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Quick, which publishers are the pioneers of digital comics? You might think IDW or Marvel, but the UK’s Rebellion, publisher of 2000 AD, has been selling digital editions of its book since all the way back in 2005 with great success—it’s the fastest and cheapest way to get Judge Dredd if you don’t live in the UK after all. Now they are making their downloads DRM free. All comics purchased—past and present—via any method—web, Android, iOS—will now be available in DRM-free PDF and CBZ files.

Users will have a Rebellion ID that will allow comics bought through one platform to be available on others.

Apps for the Amazon Kindle and Windows mobile apps are on their way—and all purchases will be transferable via those apps as well.

Along with Judge Dredd,  and current issues of 2000 AD, the weekly anthology of dystopic adventure, and the monthly Judge Dredd Megazine, classic issues of  Judge Dredd, Strontium Dog, Halo Jones, Sláine, Ace Trucking, and many more can also bepurchased.

The  2000 AD iOS app for iPad and iPhone was launched in 2012 and is consistently one of the top-grossing iPad newstand apps in the UK. You can download the free 2000 AD app for iOS here, and the brand new  2000 AD app for Android here.

 

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One of the most interesting things about the new "Judge Dredd: Superfiend" online mini-series is how it straddles the line between fan work and official product.

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Brian Bolland is a legend in comics, and would be just for his covers alone, but he’s also responsible for drawing classics like Batman: The Killing Joke, and Judge Dredd. He started his art career in his native United Kingdom illustrating his own fanzines while at art school, and then he moved on to contributing to underground publications like Friendz, Oz, and International Times. After he finished his course at The Central School of Art & Design in London in 1973 Bolland joined the talent agency Bardon Press Features, and was assigned various small comics jobs including a bi-weekly Nigerian comic called Powerman about an African superhero. Steady work continued from there, and he would eventually get to work on future comics hits 2000 AD, and Judge Dredd in the late 70′s.

He was recruited by Green Lantern artist Joe Staton who discovered him at a comics convention while visiting England, and thus the British Invasion of comics officially began! He started off doing covers for DC Comics, and then moved onto bigger projects like the 12 issue maxi-series Camelot 3000 with writer Len Wein. Later on he would be put more to use as a cover artist exclusively, rather than an interior artist, because his cover work is so detailed, and striking that I can only imagine how many thousands of comics he sold just based off his cover illustrations alone! Legendary covers for Grant Morrison’s Animal Man, The Invisibles, Wonder Woman, and The Flash solidified Brian Bolland as a legend in the industry. Throughout his carreer Bolland would also work on personal projects like the more sketchy styled Mr. Mamoulian, and the provocative The Actress and the Bishop.

In 2006 the book The Art of Brian Bolland was published, and it provides a very comprehensive overview of Bolland’s career including just about all of his classic covers, and examples of his photography work that he took while traveling the world over the years.

Brian Bolland has won numerous comics industry awards including over 5 Eisners, an Inkpot Award, and Favourite Artist in the British section of the Eagle Awards.

You can follow Brian Bolland on his blog here.

For more comics related art, you can follow me on my website comicstavern.com - Andy Yates

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The founding fathers would turn in their graves. The British Library is hosting an exhibition of publications in a medium once accused of undermining literacy, decency and the very establishment itself: comics.

I haven’t yet visited Comics Unmasked: Art and Anarchy in the UK, which has been curated by Paul Gravett, author of Comic Art, which I reviewed last month, but I have a shrewd idea of much of its contents because of my own involvement in the industry from the 1980s and ‘90s.

Deadline 3 - which published Jamie Hewlett's Tank Girl

Previously I’ve been at pains to emphasise that comics are about much more than men in lycra, but we can’t ignore the lycra or the science fiction and fantasy, which is in strong evidence here. What deserves wide recognition, however, is the role of attitude in providing the energy of iconoclastic creativity that has seen so many writers and artists whose target audience was originally children become internationally hugely influential.

British comics and their creators have an anarchic spirit. In the late nineteenth century the 'Penny Dreadfuls' were sometimes considered so subversive and dangerous to the Establishment (in fomenting an industrial dispute) that at one point printing presses used for printing them were destroyed by the authorities, as documented in Martin Barker’s book Comics: Ideology, Power and the Critics.

There is a direct line from these through Fleetway’s Action comic to 2000AD, which in the late ‘70s and ‘80s saw the work of Pat Mills and John Wagner produce strips such as Nemesis the Warlock, which satirised corrupt organised religion, and Judge Dredd, which satirised just about everything including a corrupt totalitarian state (although sometimes Dredd seemed as though it was applauding the very summary dispensation of justice which it avowedly condemned).

Action was created in 1975 by Pat Mills for publishing house IPC. Soon banned for its violent content it nevertheless spawned 2000AD, the home of Judge Dredd.

Jamie's Tank Girl - whom he called a female Judge Dredd with bigger guns on speed.

2000AD could have been deliberately designed to be the kind of left-wing comic imagined by George Orwell in this fascinating article he wrote about the heavily middle and upper class boys’ comics like Gem, Magnet, Hotspur, Wizard and so on.

These class-ridden, patriotic comics were produced by the ultra-conservative family-owned Scottish DC Thompson publishers, for much of the twentieth century - up until the days of punk rock as staple fare for boys, a deliberate antidote to the previous, anarchic Penny Dreadfuls. Orwell describes them in depth in the article and observes their propaganda value as follows:

“the stuff is read somewhere between the ages of twelve and eighteen by a very large proportion, perhaps an actual majority, of English boys, including many who will never read anything else except newspapers; and along with it they are absorbing a set of beliefs which would be regarded as hopelessly out of date in the Central Office of the Conservative Party.”

The cover of Revolver 1, which serialised Grant Morrison's deconstruction of Dan Dare

That aside, there is another ideological gradation that has Leo Baxendale’s Bash Street Kids (also published by DC Thompson in the Beano) and 2000AD at one end - produced by angry, anti-authoritarian working class writers and artists - and the middle class Frank Hampton’s neo-Imperialistic Dan Dare at the other.

Common to both is the preoccupation with slapstick humour, fantasy and science fiction as a way of boggling minds and examining present-day trends taken to extremes.

