Tag: interview

2000 AD Regened, the all-ages 2000 AD, is back for a third time this strange, strange year with 2000 AD Prog 2196. Out on 26 August, this is another classic collection of tales with a younger spin featuring a mix of favourites from 2000 AD and new strips – all designed to get those young Earthlets their own blast of Thrill Power! So, young Squaxx dek Thargo – this one’s for you!

Inside the bumper 48 pages of Prog 2196, you’ll find Zarjaz thrills in the shape of a new Cadet Dredd from Mike Carroll and Luke Hosman, more chills in Finder & Keeper from John Reppion and Davide Tinto, a new Future Shock, Boss Level, by Karl Stock and Tom Newell, plus two completely new thrills in the shape of Pandora Perfect by Roger Langridge and Brett Parson, and Department K by Rory McConville and PJ Holden.

2000 AD Regened Prog 2196 is out now – grab it from the 2000 AD store.

We caught up with Regened thrill generators Mike Carroll and Luke Horsman recently to chat about their contribution to the early days of Judge Dredd in Cadet Dredd: Bad Seeds.

Hello Mike, hello Luke, you’re in the next Regened Prog of 2000 AD, Prog 2196 with the very latest Cadet Dredd adventure – Bad Seeds. Now, assuming we’re not getting a guest spot from Nick Cave, what can we expect in the latest outing for our lil’ Cadet?

Michael Carroll: Because the Regened issues are designed as jumping-on points for younger readers – who might not have encountered Dredd before – it’s important that we establish the characters and background in a way that won’t leave these new readers feeling out of the loop and, at the same time, do so without losing the attention of established readers… So that means we need to lace the early parts of the story with sufficient background info without that being too obvious.

Ideally, new readers will reach the end of the tale with a fair idea of what’s going on, a good handle on the characters – and the differences between Joe and Rico Dredd – and an eagerness to find out more.

It’s the fifth time we’re seeing a Regened Cadet Dredd and a first time for both of you. What approach did both of you take with the young version of Joe?

MC: I’ve written Cadet versions of Joe and Rico in flashback scenes in my Dredd Year One and Year Two books (The Cold Light of Day and The Righteous Man, respectively) and the Rico Dredd trilogy. I had a blast writing those scenes – particularly the interaction between the brothers – so it was great to get the chance to return to Joe and Rico’s formative years.

Because Bad Seeds is a 12-page strip and thus considerably shorter than the books there’s less room for subtle nuances, those tiny clues that hint to the nature of their characters: we have to be a bit more blatant. I’ve presented Joe as clearly the quieter of the two, more of an observer than a leader. Rico’s a little more brash and outwardly confident, and Joe’s almost always in his shadow – but I hope it comes across that Joe’s in Rico’s shadow by choice, not because he thinks Rico’s better than him!

Luke Horsman: I wanted to try keep to that same stern Joe Dredd we all know – and I guess adolescent Dredd isn’t much different – though more a sulky, cocky rookie, with slightly less chin. 

One fascinating thing to me is that the majority of Dredd tales could very easily be considered PG or a little higher, with quite a bit of it already all-ages suitable.

I mean, there’s very little obvious swearing, very little obvious sex or nudity – it’s really only the violence and the whole themes of fascism and mass devastation & war that pushes the age limits higher.

MC: True: On the surface, only a tiny number of Dredd stories are very clearly ‘Adult’ tales, and certainly for the first decade or so Dredd was still aimed at pre-teen readers. I wasn’t quite 11 years old when 2000AD was launched and all the death and mayhem in those early strips – and there was a lot! – never did me any harm… as far as I can tell.

But this isn’t the 1970s any more. It’s no longer acceptable to show Bill Savage blasting Volgs with his double-barrelled shotgun or Old One Eye eating cowboys alive or Artie Gruber murdering Aeroball players. That was the past: a different country with different standards.

Now, we dial back the blatant violence not because we’re kowtowing to the public concept of political correctness, nor because we’ve gone soft, but because it’s the way we do things here in 2020.

It’s important that we creators bear in mind that the 2000AD Regened issues present all-ages stories, not just sanitised and saccharine ‘kids’ tales. We’re not writing Ladybird books here… it’s just that action and adventure doesn’t have to mean gore and murder!

When it comes to your Cadet Dredd, is it a story created for Regened or one pitched to Tharg for old man Dredd instead – such as Chris Weston’s Grudzilla in Prog 2130?

MC: Tharg specifically asked me to write a Cadet Dredd story. My first pitch was a little too close to a strip that had already been published, but there were background elements of that idea that I was able to extract for Bad Seeds.

Mike, interestingly, you’re really getting deep in the early bits of Dredd’s life and world at the moment, aren’t you? There’s the Judges novels and the upcoming Dreadnoughts series in the Judge Dredd Megazine with John Higgins. And now there’s a little venturing into the Cadet Dredd world.

MC: It was important for me that I create a story that could only have worked for Cadet Dredd: older Dredd would have dealt with the situation very differently. We’re seeing Joe and Rico as they’re learning and growing, their personalities slowing shifting towards the adults we know they become. Hopefully the older readers will pick up on that, with Joe being more taciturn and Rico more impulsive… the story’s title is a bit of a giveaway from that respect!

Are there any guidelines regarding Cadet Dredd and the overall continuity of Dredd?

MC: You know, I don’t think I’ve ever received a mandate from Tharg regarding the continuity of the books or strips set in the early days: I’ve always just assumed that continuity is paramount! Sure, with the Cadet Dredd stories we’re telling tales of Joe’s early years, but they’re still valid. The conceit is that these things still happened to Dredd and to the city: it’s just that no one’s ever mentioned them before. Naturally, this means that we need to avoid anything so big that they really would have brought it up. For example, it would be wrong to introduce a couple more clone siblings and pretend that Sybok Dredd and Michael Burnham Dredd grew up with Joe and Rico but then something happened and they forgot all about them.

So, yeah, I think you can take it that unless a story is specifically presented as an ‘imaginary tale’ (like we used to get in those old Superman comics) then it is part of the continuity.

As for making the Cadet Dredd stories ‘recognisably Dredd’… well, Cadet Dredd IS Judge Dredd, only obviously younger and more naïve. If we age him and wise him up, then he’s no longer Cadet Dredd!

Luke, this is your first Dredd tale after having a Future Shock with Karl Stock in the Regened Prog 2170. What’s it feel like to be drawing the old boy as a young boy?

LH: It was a blast – Dredd, young or old is great character to work with. I love that he only has one stoney facial expression to any given situation.

So far we’ve seen Regened artwork from Neil Googe, Chris Weston, Ilias Kyriazis, and Nicolo Assirelli, all bringing something different to the party. What sort of visual cues have you taken for this version of the Cadet?

LH: Hard to say really – I take a lot of influence from classic iterations of Dredd from the likes of Bolland and Gibbons and I’m also a great admirer of Googe and Westons work. I try to just let it  develop naturally. 

When it comes to this Cadet Dredd story, how did you approach it? What was your process for your pages here?

LH: My process is much like any other book artist. First I produce a nice rough comp for Tharg’s Approval – Thinking about dialogue placement as I go, letting that dictate the flow and structure. Then I tighten it all up with the ink and screen-tone work. Job done! 

As far as Regened is concerned – it’s certainly developed pretty quickly – from that first FCBD issue, then the once a year Prog, to the current situation of quarterly Regened Progs. What do you think about Regened as a whole?

MC: I think it’s a fantastic idea, and I only wish it had been done a couple of decades earlier because there’s a whole generation of kids between the late 80s and the first Regened special in 2018 who never had a 2000AD that was accessible to them.

LH: I really like it. Because of my job, I read and enjoy a great many different styles of comics and graphic novels. I’ve never been one for sticking myself in a box and say ‘I only read adult comics’ – all comic and cartoon work has always been important for me as it’s how the artist interprets and tells that story.  I believe there’s always room for other artists versions and interpretations of well-known work, it keeps things fresh and I think the Regened Progs are the perfect format to showcase that. 

Now, where would you like to see Regened going in the future – let’s go nuts here – in an ideal world what would things look like for Regened?

