2000AD

[Mumpo]

Yeah he's all over the 1978 annual. Bit of a legacy transfer. Soon realised they didn't need him

He got a '79 and '80 annual of his own (remember to subtract one from the cover date for the actual year of publication) although apart from the opening strip he doesn't feature a great deal in either of them. Both have a Dredd story, reprints of vintage sci-fi strips such as 50's hero Rick Random and plenty of material from Tharg's bottom drawer. The Dredd story in the '80 Dare annual is noteworthy as it's a humorous piece where Dredd attends a Christmas party hosted by Tharg and attended by characters from 2000 Ad and Starlord, as well as a cohort of surly script, art and lettering droids. It contains a few in-jokes and as such is something of a precursor to the notorious Tharg's Head Revisited in prog 500.

By the '81 annuals Dare was gone from the pages of 2000 AD; publishers Fleetway realised that a Judge Dredd annual was what readers really wanted, and it's what they got until the 'classic' annuals went out of production after the '91 run.

[Alex Anderson]

Edit: see the weird pose adopted by the perp as he 'surrenders'? That's because in the original artwork Dredd is firing a bullet right through him...

That's some knowledge right there, Mumpo. Especially when I couldn't even remember from last night til this morning that it was actually the 1983 annual I got that one from, as per the Bill Savage Invasion story I mentioned in my edit.

Yeah - it is an incongruous pose now you point it out - and there is a stamp right at the beginning of the strip owning to the fact it's "FROM THE 2000AD MEMORY BANKS"

I also love the shoe-horned bit of exposition explaining that in Mega-City One transplant surgery was banned because it had been perfected to the point people could live forever, lest we all start wondering why organ donation's supposed to be "futuristic". Maybe that's why it didn't make that original cut?

The Dan Dare cover reminded me of my dad recognising one of his own childhood comic heroes. Perhaps that's why Dan was eventually dumped - too old. But of the four annuals I still have (also have 1981, 83 & 84), 1978's is the only one featuring neither Dredd nor Strontium Dog [EDIT: 1978's is the only one featuring neither Dredd nor Strontium Dog ON THE COVER!] on the cover.

And, yes, there's some politically ropey dialogue in Harlem Heroes. A lot of stuff coming over from Battle ... and just being of its time too.

[Alex Anderson]

He got a '79 and '80 annual of his own (remember to subtract one from the cover date for the actual year of publication) although apart from the opening strip he doesn't feature a great deal in either of them. Both have a Dredd story, reprints of vintage sci-fi strips such as 50's hero Rick Random and plenty of material from Tharg's bottom drawer. The Dredd story in the '80 Dare annual is noteworthy as it's a humorous piece where Dredd attends a Christmas party hosted by Tharg and attended by characters from 2000 Ad and Starlord, as well as a cohort of surly script, art and lettering droids. It contains a few in-jokes and as such is something of a precursor to the notorious Tharg's Head Revisited in prog 500.

By the '81 annuals Dare was gone from the pages of 2000 AD; publishers Fleetway realised that a Judge Dredd annual was what readers really wanted, and it's what they got until the 'classic' annuals went out of production after the '91 run.

Aye, I've got the 1983 Judge Dredd annual so the move worked in my house anyway.

The Dredd story you mentioned with the meeting round the table is rendered in eye-blinding orange. But that set piece murder kind of reminds of the helicopter mass assassination scene in Giodfather III.

[Sits]

That’s reminded me, in the old children’s comics (Beano, Dandy etc.) did the characters from different comics get together for “special” occasions like annuals or Christmas, or am I imagining that? I’m sure I’m not. At the time it seemed amazing but I suppose many comics were coming from few publishers.

[Alex Anderson]

Sounds right but I'd be lying if I said I remember it clearly. Sure I used to get a comic called Plug (Not the kind of title I'd want to ask for at the newsagents as a middle aged man), Plug being one of the Bash Street Kids, so I wonder if they had their own comic too? Can't remember the cross-overs but the spin-offs were plentiful.

[diggedy derek]

Haven't read it for years, but one of my occasional writers at the magazine I edit is a regular 2000AD writer/contributor. I used to adore Rogue Trooper in particular when I was young.

