Geoffrey vs. 2000AD

2000AD and Me.

I think if most people who knew me now took a moment to look at my interests and passions, they would probably lay the blame for the lot of it on the shoulders of Mr. George Lucas.

I can't deny that Star Wars was huge for me as a kid. HUGE. My parents took my sister and I to see Star Wars at the Drive-In. It was expected that I, a toddler at the time, would fall asleep.

Nope.

It is undeniable that seeing that movie began to shape me into the person I am now. Years of nerdly introspection, however, place much more of the blame/credit not on George Lucas, but rather in the newsprint-ink stained hands of an English girl named Jenny.

 I had of course had many comics and a deep love of superheroes already. But they were incidental. Comics came and went. They were not things to follow, or to collect. I got one as a treat for being good at the doctor, or I got to buy some from the thrift store now and again. A Bugs Bunny comic was as good as Superman. G.I.Joe or Swamp Thing. It was all good, all fun.

In 1985, I moved from Canada to England. It was a bit of a culture shock and things were a bit weird. American comics didn't exist at the newsagent. Just these bizarre newspaper things with weird and scary guys on the cover. And they were all in black and white! What was fun about that?

Well my older sister had a friend named Jenny and she knew exactly what was fun about that. It was through her that I directly read my first issue (prog) of 2000AD. I don't know which prog it was, but before 466. Because 466 is the first one I bought myself.

Reading this comic was the first time I can recall wondering about what happened prior to the events I just read. The Ballad of Halo Jones, a classic tale serialised over many years in 2000AD, came to an end in this prog. So all impressionable young Geoffrey experienced of Halo was her final moments before she abandoned the war she was fighting to choose her own destiny. I haven't read that story in decades and I can still see it perfect in my mind. 

And Judge Dredd! Wow. Two orgasmic colour pages in the middle (I think the story was illustrated by Cam Kennedy...) and the fascist future lawman was instantly one of my favourites. 

So I bought the next week's issue. And then the following week, 468. I meet Judge Anderson. Occult horror science fiction, pleased to make your acquaintance.

All while I am discovering this stuff on my own, Jenny is regaling me with tales of other characters I have not yet heard of. Nemesis and Torquemada. Harlem Heroes. Robo-Hunter. Strontium Dog.

Mind. Blown. 

And because Jenny could not have been more awesome or more dedicated to turning me into some kind of comic collecting nerdball she lent me to read almost the entire run of 2000AD.

So now instead of hearing about the stories from her I am rolling through hundreds of back issues. I am reading the whole Ballad of Halo Jones. I am experiencing the evolution of Judge Dredd directly, from Prog 2 through the Cursed Earth and Judge Caligula and Block Wars and Apocalypse Wars. 

And here's Slaine. And Johnny Alpha with his viking best friend Wulf and weird alien sidekick Gronk. And Rogue Trooper with his talking helmet, gun and backpack. Oh and they talk because they are programmed with the personalities of his dead friends. Ace Trucking Co. The ABC Warriors (I love those guys).

Future Shocks. Thrills. High concept sci-fi that defied any expectations I may have had in my youth and blew my mid out of the water.

Even more than that, reading such a vast collection, I saw continuity. The value and excitement of following some story over time. The collector of comics within me was born and would never again be sated.

And then, as if I needed anything else, to seal the deal on my wanting to read this kind of thing forever, MY PARENTS FORBID ME TO READ IT!

Prog 471. 5 weeks into my days as a collector.

I was told the cover was too grotesque. It was too scary and gross for me to read. No more 2000AD for you young man!

Well once a parent bans it, it becomes the only thing that matters. Yeah, it's dumb. I am sure they thought they had my best interests. So of course I defied them and walked to the newsagent and bought more issues without telling them.

Eventually they relented. I don't remember why. My folks were never the kind of parents who did that kind of thing so it really stands out. I mean, my mom bought me Saga of Swamp Thing and House of Mystery and such. So there must have been some parenty reason why. Maybe the teacher at my school complained to them or something, because I sure was 2000AD crazy for the rest of my time in England. I even expanded out from 2000AD to the odd issue of Eagle (like 2000AD, but mostly kinda boring) and to the Marvel UK Spider-Man/Zoids comic.

I was a collector. And it was all on Jenny. I bought 2000AD through prog 502, purchased the week we moved back to Canada.

Moving back form England I tried to keep up with 2000AD but it was really expensive. 26p an issue (52ish cents at the time) in England to 5 bucks an issue for imports at the comic store in Kingston, Ontario. Way out of the price range of 12 year old me for a weekly purchase.

Being printed on newsprint also meant bad things for my collection. Already kind of beat up from being shipped home by sea, they got pretty crumbly by the time I moved from Kingston to Ottawa and after a flood they were largely destroyed. I had a few issues that lasted a while longer but not long enough. Now all I have left are my 1986 and 1987 2000AD and Judge Dredd annuals (sturdy hardcovers!), as well as the Titan books reprints of part 1 of the Cursed Earth saga and part 1 of the Judge Caligula saga.

2000AD has coloured my tastes in fiction and comics since that time. Most of my all time favourite comic writers are British and once worked on 2000AD stories. The highest praise I can unleash on a sci-fi story is that it feels like it could have been published in 2000AD. In fact this is what I so loved about Rick Remender's Black Science and Jonathan Hickman's East of West. Both feel Thrill Powered and I am sure Tharg would have been proud to present either one.

Quick rundown of some of my favourite stories:

Judge Dredd and Judge Anderson meet the full cadre of Dark Judges. That was AWESOME. Anyone familiar with the story knows the best panel sequence. Maybe the best Judge Dredd panel sequence of all time. It ends with this. Yeah you know the one:

Possibly the greatest entertainment related crime is that we may never see Karl Urban recreate that on the big screen. I will pay 100 earth dollars to see just that moment!

The Robo-Hunter series which was a play on Sweeny Todd. 

The Ballad of Halo Jones.

Anything with Ro-Jaws. I loved that little garbage can.

Also anything with Nemesis. 

Johnny Alpha's hunt for the men who killed his friend Wulf.

The Apocalypse War.

Chopper.

Metalzoic.

Slaine in the Spoils of Annwn. Had to google the title of that one but yeah. Loved it. The scene with Nest and the unicorn is stuck right there in my brain forever.

It's been almost 30 years since I left England. 30 years of Thrill Powered goodness I would love to experience. You Brits with your ease of access to 2000AD don't know how lucky you are.

It's funny. I got into writing movies in order to maybe make it in Hollywood so that someday I could maybe write American comics so that someday after that I could maybe write for 2000AD. That dream still lives.

And it is all Jenny's fault.

Afterword:

I remember walking to the Mac's milk in Kingston, sometime shortly after I returned to Canada. I knew 2000AD was gone but as I turned that spinner rack full of American comics I clearly recall thinking "I wonder what I should collect here?"

2/3rds of that answer are used as the background on my blog. West Coast Avengers #24 and Uncanny X-Men #221.

More on those LATER.

Postscript:

I always wanted my own Judge's Shield. I recently googled that this is a thing one can get. Add to Life Cart.

Addendum:

Thank you, Jenny!