Pilot wants to command space liner, is too ugly.

[JohnnyFavorite]

My head is telling me this is a 2000AD one-off, like a Future Shock, although I suppose it could have been Starlord or Tornado.

The synopsis is that there's a boy who spends his whole life dreaming about being the pilot of a space-going passenger craft. However he can't because all the pilots are tall, handsome, square-jawed and so on, and he's a complete six-stone weakling and ugly as sin, albeit very skilled.

However he triumphs in the end because it turns out that these ships are actually piloted by guys like him, hidden in the bowels of the ship and plumbed in to the computers, and the good-looking fly-boy types are actually all as dumb as rocks and just there for show, and to make the passengers feel comfortable.

Does that ring any bells at all?

[Dandontdare]

My head is telling me this is a 2000AD one-off, like a Future Shock, although I suppose it could have been Starlord or Tornado.

The synopsis is that there's a boy who spends his whole life dreaming about being the pilot of a space-going passenger craft. However he can't because all the pilots are tall, handsome, square-jawed and so on, and he's a complete six-stone weakling and ugly as sin, albeit very skilled.

However he triumphs in the end because it turns out that these ships are actually piloted by guys like him, hidden in the bowels of the ship and plumbed in to the computers, and the good-looking fly-boy types are actually all as dumb as rocks and just there for show, and to make the passengers feel comfortable.

Does that ring any bells at all?

It absolutely does, but unfortunately I'm crap at remembering titles or details!

[Bolt-01]

I remember this as being something recent - which unfortunately could mean in the last 15 years...

[shaolin_monkey]

Is that not the premise for Avenue 5?

[Dandontdare]

I remember this as being something recent - which unfortunately could mean in the last 15 years...

I was thinking old annual or special?

[sheridan]

It's a text story in an annual, with a couple of illustrations.  Some time around 1982 to 1984, I'd guess.

[sheridan]

Unfortunately Barney doesn't tend to include info about text stories, so if nobody else has worked it out, I'll have a look through my annuals tonight.

[sheridan]

2000AD 1982 Annual.
A Ro-Jaws' Robo-Tale: The Volunteer
Author: unknown.  Art: looks like Colin Wilson to me.
"Byron Z Gymp was not a happy man.  The fates had not been kind to him - if he wore really thick socks he could pass for five feet tall..."

[sheridan]

2000AD 1982 Annual.
A Ro-Jaws' Robo-Tale: The Volunteer
Author: unknown.  Art: looks like Colin Wilson to me.
"Byron Z Gymp was not a happy man.  The fates had not been kind to him - if he wore really thick socks he could pass for five feet tall..."

p.s. I absolutely knew which story you meant, even before opening the thread up!