 | This articleneeds additional citations forverification. Please helpimprove this article byadding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "2000 AD" comics – news ·newspapers ·books ·scholar ·JSTOR(July 2022) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
| 2000 AD | |
|---|---|
 Cover of the first issue of2000 AD, 26 February 1977 | |
| Publication information | |
| Publisher | Formerly IPC Magazines Fleetway Publications Currently Rebellion Developments |
| Schedule | Weekly |
| Format | Ongoing series |
| Genre | |
| Publication date | 26 February 1977 to present |
| No. of issues | 2,457 regular issues, plus 16 irregularly-numbered issues,[a] 77 special issues and 38 annuals (as of November 2025) |
| Main character(s) | Judge Dredd,Tharg the Mighty,Strontium Dog,Rogue Trooper,Nikolai Dante,Sláine,The Ballad of Halo Jones,ABC Warriors,Nemesis the Warlock |
| Creative team | |
| Created by | Kelvin Gosnell,Pat Mills,John Wagner |
| Written by | John Wagner,Alan Grant,Pat Mills,Grant Morrison,Mark Millar,Ian Edginton,Alan Moore |
| Artist(s) | Mike McMahon,Carlos Ezquerra,Dave Gibbons,Massimo Belardinelli,Jock,Frank Quitely,Frazer Irving,Dom Reardon,Ian Gibson,Cam Kennedy,Simon Bisley,Kevin O'Neill,Ron Smith |
2000 AD is a weekly British science fiction-orientedcomic magazine. As acomics anthology it serialises stories in each issue (known as "progs")[b] and was first published byIPC Magazines in 1977, the first issue dated 26 February.[c] Since 2000, it has been published byRebellion Developments.
2000 AD is most noted for itsJudge Dredd stories, and has been contributed to by a number of artists and writers who became renowned in the field internationally, such asAlan Moore,Dave Gibbons,Grant Morrison,Brian Bolland,Mike McMahon,John Wagner,Alan Grant andGarth Ennis. Other series in2000 AD includeRogue Trooper,Sláine,The Ballad of Halo Jones,Strontium Dog,ABC Warriors,Nemesis the Warlock andNikolai Dante.
2000 AD was initially published by IPC Magazines. IPC then shifted the title to itsFleetway comics subsidiary, which was sold toRobert Maxwell in 1987 and then toEgmont UK in 1991. Fleetway continued to produce the title until 2000, when it was bought byRebellion Developments.
In December 1975,Kelvin Gosnell, a sub-editor atIPC Magazines, read an article in theLondon 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 publisher John Sanders askedPat Mills, afreelance writer andeditor who had createdBattle Picture Weekly andAction, to develop it. Mills brought fellow freelancerJohn Wagner on board as script adviser and the pair began to develop characters. The then-futuristic name2000 AD was chosen by John Sanders,[2]: pp.25–26 as no-one involved expected the comic to last that long. The original logo and overall look of the comic were designed by art assistant Doug Church.[2]: p.37
Mills' experiences withBattle andAction in particular had taught him that readers responded to hisanti-authoritarian attitudes. Wagner, who had written aDirty Harry-inspired tough cop calledOne-Eyed Jack forValiant, 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 futureNew York with the power to arrest, sentence, and if required execute criminals on the spot. This would allow the new comic to be as violent asAction had been – a comic which had generated much controversy – but without attracting criticism, because the violence would be committed by an officer of the law. As Sanders put it, "The formula was simple:violence on the side of justice ... Dredd could be as violent as hell, and no one could say a thing."[3]
Meanwhile, Mills had developed ahorror strip, inspired by the novels ofDennis Wheatley, about ahanging judge, calledJudge Dread (after thereggae andska artist of thesame 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 namedJudge Dredd was given toCarlos Ezquerra, a Spanish artist who had previously worked with Mills onBattle, on a strip calledMajor Eazy. Wagner gave Ezquerra an advertisement for the filmDeath Race 2000, showing the character Frankenstein clad in black leather, 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 and Ezquerra had both quit.
Mills was reluctant to loseJudge 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 thatDredd would not be ready for the first issue. The story chosen was one written by freelancer Peter Harris,[d] extensively rewritten by Mills and including an idea suggested by Kelvin Gosnell,[2]: pp.70–72 and drawn by newcomerMike McMahon. The strip debuted in prog 2, dated 5 March 1977.
IPC owned the rights toDan Dare, and Mills decided to revive the character to add immediate public recognition for the title. Paul DeSavery, who ownedDare'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.
Dan Dare was extensively revamped to make it more futuristic. In the new stories he had been put into suspended animation and revived in the year 2177. Several artists were tried out before Mills settled on Italian artistMassimo 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 fewDan Dare fans remember this version of the character fondly. Belardinelli and Gibbons later switched strips, with Gibbons drawingDan Dare and Belardinelli drawing theHarlem Heroes sequelInferno. When Gibbons took overDan Dare in prog 28 the strip was refashioned as aStar Trek-style space opera.
