Thirty years ago, the Judge Dredd Megazine was born!

 Hard to believe, but 30 years ago this week Judge Dredd The Megazine was launched as a spin-off from iconic British comics anthology 2000AD. Giving future lawman Dredd his own title had long been mooted, but on September 15th 1990 it became a reality. Happily, it's still going strong today.

 I was assistant editor for the launch, and soon became editor. My association with that title continued off and on for another 11 years as part of the editorial team, and I've since contributed numerous pieces to the title. Here's the first from a series of articles I wrote in 2005 charting the Meg's early years...

In September 1990 a new monthly called Judge Dredd The Megazine was launched into Britain’s turbulent comics market. It lacked the street cred of titles like Deadline and Crisis, nor did it have the media profile of Fleetway’s other new launch that year, Revolver. But the Megazine survived while the rest stumbled, garnering readers, respect and plenty of awards. Fifteen years on, the monthly is still going strong. Now David Bishop tells the story of its tumultuous history…

Giving Judge Dredd his own comic looks an obvious choice in retrospect, yet it almost never happened. The future lawman made his debut strip appearance in March 1977, relegated to the back pages of 2000 AD’s second issue. But within months Dredd emerged as a reader’s favourite, thanks to the writing of John Wagner and dynamic visuals by young British artists like Mike McMahon and Ian Gibson. The character got his own annual in 1980, a sure sign that publisher IPC considered Dredd a valuable asset. In 1984 the company asked Wagner and co-writer Alan Grant to develop a Judge Dredd fortnightly. Scripts were written, strips drawn and lettered, everything seemed set to go. But IPC got cold feet and cancelled the launch, to the frustration of those involved.

Steve MacManus was editor of 2000 AD at the time. ‘Any Judge Dredd spin-off that made it to the newsstands was always going to succeed,’ he believes. This was proven when the first Judge Dredd Mega-Special was published in 1988, selling 75,000 copies when 2000 AD was shifting 100,000 progs a week. Plainly, there was a hunger for more Dredd material. But IPC had sold its comics group to Maxwell Consumer Magazines, who established the group as a company called Fleetway Publications. Instead of giving Dredd his head, the new owners chose to launch a title strongly influenced by the success of mature comics like Watchmen and The Dark Knight Returns.

The result was Crisis, a politically charged fortnightly that was an initial hit but soon found itself struggling to make a profit. The following summer Jon Davidge joined Fleetway as publishing director. He decided the time was right to do a Dredd spin-off. ‘This was good publishing,’ Davidge recalls. ‘Dredd was our strongest character, he was aimed at our core audience. We should have done the Megazine instead of Crisis, but that decision was taken before I arrived.’ By 1989 MacManus was managing editor of the 2000 AD Group. It had been losing talent to US comics for years because British publishers refusing to pay royalties. MacManus insisted there had to be financial incentives attached to the new Dredd title, otherwise key creators would not get involved.

Wagner was crucial to the new launch, since he had created Dredd with artist Carlos Ezquerra and scripted most of the character’s stories for a dozen years. ‘They needed me to do it,’ the writer recalls. ‘I felt it was an opportune time to put forward my proposals for a fairer deal for creators. Originally it was meant to be me and Alan [Grant] developing the Megazine, but I did most of the initial work because of a misunderstanding.’

The two writers had dissolved their highly successful partnership two years earlier. Grant says they had drifted apart as a consequence. ‘We were out in London one night and [Fleetway PR consultant} Igor Goldkind was there, pleading with John to work on the Megazine. By the end of the evening John and I were back on speaking terms and decided I would play a part in the Megazine as well. Having done so much work previously on prototypes, John negotiated a deal whereby we would be consultant editors and get a percentage in return.’

MacManus was chosen as in-house launch editor. He recalls Wagner coming into the office for an initial meeting to discuss what characters might appear in the new title. ‘There were some proposals already on the table. The concept of a Dredd magazine had been known for quite a while. People were just pitching in, we weren’t commissioning yet. At that meeting we agreed the title would be called the Judge Dredd Megazine. The development work was very easy, I must say. It was simply a question of John writing it, assigning artists and getting on with it. My role was more of a production editor, trafficking material.’

Wagner has a different recollection. He says finding the quality of material he wanted proved tremendously difficult. ‘I have set ideas about Dredd’s world and the kind of stories I like, I’m afraid. I was giving prospective writers a very hard time of it. Sitting in judgement over other writers is not a position I like to be in, it’s one of the reasons I quit editorial in the first place.’

A new generation of writers and artists had emerged in the late 1980s to fill the gap left by established creators going to work for the American market. Many submitted ideas for the new Dredd launch, among them writer John Smith. ‘I was asked by Steve MacManus to come up with a series when the comic was still in pre-production, but all the ideas I pitched got turned down, one way or another. There was an occult investigator story starring Eddy Whyteman [a character Smith recycled for the recent Devlin Waugh story All Hell], a Cursed Earth hospital story and a kind of Alan Bennett comedy strip about a Brit-Cit stand-up comedian. My favourite series almost made it through. It was set in the Academy of Law and followed a group of young cadets as they joined up and trained. I think John Wagner suggested I write that. It would have been revealed one of the cadets was a clone from the Fargo-Dredd bloodline. 

‘Unfortunately everyone felt I went way over the top in terms of nastiness,’ Smith recalls. ‘My view was if you have these five-year-olds being shipped off by their parents to this terrible, soul-destroying place, it’s bound to fuck them up. The Academy of Law is just an institutionalised child-abuse factory, a way of brainwashing innocent, impressionable kids and turning them into mindless, robotic servants of the Law. The story was basically Scum with primary school kids and showed all the horrifying consequences I’m sure that would involve. Thinking about it now, that probably was a bit strong.’

American writer James Hudnall was commissioned to write a six-part story called Killer, featuring Japanese Judge Sadu. ‘I got that through my dealings with Steve MacManus,’ he recalls. ‘I met him at a convention in Britain and he was interested in me doing some work. I wrote the first two parts of Killer and got paid, but there was an editorial shuffle or something and it never got finished.’ An El Salvadorian artist living in Paris, Carlos Kastro, was mooted for Sadu. Hudnall knew Kastro from the San Francisco Bay area where they both used to live.

MacManus says some projects proposed for the Megazine got further than others, but he doesn’t recall why Killer was dropped. ‘Sadu was a good character. Maybe we were holding that back for later, but it never progressed. It was important to choose the right stories for the first issue. There wasn’t a need to create new characters for the launch.’ He says there was one character from the Dredd universe everybody wanted in the Megazine – the skysurf champion Marlon Shakespeare, better known as Chopper.

Up and coming writer Garth Ennis was selected to take over this iconic character from Wagner. ‘When John and Steve started to put the Megazine together, they asked me to do something,’ Ennis explains. ‘They didn’t have too much idea of what they wanted in there, apart from Dredd, so it really came down to the supporting characters. Chopper was kicking about at the time. He had been pretty much shot to death in John’s story Song of the Surfer.’ 

Wagner says he was initially against reviving Chopper, but came round. ‘In my mind Song of the Surfer stood alone as a story. As long as I personally didn’t write the follow-up, I felt I hadn’t committed any breach of faith with Chopper. Rather in the same way I’ve never regarded any Strontium Dog stories not written by me or Alan as real, and am quite prepared to disregard or rewrite any continuity not established by myself. A bit arrogant, perhaps, but they’re my characters. In any case, I liked Garth and John McCrea’s work. I’d been really impressed by Troubled Souls [in Crisis] and wanted to see them in the Megazine. They wanted to do Chopper, so I let them. Aside from Chopper’s miraculous revival, there was nothing in their story I took exception to and was happy to take it on board the Chopper continuity.’

Ennis was the only one from the new wave of young writers to make the launch issue. Grant joined Wagner for some of the deliberations. ‘I recall us sitting with heaps of scripts from the usual suspects for the Megazine. We took a lot of care trying to tell people what they were doing wrong, but they didn’t seem to pay attention. The Megazine was the first thing we had an ongoing interest in, therefore we wanted it to be as successful as we could possibly make it.’ But Wagner and Grant were not the only creators to benefit if the monthly was a hit. Contracts were issued to all the contributors guaranteeing them a royalty for all sales over 50,000 copies.

Unable to find what he wanted from other writers, Wagner was forced to script three of the strips in the launch issue. Cam Kennedy illustrated Beyond Our Kenny, a Dredd three-parter reviving a minor character from the lawman’s past. Wagner adopted the pseudonym Brian Skuter for Young Death: Boyhood of a Superfiend, a humorous biography of Dredd’s arch-enemy Judge Death [see sidebar] delicately painted by newcomer Peter Doherty. The writer’s other contribution to the monthly was America [see sidebar]. The final strip was another Dredd tale, Midnite’s Children, written by Grant as launch deadline approached. ‘I bumped into John. He said they needed one more story and it was quite urgent. Jim Baikie had to turn the art round at a high rate of knots.’ The last element was Mega-City Times, a satirical newspaper section written by stand-up comedian Tony Allen and designed with an early version of desktop publishing software by Shanti Tolputt.

