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2000 AD in Stages

Started by Funt Solo, 23 July, 2019, 10:57:01 PM

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TordelBack

When I first started buying up back-progs* from the basement table in The Diceman circa 1983-4, I tried to make individual 'blocks' of progs a priority for my very limited budget. The very first of these that I set my sights on was 222-244, taking in Nemesis Book 1, the start (and best) of Rogue Trooper and Block Mania (Apocalypse War I already had courtesy of the Eagle reprints), and Meltdown Man/Mean Arena I couldn't have cared less about. 'Course in those days I had no idea of what ran when, I was flicking through the actual (unbagged!) comics in the shop, or in friends' houses, in order to work out my scheme.

On that basis alone I feel 222 is one of the most natural era-breaks in the comic's history. Where the endpoint should have come in the light of Funt's analysis is going to be interest!



*I started weekly buying with 309.

Funt Solo

Stage #6: Key New Thrills (progs 222-272)

Marking out a new era, the giant-length one-off thrills such as Meltdown Man and Return to Armageddon are coming to an end.  In their place, with a staggered start, come three new thrills set to serve the comic for years to come: Nemesis the Warlock, Ace Trucking Co. and Rogue Trooper.  From a historical perspective, each of these thrills, to some extent, loses steam over time but here they're at their strongest and the comic feels confident and fresh.

Scheduling is problematic, with stutters in the art supply needing plugged by fillers (e.g. the first book of Nemesis gets delayed twice).  Rogue Trooper (positioning itself quickly as a resident thrill alongside Judge Dredd) skirts the problem with shorter tales and multiple artists.

Providing a consistent throughline in what's quite a chaotic schedule is Judge Dredd, dominating the latter two thirds of this stage with the unmissable, legendary double whammy of Block Mania & The Apocalypse War.



Nemesis the Warlock
Almost defying description, Nemesis is up there as perhaps the most inventive story in 2000 AD.  The title character is captured by simple human villagers who decide that they should hang him.  Usually, this would be a tale about the foolish superstitions of poorly educated bumpkins, but here they're actually correct: Nemesis is a demonic being (an alien Warlock) and proceeds to execute those that wronged him in inventively horrific ways. This is the hero of the piece. The villain, Torquemada, is a human supremacist who commits multiple genocides on an interstellar scope.  Kevin O'Neill's art is so intricate that scheduling becomes an issue. Book II has art by Jesus Redondo and features a plot involving a deadly, human-sized, intelligent spider-race.
Doesn't return until prog 335.

Tharg the Mighty... More in the next stage...

Tharg's Future Shocks More in the next stage...

Judge Dredd
Judge Death Lives (224-228) wisely revives Anderson and Death but then goes a massively creative step further by introducing the other three Dark Judges: Fear, Fire & Mortis.  Each has their own preferred method of extinguishing life and the creative team clearly knew they were onto something special when they treated us to a full colour poster centre-spread of the four dark judges in prog 226.

Diary of a Mad Citizen (229-230) tells the compelling story of what makes a citizen turn futsie. Assault on I-Block 4 (231-232) introduces the Gila Munja, a Cursed Earth threat so compelling that they also feature in The Hotdog Run (233-235) which establishes new lore on the training of Judge Cadets.

This sequence of short, powerful stories features an amazing art roster of Brian Bolland, Colin Wilson, John Cooper and Ron Smith.  Just on their own, they form a ridiculously strong run for Dredd and we might expect a slightly weaker follow-up.  Instead we run straight into Block Mania, itself just a precursor to The Apocalypse War. Together, these run for 34 progs and utterly change the world of Dredd and Mega-City One.
The birth of so many important aspects of Dredd lore echo out from this era: the four Dark Judges, the Gila Munja, Hotdog Runs, Sovs intent on revenge, much of the city nuked out and the character of Orlok.

The Mean Arena
Steve Dillon's superlative work on The Jensens (218-223) provides a negative comparison when Eric Bradbury and (later) Mike White take over art duties. Despite the fun, interactive idea of readers coming up with team designs, the story starts to lose traction. The shark is jumped with the introduction of Chip (a precocious super-powered android bodyguard), who seems to fit the mould of Scrappy Doo as being both too childlike and too obnoxious.
Mother Vlad's Vampires takes us on into the next stage...

