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I was just reading the latest entry in alexf's excellent Heroes of 2000 AD blog where he highlights the excellent work of Chris Lowder, aka Jack Adrian.

This bit caught my eye:

"By 1978, he was near the top of Tharg's 'on-call' list - he's one of the few droids credited with three strips in a single Prog! Prog 78, fact fans. Off the top of my head, there are four others who've achieved this feat..."

I know Dan Abnett had three strips the other week, but who might make up the remainder of this elite group? Wagner, Mills and Grant must be obvious guesses but I couldn't pin down the actual progs. I guess some of the very early progs must be a good bet for Pat Mills as he was writing a lot of the material.

Anyone able to give an authoritative answer, in whole or part?

Just read the fantastic interview with the much missed Ron Smith from issues 288-289 of the Megazine, kindly posted on Facebook. I've only ever bought the Meg once - it was the issue a while ago that contained a fascinating interview with erstwhile Dredd artist Kim Raymond.

Not being a Meg regular, I've been missing out on all their interviews. Is there a chance that the interviews with 2000 AD creators might be collected in a reprint volume?

How to play: using a random number generator (e.g. Google's online version) generate an integer between 1 and the number of this week's current prog (2113 at time of writing).

You are only allowed to do this once! Do not cheat!!

The number you get is the number of only back prog you will ever be allowed to see. If necessary, check its contents with Barney. Are you satisfied with your lot?

My prog: 578 (11^th June 1988)

A typical slice of mid-to-late silver-era proggage here. I get a nice Gibson Dredd cover and an impressive Brett Ewins Star Scan of Sheeva from Bad Company II on the back. Inside, the Dredd story is episode one of Full Mental Jacket, a minor classic. The A.B.C. Warriors epic The Black Hole is hurtling towards its climax with Bisley (I think) on art duties. The Krool Heart was a decent enough sequel to the admittedly superior first book of Bad Company and Back-to-Front Jones makes for a reasonably diverting Tales of the Doghouse filler.

(Only four strips? Did I miss something?)

Overall I am pretty happy with my random prog and would award it a satisfaction score of 8/10.

Over to you. Hope you get lucky!

Hi, I've just tried to add an avatar to my profile bit it doesn't seem to like the Imgur link; and it didn't want to upload a 21k jpeg because it was 'too large or not an avatar'.

What should I do? Cheers!

This thread should be an annual event, like the excellent Best Covers ones. I'm looking forward to Best Strips of 2018 already!

Well you need look forward no longer, because here it is   

Yes, once again it's time to vote for your three favourite 2000 AD strips of the past year. Please rank them, it's three points for your 1st place choice down the one point for 3rd place. Please don't do joint placings as the scoring gets too complicated.

Here's the list of candidates, compiled by looking through the 2018 section of the online shop. I've omitted Dredd, as it seems a bit unfair to compare the comic's weekly fixture against the rest of its ever-changing roster. I've also left out one-shots from the year's specials, and Future Shocks. However I've left in Infestinauts because even though it's a 3riller, as a 3-part story it's long enough to judge. Please let me know if I've missed any other non-single-issue strips.

A.B.C. Warriors
Anderson
Bad Company
Brass Sun
Brink
Durham Red
The Fall Of Deadworld
Fiends Of The Eastern Front
Grey Area
Infestinauts
Jaegir
Kingdom
Mechastopheles
The Order
Savage
Sinister Dexter
Skip Tracer
Strontium Dog
Survival Geeks


A reminder of last year's top 3:

Brink   (51 pts)
The Fall of Deadworld   (25 pts)
Hope ...for the Future   (17 pts)

This time round, will even half a Brink strip prove too much of a match for the competition?

Only you can decide!

Following the shock reappearance this week of [redacted] in [redacted], which other characters from 2000 AD's past should make a shock reappearance in current stories?

I'd quite like to see Rick Random make a shock appearance in Skip Tracer.

Was going to post this in the current prog thread but thought it might run on its own...

Just picked up this week's prog (2084) from WHSmith's and the person at the counter said, rather unexpectedly, "Has it started repeating itself yet?"

Which caught me completely off guard. Best response I could muster on the spur of the moment was "A bit, but the pictures are different." Ha ha.

