Thrill-Power Countdown #8: Judge Dredd Annual 1983

Mean Machine Angel gets married; there are a couple of punk sci-fi girls by Brett Ewins; Max Normal goes right around the bend; the fleas are so bad that suicide is the only relief possible; Dave Gibbons gets to draw a picture of an alien creature sucking the clothes off an innocent woman; an AI-run hotel kills hundreds of people and because it's a classic reprint, Dredd gets to say 'I TOLD YOU SO'; and Carlos Ezquerra draws most of it.

I don't have much to say about this annual, but holy shit I had a good time reading it.

Thrill-Power Countdown #9: Judge Dredd Annual 1984

There have been literally thousands of individual Judge Dredd stories, they have been breathtakingly exciting, occasionally moving, and frequently absurd. And sometimes - just sometimes - they get a little too silly.

They can be so silly they must never be spoken of again, and are locked away in the darkest, deepest iso-cube. Sometimes it's the story where the Angel Gang get brought back to life in the dumbest possible way - we saw Pa and Junior burn in the fiery lava of Xanadu! - and sometimes it's the story in this annual where Judge Dredd beats up the literal Devil.

The hardcore Dredd fan is not supposed to like these kinds of stories, they disrespect the seriousness of Chaos Day and the Apocalypse War. But I'm as hardcore nerd as it gets, and I freaking love the ridiculous stuff. It's all part of the great buffet of Dredd, just a sweeter taste than usual.

Besides, Carlos Ezquerra draws a bitching Prince of Darkness. And the devil has returned in other stories since then, so he's not totally forgotten.

There's also a great interview with Carlos, and the 1984 annual has two other serious - but still light - Dredd stories by Ezquerra, with a mutant gang on the rampage and a detective story involving time travel from the future. Plus there is some gorgeous black and white art from Jose Casanovas on Max Normal and Mike McMahon doing his 'carved into wood' thing on a text story. 

McMahon also does a timeline of the world of Judge Dredd which must have been a revelation for readers of the time. So things might get silly, but that should keep the nerds who hate the fun a tiny bit happier.

Thrill-Power Countdown #10: 2000ad Annual 1983

By late 1982, 2000ad has got its stomm together. Here comes the first annual that feels like a full package, and while it doesn't start off well with a Strontium Dog story with unfortunate art by Robin Smith, it's almost all killer, with little filler.

By now the reprints are comics that were produced by the command module just a few years ago, so there is a bunch of Dave Gibbons on Harlem Heroes; and some lovely Ian Kennedy on a Bill Savage story; and the dreadfully underrated John Cooper on Mach One.

It also has two minor Alan Moore efforts - a Rogue Trooper fable with Brett Ewins, and a Ro-Busters story which has some terrific Bryan Talbot art, which also has the irritating habit of over-explaining Joe Pineapples' jargon. 

It also has another one of those small Nemesis The Warlock stories, and this one might be my favourite of all of them, because it's the origin of the living spaceship Blitzspear, and Mills and O'Neill show just how fucking alien they are, and it's a glorious burst of pure imagination, in a book that is full of it.

Thrill-Power Countdown #11: Judge Dredd Annual 1986

While it always helps when they are largely drawn by Ezquerra - with a healthy dose of our hero John Higgins - the Dredd stories in this annual really are top stuff.

None of them are particular original plots - one has a low-level perp left tied up on the wrong street and losing everything, the second story has a Citi-Def squad going a little futsie and attacking the city, while the third is a bog-standard hostage situation.

But each story is packed with incident, metaphor and dark humour. Mega-City One is a metropolis with breathtaking technology, but it's also a city where an armed militia might kill hundreds of people in some mad training exercise, or you could be murdered by somebody who just wants to get on TV, or you could be cut up by organ leggers who steal everything but your soul. And that's just a Tuesday in MC-1.

These stories have a lot to say about culture and society, with a healthy dose of commentary on the state of modern media, while also delivering wicked twists and balls-out action. This is classic Dredd, in all senses of the word.

The 1986 annual also comes with a Judge Anderson story drawn by Ian Gibson, and this might be  a controversial opinion, but I genuinely believe Gibson is the best Judge Anderson artist, so that's also always welcome.