Mills had also createdHarlem Heroes, about the future sport of aeroball, a futuristic, violent version of basketball with jet-packs. Similar future sport series had been a fixture ofAction, and the similarly themed filmRollerball had been released the previous year. Wanting to give the new comic a distinctive look, Mills wanted to use European artists, but the work turned in onHarlem Heroes byTrigo was disappointing. Veteran British artistsRon Turner andBarrie Mitchell were tried out, but the newcomerDave 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 toRoy of the Rovers writerTom Tully.
The other opening strips wereM.A.C.H. 1, a super-powered secret agent inspired byThe Six Million Dollar Man;Invasion!, about a "Volgan" (thinly disguised and originally billed as Soviet, but changed before printing to a "neutral" antagonist) invasion of the United Kingdom opposed by tough London lorry driver turnedguerrilla fighterBill Savage; andFlesh, a strip abouttime-travelling cowboys farmingdinosaurs for their meat.
After 16 issues, Mills quit as editor and handed the reins toKelvin Gosnell, whose idea the comic had been in the first place.
Wagner returned to writeJudge Dredd, starting in prog 9. His "Robot Wars" storyline was drawn by a rotating team of artists, including McMahon, Ezquerra, Turner andIan Gibson, and marked the point whereDredd became the most popular character in the comic, a position he has rarely relinquished.[5] Dredd's city, which now covered most of the east coast of North America, became known asMega-City One. Dredd had also been unmasked in issue 8 in a story drawn by Massimo Belardinelli, but the decision was made to make out that Dredd's face had been scarred and the panel had a "censored" banner slapped on it. After this, there were no further attempts to show Dredd's face again.
A new story format was introduced in prog 25 –Tharg's Future Shocks, one-off twist-in-the-tale stories devised by writerSteve Moore.2000 AD still uses this format as filler and to try out new talent.
Wagner introduced a new character,Robo-Hunter, in 1978. The hero, Sam Slade, was aprivate detective-type character specialising inrobot-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 after a crack-down on smoking in IPC comics, aCuban robotcigar, Stogie, designed to help him cut down onnicotine.
Other ongoing strips includedThe Visible Man, detailing the misfortunes of Frank Hart, a man whose skin had been made transparent due to exposure to nuclear waste, andShako, (which followed the same formula asHook Jaw fromAction but with less success) the story of apolar bear pursued by the Army because it had swallowed a secret capsule.
M.A.C.H. 1 was killed off in 1978 but a spin-off,M.A.C.H. Zero, continued into the 1980s.Flesh had a sequel in 1978, set on the prehistoric oceans, and Bill Savage appeared again in a prequel,Disaster 1990, in which a nuclear explosion at the north pole had melted the polar ice-cap and flooded Britain.
In 19772000 AD launched the annual 48-page Summer Special, including a full-lengthM.A.C.H. Zero story drawn by O'Neill. The yearly hardcover annual also started in 1977 (cover dated 1978) and would continue till 1990 (dated 1991).
Pat Mills took over writingDredd for a six-month "epic" called "The Cursed Earth", inspired byRoger Zelazny'sDamnation 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 byBrian Bolland. The story saw Dredd moved to the colour centre pages for the first time whileDan Dare was given the front page.
Steve MacManus took over from Gosnell as editor in 1978, starting with prog 86, dated 14 October. In that issue2000 AD merged withStarlord, a second science fiction comic which had been launched by IPC earlier that year. As Gosnell was editor ofStarlord and2000 AD at the same time,2000 AD sub-editorNick Landau largely edited the latter comic himself during this time.[6]Starlord was cancelled after only 22 issues and merged into2000 AD from prog 86.[7] TwoStarlord strips strengthened2000 AD's line-up:Strontium Dog, amutantbounty hunter created by Wagner and Ezquerra, andRo-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-offABC Warriors.Strontium Dog andABC Warriors continued to feature in2000 AD for the next 40 years. (A thirdStarlord series,Timequake, only lasted for four episodes and was not renewed.)Dan Dare was suspended while "The Cursed Earth" was finished in time for the merger. Wagner returned toDredd following the merger to write "The Day the Law Died", another six-month epic in which Mega-City One was taken over by the insaneChief Judge Cal, based on the Roman emperorCaligula.
Another cancelled title,Tornado, was merged with2000 AD a few months later from prog 127, dated 25th August, 1979.Tornado contributed three stories to2000 AD:Blackhawk, an historical adventure series about a Nubian slave in the Roman Empire which took a science-fictional turn in2000 AD with him becoming a gladiator in an alien world;The Mind of Wolfie Smith, a coming of age/psychic story of a runaway teenager, andCaptain Klep, a single-page superhero parody. These stories, unlikeStarlord's, did not continue for very long. The last issue titled2000 AD and Tornado was prog 177, dated 13 September 1980.
