In time for Free Comic Book Day, the bad guys take over the Galaxy’s Greatest Comic with a nefarious new special full of criminal capers and villainous ventures – the 2000 AD Villains Takeover Special!
To complement Rebellion’s just-announced FCBD title, The Treasury of British Comics Presents Funny Pages, the 2000 AD Villains Takeover Special sees the baddies from some of the 2000 AD’s biggest strips, including Judge Dredd, Strontium Dog, and Sláine, get their moment in the spotlight – all for the low price of just 99p/99c.
Published to coincide with Free Comic Book Day on 4th May 2019, the 32-page US-format special will be on sale from comic book stores, this is the ideal shelf-stuffer to tempt roguish readers into the world of 2000 AD.
Creators involved include Rob Williams (Suicide Squad) and Pat Mills (Marshal Law) with art from the likes of Swedish concept artist Henrik Sahlstrom, Kyle Hotz (Lucifer), Kael Ngu (Justice League), Henry Flint (Judge Dredd) and Chris Weston (The Filth).
In this improper issue we have the very best forbidden felons and outlandish outlaws – the lawman of the future faces a familiar rictus grin in JUDGE DEATH: THE JUDGE WHO LAUGHS by Rob Williams and Henrik Sahlstrom, and there’s fiendish fantasy with LORD WEIRD SLOUGH FEG: LORD OF THE HUNT by Pat Mills and Kyle Hotz.
There’s chem-wreathed criminality in the world of Rogue Trooper in BRASS AND BLAND: THE PROFESSIONALS by Karl Stock and Kael Ngu while malefactory mutant-bountyhunters-turned-bad-guys, The Stix, from Strontium Dog cause trouble in STIX: SLEEPING DOGS LIE by Matt Smith and Chris Weston.
And this issue is all rounded off by TERROR TALE: LAST OF THE HELLPHIBIANS by that master of the mendacious Henry Flint!
The 2000 AD Villains Takeover Special will be on sale from 1st May and is available for comic book stores to order in time for Free Comic Book Day from Diamond Distribution using code JAN192056.
Rebellion is proud to announce that it’s tapped into its funny bone for a new all-ages Free Comic Book Day title, which marks its eighth year as a Silver Sponsor of Free Comic Book Day!
The Treasury of British Comics Presents Funny Pagesis a stack of silliness in a folio of frivolous foolishness for FCBD 2019! This bounty of belly-laughs for kids of all ages sees the return of some of the most fondly remembered comic characters in British history!
The 32-page US-format comic will be available only from participating comic book stores on Free Comic Book Day 4th May 2019.
Free Comic Book Day takes place on the first Saturday of May and is an international event to help bring new readers into independent comic book stores.
Infant delinquent Sweeney Toddler commits crimes from the crib! Just when you thought it was safe to parody Steven Spielberg shark films – along comes the terror from the depths, GUMS! Meanwhile, Martha’s Monster Make-Up and Faceache strips are both a scream!
The egg-straordinary adventures of super-zeroes Birdman and Chicken are sure to get you clucking, and you can count on Deadley Hedley The Vampire Detective to be up to your neck in laughs when he joins a stake-out at a monster Christmas Party!
Not just that – but a loopy lagoon of laughs including Kid Kong, Grimly Feendish, Prambo, X-Ray Specs, Ivor Lott and Tony Broke, and Glugg!
This first ever Treasury of British Comics FCBD issue features reprints of well-loved classic series – an IDEAL FCBD title that will appeal to both kids and those adults who love these characters from their own childhoods!
Don’t be a lazy bones – hit your LCS for Free Comic Book Day 2019 and find your funny bone!
The very, very special 2000 AD Free Comic Book Day comic this year is something different. We could have given you all the usual brilliance from the script and art Droids, full of fabulous characters from the pages of the Galaxy’s Greatest Comic. But no, instead, we’ve turned the whole thing over to Tharg’s little nephew, Joko-Jargo. And he’s come up with the fabulously fun, amazingly all-ages friendly, thrill-power receptor zapping 2000 AD REGENED!
(Ok, Joko-Jargo had help. Which is why Richard Bruton sat down with REGENED editor Keith Richardson for a chat on all things FCBD…)
Let’s start off with one about the genesis of this most ambitious 2000 AD FCBD offering yet. Where did the idea for 2000 AD REGENED come from? (And no, Joko-Jargo is not allowed as an answer!) Was it something that editorial had been thinking about for a time?
Keith Richardson: REGENED was my idea. I have edited all of our FCBD progs to date, which has inevitably led to me attending many FCBD signings over the years. One thing that has stood out for me, is the amount of children I see going along to stores on FCBD to see what is on offer. Okay, some may be getting dragged along by their parents, but the majority look happy, ecstatic even, to be there. It’s a beautiful thing to behold and quite invigorating for a grumpy old fart like me. Comics can and do still appeal to youngsters and I think that a lot of publishers are aware of that and are starting to act on it. As clichéd as it is, children ARE the future and in order to thrive and survive as an industry we need to catch the interest of more youngsters.
