2000 AD #1145

Fresh from sweeping three trophies at the 1999 National Comic Awards, Britain's Best Comic delivers a cover that makes the stakes immediately clear. Judge Dredd stands front and center, weapon raised and visor glaring, while two looming faces — one a pale, sharp-featured woman, the other a scarred, menacing figure — loom from the shadows behind him, visually telegraphing the threat promised by the headline "Orlok the Assassin Closes In on Dredd." Jason Brashill's cover art crackles with tension, and inside the anthology continues with new Downlode Tales and pulp sci-fi alongside the fifth chapter of "Return of the Assassin," written by John Wagner and drawn by Cam Kennedy.