Prog 628 from 1985. Long lost but now reacquired. For a while prior to this I was skim-reading another Squaxx's prog on my paper round, but this was the first one I actually bought.
Dredd, Horned God, Zenith phase 3 and Cinnabar - pretty good place to start!
(https://i.imgur.com/fLa6SGU.jpg)
What was yours?
Prog 146 from 1980 - this was definitely my first prog, which I took to a grown-ups party. Some other kid about my age tried to steal it from me, which resulted in a tug-of-war and a Solomon-like result as the prog got ripped in two. My collecting was patchy at that point, and a regular order didn't start until around prog 178.
(http://www.2000ad.org/covers/2000ad/hires/146.jpg)
I read prog 424 on the school bus, a friend showed me it, I went home, asked my mum to swap my regular Beano for 2000ad at the newsagent, the following Wednesday, Prog 425 came in! Slavers of Drule. Part 2 of Midnight Surfer, Rogue Trooper with some incredible Jose Ortiz art, Anderson and Slaine too. I was seriously hooked.
One with Otto Sump on the cover. That's as best I can manage I'm afraid.
My first prog was 375 featuring a cover by Steve Dillon
Also featuring Carlos on Strontium Dog and Cam Kennedy on Rogue Trooper. What not to love?
(https://64.media.tumblr.com/d4d89ede907653dacd450c761866811f/tumblr_o96lewOZct1qf427ko1_1280.jpg)
651 (http://www.2000ad.org/functions/cover.php?choice=651&Comic=2000ad) for me. I had the first two annuals, given to me by a cousin. I'd earlier that year been sucked in by Best of 2000 AD monthly, for which my first was #46 (http://www.2000ad.org/functions/cover.php?Comic=reprints&choice=BO2K46), with Brendan McCarthy's iconic cover.
Although I remember being immensely jealous of a friend of mine who turned up at school plastered in the biotronic stickers from Prog 2, the little bastard wouldn't let me read it.
The first prog I ever read was bought for me to keep me quiet on the long, loooong journey to visit my grandparents in far-off Newton Stewart*
(http://www.2000ad.org/covers/2000ad/hires/9.jpg)
Fairly soon after, I was bought these ones, for reasons I can't recall...
(http://www.2000ad.org/covers/2000ad/hires/16.jpg)
(http://www.2000ad.org/covers/2000ad/hires/18.jpg)
Then this one turned up in a Christmas stocking...
(http://www.2000ad.org/covers/2000ad/hires/44.jpg)
Then this one, which I distinctly recall being purchased for another one of those long trips...
(http://www.2000ad.org/covers/2000ad/hires/68.jpg)
Then this one, I suspect because my Dad was an Eagle reader of old...
(http://www.2000ad.org/covers/2000ad/hires/101.jpg)
At which point, I offered to give up both my Beano and Dandy orders at the newsagent if I could get 2000AD instead which, after much wheedling and whining on my part, my parents agreed to and Prog 104 arrived with the Saturday papers...
(http://www.2000ad.org/covers/2000ad/hires/104.jpg)
...And that was it. I was in for the long haul.
*Which, I discovered many years later was where some of the location stuff for The Wicker Man was filmed...
Kev Levell's prog 424:
(http://www.2000ad.org/covers/2000ad/mediumres/424.jpg)
IP's prog 651:
(http://www.2000ad.org/covers/2000ad/mediumres/651.jpg)
Going to guess that 280 is scrotnig's:
(http://www.2000ad.org/covers/2000ad/mediumres/280.jpg)
195 for me - Gibson doing REdondo for Return to Armageddon
I'd read earlier progs at my cousins (War Wheels! Giant Carlos Snakes!) but was persevering with Dr Who Weekly when it went Monthly, until monthly became too long a gap and I asked my nan to switch my standing order to 2000AD
Only ever missed 228 (went on holiday, shop guy thought I had given up my order!!!) 228!!!, 543 (just didnt turn up that week - had to get it at inflated price from Nostalgia and Comics
Stopped getting it from my nans around the 620s so I could buy it in town on the saturday trip to GW and Virgin - missed prog 889 (went to New York the week the prog actually sold out for once in Nostalgia and wasnt there the week I got back)
Subscribed from 1246
Hope nobody minds me adding in the cover images. This is Leigh's 195:
(http://www.2000ad.org/covers/2000ad/mediumres/195.jpg)
Add away! I would if I could!
I can never quite remember my first dip into Tharg's bulging sack of thrills, but I think it's the one that's got the Judge Dredd one-off 'An Elm Street Nightmare' in it. Buggered if I can find it on Barney!
My first ever exposure to thrill-power was reading the Titan collection of City of the Damned at a mate's house, and Judge Death in Titan's Dredd Book 1. It's all Robert Lindley's fault!