Orwell himself notes the value of Sci-Fi (which he calls Scientifiction) in this fascinating sentence:

“Whereas the Gem and Magnet derive from Dickens and Kipling, the Wizard, Champion, Modern Boy, etc., owe a great deal to H. G. Wells, who, rather than Jules Verne, is the father of ‘Scientifiction’.”

You can even position later writers, influenced by these earlier names, on this spectrum, such as Alan Moore and Grant Morrison on the left, and Neil Gaiman more in centre-ground. Grant slyly subverted Dan Dare himself , imagining him as an older man sadly looking back on the glory days of space empire in the pages of Revolver in the late ‘80s.

The ‘80s was a key time, because it was then that the kids who had been brought up on the Beano and 2000AD hit adulthood and it became cool to continue reading comics. Inspired by Moore’s Watchmen and V for Vendetta, and the American Frank Miller’s Batman: Dark Knight Returns, younger artists and writers gave birth to an explosion of creativity.

The cover of Crisis issue 3 - probably the closest ever to Orwell's dream of a left wing comic.

Pat Mills' and Carlos Ezquerra's Third World War deliberately made very cool heroes out of disabled, black, gay or female characters.

Eight years after my own story in Marvel's Captain Britain about the Northern Ireland Troubles was censored, Fleetway felt able to publish, in the overtly political Crisis comic, Garth Ennis' True Faith, (but even that graphic novel was scandalously withdrawn from sale, following complaints).

Crisis was largely Pat Mills' brainchild. Overtly political and radical it ran the amazing anti-American Imperialism strip Third World War, which attacked CIA involvement in central and south American countries, a topic already tackled in comics by Alan Moore's and Bill Sienkiewicz's documentary graphic novel, Brought to Light.

The cover of Doc Chaos 1 by me, Lawrence Gray and Phil Elliott published by Escape

Independent creator-owned comics sprang up all over the place, from my own satirical Doc Chaos, published by Gravett's Escape imprint, to Deadline, from Brett Ewins and Steve Dillon, which came directly from a collision between comics and the new House music club culture, the true star of which was to become Jamie Hewlett's Tank Girl. And most of us know what happened when Hewlett met Blur's Damon Albarn: Gorillaz, the first band in history that was made up of comics characters.

Peter Stanbury's and Paul Gravett's Escape magazine - beautifully designed, arty and hip.

I must given a special mention to Don Melia and Lionel Gracey-Whitman for publishing Aargh!, Heartbreak Hotel magazine with the supplement BLAAM! Because the mere fact that this anti-homophobic publication could be a comic was testimony to how far the medium had come since the days of Wizard and Hotspur weekly comics in which homosexuality was a heavily suppressed element.  Here is Orwell describing a  cover image: “ a nearly naked man of terrific muscular development has just seized a lion by the tail and flung it thirty yards over the wall of an arena”.

Heartbreak Hotel issue 5 cover by Duncan Fegredo

The first comic explicitly for black people, Sphinx

Repossession Blues from the pages of Blaam!

A cover of chaos magick journal Chaos International  which shows the use of comics iconography - the exchange of ideas went both ways.

There was a huge amount of talent around in the ‘80s, much of which will be on evidence in the British Library show, but I find it fascinating that I, along with the far more successful Bryan Talbot, Grant Morrison, Alan Moore and Neil Gaiman, (particularly the first two) were also at the time heavily into chaos magick. We’d discuss this when we met occasionally at the bar that used to be at the foot of Centrepoint, near Titan Books’ offices where I worked, and Forbidden Planet bookshop, and at comics conventions.

Alan only went public on this more recently, but Grant overtly used his research in long-running strips such as the intensely surreal Doom Patrol and subsequently The Invisibles, both for DC.

It is not necessary to believe in any of the gods and forces invoked by magical ritual in chaos magick to utilise its effects. The point for all of us was that Nothing is Forbidden, Everything is Permitted, to use Aleister Crowley’s mantra. Chaos magick provided an almost limitless kit of tools to access the far reaches of the imagination. I learned my tricks from a group that met every week in Greenwich, above Bulldog’s café, from the legendary Charlie Brewster, aka Choronzon 666.

I used this massive wellspring of creativity when writing The Z-Men for Brendan McCarthy. Brendan was a maverick comics artist who started work in 2000AD, later becoming like many comics artists a film storyboarder, who was renowned for his psychedelic, mystical artwork.

All of us were also heavily influenced by Dada and Surrealism – this was the premier topic of my undergraduate degree.  It is very obvious in Grant’s Doom Patrol - just read my favourite story The Painting That Ate Paris; and how else could you come up with a superhero who is an entire street (named - of course - Danny)?

Pure anarcho-comics: Hooligna Press & Pete Mastin's Faction File collected from the pages of squatting magazine Crowbar - back full circle to the aims of the Penny Dreadfuls

Arguably, the most successful comics writers working for American publishers in the ‘80s and ‘90s were Neil, Alan and Grant – Brits all. Frank Miller, also a giant, is American of course, and, while anarchic, is sympathetic to the other end of anarchism – right wing libertarian, which approves the right to bear arms and use them against Commie radicals.

I attribute all of their success not just to their supreme storytelling abilities but to their political views and their involvement in anything occult, arcane and extreme, because in these genres of comics, what readers demand is out-there imagination – and it takes some serious head-space distorting tricks to cultivate a mind that can repeatedly and frequently, on demand, to a punishing production schedule, come up with the mind-boggling concepts, characters and storylines required.

These lessons were not lost on the more recent wave of massively successful British writers, such as Warren Ellis and Brian Hitch, the creators of The Authority, (just read Warren Ellis' Transmetropolitan for a taste of his brand of anarchy).

And I believe there are lessons here for all writers and artists who aim at children and teens, that most demanding of all audiences, to help them feed and stoke the furnaces of creativity and imagination.

I could even attempt to sum them up in the following seven guidelines. Bear in mind that these are methods I am suggesting, and in no way am I advocating tackling a particular kind of subject matter. These are ways of researching, preparing to write and draw, and of writing and drawing itself:

• Feed your mind with stuff from the far reaches of experience; and apply that to the everyday.
• You can’t be too extreme.
• JG Ballard's maxim: follow your obsessions.
• Never censor yourself – leave it to someone else.
• Boggle minds.
• Maximise drama.
• Above all - don’t take it too seriously.

