The Cardigan of Rassilon: 2000AD Year Two

Roughly a year ago I composed what was intended to be the first of maaaaaany posts discussing long running sci-fi anthology comic 2000ad, one of my lifelong abiding passions. For reasons that elude even me, it has taken until now for me to pick up the threads for the second post. If you would like to see the story so far, you can find it here... Let's hope it doesn't take me the next 30 years to get up to the current prog, eh?

So then - 1978. Still a little way off peak Toothy, but this is where things start to get much more interesting after the patchy and juvenile fare of the first year. Although some of the launch line up of strips endured into the second calendar year, they were, on the whole, starting to wind down and be replaced by superior, ultimately longer lasting stories. In 1978 we have the first proper Dredd mega-epic (and the start of the second one), and the introduction of some of the signature 2000ad characters who are still seeing publication in the comic to this day. Some of those characters were, admittedly, imports from the first 2000ad spin off, Starlord, a glossier and consequently more expensive comic which, despite outselling 2000ad during its brief existence, ended up being subsumed by its older sibling - an ultimately canny move, which gave the still young comic a bolstered, higher quality line-up and an improved sense of direction. A massive step in the right direction all round! These, then, were the issues and stories published in the earth year 1978:

Progs 46-93, Annual 1979, Sci Fi Special, Dan Dare Annual 1979 (plus Starlord 1-22, Starlord Summer Special)

Ant Wars
Bonjo from beyond the stars
Colony Earth
Dan Dare
Death Planet
Flesh
Harlem Heroes
Invasion
Judge Dredd
MACH 1/MACH 0
Robo Hunter
Strontium Dog
Tharg's Future Shocks
The Visible Man
Walter the Wobot

And these are the five stories that would make my representative dream prog:

JUDGE DREDD: The Cursed Earth
Progs 61-85, 25 episodes, 164 pages
w Pat Mills, John Wagner, Chris Lowder
a Mike McMahon, Brian Bolland

The first of the perpetually reprinted Judge Dredd mega epics, the Cursed Earth is one of the key stories in the entire canon, and adds a great deal of back story and additional depth and colour to Dredd's world. Unusually for such an important Dredd story, the majority of the writing is done by a writer other than John Wagner, the bulk of the credit traditionally being given to the original Tharg and creator of many of 2000ad's most popular series, Pat Mills, although it is widely acknowledged that the story owes a certain amount to Roger Zelazny's novel Damnation Alley. The Cursed Earth is notable for its episodic quest format (repeated in such later stories as The Judge Child), and consequently the sidelining of the strip's standard fascist cop trappings. It was also notoriously the subject of legal action from McDonalds, Burger King and the Jolly Green Giant which led to 4 episodes of the story never having been reprinted to this day. With its range of anarchic characters, epic scope, dramatic finale and impact on subsequent events, The Cursed Earth is the first of 2000ad's absolute must reads.

STRONTIUM DOG: The Galaxy Killers
Progs 86-94, 9 episodes, 45 pages
w John Wagner
a Carlos Ezquerra

Dredd parents Wagner and Ezquerra's other major joint creation, Strontium Dog originated in Starlord, although Galaxy Killers was the strip's first appearance in 2000ad. Although Dredd and Dog share certain similarities (merciless killing machine with bulky helmet and knee/shoulder/elbow pads dispensing violent justice to frequently bizarre criminals), Dog central character Johnny Alpha is very much an outsider in his world (universe?), and is on the other side of the norm/mutant divide to Dredd (although of course in recent years Dredd himself has developed his own pro-mutant tendencies) and is consequently frequently subject to discrimination and abuse from the people he meets. His stories frequently take place in Firefly style sci-fi/western outpost worlds, and have elements of space travel and intergalactic adventure that are extremely rare in Dredd. Galaxy Killers is by no means the best early example of Alpha, as there had already been superior stories printed that year in Starlord, but it was a solid and suitably epic re-introduction for the character in his new home, and was easily one of the best stories printed in 2000ad in 1978. For Johnny, though, many even better stories would emerge over the coming years.

RO-BUSTERS: Death on the Orient Express
Progs 86-87, 2 episodes, 12 pages
w Pat Mills
a Dave Gibbons

The other set of enduring characters from Starlord, Ro Jaws and Hammerstein of Ro Busters are still featuring in 2000ad to the present day. At the time of the transfer, the original basis for the strip was already reaching its natural end, and it started to morph into what would eventually become the ABC Warriors. A witty, subversive comic, Ro Busters didn't last very long at all, but it remains a fondly remembered strip from 2000ad's early years.

INFERNO
Progs 36-75, 40 episodes, 183 pages
w Tom Tully
a Massimo Belardinelli

The follow up to Harlem Heroes, Inferno is even more violent and extreme, and features some customarily imaginative artwork from Massimo Belardinelli. It is also an incredible 40 episodes long, making it one of the longest single stories in the 37 year history of 2000ad.

MACH 1: The Final Encounter
Progs 61-64, 25 pages
w Pat Mills
a Montero

OMG! They killed Probe!

One of the great things about 2000ad is that, unlike traditional American comics, they are unafraid to kill off popular characters and let them stay dead (apart from Johnny Alpha, grumble, moan). And so, having uncovered the gradually unfolding conspiracy and unpalatable truths about himself and his organisation, 2000ad's most popular character to this point, John Probe, bites the dust, and is never seen again. It's not big, it's not clever, but it's all decent enough fun.

And of the rest? One of the highlights of the year, and my personal favourite debut story, is Robo Hunter's Verdus, but the majority (and the superior sections) of that story was printed in 1979, so I will cover that in the next post. Visible Man is an ok but rather limited strip with a small cult following that I am not part of. Dan Dare is still trying to evolve into a format that works in the post punk era, and is still failing. Ant Wars is a cyclical and repetitive waste of time. Flesh is still going into 1978, and in fact in 2014 is still going, and if nobody knew why in 1978 it's a real mystery why we're still enduring it now. Colony Earth is another example of 2000ad's early material being aimed at a much younger and less demanding audience and is full of deus ex machinas and plot exposition. Invasion is drawing to a close for the time being and isn't making a big splash. Death Planet is a promising if cliched concept (mis-matched survivors crash on inhospitable planet) but does feature 2000ad's first female lead. MACH Zero is MACH One's rather weak and short lived replacement and doesn't live long in the memory.

Covers of the year:
5. Prog 60 by Brian Bolland