2000 AD featured an adaptation ofHarry Harrison's novelThe Stainless Steel Rat, written by Gosnell and drawn by Ezquerra, beginning in November 1979. Adaptations of two of Harrison's sequels,The Stainless Steel Rat Saves the World andThe Stainless Steel Rat for President, would follow later. The appearance of the main character, galactic thief "Slippery" Jim DiGriz, was based onJames Coburn, evidently a favourite of Ezquerra's; Coburn was also the inspiration forMajor Eazy, which Ezquerra drew inBattle, as well asCursed Earth Koburn, a Dredd-universe reworking of the Major Eazy character, who first appeared in 2003.Gerry Finley-Day contributedThe V.C.s, a future war story inspired by theVietnam War, drawn by McMahon,Cam Kennedy,Garry Leach andJohn Richardson.
A feature of the early years of2000 AD was the opportunities it gave to young British comic artists: by the time the title celebrated its 100th issue Brian Bolland, Dave Gibbons, Ian Gibson, Mike McMahon and Kevin O'Neil were all established as regulars.
In 1980Judge Dredd gained a new enemy. WriterJohn Wagner realised that Dredd's habit of shooting just about everybody he came up against meant that it was difficult to create a recurring villain. The solution wasJudge Death, an undead judge from another dimension where, since all crime was committed by the living, life itself was outlawed. The law had been thoroughly enforced on his own world, and now he had come to Mega-City One to continue his work. Judge Death first appeared in an atmospheric three-parter drawn byBrian Bolland which also introducedJudge Anderson andPsi Division, a squad of judges with psychic powers.
Dredd soon began another epic journey in "The Judge Child". A dying Psi Division Judge had predicted disaster for Mega-City One unless it was ruled by a boy with a birthmark shaped like an eagle, so Dredd set off into the Cursed Earth, toTexas City, and into deep space in search of the boy, Owen Krysler, and his kidnappers, the Angel Gang. All of them were killed during the course of the story, however theMean Machine was later resurrected by Krysler during "Destiny's Angels". "The Judge Child" was drawn by Bolland,Ron Smith andMike McMahon in rotation, and the later episodes marked the beginning of Wagner's long-running writing partnership withAlan Grant. The pair would go on to writeStrontium Dog,Robo-Hunter and many other stories for2000 AD, as well as forRoy of the Rovers,Battle and the relaunchedEagle in the United Kingdom, and a number of comics in America.
With prog 178 all current stories, with the exception ofJudge Dredd, were wound up, and a new set of stories was launched simultaneously, consisting ofMean Arena, set around a violent high-tech street football game,Meltdown Man, whose hero was transported to a genetically engineered far future by a nuclear explosion, the return ofStrontium Dog andDash Decent, aFlash Gordonparody.
Pat Mills introducedComic Rock, which was meant to be a format for short stories inspired by popular music. The first story, inspired byThe Jam'sGoing Underground, was drawn by Kevin O'Neill and featured a complicated underground travel network on a planet called "Termight", in which a freedom fighter calledNemesis battles the despoticTorquemada, chief of the Tube Police. All that was seen of Nemesis was the outside of his vehicle, the Blitzspear. The story was a reaction to an earlier tube chase sequence Mills and O'Neill had done inRo-Busters, which management objected to.
The only otherComic Rock story was a follow-up called "Killer Watt", in which Nemesis and Torquemada fought on ateleport system. This led to a series,Nemesis the Warlock, in which it was revealed that Termight was Earth in the far future. Torquemada was changed from the Chief of Traffic Police to a despotic demagogue leading a campaign of genocide against all aliens, and Nemesis was the leader of the alien resistance. Mills and O'Neill were on a roll and produced a stream of bizarre and imaginative ideas, but ultimately O'Neill was unable to continue the level of work he was putting into it on2000 AD pay. He left to work forDC Comics in America, and was replaced onNemesis by firstJesus Redondo and thenBryan Talbot.
2000 AD would occasionally take a gamble on non-science fiction material. For example,Fiends of the Eastern Front was a World War IIvampire story byGerry Finley-Day andCarlos Ezquerra which was probably originally intended forBattle. Its hero was a German soldier who discovered that some of hisRomanian allies were vampires. Later in the war, when Romania changed sides, he was the only one who knew their secret.
