Picking up the pieces
Picking up the pieces |
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Page 10 of 38  Cover (1984) featuring Halo Jones, reluctant female space-warrior. Art: Ian Gibson. Other strips were similarly layered, and also included healthy dollops of satire: 'Nemesis', about a war between vile humans and agreeable aliens, included metaphors for racial and religious intolerance, as well as some appalling puns; 'Slaine' was, on the surface, a sword-and-sorcery tale in the style of Conan the Barbarian, but included detailed references to Celtic mythology and feminist plotlines - again laced with humour; 'Halo Jones', about an ordinary woman conscripted into the army to fight in an intergalactic war, commented more seriously on feminism and militarism. Other strips that did particularly well included 'Skizz', 'ABC Warriors', 'Rogue Trooper' and 'Strontium Dog'. All of them would eventually be collected together in graphic novel form, and sold from bookshops and specialist comics shops. By the early 1980s, 2000AD was selling around 120,000 an issue. This was not a remarkable figure compared to some of the adventure comics of the past (in the mid-1960s, the big publishers expected to sell treble that for their top titles), but in the context of the market conditions prevailing at the time, it was impressive. |