DrRocka: I think it’s great that you’re devoting a corner of your pub to 2000 AD. It’s just this kind of “2000 AD is nothing now compared to when I was reading it in [insert year]” is this kind of relentless thing. If someone doesn’t care for or click with 2000 AD anymore, fair enough. If they’re against the Regened Progs, I get it. But if person X is berating the modern Prog with the same old tired lines, I’m not surprised people respond with what they think about that.
I can’t speak for anyone else, but I do apologise for my comment making you feel unwelcome; that certainly wasn’t my intention. But things change. The comics landscape is nothing like it was in 1983. And, frankly, I’m happy about that. When I read old 2000 AD Progs now, there is a certain amount of subversive content absent from modern comics. But you know what else is absent? Diversity. Inclusivity. Much understanding of how the world feels beyond the eyes of a white middle-aged man.
Reading through the Dredd collection and the 2000 AD UC has been very interesting in many ways. I liked certain stories more than I was expecting to — and quite a few an awful lot less. The Prog back then was so often male, white, sexist and middle-aged. Even John Wagner slid into tropes far too often, including certain xenophobic pieces of writing (such as with his treatment of the Japanese). And even the subversion typically amounted to violence and some plucky (male) underdog getting one over on society.
I read my daughter’s comics now and again and, yeah, they’re quite safe. They’re also a lot smarter than the comics I read as a kid. The humour stuff is still silly and yucky at times (I can’t imagine people reading last week’s Bunny vs Monkey, set in the poo dimension, would suggest that slice of The Phoenix was playing it safer than something that would have been in the Whoppee comics I read as a child.) Mega Robot Bros might look slick on the surface, but that deals with oppression and othering in a way that clicks with kids. As for 2000 AD, I guess it grew up. It’s less brash and more thoughtful. But I’ll take Brink over Invasion any day.
