Ian Gibson is back on cover duty with a third of the last four being dedicated to Sam Slade, Robo-Hunter. The art is a glorified panel from this prog’s episode.
Tharg’s Nerve Centre opens with sad news for Irish earthlets as the prog has increased in price by 1p. An earthlet whines about SB trucker’s lingo differing from CB slang, and received short shrift from Tharg.
Sam Slade, Robo-Hunter: The Filby Case Part 1 by Alan Grant and Ian Gibson. After the acceptable-but-not-exceptional Blackheart Manor story, this is more like it. For me (who arrived on the Squaxx scene next prog-year) Brit-Cit is as much part of Robo-Hunter as Slade is. Plunging him right into the thick of things makes the story feel more rounded as the episode starts at his office with landlord problems (or rather Slade not paying his rent problems). No sooner does he bluff his way into buying more time than three blocky robot arrive with fists designed to pound and a warning to stay out of the Filby case. Slade would love to oblige, only he doesn’t have a Filby case – or any cases. Headed back to the Savoy hotel (which he conned his way in to) he is met by two droids from Special Branch. They warn him away from the Filby case, but not without roughing him up a little. Next morning the farce continues (I looked this up as I had a feeling it wasn’t a farce, but it does seem to match the description – though we’re used to farces being a bit more salacious than Robo-Hunter has been) as Slade gets picked up off the streets, this time by local human gangster East Side Eddie. He doesn’t get beaten up, though is threatened with death, but this threat is to stay on the Filby case. By the time Filby turns up in his office, Slade is not taking any chances and knocks him down (before finding out his name)… Conrad sums up Robo-Hunter better by describing the series as Slapstick Noir (I listened to that episode after covering these progs).
The next page has a Bubblicious competition to win a hi-fi system by counting the alterations in a Spot the Difference competition. The image altered is Walter the punk by Brian Bolland from a one-page strip which I don’t think we’ve seen yet, so it must be upcoming in one of the annuals.
Rogue Trooper: “All Hell on the Dix-I Front” Part One by Gerry Finley-Day and Colin Wilson. I think this episode sees our first map of Nu Earth (well, part of it, at any rate). The theatre of war for this story is Dix-I (you could probably guess that from the title) which is kind of USA-South themed though shaped a little like India and in close proximity to Araby (or is that Nu Araby)? There has been no new enemy activity on this front and so the area is playing host to an amnesty for Souther deserters. Rogue and the biochips briefly discuss it (there’s a reference to Bagman’s protein base degrading, in Rogue’s head) and end up going in. In decontam his chem-nurse introduces herself as Sister Sledge. I’ll pause a moment here to say I had no idea that Sister Sledge was the name of a band when I first read later episodes of this story, around 1986, so the reference went completely over my head! This does mean that if I hear the name of the band I first think of this story… Back to this story – while on the examination couch Rogue spots a medic in a neighbouring seal (for Nu Atlanta is a domed city) putting something in the filter system. This is just the first stage of a new Nort offensive.
The Mean Arena by A Ridgway and Mike White. I’m sure that was Ridgeway (with a ‘e’) last episode – lending credence to my theory that it’s merely a pseudonym, probably for Tom Tully – and I don’t detect any difference in the storytelling which you might expect if a new writer had been drafted in. Rollo’s new player has the sparkliest new boots and jumpsuit, can fight five droids at once and rip the leg off of one with his bare hands (despite being a normal human, apparently). Tallon still has his suspicions about new female team member Brazen and follows her as she leaves on her bike. Though he’s following her with Chip the android who looks like a young boy, so who’s more suspect-looking, Tallon? Eh?
Bleeding through the page of my copy of this prog was a whole load of red as Halfords and Team BMX take the centre pages in a black-and-white-but-with-red-added-like-in-the-cheap-looking-annuals advert.
Ace Trucking Co. Last Lug to Abbo Dabbo Part 7 by Grant Grover and Belardinelli. Wasting no time, Ghost cuts Ace out of the plasteen cube, takes a blood sample and, while being shot at by Plack on the Bloo Maru, evades the shots, smashes through the solar sail (cutting power to the pirate ship), formulates an antidote to the heeble drug and injects Ace. The anti-heeble acts immediately and Ace is out for revenge. Tooling up in the Speedo Ghost’s armoury he space-walks back to the Bloo Maru and incapacitates Plack. In a panel worthy of an early carton, Ace shows his displeasure with Plack behind a roll-down blind while sound effects emerge around the edges. This is only a starter though, as Ace is getting ready to free the hold full of other encubed truckers, and they’ll all want to do the same…
The next page has a couple of half-page ads, the most interesting of which is for a Star Wars and Empire Strikes Back double-bill at the Leicester Square Theatre, Odeon Marble Arch and other cinemas. Note that Star Wars does not yet have the sub-heading A New Hope.
Judge Dredd: Apocalypse War Part 22 by T.B. Grover and Carlos Ezquerra is displaced from the centre pages though still retains colour as Dredd and the Apocalypse Squad (now named as such) take out the bomb disposal squad and get the fluent Sov speaker to bluff the whole complex into shutting off all power (due to an ‘electronic booby trap’ on the bomb). Thus, the Mega-City Judges make there way through the darkened complex to the operations centre. Once again, Anderson does her thing and gains access to targeting and firing codes for all twenty Total Annihilation Devices. East-Meg One has a population of half a billion (maybe less with all those sov judges over in Mega-City One). An ops centre judge pleads for mercy. In a multi-panel pan, Dredd refutes and denies the request in a famous scene as twenty TADs are launched on their way to East-Meg One
2000AD has made the digital edition of the Judge Dredd: The Complete Case Files Vol.5 free for download, to help Squaxx get through Covid-19 isolation.
The back page also has a Star Wars ad – this one paid for by Airfix but featuring Palitoy AT-AT Walkers as prizes (plus cinema tickets and Airfix Imperial Star Destroyers).
Grailpage: could it be any page other than the end of Dredd? If “gaze into the fist of Dredd” is the most famous panel or page in British comics, then this is surely a candidate for the second most famous. Carlos Ezquerra – “Request denied!”
Grailquote: TB Grover, Judge Hershey: “They bought it!” Judge Dredd: “Let’s hit that ops centre before they wise up and try to sell it back!”
Back Prog Hack 