Finding suitable strip material was not the only problem. Determining the new title’s format also proved a challenge. Freelance journalist David Bishop joined as assistant editor in July 1990, seven weeks before the first issue went on sale. ‘The Megazine had never existed, so John and Steve had to invent it. They needed the comic to be sufficiently different from 2000 AD to justify its creation, yet familiar enough to also attract 2000 AD readers to buy it.’ Bishop recalls seeing a document proposing the monthly feature a 20-page lead Dredd story, with two back-up tales of 8-10 pages each and a satirical magazine section.

‘That concept had been ditched before I arrived, probably because of the lead time required to produce 20 pages of painted art for a monthly.’ At the time 2000 AD was 36 pages and cost 40 pence. For that readers got 28 pages of strip a week, usually three colour stories and two in black and white. The Megazine was almost four times the price at £1.50 when it launched, but the monthly was full colour with 44 pages of strip and four pages of satirical feature material. A deal for the Megazine to be republished in the US meant the pages had to be the same proportions as an American comic, making them visibly narrower than 2000 AD. [Only two issues of the US edition were published and the Megazine expanded to 2000 AD dimensions in 1992.] 

Once the strip content was chosen, a design template for the new launch was required. ‘We didn’t have an art editor or designer,’ MacManus recalls. ‘We needed someone from outside to fulfil the role of creating a look for the Meg, just as we asked Rian Hughes to create a look for Crisis. Sean Phillips had been painting covers for Crisis that were powerful, design-led images – they suggested he could give the Megazine a style of its own.’

Phillips began working as a comics artist while still at secondary school, but had subsequently completed a graphic design degree. ‘I can’t remember if Steve Mac asked me if I wanted to design the Meg, or if I volunteered – probably he asked me.’ The first seven issues featured a logo that stretched over more than a third of the front cover. ‘I was advised to make the logo as big as possible, to make it eye-catching,’ Phillips recalls. ‘A few months down the line we realised that didn’t leave much space for the image, so it was slightly tweaked.’ 

The artist also painted a gatefold image of Dredd and several old foes for the launch issue that angered several established 2000 AD artists. ‘I was asked to do an illustration showing those particular characters,’ Phillips says. ‘I thought it would be a good idea to do my own painted version of iconic drawings other people had done, using the classic Fink Angel drawing by Mike McMahon and the classic Judge Dredd drawing by Brian Bolland. Steve was okay with that, so I went ahead and did it. Apparently the gatefold pissed a few people off, although I’ve never heard from any of them face to face. I didn’t think I’d done anything wrong. It wasn’t as if I was basing my whole career on ripping someone else’s style off. It was a single painting and it seemed to fit the first issue.’

MacManus believes the bad blood stemmed from gossip Phillips had been paid a lot of money for the gatefold. ‘There was a rumour he got a lot of money, £4000 instead of the £400 he probably got. These days we’d print the creators’ names next to the image, with a big name-check for Carlos as the original visual creator of Dredd to avoid confusion.’

The first issue of Judge Dredd The Megazine went on sale Saturday September 15, 1990. The title’s original editorial budget was £15,500 an issue, but this was exceeded by almost £2000 on the first issue, thanks to all the extra developmental costs accumulated over the previous year.  Wagner and Grant were named inside as consultant editors, but their role was already diminishing. ‘By the time the first issue was out, I opted to take more of a back seat,’ Wagner recalls. ‘I began to feel I was in danger of stifling the kind of creativity we needed. I let Steve and David Bishop deal with submissions after that.’ The new title was launched with a special luncheon at the UK Comic Art Convention in London. Bishop remembers being terrified at the prospect of meeting Wagner and Grant for the first time at the launch, having only spoken to them on the phone. 

‘I knew how important they were to the comic. Alan was never afraid to say if he thought you were making a mistake, while John has a voice like thunder and gravel fighting at the bottom of a cement mixer. Fortunately, neither of them pointed out how little I knew about comics editing at the time.’ The assistant editor had grown up in New Zealand and was not a regular 2000 AD reader before starting at the Megazine. ‘Steve Mac taught me everything I needed to know about comics editing, gave me a real apprenticeship. He was brilliant at the mechanics of putting together a periodical, and gave me a solid grounding in the vocabulary of the medium. I still think Steve doesn’t get enough credit for his part in what most people call the golden age of 2000 AD.’ 

The Megazine had become increasingly important for Fleetway since its launch was first mooted. By September 1990 sales on Crisis had fallen so far the title switched from fortnightly to monthly publication to stay alive. Earlier in the year Fleetway had launched an ambitious monthly anthology called Revolver, aimed at mature readers. But early sales results suggested its eclectic mix of strips was struggling to find an audience. Even 2000 AD’s normally rock solid circulation was beginning to regularly dip below 100,000 a week. 

Fortunately, the Megazine’s first issue sold more than 50,000 copies in the UK, generating a royalty for all the contributing creators. ‘The success of the Megazine was hugely important for the 2000 AD Group,’ MacManus recalls. Subsequent issues never achieved the same level again, but he says the introduction of creator contracts was a milestone for the company. ‘The principal was there, even if it only applied to that first issue. The Megazine was the first comic from a major British publisher that shared revenue with creators. That’s one of its greatest achievements.’

America by Wagner and Colin MacNeil quickly emerged as the monthly’s outstanding tale. ‘The story had a new depth and intensity,’ Wagner feels. ‘It was a more complete look at Dredd’s world as I see it, and for that alone I still rank America among my best pieces. If you asked me what my favourite Dredd stories were, I’d probably plump for some of the one-offs, but America is right up there.’

MacManus says the strip’s success had a powerful impact on the shape and style of stories that followed. ‘It influenced the voice of the Megazine, showing that voice could go older than in 2000 AD and therefore achieve separation. Having said that, stories such as Young Death always have a place in the title. They deal with the darkly humorous side of Dredd which is so important to his success.’ 

To Bishop America represented a quantum leap forwards in Dredd storytelling. ‘It was so different from everything that had been done with the character and his world before. America had the depth and maturity of tone you saw in the likes of Watchmen and The Dark Knight Returns. The story also stood out by deviating from the usual Dredd timeline. All previous stories had taken place in a continuous thread, one after another. America jumped back to before the Apocalypse War, then moved forwards through the Big Meg’s recent history. That gave readers a fresh perspective on Dredd’s world. The quality of Colin MacNeil’s art didn’t hurt either.’

The revival of Chopper was not so popular with readers. Many wrote letters complaining about the character’s Lazarus-like resurrection after being shot to pieces seven months earlier in 2000 AD. Ennis found himself agreeing with the readers. ‘There’s no doubt about it, Chopper should have been left there,’ the writer says. ‘It was one of those stories were I lost interest and began to dislike almost as soon as it was seeing print. I knew Earth, Wind and Fire was a mistake, even then. I thought they don’t like it, I don’t like it. Best to consign it to the dustbin of history as quickly as possible. On the other hand, nice art.’

McCrea was excited to be part of the new launch. ‘It was pretty cool to be in the first issue,’ he told website 2000ADreview.co.uk. ‘Certain bits of Chopper were reasonably done on my part. Some of the writing’s not up to scratch, but then neither is some of my drawing. ‘I really was sick of painted artwork. I still to this day don’t think comics should have any painted art … it’s not what the medium’s about. It slows things down, it distracts from the story.’

The fourth issue of the Megazine introduced a new strip. Al’s Baby [see sidebar] was a creator-owned story by Wagner and Ezquerra originally devised for a new British weekly anthology called Toxic! But Wagner withdrew most of his characters from that title before it launched and offered Al’s Baby to the Megazine instead. MacManus was eager to secure an all-new story from the creators of Dredd. There was only one problem: Al’s Baby was set in Chicago during the year 2014 and had nothing to do with Dredd’s world. Wagner suggested adding a page to the first and last episodes, with a robot teacher in a Mega-City One classroom introducing the story as part of a history lesson. ‘Breaking the all-Dredd format of the Meg so early was a bold move,’ MacManus recalls, ‘but that era was full of bold moves. This one worked, happily. Looking back at it now, Al’s Baby reads like a science fiction version of The Sopranos.’

Bishop says a few readers questioned the presence of Al’s Baby in the Megazine, but most welcomed the new arrival. ‘If it had sucked, that would have been more of a problem. The fact Al’s Baby was by the original creators of Dredd helped smooth over the anomaly of it appearing in a comic supposedly devoted solely to telling stories from the world of Dredd.’

MacManus was conscious of the need to find new talent for the monthly. ‘It was hugely important for the Meg to find its own voice otherwise there would have been no differentiation between it and 2000 AD. I felt the Meg had to be booted out from the fold, find its own talent to survive.’ The first newcomer to break in via the monthly was artist Dean Ormston. Wagner was impressed by a Dredd painting Ormston took to a comics convention. He sent the artist to see MacManus, who bought the image to use as a cover [it appeared on the front of Megazine 1.10] and gave the illustrator a Dredd script as a try-out. I Singe the Body Electric was published in the comic’s sixth issue.

‘When I started, I were completely in at the deep end,’ Ormston recalls. He had drawn only one comic strip before, a 12-page Spiderman story for America’s Marvel Comics. ‘I’d never done a painted comic when I started on Dredd. I was learning as I went along. Gradually I got better and enjoyed the episodes more as I got faster and better at painting. The later ones are technically better.’ 