Thrill-Power Countdown #12: 2000ad Annual 1990

In the late 1980s, while the rest of the comic book world is losing their shit over things like Watchmen and Maus, my absolute favourite comic in the entire world is Zenith by Grant Morrison and Steve Yeowell.

Zenith hits hard, and not just when the title character is punching holes through the chests of super-dimensional Nazis. It's the first time I really take note of who the writer is and make a vow to follow them wherever they go (literally one of the best decisions of my entire life), and I have vivid dreams I had about being a member of Cloud 9. So when I see the ads for the 1990 Annual in the weekly prog and see there is a Zenith story in there, it physically pains me that I can't get a copy.

Of all of these annuals on this list, only two are ever sold in bookstores near me so that I can buy them at the time. I come to almost all of them late, and it's almost a decade before I get the 1990 effort and finally read this lost Zenith story. And it's not really much of a story at all - Peter St John is telepathically attacked and things get very weird - and doesn't even have the glorious art of Steve Yeowell (Jim McCarthy is an excellent artist - I still have a soft spot for Bix Barton - but Yeowell is the only true Zenith artist.) 

The rest of this annual is fairly mediocre, with forgettable Dredd and Moonrunners, and the reprint is a godawful Tharg-starring story, but it will always be one of my favourite annuals because of that Zenith connection, because there is always a small part of me that still thinks it is the best comic in the world.

Thrill-Power Countdown #13: Judge Dredd Annual 1987

The basic design of Judge Dredd - as envisioned by co-creator Carlos Ezquerra - hasn't changed much in half a century. Those ridiculous shoulder pads, the truly iconic helmet, the gun in the boot, the badge on a chain - it still all looks drokking fantastic.

One of the reasons for this staying power is that it is as rigid as old Joe himself, but still gives artists with very different styles the chance to stamp their own mark. And while this annual is sadly lacking in any new work from our man Carlos, it does have three very different artists bringing some very different styles 

It starts with Ian Gibson - more well known as the definitive Robo Hunter artist and for his work on Halo Jones - who does a great Dredd, although I do prefer his later version with the more ridiculous proportions. Then there is more Bryan Talbot, who somehow gives a very, very silly story about dwarves led by a Sylvester Stallone clone some grit and heft.

And there is Brendan McCarthy, one of the most extraordinary Dredd artists ever, and someone who never tones down his ridiculously trippy style, and gets given a story where Dredd is totally off his tits on some alien hallucinogen, which might make it the ultimate McCarthy Dredd ever. 

With Ron Smith doing his thing on a classic reprint - Dredd versus a horde of Cursed Earth killer spider - this gives any reader a great taste of the various flavours of Dredd, and the heights it can reach.

Thrill-Power countdown #14: 2000ad Annual 2025

It shouldn't rate this highly. On a purely craft level, it's competent enough, but there are no modern classics lurking within.

The Lawless text story is probably the best thing inside those thick covers, because Lawless is always good, but there is also a Tales from the Black Museum, which is the definition of a filler, and the first Rogue Trooper story is reprinted with some grudawful modern colouring.

But the real thrill was in the very existence of a new annual, after all these years. Especially if you got the website edition, with a Bolland cover on a bright primary colour, with that shiny 1980s logo - still the best logo the galaxy's greatest ever had. (The only sign it wasn't done by Bolland back in the day are two background characters looking at the heroes, as if it to say look at these dweebs, a very modern touch from old Brian.)

Just to have something like that in my hands was as thrilling as a thousand future shocks, a back to the future moment that gave me the purest of joys. 

It does annoy me that it's physical dimensions are very slightly bigger than the old annuals though. If you're going to have the Splundig Vur Thrigg badge on the back, you should be able to get the size right. But a new 2000ad annual for Christmas is a true light in the winter darkness.  

Thrill-Power Countdown interlude: Here come the Yearbooks

The 2000ad and Judge Dredd Yearbooks don't get a rating this month - they would all be down in the basement of the rankings if they were - but it's worth mentioning there were a few odd gems in the four years they were produced.

