By Zack Quaintance — I’ve spent all of February going through the recently-released 2000AD Encyclopedia, a big and beautiful book that includes a a look at 45 years of comics history. The book is compulsively readable, going through prominent characters as well as some of the more absurd twists and turns in the publisher’s history. It also contains a nice mix of in-story and real-world information about the characters. I picked out five of my favorite things that I learned for today’s post to give you a sense of what to expect from the book.

Enjoy!

Five Cool Things I Learned From the 2000AD Encyclopedia

Devlin Waugh is historically significant
Created By: Writer John Smith; Artist Sean Phillips
First Appearance: Meg 2.01
What I Learned: Chiefly, I learned that Devlin Waugh was one of British comics’ first openly gay characters upon making his debut back in Judge Dredd Megazine, May 1992. I simply was not aware that vampiric secret agent (very cool) Waugh also had a historical significance. Secondarily, I was also interested to learn that artist Sean Phillips had been one of the co-creators of the character, along with writer John Smith, who also created Tyranny Rex, Indigo Prime, and Firekind for 2000AD. That’s one thing that thrilled me throughout the 2000AD Encyclopedia, the lengthy trail of creators who contributed to these comics before rising to become superstars in the industry. The last bit about Waugh that I found to be interesting was that the character in recent years has seen a bit of a revival, with new stories told by the likes of writers Rory McConville (Time Before Time) and Aleš Kot (Wolf).

Halo Jones receives a frosty reception
Created By: Writer - Alan Moore; Artist - Ian Gibson
First Appearance: Prog 376
What l Learned: When I first started to branch out within 2000AD to comics that aren’t just Judge Dredd, Halo Jones was one of the first that I gravitated to, in large part because she was created by legendary comics writer, Alan Moore. In reading through the 2000AD Encyclopedia, a couple bits about Halo Jones surprised me. The first, I think, was one I should have probably guessed at: the character was not initially possible. As the book notes, Initially, however, it was not popular, as the first series boldly eschewed action set pieces, instead focusing purely on character…the entry goes on to note that dystopia milieu and future-slang was also hard for readers to process at first. One of the appeals of Moore’s work is the dense complexity, but for audiences who aren’t suspecting that? I can just image.
The other bit is that Halo Jones was planned as a nine-book series, instead concluding after its third arc. I get that one — success was calling and Moore (as we all know) would go off to do some of the most enduring comics of all time.
Read: The Ballad of Halo Jones, Vol. 1

There is sneaky history to Lobster Random
Created By: Writer - Simon Spurrier; Artist - Carl Critchlow
First Appearance: Prog 1342
What I Learned: This was one of the most interesting entries in the 2000AD Encyclopedia to me because it details how almost dual-uses of the character came to be. It, of course, has the history of Lobster Random, but it also goes on to discuss the reveal that the character also showed up in the future-war series, The Vort, a surprise that at the time was so carefully considered, writer Simon Spurrier scripted the series under a different name, so that readers wouldn’t see the twist coming. That’s one of the things I enjoyed the most about this book, is that it has so many interesting nuggets like this about publishing history.

The Ten-Seconders says exactly what I was thinking
Created By: Writer Rob Williams; Artist Mark Harrison
One of the things I particularly enjoy about reading 2000AD is the contrast between the gigantic superhero comics published in this country. Unbeknownst to me, there is actually a 2000AD comic that’s about just that — The Ten-Seconders by Rob Williams and Mark Harrison. The Ten-Seconders is the story of “a small group of acerbic individuals fighting a war against a global superhero elite.” Metaphors as it were for the American comics market versus the British comics market. This story is now at the top of my to-read list.
Read It Here: Ten-Seconders - The American Dream

Walter the Wobot has a spotty past
Created By: Writer John Wagner; Artist Carlos Ezquerra
First Appearance: Prog 10
The last thing that I learned from the book was that goofy and beloved character Walter the Wobot has had some dark times in his past, having started a used robot company wherein some of the droids he sells have hidden programming that causes them to kill. After being held liable, Walter is run out of business, subsequently coming to the conclusion that it is wrong to help humans. He starts his own robot rebellion then, and chaos ensures. It eventually happens so that Walter becomes kindly again, but that is a dark episode in the character’s past, to be certain. This last entry also speaks to another thing I enjoyed about the book — writing comics history is hard (due to the inherent absurdity), but this encyclopedia does it well, including only the clearest and most relevant info. Great stuff.

Read about Essential Judge Dredd: Dredd Vs. Death.

Zack Quaintance is a tech reporter by day and freelance writer by night/weekend. He has written about comics for The Beat and NPR Books, among others. He Tweets compulsively about storytelling and comics as Comics Bookcase.