LH: Oh, tough question. I think it’s going to flourish – who knows, you could have a plethora of spin-off, full books from the new characters in the Reneged issues. I’d like to see that.

MC: I’d love to see a regular monthly 2000AD Regened comic (and I’d be willing to edit it, too!). Thirty-two pages, great stories with cracking art… see, I’ve always believed good comics don’t need severed heads or exposed naughty-parts or brutal violence. They need imagination and enthusiasm more than anything else.

I cut my teeth as a writer with Young Adult fiction so this is a playground with which I’m very familiar. With my YA books I always tried to instil in the readers the same sense of adventure, peril and fun that I received from 2000AD. Ideally, the new comic would be so good that the readers would be using a flashlight under the bedclothes to illicitly read the stories after lights-out. They’d be running to the shops the day before the comic is out just in case it was delivered early. They’d draw their own versions of the characters and send them in to the Readers’ Art page… Stories about the droids in the Nerve Centre, which were always a joy back in the day. Bring back the silliness and fun!

Okay then, what classic 2000 AD characters who you’d love to see in a Regened Prog?

LH: I’d certainly like to see some more intellectual property worked into the future issues. Maybe some Johnny Alpha/Strontium Dog tales – heh, Dog Tales. Yes, Dog Tales, for definite. It’s not silly in the slightest. 

MC: While it’s tempting to present younger versions of established characters – Sinister and Dexter as playground bullies, for example, or Gene the Hackman when he was a puppy – I’d like to see more original characters. And definitely more female characters.

That said, I still want to bring back Dan Dare. Yes, I keep trotting that one out in every interview, but I loved the 2000AD version of Dare and it’s still annoying me that he disappeared mid-story… next week it’ll be forty-one years!

How did you first come to read comics? What was the thing that really made you think, ‘Wow, I love this…’?

MC: The Mighty World of Marvel issue #5, cover-dated November 4, 1972. That was my first exposure to Marvel characters – it absolutely blew my six-and-a-half-year-old mind! I became an instant fan, with Spider-Man as a firm favourite. He got his own comic a few months later, and I adore that, too. And then in December 1973 I happened upon The Avengers issue #13, and that blew my mind all over again.

LH: When I was very young I inherited a big long box of silver age marvel comics – Thor, Fantastic 4, Defenders, those sort of  titles. And I used to be in awe of the artwork from Jack Kirby and Walt Simonson, John Romita. I Loved every lively detail and nuance in the lines.. and ever since I’ve been in love with comics.

And if that wasn’t 2000 AD, when did you first experience the Prog?

LH: Oh, my first experience with Dredd was the 1984 annual. Great artwork from Ian Gibson and the selected Ron Smith strips from the Daily Star. Just love that Dave Gibbons Cover.

MC: I was a reader from prog 1, so my first experience was watching the newsagent cut open the bundle of comics and hand me the first one, complete with Space Spinner. It was the most thrilling thing to ever happen to me – even the arrival of Star Wars later that year wasn’t as exciting as 2000AD!

Things have obviously changed in the world of children’s comics What are your particular thoughts about how children’s comics are going?

LH: Well it’s been a few decades time since I last read a Beano or a Dandy, but I presume they’re much the same fun hi-jinx – which is fine. But I remember reading copies of Commando and The Eagle as a kid and they had that level of adult excitement with beautiful artwork from a variety of artists, but toned down tales for younger readers. I think that’s where kids books are coming back into, more experimental, exciting stories and a good variety of artwork to entice those younger readers in. 

Oh, Just keep things fresh and interesting – follow the trends of the day – what else can you do? It’s difficult – you either have readers that want a story semi grounded in reality or completely off the wall and crazy. So, do both! 

MC: I know this sounds glib, but the best way to bring new readers into comics is to bring the comics to the readers. They can’t buy something if they don’t know it exists. That’s why the Free Comic Book Day was established: not so that greedy adults can get their hands on some collectibles, but to introduce kids to comics that they might not otherwise encounter.

Most of the kids’ comics I’ve seen in recent years are just flimsy magazines with ‘activity pages’ and other filler material, but are good kids’ comics out there: The Beano and The Phoenix are still going strong, but they’re not easy to find on the shelves – and they’re competing with bagged comics that come free with lots of shiny plastic tat.

To get kids back to reading 2000AD… Right now the Regened approach is probably the only one that has a chance of working, but it’s important that if the readers are hooked by it then there’s somewhere for them to go next… the three months between Regened issues is a very long time if you’re nine years old. I reckon Rebellion could produce something like The Best of 2000AD Monthly: relatively cheap to produce, with a mixture of old and new material – they could even go beyond 2000AD and plunder their IPC archives for some old, forgotten stuff.

Okay, enough of the misery and despair – time for something great in 2020. How about the brand new Tammy & Jinty Special? That should help a little. Right?

Inside, you’ll find two spectacular tales of courage and awe; Boarding School by Rachael Smith (Wired Up Wrong) and Yishan Li (Hellboy & The B.P.R.D.) and Cat Girl by RAMZEE (Zorse) and Elkys Nova (Roy of the Rovers), all under a cover from Marguerite Sauvage (DC Bombshells).

In Boarding School, writer Rachael Smith and artist Yishan Li tell us the tale of Tabatha and her little brother Richard, the only pupils in a mysterious old building. The only other people they have ever seen are the Governesses – four teachers who fawn over the younger sibling but treat Tabatha very badly. Does it have something to do with Richard’s special power? When Tabatha finds a new friend in the outside world, her old life quickly starts to unravel.

Make sure you pre-order your copy from the Treasury of British Comics webshop, or grab yours from all good newsagents and comic book shops on 12th August!

PRE-ORDER NOW

We caught up with Rachael Smith and Yishan Li to talk all about the strange Boarding School adventure they’ve put together…

Rachael, Yishan. Hello both, hope that lockdown is treating you well, wherever you are. Rachael, can I just say that your Quarantine Comix have really been a source of many laughs, smiles, and knowing sadness for myself and I’m sure plenty of other readers.

Rachael Smith: Thank you!

First of all, I suppose I should ask what Boarding School is all about?

RS: The Boarding School is about two siblings, Tabatha and Richard who are being brought up in a grand, Victorian boarding school by several governesses. Everything seems normal to the two children, including the fact that they are the only two boarders. In fact they don’t even think to question anything until Tabatha (literally) runs into Stacy, a young girl who seems to be from another world.

Yishan Li: I can talk about the process I guess. Rachel can answer the bigger questions as I am not really good at those…. 

Okay then, we shall catch you later with the process stuff!

From the press release, it’s obvious that this is a tale that doesn’t just cover the school hi-jinks and old-fashioned japes that the title suggests. Instead, it points more towards a supernatural element, the sort of spooky tales we might expect to be found in somewhere like the Scream & Misty Special.

RS: Yes, there is definitely more to this school than first meets the eye!

Am I right in thinking this is a completely new strip, not one from the pages of Tammy, Jinty, or various other classic girls’ comics in the rich history of British comics?

RS: Correct, this is a brand new strip with brand new characters.

I can’t imagine it’s going to have all that much in common with something like The Four Marys by Barrie Mitchell that ran for the longest time in Bunty – where the strip’s main concerns seemed to be studying, getting up to very tame adventures, being bored, getting in grief with other pupils and teachers, and generally exploring the social issues of having two middle-class kids, the daughter of an Earl, and one of those working-class oiks on a scholarship mixing together in one friendship group.

RS: I suppose the story doesn’t, no, but the main character, Tabatha, has a lot in common with the main protagonists of those older comics. She is very determined, brave, and finds things she doesn’t understand utterly fascinating. She has a deep-rooted need to learn and better herself.

When thinking about first the story, Rachael, did you go back over some of the older comics, the Tammys, Jintys, even old Scream or Misty issues to get a feel for the sort of stories found in the older titles at all?

RS: Yes I was very privileged in that my editor sent me many PDFs of the old comics to read through.

Yishan, we said we’d talk about your process, something that ‘s always fun to do with artists. And it’s even better when you get to actually talk about it and show us – so thank you so much for sharing your process stages with us here.

How do you go about creating your art for something like Boarding School?

YL: Well, I love Rachael’s stories, however long they are! I think they fit my style really well. And I like the pace she sets for the pages as well.