I imagine that the idea for an all-ages 2000 AD title has been suggested at various times through the years. Why now? Why for FCBD?
KR: Let’s face it – getting youngsters to pick up a regular copy of 2000 AD is a tougher than tough task. If we put REGENED out on the newsstand it just wouldn’t find its’ target audience, certainly not without an enormous amount of marketing spend. What we have with FCBD is a captive audience. Retailers go out of their way to push and promote the titles for younger readers as they understand the importance of bringing in a new generation of fans just as much as we do.
And the time is right for us to do this now as we have built up a solid back catalogue of collections that are child-friendly (remember 2000 AD was once a comic for kids), tremendous fun and despite having been originally published years ago, feel fresh and contemporary today. Don’t believe me? then check out D.R. & Quinch, Robo-Hunter, early Dredd and A.B.C. Warriors, Ro-Busters, Flesh….the list goes on!
Over in the USA right now the only way for readers to get the weekly 2000 AD is through a monthly 4-Prog pack. This means the only chance for them to pick up a single issue is with special one offs, including the FCBD REGENED issue. Would you agree that this FCBD 2000 AD is really important in raising visibility over there?
KR: I think that it is of paramount importance. It shows both the retailers and the fans that you are making an effort and not just phoning it in.
When it came to deciding on the strips to include and the writers/artists to join in… what were your criteria/ideas? Did you have people pitch, or did you reach out to the creators involved?
KR: I tend to approach creators I like and more importantly who I think are right for the title. I also like to mix it up and have a few newbies in there alongside 2000 AD stalwarts. Of the former, most of the writers are asked to pitch first. And as a rule of thumb, I believe that any anthology worth its weight in salt, needs to have some Henry Flint in it.
The design of 2000 AD REGENED is completely different to your normal 2000 AD, specifically catering for that all-ages tag. It has a very modern, on point look, catering specifically to a younger market, the colours pop, editorial layouts are totally different, everything works just so. Who was responsible for fixing the design concepts?
KR: Our design team, led by Sam Gretton, came up with the ‘new’ look. It’s different enough but still familiar enough for our regular readers.
The one thing that is missing, unless I’m missing it somewhere (which is more than likely!) is the cover artist. Who was behind the cover?
KR: The cover was illustrated and coloured by the fantastic Nuno Plati. You can see more of his work at nunoplati.tumblr.com
It’s our 100th episode, Earthlets! And what a feast of free Thrills we have for you this week as we celebrate Free Comic Book Day on 5th May by talking to some of the creators behind 2000 AD‘s all-ages FCBD title, 2000 AD: Regened!
Matt Smith, Alec Worley, Ben Willsher, Ned Hartley, Tanya Roberts, and Owen Michael Johnson, are joined by editor Keith Richardson to discuss Cadet Dredd, Strontium Dog, D.R. & Quinch, and Future Shocks – all aimed at an all-ages audience!
Go to www.freecomicbookday.com for more information and to find your nearest participating comic book store!
The 2000 AD Thrill-Cast is the award-winning podcast that takes you behind-the-scenes at the Galaxy’s Greatest Comic! As well as interviewing top creators and famous fans, we bring you announcements, competitions, and much more! You can subscribe to the Thrill-Cast on iTunes or on the podcast app of your choice, or you can listen now at www.2000ADonline.com/podcast
With this year’s incredible 2000 AD Free Comic Book Day, Tharg has given up the reigns of the Galaxy’s Greatest Comic for just once. Instead, his little nephew has taken control, and along with the script and art droids at 2000 AD tower, they’ve turned 2000 AD into the fabulous, all-new, all-ages 2000AD REGENED.
Alongside all the familiar names; Dredd, Strontium Dog, D.R. and Quinch, and Future Shocks, there are two extra strips … because frankly, every children’s comic in existence, past, present or future, should always have a two-page centrespread game, and something on the subject of poo!
Richard Bruton tracked down the fiendish minds behind Chet Jetstream and The Intestinauts: Henry Flint, Arthur Wyatt, and Pye Parr…
Chet Jetstream: Hell Island finds the primate pilot marooned on Hell Island after escaping the clutches of a brood of zombie space squid. And as the strip says, “Only you dear reader (no, not the guy looking over your shoulder), can help the primate pilot escape”! It’s two pages of pulse-pounding adventure gaming with a Henry Flint twist!
Henry, you’ve been a mainstay of the 2000 AD FCBD issues for many years, whether it’s with your excellent covers, the Zombo strips with Al Ewing, or your own individual strips. Exactly what is it that keeps drawing you back to the FCBD issue? Or is it perhaps you have something very incriminating on Tharg?
Henry Flint: Except for a few war crime links with Starlord I’ve nothing incriminating on Tharg.
Your piece here is part of the extras including in addition to the four main strips. The Chet Jetstream boardgame must have been a fun thing to develop. But the most important question I have to ask: did you field test it with your family?
HF: I’ve field tested it and no one could figure out how to play it which in my book is a success.