Meltdown Man
Finally concluding, Nick Stone seems to solve the problem by altering the past such that the future never occurs (which, bleakly, means that all his friends will never exist).
In the coda, he materializes on the side of the New Jersey Turnpike (as do metaphysical head-space renters in Being John Malkovich from 1999).

Strontium Dog
Something of an odd tonal shift after Portrait of a Mutant, we get a couple of much lighter, frothier tales with The Gronk Affair and The Kid Knee Caper.
We have to wait 101 progs before this returns.

Rogue Trooper
A blue-skinned Genetic Infantryman (bred for war) stalks the poisonous battlefields of Nu Earth seeking revenge for the massacre of his comrades by a traitor general. In order to provide some dialogue for the loner, Rogue is accompanied by the bio-chips (i.e. encoded personalities) of three dead comrades, slotted into his equipment: the appropriately (and oddly presciently) named Helm, Bagman and Gunnar.
Following a series of short adventures, some of which advance the central plot, the longer All Hell on the Dix-I Front takes us through to the next stage...

Ace Trucking Co.
Mush rush meets B-Hive-K on line for blubbos and flanners. Clearway lugbuddies burn jekyl from disgumby to plasma jam blipping big byms. Ace Garp jocks Speedo Ghost alongside biffo GBH, powerhouse lugbuddy Feek the Freek and a blubberoni scarf.

[Translated for wah wah diggers:]
Convoy meets Mos Eisley cantina by way of Only Fools and Horses. An alien space trucking crew lurch from difficulty to disaster seeking their fortune. Ace Garp captains the Speedo Ghost alongside his minder GBH, his engineer Feek the Freek and his pointlessly (plot-wise) animate scarf.


Launched lovingly with its own Space Truckers' Dictionary (232-235) this succeeded well as a long-form, light-hearted series of misadventures.  This initial foray includes Hell's Pocket, Lugjack, The Great Mush Rush, Last Lug to Abbo Dabbo ("I'll sing you a song and it won't take long, or maybe I won't and it will") and the slightly weak Joobaloo. It continues in the next stage.

[Abelard Snazz]
Alan Moore's Snazz continues to miscalculate the application of his vast intellect.
Returns for a final hurrah in prog 299.

Superbean
Not quite fitting under the umbrella of a Future Shock (or a Robo-Tale), this one-off instead stood proudly alone...
...very briefly, and then was seen no more.

[Joe Black]
A Han Solo-ish rogue isn't as clever as he thinks in these rags-to-rags stories of galactic misadventure.
Dipping in and out of Future Shocks (asterisked in the diagram), this stage sees the four final Joe Black adventures with art by John Higgins.

Robo-Hunter [in Brit-Cit]
After an 84-prog hiatus, Sam Slade, Hoagy and Stogie emigrate to Brit-Cit and start a sequence of shorter investigations (starting with The Beast of Blackheart Manor and The Filby Case.)
Continues in the next stage...

---

A special shout-out to prog 251, which launched The Great Mush Rush.  Having been abandoned in a remote farmhouse by my mother, I went cross country to my nearest thrill merchant, which was three miles away. Hiking back, it started to rain: so my copy is a bit water damaged.



---

References:
- The 2000 AD ABC
- Albion British Comics Database Wiki
- Barney
- Nemesis the Warlock: A Potted History
- Touched by the Hand of Tharg
++ A-Z ++  coma ++

sheridan

Quote from: Funt Solo on 19 August, 2019, 07:15:16 PM
Stage #6: Key New Thrills (progs 222-272)
Marking out a new era, the giant-length one-off thrills such as Meltdown Man and Return to Armageddon are coming to an end.  In their place, with a staggered start, come three new thrills set to serve the comic for years to come: Nemesis the Warlock, Ace Trucking Co. and Rogue Trooper.  From a historical perspective, each of these thrills, to some extent, loses steam over time but here they're at their strongest and the comic feels confident and fresh.

I'd disagree with Nemesis - the first book is brilliant, but Book III is still my favourite.  It's also difficult to view Book IV now in the same way we would have then, because we weren't oversaturated with steampunk from all directions!

QuoteProviding a consistent throughline in what's quite a chaotic schedule is Judge Dredd, dominating the latter two thirds of this stage with the unmissable, legendary double whammy of Block Mania & The Apocalypse War.

