Posted on April 13, 2024

2000AD Progs 801-900

I wish I had more good things to say about this stretch. Judge Dredd reliably headlined every prog, and Rogue Trooper, Nemesis, Zenith, Robo Hunter, Bad Company, and Strontium Dogs popped in and out. Even Slaine came back for a romp. But as the cover price rose from 60p to 75p, just about everything that was invented over these two years was a non-starter for me.

2000AD was always a heady mix of elements with sci-fi or fantasy at the core. Any time those particular ingredients were compromised, the results did not catch fire. This describes strips named Armoured Gideon, Bradley, Dead Meat, Firekind, Luke Kirby, Really & Truly, Clown, Babe Race 2000, Slaughter Bowl, Dinosty, Big Dave, Timehouse, and others, which did not catch my interest even one little bit. (Tellingly, very few of these got reprinted.) For the first time, there were progs in which the ONLY comic I cared about was Dredd, so that was the only one I took the time to read. Additionally, the art in some of my other longtime favorites was getting so dodgy that if they had debuted as new strips I wouldn’t have given them a second glance.

I passed my ten-year mark as a 2000AD reader in this time frame, but something had changed. Was it me? When historical accounts began to emerge in later years, I found out that it wasn’t.

Ownership of Fleetway, the comic’s publisher, had shifted again in 1991, this time to a company named Egmont UK. Their primary business was Disney publications for Europe, so they mixed with 2000AD like oil and water. Writers and artists who had been pushing for better treatment were blocked at the door, so most of them either jumped over to the Judge Dredd Megazine (which was less vulnerable to interference) or found open doors in friendlier lands (America).

It wasn’t all negative, though. A few core creators stuck around; Ron Smith, Cliff Robinson, and Carlos Ezquerra drew some glorious Dredd comics, Pat Mills came back to write Nemesis and Slaine, and even Brian Bolland threw in a couple covers. It was fun to see Flesh make a comeback in the wake of Jurassic Park. I liked that movie as much as anyone else, but never forgot that 2000AD had got there first. In other movie news, the first news of the Judge Dredd movie broke during this time, which motivated Fleetway to invest in a picture-perfect Dredd uniform to be worn by a hired goon to live events. It was far more authentic than what Stallone would wear; you’ll see it a couple times below.

Finally, Prog 900 became the first issue to be filled up by just one story, which happened to be the one and only crossover between Judge Dredd and Rogue Trooper. Not a bad milestone.