Thrill-Power

Is it possible to overdose on Thrill-power? I've had a bad cold the last few days, so have been sat in absolutely hammering the 2000ads. Some incredible work in those early days. Favourites so far include-

Flesh, the story of how in the future there is a shortage of meat so a time machine is used to go back to prehistoric ages and harvest dinosaur meat! An obvious answer surely? Except they concentrate on herbivores, so the carnivores go apeshit with hunger and attack the base! And to top it off the base happens to be built over a nest of giant spiders. Who also attack them! Good stuff, just the sort of over the top violence kids love.

The ABC Warriors, a team of robots assembled to take on jobs too risky for humans.

Strontium Dog, the mutant bounty hunter Johnny Alpha and his mate Wulf Sternhammer. The first story was pretty mental, involving him going to Hell. It turns out it's a 'fake' Hell created by the mind of another mutant, but still scary enough to keep a ten year old scared shitless for a few nights.

And of course the Judge Dredd stories have been pretty great on the whole. I've read some of them in collected form at some point, but it's nice to read them chronologically and complete. Highlights have been The Judge Child, where Dredd and co. set off to find a prophetic child who can foresee the doom of Megacity One, and the stories introducing Judge Anderson, Judge Death and the Dark Judges, with some stunning artwork by Brian Bolland.



It looks like I'm just about to start on the Apocalypse Wars stories now. I'm not even halfway through the pile yet!

2000AD

I joined Freecycle a while ago, mainly because now and then an oddity crops up that I never really wanted before, but as soon as I'm aware of it's existence I need it. This was true in the case of a stuffed (toy) penguin becoming available, just as the show I was working on needed a creature building that was half-lion, half-penguin. Sadly, the person who put an oscilloscope up for grabs never got back to me. Must have been a lot of people after one of those. Anyway, skimming through the emails I see someone has a full set of 2000AD from 1 -556 only missing 3 issues! I'm quick off the draw, and next morning I'm lucky enough to be the chosen one! The guy only lives down the road, so although I have no transport I get my rucksack and a couple of Ikea bags and pick up the haul. And what a haul! Also about a dozen 2000AD and Dredd annuals. Issue 1 is in pretty good shape (considering those earlier issues appear to have been printed on bog roll), it's got tape down the spine to keep it in one piece, but it's complete. I already have #2 (First Dredd) so keep the nicer copy. The owner cut a few pin-ups from the backs of some of them (he was a kid to be fair), but who cares? These comics aren't worth a particularly huge amount financially, but entertainment-wise they're priceless! There's work from Brian Bolland, Dave Gibbons, Kev 'O Neill, so much early work from many other big names. So for the next few weeks I will be subsisting on a steady diet of Zarjaz Thrill-power.

Some of the haul!