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2000 AD (comic)
Encyclopedia
2000 AD is a weekly British science fiction-oriented comic
. As a comics anthology
it serialises a number of separate stories each issue (known as "progs") and was first published by IPC Magazines
in 1977, the first issue dated 26 February. IPC then shifted the title to its Fleetway
comics subsidiary which was sold to Egmont UK in 1987. Fleetway continued to produce the title until 2000, when it was bought by Rebellion Developments
.
It is most noted for its Judge Dredd
stories, and has been contributed to by a number of artists and writers who became renowned in the field internationally, such as Alan Moore
, Neil Gaiman
, Grant Morrison
, Bryan Talbot
, Brian Bolland
and Mike McMahon
.
A long-running joke is that the editor
of 2000 AD is Tharg the Mighty
, a green extraterrestrial
from Betelgeuse
who terms his readers "Earthlets". Tharg uses other unique alien expressions and even appears in his own comic strips. Readers sometimes play along with this: for example, in prog 200 a pair of readers wrote to Tharg claiming that they preferred to be called "Terrans"; the resulting controversy ended in Tharg's accepting a challenge for a duel at a galactic location.
Another running joke is Tharg's supposed use of robot
s to draw and write the strips — some of which bear a marked resemblance to actual writers and artists. A fictional reason for Tharg to use mechanical assistance was given when the robots "went on strike" (reflecting real-life industrial action
that occasionally halted IPC's comics production during the 1970s and 1980s). Tharg wrote and drew a whole issue himself, but when he ran it through the quality-control "Thrill-meter", the device melted down on extreme overload. The offending issue had to be taken away, by blindfolded security guards, to a lead-lined vault where there was no danger of anyone seeing it accidentally.
In December 1975, Kelvin Gosnell
, a sub-editor at IPC Magazines
, read an article in the London Evening Standard
about a wave of forthcoming science fiction films, and suggested that the company might get on the bandwagon by launching a science fiction comic. IPC asked Pat Mills
, a freelance writer and editor
who had created Battle Picture Weekly
and Action, to develop it. Mills brought fellow freelancer John Wagner
on board as script adviser and the pair began to develop characters. The then-futuristic name 2000 AD was chosen as no-one involved expected the comic to last that long.
Mills' experiences with Battle and Action in particular had taught him that readers responded to his anti-authoritarian
attitudes. Wagner, who had written a Dirty Harry
-inspired tough cop called One Eyed Jack for Valiant
, saw that readers also responded to authority figures, and developed a character that took the concept to its logical extreme, imagining an ultra-violent lawman patrolling a future New York
with the power to arrest, sentence, and if required execute criminals on the spot. Meanwhile, Mills had developed a horror
strip, inspired by the novels of Dennis Wheatley
, about a hanging judge, called Judge Dread (after the reggae
and ska
artist of the same name
). The idea was abandoned as unsuitable for the new comic, but the name, with a little modification, was adopted by Wagner for his ultimate lawman.
The task of visualising the newly-named Judge Dredd
was given to Carlos Ezquerra
, a Spanish artist who had worked for Mills before on Battle on a strip called Major Eazy. Wagner gave Ezquerra an advertisement for the film Death Race 2000
, showing the character Frankenstein clad in black leather, as a suggestion for what the character should look like. Ezquerra elaborated on this greatly, adding body-armour, zips and chains, which Wagner originally thought over the top. Wagner's initial script was rewritten by Mills and drawn up by Ezquerra, but when the art came back a rethink was necessary. The hardware and cityscapes Ezquerra had drawn were far more futuristic than the near-future setting originally intended, and Mills decided to run with it and set the strip further into the future. By this stage, however, Wagner had quit.
IPC owned the rights to Dan Dare
, and Mills decided to revive the character to add immediate public recognition for the title. Paul DeSavery, who owned Dares film rights, offered to buy the new comic and give Mills and Wagner more creative control and a greater financial stake. The deal fell through, however, and Wagner walked. Mills was reluctant to lose Judge Dredd and farmed the strip out to a variety of freelance writers, hoping to develop it further. Their scripts were given to a variety of artists as Mills tried to find a strip which would make a good introduction to the character, all of which meant that Dredd would not be ready for the first issue.
The story chosen was one written by Peter Harris, extensively rewritten by Mills and including an idea suggested by Kelvin Gosnell, and drawn by newcomer Mike McMahon
. The strip debuted in prog 2, but Ezquerra, angry that another artist had drawn the first published strip, quit and returned to work for Battle.
, about the future sport of aeroball, a futuristic, violent version of basketball with jet-packs. Similar future sport series had been a fixture of Action. Wanting to give the new comic a distinctive look, Mills wanted to use European artists, but the work turned in on Harlem Heroes by Trigo was disappointing. Veteran British artists Ron Turner
and Barrie Mitchell were tried out, but a newcomer called Dave Gibbons
won the editor over with his dynamic, American-influenced drawings and got the job. Mills wrote the first five episodes before handing the strip to Roy of the Rovers
writer Tom Tully
.
Dan Dare
was extensively revamped to make it more futuristic. In the new stories he had been put into suspended animation and revived several centuries in the future. Several artists were tried out before Mills settled on Italian artist Massimo Belardinelli
, whose imaginative, hallucinatory work was fantastic at visualising aliens, although perhaps less satisfying on the hero himself. The scripts were endlessly rewritten in an attempt to make the series work, but few Dan Dare fans remember this version of the character fondly. Belardinelli and Gibbons later switched strips, with Gibbons drawing Dare and Belardinelli drawing the Harlem Heroes sequel Inferno. When Gibbons took over Dare in Prog 28 the strip was refashioned as a 'Star Trek' style space opera.
The other opening strips were M.A.C.H. 1
, a super-powered secret agent inspired by The Six Million Dollar Man
; Invasion!
, about a "Volgan" (thinly disguised Soviet—in fact originally billed as Soviet, but changed before printing to a "neutral" antagonist) invasion of the United Kingdom opposed by tough London lorry driver turned guerrilla
fighter Bill Savage; and Flesh
, a particularly violent strip about time-travelling
cowboys farming dinosaur
s for their meat.
Once the comic had been made ready to launch, Mills quit as editor and handed the reins to Kelvin Gosnell
, whose idea it was in the first place. Gosnell appeared as the fall guy in the Tharg photostrips that were a feature of the comic in its early years.
" storyline was drawn by a rotating team of artists, including McMahon, Ezquerra, Turner and Ian Gibson
, and marked the point where Dredd became the most popular character in the comic, a position he has rarely relinquished. Dredd's city, which now covered most of the east coast of North America, became known as Mega-City One
. Dredd had also been unmasked in issue 8 in a story drawn by Massimo Belardinelli, but the face drawn was not anywhere near that which had been hoped. The decision was made to make out that Dredd's face had been scarred and the panel had a 'censored' banner slapped on it. After this Dredd's face was never attempted to be shown again.
A new story format was introduced in prog 25 - Tharg's Future Shocks
, one-off twist-in-the-tail stories devised by writer Steve Moore
. 2000 AD still uses this format as filler and to try out new talent. One early Future Shock was drawn by 2000 ADs then art assistant Kevin O'Neill
.
Wagner introduced a new character, Robo-Hunter
, in 1978. The hero, Sam Slade, was a private detective-type character specialising in robot
-related cases. José Ferrer was the original artist, but the editorial team were not happy with his work and quickly replaced him with Ian Gibson, who redrew parts of Ferrer's episodes before taking over himself. Gibson's imaginative, cartoony art helped drive the series' style from hard-boiled detective to surreal comedy. As the series continued Sam was joined by an idiot kit-built robot assistant, Hoagy, and even, after a crack-down on smoking in IPC comics, a Cuba
n robot cigar
, Stogie, designed to help him cut down on nicotine
. The hero started out based on Humphrey Bogart
, but after a few years he looked more like Ted Danson
.
Other ongoing strips included The Visible Man, detailing the misfortunes of Frank Hart, a man whose skin had been made transparent due to exposure to nuclear waste, and Shako, (which followed the same formula as Hook Jaw from Action but with less success) the story of a polar bear
pursued by the Army because it had swallowed a secret capsule.
M.A.C.H. 1
was killed off in 1978 but a spin off, M.A.C.H. Zero, continued into the 1980s. Flesh had a sequel in 1978, set on the prehistoric oceans, and Bill Savage appeared again in a prequel, Disaster 1990, in which a nuclear explosion at the north pole had melted the polar ice-cap and flooded Britain.
In 1978 2000 AD launched the annual 48 page Summer Special, including a full length M.A.C.H. Zero story drawn by O'Neill. The yearly hardcover annual had started in 1977 and would continue till 1991.
Pat Mills took over writing Dredd for a six-month "epic" called "The Cursed Earth", inspired by Roger Zelazny
's Damnation Alley
, which took the future lawman out of the city on a humanitarian trek across the radioactive wasteland between the Mega-Cities. McMahon drew the bulk of the stories, with occasional episodes drawn by Brian Bolland
. The story saw Dredd moved to the colour centre pages for the first time while Dan Dare was given the front page.
IPC had launched a second science fiction comic, Starlord
, which was cancelled after only 22 issues and merged into 2000 AD. Two Starlord strips strengthened 2000 ADs line-up: Strontium Dog
, a mutant
bounty hunter
created by Wagner and Ezquerra, and Ro-Busters
, a robot disaster squad created by Mills. Ro-Busters gave O'Neill the chance to spread his artistic wings and led to the popular spin-off ABC Warriors
. Dan Dare was suspended while "The Cursed Earth" was finished in time for the merger. Wagner returned to Dredd following the merger to write "The Day the Law Died", another six month epic in which Mega-City One was taken over by the insane Chief Judge Cal, based on the Roman emperor
Caligula
. Another cancelled title, Tornado
, was merged with 2000 AD a few months later, contributing three stories to 2000AD - Blackhawk
, an historical adventure series about a Nubian slave in the Roman empire which took a science-fictional turn in 2000AD with him becoming a gladiator in an alien world; The Mind of Wolfie Smith, a coming of age/psychic story of a runaway teenager, and Captain Klep, a single-page superhero parody.
2000 AD featured an adaptation of Harry Harrison
's novel The Stainless Steel Rat
, written by Gosnell and drawn by Ezquerra. Adaptations of two of Harrison's sequels, The Stainless Steel Rat Saves the World and The Stainless Steel Rat for President, would follow later. The appearance of the main character, galactic thief "Slippery" Jim DiGriz, was based on James Coburn
, evidently a favourite of Ezquerra's; Coburn was also the inspiration for Major Eazy, which Ezquerra drew in Battle, as well as Judge Koburn, a Dredd-universe reworking of the Major Eazy character, who first appeared in 2003. Gerry Finley-Day
contributed The V.C.s
, a future war story inspired by the Vietnam War
, drawn by McMahon, Cam Kennedy
, Garry Leach
and John Richardson.
An important feature of the early years of 2000 AD was the opportunities it gave to young British comic artists - by the time the title celebrated its 100th issue Brian Bolland, Dave Gibbons, Ian Gibson, Mike McMahon and Kevin O'Neil were all established as regulars.
gained a new enemy. Writer John Wagner
realised that Dredd's habit of shooting just about everybody he came up against meant that it was difficult to create a recurring villain. The solution was Judge Death
, an undead judge from another dimension where, since all crime was committed by the living, life itself was outlawed. The law had been thoroughly enforced on his own world, and now he had come to Mega-City One to continue his work. Judge Death first appeared in an atmospheric three-parter drawn by Brian Bolland
which also introduced Judge Anderson
of Psi Division
, a squad of judges with psychic powers.
Dredd soon began another epic journey in "The Judge Child
". A dying Psi Division Judge had predicted disaster for Mega-City One unless it was ruled by a boy with a birthmark shaped like an eagle, so Dredd set off into the Cursed Earth
, to Texas City, and into deep space in search of the boy, Owen Krysler, and his kidnappers, the Angel Gang
. The Angels were some of the most memorable villains Wagner had yet devised, but suffered the same mortality problem that had plagued the strip so far. All of them were killed during the course of the story, but one, the Mean Machine
, was later resurrected by a convenient bit of magic. "The Judge Child" was drawn by Bolland, Ron Smith
and Mike McMahon
in rotation, and the later episodes marked the beginning of Wagner's long-running writing partnership with Alan Grant. The pair would go on to write Strontium Dog, Robo-Hunter and many other stories for 2000 AD, as well as for Roy of the Rovers
, Battle
and the relaunched Eagle
in the United Kingdom, and a number of comics in America.
Prog (issue) 178 was something of a relaunch for 2000 AD. All current stories, with the exception of Judge Dredd, were wound up, and a new set of stories was launched simultaneously, consisting of Mean Arena, set around a violent high-tech street football game, Meltdown Man, whose hero was transported to a genetically engineered far future by a nuclear explosion, Strontium Dog
, featuring a mutant bounty hunter character inherited from the short-lived Starlord
title, and Dash Decent, a thinly disguised spoof of Flash Gordon
.
Pat Mills
introduced Comic Rock, which was meant to be a format for short stories inspired by popular music. The first story, inspired by The Jam
's Going Underground, was drawn by Kevin O'Neill and featured an insane underground travel network on a planet called "Termight", in which a freedom fighter called Nemesis
battles the despotic Torquemada
, chief of the Tube Police. All that was seen of Nemesis was the outside of his vehicle, the Blitzspear. The story was a reaction to an earlier tube chase sequence Mills and O'Neill had done in Ro-Busters, which management objected to.
The only other Comic Rock story was a follow-up called "Killer Watt", in which Nemesis and Torquemada fought on a teleport
system. This led to a series, Nemesis the Warlock, in which it was revealed that Termight was Earth in the far future, Torquemada was a despotic demagogue leading a campaign of genocide against all aliens, and Nemesis was the leader of the alien resistance. Mills and O'Neill were on a roll and produced a stream of bizarre and imaginative ideas, but ultimately O'Neill was unable to continue the level of work he was putting into it on 2000 AD pay. He left to work for DC Comics
in America, and was replaced on Nemesis by Bryan Talbot
.
2000 AD would occasionally take a gamble on non-science fiction material. For example Fiends of the Eastern Front
was a World War II vampire
story by Gerry Finley-Day
and Carlos Ezquerra
which was probably originally intended for Battle. Its hero was a German soldier who discovered that some of his Romania
n allies were vampires. Later in the war, when Romania changed sides, he was the only one who knew their secret.
A readers' poll revealed that future war was a popular topic, so Gerry Finley-Day was asked to come up with a new war story. He, editor Steve MacManus
and artists Dave Gibbons devised Rogue Trooper
, a "Genetic Infantryman
" engineered to be immune to chemical warfare hunting down the traitor general who had betrayed his regiment, who debuted in 1981. He was supported by bio-chips of the personalities of three dead comrades, which, slotted into his equipment, could talk to him. Gibbons left the strip early on and was replaced by Colin Wilson
, Brett Ewins
, and most notably Cam Kennedy
. Rogue Trooper replaced Meltdown Man, which had recently ended its run.
Another new strip in 1981, inspired by the brief CB radio
craze, was Ace Trucking Co.
, a comedy about pointy-headed alien space trucker Ace Garp and his crew by Wagner, Grant and Belardinelli.
Wagner and Grant also had big plans for Judge Dredd. Mega-City One had grown too large and unwieldy, and they planned to cut it down to size. "Block Mania
", in which wars broke out between rival city-blocks, turned out to be a plot orchestrated by the Russian city East-Meg One, and led directly to "The Apocalypse War
", another six-month epic and a hard-hitting satire on the concept of Mutually assured destruction. East-Meg One, protected by a warp-shield, softened up Mega-City One with nuclear warheads before invading. Dredd spearheaded the resistance, leading a small team to East-Meg territory, hijacking their nuclear bunkers and blowing East-Meg One off the face of the earth. "Block Mania" saw the final contributions of Mike McMahon and Brian Bolland to the Dredd series. "The Apocalypse War" was drawn in its entirety by Carlos Ezquerra, making a triumphant return to the character he created.
A new writer, Alan Moore
, had started contributing Future Shocks
in 1980. He wrote more than fifty one-off strips over the next three years, while also contributing to various Marvel UK
titles and the independent magazine Warrior. In 1982 he got his first series, Skizz
, a less sentimental take on the same basic plot used in E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial
, set in Birmingham
and influenced by Alan Bleasdale
's Boys from the Blackstuff
. Moore wrote Skizz without having seen E.T. The series was drawn by Jim Baikie
.
Moore wrote another series, D.R. and Quinch
, spun off from a one-off Time Twister. Drawn by Alan Davis
, the strip featured a pair of alien juvenile delinquents with a penchant for mindless thermonuclear destruction. He went on to create The Ballad of Halo Jones
with artist Ian Gibson
, the first strip in 2000 AD to be based on a female protagonist. Halo was an everywoman in the far future, born into mass unemployment on a floating housing estate, who escaped the earth and got involved in a terrible galactic war. Three books were published, and more were planned, but Moore's demands for creator's rights and his increasing commitments to American publishers meant they never materialised.
A new character, Sláine
, debuted in 1983, but had been in development since 1981. Created by Pat Mills
and his then wife Angela Kincaid
, Sláine was a barbarian fantasy
strip based on Celtic mythology
. Kincaid was a children's book illustrator who had never worked in comics before, and her opening episode was drawn and redrawn several times before the editors were satisfied. Other stories were written for artists Massimo Belardinelli and Mike McMahon, but these could not see print until Kincaid's episode was ready.
In 1985, after appearing as a supporting character in Judge Dredd, Judge Anderson
finally got her own series, written by Wagner and Grant and initially drawn by Brett Ewins. New artist Glenn Fabry
debuted on Sláine, but due to his notorious slowness was rotated with David Pugh
. In the Judge Dredd story "Letter from a Democrat", Wagner and Grant introduced a pro-democracy movement in Mega-City One, which is after all a police state
. This would provide plotlines for years to come.
In 1986 the comic reached its 500th issue. A new Sláine story, Sláine the King, began, entirely drawn by Fabry. Peter Milligan
, a writer who had been contributing Future Shocks, began two series, the bleak future war story Bad Company
, (based partly upon John Wagner's Darkie's Mob strip in Battle) and a strange, psychedelic
series called The Dead. In 1986, 2000AD was selling a very healthy 150,000 copies a week, (this was at the launch of their 500th issue).
In 1987 IPC's comics division was hived off and sold to publishing magnate Robert Maxwell
as Fleetway. 2000 AD was revamped, with a larger page size and full process colour on the covers and centre pages. Kevin O'Neill returned for a short Nemesis series called "Torquemada the God". Not long after came the debut of Zenith, 2000 ADs first superhero strip, by new writer Grant Morrison
and artist Steve Yeowell
. The title character was a shallow pop singer with superhuman powers, caught up in the intrigues of a 1960s generation of superhumans and the machinations of some Lovecraftian
elder gods.
Wagner and Grant began a new Dredd Epic, "Oz
", featuring Chopper
, a popular supporting character. Chopper was a skysurfer who had been imprisoned for competing in an illegal surfing competition a few years previously. A legal "Supersurf" race was being held in Oz, the future Australia, and Chopper escaped to compete. Dredd also went to Oz, partly to deal with Chopper, but mostly to investigate the Judda, a clone army created by Mega-City One's former chief genetic engineer. The Judda were defeated, and Chopper narrowly lost the race to Jug McKenzie. Dredd was waiting at the finish line, but McKenzie distracted him and allowed Chopper to escape into the outback. This ending was apparently the cause of some dispute between Wagner and Grant, and was a contributing factor (it was The Last American
, a mini series for Epic Comics
which would mark the end) in ending their regular writing partnership. Wagner kept Dredd, while Grant continued Strontium Dog and Judge Anderson. However the pair would still come together for occasional collaborations.
The "Oz" storyline had some lasting implications. Kraken
, a Judda cloned from the same genetic material as Dredd, was captured by Justice Department, who had plans for him. Chopper also spun off into his own series, written by Wagner and drawn by Colin MacNeil
.
The ABC Warriors finally got their own series again in 1987 as a spin-off from Nemesis. This was written, as ever, by Pat Mills, and drawn by two artists in rotation, newcomer Simon Bisley
and science fiction artist S.M.S.
.
