Christmas comics: 2000AD (1979)

Here's the second in this year's selection of vintage Christmas comics, and it's 2000AD and Tornado Prog 145 from 1979. A great cover by Carlos Ezquerra, and the art department has even added traditional snow to the logo. 

Inside, the comic isn't actually that festive, as IPC tended to leave the Christmas hi-jinks to the humour comics, but it's such a great line-up of strips that I thought you'd like to see a taste of them. The issue got off to a strong start with Judge Dredd by John Wagner and Mick McMahon...

Future war story The V.C.s by Ian Rogan and Garry Leach...

The Mind of Wolfie Smith had transferred over from Tornado comic. This episode was by Tom Tully and Mike White...

The centre-spread at this time featured The Stainless Steel Rat, adapting Harry Harrison's novel in comics form by Kelvin Gosnell and Carlos Ezquerra...

2000AD featured a single-page humour strip back then, with Captain Klep drawn by Robin Smith. (Ken O'Neill had been the original artist.)

Black Hawk was written by Alan Grant and illustrated by Massimo Bellardinelli...

Finally, at the back of the comic, a Christmas strip! Tying in with the front cover, it's Tharg's Christmas Tale, drawn by Carlos Ezquerra...

Don't forget that this year's Christmas 2000AD will be out on Wednesday with 100 pages! Here's a preview:
https://lewstringer.blogspot.co.uk/2016/12/the-christmas-issue-of-2000ad-is-zarjaz.html

There'll be pages from another old festive title tomorrow. Which year will we arrive in? Wait and see!

Flame O' The Forest (1970)

Cover of LION by Tom Kerr.

Lion was always a good solid adventure comic and it produced some memorable characters such as Robot Archie, The Spider, and The Spellbinder. Some strips are less well remembered, but in some cases that was due to their short runs not for any lack of quality. One such serial was Flame O' The Forest, an excellent strip which ran in three page chapters from Lion dated 7th February 1970 to the issue dated 7th November 1970.

Flame O' The Forest was set in Norman England after Harold's defeat at Hastings. The hooded Saxon hero of the title fought against the invaders by using skills including magic tricks and archery. For an IPC strip of the time it was notable in its body count, with the Flame disposing of evil Baron Corbeau's men one by one. (Although any true violence happened off panel.) The artwork was by Massimo Belardinelli, several years before he'd be drawing Dan Dare, Inferno, Meltdown Man and Ace Trucking Co. for 2000AD. Belardinelli often poured a lot of time and energy into his work and Flame O' The Forest was no exception; dynamic and crammed with detail, dripping with atmosphere.

Here's the first chapter from Lion (7th Feb 1970)...

A few selected chapters from the series...

The final episode from Lion (7th November 1970)...

I always liked the strip as a kid. It seemed a bit more dangerous than most of the other stories in Lion. The theme of the lone freedom fighter against oppressive establishment has always been a good one to use since the days of the Robin Hood legend, and later developed by Alan Moore and David Lloyd in V for Vendetta of course. In Flame O' The Forest it's more of a traditional boys adventure yarn but it still had an edge to it. Definitely a classic. 

Happy Birthday to 2000AD

2000AD Prog 1 was published on Saturday February 19th 1977, so today is the 35th anniversary of the comic. It's an impressive achievement that it's still being published, making it the most successful British adventure comic since Commando was launched in 1961. A special anniversary issue will appear this Wednesday, February 22nd.

2000AD was launched back in the days when new comics were always backed with TV advertising and heavily promoted in other comics from the same publisher. (You can see the four page ad that heralded the launch in a blog post I did five years ago here:
http://lewstringer.blogspot.com/2007/02/30-year-flashback-2000-ad-arrives.html )

I can remember buying the first issue (that's the very copy I bought, shown above, now lacking its free plastic frisbee) and noticing how different 2000AD was compared to existing UK adventure weeklies such as Victor or Tiger. To be honest it took me a couple of weeks to get used to it, and I initially thought the splash pages and longer stories were too derivative of American comics. Admittedly at 17 (as I was in early 1977) I was going through an "I'm too old for British comics" phase so I wasn't exactly its intended readership. However by issue 2 I was hooked and realized that this was something that could appeal to all ages and that the people behind the new venture understood that comics had to change to survive. Indeed, 2000AD had replaced Valiant, proving that the old style comics, great as they had been, were no longer appealing to boys of the 1970s.

I don't have the time or the inclination to write an in-depth analysis on the comic, and it has been discussed widely over the years anyway, so I'll just show a few scenes from issue 1 that stood out for me at the time.

I felt the intro page was a bit of a "filler" back then, but it was a typical 2000AD "in yer face" way of introducing the strips and kicked off the comic with a bang.


Invasion was the lead strip. I instantly recognized the artwork as that of "The Steel Claw artist" as I called him (an uncredited Jesus Blasco) so that appealed to me straight away.


Flesh and its bloody violence felt like something Action would have published before it was neutered. Unsurprisingly it was written by Pat Mills, who had been Action's original editor (and was editor of 2000AD). Time travel and dinosaurs? Great stuff.


Dan Dare was given the luxury of the full colour centrespread in those days when comics were mainly black and white. Although I hadn't been a follower of the original Dan Dare I really didn't care for this version. However, Belardinelli's artwork drew me in.


Dan Dare was intended to be the main attraction of those early issues but the true star of 2000AD was promoted on the following page. "Next week, meet... Judge Dredd". A pocket illustration by Carlos Ezquerra heralding a character who would become legend.


Now, M.A.C.H.1 was the strip I had a problem with. The character looked and dressed like Steve Austin from TV's Six Million Dollar Man and the strip was obviously inspired by the show. No matter though. As time went on M.A.C.H.1 put its own spin on things and developed towards a far more interesting direction than any Bionic Man episodes.


Sports strips? Not for me usually, but Harlem Heroes was worth a look. Solid, enjoyable artwork by Dave Gibbons and, again, a story that developed into an interesting direction.


The one thing that 2000AD had more than any of its companions or rivals at that time was IMPACT! The strips were presented in a bold, exciting way, free from the formula layouts of Tiger and suchlike. Admittedly, DC Thomson's Warlord had done this first, but 2000AD did it better in my opinion, and the black humour that became part of the comic was another bonus.

Although I still buy 2000AD every week I do miss the style of those early issues. That original dynamic logo is probably considered not sophisticated enough for today's readers. Indeed, the loud, punky tone of those 1977 issues is perhaps too immature for the older demographic the comic is pitched at now. A shame, because although the weekly still features work by some of the top talents in the industry I feel the comic itself has lost some of its edge along the way. But, comics can't stand still and the fact that it survives proves it can still find an audience.

Anyway, if you're not already a regular reader, treat yourself to 2000AD this coming Wednesday with a cover by none other than Mike McMahon, extra strips, and a free poster to celebrate the 35th anniversary of the Galaxy's Greatest Comic!

http://www.2000adonline.com/

The original 1977 TV ad for 2000AD No.1: