2000 A.D. 40TH ANNIVERSARY SPECIAL...

Images copyright REBELLION

Hell's teeth!  Has it really been 40 years since 2000 A.D.

landed in newsagents' shops all across Britain?  Yup, sure has.

I must admit that 'though I took great professional pride in free-

lancing for IPC's top-selling title, it never really appealed to me

as a reader.  I far preferred MARVEL U.K.'s line of weekly

periodicals, short-lived 'though some of them were.

I probably gave up on 2000 A.D. after #3, the last of the

initial free gift issues.  The comic was too bleak, too negative,

too dystopian for my tastes.  There was nothing about any of the

future scenarios displayed within its pages that was desirable, and

in which any sane and sensible person would wish to live.  PAT

MILLS, the creator of the comic, had nothing but disdain (if

not outright contempt) for superheroes, whereas it was my

ambition to become one.  (Haven't given up hope yet.)

The cover of #1, 1977

So 2000 A.D. wasn't for me.  I collected a short run of

issues around 1979, but jumped ship again when it reverted

to cheap newsprint after having enjoyed  superior printing for
a while.  I didn't pick it up again until I began freelancing for the

comic at the beginning of 1986, and the only real 'thrill-power'

I ever experienced was seeing my name in print (or getting

paid), as most of the stories failed to impress me.

Oh, they were competent and professional, but trying
just a bit too hard to be 'down wiv the kids', who, it seemed

to me, were attracted to the mag not for any quality of writing,

but for the violence.  (I was once in a newsagent's, when I over-

heard two kids trying to persuade their parents to buy them an

issue.  "It's great - you see people getting their arms and

heads chopped off and being blown to bits!"

Cover to the 'dummy' issue

However, 40 years is 40 years, and I'm glad to see that

2000 A.D. yet survives.  True, it sells nowhere near as many

copies as it did in my day, and I suspect it's being kept going (on
'life-support') more for the potential exploitation in other media

(movies, games, etc.) of its properties, than because of any profit

brought in from the comic itself.  I still have a fond affection for
it 'though, even if it's more from a former contributor's perspec-
tive than a reader's.  Which is why I made a point of picking
up the 40th Anniversary Special when I saw it today.
.

I have to be honest - looking through its pages, I don't

feel particularly motivated to read it.  Murky, muddy colour

in the JUDGE DREDD strip, and trying far too hard to be wild
and wacky, but in an embarrassing, 'drunk uncle at a party' way
that doesn't do it any favours.  SLAINE rips off takes inspiration

from the BLACK KNIGHT fight scene in MONTY PYTHON &
The HOLY GRAIL and displays neither wit nor wisdom, serv-
ing only to reinforce the juvenile (if not infantile) humour aspect
that permeated the title many years back, when writers who re-
garded themselves as too good for 'children's' comics started
trying to be clever for their own amusement, and proved
only that they were up their own @rses.

It was good seeing JOHNNY ALPHA and DURHAM
RED again, drawn, as in my day, by CARLOS EZQUERRA,
but it felt odd seeing the strip without my lettering.  (After this
post, there's no chance of that ever happening again, eh?)  To
be frank, this issue seems altogether irrelevant and superficial,
and I'd be surprised ('though not unhappy) if 2000 A.D. ever
manages to match The DANDY's or The BEANO's 75
year, British record-breaking run.

However, don't let me put you off from joining in the
40th Birthday celebrations - buy a copy today and make
up your own minds.  Then give me hell in the comments
section. ("Unleash the dogs of war!" - but don't dare
dirty the carpet with paw-prints or doggie-poo.)

See?  Even THARG can lie

Posted in: Cartoons