In 1988 Grant and artist Simon Harrison began a new Strontium Dog story, "The Final Solution". It took nearly two years to complete, and ended with the death of Johnny Alpha, who sacrificed his life to save mutants from extermination. Original artist Carlos Ezquerra did not agree with the decision to kill the character off, and refused to draw it.
The number of colour pages was increased, allowing for one complete strip per issue to be painted. Initially the colour pages were reserved for Judge Dredd, but were later given over to a new Sláine story, "The Horned God", fully painted by Simon Bisley
. The series was collected as a series of three graphic novels, then as a single volume, and has remained in print ever since.
In 1989 the colour pages were increased again, allowing for three colour stories and two black and white in every issue. One of the colour series was Rogue Trooper: the War Machine, written by Dave Gibbons and painted by Will Simpson. The original Rogue Trooper series had run out of steam after the Traitor General had been dealt with, so Gibbons revamped the concept, creating a different genetic infantryman, Friday
, in a different war.
One of the black and white stories, "The Dead Man
", was a low-key beginning for a major event. In the Cursed Earth
, villagers come across a man, burnt from head to toe, with no memory of who he is or what happened to him. As he tries to piece his memories back together, he is being hunted by the evil beings who left him in that state. A creepy, atmospheric horror-western, it was drawn by John Ridgway
and written by "Keef Ripley", a pseudonym for John Wagner. By the end of the series the Dead Man had discovered his identity. He was Judge Dredd.
' into the Cursed Earth
. There he met the Sisters of Death, and only barely survived the encounter. This could mean only one thing: Judge Death was back.
This set up the latest six month epic, "Necropolis
". After Dredd had left, Justice Department had put Kraken through one final test, and given him Dredd's badge. But the Sisters of Death, spirit beings from Judge Death's dimension, were able to use Kraken's inner conflict to take control of him and use him to bring Judge Death and the other Dark Judges back from the limbo dimension Dredd had exiled them to. The Sisters possessed all the city's judges and began to enforce Death's twisted law. Out in the Cursed Earth, Dredd had recovered his memory and returned to defeat the Dark Judges. He then tried to lance the democratic boil by holding a referendum on whether the Judges should continue to govern the city. The judges won, by a small margin on a desultory turnout, and Dredd was satisfied.
2000 AD gained an influx of talent from other comics. Garth Ennis
and John Smith
had come to prominence writing for Crisis, a 2000 AD spin-off for older readers, while artists Jamie Hewlett
and Philip Bond
were the stars of Deadline
, an independent comics and popular culture magazine founded by Steve Dillon
and Brett Ewins
. Smith created Indigo Prime
, a multi-dimensional organisation that polices reality, whose most memorable story was "Killing Time", a time travel
story featuring Jack the Ripper
. Garth Ennis
and Philip Bond contributed Time Flies, a time-travel comedy, and Hewlett was paired with writer Peter Milligan
for the surreal Hewligan's Haircut. Writer John Tomlinson
and artist Simon Jacob created Armoured Gideon
, an action-comedy series about a giant killer robot charged with keeping demons from invading earth.
The Judge Dredd Megazine
, a monthly title set in the world of Dredd, was launched in October 1990. With John Wagner focusing his attentions there, Garth Ennis became the regular writer of Dredd in the weekly.
American writer Michael Fleisher
, who had written The Spectre
and Jonah Hex
in the 1970s, was recruited to write the continuing adventures of the new Rogue Trooper, along with several other strips, none of which went down very well. Another new writer who failed to set 2000 AD on fire was Mark Millar
, whose revival of Robo-Hunter was particularly unpopular. Millar has since gone on to become a successful writer of American superhero
comics such as The Authority and The Ultimates
.
2000 AD went all-colour about this time (prog 723, dated 23 March 1991), in response to a short-lived new colour weekly, Toxic!
, launched by Pat Mills and many of the core 2000 AD team of creators. Toxic! only lasted 31 issues but many of the creators who had worked on the comic eventually found their way to work for 2000 AD. Button Man
, a contemporary thriller by John Wagner and Arthur Ranson
, was originally intended for Toxic! but ended up in 2000 AD and the film rights have been optioned.
A new ABC Warriors
series, written by Mills and Tony Skinner and painted by Kev Walker
, began in 1991, in which Deadlock took over the warriors with his "Khaos" philosophy. The series is beautifully painted and often very funny, but some readers disliked the new direction and the regular humiliation of Hammerstein.
Robert Maxwell died in late 1991, and Fleetway was merged with London Editions, a Danish-owned company which owned rights to Disney
characters, to become Fleetway Editions.
In 1992, 2000 AD and the Judge Dredd Megazine ran their first crossover story, "Judgement Day
", in which zombies overran Mega-City One. Written by Garth Ennis and drawn by Carlos Ezquerra, Peter Doherty
, Dean Ormston
and Chris Halls
, the story teamed Judge Dredd with Johnny Alpha through the medium of time travel. John Smith and artist Paul Marshall created Firekind
, a slow-paced story about dragons and alien societies, which was accidentally published with its episodes in the wrong order.
The Strontium Dog world was eventually spun out to encompass a wider field, gaining the name Strontium Dogs - characters such as female vampire Durham Red
, the albino Feral Jackson, and former Johnny Alpha sidekick The Gronk - the latter, normally a timid creature with weak 'heartses', became a gung-ho action character upon learning of Alpha's death. However, in the 12-parter The Darkest Star, it transpires that the one to actually kill him was the Gronk himself; changed into a form designed by a cadre of Lyran necromancers to bring him endless agony, Alpha asked his friend to end his torment.
The "Summer Offensive" was an eight-week experiment in 1993, when the comic was handed over to writers Grant Morrison
, Mark Millar
and John Smith, to a mixed reception. Morrison wrote a Dredd story, "Inferno", and a drug-influenced comedy adventure, Really & Truly
. Smith contributed Slaughterbowl, in which convicted criminals on dinosaurs are pitted against each other in a deadly sport, with the survivor being granted his freedom. Millar wrote Maniac 5, an action-packed series about a remote controlled war-robot.
By far the most controversial story of this run, though, was Big Dave
, a satire of British tabloid attitudes starring "Manchester
's hardest man". In Big Dave's world, the German national football team really are Nazis, single mothers really do get a fortune in state handouts, Diana, Princess of Wales
and Sarah, Duchess of York
are portrayed as gold-digging tarts making fools of the Royal family
, and Saddam Hussein
, who rides an ostrich, is in league with aliens who want to turn earthlings into "poofs". Written by Morrison and Millar and drawn by Steve Parkhouse
, Big Dave divided readers like nothing else the comic had ever published.
A second crossover between 2000 AD and the Megazine, "Wilderlands
", began in 1994. Written by Wagner and drawn by Ezquerra, Mick Austin
and Trevor Hairsine
, it followed on from "Mechanismo", a series of stories in the Megazine in which Justice Department, opposed by Dredd, tried to introduce robot judges.
With Wagner writing, Judge Dredd was again the flagship strip. A long-running storyline, "The Pit
", was an ensemble-based police procedural
which had Dredd take a desk job as chief of a particularly crime-ridden sector of the city. But 2000 ADs quality had dropped throughout the early 1990s, with a corresponding drop in readership. The long awaited Judge Dredd movie was released in 1995, but was poorly received and failed to provide any boost to circulation.
Former Megazine editor David Bishop
became editor of the weekly in late 1995 but sales continued to decline. Unsuccessful series were dropped, and a number of new series were tried out, some more successful than others. Writer Dan Abnett
introduced Sinister Dexter
in 1996, a strip about two hitmen influenced by the film Pulp Fiction
, which became a regular feature. In 1997, writer Robbie Morrison
and artist Simon Fraser
, who had worked with Bishop on the Megazine, created Nikolai Dante
, a swashbuckling series set in future Russia starring a thief and ladies' man who discovers he's the illegitimate scion of an aristocratic dynasty. There were also gimmicks, like the "sex issue", sold in a clear plastic wrapper, The Spacegirls, a series attempting to cash in on the popularity of the Spice Girls
, B.L.A.I.R. 1
, a parody of Tony Blair
based on M.A.C.H. 1
, and an adaptation of the Danny Boyle
film A Life Less Ordinary
.
A new Dredd epic, "Doomsday
", appeared in 1999 and again ran in both 2000 AD and the Megazine. Wagner had been laying the foundations for this story for several years, introducing the main villain, semi-robotic gang lord Nero Narcos, and supporting characters like Judge Edgar
of the Public Surveillance Unit, and Galen DeMarco
, a former judge who had quit after falling in love with Dredd and become a private eye.
1999 also saw the return of another character, Nemesis the Warlock. After a break of ten years, writer Pat Mills decided to bring the story to an end with "The Final Conflict". The series was drawn by Henry Flint
in a style that recalled Kevin O'Neill's early work on the series, as well as Simon Bisley's ABC Warriors work.
The decade ended with a special 100-page issue called "Prog 2000". Behind a cover by Brian Bolland, Nemesis wrapped up for good in a final episode drawn by Kevin O'Neill. War broke out in Nikolai Dante, and writer Gordon Rennie
and artist Mark Harrison introduced future war story Glimmer Rats. Another old favourite, Strontium Dog
, was revived by Wagner and Ezquerra, telling new stories of Johnny Alpha set before his death, with the conceit that previous stories had been "folklore" and the new stories were "what really happened", allowing Wagner to revise continuity. The story was in fact an adaptation of a treatment Wagner had written for a TV pilot that was never made.
, with editors Andy Diggle
, Alan Barnes
and Matt Smith
at the helm. Rebellion continues to develop stories (and computer games) based on classic characters such as Rogue Trooper
and Judge Dredd
, and has also introduced a roster of new series including Shakara
, The Red Seas
and Caballistics, Inc.
. It has also published a tie-in to the film Shaun of the Dead
in a story written by Simon Pegg
and Edgar Wright
.
The comic continues to uncover new British talents, including Boo Cook
, Dom Reardon
and Al Ewing
. It has also benefited from an improved dollar-pound exchange rate
that has meant the comic can now afford to re-employ some of the talent thought lost to America.
Recently a number of shorter self-contained stories, partly created by the new wave of talent, have run including London Falling
, Go-Machine
, Stone Island
and Malone. Other developments include a revamping of the Judge Dredd Megazine
which has included a section acting as a showcase for British small press comics
. Starting in 1500 prog was a Judge Dredd story "The Connection", a 'prelude' to a 23-part Judge Dredd epic "Origins
" which filled in a lot of the details about Dredd's past.
In prog 1526, dated 28 February 2007, 2000 AD celebrated their 30th anniversary. The issue saw the start of two new storylines: Nikolai Dante
(by Robbie Morrison
and Simon Fraser
) and Savage
(by Pat Mills
and Charlie Adlard
), along with a one-off episode of Flesh
(by Pat Mills
and Ramon Sola). The run-up to this saw the first arcs of new series Stickleback
and Kingdom
.
2000 AD was also made available online through Clickwheel, another Rebellion
-owned firm. In December 2007 they started making the latest issue available to download as a PDF
and then in early 2008 they announced they had added an archive of the 2007 issues to the service. They launched the Clickwheel Comics Reader in July 2008 that would allow the digital versions of the comics to be downloaded and read on the iPhone
and iPod Touch
.
containing all 2000 AD stories, some stories spin-off or crossover into other stories. Most notable are the many stories that occur in the Judge Dredd Universe
and the early stories of Pat Mills
, which are frequently interlinked and also link into the Dredd Universe.
released well-received games based on Nemesis the Warlock and Sláine for the Amstrad CPC
, Commodore 64
and ZX Spectrum
platforms. Krisalis Software
released an adaptation of Rogue Trooper for the Amiga
and Atari ST
in 1991, and the merchandising that accompanied the 1995 Judge Dredd film included tie-in games for the IBM PC (MS-DOS
), Game Boy
, Game Gear, PlayStation
, Sega Genesis and Super Nintendo Entertainment System
. A Judge Dredd Pinball game was released for the PC (DOS) in 1998.
With the purchase of 2000 AD by Rebellion Developments, a computer game company, several more 2000 AD-linked games have been released or are under development. Judge Dredd: Dredd Vs. Death
was released in 2003 and Rogue Trooper followed in 2006 for the Xbox
, PlayStation 2
and PC. An updated version for the Wii
has also been announced.
Many of these have since moved on to work for American publishers such as DC Comics
(especially the Vertigo and Wildstorm
imprints) and Marvel Comics
.
For more creators, see: :Category:2000 AD creators.
. For a list of past editors see Tharg the Mighty
.
s.
Between 1994-96, "Fear The Badge" was an erstwhile but overly ambitious attempt at a 2000AD fanzine based around the Judge Dredd, Strontium Dog and Robo-hunter universes. With original artwork, stories and articles, the fanzine would act as a showcase for talent wanting to break into comics.
Its editor/creator, Paul Dick, partially disabled himself, wanted to donate some of the zine's profits to a different disability charity each month. However, the fanzine's genesis was plagued by bad luck, not least of all Dick's health worsening. Despite the good intentions and hardwork of its creator (as well as the keen interest and support from both amateur and professional 2000AD contributors), the fanzine's full potential sadly never was realised. Only a dummy run of 50 copies of issue 1 were ever produced.
In 1998 W.R. Logan, frustrated at the lack of activity from the comic's publishers both in promoting the title and also in making best use of new talents, decided to create an independent title using 2000 AD copyrighted characters and situations. This was titled Class of '79, named after the year of Dredd's graduation from the Academy of Law
- 2079. The first couple of issues contained work from now-professional comics creators Rufus Dayglo
, Boo Cook
, Henry Flint
and PJ Holden and won the best Self Published/Independent Comic Award at the 1999 National Comics Awards.
In 2001, Andrew J Lewis
created Zarjaz
comic, with strips featuring characters from a variety of 2000 AD stories. There were also interviews with Alan Grant, Frazer Irving
and Alan Moore
, as well as an extensive article on breaking into comics as a writer.
Another long-running fanzine, dedicated to the world of Johnny Alpha, is Dogbreath
, originally run by the pseudonymous Dr Bob it is now being produced by FutureQuake Publishing. In 2003, Arthur Wyatt
created FutureQuake
, a fanzine devoted to the Future Shocks
format. Although Class of '79 now appears to be on hiatus, all three of the other titles are in continuous publication, Zarjaz having started up again with a new issue 1.
In addition, a number of small press
comics have emerged from the 2000 AD fanbase, including Solar Wind
, Omnivistascope and The End Is Nigh
.
Comics
Comics denotes a hybrid medium having verbal side of its vocabulary tightly tied to its visual side in order to convey narrative or information only, the latter in case of non-fiction comics, seeking synergy by using both visual and verbal side in...
. As a comics anthology
Comics anthology
Comics anthologies collect works in the medium of comics that are too short for standalone publication.- U.S. :- UK :British comics have a long tradition publishing comics anthologies, often weekly...
it serialises a number of separate stories each issue (known as "progs") and was first published by IPC Magazines
IPC Media
IPC Media , a wholly owned subsidiary of Time Inc., is a consumer magazine and digital publisher in the United Kingdom, with a large portfolio selling over 350 million copies each year.- Origins :...
in 1977, the first issue dated 26 February. IPC then shifted the title to its Fleetway
Fleetway
Fleetway, also known as Fleetway Publications and Fleetway Editions, was a UK publishing company which mainly produced comic magazines. For a time owned by IPC Media, they are now a division of Egmont Publishing....
comics subsidiary which was sold to Egmont UK in 1987. Fleetway continued to produce the title until 2000, when it was bought by Rebellion Developments
Rebellion Developments
Rebellion is a British computer games company, based in Oxford, who are most famous for the first Aliens vs. Predator computer game. It has published comic books since 2000 and launched its own book imprint, Abaddon Books, in 2006.-History:...
.
It is most noted for its Judge Dredd
Judge Dredd
Judge Joseph Dredd is a comics character whose strip in the British science fiction anthology 2000 AD is the magazine's longest running . Dredd is an American law enforcement officer in a violent city of the future where uniformed Judges combine the powers of police, judge, jury and executioner...
stories, and has been contributed to by a number of artists and writers who became renowned in the field internationally, such as Alan Moore
Alan Moore
Alan Oswald Moore is an English writer primarily known for his work in comic books, a medium where he has produced a number of critically acclaimed and popular series, including Watchmen, V for Vendetta, and From Hell...
, Neil Gaiman
Neil Gaiman
Neil Richard Gaiman born 10 November 1960)is an English author of short fiction, novels, comic books, graphic novels, audio theatre and films. His notable works include the comic book series The Sandman and novels Stardust, American Gods, Coraline, and The Graveyard Book...
, Grant Morrison
Grant Morrison
Grant Morrison is a Scottish comic book writer, playwright and occultist. He is known for his nonlinear narratives and counter-cultural leanings, as well as his successful runs on titles like Animal Man, Doom Patrol, JLA, The Invisibles, New X-Men, Fantastic Four, All-Star Superman, and...
, Bryan Talbot
Bryan Talbot
Bryan Talbot is a British comic book artist and writer, born in Wigan, Lancashire, in 1952. He is best known as the creator of The Adventures of Luther Arkwright and its sequel Heart of Empire.-Career:...
, Brian Bolland
Brian Bolland
Brian Bolland is a British comics artist, known for his meticulous, detailed linework and eye-catching compositions. Best known in the UK as one of the definitive Judge Dredd artists for British comics anthology 2000 AD, he spearheaded the 'British Invasion' of the American comics industry, and in...
and Mike McMahon
Mike McMahon (comics)
Michael McMahon is a British comics artist best known for his work on 2000 AD characters such as Judge Dredd, Sláine and ABC Warriors, and the mini-series The Last American....
.
Overview
2000 AD has been a successful launchpad for getting United Kingdom talent into the larger American comics market, and has also been the source of a number of film licences. Unlike earlier weekly titles, 2000 AD was based on a 6 page strip format. This gave the writers greater opportunity to develop character and meant that the artists had greater scope in designing the layout.A long-running joke is that the editor
Editing
Editing is the process of selecting and preparing written, visual, audible, and film media used to convey information through the processes of correction, condensation, organization, and other modifications performed with an intention of producing a correct, consistent, accurate, and complete...
of 2000 AD is Tharg the Mighty
Tharg the Mighty
The Mighty Tharg is a recurrent character in science fiction comic 2000 AD, one of only two characters to appear in nearly every issue of the comic...
, a green extraterrestrial
Extraterrestrial life
Extraterrestrial life is defined as life that does not originate from Earth...
from Betelgeuse
Betelgeuse
Betelgeuse, also known by its Bayer designation Alpha Orionis , is the eighth brightest star in the night sky and second brightest star in the constellation of Orion, outshining its neighbour Rigel only rarely...
who terms his readers "Earthlets". Tharg uses other unique alien expressions and even appears in his own comic strips. Readers sometimes play along with this: for example, in prog 200 a pair of readers wrote to Tharg claiming that they preferred to be called "Terrans"; the resulting controversy ended in Tharg's accepting a challenge for a duel at a galactic location.
Another running joke is Tharg's supposed use of robot
Robot
A robot is a mechanical or virtual intelligent agent that can perform tasks automatically or with guidance, typically by remote control. In practice a robot is usually an electro-mechanical machine that is guided by computer and electronic programming. Robots can be autonomous, semi-autonomous or...
s to draw and write the strips — some of which bear a marked resemblance to actual writers and artists. A fictional reason for Tharg to use mechanical assistance was given when the robots "went on strike" (reflecting real-life industrial action
Industrial action
Industrial action or job action refers collectively to any measure taken by trade unions or other organised labour meant to reduce productivity in a workplace. Quite often it is used and interpreted as a euphemism for strike, but the scope is much wider...
that occasionally halted IPC's comics production during the 1970s and 1980s). Tharg wrote and drew a whole issue himself, but when he ran it through the quality-control "Thrill-meter", the device melted down on extreme overload. The offending issue had to be taken away, by blindfolded security guards, to a lead-lined vault where there was no danger of anyone seeing it accidentally.
Pre-publication
Kelvin Gosnell
Kelvin Gosnell is a British comics writer and editor. He was involved in the founding of the long-running comic 2000 AD in 1977.-Biography:...
, a sub-editor at IPC Magazines
IPC Media
IPC Media , a wholly owned subsidiary of Time Inc., is a consumer magazine and digital publisher in the United Kingdom, with a large portfolio selling over 350 million copies each year.- Origins :...
