For modern comics, it’s not often that we get to see a series go very long. Renumberings and relaunches abound these days, as publishers try to dazzle the jaded masses with something shiny and new every few weeks. While that may be good enough for most companies, the folks over at 2000 AD have been fighting the good fight for nearly forty years, and they’ve got the numbering to prove it!
Tomorrow sees the release of the landmark 2000th issue of “2000 AD,” and they’ve got a hell of a line-up to celebrate with. Classic characters and legendary creators are returning to the comics magazine to commemorate the event, but that doesn’t mean that this is going to be nostalgia-driven event. The issue will see all new content, and even the launch of a brand-new series by Peter Milligan and Rufus Dayglo.
You may remember those guys from the stellar “Bad Company” strip they turned out last year, and now they’ve reunited to point toward the future of this long-running comics anthology. The series is called “Counterfeit Girl,” and it explores the idea of identity theft in the future. Things go beyond names and social security numbers here, as it seems the truest elements of a human’s identity are what’s at stake. In this hyper-saturated, patchwork future minute details, down to the behaviors of one’s posterior, can lead to one person assuming the identity of another. I’m thrilled that Peter and Rufus were able to take a little bit of time out of their schedules to talk with me about it.
Since this is a landmark issue, I just wanted to start out by asking both of you what your first experiences with 2000 AD were?
Rufus Dayglo: I sent art samples to 2000 AD many times as a teenager, as I was desperate to work for the galaxy’s finest…thankfully (for the readers) they kept rejecting my samples… but I persevered, and eventually I was offered a Future Shock story by Tharg the Mighty One (‘Future Shocks’ are short self contained stories, usually intended as try-outs for new artists and writers, a real trial by fire!) and luckily I seemed to have fooled them into letting me continue to draw for them ever since!
Peter Milligan: My first experiences would have been through Brett Ewins and Brendan McCarthy, seeing some of the artwork they were working on and some of the comics they had lying around. Reading 2000 AD was something of an eye-opener, it seemed to suggest a world of strangeness and occasional social satire but what got my attention was it seemed to possess a quite British quality, maybe the humor, maybe the eccentricity, it seemed to mark it out as different from any other comic I’d seen.
Am I right in thinking that you both started professionally in comics through 2000 AD? I know you each have some “Future Shock” credits pretty early on in your careers.
RD: Professionally in comics the Future Shock was my start in Comics. I’d done a lot of fanzine work, and also worked professionally as a 2D animator for Warner Brothers and other companies… so by the time I got my chance to do a Future Shock I was better prepared to work for 2000 AD. 2000 AD has been the standard bearer for British comics for 40 years…so it’s a big deal working for them.
PM: Kind of right. I was certainly writing Future Shocks in the early days. I’d send in a few ideas and they’d – hopefully – pick out the ones they liked. When things were really good I’d go into the office and get taken out for a lunch. Living the dream! But around about this time I was always working with Brett and Brendan on some independent USA comics on Freakwave, some other stories for Pacific comics, and what would eventually become Strange Days.
The last time I recall seeing you two working together was with Jim McCarthy on the return of “Bad Company.” Is “Counterfeit Girl” a story the two started kicking around following that experience? How’d this strip come together?
RD: Peter had pitched the Counterfeit Girl script to Tharg the Mighty One, our editor, and kindly asked me to do some art samples for Matt Smith, Tharg’s human representative on Terra. Matt sent them to Tharg the Mighty one, and Tharg agreed not to have me sent to MekQuake for droid reprocessing….for now! Working with Peter is a real thrill, as I’ve been a huge fan of his writing since I was young, as I was obsessed with Bad Company and ‘Sooner or Later’, two of my favourite Milligan 2000 AD strips. He has a razor sharp sense of humour, and combines it with a very surreal take on scifi, like Philip K. Dick.
Continued belowPM: We weren’t kicking this one around together. As Rufus says, I showed this one to Matt Smith (AKA The Mighty Tharg) and moved ahead with it. But I’d really enjoyed working with Rufus on Bad Company and knew he could really bring something to the story. Matt was in agreement, so Rufus came on board. Once on board, Rufus had some really interesting ideas and we kicked some stuff around.
The world this story takes place in is dense, to say the least. Crowds, background characters, fashion and funny signage (‘Digi Sexy Time XXX’ is a favorite) are just a few of the considerations that go into every page of the story. Is there a back and forth between the two of you on what the look of the comic should be?
