Comics UK

Is anyone still reading 2000AD? I ask because, visiting schools, colleges, libraries and art centres the length and breadth of the country doing my Comic Art Masterclasses (see website), I've not found a single person who does. Honestly, not a one.

The Beano is ubiquitous, The Dandy's popular especially in Scotland, Manga is very big with older teenagers and art students, especially girls, and Marvel & DC are popular with one kid in each class, sometimes two (more by college age).

But 2000AD just gets blank looks. Even Judge Dredd (you know, that movie with Sylvester Stallone?) means nothing (if you're just starting high school, it was released before you were born).

I know that when I started reading 2000AD as a child, sales hovered around the 150,000 a week mark and everybody talked about it. Who's left now? And how do they find the money to pay for such complex artwork on such a low reader base.

I must confess, to my slight embarrassment, that I got 2000AD every week, religiously, from 1978 until late 2003 when, thanks to cashflow problems caused by running the Comic Festival, I couldn't pay the paper bill and it stopped coming, since when I've probably bought half a dozen issues tops. (Because of the long serials, you can rarely just jump in and pick up a story, so they lost me).

That's me. What about you?

I?m in my mid thirties and recently I went back to full time study. None of my class mates who are in their early-mid twenties ? and are definitely interested in science fiction and all things related ? had ever heard of 2000AD. Honestly, not one of them.

Its not that they weren?t interested, quite the reverse. One of them was interested enough to try and buy 2000AD for a few weeks, but they quickly lost interest as they thought overall the stories were poor.

I still purchase 2000AD almost every week, more or less as I have since the early 1980s. However, most of the issues sit in a pile - unread. At best I?ll flick through the pages to check out the artwork but I rarely get into the stories.

And a couple of people I know of a similar age to me do a similar thing. Buy the 2000AD progs out of habit more than anything else. They too rarely read the progs.

Furthermore, I religiously buy the Megazine. Again, it usually sits unread in a pile. The only thing that got me going recently was the reprints of Charley's War.

Like Pensky, I still read the Megazine. I found that I couldn't justify paying for 2000AD as it only had two stories that I would read and I still had to buy other luxuries like shoes for the kids!

I dip in and out of it on an irregualr basis, but as it has been over 6 years since I got Tooth on a regular basis, I find that I am slightly out of it as far as how characters have developed but I still admire the work that goes into it. Still trying to convince eldest step-daughter to start buying it, but as her beau is already a fan (point in his favour!) might not have to work too hard

Picked up an issue a couple of weeks back with that great Slynn cover but have yet to read it. Pick up 1 or 2 issues a year at most to see how it's doing but that's about it. I do however buy some of the softcover collections.

Earl.

I've been reading 2000AD since the mid-nineties, and still do.

I have to say, the last few years have been great, and this year looks exciting too, with the Judge Dredd story Origins on the horizon.

Don't count ol' Tharg out just yet!

I still read it religously but on a tuesday night I help run an army cadets unit and out of the 30 kids we have coming each week, only a few have heard of Dredd, next to no one has heard of 2000 AD and none of them read comics.

I got back into reading it about three (?) years ago, after buying a copy of the Megazine to read from Smiths on the train on the way to Lowestoft. Seems to me that it's a lot better now than it was back when I stopped reading it back in the early 90's. Most people I know are aware of Dredd and 2000AD, but then back when we were kids (mid ot late 80's), it really was the cool comic to be reading in the playground, so I guess it still holds a certain cache amongst some people. Hell, even my parents have heard of it, which is pretty amazing in and of itself!

I am tempted by the new series of Essentials like Judge Dredd reprint collections.

Earl.

I bought 2000 AD avidly for the first ten years, then irregularly afterwards until about five years ago. Since then I've been buying it every Wednesday. It has its weak stories, but the content changes so often there's often something better around the corner.

Dredd is usually the strongest strip in the comic, but there's been some good artwork over the last few years from Henry Flint, Steve Roberts, Richard Elson, Steve Pugh, Mark Harrison, John Burns and many others. I think the scripts sometimes let the comic down, but the work of John Wagner, Ian Edgington, Pat Mills and others is as good as ever.

There's probably one too many "future war" stories running at present but usually there's a fair balance of themes.

Last I heard, sales were very steady, which probably explains why the five story format is never messed with. As Britain's only surviving adventure weekly, and fast approaching its 30th anniversary next year, it must be doing something right.

Lew

Earl wrote:I am tempted by the new series of Essentials like Judge Dredd reprint collections.

Earl.

Apparently the initial print run sold out almost straight away, which must be pretty good news for publishers Rebellion.

Like most of you guys, I started reading 2000 a.d from the first issue back in 1977, but stopped at prog 712 in early 1991.

I used to read it avidly, from cover to cover and probably several times during the course of the week, but lost interest somewhere around 1989 and started to skim through it at best. A friend of mine still collects it religiously, so I do occasionally skim through it now, but I am a bit dissappointed that there doesn't seem to be much hard sci-fi in it anymore ( for example I read a "Nikolai Dante" story recently which, whilst I believe is set in the future featured (sea) sailing ships).

On the plus side, 2000 has matured with it's readers, and the artwork and production quality is excellent, so I may give it another go, however I must say that I now prefer longer, monthly stories, or, dare I say it, a good old-fashioned sci-fi novel!

RF

I was an avid reader from Prog. 175 to prog 900 (Meltdown Man was my all time fave story ), but stopped due to being a bit disillusioned with story quality.

Did chat someone at "The Cartoon Museum" in Little Russell Street, who was in his thirties and still had a subscription to it, apparently all (or very nearly) the readers are now in their late twenties and thirties and 90% get a subscription, so I guess the publishers have a fairly accurate idea of readership each issue - from a finance point of view.

i keep meaning to dump it, but after 30 years it's become a habit.

Apart from a 6-month hiatus (newsagent where I got the comic from went out of business and it took me a while to go to mail order), I have been reading 2000AD since February 1977.

Yes, there have been highs and lows (mainly highs) but there is no way I could do without my weekly fix of Dredd and co.

Also, being a comic fan and it one of the two surviving British weeklies (The Dandy has now gone fortnightly) from my childhood, helps to assure my loyality.

I hope that it (with the Megazine) survives for many years to come.

kevf wrote:Because of the long serials, you can rarely just jump in and pick up a story, so they lost me.

Muffy wrote:the readers are now in their late twenties and thirties and 90% get a subscription

Long story arcs... ageing readership who buy it direct... reprints sell better than the originals... it's American Marvel all over again. All we need now is continual price hikes and covers that tell you nothing about what is inside, and the transformation will be complete.