Wagner and Grant were still scripting 80% of the Megazine, and finding new writers who could match them was much harder than identifying potential artists. 2000 AD had long used a one-off story slot called Future Shocks as a testing ground for new creators. A similar format was invented for the Megazine called Strange Cases, featuring bizarre incidents from the future-shocked city. The first tale commissioned for the slot was Skin Games by Smith and John Hicklenton, although it was not published until 1992. The first Strange Case to see print was Feed Me by Warren Ellis and Phillips in the Megazine’s seventh issue.

Phillips also illustrated another Strange Case in the following issue, scripted by Ian Edginton. Both writers would have considerable success in the future, Edginton co-creating popular 2000 AD serials Red Sails and Leviathan while Ellis became a much sought after by US publishers. ‘I think Warren’s story is the only thing he’s ever done for a 2000 AD publication,’ Phillips says. ‘I put him off, obviously! Neither story was my best work. It was back in the days when everyone had to paint like Bisley.’

A handful of other Strange Cases were commissioned, but most saw print in specials and yearbooks. MacManus says the one-off concept didn’t sit well in the monthly. ‘We wanted the Megazine to be rock solid from front cover to back. It didn’t feel right to have one-off experiments going into the early issues – we couldn’t afford to put a foot wrong.’ In future new Megazine writers would have to win their place by creating a complete series worthy of publication.

Sneak preview for CITY OF VENGEANCE, my historical crime fiction debut coming in 2021

Thought I'd offer this sneak preview of my crime fiction debut CITY OF VENGEANCE, which Pan Macmillan is unleashing early in 2021. Publishers issue blurbs for their forthcoming titles when selling translation rights round the world, and I stumbled across this advance blurb in the Pan Mac rights catalogue online [click the image to make it bigger!]. For absolute accuracy, CITY OF VENGEANCE is set in the Winter, 1537 - but the rest is all true. Not long now until the cover is revealed...

The book that first inspired CITY OF VENGEANCE, my crime fiction debut, coming 2021 from Macmillan

I've always been a crime writer, but spent a lot of my career before CITY OF VENGEANCE writing other stories. Crime was almost always the narrative engine for my stories, whether in science fiction novels, screenwriting episodes of Doctors for the BBC, or scripting graphic novels and comics.

Like so many crime writers before me, I grew up reading mystery stories. I loved the brain-teasing puzzle element of those narratives, but also the way they brought alive the time and place in which they were set, and how another story wasalways  being told alongside the questions of whodunnit, howdunnit, or whydunnit?

CITY OF VENGEANCE has been a long time coming. I started the novel in 2017, thanks to the push provided by a Robert Louis Stevenson Fellowship from the Scottish Book Trust and Creative Scotland. The fellowship gave me a month largely free to write, and in that precious time I was able to draft what became the first fifty pages.

The book that started it all...

But the origins of my crime fiction debut go back a lot further, to the 1990s in fact. I was working as a comics editor in London, but couldn't resist the lure of bookshops in the English capital. One day I wandered into a shop near the British Museum, just browsing in kill some times, with no idea what I might find there.

One book caught my eye: Criminal Justice and Crime in Late Renaissance Florence 1537-1609, by John K. Brackett. Published by Cambridge University Press, it was a monograph that did what it said on the cover, exploring criminal justice in 16th Century Florence.

Glancing through the text, one sentence leapt out at me. Writing about the Otto di Guardia e Balia, the most powerful criminal court in Florence, Brackett wrote that this law enforcement organization with its investigating officers and constables was 'roughly comparable to that of a modern police force'.

In moments my writer's brain was working overtime, imagining what a police procedural set in late Renaissance Florence might be like. How did criminal justice work in this period? What was crime like in the 16th Century? What sort of mysteries would law enforcers have to solve?

I bought the Brackett book and set to reading it on my way home. One thing quickly became apparent: I would need to do an awful lot more research before I could dream of attempting to write such a novel. I hadn't even visited the city of Florence back then.

My heavily annotated copy of Brackett's inspirational book!

The fact I didn't start writing CITY OF VENGEANCE until 2017 tells you how long the journey has been to see this novel approach fruition, and why its publication by Pan Macmillan means so much to me. But I owe a debt of thanks to John K Brackett and his monograph, which started me along the path that lead to creating Cesare Aldo...

News: I've signed a two-book deal with Pan Macmillan for my Cesare Aldo historical mystery series set in late Renaissance Florence

I'll be blogging more about this soon, but here's the  press release text as featured by British publishing industry weekly The Bookseller today:

Pan Mac scoops historical crime novel in two-book deal 

Pan Macmillan has landed the first novel in a historical crime fiction series from D V Bishop.

Alex Saunders, fiction editor at Pan Macmillan acquired world rights to City of Vengeance, which won the Pitch Perfect competition at Bloody Scotland 2018, in a two-book deal from Jenny Brown at Jenny Brown Associates. It is scheduled for publication in February 2021.

The book is set against the backdrop of the Medici dynasty in 1530s Renaissance Florence, following the case of a prominent Jewish moneylender who is found murdered. Cesare Aldo, a former soldier and now an officer of the city's most powerful criminal court, is given four days to solve the murder.

Its synopsis explains: “In the course of his investigations, Aldo uncovers a plot to overthrow the ruler of Florence, Alessandro de' Medici. If the Duke falls, it will endanger the whole city. But a rival officer of the court is trying to uncover the secrets of Aldo’s private life to bring him down. Can Aldo stop the conspiracy before anyone else dies, or will his own secrets destroy him first?”

Saunders said: “I am so excited to be welcoming D V Bishop to the Pan Macmillan list. He has written a wonderful historical thriller set in Renaissance Florence and from the moment I started reading I was impressed by his confident storytelling. City of Vengeance is an explosive start to an electrifying new series, and Cesare Aldo is a remarkable character who stays with you long after the final page has been turned.”

Bishop, a screenwriter and dramatist, added: “I’m proud and honoured to sign with Pan Macmillan, publisher of such wonderful writers as C J Sansom, Ann Cleeves, and the late, great Colin Dexter. There couldn’t be a better home for Cesare Aldo as he investigates murders, the Medici, and all manner of Machiavellian machinations among the palazzos and piazzas of Renaissance Florence.”

Doctor Who and the Brexit Monstrosity

In February 2019 BBC Audio released The Elysian Blade, a Doctor Who talking book written by me. Read by Frazer Hines, it features the Second Doctor [played on screen by Patrick Troughton in the 1960s] with his companions Jamie and Victoria.

They take on a pair of charlatans who dupe people into harming themselves in exchange for false nostalgia. Sacrifice your senses, the villains say, and you can live in some golden world of the past, untroubled by things that disturb you.

It's a story about lies.
It's a story about self-delusion.
But most of all, it's a story about Brexit.

I've written for Doctor Who spin-offs in the past. My first Doctor Who novel was published by Virgin Books way back in 1996; three more followed from BBC Books in 2002, 2003 and 2004. I've also written Doctor Who audio dramas for Big Finish Productions, the last of those - Enemy of the Daleks - released in 2009.

All of my writing is, inevitably, suffused with my own views but mostly that tends to be politics with a small p. The Elysian Blade makes no bones about the fact it is a metaphor for Brexit. I voted to remain in the EU in 2016 because I believed it made no sense to abandon the opportunities offered by the UK being part of the European Union.

Since the referendum result, much has been revealed about the tactics and falsehoods spread by those running the various Leave campaigns - little of it good. I won't bother to restate them all, because most people's view of Brexit has long since solidified to the point where arguing changes few minds. But I am still a writer, with things to say.

In March 2018, I pitched three ideas for a Second Doctor audio original. One of them - with the working title 'Senseless' - was chosen by BBC Audio for further development. At that stage it was only a single paragraph long, and I hadn't realised what it was really about. Not yet. Here is the original pitch:

The TARDIS arrives on a world where everyone is missing at least one of their senses - but this is no natural phenomenon. The cause is Elysian Fields, a facility where you choose between the Angel of Forgetting and the Blade of Longing. One of them deletes a memory you never wish to recall again; the other lets you relive a long long moment from your past. As payment you must surrender one of your senses - forever.

I teach creative writing at a Scottish university. In one of my classes I talk about stories having a promise and a metaphor. When you as writer make a contract with your reader, what are you promising them? And what is the metaphor underpinning your narrative, what is it that gives your story meaning?

Having been asked to develop 'Senseless' into a two-page synopsis, I practised what I preach in class and thought about the promise of my story - and pondered for what was it a metaphor? And then it hit me: I was writing about Brexit.

I was writing about lies and the false promise of a better future. I was writing about power-hungry charlatans who will say and do anything for their own gain.

Now I had a choice. I could bury the metaphor, make sure the subtext remained so deep that few other people - if anyone - would recognise it. Or I could lean into my metaphor, make sure it was available to find for those willing or able to hear it.

I didn't want to write a didactic anti-Brexit rant. that wouldn't do anyone any good. But I recognised this metaphor had the power to add depth and meaning to my story.

So I opted to lean into it. I would write Doctor Who and the Brexit Monstrosity.