It might only be two pages, but the work involved in coming up with the ideas, and then making sure the whole thing worked must have been huge. At what point in the thing did you decide you were never doing something like this ever again?
HF: Right from the beginning. If I had to do it again I’d do snakes and ladders and finish it in one afternoon.
Ok, what’s your problem with birds anyway? Vampires, spiders, flies, cannibals, howling scarecrows, voodoo mermaids… all of these things I think we can all get behind as scary. But telepathic ravens and rabid geese? Is there some deep rooted childhood fear coming out here?
HF: I almost did a plague of ladybirds which I did experience first hand in Lincolnshire 1976… I made dead ladybird sandcastles.
Any plans for more Chet Jetstream? After all, 2000 AD needs more Mandrill space pilots!
HF: No plans at the moment. Chet has a small gambling problem. Best leave him to reach rock bottom before offering him a new adventure, that way he’ll do it cheap.
Intestinauts started as a Future Shock in 2000 AD Prog 1822, but very sensibly, Arthur Wyatt and Pye Parr decided that the most important thing missing from 2000 AD REGENED was poop, and that they had just the strip for that! So, it’s welcome once more to Intestolab Biotech, where the latest innovations in stomach defence comes in the microscopic shape of the Intestinauts. So when you next scarf down an underheated Venusian Vindaloo, have the Intestinauts at the ready! Tackles all known instances of cramps, tapeworms, amoebic dysentry, quantum reamlice, and thrill-suckers.
It might only be a single page, but you’ve certainly managed to sneak a bit of gross-out comedy into 2000 AD REGENED with the Intestinauts. How much fun was it to introduce younger readers to the dangers of an underheated Venusian Vindaloo?
Arthur Wyatt: The side-note on the Vindaloo was particularly fun as we got to emphasise food safety AND throw in some real world science facts about surface conditions on the planet Venus – who knows, they might come in handy.
Pye Parr: I always gain the same amount of enjoyment from poo jokes as the average four-10 year old, so LOTS.
Given the nature of the idea, was the temptation there to go a little ruder and exactly how did you avoid making any really obvious poop gags?
AW: It’s a tricky one, especially when my kids find all things poop related utterly hilarious. Older readers worried about the all-ages REGENED being too tame can be reassured that, since it’s set in a colon, it’s inherently one of the most scatalogical Thrills that 2000 AD has ever run. We do have a big CENSORED over one panel, thus implying **Extreme rudeness** in a way that’s sure to be appealing to readers of all ages.
PP: The idea/anecdote of someone shitting themselves is always a lot funnier than the reality, so I think you’ve got to leave a little to the imagination, or it just becomes revolting and weirdly medical rather than amusing and slapstick. As we based this story on a Future Shock we did a few years ago that most of the readers won’t have read, it made more sense to slightly retread some old ground.
Intestinauts… your own particular 2000 AD twist on the classic “The Numbskulls” in The Beezer! Although I’m sure there are plenty of younger readers who think the whole idea began with Pixar’s Inside Out. Was this classic strip an inspiration for Intestinauts?
PP: Not directly, but I seem to remember we both mentioned The Numbskulls before we did the original story. I think the idea sprang from a joke Arthur made about some monstrous reheated Frankenstein e-coli meal I’d made myself from leftovers when my wife was away that I was convinced was going to kill me (it didn’t).
AW: Probably at the back of our minds – especially for the story in the FCBD Prog with its cross section. I was probably thinking a little more of Fantastic Voyage – a childhood fave of mine.
And finally, how does it feel to possibly be the ones who stimulate young minds to look up Amoebic Dysentry online for the very first time?
PP: HaHa! Proud!
AW: Along with the facts on the surface conditions of Venus I see this as us fulfilling our duty to inform and entertain young minds. Who knows, maybe someone will grow up to combine the two and breed high-pressure super amoebas for terraforming purposes.
Finally Pye, seeing as this is the first time you’ve been here on the 2000 AD blog, a few of the questions from interview questions 101… What are your first memories of reading 2000 AD? And what brings you its hallowed pages?
PP: Yeah, I read from about age 12, so started around the Prog 700ish mark. My main memory was that the Prog was 52p a week back then, but I only got 50p pocket money, so I had to periodically sit in WHSmiths to read the ones I couldn’t afford!
As for how I got here… I started as a junior designer on 2000 AD back in 2002, and have just kind of hung around ever since. I’m a graphic designer really, and worked at 2000 AD until I went freelance three years ago. I do whatever people pay me to do, but the main comic stuff I’ve done is a few covers for the Prog/Meg, the Intestinauts Future Shock this story is a sequel to, and Realm of the Damned, a black metal Horror comic written by Alec Worley that we’re working on the third book of right now!
When you head into your local comic shop this Saturday 5th May for the fabulous Free Comic Book Day, be on the lookout for the most zarjaz thing on the racks: 2000AD REGENED!
The FCBD issue of 2000 AD this year takes the great characters you know and love and delivers them in all-ages style. And one of the classic characters is Johnny Alpha, the Strontium Dog.
