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Wednesday 8 February 2012

Happy Birthday, 2000AD! from art droid Chris Denton

The final episode of Portrait of a
Politician starring Dave the Orangutan
Mayor, ran in Prog 368
Name: Chris Denton

Blog or web site: http://massacreforboys.blogspot.com

Currently working on:

The Massacre For Boys Action Special, launching at Bristol Expo in May. It features old school British comics action from top indy creators including Steven Denton (my brother), David Frankum, Bolt-01, Richmond Clements, Nikki Foxrobot, Owen Watts, Dee Cunniffe. I've written some of it.

First memory of 2000AD?

It was Portrait of a Politician (Progs 366 - 368), a Judge Dredd story about Dave the Orangutuan Mayor of Mega City One, which I must have picked up due to an eye-catching cover. As a child in the 1980s I was already a commited reader of Eagle, and yet I initially found 2000AD a bit too dark and twisted for my liking. The very same qualities that drew me back to it a few years later when my friend Alex lent me his Titan edition of D.R. & Quinch.

Favourite Character or Story?

Zenith was extraordinary. It started more or less as I was first buying the progs, and it totally blew me away. That first episode with Maximan vs Masterman duking it out in 1940s Berlin has burned itself into my subconscious. You can't imagine the frustration when, a few years later, Phase III was interrupted for a few weeks mid-run!

A close second favourite is Killing Time, still, in my view, the perfect graphic novella.

What do you like most about the 2000AD

The eclectic mix of strips and the sheer array of talent that has worked on it over the years.

What would you most like to see in 2000AD as it heads to its Forties?:

Keep doing what you're doing, but with more Rogue Trooper. Much more Rogue Trooper.

If you worked on 2000AD, do you have an anecdote you'd like to share about your experience of Tharg and his minions?

My brother and I had a strip published in the Megazine small press section, a few years back. We were extremely grateful to Tharg for giving us the opportunity and, more generally, for showcasing so much developing talent in that slot (Ian Culbard of Mountains of Madness fame was a fellow beneficiary). We were also grateful for the small pile of complimentary graphic novels dispatched from the Nerve Centre to mark the occasion!

More recently, I wrote the script for Zenith/Invasion, a strip in the 2000AD fanzine Zarjaz! -  it's really fantastic that Rebellion encourage the fans to produce their own comics and it was highly satisfying to pay tribute to two of the great British comic series in this way.

• Check out Zarjaz! via http://thequaequamblog.blogspot.com

• This post is one in a series of tributes to 2000AD to mark its 35th birthday on 26th February 2012. More about 2000AD at www.2000adonline.com

2000AD © Rebellion

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