Is anyone still reading 2000AD?

Discuss or comment on Britain's sole surviving boy's comic from the 1970's. The home of Judge Dredd, Slaine, Nikolai Dante, ABC Warriors and Sinister Dexter. Has been running since 1977.

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AndyB
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Is anyone still reading 2000AD?

Post by AndyB »

We already had that with the Dandy - complete with page count cuts.

tolworthy
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Re: Is anyone still reading 2000AD?

Post by tolworthy »

AndyB wrote:We already had that with the Dandy - complete with page count cuts.
LOL! True. So true.

felneymike
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Is anyone still reading 2000AD?

Post by felneymike »

My brother got it in 96-97, then we stopped for ages. We did get the facsimilie of issue 1 though, and became interested in Invasion/Savage because of it. I started buying it in 2004 when Savage came back and just didnt stop XD, even though Savage itself has been transmuted into politically correct rubbish.
I also like Sinister Dexter (yeah, really.), Dredd is always good, i loved Origins but annoyingly missed an issue with the follow up story which looked even better (think it was prog 1544). Kingdom and Stone Island where both good, though the Stone Island sequel hasn't grabbed me... might have been better if the original story had just ended inconclusively with a "did they make it?" ending forever more. "Fashionably occult" stuff like Wiccanism/Paganism pisses me off so Cabbalistics Inc doesnt do much for me, though i like the current Button Man story, even though i have only a very vague knowledge of the rest of the story. It strikes me as very dark and very early 80's, for some reason i can envisage a Button Man TV show having been on in 1981, just seems to have that kind of atmosphere for me XD

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Sidnny
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Re: Is anyone still reading 2000AD?

Post by Sidnny »

Apart from a brief period, I have been getting 2000AD every week since February 1977 and I still love it (that and Judge Dredd Megazine). :D

Dredd just keeps going and going and his Origins saga last year was pure genius (though I wonder if they could have done more with Fargo after bringing him back albeit briefly from the dead?).

One of 2000AD's strength is its ability to move on and try new strips. But at the same time, keep its links with the classics (ABC Warriors, Strontium Dog, etc...)

I, for one, will continue to get it as long as it is printed (along with the Megazine and the Dandy (which I get purely out of loyality though I am glad it is slowly turning back to more of being a comic than a mag)). :xfingers:

May all our surviving British comics continue... :up:
Reading comics since 1969. My comics are: The Dandy Xtreme (since 1969), 2000AD (since 1977), Judge Dredd Megazine (since 1990) and Spaceship Away (since 2003).

moose
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Re: Is anyone still reading 2000AD?

Post by moose »

sad to report that i made prog 1600 my last. i've bought it religiously since programme 1, but i simply can't justify spending the money on it anymore. apart from the odd decent strip, and maybe a lucky week where there's a john wagner dredd story, the decline in quality of content has finally tipped my hand. other wroters just don't get dredd right. the man who came closest after many years of trying was gordon rennie. just when he'd cracked it, he was never to be seen again.

i've never enjoyed sinister dexter or nikolai dante. i find simon spurrier's work turgid and repetitive, and he writes so much stuff in 2000ad it's hard to avoid him. i have enjoyed ian edginton's stuff, such as the red seas, and goodness me, when pat mills puts his mind to it, he can still do a decent series without too much political preaching. if only he'd lay the ABC warriors to rest... however, double-length episodes of sheer tedium such as lobster random and stalag 666 have made me realise that i could spend eight quid a month on things i enjoy.

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colcool007
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Re: Is anyone still reading 2000AD?

Post by colcool007 »

Moose's comments has just reiterated why I called it quits on 2000AD back in 98/99. I keep getting close to closing my Megazine subsciption, but they keep pulling rabbits out of the hat and it keeps me coming back for more.

Well done to the Meg team for keeping a wavering fan on-board, but it is still annoying that they have to pull a bit of a magic trick to keep me reading instead of concentrating on keeping the quality high so that I subscribe as a matter of course.
I started to say something sensible but my parents took over my brain!

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Re: Is anyone still reading 2000AD?

Post by felneymike »

I must admit to getting rather bored too of late. Though i liked the mutie block storyline the new one set in space doesn't look to be as good (one thing i've always wondered is why, if earth is such a hellhole BUT they have interstellar space travel, anybody lives there anymore). I'm half expecting Stalag 666 to have a twist ending in which another old character turns up... otherwise, where is it going? the latest episode with the venom from the animals is progress i suppose, but in all the instalments up to now pretty much nothing has happened. I've never read any previous Lobster Random but what i'm seeing so far isn't impressing... sticking with the comic for now, though, just to see if anything interesting comes up when all this guff ends.

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Re: Is anyone still reading 2000AD?

