[comics] US superheroes with Scottish accents… BBC News on Scottish Comics Creators … ‘Along with [Grant] Morrison, the work of some of Scotland’s other great comic book writers and artists has been showcased at an exhibition at the National Library of Scotland. Names such as John Wagner, Alan Grant and Cam Kennedy have dominated the genre in Scotland for decades and have been at the forefront of what Mr Schreck calls “the European invasion” since the late 1970s.’

[comics] Alan Grant’s Edinburgh Lecture — Forbidden Planet Blog reports from a lecture the veteran Judge Dredd / Batman writer gave in Scotland. On Dredd: ‘Alan had been re-reading some of his own early work – something he says normal weekly and monthly comics deadlines don’t leave much time for him to do, he rarely re-reads his own work – in preparation for the talk and is still surprised and a little depressed at how much of what he and Wagner wrote ‘as a laugh’, taking then-current social trends and blowing them up to ridiculous proportions (literally in the case of Two Ton Tony Tubbs), has gone from being satirical humour (something 2000 AD and Dredd in particular has always been good at and something I’ve always relished about it) to being rather too close to the bone (the League of Fatties was hilarious in the early 80s, now he reads about childhood obesity epidemics in Britain and America and suddenly the joke’s not as funny anymore…’

[weird] Dearly departed to heat Manchester crematorium — Mega City One’s Resyk comes one step closer … ‘A Manchester crematorium where “grieving friends and relatives have complained of the cold during services” will tackle the problem by using the “body heat” generated in the incineration process to crank up the temperature…’

[comics] Brendan McCarthy Showreel on Youtube … ‘I recently found this old VHS showreel inside a cobwebbed cardboard box in a storage room. It features art and designs from over a decade ago. Some of what’s there looks a bit dated, as you’d expect, but it’s a fun little romp nonetheless. So I thought I’d post it up for your viewing pleasure…’ [via Barbelith]

[comics] Bax The Burner … Early Alan Moore with art by Steve Dillon, starring my two favourite robots – Ro-Jaws and Hammerstein.

[comics] BBC Four’s Comics Britannia Season — website covering BBC Four’s upcoming season on comics. Forbidden Planet’s blog has all the details.

[comics] Mike Mick McMahon’s Website — official website for the artist best known for his work on Judge Dredd. [via Chris Weston]

[comics] Legend Horror Classics! Frankenstein!! — Scans of a pre-2000AD comic from Kevin O’Neill … [via Forbidden Planet’s Blog]

[comics] 2000AD still the Galaxy’s Greatest Comic! — Brief Review of Recent 2000AD’s from Chris Weston … ‘It’s a portrait of a man who has led a life devoid of emotion slowly discovering his humanity… a man who is awakening to the fact that his whole life may have been spent in the wrong cause… but has this knowledge come too late? Melancholy and menace hover above this strip like carrion… it really feels like The Tale of Judge Joseph Dredd has entered its final act.’ [via blackbeltjones]

[comics] Massimo Belardinelli 1938 – 2007: A Tribute by Pat Mills — very sad to hear news of the death of this stalwart 2000AD artist from it’s earlier years … ‘It is also worth stressing his real devotion and loyalty to 2000AD. He was not working for 2000AD as a portfolio piece before he headed off to Marvel or Vertigo; in working on the comic he had arrived. It was where he chose to be. I can relate to that. As one 2000AD reader, Steve Earles, put it to me today, he was: “A true one-off. In this day of cookie-cutter clone artists we will not see his like again.” I concur…’

[comics] 2000 AD Prog Slog — a blog covering a rereading of the first 1000 or so issues of 2000AD … On Judge Dredd in Prog 56: ‘You would have thought that if there were such a thing as a robot car with an ethics circuit that there would be a back up to it in case of failure or access to it would be limited to an administrator account that only the manufacturer would have the password to. In the Judge Dredd story that finishes this issue, all Dave Paton has to do to cause this critical function to fail resulting in his car, Elvis, to go on a four prog long killing spree is to pop under the bonnet and accidentally drop a spanner onto the circuit.’ [via Forbidden Planet’s Blog]

[comics] Five Artists who should draw Dredd — interesting list from comics artist Chris Weston’s Blog. ‘…while we are at it could we please have a ROGUE TROOPER one-off by Joe Kubert?’ [via Blackbeltjones]

[comics] How D’Israeli Drew Leviathan (Or, Drawing Comics from Scratch on Computer) — nice guide to how a page of D’Israeli and Ian Eddington’s 2000AD serial was created.