A readers' poll revealed that future war was a popular topic, so Gerry Finley-Day was asked to come up with a new war story. He, editorSteve MacManus and artist Dave Gibbons devisedRogue Trooper, a "Genetic Infantryman" engineered to be immune to chemical warfare hunting down the traitor general who had betrayed his regiment, who debuted in 1981. He was supported by bio-chips of the personalities of three dead comrades, which, slotted into his equipment, could talk to him. Gibbons left the strip early on and was replaced byColin Wilson,Brett Ewins andCam Kennedy.Rogue Trooper replacedMeltdown Man, which had recently ended its run.
Another new strip in 1981, inspired by the briefCB radio craze, wasAce Trucking Co., a comedy about pointy-headed alien space trucker Ace Garp and his crew by Wagner, Grant and Belardinelli.
In theJudge Dredd series, Mega-City One had grown too large and unwieldy: therefore authors Wagner and Grant they planned to cut it down to size. "Block Mania", in which wars broke out between rival city-blocks, turned out to be a plot orchestrated by the Russian city East-Meg One, and led directly to "The Apocalypse War", another six-month epic and a hard-hitting satire on the concept ofmutually assured destruction. East-Meg One, protected by a warp-shield, softened up Mega-City One with nuclear warheads before invading. Dredd spearheaded the resistance, leading a small team to East-Meg territory, hijacking their nuclear bunkers and blowing East-Meg One off the face of the earth. "The Apocalypse War" was drawn in its entirety by Carlos Ezquerra, making a return to the character he created.
A new writer,Alan Moore, had started contributingFuture Shocks in 1980. He wrote more than fifty one-off strips over the next three years, while also contributing to variousMarvel UK titles and the independent magazineWarrior. In 1982 he gained his first series,Skizz, a less sentimental take on the same basic plot used inE.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, set inBirmingham and influenced byAlan Bleasdale'sBoys from the Blackstuff. The series was drawn byJim Baikie.
Moore wrote another series,D.R. and Quinch, spun off from a one-offTime Twister. Drawn byAlan Davis, the strip featured a pair of alien juvenile delinquents with a penchant for mindless thermonuclear destruction. He went on to createThe Ballad of Halo Jones with artistIan Gibson. Halo was an everywoman in the far future, born into mass unemployment on a floating housing estate, who escaped the earth and became involved in a terrible galactic war. Three books were published, and more were planned, but Moore's demands for creator's rights and his increasing commitments to American publishers meant they never materialised.
A new character,Sláine, debuted in 1983, but had been in development since 1981. Created byPat Mills and his then wifeAngela Kincaid,Sláine was a barbarianfantasy strip based onCeltic mythology. Kincaid was a children's book illustrator who had never worked in comics before, and her opening episode was drawn and redrawn several times before the editors were satisfied. Other stories were written for artists Massimo Belardinelli and Mike McMahon, but these could not see print until Kincaid's episode was ready.
In 1985, after appearing as a supporting character inJudge Dredd,Judge Anderson finally appeared in her own series, written by Wagner and Grant and initially drawn by Brett Ewins. New artistGlenn Fabry debuted onSláine, but, due to his slowness, he was rotated withDavid Pugh. In theJudge Dredd story "Letter from a Democrat", Wagner and Grant introduced a pro-democracy movement in Mega-City One, which is after all apolice state. This would provide plotlines for years to come.
In 1986 the comic reached its 500th issue. A newSláine story,Sláine the King, began, entirely drawn by Fabry.Peter Milligan, a writer who had been contributingFuture Shocks, began two series, the bleak future war storyBad Company and a strange,psychedelic series calledThe Dead. In 1986,2000 AD was selling 150,000 copies a week.
In 1987 IPC's comics division was hived off and sold to publishing magnateRobert Maxwell as Fleetway.2000 AD was revamped, with a larger page size and full process colour on the covers and centre pages.Richard Burton became editor. Kevin O'Neill returned for a shortNemesis series called "Torquemada the God". Not long after came the debut ofZenith,2000 AD's first serious superhero strip, by new writerGrant Morrison and artistSteve Yeowell. The title character was a shallow pop singer with superhuman powers, caught up in the intrigues of a 1960s generation of superhumans and the machinations of someLovecraftian elder gods.
Wagner and Grant began a newDredd Epic, "Oz", featuringChopper, a popular supporting character. Chopper was a skysurfer who had been imprisoned for competing in an illegal surfing competition a few years previously. A legal "Supersurf" race was being held in Oz, the future Australia, and Chopper escaped to compete. Dredd also went to Oz, partly to deal with Chopper, but mostly to investigate theJudda, a clone army created by Mega-City One's former chief genetic engineer. The Judda were defeated, and Chopper narrowly lost the race to Jug McKenzie. Dredd was waiting at the finish line, but McKenzie distracted him and allowed Chopper to escape into the outback. This ending was apparently the cause of some dispute between Wagner and Grant, and was a contributing factor (it wasThe Last American, a mini series forEpic Comics which would mark the end) in ending their regular writing partnership. Wagner keptDredd, while Grant continuedStrontium Dog andJudge Anderson. However the pair would still come together for occasional collaborations.
