Memories of Christmas & 2000AD

[Alien Goodness]

2000AD was at the centre of one of my strongest childhood Christmas memories. I remember being drawn-out bored on Christmas Eve as it seems to stretch F-O-R-E-V-E-R while I was waiting for Christmas Day to arrive. I remember sitting on the stairs waiting for the newspaper boy to deliver my weekly issue of 2000AD and being blown away by the Christmas-themed cover of Prog 44. The thrill-power I received kept me going for the rest of the day. And then when I woke up early on Christmas Day, I was so excited to see that Santa had put a 2000AD annual in my stocking. That was a zarjaz Christmas!


I'm sure that there must be others here on the Forum who have special memories of Christmas & 2000AD going together like turkey & stuffing! Feel free to share on this thread if you so wish.

Merry Christmas

[maryanddavid]

I have always kept my 2000ads for reading on christmas day. I used to keep all decembers issues, annuals, winter specials, and the megs when they came along for christmas day.
This year its just the last issue and prog 2012, looking  forward to christmas night with a Brandy and Baileys, packet of Tayto and thrill power!

David

[W. R. Logan]

Since the death of Annuals my Christmas Prog & Meg has always been wrapped up and put under the tree.
This year the Prog is wrapped up but as yet have no tree.

[Steve Green]

A bit before Christmas, but I fondly remember finding out (presumably via the prog or a flyer in Forbidden Planet) that there would be droids signing (Think this was 80/81) and going down to the signing, getting the copies signed by Mick and Brian and seeing some of the colour artwork for ABC Warriors for the first time.

[JayzusB.Christ]

A present I've always remembered is the 2000ad yearbook that featured Slaine by Fabry, Dash Decent and Dredd giving a speech to some pissed up Scotch, yes, Scotchmen. It was from my brother when I was a young lad and it's still one of my favourite Thargy publications ever. Still read it regularly. (He's well out of touch with comics these days, so I'm giving him Cradlegrave for Christmas this year - that'll show him 2000ad still has it!)

[Dandontdare]

Musing nostaligacally on the annuals put me in mind of Mike Carroll's entry on lat year's advent calendar, which made me long for annuals that never were - Christmas Presents from Another Dimension

There's no way I could delay my end-of-year prog till Christmas day! When mine arrived last week it just meant that shopping wasn't an option that Saturday!

[Albion]

Getting the annuals was always the highlight of Christmas for me, no matter what other presents I got. I knew I would get them each year too but nothing ever really beat them. I still have them of course.

[pwog]

As a noob and so far, uninitiated I am anxiously awaiting the arrival of my FIRST Prog - 2012! Short of that, I am hoping for some TPs to be under the tree so, I can start catching up with all the thrills I have been reading about here...

Merry Christmas!

-pwog

[vzzbux]

I remember one christmas/birthday (3rd Jan) I got Judge Death Lives and Nemesis book three titan novels on top of my Dredd and 2000ad annuals.
As a poor family, looking back, my parents must have been really streached over the festive period with three of us to buy for.
Kids are spoilt nowadays.





V

[Spikes]

I have always kept my 2000ads for reading on christmas day. I used to keep all decembers issues, annuals, winter specials, and the megs when they came along for christmas day.

I admire your younger self's will power.

[Mattofthespurs]

A bit before Christmas, but I fondly remember finding out (presumably via the prog or a flyer in Forbidden Planet) that there would be droids signing (Think this was 80/81) and going down to the signing, getting the copies signed by Mick and Brian and seeing some of the colour artwork for ABC Warriors for the first time.

Ahh happy days. Iirc the signing was above the brand new Forbidden Planet 2 at the end of September. I went down there as a wet-behind-the-ears 11 year old and got the new Twoth and Judge Dredd annual signed up. Unfortunately they were to be Christmas presents from my Mum and Dad for me so I had to hand them over as soon as I got back from the signing and then wait two months before I could read them. I had no idea at the time who the heck these unshaven, beardy types were who were scribbling all over my Christmas presents. Thankfully I still have both sitting on my shelves to this very day.

The annuals were always a major part of my Xmas presents and something I always looked forward to reading whilst scarfing down an entire packet of Jaffa Cakes on Xmas morn.

Simpler times but happier times.

[TordelBack]

My first 2000AD annual was the 1984 one, a gorgeous monster of a thing sticking out of the horrendously stretched stocking that a long-suffering Santa was even then still filling for me. 

It was the Christmas of Return of the Jedi, but for the first time my interest in the toys was on the wane, and the only SW pressies under the tree were the audio cassette (bizarrely attached to a lovely LP album sleeve) and a speeder bike sans Biker Scout, which didn't really float my boat.  No, it was that chunky beast of a book that took up my attention.  Much as I enjoyed the new strips, it was the supposed filler that really engaged me as a newly minted squaxx: the Flesh reprints (my first encounter with a long-term love) were amazing,  and the giant crossword full of intriguing references to strips and characters I'd never seen, but it was the Alan Moore article on Skizz that blew my mind. 

Skizz was what had started me buying 2000AD regularly earlier that year, and I remember clearly reading that piece over and over again - I was able to identify artists a mile off, but I had never even considered who the people who wrote these things were.  Now here was some guy called Alan Moore talking directly to me about the creative process, albeit through the medium of a rusting script droid imprisoned in a dripping sub-basement.  Suddenly 2000AD wasn't just another comic like Eagle, Victor, Warlord and Battle, nor was it a slightly-embarrassing-even-at-12 Betelgeusian outreach project, it was a community of funny people working to create stuff just for me. 

The next biggets milestone for me was buying Prog 2000 the week before the Millennium Christmas. It felt, and still feels, so unreal.  We'd actually made it all the way there, and the Prog itself had never been better.

The other 2000AD Christmas memory that springs to mind is the highly-agitating effect that Brendan McCarthy's stunning array of scantily-clad women in the 1989 annual had on me...   Thanks for the dirty book, Mum!

[Darren Stephens]

My first encounter with 2000AD was the 1980 annual that I got for Christmas, 1979. It was a rather strange choice of prezzie, as I didn't read the weekly at that point. It was only when my uncle got me the first Dredd annual the following year that I really took notice. One of the best annuals. I love it even to this day. Some truly mind-blowing artwork and a real eye opener to the eleven year old me, more used to Marvel superhero comics!

[SmallBlueThing]

I don't really have many 2000AD-related xmas memories, I'm afraid- as I don't recall ever getting the annuals on the day. I do, however, have strong memories of trawling around the shops in the second half of the year in the hunt for the magical combination of brand new 2000AD and Dredd annuals on the shelves. Getting the excited phonecall from my friend Simon- or being told at school- that his mum had been to town and said the annuals were out, sticks in my head and makes me very sad that we don't have that now.

Since Simon's mum now lives but two doors away, she could actually pop round now and tell me in person.

For me, it was the excitement of the Sci-Fi Specials (and Winter Specials too I guess), that eclipses xmas. They were always hard to find, and many a Saturday of my childhood was spent visiting every single newsagent in the town in the hope of some Thargy goodness.

SBT

[JayzusB.Christ]

The other 2000AD Christmas memory that springs to mind is the highly-agitating effect that Brendan McCarthy's stunning array of scantily-clad women in the 1989 annual had on me

Heh, I remember reading that one and my Dad looking at it over my shoulder, in what I took at the time to be disgust but what I now realise was probably masked glee.