2000 AD #503
☆ Be the first to review + Add to your collection — Join freeProg 503 stands as a snapshot of 2000 AD at the height of its mid-1980s creative peak, gathering four major strips under one cover in a single first-of-the-year issue dated 3 January 1987. It delivers the penultimate chapter of Nemesis the Warlock's 'Torquemurder' arc — the sprawling Book Six storyline written by Pat Mills and drawn by Bryan Talbot that drew Nemesis, Torquemada, and the full ABC Warriors roster into a shared time-travel chase — while simultaneously running the early instalments of Bad Company and Sláine the King, two series that would define late-1980s British comics. The issue is also a time-capsule artefact: published near the tail end of IPC's stewardship of the title (the imprint would transition to Fleetway with Prog 536), it carries Kevin O'Neill's cover art during the period when O'Neill's chaotic visual style was becoming internationally recognised as the defining aesthetic of the anthology.
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Prog 503 was edited by Steve McManus and published by IPC Magazines Ltd, with a cover by Kevin O'Neill promoting the Judge Dredd one-shot 'Varks'. The issue sits within a particularly dense creative moment: Pat Mills's 'Torquemurder' (Nemesis Book Six) had resumed in Prog 500 alongside the very first episodes of Peter Milligan, Brett Ewins, and Jim McCarthy's Bad Company — a strip that had originally been conceived by Alan Grant and John Wagner before Milligan substantially rebuilt it — as well as Glenn Fabry's all-new Sláine the King story. IPC's comics division was sold to Robert Maxwell's Fleetway operation in 1987, and Prog 503 was produced during the final months of pure IPC publication, adding a layer of transitional editorial significance to an already busy issue.
Trivia · 8 facts
- Prog 503 was cover-dated 3 January 1987, published by IPC Magazines Ltd, and edited by Steve McManus, with cover art by Kevin O'Neill.
- The issue contained four strips: Sláine: Sláine the King (Part 4 of 12, with Sláine and his dwarf companion Ukko); Bad Company (Part 4 of 20); Judge Dredd: 'Varks'; and Nemesis the Warlock: Book Six – Torquemurder (Part 10), the penultimate chapter of that arc.
- The Judge Dredd story 'Varks' was written by John Wagner and Alan Grant; it is a self-contained tale in which a mother tries to protect her sons after they are infected by an alien creature that transforms them into violent monsters.
- Bad Company — featuring Danny Franks, Kano, Mac, Trucker, Mad Tommy, Thrax, Stitches, Gobber, Flytrap, Wallbanger, Joe Scummer, and Malcolm — had debuted just three issues earlier in Prog 500 (13 December 1986), created by writer Peter Milligan and artists Brett Ewins (pencils) and Jim McCarthy (inks), reworked from an original concept by Alan Grant and John Wagner.
- Nemesis the Warlock: Torquemurder (Book Six, Part 2) was written by Pat Mills and drawn by Bryan Talbot; it features Nemesis, the ABC Warriors (including Hammerstein, Joe Pineapples, Blackblood, Mongrol, Mek-Quake, and Ro-Jaws), and villain Torquemada in a time-travel pursuit storyline.
- The 'Torquemurder' arc (Nemesis Book Six) ran across Progs 482–487 (Part 1, drawn by Talbot) and Progs 500–504 (Part 2, also Talbot); Prog 503 carries Part 10, one episode before the arc's conclusion in Prog 504.
- The Torquemurder storyline served as a narrative bridge that led directly into the ABC Warriors receiving their own standalone series in 1987, spinning the robot team out of the Nemesis strip into their own title written by Pat Mills.
- Stories from this era of 2000 AD were subsequently reprinted by Quality Comics in the US, and the Nemesis the Warlock 'Torquemurder' material has been collected in multiple Rebellion trade paperback volumes, including the 2025 Nemesis the Warlock Volume 3.
Cast · 22 characters
Full credits
Reprints
Reprinted in Bad Company #1 (1987), Judge Dredd #14 (1988), Spellbinders #12 (1988), Bad Company #2 (1988), Slaine the King #22 (1989), Judge Dredd's Rough Justice #[nn] (1991), The Best of 2000 AD Monthly #77 (1992), Magnum Comics #2/1993 (67) (1993), Judge Dredd Megazine #9 (2002), Bad Company: Goodbye, Krool World #[nn] (2005), Judge Dredd: The Complete Case Files #10 (2008), 2000 AD The Ultimate Collection #20 (2017), 2000 AD The Ultimate Collection #31 (2018), Sláine #5 (2018)
Key issues in 2000 AD
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