The "Oz" storyline had some lasting implications.Kraken, a Judda cloned from the same genetic material as Dredd, was captured by Justice Department, who had plans for him. Chopper also spun off into his own series, written by Wagner and drawn byColin MacNeil.
TheABC Warriors finally had their own series again in 1987 as a spin-off fromNemesis. This was written, as ever, by Pat Mills, and drawn by two artists in rotation, newcomerSimon Bisley and science fiction artistS.M.S.
In 1988 Grant and artist Simon Harrison began a newStrontium Dog story, "The Final Solution". It took nearly two years to complete, and ended with the death of Johnny Alpha, who sacrificed his life to save mutants from extermination. Original artist Carlos Ezquerra did not agree with the decision to kill the character off, and refused to draw it.
The number of colour pages was increased, allowing for one complete strip per issue to be painted. Initially the colour pages were reserved forJudge Dredd, but were later given over to a newSláine story, "The Horned God", fully painted by Simon Bisley. The series was collected as a series of three graphic novels, then as a single volume, and has remained in print ever since.
In 1989 the colour pages were increased again, allowing for three colour stories and two black and white in every issue. One of the colour series wasRogue Trooper: the War Machine, written by Dave Gibbons and painted byWill Simpson. The originalRogue Trooper series had run out of steam after the Traitor General had been dealt with, though continued with Rogue's adventures on Horst and the "Hit" series, so Gibbons revamped the concept, creating a different genetic infantryman,Friday, in a different war, albeit in the same universe.
One of the black and white stories, "The Dead Man", was a low-key beginning for a major event. In the Cursed Earth, villagers come across a man, burnt from head to toe, with no memory of who he is or what happened to him. As he tries to piece his memories back together, he is being hunted by the evil beings who left him in that state. A creepy, atmospheric horror-western, it was drawn byJohn Ridgway and written by "Keef Ripley", a pseudonym for John Wagner. By the end of the series the Dead Man had discovered his identity: he was Judge Dredd.
As "The Dead Man" ended, a newJudge Dredd story, "Tale of the Dead Man", explained how Dredd had ended up in that position. Dredd was getting older and the democratic movement was causing him to doubt his role, so Justice Department had groomedKraken, the former Judda cloned from his bloodline, to replace him. Kraken was now ready for his final assessment, and Dredd himself was chosen to assess him. Although Kraken performed faultlessly, Dredd thought he perceived a hint of his former allegiance to the Judda in him, and failed him. He then resigned as a judge and took the 'Long Walk' into the Cursed Earth. There he met the Sisters of Death, and only barely survived the encounter. This could mean only one thing: Judge Death was back.
This set up the latest six-month epic, "Necropolis". After Dredd had left, Justice Department had put Kraken through one final test, and given him Dredd's badge. But the Sisters of Death, spirit beings from Judge Death's dimension, were able to use Kraken's inner conflict to take control of him and use him to bring Judge Death and the other Dark Judges back from the limbo dimension Dredd had exiled them to. The Sisters possessed all the city's judges and began to enforce Death's twisted law. Out in the Cursed Earth, Dredd had recovered his memory and returned to defeat the Dark Judges. He then tried to lance the democratic boil by holding a referendum on whether the Judges should continue to govern the city. The judges won, by a small margin on a desultory turnout, and Dredd was satisfied.
2000 AD gained an influx of talent from other comics.Garth Ennis andJohn Smith had come to prominence writing forCrisis, a2000 AD spin-off for older readers, while artistsJamie Hewlett andPhilip Bond were the stars ofDeadline, an independent comics and popular culture magazine founded bySteve Dillon andBrett Ewins. Smith createdIndigo Prime, a multi-dimensional organisation that polices reality, whose most memorable story was "Killing Time", atime travel story featuringJack the Ripper. Garth Ennis and Philip Bond contributedTime Flies, a time-travel comedy, and Hewlett was paired with writerPeter Milligan for the surrealHewligan's Haircut. WriterJohn Tomlinson and artistSimon Jacob createdArmoured Gideon, an action-comedy series about a giant killer robot charged with keeping demons from invading earth.
TheJudge Dredd Megazine, a monthly title set in the world of Dredd, was launched in October 1990. With John Wagner focusing his attentions there, Garth Ennis became the regular writer of Dredd in the weekly.
American writerMichael Fleisher, who had writtenThe Spectre andJonah Hex in the 1970s, was recruited to write the continuing adventures of the newRogue Trooper, along with several other strips, none of which went down very well. Another new writer who failed to set2000 AD on fire wasMark Millar, whose revival ofRobo-Hunter was particularly unpopular. Millar has since gone on to become a successful writer of Americansuperhero comics such asThe Authority andThe Ultimates.