I suppose if I'd had a bit more time to think I might have provided a more germane response such as "Well, the Pat Mills strips basically go over the same ground, and the Dredd stories are a bit over-fixated with the aftermath of Day of Chaos".

Any strange comments been made when you've picked up your prog?

Excuse the cut and paste, but...

Forktail is a musical project by artists Si Davis and Boo Cook exploring the themes of folklore/folk horror/ancient history and the allure of The Horned One.



Influences: Wicker Man soundtrack, Broadcast + the focus Group, Sex Witch, Goat, folk horror films

Forktail on Bandcamp
FaceBook page

For my own part all I will say is that they are absolutely magnificent.

Just looking through the 'New Dark Age' thread, a few people have been mentioning the strips they've enjoyed over the last 12 months or so, and I realized I hadn't noticed a 'Best strips of 2017' thread (though we did the year's best covers, of course).

So, yeah. Thought it might be worth doing, albeit belatedly. I've compiled the list by looking through the 2017 section of the online shop, so apologies if anything's been missed...

Judge Dredd
Kingmaker
The Order
Hope ...for the Future
Kingdom
Sinister Dexter
Brink
Scarlet Traces
The Fall of Deadworld
Defoe
Grey Area
Hunted
Greysuit
The Alienist
Slaine
Indigo Prime
Absalom
Tharg's 3rillers
Thargs Future Shocks

I haven't included the strips that started in the Christmas prog.

Wasn't sure whether to make this a vote or just a discussion but hey, why not give your 1-2-3 and if I get a moment I'll tot up the scores in a week or so's time.

PS If this is a thing that's already happened in another section, please be so good as to quietly delete this thread

[Caballistics, Inc.]

So I've just finished reading the digitally downloaded complete Caballistics, Inc. and damn, if it isn't one of the best stories that ever graced the prog.

I've excavated some old threads on the strip and while many people are understandably disappointed that it finished somewhat abruptly, there are a lot of comments to the effect that it had no proper conclusion at all. This clearly isn't the case as the final arc features a climactic showdown between Ethan Kostabi and his employees, while many loose ends are tied up (or unraveled...) in prog 2008's 'Nativity'. Why do some people think this constitutes a premature ending? Might it perhaps be that they've only read the incomplete TPBs and don't realise there was more?

Having said that... there's one thing I need to know before I get complete closure. We see Ravne and Jenny in an early episode of Absalom but have there been any subsequent appearances from Hannah Chapter and Lawrence Verse? Yes, I know, a shattered pelvis and (according to Kostabi, at least) a brain hemorrhage did not bode well for their prospects but y'know to be honest, I'd rather we'd seen their charred corpses than have their fate completely overlooked. Has there been so much as a hint..?

Just watched The 2000 AD ABC #93: Tao De Moto

It's not a strip with which I'm familiar, having begun my 26-year 2000 AD hiatus a few months before it began in prog 723, but it sounds interesting - shame it hasn't been collected. Does anyone know what happened to its writer, Myra Hancock? A Google search only seems to reveal details of her early indie work, Tao De Moto, and Sticky Fingers for Crisis. Did she give up on comics after that?

For no particular reason I was just looking at the 'Biotronic Man' stickers that came with prog 2, and I noticed they're actually quite a nifty and detailed bit of art.



Do we know who drew them? Were they commissioned especially for the comic, or are they just stock art with a couple of bits of Letraset?

As I've mentioned in a couple of posts recently, I've only just started back on the progs after a 27-year gap (shameful, I know). My modern 2000 AD collection now consists of a grand total of 9 progs, and I've noticed that with the exception of the last Christmas prog, which has a list of featured strips, it's adverts all the way on the back pages.

How long has it been like that? I miss the Star Scans. I understand that the ad revenue is probably vital though.

Hi, been on the board for a few months now (mostly lurking) so thought I should do the formal thing and post here

I read 2000 AD from prog 1 right up to prog 670, by which time I was away from home at University and not able to get my weekly fix, so I cancelled the order - it just wasn't the same coming home every few months and ploughing through a stack of old issues.   

Still kept up my interest in 2000 AD and browsed through new progs in W.H. Smith's whenever i could. However I never felt tempted to take the plunge and subscribe. 