, read an article in the London Evening Standard
Evening Standard
The Evening Standard, now styled the London Evening Standard, is a free local daily newspaper, published Monday–Friday in tabloid format in London. It is the dominant regional evening paper for London and the surrounding area, with coverage of national and international news and City of London...
about a wave of forthcoming science fiction films, and suggested that the company might get on the bandwagon by launching a science fiction comic. IPC asked Pat Mills
Pat Mills
Pat Mills, nicknamed 'the godfather of British comics', is a comics writer and editor who, along with John Wagner, revitalised British boys comics in the 1970s, and has remained a leading light in British comics ever since....
, a freelance writer and editor
Editing
Editing is the process of selecting and preparing written, visual, audible, and film media used to convey information through the processes of correction, condensation, organization, and other modifications performed with an intention of producing a correct, consistent, accurate, and complete...
who had created Battle Picture Weekly
Battle Picture Weekly
Battle Picture Weekly, at various time also known as Battle Action Force, Battle and Battle with Storm Force, was a British war comic published by IPC Magazines from 8 March 1975 to 23 January 1988, when it merged with Eagle...
and Action, to develop it. Mills brought fellow freelancer John Wagner
John Wagner
John Wagner is a comics writer who was born in Pennsylvania in 1949 and moved to Scotland as a boy. Alongside Pat Mills, Wagner was responsible for revitalising British boys' comics in the 1970s, and has continued to be a leading light in British comics ever since.He is best known for his work on...
on board as script adviser and the pair began to develop characters. The then-futuristic name 2000 AD was chosen as no-one involved expected the comic to last that long.
Mills' experiences with Battle and Action in particular had taught him that readers responded to his anti-authoritarian
Anti-authoritarian
Anti-authoritarianism is opposition to authoritarianism, which is defined as a "political doctrine advocating the principle of absolute rule: absolutism, autocracy, despotism, dictatorship, totalitarianism." Anti-authoritarians usually believe in full equality before the law and strong civil...
attitudes. Wagner, who had written a Dirty Harry
Dirty Harry
Dirty Harry is a 1971 American crime thriller produced and directed by Don Siegel, the first in the Dirty Harry series. Clint Eastwood plays the title role, in his first outing as San Francisco Police Department Inspector "Dirty" Harry Callahan....
-inspired tough cop called One Eyed Jack for Valiant
Valiant (comic)
Valiant was the title of a British boys adventure comics anthology which ran from 1962 to 1976. It was published by IPC Magazines and was one of their major adventure titles throughout the 1960s and early 1970s.-Publication history:...
, saw that readers also responded to authority figures, and developed a character that took the concept to its logical extreme, imagining an ultra-violent lawman patrolling a future New York
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
with the power to arrest, sentence, and if required execute criminals on the spot. Meanwhile, Mills had developed a horror
Horror fiction
Horror fiction also Horror fantasy is a philosophy of literature, which is intended to, or has the capacity to frighten its readers, inducing feelings of horror and terror. It creates an eerie atmosphere. Horror can be either supernatural or non-supernatural...
strip, inspired by the novels of Dennis Wheatley
Dennis Wheatley
Dennis Yates Wheatley was an English author. His prolific output of stylish thrillers and occult novels made him one of the world's best-selling authors from the 1930s through the 1960s.-Early life:...
, about a hanging judge, called Judge Dread (after the reggae
Reggae
Reggae is a music genre first developed in Jamaica in the late 1960s. While sometimes used in a broader sense to refer to most types of Jamaican music, the term reggae more properly denotes a particular music style that originated following on the development of ska and rocksteady.Reggae is based...
and ska
Ska
Ska |Jamaican]] ) is a music genre that originated in Jamaica in the late 1950s, and was the precursor to rocksteady and reggae. Ska combined elements of Caribbean mento and calypso with American jazz and rhythm and blues...
artist of the same name
Judge Dread
Alexander Minto Hughes , better known as Judge Dread, was an English reggae and ska musician. He was the first white recording artist to have a reggae hit in Jamaica, and has the most banned songs of all time.-Career:...
). The idea was abandoned as unsuitable for the new comic, but the name, with a little modification, was adopted by Wagner for his ultimate lawman.
The task of visualising the newly-named Judge Dredd
Judge Dredd
Judge Joseph Dredd is a comics character whose strip in the British science fiction anthology 2000 AD is the magazine's longest running . Dredd is an American law enforcement officer in a violent city of the future where uniformed Judges combine the powers of police, judge, jury and executioner...
was given to Carlos Ezquerra
Carlos Ezquerra
Carlos Sanchez Ezquerra , who has also worked under the alias L. John Silver, is a Spanish comics artist who works mainly in British comics and currently lives in Andorra...
, a Spanish artist who had worked for Mills before on Battle on a strip called Major Eazy. Wagner gave Ezquerra an advertisement for the film Death Race 2000
Death Race 2000
Death Race 2000 is a 1975 cult action film directed by Paul Bartel, and starring David Carradine, Simone Griffeth and Sylvester Stallone. The film takes place in a dystopian American society in the year 2000, where the murderous Transcontinental Road Race has become a form of national entertainment...
, showing the character Frankenstein clad in black leather, as a suggestion for what the character should look like. Ezquerra elaborated on this greatly, adding body-armour, zips and chains, which Wagner originally thought over the top. Wagner's initial script was rewritten by Mills and drawn up by Ezquerra, but when the art came back a rethink was necessary. The hardware and cityscapes Ezquerra had drawn were far more futuristic than the near-future setting originally intended, and Mills decided to run with it and set the strip further into the future. By this stage, however, Wagner had quit.
IPC owned the rights to Dan Dare
Dan Dare
Dan Dare is a British science fiction comic hero, created by illustrator Frank Hampson who also wrote the first stories, that is, the Venus and Red Moon stories, and a complete storyline for Operation Saturn...
, and Mills decided to revive the character to add immediate public recognition for the title. Paul DeSavery, who owned Dares film rights, offered to buy the new comic and give Mills and Wagner more creative control and a greater financial stake. The deal fell through, however, and Wagner walked. Mills was reluctant to lose Judge Dredd and farmed the strip out to a variety of freelance writers, hoping to develop it further. Their scripts were given to a variety of artists as Mills tried to find a strip which would make a good introduction to the character, all of which meant that Dredd would not be ready for the first issue.
The story chosen was one written by Peter Harris, extensively rewritten by Mills and including an idea suggested by Kelvin Gosnell, and drawn by newcomer Mike McMahon
Mike McMahon (comics)
Michael McMahon is a British comics artist best known for his work on 2000 AD characters such as Judge Dredd, Sláine and ABC Warriors, and the mini-series The Last American....
. The strip debuted in prog 2, but Ezquerra, angry that another artist had drawn the first published strip, quit and returned to work for Battle.
The opening line-up
Mills had created Harlem HeroesHarlem Heroes
Harlem Heroes is a British comic strip that formed part of the original line-up of 2000 AD. Inspired by the popularity during the 1970s of kung fu films and the Harlem Globetrotters, Harlem Heroes was devised by Pat Mills, employing elements from his Hellball comic strip, and scripted by Tom Tully...
, about the future sport of aeroball, a futuristic, violent version of basketball with jet-packs. Similar future sport series had been a fixture of Action. Wanting to give the new comic a distinctive look, Mills wanted to use European artists, but the work turned in on Harlem Heroes by Trigo was disappointing. Veteran British artists Ron Turner
Ron Turner (artist)
Ron Turner was a British illustrator and comic book artist.- Early life and career :Ron Turner became interested in science fiction at an early age, with numerous works across several media: the novels of H.G...
and Barrie Mitchell were tried out, but a newcomer called Dave Gibbons
Dave Gibbons
Dave Gibbons is an English comic book artist, writer and sometime letterer. He is best known for his collaborations with writer Alan Moore, which include the miniseries Watchmen and the Superman story "For the Man Who Has Everything"...
won the editor over with his dynamic, American-influenced drawings and got the job. Mills wrote the first five episodes before handing the strip to Roy of the Rovers
Roy of the Rovers
Roy of the Rovers is a British comic strip about the life and times of a fictional footballer named Roy Race, who played for Melchester Rovers...
writer Tom Tully
Tom Tully (comic writer)
Tom Tully is a noted British comic writer mostly of sports and action stories. He is probably most famous as the longest-running writer of the popular football-themed strip Roy of the Rovers, which he wrote for much of Roy Race's playing career until the weekly comic closed in 1993.-Biography:From...
.
Dan Dare
Dan Dare
Dan Dare is a British science fiction comic hero, created by illustrator Frank Hampson who also wrote the first stories, that is, the Venus and Red Moon stories, and a complete storyline for Operation Saturn...
was extensively revamped to make it more futuristic. In the new stories he had been put into suspended animation and revived several centuries in the future. Several artists were tried out before Mills settled on Italian artist Massimo Belardinelli
Massimo Belardinelli
Massimo Belardinelli was an Italian comics artist best known for his work in the British science fiction comic 2000 AD.-Biography:...
, whose imaginative, hallucinatory work was fantastic at visualising aliens, although perhaps less satisfying on the hero himself. The scripts were endlessly rewritten in an attempt to make the series work, but few Dan Dare fans remember this version of the character fondly. Belardinelli and Gibbons later switched strips, with Gibbons drawing Dare and Belardinelli drawing the Harlem Heroes sequel Inferno. When Gibbons took over Dare in Prog 28 the strip was refashioned as a 'Star Trek' style space opera.
The other opening strips were M.A.C.H. 1
M.A.C.H. 1
M.A.C.H. 1 was a comic strip that ran in the British science fiction comic 2000 AD. The strip was created by writer Pat Mills and illustrator Enio...
, a super-powered secret agent inspired by The Six Million Dollar Man
The Six Million Dollar Man
The Six Million Dollar Man is an American television series about a former astronaut with bionic implants working for the OSI...
; Invasion!
Invasion! (2000 AD)
Invasion! was a series created by Pat Mills and mostly written by Gerry Finley-Day that appeared in the first 51 editions of the weekly comic 2000 AD....
, about a "Volgan" (thinly disguised Soviet—in fact originally billed as Soviet, but changed before printing to a "neutral" antagonist) invasion of the United Kingdom opposed by tough London lorry driver turned guerrilla
Guerrilla warfare
Guerrilla warfare is a form of irregular warfare and refers to conflicts in which a small group of combatants including, but not limited to, armed civilians use military tactics, such as ambushes, sabotage, raids, the element of surprise, and extraordinary mobility to harass a larger and...
fighter Bill Savage; and Flesh
Flesh (comics)
Flesh is a recurring story in the weekly anthology comic 2000AD created by writer Pat Mills.-Publishing history:Flesh first appeared as part of 2000ADs opening line up in its first issue in 1977. The series was set in the age of dinosaurs who were farmed for their meat by cowboys from the future...
, a particularly violent strip about time-travelling
Time travel
Time travel is the concept of moving between different points in time in a manner analogous to moving between different points in space. Time travel could hypothetically involve moving backward in time to a moment earlier than the starting point, or forward to the future of that point without the...
cowboys farming dinosaur
Dinosaur
Dinosaurs are a diverse group of animals of the clade and superorder Dinosauria. They were the dominant terrestrial vertebrates for over 160 million years, from the late Triassic period until the end of the Cretaceous , when the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event led to the extinction of...
s for their meat.
Once the comic had been made ready to launch, Mills quit as editor and handed the reins to Kelvin Gosnell
Kelvin Gosnell
Kelvin Gosnell is a British comics writer and editor. He was involved in the founding of the long-running comic 2000 AD in 1977.-Biography:...
, whose idea it was in the first place. Gosnell appeared as the fall guy in the Tharg photostrips that were a feature of the comic in its early years.
The early years
Wagner swallowed his pride and returned to write Judge Dredd, starting in prog 9. His "Robot WarsThe Robot Wars
The Robot Wars was the first extended storyline for Judge Dredd during which the character became the most popular in the comic 2000 AD...
" storyline was drawn by a rotating team of artists, including McMahon, Ezquerra, Turner and Ian Gibson
Ian Gibson (artist)
Ian Gibson is a British comic book artist, best known for his 1980s black-and-white work for 2000 AD, especially as the main artist on Robo-Hunter and The Ballad of Halo Jones, as well as his long run on Judge Dredd.-Biography:...
, and marked the point where Dredd became the most popular character in the comic, a position he has rarely relinquished. Dredd's city, which now covered most of the east coast of North America, became known as Mega-City One
Mega-City One
Mega-City One is a huge fictional city-state covering much of what is now the Eastern United States in the Judge Dredd comic book series. The exact boundaries of the city depend on which artist has drawn the story...
. Dredd had also been unmasked in issue 8 in a story drawn by Massimo Belardinelli, but the face drawn was not anywhere near that which had been hoped. The decision was made to make out that Dredd's face had been scarred and the panel had a 'censored' banner slapped on it. After this Dredd's face was never attempted to be shown again.
A new story format was introduced in prog 25 - Tharg's Future Shocks
Future Shocks
Future Shocks is the name given to a long running series of short strips in the weekly comic 2000 AD in 1977. The name originates in a book titled Future Shock, written by Alvin Toffler, published in 1970.-Publishing history:...
, one-off twist-in-the-tail stories devised by writer Steve Moore
Steve Moore (comics)
Steve Moore is a British comics writer.Moore is credited with showing acclaimed writer Alan Moore , then a struggling cartoonist, how to write comic scripts...
. 2000 AD still uses this format as filler and to try out new talent. One early Future Shock was drawn by 2000 ADs then art assistant Kevin O'Neill
Kevin O'Neill (comics)
Kevin O'Neill is an English comic book illustrator best known as the co-creator of Nemesis the Warlock, Marshal Law , and The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen .-Early career:...
.
Wagner introduced a new character, Robo-Hunter
Robo-Hunter
Robo-Hunter is a recurring strip in the British Comic 2000 AD, initially written by John Wagner and illustrated by Ian Gibson. The series starred Sam Slade, a laconic, ageing, cigar-smoking bounty hunter of robots that have gone renegade. Though action orientated, the series was noted for its...
, in 1978. The hero, Sam Slade, was a private detective-type character specialising in robot
Robot
A robot is a mechanical or virtual intelligent agent that can perform tasks automatically or with guidance, typically by remote control. In practice a robot is usually an electro-mechanical machine that is guided by computer and electronic programming. Robots can be autonomous, semi-autonomous or...
-related cases. José Ferrer was the original artist, but the editorial team were not happy with his work and quickly replaced him with Ian Gibson, who redrew parts of Ferrer's episodes before taking over himself. Gibson's imaginative, cartoony art helped drive the series' style from hard-boiled detective to surreal comedy. As the series continued Sam was joined by an idiot kit-built robot assistant, Hoagy, and even, after a crack-down on smoking in IPC comics, a Cuba
Cuba
The Republic of Cuba is an island nation in the Caribbean. The nation of Cuba consists of the main island of Cuba, the Isla de la Juventud, and several archipelagos. Havana is the largest city in Cuba and the country's capital. Santiago de Cuba is the second largest city...
n robot cigar
Cigar
A cigar is a tightly-rolled bundle of dried and fermented tobacco that is ignited so that its smoke may be drawn into the mouth. Cigar tobacco is grown in significant quantities in Brazil, Cameroon, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Honduras, Indonesia, Mexico, Nicaragua, Philippines, and the Eastern...
, Stogie, designed to help him cut down on nicotine
Nicotine
Nicotine is an alkaloid found in the nightshade family of plants that constitutes approximately 0.6–3.0% of the dry weight of tobacco, with biosynthesis taking place in the roots and accumulation occurring in the leaves...
. The hero started out based on Humphrey Bogart
Humphrey Bogart
Humphrey DeForest Bogart was an American actor. He is widely regarded as a cultural icon.The American Film Institute ranked Bogart as the greatest male star in the history of American cinema....
, but after a few years he looked more like Ted Danson
Ted Danson
Edward Bridge “Ted” Danson III is an American actor best known for his role as central character Sam Malone in the sitcom Cheers, and his role as Dr. John Becker on the series Becker. He also plays a recurring role on Larry David's HBO sitcom Curb Your Enthusiasm and starred alongside Glenn Close...
.
Other ongoing strips included The Visible Man, detailing the misfortunes of Frank Hart, a man whose skin had been made transparent due to exposure to nuclear waste, and Shako, (which followed the same formula as Hook Jaw from Action but with less success) the story of a polar bear
Polar Bear
The polar bear is a bear native largely within the Arctic Circle encompassing the Arctic Ocean, its surrounding seas and surrounding land masses. It is the world's largest land carnivore and also the largest bear, together with the omnivorous Kodiak Bear, which is approximately the same size...
pursued by the Army because it had swallowed a secret capsule.
M.A.C.H. 1
M.A.C.H. 1
M.A.C.H. 1 was a comic strip that ran in the British science fiction comic 2000 AD. The strip was created by writer Pat Mills and illustrator Enio...
was killed off in 1978 but a spin off, M.A.C.H. Zero, continued into the 1980s. Flesh had a sequel in 1978, set on the prehistoric oceans, and Bill Savage appeared again in a prequel, Disaster 1990, in which a nuclear explosion at the north pole had melted the polar ice-cap and flooded Britain.
In 1978 2000 AD launched the annual 48 page Summer Special, including a full length M.A.C.H. Zero story drawn by O'Neill. The yearly hardcover annual had started in 1977 and would continue till 1991.
Pat Mills took over writing Dredd for a six-month "epic" called "The Cursed Earth", inspired by Roger Zelazny
Roger Zelazny
Roger Joseph Zelazny was an American writer of fantasy and science fiction short stories and novels, best known for his The Chronicles of Amber series...
's Damnation Alley
Damnation Alley
Damnation Alley is the title of a 1967 science fiction short story by Roger Zelazny, which he expanded into a novel in 1969. A film adaptation of the novel was released in 1977.-Plot introduction:...
, which took the future lawman out of the city on a humanitarian trek across the radioactive wasteland between the Mega-Cities. McMahon drew the bulk of the stories, with occasional episodes drawn by Brian Bolland
Brian Bolland
Brian Bolland is a British comics artist, known for his meticulous, detailed linework and eye-catching compositions. Best known in the UK as one of the definitive Judge Dredd artists for British comics anthology 2000 AD, he spearheaded the 'British Invasion' of the American comics industry, and in...
. The story saw Dredd moved to the colour centre pages for the first time while Dan Dare was given the front page.
IPC had launched a second science fiction comic, Starlord
Starlord
Starlord was a short-lived weekly British science fiction comic published by IPC in 1978 as a sister title to 2000 AD, which had been launched the previous year in anticipation of a science fiction boom surrounding Star Wars....
, which was cancelled after only 22 issues and merged into 2000 AD. Two Starlord strips strengthened 2000 ADs line-up: Strontium Dog
Strontium Dog
Strontium Dog is a long-running comics series featuring in the British science fiction weekly 2000 AD, starring Johnny Alpha, a mutant bounty hunter with an array of imaginative gadgets and weapons....
, a mutant
Mutant (fictional)
The concept of a mutant is a common trope in comic books and science fiction. The new phenotypes that appear in fictional mutations generally go far beyond what is typically seen in biological mutants, and often result in the mutated life form exhibiting superhuman abilities or qualities.-Marvel...
bounty hunter
Bounty hunter
A bounty hunter captures fugitives for a monetary reward . Other names, mainly used in the United States, include bail enforcement agent and fugitive recovery agent.-Laws in the U.S.:...
created by Wagner and Ezquerra, and Ro-Busters
Ro-Busters
Ro-Busters is a British comic story that formed part of the original line-up of Starlord. Similar in premise to that of the Thunderbirds television series, it was created by writer Pat Mills and was drawn by Carlos Pino and Ian Kennedy initially, before Starlord's merger with 2000 AD...
, a robot disaster squad created by Mills. Ro-Busters gave O'Neill the chance to spread his artistic wings and led to the popular spin-off ABC Warriors
ABC Warriors
ABC Warriors is a long-running 2000 AD comic strip written by Pat Mills, which first appeared in prog 119 in 1979 and continues to run today. Art for the opening episodes was by Kevin O'Neill, Mike McMahon, Brett Ewins, and Brendan McCarthy - who between them designed the original seven members of...
