*Boys’ Adventure & War Comics: In 1977, 2000 AD launched into the consciousness of the nation, and for better or for worse, the comics world was never the same again! Oddly enough, the title’s most famous denizen, ‘Judge Dredd’, didn’t make it into the first edition, debuting in #2, but the five strips that did premiere in #1 pushed the boundaries; ‘Flesh’ saw a starving near-future use time-travel to go back and harvest dinosaurs – what could go wrong? ‘Invasion’ saw a band of rebels standing alone against the ‘Volgans’ who had conquered the United Kingdom; ‘Harlem Heroes’ produced a violent reprise of the original ‘Rollerball’ movie, and ‘MACH 1’, with its bionically-enhanced action hero, was a clear homage to… oh, well, have a guess. No, not ‘Get Smart’. Topped off by a ‘reimagining’ of the classic hero ‘Dan Dare’ designed to induce apoplexy in aficionados, the violent, bloodier ‘heroes’ set the scene for myriad imitators, some more successful than others. This is a low grade copy for the budget conscious, with a 5 x 2 cm chunk out of the front cover lower margin (only) and a water stain at the top of the spine which permeates through the comic. There’s a short cover tear top centre, and the top right edge has been dog-eared and straightened out to some extent. Only very minor residue where free gift has been removed from the cover and page quality, apart from the stain, is okay.
PICTURED: 2000 AD #1 FA £40