Once that decision was made, everything else fell into place. I needed a dodgy duo to sell their lies and mendacity to the colonists of the unnamed world in my story. Recent British politics have had plenty of craven opportunists, so casting was easy.

And it all still had to work as a Doctor Who story. It needed to have adventure and jeopardy, it needed to embody everything that is great about the Doctor - how he is never cowardly or cruel, how he fights for those unable to fight for themselves, how he uses the power of words and intelligence to overcome the brutality and falsehoods of others.

After several drafts the project was signed off last summer, and recorded with Frazer Hines - who played Jamie in Doctor Who during the 1960s - as reader. The Elysian Blade was released on CD and download in February this year, just seven weeks before Britain was due to leave the EU.

Three months on, the Brexit process has ground to a halt. Britain still hasn't left, with the ill-prepared exit proving to be an impossible task for the UK Government thus far.

Doctor Who Magazine #537 © Panini UK Ltd 2019

The Elysian Blade has had a few reviews, all very positive. So far I've only seen one  that explicitly noted the Brexit subtext lurking beneath my story - and that's fine. It means I did my job as a writer. I didn't shove my views down people's throats, I let them discover the metaphor for themselves.

So, why am I making the implicit explicit now? Ego, perhaps. Will outing The Elysian Blade as an anti-Brexit narrative mean extra sales? Probably not. But I am proud of the story, and I'd like more people to hear it. So here's a tiny excerpt from what I wrote:

'You promised these people they could red if anything they didn't like about their lives, or themselves. You convinced them they could travel back to some imaginary time in the past when they were happy, when everything was simpler, when nothing challenged them or made them uneasy. 

But life isn't like that. You have to live in here and now. You make things better by facing them, not by holding on to some idealised version of a past that never existed.'

My self-publishing experiment - Endeavour: The Complete Inspector Morse - hits a wee landmark

My eBook ENDEAVOUR: The Complete Inspector Morse has just passed 750 sales. Not much in publishing terms, but it's a wee landmark for a £4.99 eBook with no marketing, no print version to enhance visibility, and a niche audience.

ENDEAVOUR: The Complete Inspector Morse is an unoffical non-fiction guide to the TV series Endeavour and Inspector Morse, to Colin Dexter's original novels and short stories, plus Morse on radio and stage.

All the non-Endeavour material in the eBook had previously been published as The Complete Inspector Morse [TCIM] by Reynolds & Hearn across four editions, and then by Titan Books in a new 2011 edition. Those were all print only, a mix of paperback and hardback.

Titan later issued an eBook of TCIM but numerous reviews berated the low quality of its formatting. A reference text should enable readers to dip in and out of an eBook, not force them to scroll through hundreds of unchaptered pages to find what they seek.

In 2016 Titan confirmed it would not commission a new edition, but the company declined to revert rights in the book until the physical print run had sold out. That was estimated for 2017, and under the terms of my contract, Titan could wait another two years before reverting my rights.

I signed my original contract with Reynolds & Hearn in 2001, long before eBooks. R&H did obtain the electronic rights, but only on a non-exclusive basis. After some prodding Titan confirmed I could publish my own eBook, if I wished.

For the cover image, a fellow Endeavour enthusiast provided a photo taken during filming in Oxford - instead of paying a fee, they suggested I make a donation to charity. I happily paid Caroline Goldsmith to prep the eBook for upload [I recommend her!]. 

I made the eBook an Amazon exclusive priced at £4.99 - not cheap for a non-fiction eBook. I published ENDEAVOUR: The Complete Inspector Morse on December 23rd 2016, just ahead of the 30th anniversary of Morse first appearing on British TV.

After Amazon took its cut, I estimated the eBook needed to sell 100 copies to break even. Happily it passed that a year ago, thanks to Endeavour Series 4 being broadcast.

To my surprise, ENDEAVOUR: The Complete Inspector Morse has continued selling, even when new episodes of Endeavour aren't on screen [which is most of the year]. It's a steady wee earner, as the  sales chart above demonstrates.

Despite being only an eBook, I've made far more royalties from this edition over the past year than I did from the traditionally published print versions of TCIM. New episodes of Endeavour makes a big difference, but so does 70% royalties instead of 7-10%!

After some gentle prodding Titan have now reverted all rights in the book, meaning I can publish the next edition in print and eBook if I choose. There's plenty of new material to add, with 10 new episodes of Endeavour and an Inspector Morse radio play.

But for now I'm happy to enjoy a wee landmark, and look forward to watching another new episode of Endeavour on ITV tonight. Onwards!

My PLR top ten titles for July 2016 - June 2017

Every year the Public Lending Right sends registered authors a statement estimating how many times their books were borrowed from UK libraries. To compensate for lost sales, the PLR pays 8.2 pence per loan. There's a maximum payment threshold [£6600] to prevent bestselling authors from draining the PLR's precious coffers.

About 22,000 authors get payments for the most recent PLR period [July 2016 - June 2017], with 195 on the maximum of £6600. The fate of the PLR is in flux, as cash-strapped councils close libraries and eBooks alter reading habits. But authors still welcome this new year bonus.

It is free to register your books for PLR - just go here. Even if you only wrote [or drew, in the case of comics artist] part of a collection, you can still register your bit. I represent a tiny 3% of the Heavy Metal Dredd graphic novel, but it makes me a few pennies. Like a fool, I forgot to complete registration for the only new book I had published in the most recent PLR period - tsk!

This year's top ten for my titles features several 2000AD-related tomes, two  editions of the same Doctor Who novel, a Warhammer tie-in, and a hugely unsuccessful non-fiction book about the films of Michael Caine. That last book sold so badly, I think more people have read library copies over the past 15 years than ever bought the damned thing when it first came out in 2003.

It's a nice surprise to the Heroes Reborn tie-in to which I contributed appear on this list. I wrote an ebook novella and didn't expect anything to come of that, but it was reprinted by Titan with two other novellas from the series as a wee omnibus. Anyway, here are my top ten titles in librares for July 2016 - June 2017 (with previous year's placing in brackets).

1. (2) Heavy Metal Dredd (graphic novel, published 2009)
2. (1) Fiends of the Eastern Front: Stalingrad (graphic novel, 2010)
3. (-) The Complete Inspector Morse (2006)
4. (6) Doctor Who: Amorality Tale (2002)
5. (-) Thrill-Power Overload (2007)
6. (-) Judge Dredd: Kingdom of the Blind (200?)
7. (5) Starring Michael Caine (2003)
8. (-) Heroes Reborn (2016)
9. (8) A Massacre in Marienburg (2008)
10. (4) Doctor Who: Amorality Tale (new edition, 2015) )

BLAZING BATTLE ACTION published as an eBook

In 2003 I wrote a behind the scenes account of how trail-blazing British war comic Battle was created and nurtured, as told by those who were there. Commissioned for the Judge Dredd Megazine by then-editor Alan Barnes, it was published as four articles. And there the story remained, trapped inside back issues, in danger of being forgotten all over again - until now.

I have just published an ebook of BLAZING BATTLE ACTION, available exclusively via Amazon. It is a text-only edition because I do not own the rights to any images from the relevant comics. The prose has been lightly edited and updated to reflect recent reprints of material from the pages of Battle. Hopefully more gems from the comic’s pages will be made available for a new generation of readers to enjoy afresh.

It's no exaggeration to say Battle changed the face of British comics. Launched in 1975 by writers John Wagner and Pat Mills with editor Dave Hunt, Battle hacked a path through the jungle of anodyne, lacklustre weeklies throttling the life from the industry at the time. It showed there was a market for harder-hitting, more challenging comics, paving a way for the controversial, short-lived Action and for the iconic science fiction anthology 2000AD.

In its pages Battle published one of the greatest stories ever told in British comics - Charley's War. Meticulously researched by writer Pat Mills and painstakingly illustrated by Joe Colquhoun, Charley's War was a landmark narrative that has stood the test of time and remains arguably the best work by either creator.

Battle was a trailblazing title that unearthed a new generation of British talent, but the comic suffered a slow death during the 1980s while 2000AD was enjoying its golden age. Dead comics soon get forgotten, and their story dies with them - but BLAZING BATTLE ACTION might help keep this particular story alive.

As with ENDEAVOUR: The Complete Inspector Morse, I employed the services of digital maven Caroline Goldsmith to make this ebook fit for purpose. She’s very helpful and reasonably priced, I can recommend her services if you’re too time-poor [or, like me, lazy] to learn formatting - any mistakes in BBA are my fault.

The BLAZING BATTLE ACTION ebook is available for just £1.99 on Amazon - or free to read for those who subscribe to Kindle Unlimited. I don’t expect to make much money, as it’s a niche topic, and I’ll be happy if this edition eventually covers its costs. But I believed the story deserves to be readily available. 

If you loved reading Battle back in the day, or enjoyed the history of 2000AD I co-wrote [THRILL-POWER OVERLOAD, now available in a hefty new hardback edition!], try BLAZING BATTLE ACTION. It’s a right riveting read - but then, I would say that. So here's what a couple of readers said about the original articles:

"Text features in the Megazine have been essential reading for many years ... probably the best of them have been David Bishop's histories of 2000AD (Thrill-Power Overload) and Battle (the most shorter, but just as fascinating Blazing Battle Action" - Grant Goggans, Thrill-Powered Thursday.

