Friday, January 1, 2016

Galactic Greetings to All New Readers!

Boragg thung, Hi there and Howdy, y'all! Welcome to "Thrillpowered Thursday," a blog where I talk about the world of 2000 AD, the Galaxy's Greatest Comic. It's the home of Judge Dredd, D.R. & Quinch, Bill Savage, Strontium Dog, and Zombo, a weekly anthology comic that has featured work by the medium's very best talents, including Pat Mills, John Wagner, Grant Morrison, Alan Moore, Si Spurrier, Brian Bolland, Dave Gibbons, Henry Flint, Cam Kennedy, and Carlos Ezquerra.

For darn near 35 years, 2000 AD has been providing shot glasses of rocket fuel, future shocks and the gut-punch of the new, using compressed storytelling, high comedy and spectacular melodrama to give readers the most satisfying experience in the medium. It's a training ground for comics' best talent, where industry veterans routinely turn out the best work of their careers, usually one page over from the explosion of new talent that, happily, never seems to dry up. In its fourth decade, 2000 AD continues to be the place where comics' future stars are discovered. Today, while the veterans blow our minds with ongoing classics, great new stories are being developed by the likes of Alec Worley, Al Ewing, T.C. Eglington, Lee Carter, Tiernan Trevallion, and Jon Davis-Hunt.

The format of Thrillpowered Thursday is a simple one: I've been rereading my collection of 2000 AD and its sister comic, Judge Dredd Megazine, and in each entry, I look at what was going on in the title at about the rate of one month at a time. There's gossip, positivity, analysis, thrillpowered artwork - and that's the property of the publisher, Rebellion, y'all - and you can believe the hype when I tell you that what I've just reread is brilliant stuff. Rebellion also has the best reprint program of any publisher in the European or American markets for its properties, and, starting with the 138th entries, I've linked to the collected editions where you can buy these scrotnig stories.

Don't delay, fellow Earthlets... if you're an American who has put off exploring the world of 2000 AD because of perceived difficulties obtaining it, it has never been easier to hop on board. With digital editions of the comics as they are released and an incredibly reader-friendly reprint line, many of which are dispatched by the American co-publisher Simon & Schuster direct to your nearest bookstore or thrill-merchant, you're just clicks away from trying out a clearly superior comic reading experience. Throw off your shackles of American superhero trademark boredom and get some thrillpower in your life, friends!!

It's also where I use every available opportunity to persuade 2000 AD's alien editorial organs to do the right thing and bring back the lovely and wonderful Samantha Slade, the most gorgeous and promising character in comics, cruelly missing in action since 2008 or so. Darn it, we miss you, Sam. Bring her back in 2012, Thargy-baby! Credo!