[Patrick Thistle]

I remember Beano / Dandy crossovers happening occasionally. There was an effort to locate all the main Beano characters in "Beanotown" but there weren't very many strips using that device. Dennis the Menace's gang never kicked off with the Bash Street Kids on the wasteland behind the station, for example.

Back on topic, I found a Judge Dredd annual from the early 80s in a charity shop last year. It's got an interesting article on the inspiration for the comic strip which I thought was a bit odd for a kid's annual. Although I guess their target range was slightly older than Beano readers.

[Eggchaser]

This thread made me dig out Strontium Dog: Search/Destroy Agency Files Vol. 1, essentially the collection of strips from Johnny Alpha's first appearance in Starlord and on into 2000AD.

You can see the exact moment of transfer, and not just because of the rebadging of the creator credits to the 2000AD style. The whole premise has to be hastily filled in over a couple of pages for the non-Starlord readership.

[Patrick Thistle]

British comics probably deserve a thread of their own, really. I was trying to explain the concept of Whizzer & Chips to my wife the other day. And what happened when it merged with Whoopee.

[Sits]

I’ve bumped a thread I started a while back which wasn’t only British comics but they featured heavily.

[Mumpo]

If you're after a book on the history of British comics I'd thoroughly recommend Graham Kibble-White's 'The Ultimate Book of British Comics'. It covers all the big hitters from The Beano, The Dandy and Eagle to the hip young gunslingers of the late 80's like Crisis and Deadline but the bulk of it concerns the golden are of the late 60's through to the early 80's when new titles seemed to spring onto the newsagents' shelves each week as publishers summarily 'hatched, matched and dispatched' their output.

[Alex Anderson]

... I found a Judge Dredd annual from the early 80s in a charity shop last year. It's got an interesting article on the inspiration for the comic strip which I thought was a bit odd for a kid's annual. Although I guess their target range was slightly older than Beano readers.

Which year, Patrick?

[Patrick Thistle]

Which year, Patrick?

I don't know off the top of my head. And I'm not sure where it is in the house. If I see it I will report back.

Scratch that. A quick Google Images search and I'm pretty sure it's the 1981 annual.

[Alex Anderson]

...off up the stairs I go. That's one of my three. Thanks. God forbid I should've had to look through more than one annual to find that article you're talking about ...

EDIT: SHITE! No - it's the 2000AD for 1981 I've got - I only have one Judge Dredd annual and it's 1983's.

[Patrick Thistle]

So I picked up the latest issue at the Smith's where I work and read the Judge Dredd strip and it felt a leetle beeet stereotyped, Senor, about the Latinos and central American governments.

[Ginger Yellow]

As I understand it, current 2000AD under Rebellion is a shadow of its former self and the best new Dredd is in the standalone comics from IDW. But to be honest I've not read much recent 2000AD to judge that for myself. I did read the Mars Attacks crossover that IDW put out and it was pretty fun.

[Bored Of Education]

That's 'Frankenstein II' from prog 6. The '78 annual features a couple of Dredd stories which were intended for the weekly but didn't make the cut - 'Videophones', in which a meeting of "all the Judges in Mega City One" shows about a dozen of them sitting round a table (four of whom are promptly killed) and 'Whitey's Brother', where we witness the destruction of the World Trade Centre.

That reminds me, in Invasion!, I think, there was a part where a plane crashed into Centrepoint Tower on Tottenham Court Road. Years later, September 11th, after having watched the horror unfold all morning, I got a job to deliver and, sure enough, it was to one of the upper floors at Centrepoint. As unlikely as terrorists basing their attacks on 1970s British comics was, I got in and out of there as quickly as I possibly could.

[Alex Anderson]

So I picked up the latest issue at the Smith's where I work and read the Judge Dredd strip and it felt a leetle beeet stereotyped, Senor, about the Latinos and central American governments.

Ach, too bad. A bit of the same in the annuals I was glancing through on Friday but I was trusting it would have evaporated over the last four decades.