Post by moose »

yeah...i've been sticking with it in case anything good comes up for quite a few years now. i think the only 'new' thing i've enjoyed in ages is defoe (getting 666 into it yet again) although the second run of that was less enjoyable than the first.

i went away from the meg when alan barnes stopped editing it. i think the bloke who took over initiated a lot of change for the sake of change, like new editors do, to 'make their own mark'. i'd been enjoying some of the stuff that barnes had put in there, but that which replaced it was kind of "...meh!"...

i've been on and off with the meg for years. i think the new tank girl would be good if i had ever been into tank girl, i see rufus is doing a fine job with the art, and it was good to see new work from john cooper, it's just a shame it was on the rather dreary armitage.

you do get a better class of dredd (normally) and some decent anderson stuff if alan grant is on song, but for the cover price...it's just not quite up there any more. that being said, i looked at a few mid-90s issues a couple of days back...what were they thinking?

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Re: Is anyone still reading 2000AD?

Post by PaulTwist »

I've just dropped 2000AD after my longest ever run reading it (from whichever prog Origins started in, I think it was). I had reached the point where I was buying it out of habit. I'll still dip in occasionally, as I have for the past 18 years or so, and I'll still get the Christmas bumper prog.

I did, however, buy the Megazine last month. £4.99 is steep, but when you bear in mind you're getting a 64-page comic with no ads for £2 as part of that, it's pretty good value.

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Re: Is anyone still reading 2000AD?

Post by Lew Stringer »

I started buying 2000AD again several years ago (around the turn of the century), having dropped it during the Nineties. I find there's usually something in there that interests me. Dredd is usually on form, and well written by John Wagner, and anything by Ian Edgington & Matt Brooker is worth a look.

I'm currently enjoying it more for the art I must admit. Clint Langley's CGI work intrigues me, and I've always liked Carl Critchlow's artwork.

As for the Megazine; again, it's a mixed bag. At the moment I like the mix, (and I'm enjoying its features on comics) but if Armitage or that Ninja Kung-Fu Judge or whatever he was comes back I may drop it like a stone.

So I've been reading 2000AD on and off since issue 1 but I've only kept the first 200 issues. Anything after that I liked (such as Nemesis) I bought again in book form.

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Re: Is anyone still reading 2000AD?

Post by patpending »

Hello all! I'm a new member so I hope you'll excuse me if I resurrect an ancient thread. What's more, one started by the bloke from round Countesthorpe way who made me join YouSpace(?) and last posted to by Nuneaton's Mr. Yampy himself! (no, not Larry Grayson). ;)

I am a long-standing comics fan since before decimalisation. After Cheeky, Whoopee and Buster bit the dust I was left subscribing only to Beano and 2000AD. Now read on.
moose wrote:i keep meaning to dump [2000AD], but after 30 years it's become a habit.
When the full frontal nudity and the real swearing - no longer "drokk" and "grud"- took over, I finally decided to stop at about 31 years, having had it every week since Prog 1. It was hard to do but I felt it was no longer suitable. It had become IMHO too childish for me.

I face something similar with the Beano now - I can't stand the facelifted (non-) Menace. The recent changes to the Beano could be out of "1984".

"Dennis realised he had always had two separate eyes and the only pig in town belonged to Gran and was called Harley" "- or is it Snowball?" sort of thing.

Instead of brightening up my week, my Beano now sees me shouting at Dennis "They've hypnotised you, you fool! That's not her pig, it's yours! Remember what happened to Stanley Livingstone? Er no, you won't, of course..." Like with Radio 1, GLR, and 2000AD, it has forcefully been pointed out to me that I am no longer in the target demographic!

So a second three-decade-plus subscription bites the dust this year. :(

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tony ingram
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Re: Is anyone still reading 2000AD?

Post by tony ingram »

Aside from a brief period in the 90s, I've bought it since the beginning and I'd say it's currently going through a period of pretty strong stories. In fact, it's been steadily improving for the last few years.

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Re: Is anyone still reading 2000AD?

Post by felneymike »

I've had no problems with it either, later. Not even with the "magykc" elements of a few recent strips, where do they pull this rubbish from?

I managed to miss another issue recently, so have two sitting around waiting for me to get the "missing" issue. Except i know i'll never be bothered, so might just go and read those two issues now.

Also my brother found a few old issues and dumped them in my room yesterday. They made an interesting re-read. The "Maliss" storyline, clearly about child abuse, passed over our heads the first time around (handled very well). Also we didn't have a clue about early Nikolai Dante back when it started. Of course the parallel/parody of Russian history is now obvious, time to hunt down the book editions of those early stories i think.

Mercy Heights was rubbish though, wasn't it?

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tony ingram
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Re: Is anyone still reading 2000AD?

Post by tony ingram »

felneymike wrote: Mercy Heights was rubbish though, wasn't it?
I rather liked it. I wish they'd bring back Tor Cyan.

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nottinghamian
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Re: Is anyone still reading 2000AD?

Post by nottinghamian »

I'm really enjoying 2000AD at the moment.

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