#3 - 2000AD Summer Special Supercomic 1977
We’ve already established that I’ve always been a nerd. My mother had me watching James Bond movies on TV, and introduced me to Doctor Who because she liked Jon Pertwee, and my dad had been buying me a weekly comic, which (up until this point) had been either Look-In - due to my obsession with cool stuff on TV - or the aforementioned Super Spider-man and the Titans (see previous post).
I was watching all of the genre TV I could, The New Avengers, Fantastic Journey, Space 1999, I, and The Six-Million Dollar Man. Heck, that series… there was a time we were all running around the school playground pretending to be in slow motion making that ‘dunnunnunnunnunn’ noise. When word went around the school of a new comic in the newsagents that had these stickers that made it look like you had bionic implants, it became the ‘in thing’ and I had to check it out.
I had a little pocket money every week (I think it was something like 10p or 50p, which was plenty in those days) as long as I did some chores like washing up, so I headed to the big newsagents in town and managed to get a copy of 2000AD, issue 2. It was cool! Of course, the stickers went on my arm, and pulled a load of armhair out when pulled off, and the weird eye sticker that was supposed to go on your forehead like a ‘third eye’ obviously looked better if you stuck it over your own eye… (sticky… and not a great idea, kid).
Inside were stories of dinosaur hunters, cool air-sport teams of the future, and my favourite - a powered secret agent in the form of MACH-1. It was all great, and it introduced 2000AD’s most iconic character, Judge Dredd. I asked my dad if we could put 2000AD on a standing order at the newsagents (which, of course meant that I had to drop my subscription to Super Spider-man and the Titans). Every Saturday morning, with the morning paper, 2000AD would drop through the letterbox.
We’re all going on a Summer Special holiday
In a clever bit of planning, 2000AD launched their ‘summer specials’ - perfectly designed to give kids something to read over the summer break from school, or to shut them up when they’re on a long journey. I don’t remember which holiday it was we were going on in 1977 - my parents loved going to Scotland and my grandmother usually came with us, so it was probably a trip there. I have a strange memory of my dad gesturing to the comics in the newsagents telling me to pick out something to read for the holiday, and seeing the familiar 2000AD logo, I leapt at the first ever 2000AD Summer Special. Or, ‘Summer Special Supercomic’ as it was called.
I mean, look at that cover. Amazing, and weird! Kinda mesmerising and engaging. It was great, full of new strips of my favourite stories, but there was a double-page spread that really stood out and stuck in my mind. A spread for a little known new movie that would be hitting our shores in the UK soon called Star Wars…
Droids! Stormtroopers! A mis-credited Han Solo! It was amazing, and I was instantly intrigued. It was just the start of a fandom that would dominate my thoughts for years. But it wouldn’t be until a little later that my obsession really kicked off. That’s for next time…