"If you read Battle and enjoyed Thrill-Power Overload, this is a great little history lesson" - Simeon Brewer, The Judge Dredd Megazine Odyssey.

BLAZING BATTLE ACTION ebook is available now exclusively on Amazon.

A most Remorseful Day: rest in peace, Colin Dexter

Just read about the death of Colin Dexter, the creator of Inspector Morse. He was 86 and had not been well enough to make his usual cameos during last year's filming of Endeavour series 4, but news of his passing still comes as a shock, and a sadness.

I had the pleasure of meeting Colin several times at signings during the 1990s when he was still writing new Morse novels. He was friendly and quick of wit, with a ready smile and a genuine affection for his readers - a true gentleman of an author.

I read all his novels and loved the Morse TV series. When both ended - the novels in 1999, the show a year later - I wanted to capture my appreciation for them. From that was born The Complete Inspector Morse, published by Reynolds & Hearn in 2002.

The book was a modest success, and three revised editions followed at R&H to reflect the enduring appeal of Colin Dexter's characters. When Titan commissioned a new edition in 2011, just as news of a young Morse TV drama set in the 1960s was breaking.

Four series of Endeavour have followed, with an extended fifth run of episodes in the works for 2018. And I have maintained my appreciation by adding the new show to my appreciative text, now an ebook entitled Endeavour: The Complete Inspector Morse.

Colin Dexter is gone, but his wonderful characters endure thanks to screenwriter Russell Lewis, actor Shaun Evans, and all those involved at Mammoth. There's even a new Morse play on Radio 4 this Saturday, House of Ghosts, written by Alma Cullen.

For those of us who have enjoyed Morse on page or on screen - the worldwide TV audience was estimated at a billion in more than 200 countries - this is a terribly sad day. For Colin Dexter's family and friends, it must be far worse. Our thoughts are with them.

Life, to be sure,
Is nothing much to lose,
But young men think it is,
And we were young.
- A.E. Housman

Celebrating some of 2000AD's unsung heroes

A prominent 2000AD creator recently published a list of unsung heroes from the weekly's 40 year history, all of them deserving recognition for their contribution. Well, here's another list of heroes from various periods in the Galaxy's greatest comic.

RICHARD BURTON
Less than a dozen editors have spent any time in the big chair at 2000AD, so there's not many people who understand the unique stresses and strains that come with the Rosette of Sirius. Among those few, Richard gets little credit for doing a sterling job in near-impossible circumstances. He took over when creative talent was leaving for the promise of recognition and royalties elsewhere.

Richard kept the comic going and managed to turn things around, putting together an amazing run of iconic stories and art. The Horned God, Zenith, Necropolis, the death of Johnny Alpha - all part of his tenure. So time were Button Man, Hewligan's Haircut, and the first graphic novel collections. Richard also had the tricky task of introducing colour to the prog, and responding to the advent of Toxic.

Were there mistakes along the way? Of course. Any 2000AD editor who claims to have presided over a perfect era is deluding themselves, just like any creator who always finds someone else to blame when things go wrong. But Richard deserves credit for the many things his editorship did achieve, often against overwhelming odds and amid endless mockery of his droid counterpart Burt.

STEVE YEOWELL
This artist has been around the pages of 2000AD for the better part of thirty years, a consumate professional who always delivers. From his early work on Zenith through strips like Maniac 5, Devlin Waugh, Red Seas and many more, Steve is the artist any editor wants to employ. He can draw scripts that appear impossible, sending them on time, every time. You want storytelling that looks effortless? You want an artist who doesn't need their ego stroked to get the job done? Send for Steve Yeowell.

CHRIS BLYTHE
Colourists don't get noticed, unless they mess up. It is one of the invisible jobs in comics, along with lettering and design and - to an extent - editing. A great colourist serves the story and  artist, and Chris is a great colourist. He took computer colouring in 2000AD great leaps forward, enhancing the look of Judge Dredd in particular and the comic as a whole. I'm not sure I ever met Chris, but he did stellar work week in, week out. Most everything looks better with Chris on colouring.

JOHN TOMLINSON
Another former editor of 2000AD, and a writer for the Galaxy's greatest comic as well. John was a freelance assistant in the early 1990s and became editor for a spell, working with Steve MacManus after the previous incumbent was made redundant in a brutal round of cost-cutting. John didn't have long to make his mark as editor, but his contributions are still important such as commissioning Nikolai Dante and America II. He also wrote two under-appreciated strips - the anarchic Armoured Gideon, and the more measured Mercy Heights.

THE LETTERERS
Just as great colourists go unnoticed, so do wonderful letterers - and 2000AD has been served by some giants in that area. The legendary Tom Frame, the wonderful Annie Parkhouse and Ellie de Ville, plus craftsmen like Steve Potter and more recently Simon Bowland. You don't appreciate how good these people are until you attempt some lettering for yourself. It's a skill and an art, leading the eye around the page, shaping the narrative while remaining unnoticed. Truly, letterers are heroes.

AND SO MANY MORE...
Artists like Simon Davis and Colin MacNeil, pouring all their talents and their creative energies into telling stories through paint. Amazing cover artists like Jason Brashill and Mark Harrison, who can bring the front of a comic to life - and who are no slouches at storytelling inside that cover. Art editors and designers like Steve Cook, whose iconic logo still graces the front of 2000AD today and deservedly so.

And the current editor Matt Smith, longest-serving of all the Thargs by many years - he may not be a screaming extrovert like some predecessors, but his time in the Command Module has proven to be among the most fruitful, most trouble-free and more important in 2000AD history. Long may he wear the Rosette of Sirius with pride!

The Top 10 covers I commissioned for 2000AD titles

The 40th anniversary edition of THRILL-POWER OVERLOAD, the unfiltered history of 2000AD by myself and Karl Stock, has reminded me of the amazing talents with whom I was lucky enough to work. I spent twelve years in editorial on various 2000AD titles from 1990 until 2001, going from freelance to staff and back to freelance again.

During that time I commissioned close to 500 different covers from dozens of different artists. Just for fun, here are my top 10 picks from among the many. I could easily have picked another 40 for this list, but these ten will do as a representative sample for today...

Pop Art inspired piece by Sean Phillips for the Judge Dredd Megazine's relaunch as a fortnightly title in 1992 - and this really did pop on the shelves. It was an experimental effort, but one that worked well and was distinctly different from other comics of the time.

Dean Ormston painted this lush image of the Dark Judges for The Complete Judge Dredd, a monthly re-presenting the future lawman's stories in order. It gave 1990s artists a chance to homage to classic strips - in this case, Brian Bolland's Judge Death Lives.

A portrait of Judge Hershey for the Megazine by Simon Davis, now better known for his work on Sinister Dexter and Sláine. Outside the world of British comics, Simon is an acclaimed portrait artist so he was the perfect choice for this striking image of Hershey.

Dozens of the covers I commissioned were homages to artists and striking images. For this Sláine cover I asked Duncan Fegredo to channel Gustav Klimt. It was a fun subversion to have the male character naked and the woman fully clothed for a change.

Jock painted a cracking Missionary Man cover for the Judge Dredd Megazine but the image didn't work with our required elements until I tried an extreme close-up, running the text down one side like an old Wanted poster.Not perfect, but eye-catching.

Steven Cook was 2000AD's art editor for many years and always eager to push the design envelope. He was creating some amazing photo imagery for other titles, so when Devlin Waugh went Bollywood it seemed the perfect opportunity to challenge the norm.

I have an abiding aversion to periodicals who put snow on their logo for the Xmas issue, but am not averse to theming a cover should a fitting idea arise. Kevin Walker provided this festive image for the Megazine, a change from his familiar fully painted style.

Another homage cover, this time spoofing a Tim Bradstreet painting for the Vertigo crime anthology comic mini-series Gangland. The redoubtable Cliff Robinson drew Dredd on the porcelain throne, reflecting a wry Gordon Rennie & Chris Weston story inside.

Dermot Power is a great artist who now works almost exclusively in design for films, a sad loss for comics. I managed to lure him back a few times to provide covers, and this image is a corker. I love how it captures Devlin Waugh's utter nonchalance.

The best single issue I edited, with my all-time favourite cover. Brian Bolland provided this homage to the Iwo Jima flag-raising photo by Joe Rosenthal, with 2000AD characters atop a mound of past British comics - a tribute to those who went before...

2000AD event with acclaimed comics artist Colin MacNeil at Biggar Library this Saturday, Feb 18th

There's a special event at Biggar Library from 1pm this Saturday - February 18th- to celebrate the launch of THRILL-POWER OVERLOAD, an unfiltered history of iconic British comic 2000AD written by me with additional material by Karl Stock. [I was editor of 2000AD from 1996 until the year 2000 when I moved to Biggar!]

Joining me at the signing event is acclaimed Scottish comics artist Colin MacNeil, who will sketching and talking about his work. Celebrated for drawing beloved 2000AD characters like Judge Dredd and Chopper, Colin has also illustrated Captain America, Batman and Conan the Barbarian in an amazing career spanning thirty years.

