2000AD's Zarjaz Anniversary

"Borag Thungg, Squaxx dek Thargo"

.... translated as "Greetings, friend of Tharg". I'm suddenly feeling very old, as I've just realised that this week is the 30th Anniversary of the very first issue of a British comic institution, 2000AD. And I was there at the very beginning... let's go back... back....

Back in the Jubilee-tastic year of 1977, the only comics I read were "Look-In" (the Junior TV Times doncha know) and "Krazy" comic (and then "Whizzer & Chips" when they merged). I did always like Science Fiction though (or space stuff as we called it) and my attention must have diverted at some point to an advert on the telly for this new comic called "2000AD", with a green alien inviting us to experience the delights of this new thrilling weekly. Of course the lure of a free Space Spinner might have swung it. So I had my Nan pick this up from the local newsagent at a mighty price of 8p of our "Earth money" (I probably took some pop bottles back to pay for this). And so, there was Prog One in my grubby paws - it was great! It had Dan Dare in it so that drew the approval of my Nan & Grandad as they remembered his strip from the "Eagle" in the 50's & 60's.

It was full of picture strips of a gritty nature I'd not really seen before. This was no "Whizzer & Chips". Stories like "Flesh", where time travelling hunters go back to kill dinosaurs in order to take back to the 22nd Century where real meat is a scarcity... however the dinosaurs have different ideas... "Harlem Heroes" which was the Harlem Globetrotters meets Rollerball; "MACH One" featuring British agent John Probe as a thinly disguised variant on the popular "Six Million Dollar Man"; and what was meant to be the star of the comic, the aforementioned Dan Dare fighting the ever evil Mekon. All presided over by the editor from Betelgeuse Tharg, who disguised his spaceship as a office tower block in London and assigned his script and art droids to deliver maximum thrills to the buying public. Brilliant.

Issue 2 was even better, as it had some free "Biotronic" stickers to make yourself look like Steve Austin.. err I mean John Probe, but the real meat in that issue was the first legendary appearance of a character who would become the mainstay and star of the comic, Judge Dredd. Dredd was the no bullshit almost fascist cloned upholder of the law in MegaCity One; where crime struck he struck back, riding in on his improbably sexy Lawmaster bike taking out juves and perps with his lawgiver gun, never once revealing his face behind the mask (let's ignore the farrago of nonsense that was the Stallone movie... oh dear). Who can forget his catchphrase "I AM THE LAW!!!".

Here's some trademark Brian Bolland art:

With bloody brilliant artwork over the years by the likes of aforementioned Bolland, Dave "Watchmen" Gibbons & Mike McMahon, and great writing from Mills & Wagner, this was the real deal and kept me buying the comic week after week into the early 80's, throughout such stories as the "Judge Child", "The Cursed Earth" and "Judge Cal" sagas, not forgetting the iconic "Judge Death" stories (see below).

Here's some of Mike McMahon's unique artwork:

With the popularity of "Star Wars" and the like, IPC comics launched it's own glossier companion comics to 2000AD, such as "StarLord" (12p!! Outrageous) & "Tornado", but these didn't last long and got merged with 2000AD over time, with the best and most popular characters transferring over to the main comic. Two such strips from "StarLord" were cult fave "Strontium Dog" featuring the adventures of Johnny Alpha and my fave "Ro-Busters" featuring the robot duo of Rojaws & Hammer-Stein (don't groan) who went on to the more successful strip "The ABC Warriors".

This was one of my favourite covers from those early days...

If I was really lucky, I'd get a copy of the yearly Annual cheap in the January sales... I've still got this one below somewhere.

As I got older, I sort of grew out of 2000AD, but always kept a lookout to see how it was going, buying the odd issue in a sort of "old habits die hard" kind of way, usually an Anniversary issue to see what had been going on since the last purchase, such as Prog 500 below.

Of course during the graphic novel boom of the mid to late 80s, 2000AD changed somewhat to reflect the times and the strips became more adult and sophisticated, presenting the public with characters like "Halo Jones", "Nemesis", "Rogue Trooper" and "Nikolai Dante". And so it comes to 2007, and 2000AD is still going strong into the 21st Century, without a change of name, celebrating it's 30th birthday with Prog 1526. Dredd has his own "megazine" but still features as a regular in 2000AD, as it should be, even finally exploring how the Judges came into being with the recent "Origins" series .

The current glossy magazine is probably light-years away now from the almost toilet paper printed comic I read when I was 7, but as far as I can see the attitude and spirit remains intact, and if it's giving thrillpower to a new generation of kids that's great by me.

"Splundig Vur Thrigg!"