2000AD #2006 was pretty flawless, too.
Regular readers of this blog know my love of the Kev Walker droid, so I barely need to point out just how cool I find that cover... mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Tharg. Love the way he draws Johnny Alpha's helmet. A bit puritanical, a bit Napoleonic.
The first Judge Dredd story, "Class of '79", illustrated by the lesser-spotted Greg Staples, seems to serve a dual purpose, first as a christmas story, and secondly as a prologue of sorts for "Origins": John Wagner's next big epic, dwelling upon the (largely unstoried) early years of Dredd, pre-prog #1. I'm guessing Andy Helfer's "early Dredd" stories, illustrated by Mike Avon Oeming over at DC, will be fully excised from canon after this. And worra crappy link, 'cus Oeming draws the second Dredd story in the mag, "Straight Eye For The Crooked Guy"! It's just another of those little pop-culture specific parodies that The Toof does now and then, but it's fun (written by Robbie Morrison) and stylish (Oeming is a vastly superior and more confident artist now than when he last essayed Dredd, and it shows - hope he can spare the time to do a couple more like this).
I'm fucking knackered, so I won't go into any further rapturous detail, just insist - if you in any way care about the future of comics in the U.K! - go out and buy this issue. Right now. Oh, and I really liked the first part of Rob Williams & Mark Harrison's The Ten Seconders. If it continues in the vein implied by this first installment, it could turn out to be a cross between Zenith, V For Vendetta, and Roger Zelazny's LORD OF LIGHT. Plus I really liked Harrison's artwork: less of his acclaimed digital manipulation, and more actual drawing, but in a looser, pared-down style: like a cross between Guy Davis and D'Israeli. Groovy.