[comics] E-Petition: ‘We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to award knighthoods to John Wagner, Pat Mills and Alan Grant, in recognition of the 30th anniversary of the great British comic, 2000AD.’ [via Barbelith]

[comics] 30 years of the future — 2000AD is thirty years old today! Zarjaz, Earthlets! … ‘Judge Dredd is a complex character for liberals to deal with. Comics historian Paul Gravett, co-author of Great British Comics, notes: “He is a huge bully. But there are readers who quite like the idea. We show in my book a picture of a modern day policeman – they look just like Judge Dredd. In many ways we are living in Mega City One.”‘ [via The Coffee Grounds]

[comics] The Time Machine — early Alan Moore comic from 2000AD with art from Jesus Redondo (this remains one of my favourite comics) …

[comics] Have A Cosmic Christmas, Earthlets! — a slightly bonkers Kevin O’Neill Christmas Cover for 2000AD.

[comics] Tharg the Mighty’s MySpace Profile … ‘Borag Thungg, Earthlets!’ [via this Metafilter post on Eddie Campbell and 2000AD creators blogging]

[comics] Mutants in Mega City One Video — a video of Carl and Suggs from Madness performing as the Fink Brothers from Judge Dredd. Contains bits of the video for the song plus a confused appearance by them on a Saturday morning kids TV program called Saturday Starship circa 1985.

[comics] The Strangeness of Brendan McCarthy — nicely done unofficial website for the much missed artist best known for his work on Judge Dredd and frequent collaborations with Peter Milligan … ‘Will he ever return to drawing a full comic strip? He has been quoted as saying, “Of course I will produce comic books in the future, but first I want to make sure I have enough money behind me so that I can self-publish the material I choose. I’m getting too long in the cock to have silly people telling me how to produce my own work. There’s just too much crap to put up with and quite frankly, I can’t be bothered with it”‘

[comics] The Fink Brothers – Mutants in Mega City One — a MP3 curiosity from the 80’s – Suggs and Carl from Madness perform a song about Judge Dredd and Mega City One as “The Fink Brothers”. Probably of interest to aging fans of 2000AD only … ‘From Justice Hall to Zappa Block, We patrol the streets around the clock! Judge, Judge, Judge, Judge, Judge, Judge, Judge, Judge Dredd! My God, my brain’s exploding!’

[comics] ScaryDuck remembers the early years of 2000AD … ‘The first issue grabbed you by the balls and wouldn’t let go. The Russians (“Volgans”) invaded Britan, time-travelling cowboys harvesting flesh-eating dinosaurs, a rollerball clone, a six-million dollar man clone and …err… Dan Dare, an ill-advised revival of the Eagle character. But the real meat didn’t turn up until the following week – another 8p gave you another free gift and the first appearance of Judge Dredd. Make no bones about it, Dredd was a fascist…’

[comics] Timeline for the 2000AD Universe — it manages to tie together the histories of Judge Dredd, The A.B.C Warriors, Sam Slade and Strontium Dog … ‘The robotics revolution is not without its difficulties. The mark one war droid cannot discriminate between enemy soldiers and civilians. The mark two war droid is programmed with genuine moral values, but becomes a pacifist and surrenders to the enemy. The mark three war droid, named Hammerstein, is created at the University of Wisconsin in a project funded by Rover. The first emotion ever experienced by a machine is jealousy and results in the accidental death of the creator…’ [via scribot]

[comics] I invented Judge Dredd — BBC News interview with John Wagner … ‘This was back in the days of Dirty Harry, and with [Margaret] Thatcher on the rise there was a right-wing current in British politics which helped inspire Judge Dredd. He seemed to capture the mood of the age – he was a hero and a villain. That villainous aspect to Dredd’s character – and the Draconian laws of Mega-City One [the post-apocalyptic metropolis Dredd polices] – really caught the readers’ imagination. Occasionally we’d get letters from children who seemed to be agreeing with his hard-right stance, so we made the strip more political to bring out the fact that we didn’t agree with Dredd.’ [via Coffee Grounds]

[comics] Classic banned Judge Dredd strips — the Burger Wars and Jolly Green Giant stories from the Cursed Earth Saga… ‘Don’t worry, Folks. Everythin’ in MacDonalds is Disposable — includin’ th’ staff.’ [via The Haddock Directory]

[comics] UK TV Advert for the first issue Prog of 2000AD from 1977. ‘Greetings! I am Tharg!’ [via Bugpowder]

[comics] Comprehensive cover gallery from 2000AD… Some classic Dredd covers. [via Haddock]

[comics] Warren Ellis talks about the early years of 2000AD. ‘I started reading it when it began, just about a week after my ninth birthday, in 1977. Available in every newsagent’s in the country. The cover and back cover were colour. So was the centrespread. The rest of it was black-and-white, all inky on pulp paper. Your hands used to get sooty if you re-read it too much. The ink was so badly fixed that you could lift entire images off the page with Blu-Tack. There’d be five stories in each issue. JUDGE DREDD was in there every week, of course – it got the colour centrespread as well as the three or four pages that followed. At least three of the four other stories would be episodes from serials. Usually, one of the stories was a “Future Shock”, or one of its variants like “Time Twisters” – a self-contained science fiction short, usually with a hard twist in the tail.’ [Related Links: 2000AD Links Project]

[comics] The 2000AD Links Project is full of interesting web sites about the Galaxy’s Greatest Comic.