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Let me tell you about the historical popularity of 2000 AD in the States...

Or lack there of...

It's unfortunate. In 2004, I found my first 2000 AD prog in a Washington, DC comic shop (Big Planet Comics); the shop had two or three progs that were a year old.  Since then, the only other comic shop that I have visited with a selection of progs is The Million Year Picnic in Boston (Yes, I roam America, going from city to city, looking for comics shops that carry 2000 AD progs). 

But, on the bright side, I was happy to see that Kansas City comic shops were giving out copies of 2000 AD for Free Comic Book Day, and more 2000 AD trade paperbacks are available in bookstores and comic shops. 

Nice artwork though.

Yes, indeed.

[Super Dinosaur #6]

Good hit rate that. Astonishing... so dare I ask what's next?

I'm going to have fun writing the best fan letters that I can, pushing myself and the letter pages format to see what is possible.  In addition to coded letters, I've also experimented with poetry, puzzles, constrained writing techniques, and other formats.  Robert Kirkman's Super Dinosaur #6, for example, has what I believe is comics' first word search puzzle fan letter (check it out!).  I recently submitted a 100 word fan letter to celebrate 100 issues of Mike Mignola's B.P.R.D. that I hope will be published.  In Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Season 9 #12, my "choose your own" fan letter was published, in which the editor could choose the fan feedback that he wanted.   

But I doubt that any future letters will match the challenge and fun I've had getting the "Tharg Code" letters published.   

[Mad]

What delightful; craziness.

Can I ask what was your hit rate? By which I mean how many letters, e-mails did you have to write to get 35 published?

I submitted 60 letters to nine publishers (DC, IDW, and Valiant Comics did not publish the "Tharg Code" letters).*   It should be noted that two publishers - Marvel and Dynamite - printed some letters multiple times across magazines (example, Fantastic Four/FF).  The total number of published individual letters (rather than the number of comics -35- in which these letters were published) is 23, so 38% of the submitted letters were published.**  Overall, my greatest regret from this effort was not getting a letter published in Mad magazine, despite several attempts.


*I'm not counting the unpublished "Tharg Code" letters that I submitted to The Economist.  The goal was always to have the letters printed in 35 comics publications, and The Economist did not qualify for this goal, but I thought it was a personal challenge worth the (sadly futile) effort.

**In the comics publication count (35), I'm not counting fan letters where the letter was published, but the editor made small edits to the letter (separating a long sentence into two sentences, changing a word, etc.) that destroyed the "Tharg Code" (for an example of these Mutant Tharg Letters, check out Dark Horse's Star Wars: Crimson Empire III: Empire Lost #4).   

This could be the begining of a great craze - imagine getting 'Savage Kicks Arse' on the Beano's letters page.

A coded Beano "Savage Kicks Arse" letter?  Now that sounds like a challenge... 

[2000 A.D.]

To celebrate 35 years of 2000 A.D., I furtively encoded Tharg the Mighty's name in fan letters published in 35 comics, over a ten month period. In my fan letters, I used an acrostic (the first letter of each sentence in the body of my fan letter together spell out "THARG"). For example – "The Shadow is back?  Hallelujah! And Garth Ennis is the writer?  Right on!  Get this book in my hands ASAP!"  These "Tharg Code" fan letters can be found in the letter columns of 35 comics from six publishers.* 

Jeremy Reed Beebe
*Below is a list of the comics containing the "Tharg Code" letters, listed in alphabetical order by publisher:

Dark Horse Comics
1.  B.P.R.D.: Hell on Earth: The Long Death #2
2.  House of Night #3
3.  King Conan: Phoenix on the Sword #3
4.  Lobster Johnson: The Burning Hand #1
5.  Lobster Johnson: The Burning Hand #4
6.  The Occultist #3
7.  Orchid #7
8.  Star Wars: Dawn of the Jedi #3
9.  Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic #4

Dynamite Entertainment
10.  Army of Darkness #2
11.  Dark Shadows #4
12.  Flash Gordon: Zeitgeist #4
13.  Green Hornet #23
14.  Kirby Genesis: Silver Star #4
15.  Vampirella #15
16.  Voltron #4
17.  Warlord of Mars #16
18.  Warlord of Mars: Dejah Thoris #11
19.  Warriors of Mars #2
20.  Zorro Rides Again #9

Image Comics
21.  Haunt #23
22.  Mudman #2
23.  No Place Like Home #3
24.  Savage Dragon #177

Marvel Comics   
25.  Fantastic Four #605
26.  Fantastic Four #606
27.  FF #17
28.  FF #18
29.  Journey into Mystery #634
30.  The Punisher #9
31.  Wolverine and the X-Men #4
32.  X-Factor #233

Rebellion
33.  Judge Dredd Megazine #322

Titan Publishing Group
34.  CLiNT Vol. 1 #15
35.  CLiNT Vol. 2 #1

I recently came across The A-Z of Judge Dredd: The Complete Encyclopedia from Aaron Aardvark to Zachary Zziiz, published in 1995.  I would love to see an updated encyclopedia published of not only the Judge Dredd characters, but all 2000 A.D. characters, similar to the hardcover encyclopedias published by DC and Marvel Comics.