2000ADHD – A Prog a Day – Prog 500

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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!

I’ve recently started working on a Letterboxd list, compiling movies that have/may have influenced strips within 2000 AD and adjacent titles such as Misty and Scream! Feel free to check it out here, drop me a follow and let me know of any other titles I should add.

Without further ado…

Welcome to Prog 500 featuring ‘Sláine‘, ‘Bad Company‘, ‘Tharg The Mighty‘, ‘Nemesis the Warlock‘ and ‘Judge Dredd‘, published on 13 December 1986. Not only is this a landmark issue for the series but this also marks 500 consecutive days of posts!

Cover Art Robot: Various

Prog 500 gets a special cover this week featuring a montage of various iconic characters of the past nine years at this point.

My pick of the Prog is: Bad Company

Script Robot: Pete Milligan

Art Robot: Ewins/J McCarthy

Lettering Robot: Tom Frame

Having watched Creature Commandos not so long ago, Bad Company resonates with me. I wonder if this was inspired/influenced by the Weird Tales which introduced those weird and wonderful characters. Instead of a World War II setting, here we get the obligatory 2000 AD war with alien species fare and I’m here for it. On the planet Ararat we find a group of human soldiers in a war waged with the Krool (what a cool name). The Krool seem to have a way of bringing back dead troops to make them zombie soldiers in their army and while the human troops struggle with he notion of “killing their own” enter stage right: Bad Company!

Prog 500 is in Bad Company! Join me on the next one to see who/what grabs the pick of Prog 501.

Florix Grabundae!

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