So you get some Cam Kennedy Dredd and some Glen Fabry Slaine. Some Rogue Trooper goodness by the Indigo Prime team of Smith and Weston; and some black-and-white Durham Red by Grant and Ezquerra; a Judge Joyce story by Ennis and Dillon just as they were starting to really kick arse on Hellblazer.  

There is also far, far too muany Mark Millar stories, when the writer reallywas at his most obnoxiously provocative, and great artists like Steve Yeowell are wasted on nothing stories.

The soft covers mean the actual package feels flimsier and lighter, and that sense fills much of these efforts, although there are some excellent reprint choices that look spectacular on the glossy, large-size paper.

But it's no surprise the Yearbooks never caught on - they only lasted four years, and were later replaced by the end-of-year giant prog, a formula that has remained successful for more than 20 years now. The Yearbooks were nothing special, even with those odd gems, and certainly not as special as the annuals.

Thrill-Power Countdown #15: 2000ad Annual 1984

There are about a dozen books in the Nemesis The Warlock saga, each incredibly distinctive from the other, but it all started with a couple of short stories in the weekly prog, and sometimes the shorter stories make all the unending hatred generated by the people of Termight easier to deal with.

Take the story in the 1984 Annual - A Day in the Death of Torquemada. He's literally the worst human being who has ever lived, and there is the blackest of humor in seeing how this monster goes around his daily un-life, but it's all over and done in four pages, all gorgeously illustrated by Kevin O'Neill in his detailed prime (O'Neill is also represented with Bonjo from Beyond the Stars, and that's a welcomly goofy palate cleanser to Torquemada's xenophobia.)

But you really are getting bang for your buck with the annuals, Alan Moore is back with a couple of efforts - a minor Ro-Busters piss-take of the Thunderbirds that is rarely reprinted, and a touching Rogue Trooper story by the great Jesus Redondo, where somebody objectively rejects all the horror of Nu-Earth's future war and refuses to fight, and wins his quiet battle against needless death. Moore also provides a severly tongue in cheek behind the scenes look into how the Skizz was created.

Plus you've got a Judge Anderson story that shows Kim Raymond was much more suited to Cassandra than Johnny Alpha, Ian Gibson does some Robo-Hunter with a very familiar looking robot dog on the prowl and there is a very silly Dredd story with Robin Smith's typically lifeless artwork.  

This is the golden age of 2000ad, and it's still chasing the future, with an article on home computing features the obligatory code who could type into your ZX81. Tharg knows that computers are the future, and wants all the Earthlets to be ready for the digital world.

Thrill-Power Countdown #16: Judge Dredd Annual 1989

The only true Strontium Dog is Carlos Ezquerra Strontium Dog, although other artists should still be encouraged to give it a go. And it's almost arguable that the only true Judge Deddd is Ezquerra Dredd, even if that character is much more open to interpretation.

What is certain is that by the mid 80s, Ezquerra is the standard for all Dredd. He's the co-creator, after all, and while he walked away from the character early when he wasn't able to do the first appearance, he is now drawn more Dredd than anybody else, including all the big mega-epics. 

Brian Bolland and Ron Smith - the other definitive artists of the period - both appear in the reprint section of the 1989 Judge Dredd annual, but all the new Dredd material is our man Carlos.

It's not much of a story unfortunately, a vampire infects Mega City One and it goes the way you'd expected, A lot of Dredd stories of this time were both over-stuffed and under-explained, and this is ceertainly one of them.

Still, Dredds vs vampires is the kind of high concept that had to happen somewhere, so it might as well be here, and it's all brilliantly drawn, of course. And the text sections are unexpectedly fascinating - there is a Neil Gaiman text story - but who gives a fuck about that anymore - but it's always fun to find out what the Dredd creative team's favourite books, films and TV are - Grant Morrison's list is exactly what you'd expect, with Aleister Crowley, Philip Larkin and Harlen Ellison all making the list. Please don't ever change, Grant.

Thrill-Power Countdown #17: Judge Dredd Annual 1988

We have some familiar faces  behind the art of this late annual - Mark Farmer does another slick Judge Anderson story, and the main tale is drawn by John Higgins in his absolute prime.