. Dan Dare was suspended while "The Cursed Earth" was finished in time for the merger. Wagner returned to Dredd following the merger to write "The Day the Law Died", another six month epic in which Mega-City One was taken over by the insane Chief Judge Cal, based on the Roman emperor
Roman Emperor
The Roman emperor was the ruler of the Roman State during the imperial period . The Romans had no single term for the office although at any given time, a given title was associated with the emperor...
Caligula
Caligula
Caligula , also known as Gaius, was Roman Emperor from 37 AD to 41 AD. Caligula was a member of the house of rulers conventionally known as the Julio-Claudian dynasty. Caligula's father Germanicus, the nephew and adopted son of Emperor Tiberius, was a very successful general and one of Rome's most...
. Another cancelled title, Tornado
Tornado (comic)
Tornado was a short-lived weekly British comic published for 22 issues by IPC Magazines between March 1979 and August 1979. After the cancellations of the Starlord and Action titles IPC launched Tornado as a way to use up stories already commissioned for the other titles. Like Action it was a mixed...
, was merged with 2000 AD a few months later, contributing three stories to 2000AD - Blackhawk
Blackhawk (UK comic)
Blackhawk was a Tornado comic strip created by Gerry Finley-Day that was one of three strips to transfer to 2000 AD after the two merged.-Plot synposis:...
, an historical adventure series about a Nubian slave in the Roman empire which took a science-fictional turn in 2000AD with him becoming a gladiator in an alien world; The Mind of Wolfie Smith, a coming of age/psychic story of a runaway teenager, and Captain Klep, a single-page superhero parody.
2000 AD featured an adaptation of Harry Harrison
Harry Harrison
Harry Harrison is an American science fiction author best known for his character the Stainless Steel Rat and the novel Make Room! Make Room! , the basis for the film Soylent Green...
's novel The Stainless Steel Rat
The Stainless Steel Rat
James Bolivar DiGriz, alias "Slippery Jim" and "The Stainless Steel Rat", is the fictional hero of a series of humorous science fiction novels written by Harry Harrison.-James Bolivar diGriz:...
, written by Gosnell and drawn by Ezquerra. Adaptations of two of Harrison's sequels, The Stainless Steel Rat Saves the World and The Stainless Steel Rat for President, would follow later. The appearance of the main character, galactic thief "Slippery" Jim DiGriz, was based on James Coburn
James Coburn
James Harrison Coburn III was an American film and television actor. Coburn appeared in nearly 70 films and made over 100 television appearances during his 45-year career, and played a wide range of roles and won an Academy Award for his supporting role as Glen Whitehouse in Affliction.A capable,...
, evidently a favourite of Ezquerra's; Coburn was also the inspiration for Major Eazy, which Ezquerra drew in Battle, as well as Judge Koburn, a Dredd-universe reworking of the Major Eazy character, who first appeared in 2003. Gerry Finley-Day
Gerry Finley-Day
Gerry Finley-Day was a prolific British comics writer from the 1960s to the 1980s, best known as the creator of Rogue Trooper.He started out at D. C. Thomson & Co., before becoming the editor of IPC's girls' title Tammy in 1971, for which he wrote strips such as "Ella on Easy Street" and "The Camp...
contributed The V.C.s
The V.C.s
The V.C.s was a future war series that appeared in the science fiction comic 2000 AD #140 - 178 . Written by Gerry Finley-Day, the first episode was drawn by Mike McMahon who designed the craft and the main characters. The main series artists were Cam Kennedy, Garry Leach and John Richardson...
, a future war story inspired by the Vietnam War
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...
, drawn by McMahon, Cam Kennedy
Cam Kennedy
Campbell Kennedy is a Scottish comics artist. He is best known for his work on 2000 AD, especially the flagship titles Judge Dredd and Rogue Trooper.-Biography:...
, Garry Leach
Garry Leach
-Biography:Garry Leach studied Graphic Design at St. Martin's School of Art. He was first noted for his early work for 2000 AD, which was mainly on one-off stories featuring Dan Dare and M.A.C.H. 1. He then became a fan-favourite for his work on the series The VCs.In 1981 he joined Dez Skinn's...
and John Richardson.
An important feature of the early years of 2000 AD was the opportunities it gave to young British comic artists - by the time the title celebrated its 100th issue Brian Bolland, Dave Gibbons, Ian Gibson, Mike McMahon and Kevin O'Neil were all established as regulars.
The 1980s
In 1980 Judge DreddJudge Dredd
Judge Joseph Dredd is a comics character whose strip in the British science fiction anthology 2000 AD is the magazine's longest running . Dredd is an American law enforcement officer in a violent city of the future where uniformed Judges combine the powers of police, judge, jury and executioner...
gained a new enemy. Writer John Wagner
John Wagner
John Wagner is a comics writer who was born in Pennsylvania in 1949 and moved to Scotland as a boy. Alongside Pat Mills, Wagner was responsible for revitalising British boys' comics in the 1970s, and has continued to be a leading light in British comics ever since.He is best known for his work on...
realised that Dredd's habit of shooting just about everybody he came up against meant that it was difficult to create a recurring villain. The solution was Judge Death
Judge Death
Judge Death is a fictional character of the Judge Dredd universe recounted in the UK comic 2000 AD. He is the leader of the Dark Judges, a sinister group of undead law enforcers from the alternate dimension of Deadworld, where all life has been declared a crime since only the living commit crimes...
, an undead judge from another dimension where, since all crime was committed by the living, life itself was outlawed. The law had been thoroughly enforced on his own world, and now he had come to Mega-City One to continue his work. Judge Death first appeared in an atmospheric three-parter drawn by Brian Bolland
Brian Bolland
Brian Bolland is a British comics artist, known for his meticulous, detailed linework and eye-catching compositions. Best known in the UK as one of the definitive Judge Dredd artists for British comics anthology 2000 AD, he spearheaded the 'British Invasion' of the American comics industry, and in...
which also introduced Judge Anderson
Judge Anderson
Judge Cassandra Anderson is a fictional character that started as a supporting player in the comic story Judge Dredd of 2000 AD and eventually rose in prominence and became the star of her own series, which is entitled Anderson: Psi-Division. It was created by writer John Wagner and artist Brian...
of Psi Division
Psi Division
Psi-Division is a fictional organisation in the Judge Dredd and Anderson: Psi-Division comic strips in 2000 AD and Judge Dredd: The Megazine. It is the branch of Mega-City One's Justice Department that deals in supernatural phenomena, using Judges with psychic abilities. Psi-Judges are often...
, a squad of judges with psychic powers.
Dredd soon began another epic journey in "The Judge Child
Judge Child
The Judge Child was an extended storyline in the 2000 AD comic strip Judge Dredd that ran from issues 156 to 181 in 1980. It introduced a character with the same name...
". A dying Psi Division Judge had predicted disaster for Mega-City One unless it was ruled by a boy with a birthmark shaped like an eagle, so Dredd set off into the Cursed Earth
Cursed Earth
The Cursed Earth is a part of the fictional universe from the Judge Dredd series that appears in the UK comic book 2000 AD.-Background:...
, to Texas City, and into deep space in search of the boy, Owen Krysler, and his kidnappers, the Angel Gang
Angel Gang
The Angel Gang is a group of villains in the Judge Dredd comic strip, published in 2000 AD magazine in the UK.-History:The most infamous and feared band of thugs ever to come out of Texas City, the Angel Gang were responsible for a near endless string of crimes with one overriding common factor -...
. The Angels were some of the most memorable villains Wagner had yet devised, but suffered the same mortality problem that had plagued the strip so far. All of them were killed during the course of the story, but one, the Mean Machine
Mean Machine Angel
Mean "Mean Machine" Angel is a villain in the Judge Dredd stories of the British comic book series 2000 AD. He is one of the sons of Elmer "Pa" Angel, and as such, is a member of the Angel Gang.-Fictional biography:...
, was later resurrected by a convenient bit of magic. "The Judge Child" was drawn by Bolland, Ron Smith
Ron Smith (artist)
Ron Smith, born 1924, is a retired British comic artist whose career spanned almost almost fifty years, during which time he built a solid reputation as one of the most popular and well respected illustrators working in his field....
and Mike McMahon
Mike McMahon (comics)
Michael McMahon is a British comics artist best known for his work on 2000 AD characters such as Judge Dredd, Sláine and ABC Warriors, and the mini-series The Last American....
in rotation, and the later episodes marked the beginning of Wagner's long-running writing partnership with Alan Grant. The pair would go on to write Strontium Dog, Robo-Hunter and many other stories for 2000 AD, as well as for Roy of the Rovers
Roy of the Rovers
Roy of the Rovers is a British comic strip about the life and times of a fictional footballer named Roy Race, who played for Melchester Rovers...
, Battle
Battle Picture Weekly
Battle Picture Weekly, at various time also known as Battle Action Force, Battle and Battle with Storm Force, was a British war comic published by IPC Magazines from 8 March 1975 to 23 January 1988, when it merged with Eagle...
and the relaunched Eagle
Eagle (comic)
Eagle was a seminal British children's comic, first published from 1950 to 1969, and then in a relaunched format from 1982 to 1994. It was founded by Marcus Morris, an Anglican vicar from Lancashire. Morris edited a parish magazine called The Anvil, but felt that the church was not communicating...
in the United Kingdom, and a number of comics in America.
Prog (issue) 178 was something of a relaunch for 2000 AD. All current stories, with the exception of Judge Dredd, were wound up, and a new set of stories was launched simultaneously, consisting of Mean Arena, set around a violent high-tech street football game, Meltdown Man, whose hero was transported to a genetically engineered far future by a nuclear explosion, Strontium Dog
Strontium Dog
Strontium Dog is a long-running comics series featuring in the British science fiction weekly 2000 AD, starring Johnny Alpha, a mutant bounty hunter with an array of imaginative gadgets and weapons....
, featuring a mutant bounty hunter character inherited from the short-lived Starlord
Starlord
Starlord was a short-lived weekly British science fiction comic published by IPC in 1978 as a sister title to 2000 AD, which had been launched the previous year in anticipation of a science fiction boom surrounding Star Wars....
title, and Dash Decent, a thinly disguised spoof of Flash Gordon
Flash Gordon
Flash Gordon is the hero of a science fiction adventure comic strip originally drawn by Alex Raymond. First published January 7, 1934, the strip was inspired by and created to compete with the already established Buck Rogers adventure strip. Also inspired by these series were comics such as Dash...
.
Pat Mills
Pat Mills
Pat Mills, nicknamed 'the godfather of British comics', is a comics writer and editor who, along with John Wagner, revitalised British boys comics in the 1970s, and has remained a leading light in British comics ever since....
introduced Comic Rock, which was meant to be a format for short stories inspired by popular music. The first story, inspired by The Jam
The Jam
The Jam were an English punk rock/New Wave/mod revival band active during the late 1970s and early 1980s. They were formed in Woking, Surrey. While they shared the "angry young men" outlook and fast tempos of their punk rock contemporaries, The Jam wore smartly tailored suits rather than ripped...
's Going Underground, was drawn by Kevin O'Neill and featured an insane underground travel network on a planet called "Termight", in which a freedom fighter called Nemesis
Nemesis the Warlock
Nemesis the Warlock is a story created by writer Pat Mills and artist Kevin O'Neill which appeared in the pages of the weekly comics anthology 2000 AD. The title character, a fire-breathing demonic alien, fights against the fanatical Torquemada, Grand Master of the Terran Empire in Earth's distant...
battles the despotic Torquemada
Torquemada (comics)
Tomás de Torquemada is the fictional main villain from the comic strip Nemesis the Warlock in British comic 2000 AD, who eventually appeared in 7 episodes of spin-off adventures of his own...
, chief of the Tube Police. All that was seen of Nemesis was the outside of his vehicle, the Blitzspear. The story was a reaction to an earlier tube chase sequence Mills and O'Neill had done in Ro-Busters, which management objected to.
The only other Comic Rock story was a follow-up called "Killer Watt", in which Nemesis and Torquemada fought on a teleport
Teleportation
Teleportation is the fictional or imagined process by which matter is instantaneously transferred from one place to another.Teleportation may also refer to:*Quantum teleportation, a method of transmitting quantum data...
system. This led to a series, Nemesis the Warlock, in which it was revealed that Termight was Earth in the far future, Torquemada was a despotic demagogue leading a campaign of genocide against all aliens, and Nemesis was the leader of the alien resistance. Mills and O'Neill were on a roll and produced a stream of bizarre and imaginative ideas, but ultimately O'Neill was unable to continue the level of work he was putting into it on 2000 AD pay. He left to work for DC Comics
DC Comics
DC Comics, Inc. is one of the largest and most successful companies operating in the market for American comic books and related media. It is the publishing unit of DC Entertainment a company of Warner Bros. Entertainment, which itself is owned by Time Warner...
in America, and was replaced on Nemesis by Bryan Talbot
Bryan Talbot
Bryan Talbot is a British comic book artist and writer, born in Wigan, Lancashire, in 1952. He is best known as the creator of The Adventures of Luther Arkwright and its sequel Heart of Empire.-Career:...
.
2000 AD would occasionally take a gamble on non-science fiction material. For example Fiends of the Eastern Front
Fiends of the Eastern Front
Fiends of the Eastern Front was a story in the comics anthology 2000 AD, created by Gerry Finley-Day and Carlos Ezquerra. The series mixed vampires into the general horror of the Eastern front...
was a World War II vampire
Vampire
Vampires are mythological or folkloric beings who subsist by feeding on the life essence of living creatures, regardless of whether they are undead or a living person...
story by Gerry Finley-Day
Gerry Finley-Day
Gerry Finley-Day was a prolific British comics writer from the 1960s to the 1980s, best known as the creator of Rogue Trooper.He started out at D. C. Thomson & Co., before becoming the editor of IPC's girls' title Tammy in 1971, for which he wrote strips such as "Ella on Easy Street" and "The Camp...
and Carlos Ezquerra
Carlos Ezquerra
Carlos Sanchez Ezquerra , who has also worked under the alias L. John Silver, is a Spanish comics artist who works mainly in British comics and currently lives in Andorra...
which was probably originally intended for Battle. Its hero was a German soldier who discovered that some of his Romania
Romania
Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...
n allies were vampires. Later in the war, when Romania changed sides, he was the only one who knew their secret.
A readers' poll revealed that future war was a popular topic, so Gerry Finley-Day was asked to come up with a new war story. He, editor Steve MacManus
Steve MacManus
Steve MacManus is a British comic writer and editor, particularly known for his work at 2000 AD.Born in London and educated in Devon, MacManus joined IPC in 1973, aged 20, as a sub-editor on the boys' weekly comic Valiant, until 1975 when he moved to Battle Picture Weekly under editor David Hunt...
and artists Dave Gibbons devised Rogue Trooper
Rogue Trooper
Rogue Trooper is a science fiction strip in the British comic 2000 AD, created by Gerry Finley-Day and Dave Gibbons. It follows the adventures of Rogue, a G.I. and his three comrades' search for the Traitor General...
, a "Genetic Infantryman
G.I. (comics)
G.I. is the name given to the Generic Infantry in the Rogue Trooper universe. The name is a play on the original World War II G.I.They were developed by Souther scientists in a bid to create a genetically modified supersoldier. Because of the widespread use of powerful NBC weapons, Nu-Earth had...
" engineered to be immune to chemical warfare hunting down the traitor general who had betrayed his regiment, who debuted in 1981. He was supported by bio-chips of the personalities of three dead comrades, which, slotted into his equipment, could talk to him. Gibbons left the strip early on and was replaced by Colin Wilson
Colin Wilson (comics)
Colin Wilson is a comic book artist, born in Christchurch, New Zealand on 31 October 1949.He is known for his detailed artwork which he uses in 2000 AD stories like Rogue Trooper and Judge Dredd. According to Andy Diggle, the 2000 AD editor who got him back to the title in the late nineties and has...
, Brett Ewins
Brett Ewins
Brett Ewins is a British comic book artist best known for his work on Judge Dredd and Rogue Trooper in the weekly comic book 2000 AD.-Biography:...
, and most notably Cam Kennedy
Cam Kennedy
Campbell Kennedy is a Scottish comics artist. He is best known for his work on 2000 AD, especially the flagship titles Judge Dredd and Rogue Trooper.-Biography:...
. Rogue Trooper replaced Meltdown Man, which had recently ended its run.
Another new strip in 1981, inspired by the brief CB radio
Citizens' band radio
Citizens' Band radio is, in many countries, a system of short-distance radio communications between individuals on a selection of 40 channels within the 27-MHz band. Citizens' Band is distinct from the FRS, GMRS, MURS and amateur radio...
craze, was Ace Trucking Co.
Ace Trucking Co.
Ace Trucking Co. is a comedy science fiction series that featured in the comic 2000 AD from 1981 to 1986. Created by writers John Wagner and Alan Grant and artist Massimo Belardinelli, it followed the misadventures of a space trucking company headed by Ace Garp, a pointy-headed alien who spoke in...
, a comedy about pointy-headed alien space trucker Ace Garp and his crew by Wagner, Grant and Belardinelli.
Wagner and Grant also had big plans for Judge Dredd. Mega-City One had grown too large and unwieldy, and they planned to cut it down to size. "Block Mania
Block Mania
Block Mania is a Judge Dredd story, which ran in British comic 2000 AD #236-244, in 1981. The story itself is a prologue for the longer storyline "The Apocalypse War", which immediately follows the conclusion of "Block Mania".-Story:...
", in which wars broke out between rival city-blocks, turned out to be a plot orchestrated by the Russian city East-Meg One, and led directly to "The Apocalypse War
Apocalypse War
The Apocalypse War is a storyline from the comic strip Judge Dredd, first published in British comic 2000 AD in 1982. A sequel to the story "Block Mania", it was written by John Wagner and Alan Grant and illustrated by Carlos Ezquerra...
", another six-month epic and a hard-hitting satire on the concept of Mutually assured destruction. East-Meg One, protected by a warp-shield, softened up Mega-City One with nuclear warheads before invading. Dredd spearheaded the resistance, leading a small team to East-Meg territory, hijacking their nuclear bunkers and blowing East-Meg One off the face of the earth. "Block Mania" saw the final contributions of Mike McMahon and Brian Bolland to the Dredd series. "The Apocalypse War" was drawn in its entirety by Carlos Ezquerra, making a triumphant return to the character he created.
A new writer, Alan Moore
Alan Moore
Alan Oswald Moore is an English writer primarily known for his work in comic books, a medium where he has produced a number of critically acclaimed and popular series, including Watchmen, V for Vendetta, and From Hell...
, had started contributing Future Shocks
Future Shocks
Future Shocks is the name given to a long running series of short strips in the weekly comic 2000 AD in 1977. The name originates in a book titled Future Shock, written by Alvin Toffler, published in 1970.-Publishing history:...
in 1980. He wrote more than fifty one-off strips over the next three years, while also contributing to various Marvel UK
Marvel UK
Marvel UK was an imprint of Marvel Comics formed in 1972 to reprint US produced stories for the British weekly comic market, though it later did produce original material by British creators such as Alan Moore, John Wagner, Dave Gibbons, Steve Dillon and Grant Morrison.Panini Comics obtained the...
titles and the independent magazine Warrior. In 1982 he got his first series, Skizz
Skizz
Skizz was a comic book strip in 2000 AD which appeared in three installments across more than a decade. It was written by Alan Moore and drawn by Jim Baikie...
, a less sentimental take on the same basic plot used in E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial
E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial
E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial is a 1982 American science fiction film co-produced and directed by Steven Spielberg, written by Melissa Mathison and starring Henry Thomas, Dee Wallace, Robert MacNaughton, Drew Barrymore, and Peter Coyote...
, set in Birmingham
Birmingham
Birmingham is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands of England. It is the most populous British city outside the capital London, with a population of 1,036,900 , and lies at the heart of the West Midlands conurbation, the second most populous urban area in the United Kingdom with a...
and influenced by Alan Bleasdale
Alan Bleasdale
Alan Bleasdale is an English television dramatist, best known for writing several social realist drama serials based on the lives of ordinary people.The Bleasdales live in prescot,liverpool,wales and london.-Early life:Bleasdale is an only child; his father worked in a food factory and his mother...
's Boys from the Blackstuff
Boys from the Blackstuff
Boys from the Blackstuff is a British television drama series of five episodes, originally transmitted from 10 October to 7 November 1982 on BBC2....