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Tharg popped round for a biscuit earlier, before thrusting a piece of yellowing paper into my hands and saying “this can run immediately.” It appears that 2000AD are endorsing the 18th September as ‘a day of action’, you see, during which they hope to drum up support for a sequel to the pretty-brill 2012 DREDD movie starring Karl Urban.

Day of Action comes exactly one year after the film came out in cinemas. Despite doing brilliantly in the UK and a growing cult-classic status, the film flopped in the US and plans for a sequel (plans for a trilogy, actually, writer Alex Garland revealed) were put on hold. However, a petition for a sequel has so far raised 80000 signatures, and there’s always a possibility that fan impact voting might help push a sequel through.

2000AD have officially endorsed the campaign for a Dredd sequel, which is where the 18th September comes in. Next Wednesday Judge Dredd Megazine will be publishing part one of their print sequel to the movie, written by Arthur Wyatt and drawn by Henry Flint. 2000AD are obviously hoping that sells well, but they also ask people to sign the petition, buy the movie, and buy shirts in support of the campaign. I imagine other activities will be going on as well.

So, if you want to see a sequel to DREDD, it looks like next Wednesday is the time to lend your support!

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In Dredd’s long and illustrious career we’ve seen many a female Judge stepping up to the plate, from Anderson to McGruder, but the iconic British strip has never been written by a woman. Until now.

2000 AD, a sci-fi anthology that has run continuously since 1977, has enjoyed a reputation for creating fantastic women characters (Halo Jones!) in the various strips that focus on personality first, and gender last. Judge Anderson is perhaps the most well known example, and her portrayal in the 2012 film Dredd by Olivia Thirlby cemented that wonderfully by showing her as Dredd’s equal in every respect – including costume. In fact that very under-appreciated film is one of the strongest comic book movies of all time in terms of gender politics, carried out in a very “no big deal” manner.

It’s little wonder then that women make up a significant sector of the 2000 AD readership, and yet despite both the wealth of women characters in the book, and the number of women creators in the UK, it’s also long held a reputation as being a boys club when it comes to writers and artists.

You can imagine my delight then in our roundtable review of Prog 1824 last month when I saw Emma Beeby’s name attached to a new strip, Survival Geeks. I first came across Beeby a couple of years ago at Glasgow Comic Con, and she is perhaps best known for her Doctor Who audio stories along with her co-writer both there and at 2000 AD, Gordon Rennie. Rennie of course has been writing great stories at 2000 AD for years, and is thrilled to be working with Beeby.

Not only is this the first time Judge Dredd has been written by a woman, but Suicide Watch also sees the introduction of the strips first ever Muslim Mega-City One Judge, Judge Hamida. It’s really refreshing to see a publisher stepping up to the plate in terms of diversity both on the page and behind it, and with a world of solid and well-rendered characters at 2000 AD, I hope it leads to the progs being read by an even wider audience.

As with all Judge Dredd strips, Suicide Watch is completely readable to newcomers while containing elements of previous storylines. The city is decimated since the Day of Chaos events with 87% of the population wiped out, and Suicide Watch looks at the psychological damage to the survivors as suicide cults become ever more popular in the desperate slums.

Something worse though is hunting in the shadows, something that Dredd can’t quite remember… Psi-Judge Hamida is on the case!

Suicide Watch will be told in three episodes, with the first appearing in Prog 1826 this very week.

Judge Dredd: Suicide Watch (Prog 1826-1828)
Writer: Gordon Rennie, Emma Beeby
Artist: Paul Davidson
Colourist: Chris Blythe
Letters: Annie Parkhouse
Editor: Tharg the Mighty, Matt Smith
Publisher: 2000 AD

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2000AD, the British anthology comic, announced that their most recent issue – last Wednesday’s prog 2814 – would be an easy jump-on point for anybody. Anyone can pick it up and get an idea of what 2000AD is all about, what the writing style is like, and how the stories work.

So, that came across like a bit of a challenge really.

With only an inch of haste, we gathered many of The Beat’s reviewers into Pentangle Formation and promptly all jumped on. Some of us have been reading 2000AD for years, some have jumped in and out – I myself only have a recent knowledge of it, having started sporadically picking up issues last year. The idea was that we could all jump on – so with that in mind, what did we all jump on to?

Hannah Means-Shannon: New to 2000AD

I’ve never read 2000AD proper before, though I have a couple collections that intrigued me, and many friends who have rooms full of progs. It’s an embarrassment of riches that does make it hard to find a jumping on point, and so, in my case, I kept putting it off. I’m happy with the contents page of Prog 1824 and I think it creates a sense of orientation for the reader. We’ve got Tharg announcing that he’s the editor, and also running through the included story titles and author/artist credits. Then the contents column breaks the stories down a little by providing the classic recap on characters and the original creators of those tales. I noticed that each synopsis there actually gives the time and location setting for the stories, too, all very helpful.

JUDGE DREDD: “Cypher” wasn’t my first experience of Dredd since I’ve been reading the newish IDW series, but would do well to give the reader a sense of who Dredd is in a general sense, as well as the chaotic world that he moves in. The artwork is strong and as well as packing in plenty of dynamic action, we get some apocalyptic long-shots to build atmosphere. I also found the colors very appealing, sharp and rich.

DANDRIDGE: “The Copper Conspiracy” didn’t talk down to the newbie reader, but jumped right into the premises of its universe while dropping instructional detail about Dandridge’s role a as a ghost, the focus on magical objects, and the globe-trotting potential of the storyline. I particularly liked the over-the-top characterization of Dandridge, making him recognizable in any story context.

THARG’S 3RILLERS: “Survival Geeks” sold me on the artwork, but didn’t appeal to me right away, almost certainly because it deals in so many Geek stereotypes. It traced a fine line between funny and predictable, until the entire household of Geeks was introduced, then I found it a little more appealing. I liked the premise that the world could seem “normal” but be vastly altered in another dimension and the way that reality moved quickly into the narrative.

The real shell-shock admiration I felt for Prog 1824 was STICKLEBACK: “Number of the Beast”. Now I get what people were hinting at about his return. The artwork is mind-blowing. I would buy the prog just for this story (which explains why he’s on the cover too). This narrative by Ian Edginton and D’Israeli displayed a lot of the strengths of the other stories but went further. It loaded on the expository detail, crammed in the intricate detail in the panels, and also suggested continuity with past stories that might lead me back to other progs to find out more. The artwork on the library scene alone made me pause for several minutes. I like the moral ambiguity of the Stickleback character and the as of yet unanswered questions posed.

