Preview: 2000 AD Prog 2221

After last weeks Regened Prog, we're back to normal this week Proteus Vex, Durham Red and the penultimate episode of Sláine. There's also two new stories - Dredd is tracking down the killer of Captain Cookies, courtesy of Niemand and Holden, and T.C. Eglington and Simon Davis bring us Poisoned Roots, the follow-up to acclaimed folk-horror nerve-jangler Thistlebone.

• UK and DIGITAL: 3 March 2021 £3.10
• NORTH AMERICA: 31 March 2021 $26.25 (per pack)
• DIAMOND: JAN211503
• COVER: PJ HOLDEN

In this issue:

Judge Dredd: Who Killed Captain Cookies
by Kenneth Niemand (writer) PJ Holden (artist) Quinton Winter (colourist) Annie Parkhouse (letterer)

Mega-City One, 2143 AD. Home to over 160 million citizens, this urban hell is situated along the east coast of post-apocalyptic North America, with the irradiated wasteland known as the Cursed Earth to the west. Unemployment is rife, boredom universal and crime is rampant. Tensions rest on a knife-edge and only the zero-tolerance Judges can stop total anarchy. Toughest of them all is JUDGE DREDD — he is the Law!

Sláine: Dragontamer
by Pat Mills (writer) Leonardo Manco (artist) Annie Parkhouse (letterer)

Albion. Celtic warrior SLÁINE united the tribes of the Earth Goddess Danu and became the first High King of Ireland, but is now a wanderer, seeking adventure where the Goddess directs him. Following Sláine’s massacre of the Trojans in an ongoing battle for Albion’s freedom, Emperor Brutus sent dragons to dispose of him at Inniscrone, but the barbarian defeated them. Now, Sláine battles Brutus’s half-dragon son Alban... 

Thistlebone: Poisoned Roots
by TC Eglington (writer) Simon Davies (artist) Simon Bowland (letterer)

Britain, 2020. It’s been over a year since journalist Seema Chaudry accompanied cult survivor Avril Easton back to the village of Harrowvale, the site of her terryifying experiences at the hands of Jasper Hillman’s THISTLEBONE worshippers, a crazed occult group that believed in an ancient woodland deity. Intended as a cathartic experience, both women were changed forever by what they were confronted with... 

Proteus Vex: The Shadow Chancellor
by Mike Carroll (writer) Jake Lynch (artist) Jim Boswell (colourist) Simon Bowland (letterer)

Another galaxy, the far future. The centuries-long war between the Alliance and the Obdurate people is over, a conflict brought to an end with the deaths of billions when the Alliance teleported a dying white dwarf star into the Obdurate system. Imperium agent PROTEUS VEX was charged with finding Chancellor Rho 7 Baryon,and when the flesh-pilot that controls Vex entered Baryon’s body he absorbed some of his memories... 

Durham Red: Served Cold
by Alec Worley (writer) Ben Willsher (artist) Jim Campbell (letterer)

Late 22nd century. Of all the mutants that have operated as Search/Destroy agents, perhaps the most feared is vampire DURHAM RED, who requires blood to survive. Mistrusted by both the criminals she hunts and her fellow Strontium Dogs, Red has a formidable reputation that precedes her. Now, while imprisoned in the Hawks-Carpenter Holding Station, she’s been captured by mercenaries... 

Available in print from: newsagents and comic book stores via Diamond
Available in digital from: 2000 AD webshop and apps for iPad, Android, Windows 10