Unlike most manga artists, I normally work with writers because I am more in the field of comics rather than manga these days. So after I get the script from the writer, I read through it and see if there are any questions to ask. While reading it, a general story flow will start to build up in my mind, this includes things like the camera angles and rough layouts.

YL: Then I will spend some time to actually draw it all, trying to capture the images that had flashed through my mind. 

YL: After the layout and rough images, I send them to the editor and writer to get their feedback before working on inking. And after that, it’s just a straightforward process to get the pages done. 

And finally, do feel free to mention here just what we can look forward to from both of you – tell us about the next things we’ll be seeing from you!

YL: I am working on a few Kickstarter comics as well as my normal comic jobs such as Swing for Topcow/Image and Army of One for Lion Forge. 

I have attached some rough and inked pages in this email, feel free to use them.

Thanks so much to Rachael & Yishan for talking to us. You can find them online at Rachael Smith.org & @rachael_ and LiYishan.com & @superliyishan.

Make sure you check out the new Boarding School strip from Rachael & Yishan in the pages of Tammy & Jinty Special – available from all good newsagents and comic book stores. Or get it from the 2000 AD web shop and Treasury of British Comics web shop.

And while you’re thinking all things Tammy & Jinty, if you haven’t already seen it, go and grab a copy of the 2019 Tammy & Jinty Special as well – including Rachael & Yishan on Duckface – and we’ve included a couple of pages from that for your enjoyment below.

The 2000 AD Sci-Fi Special is out now – 100 pages of thrills to celebrate the 20th anniversary of games developer Rebellion acquiring the Galaxy’s Greatest Comic!

Inside you’ll find classic archive strips and four very special team-up strips bringing the worlds of the old and the new 2000 AD crashing together with an overload of Summer Thrill Power! Want to know what happens when Zombo rocks up in MC-1? Want to see Gene the Hackman face-off with the blizzard of white-hot horror or Brit-Cit Judge Storm bring the thunder with intergalactic gladiator Blackhawk? You are definitely in the right place!

We’re talking to Ian Edginton and Steve Yeowell about their strip, where those Pirates of the Caribbean meet B-Movie horrors in Red Seas vs Ant Wars!

The 2000 AD Sci-Fi Special is available from all good newsagents and comic book stores, as well as 2000 AD’s webshop and apps!

ORDER NOW >>

With the 2000 AD Summer Special this year, you’re responsible for bringing back one of your own strips, The Red Seas, last seen around these parts in 2013. But this time, Captain Jack Dancer and the crew of the Red Wench aren’t facing zombies, necromancers, or vengeful spirits. Instead, they’re off to an uncharted isle in the Caribbean looking for treasure but finding… well, I’ll let you tell the dear readers… so what can we expect in this latest Red Seas 10-pager?

Ian Edginton: As it’s just a stand-alone ten pager so we’ve tried to keep it brief and breezy, you don’t need to know all of the Red Seas back-story to enjoy it. In essence Jack and the boys plan to raid a secret emerald mine on an uncharted island only to find that there’s more than just Spanish troops guarding the goodies!

Steve Yeowell: All the usual Harryhausian mayhem…

Oh yes… mutated super-intelligent insects on the rampage with a taste for human flesh… this one was fun to right I’m guessing?

IE: Absolutely! As well as bringing back Jack and the lads, crossing it over with Ant Wars was the icing on the cake. Red Seas has always featured sundry gods and monsters whether they’re Krakens, Harpies or armoured Brachiosaurs, so chucking giant, mutated ants into the mix wasn’t a great leap.

Was the original idea something that came from Matt? Did he come to you with an idea for just the Red Seas versus somebody, or was it Red Seas vs Ant Wars from the very start?

IE: Matt asked me if I’d like to do something for the Summer Special and ran a few ideas from crossovers by me. As soon as he said Red Seas vs Ants Wars though, I knew that was the one!

After Matt okayed the story outline, I wrote the story that same day, gave it a tweak the next day and off it went! I could do with more days like that! This one was a joy to write, it’s a fun, rollicking yarn but the best part was working with Steve again, so much so that we’ve been talking over ideas for some new projects. 

Like the other three strips here, there’s a huge sense of fun, wish-fulfilment going on, hopefully something the readers will really love.

IE: Exactly! It’s not War and Peace, it’s pirates and giant ants! What’s not to love?

I imagine something like this really takes you back to the old thrill of seeing the latest co-star in books such as the old Marvel Team-Up or DC’s Brave & The Bold titles?

IE: I never though of it that way but yes, it does!

SY: With its 1970s setting of the “present-day” scenes, I saw the story as an opportunity to pay homage to the British classics I grew up with, so fun and wish-fulfilment are there in equal measure!

Steve, it’s back to black and white for this strip, something your art suits so perfectly. The crisp, confident lines are a highlight of your work. Was there any particular reason for going b&w for this Red Seas vs Ant Wars strip?

SY: The decision to make the strip b&w was Mighty Tharg’s. I didn’t argue for fear of a Rigellian Hotshot!

Do you have a particular preference for working in b&w as opposed to colour, such as your Sinister Dexter work?

SY: I don’t have a particular preference and I approach the art in the same way in either circumstance.

I don’t think we’ve ever talked before about your process for your artwork before. So, how do you work – old school pens and board or is it all digital now and what steps so you go through to deliver that final artwork?

(Steve was kind enough here to send over some of the process images for this Red Seas vs Ant Wars – spectacular stuff!)

SY: I start an episode by working out the arrangement of panels for every page in stamp size thumbnails and move on from there to trading card size roughs – nothing too detailed, just establishing the relative positions of the cast, the action, horizon lines, perspectives etc.

SY: Once I have a clear idea of where I’m going, I pencil the pages roughly 30% up from printed size (which fits conveniently on A3 paper) – blue pencil breakdowns first and then graphite finishes.

SY: I scan the pencilled pages in to photoshop, take out the blue pencil under the graphite, which tidies up the pencils a bit, before printing them out in blue on heavier paper.

Then it’s conventional analogue inks, scan in and take out the blue line (again), and tidy the pages before uploading to 2000AD’s FTP site. I suppose the whole process is not quite analogue, not quite digital, more like digilogue…

Steve, you’re currently in the middle of the latest Sinister Dexter – Bulletopia, is this one going to be the epic it feels like?

SY: It certainly is. Dan has a grand overall scheme for Bulletopia and intends tying up a lot of the plot threads of the past few years.

What can we expect from both of you in the future for 2000 AD & The Megazine? Or is there any other project you’d like to tell us more about?

SY: Bulletopia and, fingers crossed, more occasional Red Seas specials.

IE: I’ve just finished the next series of Stickleback with the redoubtable Mr Disraeli and I’m almost done with a new series of Fiends of the Eastern Front with the radiant Tiernen Trevallion. There’s also more Scarlet Traces and Kingmaker to come too!

Thanks so much to Ian and Steve for talking to us. Make sure you check out their tale of Pirates and Insects in this years’ 2000 AD Sci-Fi Special – available from all good newsagents and comic book stores”! Or get it from the 2000 AD web shop and apps.

It’s 20 years this year since 2000 AD and Rebellion came together and we’re celebrating with the 100-page 2000 AD Sci-Fi Special!

Alongside a handful of classic Rebellion era Thrills, there are four special strips from the likes of Al Ewing, Dan Abnett, Clint Langley, and Steve Yeowell (to name but a few) that bring together characters from the pre and post-Rebellion era. archive. Have you ever wondered just what would happen when Judge Dredd met Zombo, or Gene The Hackman and Shako faced off? Well, this is your chance to find out Squaxx dek Thargos!

But right now, join us in talking to John Reppion and Clint Langley, the team bringing the intergalactic gladiator action to Brit-Cit with Storm Warning vs Blackhawk

The 2000 AD Sci-Fi Special is available from all good newsagents and comic book stores!

ORDER NOW >>

John, Clint, your strip in the Summer Special brings us a one-off tale of a recent creation (of Johns, with co-creators Leah Moore and Tom Foster), Brit-Cit Psi Judge Lillian Storm. She’s featured in the Judge Dredd Megazine and proved to be a wonderfully grumpy addition to the lore of Brit-Cit.