So, how does it all work as a jumping on point? I was fine: no problems understanding the characters or the stories, but I might have found it a little more of a collision of worlds if I hadn’t read the contents page first. Instead, I found myself asking, “How would long-term readers view this? Too obvious and basic for them?” I don’t think so – there’s enough commitment to quality in the storytelling and the engaging artwork to make it worth their while, too.

Todd Allen: 2000AD Veteran

While it may be a jumping on point, 2000AD took another page from Marvel Now and started out a few stories where I wasn’t entirely sure where they were starting from. (Like not having read Avengers Vs. X-Men was a bit of a stumbling point for several of the relaunches.)

Judge Dredd is dealing with political fallout from a previous storyline. Stickleback is resurrected, but I’m a little fuzzy on who/what he’s supposed to be past some sort of boss crook in a supernaturally influenced world. Dandridge did a little better job of setting it up in an interesting way. Survival Geeks starts from the beginning, though.

I thought Dandridge was the pick of the of litter with a clear, whimsical attitude to the strip. I suspect I’d like Stickleback more after a few more pages, once I get a better feel for what it’s supposed to be. Dredd is Dredd, and his own genre. I like Survival Geeks more than I usually like the Tharg’s 3hrillers/Time Twisters/Future Shock material, but that’s not what I usually look to 2000 AD for.

Interestingly, Judge Dredd was the most serious strip this time out, with a low-satire installment, though Dredd will hit all over the spectrum from story to story.

Henry Barajas: New to 2000AD

The story that sold book for me is Dandridge. I really enjoyed the set up and introduction to the outlandish British super spy. My only complaint is that the story wasn’t long enough. The beginning was long winded and I could care less about the premise, but it wasn’t until the last two pages of the story where I felt engaged. With witty dialogue, Alec Worley told a good joke and Warren Pleece’s smooth panel to panel transitions executed the punch line. Dandridge’s a jolly good time, and made good enough bait to hook me for the next issue.

I could have done without DREDD. This story is so predictable.

THARG’S 3RILLERS focused too much on the cultural references and lacked any kind of depth.

 

Laura Sneddon: Vintage 2000 AD Fan

As a trade reader, I’m familiar with the Dredd strips of old and some other titles including The Ballad of Halo Jones and Rogue Trooper and so forth. What I hadn’t previously tried was a weekly edition of the prog (save for my treasured collection of Zenith issues!), so the idea of a good jumping on issue was really appealing to me.

The cover caught my immediate attention as I recognised the work of the wonderful D’Israeli (SVK), but resisted diving straight for that story. Despite being a huge Dredd fan, his story didn’t quite grip me as an opening gambit, though the character of Pax does have me intrigued. Dandridge too was not to my style, though I sense it will be popular. Such is the problem with anthology titles, alas.

Survival Geeks on the other hand won me over immediately, with really relatable characters and genuine freshness. Of course I almost always enjoy Gordon Rennie’s work, and it was a thrill to see a story co-written by Emma Beeby. This strip had an almost Doctor Who type vibe and I’m keen to see where it goes!

My clear winner though was the wonderful Stickleback, and I’ve already ordered the tpbs I need to catch up (not necessary to follow the story as presented here, but required for my brain to purr). Utterly beautiful, this has a classy European vibe and a gloriously unsettling dark edge. 

 

Zainab Akhtar: Trade Reader

2000AD have been advertising this issue as a jumping on point for new readers, and as someone who’s never previously read an issue, I would both heartily agree and recommend doing so. My previous sojourns with the prog have all been in trade format: Stickleback, Mazeworld, Cradlegrave, Leviathan to name a few favourites, so I really didn’t know what to expect, but I was very impressed. I’m wary of anthology formats, but happily, it works fine here, with four stories of about 6 pages each. That means not having to divide my attention between too many strips, and the length is enough to keep you engaged and interested whilst giving an ample chunk of story.

What’s more, all four stories work, too. I’m not a Judge Dredd fan, but we get a rather nifty chase scene and that particular world is quickly established for the unfamiliar. It helps that it’s a pretty straightforward opening with no intricacies.  Inaki Miranda’s art and Eva de la Cruz’s art and colours provide the strongest art in the book. Dandridge is entertaining enough, but I’m not really feeling the flamboyant supernatural spy formula. Tharg’s 3rillers on the other hand, I loved: it’s a lot of fun, with some nicely drawn dinosaurs and a bit of inter dimensions/time travelling thrown in, which pretty much guarantees my interest.

But let’s be honest: what I was most excited about here was the return of Stickleback (pick up the trade if you can- it’s excellent). I really like that Edginton’s thrown us for a bit of a loop: I was expecting some quickly explained death escape and back to business, but Stickleback the man? thing? has changed, as has the world around him… It may be a little murky to the new reader, but it’s still accessible, I would think.

A final verdict then: very, very impressed with the issue, and it’s one I’ll be picking up in print and following, for the next installment at the least.

 

Steve Morris: Knows who Judge Dredd is

It’s a good issue to jump on with,although you are jumping into established characters rather than new pitches from 2000AD. The Dredd strip here is technically exploring the fallout of a previous storyline, for example, and the ramifications it had on Dredd’s world. Out of the four stories, three of them require a little explanation for new readers. The creative teams all handle this easily, though, with Dandridge especially well set up – keeping the main character absent until the end means he can be extravagantly hyped before new readers actually gets to see him, but also acts as a great joke for fans already aware of the character. With each strip only moving five/six pages at a time, Dandridge does a rather fantastic job of using those pages well.

Dredd is a little less efficient, starting off with what seemed like a promising storyline which is promptly interrupted by an action sequence. When firing on all fronts, Dredd is usually able to mix storytelling, satire and action together into a big pulpy stew – here we get an action sequence, which is fun if not a little simple.

Similarly, the first part of Survival Geeks struggled a little with the satire and humour. While the story itself is fun enough, the characters all seem to have wandered in off the set of The Big Bang Theory, with the strip prizing the idea that comic/sci-fi fans can’t function in normal conversation with normal people. The art was really nice though, and I did enjoy some of the one-liners.