[Mumpo]

So I picked up the latest issue at the Smith's where I work and read the Judge Dredd strip and it felt a leetle beeet stereotyped, Senor, about the Latinos and central American governments

It's not especially offensive. There are certainly no 'stereoteepical' takes on the Spanish language, if that's what you're implying. It's a satirical story and John Wagner's satirical swipes have always been quite broad (yes, I will mention the infamous 'Blakee Pentax!' moment from Robohunter back in 1982) but also pretty nuanced - the colonel droid, for instance, blames his inability to find a new eye unit on Mega-City One sanctions. I've got a feeling that as the story develops the target of Wagner's ire will turn out, as is often the case, to be the Judges' iron rule and Dredd's unyielding application of the law. It's good, sound stuff, despite an apparently dodgy veneer.

As I understand it, current 2000AD under Rebellion is a shadow of its former self and the best new Dredd is in the standalone comics from IDW. But to be honest I've not read much recent 2000AD to judge that for myself. I did read the Mars Attacks crossover that IDW put out and it was pretty fun

Well it's been under Rebellion for the past twenty odd years now and they were the company that were hailed for rescuing the comic from its 90's doldrums so that's a long time for it to be floundering. With such a high turnover of individual strips it's difficult to gauge the consistent standard but I'd confidently say that on average, of its five weekly strips one or two will be excellent, one or two will be very good and the remainder will be perfectly readable with one sometimes not quite making the grade. But what the comics cognoscenti think of it, I know not.

[Patrick Thistle]

I dunno Mumpo "Los humanistas" ?

[Patrick Thistle]

I mean, yeah, there's something in there about people trafficking and exploitation. But it was more like Herge's view of Latin American politics.

The robot colonel was quite amusing.

[Jon]

Borag Thungg, Levin!

Judge Dredd Megazine comes out bimonthly and contains both new and reprinted material, mostly set in Judge Dredd's world. I'd recommend that over 2000AD, especially if you were looking for Judge Dredd stories.

A great 2000AD podcast is Mega City Book Club. Each episode takes a collected edition and they talk about it, although not exclusively so. They do some 2000AD adjacent stuff too. My favourite episode is when he interviews this American guy who bought the Brian Bolland 'Gaze into the fist of Dredd' original art and he tells the story of how he came to own it.

I also highly recommend the Daily Star strips from the 80s. They are often overlooked and were out of print for years but I think they are back in print now. Written by Wagner and Grant and drawn by Ron Smith, you won't get a better entry point into the world of Dredd.

[Levin]

Thank you everyone on the thread. I went out and bought stuff this weekend. Progs 2150 & 2151 to sample current 2000AD, vol. 5 of the Complete Case Files and book 1 of The Ballad of Halo Jones.

2000AD

It's probably just because I'm at least slightly familiar with it but I found the Judge Dread and Judge Anderson strips easiest to get into. Anderson was just a one shot with beginning, middle and end. I'm wary of the stereotyping as well and I'm not sure where the satire is going to come. A latin american general dictator is a bit mid century, but there are other bits that suggest a more modern, Venezuelan reference point, But then again the robot rights thing seems to be an anaologue for race, hence the robot judge. I don't know what to think of it yet.

I did not enjoy Defoe, and found it hard to read and follow. Also, it keeps using a post Act of Union union flag (1801! not even the 1706 one) in a comic set in 1688.

Hope seems interesting, post ww2 PI with magic.

Brink is just police procedural IN SPAAACCE so far.

Sinister Dexter made no sense to me, a new reader. It appeared to be an epilogue.

Deadworld. I don't know what is going on and I don't really care.

The Complete Case Files, Vol. 5

It's fun. It takes a bit of getting used to the very short strip lengths (when compared to US 20 pages or so per issue) but I'm mostly enjoying them. There are a lot more creeps than I was expecting. I know they are the police, but the Judges seem much more police-y than I was expecting.

The Ballad of Halo Jones

Bloody hell, this is amazing. Probably helped by being coloured for the edition I got but the language and art is brilliant. It's probably the best thing I've read this year.

[Alex Anderson]

...But what the comics cognoscenti think of it, I know not.

If you're not a member of the cognoscenti on this topic, Mumpo, then I'm even more out my depth than I knew ...

I probably had six years of reading it, from Prog 1 onwards, as a kid and then that was it but this wee thread actually had me pausing by the kiosk on my way out the supermarket yesterday (I don't even buy a newspaper these days) trying to remember what I'd promised to pick up for myself from the magazine stand (and, no, that's not a flashback to my teenage years. I had James Herbert novels for that). I remembered too late but with a week off next week I'll try to pick up a 2000AD for old time's sake.

