With 30 Years of history under the belt, we thought it was time to choose our favourite storyline from the last 3 decades....
Halo Jones Book 3
Alan Moore and Ian Gibson
Chosen by Gavin Hanly
Halo Jones is like the elephant in the corner in this debate, and I'm actually quite happy to see that everyone's avoided choosing at least one of the books. Regrettably, I'm not going to be as original myself - and have to choose "Halo goes to war" as my favourite storyline.
Reading this 21 years ago was perhaps the first time I realised that comics could be something more than big fights and bigger robots. That seems rather dismissive of some equally good strips that coexisted around the same time as Ms Jones, but it simply had an undeniably big impact on me and how I appreciated comics. By Book Three, we realised how lucky we were to have this strip in the 2000AD. Moore was gradually making the canvas wider with each successive series, while developing Halo in such a way that she was virtually unrecognisable from the girl who left the hoop behind. 2000AD has never again managed to pull off a lead female character without falling victim to the clichés of the genre, although that criticism could realistically be aimed at comics in general - not just 2000AD.
There's so much to praise about this book and the series in general, and many others have been there more eloquently before me, but if I had to pin it down to a single moment, form me it would be the death of "Life Sentence" - on reflection a fairly underplayed scene, but one I still remember to this day.
Of course we all wish that Moore would return to Halo Jones (and surely it would have been preferable to Alan Moore's Wildcats) but it'll surely never happen now. But we can still wish...
Firekind
John Smith and Paul Marshall
Chosen by Adam Crabtree
My choice is 1993's Firekind, as created by John Smith and Paul Marshall, one a vibrant and talented artist, the other a mad bastard who very likely lives in a cave somewhere writing poems in Sanskrit. Poems about caves. Guess which is which?
2005's Leatherjack was the primer for this darkly imaginative story, instigating a long search (two weeks maybe?) for the original progs; prostrate yourself before the might of e-Bay and see where it gets you. The search was rewarded with this tale of Hendrick Milhous Larsen, explorer and anthropologist for the Axis Charter Worlds, who embarks upon a journey of discovery to the savage world of Gennyo-Leil; dragon-like beasts roaming the skies, fearsome insects ruling the jungle, this is nature at its least cuddly, ready and willing to take revenge on the poachers who follow Larsen in search of a life-prolonging elixir. High concept as they come and totally uncompromising in its portrayal of attempted genocide (and not the cute Star Wars kind either), this is 2000AD at its most sophisticated and challenging.
"The Hronoth Risen!" ZOMG!
From Grace
Simon Spurrier & Frazer Irving
Chosen by Martin Charlton
I was going to pick one of the more classic 2000AD stories, like Halo Jones: book 3 or Button Man but I’ve made my choice given that this story appeared while I was first getting into 2000AD properly and converted me completely.
A combination of a young, hungry author in Simon Spurrier and one of 2000AD’s fastest rising art droids at the time, Frazer Irving makes this perhaps the most beautifully rendered 5-part-and-done strips in the comic’s history. The dense writing, the lavish but otherworldly art sum up what is best about 2000AD – Good stories, well told. Its inclusion in the Frazer Irving collection was one of my happiest 2000AD moments of this year, the revelation that a sequel was nixed by Tharg one of my saddest.
Robo-Hunter: Verdus
John Wagner and Ian Gibson
Chosen by Robert Cornell
OK, I admit it’s not quite Halo Jones, probably "most memorable" rather than "best," but as a portrait of madness gone mad this is unsurpassed, featuring an obnoxious, foul-mouthed baby and robots, robots and more robots. (I like robots.)
The Very Angry, Sarcastic and Stupid Parties shaped my political outlook forever. (The doubtful party is very doubtful, very doubtful indeed.) Then the real Sam Slade kills all the robots - even the ones who helped him – and sets fire to the planet.
What a bastard!