Stickleback was perhaps my favourite of the strips, though, nipping a old-fashioned tone with startling artwork and a main character who walks and talks like a Noel Fielding creation. It’s silly and well staged, and I enjoyed it a lot. I’m already onboard for 2000AD, but this issue struck me as a fairly decent launching point for new readers to come on in and try things out.

The Beat Herself

John Constantine doesn’t have quadriceps.

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Mike Molcher is the PR Co-ordinator for Rebellion, meaning he is the man directly responsible for promoting their comics, 2000AD and Judge Dredd Megazine. If you’ve noticed over the last few months that more people are talking about 2000AD, be it the recent ‘Trifecta’ storyline, or the ‘gay Judge Dredd’ teaser which got picked up everywhere – that’s Mike Molcher’s work. He’s also an interviewer and writer himself, who has interviewed many of the key figures who have worked at 2000AD over the years, including Alan Moore, Warren Ellis, Dave Gibbons and Carlos Ezquerra. 

But how do you go about promoting a company like 2000AD, which releases a new anthology EVERY WEEK? I spoke to Mike about his work with the company, to see how exactly he goes about promoting the series. And what is comic book marketing, anyway? How does it work? Is this interview secretly all part of his marketing plan?

By reading this, have we become trapped in Mike Molcher’s sinister plans for 2000AD to take over the world? Oh dear…

Steve: I’ll start with a self-sabotaging question: since 2005 you’ve been involved with interviewing some of the most influential 2000 AD creators – from Alan Moore to Carlos Ezquerra. What makes for a good interview?

Mike: Oof, tough start! I can’t say mine are particular exemplars of good practice so I can only speak about the interviews I enjoy reading – they tend to be the ones that actually stray away from what’s on the comic book page to what’s going on in the mind of the creator, what motivates them, what inspires them, what grinds their gears. By uncovering these things the interviewer can begin to form a picture of the roots of that person’s creativity. Talent and ability never exist in isolation, they have always come from somewhere (usually thanks to a lot of hard work) and it’s the people of comics that I find most fascinating. I like to think my interviews try and achieve that (he said, nervously).

Steve: Before you took on your current role, you worked as a features writer for 2000 AD. How did you first come to get involved with the company in this respect?

Mike: I think it was Matt Badham who first mentioned to me that 2000 AD was looking for creator interviews and features. At the time I was a local newspaper reporter in the north of England but had started up my own self-published magazine, The End is Nigh, which took a Fortean Times-style look at end-of-the-world theories. I’d interviewed Alan Moore about the apocalyptic aspects of his work and his ideas on the approaching human singularity, so I did a retrospective on him for the Judge Dredd Megazine. That opened the door to interviews and I’ve been doing them ever since. Fortunately it meant that when I applied for the job they already knew me and knew that I was a big 2000 AD fan.

Steve: Obviously, your goal as a features writer is to promote and flesh out the company you’re writing for at the time. Do you think there’s a natural step between journalism and PR? How do you alternate between the two?

Mike: I don’t know what it’s like in the States, but you’ll find many of the big names in PR in Britain started out as journalists in some respect. Personally, I’d say that firsthand experience of what goes on inside the head of a journalist and what makes a good story is invaluable when you’re trying to reach out to reporters and reviewers. I continue to write creator interviews in my spare time for the Judge Dredd Megazine and Comic Heroes, so personally I think one compliments the other, because it keeps me abreast of what’s going on in the industry and how we can use that to our advantage at work.

Steve: Only a short while ago you moved to become Rebellion’s PR Co-ordinator. What sort of work does this involve on a day-to-day basis?

Mike: Answering a LOT of emails, mostly. 2000 AD represents just part of my work so I spend a lot of time writing press releases for new titles and announcements, keeping the social media side of things flowing, running blog tours for our three novel imprints, keeping track of the development of the various games Rebellion are working on, plus trying to work out new opportunities to promote our products. Fortunately we’ve recently taken on a marketing coordinator, Robbie Cooke, whose focus is more on the games side of things so he’s been a massive help with that.

 

Steve: Rebellion don’t just publish 2000 AD/Judge Dredd, but also handle novels and computer games. How do you structure your time between the three?

Mike: With a rather heavily annotated diary, a lot of scheduling, and an increasingly wrinkled brow. Working across three different industries can be pretty mad at times and making sure I give equal time to every new title and product can be damn hard work. Ultimately I have to judge whether something needs a slight PR nudge to sell or a heavy marketing shove out the door…

Steve: The Dredd movie came out last year, giving you a unique opportunity for promotion on a wider field. How did the movie affect the way you promoted the comics?

Mike: I very quickly learned that ANY mention of movies gets people really excited – our most shared image on Facebook was one I did publicizing the fact that DREDD was number one in the DVD and Blu-Ray charts over here and even the slightest mention of the movie would get a huge response. We’re constantly asked whether there are movies coming for our other characters, so it seems the magic of film hasn’t exactly diminished in the digital age!

We obviously went heavy on the promotion of Judge Dredd to tie in to the movie and that’s really paid off – the collected ‘Case Files’ have been flying off the shelves on both sides of the Atlantic – but I have tried to make sure that when someone discovers 2000 AD for the first time they quickly see that it’s not all about Dredd, as loveable as he is. We have a huge and constantly growing back catalogue of some of the greatest characters in comics, from Halo Jones to Nemesis the Warlock and more recent things like Shakara, Low Life and Brass Sun.

Steve: Were there any promotional campaigns you were surprised to see get less attention than others? Do you find, when promoting a comic to a film audience, there was a difference in reaction than when you promote more directly to comic fans?

Mike: Nikolai Dante ended last year after 14 years. And when I say ended, writer Robbie Morrison and artist Simon Fraser brought the Russian rogue’s story to a close. In effect, we killed off one of our most popular characters. And he ain’t coming back. For a comic book to do something as bold as that, I thought, deserved more attention – alas, no-one really picked up on the announcement. It may be that he never had the right profile outside of 2000 AD, but by the time I came on board it was a bit late to change the situation.

