2000 AD #348

The Christmas 1983 prog arrives with a wonderfully absurd cover by Eric Bradbury: three cackling, white-haired dictator figures bursting out of a decorative tub like a very wrong nativity, tangled up in a Christmas tree complete with baubles and tinsel, while a deadpan Judge Dredd looks on and a small crowd of alien bystanders watches from the snowy street. The caption wryly announces "Rub-a-dub-dub… um… three dictators in a tub!" — and Dredd's response is an utterly straight-faced "Ho, ho, ho." Inside, Ron Smith illustrates the third chapter of "Bob & Carol & Ted & Ringo," written by T. B. Grover, promising the kind of sharp, irreverent storytelling that made 2000 AD's holiday issues a treat for Earthlets everywhere in December '83.