On this day, 17 June 1989: 2000AD (Prog 631)
Cover artwork: Kev Hopgood
It's been 28 years since this issue (Prog 631) was published, yet it is much closer to the 2000AD we know and love today than it was to the comic that launched only twelve years before it. It has a five-story format, starting with Judge Dredd (a Dredd story, 'Accidental Death of a Citizen', which challenges the core of the tyrannical Justice-led system and is an early example of Joe wrestling with questions that haunt him still today). The stories are aimed at young adults and older, rather than young schoolkids, and blend action, horror, satire, humour and emotional intelligence with some of the most progressive artwork one was likely to find anywhere in the world in its time. Pat Mills is in there (writer of Slaine: The Horned God), as is Chris Weston (artist on the one-off biohazard horror tale, Inside Moves); both are in the very latest issue of 2000AD which I hope my postie will be delivering for me this morning. And, of course, the front cover bears a pun more audacious than any other self-respecting Galaxy's Greatest Comic could reasonably get away with.
Thank you, Tharg, then, now and forever.
Judge Dredd: Alan Grant (writer), Cliff Robinson (artist)
Judge Dredd: Alan Grant (writer), Cliff Robinson (artist)
Zenith: Grant Morrison (writer), Steve Yeowell (artist)
Zenith: Grant Morrison (writer), Steve Yeowell (artist)
Beyond Zero: John Brosnan (writer), Kev Hopgood (artist)
Beyond Zero: John Brosnan (writer), Kev Hopgood (artist)
Slaine: The Horned God: Pat Mills (writer), Simon Bisley (artist)
Slaine: The Horned God: Pat Mills (writer), Simon Bisley (artist)