2000 AD went all-colour about this time (prog 723, dated 23 March 1991), in response to a short-lived new colour weekly,Toxic!, launched by Pat Mills and many of the core2000 AD team of creators.Toxic! only lasted 31 issues but many of the creators who had worked on the comic eventually found their way to work for2000 AD.Button Man, a contemporary thriller by John Wagner andArthur Ranson, was originally intended forToxic! but ended up in2000 AD.
A newABC Warriors series, written by Mills and Tony Skinner and painted byKev Walker, began in 1991, in which Deadlock took over the warriors with his "Khaos" philosophy.
The old IPC stripKelly's Eye was revived, by the new creative team ofAlan McKenzie, Brett Ewins, andZac Sandler, in 1993, when the publishers realized they no longer had the rights to the character.[citation needed]
Robert Maxwell died in late 1991, and Fleetway was merged with London Editions, a Danish-owned company that owned rights toDisney characters, to become Fleetway Editions.
In 1992,2000 AD and theJudge Dredd Megazine ran their first crossover story, "Judgement Day", in whichzombies overran Mega-City One. Written by Garth Ennis and drawn by Carlos Ezquerra,Peter Doherty,Dean Ormston andChris Halls, the story teamed Judge Dredd with Johnny Alpha through the medium of time travel. John Smith and artistPaul Marshall createdFirekind, a slow-paced story about dragons and alien societies, which was accidentally published with its episodes in the wrong order.
TheStrontium Dog world was eventually spun out to encompass a wider field, gaining the plural nameStrontium Dogs – characters such as female vampireDurham Red, the albino Feral Jackson, and former Johnny Alpha sidekick The Gronk – the latter, normally a timid creature with weak "heartses", became a gung-ho action character upon learning of Alpha's death. However, in the 12-parterThe Darkest Star, it transpires that the one toactually kill him was the Gronk himself; changed into a form designed by a cadre of Lyran necromancers to bring him endless agony, Alpha asked his friend to end his torment.
The "Summer Offensive" was an eight-week experiment in 1993, when new editorAlan McKenzie gave free rein to writersGrant Morrison,Mark Millar and John Smith, to a mixed reception. Morrison wrote a Dredd story, "Inferno", and a drug-influenced comedy adventure,Really & Truly. Smith contributedSlaughterbowl, in which convicted criminals on dinosaurs are pitted against each other in a deadly sport, with the survivor being paroled for a year and granted wealth – but being forced to enter the Slaughterbowl again the next year. Millar wroteManiac 5, an action-packed series about a remote controlled war-robot. During this run was a satire of Britishtabloid attitudes titledBig Dave, written by Morrison and Millar and drawn bySteve Parkhouse.
John Tomlinson became editor in 1994, and a second crossover between2000 AD and theMegazine, "Wilderlands", began. Written by Wagner and drawn by Ezquerra,Mick Austin andTrevor Hairsine, it followed on from "Mechanismo", a series of stories in theMegazine in which Justice Department, opposed by Dredd, tried to introduce robot judges. With Wagner writing,Judge Dredd was again the flagship strip.
FormerMegazine editorDavid Bishop became editor of the weekly in 1996 but sales continued to decline. Unsuccessful series were dropped, and a number of new series were tried out, some more successful than others. WriterDan Abnett introducedSinister Dexter in 1996, a strip about two hitmen influenced by the filmPulp Fiction, which became a regular feature. In 1997, writerRobbie Morrison and artistSimon Fraser, who had worked with Bishop on theMegazine, createdNikolai Dante, a swashbuckling series set in future Russia starring a thief and ladies' man who discovers he's the illegitimate scion of an aristocratic dynasty. There were also gimmicks, like the "sex issue", sold in a clear plastic wrapper,The Spacegirls, a series attempting to cash in on the popularity of theSpice Girls,B.L.A.I.R. 1, a parody ofTony Blair based onM.A.C.H. 1, and an adaptation of theDanny Boyle filmA Life Less Ordinary.
A newDredd epic, "Doomsday", appeared in 1999 and again ran in both2000 AD and theMegazine. Wagner had been laying the foundations for this story for several years, introducing the main villain, semi-robotic gang lord Nero Narcos, and supporting characters likeJudge Edgar of the Public Surveillance Unit, andGalen DeMarco, a former judge who had quit after falling in love with Dredd and become a private eye.
1999 also saw the return of another character,Nemesis the Warlock. After a break of ten years, writer Pat Mills decided to bring the story to an end with "The Final Conflict". The series was drawn byHenry Flint in a style that recalled Kevin O'Neill's early work on the series, as well as Simon Bisley'sABC Warriors work.