The mutant bounty hunter with the X-Ray eyes is on a mission to capture Carrion Jones (‘The Zombie Master’) and earn his place amongst the Strontium Dogs. All he has to do is convince an uptight robo-examiner he’s up to scratch..
Richard Bruton sat down with writer Alec Worley to talk Strontium Dog and REGENED…
What were the special challenges for you in transforming the hard-bitten world of the Strontium Dogs for an all-ages audience?
Alec Worley: No challenges at all, if I’m honest! The original strip was written for little boys in the ‘70s. It was just a case of going back, re-reading the originals, defining their core appeal and reframing that for modern ‘middle-graders’. Sticking to the original premise, the emphasis had to be action, humour, awesome gadgets, and mutant craziness. It’s really not a million miles away from the tone of modern children’s TV like TMNT, Ninjago and the new Dangermouse.
You have a lot of fun with the characters around Johnny; the pompous Carrion Jones, his cybernetic slime sidekick Blobba “Sicknote” Jobson, and, best of all, Johnny’s cyber-examiner. Compared to this, Johnny himself is the archetypal serious hero, desperate to get the job done and earn his SD tags. He really does strike a perfect pose as the Saturday morning kids’ TV show hero here. Is this something that you were aiming for?
AW: I was definitely trying to posit Johnny in that Saturday Morning Cartoon mode. In this regard, bringing his age down – from adult to teen – was crucial. Child readers have changed since the ‘70s, and modern children find it much easier to relate to people their own age or slightly older. Culturally, there’s perhaps a British post-war thing going on there. Look at how children brought up in the ‘50s were happy to identify with the adult Dan Dare – in a way that I simply cannot imagine now.
Now that we’ve seen Johnny earn his SD tags, can you see yourself pitching for more all-ages Strontium Dog tales?
AW: With Strontium Dog, I honestly think there’s bags of potential there to carry on the property for younger readers. Unlike Dredd, who’s all about the law and conformity, Johnny is all about being different, the outsider, the chosen one with special powers. It’s absolutely tailor-made for younger readers’ comics or animation. I haven’t been asked to develop anything yet, but the premise of Strontium Dog is so strong, it’s one of those ‘plug-in’ premises: the world is all there, just plug the character into an interesting situation or give him a cool adversary and you’re away!
If it were up to me, he’d definitely need a Wulf as a sidekick. If you’re going by the archetypal triumvirate you see in things like Harry Potter, Trollhunters and wotnot: it needs to be: 1.) the hero [Johnny], 2.) his dorky mate [Wulf], and 3.) the girl [Durham Red…?].
Seriously, Strontium Dog is tailor made for this sort of thing. There’s so much you could do with it; so many places you could go. It’s a prime property for Rebellion and it really was an honour to be asked to work on it!
If I’m right about this, we haven’t seen tales of Johnny Alpha’s life pre-Strontium Dog. A little research tells me that Johnny was part of the mutant uprising aged 17 in 2167. So although this might be WAY too continuity focused, where do you slot this young Johnny story?
AW: I’ll be honest, I ignored all that! Older readers have got the Wagner/Ezquerra strip in the Prog. This is for a brand-new readership and I feel it needs to be all theirs! So – beyond what’s laid down in the premise – this had to be blissfully continuity-free. The show Star Wars Rebels was a big influence here. What’s so amazing about that show is that it’s so light on its feet. The only baggage it carries is its own. It cuts to the heart of what gave the original trilogy its vigour, but built upon it with such amazing emotional intensity that really made you care. (More so than any of the new movies.) It’s about recognising the archetypal appeal of the original and making it feel brand new again. Ben’s art helped a LOT in that respect!
And no 2000 AD would really be complete without the bite-sized sci-fi masterpieces we know as Future Shocks!
Richard Bruton took the time to chat to new writer and artist to the world of Tharg; Ned Hartley and Tanya Roberts about Humancraft in 2000 AD REGENED.
Ned, Tanya, as far as I understand it, this would be your first work for 2000 AD. With a 2000 AD Future Shock episode, you get a massive amount of exposure, but here, with the FCBD comic, that is multiplied many, many times. How did it feel to get the gig and how did it come about?
Ned Hartley: Getting the call to work on 2000 AD was genuinely one of the happiest moments of my life! I mean, the birth of my kids and my wedding day are also up there too, don’t get me wrong. But this was pretty, pretty good. It’s great because 2000 AD occupies such a special place is so many people’s hearts – it’s like being asked to play with the Sex Pistols or something.
Editor Keith Richardson got in touch with me, he knew that I have a lot of experience working in all-ages comics (I’ve done everything from Simpsons to Star Wars) and we talked a bit about that. He’s got some very smart ideas about the future of publishing. Obviously hiring me was one of them, but he’s doing a lot of very cool stuff.
Tanya Roberts: It feels great to get to work on a publication that I’ve been reading since I was a child! I was messaged on Facebook for the gig! It was on an account myself and my husband set up for our new comic “Abeyance”… which should be out later on in 2018! (Plug! Plug!)
