2000AD Annual 1978

[Colin YNWA]

Damn sorry I thought there was already a thread but couldn't find it from a search. Mods any chance of merging this thread with that one?

[JOE SOAP]

If you think the '78 annual is bad -at least there's two Mick McMahon Dredds, one of them featuring all 12 Judges in Mega City One- '79 is worse and '80 ain't much better. Things start to improve in '81.

[exilewood]

There is some dodgy stuff in those annuals, but there's also loads of great stuff.

Plus, I read & re-read them a thousand times when I was a kid, so they must've been doing something right.

[Colin YNWA]

'79 is worse

Wow you're not wrong there. Just finished '79 and its lost much of the formative charm of '78 and is just plain bad. Have a curious soft spot for 'Guinea Pig' and 'Phantom Patrol' but that aside and some nice art in places has little to recommend it.

[TordelBack]

-at least there's two Mick McMahon Dredds, one of them featuring all 12 Judges in Mega City One

No wonder he got fed up drawing Block Mania.

"Look, John, when you and Alan said this story was going to feature so many crazy citizens that it'd take the entire Judge force to contain them, I thought I'd be drawing a couple of dozen nutjobs tops".

[Steve Green]

It was obviously a conference call, look at all the screens

Or the other 40,000 judges were getting synthi-caf...

[JUDGE BURNS]

I have 2 copies of the 1978 annual. I must dig them all out from my 'cellar' .
I havent read the annuals in a long time.

[Van Dom]

This annual served as my introduction to 2000ad, back around about 81 or 82. My uncle had it and I found it on his bookshelf when I was spending a week at my nan's during summer holidays. I thought it was fanastic and its what prompted me to pester my dad into buying the weekly for me. I then proceeded to steal this from my uncle and take it home at the end of the holiday (don't think I ever 'fessed up about that!) but where it ended up I have no idea. Probably up in my ma's attic somewhere. I remember the Dare strip clearly but everything else is vague. All in all though, it did the job getting me hooked on the weekly so, what more can you ask for!

[SmallBlueThing]

Despite reading from prog one, i didnt cop on to the annuals til the 1981 edition. I've a feeling this may be due to annuals being 'expensive' in my family's eyes, and me already wanting the dr who one from my mum and dad, and my gran habitually buying me Rupert.
I've got them all now, however, and confess to going all squirmy in a not altogether unsexual way, when i open one up and give it a fondle and a sniff. Great stuff, although the desperation to fill the pages in these early annuals is obvious, they did very occasionally hit paydirt, with some of the very best stuff in 2000AD's history appearing here first.
SBT

[Proudhuff]

re-reading this thread I was wondering whatever happen to that Al Ewing dude?

[exilewood]

There's some pretty good stuff in the '79 Annual I think - first off it's got a cracking O'Neil cover, I quite like the 'Future-Shock' type stories - some nice Ewins art there, and the Dredd is excellent blinding!

For my money, the '80 annual is the worst of the lot.

[JOE SOAP]

Don't forget the Dan Dare '79 annual which has a Dredd colour strip by Kev O'Neill and Ian Kennedy Dan Dare:

[exilewood]

Ah yes! Ryan's Revenge - "Wind resistance!"

[Proudhuff]

Ah yes! Ryan's Revenge - "Wind resistance!"

You wonder how Dredd would approach that 'defense' now?