioning Dante nearly every entry at the mo but its been that good!



Next prog slog: It's raining (WO)men halleujah!

1214: Chainsaw biker 11/10/00

Deadlock gets his own series in order for Pat “the overlord” Mills to tie up some final loose ends from the final series of Nemesis and also to set up the Grand wizard of Termights role in a future ABC warriors epic (well epic for the wrong reasons but that’s in the near future). Aiding Mills is Nemesis artist Henry Flint who draws this crazy future earth and the alien inhabitants on it with relish

Deadlock returns to Termight to fulfil the last wishes of his master Nemesis to plunge the planet into chaos and gets sucked into a story involving the new president of the planet Purity Brown and a mysterious killer called the accountant who may or may not have ties to the late Torquemada. Alongside this story is a snapshot into the true weirdness of this future which includes Aliens who eat your toes after sexual intercourse and alien fruit!




Meanwhile the ages old story of the “mutiny on the bounty” is played out on a spaceship in the future in a series called Vanguard. Written by Robbie Morrison and featuring stunning art by Colin MacNeil. Vanguard is about a cruel commander of a space battleship, obsessed with tracking down an enemy ship, He overworks and brutalizes his crew to mutiny. He's cautioned about the crew's growing unrest several times along the way by his new second-in-command, Lt. Elizabeth Vanguard, but ignores her until it is too late.

Watching the unfolding (although slightly unoriginal admittedly) drama is pretty fun and it is tragic that this story is among the elite few 2000ad stories which ends with a cliff-hanger and yet never returns to resolve it.

A shame as it was a nice series




And a bonus image from Nikolai Dante with the Family Romanov posing for what may very well be their final picture as a family...



Next prog slog: There's a new Dredd in the sector house and his name is Rico...

1213: From russia with Lurve 4/10/00

In the year 2010 David page, a 26 year old 2000ad fan took the baton of slogdom from Paul Rainey and ploughed his way through the sum total of his collection of 2000ads and Megazines which marked his own return to the galaxy’s greatest comic. Through hail, shine, problems in real life and brrr BISON this is his journal of the mighty task which faces our Beloved comic book nerd….


The prog is back to its mighty five band gang of stories with Rain dogs and Nikolai Dante joining Dredd, Deadlock and Vanguard. Rain dogs will be covered in a later slog so for now let's turn our gaze towards the cover boy himself...

In battleship Potemkin the war takes a slightly darker turn though you wouldn’t know it by reading its first chapter. In a light-hearted (well for the current war arc anyway) Prelude Nikolai and the Irregulars battle in Britannia to save mad king George from being executed as a Romanov ally. Aside from Gorgous work from series creator Simon Fraser it really is just a light hearted filler episode before the darkness which hung over the rest of this story....

The war and the story took a darker turn after this fun interlude but that’s for another entry entirely….



This chapter of the Tsar wars was hit by a rather unfortunate continuity cock-up which I have to admit I never noticed until it was brought up in the 2000ad lovers holy book known as Thrill power overload. The initial plan of the Tsar was had been to tell the storyline in five series of eight episodes. John Burns was to paint the first, third and fifth series and Simon Fraser was to handle the second and fourth. However, Fraser was in the process of relocating to Africa when the deadlines for his first story came up, and as a result, this adventure, "Battleship Potemkin," had to be postponed and War and Love (the previous story) had to be made the second chapter. Also chapters four and five were meshed together to form one final book four. Due to the switching of books two and three this unfortunately has Nikolai renouncing his old name and referring to himself as “Nikolai Romanov” as a cliff-hanger for the final book. But in this story Nikolai and his group of irregulars always refer to him as “Nikolai Dante” It’s so obvious in hindsight (and with the knowledge from TPO) but I genuinely did not notice on my original reading.

I now await the comments saying “You thicko!” but I genuinely did not know…

Next slog: Deadlock ties up some loose ends from a fallen warlock series…