Adapting the Future Shock format to an all-ages audience might seem somewhat strange, given that the format does lend itself to a more doom laden theme more often than not. How did you approach an all-ages Future Shock for the FCBD comic?
NH: My starting point was “What is in the world of someone who isn’t a traditional 2000 AD reader? What do younger audiences like?”. So I worked up some pitches based on things like Youtube, football, LEGO, video games – things like that. I sent five or six over to Keith and the Humancraft one was the one he liked the best. I think he’s right, it has to be something that was fun!
TR: Ned’s script was pretty fun, so I felt like I could go a bit more cartoony than I normally would. I’m glad they went for it as well. Being a fan of the classic 2000 AD style it felt pretty different to me.
Taking the concept of Minecraft and switching it around is a great idea, a classic Future Shock style turnaround. But you have played very cleverly on rather grown up themes of job (dis)satisfaction, the melancholy and disappointment of being a grown-up, and even manage to wrap the whole thing up on a very political note. How difficult (or otherwise) is it to deliver some very adult ideas in a form acceptable and even understandable to younger readers?
NH: I think younger readers understand a lot more than we give them credit for. The absolute worst thing you can do to a young reader is patronise them or talk down to them. Most younger readers are smart enough to understand quite complicated things as long as they are presented in context. And if they aren’t then you can always have people hit each other, I mean that’s always funny right?
TR: Again, the script was very clear and I really felt that I knew what the characters would look like and how they would act and interact. Seeing the three alien brothers interacting mirrored my relationship with my siblings (I’m one of three as well) somewhat as well. All the piss taking, and all the warmth they have towards each other.
The art on your Future Shock is a wonderfully bright affair, and unusually for a Future Shock, in colour. Was this a deliberate approach or was it editorially driven?
NH: Tanya is just plain brilliant. For me the main thing to do was get out of the way!
TR: I begged to colour this one! I try to colour all of my comic work, and I’m glad they went for it. I suppose it’s a bit more colourful than you would normally find with a Future Shock, but I think, and hope the readers’ agree, that this Future Shock tale works well with the artwork.
Finally, seeing as this is your first 2000 AD credit… a few old favourites… What are your first memories of reading 2000 AD? Did you read it growing up, or as an adult?
NH: I remember DEVOURING Judge Dredd collections when I was about 12 or so. You used to get those collections of early John Wagner and Carlos Ezquerra stories, and I loved them! I was always a big fan of Strontium Dog, and recently I’ve been reading Nikolai Dante stories in the 2000 AD Ultimate Collection – I think those are my favourite right now.
TR: Yep, grew up reading it. Not until I got into boarding school when I was about ten upwards though. The house would order in all the comics, and 2000 AD was one that sneaked through. I would just lap it up.
How did you make your way into comics?
NH: I started off by working in Forbidden Planet comic shop in New Oxford Street many years ago! I loved it, in fact it’s where I met my wife! Forbidden Planet is owned by Titan, so after a few years I moved from selling comics to making them!
TR: I was initially trained in traditional animation, but just out of college it simply wasn;t viable. A friend of mine took me to my first comic con which just happened to be that tiny little one in San Diego! And that was it, I was hooked.
What is your background, and what have you worked on thus far?
NH: I self-publish my own comics about a superhero called Punchface, whose superpower is punching people in the face. It’s pretty high-concept stuff! As part of the day job I’ve worked on Wallace and Gromit comics, WWE Heroes, SpongeBob SquarePants, LEGO Star Wars, Batman: Brave and the Bold and lots more!
TR: I’ve been pretty lucky so far. In addition to working on several creator owned titles I’ve been fortunate enough to work on Star Wars: Clone Wars, How To Train Your Dragon, Toy Story, and TMNT amongst others. Who knows what the future holds?
Who are your influences?
NH: When I started to write a Future Shock I went back and read all of Alan Moore’s Future Shocks that I could find, which just made me appreciate him even more. I’ve read good work about comics writing from Brian Michael Bendis, Neil Gaiman and Warren Ellis, which have really helped me. There are some writers around who I’m lucky enough to call friends like Alec Worley and Si Spurrier who have written some really great blogs about writing and have made me think a lot about how I write.
TR: I’m still influenced by a lot of animators, including several of the veteran Disney artists, such as Glen Keene, Chris Sanders, and Eric Goldberg. When it comes to comics, it’s the Europeans that inspire me the most. Blacksaad’s Juanjo Guarnido and Skydoll’s Barbucci… just stunning.
But can such a zarjaz day get even better? Well, heck yes! With the all-ages 2000 AD: REGENED, 2000 AD are reimagining some of their greatest characters for a special one off FCBD comic.
Alongside Cadet Dredd and a young Johnny Alpha trying to earn his dog tags, there’s the riotous return of those teenage alien delinquents, D.R. and Quinch. In D.R. & Quinch Hijack Free Comic Book Day.
Richard Bruton talked to two thirds of the creative team behind the strip, Owen Michael Johnson and Indio!
How did the opportunity to bring back two of 2000 AD‘s most beloved characters come about?