That all changed a few months ago when I hauled all my back prog boxes out of my dad's loft and began a prog slog from around about prog 250. The many classic thrills I experienced while doing this slowly convinced me to try and catch up on what I'd been missing.

At first I did this by buying up batches of back progs wherever I could find them. Trouble was I could never find much of a run, and there were always annoying gaps. Besides, the chances of me completing a full set in this way were remote, not to mention expensive.

Eventually I realised that these 'wilderness years' progs were not for me. The reason I enjoyed reading my own back progs so much was partly because they brought back so many memories. I determined I would stick to anthology collections in future.

Then, the week before last, it happened. The W.H. Smith on campus had prog 2016 proudly sitting on one of its shelves. It was the first time in over a year that they'd stocked 2000 AD (no idea why they stopped, or what persuaded them to resume). And that Alex Ronald cover of Dredd holding up Par Vega did it for me. Before I knew it, £2.65 had been exchanged at the counter for my first new prog in 27 years.

I am proud to say that my restarted collection now features TWO progs, with prog 2017 doubling its size. And I've discovered another reason why bingeing on bulk-bought back progs was so unsatisfying - there was no excitement, no requirement to wait a week before getting my hands on the next one!

Well the excitement is now well and truly back. And my original prog slog is up to prog 503, so I've got a double whammy of thrills to enjoy. And maybe I lucked out with my hopping on point, but the comic's current strips are every bit as good as those from those golden days.

I'll have 520 new progs by the 50th anniversary!

Hi, I'm fairly new here, but I've made a few posts in the General thread. However I can't post a review in the prog 2017 review thread. Why no 'Reply' button?

Cheers 

You are Pat Mills.

You've just seen 30 episodes of your latest project - the tale of Celtic warrior Slaine - published in 2000AD, to massive critical approval from the magazine's readers. They loved the painstakingly researched Celtic references, from the stories, inspired by genuine mythology, to the grittily authentic portrayal of life in prehistoric Britain. You've had one superb artist and one breathtakingly magnificent artist realise your vision, both capturing perfectly the characters, clothes and landscapes of the age.

You are on a roll, and it's time to script the next instalments.

So what do you do? You jettison practically all traces of Celtic authenticity and instead give the story all the trappings of a Cthulhu-esque pseudo-SF novel, with time-travelling aliens materialising from 'inner space', armed with skin-liquidising sonic weapons and 'leyser' beams. Any remaining sorcerous elements are given a sci-fi twist. Basically, you remove everything that made the earlier episodes of the series great.

Later you will put most of these elements back. So the question is – what were you thinking?

Hi, I hope it's not considered bad etiquette to turn up here just to ask a question; but I wanted to forward this, in the hope that someone might be able to shed some light. It's a 2000AD reader from another message board trying to remember a particular story...

Right. In all likelihood nobody will be able to answer this question due to its sheer vagueness but it's been driving me mad for months and maybe, just maybe, there's some ultra-enlightened OTFer and 2000 AD fan out there who might just have a smidgen of an idea what I'm on about.

There was a strip that appeared in the comic back in, I reckon, 91-92 that seemed like a riff on Aliens - a platoon of grunts are dispatched to some hellhole with orders to either investigate the disappearances of a number of humans or to off some horrific alien threat only to be offed themselves one-by-one in gruesome fashion. The threat in this case being a humanoid monster/mutant (can't remember which) that resembled Tina Turner if she'd spent a few decades immersed in grey Kryptonine - grey skin, blonde Jovi-esque hair, fingers elongated to savage claws, a mouth full of animalistic teeth. The story was told from the creature's point of view. The first panel and the title page opened with a picture of the monster looking directly at the reader just after ripping out some poor soul's neck saying, "I'm just a monster. Wasn't I always?"

The images stuck with me if the story didn't. The strip was beautifully illustrated, very creepy. I'd love to read it again but have absolutely no idea where to pick it up. Sorry about the infuriating vagueness and randomness of the recollection

There you are. I was reading 2000AD up until about 1991 and it doesn't ring any bells with me. I suggested it might be something to do with this Feral cover, but no dice - apparently it didn't make the cover.

That's about all I can say! Over to you.