Shakara Book 1
Robbie Morrison and Henry Flint
Chosen by James Mackay
I have never been remotely as excited as I was by Shakara Book 1.
Destroying Earth on Page 1, then killing off the narrator (and last human being) in the first episode, Shakara established itself as a strip where nothing was sacrosanct and where anything could happen. Henry Flint, at the very top of his game, created several intricate, perfectly-realized worlds, and many brand-new, delicate and complex alien designs. And then blew them all up. The title character epitomizes the classic 2000AD hero – powerful, with limited vocabulary and a burning sense of revenge – and his poor conversation skills allows the gleeful creators to get on with the really interesting bit – the villains.
Unexpected, crafted with love, and exactly the right length, Shakara Series 1 is my best of the last 30 years.
Strontium Dog - The Ragnarok Job/Rage
John Wagner and Carlos Ezquerra
Chosen by Richmond Clements
The year was 1985. I was a youth of 16, with long flowing locks, an incredible sense of style, my first real girlfriend and everything else a growing boy needs.
Then in prog 445, Max Bubba came along to turn my world upside down.
Johnny and Wulf were relaxing in their log cabin, when it explodes around them- they’re captured all too easily- who the sneck is this guy? So bad he can take the two hardest men in the universe with such ease?! Over the next few months I was going to find out. Not only about Max Bubba, but how Johnny first met Wulf. You see, like probably every other reader, I did not think that Wulf was a real Viking. Yeah, he had been described as one, but, y’know, I’d assumed that this meant he was a really hard case from Sweden.
So Johnny trips back in time after a crash course in ancient. Seriously folks- just how cool is this story? It’s got everything you could ever want. Alpha is rock hard, totally un-phased by being rocketed back into the past. He beats up Wulf and gets his war band to join him on his quest to capture Bubba. And as quests go, this one is great!
As the story progresses and Johnny gets closer to his prey, so things get stranger. The excuse being that the fabric or reality is tearing apart because Bubba’s killing off loads of folk, but really, it’s a great reason to have Johnny fighting Trolls and have Vikings attacking helicopters. And so things all end well, with Bubba captured and Wulf joining Johnny as his partner.
Only they don’t… Because I’d forgotten that this was all flashback and that Johnny and Wulf were staked out on the ground… But never fear! Wulf is not only as hard as- he’s as strong as too! With all his Viking strength he breaks free, to my relief, grabs a gun and… and dies.
Like that.
Man, I think, my mind reeling at what I have witnessed, he’s dead! When Johnny gets free, he’s going to kill these guys. Only he doesn’t break free… he dies too.
Like that.
Bubba has his name carved into Johnny’s chest and rides away. And it says ‘The End.’
Remember, this was 1985. There was no internet, so we could not possibly have seen what was coming next. When I got my next prog, I opened it reluctantly, I read with a heavy heart. Part of me didn’t think there was a point reading anymore. My all time favourite character was dead.
Then came prog 469 and my life turned round yet again. Prog 469 has what I consider to be the greatest comic cover ever. And what came with it, Rage, was and still is, just about the greatest sustained piece of Thrill Power I have ever encountered. The script was taught, both in the economy of the writing and the tension in the tale. The art, well, it was Carlos Ezquerra drawing Johnny Alpha. And art doesn’t get any better than that. I was with Johnny all the way, sharing in his rage and determination every step of the way. I gritted my teeth and joined him in his grim ‘At last’ when he spotted Tattoo. I enjoyed watching as he offed the Bubba gang one by one.
Nothing though- nothing could match the final page. This might sound like hyperbole, but it isn’t, it truly isn’t.
Just four words that even now make the hairs on my neck stand up. Never mind gazing into the fist of Dredd. We’re gazing at a man who’s lost his best friend, who’s just hunted down that killer and knows that no matter what he does, it will not make him feel better. But we watch him kill him anyway. Just four words that mark this as the greatest story 2000AD has ever had. Four words. ‘Because I hate you.’
