The Dredd Generation: Heirs To The Throne

Continuing our celebration of 2000AD's 25th anniversary, Ninth Art spoke to former editor Andy Diggle and SINISTER DEXTER creator Dan Abnett about their work and their experiences working on 'The Galaxy's Greatest Comic'.
22 July 2002

Last month Ninth Art spoke to 2000AD's founding fathers, Pat Mills, Alan Grant and John Wagner, for their reflections on the magazine on the event of its 25th anniversary. You can read that article here. This month we continue the tribute by talking to Dan Abnett and Andy Diggle - two of the more recent writing talents to emerge from the title.

Dan Abnett: "Always full of great reads."

Abnett is perhaps best known for his work stateside on the likes of RESURRECTION MAN and the LEGION at DC and WAR MACHINE, FORCE WORKS and CONSPIRACY for Marvel, as well as various serials in the WARHAMMER title for Games Workshop. 2000AD is where Abnett honed his craft, though, creating the likes of SINISTER DEXTER, BADLANDS and SANCHO PANZER for the title.

What do you attribute 2000AD's success to after 25 years?

"[The] reasons would include ... constant efforts, editorial and freelance, to keep up the quality ... not being afraid to try new stuff ... having so many of the best characters in comics ... and luck. Luck plays a horribly large part in comic success stories.."

Out of all the stories you've written, do you have any particular favourites? What about stories from other writers?

"I'd have to say SINISTER DEXTER as a series, and pick out particular stories like 'Murder 101', 'Shrink Rap' and 'Waiting For God Knows'. It's also been great to further existing series, especially DURHAM RED, and the VCs, which I've just written a new series of. Other faves ... John Wagner never writes a duff story, and his best work is stunning. The first book of ZENITH. The VCs. FLESH Book 2 ... Its hard to pick. 2000 AD is always full of great reads."

Out of all the artists you've worked with, whom do you enjoy collaborating with the most?

"Simon Davis and Andy Clarke on SINISTER DEXTER [and] Mark Harrison on DURHAM RED."

What inspired you to think of certain characters, stories and/or situations?

"Everything. Anything. Movies. Books. Current affairs. Domestic life. Jokes. A weekly eats up ideas at a furious rate, so you have to take your cues from everything that works."

Given the chance, what would you change about 2000AD?

"As long as everyone (including self) keeps pushing to keep the quality up where it should be, I'm pretty happy with things. It's the Galaxy's Greatest Comic, after all."

Andy Diggle: "Simply quality."

Andy Diggle was 2000 AD's assistant editor under David Bishop from September 1997 to June 2000, then editor until December 2001, when he left to become a freelance comics writer. Diggle has been tapped to pen a 4-issue HELLBLAZER: LADY CONSTANTINE mini-series for Vertigo, and is still contributing to 2000AD (SNOW/TIGER, illustrated by Andy Clarke is due out early next year) and the JUDGE DREDD MEGAZINE (LENNY ZERO: WIPEOUT, coming soon).

2000AD's been going for 25 years now - how do you account for that?

"I think the initial success was certainly down to the sheer energy and passion which Pat Mills poured into it at the outset - that crazed imagination and flagrant contempt for authority. 2000AD didn't patronise the readers, it gave them this fast hit of violent excitement which they couldn't get elsewhere. What's kept it going is simply quality - good stories and art. You just look at the creators who've worked on 2000AD over the years, and it's like a Who's Who of the best talent in the English-speaking comics industry.

"If you had to boil down the single most important factor in 2000AD remaining popular over the years, I'd have to say: John Wagner. John's Dredd is always a delight, and a lot of readers buy the comic just for that one strip. It's incredible to me that after 25 years, John's still telling Dredd stories with heart and soul that are funny, surprising and thrilling."

Out of all the characters that you've worked with in the title, were there any you were particularly drawn to?

"Dredd, obviously. But I'd have to say that Johnny Alpha was probably my favourite character - that understated stoicism, the underdog hero. Action, humour, imagination... and really big frigging guns."

So what should never have seen the light of day?

"Well, I think 2000 AD went through a very bad patch in the early-to-mid 90s, with a lot of crapola that just shouldn't have been commissioned. JUNKER, DRY RUN, SPACE GIRLS, BLAIR 1, MAMBO...Thankfully I've blanked most of it. I guess WIREHEADS was probably the all-time low. It was just this incoherent mess.

"There were also a few editorial decisions that made me wonder what the hell Tharg was playing at. Kill off Johnny Alpha, and replace him with a Gronk with a gun? I don't think so."

Being an editor - and having to deal with many and varied creative personnel - who did you enjoy working with the most?

"One of the things I like best about working in comics is that it's a nice bunch of people. There are occasional exceptions, of course - the 'fevered egos' who can't take criticism, and who lovingly nurse their old grudges - but thankfully they're few and far between.

"I've enjoyed working with pretty much everyone I've met at 2000AD, and made some good friends. I guess at the top of the list there'd be John Wagner, Trevor Hairsine, Henry Flint, Jock, Frazer Irving and Robbie Morrison. And Cam Kennedy is officially the Nicest Bloke In Comics."

If you were in a position to change anything about 2000AD, and your contribution to it, what would it be?

"I'd allow higher page rates and creator-ownership for the top writers and artists. As far as my own editorship is concerned, I guess I have a few regrets, but nothing major. I should have gotten Henry Flint to draw the entire ABC WARRIORS series, as his art was surely the best thing about it. And I shouldn't have commissioned a SATANUS series without asking Pat Mills first - he got very upset about that. My bad.

"Overall, my biggest regret is that I let through too many scripts that just weren't ready. In the early days, Pat would just have re-written them all himself, but of course you can't do that nowadays. Trying to make a high-quality comic for smart adults using the same 'sausage factory' methods that were used for cheap, disposable kids' fare 25 years ago is a very high-stress, time-consuming business. I had to let through a lot of scripts that were just 'good enough' when, if I'd had the time, I'd have liked to have worked with the writer to make them 'great'. That's just the eternal triangle of time, budget and quality pulling you in different directions. Such is the nature of the business."

Special thanks to Mark Chapman at Rebellion for his assistance.

Brent Keane is a regular contributor to Ninth Art and PopImage and has also written for Opi8, Sequential Tart and Nerdbait.

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