In conversation today (well, it's early in the morning, so really it was last night) I realised that there were a few things I'd first read in 2000AD. Simple things like the words 'society' and 'apocalypse' as well as lyrics to Chumbawamba songs.
I also read a critique of general Sci-Fi tropes from a more scientific, or at least real world-based point of view. One that stood out was that starships wouldn't be orientated like battleships (http://www.projectrho.com/public_html/rocket/misconceptions.php#id--Rockets_Are_Not_Boats) - i.e. floors which are long and thin - but more like skyscrapers - lots of smaller floors, one on top of another. Fancy that, a starship that looks like an office block. Not something you see in most science fiction...
At its early best, Slaine was a rich history lesson told with a light touch. Ley Lines, Ogham alphabet, etc. Doubtful these would have cropped up in other forms. Other examples throughout Mills' work (best of all Charley's War?). Aquila does a neat job of presenting a lot of Romam period detail. And Dredd could hit the nail on the head on modern society time and again (see Sunday Night Fever and a ton of others, plus of course the democracy saga).
That's 'educational' and the spaceship example is interesting; I'm curious what the most practical and perhaps shocking 2000AD teachings would be... (excluding Dr & Quinch, who got there first I now realise).
I learnt about prejudice and hate, and how a leader of a country can convince a majority that a minority are no better than refuse, herding them into ghettos, and persecuting them to the point of utter hopelessness. How surprised was I after reading about Nelson Bunker Kreelman to then be taught in school about Nazi Germany!
Thanks to Johnny Alpha* I learnt it was possible to kill someone by punching their nose bone into their brain. :o
*Might have been in Starlord rather than 2000AD but the point still stands.
I learnt that the best place to holster you gun is on your ankle.
Quote from: JamesC on 18 November, 2015, 12:04:43 PM
I learnt that the best place to holster you gun is on your ankle.
Well, maybe if you're actual riding on a bike when you want to use it...
Quote from: JamesC on 18 November, 2015, 12:04:43 PM
I learnt that the best place to holster you gun is on your ankle.
Heh.
I've often wondered how that works! I remember someone saying it is quicker to reach for the gun from your leg than your waist* if you're on a bike, (edit- Okay Sheridan just now mentioned that. I started this post a while back and just completed it) but, then what if you're not?
Do you perform a snap roll every time you need to fast draw? A good way to avoid incoming lead I guess until the criminals wise-up and compensate. Or the elderly judges put their back out.
*best place from a standing position in my opinion is in-between. Low slung on the thigh (they say 'hip' in the parlance but the gun is on the thigh) gunslinger style. From a standing position anyway.
2000ad has encouraged me to take a great interest in minutiae which doesn't really matter. I won't say it taught me that, as I think I had that habit before then.
I learned when you absolutely have to kill every motherfucker in the room.... get a shotgun.
You're hit, you're dead.
Your name determines your future.
I was just thinking about this yesterday.
I learned from ABC Warriors that a freedom fighter on one side is a terrorist on the other.
I learned from Zenith that God might not exist (believe me, this wasn't an idea bandied about much in 1980s Irish primary schools). I also learned from Nemesis that my school history books were talking pro-Vatican bullshit in trying to tell us that the Spanish Inquisition rarely tortured anyone.
I also learned from Nemesis that it was the cowboys, not the Indians, who introduced scalping (though someday Stephen Fry will tell me on Q.I. that this is a total myth, of course).
Finally, I learned from Sláine what the words 'eunuch', 'concubine' and 'impotent' meant.
Nice one, Pat and Grant! (I actually am grateful; 2000ad was a constant influence throughout my childhood and I wouldn't be me without it.)
French introduced it.....seemingly. Z
Scalping?
So I read somewhere, it was to keep a tally during their wars against the British colonies. Z
Fair enough. I suppose they were fairly adept at full-on beheadings before that.
Pat Mills does have a tendency to present urban myths as if they were true, though; if it wasn't for QI and the internet I'd still believe the v-sign had something to do with Saxon archers, and that the f-word was some kind of acrostic legal term.
One I learnt from Nemesis: dastard is a real word and just another made up swear.
Yep they did chop a few before that; but the guillotine post dates the 7 years war. :-) Z
I learned that the future isn't what it used to be.
I learned that weet(a)bix look like skinheads.
Or was that on the back of a different comic?
Oh, and I also learned that my newsagent HATED trying to find the Australian cover price in that tiny box that included Jupiter and Io and things. Often.
I learned that putting biotronic stickers on your arm doesn't give you super-strength or, indeed, an iron back. Also, cars are heavier than they look and difficult to throw at your little brother.
I learnt that wearing 2000AD related apparel as a teenager attracted bullies with comments about comics being childish, but a quick query from me such as 'Where else am I going to enjoy stories about a futuristic fascist dystopia?' left them confused and bewildered, allowing me a quick exit.
I learnt, with the return of Dan Dare, that great characters never die.
.
I also learnt, watching John Probe getting blown away, that great characters always die.
.
