First female-led strip in 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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Muffy
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Re: First female-led strip in 2000AD?

Post by Muffy »

Halo Jones was really first class. A shame Alan Moore will never bring her back, though I can understand his reasons. Book three had some very adult themes running through it, and is worth re-reading.

I was thinking though that at least 2000ad had strong female supporting characters such as Anderson, Durham Red (mid-80s), Judge Hershey (1980), Crazy Crissy (from DR and Quinch), Venus Bluegenes and others.

Tangent:
Having a think about if there were any earlier female supporting characters in IPC's Battle comics 1975-1988 (and though I have not read any of the following, this must go for all war themed comics such as Victor, Commando, Warlord and others such as Bullet and Hotspur). I can think of Kate* who was Charley Bourne's sweetheart/later wife and WW1 nurse in Charley's War – interestingly when Scott Goodall took over for WW2 she became almost 'invisible'. There was 1 or 2 female Russian pilots in Johnny Red possibly as early as '79. I think there was a token woman in Action Force (mid-80s) and again in Storm Force (late-80s).
Of course WW1 and WW2 were fought by men, so you'd imagine there would not be too many women supporting characters and Battle was aimed at boys – though in 1982 there was a revamp with more general adventure themed tales such as 'The Hunters', which did not feature women either. There were some supporting male characters such as 'Goof' in Jinty and Tammy, though not many, so in that sense it seems that IPCs editors/writers were being fair.

Were there any female characters from Battle that I have missed? I must add here that I have not read every Battle comic – there were many, many issues. I have read quite a lot though.
And/Or were there any in the other war/action themed titles? It would be intriguing to know if there were more women in war themed comics.

*I vaguely recall that I think Kate gave Charley the white feather around 1981/2 and later became Captain Snell's nurse.

/// Humour comics adventure themed stories: These usually had a mix of boy and girl protagonists such as 'Ski-Board Squad' 1973 and Danielle Keen in 'Keen and Mustard' about football! in 1978. ///

Lew Stringer
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Re: First female-led strip in 2000AD?

Post by Lew Stringer »

Before Halo Jones there was Commander Lorna Varn in Death Planet in 2000AD. Nice cover of her by Brian Lewis here:

http://www.lambiek.net/artists/image/l/ ... _cover.jpg

I can't remember how well the character was handled though. Must dig out my early Progs when I have time.


UPDATE: Sorry. Didn't notice this was page 2 of the thread and that she had already been mentioned!

geoff42
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Re: First female-led strip in 2000AD?

Post by geoff42 »

I've never had a problem with leading female characters. As early as reading Beano in 1975, I enjoyed Minnie the Minx over Roger the Dodger although, in concession, Dennis the Menace was my fav. I enjoyed Draculass in Monster Fun. I preferred Millie O'naire and Penny Less to Ivor Lott and Tony Broke. Of course, Halo Jones is one of my top stories ever in 2000 ad, especially the third book. Damn, why did Alan Moore have to fall out with 2000 ad that time? Couldn't he just have left his grievances for a couple of years - we could have had a couple of more books. I know that the envisaged fourth book, which was actually advertised in 2000 ad, would depict Halo as a space pirate. Damn...

geoff42
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Re: First female-led strip in 2000AD?

Post by geoff42 »

speaking of Alan Moore, he did elevate Betsy Braddock's profile in Marvel UK's "Captain Britain" series; she was basically a non-descript character in the original Captain Britain comic back in 1976. Alan Davies reinforced her presence in the second Captain Britain comic in 1985, which was enough for Chris Claremount to bring her to the X-Men a couple of years later. 'nuff said.

geoff42
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Re: First female-led strip in 2000AD?

Post by geoff42 »

no, not 'nuff said; as a side note to my previous post, have you seen the prices going for Captain Britain issue 8 back in 1976? Why? It features the first appearance of Betsy Braddock as Captain Britain's sister. I've seen these issues going on ebay for more than £50. Right, I'm off to bed.

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Re: First female-led strip in 2000AD?

Post by Phoenix »

geoff42 wrote:Betsy Braddock
Was this character inspired by, or linked in any way to, Bessie Braddock, the Labour M.P. for the Liverpool Exchange ward for nearly a quarter of a century from 1945, a statue of whom stands alongside one of Ken Dodd inside Lime Street railway station?

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tony ingram
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Re: First female-led strip in 2000AD?