You'd bad and you should feel bad*.

QuoteThe Mean Arena
Steve Dillon's superlative work on The Jensens (218-223) provides a negative comparison when Eric Bradbury and (later) Mike White take over art duties. Despite the fun, interactive idea of readers coming up with team designs, the story starts to lose traction. The shark is jumped with the introduction of Chip (a precocious super-powered android bodyguard), who seems to fit the mould of Scrappy Doo as being both too childlike and too obnoxious.

I love Eric Bradbury's work, especially on works such as (non-2000AD) The Dracula File and the odd Future-Shocks, Tharg stories and Time Twisters he worked on.  Not so much on Mean Arena, unfortunately.  As for Chip - who could be a more inconspicuous bodyguard for a thirty-something year old man than a ten-year-old boy?  Erm...




* I've done the same myself in the past...

sheridan

Quote from: Funt Solo on 19 August, 2019, 07:15:16 PM
A special shout-out to prog 251, which launched The Great Mush Rush.  Having been abandoned in a remote farmhouse by my mother, I went cross country to my nearest thrill merchant, which was three miles away. Hiking back, it started to rain: so my copy is a bit water damaged.

I strongly suspect one of my progs with a George (giant robot on Mars) episode in will also contain some chip fat from the late 1980s.  I'll be sure to mention it when I get to that point in my slog - at the current rate sometime before the end of the year...

Funt Solo



Image can be viewed at higher resolution at Everything Comes Back to 2000 AD.

From progs 260-263.
++ A-Z ++  coma ++

Funt Solo

Stage #7: Post-Apocalypse (progs 273-307)

In the previous stage, new thrills had formed multiple residencies in the prog and they still form the starting line-up: Rogue Trooper, The Mean Arena, Judge Dredd, Ace Trucking Co. and Robo-Hunter.  But what happens when they start to run out of steam?

Replacing The Mean Arena we get a new long-form one-off as we follow the adventure of Harry Twenty on the High Rock.  When Ace Trucking Co. takes a break, we get a new anthology banner in Tharg's Time Twisters.

Prog 300 is celebrated with an eight issue prog 1 replica for us to cut out and construct.



Rogue Trooper
All Hell on the Dix-I Front closes out and provides a new string to the plot in the form of a poison that can take render Rogue useless.  Marauders (unfortunately making us choose between Colin Wilson and Cam Kennedy for best rendering of a Nort hopper) moves the central plot forward in the hunt for the traitor general and then the epic Fort Neuro is by turns fun and out of place (as Rogue goes disco dancing), but doesn't provide any forward momentum.

Schedule-wise, it is difficult as a reader to stick with the multiple artists on a storyline thing, especially when their designs are so far removed from one another.  It's something very much of the era, though.  Dix-I has three, Marauders has two and Neuro has two.

Fort Neuro drifts into the next stage...

[Agent Rat]
Trouble On Tree-World - An Agent Rat Adventure sees the return of Agent Rat from a Future Shock in prog 213.  He's like a rat yujee, and he's an agent.
That's all we get from Agent Rat, which is perhaps just as well.

The Mean Arena
Staring out as a gritty sport drama, this eventually became mired in Halloween costumes. It staggers to a close here with a sort of Tron-like climax inside a giant physical realization of a video game.
This is it for The Mean Arena.  Another strip named Mean Arena borrows the title in '93, but the two bear no relation apart from that.

Judge Dredd
Post-Apocalypse many of the tales explore the post-war effects on the city, whether it's chem pits in The Game Show Show or food shortages in The League of Fatties.  This ends up being a strong sequence which includes Fungus, Destiny's Angels (resurrecting Mean Machine and freeing Fink), The Executioner, Shanty Town and Trapper Hag.
Dredd continues, of course, but there is a marked reduction in mentions of the war.

Ace Trucking Co.
This sequence gives us the superlative Too Many Bams (starring many of the comic's creators in Bam caricature), The Kloistar Run (or The Garp Who Would Be King) and then ends with Stoop Coop Soup.
Ace could have ended here as the characters are all imprisoned, but returns in prog 378 in '84

Robo-Hunter [in Brit-Cit]
The Killing of Kidd reintroduces Kidd from the Verdus storyline: now the star of a soap opera.  Football Crazy riffs on the 1982 Soccer World Cup by introducing teams of robots from around the world (*cough* "Blakee Pentax" *cough*.) Then, like Buffy (in 2001's Once More, With Feeling), it was decided that a musical would be the thing to do and we get Play It Again, Sam.
Robo-Hunter returns in the next stage...

