Zarjaz!
December 13, 2010 6:55 AM Subscribe
Prog 1 to Prog 1500- Every cover of the British science fiction comic 2000AD from the years '77 to '06 in 3 and a half minutes. (SLYT)
And if you were getting tired of trying to pause the video to see the covers, here are the non-animated covers (missing #100-149 for some reason, though).
posted by filthy light thief at 7:19 AM on December 13, 2010
posted by filthy light thief at 7:19 AM on December 13, 2010
another cover gallery here, including those issues as well as the Megazine and specials, and with clickthroughs to details of each issue.
posted by Artw at 7:40 AM on December 13, 2010
posted by Artw at 7:40 AM on December 13, 2010
Prog 301 is my fave--disco fever! In 1983! With Rogue Trooper! Time to fire up the old eBay account...
posted by Chichibio at 8:00 AM on December 13, 2010
posted by Chichibio at 8:00 AM on December 13, 2010
Nothing with beat Prog #93 the greatest cover of anything, ever.
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 8:11 AM on December 13, 2010 [2 favorites]
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 8:11 AM on December 13, 2010 [2 favorites]
NO! Please let me drown before the GIANT SCORPIONS get to me! is like the intense Sci-Fi version of Weasels Ripped My Flesh.
And just in time for Christmas(1970-something), issue #44.
posted by filthy light thief at 8:32 AM on December 13, 2010 [1 favorite]
And just in time for Christmas(1970-something), issue #44.
posted by filthy light thief at 8:32 AM on December 13, 2010 [1 favorite]
A personal fave: I OPERATED ON MY OWN BRAIN!
Trivia fact: They originally screwed it up so that it read "I OPERATED ON MY OWN BRIAN", but it was caught at the last moment. Pat Mills reckons it would have been better that way.
Oh, and in other fun news, in February a story of mine will be holding the cover spot on sister-publication the Judge Dredd Megazine. Woo hoo! etc...
posted by Artw at 11:32 AM on December 13, 2010 [1 favorite]
Trivia fact: They originally screwed it up so that it read "I OPERATED ON MY OWN BRIAN", but it was caught at the last moment. Pat Mills reckons it would have been better that way.
Oh, and in other fun news, in February a story of mine will be holding the cover spot on sister-publication the Judge Dredd Megazine. Woo hoo! etc...
posted by Artw at 11:32 AM on December 13, 2010 [1 favorite]
Oh, congratulations, Artw
Looking at that video, it feels like 400-650 or so were something of a golden age, but I very much suspect that that's more about me than it is about 2000AD. Still, DR and Quinch, Bad Company, Zenith, Tyranny Rex - I think you could possibly make a case.
posted by DNye at 12:05 PM on December 13, 2010
Looking at that video, it feels like 400-650 or so were something of a golden age, but I very much suspect that that's more about me than it is about 2000AD. Still, DR and Quinch, Bad Company, Zenith, Tyranny Rex - I think you could possibly make a case.
posted by DNye at 12:05 PM on December 13, 2010
Looking at that video, it feels like 400-650 or so were something of a golden age Oh god yes, fantastic times.
Beyond that and there was a huge dive in quality throughout the 90s. It;s picked up quite a bit sicne though - John Wagner is writing stuff on Dredd that's as good as anything he's ever written, and they have some great writers and artists at the moment - I know I keep bigging up Al Ewing, but he is really, really good - also he really enjoys writing in the spirit of that giant scorpions cover, particularly in Zombo...
Anyhow, the Christmas Prog and Megazine are out at the moment, and they tend to pull out the stops for those and make them a really jumping on point for folks, And yes I'm in the Megazine, full disclosure and all that, so you might want to check them out.
posted by Artw at 12:58 PM on December 13, 2010
Beyond that and there was a huge dive in quality throughout the 90s. It;s picked up quite a bit sicne though - John Wagner is writing stuff on Dredd that's as good as anything he's ever written, and they have some great writers and artists at the moment - I know I keep bigging up Al Ewing, but he is really, really good - also he really enjoys writing in the spirit of that giant scorpions cover, particularly in Zombo...
