Talking The Man With The Two-Storey Brain with Paul Cornell for 2000 AD Regened
4th November 2020
Time to get Regened again Squaxx dek Thargo, as The Mighty One gives the editorial reins over to his nephew, Joko Jargo, for the all-ages takeover that is REGENED!
Out from 4 November in all great newsagents, comic shops and from the 2000 AD web shop, Prog 2206 is full of amazing all-ages action, with the return of Cadet Dredd, a return to Nu-Earth withVenus Bluegenes, a time-twisting Future Shock, and the threat of alien invasion for Judge Anderson. Now that’s a Ghafflebette line-up for sure!
But there’s one extra strip that’s bound to have fans new and old talking, as Paul Cornell and Anna Readman bring back a classic from the early days of 2000 AD – Abelard Snazz!
Artist Anna Readman is fresh out of Uni and making a big splash in the world of comics with her works Area 07, School Yodel no. 3, 6 Memos, and Cormac McCarthy’s Suttree. This is her first work for 2000 AD – I would imagine it’s not going to be her last!
Paul Cornell, on the other hand, has been doing this for a while. He’s ‘s is an award-winning author and writer of many, many different things, including plenty of sci-fi and fantasy in prose (Shadow Police, Lychford), comics (Captain Britain and MI-13, This Damned Band), TV (Doctor Who), and radio (a beautifully done adaptation of Iain M. Banks’ The State of the Art for BBC Radio). But with all of that, he’s only appeared in the world of 2000 AD with three series – Pan-African Judges (with Siku, Judge Dredd Megazine vol 2 #44-49, 1993/4), Deathwatch: Faust & Falsehood (with Adrian Salmon, Megazine vol 3 #8-13, 1995/6), and XTNCT (with D’Israeli, Megazine #209-214, 2003/4).
To find out more about the return of the man most likely to solve your problems again and again and again, generally making everything worse than when he started, we caught up Paul Cornell for a chat (with tongue firmly in cheek at times!) about all things Abelard Snazz when the man with the multi-storey mind returns in a tale of microscopic menace, atomic amusement, and molecular musings in Abelard Snazz – The Only Way Is Up!
Paul, I think I can speak for everyone opening up their copies of Prog 2206 when I say it was one heck of a surprise to see the strip that you, Anna, Pippa, and Jim are involved with – Abelard Snazz, ‘the man with the multi-storey mind’.
PC: Obviously, it’s the strip everyone’s been waiting for. Alan Moore’s most famous character is back!
Now, for those who don’t know, Abelard Snazz was created back in the early days of 2000 AD by Alan Moore and Steve Dillon and only appeared in eight progs from 1980-1983 (2000 AD #189-190, #209, #237-238, #245, #254, and #299).
PC: So this is neatly timed to celebrate his fortieth anniversary!
Absolutely! And, of course, seeing as the strip was by Alan Moore, with Steve Dillon, Mike White, John Cooper, and Paul Neary on art, it’s well-remembered by older fans and much loved.
PC: Ah. Is it? Ulp. I mean… how well remembered? Am I going to get angry emails? Are there childhoods that I’m about to destroy?
Well, I certainly wouldn’t be signing up for some of the 2000 AD groups out there in social media land right now if I were you, Paul. They can get a little snippy about things.
So, how did the return of Abelard Snazz come about and how did you find yourself charged with the gig?
PC: I tend to do things because they’d be fun, hence the incredibly varied career. I really should put some thought into just doing one thing and getting good at it. But this time I was just thinking ‘hmm, I’ve never worked for 2000 AD proper, only for the Megazine’, and I remembered that Matt Smith had said to me, years ago, that if I fancied having a go at one of their established characters I was always welcome. So I emailed him reminding him of that, and he asked me about Snazz. And once I’d read the Snazz strips, I realised this was incredibly timely. Because these days the world has too many very clever people who can’t quite ever manage to be clever enough to foresee all the terrible, terrible consequences of that cleverness.
Looking at the episode, you’ve easily picked up on the template of the double-brained, four-eyed, mutant supermind proving to be too smart for his own good, solving the first problem brought to him and then spending the rest of his time solving the problems each of his solutions manage to cause.
PC: I suspect the original Snazz strips are now used in lessons at some of the more expensive public schools. Except they’re all missing the last page.
How did you approach the strip itself?
Was it a case of looking at what worked and going with that template of evermore ridiculous solutions to the problems of Abelard’s own making?
PC: I wanted to see what would happen if I took that to the furthest extreme I could think of.
Also, the original strips are very aware of the Sci-Fi genre tropes of their time, so I wanted to play that against where Sci-Fi and science has gone since then. Microscopic universes, like giant insects, take a bit of handwaving now.
There’s a playfulness here with your writing that comes out in so many silly little details in the background, the ridiculousness of the sub-atomic setting, and the wordplay of Abelard and Edwin.
PC: I’m starting to accept my comedy self. I’ve recently done strips for Edgar Allan Poe’s Snifter of Blood, and one of my creator-owned comics titles this year is a romcom.