Owen Michael Johnson: I’m forever grateful to Keith Richardson for asking for a pitch. We just went for it. He was great in letting us cut loose. Being younger characters, and irreverently anarchic, made them a perfect addition that came with a certain amount of freedom. I pitched the ‘Hijack Free Comic Book Day’ meta story because it seemed to fit nicely with the event itself, this one day a year where everyone is there in the comic shop for the same reason.
Indio: When Owen told me it was potentially D.R. & Quinch my mind was blown! No other strip had quite the same impact on me as that one did, and there’s been nothing else like it in 2000 AD before or since! I loved those guys and having been a pryomaniacal teenage delinquent myself during that period, those characters were my boys!
I don’t think I’m exaggerating here, or dismissing the work in the other strips in this 2000 AD FCBD comic, but taking on D.R. & Quinch seems to me the most daunting of all the strips on offer in REGENED. The classic Alan Moore and Alan Davis strips are possibly the finest comedy material 2000 AD has ever put out. What on Earth made you agree to doing this?
OMJ: Given the opportunity, why would you say no? Of course it’s daunting, and there are those out there who would write us off sight-unseen purely because we’re not Moore and Davis, so with nothing to lose why not have fun? We knew early on we were doomed to crash and burn, but we were determined to do so in style, and do so in your own way and retaining as much of the spirit of the original as possible. To actually acknowledge that we were essentially a bootleg version. Once we made that decision the goal was easy: make a D.R. & Quinch comic we’d love to read.
Indio: I knew that the strip’s creative pedigree was monumental but it didn’t daunt me. I couldn’t have passed it up, those two rascals are in my blood, and I love Alan Moore and Alan Davis so much that this work was my tribute to them.
You’ve certainly kept the comedy aspect of the strip going, albeit with less death and destruction and a fondness for lethal weaponry of the original. But with the story, you’ve gone beyond the simple brief of delivering an all-ages strip and introduced a wealth of meta-fictional goodies. Was it the intention to add these in as a knowing nod to older 2000 AD readers, whilst keeping the playfulness of the story intact?
OMJ: The only thing we pulled back on were the thermo-nukes and guns. Beyond that we channelled Moore’s original intention that D.R. & Quinch fit into a long history of British teen delinquents. Anyone who’s read Raygun Roads will know it was right down our street. Young readers want the same things from their stories as older readers. You don’t have to ‘simplify’ or make a story any less interesting or dense. They just want good comics. I think it’s lazy to deliver more of the same. It’s indulgent to update the characters (which aren’t yours) unnecessarily. The ‘Pixar’ sweet spot is to deliver an accessible, no-strings adventure for the total beginner that also manages to satisfy die-hards and could slip along-side the original. We worked hard on that, down to Colin emulating the credits and Tom Frame lettering style. It looks GORGEOUS in black and white, not that it will see the light of day. Also we shamelessly re-skinned the original Time Twisters short, albeit with a ‘history of art’ twist so you can tell your parent and/or guardian there’s some cheap educational value
How did the co-writing thing happen with Owen and Colin?
OMJ: When I got the call from editor Keith Richardson I put Colin forward as co-writer because Dungeon Fun is the best UK all-ages comic of the last decade. I like the big concept stuff and the ‘throw it at the wall and see what sticks’. He’s a great wit, mostly at my expense, and has a great bullshit detector. We work well together.
Indio, unlike the other strips in REGENED, D.R. & Quinch has one unique artistic vision in Alan Davis, pretty much the only artist to have drawn the terrible two-some. Given that the previous work I’ve seen of yours is the wildly psychedelic and absolutely not all-ages Raygun Roads, how did you approach D.R. & Quinch artistically? Was there any thought to adapting your style for the D.R. and Quinch 2000 AD REEGENED strip, either with a view to the all-ages nature of the comic, or even in some way stylising it with a view to making it fir the Alan Davis mould?
Indio: I could only do it as me as opposed to a knock off of Davis! Although I did re-read D.R.and Quinch’s Totally Awesome Guide to Life for the umpteenth time before starting it to really get my head in gear.
The thing that I think lends itself to the strip that I had covered is that Alan Davis always drew really demented looking throwaway characters in the pages of Harry Twenty, Captain Britain, and Marvelman. That really rubbed off on me as a kid; I’ve got sketchbooks full of fiends, goons and miscreants which Owen had seen most of so he knew i would be able to handle that side of things!
For those who haven’t seen your previous work with Owen on Raygun Roads, can you give us an idea of the who, what, and whys of working together?
OMJ: INDIO! illustrated the first solo comic I wrote for release, Raygun Roads in 2013. We met on the UK underground comics circuit. We shared a love of music, Danger Diabolik and Pop comics with a capital ‘P’. Colin I met just before Raygun Roads came out. He was one of the first big vocal supporters of it. We’ve been firm friends and comic collaborators ever since. He lettered my series Beast Wagon and my upcoming graphic novel Reel Love. He’s the best there is.