You know, even though 424 was the first one I read, actually, I always consider my first to be the glorious wraparound on 425. I just recycled it last week, it was so heavily read it was falling apart!
(https://cafans.b-cdn.net/images/Category_43632/subcat_89797/MnE24hSR_0408181857371gpauxiu.jpg)
Quote from: Kev Levell on 13 May, 2021, 08:22:09 PM
I just recycled it last week, it was so heavily read it was falling apart!
You.... what?
Quote from: Woolly on 13 May, 2021, 08:23:31 PM
Quote from: Kev Levell on 13 May, 2021, 08:22:09 PM
I just recycled it last week, it was so heavily read it was falling apart!
You.... what?
I did the same thing with a lot of my originals when I bought a big chunk of progs to complete my collection. My ones were so well-loved that they were in a sorry state. I think I dropped them off at a charity shop. Long time ago.
Quote from: Woolly on 13 May, 2021, 08:18:32 PM
I can never quite remember my first dip into Tharg's bulging sack of thrills, but I think it's the one that's got the Judge Dredd one-off 'An Elm Street Nightmare' in it. Buggered if I can find it on Barney!
Prog 635:
(http://www.2000ad.org/covers/2000ad/mediumres/635.jpg)
Quote from: Funt Solo on 13 May, 2021, 05:40:35 PM
Prog 146 from 1980 - this was definitely my first prog, which I took to a grown-ups party. Some other kid about my age tried to steal it from me, which resulted in a tug-of-war and a Solomon-like result as the prog got ripped in two. My collecting was patchy at that point, and a regular order didn't start until around prog 178.
(http://www.2000ad.org/covers/2000ad/hires/146.jpg)
178 is a pretty good prog to start on - mid-Judge Child, beginning of Comic Rock (Nemesis) - Killer Watt and Meltdown Man...
Quote from: Woolly on 13 May, 2021, 08:18:32 PM
I can never quite remember my first dip into Tharg's bulging sack of thrills, but I think it's the one that's got the Judge Dredd one-off 'An Elm Street Nightmare' in it. Buggered if I can find it on Barney!
Prog 635 (http://www.2000ad.org/?zone=prog&page=profiles&choice=635)
I was given a handful of progs by the neighbour when I was eight years old - this was a range from 308 (first appearance of Skizz) to 322. The first one I actually bought was 330 (first appearance of Sláine). I started buying regularly (but not managing every week, presumably due to distribution woes) from 335 (Nemesis Book III and the Moses Quest Quest) and finally put a reservation in at the newsagents with 350 (unfortunately just missing out on the end of Book III of Nem).
Prog 207, which my dad bought for me because we lived in Croydon and this comic had a story about aliens stealing Croydon on the cover. Then Prog 214, which was my first encounter with Alan Moore. But I didn't get what 2000AD was about until the 1982 Sci-Fi Special - and started reading regularly soon after.
Quote from: Woolly on 13 May, 2021, 08:23:31 PM
Quote from: Kev Levell on 13 May, 2021, 08:22:09 PM
I just recycled it last week, it was so heavily read it was falling apart!
You.... what?
Yep. RESYK job. Kindest thing for it. It's being broken down into its constituent parts as I type this I suspect!
Although I have plenty left in my classifieds thread that you are welcome to try to save from a similar fate... that needs an update fwiw - I have sold a few runs since I posted last.
If I'm not mistaken, I think the prog that Barrington Boots started this thread with is one from a
little bundle I just sold him!
Flicked through my mate's Prog 1 at the time, but didn't buy my own until Prog 75.
The Cursed Earth was in full swing by this time, such exciting times!
My first was Prog 2
I remember not being able to find prog 1 in any of my local newsagents, only took 10 years to get my hands on one
I kinda have two. Prog 514 was the first Prog I bought with my own money. Steve Dillon cover, Cam on Dredd, Bad Company and then...at the back...The Dead with some astounding weirdness from Milligan and Belardinelli. An odd Prog to start with, but most definitely enough to convince me to keep an eye out for it on the newsagent shelves with my pocket money. Pretty sure I only picked it up because some fluff like Mask was sold out.
And from earlier, as a wee nipper, digging out a comic from the comic box at infant school - I remember reading this weird comic that had people bouncing around in rubber balls in a big pinball building. It was only years later that I realised this was the Palais de Boing.
I started at the beginning and told my friend at school about this brilliant new comic.He couldn't get a copy so I gave him mine!A lot of my friends got Prog 2 and paraded the streets with our biotronic stickers on our arms.Nowdays I tend to dip in and out of the progs.Usually when a classic character turns up.
Quote from: Funt Solo on 13 May, 2021, 07:53:42 PM
Going to guess that 280 is scrotnig's:
(http://www.2000ad.org/covers/2000ad/mediumres/280.jpg)
Yep I think that is the one. Thanks.
