2000AD - The Early Years

[Rob McCow]

That Kevin O'Neill cover is astonishing. He has an amazingly grotesque style!

[Andrew Curnow]

It's certainly distinctive - I was never really a fan of that sort of 'look' I'm afraid (which may be why the Nemesis series was never a particular favourite) but there's no question a huge amount of work gone into it.

Now I think about it, I think one of the Nemesis serials was drawn by a different artist with a much more 'conventional' style... which I rather liked!

[MacNimon]

I think you're possibly thinking of Bryan Talbot, Andrew, but several others (whose names escape me at the moment) also drew the strip over the years. I'd have to check out the series again but I've got to admit that it's O'Neill that springs to mind for me when I think of the character!

[MacNimon]

Today we have the second of three wraparound Christmas covers to feature in this thread, this one from Prog 192, 27th December 1980, by Carlos Ezquerra.

Two Christmas covers yet to come, my favourite two from the period, then normal service will resume next week!

Inside this issue:
Strontium Dog - The Doc Quince Case (part 3) (Alan Grant - Carlos Ezquerra)
The Mean Arena - The Southampton Sharks (part 11) (Tom Tully - John Richardson)
Dash Decent (part 14) (Dave Angus and Kevin O'Neill - Kevin O'Neill)
Judge Dredd - Loonies' Moon! (John Wagner and Alan Grant - Ron Smith)
Meltdown Man (part 15) (Alan Hebden - Massimo Belardinelli)
Return to Armageddon (part 8) (Malcolm Shaw - Jesus Redondo)

[MacNimon]

We have two covers this morning, simply because I don't think I'll have much spare time to post the final one tomorrow! First up is another wraparound cover, this time featuring D.R. & Quinch by Alan Davis, from Prog 450 dated 28th December 1985.

Inside this issue:
Strontium Dog - Max Bubba (part 6) (Alan Grant - Carlos Ezquerra)
Slaine - Tomb of Terror (part 4) (Pat Mills - David Pugh)
Tomb of Terror - YOU are Slaine game (part 4) (Pat Mills - Garry Leach)
Judge Dredd - A Merry Tale of the Christmas Angel (John Wagner and Alan Grant - Steve Dillon)

[MacNimon]

Finally, in our run of Christmas covers, we have this iconic Judge Dredd cover by Mike McMahon from Prog 296, dated 25th December 1982. McMahon certainly isn't everyone's cup of tea, but this cover has long been one of my favourites.

Inside this issue:
Sam Slade: Robo-Hunter - Play it Again Sam (part 5) (John Wagner and Alan Grant - Ian Gibson)
Harry Twenty on the High Rock (part 10) (Gerry Finley-Day - Alan Davis)
Judge Dredd - The Night of the Rad-Beast (part 1) (John Wagner and Alan Grant - Carlos Ezquerra)
Homer the Barbarian (Alan Grant- Massimo Belardinelli)
Rogue Trooper - Fort Neuro (part 6) (Gerry Finley-Day - Cam Kennedy)
2000AD Star Pin-Up - Torquemada (art: Kevin O'Neill) -(See below!)

[MacNimon]

It's strange how, when you get time off work, you actually seem to get less time to spend online because you're too busy doing other things...never mind, normal service will resume on this thread around this time next week when I get back into my normal routine!

For now though, we'll quickly squeeze in this, the only December issue in the strike-hit winter of 1978...Prog 93, December 30 1978...(the previous weekly issue, #92, was dated over a month earlier 24th November!) featuring a Flesh cover by Massimo Bellardinelli.

Inside this issue:
Judge Dredd - The Day the Law Died (part 5) (John Wagner - Brett Ewins and Brendan McCarthy)
Ro-Busters - Ro-Jaw's Memoirs (part 1) (Pat Mills - Mike Dorey)
Flesh - book two (part 8) (Geoffrey Miller - Massimo Belardinelli)
Tharg's Future Shocks - Pandora's Box (Mike Cruden - Mike White)
Strontium Dog - The Galaxy Killers (part 8) (John Wagner - Carlos Ezquerra)

[Alex]

I've been enjoying this thread a lot but keep on forgetting it's here, really must log in more often! But there's been a whole load of superb covers, though I think this is my favourite as I loved D.R. and Quinch a huge amount when I was a kid.

