Tharg the Mighty

Kind of a bit of a shame about the comic book industry.

I think, and I think Tharg does it a little bit, because remember that time he, like, the, the editor of this comic, Tharg-

Mm

...

The cover was by, uh, Lee Milmore, the artist for Hernan Shchuck, by the way.

Yes.

Um, but you can, you can find out about that on the inside cover of the page, which is Tharg's Nerve Center, where Tharg, the Beetlejuician editor of the comic s- proclaims, "Barag Tharg, Earthlets, prostrate yourselves before the thrill power.

I am Tharg, cosmic channeler of Zarg-Jazzness." Um, that's maybe a little bit kinky for Tharg.

Yeah

... 'cause I had to leave on the train, but I will return to Zabok, which I know sounds slightly like the third moon of distant planet Tharg-

It does

...

... last week.

Okay, inside the cover, Tharg greets us in the nerve center by saying, "Borog, Thung, Erthlets.

I am the mighty Tharg, all-powerful alien editor at the helm of this brain frazzling SF anthology."

Ooh.

Not circuit shattering.

It's slightly different.

A brain frazzler from Tharg.

And, uh, Tharg is, of course, the semi-fictional editor of 2000 AD.

Smith has done a lot of stuff for 2000 AD.

Smith has worked on Judge Dredd, Tharg's Future Shock, Slaughter Bowl.

And this was edited by Paul Bunley with Dylan Davis.

It also won the 2025 Oklahoma Book Award for Best Illustration.

You might have not picked up a 2018, you might not have picked up a prog, but you might hear us talk nonsense about it for the next hour and a half and then go, I'll go down to the shops like Tesco's or WH Smith or TG Jones, two shops that still exist, just not where we live, and pick up a prog.

Okay, the inside of the magazine, the cover, starts off with Tharg's nerve center, where Tharg, the editor, greets us with, Borg Thung Earthlets, welcome to your future.

I am the mighty Tharg, alien editor of this awesome anthology.

Um...

Because he is an alien, he's a fictional character, but he is also the face of the

He's not fictional.

It's like telling someone Santa's not real.

Tharg is more real than we are.

It's very eye-catching.

Tharg greets us in the nerve centre of this prog with Borek Thangurth.

Let's call me the mighty Tharg, the galactic godhead at the helm of this awe-inspiring SF anthology.

It may be a special prog next week, but it is not a special note from Tharg, because that is one word change away from his most standard bit.

Yes, but it's nice to have consistency.

nice to have consistency and he might have been doing it at a little bit of a time crunch I suspect oh I do suspect that I suspect that because among the other things that he goes on to talk about he's talking about how this prog will have the ending of both the oubliettes and brink and they're both double sized and then after that those are like all the stories have been running in prog has been on this big tier and of these massive stories.

Was that a good read of that? I don't care.

Because you can look it up yourselves.