2000 AD #377

Aug 1984 · IPC · 0.22 GBP

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★ 1st appearance — Judge Rico

About this Issue

Prog 377 is the issue that ended a month-long publishing blackout caused by a printers' strike at IPC — its return to stands in August 1984 mattered to a readership that had been left in suspense mid-story across multiple ongoing serials. Within its pages, the Wagner/Grant/Smith Judge Dredd saga 'Dredd Angel' kicks off, deploying Chief Judge McGruder as the authority figure who dispatches Dredd and the surgically subdued Mean Machine Angel into the Cursed Earth — an arc that would deepen the Angel Gang mythology considerably. The issue also carries the second chapter of Alan Moore and Ian Gibson's 'The Ballad of Halo Jones,' a serial that would, despite initially lukewarm reader-poll scores, come to be regarded as one of the defining creative achievements in 2000AD's long history and a landmark in female characterisation in British comics. With Rogue Trooper's 'Message From Milli-Com' concluding here and Strontium Dog's sprawling 'Outlaw' arc in full swing, Prog 377 stands as a concentrated cross-section of 2000AD at the peak of its mid-1980s creative ambition.

Contains 5 stories

Outlaw! Part 15

5 pp · Science Fiction

The Ballad of Halo Jones, Part 2: A Little Night Music

5 pp · Science Fiction

Dredd Angel, Part 1

6 pp · Detective-Mystery, Science Fiction

In the scorched wastes of Texas City, Judge Dredd is sent to track down a murderous mutant gang after a cargo ship carrying priceless Liberace relics and unborn Judge clones is ambushed. Forced to team up with the criminally reprogrammed Mean Machine Ängel—now convinced Dredd is his long-dead father—the two navigate radioactive sandstorms and battle the Getgänget before uncovering the mutant gang’s hidden stronghold in Tulsa-smältan. As secrets surface and pasts collide, loyalty is tested in the harsh desert heat.

Doing Time!

3 pp · Science Fiction

Message from Milli-Com, Part 9: Souther vs. Souther

5 pp · Science Fiction

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History

A printers' industrial dispute at IPC halted publication after Prog 376 (cover-dated 7 July 1984), leaving readers without an issue for approximately a month; Prog 377 was the title's first return to shelves, making it a small landmark in the comic's survival story — several IPC titles killed by the same strike, including the horror anthology Scream!, never came back. The scripts for the issue's three ongoing strips were already in-hand: Wagner and Grant had been plotting 'Dredd Angel' as a direct sequel to their earlier Angel Gang stories, Moore was deep into his ten-part Halo Jones Book One with Gibson, and the 'Outlaw' saga by Grant and Ezquerra was approaching its later chapters. Alan Moore has described the Halo Jones concept as a deliberate corrective to what he called the 'guns, guys and gore' formula that dominated 2000AD, and he and Gibson had world-built the 50th-century Hoop setting in careful detail before the strip launched in Prog 376.

Trivia · 8 facts

Prog 377 was the first issue of 2000AD to reach newsstands after a printers' strike at IPC suspended publication for approximately one month following Prog 376 in July 1984.
The Judge Dredd story 'Dredd Angel' (Part 1 of 7, Progs 377–383) begins here, written by John Wagner and Alan Grant with art by Ron Smith; it centres on Dredd and Mean Machine Angel undertaking a joint Cursed Earth mission authorised by Chief Judge McGruder.
Chief Judge McGruder appears in her executive capacity in 'Dredd Angel,' dispatching Dredd on the mission; notably, the arc also introduces a baby clone of Judge Rico and references Judge Fargo among the clone banks.
McGruder's full name — Hilda Margaret McGruder — is a deliberate inversion of Prime Minister Margaret Hilda Thatcher, a satirical detail embedded by Wagner and Grant at the character's creation.
'The Ballad of Halo Jones' Book One Part 2 ('A Little Night Music'), written by Alan Moore and drawn by Ian Gibson, appears in this prog — the second instalment of what would become a ten-part first book running through Progs 376–385.
Rogue Trooper's story 'Message From Milli-Com,' with art by Cam Kennedy, concludes its run in Prog 377 after beginning in Prog 369, wrapping one of the character's mid-1984 serialised adventures.
Strontium Dog: 'Outlaw' — the lengthy saga written by Alan Grant with art by Carlos Ezquerra, featuring Johnny Alpha and Scottish mutant companion Middenface McNulty — is in progress during this issue; Wikipedia notes Middenface first appeared 'in the present day in Outlaw,' making this arc his primary ongoing showcase.
'The Ballad of Halo Jones' was later reprinted in the United States by Quality Comics, collected by Titan Books (first complete edition 1991), colourised by Rebellion in 2018, and adapted as a full-cast audiobook; the story was also staged as a surprise hit at the 1987 Edinburgh Festival.