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!
6 comments:
Wolfie Smith ? That was the name of the character played by Robert Lindsay in Citizen Smith on TV !
I think Ian Rogan was Steve MacManus writing under a pen-name because he was Tharg at that time.
Ian Rogan is another name that Steve MacManus has used from time to time.
always prefer this earlier 2000Ad.. not to say that is any thing majorly wrong with the modern stuff but it seams to have suffered some many things in that it has 'Grown up'. the Humour of the old Judge Dredd seam to be completely missing (or at least, changed into a completely different type) this days...
I prefer those days too, but think the only way 2000AD could survive was to grow with its readership. Its companion comics didn't, and they're long gone.
I agree. If it didn't change, it most likely wouldn't have survived.. However, is that a bad thing? I've seen some TV shows where people say "Would you prefer it got cancelled 2 series earlier then not change to match it's audience?" and I think.. Yep! sometimes, that is the better choice.. Some TV shows (and the odd but not many comics) work by spin-off.. things change like a cast major changes ,so they rename the show (come to think of it. bands too.. and a lot of the time they are very successful doing that).. of course 2000AD did kinda change it's name ^_^ 2000Ad and Tornado, and then back again.. of course, some shows and comics.. the early years weren't very great, it was some time before they settled in and got a nice style going.. it can be soo tricky..
I think it would have been an absolute disaster for comics if 2000AD hadn't survived. It's been such a huge influence on comics as a whole, and has given work to numerous creators. It had to change to survive, and although I prefer the less sophisticated, gutsy, early years, it still provides high quality artwork and imaginative stories every week and I'm so glad it's still around.
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