2000 AD #1073

Prog 1073 of the long-running British weekly arrives dated 16 December 1997, packed with promises of mayhem across its strips — Sinister Dexter going ballistic, Judge Dredd's strangest story, and B.L.A.I.R. 1 squaring off against the Demon Taxpayer. Simon Davis's cover art delivers a gleefully unhinged scene: a grinning figure in a denim jacket clutches a massive cylindrical structure while red toy-like planes and debris swirl around him in chaotic destruction, the whole image radiating a manic King Kong energy that suits the bold "GO APE!" tagline perfectly. It's a wonderfully anarchic snapshot of everything 2000 AD does best — irreverent, energetic, and thoroughly impossible to ignore on a newsstand.