As noted earlier, Higgins is still an A+ artist today. His line has got a little softer in the past few decades, but in the mid-eighties is was sharp enough to cut your throat. His painted work is remarkable - check out World Without End, one of his few American efforts. I still don't understand it, but know it looks gorgeous. His Razorjack comic is fucking fantastic - there was even a crossover with the main Dredd strip a few years back - and I just read his latest Dredger comic last night in the latest Actin special and it was absolute aces.

In this annual he's in the Cursed Earth, and it's another fairly rote story for that setting. It's surprisingly brutal, with a lone female judge's horrific death setting off the plot, with some doses of dark humour - the villains are literally named the Bad Guys, with an army of creeps with names like Rough Guy, Tough Guy, Little Guy, Little Little Guy, Titchy Little guy and Girl Guy. Higgins' painted pages sell that absurdity, and the blasted wasteland of the Cursed Earth never looked shinier or sharper. 

It's a solid annual of its time, but does lose points for trying to use Bolland's single page that he did for prog 500, but was rejected because the artist dared to spend his page asking here the money from all the merchandise featuring his art was going, and it's been re-lettered here to say Bolland was 'bored stiff' of drawing Dredd so many times. It's a blatant grasp for some Bolland material, but definitely leaves a sour taste in the mouth.

Thrill-Power Countdown #18: 2000ad Annual 1982

We're in the period of great Bolland covers - and this is another fine effort - with the artist also producing some rare inside pages, and obviously enjoying his opportunity to draw some extremely goofy alien monsters, as Dredd deals with carnage at an alien zoo (even going down the throat of one of them to get his man).

It's also the period of Alan Moore doing all sorts of odd things for 2000ad, including a bunch of small short stories. His Ro-Busters story in this edition is obviously Moore - a little sad, a little whimsical, a little edgy - and has some wonderful art by Steve Dillon (more on the tragedy that there weren't more Moore/Dillon collaborations in a later annual).

The memory banks of 2000ad are raided for some Mach One, which only shows how much the comic has evolved in the few short years; the seemingly obligatory Flesh; and some groovy early Dredd. There's still too much filler, and way more Tharg than anybody needs, and the Strontium Dog story again shows how weak it can be when Carlos Ezquerra isn't involved. At least the always welcome Colin Wilson produces some fine line artwork in a short story.

There is not much else to say about the 1982 effort -  the 2000ad annuals are getting better every year, and still not near the heights they will reach in a couple of years, but they are in sight. 

Thrill-Power Countdown #19: 2000ad Annual 2026

The return of the annual in the past couple of years has truly filled my heart with joy, which is why this annual may be rated a little higher than it deserves. I might be paying almost 20 times the amount I paid for last year's effort than I did for the annual I bought in late 1985, but the reemergence of the annual has strengthened my belief that this is the best format for pure thrills (especially when I've given up on the weekly prog due to international distribution nightmares.)

Like all comics in this day and age, it has to come with a bloody variant cover, and Simon Bisley produces something quite strange for the webshop-only edition, but Ladronn's cover is so beautifully stylized that it still feels new and bold, even if it's just Dredd and chums standing around.

Inside those thick covers, it's an eclectic mix of reprint - Steve Dillon is represented with some unseen Hap Hazzard (although there is some shameful modern colour work on it - Steve's stuff always looked better with flat colours); the late, great Marty Emond's Chopper story is still breath-taking; there are some short doses of Glenn Fabry and John Hicklenton (the latter is far more appreciated these days, to the point that they are now reprinting a typically dire comic script written by Jim Alexander). 

The largest chunk of reprint is the Satanus Unchained story from 2001, which has some of the usual lovely art by Colin MacNeil, but the story is still more famous for infuriating Satanus creator Pat Mills (to be fair, it doesn't take much to infuriate Pat.)

The new stories are also a mixed bag, but giving Joe Currie two Dredd strips to draw is a great idea - Currie is one of the current stars of the weekly prog with some wonderful and extremely idiosyncratic work on the vampires v aliens Silver strip. But the final story in the book only has Currie's art going for it, because the script is literally incomprehensible, to the point there is a Tharg note explaining this is a "different Mega-City One". 

