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I was looking in the graphic novel section of Waterstones the other day. I was surprised to see someone had done a graphic novel version of The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists. That must have been a labour of love because I don't reckon they'll make much money from it. I have read the original version. It's about a bunch of painter-decorators in the early 1900s, struggling to make ends meet. It's a left wing tract. It was pretty good, really, but it was too long.

I went to my local comic shop to pick up my copies of 2000AD. In the same arcade was another shop selling old books, toys, card games, and guess what? Issue 3 of 2000 AD, with a cover price of 8p, and I am pretty sure it had a spinner. That surprised me a bit as I thought only issue 1 had the spinner. There were some comics from about the same time, but I cannot remember what the titles were.

In a recent prog, there was a Judge Dredd story in which a heiress inherited a large amount of money. She gave it away when she found out they were the profits from drug trading. In the early days of 2000 AD, wasn't sugar a proscribed substance? I thought the implication of that was that Megacity One was such a zero tolerance police state that the drugs trade had been exterminated, leaving only low level intoxicants like sugar. Either that or that Megacity One was such an over-weening, joyless nanny state, that not only tobacco and alcohol are banned, but sugar, because it can make you fat and is bad for your teeth.

Not the most original Dredd related thought I admit. We know what his lower face looks like. Apparently he keeps spare eyeballs, so have we seen them? Dredd's never been seen without his helmet except for that execrable Sylvester Stallone abortion. Also he did not wear his helmet in Necropolis, but he was wearing a big floppy hat, and his face was burnt off. Dredd's a clone, so if Rico or Kraken ever took their helmets off we'd know what Dredd looked like.

I like this Noam Chimsky character in Judge Dredd. One thing I've wondered about Dredd are his recurring enemies. Batman has lots of colourful enemies. Doctor Who, before Chibnell ruined it, had recurring enemies who he never managed to kill off completely: the Daleks, the Cybermen, the Master, the Sontarans, the Autons, etc Judge Dredd's recurring enemies are Judge Death and his crew and the Angel Gang, in particular, Mean Machine. There are the Simps, I suppose. I can't think of too many others.

I have been reading Gwynne's Kings and Queens: The Indispensable History of England and her Monarchs. Blow me down with a feather if the first recorded British king wasn't King Brutus. I thought his name was just a pun by Pat Mills: the British Empire being the brutish empire, Britons being brutes, etc. King Brutus was recorded as the first British king by Geoffrey of Monmouth, and most British historians think his history is a bit fanciful. Got to say, when I read King Brutus was a grandson of Aeneas, I was rather doubtful myself. I thought Aeneas was fictional. We did a bit of Virgil's Aeneid at school. According to Geoffrey of Monmouth's account, King Brutus arrived in Britain at Totnes, which is oddly specific, and quickly took over.

I liked the recent Judge Dredd story about the Simp woman who tried to rescue her partner from normality re-programming. I particularly liked the last prog. I suppose I am not making too much of a mental leap in thinking the Simps are analogous to the gay community. When did the Simps first appear in 2000AD? I ask because I recently watched a YouTube rant in which men who tried to be over nice to women in the forlorn hope they'd have sex with them were called simps. What is the OED definition of simp?

I learnt something today off YouTube. There was a character called Spring-Heeled Jack from a Victorian penny-dreadful, who had about a fifty year run. I have wondered before whether penny-dreadfuls were more like comics than books. However, would  he really be the first? What about all those ancient Greek gods and demi-gods? I mean, Thor already has a comic strip written about him. But supposing you were to stick to regularly published printed characters, who would be the first?

You know, I quite liked that JD story in which the bean counter judge works out that reallocating justice funds to education would be more cost effective at reducing crime. However, that did make me reflect something I saw Judge Jordon Petersen say on YouTube, which was that it was relative inequality, rather than poverty that was the cause of crime and other social problems. I read a book, called The Spirit Level, which basically said something similar. That did make me wonder, because from what I can work out, just about everyone in Mega City One is poor. Most people are unemployed, and the ones that are employed have crummy jobs. So is there a class of relatively wealthy Mega City One-ites, who drive around in swanky EuroCity hover cars, dress in suits, and live in luxury apartments, where they can be seen sipping mineral water on their balconies, admiring their carefully tended, living wall gardens, and chatting about their holidays in Ciudad Espana?

Alright, how many deep comics/graphical novels are there?

2000AD's current series The Out is a brave attempt. Obviously there have been psychologically deep comic strips like The Watchmen and Persopolis. Actually, I don't know about Persopolis, because I have not read it. To be honest, I don't think comics are up there with novels and plays, maybe not even up there with films. Why is that? Can't the speech bubbles contain enough words? Maybe it's because the artists have to paint dramatic pictures, and cannot paint lots of frames of people sitting around talking.

I hear from some of the angrier comic enthusiasts on YouTube that comic shops are in a dire position, at least in America. In Reading, I've noticed a new comic shop has opened. It's in Harris Arcade near the station if you're interested. I've not been in it. I've just looked through the window, but it looks like it sells mostly American comics. I have not spotted any 2000AD titles. I wish the owner well anyway. The only shop I've found that sells 2000AD was WH Smith by the station.

Is Judge Dredd a superhero? I get the feeling he's actually not. For a start, it's not clear he's on the right side. Second, he's a member of a police service. He's not a lone vigilante. Dredd is the best judge there is, but he does not have any particular ability that is specific to himself. I would say Dr Who was more a superhero than an alien adventurer. He had the fancy equipment. He basically had superpowers. I would say 007 was more of a superhero than Judge Dredd, because he generally acts as a lone wolf.

Hello,
I finally managed to pass the intelligence test to register for this forum. I couldn't get registered the first night, but cracked it the next day. As a Tek-droid, it is an experience I know well. In this case the secret was to type "redd", not "Dredd".

I used to read 2000AD during the 90s. I remember 2000AD wondering whether they should re-title themselves when the millenium turned, so I must have stopped reading shortly after that. I started reading about six months ago. Back in the 90s, I would have said Judge Dredd was usually the 2nd best strip in the comic. Recently, I have usually found Dredd the best strip, but it has had some decent competition recently. I am really loving The Out and hope that the quality keeps up.