2000ADHD – A Prog a Day – Prog 318

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Welcome to my personal Prog slog through 2000AD. Here, I post daily about my favourite story from each Prog. I started doing this as a means of focusing my attention on something. A hobby, if you will. Something that will bring joy and fond memories for fans as well as draw attention to and hopefully bring in new readers to The Galaxy’s Greatest Comic. I have never read these Progs before. I recall reading some of Flesh at some point in my childhood, knew of Judge Dredd from a PlayStation One game and then the 1995 Movie, Rogue Trooper from the PlayStation 2 Game and had heard of other stories and seen other characters from seeing posts online. So I’m pretty much experiencing most of these stories as an intergalactic virgin. Or something. So if you are an established reader whose loyalty to Tharg has been unwavering, or if you’ve dropped off reading 2000AD, lie somewhere in between or if you are a newcomer to The Galaxy’s Greatest Comic then please let me know via the comments or hit me up on my socials!

Without further ado…

Welcome to Prog 318 featuring ‘Robo-Hunter, ‘Skizz‘, ‘Time Twisters‘, ‘Rogue Trooper‘ and ‘Judge Dredd‘, published on 28 May 1983.

Cover Art Robot: Ron Smith

Judge Dredd finds himself in the sights of the Stupid Gun on this weeks cover.

My pick of the Prog is: Skizz

Script Robot: Alan Moore

Art Robot: Jim Baikie

Lettering Robot: Tony Jacob

Being held in a government facility, Skizz is being shown images and their English words as a means of making him talk. An image of a girl triggers him to think of Roxy (Rahk-see) who finds herself in a confrontation with her father. In school, Roxy is tormented by fellow students mocking her and the “alien”. Even her teacher takes part. After being shown the image of an alien and being told the English word for it, Skizz has an outburst saying the humans are the aliens to which he is then mocked behind screens by those monitoring him. I found this pretty hard-hitting in that both human and “alien” are tormented and ridiculed despite the fact they are undeserving of it and the aggressors are the assholes. My justice sensitivity got riled up with this episode. I can’t help but find myself empathetic of Skizz’s situation given English is a foreign language to him and for me, as an Autistic person, the struggle to articulate and make words come out in a way that makes sense is often a struggle especially given stressful or unsettling environments which has often made me the recipient of ridicule.

Prog 318 gets called out for what it is! Join me on the next one to see who/what grabs the pick of Prog 319.

Florix Grabundae!

Have you read this Prog? If so, what was your favourite strip? Let me know your thoughts in the comments!