2000AD - The Early Years

[Andrew Curnow]

PS - Also I see they've announced a Rogue Trooper movie. I just never got into RT all that much, and never felt (during my time anyway!) that it ever really gelled properly. It's been interesting to read some similar thoughts in the book so far.

PPS - For my money, there's much much more scope in a Strontium Dog movie. Johnny Alpha, Wulf and the Gronk on the big screen, now THAT'S a movie!!

[MacNimon]

I have to agree, Strontium Dog would make a much better movie than Rogue Trooper. I was never a huge fan of RT either...

However, given the relative poor reception given to filmed adaptations of British sci-fi strips, I have reservations about how successful either of these could be...

I don't own a copy, and haven't read, Thrill Power Overload although I'm well aware of it. It's one of those I've just never got round to. Looking at Amazon though, it's available at a decent price and I might just get myself a copy soon...and anything Pat Mills has to say is always worth a read

On the subject of books about comics (and the related anecdotes/background/history) there is one book in the works which I (along with many others) have been eagerly awaiting for a good number of years (it's not about 2000AD though) - and I dread to think what the final price-tag will be though when it finally sees the light of day. It has been a work in progress for the past 15 years or so, it's basically a history and index of all Marvel's UK output from the 1950s till the present day and from what I've it sounds like being a fascinating read. From Cents To Pence by Rob Kirby, hopefully finally seeing print in the next couple of years. Details and updates can be found on Rob's blog A Distant Beaconl for anyone who may be interested.

I think it's about time for another covers thread though, it's been a while. I love doing them, but unfortunately long ones such as this 2000AD one which have a schedule to follow tend to fizzle out due to lack of time...

But what I have half a notion for is one simply for science fiction and space comics. I''d probably cover old ground we've seen before but all the same, there's some great stuff out there worth another look

[Andrew Curnow]

Sounds good!

[Alex]

Add me to the list of those not overly enthusiastic about a Rogue Trooper film, I don't dislike the character but I'd much prefer to see Johnny Alpha et al on screen, and a fair few others too - despite Alan Moore hating to see his creations on film I'd love to see Halo Jones for instance, especially if they were by some miracle able to persuade Moore to finish the story.

I watched Future Shock! The Story of 2000AD fairly recently and enjoyed it a lot, I knew a fair bit about the history of the comic but some of it came as a surprise, and it was great to see some of my favourite writers on screen.

I've also been reading 2000AD of late for the first time in years due to discovering the recent Judge Death series by Kek-W, it's been a great read but unfortunately bar the other Dredd strip not many of the stories have been doing it for me.

[Andrew Curnow]

I've finished the book, which was a fascinating read - to me, much of the stuff from 90s onwards was completely unknown and I didn't realise that the general consensus is that the magazine had a real slump during the 90s before picking up during the 21st Century. Interesting to read that there was a period when the question of what to call 2000AD after 2000AD kept coming up, because I remember me and my brother having that very debate!! Also, it's hard not to grin at the fact that the current editor (and, certainly from reading this book, the guy largely-credited with getting the mag back on track) is called Matt Smith!!

I got 2000AD from 1979 through to about 1988 - and then briefly again in about 1997/98 for six months or so, which was the era of 'new stuff' like Sinister Dexter and Nikolai Dante. I must admit, reading this book prompted me to pick up the latest issue - it looks smaller and feels thinner than it used to (although the page count is actually about the same to be fair, I think it's just the the individual pages are finer). Other than Dredd I had no idea about any of the current strips, and to be fair coming in partway through a story is not necessarily ideal - but it was an interesting read, and I must admit I didn't come away hating it in a 'not as good as it used to be' kind of way. I'll be tempted, I think, to pick up this year's 'big Christmas issue' and see what that's like...

[Andrew Curnow]

What was also interesting from reading the book of 40 years, was that the general consensus amongst the editors, authors, artists is that nobody really nailed Rogue Trooper. A lot of them hated the dog chips so got rid of them only to have readers saying they were the best thing! There's some mangled continuity, a lack of direction... So in fact all the things I'd say were a problem with Rogue Trooper (mainly that it was generally a bit dull, and other than being blue there wasn't actually anything that distinctive about the main character, and that it would be hard to really say what the strip was 'about') seem to be 'recognised' problems. Which makes the fact that it's (apparently) such a popular strip, and that somebody (anybody!) wants to do a movie, doubly-weird!!