But, in keeping with the other new strips in this Summer Special, Judge Storm isn’t alone in this one-off 10 pager. She’s joined by a character from way, way back in the midsts of time, first appearing in Tornado in 1979, with his most recent adventure all the way back in 1982 in 2000 AD. I’m talking of Black Hawk, of course, Roman slave turned intergalactic gladiator.

So, how did the strip come about?

JR: My wife and writing partner, Leah Moore, had a story in 2018’s Sci-Fi Special, revising Judge Death’s short-lived music career so, of course, I was keen to have a crack at doing something for this year’s special myself.

Was it your idea to pit Storm against Blackhawk or was it something that came down from Tharg?

JR: It was Tharg’s idea to bring back Black Hawk, and pair him up with Judge Storm. I admit that it seemed like an unlikely pairing when I first thought about it but I think it’s worked really well.

Did you remember Black Hawk from the first time around or was there a little bit of research needed to discover who the hell he was?

Clint Langley: Remember seeing Black Hawk in Tornado/2000 AD when I was kid and loving the art by Massimo. Although I only picked up the odd comic so know Black Hawk mainly from Aquila.

JR: I knew of the character (partially because I knew he’d been the inspiration for Rennie and Gallagher’s Aquila), but it was a good excuse for me to pick up the collected edition and dig in properly. The shift from the historic action to sci-fi when the strip switched from Tornado to 2000 AD is loads of fun, and things just got weirder and weirder from there on in. The ending… well, I cover some on that in Black Storm… but it was brilliantly bonkers.

As far as the strip is concerned, like the other three new strips in the Summer Special, it’s a great, fun thing, as so many of these team-up adventures always are. I can distinctly remember the thrill of the old Marvel Team-Up and Two-In-One titles, seeing who would be the guest star next issue.

Did you both get that same sense of fun from this particular team up?

JR: Like I said, I wasn’t sure how it would work at first, but I think maintaining the tone of the original Black Hawk characters and world and mashing that against Storm Warning‘s Brit-Cit stuff really made the whole thing more fun and funnier. And Clint has done a fantastic job bringing the two together. It looks brilliant.

CL: Team-Ups are always great fun especially when the characters are from such different Universes. Johns done a brilliant job, capturing how Storm and Black Hawk would react to each other and the stories a total Blast!

When it comes to the look of the strip, it’s a far cry from the Bolland-esque art of Tom Foster. But Clint’s brought his own unique style to it all, with the rain-drenched streets of Brit-Cit looking absolutely atmospheric.

Clint, any changes to the artistic style or process this time round for Storm Warning?

CL: Originally I was going to do Black Storm fully digital like Slaine and ABC Warriors as I’d already done a cover of Storm for the Judge Dredd Megazine in this style. But I’ve been creating more traditional hand-drawn art recently and it felt right to ink Black Storm and colour digitally.

Your use of colour here is particularly effective, all that purple highlighting through the storm just makes the whole thing pop.

CL: Cheers! Think it’s probably the most dark and garish work I’ve done for a while, I wanted to cut loose!

I don’t think we’ve ever talked before about your process for your artwork before – is it all digital now and what steps so you go through to deliver that final artwork?

CL: I’m moving away from digital more and more. Hand-drawn art, I normally do very loose pencils, then go straight in with brush, pen and finally white paint highlighting.

Colouring my line digitally is a very different process to my full digital art. So with Black Storm I computer coloured in a more comic coloured traditional style with some flashy effects. I’ve not coloured many strips in this way before. Certainly made me appreciate comic colourists even more and the skill involved to make it work.

Are we going to be seeing more Storm Warning any time soon from you, John?

JR: No concrete plans as yet, but yeah, I’d love to do more.

And what can we expect from all of you in the future for 2000 AD & The Megazine? Or is there any other project you’d like to tell us more about?

JR: Finder & Keeper will be returning in the next All Ages Special, other than that I’m keeping busy with all kinds of stuff including my weekly Folklore Thursday comics on Twitter with P J Holden.

CL: More ABC Warriors!

Thanks so much to John and Clint for talking to us. You can find their rainy Brit-Cit tale of the Psi-Judge and the Gladiator in this years’ 2000 AD Sci-Fi Special – available from all good newsagents and comic book stores! Or get it from the 2000 AD web shop.

The 2020 2000 AD Sci-Fi Special marks the 20th anniversary of games developer Rebellion acquiring the Galaxy’s Greatest Comic – so it’s a birthday celebration of 100 pages of Summer Thrill Power!

Alongside classic tales from the Rebellion era archive, you’ll find four very special new strips, all featuring a classic 2000 AD character up against someone or something from the Rebellion era. So look out for Dan Abnett and Richard Elson with Kingdom Vs Shako, John Reppion and Clint Langley with Storm Warning vs Blackhawk, and Ian Edginton and Steve Yeowell with The Red Seas vs Ant Wars.

But it wouldn’t be 2000 AD without Judge Dredd – so writer Al Ewing and artist Jake Lynch bring us Judge Dredd : The Immigrant. We chatted with Jake about a fabulously funny opener where Dredd finally gets to meet Zombo. Unfortunately, Al was off doing huge things over at Marvel at the time and couldn’t get involved – but we don’t hold that against him, we’re too busy reading his rather marvellous books!

The 2000 AD Sci-Fi Special is available now from all good newsagents and comic book stores, and the 2000 AD webshop and apps!

ORDER NOW >>

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Okay then, Jake, hello. Hope you and yours are all doing all right in the continuing viral plague and lockdown, wherever you are.

Jake Lynch: Thank you, you too, it’s been a bit of a challenging time but we’re all adapting as best we can. I’ve taken time out from loading the Wickerman to do this, but must hurry – Immorten Bob is turning on his outside tap shortly and I’ve lost my bucket.

In this years’ Sci-Fi Special, you’re opening the show in spectacular style, bringing Dredd face to face with that most weird and wonderful character… Zombo, as created by Henry Flint and Al. There’s no Henry this time round, but you’ve done a wonderful job standing in for the original Mr Scribbly. 

So, Mr Scribbly part two, how did the strip come about?

JL: Henry (and I’ve heard this a few times now) is working on something big for next year and is fully tied up. I’d just come off Henry’s Hell Machine strip for the Action Special and Matt kindly offered the strip to me. Which was properly intimidating as I love Zombo and Al’s storytelling.

Oh yes, don’t we all!

Have to say, I particularly loved this one. It gave me a much-needed laugh during these most trying of times.

JL: Me too! I’d never read one of Al’s scripts before and was not disappointed.

Detention Block 100 – we’ve seen two of the detainees (Zombo and the second surprise special guest on the final page), but the idea of dimensional immigrants being held on entry to MC-1 just lends itself to being able to bring anyone or anything you want to Dredd’s world. So, can you see a new series… ‘Who’s in Detention Block 100 This Week?‘ – I nominate Nemesis, Dr Strange, and Doctor Manhattan first. Any takers?

JL: Well, I’m game!

Also… has this 10-pager just set up the ‘Secret Crisis on Infinite Wars‘ storyline for a future Dredd? I see it as 100 episodes, featuring every hero and villain ever to appear in the Prog, battling for the fate of all galaxies!!!!

JL: I’m glad that you’ve set your expectations low…

But more importantly – U-Fronts or Y-Fronts?

JL: NO FRONTS!!

Well, there’s an image seared into my mind now!

Jake, your Dredd really has come into his own in recent years, with your art having a wonderful angular style, reminiscent at times of McMahon himself. How do you see your art style and how would you describe the change in it over the years – Is it an organic change in styles or something you deliberately set out to achieve?

JL: Wow, thank you, that’s a very kind thing to say. I’d say it’s definitely organic with a bit of judgement thrown in. I can’t really express how my style has changed as I never have the nerve to revisit the old stuff! But it feels a little more consistent and fuller. I still reckon its got a ways to go before it mutates again, but it’s getting there!

I also think it comes down to a good writer, making you laugh, engaging you and making you want to pull off those interesting angles! I can be quite ‘reactive’ so it’s always a pleasure to get something like Al’s script that you can fall into.

As for the Dredd vs Zombo art, it strikes me that you’re responsible, with the beats of the panels, for delivering so much of the comedy here.