Anyhow, the Christmas Prog and Megazine are out at the moment, and they tend to pull out the stops for those and make them a really jumping on point for folks, And yes I'm in the Megazine, full disclosure and all that, so you might want to check them out.
posted by Artw at 12:58 PM on December 13, 2010
What's really remarkable is their list of famous comic creators, many of which cut their teeth at 2000 AD before moving on to better-known work at American publishers. (Dave Gibbons was in the first issue.) Oddly missing from the list is Steve Dillon, probably best-known in America for his work with Garth Ennis.
posted by Halloween Jack at 1:19 PM on December 13, 2010
posted by Halloween Jack at 1:19 PM on December 13, 2010
2000ad news aggregator - does what it says on the tin.
posted by Artw at 2:09 PM on December 13, 2010
posted by Artw at 2:09 PM on December 13, 2010
Steve Dillon, probably best-known in America for his work with Garth Ennis
Although more justly to be feted as the illustrator of Hap Hazzard, Bad Company and the aforementioned Tyranny Rex - or, in America, for Skreemer, by Peter Milligan, a fascinating transplant to American comics. And he did the classic John Smith Rogue Trooper story Cinnabar, if memory serves.
(I suspect I am now going to wake up at 5am, shouting the name of someone missing from that list. Steve and Annie Parkhouse? Kev Hopgood? What are the notability criteria here?)
posted by DNye at 3:04 PM on December 13, 2010
Although more justly to be feted as the illustrator of Hap Hazzard, Bad Company and the aforementioned Tyranny Rex - or, in America, for Skreemer, by Peter Milligan, a fascinating transplant to American comics. And he did the classic John Smith Rogue Trooper story Cinnabar, if memory serves.
(I suspect I am now going to wake up at 5am, shouting the name of someone missing from that list. Steve and Annie Parkhouse? Kev Hopgood? What are the notability criteria here?)
posted by DNye at 3:04 PM on December 13, 2010
You might be getting him a bit mixed up with Brett Ewins there.
posted by Artw at 3:07 PM on December 13, 2010
posted by Artw at 3:07 PM on December 13, 2010
Though, come to think of it, he might have done a Bad Company story in a special. I don't think it was his finest hour though.
posted by Artw at 3:08 PM on December 13, 2010
posted by Artw at 3:08 PM on December 13, 2010
Yep - Dillon did a Bad Company short - but for some reason I brainfarted and also thought he did some of the Bewilderness, which on reflection I don't think he did. In his defence, that was very early in his career (although his faces haven't changed a _huge amount_). Ok, scratch that one. But he did do the Tyranny Rex short featuring Woody Allen in the 1988 Sci-Fi special, which has to count as a high watermark of western letters.
posted by DNye at 3:20 PM on December 13, 2010
posted by DNye at 3:20 PM on December 13, 2010
I think what's most noticeable is the fact that the early covers embrace more of a sense of the ridiculous, the engaging and the eye-catching. Most of the covers from the 90's onwards look very dull and uninspiring - pretty much echoing the stories within (with a few notable exceptions).
posted by panboi at 3:22 PM on December 13, 2010
posted by panboi at 3:22 PM on December 13, 2010
STeve Dillon's been around since at least Block Mania, actually possibly a fair wasy before that. He had a lot more black areas and texture lines in his work back then, so though it's recognizably Dillon it feels really different. His faces are instantly recognizable of course... he doesn't do much variation in them, but he's a real expert at expressions - I think Preacher, which is a very dialogue heavy book that doesn't rely on captions or any kind of interior monologue at all, works so well in part because he's so good at giving the characters expressions that match that dialogue.
posted by Artw at 3:56 PM on December 13, 2010
posted by Artw at 3:56 PM on December 13, 2010
10p Earth Money!
I OPERATED ON MY OWN BRAIN!
Ah yes, I'm doing that right now as I type in fact. I'm just about to brush past the short-term memory cen--
Ah yes, I'm doing that right now as I type in fact. I'm just about to brush past the short-term memory cen--
Ah yes, I'm doing that right now as I type in fact....
posted by JHarris at 5:31 PM on December 13, 2010
I OPERATED ON MY OWN BRAIN!
