2000 AD's Best/Worst Eras?

[locustsofdeath!]

Hullo again. Rather than start a new thread, I figured I'd continue this one with a few 2000AD specific questions.

Colin_YNWA commented in another thread that this is a new golden age for 2000AD, so my question is this: what are the best or worst eras 2000AD has gone through. The reason I ask is because I will be living in the UK for two years and want to put together a nice collection. Of course I want a complete, but it would be nice to know where to start.

In the States these are so hard to come by, so although I have every Eagle, QC and Fleetway reprint, as well as all the Titan books, I have only a few 2000ADs. Thanks in advance for the help!

[Jim_Campbell]

Colin_YNWA commented in another thread that this is a new golden age for 2000AD, so my question is this: what are the best or worst eras 2000AD has gone through.

Can open, worms everywhere!

It has been said, more than once, that 2000AD's golden age is whenever you started reading it, or when you were twelve (or something like that).

I actually started reading at #104, but I would put a vote in for #200 - #400. If you limited me to 100 progs, it would be around 250-350, but there is just so much good stuff in those four years:

Strontium Dog: Portrait of a Mutant
Judge Dredd: Crime Files
Nemesis Book I
Judge Dredd: Judge Death Lives
Rogue Trooper (early Gibbons stories)
Judge Dredd: Block Mania
Ace Trucking (practically a permanent fixture through the whole of this period)
Nemesis Book II
Judge Dredd: Apocalypse War
Nemesis Book II
Robo-Hunter (a semi-permanent run of always entertaining stories)
Judge Dredd: any number of excellent Apocalypse aftermath stories
Harry 20 (nice Alan Davis art, even if you don't like the story, which I do)
Judge Dredd: Trapper Hag
Skizz
Judge Dredd: Starborn Thing
Judge Dredd: The Stupid Gun
Judge Dredd: Cry of the Werewolf
Slaine: debut
Judge Dredd:Requiem for a Heavyweight
Nemesis Book III
Judge Dredd: The Graveyard Shift
Strontium Dog: The Moses Incident
DR & Quinch
Slaine: Sky Chariots
Judge Dredd: The Haunting of Sector House 9
Slaine: Dragonheist
Strontium Dog: Outlaw
Judge Dredd: Portrait of a Politician
Halo Jones Book I
Nemesis Book IV
Judge Dredd: A Case for Treatment
Rogue Trooper: what should have been the end of the series, with the resolution of the Traitor General story

Now that, my friend, is great big wedge of Thrill Power!

Cheers

Jim

Editd for: typos.

[locustsofdeath!]

That's an impressive lineup, Jim. You may have convinced me.

I get what you're saying about which era is your favorite, though. I have every Cona comic published, but I always reread those that I first bought when I was a kid. An eras widely regarded as poor or below average?

[Emperor]

I actually started reading at #104, but I would put a vote in for #200 - #400. If you limited me to 100 progs, it would by around 250-350, but there is just so much good stuff in those four years:

I must have started reading it within a few issues of 104 and that gets my vote - a lot of those stories are classics: early ABC Warriors, Strontium Dog at its strongest, Judge Dredd hitting it for six every time and on and on. This stretched through to the later eighties (with a few dips along the way - It'd be interesting to see numbers on the rating of progs to see what the Hive Mind thought).

The early eighties were also strong over at the House of Skinn (when serial killers go camping) with Alan Moore doing great early work on Captain Britain and then over at Warrior (which I suspect doesn't get as much credit as it should outside of the UK as a number of the key series were reprinted in US comic books).

[Bouwel]

Best:
Prog #1 until the mid-80's (ahh, great times). Very much tied in with the experience of growing up.

Worst:
Sometime in the 90's when things got very, very silly (sentient goats and Space Girls, anyone?). I can't even say exactly when I stopped reading; it got that bad for me.

-Bouwel-

[Colin YNWA]

Its such a hard one to call cos even the worst eras have so much to offer. But I go for 520 - 699. The reason is this period gave us the second wave of creators. Its one thing to unearth and bring through the talents of Wagner, Bolland, Gibbons, Moore and McCarthy to name too few. Its something else to then take the people they inspired and create a second clutch of the quality of Morrison, Milligan, Ennis, Yeowell, Smith and Phillips again to name all too few.

For me its this that cements 2000ad's place in history. It constantly evolved and thus has now brought wave after wave of creative brillance to the world making it not only the galaxies greatest but also the most important comic in the English speaking world (nowt like bold statements huh!).

Add to that the fact that this era is when I 'matured' as a reader moving from someone who read comics just like any other kid to a teen that collected them to the point of unhealthy obsession! So its these creators that define what makes great comics to me.

Put these two facts together and there you have it - golden era.

[worldshown]

Totally with Jim on this.

I started reading 2000ad with prog 250 and the list of thrills he posted has brought back so many happy memories.