Post by tony ingram »

Phoenix wrote:
geoff42 wrote:Betsy Braddock
Was this character inspired by, or linked in any way to, Bessie Braddock, the Labour M.P. for the Liverpool Exchange ward for nearly a quarter of a century from 1945, a statue of whom stands alongside one of Ken Dodd inside Lime Street railway station?
Oddly enough, no. I think Chris Claremont just wanted Brian Braddock's twin sister to have a name beginning with 'B'.

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Re: First female-led strip in 2000AD?

Post by geoff42 »

crikey, forget my last post. Glastopopcult is offering Captain Britain no. 8 for £149.99 or best offer. No free gift mask or boomerang on offer... only Betsy Braddock's first appearance... I'm astounded! Chris Claremount has so much accountability for this.

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tony ingram
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Re: First female-led strip in 2000AD?

Post by tony ingram »

geoff42 wrote:crikey, forget my last post. Glastopopcult is offering Captain Britain no. 8 for £149.99 or best offer. No free gift mask or boomerang on offer... only Betsy Braddock's first appearance... I'm astounded! Chris Claremount has so much accountability for this.
Actually, I think it's Chris Claremont's fault.
Chris Claremount is an entirely blameless greengrocer from Milton Keyne's who is is continually baffled by people wanting him to sign their X-Men comics.

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SID
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Re: First female-led strip in 2000AD?

Post by SID »

geoff42 wrote:crikey, forget my last post. Glastopopcult is offering Captain Britain no. 8 for £149.99 or best offer. No free gift mask or boomerang on offer... only Betsy Braddock's first appearance... I'm astounded! Chris Claremount has so much accountability for this.
You are joking??? :o

Did it sell for that???

When moving up north, I gave all my spare comics to charity including some Captain Britain comics which included No. 8. :(
Reading comics since 1970. My Current Regulars are: 2000 AD (1977-), Judge Dredd Megazine (1990-), Spaceship Away (2003-), Commando (2013-), Monster Fun (2022-), Deadpool and Wolverine (2023-), Quantum (2023-).

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Re: First female-led strip in 2000AD?

Post by starscape »

Still for sale.

But then, I could put up Whizzer and Chips from May 1988 for £20,000. But it's not the value. It's only what it sells at that is important.
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tony ingram
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Re: First female-led strip in 2000AD?

Post by tony ingram »

SID wrote:
geoff42 wrote:crikey, forget my last post. Glastopopcult is offering Captain Britain no. 8 for £149.99 or best offer. No free gift mask or boomerang on offer... only Betsy Braddock's first appearance... I'm astounded! Chris Claremount has so much accountability for this.
You are joking??? :o

Did it sell for that???

When moving up north, I gave all my spare comics to charity including some Captain Britain comics which included No. 8. :(
Somebody, somewhere got a bargain...

geoff42
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Re: First female-led strip in 2000AD?

Post by geoff42 »

it's still up for "buy it now", but, get this, the same seller is offering a full set of captain Britain no's. 1-39 for an extra fifty quid. Now, when you consider that an individual issue of captain Britain sells between 4-5 quid ( including postage) that is just about right for someone wanting a full collection. There's definitely a contradiction here. If you have a near full collection, then obviously, this will hold no interest. For someone starting from scratch, it's very tasty. I have about half of the collection; a year ago, I would snapped up this offer... there you go.

geoff42
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Re: First female-led strip in 2000AD?

Post by geoff42 »

it's still there... maybe he overestimated its value... :roll: there is absolutely no assimilation between the characters of Betsy Braddock in this issue and her X-Men profile. She may as well be Captain Britain's next door neighbour. Even Alan Moore's and Alan Davies' depiction of poor old Betsy's contrived appearance is so far removed from her current status. There really is nothing to correlate... apart from the name! I would pay no more than a tenner and that would be after I've had ten pints and not one less!

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SID
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Re: First female-led strip in 2000AD?

Post by SID »

I didn't realise we were talking about the original Captain Britain comic. I thought we were talking about the 2nd one by Alan Davies.

Going to the original series, someone has put it on from America for £400 plus.
Reading comics since 1970. My Current Regulars are: 2000 AD (1977-), Judge Dredd Megazine (1990-), Spaceship Away (2003-), Commando (2013-), Monster Fun (2022-), Deadpool and Wolverine (2023-), Quantum (2023-).

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