Note: This is an article about the British comic book "2000 AD", rather than the year 2000

2000 AD is a weekly British science fiction oriented comic.

The publication, which serialises a number of separate stories each "prog" (see glossary, below) was established by IPC Magazines in 1977. IPC, later Fleetway , continued to produce the title until 1999, when it was bought by Rebellion Developments.

It 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.

The editor of 2000 AD is Tharg the Mighty, a green alien 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.

A second running theme, or joke, is Tharg's supposed use of robots to draw and write the strips — some of which may 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.

See: British comics

Contents

1 Popular Characters 2 Famous Creators 3 Glossary 4 History 4.1 The 1970s 4.2 The 1980s 4.3 The 1990s 4.4 The 2000s 5 Related Publications 6 References 7 External links

Popular Characters

Popular characters from the comic include:

• Judge Dredd
• Halo Jones
• Strontium Dog
• ABC Warriors
• Slaine
• Rogue Trooper
• Dan Dare
• Caballistics, Inc.
• Sinister Dexter
• Nemesis.

Famous Creators

Well known creators who have worked for 2000 AD include:

• John Wagner
• Alan Moore
• Garth Ennis
• Brian Bolland
• Neil Gaiman
• Jock
• Kevin Walker
• Pat Mills
• Mike McMahon
• Dave Gibbons
• Grant Morrison
• Peter Milligan
• Gordon Rennie
• Kevin O'Neill
• Simon Bisley
• Dan Abnett
• Simon Spurrier

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.

Glossary

2000ad, like some other children's comics of the period, used invented words and phrases to tie in with the theme of the publication. In this case, to appear more futuristic or alien. Some of these words were the result of simple typing mistakes in the offices at IPC, while some are derived from other sources.

• Prog - short for programme — a term used by the comic in place of "issue" or "edition"
• Thrill-power - measurement of the quality inherent in 2000ad.
• Borag Thungg - Betelgeusian greeting.
• Squaxx - reader of 2000ad, consumer of thrill-power.
• Earthlets - term that Tharg used to refer to humans (whether they read 2000ad or not).
• Earthlettes - similar to Earthlets, but applied to females only. This caused a furore on the letters page and eventually was deprecated in favour of the now gender-neutral term "earthlets", though now Terrans seems to be in vogue.
• Florix Grubandae
• Splundig vur thrigg - farewell, common sign-off.
• Kril Tro Thargo - honour bestowed on those who have performed services to thrill-power (typically by converting non-readers to the cause, or by buying and shipping copies of comics to readers who can't buy them for some reason, say because they're in a far-flung country that doesn't sell 2000ad).

History

The 1970s

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 name 2000 AD was chosen as no-one involved expected the comic to last that long.

Mills' experiences with Battle Picture and Action 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 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. Wagner gave Ezquerra an advertisement for the film Death Race 2000, showing the character Frankenstein clad in black leather on a motorbike, 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 Dare's 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.

Mills had created Harlem Heroes, about the future sport of aeroball, a futuristic, violent version of basketball with jet-packs. 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 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.

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 Russian) invasion of Britain opposed by tough London lorry driver turned guerrilla fighter Bill Savage; and Flesh, a particularly violent strip about time-travelling cowboys farming dinosaurs for their meat.

Once the comic had been made ready to launch, Mills quit as editor and handed the reigns to Kelvin Gosnell, whose idea it was in the first place.

Wagner swallowed his pride and returned to write Judge Dredd, starting in prog 9. His "Robot Wars" 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.

A new story format was introduced - 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 AD's 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 Cuban 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.

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.

IPC had launched a second science fiction comic, Starlord , which was cancelled after only 22 issues and merged into 2000 AD. Two strips strengthened 2000 AD's 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. 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, but contributed nothing memorable to the line-up.

2000 AD also featured adaptations of three of Harry Harrison's The Stainless Steel Rat novels, written by Gosnell and drawn by Ezquerra. 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.

The 1980s

The 1990s

The 2000s

Related Publications

Starlord was a weekly title launched in 1978 following much the same format as 2000 AD and included Strontium Dog and Ro-Busters which introduced characters from the ABC Warriors. The two titles were merged in 1979.

Tornado was a weekly title launched in 1979. There was less emphasis on Science Fiction series and when it was merged with 2000 AD a year later only one story Black Hawk made the transfer, though other stories Wolfie Smith and Captain Klep later made appearances in 2000ad, largely due to IPC editorial policies against 'wasting' stories that had already been paid for.

Crisis was a sister publication that didn't follow the format of 2000ad, but did share many editorial staff and creative teams. Early issues featured two SF-themed stories aimed at a slightly older age group than 2000ad and soon became a magnet for British creators who wanted to create comics for the adult market.

Revolver joined Crisis though didn't last as long.

Two more sister publications existed in the late 1980s and early 1990s - Crisis and Revolver, though these had less in common thematically with 2000ad, linked mostly by editorial staff and creative teams.

Sister publications to 2000 AD include the monthly Judge Dredd Megazine , focusing on expanding the world of Judge Dredd, and the quarterly 2000 AD Extreme Edition focusing on reprints. In the past 2000 AD has been accompanied by a variety of reprint publications.

References

• David Bishop (2002-2003), "Thrill-power overload!", Judge Dredd Megazine vol 4 issues 9-18, issues 201-209
• Termight fan web site http://www.2000ad.nu/termight/references.html

External links

• Official 2000 AD Web site http://www.2000adonline.com/
• 2000AD Review fan site http://www.2000adreview.co.uk
• alt.comics.2000ad newsgroup http://groups.google.com/groups?group=alt.comics.2000ad
• Alec Trench's Thrill Pitcher http://www.2000ad.org/thrillpitcher/
• 2000AD Artwork Gallery http://www.2000ad.org/artwork/

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