This special event is being organised by Biggar Library and Biggar's own Atkinson-Pryce Books, the Scottish Independent Bookshop of the Year for 2016. The event is free, but please let the library know you are coming by calling 01899 222 060 before Saturday.

Copies of THRILL-POWER OVERLOAD will be available to buy on the day. This heavily illustrated, glossy colour hardback costs £35, but everyone who buys a copy on the day also gets a bundle of 2000AD or Dredd comics from my private collection as a bonus.

Loving the Alien: a guide to running 2000AD [c.2000]

THRLL-POWER OVERLOAD - an unfiltered history of iconic British comic 2000AD - is published this week in a new to celebrate the anthology's 40th anniversary. Written by me and Karl Stock, this lushly illustrated hardback tome reveals how the Galaxy's greatest comic was born, prospered and survived 40 years - often against the odds.

When I was stepping down as editor of 2000AD - in the summer of 2000- I wrote a bluffer's guide to running the weekly. Andy Diggle was succeeding me, but he was getting a new assistant and I thought a little background might be helpful. [That person proved to be Matt Smith, who's run the comic since 2002 - an epic stint.]

Just for fun, here is a lightly edited version of that guide. Advances in comics creation and publishing mean much of the content is out of date, even quaint by 2017 standards, and some of what's included is verging on the arcane that will fascinate only the most obsessive  [people like me, frankly]. But it might be of interest to some, so let the editorial burbling commence...

1.    Who does what for the Galaxy’s greatest comic

2000 AD is currently put together by a dedicated editorial team of 1.8 people. That breaks down to one full-time editor (David Bishop – DB hereafter), a part-time assistant editor (Andy Diggle – AD hereafter) and a part-time designer (Steve Cook – SC here after).

• DB has resigned as editor of 2000 AD and finishes on June 29, 2000.

He will be replaced by AD as editor, effective June 30, 2000.

• AD is currently editor of the Judge Dredd Megazine (40% of his time, editor of Sonic the Comic (20%) and assistant editor of 2000 AD (40%).

(From July, Sonic the Comic  will pass to another editor at Egmont Fleetway. The Megazine will be edited by DB on a freelance, out-of-house basis from July, leaving Andy to work solely on 2000 AD.)

• SC designs 2000 AD on a part-time contract with Egmont Fleetway, two days a week. His official title is Art Editor of 2000 AD.

(N.B. Egmont Fleetway is currently advertising for an Editorial Assistant to work on 2000 AD full-time. It is hoped to have this person in place before DB’s departure from Egmont Fleetway.)

Other people at Egmont Fleetway whose work contributes to 2000 AD:-

• Managing Editor Steve MacManus – a former editor of 2000 AD, he offers editorial support if needed for holiday or sickness cover. He has little day to day input on the title.

• Product Manager Jess Manu and Marketing Assistant Jane Ballard – responsible for all promotions, cover-mounts and subscriptions.

• Marketing Manager Jon Rissik – effectively the publisher of 2000 AD, responsible for managing the title including budget control, circulation management, all marketing and promotions activities.

• Production Manager Sarah Colley – responsible for all production processes between editorial and distribution i.e. repro, printing, paper buying, contract negotiation of all elements of production process.

• Accounts Department – responsible for payroll, bought ledger (i.e. payments to contributors, contractors), royalties, budget monitoring.

• Syndication Manager Martin Morgan – responsible for all aspects of international publishing syndication of 2000 AD content; for control and storage of the 2000 AD archive of back issues, films and CDs; and for sending international courier packages.

• Executive Editor Gil Page – responsible for negotiating all licensing and merchandising deals e.g. action figures, video games etc.

2.    The Commissioning Process

All 2000 AD stories, artwork and cover images are created by self-employed freelancers who work from their own premises. They are commissioned by the editorial team – usually the editor, although there is flexibility about who deals with whom on a daily basis.

Covers: these are commissioned at any time up to a week before they are needed to go to repro. Ideally key cover art should be available four months in advance of publication, so it can be supplied to Diamond Comic Distributors for promotional purposes in the crucial Previews catalogue. Some covers are fully painted but most are either fully rendered on computer by the artist, or else drawn in black and white by an artist and then given to a colourist to fully render on computer.

Artists are required to submit a sketch first for our approval before being verbally given the go-ahead. Sometimes we pre-design covers to show artists the sort of thing we want, but we still require a sketch from them to confirm mutual comprehension of the concept.

Scripts: these are commissioned from freelance writers by the editorial team. Some stories are driven by ideas from the team, sometimes ideas are suggested as springboards for stories, but most are the creation of the writer. Generally writers are required to submit a plot synopsis first for approval before they are commissioned to script it.

Most scripts are now submitted via email. The bulk of 2000 AD is written by a handful of scribes. Longer serials are generally written with a specific artist in mind, as this helps build teamwork between the creators. Most 2000 AD writers work for more than one employer. They also tend to be writing more than one series for 2000 AD at any given time. Once a synopsis has been agreed, the story is verbally commissioned and terms agreed.

All stories for 2000 AD are commissioned on the basis that we acquire all rights in the material, in exchange for paying the creators a royalty and acknowledging them as the creators wherever possible. Contracts are only issued when a new series is being created for 2000 AD, to establish precedent. Thereafter all subsequent commissions for that series are made on the same terms as the initial contract. We currently issue a publishing contract and a separate audio/visual rights contract, which are prepared by the editor based on templates from our lawyers.

Artwork: this is commissioned from freelance artists by the editorial team. We send the artist a full script for each episode they are to draw, having agreed terms and a timetable for delivery. In some cases artists are issued with a written timetable, particularly if a job is time sensitive or the artist wants time keeping guidance.

Some artists are required to submit thumbnails or breakdowns of their work at an early stage. This is used to watch for any potential problems with story-telling, style and the art size – particularly with new artists being nurtured.

Some artists only pencil their pages, some deliver fully inked black and white art, some fully paint their jobs, others computer render their work. They are generally commissioned to do whatever they do best. The only exception is where artists are only asked to do part of a job (e.g. just the B&W art) because it enhances productivity if the colouring is done by someone else while the artist works on the next episode.

Like writers, artists who create new series are issued with publishing and audio/visual rights contracts. Unlike most writers, artists can require more attention to get their best work from them in a timely fashion. 2000 AD draws from a stable of about 40 artists, although only a dozen are in perpetual work for us.

We are moving towards having artists scan their mono art and supply that digitally to us – either on disc, via email or on “blind” pages on their own websites. This has already been done successfully as a pilot scheme with artist Simon Fraser, who lives in Vienna. It cuts down on courier and postage costs and speeds the editorial process.

Colouring: About half the strips in 2000 AD are coloured by specialists, rather than by the original artist. All specialist colouring is now done on computer and supplied on disc, which has dramatically cut the cost and time required for the production processes. Colouring is commissioned verbally with the colourist sent a copy of the script along with the physical art to work on.

Colourists get between £50 and £60 per page for their work. This may seem high in comparison to writers’ rates (between £35 and £80 a page, the average is £50), but colourists receive no royalties or secondary income from their work.

Lettering: All the strips in 2000 AD are lettering by self-employed freelancers on computer. We use four letterers on five strips – Tom Frame (Judge Dredd), Ellie De Ville (Sinister Dexter and others), Annie Parkhouse (Nikolai Dante and others), Steve Potter (whatever’s left). All the letterers have developed unique fonts, based on their own hand lettering style. Letterers are paid £20 per page.

Lettering could be done in-house, but it is quite time consuming. Our freelance letterers have invested heavily - and at their own expense - to go fully digital, so the work should remain with them. Lettering costs 2000 AD about £28,000 in fees per year.

3.    The Editorial Budget

Page Rates: These are set by a combination of historical precedent, budgetary constraints and quality. 2000 AD’s base rates have hardly shifted in the past 10 years. Base rate for new writers is £35 per page; for artists it is £120 for mono art and £180 for colour art. Lately we have been having more pencil and ink art splits, where base rates are £70 and £40 per page respectively. Base rate for colouring is £50.

Rates vary depending upon length of service – stay in work long enough for 2000 AD, your rate will creep up. Quality of output is another major factor, as is its importance to the comic – that’s why John Wagner gets more for Dredd than for writing other strips. Generally, colour art is set at mono page rate plus 50%.

As a rule of thumb, pages rates are set at the following levels for budgetary reasons: script costs should average £50 per page across an issue; art costs (including colouring) should average £200 per page; and lettering is uniformly £20 per page. Cover art usually costs £350. Where a strip is being published in black and white, we expect to pay up to £150 to get the best quality mono art.

Editorial Budget: From July 2000, the weekly will have 27 pages of strip, of which five pages will be mono art. This means the average editorial cost of each prog will be as follows:-

27 pages script @ £50 = £1350

22 pages colour art @ £200 = £4400

05 pages mono art @ £150 = £750

27 pages lettering @ £20 = £540

01 page cover art @ £350 = £350

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

Total average cost = £7400

Each year 2000 AD publishes 49 standard 32-page progs, plus an end-of-year 100-page special issue which features 67 pages of strip. So the editorial budget for 2001 using the current format and page rates would be about £382,000. (It’s worth noting the 1996 editorial budget was over £500k – this has been slashed through editorial prudence.)

