Prog 400 2000AD celebrates its four hundredth issue with a whaam-tastic cover!

Prog 399 Amazing cover, (with added profanity acronym that must've sneaked by WH Smith's strict magazine rack policy back then). Have a great 1985 everybody!

Farewell Jimmy Cliff R.I.P. www.youtube.com/watch?v=pwto...

Prog 398 They say Christmas seems to come earlier every year. Art by the absolutely brill, Kevin O'Neill. There is a touch of Ken Reid's Creepy Creations from the back page of Shiver & Shake about this cover. If you remember them, then you iz old.

For the Frankie Tan fans www.youtube.com/watch?v=FGmA...

Prog 397 That's a superb monster design! It's like something from a Guillermo del Toro movie.

I'm now 10 years older than the veteran blues singer, Ray Charles (1930-2004), when he made his cameo in The Blues Brothers (1980) I hope to report back in 22 year's time to make the same observation about the veteran jazz artist, Cab Calloway's (1927-1994) turn in the same film. Fingers crossed!

Prog 396. I don't believe I've ever seen Dredd look so uncomfortable. And I don't think it has anything to do with Hershey turning into a thirsty vampire. Is that Judge Anderson giving her the evils?

Prog 395 🎶 Oh, I see a man at the back As a matter of fact, his eyes are as red as a sun And the girl in the corner, let no one ignore her 'Cause she thinks she's the passionate one... Ballroom Blitz! 🎶

It's time for this country to release the Piglet files. Now! We demand to know the real reason why between 1990 and 1992, an inexperienced sacked polytechnic lecturer was given a job at MI5. What are the Tories hiding? Beep your horn if you agree.

Prog 394 Even when Mega City One is under such grave threat, Joe Dredd still has the good humour to make a pun referencing the title of a police procedural TV series from a hundred and twenty years ago.

Prog 393 Little reference to POTUS Reagan which tells us we are still placed firmly in the 1980s. If this issue came out today, the top banner would read, "Move over, Don - Slippery Jim di Griz is back!" And then 2000ad would get litigated.

Gadzooks! More of me old tat from my parent's attic. Play castle, probably from the 1960s. Calling all vintage toy experts. Do you know who manufactured this? I've examined it thoroughly but can't find any branding.

Prog 392 Ok, we have another 2000AD synch in our cross hairs. What were you doing on this very date 41 years ago? Me? Probably, having a snog, being a student skinhead twat, and visiting the local nick with all my motorist details after getting pulled over... yet again.

Picked up this last Saturday. Love that artwork! One of the tracks gave me a proper 1970s Proustian rush, (which I rarely get these days). Stumped by what the tune evoked, I soon discovered it's the end titles music to Why Don't You..? www.youtube.com/watch?v=KG3j...

Prog 391 Jurassic larks?

Prog 390 The Wally Squad look the typical American movie versions of alternative types/ street punks that you got in the mid-1980s. ie: Suburbia, Class Of Nuke'em High, The Return Of The Living Dead, Deathwish 3... etc

Just heard 'She's A Star' by James on 6Music. You know what that song is crying out for? Instead of the fade out, a Frank Sidebottom sign off. 🎶It's a long road It's a good call You've got it You've got it She's a staaaaaaar.🎶 "You know she is, she really is. Thank You".

Prog 389 Dredd already at the 007 'No Time To Die' stage of his storyline? It's a shame they didn't say 'A "suitable" case for treatment' just for the '60s cult movies fans.

Here's an oddball album I picked up last Saturday. Seriously funky track below. www.youtube.com/watch?v=89M5...

Prog 388 Nice conceptual cover today, I like it.

Prog 387 Looking at this cover all I can hear now in my mind is Peter Boyle singing "Putting on the Ritz" from Young Frankenstein. www.youtube.com/watch?v=ab7N...

I received a repeat fee today of £7:23 for my appearance in the BBC sitcom My Family. It was filmed at Pinewood Studios. At lunch, I sneaked off and had a nose around the 007 stage. Would never get away with that now. Can anyone guess from this image what movie set I saw that day?

In my freewheeling current mental state this evening, I nearly considered pledging a quarter of a grand for some Kickstarter "exclusive" anniversary book'n' gubbins package. It's all bollocks, innit? Thank god I was listening to The Stranglers tonight. www.youtube.com/watch?v=HzFO...