Indio: I’ve been doing art for 2000 AD fanzines Dogbreath and Zarjaz and then came across AccentUK and got involved with their zombie, Western, and Robot anthologies. That Robot anthology segued into the Stephenson’s Robot strip that I’m still putting out with Dave West. Along the way, I had a meeting of minds with Owen Michael Johnson who got me to do some pieces of art for his Thaddeus Mist book. And off the back of that, after Owen saw what I could do, he wrote Raygun Roads for me – which is by far the most “Me” thing I’ve been involved with so far! Owen just knows which buttons to push when it comes to igniting my brain artwise. I just loved putting the art for that book together and it was a fevered experience for both of us.
Seeing as this is the first time I’ve grabbed you for these – and in fact, your first 2000 AD credit… a few old favourites… What are your first memories of reading 2000 AD?
OMJ: I didn’t read the Prog growing up. Admitting that will probably get me a year in the isocubes. I read the trade reprints in Waterstones. I loved the self-contained, finite stories like Halo Jones, Zenith and D.R. & Quinch. But all of it was pretty late on, I’d say my teens or early twenties. I’ve since come to not only appreciate the huge legacy but also massively enjoy the stories for pure entertainment.
Indio: I was ill as a kid and an older cousin who had been buying 2000 AD since it first came out brought me a copy. It was the issue where Judge Death returns, with art by Brian Bolland. That was also my first exposure to Kevin o’Neill’s art and it completely twisted me!
What is your background, and what have you worked on thus far?
OMJ: My first solo comic was the aforementioned Raygun Roads, which was nominated for a British Comic Award, as was my 2015 series Beast Wagon (with John Pearson and Colin). I’m finishing up on my debut graphic novel as writer/artist, Reel Love, which is out next year through Unbound.
Indio: Art was really the only thing I’ve ever been any good at and it’s something that I did every day. But I’m kind of all over the place so I will be tattooing people one minute (which is my day job) and then painting or drawing or sketching and trying different styles another!
This year’s Free Comic Book Day is Saturday May 5th – head to any comic shop and you’ll find readers, old and new, delighting in the free comics on offer. And this year, the Galaxy’s Greatest Comic 2000 AD unleashes a whole new generation of Thrill-Power with the amazingly all-ages 2000 AD REGENED.
REGENED features new stories of some of the most familiar characters from 2000 AD’s history, including Johnny Alpha, the Strontium Dog, and the return of those magnificent malcontents D.R. and Quinch. But, leading off the issue, writer Matt Smith and artist Neil Googe are taking us way back in time, with the adventures of Cadet Dredd.
He might only be wearing the white helmet, but Dredd’s still dishing out justice to raucous Aeroball fans and escaped Velociraptors. (yeah, Velociraptors… everyone loves Velociraptors!). Richard Bruton sat down for a chat with Matt and Neil to talk all things Cadet Dredd…
Cadet Dredd opens REGENED with a story that’s way lighter than previous examples of Judge Dredd as a cadet. There’s comedy here, but there’s still that underlying sense that Dredd, even as a cadet, takes thing very seriously and is prepared to do whatever it takes comes through strongly in this episode. How did you approach this new, younger version of Dredd?
Matt Smith: The Cadet Dredd we saw in Originswasn’t that different to adult Dredd – serious and single-minded. If anything, he’s even more of a stuffed shirt that older Dredd, who’s softened a little bit. So, as with the Dredd Year One series I wrote for IDW, I made Cadet Dredd very keen and by the book, and a stickler for the law.
Neil Googe: As soon as it was mentioned as an idea, my first thought was “how on earth are they going to aim Dredd at a younger audience?” But, as soon as I read the script I thought “that’s exactly how you do it”. Dredd himself feels very similar in nature but his surroundings and the situation felt a little lighter than some of what gets tackled in the usual strip.
The odd thing about Dredd is the fact that on the surface, he really doesn’t feel younger audience friendly, but in actuality his world his perfect for younger audiences, it just depends how you want to treat him. When I think back to reading Dredd as a kid, especially the daily strips, my images of Dredd and his environment are of a more bizarre and fantastical world than some of the grittier or tough stories we see.
We’ve seen glimpses of Dredd’s beginnings as a cadet in the flashbacks shown in the classic Judge Dredd: Origins by Wagner and Ezquerra. If Dredd’s “birth” was in 2066, and after serving in 2070’s Atomic Wars, his graduation came in 2079, am I right to think this is somewhere very early on in his cadetship?
MS: Yes, this is him in his early teens, before he was mentored by Morphy. The story’s set in 2073, at the World Aeroball Championships.
NG: To be honest, I didn’t know the ins and outs of Dredd’s training… but it was my understanding, just from reading this story, we were still somewhere in the early days of his cadetship. It felt like he was still finding his feet in some-ways but had already developed an amount of his confidence, almost over compensating for his Cadet status.
What attitude did you take to bringer possible new readers / younger readers up to speed on Dredd and the world?
MS: Hopefully, it comes across in the dialogue and characters. I didn’t want to info-dump them with what MC-1 and the Judges were. Dredd’s such an easy strip to pick up in terms of what it’s about that I’d like to think this FCBD story is easy to plunge into for new readers.