Frikkin' 2000AD. No wonder I'm so screwed up.
.
Quote from: The Legendary Shark on 19 November, 2015, 06:31:39 PM
I also learnt, watching John Probe getting blown away, that great characters always die.
'Great' characters...?
Steve Austin was a great character :lol:
John Probe was a great character. He was tough, strong, addicted to needles and couldn't remember who he was. Steve Austin was just a cheap proto-knock-off.
That comics can be the greatest form of entertainment there is.
Gee Shucks ain't I sweet.
Yeah a knock off that appeared three or four years earlier. :lol:
Time travel, obviously.
Quote from: Magnetica on 19 November, 2015, 07:56:24 PM
Yeah a knock off that appeared three or four years earlier. :lol:
Hence Sharky's 'proto-' prefix, see? He's smarter than you (think).n
Clearly - it's one (of the many) reason(s) I stay out of the political thread. :)
Dan Dare taught little Stevie all about tachyons...
(https://marswillsendnomore.files.wordpress.com/2014/08/dan-dare-2000ad-1-20-45.jpg)
...in addition to couching relativistic time dilation in terms that was accessible to an eight year old
(https://marswillsendnomore.files.wordpress.com/2014/08/dan-dare-2000ad-1-20-57.jpg)
Dinosaurs or those large flying-reptiles evolved into what we think were dragons and I assume they now no longer exist. Even though, it's not true, yet it made perfect sense to me with all the other logic that came along with it.
This isn't purely factual, but something very fantastic.....
Still trying to wrap my mind around Shield-Kicking.
As the shield is kicked over their head, the kicker leaps on top....where they are supposed to be left wide open for another attack from the other side of the shield.
Which is either a hint that it's meant to be performed by more than one attacker. Like a two-man tag-team the kicker and then the other that jumps on top of the shield while the first attacker proceeds to attack a unshielded opponent who still has their hands full, but hold a shield that is being danced on by the second attacker.
Because the idea of being attacked from over a shield sounds really awkward to me.
Perhaps if this lone attacker did everything and managed to the grab the shield, after kicking it high and then tumbling over head, taking them with it when the land on their feet on the other side. throwing them.
Sounds like awful lot of work for nothing.
I know from past experience that parlour tricks like this more often than not get you hurt, because simplicity beats complexicity unless your really, really good or just really, really, lucky.
Past experience, where I had my natural guard knocked out of the way and lost my front teeth when this guy attacked me. Not that I actually learnt anything here. They basically did the same thing, as I had raised my hands to protect my face, and had them brutally knocked out of the way and was hit right in the mouth before I could move them back again. This guy was fast to do that and he didn't try anything like trying to leap on my arms overhead or just my head. They just hit from the same place they took my guard. I lost my hat and almost feel backwards ...I think they jabbed my in the face a second time ...which is what caused the bleeding.. and the loss of teeth.
So, I figured just kicking the shield or smashing it till it's destroyed (Like I saw in a Viking film Eaters of the dead!) and hitting them swiftly while their guard is raised is better plan, based on what I know.
Even the best fighters do rather than think about it!
No, I'm not mocking the author, but this is something which always found hard to figure.
2000AD taught me that each creator is superb in their own way. That anyone and everyone can be a genius writer and artist with practice and patience. That everyones own style is unique and wonderful.
Nobody tell Mark Millar I said that.
Quote from: Magnetica on 20 November, 2015, 08:14:50 AM
Clearly - it's one (of the many) reason(s) I stay out of the political thread. :)
You are a sensible man. Me, I can't resist the pull of its grimy claws for some reason :)
I learned a lot about radiation - Strontium-90, alpha waves, radiation sickness (it took Marvel to teach me about Gamma radiation!)
From 2000AD I learnt that Democracy is a Bad Thing™ and what people really want is a hard bastard fascist in a helmet with a big stick to pound on them when they step out of line.
Whereas from Warrior I learnt that Fascism is a Bad Thing™ and what people really want is a theatrically camp anarchist in a mask who will torture them until they see things his way. ;)
Quote from: Arkwright99 on 24 November, 2015, 05:35:31 PM
From 2000AD I learnt that Democracy is a Bad Thing™ and what people really want is a hard bastard fascist in a helmet with a big stick to pound on them when they step out of line.
I learnt that sometimes the people who quell riots actually inflamed them in the first place (family man!)
I thought that Law was the system of rules that a particular country or community recognizes as regulating the actions of its members and may enforce by the imposition of penalties...but I was wrong.
I learned that Dredd is the Law!
Quote from: sheridan on 27 September, 2016, 12:22:07 AM
Quote from: Arkwright99 on 24 November, 2015, 05:35:31 PM
From 2000AD I learnt that Democracy is a Bad Thing™ and what people really want is a hard bastard fascist in a helmet with a big stick to pound on them when they step out of line.
I learnt that sometimes the people who quell riots actually inflamed them in the first place (family man!)
You know, I've never looked at reportage of a riot without considering that possibility, and for the same reason. Nice one, TB Grover.