Robo-Hunter: The Filby Case
John Wagner, Alan Grant and Ian Gibson
Chosen by Alex Frith
The essence of Robo-Hunter is twofold - showing robots doing very human jobs, and throwing hapless hero Sam Slade through the wringer. The Wagner/Grant years were full of excellent examples of this, but my very favourite story is the sheer lunacy of 'the Filby Case'.
Sam Slade hasn't heard of Filby. Doesn't know anything about any case relating to a 'Filby'. The hilarity begins when all manner of robot goons accost Slade and, to varying degrees of impoliteness, cajole, threaten and generally beat him up until he agrees not to take on the Filby Case. Right from the start we have panel after panel of Slade going through various indignities, all the while being utterly bewildered. Idiot assistants Hoagy and Stogie add to his woes simply by existing. Hoagy is a glorious creation, a robot with no obvious function at all, except to be stupid. Why would anyone create such a robot? Who cares, it one of the genius offhand ideas that Wagner and Grant love to throw out.
Filby turns out to be the owner of a droid which can predict the future, something everyone wants to get there hands on. Except Slade, of course, who only really wants money, and not to get hit quite so often. It's at this point that the 'human-style robots' come into play - religion droids. This joke had already been used in the Verdus storyline, where robot bishops and rabbis made an appearance. But this time around, we get a new level of absurdity with the robo-goonie cult. Someone somewhere must have built a robot that would be a cult leader, and somehow the programming of the droids in this universe is such that any old droid can be sucked into said cult. What the hell? Even better that Hoagy is so stupid that he gets sucked into the cult when he is meant to infiltrate it, only to escape from it again via the same idiocy.
Artist Ian Gibson was by this time thoroughly comfortable with the Robo-Hunter universe. Having shorter stories also allowed him time to keep the art refined rather than the rushed efforts of Verdus and Day of the Droids. Stand-out designs in this story are the special branch robots, who like their real-world counterparts just can't look undercover however hard they try, and the TV-shaped robot bruisers with the giant boxing glove hands.
It's a genuinely funny comedy caper, with a little bit of social commentary thrown in, an even a poignant moment to savour between a kindly old man and his robot.
Lobster Random, No Gain, No Pain
Simon Spurrier and Carl Critchlow
Chosen by Floyd Kermode
This is my favourite story for several reasons.
Firstly, I had to chose something and Lobster Random glistens brightly in my mental 'good stuff' basket. I'd be happier listing a favourite top ten or fifteen thrills but that's not an option here. The second reason is that the strip grabbed my attention right from the start. I love the set up and the characters - it's different, cute, cynical and has good pace. Lobster Random is also The Bomb because it can run and run. Probably the only thing the old torturer has in common with Dredd is that the characters and premises are so sound that anyone could write them.
In saying this, I'm not meaning to disparage John Wagner or Simon Spurrier, both of whom write their stuff as nobody else could, but to praise the worlds they've dreamed up. My final reason for giving Lobster Random top billing is a very nerdy one, I'm afraid. It is that LR is a good Spurrier story and seems to mark the maturing of his talent.
Rogue Trooper: Cinnabar
John Smith and Steve Dillon
Chosen by Steven Denton
I thought about this for a long time - what was my defining 2000AD moment? There have been so many but John Smith's Rogue Trooper flashback illustrates perfectly why I love the galaxies’ greatest.
We all know War is Hell but in Cinnabar Nu-Earth really is hell. The characters wandered almost aimlessly though a surreal and horrific landscape caved out in death and suffering. The dialog was convincing and natural, the characters came though gently rather than being rammed down your throat. It had as many ideas per inch as Finlay-Day but they hit you somewhere else, they took you to dark places - the bio-wire sequence in particular really impressed me.
This beautifully paced, finely weighted and genuinely disturbing moment in 2000AD history was when I realised that my favourite comic had grown up and it was taking me along for the ride.
Coming soon - Best Dredd Storyline