4.    The Backwards Extrapolation Art of Scheduling

2000 AD is an anthology title that usually runs five different strips in each issue. Judge Dredd appears in every prog over six pages. The final strip in each prog is also six pages long, while the three middle stories are five page episodes. Stories can run to any length, from one-off completes like Tharg’s Future Shocks to 26-part mega-epics. Over a year 2000 AD publishes nearly 1400 pages of new strip by dozens of different creators all working at different speeds in different locations.

As you can imagine, scheduling stories in 2000 AD can be a tad tricky.

A few simple rules have been developed to make easier the process of keeping this almost infinite assortment of plates spinning successfully. Never start running a multi-part serial until you have at least 70% of the artwork in hand. Choose your artists very carefully and monitor their time-keeping rigorously. Most crucially, use the art of backwards extrapolation when doing forward planning.

When trying to estimate when a new serial will be available for publication, we always calculate when the final episode should be completed and work backwards from that date. No artist works fast enough to produce an episode a week these days, so we have to stockpile artwork in advance to make sure we don’t run out halfway through a serial.

Here’s an example. In mid July John Burns will be available to begin painting Book IV of Nikolai Dante’s Tsar Wars saga. Book IV will be 12 episodes of six pages each. John Burns will produce one episode every four weeks on average. That means it will take him about 48 weeks to paint Book IV, not allowing time off for holidays or illness. So John Burns should finish painting Book IV by mid June 2001. Allow a week for lettering and the final part of Book IV should be ready to go to repro by the end of June, 2001.

2000 AD goes to repro about five weeks before it appears in shops. So at the end of June 2001, we will be sending Prog 1254 off to repro. That means Part 12 of Nikolai Dante: Tsar Wars Book IV could appear in Prog 1254, which goes on sale August 8^th 2001. By backwards extrapolation, that means the serial could begin with Part 1 being published in Prog 1243, due to repro April 16^th, going on sale May 23^rd, 2001.

In fact, we have scheduled this serial to begin seven weeks later in Prog 1250 (due to repro June 4^th, on sale July 11^th). That issue will be the Summer relaunch with a line-up of  new Thrills beginning inside. This also allows an extra seven weeks safety margin. It’s worth noting that in this example, John Burns will have completed 11 out of 12 episodes before his first episode goes to repro.

Obviously, this stockpiling of work in progress requires financial investment and careful planning. 2000 AD has about £150,000 tied up in stock (scripts and artwork for future publication) at any given time. If you want great stories and art by top creators next year, you have to get them working on that material now!

5.    Getting the Prog Ready for Repro

Being a weekly, 2000 AD sends a new issue off to repro every seven days, usually each Monday – this is called our “press day”. It happens five weeks before the comic is due to go on sale. For example, Prog 1205 goes on sale August 9^th, 2000.  It is due to repro on Monday, July 3^rd.

Where we have painted colour artwork to appear in the prog, we send this to repro ahead of the rest of the issue for advance scanning. Our repro house supplies these hi-res scans to us on CD, from which we create low resolution images for use by the letterers. At present, it is rare for more than six pages in any prog to be painted art.

Ideally, all the colour artwork is ready a week before it is due to repro. The editorial team sub-edits the scripts and artwork for the episodes which will appear in that prog, to create the best version of the script for telling the story in harmony with the finished artwork.

Low resolution (72dpi) versions of the art for each page are positioned into a Quark Xpress document, along with the standard series logo, story title, part number and credit card EPS. A hard copy of this document is printed out for reference, while the low res art and Quark file are loaded onto a zip disc. This disc and the subbed script are given to the relevant freelance letterer, who has a week to letter the story and return it to the editorial team.

Three of the four letterers working for 2000 AD (Tom Frame, Steve Potter and Ellie De Ville) letter their strips in Quark, using unique fonts they have developed for the job. The other letterer, Annie Parkhouse, does her work in Illustrator and supplies EPSs of each page of lettering. Again, this is done in her own, unique font.

The lettering process has recently been stream-lined to go all-digital, but there are further improvements to be made. For example, most scripts are now supplied via email, so the subbed scripts could be supplied to the letterers on disc. Equally, the judicious use of ISDN for trafficking lettering files would also speed delivery. (Why not use email, you ask? Emailing 5MB files can be time consuming…)

By press day, we should have in hand all the colour strip artwork, already lettered and pretty much ready to go – from Prog 1200 that will constitute 27 pages of each 32 page prog. The other five pages are editorial content – the front cover; Nerve Centre (our contents page); a house ad page for the Megazine, subscriptions or relevant merchandise offers; Input (our letters page); and the Next Prog page.

These five pages are written by the editorial team and designed by Art Editor Steve Cook. Steve also designs all the DTP elements on the strip pages, usually just on the first and last pages of each episode. Steve Cook works two days a week designing 2000 AD, on a part-time contract. With the stream-lining of the lettering process, the amount of time required to design a standard issue of 2000 AD is decreasing. But it does require more design work by the permanent editorial team.

6.    The Production Process

Once a week a new issue of 2000 AD is sent to repro. At present, our repro house is Elements in Leeds (formerly Pre Press Services). They take all our digital files and run these through a rip, bringing all the elements of each page together as a single digital file. Elements outputs a set of digital proofs for each page and sends these to 2000 AD for checking and approval. Where alteration or correction is required, these changes are communicated to Elements.

Once the editorial team is happy with the final version, the proofs are sent back to Elements. The repro house then creates PDFs (portable document formats) of the issue and supplies these on disc to the printers (at present this is Goodhead in Bicester).

2000 AD used to be printed conventionally using four colour films. But the shift to digital lettering made it possible to shift to film-less printing. Previously the printers created photographic plates from the four colour films, now they make laser-etched plates from the digital instruction on the disc supplied by the repro house.

The printers create running sheet proofs from the PDFs for final checking by the editorial team, to ensure no elements have been lost during the repro process. Once these are approved, the issue is printed, bound, trimmed and bundled for collection by TNT.

Elements are allowed a week to do the repro work on 2000 AD – it takes nine days in the schedule because the job travels overnight between London and Leeds.

It’s worth noting that the change to all digital repro has brought substantial savings. At the start of this year the cost of repro was cut from £40 per page to £32 per page, in recognition of the increasingly digital nature of the material supplied. The official repro budget for 2000 AD this year is £51,916 in total, which equals £1018 per prog.

Now that 2000 AD’s lettering is all-digital, Elements has agreed to a split differential for repro. Pages with painted art requiring scanning now cost £30 per page, while the all digital pages cost £22 per page. This brings the average repro cost of an issue down to £752, saving more than £250 per week (about £13,000 per year).

It may be possible to eliminate using a repro house for most of the process, but this would requiring employing someone to create the PDFs – a time consuming and mind-numbing process. This could shave nearly £30,000 off the repro budget – but money would instead have to be spent on staff and equipment.

7.    Display Advertising in 2000 AD

This  appears so infrequently in 2000 AD as to be invisible. According to the published budget, the comic is supposed to generate £20,900 in ad revenue this year – only £400 per prog. In the first six months of the year, the comic has only had 2.25 pages of paid display advertising. It has had loose inserted flyers for book clubs too, but efforts to sell ad space in the weekly have been risible.

At present 2000 AD survives on its sales revenue alone. Selling one page of advertising into each prog would generate £50,000 revenue a year – a substantial contribution to the financial health of the weekly. This is an area where a little concerted effort, skill and enthusiasm can make a major difference to 2000 AD.

8.    Distribution and Circulation of 2000 AD

Here the editorial team has to plead ignorance. Andy and I have a little working knowledge but this has been gleaned from training courses and an induction day with our current distributors, Seymour. To learn more about this part of publishing 2000 AD, you need true experts. I have enclosed the handout notes from a highly recommended course run by the PPA in London – well worth attending. I would also suggest attending a PPA course called How the Newstrade Works. Both these courses are a half day each and convey essential information.

9.    2000 AD Subscriptions

2000 AD should have a much higher level of subscriptions. The last readership survey in 1998 indicated that 92% of respondents buy every prog. But only 7.5% subscribe to the Galaxy’s greatest comic. At present we have about 1800 subscribers from an average weekly sale of 24,000 (including subs and export).

Subscriptions have been one of the few areas where Fleetway has invested time and money, growing subs from 1500 last Christmas to the current levels. Former marketing manager Douglas Pocock was responsible for this focus on subs, because he believed 2000 AD should become a subscription only title (or be sold off).

Logically, the comic should have a higher subscription base – 23 out of 25 readers buy every issue every week, it’s cheaper to subscribe than to buy at a newsagent (£1.25 versus £1.40), and subscribers get their progs up to five days in advance of the comic appearing in shops.

However, British consumers expect to be able to buy any title they want from their local newsagent. They are resistant to subscribing because they prefer to retain their freedom of choice about whether or not to purchase a particular issue. Overcoming this mindset in a major obstacle to any attempt to take 2000 AD all-subscription.

