User:Emperor/Sandbox/List of 2000 AD creators

A list of 2000 AD creators, with a look at the training grounds for the talent as well as the post-2000 AD work.

History[edit]

Three phases of development?

[Brief rehash of the origin of 2000AD] ?

Founders and early creators[edit]

The early creators, like Pat Mills, John Wagner and Alan Grant had gained their experience in earlier British comics.

Some in this group have helped nurture new talent, starting the next generation of British comics - Alan Grant, says he has mentored a number of the Scottish writers like Kev F. Sutherland, Grant Morrison, Mark Millar and Robbie Morrison.^[1]

"The British Invasion"/2000AD Exodus[edit]

Although 2000 AD alumni, like Steve Parkhouse and Brian Bolland, had already got work on American comic books it was the success of Alan Moore which sparked the British Invasion of American comics.

A lot of the first parts of the wave, like Alan Moore, Parkhouse and Grant Morrison, cut their teeth in titles from Marvel UK (Doctor Who Weekly, The Daredevils) as well as Warrior, started by Marvel UK editor Dez Skinn. The invasion proper began after Moore's successful run on Swamp Thing and his Watchmen series^[2] as well as his revitalising stories he worked on at Warrior, like V for Vendetta]] and Marvelman. Moore picked Neil Gaiman as his replacement on the last story and he used this beachhead to get Sandman launched.^[3] A key figure in bringing over the British writers was Karen Berger, who had met Gaiman in 1987 and helped bring other 2000 AD alumni over to DC, like Peter Milligan and Grant Morrison. Berger felt that they brought new ways of doing things to the American market "I found their sensibility and point of view to be refreshingly different, edgier and smarter, The British writers broke open comics and took the medium to a new level of maturity.".^[4] She then launched DC's mature imprint, Vertigo, with Swamp Things, Sandman, Morrison's Animal Man and Milligan's Shade, the Changing Man as the core. They were joined by Jamie Delano who had worked at both Marvel UK and 2000 AD, who would write the Hellblazer based on John Constantine who first appeared in Moore's run on Swamp Thing. Moore has stopped work at 2000 AD by the mid-eighties but Morrison carried on until the mid-1990s and, at the point Moore's relationship with DC had soured and he moved on to more independent publishers, Morrison started his ascent to be one of DC's leading writers on the way producing long series at Vetigo, like The Invisibles.

Later parts of the wave got their first work in 2000 AD spin-offs or rivals during the mid to late eighties comics boom, like Toxic!, Crisis, Deadline and Revolver, which often ,had in their turn, been started by writers and artists from 2000 AD, in particular Toxic!. When these titles folded in the early to mid-nineties a number of creators were absorbed into 2000 AD and others went on to other things. Jamie Hewlett too the Tank Girl story from Deadline to various US publishers and on to a film before moving into music with the Gorillaz. Others like Sean Phillips and Duncan Fegredo would move straight on to get work in the US before moving to 2000 AD, from where they'd return to the US in the 2000s.

For some, like Ellis and Gaiman, their time at the title was short but for the latter it was the first mainstream comic publications. Others like Moore, Morrison and Ennis would contribute to some of the major stories of the eighties and nineties like Halo Jones., Zenith and Judge Dredd, respectively.

Reinvigoration[edit]

After the mass exodus of the early 1980s, which saw many of 2000AD's best writers and artists depart the comic for better deals from the American publishers...

With the cancellation of the likes of Crisis and Toxic the main breeding ground for new talent was in British small press comics. Arthur Wyatt established FutureQuake to publish Future Shock-like stories and moved on to writing similar stories for 2000 AD. This title and 2000 AD fanzines, like Dogbreath, Zarjaz and Class of '79 offered venues for early work from Al Ewing, Simon Spurrier and others. Spurrier, and a number of that generation of artists, like Frazer Irving, Rufus Dayglo, P. J. Holden and Henry Flint have now also started getting work in the American market. With the growth of independent comics publishers in recent years, like Markosia and Mam Tor Publishing, some creators are getting their first work published there, the former with Lee Garbett and Tony Lee.

Bucking the trend[edit]

There are also plenty of exceptions to the trends, as well as international creators working on the comic, like Ashley Wood, Ian Edginton got his breaks from people like Dark Horse Comics, equally some creators have done more work on the continent with Colin Wilson and Pat Mills producing a lot of work for Franco-Belgian comics. Others like John Smith, only had very rare forays into the American market.