Titan rising: ABC Warriors by Mick McMahon

I'm not going to lie - life is still a hectic mess this month and another few weeks of low-content mode is the only option. 

At least the Tearoom of Despair is going to look pretty, because the next month will be a showcase of some gorgeous 2000ad art by some undisputed talents. The covers to the reprint albums that Titan put out in the 1980s are arguably the very best pieces of artwork produced during the golden age of 2000ad, with almost all of the big veteran artists of the comic - including Bolland, McMahon, Ezquerra, O'Neill and Kennedy - given new palettes and opportunistic to capture moments of brilliance in the galaxy's geratest comic, while brilliantly mad outsiders like Bill Sienkiewicz and Dave McKean get their brief shots at 2000ad glory.

The books with these art on the front were also absolutely unobtainable to a frothing 2000ad fanboy like I was at the time (and still am, to be perfectly honest) and all I could do is stare at the tiny black and white ads that would run in the regular progs at the time. It was out of my hands, but how could I call really myself a Squaxx dek Thargo if I didn't have these beautiful, beautiful books?

I saw a few in book stores in my corner of the world, including this ABC Warriors stunner by the mighty Mick MacMahon, but they were almost always prohibitively expensive. All I could do is stare at them on the shelves, and at those tiny ads, and I still just want to keep staring.