My Nerdy Life in 100 Geeky Objects #3 - 2000AD Summer Special

#3 - 2000AD Summer Special Supercomic 1977

We’ve already established that I’ve always been a nerd. My mother had me watching James Bond movies on TV, and introduced me to Doctor Who because she liked Jon Pertwee, and my dad had been buying me a weekly comic, which (up until this point) had been either Look-In - due to my obsession with cool stuff on TV - or the aforementioned Super Spider-man and the Titans (see previous post).

I was watching all of the genre TV I could, The New Avengers, Fantastic Journey, Space 1999, I, and The Six-Million Dollar Man. Heck, that series… there was a time we were all running around the school playground pretending to be in slow motion making that ‘dunnunnunnunnunn’ noise. When word went around the school of a new comic in the newsagents that had these stickers that made it look like you had bionic implants, it became the ‘in thing’ and I had to check it out. 

Front cover of 2000AD Issue 2, March 1977

I had a little pocket money every week (I think it was something like 10p or 50p, which was plenty in those days) as long as I did some chores like washing up, so I headed to the big newsagents in town and managed to get a copy of 2000AD, issue 2. It was cool! Of course, the stickers went on my arm, and pulled a load of armhair out when pulled off, and the weird eye sticker that was supposed to go on your forehead like a ‘third eye’ obviously looked better if you stuck it over your own eye… (sticky… and not a great idea, kid). 

Inside were stories of dinosaur hunters, cool air-sport teams of the future, and my favourite - a powered secret agent in the form of MACH-1. It was all great, and it introduced 2000AD’s most iconic character, Judge Dredd. I asked my dad if we could put 2000AD on a standing order at the newsagents (which, of course meant that I had to drop my subscription to Super Spider-man and the Titans). Every Saturday morning, with the morning paper, 2000AD would drop through the letterbox.

We’re all going on a Summer Special holiday

In a clever bit of planning, 2000AD launched their ‘summer specials’ - perfectly designed to give kids something to read over the summer break from school, or to shut them up when they’re on a long journey. I don’t remember which holiday it was we were going on in 1977 - my parents loved going to Scotland and my grandmother usually came with us, so it was probably a trip there. I have a strange memory of my dad gesturing to the comics in the newsagents telling me to pick out something to read for the holiday, and seeing the familiar 2000AD logo, I leapt at the first ever 2000AD Summer Special. Or, ‘Summer Special Supercomic’ as it was called. 

Front cover of the 2000AD Summer Special Supercomic - 1977

I mean, look at that cover. Amazing, and weird! Kinda mesmerising and engaging. It was great, full of new strips of my favourite stories, but there was a double-page spread that really stood out and stuck in my mind. A spread for a little known new movie that would be hitting our shores in the UK soon called Star Wars…

Spread from the 2000AD Summer Special and my first introduction to Star Wars

Droids! Stormtroopers! A mis-credited Han Solo! It was amazing, and I was instantly intrigued. It was just the start of a fandom that would dominate my thoughts for years. But it wouldn’t be until a little later that my obsession really kicked off. That’s for next time…

[Roll Your Own Life] The Comics That Shaped Me (Part 2)

2000AD (1977-present)

I read the odd other comic while I was a kid, things like Bullet, Whizzer & Chips, but they were just the odd one here and there when I had a little spare pocket money. Super Spider-Man was my subscription of choice until I picked up issue 2 of 2000AD. I completely missed the first issue, but I was a bit of a fan of the Six Million Dollar Man on TV, and there were these free sticker that you put on yourself to make you look bionic - sorry, "Biotronic" for copyright reasons.

Of course, issue 2 was a bit of a landmark in British comics, as it featured the first appearance of Judge Dredd. I'm sorry to say that a couple of the strips did nothing for me at the time - I wasn't much of a fan of Dan Dare, and the Invasion strip wasn't "sci-fi" enough for me, but I enjoyed Dredd, loved Harlem Heroes and their cool jetpacks, and especially M.A.C.H.1 - the bionic man rip-off.

It was cool and became my regular read replacing Spider-Man (sorry Spidey) for many years.

When Starlord came along as well, I was definitely in my element. I don't think my folks were too unhappy with getting two titles a week instead of one for me, as I was reading at least, but that didn't last long anyway - Starlord only lasted twenty-odd issues before it was merged with 2000AD, bringing with it most of the strips I enjoyed. Ro-Busters was one I really enjoyed, but I seem to remember really liking Timequake as well.

Harlem Heroes became Inferno - a more violent version of the game inspired by Rollerball, and Sam Slade Robo-Hunter started up. But I have really strong memories of some of the 2000AD strips.

The Cursed Earth saga, the Judge Child, and Judge Cal, were all brilliant. I remember the Cursed Earth storyline of Judge Dredd having some marketing tie-in with Matchbox as they produced vehicles for their Adventure 2000 range that became the Killdozer and Landraider in the strip (or vice-versa). I'm sure I've still got my Killdozer somewhere...

The A.B.C. Warriors spinoff from Ro-Busters was a favourite as well, and I think everyone loved Joe Pineapples. And I have a very fond memory of Ace Trucking Co. and their bizarre space-trucking jargon, and the Ballad of Halo Jones.

But my interest was waning, and I kinda gave up on 2000AD, and comics in general for a while, in the mid 80's, selling my collection to Milo from my D&D group (who still has them now as far as I know).

One thing I do particularly remember from my years of reading 2000AD was the Summer Special from 1977. It was a collection of new slightly longer stories if I remember correctly, but something really stood out in that issue.

A double page spread about an upcoming movie called Star Wars. I had no idea what it was but it looked cool. I managed to find someone has written a whole chunk on Star Wars' appearances in 2000AD, including that double page spread, and it's well worth a read. Check it out here.

Which nicely brings me to tomorrow's post...

Stay tuned, stay safe!