This one's strictly for our YA / Grown Up Readers, sliding into our YA / Adult Graphic Novel of the Week slot with all the temerity and bombast of a well-loved song.

In fact that's the power of comics - that sometimes you re-read something you read as a miscreant youth and it takes you back to the very time, the very era you first read it in.

I read this as a relative youngster, perhaps not as young as the main protagonists (or should that be antagonists?) in "Third World War" by Pat Mills, Carlos Ezquerra, D'Israeli and Angela Kincaid. But young enough to entirely 'get' where this comic was coming from. Created by arguably one of the most important comic writers in Brit-com history and illustrated by a truly iconic comic artist, there was no way on paper that this could fail.

Hailed as a new flagship for intelligent comic readers, Crisis launched in 1988 and caught me on the hop as the sort of disgruntled wage-slave 20 year old unhappy with the way the world was going at the time (Reader: He didn't change, even into his 50s).

In fact that's the rub - the stuff depicted in this comic 30 years ago really hasn't changed much - and the story's streak of malevolent anger feels perhaps even more relevant now than it did back then, and as the young adults drafted into a multinational peace organisation soon find, the machinations of large corporations carving up the natural resources of poorer countries for their own gain hasn't seemingly altered one iota in the here and now of 2020.

The story is mainly told from the perspective of Eve, a girl balancing her strong moral compass against the demands of the peace corps she's 'drafted' into, finding that at every turn her worst fears are realised, and the "third world" is being vastly exploited by the evil multinational known as Multifoods, responsible for pushing sugary junk on the world's consumers, and carving up vast tracts of South America for gain and profit while displacing / policing the indigenous people there.


The young characters in the story, Eve, Paul, Gary, Trish and Ivan, all felt believable in a way that hadn't been tackled in comics for me up to that point. These were folk who I could readily spot amongst friends and acquaintances at the time and characters that were drawn from the disaffected youth fed up to the back teeth with a decade of the Tory government at the time (yeah, about that "not much has changed but we live underwater" thing).

While I was mainlining music by The The, Depeche Mode, Warren Zevon etc, I was also reading this comic and (largely) ignoring "New Statesman" (the other launch story in Crisis - which felt like it was catering for the US market rather than us) in favour of Third World War.

Paul, Ivan, Eve, Gary and Trish - In the firing line for Multifoods Peace Volunteer Force

It's surprising how well this has held up, and it's also surprising just how pissed off I still am at the way it draws to a close, leaving things hanging in an almost painful way, though obviously you can draw your own conclusions as to how things would've spun out if Crisis hadn't folded after three all-too-short years, ruling out a return for this strip.

As it stands though it's still one heck of a timely piece of work, read now amongst a world now paying the piper for what was going on 30 years ago as the climate crisis bares its teeth and bites hard, wreaking havoc around the world, and poorer countries still find themselves exploited by huge multinationals like the fictional Multifoods, adopting far more nefarious practices than just sending a bunch of conscript kids into hot zones. Spellbinding, important and thoroughly absorbing stuff.

Sum this book up in a sentence: A mind-crushingly timely slice of chaos 30 years ahead of its time, ringing a 5-bell alarm about what multinationals were doing to the planet, the effects of which we're still feeling today.

"Third World War (Crisis)" by Pat Mills, Carlos Ezquerra, D'Israeli and Angela Kincaid is out now, published by Rebellion (kindly supplied in digital format for review). 

Our Book of the Week this week has been an absolute pleasure to share with my daughter, harking back to an era in comics where weekly I was faced with one of the trickest decisions a youngster could ever make.

"Which comic should I buy this week?"

Pocket money wouldn't stretch to more than one funny comic, and "The Beano" was suffering from a bit of a creative lull when I was a nipper (as was The Dandy) but subversive chaotic and extremely brilliant comics such as Whoopee and Shiver 'n' Shake were consistently coming up with brilliant ideas and characters that are still a hoot today.

Hugely talented comic-smith Leo Baxendale, the genius behind so many awesome comic characters over the years created baby-faced terror Sweeney Toddler for those comics, and the ragamuffin little miscreant went on to enjoy many crazy adventures throughout those comic runs.

Sweeney Toddler is the OG gangsta baby, and I'm sure he was the inspiration behind that brilliant ZX Spectrum game Nipper (if you've never played it, now's the time to go digging and you'll see exactly what I mean).

