2000 AD

Note: This is an article about the British comic book "2000 AD", rather than the year 2000

2000 AD is a weekly British science fiction oriented comic.

The publication, which serialises a number of separate stories each "prog" (short for programme — a term used by the comic in place of "edition") was established by Fleetway Publishing (later IPC) in 1977. Fleetway/IPC continued to produce the title until 1999, when it was bought by Rebellion Developments.

It has been a successful launchpad for getting United Kingdom talent into the larger American comics market, and has also been the source of a number of film licences.

The editor of 2000 AD is Tharg the Mighty, a green alien who terms his readers "Earthlets". Tharg uses other unique alien expressions and even appears in his own comic strips. Readers sometimes play along with this: for example, in Prog 200 a pair of readers wrote to Tharg claiming that they preferred to be called "Terrans"; the resulting controversy ended in Tharg's accepting a challenge for a duel at a galactic location.

A second running theme, or joke, is Tharg's supposed use of robots to draw and write the strips — some of which may bear a marked resemblance to actual writers and artists. A fictional reason for Tharg to use mechanical assistance was given when the robots "went on strike" (reflecting real-life industrial action that occasionally halted IPC's comics production during the 1970s and 1980s). Tharg wrote and drew a whole issue himself, but when he ran it through the quality-control "Thrill-meter", the device melted down on extreme overload. The offending issue had to be taken away, by blindfolded security guards, to a lead-lined vault where there was no danger of anyone seeing it accidentally.

See: British comics

Popular Characters

Popular characters from the comic include:

• Judge Dredd
• Halo Jones
• Strontium Dog
• ABC Warriors
• Slaine
• Rogue Trooper
• Dan Dare
• Caballistics, Inc.
• Sinister Dexter
• Nemesis.

Famous Creators

Well known creators who have worked for 2000 AD include:

• John Wagner
• Alan Moore
• Garth Ennis
• Brian Bolland
• Jock
• Kevin Walker
• Pat Mills
• Mike McMahon
• Dave Gibbons
• Grant Morrison
• Peter Milligan
• Gordon Rennie
• Kevin O'Neill
• Simon Bisley
• Dan Abnett

Many of these have since moved on to work for American publishers such as DC Comics (especially the Vertigo and Wildstorm imprints) and Marvel Comics.

Sister Publications

Sister publications to 2000 AD include the monthly