Leah Moore and John Reppion Make "2000 AD" Debut March 28

[Emperor]

Press release:

Writing couple Leah Moore and John Reppion are to make their debut for the publishers of legendary British comic 2000 AD.

Leah's father, the writer Alan Moore, first got his break in the pages of 2000 AD in 1980 and went on to write classic stories such as The Ballad of Halo Jones, Watchmen, and V for Vendetta. Moore and Reppion have forged their own writing career with titles such as Albion, Doctor Who: The Whispering Gallery, The Thrill Electric and adaptations ofAlice in Wonderland and Dracula.

Their first work for 2000 AD, a Tales from the Black Museum story entitled Scouting for Bots, will appear in Judge Dredd Megazine #322, on sale in the UK on 28th March and in North America on 11th April. Art on the nine-page tale has been supplied by another 2000 AD fan favourite - D'Israeli, otherwise known as artist Matt Brooker.

"We are really excited to be finally working for the comic we have all grown up with (some of us more than others!)," said Leah. "I remember my dad taking me to the 2000 AD office when I was small (maybe eight?) and meeting Tharg in the flesh!

"I said "Borag Thungg, O Mighty One". He said "Borag Thungg, Earthlet Leah". It was awesome. It's nice to see that bit of early networking paid off over two decades later.

"I have to say I am more excited about getting a short story in the Judge Dredd Megazine than I have been about lots of our much bigger projects elsewhere. Not sure why. Some kind of loyalty-chip implated during my visit to Tharg maybe?

"2000 AD has always been somewhere for British talent to cut their teeth, and learn their craft. Even though we have been in the business now for nearly ten years, I am certain that we have more to learn, and what better way to do it than at 2000 AD?"

"Leah Moore and John Reppion are amongst the exciting new generation of comics writers," said Matt Smith, editor of 2000 AD, "and I'm delighted to have them contributing to 2000 AD for the first time – hopefully, we'll see more from their pen in the pages of the Galaxy's Greatest Comics in the future!'

http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=37133

[dweezil2]

This is super cool news!

[Bat King]

Yup, saw on Twitter earlier, tres cool!

[Adrian Bamforth]

Moore by stealth!

[Bolt-01]

Woo. Nice one Tharg. Looking forward to this already.

[CrazyFoxMachine]

YES. MORE D'ISRAELI!

[O Lucky Stevie!]

All hail CFM for putting this in perspective.

That Dizzy boy's got mad skillz.

[Van Dom]

Leah Moore to write Halo Jones Book 4 please!!!!

[Emperor]

DTT have the press release with what I assume is some of the art from the story:

http://downthetubescomics.blogspot.com/2012/02/leah-moore-and-john-reppion-go-scouting.html

[Emperor]

BC have that and another sample, some lovely D'Israeli art there:

www.bleedingcool.com/2012/02/22/moore-reppion-disraeli-join-judge-dredd-megazine/

[Jimmy Baker's Assistant]

This is great news, I do hope there's no further reference to Leah Moore's famous father though.

[Emperor]

A CBR interview, could be more work from them in the future:

How did you first get in touch with the guys over at the "Judge Dredd Megazine?" Did they reach out to you, or was it the other way around?

Moore: We'd had a very kind offer from Tharg over two years ago, asking us to pitch to him if we ever wanted to, and then we had our son and went on maternity leave, so we actually didn't get round to pitching until this story! I felt so cheeky e-mailing out of the blue and saying, "Erm -- do you still want this?" as he could very easily have decided we were too slow! We have an invitation to pitch more short stories and a longer one if we like, so hopefully we can pitch them before we have more babies this time!

...

Will we see you contributing any more stories to either the "Megazine" or the regular "2000 AD" prog in the near future? What other thrills would you want to write?

Reppion: We would love to write for both in the future and are going to do our damnedest to do so. We're incredibly busy at the moment with our work for Dynamite Entertainment and Self Made Hero, and once that's all done Leah's about to give birth to twins! So, once we've climbed a mountain of crappy nappies, the first person we'll be e-mailing is Tharg.

The Black Museum is a really cool short story framing device and we've already got a few ideas we'd love to try for future ones. Naturally, a series in "2000 AD" itself is the dream -- we'll do very our best to impress!

...

Do you find it cool to be writing a story for the same comic that helped launch your dad's career three decades ago? What does he think about it?

Moore: I find it very cool. It's the only part of that whole career overlap I don't find really daunting. I don't know if I just perceive "2000 AD" to be a more familiar, homely place to write for, or if I am more comfortable with the world I'm writing for or what, but it feels much less of a scary "oh God don't mess this up" moment than writing for DC ever did. I always have the fear that fans will expect another "Watchmen" (a task somewhat taken off my hands now!) or some similar huge masterpiece, but in "2000 AD" the format means everyone's stories are smaller and all in together. It's not a place where I feel like I have to invent the wheel again. Does that make sense? Dad is very happy we're working there. Despite his own ups and downs with them over the years he sees it very much as a positive place to learn about writing, to experiment with new things, and to have fun with the medium. He knows that you get young talent there that other publishers will overlook and miss, and that's always valuable in this industry. "2000 AD" is a British institution. Its strength has always been the differences between its content and the mainstream American market. We love it for all its weirdness and in-jokes and dark humour. It's us. It fits us better than spandex ever did.

www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=37495