2000 AD

This weekly British science fiction-oriented comic was first published by IPC Magazines in February 1977.

IPC owned the rights to Dan Dare and decided to revive the character – formerly the cover star of Eagle comic – to add immediate public recognition for the new comic.

Judge Dredd quickly became the comic’s most popular and famous strip when it appeared in the ninth issue (or “prog” as the issues were called).

In 1977 2000 AD launched the annual 48-page Summer Special, including a full-length M.A.C.H. Zero story. The yearly hardcover annual also started in 1977 and would continue until 1990.

2000 AD merged with Starlord, another IPC science fiction comic, in 1978. Another cancelled title, Tornado, was merged with 2000 AD a few months later, contributing three stories.

In 1987 IPC’s comics division was sold to publishing magnate Robert Maxwell as Fleetway. 2000 AD was revamped, with a larger page size and full process colour on the covers and centre pages. In 1989 the colour pages were increased again, allowing for three colour stories and two black and white in every issue.

The publisher has been owned by Rebellion Developments since 2000.

Other strips have included:

• ABC Warriors
• Ace Trucking Co
• Armoured Gideon
• Bad Company
• The Ballad of Halo Jones
• Big Dave
• Blackhawk – a historical adventure series about a Nubian slave in the Roman Empire who became a gladiator in an alien world
• B.L.A.I.R 1
• Button Man
• Captain Klep – a single-page superhero parody
• Dan Dare
• Dash Decent – a Flash Gordon parody
• The Dead Man
• Disaster 1990 – a prequel to ‘Flesh’ in which a nuclear explosion at the north pole had melted the polar ice-cap and flooded Britain
• D.R. and Quinch
• Fiends of the Eastern Front – a World War II vampire story
• Flesh – time-travelling cowboys farming dinosaurs for their meat
• Friday
• Harlem Heroes – the future sport of aeroball – a violent futuristic version of basketball played with jet-packs
• Hewligan’s Haircut
• Invasion! – about a “Volgan” invasion of the United Kingdom opposed by tough London lorry driver turned guerrilla fighter Bill Savage
• Judge Anderson
• Judge Dredd
• Kelly’s Eye
• M.A.C.H 1 – a super-powered secret agent inspired by The Six Million Dollar Man
• M.A.C.H Zero – a sequel to M.A.C.H 1
• Maniac 5
• Mean Arena – a violent high-tech street football game
• Meltdown Man – whose hero was transported to a genetically engineered far future by a nuclear explosion
• The Mind of Wolfie Smith – a coming of age/psychic story of a runaway teenager
• Nemesis the Warlock
• Nikolai Dante
• Really & Truly
• Robo-Hunter – private detective Sam Slade specialised in robot-related cases
• Ro-Busters – a robot disaster squad (transferred from Starlord)
• Rogue Trooper
• Shako – the story of a polar bear pursued by the Army because it had swallowed a secret capsule
• Sinister Dexter
• Skizz
• Sláine – a barbarian fantasy strip based on Celtic mythology
• Slaughterbowl
• Strontium Dog – a mutant bounty hunter (transferred from Starlord)
• The VCs – a future war story inspired by the Vietnam War
• The Visible Man – detailing the misfortunes of Frank Hart, a man whose skin had been made transparent due to exposure to nuclear waste
• Zenith