Thrill-Power Overload: Thirty Years of 2000 AD (Rebellion 2000ad) [Paperback]

As suggested by its title, this book details the history of the first thirty years (1977 - 2007) of the Galaxy's Greatest Comic. Former editor David Bishop has generated a cohesive narrative from numerous interviews and articles featuring the writers, artists, editors and managerial types who have participated in 2000AD's long history.

Bishop's writing style is approachable if slightly dry, valiantly trying to capture why the publication has such a revered place in the imaginations and memories of the young(ish) Earthlets who grew up in the 70s and 80s. Covers and content from the stories featured in the text show just how exciting, unique and sometimes just plain weird the comic could be. Long forgotten frames from stories such as Slaine and Meltdown Man instantly took me back nearly thirty years to when I started reading 2000AD; for me that alone was worth the cover price.

I enjoyed finding out about 2000AD's office politics, especially the ongoing battles between the short-sighted and cynical IPC management and the foolishly hubristic National Union of Journalists. (I cannot credit the pettiness of either side. The Great Free Coffee Strike of 1980 beggars belief - Molotov of the Amalgamated Androids' Union would have been so proud.) This book explains why there were periodic slumps in the quality of the comic, why certain strips continued long after they had lost whatever it was that made them initially interesting and why 2000AD effectively became a training ground for the US comic industry. It's also a cautionary tale about how not to make a Hollywood movie based on a much loved character. ...And I was astonished just how close and how often 2000AD and the Judge Dredd Megazine have come to cancellation.

Unfortunately this book has a couple of major flaws. Frequently long-forgotten series are dismissed pejoratively in a couple of sentences, presuming that the reader has the prerequisite detailed knowledge to know already why they were, as Pat Mills might say, 'crap'. This approach will mean that all but the most loyal and venerable Squaxx dek Thargo will struggle with some parts of the text. Unless you had read the likes of, say, 'The Visible Man', 'Chronos Carnival', 'Wireheads' or `Blacklight' this book will not enlighten you of their nature beyond their short longevity, poor reader reception and their general state of not quite being up to the required standard. (I couldn't help thinking what Tharg, 2000AD's effusive 'real' editor, would think of such sentiments. Rigellian Hotshots all round?) Stating what most of these series were actually about seems - to Bishop anyway - unnecessary, which is a shame. I would have loved to have read a brief précis about each of the referenced series.

The other flaw results from the convoluted history of the comic. Many, many people have participated in the history of 2000AD and its sister publications. After a while the names blur into an amorphous mess, a situation not helped by the presence of many similarly named individuals (for example John, Matt, Ron and Robin Smith, Kevin (O'Neill) and Kelvin (Gosnell), far too many Johns to mention) and Bishop's habit of referring to them by their first name. True, some individuals do stick out through their long involvement like Pat Mills, Alan Grant, John Wagner and Carlos Ezquerra or because of their important contributions (e.g. Alan Moore, Kevin O'Neill and John Hinkleton) but most don't. It would have been helpful to have brief profiles for all of the dramatis personae somewhere in the volume, just like in the Rebellion reprint volumes. Perhaps even a photo or two of the creative droids for those of a stouter constitution, or timelines to help the confused make sense of which of many Johns the author is discussing.

I realise that all these suggestions would effectively double the page count, but the history of 2000AD isn't *just* the strips or *just* the back story to their generation but a rich mixture of the two. As it is, this book is a good read but is found wanting due to lack of information about 2000AD's stories - the very things that made it the zarjaz publication it was/is. Such a volume - if it doesn't already exist - would be a scrotnig read indeed.

Hefty book, hefty price, but well worth it. This is a mature look back at the history of 2000AD from its insiders. Bishop uses his position as ex-editor to talk to the creators themselves, and they don't hold back on the criticism.

However, it's not a negative book by any means. So few comics survive for 30 years and this is a worthy and positive tribute to its longevity.

Yes, it would have been nice to see unused character sketches, or photographs of the creators at work or at convention appearances, but this is the story of 2000AD the comic, and that's where it's focused. Some unused pages from the original "dummy issue" are shown, including the cover (when it was called AD2000).

Some books on comics are little more than boring plot resumés of the characters. This book is nothing like that thankfully! This is the "behind the scenes" story of the comic, and the industry surrounding it, from the horse's mouth as it were, warts and all.

Having picked up back issues of the Megazine purely to get my mitts on David's essay, I was thrilled to learn the whole thing was being compiled (and updated) into one volume. The end result is an absorbing, superbly researched and shockingly candid romp through 30 years of publishing history. Unlike other commentators, I loved all the stuff about union strikes and shop floor unrest - exactly the sort of workaday detail that sets this account apart from other comic histories. Yes, the illustrations are a little disappointing (it feels often like they were slung on the page without much thought to context) and more 'behind-the-scenes' sketches and early designs would have been great. But, I'm sure that's not Mr Bishop's fault, and the thing still notches up five stars from me.