JL: Nah, that’s all Al, it’s in the script. It’s one of the reasons comics are so fun because it’s collaborative in that respect – his gags, my angles! However, I’m happy to take any credit going spare so yeah, it’s all me, baby, I’m comedy gold!

Also, great use of those multiple Dredd heads – perfect stoney-face. 

JL: Yup, all Al again (I was chuckling away as I was doing that one too!). He’s working hard to make me look gooood….

And finally, any insight as to when we might see more Zombo in the pages of the Prog?

JL: Yeah, enough with the teasing, when’s the main event, Al!?

Thanks so much to Jake for talking to us. You can find the tale of Mr Helmet and the funny green thingy in this years’ 2000 AD Sci-Fi Special – available from all good newsagents and comic book stores! Or get it from the 2000 AD web shop and apps.

The 2000 AD Sci-Fi Special  is a 100-page celebration of the last two decades since games developer Rebellion acquired the Galaxy’s Greatest Comic.

There’s four brand-new tales alongside some classic archive cuts, all behind that stunning cover from Jock. The new tales for the Special feature Al Ewing and Jake Lynch on Judge Dredd, John Reppion and Clint Langley on Storm Warning, and Ian Edginton and Steve Yeowell on The Red Seas. And, as you’ll see, each new tale has its own very special guest to really max out the Thrill Power!

Dan Abnett and Richard Elson have brought together to absolute animals – Gene the Hackman from Kingdom and everyone’s favourite terror of the frozen wastes… Shako!

The 2000 AD Sci-Fi Special is available from all good newsagents and comic book stores now!

ORDER NOW >>

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The Summer Special features the return of one Gene the Hackman in a new, one-off Kingdom tale.

And once more, Gene’s old enemies, Them, rear their ugly, insectoid heads. But this time Gene’s not alone in the fight… far from it!

Where did the idea for Kingdom vs Shako come from?

Dan Abnett: Matt asked me to do it. As soon as he said it, I thought it was brilliant. Obviously the intention is to celebrate 2000 AD old and new by combining characters old and new, and this is a great fit. 

It’s one of those wonderfully stand-alone tales, not dependant on continuity or fitting in with the rest of Kingdom. Is that a freeing thing?

DA: Yes, it is freeing, and I wanted to keep it simple. At the same time, though it can be ignored in the continuity of either character, Rich and I worked quite hard to make sure it fitted both if readers wanted it to. There’s some creative embroidery in the art and the set up that indirectly but plainly explains how the two strips are happening to meet, deftly accounting for the differences in timescale, setting etc. 

Richard Elson: It did feel kind of freeing actually. It was interesting to go back to drawing the original Gene design, because he’s had a few different looks since then. Whenever I come back to drawing him it’s more a matter of reacquainting myself with what this guy is all about. It takes a while, but once I get my head around that it seems to come out a lot easier.

Shako is a weird one, because there’s very little visible anatomy to a polar bear. Unlike great white sharks, polar bears are not obviously a vision of terror, they’re just these big cute looking balls of fluff. If you look at actual photos of polar bears fighting, they still look pretty cute and friendly – until the blood starts flying. You can see the different artists struggling with this to varying degrees on the original Shako run. Obviously, we wanted our Shako to look like he would be intimidating, even to a badass like Gene, so I had to tweak the anatomy (especially of the skull) a bit. Also, they have paws, so they can’t grab things, meaning you are limited to what you can do when you show them in action. That’s why we have Shako tending to crush or swipe things with his paws/claws in the action section.

It’s very dialogue light, something like 38 words, a couple of sound effects are all we get. But it’s carried through both Richard’s incredible storytelling and through the thoughts of both Gene and Shako.

DA: Yes, Rich carries it. As ever. It had to look right. When Matt first asked me to write it, the very first thing that occurred to me – the one thing I thought Kingdom and Shako had in common more than anything else – was narrative. Neither Gene nor Shako are the most talkative characters, but each strip had a very distinctive narrative: Kingdom’s ‘folklore patois narrator’ and Shako’s old school third-person narrator.

That, to me, is the real cross-over here. Both narrators meet and share the story. In a way, it’s the storytelling styles of the strips that cross over. I hoped that way we’d retain the flavour of both, rather than one ending up as a ‘guest’ in the other’s strip. 

Of course, once you’ve got these two characters in mind for a strip, the only way you’d think you could go with it is all-out action. But you’ve done something better here. The action is just four pages of the ten and there’s actually more time spent dealing with first the tension of setting up the piece and having these two alphas meet and then, after the four pages of absolutely brutal violence, another set of pages dealing with the comedown and the re-evaluation of each other between Gene and Shako.

DA: Indeed. It’s less about the fight and more about the observation of animal behaviour. It should David Attenborough as a third narrator voice. 

As such, it’s a story that gives you much more than it really should, as on paper it was simply down as a fight between two apex predators.

DA: Thank you. It’s tricky, because Shako is an animal, acting on instinct. He isn’t a ‘character’ per se, and I didn’t want to anthropomorphise him. I like the fact that we achieve a grudging, ‘law of the wild’ respect. They understand, each in their own ways, what each other is. 

RE: It’s no secret that I love drawing action (especially fight scenes), but I really enjoy the atmosphere stuff too. We had to set up the remoteness/isolation and the cold of the environment in the first few panels. I did toy with the idea of introducing heavy snowfall to add to the atmosphere, but it all got a little too busy, so I left it out.

Richard, with something like this, with limited dialogue, there’s even more reliance on the artist to set the pace of the story. 

How did you go about breaking down the initial idea of the strip on the page to get those beats of the story just right?  

RE: Whenever I get a script from Dan, I know I’m going to enjoy drawing it. He has an uncanny ability to write in a way that is both tailored towards, and inspiring for, whoever he collaborates with. Dan’s scripts are a perfect fit for me; and every time I get to talk to another artist who works with him regularly, they seem to feel the same.

The pace of the story felt like it was all there in the script, I just had fun with it. One of the main things that I had to think about with this meet-up wasn’t really related to the pacing at all. When I draw Gene, I tend to imagine him to be the size of a polar bear. I re-read the original Shako run and he’s just a large polar bear in those, so the Shako of those stories would look relatively unimpressive next to a figure of Gene’s stature. Dan described Shako as a huge form so I was aware that I had to make him much bigger than any normal polar bear if he was to look intimidating. I tried to concentrate on getting a feel for the immense, shambling weight of him as that was really coming through in Dan’s descriptions of Shako.

I have to say that you’ve done an excellent job here, the pacing is just excellent with all that alpha male interaction, all that tension between the two of them captured in those tight page-width panels at the beginning. And then, when they do let loose, you open up the pages much more with bigger panels, up until the key page of the fight, where panels are dispensed with altogether and you let the action create its own flow for the reader’s eye.

Can you talk us through some of the decisions in choosing the page and panel layouts for the story?

RE: Dan and I seem to use a lot of wide/cinematic panels in our strips and I really like that look. When I’m breaking down a script into layouts, I get a bit uncomfortable if I start getting square panels turning up too often. It’s just an aesthetic preference of mine; it just seems to suit us. As the action heats up, the horizontal and vertical integrity of the panels breaks down, or, as in this instance, collapses entirely. Again, this isn’t so much decided as a way to enhance the story, it’s just the way I feel it when I’m going through the script. I get pretty excited about this stuff sometimes.

It definitely strikes me as a strip that was an incredible amount of fun to work on – am I right?

DA: I was for me. I hope Rich had fun too 🙂

RE: Yes! It’s always fun working on Dan’s scripts. Drawing Gene is one of my favourite things to do. I didn’t think I’d find anything I would enjoy working on as much as Kingdom, but Dan managed to come up with the idea for Feral & Foe and it was just as much, if not more, fun. 

Any thoughts on either bringing Shako back for more adventures? 

DA: Now there’s an idea…

RE: Well, I didn’t know it before we did this one, but I really like drawing polar bears. Having said that, I do think Shako is a particularly difficult character to make work in an ongoing story without falling into the trap of (as Dan says) anthropomorphising him; which would be a mistake, in my opinion.

And what will we be seeing from both of you in the pages of the Prog? More Kingdom?

