2000 AD's 1982 annuals for 1983.

Thanks to Charlie Horse 47 and Killdumpster for their sponsorship of this post, via the magic of Patreon.

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As Sean pointed out in the comments section for my most recent look at 2000 AD; when I composed that post, I totally missed the chance to include the appropriate annuals for the 1982/1983 period.

As far as I can make out, there were two of them, one for the parent title and one for its most popular offspring. Below are they.

But, first, Christmas Day isn't just for annuals. It's for TV. So, what were we watching on the idiot box as we were reading those titanic tomes?

On BBC One, we were, indisputably, watching the Top of the Pops Christmas Special, hosted by those spokesmen for British youth, Peter Powell, John Peel, Dave Lee Travis, Steve Wright, Andy Peebles, Richard Skinner, Tommy Vance and Mike Smith, all presenting their favourite hits of 1982. Not to mention Mike Read's look back at the year's Number Ones.

On the same channel, the Queen read out her speech, at 3 o'clock, followed by International Velvet whose horsie nature would, no doubt, have appealed to her.

The early evening gave us Paul Daniels' Magic Show, Last of the Summer Wine, The Two Ronnies, Death on the Nile, Perry Como, and Charles Dickens' The Signal-Man.

Not that I'm totally uncultured but I must confess that, until now, I never knew that tale was by Dickens. I always assumed it to have been by Henry or MR James, as these things always seemed to be.

BBC Two, early evening, gave us 25 Years in Space, The Millionairess, The Queen's Speech, The World of James Joyce and the movie Fedora. The latter of which I remember watching at the time.

ITV, meanwhile, launched us into Christmas Day with Journey Back to Oz which was some sort of cartoon, Andy Williams' Christmas Special, The Parent Trap and The Black Hole, ultimately closing down with Christmas at Radio GOSH.

Not to be forgotten, Channel 4 gave us such treats as Caesar and Cleopatra, Buster Keaton's The Navigator, St Mark's Gospel, Upstairs Downstairs and that star of car parks Richard III.

The main annual gives us 128 pages of sci-fi goodness from Strontium Dog, Nemesis, Tharg's Future Shocks, Ro-Busters, Rogue Trooper, The Mean Arena, Harlem Heroes, Ace Trucking Co, Ro-Jaws, M.A.C.H. 1, Invasion and, inescapably, Judge Dredd.

While most of the strips seem to be new, the presence of some of 2000 AD's original stars may tip you off that a small number of these tales are reprints from the very early days of the comic.

The Judge Dredd annual has, by contrast, just 96 pages and, as you'd probably guess, appears to revolve entirely around all things Dredd, including a solo adventure for Max Normal.

Amongst other gems, we get the tale of a hotel that's killing its guests, Dredd's battle to prevent a gang from selling comics to children, and the good judge's battle against fleas.

Again, although most of the tales are new, there are a couple of reprints thrown in.

Perhaps most crucially of all, the book also asks the vital question, "Could you survive a holiday in Mega-City One?"

To which I think the only sensible answer must be, "No."