The77 Comic was voted Best UK Indie Comic in both 2020 and 2024. This issue has a ton of stories, all brief (average 4 pages, longest being a 6-pager), with the combined effect being an adrenaline blast. Your reaction to any given story might easily be "what the hell?" or "I don't understand what's going on", but that's okay. You'd still be up for the next instalment to see how it continued. (Besides, I'm reading issue 2 without owning issue 1, so it's unsurprising that I'm missing some context.) There's both colour and black-and-white. There are lots of art styles, which usually means something exciting and completely different when you turn the next page or two. It's pretty good and I'd recommend it.

Also, I've always found them friendly and helpful at comics conventions.

Lots of professionals gave their time and talent (although this is a healthy mix that includes non-pros too). Not only is there a story from Steve McManus (one of the longest-running and best-respected Mighty Thargs in the history of 2000 AD's editors), but it has one by the late Barrie Tomlinson (the IPC Group Editor who hired and encouraged McManus in the first place). Fittingly for a writer/editor who's particularly associated with Roy of the Rovers, Tomlinson's story is a football one (Ghastly United, which made me laugh and got the important slot of the last story in the magazine). Other professionals here include P.J. Holden, Dan Whitehead, Charlie Gillespie and Conor Boyle. Some even have a Doctor Who connection, like Lew Stringer (DWM's Daft Dimension) and Bambos Georgiou (here a writer, but he inked and lettered for DWM in the McCoy era). Also, their letterers include the Eagle Award-winning Annie Parkhouse (wife of DWM's Steve Parkhouse).

Going through the stories...

1. V (Bull/Hughes) grabbed my attention with a savage killer gladiatorial arena... where the sports commentator has a suit, tie and microphone. Something in the future has gone very wrong. It also has the sinister line "4 more wins and she's history!!!" which might suggest that even winning these games won't keep you alive.

2. Mal Earl's Prodigal looks great and has intriguing worldbuilding (England with jet fighters and dragons, 300 years after the Elven Wars), although I'm not sure it has a plot yet.

3. Jericho (Whitehead/Holden) has a well-communicated premise (a detective in 1977 New York has a time-travelling synthetic lifeform in his brain) and tells an entertaining, self-contained story in four pages.

4. Martian Law (Bright) has cartoonish, funny art with a 1950s B-movie setting (grumpy brains in jars!) and my favourite protagonist in this magazine (an avuncular, dozy old cop who looks past retirement age). I particularly loved the alliteration. The characters are all nuts for hating broccoli, though.

5. The Collection (McManus/Gillespie) would have been a great Tharg's Future Shock (unsurprisingly from McManus) and has detailed, meticulous art.

6. Sgt. Shouty (Lew Stringer) might be my favourite Lew Stringer cartoon I've seen to date.

7. The Screaming Hand (Kek-W/Boyle) is freaky and made me go "what the hell?"

8. Division'77 (Heeley/Elliott) is pretty good and I didn't see the twist coming at all.

9. Trompe La Mort (Bedford/Richmond) is like a Twilight Zone episode, which is significant praise.

10. Penny Pentagram Occult Detective (Thomas/Roydon) is mildly Buffy-like, elevated by Penny's fun relationship with Master Yang. She phones him up and says everything's going crazy, but he cheerfully replies that "this is your test, little cricket" and "do you wish to be an occult detective or not?" She's going to have to fight all these monsters!

11. Gut Crawlers (Whitehead/Williams, with Dan Whitehead writing his second story here) has an SF premise that made me laugh. It's about a spaceship crew who go looking for gigantic space creatures and have to fly right up their... well, guess. The rookie-hating crew member adds spice to the characterisation, too.

12. The Cell (Georgiou/Sawyers) reverses expectations and has the magazine's most attention-grabbing art. Powerful inked lines and wild, lurid colours. Also, the authorities can flood your cell with cyanide gas.

13. Skateworm (Smith/Conan/Gleave) is drawn in thick black lines, looks like a kiddie cartoon and made me laugh. The mad scientist's overdone German accent is fun.

14. Undertow (the father-and-son Dunn team) is a sparse, almost dialogue-free glimpse at a flooded world.

15. Ghastly United (Tomlinson/Sims) is a horror-comedy football strip that'll make you laugh and is worth reading even if you'd normally avoid sports strips. "Score or die!"

Last is a preview of Ian Gibson's Lifeboat. Overall, I was impressed. I assume the title refers to 1977 (when 2000 AD was launched) and it's certainly bursting with energy that suggests that era, while also having a modern indie edge. There's nothing here I disliked. It's all good fun, even if I didn't always understand it, and I believe the magazine's also had annuals and graphic collections. It's definitely worth a look. Despite everything, there's still a lot happening in comics these days, even in the UK... it's just that the place to look is often self-published indies.