Currie is really good, though, even if the story doesn't make any kind of sense, the part where the Dark Judges run riot is properly horrifying. Also, Staz Johnson is an excellent Rogue Trooper artist, with the right dose of gritty detail on his story.

So we're far from the heights of the great annuals of the past, but it's an interesting step forward. The line-up for this year's effort has recently been announced and looks like it's going to be an absolute cracker, and worth paying 20 times over.

Thrill-Power Countdown #20: 2000ad Annual 1989

While the annuals tend to be, by nature, stand-alone efforts, the stories in the 1989 annual require a fair amount of knowledge of what has been happening in the ongoing sagas of the various characters.

Slaine is off on a mystical quest that he's been stuck on for a long while (with some welcome unusual art by Steve Parkhouse); Ace Trucking Co sees Garp the Barp from Parp return to his home dimension after some doppelganger shenanigans (with annual MVP Belardinelli) but comes with a weirdly grim ending, and a Bad Company  by the original BC crew fills in some backstory in the original tale.

The Dredd isn't as dialed in to the vast continuity of the main strip, although it is another comedy musical - Wagner and Grant were very good at this kind of thing, but they did do it a lot. What it does have  is art by John Higgins, who was amazingly shiny at this stage. Higgins is still doing Dredd material today - his Dreadnaughts is really great - and he does some remarkable gore, showing the impact of bullets of fragile human bodies. But this is a trippier Higgins, with some gorgeous neon pastel colour work; while Ewins and McCarthy are also letting their freak fly with Kano and co.

There is a lot of Flesh in the reprint - the hunting dinosaurs kind, not the porn kind - which is always entertaining. But there is a real sense that the best days were in the past, and it's little wonder that so much of this annual is looking back on it with such fondness. 

Thrill-Power Countdown #21: 2000ad Annual 1987

The reprint material was definitely the weakest part of the early annuals, because they had to resort to pre-2000ad material. But by 1986, there is a wealth of material in the Command Module's archives, and sometimes it outshines the new stuff.

This annual is a little disappointing, and the weakest of 2000ad's golden age. The cover is a lame Robin Smith effort - Smith was a fantastic designer, but his finished work always looked stiff and stilted. There is a Grant Morrison strip, but it's the lamest of all his meta efforts, with a writer's submission to a sci-fi magazine travelling all over the universe and causing all sorts of carnage before ending up rejected by a publisher.

There is some really nice art on a couple of strips - Jose Ortiz's work on a Rogue Trooper story comes with some rare colour that is startling to see on the usual monochromatic artist, and Bryan Talbot turns up to do a Dredd story. Talbot does a great Dredd - his story in the first issue of 2000ad Diceman has the best appearances of the Dark Judges not drawn by Bolland - although the story in this annual of a judge dressing up as a woman to catch a perp is just as problematic as you'd expect (even with a Girl Power! ending).

But Kim Raymond's efforts on a colour Strontium dog story are dire. While I'm more fond of Raymond's gooey Dredd than Wagner and Grant vocally were, it doesn't work at all here

So the highlight is the reprint pages, which get into the full Terra-Meks story from Ro-Busters, and it's just page after page of Dave Gibbons drawing giant robots beating the circuits out of each other, while getting in some blatant social commentary about class warfare. It's top stuff.

2000ad had been around for 10 years at this stage, and while it doesn't hit the target all the time and is starting to flail as its best creators look across the Atlantic, but there is joy in the comic's own past, especially when it's a slick as this.

Thrill-Power Countdown #22: 2000ad Annual 1978

The very first annual that 2000ad ever produced, just a few months after the comic was launched, shares many of the flaws of the earliest books. But it also has one advantage that came with the very first progs - Pat Mills' eye for a great artist. 

Mills put a lot of time and thought into the creation of 2000ad, and finding the creators that would fill the pages of the galaxy's greatest comics, and original stars Mike McMahon and Massimo Belardinelli are both heavily represented in the first annual, with a bit of Kev On'Neill thrown in for kicks, You even get the secret origin of Shako, the only polar bear on the CIA's death list. 

