3 out of 5

Tom Strong’s Terrific Tales generally felt like a way for Moore to get his 2000 AD short story on, giving him more time with a well-balanced pastiche character he clearly enjoyed writing – a kind of science-based Superman – without having to stretch to 22 pages. Over in the main title, there’re Silver Age proxies aplenty, and the book often got to operate as one-shots, but still, it’s more of a commitment; sometimes you just have a thought, or a concept, and don’t need a full book, and so Terrific Tales split things up into three or four stories per issue, with two of those generally scripted by Steve Moore (the erotica-lite fantasy world-hopper Jonni Future; the misadventures of Young Tom Strong) and a sometimes-appearing rotating spot for people like Sergio Aragones or Leah Moore.

None of these are essential, though, and not just because they’re all self-contained. The Tom Strong stuff is best when Moore plays with the format (an adventure all told through collective cards!), but is otherwise a bit too keen on happy endings, which fits the character for sure, but feels especially slight in the short format. Great Paul Rivoche art, though, with appearances from Jason Pearson and Jerry Ordway (!). The Jonni Future and Young Tom Strong stuff tends to fare slightly worse, as Steve Moore can’t quite achive the same tonal deftness as Alan, making the stories – while interesting – feel a bit forced, though part of this might be because Steve is having to do background on Jonni and Young Tom for a couple issues, and then there’s the question of why Jonni is included at all – the connection to Tom is way too tangential – except that she didn’t fit anywhere else. The shorter bits from other creators are nice but purposefully slight; these would’ve been better had they been kept in for every issue instead of randomly appearing.

The HC collection is quality, with credits and a kind of preview text summary for each issue, and some backmatter process stuff.

Overall, it’s a fun book, but it does start to feel like you’re getting some cutting room floor ABC stuff. The Tom Strong character can certainly support a second book of “Tales,” but the quick-shot format is almost too insubstantial to really get into it.