2000AD timeline 2: 1978

1978 (Progs 46 – 93)

April: Judge Dredd begins his first major mega-epic as he ventures into The Cursed Earth (Prog 61). The story (which at one point leads to a threatened lawsuit over its content) is mostly written by Pat Mills with art provided by Mike McMahon and Brian Bolland.

May: A new comic, Star Lord begins. Originally planned as a monthly sci-fi alternative to 2000AD, it in fact, is released as a weekly, just like its sister comic, 2000AD, a decision which ultimately dooms it from the start.

The quality is high, however. Readers are introduced to mutant bounty hunter Johnny Alpha in Strontium Dog (John Wagner/Carlos Ezquerra) while Ro-Jaws and Hammerstein form part of a 21st century android international rescue service in Pat Mills’ Ro-Busters. Other stories include Timequake and (later) Mind Wars.

Star Lord’s editor is actually called Star Lord himself and is engaged in an ongoing battle with the forces of the interstellar federation. Behind the scenes, 2000AD’s editor, Kelvin Gosnell helps out. The new comic is 12p. 2000AD is 9p, rising to 10p in September (Prog 83). Other 2000AD stories this year include Dan Dare, Flesh, The Visible Man, Ant Wars and MACH Zero.

October: After 22 issues, Star Lord merges into 2000AD (Prog 86). Strontium Dog becomes one of 2000AD’s most enduring and popular stories. Ro-Busters only lasts until 1979 (largely because writer Pat Mills has lost interest) although Ro-Jaws and Hammerstein continue to reappear in the comic for decades. Hammerstein even crops up in the 1995 Dredd film.

Another Star Lord story, Timequake briefly resurfaces in 2000AD in 1979.

November: (Prog 87): Having survived The Cursed Earth, Dredd launches almost immediately into another mega-epic, The Day The Law Died in which Mega City One is taken over by he tyrannical Chief Judge Cal, who models himself on the insane Roman emperor, Caligula.

The 2000AD annual and Sci-Fi Special are released as usual, alongside a new Dan Dare annual. Although the comic itself lasted less than six months, one Star Lord summer special (1978) and three annuals appear in the years ahead.

Elsewhere:

The first Space Invaders arcade games appear this year.

January: Blake’s 7 arrives on BBC1.

March: Douglas Adams’ Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy radio series is first aired.

UK premiere of Steven Spielberg’s Close Encounters of the Third Kind.

May: The Incredible Hulk starring Bill Bixby and Lou Ferrigno debuts on UK TV.

June: Jeff Wayne’s Musical Version of The War of the Worlds is released.

October: Omni magazine is launched. It continues until 1997.

December: Superman: The Movie starring Christopher Reeve, Margot Kidder, Marlon Brando and Gene Hackman is released in UK cinemas.

Chris Hallam is a freelance writer. Originally from Peterborough, he now lives in Exeter with his wife. He writes for a number of magazines and websites including The Companion, Yours Retro, Best of British and Comic Scene – in which he wrote about Judge Death, The Ballad of Halo Jones, Dan Dare, The Eagle, Metalzoic and Alan Moore’s Watchmen. In the past, he wrote for Metro.co.uk, Radio Times, DVD Monthly and Geeky Monkey. He co-wrote the book, Secret Exeter (with Tim Isaac) and A-Z of Exeter – People, Places, History. He also provided all the written content for the 2014 annuals for The Smurfs, Furbys and Star Wars Clone Wars as well as for sections of the 2014 South Park annual and all the 2015 Transformers annual.

Top ten 2000AD stories which should be made into films

Chances are, if you like any comic at all, the last few years will have seen one of your favourites be made into some sort of film, with adaptations ranging from both the biggest to even the most obscure comics and graphic novels. Some, such as 2000AD’s most famous story, Judge Dredd, have been filmed more than once.

But which other stories from the Galaxy’s Greatest Comic are ripe for a big screen outing?

Sam Slade: Robohunter

The pitch: Like Blade Runner. Except funny.

