2000AD Prog 343: Clash of the War Droids!

What do we want? Giant robots fighting each other while tiny humans run away in terror! Where do we want it? On the cover! Kevin O'Neill obliges with this prog's Nemesis the Warlock cover. For no reason I can remember I didn't buy any progs between 342 and 350, so I wouldn't have read this …

2000AD Annual 1984

Dave Gibbons provided this cover, featuring an ensemble of Hammerstein (with Ro-Busters head), Slade, Rogue, Johnny Alpha, Dredd and Speedo Ghost in the background. I don't remember much about this annual, so can't remember if they all appear inside (in proper stories). Cosmic Contents has Robin Smith's armoured Tharg casting a spell or something. Sam …

2000AD Prog 323: Meet Nu Earth’s genetic infantrymen If his number comes up, they all die!

Brett Ewins put in a Rogue cover featuring the corporeal GI running and a stylistic take on this bio-chipped buddies. This was one of those 'fill-in' progs I got a few years after reading those before and after. Tharg's Nerve Centre is presented by Tharg Lynch (a reference to a soap opera character) and has …

2000AD Prog 308:This is SKIZZ “Fatality factor 79%… Goodbye, Interpreter Zhcchz!”

Picture the scene. It's a hot day in the early eighties, very possibly near the beginning of the school summer holidays. A hot day in the hottest summer of the 20th century. We were sitting on the front step of our house which faced on to an old disused canal. My family got chatting with …

2000AD Prog 283: The shedding – Tharg as you’ve never seen him

Art editor Robin Smith provides a pic of Tharg's face introducing us to the latest part work on this cover (more about that partwork on the back cover). This is another of those back progs I had in my possession at an early stage, so I know how some of these stories began but took …

2000AD Prog 278: “Do something, Slade! I’m gonna BURST!” Inflation hits Brit-Cit!

Not that I'm complaining, but there's an awful lot of Ian Gibson Robo-Hunter covers. The scene on this one takes place at the end of the last episode and beginning of this one. Tharg's Nerve Centre has a few missives from overseas readers, Tharg hints that international rules and regulations prevent competitions and offers being …

2000AD Prog 271: “Ditch him, G-B-H …the fate of Ace Trucking is at stake!” Battle of the Biffos!

Belardinelli's Ace Trucking Co cover features G-B-H in the midst of a fight. This is not the only Belardinelli cover to feature such a scene... Tharg's Nerve Centre opens with calamitous news. The price of the prog has increased by tuppence to 18p (as I write this, this week's prog cost £2.99). Sam Slade, Robo-Hunter: …

2000AD Prog 264: “Die, knave!” Robo-Hunter vs. Robo-Knight!

I was somewhat spoiled by the fully painted Ian Gibson cover on the Sci-Fi Special. Last week's Robo-Hunter cover followed by this week's Robo-Hunter cover pale in comparison. Tharg's Nerve Centre is filled with the news that a poem featured in the Prog 258 Nerve Centre was stolen from the lyrics of Rush - The …

2000AD Prog 245: "Let the apocalypse begin!" Target Mega-City One! Tharg's 1982 calendar – part 1 this prog!

The big news this prog is that King Carlos is back on Dredd, and it starts with the cover! Also, the Apocalypse War. In the Nerve Centre, Tharg plugs the next series of Robo-Hunter - returning 'soon' for a third series. Ace Trucking Co. by Grant Grover and Belardinelli. The pirates have boarded Speedo Ghost …

2000AD Prog 240: "So what's the cure?" "We don't know!" Block Mania

Another prog, another classic cover - eye-catching, memorable and by Brian Bolland (probably laid out by Robin Smith - as most covers appear to have been at this time ('coz he was art editor)). In the Nerve Centre, Tharg hosts letters from one terran who spotted the page of a Robo-Hunter story among those taken …