Flesh chomps back into 2000AD

Time-travelling cowboys and murderous lizards are rampaging back into the pages of 2000AD, as Flesh returns again.

One of the all-time classic strips from early 2000AD, Flesh made a thrilling, blood-splattering return to the weekly British anthology title last year after a hiatus of more than 30 years.

Created by Pat Mills (Marshal Law, Sláine: The Horned God) and Spanish artist Boix, Flesh: Midnight Cowboys follows on from the first series, with black and white artwork from series regular James McKay.

Last year’s Flesh: Texas was the long-awaited sequel to the much-loved original Flesh – part of the line-up in the very first issue of 2000AD in 1977.

The new series debuted this week in Prog 1774, on sale in the UK now, is on sale online on 21st March, and in North America from 28th March.

Flesh: Midnight Cowboys premiered with a riotous wraparound cover by 2000AD legend Mark Harrison.

Happy Birthday, 2000AD! From script droid Paul Cornell

IGN describes this scene from Flesh (one of Paul's favourite strips) as one of 2000AD's "Top Shocks". Read their list

Name: Paul Cornell

Blog or web site:
www.paulcornell.com

Currently working on: 
 
Cops and Monsters, my urban fantasy novel, out from Tor in October.

First memory of 2000AD?

I'd avoided it, until Mark from up the lane lent me a whole pile, from the first prog on.

Favourite Character or Story?

I loved Dan Dare, Flesh and Harlem Heroes.

What do you like most about the 2000AD?

It was the way it all felt of one mind, that it seemed to portray a unified way of looking at the future, that it was kind of a genre in itself, that really attracted me.

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

New strips, attempts at new iconic characters.

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

I am one of only two British creators working in US comics who's never worked for 2000AD.  (The other is Paul Jenkins, I think.) I've only ever worked for the Megazine, where I pestered editor David Bishop until he agreed to the strip he'd turned down a year before.


• 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

Happy Birthday, 2000AD! From script droid Steve White

The origin of the infamous One Eye, in 2000AD Prog 3
The origin is retold on Everything Comes Back to 2000AD here

Name: Steve White

Blog or web site: http://steve-white-thunderlizard.blogspot.com/

Currently working on: 

Senior comics editor, Titan Comics

First memory of 2000AD? 

A school friend of mine picked up the second issue and, knowing I had a particular interest in them, told me there was a new comic out that had dinosaurs in it. I snapped it up and went on to buy it regularly for about a decade.

Favourite Character or Story?

Old One Eye (naturally); and Rogue Trooper.

What do you like most about the 2000AD? 

There’s always something in there to love. Great artwork or an excellent script or a brilliant cover. I guess from a personal perspective, it was also instrumental in my own development as a comics creator – from learning to copy Mike McMahon and Kev O’Neil’s art as a kid to writing Rogue Trooper years later.

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

Me. Or, more realistically, more Shakara (the comic, not the singer) – my fav strip in years.

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

I remember the softball games between 2000AD and Marvel UK in Regents Park. They were great fun – and so damned competitive. I especially remember the day Brian Bolland joined the 2000AD team then bought me a pint after!

• 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

Happy Birthday, 2000AD! From script droid Gordon Rennie

Name: Gordon Rennie

Currently working on:

Dept of Monsterology, Absalom, Aquila, Judge Dredd, Robert Burns: Witch Hunter, Big Finish Doctor Who audio plays. Computer game stuff.

First memory of 2000AD?
I was there from Prog 1 (minus a wander off into the wilderness during the dark days of the early 1990s, when its pages were slathered in mud-like brown paint and ill-advised attempts to be wild, crazy and with it, by writers who needed to learn to walk before they could run.)

The thing that sticks most in the mind is an early cover for the story Flesh, featuring a guy in the jaws of a tyrannosaur, and calling out to his mate. “Shoot me, boss! Don’t let Old One Eye eat me alive!” They don’t write dialogue like that anymore....thank the heavens!

Favourite Character or Story?

Dredd. Early Zenith. The ABC Warriors. But not Strontium Dog, because he’s got stupid, stupid hair.

What do you like most about 2000AD?

As a writer – the scope to do a variety of very different stories. As a reader, being able to read that same variety. And all the sly (and not so sly) jokes.

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

Dredd getting a hefty reboot up the arse. God knows the old slugger needs something to keep him and his world fresh and moving forward.

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

Well, there was the time when a previous Tharg regime told me I’d never write for the title. My, but how we still laugh about that to this day.
 

• 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

Happy Birthday, 2000AD! From script droid Garth Ennis

Name: Garth Ennis

Blog or web site: No blog, no website.

Currently working on:

Working on The Boys, Battlefields (and other war stories), Nick Fury, Dicks III, Crossed, some more stuff still on the secret list.

First memory of 2000AD?

It would probably be seeing the cover of Prog 11 in my local newsagent and being instantly mesmerised. It had Mister Monday, the bloke from Dan Dare, telling us to follow him into the sun and share the death of a Martian warrior. I'd never, ever seen anything like it; I probably went for it like Stimpy for the wonderful, candy-like, shiny red button.

Inside you had M.A.C.H. 1 driving a souped-up Lagonda with a terrified boffin in the back through most of the Soviet bloc, and over several people while he was at it. You had Dredd - who looked amazing enough on his own - fighting the robot wars. You had Bill Savage being an angry mad bastard, ten times more mental than the slavering, rabid guard dogs that chewed their way through that episode. You had the Harlem Heroes up against Artie Gruber, and what in the name of God had happened to the guy to make him look like that? You had Dan Dare versus the Biogs and the spectacular death of the aforementioned Monday, drawn by Bellardinelli - that was eyes out on stalks time, as I recall.