I don’t think there’s a big difference in the way you talk to the two audiences other than reminding yourself that the film audience won’t be as conversant in the language and culture of comics as someone who’s been reading them for years. The biggest question we got was “I loved the movie, where do I start reading?”. We were very fortunate that someone can see DREDD then walk into their local comic book and walk out with a comic featuring the same character they saw on screen; Karl Urban and Alex Garland nailed the character of Judge Dredd so perfectly that it was like he’d leapt off the page. So marketing to fans of the film was a case of giving them a good starting point (The Complete Case Files #4, if you’re interested, then #5 and then pick up a copy of ‘Origins’ and ‘America’) and then letting them discover it for themselves.

Steve: You’ve spearheaded several successful campaigns for 2000 AD over the last year – the ‘gay Judge Dredd’ promo picked up a lot of attention, in particular. How do you decide which comics might be suitable for a push, and which stories are going to pick up the most attention?

Mike: I talk to 2000 AD’s editor Matt Smith about what we have coming up and he’s very good at highlighting things that are noteworthy. For example, we recently had BPRD’s James Harren do his first Judge Dredd story and we’ve got a couple of big artist announcements coming in the next few months which are quite exciting. I always do a baseline social media push for each edition of 2000 AD – teasing new stories or returning series, promoting striking covers – but quite often there’s something specific to push like new or returning talent.

The ‘gay Dredd’ campaign was a particular highlight. Not every fan was pleased with my tactics there, but the wall by my desk covered in national and international media clippings and the 30% hike in sales for that particular issue (with high retention and new subscriber rates) makes me feel somewhat justified. It was the same for the return of the Dark Judges as part of the Judge Dredd: Day of Chaos storyline – we ran a great teaser campaign with CBR and the sales graphs all blipped upwards and stayed there.

Alongside the digital explosion our print edition is benefiting from the higher profile – over the past six months, the 2000 AD iPad app has not only grown our number of subscribers overall but has also bolstered the number of print subscribers. We’ve got clear data showing that promotion has played a major part in that, so I’ve been very pleased with our work over the past year.

Steve: Similarly, the Trifecta story from Al Ewing, Si Spurrier and Rob Williams got a lot of critical acclaim. Can you plan for that sort of buzz ahead of a story being released? Ahead of the issue being released, do you try to arrange for more people to get hold of review copies? How do you manage a story which you think is going to be critically acclaimed, by fans and by reviewers?

Mike: We decided very early on with Trifecta that we wouldn’t spoil the surprise, but that once it was out in the open it was all hands to the pumps – Al, Si, and Rob played along brilliantly and once it was out there we really pushed hard on the reaction from readers and from those reviewers who picked up on what was happening. The issues of Trifecta have been some of our biggest digital sellers as people hear the hype then go back and pick up the relevant issues.

Building word of mouth isn’t much use when it’s for a single weekly issue because by the time people have heard about it it’s already time for the next issue, but when you have an exciting ongoing storyline then you can really help spread the word. We do weekly press previews to bloggers and journalists; getting those all-important reviews means getting copies in the right people’s hands, something that I think we’re much better at doing now than we ever have been.

Steve: Are there any techniques which always help drive attention to a comic? Valiant’s successful relaunch, for example, seemed to have a lot to do with the way they publicised themselves ahead of the first comic release.

Mike: On a very basic level you can’t go wrong with new artwork, the return of popular characters, and intriguing teasers. Nothing’s better for getting social media buzz going than a juicy piece of art or a surprise announcement that your favourite character is coming back. The biggest attention-grabbers are when you change the game a little bit or find a niche no-one knew was there.

Steve: What do you think about the current state of American comics, in terms of marketing? Marvel and DC seem to have become a lot more ‘stunt’ orientated over the last few months. Every other day sees about fifty teaser images get released.

Mike: In an insanely competitive marketplace, it’s small wonder that the big two have to shout louder and louder about their books. I like what DC is doing with its ‘DC family’ blog and the campaigns on titles such as Journey into Mystery, Young Avengers and Spider-Man that Marvel has been running have been spot on (and I was blown away by the skill of their digital announcements at SXSW recently), while Image has completely reinvented itself over the last two years into something a lot closer to the feel and ethos of 2000 AD than I think any of us realise!

I often get asked why we promote 2000 AD the way that we do and why we don’t just let “word of mouth” do our work for us. 2000 AD has been on a hell of a run for the past decade and the word of mouth was very positive, yet we weren’t significantly building our readership. Two years of strong marketing and new distribution and we’re adding readers. It’s not rocket science.

Steve: 2000AD must be an interesting magazine to work on, because it’s a weekly anthology series. How do you focus your PR for each issue? Do you focus on creators, or characters – or the magazine as a whole, single product?

Mike: All of the above! And yes, it’s a constantly fascinating, evolving comic to work on. We have a brilliant stable of artists and writers who’ve really knocked it out of the park over the last 18 months, plus a tiny editorial team who are just as enthusiastic and passionate about 2000 AD as any reader. It can be challenging at times because many non-readers have an idea of it that’s 20 years out of date; all those great strips and creators are fantastic and amazing, but the past ten years of 2000 AD have been universally praised amongst fans as a second golden age and that’s pretty bloody exciting.

Steve: We’ve seen 2000AD building up a reputation overseas (which in this case means America) over the last year or so. How do you approach publicising the magazine abroad? Again, do you find you have to tailor the material you offer overseas readers?

Mike: It’s been a particular aim of mine to make us as much of a part of the comics mainstream in America as any other publisher and I believe we’re starting to get some traction there. I’d like to offer more previews of material to news sites, though it can be a struggle to make people understand that carrying 2000 AD news can bring in readers. We have a great relationship with sites like CBR and Comics Alliance, and some real advocates of our comics in people like Doug Wolk, Karl Keily, and Tucker Stone. We bring out one or two collections specifically for North America every month so it’s a case of publicising them as normal while bearing in mind that American and Canadian audiences may not be as au fait with the language and culture of British comics.

Steve: Do you think digital has evened the playing field a little, now everybody has access to comics from home?

Mike: Completely. For reasons unfortunately beyond our control many comic book readers in North America can’t get hold of 2000 AD as easily as we would like, so being able to beam each ‘Prog’ directly into their hands is a massive bonus. We have a reputation as a British comics powerhouse, so we just have to make sure people are intrigued enough to give 2000 AD a go.

Steve: What would you say is the key to working PR in the comics industry, in the current climate?

