Demographic wise, I can’t be the only one here who spent a large slab of their youth preoccupied with the adventures of Judge Dredd, Johnny Alpha, Sam Slade and the numerous other stars of the Galaxy’s Greatest Comic. Please share your most Scrotnig memories with the rest of the Squaxx dek Thargo on this here site…
I was always as big a fan of the artwork as the stories and in my teens would challenge anyone to open a page at random from my collection and name the artist. I always saw Strontium Dog as a stronger story than the higher profile Judge Dredd; Journey to Hell being a highpoint ( and inspiration to Madness). My all time favourite story was the Zenith series, only recently made easily available, mostly for Steve Yeowell’s artwork.
http://www.gq-magazine.co.uk/article/judge-dredd-how-2000ad-predicted-the-future
Chooooon!
The only band I’ve been on stage with – along with most of the rest of the audience.
And, while I’m here, even better….
Halo Jones, Meltdown Man, Harry 20, Rogue Trooper, Ro-Busters, Flesh, Invasion, DR & Quinch. Big up to Tharg, Starlord and the Big E!
Nemesis, Robohunter, Judge Death, Rogue Trooper, Future Shocks.
I met Alan Moore for the first time when he did a promotional visit to Nostalgia & Comics to promote Skizz, an ET ripoff that was set in Birmingham.
2000AD and the short lived but excellent Warrior was a showcase for British Writers and artists most of which were eventually poached up by DC comics.
Massive part of my childhood. As well as the greats already mentioned, we should pour a 40 for the ABC Warriors. I know two different grown men with Joe Pineapples tattoos.
It took me far too long to get the Ro-Jaws and Hammerstein gag.
Ace trucking co
Harlem’s heroes
Dredd’s cursed earth saga
Good memories
Nemesis and Zenith were my favourites, but I also have a lot of love for Slaine and Harry 20 And The High Rock. The latter made a huge impression on my 9 year old self.
On a semi related note, yesterday I heard about, and immediately ordered a copy of, this:
https://www.flickeringmyth.com/2016/08/book-review-the-british-invasion-alan-moore-neil-gaiman-grant-morrison-and-the-invention-of-the-modern-comic-book-writer/
Who was the Zenith artist? Steve someone? It was wonderful to see him develop his style over books one to three.
You’re thinking about Steve Yeowell.
I’m a big fan of him as an artist and have an original one panel page of his from the Megazine. There’s a later 2000AD story called The Red Seas featuring some of his best work. Decent story too. Available cheaply as a graphic novel Under the Banner of King Death
All the Zenith series is now available in hardback reprints. I’d spent years hunting the original reprints on eBay. Had the first three. The reprints are great.
There’s an exhibition (£) of original artwork at the cartoon museum in London at the moment http://cartoonmuseum.org/exhibitions/current-exhibitions
D.R. and Quinch all the way. The episode where they tried to escape from prison using a gun fashioned from soap is one of the funniest things I’ve ever read.
Mind you, I’m currently re-reading Dredd to my seven-year-old for bedtime stories and I’m realising there was a LOT of subtext that I missed first time round.
Four words: Something something oranges something.
Does anybody still buy it? I let my subs lapse about five years ago when the unread pile become forbiddingly large, but there were still some great stories even then. Cabbalistics Inc. was a favourite, and the partnership of Ian Edginton and D’Israeli produced some phenomenal work. Well worth picking up collected editions of Leviathan and Stickleback.
@Leicester-bangs a lifelong subber – now devoured by daughter as well as self. As a 12-year old my ‘first prog’ was 28, exactly like your ‘first gig’ surely. I quickly hoovered up all the back issues I could at schools’ charity tabletop lunchtime sales – including a treasured 1 – no space spinner, cover torn. As I moved out to uni and work, at home was always a pile of unreads to work through. Never mind mortgage, job, kids – moving the sub to my home was the ultimate expression of adult responsibility.
In my world I’m up to about 2012 as I close the gap, having gone back to prog 1 about 10 years ago. Nikolai Dante has just finished – a great strip, but a couple of series too long. Brass Sun has just started and the Chaos Virus has levelled the big meg – againnnn…
The Alan Moore stories – Skizz, Dr and Quinch, the Future Shocks – are high points, as are Zenith and the artwork of Bolland and Gibbons, Kev O’Neill and Mike McMahon.
Other strips not mentioned so far: Durham Red (exquisite artwork in the original later series, not the ‘Tales of’ Ezquerra-drawn reboot), minimal classic Shakara – key dialogue line Shakara! In fact only dialogue line ‘Shakara’, the political satires BLAIR 1 and Big Dave. Mazeworld was beautiful and baffling. The list goes on.
I’ve never bonded with Slaine, though its clear there was a need for a pure fantasy story, and other long-runners that leave me a bit cold are Rogue Trooper, Flesh and Sinister Dexter.
