2000AD Featuring Judge Dredd. First proper comic head-over-heels love

This is kind of a follow up to a readitorial from a while back where I confessed I'd started reading comics on a Kindle for the first time. Since getting my Kindle Fire I've found it almost impossible to resist those '99p' deals that often crop up on ComiXology and Amazon (though sensible folk will know that just like some exquisite drug, the first taste of a comic arc is always cheap - subsequent issues are crazily priced!)

Up till last week there was always one childhood comic obsession I never revisited for many, many reasons. I'd left 2000AD alone for years, giving up the regular prog and Judge Dredd Megazine habit some time around moving to Brighton in the mid 90s, never to pick it back up again.

Something seemed to happen to the progs in the 90s, I felt like things had gone off the rails and I'd shuffled off to cooler (short lived) climes such as reading stuff like Deadline before giving comics up for good around the time I got seriously back into work and stopped being an art student. To this day I've no idea why I stopped reading comics and graphic novels but looking back I realised it was more a question of having next to no spare time rather than totally disowning comics altogether.

2000AD (now owned and published by Rebellion) has kept the highest of high standards going for 40 years, seemingly with ease and when last week's issue kicked off with all new stories I felt like it was time to jump back in - for one issue at least.

Back in the day I was PROPERLY obsessed with this comic. I bought Prog 1 the day after my birthday back in 1977 with my meagre birthday cash and still had enough money left over for an obscenely large bag of Fizz Bombs (my tooth-rot of choice back then) and a Matchbox car.

I was hooked from the word go, and into the 80s I started to draw characters from the comics regularly, even taking on a nickname once 'online' became a thing, nicking P.J. Maybe as an assumed monicker, purely because that nefarious psychotic maniac's name was weirdly close to my own (middle name isn't Janet though, just for ref).

I grew up with the comic, watched some of its most amazing talent leave for the US (and to a certain extent I followed their moves to other studios and read pretty much anything Bolland was involved in art-wise including his phenomenal "Batman: The Killing Joke" for DC.

When my daughter was born I started to read comics again, realising that a little girl who loved stories might find a lot of love for comics as well (thankfully that panned out rather well with her sharing her old man's obsession with comics as an art form, a storytelling medium and a vitally important part of our culture).

C's comic of choice is another mighty Brit comic - "The Phoenix"

Taking a similar approach to 2000AD, it's fairly heavy on sci-fi and fantasy stories, often with an anarchic sense of humour just like 2000AD, and with a hugely talented bunch of artists and writers working on it - again just like the progs.

Through introducing her to the Phoenix early on and letting her 'own' that comic as her first proper comic love, she's since been introduced to all things DC and Marvel, a truckload of excellent independents and a few carefully chosen age appropriate classics to mix in with some of the truly stunning stuff kids get to read these days (the likes of Hilda, Gum Girl, Red's Planet and so many others really do make it feel like comics are truly going through an amazing time at the moment and riding a wave of popularity that I hope continues for aeons).

Like most comic fans, I'm exceptionally good at letting stupid comments about "Still reading comics at the age of 50" wash right over me. Like there was ever a cut-off date where it became unacceptable to read them, play with lego or play videogames.

Comics to me are still one of the most important ways that artists, writers and other creatives can push across important messages. Sometimes in the form of parody. Sometimes in the form of comic anthologies, graphic novels or story arcs for existing characters that reference and riff on the world we know today - sometimes exaggerating it, but quite often presenting the world as it stands - a sometimes deeply weird, dark and crazy place.

Picking up Prog 2073 of 2000AD was like coming home. All the exceptional talent I was familiar with back as a kid (the ones that are alive, at least) are still hanging on in there but the new blood are equally impressive, not only paying homage to those characters, story worlds and ideas but carving out incredible strips and stories of their own. It has morphed into a comic that feels more properly 'grown up' than ever (though that was never 2000AD's problem, you could never really lump it in with other 'kid' comics that were around at the time the first progs hit shelves). The new Judge Dredd strip featuring the nefarious SJS is truly fantastic (I'd not come across Judge Pin before but can't wait to see what that psychotic lunatic comes up with in this story run) and the alternative timeline story based in the Rogue Trooper universe is utterly compelling too.