Like Blade Runner, John “Judge Dredd” Wagner’s Robohunter took its inspiration from Philip K. Dick’s novella Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? It was always much more fun than Ridley Scott’s film though (which it predates). Sam’s colleagues included Kidd, an obnoxious man trapped in a baby’s body and the idiotic android, Hoagy. His first mission saw him trying (and failing) to bring order to the colony Verdus where a full-blown robot revolution had occurred.

Rogue Trooper

The pitch: Blue movie.

Thanks to Avatar, The Watchmen and The Smurfs, cinema’s latest “blue” period may have peaked a few years ago. But the blue genetically engineered warrior Rogue, trapped in an eternal war on the desolate Nu Earth is the only 2000AD character other than Dredd to have ever got his own annual and could work well on screen.

Button Man

The pitch: The Hunger Games for grown-ups.

Not to be confused with Children’s ITV’s Button Moon (note: nobody has ever done this), this was a rare non-sci-fi outing for the comic. The premise – hired killers are paid by rich clients or “Voices” to hunt each other and fight to the death for sport – is so cinematic that it’s surprising it hasn’t been filmed already. In fact, Dreamworks bought the rights some years ago. But, as yet, there is no film.

The Ballad of Halo Jones

The pitch: The girl from tomorrow.

Before he became the beardy comics legend behind The Watchman and The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Alan Moore wrote a lot for 2000AD, notably this unusual female-centric strip which saw its heroine progress from life in the claustrophobic 40^th century metropolis The Hoop, to a job on a luxury space cruise liner to ultimately fighting a future war on the time-distorting planet Moab.

Nemesis the Warlock

The pitch: Alien insurrection.

Nemesis is the alien leader of Credo, a resistance movement fighting the neo-fascist forces of the malevolent, futuristic masked megalomaniac Torquemada. With catchphrases like “Be pure, be vigilant, behave!” the villainous Torq is the real star of the strip. It’s a nice twist having humanity as the villain, although in general, Pat Mills’ story is probably a bit too weird to make into a film.

Slaine

The pitch: The Celtic Conan.

Pat Mills’ Slaine, the musclebound warrior of the Land of the Young, Tir Nan Og, may be steeped in Celtic mythology, but it did start around the same time as the first Conan films. Despite unique twists (the whole thing is related by Slaine’s morally questionable dwarf sidekick Ukko and Slaine himself is also prone to warp spasms – don’t ask), a Slaine film might struggle to escape from such unfair comparisons.

Chopper

The pitch: Surfs up!

A spin-off from Judge Dredd, Chopper – real name: Marlon Shakespeare -first appeared as a teenage graffiti artist not unlike a Mega City One version of Banksy, in the early Eighties before transforming into a world champion in the illegal sport of sky surfing. This could actually be brilliant, although risks comparison with the Silver Surfer (already brought to screen in the terrible Fantastic Four sequel). And as any Eric Bana fan will tell you: there is already a film called Chopper.

The ABC Warriors

The pitch: They, Robot.

Robotic fighting unit and sometime allies of Nemesis the Warlock (see above), the two most famous Atomic Bacterial Chemical Warriors – the wittily named Ro-Jaws and Hammerstein – first appeared in Ro-Busters, a sort of robot version of Thunderbirds, which appeared in 2000AD’s sister paper Star Lord, before merging into 2000AD in 1978. Oddly, Hammerstein has already been in a film, cropping up randomly in the first Judge Dredd movie.

Strontium Dog

The pitch: Alpha male.

In the future, a nuclear conflagration has left a sizeable minority of mutants, all forced – for some reason – to work as Search and Destroy agents (or “Strontium Dogs” basically bounty hunters) by the unsympathetic “norm” majority. The coolest of these is Johnny Alpha, accompanied by his Viking sidekick Wulf Sternhammer (“A skull to crack with the happy stick und Vulf is fine!”). Alpha’s mutation gives him white eyes but it also enables him to read minds and do all manner of cool stuff, so who’s complaining?

Anderson PSI

The pitch: She’s always in your mind.

Another Dredd spin-off but let’s face it, the psychic female Judge was the best thing about the recent Dredd film. She could also be pitched against Mega City One’s ultimate super-villain, Judge Death. Altogether now: the crime is life, the sentence is death!

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