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.
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