. Moore wrote Skizz without having seen E.T. The series was drawn by Jim Baikie
Jim Baikie
Jim Baikie is a British comics artist, who is best known for his work with Alan Moore on Skizz.-Biography:Baikie began his career illustrating Valentine for Fleetway. Over the next twenty years, he built a solid reputation working for TV comics such as Look-in, including adaptations of The Monkees...
.
Moore wrote another series, D.R. and Quinch
D.R. and Quinch
D.R. & Quinch is a comic strip created by Alan Moore and Alan Davis, which first appeared in issue 317 of the weekly comic book 2000 AD in 1983.-About the series:...
, spun off from a one-off Time Twister. Drawn by Alan Davis
Alan Davis
Alan Davis is an English writer and artist of comic books, known for his work on titles such as Captain Britain, The Uncanny X-Men, ClanDestine, Excalibur, JLA: The Nail and JLA: Another Nail.-UK work:...
, the strip featured a pair of alien juvenile delinquents with a penchant for mindless thermonuclear destruction. He went on to create The Ballad of Halo Jones
The Ballad of Halo Jones
The Ballad of Halo Jones is a science fiction comic strip written by Alan Moore and drawn by Ian Gibson, with lettering by Steve Potter and Richard Starkings ....
with artist Ian Gibson
Ian Gibson (artist)
Ian Gibson is a British comic book artist, best known for his 1980s black-and-white work for 2000 AD, especially as the main artist on Robo-Hunter and The Ballad of Halo Jones, as well as his long run on Judge Dredd.-Biography:...
, the first strip in 2000 AD to be based on a female protagonist. Halo was an everywoman in the far future, born into mass unemployment on a floating housing estate, who escaped the earth and got involved in a terrible galactic war. Three books were published, and more were planned, but Moore's demands for creator's rights and his increasing commitments to American publishers meant they never materialised.
A new character, Sláine
Sláine (comics)
Sláine is a comic hero from the pages of 2000 AD - one of Britain's most popular comic books.Sláine is a barbarian fantasy adventure series based on Celtic myths and stories which first appeared in 1983, written by Pat Mills and initially drawn by his then wife, Angela Kincaid. Most of the early...
, debuted in 1983, but had been in development since 1981. Created by Pat Mills
Pat Mills
Pat Mills, nicknamed 'the godfather of British comics', is a comics writer and editor who, along with John Wagner, revitalised British boys comics in the 1970s, and has remained a leading light in British comics ever since....
and his then wife Angela Kincaid
Angela Kincaid
Angela Kincaid, formerly known by her married name of Angela Mills, is a children's book illustrator best known for The Butterfly Children series of picture books. With her then husband, Pat Mills, she created the Celtic comics character Sláine for 2000 AD.-External links:*...
, Sláine was a barbarian fantasy
Fantasy
Fantasy is a genre of fiction that commonly uses magic and other supernatural phenomena as a primary element of plot, theme, or setting. Many works within the genre take place in imaginary worlds where magic is common...
strip based on Celtic mythology
Celtic mythology
Celtic mythology is the mythology of Celtic polytheism, apparently the religion of the Iron Age Celts. Like other Iron Age Europeans, the early Celts maintained a polytheistic mythology and religious structure...
. Kincaid was a children's book illustrator who had never worked in comics before, and her opening episode was drawn and redrawn several times before the editors were satisfied. Other stories were written for artists Massimo Belardinelli and Mike McMahon, but these could not see print until Kincaid's episode was ready.
In 1985, after appearing as a supporting character in Judge Dredd, Judge Anderson
Judge Anderson
Judge Cassandra Anderson is a fictional character that started as a supporting player in the comic story Judge Dredd of 2000 AD and eventually rose in prominence and became the star of her own series, which is entitled Anderson: Psi-Division. It was created by writer John Wagner and artist Brian...
finally got her own series, written by Wagner and Grant and initially drawn by Brett Ewins. New artist Glenn Fabry
Glenn Fabry
Glenn Fabry is an Eisner Award-winning British comics artist known for his detailed, realistic work in both ink and painted colour.-Biography:...
debuted on Sláine, but due to his notorious slowness was rotated with David Pugh
David Pugh (comics)
David Pugh began drawing Sláine for 2000 AD in 1984, helping to remould the character into his current incarnation and create the look of long time villain, Elfric. His work on "Time Killer" and "Tomb of Terror" has been reprinted several times and is still available in various collected editions...
. In the Judge Dredd story "Letter from a Democrat", Wagner and Grant introduced a pro-democracy movement in Mega-City One, which is after all a police state
Police state
A police state is one in which the government exercises rigid and repressive controls over the social, economic and political life of the population...
. This would provide plotlines for years to come.
In 1986 the comic reached its 500th issue. A new Sláine story, Sláine the King, began, entirely drawn by Fabry. Peter Milligan
Peter Milligan
Peter Milligan born in London, a British writer, best known for his comic book, film and television work.-Early career:Milligan started his comic career with short stories for 2000 AD in the early 1980s. By 1986, Milligan had his first ongoing strip in 2000AD called Bad Company, with artists Brett...
, a writer who had been contributing Future Shocks, began two series, the bleak future war story Bad Company
Bad Company (comics)
Bad Company is a comic book team created for 2000 AD by Alan Grant and John Wagner but their initial story remained unpublished for over 16 years . Peter Milligan, along with regular collaborators Brett Ewins and Jim McCarthy, reworked the concept into the form that was finally seen in the magazine...
, (based partly upon John Wagner's Darkie's Mob strip in Battle) and a strange, psychedelic
Psychedelic
The term psychedelic is derived from the Greek words ψυχή and δηλοῦν , translating to "soul-manifesting". A psychedelic experience is characterized by the striking perception of aspects of one's mind previously unknown, or by the creative exuberance of the mind liberated from its ostensibly...
series called The Dead. In 1986, 2000AD was selling a very healthy 150,000 copies a week, (this was at the launch of their 500th issue).
In 1987 IPC's comics division was hived off and sold to publishing magnate Robert Maxwell
Robert Maxwell
Ian Robert Maxwell MC was a Czechoslovakian-born British media proprietor and former Member of Parliament , who rose from poverty to build an extensive publishing empire...
as Fleetway. 2000 AD was revamped, with a larger page size and full process colour on the covers and centre pages. Kevin O'Neill returned for a short Nemesis series called "Torquemada the God". Not long after came the debut of Zenith, 2000 ADs first superhero strip, by new writer Grant Morrison
Grant Morrison
Grant Morrison is a Scottish comic book writer, playwright and occultist. He is known for his nonlinear narratives and counter-cultural leanings, as well as his successful runs on titles like Animal Man, Doom Patrol, JLA, The Invisibles, New X-Men, Fantastic Four, All-Star Superman, and...
and artist Steve Yeowell
Steve Yeowell
Steve Yeowell is a British comics artist, well-known for his work on the long-running science fiction and fantasy weekly comic 2000 AD.-Biography:...
. The title character was a shallow pop singer with superhuman powers, caught up in the intrigues of a 1960s generation of superhumans and the machinations of some Lovecraftian
H. P. Lovecraft
Howard Phillips Lovecraft --often credited as H.P. Lovecraft — was an American author of horror, fantasy and science fiction, especially the subgenre known as weird fiction....
elder gods.
Wagner and Grant began a new Dredd Epic, "Oz
Oz (Judge Dredd story)
Oz is a mini-series featured in the comic 2000 AD, running for 26 episodes from 24 October, 1987 to 16 April, 1988....
", featuring Chopper
Chopper (Judge Dredd character)
Chopper is a fictional character in British comics 2000 AD and the Judge Dredd Megazine. He was created by John Wagner and Ron Smith and has appeared in numerous Judge Dredd stories, including "Oz", and has his own eponymous series.-Unamerican Graffiti:Marlon Shakespeare was...
, a popular supporting character. Chopper was a skysurfer who had been imprisoned for competing in an illegal surfing competition a few years previously. A legal "Supersurf" race was being held in Oz, the future Australia, and Chopper escaped to compete. Dredd also went to Oz, partly to deal with Chopper, but mostly to investigate the Judda, a clone army created by Mega-City One's former chief genetic engineer. The Judda were defeated, and Chopper narrowly lost the race to Jug McKenzie. Dredd was waiting at the finish line, but McKenzie distracted him and allowed Chopper to escape into the outback. This ending was apparently the cause of some dispute between Wagner and Grant, and was a contributing factor (it was The Last American
The Last American
The Last American is a four-issue comic book mini-series released by Marvel's Epic imprint in 1990. It was written by John Wagner and Alan Grant with art by Mike McMahon.-Publication history:Wagner wrote the first two parts and Grant the last two...
, a mini series for Epic Comics
Epic Comics
Epic Comics was a creator-owned imprint of Marvel Comics started in 1982, lasting through the mid-1990s, and being briefly revived on a small scale in the mid-2000s.- Origins :...
which would mark the end) in ending their regular writing partnership. Wagner kept Dredd, while Grant continued Strontium Dog and Judge Anderson. However the pair would still come together for occasional collaborations.
The "Oz" storyline had some lasting implications. Kraken
Judge Kraken
Judge Kraken is a fictional character in the Judge Dredd comic strip featured in the long-running British comic 2000 AD. Although he only appeared in a few episodes, he was nonetheless a very important character in Tale of the Dead Man, in which he was given almost equal billing with Dredd, and in...
, a Judda cloned from the same genetic material as Dredd, was captured by Justice Department, who had plans for him. Chopper also spun off into his own series, written by Wagner and drawn by Colin MacNeil
Colin MacNeil
Colin MacNeil is a British comics artist, best known for his work on 2000 AD and in particular on Judge Dredd and other stories within his world like Shimura and Devlin Waugh....
.
The ABC Warriors finally got their own series again in 1987 as a spin-off from Nemesis. This was written, as ever, by Pat Mills, and drawn by two artists in rotation, newcomer Simon Bisley
Simon Bisley
Simon Bisley is a British comics artist best known for his 1990s work on ABC Warriors, Lobo and Sláine. His style, reliant on paints, acrylics, inks and multiple-mediums, is strongly influenced by Frank Frazetta, Bill Sienkiewicz, Gustav Klimt, Salvador Dalí, Egon Schiele, and Richard Corben...
and science fiction artist S.M.S.
SMS (comics)
SMS is a Lancashire-based artist known for his award-winning covers for science-fiction magazine, Interzone, and for his work for British anthology magazine 2000 AD.-Biography:...
.
In 1988 Grant and artist Simon Harrison began a new Strontium Dog story, "The Final Solution". It took nearly two years to complete, and ended with the death of Johnny Alpha, who sacrificed his life to save mutants from extermination. Original artist Carlos Ezquerra did not agree with the decision to kill the character off, and refused to draw it.
The number of colour pages was increased, allowing for one complete strip per issue to be painted. Initially the colour pages were reserved for Judge Dredd, but were later given over to a new Sláine story, "The Horned God", fully painted by Simon Bisley
Simon Bisley
Simon Bisley is a British comics artist best known for his 1990s work on ABC Warriors, Lobo and Sláine. His style, reliant on paints, acrylics, inks and multiple-mediums, is strongly influenced by Frank Frazetta, Bill Sienkiewicz, Gustav Klimt, Salvador Dalí, Egon Schiele, and Richard Corben...
. The series was collected as a series of three graphic novels, then as a single volume, and has remained in print ever since.
In 1989 the colour pages were increased again, allowing for three colour stories and two black and white in every issue. One of the colour series was Rogue Trooper: the War Machine, written by Dave Gibbons and painted by Will Simpson. The original Rogue Trooper series had run out of steam after the Traitor General had been dealt with, so Gibbons revamped the concept, creating a different genetic infantryman, Friday
Friday (comics)
Friday is a 2000 AD character. Like Rogue he is a Genetic Infantryman fighting on Nu-Earth although his connections with Rogue were initially unclear. At one point he also teamed up with Venus Bluegenes.-Publication history:...
, in a different war.
One of the black and white stories, "The Dead Man
The Dead Man
The Dead Man was a science fiction strip in the British comic 2000 AD by writer John Wagner and artist John Ridgway, published in black and white in 1989–90. Although it was not billed as a Judge Dredd story, it was set in Judge Dredd's world in 2112, and featured a new character called the Dead Man...
", was a low-key beginning for a major event. In the Cursed Earth
Cursed Earth
The Cursed Earth is a part of the fictional universe from the Judge Dredd series that appears in the UK comic book 2000 AD.-Background:...
, villagers come across a man, burnt from head to toe, with no memory of who he is or what happened to him. As he tries to piece his memories back together, he is being hunted by the evil beings who left him in that state. A creepy, atmospheric horror-western, it was drawn by John Ridgway
John Ridgway (comic artist)
John Ridgway is a British comics artist.-Career:Ridgway began his career initially as a hobby, drawing D.C.Thompson's Commando War Stories alongside professional work as a design engineer...
and written by "Keef Ripley", a pseudonym for John Wagner. By the end of the series the Dead Man had discovered his identity. He was Judge Dredd.
The 1990s
As "The Dead Man" ended, a new Judge Dredd story, "Tale of the Dead Man", explained how Dredd had ended up in that position. Dredd was getting older and the democratic movement was causing him to doubt his role, so Justice Department had groomed Kraken, the former Judda cloned from his bloodline, to replace him. Kraken was now ready for his final assessment, and Dredd himself was chosen to assess him. Although Kraken performed faultlessly, Dredd thought he perceived a hint of his former allegiance to the Judda in him, and failed him. He then resigned as a judge and took the 'Long WalkThe Long Walk (Judge Dredd)
The Long Walk is an event occasionally depicted in the long-running British comic strip Judge Dredd, which appears in 2000 AD and the Judge Dredd Megazine. It also featured in the 1995 film starring Sylvester Stallone....
' into the Cursed Earth
Cursed Earth
The Cursed Earth is a part of the fictional universe from the Judge Dredd series that appears in the UK comic book 2000 AD.-Background:...
. There he met the Sisters of Death, and only barely survived the encounter. This could mean only one thing: Judge Death was back.
This set up the latest six month epic, "Necropolis
Necropolis (Judge Dredd story)
Necropolis is a 26-part Judge Dredd epic by John Wagner and Carlos Ezquerra, published in 1990 in 2000 AD progs 674–699. The story was the subject of extensive foreshadowing in the comic, beginning with The Dead Man , followed by "Tale of the Dead Man" , and finally three stories collectively...
". After Dredd had left, Justice Department had put Kraken through one final test, and given him Dredd's badge. But the Sisters of Death, spirit beings from Judge Death's dimension, were able to use Kraken's inner conflict to take control of him and use him to bring Judge Death and the other Dark Judges back from the limbo dimension Dredd had exiled them to. The Sisters possessed all the city's judges and began to enforce Death's twisted law. Out in the Cursed Earth, Dredd had recovered his memory and returned to defeat the Dark Judges. He then tried to lance the democratic boil by holding a referendum on whether the Judges should continue to govern the city. The judges won, by a small margin on a desultory turnout, and Dredd was satisfied.
2000 AD gained an influx of talent from other comics. Garth Ennis
Garth Ennis
Garth Ennis is a Northern Irish comics writer, best known for the Vertigo series Preacher with artist Steve Dillon and his successful nine-year run on Marvel Comics' Punisher franchise...
and John Smith
John Smith (comics)
John Smith is a British comics writer best known for his work on 2000 AD and Crisis.Smith's work is characterised by intricate, sometimes obscure plots and an interest in taboos and the occult, told in an elliptic, fractured narrative style reminiscent of Iain Sinclair or the cut-up technique of...
had come to prominence writing for Crisis, a 2000 AD spin-off for older readers, while artists Jamie Hewlett
Jamie Hewlett
Jamie Christopher Hewlett is an English comic book artist and designer. He is known for being the co-creator of the comic Tank Girl and co-creator of the virtual band Gorillaz.-Biography:...
and Philip Bond
Philip Bond
Philip J. Bond is a British comic book artist, who first came to prominence in the late 1980s on Deadline magazine, and later through a number of collaborations with British writers for the DC Comics imprint Vertigo....
were the stars of Deadline
Deadline magazine
Deadline was a British comic magazine published between 1988 and 1995.Created by 2000 AD stalwarts Brett Ewins and Steve Dillon, Deadline featured a mix of comic strips and written articles targeted at older readers...
, an independent comics and popular culture magazine founded by Steve Dillon
Steve Dillon
Steve Dillon is a British comic book artist, from Luton, Bedfordshire, best known for his work with writer Garth Ennis on Hellblazer, Preacher and The Punisher.-Biography:...
and Brett Ewins
Brett Ewins
Brett Ewins is a British comic book artist best known for his work on Judge Dredd and Rogue Trooper in the weekly comic book 2000 AD.-Biography:...
. Smith created Indigo Prime
Indigo Prime
Indigo Prime is the umbrella name for a series of stories written by John Smith for 2000 AD. Originally the agency was named Void Indiga , which was quickly changed once Smith learned of Steve Gerber's graphic novel Void Indigo.-Plot:Indigo Prime itself is an extra-dimensional agency dedicated to...
, a multi-dimensional organisation that polices reality, whose most memorable story was "Killing Time", a time travel
Time travel
Time travel is the concept of moving between different points in time in a manner analogous to moving between different points in space. Time travel could hypothetically involve moving backward in time to a moment earlier than the starting point, or forward to the future of that point without the...
story featuring Jack the Ripper
Jack the Ripper
"Jack the Ripper" is the best-known name given to an unidentified serial killer who was active in the largely impoverished areas in and around the Whitechapel district of London in 1888. The name originated in a letter, written by someone claiming to be the murderer, that was disseminated in the...
. Garth Ennis
Garth Ennis
Garth Ennis is a Northern Irish comics writer, best known for the Vertigo series Preacher with artist Steve Dillon and his successful nine-year run on Marvel Comics' Punisher franchise...
and Philip Bond contributed Time Flies, a time-travel comedy, and Hewlett was paired with writer Peter Milligan
Peter Milligan
Peter Milligan born in London, a British writer, best known for his comic book, film and television work.-Early career:Milligan started his comic career with short stories for 2000 AD in the early 1980s. By 1986, Milligan had his first ongoing strip in 2000AD called Bad Company, with artists Brett...
for the surreal Hewligan's Haircut. Writer John Tomlinson
John Tomlinson (comics)
John Tomlinson is a British comic book writer known for his work on various 2000 AD strips.-Biography:Tomlinson worked at Marvel UK in the early 1990s and helped nurture various talents, including Matthew Bingham and John Freeman. He has co-written strips with Nick Abadzis.He was editor of 2000 AD...
and artist Simon Jacob created Armoured Gideon
Armoured Gideon
Armoured Gideon is a comics character who first appeared in British science fiction anthology 2000 AD. The stories were written by John Tomlinson, with art by Simon Jacob.-Fictional character biography:...
, an action-comedy series about a giant killer robot charged with keeping demons from invading earth.
The Judge Dredd Megazine
Judge Dredd Megazine
Judge Dredd: The Megazine is a monthly British comic magazine, launched in October 1990. It is a sister publication to 2000 AD. Its name is a play on words, formed from "magazine" and Dredd's locale Mega-City One.-Content:...
, a monthly title set in the world of Dredd, was launched in October 1990. With John Wagner focusing his attentions there, Garth Ennis became the regular writer of Dredd in the weekly.
American writer Michael Fleisher
Michael Fleisher
Michael L. "Mike" Fleisher is an American writer known for his DC Comics of the 1970s and 1980s, particularly for the characters the Spectre and Jonah Hex.-Early life and career:...
, who had written The Spectre
Spectre (comics)
The Spectre is a fictional character and superhero who has appeared in numerous comic books published by DC Comics. The character first appeared in a next issue ad in More Fun Comics #51 and received his first story the following month, #52...
and Jonah Hex
Jonah Hex
Jonah Woodson Hex is a Western comic book antihero created by writer John Albano and artist Tony DeZuniga and published by DC Comics. Hex is a surly and cynical bounty hunter whose face is horribly scarred on the right side. Despite his poor reputation and personality, Hex is bound by a personal...
in the 1970s, was recruited to write the continuing adventures of the new Rogue Trooper, along with several other strips, none of which went down very well. Another new writer who failed to set 2000 AD on fire was Mark Millar
Mark Millar
Mark Millar is a Scottish comic book writer, known for his work on books such as The Authority, The Ultimates, Marvel Knights Spider-Man, Ultimate Fantastic Four, Civil War, Wanted, and Kick-Ass, the latter two of which have been adapted into feature films...
