2000AD Sci-Fi Swipe File

[Albion]

In another panel he's selling "dirty postcards"! 

[Lobo Baggins]

Front cover, Prog 140...



Front cover, STar Trek: The Motion Picture A Marvel Super Special Magazine...



Possibly taken from the same source image rather than one copying the other, though, but I'm pretty sure it's the same image (there's either some sort of weird shortening effect at the back, or the engine nacelles are in the wrong place).  And what's going on with that ship's registration on the prog?  The 1's are backwards and the registration ought to be NCC 1701 rather than 1701 NCC... has it been flipped about and then bodged around?  The more I look at it the weirder it seems.

[Dark Jimbo]

Cor, that cover's a bit of a mess all round. So much text! So many different fonts!

[sheridan]

Cor, that cover's a bit of a mess all round. So much text! So many different fonts!

I count five, plus another four which are part of logos (Star Trek, 2000AD and Tornado, Dinky and The Stainless Steel Rat).  Changing the colours and putting in the odd piece of italics doesn't help.

[Lobo Baggins]

Cor, that cover's a bit of a mess all round. So much text! So many different fonts!

Aye, I get the distinct impression that the Stainless Steel Rat cover from prog 141 was supposed to coincide with the start of the story, but wasn't ready yet and that one is very much a swiftly put together emergency measure.

[SuperSurfer]

Aye, I get the distinct impression that the Stainless Steel Rat cover from prog 141 was supposed to coincide with the start of the story, but wasn't ready yet and that one is very much a swiftly put together emergency measure.

Or more likely some suit in advertising sales leant on editorial, having closed a deal that just couldn't be refused. And to hell with an aesthetically pleasing front cover in what was a great era for covers.

I'm curious as to who drew that USS Enterprise. I wonder if it's actually from the Marvel Super Special Lobo posted the front cover of. See internal pages and the inking style which to me looks like it could be by Tony DeZuniga:
http://marvel1980s.blogspot.co.uk/2014/12/1979-marvel-super-special-15-star-trek.html

Some more prog tv/film/toy tie-in covers:
http://www.2000ad.org/?zone=covers&page=character&choice=FILM&Comic=2000ad

[The Enigmatic Dr X]

I'm not sure that something officially recognised - like a movie Enterprise from a Star Trek movie - is really a swipe. Is it?

[sheridan]

I'm not sure that something officially recognised - like a movie Enterprise from a Star Trek movie - is really a swipe. Is it?

I don't think it's a swipe at all - surely the defining feature of a swipe is that it's illicit?

[SuperSurfer]

No not a swipe. Interesting find though.

[Lobo Baggins]

I'm not sure that something officially recognised - like a movie Enterprise from a Star Trek movie - is really a swipe. Is it?

I'd say that most of the stuff appearing in this thread isn't true swiping - most of it it homage and there's occasionally some recycling going on.

[Lobo Baggins]

I'm curious as to who drew that USS Enterprise. I wonder if it's actually from the Marvel Super Special Lobo posted the front cover of.

The planet in the background looks very Belardinelli, and the Speedo Ghost is very prone to similar 'lens flaring' whenever it appears on the cover - however, the star scape is nearly identical to the one in 'Star Lord's Guide to the Galaxy' on the back cover of the same issue, which is drawn by Dave Gibbons.

[ming]

I'm not sure that something officially recognised - like a movie Enterprise from a Star Trek movie - is really a swipe. Is it?

I'd say that most of the stuff appearing in this thread isn't true swiping - most of it it homage and there's occasionally some recycling going on.

Yeah, but there are some startling cases of things from 2000AD that I've been familiar with for decades suddenly having another origin (the High Rock and The Last Man Future Shock, f'rinstance).

Out of curiosity, which things would you consider as swipes?  Is the Feek a homage?

[The Enigmatic Dr X]

For me a true swipe is clandestine in nature. It is taking something else and passing it off as your own. In the past, it might have been calculated that distance would give anonymity and protection - who was going to even know that your robot for a 70s UK comic was a riff on an illustration from 40s US pulp? But that was before the internet and the fun of having these things shown up.

There are also homages or knowing uses - like Deadlock or the Enterprise above - where the source may not be obvious to the reader but there was no attempt by the artist to disguise their source.

Then there are in-jokes, like the Vincent robots in ABC warriors. These are artistic easter eggs and just fun to see but, again, the artist isn't really meaning to claim they designed the thing.

[sheridan]

For me a true swipe is clandestine in nature. It is taking something else and passing it off as your own. In the past, it might have been calculated that distance would give anonymity and protection - who was going to even know that your robot for a 70s UK comic was a riff on an illustration from 40s US pulp? But that was before the internet and the fun of having these things shown up.

There are also homages or knowing uses - like Deadlock or the Enterprise above - where the source may not be obvious to the reader but there was no attempt by the artist to disguise their source.

Then there are in-jokes, like the Vincent robots in ABC warriors. These are artistic easter eggs and just fun to see but, again, the artist isn't really meaning to claim they designed the thing.

I endorse this post, and all who sail in it.

[Lobo Baggins]

I just spotted this last week, hunting through some old progs.  Mike Dorey obviously had some "Blake's 7" photos in his reference file, as demonstrated by "Psi-Testers" in prog 408:

The Scorpio Clip Guns fired six types of bullet (laser, plasma bullet, percussion charge, micro grenade, stun and drug) you know...