2000 AD and Starlord #121
Prog 121 is the debut issue of Mongrol and his companion Lara — the first chapter of what would become one of Pat Mills's most emotionally resonant ABC Warriors recruitment arcs, a storyline whose robot-rights subtext gave the strip much of its lasting moral weight. The issue sits squarely in the middle of the ABC Warriors' founding run (progs 119–128), the series that transformed Ro-Busters veterans Hammerstein, Joe Pineapples, and Happy Shrapnel into a team whose adventures would run continuously for decades and help define the 2000 AD universe's shared continuity. Coming just weeks before the 'and Starlord' suffix was dropped from the masthead (prog 127, August 1979), it also represents one of the final issues of the post-merger branding that had stabilised the comic's readership after the Starlord amalgamation. The Brian Bolland Judge Dredd cover art — depicting the 'Father Earth' environmental-terrorist storyline — is a showcase example of the meticulous figure work that was already cementing Bolland's reputation as the defining Dredd artist of the era.
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We Buy Collections ▸History
ABC Warriors was written by Pat Mills and launched in prog 119 (30 June 1979) as a direct outgrowth of Ro-Busters, itself a Starlord transplant. Art duties for the opening run were divided among Kevin O'Neill, Mike McMahon, Brendan McCarthy, Dave Gibbons, and Carlos Ezquerra — O'Neill had been intended as the primary artist but could not meet deadlines, so McMahon stepped in as the principal illustrator for prog 121's Mongrol chapter. The merged title '2000 AD and Starlord' had been running since prog 86 (October 1978), following IPC's decision to fold Starlord into the cheaper-to-produce 2000 AD; the dual masthead was already winding down and would disappear with prog 127 in August 1979. The Judge Dredd 'Father Earth' storyline in this issue was part of a standalone thriller block during a period when John Wagner (writing as 'John Howard') and Brian Bolland were rotating through shorter, self-contained stories between longer epics.
Trivia · 8 facts
- Cover date: 14 July 1979 (IPC Magazines); part of the '2000 AD and Starlord' dual-masthead run that lasted from prog 86 to prog 126.
- FIRST APPEARANCE of Mongrol and Lara in the ABC Warriors story 'Mongrol, Part 1' — script by Pat Mills, art by Mike McMahon, letters by Peter Knight.
- Joe Pineapples and Happy Shrapnel also appear in this issue's ABC Warriors chapter, having both debuted two issues earlier in prog 119.
- Hammerstein, already known to readers from Ro-Busters (originally a Starlord strip), serves as the framing protagonist recruiting Mongrol for the nascent ABC Warriors squad.
- The Judge Dredd strip — 'Father Earth, Part 1' — is written by John Howard (John Wagner) and illustrated by Brian Bolland; the story involves an environmental terrorist plotting to destroy Mega-City 1 using geothermal means.
- The ABC Warriors 'Mongrol' two-parter (progs 121–122) has been reprinted in the collected editions 'A.B.C. Warriors Book 1,' 'A.B.C. Warriors: Mek-nificent Seven,' and 'A.B.C. Warriors: The Meknificent Seven.'
- Hammerstein's appearance here was part of the initial run (progs 119–128) in which he recruits six robots — including Mongrol — for a classified mission to tame Mars.
- The 'Disaster 1990' strip (featuring Bill Savage) and Dan Dare also run as ongoing anthology strips in this prog, alongside the Redondo-illustrated story continuing the 'Project Overkill' plot thread.
Cast · 10 characters
Full credits
Full plot ⚠ may contain spoilers
▸ Reveal full plot — may contain spoilers
Dredd's attempt to give a young boy a better life backfires.
Plot details indexed by the Grand Comics Database (CC BY-SA).