The decade ended with a special 100-page issue called "Prog 2000". Behind a cover by Brian Bolland,Nemesis wrapped up for good in a final episode drawn by Kevin O'Neill. War broke out inNikolai Dante, and writerGordon Rennie and artistMark Harrison introduced future war storyGlimmer Rats. Another old favourite,Strontium Dog, was revived by Wagner and Ezquerra, telling new stories of Johnny Alpha set before his death, with the conceit that previous stories had been "folklore" and the new stories were "what really happened", allowing Wagner to revise continuity.
The publisher has been owned byRebellion Developments since 2000, with editorsAndy Diggle and (since 2002)Matt Smith at the helm. Rebellion continues to develop stories (and computer games) based on classic characters such asRogue Trooper andJudge Dredd, and has also introduced a roster of new series includingShakara,The Red Seas andCaballistics, Inc.. It has also published a tie-in to the filmShaun of the Dead in a story written bySimon Pegg andEdgar Wright.
The comic continues to uncover new British talents, includingBoo Cook,Dom Reardon andAl Ewing. It has also benefited from an improved dollar-poundexchange rate that has meant the comic can now afford to re-employ some of the talent thought lost to America.
A number of shorter self-contained stories, partly created by the new wave of talent, have run includingLondon Falling,Stone Island andZombo. Other developments include a revamping of theJudge Dredd Megazine which has included a section acting as a showcase forBritish small press comics. Starting in program 1500 was the Judge Dredd story "The Connection", a "prelude" to a 23-part Judge Dredd epic "Origins" which filled in a lot of the details about Dredd's past.
In prog 1526,[8] dated 28 February 2007,2000 AD celebrated their 30th anniversary.[9] The issue saw the start of two new storylines:Nikolai Dante (byRobbie Morrison andSimon Fraser) andSavage (byPat Mills andCharlie Adlard), along with a one-off episode ofFlesh (by Pat Mills andRamon Sola). The run-up to this saw the first arcs of new seriesStickleback andKingdom.
2000 AD was also made available online throughClickwheel,[10] anotherRebellion Developments-owned firm. Starting in December 2007, the latest issue was made available to download as aPDF.[11] In early 2008 it was announced that an archive of the 2007 issues would be added to the service.[12] The Clickwheel Comics Reader was launched in July 2008 which would allow the digital versions of the comics to be downloaded and read on theiPhone andiPod Touch.[13]
On 19 March 2012 theRoyal Mail launched a special stamp collection to celebrate Britain's rich comic book history, which included2000 AD.[14]
In 2015 a documentary about the history of the comic was made, calledFuture Shock! The Story of 2000AD.[15]
On 1 October 2016, signings were held at comic shops in the UK, Ireland, Australia and the US to mark the publication of the 2000th prog. In the same week a 40th birthday convention was announced, which was held inHammersmith,London in February 2017.[16] At the convention itself, it was announced by the Kingsley brothers that Rebellion would be willing to speak to outside software developers on developing2000 AD's intellectual property. In the same year, former editor Steve MacManus published his memoirs,The Mighty One: My Life Inside The Nerve Centre.
In 2017, founding editor Pat Mills published his memoirs,Be Pure! Be Vigilant! Behave! 2000 AD and Judge Dredd: The Secret History. Later in that year,Hachette Partworks began publishing2000 AD: The Ultimate Collection, initially an 80-volume fortnightly series of hardback books featuring classic stories from the first 40 years of the comic. Now the Collection has been extended to 180 volumes. This followed the success ofJudge Dredd: The Mega Collection, which had started in 2015 and later been extended to 90 volumes.
In June 2018 (July in the United States) a special issue was published, the2000 AD Sci-Fi Special 2018, which contained stories written and illustrated entirely by women.[17]
Starting in May 2019,2000 AD began publishing periodic "all ages" issues every quarter, marketed as2000 AD Regened, and targeted at younger readers. In these sixteen issues,Judge Dredd was replaced byCadet Dredd stories. This lasted until November 2023.
Wikimedia Commons has the following indexes:
Although there is no overallshared universe containing all2000 AD stories, some storiesspin-off or crossover into other stories. These include the numerous stories that occur in theJudge Dredd universe. Many stories byPat Mills, which are frequently interlinked, link into the Dredd universe as well, though have been partiallyretconned by the writer. Many stories written byIan Edginton feature shared themes and references.
