This week, I’ve finally done something on the list I’ve always meant to do – get a letter printed in 2000ad comic.
2000ad comic’s been around now for 36 years. I’ve only got vague recollections of discovering it, but I’m fairly sure that I was about 7 or 8 years old and my Auntie Tweeny bought me a copy over to read when she was babysitting. I remember seeing it on the shelves of Tom Mc Gloughlin’s newsagents (where, incidentally Chris Evans (yup, THAT Chris Evans) would hand me the papers for my morning round a few years later) and being fascinated by it. The artwork was mostly black and white, and gritty enough to clear snow from roads. Here was something new, something different. It looked strangely adult, but it was still a comic.
I’ll be honest, I didn’t really get ‘it’ at that young age – I was still reading things like Whizzer and Chips and The Eagle (in it’s relaunched incarnation), and it was a couple of years before an older guy at school called Paul Adams let me read his in the dinner hours. It had an alien editor called Tharg The Mighty, who ate Styrofoam cups and listened to Captain Beefheart.
This time, I was hooked, and every Saturday I’d trek down Gig Lane in the Spring sunshine (it’s always Spring in your childhood memories, isn’t it?) to pick up my copy, only to have my Dad snatch it every time I got home. I tried hiding it, I tried sneaking past him. I tried getting in through the back door, patios and bedroom window. I’d hide it in the newspaper, and under my t shirt. No matter what I did, though, my Dad would curiously sniff the air the second the Prog saw daylight and appear as if by magic to snatch it away with a cup of tea.
Jack Point, by Cliff Robinson, one of the 2000ad greats
The comic saw its heyday in the late 80’s with so many great great stories. Judge Dredd appeared in it every week (I think he’s only missed about 4 progs in 1825 issues, but someone’ll correct me if I’m wrong), a complete bastard of a fascist who may have had a heart in there somewhere but mostly just shot bad guys. Britain’s greatest (and still criminally underrated) comic strip character, and one who had the biggest effect on my character, as I’ll tell you in a paragraph or so’s time.
When I hit my teens, everyone in my first couple of bands read 2000ad. We’d sit around listening to Slayer, Primus, Suicidal Tendencies in our black tour t-shirts, drinking cider, noodling on cheap Strats and lounge around with the latest installment of Dredd, Nemesis, and Sam Slade, the Robo – Hunter. We’d put Dredd stickers all over our guitars, and doodle the characters into the margins of our college work. In fact, there was a time when it was required reading for any self – respecting Rocker, and they shot ‘emselves in the foot a bit when they started printed dance music columns (Roxilla, anyone?). Thankfully, that nonsense didn’t last long.
It’s an odd thing to say, but when the Warrington bomb went off in March 1992 in the middle of a crowded town centre, I and my girlfriend were right in the middle of it. We’d been goofing around next to the bin where the bomb was placed not 30 seconds before the first one exploded and were in the doorway of a chip shop when it did. I remember walking out of there, holding her hand, looking at paper blowing all over the street and people standing around, agape, in shock. For an impossibly long moment, all was silent, just loads of people standing around looking up the road.
And then, and here’s the odd bit, as my mind tried to process what the hell was going on (you don’t think a bomb’s gone off when you’re out shopping on a Saturday morning, simple as), the thought occurred to me: What would Judge Dredd do?
I looked up the road at all the people walking down towards us (right into the path of the second bomb, as it turned out), grabbed my girlfriend and a guy who’d fallen at my feet, and started yelling and pointing at people to RUN. And we all did. And I remember I wasn’t being myself but for that moment, I was totally Judge Dredd.
As we reached the corner, it seemed everyone was running with us, and that’s when we heard the second bang, and got the hell out of town. Maybe it had made a difference, maybe it hadn’t, but I made a lot of people move in the right direction that morning, and probably through sheer luck, none of ‘em were hurt. All thanks to an imagination, and a well – written comic character.
Most iconic Dredd panel ever? By Brian Bolland
Anyway, thirty or so years later, and my 2000ad collection is what I (jokingly) call “my son’s retirement package” – there’s an old, gaily painted wooden chest in my room that came from a canal boat on one of my old adventures, and it’s chock – full of old issues, packed to the brim with stories and wonder. Johnny Alpha, the Strontium Dog, a mutant who’s shunned by society and has to become a bounty hunter to survive. Rogue Trooper, a cloned soldier fighting an impossible war armed with weaponry programmed with the personalities of his dead comrades. Ichabod Crane, a Wild West outlaw searching for his love beyond time and death. Kingdom, Absalom, Cradlegrave, Age Of The Wolf, Halo Jones…. So many great stories.
And you know what I love? They AGE. It’s not like all those paltry American comics, where no – one ever dies properly and all the superheroes have been in their mid – twenties for the last fifty years. Dredd was 33 when he first started, which means he’s now pushing 70, and the strips are as much about him railing against the weight of age as they are about offing perps. The characters have grown with the readers, like old friends we get to check in on from time to time.
And the creators who’ve been there throughout the years reads like a who’s who of popular fiction – John Wagner, Pat Mills, Alan Moore, Brian Bolland, Bryan Talbot, Dave Gibbons… if you’ve read a graphic novel or seen a superhero movie in the last 20 years, you’ve seen their work. Maybe not directly, but their influence cuts DEEP.
And Carlos Ezquerra – not only my favourite comic book artist of all time, but my favourite artist of all time. Take a look at some of his black and white art – it’s all tiny lines for shading. Some much time and effort’s gone into it, it takes my breath away every time. And his work’s still appearing in the comic, now in beautiful, dynamic colour. Whenever I’m drunk, I message him hero worship on Facebook. Sorry, Carlos.
Early Carlos Ezquerra Dredd picture. Check out the curvy buildings, a Carlos trademark. Beautiful
After 36 years, you’d think it’d be running stale, but the last few years have seen it go from strength to strength – Matt Smith, Mike Carroll, Henry Flint, Colin Macneil (lovely bloke, who speaks as much Gaelic as I do), Dan Abnett, Richard Elson… – so many great writers, so many great artists, so many great tales. I shitteth ye not, it’s as good now as it’s ever been.
So that’s my (very brief) shot of love in the arm for 2000ad – if you’ve any love of science fiction or fantasy, I recommend you pick up a copy and discover it for yourself. You’ll be very glad you did.
And it’s good to know that some things in this world never change. My Dad’s hit retirement age now, and comes over on a Saturday. My six year old daughter leaps up and cuddles him as soon as he gets through the door, and he kisses her on the forehead, puts his paper down, clicks his fingers for a cup of tea, and parks himself on the couch, saying nothing for the next 20 minutes while he devours this week’s Prog.
Mind you, I pick it up on a Wednesday these days. Now I get to read it first.
So I’ve finally done it, I’ve had a letter printed in 2000ad. Reckon I’ll try writing a Future Shock next.
Prog 1825 dated 27th March 2013, and my little letter from Tharg The Mighty