With Dredd its always about the secondary characters, and the Dark Judges are a creation of pure genius.
I can’t remember which prog was my first, more’s the pity. I think I was ported over from one of their merges of the time. Action? Battle? Something like that. I got it for years, lapsed then re-subscribed in the early days of parenthood when I suddenly found myself in need of my own childhood touchstones.
Agreed about Slaine, although ‘He didn’t think it too many’ remains a favourite story. I was always a bit take-or-leave about Nemesis too. Latterly the turn-off was Sinister Dexter, as well as the story with the Cockneys, like a Sweeney thing, with baseball bats and stuff. If anything I thought they went a bit overboard on the humour and satire at the expense of story.
That said, my lapsing was nothing to do with the quality of 2000 AD, just that I had this pile of unread comics mocking me.
Yes, I still have a subscription.
I recently got the Steve Bishop memoir, which is an interesting insight in to the origins of 2000AD.
My 12 year old, in West Virginia, loves it. He proudly wears his Strontium Dog and Rogue Trooper t shirts.
My Christmas gifts, being opened in front of all the future in-laws, included Necropolis Book 1 and Tales of the Dead Man. That series, and the various Chopper stories, remain my favorite.
My 2000AD experience was the first 200 or so progs. I purchased the annual-shaped “Best Of” a while back and was thrilled to be reacquainted with Call Me Kenneth, Wulf’s Happy Stick and those Flesh-hunting cowboys Regan and Carter 😉. I’m afraid I bailed before Nemesis, Sláine and “Chopper For Oz!” – although I did hear about all of these at the time from my mates..
I think from about prog 50 to 200 was definitely a golden age, once they’d got rid of rubbish launch era strips like Mach 1 Visible Man, Dan Dare (Gibbons art excepted) and Shako, and Strontium Dog had joined
I still have a “Shako – the only bear on the CIA death list” t shirt…
um – I have 818 issues on disk if anyone is interested.
I hung on to the first 10 issues for twenty years or so. Sold progs 8-10 in the early days of Ebay and made a tidy profit. Sold the rest a couple of years later and made less money! Bloody Ebay – devalued so many collectables!
I can’t remember prog numbers, but the mid to late eighties was my period.
Of all the strips, the Mike McMahon era Slaine was my favourite, mostly for McMahon’s art. I could lose myself in those panels, they were so evocative. He’s hands down my favourite 2000AD artist.
I remember me and my gang (all budding young artists) getting very excited about the Simon Bisley ABC Warriors – was like nothing we’d ever imagined, from a different planet or something.
Kevin O’Neill was another favourite artist of mine.
Anybody remember the spin-off, Diceman??
And, speaking of British comics, another big favourite of mine was the short lived Revolver in the early nineties. I’ve always wanted to re-read the Rogan Josh story, and never found it anywhere.
The recent Mad Max film had character designs by Brendan McCarthy, by the way. When you think about it, they seem very Cursed Earth. That movie could have come straight from the pages of 2000AD.
I dearly loved 2000AD, but with a caveat. I always had the lingering feeling that it was a bit light, a bit naff. I preferred the heavyweight American stuff – Dark Knight, Watchmen, Arkham Asylum…. (although, much of it written and drawn by the British… )
I forgot to add – For my fortieth birthday a couple of years ago, my brother commissioned a picture from Mike McMahon! One of my prized possessions now. It’s in a box somewhere at the moment (we are inbetween homes just now), but if I get my hands on it I will try and post it on here. It stars two familiar 2000AD characters….
No conversation about 2000AD, or British comics at all, is complete without mentioning Pat Mills. Let’s take a wee sec:
Charley’s War. If that were the only thing he’s have done, that would have been enough. But no.
Slaine.
Major Dredd development.
Robusters.
ABC Warriors.
Nemesis the Warlock!
Bill Savage (which is still running)
I don’t know of many people, in any artistic enterprise, who can boast of such a body of work. If each character there was an album, we’d be asking if anyone had ever had such a run of classics.
There is a whole separate thread and conversation that should be had about Charley’s War. Andrew Harrison called it the “greatest British comic strip ever created” – and I don’t think he’s wrong. I have the rereleased hardbacks, and I’ll say it again: they should be mandatory reading for GCSE History. It is an immense thing.
sadly junked my no1 onwards collection in the mid 80….also my much missed battle collection.
battle would seem hard even today.
my fave strip was deffo MACH MAN.
whats he? you shout…..”man activated by compu puncture hyperpower……possibly not a real medical procedure.
SPLUNDIG VER THRIG……EARTHLETS.
FISH.
Always bugged me that. Later you had Mach Zero: Man Activated By Compu Puncture Hyperpower – Success Rating Zero.
So – what? – Mach One is “success rating one” – one out of what?
(I suppose the sly retrofitted answer is cozzits compu puncture hyper power it’s counted in binary…)