Celebrating 30 years of Slaine in 2000AD Prog 1848

I am rapidly eating in to my 2000AD backlog and it is now down to 4 issues from 16. That's a real benefit from not having to work away from home for several days each week which I have had to do for the last two years.

The Slaine story is based on Celtic myth and features all sorts of gods and monsters, as well as a troublesome dwarf and an axe called Brainbiter.

I started reading 2000AD with Prog 86 (October '78), when it merged with Star Lord, and I remember when Slaine first appeared in Prog 330 (August '83). The stories have never been complex but they have had a cute mix of myth, gore and humour.

The Slaine celebration was a series of four single-issue stories all written by creator Pat Mills with each drawn by one of Slaine's major artists, these were Mike McMahon, Glenn Fabry, Simon Bisley and Clint Langley. I like all of them but have a special fondness for McMahon so it is his cover of Prog 1848 that I have chosen.
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The Last American by Mike McMahon (and others)

Wikipedia informs us that "The Last American is a four-issue comic book mini-series released by Marvel's Epic imprint in 1990. It was written by John Wagner and Alan Grant with art by Mike McMahon." Which is true, but there is more to it than that for me.

I came across the art of Mike McMahon in 2000AD where he was the artist that made A.B.C. Warriors my favourite story. John Wagner and Alan Grant were there too on stories like Judge Dredd.

The transfer of British talent to American comics has always been erratic and I was delighted when Marvel gave some of 2000AD's greats a chance. The reaction to The Last American suggests that this was a chance that they did not take but I blame the other readers as I loved the book.

I bought it in its four parts when it first came out and it is now safely filed away in my study and I am sure that I could find it within a day or two of looking.

Then David Gibbons, another 2000AD hero, tweeted that the collected edition was available digitally for a measly £2.99. In a few minutes it was purchased and nicely ensconced on my iPad.

The opportunity to read it came just a couple of days later on the train ride back to Richmond from Newport. I loved it again.

The art work is why I bought and lived it the first time and that was true again twenty two years later. McMahon's style is angular and brutal, and that's a compliment. It is easy to say, and see, that this suits machinery very well but I love his figures and landscapes just as much.

The page construction is dramatic too. The panels are traditional boxes, this was 1990 after all, and the drama comes from the different perspective in each panel. In this typical page we have a mix of close-ups (from different angles) and two middle-range shots one looking down and the other looking up.

It is serial storytelling that forces you to stop and look at every picture and rewards you for doing so. This is why I read comics.

2000AD, home to Judge Dredd for thirty years

I started reading 2000AD when I was at university some thirty years ago and read it for many years before the pressure to find time to read it and space to store it got to me and I reluctantly stopped.

But I always felt that I was missing out on something and was unhappy that I was only reading American comics (even though there are many British contributors to them).

So last year I started reading it again, and I am very glad that I did.




British comics are very different to their more glamorous American cousins; they are (usually) issued weekly rather than monthly, they don't rely a lot on stories about costumed superheroes and there are many references to England's past, e.g. the times of King Arthur or Queen Victoria. 2000AD follows these traditions; it is weekly (though there is a larger monthly companion called the Judge Dredd Megazine), it has no costumed superheroes and current stories are set in places that mimic Edwardian and WWII England.

Judge Dredd is, of course, still the star of the show. New fans can catch up with Dredd's thirty years history by reading the reprints in Judge Dredd: Complete Case Files, which currently comprises ten volumes. The picture I chose to illustrate this piece is the cover for volume 3 which I selected because it was drawn by Mike (or Mick) McMahon, my favourite 2000AD artist.

Pick up a copy of 2000AD next time you are in a newsagents and give it a try; Judge Dredd, Strontium Dog, Bill Savage and Nikolai Dante are waiting to entertain you.