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Top 2000AD moments of the last 25 years

Started by McGurk76, 16 November, 2018, 08:02:34 AM

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McGurk76

What do you think have been the top 10 greatest moments of 2000AD's last quarter century?
Am pretty up on the comic until the mid-90s but regrettably lost interest for a while after that.
What have I missed?

sheridan

Quote from: McGurk76 on 16 November, 2018, 08:02:34 AM
What do you think have been the top 10 greatest moments of 2000AD's last quarter century?
Am pretty up on the comic until the mid-90s but regrettably lost interest for a while after that.
What have I missed?

I think most people, even those whose favourite moments are in their youths (nostalgia can be tough to beat) will agree that this is special...


sheridan

My second prediction is when Dredd boots down a door in the last panel of his story and the first panel of the next story features the same door being booted in.

sheridan

My third and last prediction before I start work today!

This one could be a bit divisive, but the last panel published to date of Stickleback where we find out [spoiler]that Stickleback is Sherlock Holmes[/spoiler].  It was quite some while ago so I put the reveal behind a spoiler in case people come across it for the first time in the 2000AD Ultimate Collection.

Matty_e

I'd recommend http://megacitybookclub.blogspot.com as a great place to hear readers talk about their favourite thrills.

Certainly Nikolai Dante, Brink, Leviathan, Zombo, Stickleback, Cradlegrave, Mega-City Undercover / Lowlife and Judge Dredd: Trifecta would be amongst my recommendations.

TordelBack

#5
-tccchh- Everyone knows there's been nothing good in 2000AD since the mid-80s. Insert anecdote about tracing Nemesis for an art project and some vague memory of Dredd shooting a mutant in the face. You couldn't get away with that nowadays, the triggered snowflakes would be all over you! And even if they were still publishing it today, it'd all be PC nonsense aimed at empowering muslim lesbians. 

Warning to the OP: this is one spoilerific thread!  If behind the black bars you go, only pain will you find.

For my money, any strip that has the words 'D'Israeli' in the credits box can be counted on as being a highlight of the whole 40+ years, never mind the last 25.  Picking individual moments is more difficult, but the successive revelations of the Big Man's identity in Low Life (written by man-of-the-moment Rob Williams) has to be in there.

Still resurfacing in my head on a daily basis is the glorious slab of solid atmosphere that was Cradlegrave, by John Smith and the late and so-very-much-missed Edmund Bagwell: the whole strip was one single, claustophobic moment. In fact, you could add both those men's names to the 'guaranteed highlight' list.

You've had Nikolai Dante recommended to you as a matter of course, and rightly so, but specific moments include its exquisitely judged ending, and the single-episode 'Love and War' (there's another multi-episode story of the same name, but this one appeared in Prog 2000), that issue itself representing one of the great moments of the comic's history (there's another Prog of the same name, but that's another story...).

Right now two of the greatest strips of the past quarter century have their current instalments running in the Prog - the so-2000AD-it-hurts version of Lassie that is Kingdom, and the high-tension-cable of a slow-burning thriller Brink. Today is the good old days, Earthlets!


Bolt-01


JayzusB.Christ

Another vote for Cradlegrave, one of the absolute best stories from one of the absolute best script droids. 
The last chapter of Nikolai Dante, a strip I really hated at first.
Al Ewing's role-playing-parody Christmas Dredd strip; can't remember the name or the Christmas prog but it was as clever and cool as any Alan Moore one-off.

Also, his Megazine Dredd The Americans, a very brave attempt to patch up dodgy Dredd continuity and an absolute perfect snapshot of the Mega City one we know and love.

Another Christmas prog Dredd by Wagner and McNeil (grud help my memory for story names) with every single aspect of Dredd present and correct - politics, ruthless perp-crushing, a visit to the niece and the hint of compassion that keeps Dredd interesting.

Dredd's second attempt at annual mandatory 24-hour downtime, scripted by Grennie, and even better than Wagner's first workaholic-dealing-with-free-time Dredd script.

My Name is Death, which effortlessly made the main Dark Judge scary again.

Bear with me, I'll think of more.
"Men will never be free until the last king is strangled with the entrails of the last priest"

sheridan

Quote from: JayzusB.Christ on 16 November, 2018, 04:52:04 PM
Another Christmas prog Dredd by Wagner and McNeil (grud help my memory for story names) with every single aspect of Dredd present and correct - politics, ruthless perp-crushing, a visit to the niece and the hint of compassion that keeps Dredd interesting.
Was that the one with Dredd and the other clones pretending to be at a family get together at christmas, but just being uncomfortable and wanting to get back out on the streets?

Dandontdare

Best long-term strip in last quarter century would have to be Nikolai Dante (currently being reprinted in 9 lovely hardbacks a part of the Ultimate 2000ad collection - part 4 due in a few weeks, but you may be able to snag the others online).

For best short-term strip, I'd vote Cradlegrave - creepy council estate horror

Best Dredd? It's gotta be the big world-changing trilogy of Origins/Tour of Duty/Day of Chaos, with special mentions for Trifecta and Every Empire Falls

Frank


Unsure whether we're being asked for highlights - stuff like Strontium Dog returning with the original creators or Dante coming to an end, for example - or for actual moments in stories that forcibly removed our socks.

Assuming the latter, I'm saying the finale of Dead Eyes (1577-1588), by John Smith and Lee Carter*. I wasn't reading 2000ad when it was originally published, so I'd already had the ending spoiled by reading online discussion of the story. It was still a bravura moment**


* Starts off with John Smith challenging you to think whether you've ever read anything more John Smith - working class protagonist pursued by cynical, murderous establishment and large sections apparently generated by doing a William Burroughs cut-up with a dozen issues of The Fortean Times - and builds to an anti-climactic ending that's not a million miles from the protagonist waking to find the previous events had all been a dream. But somehow, it works - and the Bagwell/Carter stories that followed were just stratospherically imaginative and accomplished (and silly and funny)

** +++SPOILER+++ DO NOT CLICK UNLESS YOU LOVE HAVING SURPRISES RUINED:  (LINK)

JayzusB.Christ

Quote from: sheridan on 16 November, 2018, 04:58:54 PM
Quote from: JayzusB.Christ on 16 November, 2018, 04:52:04 PM
Another Christmas prog Dredd by Wagner and McNeil (grud help my memory for story names) with every single aspect of Dredd present and correct - politics, ruthless perp-crushing, a visit to the niece and the hint of compassion that keeps Dredd interesting.
Was that the one with Dredd and the other clones pretending to be at a family get together at christmas, but just being uncomfortable and wanting to get back out on the streets?

Once again memory fails me.  In fact, Vienna may not have appeared at all in that one. Feck, I'm crap.  It was a Dredd where he actually feels the festive spirit, convincing Hershey to reconsider the mutant ban and wishing her a Merry Christmas, no less.
"Men will never be free until the last king is strangled with the entrails of the last priest"

Jim_Campbell

Quote from: JayzusB.Christ on 16 November, 2018, 06:05:38 PM
In fact, Vienna may not have appeared at all in that one.

This means nothing to me.
Stupidly Busy Letterer: Samples. | Blog
Less-Awesome-Artist: Scribbles.

JayzusB.Christ

"Men will never be free until the last king is strangled with the entrails of the last priest"

Funt Solo

++ A-Z ++  coma ++