I saw a splendid documentary about a well-known British comic last night. I downloaded it from Amazon Prime etc. The documentary was about an hour and forty-five minutes with all these creatives from writing, artwork and editorial of a comic. The comic in question is 2000 AD and I’m sure many of us will remember when it first came out in the late seventies. I certainly do and I remember many of the first Judge Dredd stories along with a host of other characters.
As I recall, it was a time of upheaval in Britain. There were strikes. Wilson and then Callaghan Prime Ministers were going to the IMF for loans and the Punk Rock trend was metamorphosing into a rage of anti-authoritarian discontent. And then Margaret Thatcher came along.
(I'm not having a pop at any of the politicians that I'm mentioning. They were all in this circumstance as we all were.) 
This documentary is a series of interviews about how the British comic 2000 AD went against the grain and was also disestablishment with many of its stories. The artist and writers were a mishmash bunch who foresee the decline of the average comic in the newsagents. They wanted to go against the grain a produce something edgier and darker.
I got to listen to the views of these 2000 AD founders as various creative people spoke about the survival of the comic through good and bad times. How it is still doing well to this day. The big-name creative comic writers and artist were Pat Mills, Dave Gibbons, John Wagner, Grant Morrison, Neil Gaiman, Brian Bollard, Dan Abnett, Alan Grant and Carlos Esquerra. Also, a among guests was Karen Berger of Dark Horse and Vertigo comics.
It was a very interesting look at how so many of the other British comics did not like this new 2000 AD comic and often tried to stop the creation for all manner of reasons. But 2000 AD rode the storm, especially Pat Mills who has stayed the distance. A great listen if you have the time.
1. How many of you people remember reading 2000 AD back in the day?
2. What did you think?
3. Who were your favourite characters? 😃👍
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