Wednesday, December 28, 2016

"The End" Week: 2000 AD Showcase #54!


The classic British weekly comic 2000 AD is coming up on its 2000th weekly issue as I write this (months ago, I bought the 2000th prog and it's great!) and is still going strong. But today we'll take a quick glance at a last issue--something I don't see coming for the main title anytime soon! From 1990, 2000 A.D. Showcase #54, featuring stories by A. Ridgway and Alan Hebden, and art by Mike White and Massimo Belardinelli.

This was part of Fleetway/Quality's reprint series of British titles, primarily Judge Dredd stories; and there's even a Dredd two-pager this issue. (It's a bit of a groaner, but still.) The 2000 AD Presents was used to spotlight characters who then might go on to their own reprint title, like Judge Anderson or Dan Dare; or shorter-run features like D.R. & Quinch or Harry Twenty on the High Rock. (There was also a bit of numbering-rejiggering, per the GCD, not unlike a number of American comics!) This issue features the conclusion of the serial "Meltdown Man," which had been serialized since #26, about a man thrown via nuclear explosion into a future of animal-men versus men. There was also a chapter of Mean Arena, a long-running strip about the future sport "street football." Neither is especially well-known in America, but may still be recalled fondly by longtime 2000 AD fans.

Rarely see them mentioned anywhere, but I loved Fleetway/Quality's reprints: I started with Judge Dredd #7, and they introduced me to Rogue Trooper, Strontium Dog, the ABC Warriors, the Steel Claw, and more. This book is probably best remembered for reprinting Grant Morrison and Steve Yeowell's Zenith, although that was just a short portion of its run.

2 comments:

Mr. Morbid's House Of Fun said...

I've heard of those other names you mention. Mine was from seeing them at a not-so-local, now about closed, comic book store in the late 90's. There is a very cool Stronium Dog figure out that I should own by now really. Don't you own one?

I enjoy some of these 2000AD tales too. Reminds me a lot of the Heavy metal Anthology series. I have a few Free Comic Book Day samples myself of those 2000AD issues.

Must get Zenith too. Heard that's where Morrison's love of using Fractals as a theme started. Hopefully Amazon can help me out.

TOM said...

Is this the edition with the postmodern "future shock" that is reprinted several times in the book?
blew my mind back in the day, and I've been hunting it down for AGES!!!