And I'm absolutely requesting the Fiends of the Eastern Front paperback from Santa.

When flicking through one of my old annuals on Friday I came across Nemesis and suddenly remembered an old pin-up from my bedroom wall. Don't think it was this one but I'm sure it was 2000 AD - and this strip - that made me learn what "nemesis" actually means. May have some questionable scripts every now and then but definitely educational too.

[Mumpo]

Thank you everyone on the thread. I went out and bought stuff this weekend. Progs 2150 & 2151 to sample current 2000AD, vol. 5 of the Complete Case Files and book 1 of The Ballad of Halo Jones.

2000AD

It's probably just because I'm at least slightly familiar with it but I found the Judge Dread and Judge Anderson strips easiest to get into. Anderson was just a one shot with beginning, middle and end. I'm wary of the stereotyping as well and I'm not sure where the satire is going to come. A latin american general dictator is a bit mid century, but there are other bits that suggest a more modern, Venezuelan reference point, But then again the robot rights thing seems to be an anaologue for race, hence the robot judge. I don't know what to think of it yet

Robot rebellions/independence have been a running theme for John Wagner ever since he wrote 'Robot Wars', the first multi-part Dredd story in the prog's very early days. As with mutants (from the radioactive wasteland of the Cursed Earth) they're often used a metaphor for race. The robot Judge is there ostensibly because the Justice Department has finally created a model it considers street-safe (i.e. not like to go all ED-209 on the citizens), but I guess it will prove to be an important plot device in a story about rogue robots...

I did not enjoy Defoe, and found it hard to read and follow. Also, it keeps using a post Act of Union union flag (1801! not even the 1706 one) in a comic set in 1688

Welcome to the 'Millsverse', the rather grandiose collective name for the strips written by Pat Mills, since they all exist in the same continuum. It's an acquired taste. There are plenty that say Uncle Pat is a bit past his sell-by date but his splenetic rhetoric will be missed when he's gone.

Hope seems interesting, post ww2 PI with magic

Yeah, book one delved into some really dark ritual stuff and hopefully this will follow suit.

Brink is just police procedural IN SPAAACCE so far

Well. Yes, but... having already served up three chapters it's proved to be far and away the most popular thing in the comic over the last few years. Prolific script droid Dan Abnett is almost the glue that holds 2000 AD together, such is the quality of his various strips. I haven't got round to doing any recommendations yet but when I do, Brink, Kingdom, Insurrection and Lawless (those last two from the Megazine) will be at the very top of the list. Brink was a new venture for Tharg, a long-form serial that concentrated on protracted dialogue, often over several episodes, albeit punctuation by instances of sudden and brutal violence. It gets criticized for being slow and uneventful but that's only because it's paced like a TV series but broken into five-page chunks that are the equivalent of ten minutes screen time, so it takes a few installments to make up the mixture of action and dialogue that would constitute a TV episode.

Sinister Dexter made no sense to me, a new reader. It appeared to be an epilogue

Abnett again. It does read like an epilogue, yes - it follows directly from the previous four weeks' story and therefore no-one was quite sure what it was doing in a jumping-on prog.

Deadworld. I don't know what is going on and I don't really care

It's basically the story of the alternate-dimension world that spawned the Dark Judges, and how it all happened. Unfortunately it's onto about the fifth chapter and so new readers will undoubtedly be confused. Worth getting the collected editions if you want to catch up. I love it 33.3% for script droid Kek-W's story and 66.6% for Dave Kendall's gloriously grotesque art.

The Complete Case Files, Vol. 5

It's fun. It takes a bit of getting used to the very short strip lengths (when compared to US 20 pages or so per issue) but I'm mostly enjoying them. There are a lot more creeps than I was expecting. I know they are the police, but the Judges seem much more police-y than I was expecting

Judge Death Lives and Block Mania/The Apocalypse War are the big hitters in this collection but I love The Hotdog Run.

The Ballad of Halo Jones

Bloody hell, this is amazing. Probably helped by being coloured for the edition I got but the language and art is brilliant. It's probably the best thing I've read this year

I'll concede, most things will pale beside Alan Moore's masterpiece.