While it was a shame to see the latter title fold, this was still a matter of some pleasure for me because it meant that, as well as the adventures of Judge Dredd, I could now keep up with the action-filled excursions of Ro-Busters and Strontium Dog.
On the other hand, it did spell curtains for Dan Dare and Ant Wars, both of which were dropped to make way for the new strips.
But the merger wasn't the only thrill that lay in store for us that week because not only did we get to see the return of original 2000 AD stalwart Flesh but we were given a chance to win a Sinclair Mini TV!
Tragically, I never knew anyone who had a Sinclair Mini TV and I don't have a clue whether it suffered the same fate as the Sinclair C5 or if it matched the success of the Sinclair ZX Spectrum.
I did know at the time, though, that its hand-held nature clearly signalled that it could only be a matter of time before we were all wielding Space:1999 style communicators.
And, Reader, I was right. Even as I speak, I'm wielding my Space:1999 style communicator while firing my Moonbase Alpha style laser-stapler. The power of people in the 1970s to predict the future was genuinely astounding.
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I had both the original black and white and later colour version of the Sinclair TV (Black and white had a better picture).
Those TVs probably caused my school work to suffer more than any girlfriend ever did! Watching ITV go "Into the night" then "Through the night". Late night US football. Dodgy triangle films on C4....
Ahh... youth.
From what I can remember, the Red Triangle movies were always incredibly boring. If I'd been a cynical person, I might have suspected that Channel 4 only put that triangle there to con people into carrying on watching.
There are a couple of Sinclair mini TVs on Ebay at the moment. Would they pick up anything these days, even in full working order?
C4 did show one great film in their Special Discretion Required series (to give it its actual name), the Japanese film "Throw Away Your Books, Let's Go Into The Streets".
If the mini TVs have a socket for an external aerial, they could be connected to a digi-box and might still work. If they don't have one, I suspect an awful lot of work would have to be done to make them usable.
Sadly the beginning is missing, but otherwise - www.youtube.com/watch?v=_0zaWEvJ0gw Enjoy, everyone.
But anyway, even better than the late, great Shuji Terayama - 2000AD toward the end of '78! Pat Mills and John Wagner started to hit their peak, with artists like Brian Bolland, Mike McMahon and Kev O'Neill.
Special shout for Massimo Belardinelli on Flesh. His figure drawing was always a bit weak, but those dinosaurs and prehistoric landscapes were great.
-sean
Thanks for the link, Sean. I shall be sure to give it a look.
I too always loved the work of Belardinelli.
Now that was a quality merger.
I was certainly happier to see it than the Mighty World of Marvel merger with Fury.
I'm with Christopher and yourself on this merger. I usually hate comic mergers, but I reckon that this one was the turning point in Twoothy's history. Dredd had already started to improve, so all that was needed now were some more good sci-fi strips and it got them here!
(BUT, I STILL wasn't buying it yet! I missed a whole heap of good stuff, but caught it all in the reprints ).
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