Harry Twenty on the High Rock 
Alcatraz in space, as Harry Twenty tries to figure out how to escape the classic inescapable prison. Perhaps that old timer can help him...
It's one and done.

The Great Detective Caper, Hemlock Bones - Who He?
Not quite fitting under either the Future or Time umbrella, this two-parter has a hapless actor mistaken for a supposedly real Sherlock Holmes by an alien race.  Wait, that's Sherlock Holmes meets Galaxy Quest.
The tale is told in two parts, and requires no more.

Tharg's Time Twisters 
Rather than just being scheduling filler, these take up an almost permanent residency (for a while). They allow Tharg to expand the repertoire of bannered one-off stories so that they don't necessarily need to be of the future (or shocky) variety. 
More in the next stage...

[Abelard Snazz]
Titled Genius Is Pain: An Abelard Snazz Misadventure, things continue to go badly for the large-brained guy who can't get along with anyone.
This is the last outing for the two-storey brain as Alan Moore has other things to occupy his time...

No significant changes:
- Tharg's Future Shocks More in the next stage...
- Tharg the Mighty... More in the next stage...

---

Another giant collectible poster is a celebration of all things Robo-Hunter (and you can see a hi-res version over at All Things...):



---

References:
- The 2000 AD ABC
- Albion British Comics Database Wiki
- Barney
- Touched by the Hand of Tharg
++ A-Z ++  coma ++

Colin YNWA

Wow thanks for linking to that hi-res scan of the four past Robo-Hunter poster. Hadn't seen that and it does look GREAT.

Funt Solo

Yeah - I think it's my favorite out of Future Worlds / Total War / Robo-World.  It really marks the end (I think) of these well put together poster collectibles.

(Well, there's the 12-piece Mega-City Primer in progs 501-512, but it's just not as good a composition.  Oh, and the Tribal Imagery ones: a 2-part ABC Warriors in 1055-1056 and a 4-part Ukko in 1057-1060.  They're interesting, but incongruously tied to rave culture.)
++ A-Z ++  coma ++

Colin YNWA

Yeah the Ukko one was just plain... strange. The image, though nice, certainly didn't hold the interest and scale to justify the format.

Funt Solo

Stage #8: Mooreland (1983's progs 308-334)

Alan Moore has been active in the prog for a while now, turning out consistently entertaining short thrills in the form of Robo-Tales, Future Shocks and Time Twisters.  Abelard Snazz demonstrated that he couldn't quite be contained within the strictures of those mediums, and here we get to see his first long-form thrill in Skizz even as he continues to dominate the Time Twisters.

Dredd, Rogue & Slade take up the other main slots in the prog as we head towards the prog 335 pure jump-on.  Just before we get there, though, prog 330 steals the limelight (by smashing it apart with an axe) as Slaine launches himself ferociously into the fray.



Skizz
Altogether now: it's E.T. meets The Boys from the Black Stuff.  Perhaps the first 2000 AD strip with a female lead in Roxy O'Rourke.
There's a second series (Skizz II: Alien Cultures) in '92, but it's not by Moore and so perhaps can be considered non-canon. It certainly stretches the format, and there's no cliffhanger in this first series that needs answered.

Tharg's Time Twisters 
Alan Moore provides over half of the Twisters in this stage.  Of key importance is prog 317's DR & Quinch Have Fun On Earth, as it once again demonstrates Moore's ability to create characters that break free of their restrictions and go on to greater things.  We'll see them in their own series soon.
These do return in the next stage, but at a much reduced rate as they share space again with the Future Shocks.

Judge Dredd
This stage proves that you don't need epics: there's scope for great medium-length thrills in Dredd. Up to now, the average length of a Dredd story has been three episodes (and that's including epics), so the 8-part Destiny's Angels in the previous stage, and here the 6-part The Starborn Thing and 7-part Cry of the Werewolf are a new direction (plus they're all first-rate stories).
Medium-length Dredd's continue in the next stage as dusk falls...