Prog 386 Tharg's arch-enemies, The Dictators Of Zrag strike again. You'd think the arch enemy of the editor of 2000 AD would be Stan Lee. I can't quite work out whether the office carpet is on fire here or if its mouldy wallpaper.

Picked up this little promo single at the weekend. It's a shame somebody scrawled on the cover. Sacrilege! youtube.com/watch?v=KcuY...

Two 2000 AD back page treats today. A Nemesis The Warlock strip pictorial 'ghoul'ossary of sorts. ...and a salute to Tom Frame. Letterers never get any recognition, so fair play to Tharg for acknowledging those often unsung peeps working at the coalface of comics.

Prog 385 Johnny Alpha attempts to recreate the Abbot & Costello baseball routine with the Stix brothers, Groucho and Harpo, but screws up the first line.

...and now we've lost Squeeze, drummer, Gilson Lavis! R.I.P. www.youtube.com/watch?v=nlZ9...

Farewell Pauline Collins R.I.P. This is how I've always thought of her, Clara from No, Honestly. She was so talented, charismatic and funny. www.youtube.com/watch?v=wpsb...

Prog 384 Dredd story that if I recall seemed to have entirely lifted the plot from the horror film, Alligator (1980). One of those video rental stalwarts at the time.

Prog 383 It's all getting a bit silly now. Is that a quote from Deliverance (1972) too? Zoinks!

Good night XX www.youtube.com/watch?v=dIZS...

Exciting news coming soon! youtube.com/watch?v=nmR7...

Prog 382 Yesterday, I declared that the pun on the front cover was probably the best 2000AD had done yet. Today, I am suggesting this pun might be their worst.

Sunday quiz Name the TV comedy show this screenshot is taken from.

Prog 381 First they tell us 2000AD is zarjaz, scrotnig and ghafflebette, but then Johnny Alpha reveals that it is all an illusion and the comic this week is merely quite good. Although, 'Mutie and the beast' is the best cover pun they've done yet!

Has there ever been a more terrifying horror movie trailer than this? Imagine seeing it in 1973? www.youtube.com/watch?v=jyW5...

I'm surprised Andrew Mountbatten Windsor hasn't changed his name to...

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!

Prog 380 (& Prog 377 scan) Two covers today. Someone mentioned a few days ago that I hadn't posted 377. Oops, I must've missed that so had another look in my collection. I don't have a copy. Apparently, there was a shortage that week. Grrrr... my head dial setting is up to 4!

Prog 379 Three shots, but only two KPOW! sounds. One can only deduce that the silence of the third shot means Rogue has also been rendered stone deaf. But wait! Those bubbles floating around his head in comic strips often signifies heavy inebriation. Is he actually blind drunk!?!

I got woken up 'again' this morning by the builder next door shouting out "FIRE IN THE HOLE!" Perhaps, tomorrow he could disturb me by bellowing a different movie cliche? ie- "WE'VE GOT COMPANY!" Or "YOU JUST DON'T GET IT, DO YOU?" Or "YOU AND I ARE NOT SO DIFFERENT AFTER ALL!

Reading some of the bananas posts on social media today just makes me think of James Finlayson's summary of the whole situation.

Prog 378 A dynamic Belardinelli cover, and the man (art droid) himself eating a bowl of pasta (because he's Italian, of course he'd be eating a bowl of pasta, you idiota) with Ace Garp's sentient scarf.

Interesting chazza shop 7" single find of the week. I didn't know London Weekend Television had its own record label. Reggae theme tune for a sitcom about the unbridled hilarity of being in an interracial marriage in 1978. www.youtube.com/watch?v=JZwL...

Good night and love to you all X www.youtube.com/watch?v=kqw3...

I recently found a page from an old issue of early eighties magazine, Flexipop in the attic. A time when this sort of weirdo/ hateful discourse only had a voice in the back pages of the music press, now online you can't get away from this sort of crap.

Prog 376 Friday Pop quiz. Without Googling (yeah, right...) which eighties band were often found hanging out with Halo Jones?

Been blasting out Soft Cell tonight in memory of Dave Ball. I've never noticed before Marc's cheeky Class A reference in the Bedsitter video at the 2:24 mark. "Watch the mirror, count the lines." There's me all this time thinking this was a lyric about vanity. www.youtube.com/watch?v=lbC4...