27th January to 2nd February 1979 – 2000 AD and Starlord

Description

An original vintage 2000 AD comic dated 27th January 1979 in good condition.

2000 AD

2000 AD is a weekly British science fiction-oriented comic magazine.

As a comics anthology it serialises stories in each issue (known as “progs”) and was first published by IPC Magazines in 1977, the first issue dated 26 February.

IPC then shifted the title to its Fleetway comics subsidiary, which was sold to Robert Maxwell in 1987 and then to Egmont UK in 1991. Fleetway continued to produce the title until 2000, when it was bought by Rebellion Developments.

2000 AD is most noted for its Judge Dredd stories, and has been contributed to by a number of artists and writers who became renowned in the field internationally, such as Alan Moore, Dave Gibbons, Grant Morrison, Brian Bolland and Mike McMahon.

Other characters in 2000 AD include Rogue Trooper, Strontium Dog and the ABC Warriors.

History

In December 1975, Kelvin Gosnell, a sub-editor at IPC Magazines, read an article in the London Evening Standard about a wave of forthcoming science fiction films, and suggested that the company might get on the bandwagon by launching a science fiction comic.

IPC asked Pat Mills, a freelance writer and editor who had created Battle Picture Weekly and Action, to develop it. Mills brought fellow freelancer John Wagner on board as script adviser and the pair began to develop characters.

PC found that publishing two weekly science fiction titles split the market, and Starlord, with its higher cover price, was cancelled after 22 issues and merged with 2000 AD in issue 86 of that title. Its last issue was dated 7 October 1978. Starlord was actually the better selling of the two titles, the decision to end it being dictated by the higher production costs of Starlord as opposed to 2000 AD’s cheap newsprint format. 2000 AD’s line-up was strengthened by the merger: Strontium Dog became one of its most popular and long-running series; and Ro-Busters continued on in 2000 AD for a while and led to an enduring spin-off, ABC Warriors, which still features today. Timequake also briefly featured in issues 148 to 151. By that time the title Starlord had been dropped from the cover of 2000 AD with issue 127 in August 1979.

Extract from 2000 AD entry on Wikipedia

More editions of 2000 AD available to buy here!