Although we don’t often find ourselves covering ‘the galaxy’s greatest comic’ on here, we thought we’d make an exception for this year’s 2000 AD Sci-Fi Special as it features an all female team of writers and artists tackling the world of Dredd and co for the very first time. It’s a veritable who’s who of UK talent from established names like Leah Moore and Alex de Campi alongside up and comers like Olivia Hicks and Abigail Bulmer, as well as a FutureShock from the incomparable Tillie Walden, which is reason enough to pick it up in our book!

Publisher: Rebellion
Writer: Various
Artist: Various
Price: £4.99 from shop.2000ad.com

As you would expect from a 2000 AD Sci Fi Special, it features the usual mix of established characters like Dredd and Rogue Trooper, but all brought to you with fresh creative teams. This includes Emma Beeby and Babs Tarr giving us a really high energy take on Dredd with a story about a new drug called ‘feels’ that is infiltrating the blocks. As well as a Judge Anderson story from Maura McHugh and Emma Viecelli which sees her attempting to relax but being plagued by her inner demons. There’s also an awesome Judge Death story from Leah Moore which sees him pass judgment on a heavy metal band, which is the kind of story you could only get from a metalhead like Leah!

But it’s not just about the old guard, as two of the real stand outs from this special have to be the wonderful Futureshock from Tillie Walden, which manages to showcase her unique brand of thoughtful sci-fi as seen in On A Sunbeam, but without feeling out of place in the page of the Prog. And also Hockeysticks of Hell from Olivia Hicks and Abigail Bulmer, which is the kind of goofy, tongue in cheek comics that you would expect from a classic British summer special and is a real shot in the arm in terms of humour and colour.

Whatever you feel about the kind of positive discrimination that has given us this ‘all female’ special, at the end of the day the 2000 AD Sci Fi Special is a really enjoyable comic which won’t disappoint any who pick it up. Hopefully it will open the door for a few of these talented creators to work on the Prog more regularly, as well as entice a few more readers in thanks to the PR and word of mouth it is getting, and that can only be a good thing for a comic with such a pedigree.