But best of all, holiest of holies, you had dinosaurs in Flesh. Dinosaurs. And - all praise to the God of seven year-old psychopaths - they were... eating people...

Favourite Character or Story?

Favourites are hard. Probably Dredd overall, just because of the plethora of incredible stories, characters and moments we've had over the years. Stront, Slaine, Nemesis, ABCs/RoBusters and Rogue have all yielded up their share of delights.

I recall being a big fan of Sam Slade's peculiar brand of long-suffering accidental heroism for a long time; the very last page of the first Robo Hunter storyline is still a sight to behold. Back at the beginning, Bill Savage as an out-and-out maniac and Dan Dare when Dave Gibbons really got going on the Space Fort stuff.

Panels from Flesh in Prog 11

But if I was thinking in terms of what first attracted me to the comic, what made me think, no, there is absolutely nothing else like this anywhere in the universe, then I think it would indeed have to be Flesh. You could feel the ground shake as Old One Eye charged her prey, hear the victims' screams as her huge teeth punched through their bodies and they were squeezed down into her black gullet, smell the hot blood as it poured off the page into your lap.

There's a Ramon Sola shot of the Tyrannosaur clans gathering (in the aforementioned prog 11) that I know I'm going to take to my grave.

What do you like most about the 2000AD?

That's another hard one. If I had to boil it down, probably the memory of reading it weekly as a kid and somehow always feeling just a little bit happier afterwards. It really sparked you up, if only briefly- it made bad days good and good days better.

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

Just keep hold of John Wagner. Keep him on Dredd, keep him on Stront. Do whatever it takes.

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

Not so much an anecdote, more an observation: I do think it would be nice if Steve MacManus got a bit more recognition. He seems to have been edited out of the photograph to a certain extent, and yet he was editor for 400 progs during the comic's heyday.

Sure, it's hard to go wrong with the level and variety of talent he had at his disposal, but I think Steve provided more than just a steady hand on the tiller.

• This post is part of a series of birthday tributes from a wide range of comic creators celebrating 2000AD's birthday on 26th February 2012. For more about 2000AD, visit www.2000adonline.com

2000AD © Rebelllion

Flesh: The Dino Files on its way

Think the dinosaurs became extinct after an asteroid hit Earth 65 million years ago? You couldn’t be more wrong.

Saddle up, check your six-shooters and prepare for life in the Cretaceous as Flesh: The Dino Files collects together 35 years of one of the most popular series in the history of legendary comic book 2000 AD.

By the 23rd Century, man has drained the planet’s resources bare, but thanks to time-travel technology Trans-Time Corporation sends rangers back to the days when dinosaurs ruled the Earth. These latter day cowboys round up vast herds of giant reptiles – all destined for the plates of a hungry future!

But no creature fancies being served up as steaks, and packs of ferocious dinosaurs soon put a halt to Trans-Time– with everything from terrifying T-Rexs to chilling cybosaurs in all-out dino action!

For the first time, Flesh: The Dino Files collects the original Flesh story, which started in the very first issue of 2000 AD in 1977, and its recent sequel, Texas. This brand new collection features stunning black and white artwork from industry legends such as Boix, Ramon Sola and the late Massimo Belardinelli with newcomer James McKay.

Fans have long clamoured for a collection, bringing the vision of writer Pat Mills (Charley's War, Sláine the Horned God) to a new generation. Flesh is the classic 65 million years in the making...

• Flesh: The Dino Files is available from 15th September on Amazon or through the 2000 AD online sho. ISBN: 978-1-907992-26-1; £15.99; 272 pages

Flesh returns to 2000AD in March

After more than 30 years, one of very first strips to appear in 2000AD is to return in blood-splattering, eon-spanning dinosaur-hunting glory.

Dino-terror classic Flesh is to return to the weekly comic with Prog 1724, out on 9th March.
Written by the series‟ original creator, Pat Mills, and drawn by James McKay, the new series is the long-awaited sequel to the much-loved original Flesh – part of the line-up in the very first issue of 2000AD in 1977.

Penned by Mills and drawn by Spanish artist Boix and Ramon Sola, Flesh was a futuristic Western where time-travelling ranchers farmed dinosaurs like cattle and sent their meat back to a hungry future.

The dinosaurs fought back and destroyed the Trans-Time base – and the new series follows the survivors as, stranded millions of years in the past, are ordered to drive their herds across the prehistoric American landscape to Texas – where another base promises safety ... and profit!

The new series will premiere with a stunning gatefold cover by Death’s Head II and Testament artist Liam Sharp.

“Flesh was one of the original strips from the very first issue of 2000AD in 1977 and while there have been spin off stories, we never found out what happened to the survivors of Trans-Time Base Three," notes 2000AD editor Matt Smith.

(A 10-page one shot 'prequel' to Flesh, written by Pat and drawn by Ramon Sola, ran in Prog 1526 in 2007, reviewed here on Broken Frontier).

“It's great to see the sequel make it into 2000AD, 30 years after it first appeared," he adds. "It's a great strip with some fantastically gory dinosaur action that will appeal to both old fans who read the original and new readers who want comics with some real bite!”

"James has done the impossible," says Pat. "He's brought Flesh back to life with a vengeance. After Ramon Sola's brilliant interpretation of Flesh in Book One, I never thought I'd find another artist who could do justice to its varied themes - cowboys, time travel, science fiction and dinosaurs. James has achieved this and more."

• 2000AD 1724 will be on sale from 9th March 2011, priced at £2.25, available to buy online, from all major magazine retailers across the UK and Europe and from all good comic stores across the US.

• More info at: www.2000ADonline.co.uk. For details on the original Flesh visit: www.2000adonline.com/vault/series/flesh/story/flesh_book_1

• Check out James' Official web site at: www.jamesmckay.info