Since Rebellion Publishing - home of the galaxy's greatest comic 2000AD - bought up a ton of classic comic IP from Fleetway, DC Thomson et al, they've been quietly curating some of the most amazing comic collections ever - and are slowly drip-feeding those classic comic strips with brilliant releases such as this.

If you were a child of the 70s and 80s like me, and love Leo Baxendale's work (as you should) then this is an absolute go-to. But if, like me, you're a parent who wants to show your own young whippersnappers how great comics were when you were a kid, they will absolutely love these collections too. They're an absolute hoot!

Sum this book up in a sentence: A stunning collection of Sweeney Toddler strips from the heyday of two truly awesome comics, Shiver 'n' Shake and Whoopee.

"Leo Baxendale's Sweeney Toddler" by Leo Baxendale is out now, published by Rebellion (kindly supplied in digital format for review). 

Rebellion have one heck of an impressive back catalogue to dive into, now that they own a sizeable chunk of the British comic industry's most treasured IP.

From the mighty world of 2000AD and beyond, and into the realms of amazing comics put out by IPC and other publishers in the 1970s and 80s, Rebellion aren't just sitting on those properties, they're letting some of the most amazingly talented comic authors and artists loose with modern interpretations of some of the best loved characters in those comics.

Though "Tammy" and "Jinty" were technically "Girls Comics" (as was Misty) I remember pinching my sister's copies whenever she bought comics instead of Sindy stuff with her pocket money, and was always surprised to find some real gems in amongst the usual 'girly' stuff (bear in mind at the time I was probably neck deep in 2000AD and completely obsessed with another mighty comic heroine, Halo Jones.

"Tammy and Jinty Special 2019" is like a glorious summer special brought bang up to date with well loved characters from both comics, given a serious splash of colour and a complete makeover at the hands of awesome comic folk like Rob Williams, Rachael Ball and the like.

Find Rocky of the Rovers (bang on trend for some amazing footie action going on in the Women's World Cup), Bella at the Bar (a story series that was a secret read and fave back as a kid), Justine, Maisie's Magic Eye and several other great strips revived and brought into the 21st century proper.

I heartily approve of this, and C devoured this collection with glee. But then asked in a timid voice "What were the original comics like? Can you still get them?" so I spent a lot of time showing her some of the existing pics and strips you can find online.

Alas she much preferred the modern makeovers, I guess 70s and 80s comic panels and lettering were a hell of a lot busier than she's used to with modern comics, but I reckon I'll convert her yet. Where's that Misty Anthology...

Sum this collection up in a sentence: A truly brilliantly concieved modern makeover for some of the greatest comic characters in 70s and 80s 'girl' comics, reimagined for a new audience brilliantly.

"Tammy and Jinty Special 2019" is available now from Rebellion Publishing (kindly supplied in digital ARC format). 

Back in the dark dystopic 1970s when everything seemed to be a sort of horrid dirty beige colour, I was very much a kid who would scrape together every spare penny dug out from the back of the sofa, or pool my pocket money with other kids to buy comics.

Comics were a much-needed conduit for escapism, serving up stories that would probably make people's hair curl, to an age group who nowadays are probably more used to reading comfy little stories about middle grade kids who become detectives than dark, gritty dystopia.

I never read Jinty comic - as a boy, if you were caught even giving comics like Jinty or Misty the side-eye you'd probably end up being given a chinese burn, the bumps or an atomic wedgie by your classmates. Weirdly though I always knew that I was missing out on something, and after reading "Fran of the Floods" I'm downright convinced that Rebellion have made a very clever move picking up the rights to a metric ton of IPC and other publisher's IP to republish in gloriously luxurious graphic novel formats.

"Fran of the Floods" by legendary comic creators Alan Davidson and Phil Gascoine is a prime example of a strip I'd never heard of, but knew my daughter would instinctively love. I can't quite explain why she's drawn to the darker stuff but I think secretly all kids love stories that depict the downfall of society and civilisation, and cataclysmic global events.

Yep, here's a story that first aired in 1973 and yet feels like it was written last week, the core subjects of global warming, climate change and unstoppable flooding really are horribly relevant now. We're living the reality of a story that was fantasy nearly 50 years ago, and it feels like the world hasn't learned a durned thing really.

