Happy Birthday, 2000AD! From former Tharg David Bishop

Artwork for 'The Visible Man', a strip
considered for the launch of 2000AD
View the comic's original dummy

Name: David Bishop

Blog: viciousimagery.blogspot.com

Currently working on: 

Writing for the BBC1 drama series Doctors. My next episode, Fragile Strength, is scheduled to be broadcast on Tuesday May 8th this year.

I lecture part-time on the Creative Writing MA at Edinburgh Napier University, where we offer a unique module in writing for graphic fiction. Guest speakers on the module last year included Andy Diggle, Emma Hayley from selfmadehero, Gordon Rennie, Colin MacNeil and Scott Montgomery from Commando.

First memory of 2000AD? 

The Visible Man - I was fascinated by the fact you could see his guts through see-through skin.

Favourite Character or Story?

1. Judge Dredd, especially when written by John Wagner or Wagner & Grant - satirical, heroic, cynical, brilliant.

2. Nikolai Dante, written by Robbie Morrison - this swashbuckling character's been on amazing 15-year odyssey, just sad it's ending soon.

3. Cradlegrave, written by John Smith - this deserves to be on Channel 4.

What do you like most about the 2000AD? 

The anthology format - even if you hate a story in a particular prog, there'll be something else you love in the same issue.

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

Innovation, new talent and boldness - as in the best periods of the past 35 years.

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

Shameless plug moment: all my best anecdotes - at least the ones I could mention without fear of prosecution or legal action - are in THRILL-POWER OVERLOAD, my book detailing the first 30 years of 2000AD.

• 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

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