Having grown up, like so many British comic readers, on regular anthology comics, it’s great to see the scene making a healthy, and seemingly sustained (not to mention sustainable) comeback. Numerous British anthologies can be found on the shelves of mainstream newsagents, for so long home only to 2000AD, sister title the Judge Dredd Megazine, and numerous, out of date reprints of US material.

Now we’re spoiled for choice, and in fact, given the gap between issues of each publication, fans often have the time and money to pick up each issue as and when it hits the shelves.

For example, there’s the excellent Quantum, from Time Bomb Comics, which became essential reading for me right out of the gate. Then there’s Shift, which my local shops, for some reason, stopped selling entirely, leading me to fall behind somewhat in picking them up and reading them.

It’s great stuff though, and each issue is packed with superb material from a star studded lineup of highly regarded creators. It’s a really eclectic mix of strips too, and you’ll recognise an anti-authoritarian streak through many strips, which isn’t unique to British comics, but certainly permeates much of the material created and published on these shores.

There’s not a weak link in the bunch, and you’ll find a wordless sci-fi/fantasy tale alongside a downbeat, Cold War era drama, as well as larger scale sci-fi and a one-shot with a twist in the tail.

It’s also worth noting that even the format itself is gorgeous; much larger in dimensions than US comics, Shift is a graphic album-sized delight that feels hefty and dense, as well as being large enough to let the artwork truly breathe on each page.

If you haven’t yet tried Shift out for yourself, why not pick up the very first issue? The publishers seem to keep a healthy supply of back issues available, and you can pick the first issue up directly from them here. It’s well worth giving it a shot, and even if you don’t enjoy all of the strips in it, there’s sure to be a higher hit than miss rate, almost regardless of your taste, especially as it seems like very few strips it includes play it safe in any way, in terms of both style and content, in most cases.