I have vivid memories of my big brother coming home with Prog 439, and being more than a little awed by it.
(http://www.2000ad.org/covers/2000ad/mediumres/439.jpg)
But I didn't start reading the Prog properly myself until 651, can't beat a Carlos cover with a young boy on the front to generate excitement!
(http://www.2000ad.org/covers/2000ad/mediumres/651.jpg)
First ever prog was whatever one gave away a Buck Rogers sticker album.
But the first prog where I wanted the comic was 224. Judge Death Lives.
Quote from: The Enigmatic Dr X on 14 May, 2021, 08:02:59 AM
First ever prog was whatever one gave away a Buck Rogers sticker album.
But the first prog where I wanted the comic was 224. Judge Death Lives.
Buck Rogers came with Prog 212 (http://2000ad.org/?zone=prog&page=profiles&choice=212).
I bought the first three for the free gifts (I was easily swayed when I was 10), and then maybe two or three random progs over the first year.
I was allowed a couple of comics on the weekly paper bill but had to buy any others out of my pocket money, and from about the mid 50s I realised I was buying it pretty much every week, so Whizzer & Chips had to go. The earliest prog in my collection from when I started saving them rather than just chucking them out is prog 76, or what's left of it. Loads of my early progs have no covers, all the star-scans, games and cut out figures have long since been assembled and lost, not to mention classic panels that I cut out and stuck on my school folders (If leafing through, you'd find a big hole where "gaze into the fist of Dredd" should be).
Quote from: Kev Levell on 13 May, 2021, 09:39:32 PM
If I'm not mistaken, I think the prog that Barrington Boots started this thread with is one from a little bundle I just sold him!
It's true! My original was part of a batch left at my parents when I left for university and never seen again. Finding it in a pile of Kev's beautifully preserved old progs is what inspired me to start this thread.
Despite the fact that I've read almost everything in it in collections since, it was still so cool to re-read it in the original format. Made my day. Buy Kev's stuff everyone!
Anyway - some glorious progs and memories on this thread, loving seeing the old covers. They're all bangers - although I suppose if your first prog was, say, a 1996 stinker with Outlaw, post-Warmachine Fr1day and Black Light in it you'd not be on this board decades later.
Much more recent start for me. Spent my early teens reading Manga Mania rather than 2000AD (given this was around 93 that was maybe for the best). It was Hachette's Ultimate Collection that finally pulled me in. About a year into that, while killing time in an airport (remember those), I decided it was time to buy an actual Prog. Which landed me with Prog 2100. Not a bad start point with Kingdom, Brink, Fiends, and The Small House. Although having missed some of the build up The Small House didn't really have the impact it could of. And I've still not read the missing chunk of Kingdom between where the UC left us (book 6) and Alpha and Omega that was publishedd here (still hoping we'll see that in the extension even if it means a shorter than average book). It's a testament to Abnett's writing that despite having missed the preceding 2 series of Brink that one hooked me straight away.
Haven't looked back since - although I did switch from paper to digital in order to save space (those Hachette collections really do eat up the shelf space). Donated my few months of paper progs to a Marvel and DC reading office mate prior to a recent house move in a vague effort to downsize my hoard of "stuff" (and to bring him over to the light).
(http://www.2000ad.org/covers/2000ad/mediumres/2100.jpg)
with a bowie-esque reference this was it : [bought from Gosh comics when it was opposite the british museum]
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DpUrTYkXoAEeKqA.jpg (https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DpUrTYkXoAEeKqA.jpg)
https://centaur-wp.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/designweek/prod/content/uploads/2018/03/08173116/bowie-cover.jpg (https://centaur-wp.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/designweek/prod/content/uploads/2018/03/08173116/bowie-cover.jpg)
My Dad was (is, just about) great for pushing comics and SF on me, although history was (is) his thing. Alongside the period-standard diet of war stories and school comedies, I was exposed to a diet of Jet Morgan, Flash Gordon, Dan Dare and eventually Star Wars, and when I was off school with the exaggerrated ailments of the '70s child he would buy me an armful of comics. One such was Prog 291, my first sight of 2000AD.
(http://www.2000ad.org/covers/2000ad/hires/291.jpg)
The contents both disturbed and enticed me. Ezquerra's Blanch Tatum was coldly murderous and prifoundly sexy in a way I'd never seen in a comic before. But elsewhere strips were deep in their own weird continuity,: Fort Neuro, Ace Trucking and Harry 20. There was one standalone thing, a short story by some guy called Alan Moore, but I never looked at the names of the creators, if I even knew such people existed back then. It didn't really grab my timid self in the way the New Eagle did.