There is still a load of filler - a strip called Death Bug was an aborted serial for the prog, not good enough for weekly consumption, but good enough to fill in the last few pages of the annual, and there are some short stories that are only a tiny bit better than the ones seen in the next few years. And it's got the most 'that'll do' cover to any of the annuals, with Dan Dare posing awkwardly with a green ghost demon thing. 

But the use of those original artists still made it the best of the early years, and set a standard that the next few years of annuals did not quite manage to live up to, but would be easily surpassed within a few short years.

Thrill-Power Countdown #23: Judge Dredd Annual 1990

There are only a few less Judge Dredd annuals than 2000ad got, but they are generally of a higher quality, probably because of that tighter focus. This is still the weakest of them, even with a bitching John Higgins cover (more on Higgins later), but the thrill-power is starting to kick in.

There is some terrific art at this stage of the comic - Arthur Ranson never looked better than on the sharp white paper of these hardbacks, and if anybody needed Jamie Hewlett's portrayal of Max Normal (I certainly did), that's here in a Pete Milligan text piece.

There are some fairly forgettable stories with art by Jeff Anderson and Mark Farmer. Farmer is more well known for his inking, and while he is also strong and slick penciller, he is wasted on a slight story with a very clumsy ending ("These guys are actually alive after plummeting from a great height!").

Some of the nicest art is in the reprints - Ian Gibson's daily strip full story about a mad vigilante is cramped but super efficient, and there is a reproduction of the fine three-part A Question Of Judgement stories from Ron Smith, the first to really dig into the idea that Dredd can have doubts, and the first appearance of his tight boots solution. 

That particular reprint does lose points in this annual for being printed out of order, which feels like Tharg isn't paying that much attention anymore. And the Dredd annual might be a nice package, but  doesn't feel like a big deal as it once was, just as the Judge Dredd Megazine is about to come along to give the thrill seeker far more the Dredd than they'll ever need.

Thrill-Power Countdown #24: 2000ad Annual 1981

The weekly prog in late 1980 is really starting to take off into the stratosphere - Dredd and Strontium Dog are well established, almost perfectly formed, and Nemesis The Warlock and Rogue Trooper are not far away. But the annuals are still struggling to keep up.

Beneath the 1981 annual's Dave Gibbons cover - with a rare Gibbons Johnny Alpha - there is some of that edge to it. The Ro-Busters story starts with a cute kid falling into a chasm caused by an earthquake (this is the sort of thing I thought would be a real concern in my life, thanks largely to 2000ad), and the Dredd story by Brett Ewins (apparently the first ever full-colour Dredd strip) has a fantastic 'EAT JUDGE BOOT, LAWBREAKER!' panel.

It also has one of the always fascinating behind the scenes features that shows how the comic is created, through the way a page of Bolland Dredd was scripted, drawn and lettered, which always a good value for those who like to see how the sausage was made. And there is a Tharg-related story that isn't totally repellant.

But there is still too much Phantom Patrol and Guinea Pig, as well as another tedious reprint in something called Smokeman, which I re-read 10 minutes ago and have already forgotten everything about it. And the paper stock is still cheap and nasty, which never does the art any favours. 

The 2000ad annual is definitely reaching the stars, but it's not quite there yet.

Thrill-Power Countdown #25: 2000ad Annual 1991

It's the era of the credit card logo, and the highs of the 80s annuals have worn off.  And the last hardback annual of the 20th century, before the move to the dreaded yearbooks, goes out on a weak note, when it really needs a power chord. 

At least the reprint material is now deep into the good stuff, with some high-quality Cam Kennedy Rogue Trooper, (Kennedy's aliens also come with real weight). The new stories also feature work by some of the most underrated artists of the period, like Paul Marshall and Kev Hopgood. 

But they don't have access to most of the great 2000ad artists anymore - Belardinelli puts in a welcome appearance, even if it is wasted on the terribly average Moon Runners - and there is the slightest hint of flop-sweat around the whole book, trying so hard to recapture the glories of just a few years ago. 

