Last regular Prog of the year! The Terror Tale one-shot this week comes from writer-artist team David Baillie and Paul Marshall.  The concept for this one is killer.  Explaining it at all sort of spoils it, so I won't, but it was one of those one-shots where the only reason it felt like there were pieces missing was because I wanted more chapters to fill in the parts.  "Why Did The Priest Cross The Road?" is full of haunting art and an epic premise.

Dredd's latest short, "The Beating," comes to a close, and while it doesn't tangle with police brutality in the way that I thought it might, it still leaves room for some commentary while leveraging my expectations for a satisfying twist.  The art consistently improved throughout the three chapters.  Knowing now that it was only going to be a three-part story, I can see why the first issue seemed a bit cramped.  Spreading it out anymore would have robbed this story of the brisk pace that it required to seem indulgent.  Since this story was ultimately more about the blackmail itself than Dredd's actions, the initial setup of the story also fits a bit better.  I really just don't envy storytelling choices that have to be made with a limited number of comics pages.

This chapter of Defoe comes to an end, in what was probably my favorite set of chapters in the whole bit.  Having very little prior experience with Defoe, it took me awhile to warm up to it.  The last few chapters have been a great mix of story an action that didn't rely so much on 1. me knowing what the hell was going on or 2. me enjoying zombies.

That's all I've got for this week.  I'm saving up all the energy that talking about Prog 1961 is going to require.

Score: 4/5

2000 AD – Prog 1960 Writers: Various Artists: Various Publisher: Rebellion Price: £1.99 (Digital) £2.55 Release Date: 12/9/15 Format: Weekly; Print/Digital