Fran is a young girl who lives with her family, listening with growing anxiety and alarm to the news stories as the sea levels begin to rise, eventually swamping towns and cities on the coast before creeping further inland and covering the entire south.

For a while Fran's life carries on as normal, and she's obsessed with all the same thing most kids are today (obviously minus the tablets, mobile phones and social media, naturally!)

Her parents and her school do their best to 'normalise' life in the midst of the chaos that breaks out around the country, until the flooding, food shortages, power outages and general breakdown of law and order come knocking at their door.

Folks who are canny enough to be reading "No Country" in the weekly Phoenix Comic might recognise the sort of tale this is, wrought in its original monochrome but highly detailed artwork, with new colour covers courtesy of Rebellion.

Fran's story is harrowing at times, hopeful at others - above all it's the sort of comic collection that fulfils two vital roles - preserving a fantastic story for a whole new generation of kids who might favour darker stuff like us, but also offering a timely and rather bittersweet message that even as far back as the early 70s there were folk out there who knew the horrible damage we were doing to the planet, and were trying to make sure kids were as well informed about it back then as they are now.

C wouldn't put this down until she'd read the whole thing, completely hooked in and immersed in a fantastic harrowing tale of an ordinary young girl demonstrating amazing bravery in the face of a horrific man-made ecological disaster.

Mind-blowingly brilliant!

Sum this graphic novel up in a sentence: Blisteringly timely, brilliantly written and illustrated, the sort of 'girl' comic I wish I'd been brave enough to read as a wee lad but am very pleased to catch up with and share with my daughter (and would heartily recommend sharing it with your daughters - AND sons too!)

"Fran of the Floods" by Alan Davidson and Phil Gascoine is out now, published by Rebellion (kindly supplied for review as a digital ARC). 

As a lifelong Dredd fan, I've never actually read any 'pure text' versions of stories from that amazing universe (aside from a novelisation of the Stallone movie - which really doesn't count, does it?)

Also, as a lapsed Squaxx Dek Thargo (friend of Tharg, the mighty alien Editor of 2000AD) recently rediscovering just how fantastic 2000AD's publications still are, I was firmly out of the loop about these fantastic novelisations until recently.

With this week's YA Chapter Book of the Week, it's been truly fantastic to catch up with Dredd's world in a hitherto different form than the fab comic strips.

"Judges: Volume 1" by Michael Carroll, Charles J. Eskew and George Mann expands on the origin story of the whole system that spawned The Judges, that brutal fascist combination of Judge, Jury and Executioner that ruled the streets of near-future America with a nightstick of iron (well, probably high-impact carbon fibre but you get where I'm going with this).

I've seen tiny snippets of the story of Judge Eustace Fargo (the very first Chief Judge) and how Dredd's world descended into chaos before the US President was removed from office and the Judges took over.

Here though is a fantastic triple-header of a novel that feeds tons more detail into that origin story, beginning with a story of dissent, a grisly murder and the initial few years of establishment of the Justice System, through to stories that touch on everything in Dredd's world long before ol' chinface stalked the streets himself.

Set in 2033 and thereafter, this is a fine-grained and beautifully detailed piece of work that - for me as a JD fan - feels like a real breath of fresh air covering a ton of ground that had remained largely untrodden in the comic strips, graphic novels and even the Judge Dredd Megazine. Even if you're entirely new to Judge Dredd (where HAVE you been?) or the worlds created by Pat Mills, John Grant and Carlos Ezquerra, this is a durned good jumping in point that builds an incredible picture of what life is like in the Mega Cities in JD's world.

The stories are surprisingly human, extremely atmospheric and grittily written by three authors who feel like they've really immersed themselves in the Judge Dredd universe, to the point where you feel like you're reading something that draws parallel to the Karl Urban Dredd movie more than the far-flung often fantastical stuff that appears in the comic strips.

It's dark, brutal, pulls no punches - pretty much like a Judge then. Though our usual fare is firmly Middle Grade I'd probably put this somewhere in the YA / Adult category due to the subject matter the stories open up with, but even so it's absolutely essential stuff for fans of Dredd who want a bit more background.

Sum this book up in a sentence: A fantastic novel building background to a set of stories that have been a massive part of my life, filled with a lot of very human tales of why the whole Justice System came about in the way it did.

"Judges: Volume 1" by Michael Carroll, Charles J. Eskew and George Mann is out now, published by Rebellion (kindly supplied for review as a digital ARC)