There's an interesting Strontium Dog story with Johnny Alpha at the end of the world that desperately need some Ezquerra magic - artist Keith Page is certainly talented, but the wrong choice for this story. At least there is a fun Tyranny Rex text story by Smith/Fegredo - when the comic is trying so hard to be cool, some can still do it effortlessly.

Thrill-Power countdown #26: 2000ad Annual 1980

An improvement on the previous year, but 2000ad still hasn't found its groove yet, and the reprints continue to drag things down - there's still far more Phantom Patrol and Guinea Pig than anyone really needs. 

Some of the text pieces get a bit too excited about jet planes and submarines, but there is also a historically interesting piece on this new fangled video recorder technology that multiple companies are trying to put into peoples' homes.  

The biggest disappointment is that there isn't any of the great 2000ad artists involved - Bolland makes his first appearance in an annual, but it's one panel ripped from a strip in the weekly prog, used to illustrate a mediocre text story. The art in story after story is by artists nobody ever hears of again, and filled with their amateur traits of clumsy staging and abnormally large heads.

There are still too may weird little one-offs, and they are still not brave enough to call them Future Shocks. Ro-Busters and Judge Dredd are getting closer to their final form, but Dredd still has a long way to go. If he's not musing on wearing a tropical version of his uniform the next time he's in Mega-Miami, he's letting Walter the Wobot get away with an egregious and extremely illegal betrayal.

The weekly progs in the very late 70s were already singing a song of pure thrill-power, but the annual presentation remained lackluster.

Thrill-Power Countdown #27: 2000ad Annual 1979

All of the 2000ad annuals have some kind of thrill-power, and there are still some sparks of it in the second big book that 2000ad produced back in the late 1970s. There is some very early Brett Ewins/Brendan McCarthy comics, which look sharp and modern, even if they still have the unavoidable clumsiness of youth. And there is a typically shiny and sharp cover from the truly mighty Kevin O'Neill.

But much of the comic material in this annual is dire, with artists who are clearly not ready for prime time on established strips like Dan Dare, MACH 1, Harlem Heroes and Invasion - the indispensable Barney database doesn't even know who did much of the art for this annual, and the stories are just as forgettable. The successful formula that 2000ad will lock into in the early 80s isn't quite there yet, and the annual is full of short stories that they can't even bother calling a Future Shock.

There is also a load of reprint material, and because company policy was to not reprint anything too recent, it's all from the pre-2000ad days and dull, like they escaped a 1966 Lion annual. The Phantom Patrol is a lot of empty sound and fury that goes on forever, although The Guinea Pig is almost charming with some bonkers ideas (why not float all the way to the moon in a space suit?) And some Dr Sin is always welcome. 

But it's easily the poorest of all the annuals. Maybe some kids in the dying days of the late 70s got their thrills out of this thick collection, but the future could only get better from here.

Another Thrill-Power Countdown: Ranking all the 2000ad and Judge Dredd annuals

The Tearoom of Despair is all about staying on top of modern comic book trends, so of course I'm going to spend the next few weeks writing about 2000ad and Judge Dredd annuals from the 1980s.

The old British hardback annuals are my platonic ideal of the perfect comic, a done-in-one package loaded with great art and stories, in the chunkiest and most durable of formats. They are also full of reprints and filler material, and the best of them are notable for being edited by somebody who deeply cares about giving the kids the best bang for their buck.

The 2000ad annuals do vary wildly in quality, and while there are obvious golden periods like the 1980s, some are most definitely more strotnig than others.

So every day for the next month, I will be ranking all of these annuals against each other, all judged by my own inscrutable standards (spoiler - it's all about the art).  Just the 2000ad and Judge Dredd annuals, no Star Lord annual and definitely none of the yearbooks, because they are a whole other level of dire comic.

Sometimes this is easy, the very best and the very worst are blindingly obvious (and the most disappointing are mostly the earliest or latest of the annuals). But there are also four or five years of Dredd annuals that are total Ezquerra lovefests and while this is obviously fantastic, it's really drokking hard to rate one over the other.

But that's what subjective lists are all about. And if all the best things in life can be rated, so can 2000ad annuals.