A digital subscription extra that highlights some Cam Kennedy artistic efforts in 2000 AD (and its specials), stretching from the 80s to the 00s.

As always with freebies, we allow for some wiggle room based on that: this cost nothing (save the subscription), so it’s really about its “worth” in terms of reading time. Additionally, we’ll set aside that you at least like or appreciate Cam Kennedy’s style; while his style evolved slightly away from the exacerbated Gibson style, there’s always a very particular look to a Kennedy character – which I adore – and which feeds into his action details and page layouts.

That evolution is nicely portrayed by this set, we jump across the decades, moving forward in time, for five thrills. Initially, I was going to pick at the fact that we don’t get many non-Dredd tales (one Rogue and one Future Shock out of six thrills total), but looking at Cam’s history with the mag, he was primarily on JD and Rogue Trooper, so it makes more sense. Plucking a thrill from a one-off series would probably not read great on its own, while those selected are all one-and-dones.

…Which leads to my only real “complaint” here: Why these stories? It’s not especially clear, when boiling a multiple decade career down to 50 pages, what made these standouts. I think “I, Beast” and RT tale “Nortville” show off some big scale action and Kennedy’s storytelling chops nicely (even if the latter is actually pretty confusing, but that’s partially the script, and then once you cue into the visual clues Kennedy added, it’s strong), but were these popular, or noteworthy for some other reason? Even a two-sentence foreword – separate from the boilerplate author bios 2000 AD (appreciably) always includes – would’ve added a bit of framing to this collection.

As-is, it’s…. exactly what it is, I guess. Some digital extras tossed your way for a subscription, randomly plucked from the “artist = Cam Kennedy” bucket. That’s certainly a good deal for the price, but I could’ve dropped this review to a one-line “this is great!” review with a few attempts at adding some context.