2000 AD #228
☆ Be the first to review + Add to your collection — Join freeProg 228 (September 1981) is one of the most story-dense single issues in 2000 AD's history, delivering three simultaneous milestones: the debut of Rogue Trooper — writer Gerry Finley-Day and artist Dave Gibbons's genre-bending sci-fi war strip that would become one of the anthology's most enduring characters — the concluding chapter of 'Judge Death Lives,' the five-part story by John Wagner, Alan Grant, and Brian Bolland that introduced Judges Fear, Fire, and Mortis and completed the Dark Judges roster, ranked third-best Dredd story ever in a 2005 reader poll on the 2000 AD website; and a continuing chapter of Pat Mills and Kevin O'Neill's Nemesis the Warlock. The issue also opens the Strontium Dog story 'The Kid Knee Caper,' making it a remarkable convergence point for four of British comics' most significant ongoing narratives all running at once.
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By the late summer of 1981, editor Tharg's Galaxy's Greatest Comic was at a creative peak. Rogue Trooper was commissioned in direct response to reader demand for a 'Future War' strip, as announced in the prog itself, giving Finley-Day and Gibbons the mandate to build an entirely original science-fiction battlefield. Meanwhile, Wagner and Grant were writing the Dredd strips under the joint pseudonym T.B. Grover — a practice adopted to disguise how many strips Wagner was simultaneously scripting — and Bolland had the luxury of several months to design and render the four Dark Judges, producing extensive roughs before settling on their final looks; even so, sources note he still struggled to finish on time, and 'Judge Death Lives' proved to be the last complete Dredd story he would draw.
Trivia · 8 facts
- First appearance of Rogue Trooper (real designation 'R'), the blue-skinned Genetic Infantryman created by writer Gerry Finley-Day and artist Dave Gibbons, in the opening episode simply titled 'Rogue Trooper.'
- First appearances of Gunnar, Helm, and Bagman — the three dead G.I. comrades whose personalities are stored on biochips mounted on Rogue's rifle, helmet, and backpack respectively.
- Prog 228 is the concluding (Part Five) installment of 'Judge Death Lives' (Progs 224–228), the story arc — written by John Wagner and Alan Grant under the pseudonym T.B. Grover, with art by Brian Bolland — that introduced Dark Judges Fear, Fire, and Mortis alongside the returning Judge Death.
- The 'Judge Death Lives' arc was voted third-best Dredd story ever in a 2005 reader poll on the 2000 AD online website; the concluding chapter in Prog 228 includes the first appearance of Deadworld itself as a setting.
- 'Judge Death Lives' was the final complete Judge Dredd strip that Brian Bolland drew, after which his time-intensive style led him toward covers and prestige work rather than ongoing serials.
- Prog 228 also contains an episode of Pat Mills and Kevin O'Neill's Nemesis the Warlock, an ongoing strip that had launched in Prog 167 (1980), featuring Nemesis's confrontation with one of Torquemada's lieutenants.
- The Strontium Dog story 'The Kid Knee Caper' — written by Alan Grant with art by Carlos Ezquerra — begins in Prog 228, featuring Johnny Alpha, Wulf Sternhammer, and the Gronk.
- The original Rogue Trooper story from Prog 228 was later made freely available by 2000 AD as a primer alongside newer tales, and the full run beginning with this issue has been collected in multiple formats, including The Complete Rogue Trooper Volume 1 and Rogue Trooper: Tales of Nu-Earth Volume 1.
Cast · 16 characters
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Reprints
Reprinted in Nemesis the Warlock #1 (1983), Judge Death #[nn] (1983), Judge Dredd #3 (1984), The Best of 2000 AD Monthly #12 (1986), Rogue Trooper #1 (1986), Strontium Dog #3 (1987), Magnum Comics #5/1990 (1990), Magnum #7/1990 (1990), Magnum Special #4/1991 (1991), The Complete Judge Dredd #22 (1993), Rogue Trooper Action Special #[nn] (1996), Judge Dredd Megazine #9 (2002), Rogue Trooper #1 (2005), Judge Dredd: Dredd vs. Death #[nn] (2005), Judge Dredd: The Complete Case Files #5 (2006), Rogue Trooper Classics #1 (2014), Rogue Trooper Classics #1 (2014), Judge Dredd: The Mega Collection #6 (2016), 2000 AD The Ultimate Collection #19 (2017), 2000 AD The Ultimate Collection #47 (2018), The Best of 2000 AD Monthly #2
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