Future Shock - 2000 AD Comic.

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.) :D

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? 😃👍

Judge Anderson - The Abyss by Alec Worley (2000 AD comic character)

Judge Anderson of Mega-City One – (2000 AD)

Many of us are Judge Dredd fans from 2000 AD comic strip and we have seen this character bloom into novels, graphic novels, audiobooks and films etc. I’ve now read a number of his stories and will, no doubt, read more and hopefully enjoy future on-screen entertainment too.

What I liked about the second movie called simply, Dredd was the introduction of another character named Judge Anderson. I was intrigued by her psychic ability. I knew of her image in comic strips but had never read much about her. Her image is often on front covers but I was more interested in Dredd’s cold character. Because of the movie, I developed a better interest in the Anderson character and wanted to know more. I thought the actress who played Anderson in the film did look like the comic strip images I have seen.

Anderson, as a character, has an approach that differs from Dredd’s. She can’t help having empathy with some of Mega-City One’s millions of citizens. This is because she sees deep and hears all the inner voices. She can’t help getting caught up in the reason and consequence aspect of things. Though she is still a hard arse when the occasion demands. We always get see t the face of Anderson because the helmet interferes with her psychic ability etc. Therefore she removes it when getting off of her law-master motorbike.

The Dystopian World of the Judges.

This huge metropolis of Mega-City One is surrounded by the poison Earth and people can be arrested and sent to isolation cubes for pro-democracy relays. This overcrowded and claustrophobic society is always on the edge having been through an atomic world war. There is ninety per cent unemployment and huge tower blocks are turf areas controlled by various crazy urban gangs. Large numbers of residents feel loyalty towards the blocks they live in. The Judges are often hated. Yet they are needed. The whole society of the numerous Mega Cities around the world have similar setups with these Judges ruling the areas as a police state. They are undermanned and so the police become Judges as well. Obviously, they have wide-ranging powers. They can catch criminals and pass judgement and sentence on the spot. Including on the spot execution, there and then, if deemed necessary.

It all makes for a disturbing dystopian future where extremist policemen, from our own perspective, are necessary anti-heroes. Democratic well-intentioned believers (who really could not control such an overpopulated and variable decaying urban world) are the villains.

And In Such A World Judge Anderson Must Function.

In this Judge Anderson story audiobook, I enjoyed yesterday, (It is called the Abyss by Alec Worley) the female psychic judge is sent to a prison hospital to evaluate a woman who is the head of a political movement to bring about the end to the harsh rule of the Judges. In effect, she is a terrorist in this dystopian world. Her underground group are called Bedlamists.

The terror leader’s name is Moriah Blake and Judge Anderson do a psychic evaluation of the sedated prisoner in the hospital wing of a huge prison block. Anderson needs other psychic police colleagues to put a strong mind shield around her thoughts to stop the other many prison inmates from breaking into her concentration etc.

A raid of Bedlamists terrorists brings about a consequence whereby Judge Anderson is trapped in the Asylum hospital and is in the corridors when all the hundreds of prison cubes are opened. Spilling out into the corridors are hundreds of the drug-crazed psychopaths, murders, rapists and many other types of criminals of Mega-City One’s finest nut jobs. The building is under siege in a Mexican stand-off between Bedlamists and Judges. The terror group is searching for Judge Anderson via the TV monitors before power is shut down. Judge Anderson must discard her uniform and dress like the mad inmates and mingle. She must also try to find the source of a huge bomb.  

This is a real on the edge of your seat listen as Anderson builds a psychic wall to hold off the disturbed minds she is forced to move amongst. She can also hear some inmates who are incarcerated for not filling out a tax form on time, a young lad who evaded paying a traffic offence and a student nurse who’s been in a prison cube for a year, awaiting an evaluation, because her student boyfriend was arrested at a pro-democracy rally. Such people are among the more extreme criminal elements. We are in a world where society can’t afford democracy and some people are mere collateral damage to the extreme law system. Democratically minded people are terrorists. It’s all total dystopian horror for us, the listeners, who are rooting for the extremist right-wing Judges. This world needs them.

Judge Dredd of 2000 AD

9p - Earth money. I remember my old school friend Philip Sullivan laughing his head off at the front page of 2000 AD - a comic that was; 'IN ORBIT EVERY MONDAY.'

I would always be buying comics as a youngster. The Dandy and the Beano were among my favourites. Also, there were other names like; Beezer, Topper, Cor and Knockout. 

I used to read them avidly as a kid. They were my little world where I would often escape to, upstairs in my bedroom out of sight and mind. Out they would come - my growing array of wonderful British comics. 

As I started going to secondary (high) school. I began reading the endless war stories that were out - like; Commando, Battle, Warlord and Victor. 

I remember the German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt complaining about the BBC news, next to our Prime Minister James Callaghan, about these comic strips that were staunchly dedicated to loving our war heroes and demonising anything German or Japanese. 

It was the seventies and as a kid growing up through the sixties and seventies, the war was still very prevalent.  

Then along came a new one called 2000 AD - 9p - Earth Money and Philip Sullivan laughing. I remember reading one of the strips about this futuristic policeman called Judge Dredd. Wow! was this guy the complete works. He diced with death about 10 times a day and would sentence his criminals on the spot. What with all the Mary Whitehouse things going on at the time, I thought the strip would get banned. They banned the American Civil war cards of the sixties because they were bloodthirsty.

The strip that Philip and I were reading was about a villainous assassin with a huge great F*#K OFF rifle that fired a plasma burst or ray. It engulfed the victim in a ball of heat that made them scream "Yeaaaaah' and then there would be a pile of ashes and a smouldering skull and bones. 

Our victims were Judges riding their huge motorbikes through the dystopian city of the future somewhere in America. Of course, Judge Dredd is called in tracking down the serial marksman. I thought it was great. There were other comic strips too, but most of all I remember the infamous Judge Dredd.

It is hard to believe how successful the comic strip became with two movies portraying the character and countless graphic novels too. I would not have thought the character would have last as long as it has, exceeding the years 2000 AD by far. The year 2000 seemed a long way off back in the mid-seventies to a 14-year-old.