, whose revival of Robo-Hunter was particularly unpopular. Millar has since gone on to become a successful writer of American superhero
Superhero
A superhero is a type of stock character, possessing "extraordinary or superhuman powers", dedicated to protecting the public. Since the debut of the prototypical superhero Superman in 1938, stories of superheroes — ranging from brief episodic adventures to continuing years-long sagas —...
comics such as The Authority and The Ultimates
Ultimates
The Ultimates is a fictional group of superheroes that appear in comic books published by Marvel Comics. The team was created by writer Mark Millar and artist Bryan Hitch, and first appeared in The Ultimates #1 , as part of the company's Ultimate Marvel imprint...
.
2000 AD went all-colour about this time (prog 723, dated 23 March 1991), in response to a short-lived new colour weekly, Toxic!
Toxic!
Toxic! was a British weekly comic book published by Apocalypse Ltd. A total of 31 issues were published from March 28-October 24, 1991.-History:...
, launched by Pat Mills and many of the core 2000 AD team of creators. Toxic! only lasted 31 issues but many of the creators who had worked on the comic eventually found their way to work for 2000 AD. Button Man
Button Man
Button Man is a comic strip created for leading British comic 2000 AD, written by John Wagner and illustrated by Arthur Ranson.-Plot:...
, a contemporary thriller by John Wagner and Arthur Ranson
Arthur Ranson
Arthur James Ranson is an English illustrator, whose fine line penwork and attention to visual detail has led to the misapplied epithet 'photo-realistic'...
, was originally intended for Toxic! but ended up in 2000 AD and the film rights have been optioned.
A new ABC Warriors
ABC Warriors
ABC Warriors is a long-running 2000 AD comic strip written by Pat Mills, which first appeared in prog 119 in 1979 and continues to run today. Art for the opening episodes was by Kevin O'Neill, Mike McMahon, Brett Ewins, and Brendan McCarthy - who between them designed the original seven members of...
series, written by Mills and Tony Skinner and painted by Kev Walker
Kev Walker
Kevin "Kev" Walker is a British comics artist and illustrator, based in Leeds, who worked mainly on 2000 AD and Warhammer comics and the collectible card game Magic: The Gathering...
, began in 1991, in which Deadlock took over the warriors with his "Khaos" philosophy. The series is beautifully painted and often very funny, but some readers disliked the new direction and the regular humiliation of Hammerstein.
Robert Maxwell died in late 1991, and Fleetway was merged with London Editions, a Danish-owned company which owned rights to Disney
The Walt Disney Company
The Walt Disney Company is the largest media conglomerate in the world in terms of revenue. Founded on October 16, 1923, by Walt and Roy Disney as the Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio, Walt Disney Productions established itself as a leader in the American animation industry before diversifying into...
characters, to become Fleetway Editions.
In 1992, 2000 AD and the Judge Dredd Megazine ran their first crossover story, "Judgement Day
Judgement Day (Judge Dredd story)
Judgement Day was a Judge Dredd story published with alternating episodes in both 2000 AD and the Judge Dredd Megazine in 1992. It was the first crossover between the two publications; three more have since followed...
", in which zombies overran Mega-City One. Written by Garth Ennis and drawn by Carlos Ezquerra, Peter Doherty
Peter Doherty (comics)
Peter Doherty is a British comic book artist and colourist.-Biography:Doherty's work over a 15 year career has mainly been concentrated on the classic 2000 AD character Judge Dredd. He has illustrated several significant episodes of the strip...
, Dean Ormston
Dean Ormston
Dean Ormston is a British born comic book artist. His most notable work has been for the British comic 2000 AD and for DC Comics' Vertigo imprint.-Biography:...
and Chris Halls
Chris Cunningham
Chris Cunningham is an English music video film director and video artist. He was born in Reading, Berkshire in 1970 and grew up in Lakenheath, Suffolk....
, the story teamed Judge Dredd with Johnny Alpha through the medium of time travel. John Smith and artist Paul Marshall created Firekind
Firekind
Firekind ran in the weekly anthology comic 2000 AD for 13 issues in 1993. It was written by John Smith, with art by Paul Marshall.-Publication history:...
, a slow-paced story about dragons and alien societies, which was accidentally published with its episodes in the wrong order.
The Strontium Dog world was eventually spun out to encompass a wider field, gaining the name Strontium Dogs - characters such as female vampire Durham Red
Durham Red
Durham Red was originally created in 1987 as a female sidekick and lover for Johnny Alpha in the long-running British comicbook series Strontium Dog. She was a sexy bounty hunter with a mutation that gave her a vampiric lust for blood.-Publication history:...
, the albino Feral Jackson, and former Johnny Alpha sidekick The Gronk - the latter, normally a timid creature with weak 'heartses', became a gung-ho action character upon learning of Alpha's death. However, in the 12-parter The Darkest Star, it transpires that the one to actually kill him was the Gronk himself; changed into a form designed by a cadre of Lyran necromancers to bring him endless agony, Alpha asked his friend to end his torment.
The "Summer Offensive" was an eight-week experiment in 1993, when the comic was handed over to writers Grant Morrison
Grant Morrison
Grant Morrison is a Scottish comic book writer, playwright and occultist. He is known for his nonlinear narratives and counter-cultural leanings, as well as his successful runs on titles like Animal Man, Doom Patrol, JLA, The Invisibles, New X-Men, Fantastic Four, All-Star Superman, and...
, Mark Millar
Mark Millar
Mark Millar is a Scottish comic book writer, known for his work on books such as The Authority, The Ultimates, Marvel Knights Spider-Man, Ultimate Fantastic Four, Civil War, Wanted, and Kick-Ass, the latter two of which have been adapted into feature films...
and John Smith, to a mixed reception. Morrison wrote a Dredd story, "Inferno", and a drug-influenced comedy adventure, Really & Truly
Really & Truly
Really & Truly was a 2000 AD comic strip, created by Grant Morrison and Rian Hughes. It ran in 1993 as part of the "Summer Offensive" and dealt explicitly with drugs...
. Smith contributed Slaughterbowl, in which convicted criminals on dinosaurs are pitted against each other in a deadly sport, with the survivor being granted his freedom. Millar wrote Maniac 5, an action-packed series about a remote controlled war-robot.
By far the most controversial story of this run, though, was Big Dave
Big Dave
Big Dave is an infamous character created and written by Grant Morrison and Mark Millar, with artwork by Steve Parkhouse, for 2000 AD....
, a satire of British tabloid attitudes starring "Manchester
Manchester
Manchester is a city and metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. According to the Office for National Statistics, the 2010 mid-year population estimate for Manchester was 498,800. Manchester lies within one of the UK's largest metropolitan areas, the metropolitan county of Greater...
's hardest man". In Big Dave's world, the German national football team really are Nazis, single mothers really do get a fortune in state handouts, Diana, Princess of Wales
Diana, Princess of Wales
Diana, Princess of Wales was the first wife of Charles, Prince of Wales, whom she married on 29 July 1981, and an international charity and fundraising figure, as well as a preeminent celebrity of the late 20th century...
and Sarah, Duchess of York
Sarah, Duchess of York
Sarah, Duchess of York is a British charity patron, spokesperson, writer, film producer, television personality and former member of the British Royal Family. She is the former wife of Prince Andrew, Duke of York, whom she married from 1986 to 1996...
are portrayed as gold-digging tarts making fools of the Royal family
British Royal Family
The British Royal Family is the group of close relatives of the monarch of the United Kingdom. The term is also commonly applied to the same group of people as the relations of the monarch in her or his role as sovereign of any of the other Commonwealth realms, thus sometimes at variance with...
, and Saddam Hussein
Saddam Hussein
Saddam Hussein Abd al-Majid al-Tikriti was the fifth President of Iraq, serving in this capacity from 16 July 1979 until 9 April 2003...
, who rides an ostrich, is in league with aliens who want to turn earthlings into "poofs". Written by Morrison and Millar and drawn by Steve Parkhouse
Steve Parkhouse
Steve Parkhouse is a writer, artist and letterer who has worked for many British comics, especially 2000 AD and Doctor Who Magazine.-Biography:...
, Big Dave divided readers like nothing else the comic had ever published.
A second crossover between 2000 AD and the Megazine, "Wilderlands
Mechanismo
Mechanismo is the title of a Judge Dredd story published in the British comic Judge Dredd Megazine in 1992. It was the first story in a series of stories published over the next two years in both the Megazine and 2000 AD, most notably the epic "Wilderlands." The stories concern the Mechanismo...
", began in 1994. Written by Wagner and drawn by Ezquerra, Mick Austin
Mick Austin
Michael J. "Mick" Austin is a fine artist who lives and works in the UK. Initially a comic book artist and illustrator his painterly style led to him leaving this genre and concentrating on fine art in 1996.-Biography:...
and Trevor Hairsine
Trevor Hairsine
Trevor Hairsine is a British comics artist, whose detailed style has been compared to that of Bryan Hitch.In August 2005 Marvel Editor-in-Chief Joe Quesada named him as one of Marvel Comics's "Young Guns", a group of artists who have the qualities that make "a future superstar...
, it followed on from "Mechanismo", a series of stories in the Megazine in which Justice Department, opposed by Dredd, tried to introduce robot judges.
With Wagner writing, Judge Dredd was again the flagship strip. A long-running storyline, "The Pit
The Pit (Judge Dredd story)
The Pit is a Judge Dredd story which appeared in British comic 2000 AD in 1995–1996 . With 30 episodes, it had the greatest number of episodes of any single Judge Dredd story until "The Doomsday Scenario" in 1999...
", was an ensemble-based police procedural
Police procedural
The police procedural is a subgenre of detective fiction which attempts to convincingly depict the activities of a police force as they investigate crimes. While traditional detective novels usually concentrate on a single crime, police procedurals frequently depict investigations into several...
which had Dredd take a desk job as chief of a particularly crime-ridden sector of the city. But 2000 ADs quality had dropped throughout the early 1990s, with a corresponding drop in readership. The long awaited Judge Dredd movie was released in 1995, but was poorly received and failed to provide any boost to circulation.
Former Megazine editor David Bishop
David Bishop
David Bishop is a screenwriter and author. Born in New Zealand, he was a UK comics editor during the 1990s, running such titles as the Judge Dredd Megazine and 2000 AD, the latter between 1996 and the summer of 2000....
became editor of the weekly in late 1995 but sales continued to decline. Unsuccessful series were dropped, and a number of new series were tried out, some more successful than others. Writer Dan Abnett
Dan Abnett
Dan Abnett is a British comic book writer and novelist. He is a frequent collaborator with fellow writer Andy Lanning, and is known for his work on books for both Marvel Comics, and their UK imprint, Marvel UK, since the 1990s, including 2000 AD...
introduced Sinister Dexter
Sinister Dexter
Sinister Dexter is a long-running comic series in British comics anthology 2000 AD, created by Dan Abnett and David Millgate.Set in the near future, it features the exploits of gun sharks Finnigan "Finny" Sinister and Ramone "Ray" Dexter in the city of Downlode, sprawled across Central Europe...
in 1996, a strip about two hitmen influenced by the film Pulp Fiction
Pulp Fiction (film)
Pulp Fiction is a 1994 American crime film directed by Quentin Tarantino, who co-wrote its screenplay with Roger Avary. The film is known for its rich, eclectic dialogue, ironic mix of humor and violence, nonlinear storyline, and host of cinematic allusions and pop culture references...
, which became a regular feature. In 1997, writer Robbie Morrison
Robbie Morrison
Robbie Morrison is a British comics writer most known for his work in 2000 AD and as the co-creator of popular character Nikolai Dante .-Biography:...
and artist Simon Fraser
Simon Fraser (comics)
Simon Fraser is a British comics artist and writer best known for his work on Nikolai Dante, a series he created with writer Robbie Morrison in 2000 AD.-Career:...
, who had worked with Bishop on the Megazine, created Nikolai Dante
Nikolai Dante
Nikolai Dante is a comics series starring a hero of the same name and published in the weekly British science fiction anthology 2000 AD. Created by writer Robbie Morrison and artist Simon Fraser, Dante first appeared in 1997 in Prog 1035...
, a swashbuckling series set in future Russia starring a thief and ladies' man who discovers he's the illegitimate scion of an aristocratic dynasty. There were also gimmicks, like the "sex issue", sold in a clear plastic wrapper, The Spacegirls, a series attempting to cash in on the popularity of the Spice Girls
Spice Girls
The Spice Girls were a British pop girl group formed in 1994. The group consisted of Victoria Beckham , Melanie Brown, Emma Bunton, Melanie Chisholm and Geri Halliwell. They were signed to Virgin Records and released their debut single, "Wannabe" in 1996, which hit number-one in more than 30...
, B.L.A.I.R. 1
M.A.C.H. 1
M.A.C.H. 1 was a comic strip that ran in the British science fiction comic 2000 AD. The strip was created by writer Pat Mills and illustrator Enio...
, a parody of Tony Blair
Tony Blair
Anthony Charles Lynton Blair is a former British Labour Party politician who served as the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2 May 1997 to 27 June 2007. He was the Member of Parliament for Sedgefield from 1983 to 2007 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1994 to 2007...
based on M.A.C.H. 1
M.A.C.H. 1
M.A.C.H. 1 was a comic strip that ran in the British science fiction comic 2000 AD. The strip was created by writer Pat Mills and illustrator Enio...
, and an adaptation of the Danny Boyle
Danny Boyle
Daniel "Danny" Boyle is an English filmmaker and producer. He is best known for his work on films such as Slumdog Millionaire, 127 Hours, 28 Days Later, Sunshine and Trainspotting. For Slumdog Millionaire, Boyle won numerous awards in 2008, including the Academy Award for Best Director...
film A Life Less Ordinary
A Life Less Ordinary
A Life Less Ordinary is a 1997 British black comedy film directed by Danny Boyle, written by John Hodge. It stars Ewan McGregor, Cameron Diaz, Holly Hunter, and Delroy Lindo.-Plot:...
.
A new Dredd epic, "Doomsday
The Doomsday Scenario
The Doomsday Scenario is the collective name of a series of Judge Dredd comic stories published in 2000 AD and the Judge Dredd Megazine in 1999...
", appeared in 1999 and again ran in both 2000 AD and the Megazine. Wagner had been laying the foundations for this story for several years, introducing the main villain, semi-robotic gang lord Nero Narcos, and supporting characters like Judge Edgar
Judge Edgar
Judge Jura Edgar is a fictional character in the Judge Dredd comic strip in 2000 AD. Although in most of her stories she is not evil or a murderer in the manner of most villains in the Judge Dredd series , she is nevertheless one of Dredd's adversaries...
of the Public Surveillance Unit, and Galen DeMarco
Galen DeMarco
Galen DeMarco is a fictional character in the world of Judge Dredd. She is a former street judge who first appeared in the Judge Dredd storyline "The Pit" in 2000 AD #970.-Biography:...
, a former judge who had quit after falling in love with Dredd and become a private eye.
1999 also saw the return of another character, Nemesis the Warlock. After a break of ten years, writer Pat Mills decided to bring the story to an end with "The Final Conflict". The series was drawn by Henry Flint
Henry Flint
Henry Flint is a British comic book artist who has worked mainly for British sci-fi comic 2000AD.-Biography:Flint has established a cult following for his hyper-detailed and wildly inventive work on series such as Judge Dredd, Zombo,,ABC Warriors, Shakara, Low Life and Aliens.A recent project was...
in a style that recalled Kevin O'Neill's early work on the series, as well as Simon Bisley's ABC Warriors work.
The decade ended with a special 100-page issue called "Prog 2000". Behind a cover by Brian Bolland, Nemesis wrapped up for good in a final episode drawn by Kevin O'Neill. War broke out in Nikolai Dante, and writer Gordon Rennie
Gordon Rennie
Gordon Rennie is a comics writer, responsible for White Trash: Moronic Inferno, as well as several comic strips for 2000 AD and novels for Warhammer Fantasy....
and artist Mark Harrison introduced future war story Glimmer Rats. Another old favourite, Strontium Dog
Strontium Dog
Strontium Dog is a long-running comics series featuring in the British science fiction weekly 2000 AD, starring Johnny Alpha, a mutant bounty hunter with an array of imaginative gadgets and weapons....
, was revived by Wagner and Ezquerra, telling new stories of Johnny Alpha set before his death, with the conceit that previous stories had been "folklore" and the new stories were "what really happened", allowing Wagner to revise continuity. The story was in fact an adaptation of a treatment Wagner had written for a TV pilot that was never made.
The 2000s
In the year of its title and beyond, 2000 AD bounced back under the ownership of RebellionRebellion Developments
Rebellion is a British computer games company, based in Oxford, who are most famous for the first Aliens vs. Predator computer game. It has published comic books since 2000 and launched its own book imprint, Abaddon Books, in 2006.-History:...
, with editors Andy Diggle
Andy Diggle
Andy Diggle is a British comic book writer and former editor of 2000 AD. He is best known for his work on The Losers, Swamp Thing, Hellblazer, Adam Strange and Silent Dragon at DC Comics and for his run on Thunderbolts and Daredevil after his move to Marvel.-Career:Diggle took over editing 2000 AD...
, Alan Barnes
Alan Barnes (writer)
Alan Barnes is a British writer and editor, particularly noted for work in the field of cult film and television.-Biography:Barnes served as the editor of Judge Dredd Megazine from 2001 until December 2005, during which time the title saw a considerable increase in the number of new strip pages. ...
and Matt Smith
Matt Smith (comics)
Matt Smith is the editor of long-running British science fiction weekly anthology comic 2000 AD, and the sister title Judge Dredd Megazine. He has also written two novels.-Biography:...
at the helm. Rebellion continues to develop stories (and computer games) based on classic characters such as Rogue Trooper
Rogue Trooper
Rogue Trooper is a science fiction strip in the British comic 2000 AD, created by Gerry Finley-Day and Dave Gibbons. It follows the adventures of Rogue, a G.I. and his three comrades' search for the Traitor General...
and Judge Dredd
Judge Dredd
Judge Joseph Dredd is a comics character whose strip in the British science fiction anthology 2000 AD is the magazine's longest running . Dredd is an American law enforcement officer in a violent city of the future where uniformed Judges combine the powers of police, judge, jury and executioner...
, and has also introduced a roster of new series including Shakara
Shakara
Shakara! is a 2000 AD character, starring in their own eponymous story, who was created by Robbie Morrison and Henry Flint-Plot:The story is technically set in the present day Shakara! is a 2000 AD character, starring in their own eponymous story, who was created by Robbie Morrison and Henry...
, The Red Seas
The Red Seas
The Red Seas is a series for 2000 AD, written by Ian Edginton and drawn by Steve Yeowell.The stories revolve around Captain Jack Dancer and the crew of his ship the Red Wench. It mixes pirates with anomalous phenomena, including magic, zombies, the hollow earth and werewolves.-Crew:*Jack Dancer:...
and Caballistics, Inc.
Caballistics, Inc.
Caballistics, Inc is a horror/fantasy comic strip, set in the present day, that has been running in the weekly British anthology comic 2000AD since December 2002...
. It has also published a tie-in to the film Shaun of the Dead
Shaun of the Dead
Shaun of the Dead is a 2004 British zombie comedy directed by Edgar Wright, starring Simon Pegg and Nick Frost, and written by Pegg and Wright. Pegg plays Shaun, a man attempting to get some kind of focus in his life as he deals with his girlfriend, his mother and stepfather...
in a story written by Simon Pegg
Simon Pegg
Simon Pegg is an English actor, comedian, writer, film producer, and director. He is best known for having co-written and stared in various Edgar Wright features, mainly Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz, and the comedy series Spaced.He also portrayed Montgomery "Scotty" Scott in the 2009 Star Trek film...
and Edgar Wright
Edgar Wright
Edgar Howard Wright is an English film and television director and writer. He is most famous for his work with Simon Pegg and Nick Frost on the films Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz, the TV series Spaced, and for directing the film Scott Pilgrim vs...
.
The comic continues to uncover new British talents, including Boo Cook
Boo Cook
Boo Cook is a British comic artist, whose work mainly features in the comic 2000 AD.-Career:Cook's art has appeared in the ABC Warriors and Judge Dredd, as Asylum and Dead Men Walking .In 2005, Cook graduated to regular work on the flagship story on 2000 AD, Judge Dredd, mostly to scripts by...
