The Forbidden Planet International Blog Log

(the first Prog of 200 AD; dinosaurs fighting cowboys from the future, Volgs invading Britain, MACH 1 and the return of Dan Dare. It was 1977, I was ten, it was brilliant)

Regular readers may remember us mentioning from time to time Paul Rainey (writer/artist of a couple of comics series we absolutely love) embarking on a long-term comics project, the 2000 AD Prog Slog Blog, where he was working his way through a huge pile of back issues of The Galaxy’s Greatest Comic and blogging as he went. Well he’s coming to the end of the run of back issues he bought and rather than paraphrase here’s Paul himself to talk about it:

“In November 2006, after an impetuous ill-thought out bid on eBay, I won the first 1188 programmes of 2000 AD. Rather than just have them sit piled up in my bedroom collecting dust tormenting me about how much money I had spent on them, I decided I was obliged to read them all.  I thought, rather than just read them why not blog about the experience too. So, I started the 2000 AD Prog Slog Blog where I review every other issue of the Galaxy’s greatest comic and many of it’s associated publications.

Well, after three and a half years of thrill power intensity turning my mind into a boggled mess and over 700 entries , the blog is due to come to it’s intended conclusion this weekend. Of course, I would like to tell you how proud I am to have got this far but there’s a part of me that feels ashamed at having used up so much time on a project which, let’s face it, is obsessive and stupid. All I can say for certain is, ‘it’s been emotional’ and  ‘thank God it’s over’.

If you ever read 2000 AD when you were younger or have an interest in the blog then you can read all entries so far at www.2000adprogslog.com. The final prog is scheduled to be reviewed early Friday evening while the farewell entry will appear sometime over the weekend. Finally, if you’re one of those people who think that the 2000 AD Prog Slog Blog should continue then you will be pleased to know that David Page is picking up where I will be leaving off on his blog. ”

(Johnny Alpha – still one of the best 2000 AD/Starlord creations ever – on the cover of Prog 1174, one of Paul’s recent reviews on the Prog Slog)

Holy drokk on toast, I remember Paul announcing the start of this project, I hadn’t realised just how much time had actually gone by. Is that really three and a half years? It’s quite a feat for any reviewer dealing with any long running comic. But of course, for British fans especially, 2000 AD is not just any long running comic, it’s the comic, the one we grew up with, that exposed us to names like Dave Gibbons, Carlos Ezquerra, Bryan Talbot, Kev O’Neill, Pat Mills, Alan Moore, Grant Morrison, Brian Bolland, Mike McMahon, Brendan McCarthy, Steve Dillon and goodness knows how many others.

For a lot of us, especially those who started reading right back at the first Prog when we were knee high to a knee pad (and playing with our free space spinner) this was our entry card to a wider world of comics, writing and art and as we’ve seen those creators expand to become now famous names worldwide we’ve followed them (with no small amount of pleasure and satisfaction at the sheer amount of top class talent Tharg has fostered that the restt of the world wants to read now). Reading 2000 AD, especially in the early days when it was our main SF fix, really did turn a lot of us on to a wider world of comics reading further down the line.

Yes, Paul may be right, perhaps it is a bit ‘obsessive and stupid’ to spend so much time on such a project. But we’re all geeks (and proud to be geeks!) and we empathise with those kinds of urges; it’s those kinds of interests and urges that prompt us to write about and celebrate comics after all. So if it was a silly endeavour then, like the efforts of Don Quixote, they were magnificently, heroically silly, which is the finest kind of silly. Paul, we doff our Judge’s helmets to you as you prepare for the Long Walk and look forward to David mounting the Lawmaster to carry on in the mean streets of the Big Meg. Splundig vur thrigg.