This year still feels like we’re in the ‘early years’ of 2000 AD, even if we’re nearly 150 issues in. Judge Dredd’s got a second massive story and Mega-City One feels like it’s growing into the bizarre place it’ll become. Dan Dare’s still… here. We’ve got a questionably-canon Bill Savage story and some new arrivals.

2000 AD was calling itself “2000 AD and Star Lord”, featuring both Tharg and the titular Star Lord. In the letters page there were reassurances about how they were both going to be a thing, but soon enough another science fiction comic came along and got folded in. Tornado was trickier to track down. I have literally one issue of it, so I’ve not read any of the strips leading up to their integration into 2000 AD. Like the core series, I’ll be trying to track back issues down. Those stories are Blackhawk, The Mind of Wolfie Smith and Captain Klep.

The issues covered here are: 2000 AD issues 94-145, 2000 AD Sci-Fi Special 1979, Tornado Summer Special 1979, Dan Dare Annual 1980, 2000 AD Annual 1980

JUDGE DREDD

Issues Covered: 94-108, 110-145

The Day the Law Died continues through the start of 1979, with Chief Judge Cal and Deputy Chief Judge Fish in charge of the judges and therefore Mega City One. His despotic reign is hilariously awful and thankfully put down before too long. There’s also a fun story in this year called Father Earth, which feels like it’s a point where the weirdness of Mega City One and the surrounding areas gets dialled up a little more. It’s a big of a daft story, but good fun. There’s a fun early look at East-Sov as one of their anti-pollution ships crashes into Mega City One and one of Dredd’s more ambitious arrests, quantity-wise. There’s also The Black Plague, which is actually spiders! A swarm overrun a town in the Cursed Earth and end up threatening Mega City One. It’s entertainingly tense, especially as someone who isn’t arachnophobic.

Collected in: Judge Dredd Case Files 02 and Judge Dredd Case Files 03

DAN DARE

Issues Covered: 100-107, 109-126

Dan Dare, working for the Mekon? A shock, but he’s being controlled in Servant of Evil which feels like it goes on for quite a while. He takes a bit of time asking, “Are we the baddies?” before realising that yes, The Mekon totally is one of the baddies. He then gets a cool new glove called The Cosmic Claw, and is expected to master it in order to take on the Mekon. He doesn’t get much time to clear his name, though, as the series ends with a promise of more that doesn’t seem to happen.

Collected in: Dan Dare: The 2000 AD Years Volume Two

FLESH BOOK TWO

Issues Covered: 94-99

We’re back to book two of Flesh and the horrors of Big Hungry taking his revenge on humanity and on Claw Carver. Once again the generic hero of the piece ends up dying, but the book keeps going for a little longer without him.

Carver finally gets what he deserves and some time travel problems mean that the Trans Time sea base moves forward enough to be mistaken for Atlantis and Big Hungry ends up in Loch Ness. It’s not quite as fun as Old One-Eye’s epilogue, but it’s still entertaining.

Collected in: Flesh: The Dino Files

DISASTER 1990

Issues Covered: 119-139

Originally created by Gerry Finley-Day and Carlos Pino

Bill Savage is back! This story’s a weird kind-of prequel to Invasion, albeit one of dubious canonicity with it. This time, Bill’s fighting the elements themselves!

After a nuclear disaster, England’s flooded which leads to massive amounts of evacuation, destruction and of course… disaster! (1990!). As a trucker originally, Bill’s out of his northern home and having to do what he can not only to survive, but save others. There are military men, raiders and oddly enough even Oxford academics who prove threats at different points. Oh, and geese.

It doesn’t necessarily add or take anything from Invasion if this exists, although I guess the UK of Invasion would be a bit more wrecked.

Collected in: This was reprinted in Judge Dredd Megazine 331 and Judge Dredd Megazine 332.

RPG Ideas: Perseverant is an RPG about surviving a disaster, albeit normally a more lonely one than this, so that’s one suggestion. If you want to try and make this a potentially solvable threat, then there’s Our Last Best Hope. You could even use Apocalypse World (sans psychic maelstrom) to show what happens if the disaster keeps going.

ROBO-HUNTER

Issues Covered: 100-112

Sam Slade’s on Verdus, having been youthened thanks to space phenomena, with his colleague Kidd changed into an angry baby. The pair and an entourage of robots have to deal with a community of robots who have gone rogue and would obey humans if they actually believed Sam and Kidd were human. It’s daft and Slade’s frustrated by the whole situation. Anything can be a robot here, including a pair of helpful legs and an even more horrific version of Monopoly.