Ah yes, I'm doing that right now as I type in fact. I'm just about to brush past the short-term memory cen--
Ah yes, I'm doing that right now as I type in fact. I'm just about to brush past the short-term memory cen--
Ah yes, I'm doing that right now as I type in fact....
posted by JHarris at 5:31 PM on December 13, 2010
I think, thinking about it, his earliest work for 2000AD was maybe Ro-Busters, in about 1980? Which would have put him in the right period for Block Mania, which ran at the end of '81, right, because the Apocalypse War kicked off at the start of 82? Did he have more of a Ron Smithish influence at that point, or am I just thinking of stories illustrated by Ron Smith?
I must have jumped ship from Eagle some time after that, because I think the first thing of his I remember reading at release was Red Planet Blues, in the 1985 annual - which would have been the end of 84, I guess, although most of the main characters in that were robots, and so didn't have the usual Dillon faces.
(I always think Block Mania was much later than it was, because of the board game, which I played before I read the original Apocalypse War arc. Ah, misty watercoloured memories...)
posted by DNye at 5:34 PM on December 13, 2010
I must have jumped ship from Eagle some time after that, because I think the first thing of his I remember reading at release was Red Planet Blues, in the 1985 annual - which would have been the end of 84, I guess, although most of the main characters in that were robots, and so didn't have the usual Dillon faces.
(I always think Block Mania was much later than it was, because of the board game, which I played before I read the original Apocalypse War arc. Ah, misty watercoloured memories...)
posted by DNye at 5:34 PM on December 13, 2010
Ah yes, I'm doing that right now as I type in fact. I'm just about to brush past the short-term memory cen--
Poor man. No short-term memory at all. Or maybe that makes him the luckiest man on Earth - since he's the only one who doesn't know he just triggered a nuclear launch that will destroy us all.
(Tharg's Future Shock ending, there.)
posted by DNye at 5:37 PM on December 13, 2010
Poor man. No short-term memory at all. Or maybe that makes him the luckiest man on Earth - since he's the only one who doesn't know he just triggered a nuclear launch that will destroy us all.
(Tharg's Future Shock ending, there.)
posted by DNye at 5:37 PM on December 13, 2010
Oh wow. Steve Dillon debuted in Mean Arena way back in the 100's. I read that recently and I don't think I spotted it at all.
posted by Artw at 7:11 PM on December 13, 2010
posted by Artw at 7:11 PM on December 13, 2010
"War zombies!" "Bury! 'em!" - prog 508, my first ever Prog and still a favourite cover.
posted by Artw at 7:30 PM on December 13, 2010
posted by Artw at 7:30 PM on December 13, 2010
I read the original Apocalypse War arc.
apocalypse war was a terrible shark jumping time for 2000ad - nothing but ezquerra, ezquerra and more ezquerra.
bolland (slowmeister of course) leach, dillon, smith, mcmahon - pretty much the definitive list of dredd artists - i dont care if ezquerra was first.
thanks fo reminding me about dillon though - great artist.
posted by sgt.serenity at 9:12 AM on December 14, 2010
apocalypse war was a terrible shark jumping time for 2000ad - nothing but ezquerra, ezquerra and more ezquerra.
bolland (slowmeister of course) leach, dillon, smith, mcmahon - pretty much the definitive list of dredd artists - i dont care if ezquerra was first.
thanks fo reminding me about dillon though - great artist.
posted by sgt.serenity at 9:12 AM on December 14, 2010
apocalypse war was a terrible shark jumping time for 2000ad - nothing but ezquerra, ezquerra and more ezquerra.
Heh. That might be a minority opinion there. For my mind it's the best of teh mega epics, and Ezquerra is a big part of why (that and the massive scale nuclear destruction).
Also, 2000ad being the anthology it, it's more like Ezquerra, Ezquerra and more Ezquerra and Nemesis the Warlock, Rogue Trooper and a whole bunch of classic Alan Moore Future Shocks... (and Ace Trucking and Mean Arena)
posted by Artw at 9:43 AM on December 14, 2010
Heh. That might be a minority opinion there. For my mind it's the best of teh mega epics, and Ezquerra is a big part of why (that and the massive scale nuclear destruction).
Also, 2000ad being the anthology it, it's more like Ezquerra, Ezquerra and more Ezquerra and Nemesis the Warlock, Rogue Trooper and a whole bunch of classic Alan Moore Future Shocks... (and Ace Trucking and Mean Arena)
posted by Artw at 9:43 AM on December 14, 2010
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posted by Slack-a-gogo at 7:02 AM on December 13, 2010