It wasn't until I saw this in the newsagent:
(https://scontent.fdub2-2.fna.fbcdn.net/v/t1.6435-9/127274659_10222368176647452_4698132574106857805_n.jpg?_nc_cat=109&ccb=1-3&_nc_sid=825194&_nc_ohc=_2j2Huf_BW8AX-rbnvD&_nc_ht=scontent.fdub2-2.fna&oh=66700692e6846742a6ea5f5ec634b29c&oe=60C3A4D8)
...that my life was changed. Magnificent, peerless, irresistible, unique; wouldn't you say, Colin?
And behind that non-story that I desperately wanted to imagine, there was this incredibly realistic thing about a cute girl in Birmingham, by that Moore guy again. It was the second part of Skizz, although I wouldn't learn that I had missed the good Interpreter's actual crashlanding the previous week for at least another year.
I could wax lyrical about the welcomingly simple opener of Starborn Thing, the fact that the impenetrable Fort Neuro was somehow still going all those months later, that there was yet more from Moore, or that the amazing artist that did that momentous cover had another equally bizarre strip about Nazi microbes and (crucially) the strange people that actually made the comic, but the simple fact is that it was Skizz that made my future purchase of Prog 292 inevitable, and the one after that.
And here we are.
Quote from: Barrington Boots on 14 May, 2021, 09:14:58 AM
Anyway - some glorious progs and memories on this thread, loving seeing the old covers. They're all bangers - although I suppose if your first prog was, say, a 1996 stinker with Outlaw, post-Warmachine Fr1day and Black Light in it you'd not be on this board decades later.
You say that, but some of the 2000AD origins stories on both Mega City Book Club and Space Spinner 2000 reveal that some people did start in the dreaded 1990s, and are still Squaxx to this day...
Quote from: TordelBack on 14 May, 2021, 11:02:27 AM
...but the simple fact is that it was Skizz that made my future purchase of Prog 292 inevitable, and the one after that.
Yes folks, I made a post about my first prog for
at least the 53rd time, and somehow got the numbers wrong. I started buying with
309, the next one was
310 etc.
Quote from: sintec on 14 May, 2021, 09:22:05 AM
Much more recent start for me. Spent my early teens reading Manga Mania rather than 2000AD (given this was around 93 that was maybe for the best).
(http://www.2000ad.org/covers/2000ad/mediumres/2100.jpg)
Don't be silly. There's no way that Manga Mania was launched twenty-eight
years ago.
Oh. (http://starlogged.blogspot.com/2015/07/1993-manga-mania-issue-1-dark-horse.html)
Quote from: sheridan on 14 May, 2021, 01:21:46 PM
Don't be silly. There's no way that Manga Mania was launched twenty-eight years ago.
Oh. (http://starlogged.blogspot.com/2015/07/1993-manga-mania-issue-1-dark-horse.html)
I know right. I recently rediscovered my tattered copies while clearing out a loft prior to a house move. They did not survive the cull sadly as I'd picked up trades of many of the better bits (Akira, Appleseed, Dominion) in the meantime and they hadn't aged well.
Mine was the 1984 Sci-Fi Special, as I was reading Eagle at the time (any chance of a collected Doomlord?) and Ian Kennedy had drawn Dredd on the cover - my thinking was, if Judge Dredd's good enough to be drawn by Ian Kennedy, it must be worth a read. The Dredd inside was drawn by Cliff Robinson, one of his earliest I think, and was about an illegal gameshow where if you got a question wrong you were disintegrated. Needless to say I was hooked.
Grud almighty, I can't remember where it all started. It was my brother's comic of choice, not mine (which was Nutty), but I always got a read of it. He stopped reading in his teens; I started buying it then.
I have hazy memories of the aforementioned Blanch Tatum, and of Chopper's graffiti war, though I was looking at the prog before that. Looking at the dates, I must have been somewhere between 5 and 6 when I discovered 2000ad. And I wonder why I've turned out the way I have.
Quote from: JayzusB.Christ on 14 May, 2021, 09:56:04 PM
And I wonder why I've turned out the way I have.
Basically, this. I've said for many years that 2000AD is pretty much the most formative influence on the adult (questionably!) I became. I mean, there's loads of
other stuff, but the prog was there, week in and week out, from the age of ten onwards. Maybe I'd have had a black sense of humour, maybe I'd have had a suspicion of authoritarians, maybe I'd have loved science fiction and fantasy, without 2000AD... but I'll never know.
If I could go back and tell the ten-year-old me that one day my name would be in those credit boxes...? I don't know, but the fact that I
am now in those credits? I was fifty when that happened, and I had no realistic expectation that it would ever happen.
Don't give up on those lofty dreams, ever. You never know.
I had read some progs that friends had earlier, but the first I could call my own was the one with the first part of Citizen Snork. I was hooked. 356.