[locustsofdeath!]

250, so far, seems round about where I should start.

I agree that the second wave of creators usually takes some time to settle in with the readership. Often, I think they want to leave their own mark on a character and forget the basics, what made that character so special in the first place. There are bound to be growing pains on both sides, the writers and the readers. When Roy Thomas left Conan the Barbarian, a similar situation occured, with the new writer (can't recall his name right at the moment) veering off in an entirely new direction, a sort of anti-Roy Thomas series. Took some time, but got back on track.

Thanks for the tips...especially on where NOT to start. And BTW, the last year and a half of reading these has been great. The States does not know what it's missing.

[Dark Jimbo]

But I go for 520 - 699. The reason is this period gave us the second wave of creators. Its one thing to unearth and bring through the talents of Wagner, Bolland, Gibbons, Moore and McCarthy to name too few. Its something else to then take the people they inspired and create a second clutch of the quality of Morrison, Milligan, Ennis, Yeowell, Smith and Phillips again to name all too few.

To be honest, I'd say the 'third wave' (year 2000 to, roughly, now) beats the second hands down. Really, think about it -

Al Ewing, D'Isralei, Ian Edginton, Henry Flint, Si Spurrier, Frazer Irving, Dan Abnett, Simon Fraser, Dave Taylor, Robbie Morrison, Charlie Adlard, Simon Davis - we never had it so good!

[Emperor]

But I go for 520 - 699. The reason is this period gave us the second wave of creators. Its one thing to unearth and bring through the talents of Wagner, Bolland, Gibbons, Moore and McCarthy to name too few. Its something else to then take the people they inspired and create a second clutch of the quality of Morrison, Milligan, Ennis, Yeowell, Smith and Phillips again to name all too few.

To be honest, I'd say the 'third wave' (year 2000 to, roughly, now) beats the second hands down. Really, think about it -

Al Ewing, D'Isralei, Ian Edginton, Henry Flint, Si Spurrier, Frazer Irving, Dan Abnett, Simon Fraser, Dave Taylor, Robbie Morrison, Charlie Adlard, Simon Davis - we never had it so good!

Well the first part of the second wave was great - the problem came when they were getting reach arounds from the American market, they had an "out with the old in with the new" idea and editorial bought into the hype - leading to the Summer Offensive. Then they all buggered off leaving a vacuum that took a long time to fill. Dan Abnett and Robbie Morrison were the leaders of that third wave, who really helped carve out a new direction. Now I think everyone has learned from the mistakes (and triumphs) of the past and we have a solid mix of old and new that has me enthusiastic about the old girl again.

[Emperor]

250, so far, seems round about where I should start

Personally, I'd recommend the very early 100s (or sneaking a bit further into the 80s). The merger with Starlord (prog 86) put in place the foundations for later greatness (that first prog had Judge Dredd dealing with Cal, Ro-Busters, Flesh and Strontium Dog, which is a classic line-up).

[Peter Wolf]

I read from the beginning up to about 4 - 500 and there were various ups and downs and mergers .

The worst as far as i am concerned was when the comic changed its size and became slightly smaller and changed from newspaper to a different higher quality kind of paper and contained strips that were garishly colored in .It was a slightly different kind of coloring process to the newspaper progs.

This lasted until sometime in the earlyish 100s but by the time that The Stainless Steel Rat appeared the comic had reverted back to the old style paper and print.

The best era as far as i am concerned was when 2000ad relaunched with Prog 175 with  5 new strips .

This is undoubtedly without a shadow of a doubt the best era of 2000ad for myself.

There is no nostalgia factor involved in this either although i do have lots of happy memories from that the early 80s as everything was perfect or as perfect as it could ever be but that is totally seperate from the content of 2000ad in the early 80s

[Gavin_Leahy_Block]

It has been said, more than once, that 2000AD's golden age is whenever you started reading it, or when you were twelve (or something like that).

Not always the case, I started in the early 90's and within a few years it entered one of the worst eras 2000AD. This is the point where I believe some readers who had been with 2000ad for a long time just stopped reading because of the silliness of some of the stories.
I also believe that third wave, as it's been referred to, is best era of 2000ad that I have experienced.

[locustsofdeath!]

When did that period in the early 90's begin? Before I moved to the States, I started reading the magazine with 'Emerald Isle' and continued through maybe '93 - was I just too young to realize how silly everything was?

I have since gotten my hands on the 'Emerald Isle' Progs and it is as fun (not silly, at least not too much) as I remembered it being.

[Roger Godpleton]

I started reading in 2003  but I only really became obsessed in 2004. If it hadn't of been for Cab Inc. and a run of great Grennie Dredd one-offs I might have stopped reading during the period where Dead Men Walking* and Synnamon were running concurrently.


* I did like the twist, mind you.