Lambeth Fantastical - February 2026
The Galaxy's Greatest Comic
February 26th 1977 saw the launch on Waterloo's Southbank of 2000 AD, self titled 'the Galaxy's Greatest Comic'. Rebelious with an irreverent ethos akin to the punk rock explosion shaking up the music industry at the time 2000 AD did the same for the comic world. Originally aimed at teenage boys it would go on to become a hugely influential cultural phenomenon, which spawned a 1980s British invasion of writers and artists who revolutionised the American comic scene, and which is still going strong almost half a century later.
The media publishing giant IPC, whose titles included Melody Maker, New Musical Express, Woman and Woman's Realm, alongside its comics division, had moved into Kings Reach Tower just off Stamford Street the previous year.
The idea for 2000 AD came about when Kelvin Gosnell, a comic division sub-editor, read an article in the Evening Standard about a wave of upcoming sci-fi movies which included Star Wars. Realising that sci-fi genre was about to undergo a big revival he wrote a memo to his bosses suggesting a weekly science-fiction comic. Despite some initial resistance the green light was eventually given and a room was allocated to the project on the 19th floor of Kings Reach Tower, one floor above the offices of the New Musical Express. This was eventually to become known as the 2000 AD 'nerve centre'.
Kelvin Gosnell would himself go on to become editor of 2000 AD, but the initial role was awarded to Pat Mills, who had previously edited two other controversial and groundbreaking IPC titles 'Battle' and 'Action'. Both of these comics laid the groundwork for 2000 AD with grittier, more working class storylines than had been seen in comics in previous decades.
Mills built on that foundation with a dark approach to scifi that was light years away from the intergalactic heroics of Star Wars. He was assisted in this by art editor Janet Shepheard, another IPC veteran who'd worked on comics such 'Buster' and 'Valliant'. Shepheard was responsible for the edgy, in your face, style of 2000 AD which helped it stand out on newsagents magazine racks. Along with Mills she pioneered the boxes beneath the comic strips which gave credit to the writers and illustrators, something previously unheard of on the British comic scene.
The first issue was called Programme 1, kicking off a tradition that lives on today with issues being referred to as 'progs'. It cost 8p (Earth Money), and, in line with the common practice of the comic industry at the time, incuded a free gift.The Space Spinner was a small, red plastic frisbee about 14cm in size with the 2000 AD bannerhead logo stamped on it. It's now considered the 'holy grail' of collectors. A copy of Prog 1 with the space spinner attached can change hands for up to £500.
The first prog introduced five new comic strips, each three pages long.
Flesh saw big game hunters from the 23rd century, where everyone is forced to live on synthetic food, travel back in time to hunt dinosaurs for their meet.
Invasion depicted a near future dystopia where Britain us invaded by the fictional Volgan Repuplic, an army so similar to the Soviet army it is said to have illicited a formal complaint from the Russian ambassador.
Harlem Heroes set in the year 2050 featured a team, based on the Harlem Globe Trotters who play Aeroball, a mix between football, boxing, kung fu, and basket ball. It was one of the first British comic strips to feature black characters in the lead roles.
M.A.C.H 1 featuring the 'biotronic' man, obviously based on the popular 1970s TV series 'The Six Million Dollar Man', starring Lee Majors. Years later, during the New Labour era, B.L.A.I.R. 1 saw Prime Minister Tony Blair upgrade himself to an android with disasterous consequences.
Beyond the Frontier with Dan Dare was the comic's nod to the past. Often described as Biggles in Space, the classic Dan Dare - Pilot of the Future comic strip had started off life in the Eagle, a title aquired by Fleetway in the 60s. The premise for its revival in 2000AD was that a badly injured Dare had been held in suspended animation until the 22nd Century when he was reanimared with a new body and a new face.
The back cover of Prog 1 boasted that 2000AD was light years ahead and urges readers to order the next issue before their future becomes their past.
It also introduced a character who has been one of the mainstays of 2000 AD for the past forty-nine years. Tharg the Mighty is the comic's fictional editor, who has journeyed across light years to bring the first comic of the future to the Earthlets. It is revealed that the thirty-two storey Kings Reach Tower is in fact his spaceship. Tharg proved so popular that an attempt to replace him in the 1990s was met with such outrage by the fans that he had to be reinstated. His sign off alien greeting of 'splundigg vur thrigg' still graces the editor's collumn in the more glossy magazine version of 2000 AD you can find on newsagent's stands today.
The back page also trailed a new character who was to be introduced in Prog 2 and who turned out to be just as enduring as Tharg. I'll be exporing this character in the March edition of Lambeth Fanastical.
My next 'History of Horror' guided walk, exploring horror films from silent shockers to Hammer horrors and modern classics such as Last Night in Soho is on Saturday 21st March - full details in the link.
My latest horror novel 'The Hurdy Gurdy Man' (Nightmare Press) is now available on Kindle or print
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