, Dom Reardon
Dom Reardon
Dom Reardon is a British comics artist, whose work appears mainly in British comic 2000AD.He is the illustrator of Gordon Rennie-scripted horror tale Caballistics, Inc..-Biography:...
and Al Ewing
Al Ewing
Al Ewing is a British comics writer who has mainly worked in the small press and for 2000 AD.-Biography:Al Ewing began his career writing stories in the five-page Future Shocks format for 2000AD...
. It has also benefited from an improved dollar-pound exchange rate
Exchange rate
In finance, an exchange rate between two currencies is the rate at which one currency will be exchanged for another. It is also regarded as the value of one country’s currency in terms of another currency...
that has meant the comic can now afford to re-employ some of the talent thought lost to America.
Recently a number of shorter self-contained stories, partly created by the new wave of talent, have run including London Falling
London Falling
London Falling is a strip in 2000 AD, created by comic book writer Simon Spurrier and Lee Garbett the artist. It explores bogeymen from English folklore and mythology wreaking havoc in a modern day setting....
, Go-Machine
Go-Machine
Go-Machine is a comic strip that appeared in 2000AD. It was created by writer Al Ewing and artist Richard Elson.-Characters:* Mikel Keller & his unnamed wife* The Central Directorate-Plot:...
, Stone Island
Stone Island (2000AD)
Stone Island is a horror series in the weekly comic 2000 AD. It is written by Ian Edginton, who can also be seen working on The Red Seas...
and Malone. Other developments include a revamping of the Judge Dredd Megazine
Judge Dredd Megazine
Judge Dredd: The Megazine is a monthly British comic magazine, launched in October 1990. It is a sister publication to 2000 AD. Its name is a play on words, formed from "magazine" and Dredd's locale Mega-City One.-Content:...
which has included a section acting as a showcase for British small press comics
British small press comics
British small press comics, once known as stripzines, are comic books self-published by amateur cartoonists and comic book creators, usually in short print runs, in the UK. A "small press comic" is essentially a zine composed predominantly of comic strips. The term emerged in the early 1980s to...
. Starting in 1500 prog was a Judge Dredd story "The Connection", a 'prelude' to a 23-part Judge Dredd epic "Origins
Origins (Judge Dredd story)
Origins is one of the longest Judge Dredd storylines to run in the pages of British comic 2000 AD. Making extensive use of flashbacks, it tells the story of how the Judges of Mega-City One rose to power. It was written by John Wagner and illustrated by Carlos Ezquerra, who between them created...
" which filled in a lot of the details about Dredd's past.
In prog 1526, dated 28 February 2007, 2000 AD celebrated their 30th anniversary. The issue saw the start of two new storylines: Nikolai Dante
Nikolai Dante
Nikolai Dante is a comics series starring a hero of the same name and published in the weekly British science fiction anthology 2000 AD. Created by writer Robbie Morrison and artist Simon Fraser, Dante first appeared in 1997 in Prog 1035...
(by Robbie Morrison
Robbie Morrison
Robbie Morrison is a British comics writer most known for his work in 2000 AD and as the co-creator of popular character Nikolai Dante .-Biography:...
and Simon Fraser
Simon Fraser (comics)
Simon Fraser is a British comics artist and writer best known for his work on Nikolai Dante, a series he created with writer Robbie Morrison in 2000 AD.-Career:...
) and Savage
Invasion! (2000 AD)
Invasion! was a series created by Pat Mills and mostly written by Gerry Finley-Day that appeared in the first 51 editions of the weekly comic 2000 AD....
(by Pat Mills
Pat Mills
Pat Mills, nicknamed 'the godfather of British comics', is a comics writer and editor who, along with John Wagner, revitalised British boys comics in the 1970s, and has remained a leading light in British comics ever since....
and Charlie Adlard
Charlie Adlard
Charles "Charlie" Adlard is a British comic book artist and penciller.He is best known for providing art on The Walking Dead and Savage.-Biography:...
), along with a one-off episode of Flesh
Flesh (comics)
Flesh is a recurring story in the weekly anthology comic 2000AD created by writer Pat Mills.-Publishing history:Flesh first appeared as part of 2000ADs opening line up in its first issue in 1977. The series was set in the age of dinosaurs who were farmed for their meat by cowboys from the future...
(by Pat Mills
Pat Mills
Pat Mills, nicknamed 'the godfather of British comics', is a comics writer and editor who, along with John Wagner, revitalised British boys comics in the 1970s, and has remained a leading light in British comics ever since....
and Ramon Sola). The run-up to this saw the first arcs of new series Stickleback
Stickleback (comics)
Stickleback is the eponymous title character of a steampunk comic series created by Ian Edginton and D'Israeli appearing in UK comics anthology 2000 AD...
and Kingdom
Kingdom (comics)
Kingdom is a comic series created by Dan Abnett and Richard Elson and published in 2000 AD starting in 2006.The story revolves around a genetically modified dog named after Gene Hackman...
.
2000 AD was also made available online through Clickwheel, another Rebellion
Rebellion Developments
Rebellion is a British computer games company, based in Oxford, who are most famous for the first Aliens vs. Predator computer game. It has published comic books since 2000 and launched its own book imprint, Abaddon Books, in 2006.-History:...
-owned firm. In December 2007 they started making the latest issue available to download as a PDF
Portable Document Format
Portable Document Format is an open standard for document exchange. This file format, created by Adobe Systems in 1993, is used for representing documents in a manner independent of application software, hardware, and operating systems....
and then in early 2008 they announced they had added an archive of the 2007 issues to the service. They launched the Clickwheel Comics Reader in July 2008 that would allow the digital versions of the comics to be downloaded and read on the iPhone
IPhone
The iPhone is a line of Internet and multimedia-enabled smartphones marketed by Apple Inc. The first iPhone was unveiled by Steve Jobs, then CEO of Apple, on January 9, 2007, and released on June 29, 2007...
and iPod Touch
IPod Touch
The iPod Touch is a portable media player, personal digital assistant, handheld game console, and Wi-Fi mobile device designed and marketed by Apple Inc. The iPod Touch adds the multi-touch graphical user interface to the iPod line...
.
Continuity
Although there is no overall shared universeShared universe
A shared universe is a fictional universe to which more than one writer contributes. Work set in a shared universe share characters and other elements with varying degrees of consistency. Shared universes are contrasted with collaborative writing, in which multiple authors work on a single story....
containing all 2000 AD stories, some stories spin-off or crossover into other stories. Most notable are the many stories that occur in the Judge Dredd Universe
Judge Dredd
Judge Joseph Dredd is a comics character whose strip in the British science fiction anthology 2000 AD is the magazine's longest running . Dredd is an American law enforcement officer in a violent city of the future where uniformed Judges combine the powers of police, judge, jury and executioner...
and the early stories of Pat Mills
Pat Mills
Pat Mills, nicknamed 'the godfather of British comics', is a comics writer and editor who, along with John Wagner, revitalised British boys comics in the 1970s, and has remained a leading light in British comics ever since....
, which are frequently interlinked and also link into the Dredd Universe.
Related publications
- The current sister publication to 2000 AD is the monthly Judge Dredd MegazineJudge Dredd MegazineJudge Dredd: The Megazine is a monthly British comic magazine, launched in October 1990. It is a sister publication to 2000 AD. Its name is a play on words, formed from "magazine" and Dredd's locale Mega-City One.-Content:...
, which originally focused exclusively on expanding the world of Judge Dredd, but in recent years has expanded its focus to include other stories set in other universes as well.
- The bimonthly 2000 AD Extreme Edition presented reprints of classic and hard-to-find 2000AD stories, but poor sales led to its cancellation in mid-2008. Since the cancellation, a smaller reprint supplement has been packaged with the Judge Dredd Megazine instead.
- StarlordStarlordStarlord was a short-lived weekly British science fiction comic published by IPC in 1978 as a sister title to 2000 AD, which had been launched the previous year in anticipation of a science fiction boom surrounding Star Wars....
was a weekly title (originally intended to be monthly) launched in 1978 following much the same format as 2000 AD and included Strontium DogStrontium DogStrontium Dog is a long-running comics series featuring in the British science fiction weekly 2000 AD, starring Johnny Alpha, a mutant bounty hunter with an array of imaginative gadgets and weapons....
and Ro-BustersRo-BustersRo-Busters is a British comic story that formed part of the original line-up of Starlord. Similar in premise to that of the Thunderbirds television series, it was created by writer Pat Mills and was drawn by Carlos Pino and Ian Kennedy initially, before Starlord's merger with 2000 AD...
which introduced characters that would later reappear in ABC WarriorsABC WarriorsABC Warriors is a long-running 2000 AD comic strip written by Pat Mills, which first appeared in prog 119 in 1979 and continues to run today. Art for the opening episodes was by Kevin O'Neill, Mike McMahon, Brett Ewins, and Brendan McCarthy - who between them designed the original seven members of...
. The two titles were merged later the same year and published as 2000AD and Starlord. A third Starlord series, TimeQuake, also had a 4-week run in 2000AD over a year later.
- TornadoTornado (comic)Tornado was a short-lived weekly British comic published for 22 issues by IPC Magazines between March 1979 and August 1979. After the cancellations of the Starlord and Action titles IPC launched Tornado as a way to use up stories already commissioned for the other titles. Like Action it was a mixed...
was a weekly title launched in 1979. There was less emphasis on Science Fiction series. It was merged with 2000 AD after 22 issues, transferring the strips BlackhawkBlackhawk (UK comic)Blackhawk was a Tornado comic strip created by Gerry Finley-Day that was one of three strips to transfer to 2000 AD after the two merged.-Plot synposis:...
, The Mind of Wolfie Smith and Captain Klep. For a while the publication was 2000AD and Tornado.
- Dice ManDice Man (comic)Dice Man was a short-lived British comic which ran for five issues in 1986. It was a spin-off from 2000 AD and was edited by Pat Mills, who also wrote almost all of the stories. The stories were designed to be played like gamebooks...
was an early attempt at creating a role-playingRole-playingRole-playing refers to the changing of one's behaviour to assume a role, either unconsciously to fill a social role, or consciously to act out an adopted role...
comic featuring regular 2000 AD characters such as Rogue Trooper and Slaine, as well as original characters, like Diceman. The magazine was not a success and only lasted five issues.
- Crisis (1988–1991) was a sister publication that did not follow the format of 2000 AD, but did share many editorial staff and creative teams. Early issues featured two SF-themed stories aimed at a slightly older age group than 2000 AD and soon became a magnet for British creators who wanted to create comics for the adult market. The 2000AD series Finn, begun the year after Crisis was cancelled, continues the adventures of the character from Third World War, though now with more of a fantasy emphasis.
- RevolverRevolver Comic (UK)Revolver is the title of a British comic which was a spin off from 2000AD. It lasted for seven regular issues and two specials, and was published between July 1990 to January 1991.-History:...
(1990–1991) joined Crisis though it only lasted for seven issues. Dan Dare was in the original lineup, and this transferred to Crisis when Revolver finished.
- Toxic!Toxic!Toxic! was a British weekly comic book published by Apocalypse Ltd. A total of 31 issues were published from March 28-October 24, 1991.-History:...
was a short-lived rival publication, established by 2000 AD talent, that was published during 1991.
- A Best of 2000 AD title was published in the mid-1980s which featured reprint material from early issues of 2000 AD. In the early 1990s, The Complete Judge Dredd began publication in a similar format. Both titles were relaunched as Classic 2000AD and Classic Judge Dredd in the mid-1990s but were cancelled soon after.
- A yearly hardcover annual was published from 1977 to 1990 (though the cover dates on the annuals were always the following year). From 1991 this was replaced by a softcover 2000AD Yearbook; the last of these was published in 1994. There were also annuals/yearbooks dedicated to 2000AD characters such as Dan Dare (1978–1979, cover dated 1979-1980), Judge Dredd (1980–1994) and Rogue Trooper (1990). An annual 2000AD Sci-Fi Special was published during the summer months between 1977 and 1996, plus the 2000AD Winter Special (1988–1995 and 2005), Judge Dredd Mega Special (1988–1996) and Rogue Trooper Action Special (1996). (1996's Judge Dredd Action Special was a tie-in to the defunct Judge Dredd: Lawman of the Future rather than 2000AD proper).
- In April 1992, a 2000AD Action Special featured six strips reviving classic British comics characters such as the Steel ClawSteel ClawThe Steel Claw was one of the most popular comic book heroes of British weekly adventure comics of the 1960s and 1970s. The character was revived in 2005 for Albion, a six issue mini-series published by the Wildstorm imprint of DC Comics....
. Of these only Kelly's Eye also appeared in 2000AD proper (in 1993, though Tim Kelly had already appeared in a 1991 Universal Soldier serial). This was published in the incorrect belief that Fleetway's deal with IPC in 1987 had included the rights to these characters.
- In the mid-1990s a series of 2000AD Poster Magazines were published, each featuring a new strip. There were five Judge Dredd poster magazines, plus one each for four other 2000AD series such as Nemesis the Warlock.
- A series of American comic format reprints started in 1983 by Eagle ComicsEagle ComicsEagle Comics was a short lived comic book publishing company that existed to reprint comic stories from the UK's 2000 A.D. magazine for distribution in North America...
with the first issue of an ongoing monthly Judge Dredd title. Eagle Comics also reprinted other 2000 AD material in other titles. The license to reprint 2000 AD material in the US was later taken over by Quality ComicsQuality CommunicationsQuality Communications is a British publishing company founded by Dez Skinn in 1982. Quality was initially formed to publish the award-winning monthly comics anthology Warrior. The company has been involved with comics in both the UK and the U.S., mainly with reprint material from Warrior and...
. These reprints ended in the early 1990s.
Video game adaptations
In 1987, MartechMartech
Martech Games Ltd was a video game publisher active between 1982 and 1989.Martech was formed by David Martin and brother-in-law John Barry, initially under the name Software Communications Ltd under partnership with a firm of exporters. They were initially based at Bay Terrace, Pevensey Bay, East...
released well-received games based on Nemesis the Warlock and Sláine for the Amstrad CPC
Amstrad CPC
The Amstrad CPC is a series of 8-bit home computers produced by Amstrad between 1984 and 1990. It was designed to compete in the mid-1980s home computer market dominated by the Commodore 64 and the Sinclair ZX Spectrum, where it successfully established itself primarily in the United Kingdom,...
, Commodore 64
Commodore 64
The Commodore 64 is an 8-bit home computer introduced by Commodore International in January 1982.Volume production started in the spring of 1982, with machines being released on to the market in August at a price of US$595...
and ZX Spectrum
ZX Spectrum
The ZX Spectrum is an 8-bit personal home computer released in the United Kingdom in 1982 by Sinclair Research Ltd...
platforms. Krisalis Software
Krisalis Software
Krisalis Software Ltd. was a video game developer and publisher founded by Tony Kavanagh, Peter Harrap, and Shaun Hollingworth in 1987 under the name Teque Software...
released an adaptation of Rogue Trooper for the Amiga
Amiga
The Amiga is a family of personal computers that was sold by Commodore in the 1980s and 1990s. The first model was launched in 1985 as a high-end home computer and became popular for its graphical, audio and multi-tasking abilities...
and Atari ST
Atari ST
The Atari ST is a home/personal computer that was released by Atari Corporation in 1985 and commercially available from that summer into the early 1990s. The "ST" officially stands for "Sixteen/Thirty-two", which referred to the Motorola 68000's 16-bit external bus and 32-bit internals...
in 1991, and the merchandising that accompanied the 1995 Judge Dredd film included tie-in games for the IBM PC (MS-DOS
MS-DOS
MS-DOS is an operating system for x86-based personal computers. It was the most commonly used member of the DOS family of operating systems, and was the main operating system for IBM PC compatible personal computers during the 1980s to the mid 1990s, until it was gradually superseded by operating...
), Game Boy
Game Boy
The , is an 8-bit handheld video game device developed and manufactured by Nintendo. It was released in Japan on , in North America in , and in Europe on...
, Game Gear, PlayStation
PlayStation
The is a 32-bit fifth-generation video game console first released by Sony Computer Entertainment in Japan on December 3, .The PlayStation was the first of the PlayStation series of consoles and handheld game devices. The PlayStation 2 was the console's successor in 2000...
, Sega Genesis and Super Nintendo Entertainment System
Super Nintendo Entertainment System
The Super Nintendo Entertainment System is a 16-bit video game console that was released by Nintendo in North America, Europe, Australasia , and South America between 1990 and 1993. In Japan and Southeast Asia, the system is called the , or SFC for short...
. A Judge Dredd Pinball game was released for the PC (DOS) in 1998.
With the purchase of 2000 AD by Rebellion Developments, a computer game company, several more 2000 AD-linked games have been released or are under development. Judge Dredd: Dredd Vs. Death
Judge Dredd: Dredd Vs. Death
Judge Dredd: Dredd Vs. Death is a first-person shooter video game based on the Judge Dredd character from the 2000 AD comic series, developed by Rebellion Developments. It was released on October 17, 2003 in Europe and February 8, 2005 in the United States...
was released in 2003 and Rogue Trooper followed in 2006 for the Xbox
Xbox
The Xbox is a sixth-generation video game console manufactured by Microsoft. It was released on November 15, 2001 in North America, February 22, 2002 in Japan, and March 14, 2002 in Australia and Europe and is the predecessor to the Xbox 360. It was Microsoft's first foray into the gaming console...
, PlayStation 2
PlayStation 2
The PlayStation 2 is a sixth-generation video game console manufactured by Sony as part of the PlayStation series. Its development was announced in March 1999 and it was first released on March 4, 2000, in Japan...
and PC. An updated version for the Wii
Wii
The Wii is a home video game console released by Nintendo on November 19, 2006. As a seventh-generation console, the Wii primarily competes with Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Sony's PlayStation 3. Nintendo states that its console targets a broader demographic than that of the two others...
has also been announced.
Famous creators
Well known creators who have worked for 2000 AD include:- Nick AbadzisNick AbadzisNick Abadzis is a British cartoonist, comic book writer, and graphic novelist. He currently lives in New York, having moved from his previous home in London in 2010.-Early life:...
- Dan AbnettDan AbnettDan Abnett is a British comic book writer and novelist. He is a frequent collaborator with fellow writer Andy Lanning, and is known for his work on books for both Marvel Comics, and their UK imprint, Marvel UK, since the 1990s, including 2000 AD...
- Massimo BelardinelliMassimo BelardinelliMassimo Belardinelli was an Italian comics artist best known for his work in the British science fiction comic 2000 AD.-Biography:...
- Simon BisleySimon BisleySimon Bisley is a British comics artist best known for his 1990s work on ABC Warriors, Lobo and Sláine. His style, reliant on paints, acrylics, inks and multiple-mediums, is strongly influenced by Frank Frazetta, Bill Sienkiewicz, Gustav Klimt, Salvador Dalí, Egon Schiele, and Richard Corben...
- Brian BollandBrian BollandBrian Bolland is a British comics artist, known for his meticulous, detailed linework and eye-catching compositions. Best known in the UK as one of the definitive Judge Dredd artists for British comics anthology 2000 AD, he spearheaded the 'British Invasion' of the American comics industry, and in...
- Chris CunninghamChris CunninghamChris Cunningham is an English music video film director and video artist. He was born in Reading, Berkshire in 1970 and grew up in Lakenheath, Suffolk....
- Alan DavisAlan DavisAlan Davis is an English writer and artist of comic books, known for his work on titles such as Captain Britain, The Uncanny X-Men, ClanDestine, Excalibur, JLA: The Nail and JLA: Another Nail.-UK work:...
- Steve DillonSteve DillonSteve Dillon is a British comic book artist, from Luton, Bedfordshire, best known for his work with writer Garth Ennis on Hellblazer, Preacher and The Punisher.-Biography:...
- D'IsraeliD'IsraeliMatt Brooker, whose work most often appears under the pseudonym D'Israeli , is a British comic artist, colorist, writer and letterer. Other pseudonyms he uses include "Molly Eyre" , for his writing, and "Harry V...
- Garth EnnisGarth EnnisGarth Ennis is a Northern Irish comics writer, best known for the Vertigo series Preacher with artist Steve Dillon and his successful nine-year run on Marvel Comics' Punisher franchise...
