Hands up if you were a fan of 2000AD back in the day? It’s still going, maybe not so strong, these days. I picked up a copy a while back and it’s reduced to a what seems like a few pages of stories with adverts thrown in here and there. It reminded me why I rarely bought comics. I was too impatient to “wait until next week to find out the stunning conclusion to this week’s story!” Thankfully friends did buy it and I had more than a few copies of the comic myself when curiosity got the better of me.
As you may know I have an Amazon wishlist which is occasionally frequented by users of my plugins who very very occasionally will buy me something from it (and each and every gift is much appreciated!)
Anyway, I read with sadness that one of the artists behind the very successful Nemesis The Warlock series in 2000AD, John Hicklenton died a few weeks ago. I went searching and found The Complete Nemesis the Warlock: Bk. 1 and The Complete Nemesis the Warlock: Bk. 2 and promptly added both to the list in the hope that someone might buy it.
I was lucky! A few short weeks later the postman delivers Book 2 into my grubby hands and I have Daniel Jacobs to thank for it. Memories come flooding back as I soak in the art work. That story was just the craziest and grittiest thing I ever read. Only thing is now, I’ll have to find a copy of Book 1 somewhere or order it from Amazon myself!
In all seriousness, this post is in part made because of the death of a neighbour I’ve known all my life. I hadn’t spoken to him in a long time and it was a shock when I heard the news. He was a quiet man but always had a ready smile and had a great collection of capacitors, resistors and other electronics.
After his removal from the funeral home last week I spoke to a woman who was standing near my car. She asked who had died and I told her, to which she replied, “He worked for Dunlops didn’t he?”
Small world, but nice to be remembered.
Ah, so many fond memories of that era of 2000AD. My absolute favorite was that big beardy weirdy, Alan Moore. The Ballad of Halo Jones was probably his high point at 200AD but he went out to blow my mind later with Swamp Thing and, of course, Watchmen.
I was sad to learn of John’s decision but it was all too understandable under the circumstances and I am glad that he was able to die with dignity. I met him very briefly way back in that the early Nineties.
He also worked on Rogue Trooper, which was good stuff, but it’s mostly seared into my memory because of a neat little Rogue Trooper game that came out for the Spectrum.