RD: Peter has been very generous, and trusted me to design something that will hopefully do his script justice. The story had all the elements I love, a self contained world of insane inanities, and held together with pipes and cable ties. I wanted a broken future, but something hopefully more colourful than a lot of sci-fi these days, as it’s all gone rather monochromatic, so I purposefully designed it to be like a ‘60s Steranko/Ditko comicbook.
I’ve always enjoyed adding details, and Counterfeit Girl affords me the perfect opportunity to add in all sorts of crazy stuff, from glowing digi-squids, killer floating eyeballs and very silly neon signs!
PM: Yes, we wanted something that looked different and I think we’ve really achieved that! I had a clear idea what I wanted the story to be about and to look about: running through the story there’s the sense of identity confusion, of a world where you can change ids or personas so often you might lose sight of who you ‘really’ are and we wanted the look and feel of the story to reflect this confusion. And we wanted it to look bloody cool and weird and all that. Rufus’ art and Dom Regan’s colours are really exceptional on this.
It seems to me that, in an issue full of classic characters, your strip was chosen to point readers toward the future of the magazine. What was the reaction to learning that “Counterfeit Girl” would be debuting in Prog 2000? Did it make you view the work in a different way?
RD: It certainly made my stomach lurch… to be published alongside my childhood heroes is both a dream come true, and absolutely terrifying. I hope people will enjoy Counterfeit Girl. It’s been so much fun to make, designing crazy stuff, Dom Regan’s mental colouring and Peter’s scripts…it’s a dream come true for me. 2000 AD has a history of introducing new characters and Matt Smith, our editor, has been instrumental in pushing 2000 AD forwards, and not sitting on former glories. So to have an issue with all the founding contributors, and have new series introduced at the same time shows his forward thinking. We’re lucky to have someone like him at the helm. He’s a very understated editor and doesn’t make a big song and dance about his own contribution, but as a contributor I have a lot of faith in his intergalactic editorial skill.
PM: It was great to hear that we were in this most important of issues, but it didn’t make me work in any different way. From the outset I wanted to create a new character that seemed to have that 2000 AD stamp to her, a new complex interesting female character that would have some longevity and hopefully become one of those classic 2000 AD characters (we all know who they are). For this to happen she needs to be an intriguing character and her world and the theme of the story need to have a lot of potential, I think we succeed on both these.
The one-pager that leads into your strip places Lulu, your lead in “Counterfeit Girl,” squarely in the pantheon of iconic, new characters like Judge Maitland, Zombo, Sensitive Klegg, Gene the Hackman, Resting Bitch Face and many others. Did you know in advance that the strip would be getting this kind of set up? And Rufus, what was it like seeing an artist like Boo Cook take a crack at Lulu?
Continued belowRD: It was a real thrill as Boo is a good friend of mine and an artist I greatly admire, so to have him draw her was a really lovely treat. Boo gave me a heads-up, and sneakily sent me a preview of the image and I felt so honoured!
PM: No, I’m just the writer. No one tells me anything!
So now that we’re on the eve of “Counterfeit Girl” seeing wide release, what’re your hopes for the series? Is this something you’d like to one day see different writers and artists work on?
PM: Wait, the first issue is only just only just out, I don’t want to be thinking about other people writing it yet. First, I’d like to explore some more avenues of Lulu’s life. The set up of the story really gives a lot of story potential, but in the future, yes, I think i can see other writers and artists messing up our character…I mean, taking our character to new and unforeseen heights….
RD: I’m hoping Peter, Dom Regan (our amazing colourist) and myself will return to counterfeit Girl. We have a lot of faith in her as a character. I want to draw more mental cityscapes, and explore her world and add more details and insane future fashions. This has been so much to work on, and we have an incredibly strong tight team. 2000 AD is our Alma Mater, and we want to bring our love of the Galaxy’s greatest comic book to a new generation of readers.
Peter and I have plans for further collaborations… Tharg willing!
Peter Milligan. Latrine boy, Bad Company, 19th Div.
Rufus Dayglo, Lance Corporal Laser pencil Trooper, Bad Company, 19th Div.
Tharg willing, indeed. Don’t miss tomorrow’s recap of “2000 AD” Prog 2000, where we’ll go deep into the entire, landmark issue as well as this month’s new “Judge Dredd Megazine.” It might just be the biggest, most thrill-dense installment of Multiver-City One to date!