A long-running theme is that theeditor of2000 AD isTharg the Mighty, a greenextraterrestrial fromBetelgeuse 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 201 a pair of readers wrote to Tharg claiming that they preferred to be called "Terrans"; the resulting controversy ended in Tharg allowing readers to vote for the preferred term in prog 229. In prog 240 Tharg announced that the result was a draw, and "Terran" became an accepted term for readers' letters in the Nerve Centre. In similar vein, Tharg used to draw distinction between male and female letter-writers with "Earthlet" and "Earthlette" until a letter was printed in Prog 314 complaining about the use, and Tharg agreed to use "Earthlet" (or "Terran") regardless of gender. From prog 531 the term "Earthlette" was reintroduced.[18]
Another running theme is Tharg's use ofrobots to draw and write the strips, which bear a marked resemblance to the actual writers and artists. A fictional reason for Tharg to use mechanical assistance was given when the robots "went on strike" (reflecting real-lifeindustrial 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.
The role of Tharg has been performed by the following editors:
Starting in December 2004, an additional editor's note, titled "Damage Control", began appearing in the legal fine print at the bottom of the first page of every issue. This editor's note is written not from the perspective of Tharg but from that of Matt Smith, the sitting editor since "Damage Control" started.
Well-known contributors to2000 AD include:
Many of these have since moved on to work for American publishers such asDC Comics (especially theVertigo andWildstorm imprints) andMarvel Comics.
In 2021, Rebellion Publishing andPenguin Random House released five audio drama adaptations of classic2000 AD stories:[30]
The first2000AD video games for 8-bit computers were two games based onStrontium Dog published byQuicksilva in 1984 for theZX Spectrum andCommodore 64.[31]
Melbourne House released thefirstJudge Dredd game on the Commodore 64 in 1986 and ZX Spectrum the following year. ThesecondJudge Dredd game was published byVirgin Games in 1991 for theAmiga,Atari ST,Amstrad CPC, Commodore 64, and ZX Spectrum platforms.
Martech produced two titles,Nemesis the Warlock andSláine, whilePiranha Software only published one2000AD video game,Rogue Trooper (written byDesign Design) it had games based onJudge Death[31][32] andHalo Jones[33] in development which were never released.
Krisalis Software released another adaptation ofRogue Trooper for the Amiga and Atari ST in 1991, and the merchandising that accompanied the 1995Judge Dredd film included tie-in games for the IBM PC (MS-DOS),Game Boy,Game Gear,PlayStation,Sega Genesis andSuper Nintendo Entertainment System.
AJudge Dredd arcade game was created but never completed nor released. It can be found online, where it is available for free, but requires an arcade / coin-op emulator.[34] It features Mean Machine and other Angel Gang members.[citation needed]
AJudge Dredd Pinball game was released forMS-DOS in 1998. The same year saw the release of a Judge Dredd videogame for the Sony PlayStation which was developed by Gremlin Interactive and published by Activision.[35]
With the purchase of2000 AD by Rebellion Developments, a computer game company, several more2000 AD-linked games have been released or are under development.Judge Dredd: Dredd Vs. Death was released in 2003 andRogue Trooper followed in 2006 for theXbox,PlayStation 2 andMicrosoft Windows.[36] An updated version for theWii entitledRogue Trooper: Quartz Zone Massacre was released in December 2009.[37]
A licensed Judge Dredd choose your own adventure style game "Judge Dredd: Countdown Sector 106" was released in 2012 by Australian and UK-based Tin Man Games for iOS, subsequently for Google Play and Steam.[38]
Although the various stories and creators have also won awards, (see the various entries for details) the comic itself has its own trophies:
2000 AD has an extremely lively and thrivingfanbase, which has produced a number of independentfanzines.
In 1998 W.R. Logan, frustrated at the lack of activity from the comic's publishers both in promoting the title and also in making best use of new talents, decided to create an independent title using2000 AD copyrighted characters and situations. This was titledClass of '79, named after the year of Dredd's graduation from the Academy of Law – 2079. The first couple of issues contained work from now-professional comics creatorsRufus Dayglo,Boo Cook,Henry Flint andPJ Holden and won the best Self Published/Independent Comic Award at the 1999 National Comics Awards.
In 2001,Andrew J. Lewis createdZarjaz comic, with strips featuring characters from a variety of2000 AD stories. There were also interviews withAlan Grant,Frazer Irving andAlan Moore, as well as an extensive article on breaking into comics as a writer.
Another long-running fanzine, dedicated to the world of Johnny Alpha, isDogbreath, originally run by the pseudonymous Dr Bob it is now being produced by FutureQuake Publishing. In 2003,Arthur Wyatt createdFutureQuake, a fanzine devoted to theFuture Shocks format. AlthoughClass of '79 andFutureQuake now appear to be on hiatus, the other titles are in continuous publication,Zarjaz having started up again with a new issue 1.
In addition, a number ofsmall press comics have emerged from the2000 AD fanbase, includingSolar Wind,Omnivistascope andThe End Is Nigh.
Many of them gathered in London last month to celebrate the 40th birthday of the self-proclaimed Galaxy's Greatest Comic