NG: Artistically I think I wanted Dredd to feel slightly humble under the guidance of another judge, with a genuine curiosity over certain points. So he has a solid respect for all aspects of the law, including other Judges and their opinions. But when left to deal with a situation on his own, we see the DREDD! Even in those early days there was no quarter given, this is the law and how we keep the peace, I don’t care what the extenuating circumstances are.
And Velociraptors? Why haven’t there been more in Dredd over the years!?
MS: When it came to writing Dredd for the all-ages issue, I thought what do kids like – and decided upon sport and dinosaurs (coincidentally, it’s also a World Cup year, and a new Jurassic Park movie is out in a few months!). I thought adding raptors to the mix would give it that sense of sci-fi strangeness, and dinos were often a staple of early Dredd, as seen in the Cursed Earth.
NG: I know right? Velociraptors need to be in everything… Some of my favourite story arcs in any media are when something seemingly innocent from a previous story comes back around to bite a character later on. If I get to do more Dredd, I’d love to see those raptors come back in some way.
The whole idea of exploring Dredd’s cadet days is full of potential. Any chances we’ll be seeing further Cadet Dredd exploits in the future?
MS: I hope so, yes. Neil’s done a fantastic job, and I’d like to work him on something longer featuring young Dredd, if it proves popular.
NG: Oh I really really hope so. I would love to do more work with this character. I enjoy drawing Dredd anyway, but I loved drawing Cadet Dredd. Even Dredd’s rogues gallery would be great… I would love to see a younger Mean Machine and Angel Gang for example, or chopper (even though chopper would be really young at that stage), I also love the kleggs (I’ve always wanted to redesign them) and Satanus… So, if Tharg is listening… please… count me in for more of this.
Neil, you’ve worked on old man Dredd several times in the past, and most recently you’ve been the co-creator and artist on Survival Geeks with Emma Beeby and Gordon Rennie. What were your thoughts on designing the youngest Dredd we’ve seen so far?
NG: He was fun to work on, I was basically given a free run at him so I tried to bring in a slightly more modern look and feel without taking any drastic departures. I reworked the cadet badge a little, basically making it a full badge template but with only half the details. The idea being that when a Cadet graduates they slot the second half of the badge in to the template.
I also played with the idea of removing the wings from their shoulder eagle, as I also found designs of cadets with no eagle. I thought it might be a nice idea that they complete some sort of training to become a cadet, and so get their shoulder wings as a simple of their authority within the law. Then when they complete their cadet training and become a full judge they get the rest of their badge.
How did you adjust your artwork to fit the all-ages REGENED style? Or is it that your style naturally lends itself to the lighter look, something not that far away from the style you used on Survival Geeks?
NG: Ok, here’s the only thing I regret a little about the project, my artwork. Not because I wasn’t pleased with the end result, but as soon as I was asked if I wanted to do it, I got this image in my head of how I saw things. I fancied a simplified version of the Survival Geeks work, think Adventures of Dredd. Sadly once I got started, without really thinking about it, I slipped in to more of what I usually do with Survival Geeks and so the artwork ended up being a lot more detailed than I’d pictured it. I just can’t help myself when it comes to details. Don’t get me wrong, I was still pleased with the outcome, it just wasn’t what I’d imagined. If I get the chance to go at it again (yeah, I know, I’m hinting at Tharg plenty here) I’d refine it a little more. So I’d keep the overall style the same, exaggerated characters, creatures and the like, but make the line work feel a little more… animated, than the over detailed comics I usually go for.
It may be just over three months away, but the 2000 AD droids are proud to present a free preview of their brand new all-ages title for Free Comic Book Day!
ONLY available from participating stores on Free Comic Book Day – 5th May 2018 – 2000 AD Regenedpresents a riotous all-ages comic featuring original, full-colour strips packed with thrill-power for Earthlets of all inception dates!
Enjoy 32 pages packed with comics, activities, and madcap fun – written by Matthew J. Smith, Alec Worley, Owen Michael Johnson, Colin Bell, Ned Hartley, and Henry Flint with art by Neil Googe, Ben Wilsher, Tanya Roberts, INDIO, Henry Flint, and Pye Parr, plus colours from Len O’Grady and Dom Regan, and letters by Sam Gretton, Simon Bowland, Pye Parr, Maz Smith, Colin Bell.
The preview below is just a small sample of what’s in store! Cadet Judge Dredd upholds the law in a blistering crime caper at an Aeroball game by Matt Smith and Neil Googe! Mutant bounty hunter Johnny Alpha earns his Strontium Dog badge from Alec Worley and Ben Willsher! Tharg’s Futureshocks present the wonderful world of HumanCraft by Ned Hartley and Tanya Roberts! Help Chet Jetstream escape Hell Island by Henry Flint! The teenage alien delinquents return with an eye on causing chaos in D.R. & Quinch Hijack Free Comic Book Day from Owen Michael Johnson, Colin Bell and INDIO!
If you want a copy you’ll have to get yourself along to a participating store on the store – make sure you badger your local store to order in copies before they disappear!
