Wednesday 16 March 2016

2000 AD - February 1978.

Mere days ago, the European and Russian space agencies launched a probe intent on finding life on Mars.

Will they find it?

I don't know.

I do know that thirty eight years and one month ago, 2000 AD was finding life wherever it looked in the universe, proving it was better than Europe and Russia combined.

2000 AD #50, Dan Dare

This is all very exciting for us, as we get a foto feature on the movie Space Cruiser.

I think we all remember Space Cruiser. It was that film about...

...

...

Oh, alright, I admit I've never heard of it. I shall do a quick Google to find out just what it was and whether it was the box office smash that I suspect it wasn't.

Wikipedia informs me that it was a Japanese cartoon, cobbled together from TV episodes and was otherwise known as Space Battleship Yamato.

It would be true to say it didn't get good reviews.


2000 AD Prog 51, Dan Dare

Hold on a minute! Dan Dare has a light sabre? When did he get his hands on that nightmare instrument of death? And what on Earth would Digby make of it all?

Come to think of it, what will the Mekon make of it? He's in danger of getting chopped in half the next time he comes up against his arch-enemy.

Of course, it was in the next issue that the Mekon famously revealed that he's Dan Dare's father.

2000 AD Prog 52, Dan Dare

Comicvine tells me that the ten-part Colony Earth starts in this issue.

I don't have a clue what Colony Earth was. I've Googled it and still don't have a clue what it was. It seems to have involved some sort of space robot that I have no recollection of.



2000 AD Prog 53, Dan Dare

This is the issue we've all waited for. It's the issue that finally gives us the blueprint for Walter the Wobot.

At last we'll all be able to make our very own Walter to waddle around after us and be almost psychotically servile for us.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Whats with the wikipedia and comic vine links, Steve? The massed memory of the SteveDoesComics hive-mind not good enough for you anymore?

Colony Earth was pleasant enough, but did seem like it could have appeared a few years earlier in Lion or Valiant or something like that.More Dan Dare than Judge Dredd, if you see what I mean.
Not sure what it replaced... Maybe the awesomely brilliant Visible Man, which ended way too early
Or Invasion... I think that ended around prog 50 (which was no where near early enough!)

How have you managed to get to this point without really discussing Bill Savage, freedom fighter from the farflung futuristic year of 1999? (Maybe the Volgans wouldn't have seemed so bad if he'd known the alternative was Tony Blair?)

Thanks, Steve - always enjoy these reminders of the early progs.

-sean

Steve W. said...

It seems that Bill Savage is, in these issues, involved in a story called Escape From Liverpool, which seems a bit harsh on Liverpool, which I'm sure is a very nice place when it's not crawling with Volgans.

As for Wikipedia and ComicVine, given my total ignorance, I do feel a duty to point people to more informed sources.

Anonymous said...

Steve, the only thing I remember about that last Invasion story was that Bill Savage tried to bring back the exiled royal family.
What a plonker he was.

-sean