Rogue Trooper
Fort Neuro comes to an end and Eye of the Traitor moves the central plot forward.
The Rogue residency continues unabated in the next stage...

Robo-Hunter [in Brit-Cit]
After a short-break, we get the 19-episode The Slaying of Slade (which is more gritty and less comedic than earlier Brit-Cit adventures), followed by the 4-part coda of Sam Slade's Last Case.
Slade is coaxed out of retirement in 1985's Farewell, My Billions (435-443).

Slaine
It's a celtic Conan, as Slaine and his literal sidekick Ukko roam Tir Nan Og (a mythic Britain) in search of riches and redemption. Slaine ends up smiting all who stand against him, but doesn't ever think it's too many.  Here we get the introductory The Time-Monster (where Pat Mills can't resist including a T-Rex, but at least it's not a relative of Old One Eye) and The Beast in the Broch.
Slaine chops his way through into the next stage...

No significant changes:
- [one-offs] More in the next stage...
- Tharg the Mighty... More in the next stage...
- Tharg's Future Shocks More in the next stage...

---

References:
- Barney
- The 2000 AD ABC
++ A-Z ++  coma ++

sheridan

Quote from: Funt Solo on 21 August, 2019, 02:41:41 PM
Harry Twenty on the High Rock 
Alcatraz in space, as Harry Twenty tries to figure out how to escape the classic inescapable prison. Perhaps that old timer can help him...
It's one and done.


It is a one and done.  There was no more.

sheridan

Quote from: Funt Solo on 22 August, 2019, 12:48:30 AM
Yeah - I think it's my favorite out of Future Worlds / Total War / Robo-World.  It really marks the end (I think) of these well put together poster collectibles.

(Well, there's the 12-piece Mega-City Primer in progs 501-512, but it's just not as good a composition.  Oh, and the Tribal Imagery ones: a 2-part ABC Warriors in 1055-1056 and a 4-part Ukko in 1057-1060.  They're interesting, but incongruously tied to rave culture.)


I completely don't remember the Ukko one - that's weird - I can't imagine what the point of it was!


Also - what about the DR & Quinch and Psi-Judge Anderson calendars (sure I'm missing one)?[/font]

sheridan

Quote from: sheridan on 23 August, 2019, 01:44:18 PM
Quote from: Funt Solo on 22 August, 2019, 12:48:30 AM
Yeah - I think it's my favorite out of Future Worlds / Total War / Robo-World.  It really marks the end (I think) of these well put together poster collectibles.

(Well, there's the 12-piece Mega-City Primer in progs 501-512, but it's just not as good a composition.  Oh, and the Tribal Imagery ones: a 2-part ABC Warriors in 1055-1056 and a 4-part Ukko in 1057-1060.  They're interesting, but incongruously tied to rave culture.)

I completely don't remember the Ukko one - that's weird - I can't imagine what the point of it was!

Also - what about the DR & Quinch and Psi-Judge Anderson calendars (sure I'm missing one)?

SMF strikes again!  Wish there was a source text view so it didn't force size adjustments on what you write after you've posted it!

Tjm86

Quote from: sheridan on 23 August, 2019, 01:38:22 PM
Quote from: Funt Solo on 21 August, 2019, 02:41:41 PM
Harry Twenty on the High Rock 
It is a one and done.  There was no more.

Nope, it got another outing a few years ago.  One of the SF specials, end of year progs or FCBD ...

Funt Solo

Quote from: Tjm86 on 23 August, 2019, 04:17:53 PM
Quote from: sheridan on 23 August, 2019, 01:38:22 PM
Quote from: Funt Solo on 21 August, 2019, 02:41:41 PM
Harry Twenty on the High Rock 
It is a one and done.  There was no more.
Nope, it got another outing a few years ago.  One of the SF specials, end of year progs or FCBD ...

Ah, I wondered when this might start to happen.  I've only read 2000 AD up to (and including) 2014, due to a temporal disturbance.  I think Sheridan was hinting that there's a bit of Harry Twenty action that I'm not aware of yet.  Fun! 

Later, I'll be like "Dry Run", one and done, and it'll turn out that it got rebooted into a 12-book saga. Maybe I should stop now while I'm mostly still talking sense.
++ A-Z ++  coma ++