Though I still miss rifling through comics in paper form (it's just not practical to do so any more - gone are the days where I could stack progs in thick bundles wrapped in plastic under my bed) digital has at least allowed me to play catchup with stuff I missed during those wilderness years. I almost feel like a 9 year old again, anxiously waiting for the next issue to drop. If you're like me, a lapsed Squaxx Dex Thargo it might be time to jump back in yourself. Bring it on!

I've probably blogged about this before, in fact I'm sure I have - but there seems no better time than to reminisce about the Galaxy's Greatest Comic than on its 40th anniversary.

I remember the first time I saw the comic. I was 9 years old, living in Islington in London, and just around the corner from the grotty flats where we lived (which happened to be right opposite where Pink Floyd used to stash their gear and sometimes practice back in the 70s) was a newsagent. Mum didn't have a lot of money but she scraped together enough for me to be able to buy a comic and some sweets (yes, you'd actually get change out of 20p back then for both items).

I'd always read funny stuff like Krazy Comic and Cheeky Weekly but something made me pass on those that particular week, and pick up 2000AD instead.

It had a space spinner on the cover. It had science fiction stories, and from a very quick read it looked like my cup of tea. I should point out that up till then, comics were just something you read and usually disposed of pretty quickly but 2000AD was completely different. If anything, it was a turning point for me, blasting me towards the sort of obsession with comics I've had ever since.

The first issue was astonishing. Real proper 'grown up' action stories set in the distant future,  with a revamped Dan Dare leading the charge amongst other amazing strips.

But Prog 2 was the game changer and probably the reason I kept on reading from then on. Prog 2 saw the introduction of Judge Dredd, a character who dispensed his own form of justice, tackling criminals in a sprawling future city.

It really captured my imagination and I was completely hooked. For the best part of the next 20 years I religiously bought 2000AD every single week (for some reason I stopped buying it in the late 1990s when Kelvin Gosnell took over editorial duties but resumed again some years later - Nothing personal Kelvin, but some of the mid to late 90s stuff was a bit too up itself IMHO). Staying loyal though, I'd switched to Crisis and Judge Dredd: The Megazine by that point - I felt like I'd aged out of the sort of stuff that was going on in 2000AD a bit. How daft.

The comic still had such a huge influence on me that I even took a character's name as a nickname in my Uni / College days. Philip Janet Maybe - AKA P.J Maybe (or in my case, mostly shortened to Peej) is still a nick that some people know me by. I loved the idea that you had this teenage foil for Judge Dredd who pulled off near-perfect crimes before succumbing to his complete psychotic insanity (I've actually lost count of whether he's still alive or not but I like to think that he's a sprightly 49 year old who exacts sweet revenge on anyone who has done him wrong, and still believes he'll get the better of Dredd one day!)

The stories have become legendary, the characters often cited as the reason artists got into comics, or drawing, or writers got into writing. It's never been afraid to confront the issues of the day with razor sharp parody and it still continues to push the envelope for comics, even though the US still have a bit of a weird attitude towards it (and Dredd in particular, who you'd think would be hugely popular over the pond but somehow isn't!)

2000AD has survived just about all its peers at the time, and continues to be one of the standard bearers for British comics. Characters that were back then completely unknown in other parts of the world have since leeched into popular culture, and it's fair to say that a lot of Hollywood script writers and directors owe a great deal to the influence of this mighty comic. It's also fantastic to see Oxford-based Rebellion go from strength to strength, putting out fantastic videogames and being deeply involved in any process where their licenses are used (I hope). I still crave a second 'proper' Dredd movie and still hope it happens at some point with Karl Urban back in the saddle as JD himself.

I also love the fact that the Rebellion guys have picked up the rights to classic IPC titles. More comics from my youth brought back into the light for a whole new audience to discover. Kids who have no idea who The Leopard of Lime Street is, or who Faceache is - or even how terrifying Misty is.

Happy 40th Birthday 2000AD, I'd be happy to see you still around in 2100 (and the way things are going, that's a distinct possibility!)