DA: Eventually. Kingdom’s not done, and we only produce more ‘seasons’ of it when Rich is free to work on it. It’s not a strip that switches artist. We’ve just done the first series of a new strip, Feral & Foe, which is a fantasy story, and we created that simply for a change of pace – to do something else and keep ourselves fresh while we carefully consider where to take Kingdom next.

It’s nice – and healthy – to go off and do something different for a change. I’m delighted that Feral & Foe was so well received, so we may have some more of that too. Kingdom, however, will return… when we’ve got the next big story ready to tell.

RE: Rich: As long as people want to read it, and Dan wants to write it, I will always be keen to do more Kingdom. Dan and I are working on something as we speak. I’ll wait for Tharg to reveal what it is.

Thanks so much to Dan and Richard for talking to us. You can find their tale of two terrible warriors in this years’ 2000 AD Sci-Fi Special – available from all good newsagents and comic book stores, or the 2000 AD web shop.

This week’s 2000 AD sees the returns of Grey Area and Durham Red creative team Dan Abnett and Mark Harrison to the pages of the Galaxy’s Greatest Comic with a brand new cosmic adventure – The Out!

The furthest edge of the universe, far into the future. Cyd Finlea is photojournalist working for the publishers Global Neographic, travelling deep into outer space — otherwise known as THE OUT — and cataloguing the sights and alien societies that she encounters. She’s been doing this for so long, she can’t remember how far she is now from Earth, but regardless she keeps going — just her and her camera…

The 2000 AD news blog’s Richard Bruton talked to Dan and Mark about this brand new series…

I suppose the most important thing to ask you about The Out is what it’s about?

Dan Abnett: The Out is a cosmic odyssey, really. The story of human beings (well, one in particular) wandering out in the far-flung reaches of space, encountering a galactic milieu of alien species. SF is chock full of stories about mankind reaching the stars and becoming an important, or THE important, species, but what if we’re just a minor footnote no one’s ever heard of? Little more than tourists on the greatest Grand Tour/gap year ever?

The character, Cyd, has gone so far into “The Out” that she’s forgotten where Earth is and hasn’t seen another human for years. It’s a story (regular 2K length, not sure when it starts) about what happens when the ‘wonder’ of the endless holiday starts to pale. What does it mean (to her) to be human? Has humanity made any impact at all? It’s a bit quirky, character-driven, and very alien.

When we’ve previously chatted, we talked of the top line of a series, the simple pitch version of a strip, with New Deadwardians as “The Walking Dead meets Downton Abbey”, Wild’s End as “The War of the Worlds meets the Wind in the Willows”, and I went with “True Detective meets Outland” for Brink. Given this, how would you describe The Out?

DA: Mark and I called The Out “A love letter to the SF book-jacket art” we grew up with.

Did you have a plan of working together with Mark Harrison again on The Out after you wrapped up Grey Area?

DA: I have good, long-standing working relationships with Mark, as I have with Ian (Culbard) on Brink, Phil (Winslade) on Lawless, and Richard (Elson) on Kingdom and Feral & Foe. The Out was created specifically FOR Mark. We discussed what he was dying to draw, what interested him, and how that could become a story. Lots of collaboration and brainstorming, which I think makes for a strong strip.

Mark’s delighted me with the ideas thrown back in response to my outlines and The Out has grown way beyond initial imaginings because of that brainstorming.

Mark Harrison: Yes, this was a conscious effort to work together on creating a new strip co-created by myself and Dan that would take us back to the distant reaches of space opera once again.

It was born out of a mutual love of sci-fi book cover art as teenagers; artists like Chris Foss, Peter Elson, or Jim Burns, wondering what the stories might have been behind those covers. 

The idea to have a main image and write the story around it was an early idea and starting point. 

A brief synopsis was presented to Tharg and he had some valuable input regarding our heroine’s direction and focus; the idea of a space-faring Marie Colvin type.

So, when you’re developing new series such as these, how much thought do you give to writing for a particular artist’s style?

DA: It’s about what will excite them, and what will keep them inspired over the months a strip takes to produce. Mark and I had worked on Grey Area (and Durham Red long before that), and Grey Area was a real hit.  It’s not over, either. We intend to return to the series once we’ve rested it for a few months. We both still love it and there’s more to do. But Mark, though he loves Grey Area, wasn’t the original strip creator, and he fancied doing something he could put his imprint on from day one. So we decided, after the end of the last GA run, to rest it for a ‘season’ and do something new instead, as a change of pace and as a way to freshen up.

The Out came out of what Mark wanted to draw. He was citing all these great artists and images from the seventies and eighties, stuff I’d grown up with and loved too, and I said “why don’t we just make that the point of the strip?” Rather than create a story that would allow him to homage those things, why not make it the entire driver of the plot? What we ended up with is fairly unconventional – I won’t say ‘non-action’, because there is adventure, but much less action-driven than 2K strips usually are. It’s more about wonder and oddness and awe, with a strong human sensibility (small in comparison to the scale) at the heart of it.

Grey Area isn’t done, it’s just resting. I think when we do, in time, return to them, they’ll be better for the creative hiatus, fresher.

The Out has been in the works for a long time, maybe two years. Long term gestation, talking it over and waiting for a good moment to press pause on Grey Area and do The Out. So The Out is, for me and Mark, like an exotic holiday we’ve been planning and saving up for and looking forward to for a long time, and is a real pleasure.

Mark, as with most people, you’ve already worked with Dan (the most prolific writer around perhaps?). Mark, you’ve recently finished the epic Grey Area. How does this successful collaboration work for all concerned?

MH: Well Dan’s just this guy… you know? He wakes up, types a few words like “Epic”, and  “Huge”  and “Impossible to contemplate” and “massive crowd scene”  and then falls asleep again.

Then I wake up, read it, cry, drink spectacular amounts of caffeine and just draw the whole thing like a bloody hero almost to a deadline. 

Truly, working with Dan is always a joy as we’re on the same page, have the same likes and pop references. Work-wise as he trusts me to get on with it with just the right amount of concise direction but at the same time with incredible freedom to be creative.

Whatever I come up with he’ll work with and work back into the next episode. I actually want to please him and Tharg, I still want to impress. Which is always good for an artist.

The alternative is, of course, Mek Quake. (Although he maybe he’s retired now, or deemed “inappropriate”.) #Mektoo

Is it a different sort of process given that you’ve worked together before?

MH: There was talk of a more American process; to give broad strokes of a scene (full dialogue) which I would interpret and then Dan would go back in and tweak it further based on what I’ve done. It’s a good system and involves the artist much more in the story process.  

How much involvement do you have as an artist in the creative process?

MH: Super involved. But then I always have been with Dan. It’s the best part of the job, bashing out ideas in the early stages. The Out story went through a couple of very different versions in the very early stages.

But then you hit on something different to hang it all on and you get really excited.

I love the brainstorming. I don’t think I’d get that freedom with another writer, or if they would be that accommodating. Dan can take a throwaway comment and weave it into something clever and different that you couldn’t see coming and build on it to make it serve the story so much better.

If there was a downside it’s that so much falls by the wayside. Losing so many good ideas. It’s heartbreaking sometimes to truncate particular storylines or forgo beloved ideas and concepts that I’ve already envisaged being so cool.

In terms of the look for the strips, is it tempting with a new series to go in a new artistic direction?

MH: I’m doing that. I took nearly two (unpaid)  months out to prep for this new direction, gathering tons of sci-fi reference, watching concept artists at work.

Learning new processes and writing new Photoshop actions to speed up parts of an already cumbersome process… all the time trying to simplify, expedite and maximise the intent of the final artwork.

All in service of what it is hoped will be seen as a love letter (of sorts) to sci-fi book cover art but also to the British and European comic strip artists we grew up with in the ’70s and ’80s.

I’ll, of course, add my own cinematic stylings and knowing nods that will hopefully layer in extra thrill power content for those with a keen eye and extensive (and possibly useless!) knowledge of popular science fiction and art. (I’d like to think it would spawn a drinking game!)

Finally, what are your future plans The Out? Have you set them up as something that has the potential to go to second or more series?

DA: Oh yes, it could easily return for new ‘seasons’. Let’s see what people think of it 🙂

MH: Well if things go according to THE PLAN… The Out could definitely have potential for a second, even third book.