Recent subs promotions have included:- a copy of BATMAN/JUDGE DREDD: Die Laughing Collected Edition; a STAR WARS or INVISIBLES graphic novel; a pewter Dredd keyring; mousemats; posters; t-shirts; and a variety of price incentives. No data is currently available about which of these promotions have been most successful.

10. 2000 AD Licensing

In the early 1990s Copyright Promotions Limited (CPL hereafter) acted as Egmont Fleetway’s Licensing agency. After the failure of the Stallone Dredd film, interest in licensing 2000 AD-related concepts died away and CPL ceased being our agents. Since 1996 Egmont Fleetway has adopted a passive attitude to licensing character universes from 2000 AD.

The company has fielded inquiries through Gil Page and negotiated deals where possible, but it has not actively gone out hawking these character universes to potential licensees such as computer games developers and the like. The sole exception was Fleetway Film and Television (FFTV hereafter), a company set up to find development deals for 2000 AD film and TV projects (live action or animated).

FFTV was not a great success, only setting up deals for Strontium Dog and Outlaw TV movies with Evolve Entertainment, to be sold on to America’s Showtime cable channel. FFTV’s best success was starting to address the black hole regarding the lack of paperwork proving Egmont Fleetway’s ownership of the audio/visual rights in its own characters. Otherwise FFTV just soaked up a lot of time and money for little return.

Current deals (not including syndicated publishing):-

Action figures          - Re:Action Figures launches Wave II this Autumn

Graphic novels       - Hamlyn is negotiating a new deal for 4 colour books

                                    - Titan Book is negotiating for several b&w books

CCG                            - Round Table wants to expand the deal for its Judge

Dredd collectible card game – but has real problems

Video Games           - Acclaim published a film-related Dredd game in ‘95

                                    - Gremlin published a non-film Dredd game in ‘97

11. Royalties

Egmont Fleetway prepares royalty statements once a year, with the royalty period covering the 12 month period between the preceding July and June (e.g. July 1999 – June 2000). The statements are currently prepared by David Webb in the Egmont Fleetway accounts department, based on information supplied to him from 2000 AD editorial, Martin Morgan in syndication and external licensees.

Once royalty statements are prepared, these are passed to editorial for final checking before being sent out to the relevant creators, along with a covering letter inviting them to invoice for the appropriate amount. (An example of a typical set of royalties is enclosed with this guide.) We do not send out statements if the amount involved is less than £20. These are carried forward to the next royalty period, along with any royalties which go unclaimed by any creators (total is usually £500).

CPL was Egmont Fleetway’s licensing agents for much of the 1990s and still has involvement in certain contracts. The Judge Dredd Megazine generates a reprint fee for the relevant writer and artist (£7.50 and £15 per page respectively) for any 2000 AD story re-run in its pages.

Egmont Fleetway’s Martin Morgan syndicates 2000 AD material around the world, regularly sending courtesy copies of the comic to his contacts in various countries. He also responds to inquiries from potential new syndication clients. Martin supplies data from these deals to accounts for preparation of royalty statements, cross-checking allocation accuracy with the 2000 AD editorial team.

Express Newspapers’ Daily Star published a Judge Dredd adventure strip for 17 years and continues to syndicate this material around the world. However, detailed information is rarely supplied by Express Newspapers, making it  difficult to create a meaningful breakdown of which creators should get what from the total – usually about £300.

Royalties come in from licensees who publish graphic novels starring 2000 AD characters – Titan Books, Hamlyn (formerly Octopus) and Dark Horse Comics. Royalties also arise from any and all other merchandising, such as the Round Table Dredd card game, Gremlin Interactive’s Judge Dredd Playstation game and others. Re:Action Figures will be declaring royalties for the 2000 AD action figures soon.

Egmont Fleetway pays reprint fees for any material it reprints in its own titles. These are almost always £7.50 per page for writers and £15 per page for artists. If we reprint 48 pages or more of a single story in a single publication, this is contractually classified as a graphic novel and the creators get a royalty instead of a reprint fee.

If there is more than one artist (e.g. a penciller and an inker), the reprint fee goes to the penciller unless the artists have made a special arrangement and told us about it.

Egmont Fleetway also pays royalties on any merchandise which we create and sell ourselves. In the past year we have launched a new range of 2000 AD merchandise, beginning with the Prog 2000 t-shirt. This merchandise is being created for us via a company called Mediator Marketing, which is handling fulfillment for a cut of the profits.

Here we pay creators an ex gratia payment of 10% of our net revenue from sales of the merchandise. This is split equally – 5% to the relevant writer, 5% to the relevant artist. However, if the item is drawn by someone other than the original artist creator, the royalty split alters because consumers are principally buying the specific imagery on the item. Then we split the 5% art royalty 80/20 – the actual artist whose work is being sold gets 4%, the character’s creator gets 1%.

In the case of the Prog 2000 t-shirt, this gets even more complicated because it features five characters. The writer split is fairly straight forward, going to Pat Mills (1% as creator of Nemesis), Robbie Morrison (1% as creator of Nikolai Dante), Gerry Finley-Day (1% as creator of Rogue Trooper),  and John Wagner (2% as creator of Judge Dredd and Strontium Dog).

But when it comes to the art split, the headaches really begin. The actual t-shirt artist Brian Bolland will get 4% of our net revenue. The other 1% of the art royalty is split between Kevin O’Neill (0.2% as creator of Nemesis), Simon Fraser (0.2% as creator of Nikolai Dante), Dave Gibbons (0.2% as creator of Nemesis), and Carlos Ezquerra (0.4% as creator of Judge Dredd and Strontium Dog).

N.B. Royalties from the Egmont Fleetway/DC Comics co-publishing deals for Judgement on Gotham and Die Laughing are issued separately from the main royalties to avoid confusion. Again, these statements are prepared and issued by Egmont Fleetway accounts department, based on information from our sales and from DC Comics. For convoluted historical reasons, DC Comics prepares and issues royalty statements for Vendetta on Gotham, The Ultimate Riddle and Dredd/Lobo.

12. 2000 AD’s Archives

The 2000 AD archive is a mess. Originally, as each prog was published, the films were collected into a large brown envelope, labeled and stored at the archive. But then the problems began…

The best material was loaned to publishers around the world for syndication and some of it never came back. Films were taken from the original prog envelopes for use in Fleetway’s own reprint titles and then stored in a fresh envelope, marked with the name of the reprint title (e.g. Best of 2000 AD).

Recently the entire film archive was shifted and became completely jumbled as a result. Martin Morgan has begun a two-month project to sort out this mammoth mess. Once completed, it would be best if all 2000 AD-related material was shifted to its own storage facility.

Consider this fact: there have been about 1200 issues of 2000 AD, each with at least 32 pages. That’s 38,400 pages in the archive. About half those pages are made up of four individual films. That’s about 86,000 pages of film. Then there’s all the reprint titles (nearly 200 issues in total), the Judge Dredd Megazine films (nearly 180 issues) and the archive probably comprises more than 100,000 pieces of film.

Ideally, 2000 AD’s back catalogue would be stored in a digital archive. However, transferring the archive to digital format is a massive task that would take a lot of time and money. It’s worth noting that 2000 AD is now archived onto disc – this began circa Prog 1144 last May. It’s also worth noting that 2000 AD is now published as an all-digital product – there are no films created for current progs.

13. Exploiting 2000 AD’s back catalogue

The Galaxy’s greatest comic has a stunning archive of material by top creators. However, perhaps only 2000 pages of this (about 5%) is currently in print. That means the vast majority of the comic’s history is out of print. At the time of writing [summer 2000], you can no longer buy the Ballad of Halo Jones, Judge Death Lives, early ABC Warriors or anything starring Rogue Trooper, Robo Hunter, Zenith and many other great characters in English. (Some  are available in other languages.)

Hamlyn Publishing and Titan Books for currently negotiating for graphic novel reprint rights for several stories (in colour and mono respectively), but both are currently out of contract. There is no on-going programme of republishing 2000 AD’s classic comics material.

Earlier this year 2000 AD editorial began investigating the possibilities of short run digital printing of our own line of graphic novels. These would utilise the new digital archive to reprint recent popular hit series like Glimmer Rats and Nemesis X: The Final Conflict.

These could be a nice little earner if the books were sold off the page and carefully managed. For example, a collected edition of the black and white series Nemesis X selling for £6.99 would only have to sell 420 copies from a print run of 1000 to break even. If that print run sold out, it would make £2820. Increase the print run to 2000 copies and the break even rises to 540 copies. But a sell out would generate more than £7000 revenue after royalties have been paid to the creators!

Printing in colour is currently more expensive and pushes up costs but could still be lucrative. For example, the colour series Glimmer Rats selling at £7.50 would need 680 copies from a print run of 1000 to break even. A sell out would make £1730. Take the print run up to 2000 and break even in 900 copies, with a sell out making nearly £6000.

Hamlyn is only interested in publishing graphic novels featuring either Judge Dredd or Sláine, while Titan wants to reprint books it has already published such as Halo Jones and DR & Quinch.

There is money to be made 2000 AD’s vast archive. It seems insane to spend all this money originating great new material which only goes on sale for seven days before disappearing forever. Would Madonna spend a year preparing her new album then only have it available to buy for a week? 2000 AD's back catalogue is a huge potential revenue stream – it should be exploited!