- Carlos EzquerraCarlos EzquerraCarlos Sanchez Ezquerra , who has also worked under the alias L. John Silver, is a Spanish comics artist who works mainly in British comics and currently lives in Andorra...
- Gerry Finley-DayGerry Finley-DayGerry Finley-Day was a prolific British comics writer from the 1960s to the 1980s, best known as the creator of Rogue Trooper.He started out at D. C. Thomson & Co., before becoming the editor of IPC's girls' title Tammy in 1971, for which he wrote strips such as "Ella on Easy Street" and "The Camp...
- Michael FleisherMichael FleisherMichael L. "Mike" Fleisher is an American writer known for his DC Comics of the 1970s and 1980s, particularly for the characters the Spectre and Jonah Hex.-Early life and career:...
- Henry FlintHenry FlintHenry Flint is a British comic book artist who has worked mainly for British sci-fi comic 2000AD.-Biography:Flint has established a cult following for his hyper-detailed and wildly inventive work on series such as Judge Dredd, Zombo,,ABC Warriors, Shakara, Low Life and Aliens.A recent project was...
- Tom FrameTom FrameTom Frame was a British comics letterer. He created dialogue for the majority of the Judge Dredd strips, as well as other stories including over 300 stories in 2000 AD and Transformers....
- Neil GaimanNeil GaimanNeil Richard Gaiman born 10 November 1960)is an English author of short fiction, novels, comic books, graphic novels, audio theatre and films. His notable works include the comic book series The Sandman and novels Stardust, American Gods, Coraline, and The Graveyard Book...
- Dave GibbonsDave GibbonsDave Gibbons is an English comic book artist, writer and sometime letterer. He is best known for his collaborations with writer Alan Moore, which include the miniseries Watchmen and the Superman story "For the Man Who Has Everything"...
- Ian GibsonIan Gibson (artist)Ian Gibson is a British comic book artist, best known for his 1980s black-and-white work for 2000 AD, especially as the main artist on Robo-Hunter and The Ballad of Halo Jones, as well as his long run on Judge Dredd.-Biography:...
- Alan Grant
- Trevor HairsineTrevor HairsineTrevor Hairsine is a British comics artist, whose detailed style has been compared to that of Bryan Hitch.In August 2005 Marvel Editor-in-Chief Joe Quesada named him as one of Marvel Comics's "Young Guns", a group of artists who have the qualities that make "a future superstar...
- Jamie HewlettJamie HewlettJamie Christopher Hewlett is an English comic book artist and designer. He is known for being the co-creator of the comic Tank Girl and co-creator of the virtual band Gorillaz.-Biography:...
- John HigginsJohn Higgins (comics)John Higgins is an English comic book artist and writer. He did significant work for 2000 AD, and he has frequently worked with writer Alan Moore, most notably as colourist for Watchmen.-Biography:...
- David HineDavid Hine-Biography:Hine has been working in comics since the early 1980s. For Crisis he drew the series Sticky Fingers in 1989, and wrote and drew a number of short pieces in 1990 and 1991...
- Frazer IrvingFrazer IrvingFrazer Irving is a British comic book artist known for the 2000 AD series Necronauts. Irving studied art at the University of Portsmouth, England, after which he took various temporary jobs in London...
- Jock
- Cam KennedyCam KennedyCampbell Kennedy is a Scottish comics artist. He is best known for his work on 2000 AD, especially the flagship titles Judge Dredd and Rogue Trooper.-Biography:...
- Brendan McCarthyBrendan McCarthyBrendan McCarthy is a British artist and designer best known for his work in comic books, film and television.- Biography :Brendan McCarthy, of Irish descent, was born in London. Brendan soon began painting and drawing his own home-made comics....
- Mike McMahonMike McMahon (comics)Michael McMahon is a British comics artist best known for his work on 2000 AD characters such as Judge Dredd, Sláine and ABC Warriors, and the mini-series The Last American....
- Mark MillarMark MillarMark Millar is a Scottish comic book writer, known for his work on books such as The Authority, The Ultimates, Marvel Knights Spider-Man, Ultimate Fantastic Four, Civil War, Wanted, and Kick-Ass, the latter two of which have been adapted into feature films...
- Peter MilliganPeter MilliganPeter Milligan born in London, a British writer, best known for his comic book, film and television work.-Early career:Milligan started his comic career with short stories for 2000 AD in the early 1980s. By 1986, Milligan had his first ongoing strip in 2000AD called Bad Company, with artists Brett...
- Pat MillsPat MillsPat Mills, nicknamed 'the godfather of British comics', is a comics writer and editor who, along with John Wagner, revitalised British boys comics in the 1970s, and has remained a leading light in British comics ever since....
- Alan MooreAlan MooreAlan Oswald Moore is an English writer primarily known for his work in comic books, a medium where he has produced a number of critically acclaimed and popular series, including Watchmen, V for Vendetta, and From Hell...
- Grant MorrisonGrant MorrisonGrant Morrison is a Scottish comic book writer, playwright and occultist. He is known for his nonlinear narratives and counter-cultural leanings, as well as his successful runs on titles like Animal Man, Doom Patrol, JLA, The Invisibles, New X-Men, Fantastic Four, All-Star Superman, and...
- Kevin O'NeillKevin O'Neill (comics)Kevin O'Neill is an English comic book illustrator best known as the co-creator of Nemesis the Warlock, Marshal Law , and The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen .-Early career:...
- Arthur RansonArthur RansonArthur James Ranson is an English illustrator, whose fine line penwork and attention to visual detail has led to the misapplied epithet 'photo-realistic'...
- Gordon RennieGordon RennieGordon Rennie is a comics writer, responsible for White Trash: Moronic Inferno, as well as several comic strips for 2000 AD and novels for Warhammer Fantasy....
- John SmithJohn Smith (comics)John Smith is a British comics writer best known for his work on 2000 AD and Crisis.Smith's work is characterised by intricate, sometimes obscure plots and an interest in taboos and the occult, told in an elliptic, fractured narrative style reminiscent of Iain Sinclair or the cut-up technique of...
- Richard StarkingsRichard StarkingsRichard Starkings is a British font designer and comic book letterer, editor and writer. He was one of the early pioneers of computer based comic book lettering and as a result is one of the most prolific creators in that industry.-Career:...
- Bryan TalbotBryan TalbotBryan Talbot is a British comic book artist and writer, born in Wigan, Lancashire, in 1952. He is best known as the creator of The Adventures of Luther Arkwright and its sequel Heart of Empire.-Career:...
- John WagnerJohn WagnerJohn Wagner is a comics writer who was born in Pennsylvania in 1949 and moved to Scotland as a boy. Alongside Pat Mills, Wagner was responsible for revitalising British boys' comics in the 1970s, and has continued to be a leading light in British comics ever since.He is best known for his work on...
- Kev WalkerKev WalkerKevin "Kev" Walker is a British comics artist and illustrator, based in Leeds, who worked mainly on 2000 AD and Warhammer comics and the collectible card game Magic: The Gathering...
- Chris WestonChris WestonChris Weston is a British comics artist who has worked both in the US and UK comics industries.-Biography:Weston was born in January, 1969 in Rinteln, Germany, and lived in various countries as a child...
Many of these have since moved on to work for American publishers such as DC Comics
DC Comics
DC Comics, Inc. is one of the largest and most successful companies operating in the market for American comic books and related media. It is the publishing unit of DC Entertainment a company of Warner Bros. Entertainment, which itself is owned by Time Warner...
(especially the Vertigo and Wildstorm
Wildstorm
WildStorm Productions, or simply WildStorm, published American comic books. Originally an independent company established by Jim Lee and further expanded upon in subsequent years by other creators, WildStorm became a publishing imprint of DC Comics in 1999...
imprints) and Marvel Comics
Marvel Comics
Marvel Worldwide, Inc., commonly referred to as Marvel Comics and formerly Marvel Publishing, Inc. and Marvel Comics Group, is an American company that publishes comic books and related media...
.
For more creators, see: :Category:2000 AD creators.
Editors
The current editor of 2000 AD is Matt SmithMatt Smith (comics)
Matt Smith is the editor of long-running British science fiction weekly anthology comic 2000 AD, and the sister title Judge Dredd Megazine. He has also written two novels.-Biography:...
. For a list of past editors see Tharg the Mighty
Tharg the Mighty
The Mighty Tharg is a recurrent character in science fiction comic 2000 AD, one of only two characters to appear in nearly every issue of the comic...
.
Awards
Although the various stories and creators have won awards too (see the various entries for details) the comic itself has its own trophies:- 1979: Won the Eagle Awards: Favourite Comic (UK)
- 1986: Won the Eagle Awards: Favourite Comic
- 1987: Won the Eagle Awards: Favourite Comic - British
- 1988: Won the Eagle Awards: Favourite Comic - British
- 1990:
- Won the Eagle Awards: Favourite Comic - British
- Won the Eagle Awards: Roll of Honour
- 1997:
- Won the National Comics Awards: Best Comic (British)
- Nominated for the National Comics Awards: Best British Comic Ever
- 1998: Won the National Comics Awards: Best Comic (British)
- 1999:
- Won the National Comics Awards: Best Comic (British)
- Won the Eagle Awards: Favourite British Comic
- Prog 2000 nominated for the Eagle Awards: Favourite Cover Published During 1999
- 2000:
- Won the Eagle Awards: Favourite British Comic
- 2000adonline.com nominated for the Eagle Awards: Favourite Comics Related Website
- Tharg the MightyTharg the MightyThe Mighty Tharg is a recurrent character in science fiction comic 2000 AD, one of only two characters to appear in nearly every issue of the comic...
(David BishopDavid BishopDavid Bishop is a screenwriter and author. Born in New Zealand, he was a UK comics editor during the 1990s, running such titles as the Judge Dredd Megazine and 2000 AD, the latter between 1996 and the summer of 2000....
) nominated for the Eagle Awards: Favourite Comics Editor
- 2001:
- Won the National Comics Awards: Best Comic in the World Ever
- Won the National Comics Awards: Best Comic Ever
- Won the Eagle Awards: Favourite British Comic
- Tharg the MightyTharg the MightyThe Mighty Tharg is a recurrent character in science fiction comic 2000 AD, one of only two characters to appear in nearly every issue of the comic...
(Andy DiggleAndy DiggleAndy Diggle is a British comic book writer and former editor of 2000 AD. He is best known for his work on The Losers, Swamp Thing, Hellblazer, Adam Strange and Silent Dragon at DC Comics and for his run on Thunderbolts and Daredevil after his move to Marvel.-Career:Diggle took over editing 2000 AD...
) won the Eagle Awards: Favourite Comics Editor
- 2002:
- Nominated for the National Comics Awards: Best Comic Ever
- 2000adonline.com nominated for the National Comics Awards: Best Specialist Magazine or Website
- Nominated for the National Comics Awards: Best Comic Now
- 2004: won the Diamond Comics Awards: Best comic
- 2006: won the Eagle Award for Best British Colour Comic
- 2007:
- Won the Eagle AwardEagle AwardsThe Eagle Award is a series of awards for comic book titles and creators. They are awarded by UK fan voting for work produced during the previous year. Named after the UK's Eagle comic, the awards were set up by Mike Conroy, Nick Landau, Colin Campbell, Phil Clarke and Richard Burton, and launched...
for Favourite Colour Comicbook - British - 2000adonline.com nominated for the Eagle Award for Favourite Comics Related Website
- Tharg the MightyTharg the MightyThe Mighty Tharg is a recurrent character in science fiction comic 2000 AD, one of only two characters to appear in nearly every issue of the comic...
(Matt SmithMatt Smith (comics)Matt Smith is the editor of long-running British science fiction weekly anthology comic 2000 AD, and the sister title Judge Dredd Megazine. He has also written two novels.-Biography:...
) won the Eagle Awards: Favourite Comics Editor
- Won the Eagle Award
- 2008:
- Nominated for the Eagle AwardEagle AwardsThe Eagle Award is a series of awards for comic book titles and creators. They are awarded by UK fan voting for work produced during the previous year. Named after the UK's Eagle comic, the awards were set up by Mike Conroy, Nick Landau, Colin Campbell, Phil Clarke and Richard Burton, and launched...
for Favourite Colour Comicbook - British - 2000adonline.com nominated for the Eagle Award for Favourite Comics Related Website
- Tharg the MightyTharg the MightyThe Mighty Tharg is a recurrent character in science fiction comic 2000 AD, one of only two characters to appear in nearly every issue of the comic...
(Matt SmithMatt Smith (comics)Matt Smith is the editor of long-running British science fiction weekly anthology comic 2000 AD, and the sister title Judge Dredd Megazine. He has also written two novels.-Biography:...
) won the Eagle Awards: Favourite Comics Editor
- Nominated for the Eagle Award
- 2010:
- Won the Eagle AwardEagle AwardsThe Eagle Award is a series of awards for comic book titles and creators. They are awarded by UK fan voting for work produced during the previous year. Named after the UK's Eagle comic, the awards were set up by Mike Conroy, Nick Landau, Colin Campbell, Phil Clarke and Richard Burton, and launched...
for Favourite Colour Comicbook - British
- Won the Eagle Award
- 2011:
- Won the Eagle AwardEagle AwardsThe Eagle Award is a series of awards for comic book titles and creators. They are awarded by UK fan voting for work produced during the previous year. Named after the UK's Eagle comic, the awards were set up by Mike Conroy, Nick Landau, Colin Campbell, Phil Clarke and Richard Burton, and launched...
for Favourite British Comicbook - Colour - Tharg the MightyTharg the MightyThe Mighty Tharg is a recurrent character in science fiction comic 2000 AD, one of only two characters to appear in nearly every issue of the comic...
(Matt SmithMatt Smith (comics)Matt Smith is the editor of long-running British science fiction weekly anthology comic 2000 AD, and the sister title Judge Dredd Megazine. He has also written two novels.-Biography:...
) won the Eagle Awards: Favourite Comics Editor
- Won the Eagle Award
Fanzines
2000 AD has an extremely lively and thriving fanbase, which has produced a number of independent fanzineFanzine
A fanzine is a nonprofessional and nonofficial publication produced by fans of a particular cultural phenomenon for the pleasure of others who share their interest...
s.
Between 1994-96, "Fear The Badge" was an erstwhile but overly ambitious attempt at a 2000AD fanzine based around the Judge Dredd, Strontium Dog and Robo-hunter universes. With original artwork, stories and articles, the fanzine would act as a showcase for talent wanting to break into comics.
Its editor/creator, Paul Dick, partially disabled himself, wanted to donate some of the zine's profits to a different disability charity each month. However, the fanzine's genesis was plagued by bad luck, not least of all Dick's health worsening. Despite the good intentions and hardwork of its creator (as well as the keen interest and support from both amateur and professional 2000AD contributors), the fanzine's full potential sadly never was realised. Only a dummy run of 50 copies of issue 1 were ever produced.
In 1998 W.R. Logan, frustrated at the lack of activity from the comic's publishers both in promoting the title and also in making best use of new talents, decided to create an independent title using 2000 AD copyrighted characters and situations. This was titled Class of '79, named after the year of Dredd's graduation from the Academy of Law
Academy of Law
The Academy of Law is a fictional place of learning appearing in the Judge Dredd series that appears in the British comic 2000 AD.-Fictional history:The Academy of Law is where the Judges of Mega-City One are trained...
- 2079. The first couple of issues contained work from now-professional comics creators Rufus Dayglo
Rufus Dayglo
Rufus Dayglo is a London-based comics artist working for 2000 AD and Titan Books in the United Kingdom, and IDW Publishing and Image Comics in the United States...
, Boo Cook
Boo Cook
Boo Cook is a British comic artist, whose work mainly features in the comic 2000 AD.-Career:Cook's art has appeared in the ABC Warriors and Judge Dredd, as Asylum and Dead Men Walking .In 2005, Cook graduated to regular work on the flagship story on 2000 AD, Judge Dredd, mostly to scripts by...
, Henry Flint
Henry Flint
Henry Flint is a British comic book artist who has worked mainly for British sci-fi comic 2000AD.-Biography:Flint has established a cult following for his hyper-detailed and wildly inventive work on series such as Judge Dredd, Zombo,,ABC Warriors, Shakara, Low Life and Aliens.A recent project was...
and PJ Holden and won the best Self Published/Independent Comic Award at the 1999 National Comics Awards.
In 2001, Andrew J Lewis
Andrew J Lewis
Andrew J Lewis is a writer, musician, artist and co-founder of the Toshist movement.-Biography:In 2001 Lewis created the 'Top Notch Tosh' small press comic. He wrote a range of short, punchy sci-fi/horror strips, illustrating many himself and collaborating with other artists including Justin...
created Zarjaz
Zarjaz
Zarjaz is a comics anthology fanzine for the long-running British science fiction comic 2000 AD.-Publication history:Zarjaz was started in 2001 by Andrew J Lewis and ran for four issues. The fanzine contained comic strips based on various 2000 AD characters and also ran an in-depth interview with...
comic, with strips featuring characters from a variety of 2000 AD stories. There were also interviews with Alan Grant, Frazer Irving
Frazer Irving
Frazer Irving is a British comic book artist known for the 2000 AD series Necronauts. Irving studied art at the University of Portsmouth, England, after which he took various temporary jobs in London...
and Alan Moore
Alan Moore
Alan Oswald Moore is an English writer primarily known for his work in comic books, a medium where he has produced a number of critically acclaimed and popular series, including Watchmen, V for Vendetta, and From Hell...
, as well as an extensive article on breaking into comics as a writer.
Another long-running fanzine, dedicated to the world of Johnny Alpha, is Dogbreath
Dogbreath
Dogbreath is a fanzine dedicated to the 2000 AD series Strontium Dog.-Publication history:Dogbreath was started by Dr Bob , who had been writing Strontium Dog fan fiction since 1981...
, originally run by the pseudonymous Dr Bob it is now being produced by FutureQuake Publishing. In 2003, Arthur Wyatt
Arthur Wyatt (comics)
Arthur Wyatt is a writer for British comic 2000 AD, creating stories mostly in the Future Shock format. Wyatt was also selected as one of 2005's five best new comic book writers, contributing to the 2000AD Winter Special....
created FutureQuake
FutureQuake
FutureQuake is a British small press comic book founded by Arthur Wyatt, and edited from issue 5 onwards by Richmond Clements, David Evans, Mark Woodland and Edward Berridge. Issue 4 was edited by Clements, Evans and James Mackay...
, a fanzine devoted to the Future Shocks
Future Shocks
Future Shocks is the name given to a long running series of short strips in the weekly comic 2000 AD in 1977. The name originates in a book titled Future Shock, written by Alvin Toffler, published in 1970.-Publishing history:...
format. Although Class of '79 now appears to be on hiatus, all three of the other titles are in continuous publication, Zarjaz having started up again with a new issue 1.
In addition, a number of small press
British small press comics
British small press comics, once known as stripzines, are comic books self-published by amateur cartoonists and comic book creators, usually in short print runs, in the UK. A "small press comic" is essentially a zine composed predominantly of comic strips. The term emerged in the early 1980s to...
comics have emerged from the 2000 AD fanbase, including Solar Wind
Solar Wind (comic)
Solar Wind is a British small press comics anthology. Edited by Cosmic Ray , the comic is devoted to gentle parodies of British boys' comics of the 1970s and 80s...
, Omnivistascope and The End Is Nigh
The End Is Nigh
The End Is Nigh was an annual British fanzine edited by Michael Molcher. It was launched at the Bristol Comic Expo in 2005 and, since becoming a semi-annual publication, each subsequent issue is also launched there....
.
See also
- List of 2000 AD stories
- List of minor 2000 AD stories
- Action
- British comics
- British Invasion, which saw a number of 2000 AD artists and writers working for the big American firms during the 1980s.
External links
- 2000 AD Links Project
- 2000 AD Review
- alt.comics.2000ad newsgroup
- Prog 0, the test issue created in 1976, BBCBBCThe British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
.co.uk - The Class Of '79
- 2000 AD Artwork Gallery
- Touched by the Hand of Tharg
- When 2000AD Was The Future, retrospective by Garth EnnisGarth EnnisGarth Ennis is a Northern Irish comics writer, best known for the Vertigo series Preacher with artist Steve Dillon and his successful nine-year run on Marvel Comics' Punisher franchise...
for Bleeding Cool - Interview the artist Dylan Teague
- Video of first 1500 covers (high speed: 7.5 covers per second)