The intent is to start small,  go big, go small again( but with big significance)… then wing it. We’ve got down notes on how to get The Out done for the most part. How to get back and IF we should get back is another thing. It depends of which story thread Dan wants to follow. And if we get the chance.

Speaking for myself, as a co-creator and artist, it has great potential and I hope it can fulfil that. Hell, it’s a strip I would have loved to have read in the ’70s! It’s early days but I’m getting into my stride now. The exhaust port is locked in. I’ll certainly be putting maximum effort into it.  Only time will tell.

The Out begins in 2000 AD Prog 2187 – out on 21 June!

[EDIT -26 June – after clarifying with Mark Harrison, The Out is a co-creation of Dan Abnett and Mark Harrison rather than a creator-owned strip as initially included in the interview.]

The 2000 AD Sci-Fi Special this year is a 100-page celebration of the last two decades since games developer Rebellion acquired the Galaxy’s Greatest Comic.

Inside, you’ll find brand new stories and classic tales from the archives – featuring a stunning cover from Jock and new tales from Al Ewing and Jake Lynch on Judge Dredd, Dan Abnett and Richard Elson on Kingdom, John Reppion and Clint Langley on Storm Warning, and Ian Edginton and Steve Yeowell on The Red Seas. And each new tale has its own very special guest to really max out the Thrill Power!

It’s all been put together by Tharg’s Earthly representative, Matt Smith, who kindly took the time to talk about 20 years of Rebellion, his own near 20 years at the helm, and what to expect from the Sci-Fi Special.

The 2000 AD Sci-Fi Special is available from all good newsagents and comic book stores on Wednesday 24th June!

PRE-ORDER NOW >>

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Matt, you’ve been Tharg for the Rebellion years, starting off in 2001, just 18 months after Rebellion acquired 2000 AD & Judge Dredd Megazine.

Congratulations are in order! What does it feel like being the longest running Tharg?

Matt Smith: Exhausting! Little facts like I’d been editor for eight years by the time my daughter was born, and she’s now 10, make me want to have a sit-down. But it’s nice to have made the Nerve Centre record books.

How did the job come about in the first place?

MS: After three years as a desk editor at Pan Macmillan, I applied for the job of editorial assistant back in 2000 – David Bishop had stepped down as Tharg, and his assistant Andy Diggle was replacing him. I got the job, and discovered that Rebellion has bought the comic, so I signed straight on as a Rebellion employee. Eighteen months later, Andy resigned as editor, and I took on the role in December 2001, moving to Oxford as Rebellion relocated the Command Module to their office.

Any favourite moments you care to share or particular achievements in your time in the role?

MS: Lots of great stories that I’m happy to have been editor when they were published (Judge Dredd: Origins, Brink, Caballistics, Inc.). I was particularly happy with the way Prog 2000 turned out in 2016.

It’s been 20 years now for Rebellion and nearly the same for yourself. What do we have to look forward to for the next 20 years?

MS: More of the same, I expect, in all kinds of media!

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This years’ Sci-Fi Special is a celebration of the Rebellion years, mixing some reprint strips with four very special new strips where you have older characters meeting up with Rebellion era characters.

Thus we’re getting to see Judge Dredd vs Zombo by Al Ewing & Jake Lynch, Kingdom vs Shako by Dan Abnett & Richard Elson, Red Seas vs Ant Wars by Ian Edginton & Steve Yeowell , and Storm Warning vs Blackhawk by John Reppion & Clint Langley.

Was it your idea for the team-up format with the new strips in the Special?

MS: Yes, I had a think about what we could do that would celebrate the 20th anniversary, and came up with the face-off between eras idea. It’s the sort of thing you can get away doing in a special.

And just how did you go about choosing the characters to be included and the creative teams involved?

MS: I tried to match characters whose worlds fit in some sense. Dan Abnett and Richard Elson on Kingdom, and Ian Edginton and Steve Yeowell on The Red Seas, was easy as they’re the creators on the respective series. John Reppion’s the co-creator on Storm Warning, but I asked Clint Langley as he does good supernatural plus a nice Belardinelli homage.

After coaxing Al Ewing back to Dredd for the FCBD story (which hasn’t been published yet), I was pleased he agreed to do the Dredd story – Henry Flint was busy on End of Days in the prog, so Jake Lynch’s done a fantastic job.

It’s a really fun set of strips, with creative teams freed from the constraints of continuity. All of them are hugely enjoyable, but special mention has to go to Al Ewing and Jake Lynch for their Dredd vs Zombo – haven’t laughed that hard at 2000 AD for a long time!

Any particular strips or dream teams you wanted to include but the fates simply wouldn’t allow?

MS: No, four seemed enough without twisting continuity too much!

And is this something we might be seeing more of in the future?

MS: Maybe, if I can get my head round who else would be a good match. If readers have any ideas, send them into the Input address!

You heard the man Squaxx dek Thargos – tell us who you want to see!

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With the reprint strips in the Special, this is a collection of five Rebellion era strips. Were these your personal picks for inclusion or did some of them depend on the creators involved in the new strips?

MS: These were purely personal selections – I wanted to pick stories that were fairly standalone so they could be read in isolation. Obviously, a lot of amazing stories that could’ve been reprinted, but were too long, and it wouldn’t be satisfying to pull out an extract.

How did you go about narrowing down the reprints to a representative five?

MS: I tried to be representative of the 20 years, and characters and creators.

Karl Stock has written a particularly good 20 years, 20 standout stories for this Special. Anything that you particularly think should have gone in there? A personal favourite that Karl savagely ignored perhaps?

MS: It’s very difficult for me to play favourites – as far as highlights go, I think he picked a good selection. But somebody reading the special might have a completely different twenty! Hopefully, it’ll generate some chatter on what people’s own favourites have been in the last two decades.

Thanks to Tharg for letting Matt speak as always. The Mighty One is surely a generous dictactor boss. Splundig vur Thrigg Eartlets!

The 2000 AD Sci-Fi Special is available from all good newsagents and comic book stores on Wednesday 24th June! Or get it from the 2000 AD web shop.

When the Galaxy’s Greatest Comic was taken over by Tharg’s nephew Joko-Jargo for the very special all-ages 2000 AD Regened Prog 2130, one of the strips everyone wanted to see more of was Alex de Campi and Eduardo Ocaña’s Full Tilt Boogie.

Well, the great news is that this wonderfully fun tale of family, with teenager Tee, her Grandmother, and their cat all working as some kind of bounty hunters from the patched together spaceship, the Full Tilt Boogie of the title, is getting a full series, beginning in 2000 AD Prog 2185.

We chatted to Alex de Campi and Eduardo Ocaña about the origins of Full Tilt Boogie.

Read on to discover what we can expect in the new series, how things might have changed from that initial all-ages strip to what we’re going to see in 2000 AD, how sci-fi suits family sagas perfectly, and whether the ship’s cat really does have an inter-dimensional portal for a stomach….

Full Tilt Boogie debuted in Prog 2130, the 2019 2000 AD Regened Prog. And the story there was particularly fun, with a real sense of the space opera, space odyssey to it, feeling almost Saga-like with the sense of a self-contained little family unit with a whole strange universe to explore – although obviously with less of the adult stuff.

Firstly, for those new to the strip, what’s the whole thing about?

Alex de Campi: Tee is a young bounty hunter who is always short on cash and sometimes also short on a plan, and she travels the galaxy with her grandmother and a cat, whose name is Cat, and who may or may not have a portal to another dimension in its stomach. While trying to rescue the Luxine Empire’s wayward Prince Ifan and collect a bounty on him, she accidentally re-awakens the last remains of the Empire’s mortal enemies, an Anubite warrior and Horus, its (rather rotten and possibly senile) war computer. Just like that, Tee is now Public Enemy Number One.

In that first episode back in the 2000 AD Regened Prog, we ended things with Horus wondering if now they take over the Universe after the black shrouded character dispatches the Borrower bears in speedy fashion… is that what we can look forward to here or have you pulled back slightly from the universe conquering (for now at least)?