Mike: Good material to work with, constant attention to social media and a thick skin (I admit mine could be somewhat thicker).

Steve: What would you like to see more of from comic companies in 2013, in terms of PR, co-ordination, and marketing?

Mike: A bit more innovation, but then that’s easy for me to say and very hard to suggest ways in which you could do it. While marketing is important, it should never drive creative choices but I would like to see marketing that pointedly pushes out into other demographics and stresses aspects of comics beyond the obvious – the industry has a lot of work to do to convince people it’s not all spandex and T&A for teenage and not-so-teenage boys. But it must always be about working with the creative teams, who are the ones delivering the material in the first place.

Many thanks to Mike for his time. Big interview! Repay him by following him on Twitter. If you’d rather see a Tharg-approved twitter feed, however, then you can follow 2000AD too. And if that still isn’t enough Tharg endorsement, head over to 2000AD online.

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Every so often Tharg gets on the blower and gives me a ring, to tell me about new things coming up at 2000AD, the comics magazine he edits. And today he had something rather exciting to show me – this teaser image from Greg Staples, showing Judge Dredd villain Judge Death…

Judge Death is probably the most famous villain in 2000AD’s history, having first been created by John Wagner and Brian Bolland. 2000AD have previously revealed that Wagner will be returning to the world of Judge Dredd – and Judge Death in particular – this year, and it looks like the time has almost arrived! Quake! Fear!

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Last Wednesday’s issue of 2000AD was special not just because I don’t think any serialised comic has ever had an issue one thousand, eight hundred and twenty-one before, but also because it’s the 36th anniversary for the prog. To celebrate, the issue features some Judge Dredd, a little Strontium Dog, and a new Brian Bolland cover what looks like this:

With 2000AD now available digitally, more Yanks are able to read it than before – but if you haven’t had a chance to try it yet, I’ll give you a brief explanation of what it’s about. 2000AD is a weekly anthology magazine, which features roughly 4-5 different stories, all of which are around 5-6 pages long at a time. As such, each story is completed over the course of perhaps a month or two, with the more successful strips – Judge Dredd, mainly – then continuing on for the next story immediately afterwards. It’s focused on sci-fi and action, with an emphasis on futuristic dystopias and things getting blown up.

The Bolland cover is one of only two concessions this issue makes to the 36th anniversary for the magazine, with the issue being business as usual. Judge Dredd is the first story – here telling a prologue story setting up what seems to be the next big storyline starting next week – followed by four other strips all midway through their respective stories.

The second concession is a celebratory letters page (what better way to celebrate?) at the end of the prog, which actually tends to be one of my favourite parts of any given issue. 2000AD is edited by an alien called Tharg, who speaks in neologisms and likes to threaten and celebrate the readers simultaneously. It’s, erm… you get used to it.

Of the stories contained in this issue –

Pat Mills and Patrick Goddard’s ‘Savage’ is currently at part 8 of the ongoing storyline, although it seems quite easy to pick up – future dystopia, resistance fighters trying to hit back at the Government, and so on. The most distinguishing part of this story is actually Goddard’s art, which keeps moving from influence to influence in my eyes, whilst remaining something of his own. At times you can see what appears to be aspects of Brian Bolland and Howard Chaykin, mixed with a bit of John Cassaday too. It’s a thoroughly expressive style, and Mills has caught onto it nicely, setting up some character moments for Goddard to excel at.

Ian Edgington and Simon Davis are the artistic team for Ampney Crucis Investigates. Again, I think I can fill out the basic gist of the story, even though we’re currently at part ten. And again, the art somewhat overshadows the story, with Davis offering a surprisingly vivid colouring of his own work which creates a tripped-out vibe to the story, making it feel dreamlike and almost etherial. This is a big fight scene, and the colouring helps push the reader along despite a few moments where the storytelling itself is a little obtuse and hard to follow along.

More confusing is Edginton’s second story in the issue, The Red Seas, with artist Steve Yeowell. This story is also ten parts into the story – and it makes no attempt to hide that. I was rather locked out of this strip, with a storyline which doesn’t explain the circumstances the characters are in, or differenciate the leads. Yeowell’s art is nice, but doesn’t help the reader follow the story – there’s a moment where a rescuer suddenly appears to help the heroes, but Yeowell puts the character in the background, without any distinctive detail on their face to make them recognisable. There are also a few issues with perspective, as far as I can tell. It’s sketchy, and probably best left to people who have read the previous nine parts.

Strontium Dog closes out the issue, a long-running 2000AD character written by John Wagner and drawn by Carlos Ezquerra. Much like in Ampney Crucis, this is a fight issue, with the main character in the middle of some kind of mutant vs humans war. This is classically Wagner in tone and style, with some fun jokes mixed in with a strong sci-fi lean. Lots of violence and warfare, some stirring speeches, and a very quick read indeed. It’s a fun final strip, although it does fly by very quickly.

And finally, a word on Judge Dredd, who opens the issue. This story serves as a prelude to whatever might be coming up over the next few months, and writer Michael Carroll does a good job in setting up something interesting. The impact of the story is due to a very strong last page, which delivers a really interesting cliffhanger for next week’s issue, but Carroll also manages to evoke the style of Judge Dredd whilst throwing in some of his own jokes and ideas. It’s a nice opening piece, drawn entertainly by Andrew Currie, with colours by Chris Blythe.

Annie Parkhouse and Ellie De Ville have been in charge of lettering 2000AD for a long time now, and they both have an excellent grasp on each story, serving the narrative whilst allowing the art to show off the characters and stories. They’re the unsung heroes of 2000AD, so I just wanted to, y’know, sing about them a bit.

2000AD issue 1821 is business as usual for the prog – an entertaining mix of stories and art styles, with a string of high concept ideas and great gags. It’s also amazing how easily most of the stories allow a reader to jump in fresh, without being too confused by what’s going on. I’ve been jumping on at random points for a few months now, to see what’s going on, and every time I find myself enjoying the majority of the stories, no matter where their narrative is or what I’ve missed out on prior. Really, that seems to be the success of 2000AD – after 1821 issues, it’s still offering something for everyone.

 

Steve Morris is… trying out one of these things where you self-promote yourself after an article you wrote. I have a webcomic! It’s called Stardark City. It’s lovely and I hope you might want to read it maybe sometime? You can also shout at me on Twitter, @stevewmorris. 

