When did 2000AD jump the shark?

TURNING POINT: Ro-Busters

Sustained excellence with pretty much every story having something entertaining in it - probably from the Starlord merger to, hmm, mid-400s. (I started reading with 423 and was pretty convinced it was declining after a couple years reading). Most characters introduced at this point were sustainable, i.e. could last quite a few stories.

TURNING POINT: Tomb Of Terror maybe?

Regular excellent stories with a few pointless or rubbish ones: 450 up to about 800 maybe? This period is an odd one, the problem was that almost all the 'big' characters were really tired, it was the era of Wulf getting killed, increasingly stupid Nemesis, Dredd lurching from saga to saga and Wagner and Grant trying to get their US careers going, the whole nonsense with the new Rogue Trooper, etc etc. At the same time you had Bad Company, Zenith, The Dead, Big Dave, Button Man, etc etc. - the 'minor' stories were carrying the comic.

TURNING POINT: Sinister Dexter ushers in the new era - rotten stories, kewl characters, realisation that comic is Not For Me. My dating may be off though.

800-ish to now: knackered franchise characters retconned back to 'classic' setups but still very tired, new franchises designed to appeal to 14-year-olds not 10-year-olds i.e. TITS AHOY, minor stories generally pretty awful, BUT occasional highlights pierce the gloom and a renewed sense of purpose for Dredd post The Pit doesn't hurt.

I'll hold up Devlin Waugh as a recent example of goodness, as it basically did an old-style Dredd epic without Dredd but with a team of Invisibles-style occult mentalists, only with a bit less saying 'kewl' things and being Morrison's dreamlife and a bit more RAMMING IMMENSE FUEL TANKERS INTO RAMPAGING SERIAL KILLING MONSTERS WITHOUT FACIAL FEATURES. Best thing John Smith ever did and out for collection in the 'Red Tide' book early next year, I think.

I think it stopped being any good about 1985/86, although Zenith is from after this period.

I would buy it every week if Vic Fluro was in it every week, obviously, but Vic Fluro does not have the necessary 40,000 siblings to make it a cultural force.

(I think if VF *was* writing something regularly the people who do buy it would enjoy it hugely, of course, but I fear it's gone below the sales event horizon where 'buzz' cannot function.)

There are immense shitloads of new writers and artists begging for work, since it is the Last British Comic apart from Striker and Action Man, but there just isn't room, so what's happening at the moment is an incredibly booming small press scene that will eventually coalesce into another 'proper' 2000AD-style comic that will either serve as an example to others before sinking like a rock or usurp 2000AD's place.

You're right about 'buzz', although I'm confident that the USA will love the reprints and the tactic of starting them on a mixture of old mad stuff and new slightly shitty stuff is a winner.

Is Bloodrayne is whatever her name is actually a spin off from a loved property? Something in the back of my brain is telling me that one of the Dread four (her and the ones from my first post) is.

I for one am pretty happy with the stuff that's coming out from the Rebellion/DC deal, even if it's not the best that the magazine has to offer (a lot of it is a far sight better than most of the comics offerings out today.) I even hear that Rebellion is working on some of the older back catalog (like a completed run of NEMESIS THE WARLOCK), which would be keen, too.

it's one of life's mysteries.

Sustained excellence with pretty much every story having something entertaining in it - probably from the Starlord merger to, hmm, mid-400s.

but Ro-Busters finished somewhere between prog 100 to prog 200.

I'm intrigued by this 'new sense of purpose for Dredd post the Pit.' What's going on with the character?

I bought the Shaun Of The Dead issue, and nothing else in it jumped out at me - I get more pleasure from things like Zarjaz! when it comes out. Although I quite liked Necronauts, and the bits of Nikolai Dante I've read.

The Judge Dredd film. Seemed to go shit after that.