Movie Review Future Shock The Story Of 2000 AD

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No spoilers required for a very good talking heads documentary from 2014 on one of the most brilliant, subversive radical comics ever created. 2000 AD surfaced in the late 1970’s at the height of the punk rock music era, presenting work that radically shook up the tired formulaic comics that were available to teenage readers at the time. There was particular reference to Jet Comics and the notoriously awful ‘Paddy McGinty’s Goat’ strip about a farm goat possessed by an alien. Comic sales were plummeting as readers were comparing their pulled-punches to the increasing stylized violence of movies shown on TV and in cinemas. 2000 AD started to show increasingly violent dystopian visions and in particular, the Megacity One Judge Dredd stories that would become the comic’s flagship strip. Dredd is a fascistic cop, literally judge, jury and executioner in a a World of uncontrollable population explosion and soaring crime. Other strips deal with radioactive mutant bounty hunters and near future alien invasion resistance movements. The comics often satirize our own time and politics. From the early days this, along with the blood soaked strips, often meant the comic has always come under close scrutiny by the censors.One strip in which a villain pickles his victims in vinegar jars prompted a call for censorship in case young readers took to pickling their younger relatives in vinegar. One writer talks of one of his more severe censors writing for a pornography publication while at the same time demanding changes to the comic strips. The comic was a huge success and made a name for many writers and artists, including Alan Moore, Neil Gaiman, and Pat Mills (who wears a lot in his very funny interviews in the film, though sadly Moore does not appear). The movie is surprisingly critical of 2000 AD itself, especially its low pay and demands for copyright control of artist output. This drove many writers to quit, especially as America’s DC and Vertigo comics were changing the look of US comics to the ultra-violent 2000 AD model. The magazine has come close to folding due to poor management policy, and a lame attempt to increase its sexual look and satirical angle in the 1980’s, but it has since returned to its former glory. Judge Dredd has suffered from the aftershock of the Sylvester Stallone movie adaption, but redeemed itself with the later Dredd movie starring Karl Urban who appears in this movie. 2000AD has also been plundered and plagiarized by other movies, notably Robocop and Hardware, the latter of which lost a lawsuit against the magazine for use of one of its stories. There was great praise for 2000 AD’s treatment of women, as characters, especially in Alan Moore’s magnificent but uncompleted Ballad Of Halo Jones strip, and through the magazines hiring of women writers and artists including Karen Berger and Lauren Beukes who both contribute to the film. Too many female super-heroes are drawn with nothing but their cleavage promoted. 2000 AD characters are mostly human and have genuine personalities. A brilliant study of a brilliant comic-magazine that will hopefully go on for many years to come yet. Arthur Chappell