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By Steve Morris

An SDCC announcement which mainly seems to have been announced on CBR and not as SDCC, IDW have revealed that their much-teased new Judge Dredd series will be written by Duane Swierczynski! Which, perfect casting surely. Art will be provided by Nelson Daniel, and the first issue is out in November.

What will the series be like? Given Swierczynski’s past novels, and his run on Cable, it’ll be rather gritty. In the CBR interview posted now before anybody had a chance to mention it at the con, he says

I’d like IDW’s Dredd to feel like a transgressive sci-fi black comedy police procedural — like ‘Law & Order,’ if, say, Jerry Orbach were a violent inflexible fascist

Swierczynski and Daniel’s series will be set in the past, looking back at some of the Judge’s earliest perp-shooting jollies, with back-ups for each issue drawn by people like Jim Starlin. It will be violent! And angry. And the helmet doesn’t look like it’s coming off anytime soon. No sign of Rob Schneider yet.

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It’s 2000AD 35th birthday—which seems kind of young, as its brand is so ubiquitous in UK comics—and they will be releasing a bunch of GNs this year including some Dredd-ful stuff by Grant Morrison, Mark Millar, John Wagner and Pat Mills with art by Brian Bolland, Chris Weston, Steve Dillon and  Dave Gibbons. For those who like things a little less Tharg, there’s a new edition of LEVIATHAN, a fine riff on the titanic story by Ian Edginton and D’Isreali.

This month, the Celtic barbarian Sláine returns with the first volume in one of the most breathtaking fantasy series ever. Sláine: Book of Invasions 1 (ISBN: 9781907992681 US $19.99/Canada $22.99) sees Pat Mills’ axe-wielding hero begin an epic quest, with 122 pages of visceral work from award-winning artist Clint Langley. Once the first High King of Ireland, Sláine must protect his tribe against a new tide of evil. In the astonishing and fresh follow-up to the critically-acclaimed Sláine: The Horned God, Langley’s full color hyper-real art will blow you away!

In April, on the 100th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic, a very different voyage sets sail. Leviathan (ISBN: 9781907992698 US $16.99/Canada $19.99) is a gargantuan steampunk murder mystery from the partnerhsip behind Scarlet Traces – Ian Edington (Victorian Undead) and D’Israeli (SVK). It is 1928 and the world’s largest ocean-liner disappears on its maiden voyage to New York. It drifts for 20 years on a desolate limbo ocean, but when murders begin aboard ship, Detective Sergeant Lament must delve into the ship’s depths to discover the root of its mysteries. This is a stunning story by two massive talents and not to be missed.

One of the all-time classics in the 2000 AD pantheon, the first US collection of Rogue Trooper lands in May. Rogue Trooper: Tales of Nu Earth 01 (ISBN: 9781907992704 US $19.99/Canada $22.99) features 400 pages of future war action! Created by Gerry Finley-Day and Dave Gibbons (Watchmen), Rogue Trooper roams Nu-Earth, the last of the Genetic Infantrymen. On planet ravaged by war, its atmosphere poisoned by the endless war between the Norts and the Southers, Rogue searches for the general who betrayed his blue-skinned brethren at the Quartz Zone Massacre.

Another classic from Judge Dredd arrives in June. Judge Dredd: Complete Case Files 05 (ISBN: 978-1781080283 US $19.99/Canada $22.99) features three of the all-time greatest Dredd stories ever – Judge Death, Block War and The Apocalypse War! The fifth volume in this hit series, collecting together Dredd’s most exciting cases, features art by such comic legends as Brian Bolland (Batman: The Killing Joke), Carlos Ezquerra and Mike McMahon and written by John Wagner (A History of Violence) and Alan Grant (Lobo)!

Judges have the toughest job on the mean streets of Mega-City One, but they’re only human. So when

10 Comments on 2000AD’s Dredd-full graphic novels for 2012, last added: 3/8/2012

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Kid Kyoto said, on 3/7/2012 1:02:00 PM

Well Judge Dredd Case Files #5 is a must buy. Block Mania and the Apocalypse War are darn near perfect Dredd stories, they’re both over-the-top, turn-it-up-to-11 action but manage to ground themselves in real and sometimes tragic characters. Seriously, buy it.

I’ve heard good things about Rogue Trooper but never read it, so I may give it a try.

Anyone read Judge Dredd Inferno, Morrison and Millar would seem to make it an easy sell.

Todd Allen said, on 3/7/2012 1:22:00 PM

I’ve read a little bit of Rogue Trooper and liked it. Dave Gibbons are never hurts, either. If 400 pages isn’t the full original sequence, it’s got to be a good chunk of it.

Barney said, on 3/7/2012 3:51:00 PM

The cover for “Leviathan” looks a lot like the movie poster for Ghost Ship (2002). Also I can’t think of the name but I remember a horror novel that had a similar cover in the 90s.

Pantsless Pete said, on 3/7/2012 4:41:00 PM

Cry of the Werewolf is pretty awesome, as is Leviathan. But the Millar and Morrison Dredd was…not great. Not quite ‘Garth Ennis hasn’t worked out he can write about things other than Drink and Ireland yet’ bad but close.

Kid Kyoto said, on 3/8/2012 4:15:00 AM

@Pete, thanks. how is Morrison’s Crusade? I’m thinking of ordering but, I too once said ‘Garth Ennis on Dredd surely this must be awesome!’

Matthew Murray said, on 3/8/2012 5:25:00 AM

US $19.99/Canada $22.99

$19.99 US currently converts to $19.90 Canadian.

I don’t know why publishers continue to put prices on their books that are years out of date.

Pantsless Pete said, on 3/8/2012 6:24:00 AM

Morrison’s Crusade is arguably one of the worst Judge Dredd Stories ever published. It is from the mid to late 90’s when 2000ad was singuarly terrible.

Dave Elliott said, on 3/8/2012 6:25:00 AM

The Colin Wilson art of Rogue Trooper makes it a must have.

Dave Elliott said, on 3/8/2012 6:27:00 AM

@Barney

Say what you will about Leviathan’s cover, its the best designed cover of the bunch.

Kid Kyoto said, on 3/8/2012 6:55:00 PM

Is crusade worse than Judgement Day? Judgement Day is pretty much my floor for Dredd stories.

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