2000 AD and Starlord #125
Prog 125 carries the first appearance of General Blackblood — the sadistic Volgan war robot whose forced recruitment into the ABC Warriors forms the moral crux of the entire opening arc — making it the single most character-dense issue in the formative 'Meknificent Seven' storyline. Arriving just as the merged 2000 AD and Starlord banner was in its final weeks before absorbing Tornado, the issue sits at a genuine editorial crossroads, simultaneously introducing a character who would remain central to the strip for decades while hosting what is effectively Dan Dare's final substantive run in 2000 AD. The Blackblood debut, scripted by Pat Mills and drawn by Mike McMahon, also crystallises the strip's defining moral tension: Hammerstein's revulsion at having to reprogram a war criminal rather than destroy him, a theme that gave ABC Warriors its satirical edge over standard robot-action fare.
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The ABC Warriors strip launched in prog 119 (30 June 1979), written by Pat Mills and initially drawn by Kevin O'Neill as a direct outgrowth of the Ro-Busters strip that had transferred from the cancelled Starlord into 2000 AD the previous autumn. Art chores for the opening run were divided among O'Neill, Mike McMahon, Brett Ewins, Brendan McCarthy, Dave Gibbons, and Carlos Ezquerra — McMahon handling the Bougainville episodes that dominate prog 125. The merged title 2000 AD and Starlord was itself the product of IPC's 1978 decision to fold Starlord (which was actually the higher-selling of the two comics) into 2000 AD on grounds of lower production costs, with the Starlord masthead appearing on covers until prog 126, after which a further merger with Tornado reshaped the book once more.
Trivia · 8 facts
- Cover-dated 11 August 1979, published by IPC Magazines as part of the merged '2000 AD and Starlord' run — one of the final issues to carry the Starlord name before the masthead changed again with prog 127.
- Contains Part 1 of 'The Bougainville Massacre' (6 pages), the debut appearance of General Blackblood — the Volgan war robot and expert in camouflage and guerrilla warfare who would become one of the most enduring antagonists and reluctant members of the ABC Warriors.
- Script by Pat Mills; art by Mike McMahon, lettered by Peter Knight — the same creative team responsible for several other key episodes in the opening ABC Warriors arc.
- Blackblood's recruitment scenario is established here: Hammerstein learns his superiors intend to capture, reprogram, and induct the butcher into the Warriors, rather than simply destroy him — the moral revulsion that drives Hammerstein's character throughout the series.
- Also running in this issue: Judge Dredd (ongoing strip), Ro-Jaws and Hammerstein's Book of Robots filler features, and the penultimate episode of Dan Dare's 'Servant of Evil' arc — Dare's last full serial in 2000 AD before the strip ended on an unresolved cliffhanger in prog 126, with the character not appearing again in a new original strip until Eagle #1 in 1982.
- The Bougainville Massacre story was reprinted in Titan Books' 'A.B.C. Warriors Book 1' (March 1983), the Fleetway Quality 'ABC Warriors 01', and subsequently in Rebellion's 'A.B.C. Warriors: The Meknificent Seven' collection and the 2000 AD Ultimate Collection hardback edition.
- The ABC Warriors strip (progs 119–139) was created by Pat Mills as a spin-off from Ro-Busters, itself a survivor of the Starlord merger; the strip has run continuously or in revival across 2000 AD for over four decades, with artists including Kevin O'Neill, Simon Bisley, Dave Gibbons, and Clint Langley.
- The ABC Warriors acronym stands for robots resistant to Atomic, Bacterial, and Chemical warfare — a Cold War satire embedded in the strip's premise from the outset.