We Made This

Comics Britannia

If you were a British teenager in the early 80's, and into comics, then you were almost certainly a fan of 2000AD. We still have fond memories of tearing down to the local newsagent on a Saturday morning to pick up the latest weekly issue. It cost 24p "in Earth money" back in 1985 - amazingly it's still going strong, though a copy will set you back £1.75 now.

BBC4 is currently running a great series all about the British comics industry, Comics Britannia. We missed the first episode, but caught the middle one (which is repeated on Wednesday 19 at 11.30pm), and are totally looking forward to the third and final one, which deals with 2000AD, Viz, and the growth of the graphic novel. You can catch it on Monday 24 at 10.30pm. There's also a season of related programmes to sink your teeth into.

Splundig vur thrigg!

(The frame above is from Prog 500 of 2000AD, which featured the debut of Bad Company, written by Pete Milligan, with artwork by Brett Ewins and Jim McCarthy.)

2000AD

Rooting around amongst our old comic collection (see the post below), we also stumbled on this copy of 2000AD, which was the British comic we (and how many other UK graphic designers?) grew up on more than any other. We can't quite believe it's twenty years old already, nor that the title is celebrating its thirtieth birthday this year.

This particular issue (or Prog) was their 500th, with a glossy cover for the first time - we think we can name all the characters except for the chap at bottom left (who hell he?): left to right on each row:
Judge Hershey, Torquemada and Ro Jaws, Dan Dare, Hammerstein (ABC Warriors), Judge Death, Ace Trucking, Slaine, Halo Jones, Rogue Trooper, Judge Anderson, Kano (Bad Company), Sooner or Later, Fink Angel, Tharg, D.R. and Quinch, ?, Mean Machine Angel, Nemesis, Judge Dredd, Johnny Alpha (Strontium Dog).

There were some really fantastic stories and artists in 2000AD, and Gorillaz artist (and Designer of the Year) Jamie Hewlett popped up in it for a while on a story called Hewligan's Haircut. Our favourites from way back then were Zenith, Devlin Waugh, Rogue Trooper and Bad Company.

Oh, and this place has a good collection of original art from the comic.

Spiderman and The Silver Surfer

High o'er the roof of the world he soars... free and unfettered as the roaring wind itself! Behold the sky-born spanner of a trillion galaxies... the restless, streaking stranger from the farthest reaches of space... this glistening, gleaming seeker of truth, whom man shall call forevermore.. The Silver Surfer!

This summer there are two more blockbuster Marvel Comics adaptations hitting the multiplexes, with Fantastic Four: The Rise of the Silver Surfer and Spiderman 3 both looking likely to pull in the popcorn munchers in their millions.

This sent us foraging in our bookshelves to find the really good stuff, the comics the characters are based on. Both of these are English versions of the US originals, dating from 1975 for the Surfer, and 1973 for Spiderman.

A few things really struck us.

First, those typefaces. They're fantastic. Check 'em out here.

Secondly, in the Spiderman comic, they have a running header at the top of each page, summing up the action. No idea what that's all about - was there ever a reader so time pushed that he thought "I know, I'll just read the headers to get a rough idea of what goes on this issue"? But they're still corking: FROM SPACE IT CAME! SPIDEY ON THE PROWL! and GWEN IS UPSET!

Thirdly, the Silver Surfer is the coolest. An immensely powerful totally silver cosmic being who grooves round the galaxy on a surf board, and yet remains totally angst-ridden about his place in the world. (Check out Jim McBride's under-rated remake of A Bout de Souffle, Breathless, for more Silver Surfer appreciation.)

We'll hold judgement on the movies; they're both franchise sequels, and the previous films of each were fairly patchy; but, Spiderman's new costume looks kinda cool, and the special FX for the surfer do look great.

If you're looking for some better comic book adaptations though, check out Sin City, Hellboy, Constantine, and possibly the upcoming 300.

'Nuff said.