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Hi Col! Can't remember what I was catching up on when we spoke - I think it was Rogue Trooper, right? I'd never read the last book in that series, where he became an intergalactic assassin or something. Totally nuts but quite enjoyed it, although clearly rogue really needs to stay on nu earth.

I've started working through Strontium Dog - definitely gaps in my reading there in the early stories, I'm only familiar with the ones that later appeared in 2000ad monthly. And I'm re-reading some classic Dredd. I should catch up with some of the big essential Dredd event stories at some point (eg the one that seems to have wiped out most of Mega City One).

As for Pongo, I can't really remember. I was looking for an internet name about twenty years ago and settled on Pongo, and now its just kinda automatically what I reach for when asked for a user name...

Thanks for the warm welcomes, Richard and broodblik! I definitely wish I'd returned earlier, its nice to have 2000ad back.

Ha Col I'm not sure we're ready to open that pandora's box yet - we still didn't even definitively settle the "is Lee van Cleef actually playing the same character" argument (although I suspect I may be on thin ice with that in retrospect...).

I'm here! A bit late (ahem, very late, sorry Col!), but reporting for duty.

Hello everyone! I'm Phil, a newcomer to the site (albeit sometime lurker) and returner to 2000ad after a long absence.

My memory is a little unreliable about the 80s, but I think my first brush with 2000ad was an episode of Boone (of all things). I don't remember much about the show at all, but there was a scene where the young and very-80s-cool character Rocky was on a stakeout or something and the scene ended with him opening a copy of the galaxy's greatest comic to pass the time. And if it was good enough for Rocky... right? Then my first taste of actual content came in December 1987 when my beloved ZX Spectrum magazine Crash had a Judge Death feature (you can read it here https://www.crashonline.org.uk/47/2000ad.htm) and pullout. I don't remember much about the pullout now sadly except that it blew my little mind and left me craving more. Sadly the Judge Death game they were talking about never happened (the publisher Piranha went out of business during development), but re-reading the article now it's the tease about an Ace Trucking Co. game that really piques my interest... it would be fascinating to know what conversations, if any, were actually had about that!

So now I'm actually a bit confused, because the first prog I ever bought was 548 which came out in November 1987. I'm guessing that the December edition of that years's Crash came out early or something, who knows. Prog 548 was the one with the fantastic image of contrasting green and pinks with Kano standing over a dead Krool against a vivid sky. And what a great introduction it was, with Bad Company II, Strontium Dog, Zenith and Nemesis the Warlock (the art of John Hicklenton was like nothing I'd ever seen before, but I imagine that's a common reaction when coming across any Nemesis strip!). And of course Judge Dredd in Oz, which will always be a personal favourite despite the lack of Old Stoney Face himself.

After that I was hooked. I caught up on backstories like the VCs and Halo Jones through the ace 2000ad monthly magazine, and remained an avid reader of the comic until sometime in 1995. I drifted away shortly after the release of the Stallone movie, which might have had something to do with my dwindling enthusiasm.

Anyway, enough backstory. I returned to the fold a couple of years back largely because of the option to buy progs on tablet – its not the same as a physical copy of course, but much more practical in my little house. And I'm absolutely loving the new progs! The stories are great (the Out and Thistlebone have been personal favourites, although the writing across the board and on Dredd has been consistently great). There are a few new stories like Sinister Dexter that clearly have a decade's worth of backstory that I'm out the loop with, but hey it was always a bit like that.

Back in October I ended up in the pub having a chat with a mate of mine called Col who hangs out here sometimes, and mentioned I was planning to join the forum, which I've since been very slow to do. I was a bit drunk, but I remember beaming at him happily about the art in recent progs and jabbering about all things 2000ad. Having now checked some of the recent forum posts I wish I'd gotten to this much more quickly! Sorry Col, I got here in the end .

So anyway, that's me – hello! The forum has seemed a friendly place to hang out whenever I've been lurking here, so I'm looking forward to joining the conversation.