2000 AD and Starlord #104

History

Prog 104 was published under the combined '2000 AD and Starlord' masthead that the comic carried from prog 86 through prog 126, a title it adopted when IPC cancelled the higher-production-cost Starlord in October 1978 and merged its most popular strips into 2000 AD. Starlord had been edited by Kelvin Gosnell — also 2000 AD's second editor — and was created partly because IPC reasoned that a second science-fiction weekly could capture market share before a rival publisher could. Strontium Dog, created by John Wagner (writing as T. B. Grover) and artist Carlos Ezquerra for Starlord's very first issue in 1978, transferred seamlessly into 2000 AD's pages at prog 86 alongside Ro-Busters; 'The Day the Law Died!', written by Wagner with art by a rotating team including Mike McMahon and Brian Bolland, ran across progs 86–108, meaning prog 104 appears in the story's penultimate stretch. The combined title would itself be superseded at prog 127 when 2000 AD absorbed yet another IPC weekly, Tornado.

Trivia · 8 facts

• Prog 104 was published by IPC Magazines in 1979 under the combined ' 2000 AD and Starlord' masthead, a title the comic held from prog 86 (October 1978) through prog 126.
• The issue falls within 'The Day the Law Died!', the Judge Dredd epic serialised across progs 86–108, written by John Wagner and illustrated by a rotating team including Mike McMahon, Brian Bolland, Dave Gibbons, Ron Smith, Brendan McCarthy, Brett Ewins, and Garry Leach.
• Chief Judge Cal — the story's central villain, who first appeared in prog 86 and died in prog 108 — was inspired by the Roman emperor Caligula, and more specifically by John Hurt's portrayal of Caligula in the 1976 BBC serial I, Claudius.
• Judge Slocum served as Cal's right-hand enforcer within the story; his manipulation of the less senior Judges Glass and Percy — dressing them as little girls to save them from Cal's wrath after they failed to apprehend Dredd — is among the arc's most darkly comic episodes.
• Walter the Wobot, Judge Dredd's speech-impaired house robot and recurring comic-relief character, plays an undercover role in bringing Cal down across this storyline.
• Strontium Dog — featuring mutant bounty hunter Johnny Alpha, his Viking partner Wulf Sternhammer, and the timid alien medic the Gronk — appears alongside the Dredd strip; the series was created by John Wagner and Carlos Ezquerra for Starlord #1 (1978) and transferred to 2000 AD at prog 86.
• The Gronk is described in-universe as a mild-mannered, heart-attack-prone creature from the planet Blas, serving as medic to Alpha and Sternhammer's bounty-hunting partnership.
• 'The Day the Law Died!' has been reprinted multiple times, including in the Titan Books collection Judge Dredd: The Day the Law Died and in Judge Dredd: The Complete Case Files Vol. 2 (progs 61–115), and was adapted as a BBC audio drama in 1995.

Cast · 9 characters

Full credits

Full plot ⚠ may contain spoilers