AdC: Well, Tee is still just trying to collect her bounty, ditch Ifan with the fangirl paying it, and then go to the beach. Unfortunately, everybody else thinks she wants to start an interstellar war and the Luxine Empire is in a “shoot first and ask questions later” mood. But Tee isn’t the only teen pulled into this mess against her will…

Another obvious thing to cover… where did the genesis of Full Tilt Boogie come from, this wonderful space opera thing which works perfectly for all-ages?

AdC: It’s completely from my childhood love of Gatchaman and Space Battle Cruiser Yamato, which streamed in bad English dub on Saturday mornings on TV when I was a kid (as Battle of the Planets and Star Blazers, respectively). So with the Luxine Knights (you’ll meet them) there’s a sense of the Gatchaman super-sentai team, and there’s a dash of Captain Harlock in there, but I took all that and then thought, “what if these kids were just really normal kids in the middle of this incredibly abnormal situation?”

Full Tilt Boogie deliberately avoids the classic orphaning of the hero of the piece, beloved by fantasy writers, and involves Tee and her Grandmother (and the cat) as a family unit, operating together, hunting down those bounties. What’s the attraction for you of keeping that family unit together and involving them all in the adventure?

AdC: Orphaning is such a cheap stunt; people only do it so they don’t have to write too many characters or to provide a thrift-shop method of character actualisation. I’m a single mom myself; I still take care of my own mother. I wanted Tee to have a family. Families are good. And Grandma is an awesome character who’s really fun to write.

The initial story was a good 10-pages of done in one strip, setting out everything you needed to know about the characters and the world they’re in whilst still telling a satisfying mini tale with its own beginning, middle, and end. Given that you packed all that much into what was, if it were in the regular Prog, two five-page episodes, will you be keeping that level of density to the series or will you take advantage of the extra page count this time to slow things down at all?

AdC: It’s still pretty dense. Five to six pages per prog is not a lot of space, but I am cognizant of allowing Ed space to really show his stuff. So every so often, we let it breathe a little. It’s a tough balance: wanting to provide a good read in that short space, with letting people soak in the wonderful environment Ed has created.

The initial episode certainly had plenty of explosions, destruction, mayhem and its fair share of peril, albeit without the bloodshed – robotic bears can been blown apart at will without going up an age range.

Was there any thought to changing the all-ages tone of Full Tilt Boogie for the series in 2000 AD? Or, hopefully, was it always seen as something that could and should fit perfectly in the pages of 2000 AD as many strips in the past could easily be seen, at least partly, as all-ages in terms of content and tone, if not in the concepts or language used?

AdC: We kept it all-ages. I may be guilty of obeying the letter and not the spirit of the ratings law here and there, but: kids need comics! Kids should have comics! This doesn’t mean the book isn’t gripping or scary and bad things don’t happen. Trust me, there’s plenty drama and boom-boom.

Eduardo Ocaña: The idea is to develop Full Tilt Boogie maintaining that tone, I’m attracted graphically to move away from using bloody visuals and instead get tension and atmosphere by working the reactions of the characters to the violent situations.

Taking that a little further, one thing I always find frustrating when talking to teachers about reading in general and comics in particular is that idea of only allowing children to read at their current reading level. It seems obvious that children should read what they want, will read what they want, and can certainly read above their level. They may not understand it all, but as long as they engage with the work in some way, they will find the desire to learn, to understand what they can’t yet understand, to learn that new vocabulary.

Do you see strips such as Full Tilt Boogie serving as a good way of making the Prog more accessible to younger readers, the sort of readers who’ll love your strip but might also be intrigued with some of the other strips?

AdC: Yes. Maybe having things like this will convince parents to buy 2000 AD for their kids, or at least for parents to share their own copies of the Prog with the small’uns. Again, I don’t think this will be a bad read for grownups. It has teen characters but it’s still a read that adults can enjoy and be thrilled by. And I agree on kids should be able to challenge themselves on reading level. I read so much that was too old for me when I was a kid, it made me the horrible deviant I am today.

EO: I agree. In the drawing, I try to develop something similar, simplifying the storytelling as much as possible but always trying to keep a strong technical base underpinning the art. I really hope readers of other strips enjoy FTB, that would be perfect. In the end, it’s about enjoying a great 2000 AD science fiction universe.

This is Eduardo’s first work for 2000 AD although both of you have worked together on Messiah Complex at Les Humanoïdes Associés. How did that initial collaboration come about?

EO: Through an editor of Les Humanoïdes Associés. I think it was a gift to me starting in comics with such a project, it really marked me deeply in the way I draw.

AdC: Philippe, our editor at the time, introduced us! We really enjoyed working with each other and I stayed in touch with Ed. He’s so good at building exciting, fresh-feeling sci-fi environments, *and* at being able to draw a broad variety of characters… besides, 2000 AD has a fine tradition of welcoming the best in Spanish comic art, no?

Oh yes, absolutely!

As far as I’m aware there’s not been an English language version of Messiah Complex as yet. It seems a shame that those of us with terrible French (I hold my hand up here) haven’t had the chance to read it – is there any possibility of an English version in the future?

AdC: That’s with Humanoids! I wouldn’t think so, at this point. I barely know anyone there these days. All the folks from my time with the publisher are now at places like Glénat.

EO: Never say never!

How does the collaboration between yourselves work in practice?

AdC: Ed and I talk a lot — at the same time he was drawing Full Tilt Boogie, he was also doing a section of my book MADI with Duncan Jones. I wrote all of the current Full Tilt Boogie arc in one go and sent all (from memory) ten episodes to Tharg and Ed at the same time, and Ed’s been sending us layouts and step by step. Because we’d done the first episode already, there wasn’t much development that needed to be done, and what there was — well, I trust Ed. It’s very friendly and relaxed.

Eduardo, the look for that original Full Tilt Boogie strip is, for want of a better description, something of a clean-line Euro style, where your lead characters have that simple line, little shading, solid forms. But alongside that, you have some wonderfully realised and detailed backgrounds, full of some lovely textures. Add in the subtle, almost muted colour palette of the strip and it’s something that really looks quite different from much we see in 2000 AD.

How did you come to this style for Full Tilt Boogie?

EO: The clean-line Euro-style is the graphic style which most identifies my art and where I find my strongest influences. The graphic ideas of FTB arose from continuing to find influence from the art of Moebius, creating an atmosphere and backgrounds with watercolor with an image in my mind from how Juan Gimenez works science fiction.

Can you tale the readers through a little of the creative decisions to get to the final artwork?

EO: Thinking on that curious mix between Moebius and Gimenez, a mix that we see continuously in Anime, I decided to digitally work the characters with simple colours and superimpose them on watercolor backgrounds. I also like to work the ink line with drawing pen nibs to maintain the look of clean-line Euro style.

Will the new series of Full Tilt Boogie continue in this same style?

EO: Oh yes… but getting better and more interesting all the time!

Obviously, there’s such scope in Full Tilt Boogie for a lot more adventuring with Tee and the gang.

Firstly, I’d imagine there’s been a lot of work put into the strip already by both of you to establish just what this world is all about?

AdC: Yes, there’s a lot of worldbuilding around the action in this arc.

But, after this first longer series, are there plans in place to continue the adventures onboard the Full Tilt Boogie?

AdC: Oh yes, absolutely! Although the end of the arc is (we hope) a satisfying conclusion, there’s a lot more story to tell with these characters in this universe. It’s a space epic about friendship and found families. Hopefully readers will like the current arc and we’ll be invited back to do more!

Finally, just a couple of things…

Firstly, where did the Full Tilt Boogie title & ship’s name come from?

AdC: It was the name of a friend’s Etchells (a class of racing sailboat I used to race in Hong Kong) and I always thought it was a really neato name for a ship. It was also the name of Janis Joplin’s band.

Secondly, are we going to discover whether the cat really does have a stomach that’s a portal to another dimension? Or for that matter, just what the ‘cat’ really is?

AdC: Discovery is overrated. If you remove all the mystery from a cat, is it indeed still a cat?

And with that, Alex laughed and said farewell…

Our huge thanks to Alex and Eduardo for talking Full Tilt Boogie with us. You can see the new strip begin in Prog 2185 – out June 10. And the first Full Tilt Boogie adventure is available in 2000 AD Prog 2130.