[CENTER]

[MacNimon]

We see the New Year in with Dredd in this Brian Bolland effort from Prog 146, dated 5th January 1980...

Inside this issue:
Judge Dredd - New Year is Cancelled (John Wagner - Brendan McCarthy)
The VCs (part 6) (Gerry Finley Day - Cam Kennedy)
Captain Klep - Lord Klep (part 6) (Dave Angus - Robin Smith)
The Stainless Steel Rat - Stainless Steel Rat (part 7) (Kelvin Gosnell - Carlos Ezquerra)
Black Hawk (part 19) (Alan Grant - Massimo Belardinelli)
What Tharg did on Sunday (Tharg the Mighty - Carlos Ezquerra)
2000AD Postergraph - Warriors of the Future - 02 - The VCs Spaceship (design and art: Bill Le-Fevre)

[Alex]

Ha, I can't remember seeing that before but it is a great cover.

[MacNimon]

We have a Carlos Ezquerra cover today from the Dredd story Night Of The Rad Beast Prog 297 dated 1 January 1983...

Inside this issue:
Sam Slade: Robo-Hunter - Play it Again Sam (part 6) (John Wagner and Alan Grant - Ian Gibson)
Feature - Tharg's review of 1982
Harry Twenty on the High Rock (part 11) (Gerry Finley-Day - Alan Davis)
Judge Dredd - The Night of the Rad-Beast (part 2 - final part) (John Wagner and Alan Grant - Carlos Ezquerra)
Tharg's Time Twisters - The Star (Chris Lowder - Massimo Belardinelli)
Rogue Trooper - Fort Neuro (part 7) (Gerry Finley-Day - Cam Kennedy)
2000AD Calendar 1983 (part 1 of 2) featuring Judge Anderson (art: Brett Ewins)

[Andrew Curnow]

The cover image of 146, Dredd in the rain, is one I vividly remember... but I must admit, I thought he was cancelling Christmas not New Year! The memory cheats, etc

[MacNimon]

We have an Alan Davis cover today, featuring D.R. & Quinch from Prog 350, 7 January 1984. This issue saw the debut of this, a new regular strip featuring the characters after a popular one-off appearance the previous year.

Inside this issue:
Strontium Dog - The Killing (part 1) (Alan Grant - Carlos Ezquerra)
D.R. and Quinch - Go Straight (part 1) (Alan Moore - Alan Davis)
Rogue Trooper - Colonel Kovert (part 1) (Gerry Finley-Day - Cam Kennedy)
Slaine - The Shoggy Beast (part 3) (Pat Mills - Mike McMahon)
Judge Dredd - Pieromania (John Wagner and Alan Grant - Kim Raymond)
2000AD Calendar 1985 (part 1 of 2) featuring Tharg the Mighty (art: Eric Bradbury)

[Alex]

It's a shame that they've never brought back D.R. and Quinch, I'd love to see more of them, but according to Wiki Alan Moore isn't particularly a fan of the series.

[MacNimon]

I don't know how things work regarding copyright on characters such as these, whether they're totally owned by IPC, or Egmont, or Rebellion...or even by Alan Moore himself (thus possibly vetoing a return by another creative team?)...2000AD was published by IPC at that time, and rights issues are a bit of a minefield when it comes to that company. The recent purchase of a large part of the IPC/Egmont back catalogue by Rebellion may shed a light on things a bit, though.

2000AD Online
Down The Tubes
Blimey!

[MacNimon]

We have a Halo Jones cover today, by Ian Gibson...Prog 451, 4 January 1986.

Inside this issue:
The Ballad of Halo Jones - book three (prologue) (Alan Moore - Ian Gibson)
Slaine - Tomb of Terror (part 5) (Pat Mills - David Pugh)
Tomb of Terror - YOU are Slaine game (part 5) (Pat Mills - Garry Leach)
Judge Dredd - The Warlord (part 1) (John Wagner and Alan Grant - Cam Kennedy)
Ace Trucking Co. - The Doppelgarp (part 1) (John Wagner and Alan Grant - Massimo Belardinelli)
Strontium Dog - Max Bubba (part 7) (Alan Grant - Carlos Ezquerra)
Poster - The History of Justice - Dredd vs Fergee (prog 101) (art: Mike McMahon)

[MacNimon]

Today we have a Kevin O'Neill cover from Prog 503, dated 3rd January 1987...