And of course, the playfulness of the strip finds fabulous expression through the art here of Anna Readman, a relatively new artist, fresh out of Uni and really making waves with her work.
PC: Oh yes, she’s amazing!
Have you had a chance to see the finished pages yet?
It seems to me that she’s tapped right into the original look of the series, albeit with a modern twist. And Pippa Bowland has outdone herself with the vibrant, un-real colours that fill this strange, strange world.
PC: Yeah, the detail is superb. Everything in my panel descriptions is in there, and loads more besides. Pippa’s an old friend, so I was delighted when she got this gig. The colouring and art really take this to another level.
It’s a classic example of a 2000 AD strip that could work perfectly well in both the regular 2000 AD and the Regened Progs, with the cleverness of the concept being something anyone, of any age, can enjoy and appreciate.
PC: I hope so.
Was this something that you had in mind when putting it all together?
PC: That’s why I hope so. I think it’s got a few levels, and the youngest readers might appreciate a story of an adult who thinks he knows what he’s talking about and doesn’t.
Looking ahead, what plans might you have for any more of these Abelard Snazz tales?
PC: None, I’ve ended his universe. Spoilers. I mean, I really spoilt it. Which is unfortunate, since you now tell me he’s such a beloved character.
No, actually, I loved doing this, but I can think of several talented and funny creators who should have a go, and I’d like to write for other established 2000 AD characters.
Now, a few more general things to talk about…
PC: Go on. Worried again now.
You’ve had a lengthy career in comics, yet haven’t really had a lot of material here in 2000 AD, just the Pan-African Judges, Deathwatch: Faust & Falsehood, and XTNCT, with the last of those back in 2004.
PC: What are you implying?
Was it simply a case of too many other irons in the fire?
PC: Okay, I needed the money.
No. No. Honestly, no. We’re comfortable, all right?
Actually, real answer: I want to work almost exclusively on my own creations now, so I have a body of work of my own. And this year that’s going really well. So I feel able to once again do the occasional gig for fun with characters I don’t own. And I really did want to have my name included on the list of creators who’d worked for 2000 AD, without always having to add a caveat to that.
That’s quite an eccentric reason, isn’t it? Would ‘for the money’ be better?
And as far as the concept of 2000 AD Regened Progs go, what are your thoughts on the expansion of such an iconic title and its courting of younger readers?
In fact, what are your thoughts on the way comics are going right now, with the successes of children’s comics around the world, the likes of Dav Pilkey’s Dogman and Raina Telgemeier delivering multi-million print runs and driving a huge expansion of younger readers as comic fans through graphic novels rather than monthly serialised works.
PC: One of the ways comics has changed hugely for the better in recent years is the sheer number of bestselling children’s comics. I think the majority of comics should be for children. I actually think it’s quite weird that regular 2000 AD isn’t all-ages. Loads of very adult comics were produced under the Comics Code in the 1970s. It never seemed to be a problem for Steve Gerber.
Now, with Regened all about getting new and younger readers into comics, into 2000 AD, how about your own experiences of discovering both comics and 2000 AD?
PC: I was always given comics by my parents, starting with Playhour and Pippen, Asterix and Tintin, and then Dad brought home first Avengers Weekly (which blew my mind), then Warlord and Battle. Those offhand purchases, that they were happy to make because they were assured of the content, are one of the factors that set my life on its current course.
Regened has brought back some classic characters… any you’d really love to see given the all-ages Regened treatment?
PC: Flesh is the ideal strip for kids, because it’s really splattery dinosaur horror in a fantastical, suitably distanced format. There’s nothing that happens in that that’s not in Jurassic Park.
And would there be a wishlist of characters you’d love to write in the pages of 2000 AD or the Megazine?
PC: So many. Dan Dare (especially, I have a plan and everything), Timequake, Nemesis, M.A.C.H. One!
A Plan for Dan Dare… sounds intriguing!
What’s coming up next? Will we be seeing you in the pages of 2000 AD or the Megazine any time soon?
PC: That’s up to Tharg. I’ve got four creator-owned comics coming out, including the already announced I Walk With Monsters and The Modern Frankenstein, and lots more comics I can’t tell you about. My last Lychford novella is out in November, and there’s lots more happening across prose and TV. Thanks for asking!
Thank you so much to Paul Cornell for taking the time to chat all things Abelard. You can get hold of Paul’s I walk With Monsters (art by Sally Cantirino, colours by Dearbhla Kelly, published by Vault Comics) from 11 November and his Modern Frankenstein (with art from Emma Vieceli, colours from Pippa Bowland, part of the new Magma Comix imprint from Heavy Metal) due out on 28th April, 2021.
He’s online at paulcornell.com and is @Paul_Cornell on Twitter. And you can find more art from Anna Readman at annareadman.com or @annareadman.
2000 AD Prog 2206, the last Regened Prog of 2020 is out from 4 November. Pick it up from the 2000 AD web shop right now!
And remember, the Regened Progs are all about getting the next generation of readers into the Galaxy’s greatest comic – so make sure that copy of 2000 AD Regened Prog 2206 gets into a young nonscrot’s hands – YOU could be giving the gift of 2000 AD reading for a lifetime!!