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February 1977 - a new comic title hit newsagents' counters that's still around over 38 and a half years later. Little did I guess then that, in a mere eight years time, I'd become a regular contributor to 'the Galaxy's greatest comic', during what is now regarded as the periodical's golden age. What are your recollections of 2000 A.D.? Was it the comic of your youth, or did you march to a different weekly's drum?
Why not tell us all about it in the comments section?
And here's what the space spinner looked like...
And here's the cover of the 'dummy' issue...
19 comments:
Was the space spinner a frisbee? Did it work? I got into 2000 AD fairly early , before the Cursed Earth. It's funny I don't remember why, probably reviews of the comic in fanzines. Remember BEM? I just sold a whole box of those early ones a few years ago. What surprised me was the parody advertising icons issues which were never reprinted weren't worth a lot.
I've added a pic of what it looks like, Phil. I do remember the name BEM, but can't recall if I ever read one. Hang on 'though, having said that, I may have one somewhere, unless I'm mixing it up with another fanzine.
Never saw an issue of the original 2000 A.D. comic here in the US. I have read Eagle and Fleetway/Quality reprints of Judge Dredd and Strontium Dog. Very impressive artwork, and some clever satire.
In the 1960's and '70's, the year 2000 seemed like the distant future. We expected the 21st century would be filled with flying cars, robot housekeepers, and vacation trips to Venus. Or, if you were a pessimist, that civilization would have been wiped out by a nuclear holocaust and that humans who survived would be living like prehistoric cave men. Or, alternatively, that computers would take over the world.
Well, maybe that last prediction did come true.
TC, in 1986 I asked the editor of 2000 A.D. what the comic would be called in the year 2000 - his response: "That's 14 years away, Gordon, we've got plenty of time to think about it!" (Or words to that effect.) Strange to think that the year 2000 has been and gone, and that the time between then and now is longer than between 1986 and 2000. It only seems like last week when I asked him that - how time flies, eh?
Alan Fennell, editor of the famous TV Century 21 (a comic dated 100 years in the future), spoke about his disappointment that almost everything predicted in 1965 about the future hadn't come to pass, and that we were only getting "more of the same". His letter's on my blog somewhere.
Brilliant! I've never seen the dummy before. Thanks for sharing, Kidda!
( clickety-click, click, click!! )
I think I've got some other pages as well, JP. Pays not to stray too far.
I'd just turned 11 when 2000AD No.1 came out but I was a massive Marvel fan and I didn't even know 2000AD existed - to this day I've still never read a single issue. I think it's a bit silly that it's a futuristic comic with a title that gets more out of date every year - why didn't they just change it to 3000AD ??
I tried Lion, I tried Valiant, I tried Battle but it was 2000AD that regularly took my galactic groats - right from the first issue. The front cover for No.1 was functional but it was that Dan Dare centrespread that left me wanting more. So much so that I bought the original artwork a few years later.
It's a well-known brand name, CJ, that people have a familiar affection for. The word 'Beano' is an outdated word that most people don't know the original meaning of, but DCT would never think of changing the name just because it's out of date.
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I guess that's the pride of your collection, eh, Chris? I used to have an original page of Dan Dare artwork from the '50s (Eagle's second year), but I never kept it. There's a photo of it on my blog somewhere.
I'm only missing about a couple of days per week now and I can soon catch up. Hence my sometimes-late comments! I'll always be here, though.
Now, you were saying about those pages?........
Patience is a virtue, JP. All will be revealed in the fullness of time.
Oh,Kid - that tired old excuse that 2000AD is a familiar brand name. Lots of brands have changed their names over the years and it hasn't done them any harm. 2000AD sounds ridiculously outdated - 'nuff said.
What you're not taking into account, CJ, is the fact that many (if not all) brands which changed their names in Britain (like Marathon to Snickers, Treets to M&Ms, Oil of Ulay to Oil of Olay, etc) only did so to bring them into line with what they were already called in other countries. So, in effect, the names they changed to were even wider known and better established worldwide. And considering that you've never bought or even read the comic, frankly, your opinion on the matter isn't worth diddly-squat.
I've got 'em up to the early nineties, I think. I enjoyed it best in the early years, it developed quite quickly and there was a period, when it became a must read. Then things got a bit self conscious, it disappeared up it's own backside slightly. I'd stopped reading it avidly for quite a while before I stopped buying it, I'd just leave 'em on my desk at work unread most of the time.
I bought the first issue and probably the next two at least, but didn't pick up a copy again for a couple of years. As for leaving comics lying about unread - I'm like that with most modern comics (the New 52 anyone?). The only one I really enjoy is Daredevil in The Mighty World of Marvel.
Kid, just because I've never read 2000AD doesn't rule me out from having an opinion on the name of the comic. I'd have thought that changing to 3000AD in late December 1999 would have been an exciting way to refresh the comic for the new millennium and surely most readers expected something like that, didn't they ? And you admit that you too wondered what would happen to the comic's name when the year 2000 actually arrived.
Yeah, but your opinion would have more validity, CJ, if it was a CONSIDERED opinion. You've never read or bought the comic, so clearly have no interest in it, so why are you so concerned about what it's called? Unless it's the name that puts you off, which doesn't seem to be the case. And although I once wondered in the '80s what the comic might be called in 2000, I've also considered why they haven't changed the name, which seems valid to me. However, maybe they'll do it yet when the comic is 40 years old in 2017. However, I'd keep 2000 A.D. going (a long as it's viable) and launch a new comic called 3000 A.D. - then readers could have the best of both worlds. Then they could merge them if one started to falter.
Kid I found a few fanzines! http://(redacted).blogspot.com/2015/02/fanzine-cover-collection.html?m=1
I remember reading some of them and I'm sure the positive reviews for 2000ad made me start reading it.
Thanks for that, Phil, but it's a site I no longer visit due to the owner's bad attitude towards me in the past.
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