Collected in: Robo-Hunter: The Droid Files: Volume 1

RICK RANDOM AND THE RIDDLE OF THE ASTRAL ASSASSIN

Issues Covered: 113-118

Originally created by Conrad Frost & Bill Lacey (this story’s by Steve Moore & Ron Turner)

A 1950’s space hero in the same vein as Dan Dare, Rick was more of a space cop seeming character. He’d appeared in 2000 AD in reprints in the annuals, scaled down so you could cut and fold them into your own little comics. This time he gets a larger story, even if it doesn’t last long. 

Baron Odana dies at some space peace talks and the mystery ends up going through a few twists even in the short run that it gets. Ultimately we don’t see much of what could make Rick Random interesting.

Collected in: I’ve had a look, I think Best of 2000 AD Monthly 86 has it.

RPG Ideas: Having recently tested out Star Trek Adventures, you could probably hack that to accomplish what you need here, or just play Star Trek Adventures.

RO-BUSTERS

Issues Covered: 94-101, 103-115

The lads get up to some mischief, starting with the end of a Terra-Meks story, ending in an oddly tragic celebration of the life of a giant Mek. Then we get The Fall & Rise of Ro-Jaws and Hammer-Stein, where they’re due to be killed as part of an insurance scam from their employer. The pair and several other robots try to flee to a robot sanctuary, which involves bad attempts at disguises and all manner of daft shenanigames. As much as this and Robo Hunter feel tonally similar with the robotics and humour, the antics of Ro-Jaws and Hammer-Stein end up appealing to me more than Slade’s.

Collected in: Ro-Busters Vol 1

STRONTIUM DOG

Issues Covered: 94, 104-118

Johnny Alpha’s a dedicated bounty hunter, so much so that he goes to literal hell with Wulf and The Gronk in order to hunt down Bug Eyes. Carlos Ezquerra draws a magnificent hell, including a literal devil. The story goes on for some time, but it keeps varying up the landscape and challenges Johnny has to face. Even once he’s got his man, he sends him out and has to figure out how to get out of hell himself.

Collected in: Strontium Dog Search & Destroy 2

ANGEL

Issues Covered: 95-99

Originally created by Chris Stevens and Carlos Pino

What if a man, but with a plane’s computer brain? This feels like a callback to stories like M.A.C.H. One with a shouty protagonist running around trying to solve problems with a machine in his brain. There are some odd moments where the human and the plan computer feel like they clash a bit, and he’s not really the best spy. His main story is trying to save the President of the United States, and his flying skills make him the best person for the case.

Collected in: Judge Dredd Megazine 321

RPG Ideas: We’re back to Outgunned for this one. I’m sure I’ve run some of these kinds of aerial action scenes using the system.

ABC WARRIORS

Issues Covered: 119-139

Originally created by Pat Mills, Kevin O’Neill, Mike McMahon & Brendan McCarthy

I loved the Ro-Busters and at first was a little disappointed that we were getting another war comic with ABC Warriors, moving back in time to Hammer-Stein’s military history. That said, it’s had a lot of fun with the cast of unreliable weird robots. 

The Mek-Nificent Seven start off as Hammerstein, Joe Pineapples and Happy Shrapnel. They get Mongrel, the villainous General Blackblood and Deadlock, a robot who’s also a wizard. The team are rounded out by a melted robot called The Mass. They’re all a bunch of weirdos fighting in a war where sending people would have been inhumane. The problem is they’re individuals with thoughts and feelings of their own (and occasional bouts of megalomania for Blackwood & Deadlock, who of course are my favourites).

You know what? If you wanted your weird attempt at doing a Guardians of the Galaxy or The Suicide Squad, you could do a lot worse than to do ABC Warriors.

Collected in: ABC Warriors: The Mek Files 01

RPG Ideas: You’ve got a couple of fun options here. You could build something with the Paragon System from Agon, where people are powerful heroes competitively heroing. There’s 3-16: Carnage Among the Stars if you want the war side of it all. You could even use hack Threadbare if you want to emphasise the ability for the cast to fall apart and rebuild themselves.

PROJECT OVERKILL

Issues Covered: 119-126

Originally created by Kelvin Gosnell, Ian Gibson & Jesús Redondo

I love a good mystery box and when Kenny Harris is on a plane whose passengers all disappeared I thought I was onto a fun one. Unfortunately it’s not great. There’s a conspiracy about a CIA hacking project which is actually intended to have machines take over. Kenny’s yet another ‘running about, shouting and punching man’ but he’s not as fun as MACH One or Bill Savage. Hell, he’s no Angel.

Collected in: 2000 AD Extreme Edition 18, which I’ve not found for sale

RPG Ideas: Outgunned is an easy one here, but given the competence of Harris and the enemies he’s facing, let’s say Operators. It’s an action game which has characters as hyper-competent, emphasising moment-by-moment action.