Inside this issue:
Slaine - The King (part 4) (Pat Mills - Glenn Fabry and Nik Williams)
Bad Company (part 4) (Peter Milligan - Brett Ewins and Jim McCarthy)
Judge Dredd - Varks (John Wagner and Alan Grant - Kevin O'Neill)
Nemesis the Warlock - book six: Torquemurder (part 10) (Pat Mills - Bryan Talbot)
poster - A Mega-City Primer (part 3) (letters E-F) (art: Robin Smith)

[Andrew Curnow]

A bit like Tom Baker's view of The Androids of Tara on The Tom Baker Years video (ah, happy days!) I don't remember those last two covers at all. I was certainly still getting 2000AD in 86 & 87, but... well, that's about it! Nice moody Halo Jones cover though, very nice

[MacNimon]

You'll not remember today's one either, Andrew, as it was a bit before your time - but this is a period I remember well, myself... several months in early 1978, the Dan Dare strip appeared not only as the cover star but the cover feature, with the first page of the strip actually appearing on the cover emulating the character's historical positioning from the 1950s and 1960s editions of Eagle, and a move which would be repeated several years later with the relaunched Eagle in the 1980s. So today we have Dan Dare, by Dave Gibbons, from Prog 47 dated 14th January 1978.

Inside this issue:
Dan Dare - Star Slayer (part 12) (Gerry Finley-Day - Dave Gibbons)
The Visible Man (part 1) (Pat Mills - Trigo)
Tharg's Future Shocks - Enemy Agent (Nick Tufnell - John Cooper)
Bonjo From Beyond the Stars (part 7) (script/art: Kevin O'Neill)
Judge Dredd - Land Race (John Wagner - Brian Bolland)
Invasion - Escape from Liverpool (part 1) (Gerry Finley-Day - Carlos Pino)
Inferno (part 12) (Tom Tully - Massimo Belardinelli)
Backcover - cut-out galactic war game - Supernova (part 2)

[Rob McCow]

Dave Gibbons, eh? Wonder what became of him.

[Andrew Curnow]

You'll not remember today's one either, Andrew, as it was a bit before your time

After I got 'into' 2000AD, I picked up a couple of random old progs at jumble sales - I think they were something like 44 and 48, so not quite today's cover, but certainly with Dan Dare up front. There was a part of The Visible Man in one of them, which I notice started in 47.

[MacNimon]

Here's another Dave Gibbons cover for you from a few years later, Prog 194 dated 10th January 1981...

Inside this issue:
Strontium Dog - The Bad Boys Bust (part 1) (Alan Grant - Carlos Ezquerra)
Dash Decent (part 16) (Dave Angus and Kevin O'Neill - Kevin O'Neill)
The Mean Arena - The Southampton Sharks (part 13) (Tom Tully - John Richardson)
Ro-Jaws reviews...Flash Gordon
Judge Dredd - The Fink (part 2) (John Wagner and Alan Grant - Mike McMahon)
Meltdown Man (part 17) (Alan Hebden - Massimo Belardinelli)
Return to Armageddon (part 10) (Malcolm Shaw - Jesus Redondo)

[Rob McCow]

That yellow guy on the right looks awfully familiar... straight out of Doctor Who's Iron Legion in fact!

[MacNimon]

I wonder if that was deliberate or not...or an in-joke by Dave Gibbons which slipped through the net? Although the Iron Legion ws 18 months or so earlier, he was still the artist on DWM's Doctor Who strip at the time, wasn't he?

[MacNimon]

We have a Nemesis The Warlock cover today, not by creator Kevin O'Neill but by one of the other artists to work on the series, Nestor Redondo. Prog 246, 9th January 1982.

Inside this issue:
Ace Trucking Co. - Lugjack (part 3) (John Wagner and Alan Grant - Massimo Belardinelli)
The Mean Arena - The Edinburgh Executioners (part 7) (Tom Tully - Mike White)
Tharg's Future Shocks - Twist Ending (Alan Moore - Paul Neary)
Judge Dredd - The Apocalypse War (part 2) (John Wagner and Alan Grant - Carlos Ezquerra)
Nemesis the Warlock - book two (part 1) (Pat Mills - Jesus Redondo)
Rogue Trooper - Fear of the Machine (part 1) (Gerry Finley-Day - Colin Wilson)
2000AD Calendar 1982 (part 2 - final part) (art: Brian Bolland)