I'm a big fan of 2000ad's Strontium Dog and pick up Dogbreath produced by those chaps at Futurequake. It's now on it's 18th issue, which just popped through my door this morning.
It's A5 44 pages with a full colour wraparound cover for £3.00 (postage and packing will set you back £1.00). Nice glossy cover and suitably weighty paper stock courtesy of BG Marketing who've printed it.
Predominantly comic strip based with some reviews of Strontium Dog stories from 2000as as well as the Rebellion collections of the series. There is one text story with illustrations provided by former Strontium Dogs artist Nigel Dobbyn.
As you would expect from a fanzine the mileage you will get from each story is going to vary. Thankfully there is a good mix of done in one stories as well as ongoing serials and a few of the teams use the Strontium Dog premise and focus on all-new characters, while others favour using classic characters such as Johhny Alpha, Wulf Sternhammer and The Gronk.
The absolute highlight of the issue is Sun and Moon: Hunters of Bounty. Which features a mutant Sun and Moon hunting a giant rabbit in a sleazy dive called Warrens. The artwork by James Feist stays on just the right side of cartoony and the script by a chap called The Emperor is at both turns camp and sinister. I'm not sure whether continued tales of these two would be up to scratch but as a one off it's superb.
Berserker is a serial by Richmond Clements and Steven Hills focusing on Wulf Sternhammer separated from Johnny Alpha and trapped on a warworld 500 light years away. It's the second installment and so far it's been solid if unspectacular. The art is suitably moody and violent but so far the threat of this warworld doesn't seem as bad as some of the things Johnny and Wulf have faced in their regular tales in 2000ad.
Desert Tail by Eric Moore and Steven Denton has Johnny, Wulf and the Gronk on vacation on Earth and get tangled up in some problems with Sand Sharks. The art is bang on for this story but the tale is pretty inconsequential and also flies in the face of what is established regarding Strontium Dogs being allowed to operate on Earth.
Shadow of The Mutant by Alec Robertson and Bruce McLaren sees a trio of SD agents tackle a mutant leader called Visionary Lygate. It's the first part of a series and is readable enough but so far none of the characters really stand out too much.
The Most Amazing Thing is the text story by Richmond Clements with Nigel Dobbyn providing illus and features Sam Weasel joining up with Wulf and Johnny for a one off tale. Very enjoyable, Clements has an ear for Wulf's dialogue and the story zips along to a happy ending for once.
Interval by Eric Moore and Gibson Quarter takes place during the 2000ad tale The Shicklgruber Grab where Johhny and Wulf bring Hitler forward in time to stand trial before the Committe for Ultimate Retribution. It has Johnny and Hitler bounced out of time and ending up in the 1970's in the Top of the Pops studio where they are mistaken for Sparks. The art is nice, the story is only two pages and while I can see it's intended to be funny, falls far short for me. Though as humour is entirely subjective you might laugh at this.
There's a wee mini-poster in the centre pages as well.
So all in all what do I think. If you are a fan of Strontium Dog you'll probably enjoy this and think it was decent value for money. For the casual punter it might be worth getting a shot of someone elses first for a wee look see.
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