THE MIND OF WOLFIE SMITH

Issues Covered: 127-145, Tornado Summer Special

Originally created by Tom Tully & Vano

This is the first Tornado strip which I’ve only read in 2000 AD (aside from that one issue). Wolfe Smith’s a teenage runaway who looks very mod-coded and is in the possession of telepathic powers, making him, “The Boy with the Mind Power”. He’s a bit of a shit at times, a lot of which feels like it can be chalked up to people trying to take advantage of his powers.

Wolfie’s entrance into 2000 AD has him meet a malevolent psychic and then join a film production as an extra, only to find things getting a little too real.

Collected in: 2000 AD The Ultimate Collection Issue 179

RPG Ideas: Psi*Run is the best match to this, where the players are amnesiac psychic youths on the run and getting into trouble.

BLACK HAWK

Issues Covered: 127-145 (1-18 of 39)

Originally created by Gerry Finley-Day & Alfonso Azpiri

The Tornado version of Black Hawk was a historical drama about a Nubian gladiator in Ancient Rome. 2000 AD takes that concept and smashes it to pieces almost immediately. It’s pretty odd reading this and then going back to the Tornado issue I have where he’s in a historical story without aliens.

Black Hawk is freed from his life as an enslaved gladiator when he’s abducted by aliens. Sadly, they ALSO want him to fight in gladiatorial arenas, but this time against weird aliens. Things get out of hand when a giant tentacled alien is brought in to fight Black Hawk and rampages through the crowd. It also steals Black Hawk’s soul. While he’s got his freedom, he wants his soul back before he dies.

Collected in: Black Hawk The Intergalactic Gladiator

RPG Ideas: Agon feels like a good match, even though it’s Ancient Greek heroes. Travelling from place to place, heroing at things and the competitive nature of space gladiators feels like it could be fit into this structure fairly easily.

CAPTAIN KLEP

Issues Covered: 127-145 (1-10 of 21) 

Originally created by Dave Angus & Kevin O’Neill

Another comedy series, I’m not as much of a fan of it as the other stories which were running at this time. This time it’s a Superman parody. At one point, he loses his skin and is a skeleton for quite a while. Even so, he’s no Superman, he’s not even a Bananaman.

Collected in: There was a collection called Cosmic Comics, which has had a couple of printings. Keep an eye out for that if you want to read some of Kevin O’Neill’s work including this.

THE STAINLESS STEEL RAT

Issues Covered: 140-145 (1-6 of 12)

Originally created by Harry Harrison (novel), Kevin Gosnell & Carlos Ezquerra (comic)

I’ve not read the Harry Harrison novels, and it feels weird that we’re getting an adaptation here. Slippery Jim DiGriz is a crook who gets nicked by the space filth pretty early. He’s sent after Angelina, a remorseless murderer who he actually quite fancies. This is only the first half of the story, and knowing how things go, it gets a bit odd.

Collected in: The Stainless Steel Rat Colour Omnibus

RPG Ideas: This feels like an opportunity to play with Scum & Villainy, with Slippery Jim doing crimes, working for the space filth and then doing more crimes. 

THE V.C.’s

Issues Covered: 140-143, 145

Originally created by Gerry Finley-Day & Mike McMahon

Let’s vape some Geeks!

When I first saw that phrase I had to share it with my good buddy Miles. It’s aged very oddly.

Steve Smith is a new recruit to the Vacuum Cleaners or VCs. The rest of the team are Jupe, Ringer, Dwarf Star, Hen-Sho and Loon. There’s not too much about them yet as this is early days, but they’re evidently an established group who have been fighting the alien ‘Geeks’ and aren’t too keen on Steve yet. He’ll have to do some work to win them round.

There’s only a little taste of them and they look weird in their space suits with kind of wing mirror helmets. Still, it shows promise

Collected in: The VC’s Hell in the Heavens

RPG Ideas: If you had space rules in Dark Heresy then maybe something like that. Alternatively the Modiphius 2d20 system is used for Star Trek Adventures and imminently is going to have a Space 1999 version. I could see that system working for this.

CONCLUSIONS

1978 felt like it was still growing into what it would become. We’re not entirely there in 1979, but it’s got a good anarchic feeling to several of the strips. Judge Dredd’s Day the Law Died is fantastic and the shorter stories like Father Earth and Black Plague are fun, too. Strontium Dog’s Journey into Hell was enjoyable, as was Black Hawk. 

The disappointments were Angel which could have been longer and more interesting, Project: Overkill and Rick Random which didn’t really do much to get my interest.

I think 2000 AD’s absorbed all the comic titles it’s going to and now we’ll see how it evolves from there.