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things I learnt in 2000ad

Started by sheridan, 18 November, 2015, 01:41:03 AM

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sheridan

In conversation today (well, it's early in the morning, so really it was last night) I realised that there were a few things I'd first read in 2000AD.  Simple things like the words 'society' and 'apocalypse' as well as lyrics to Chumbawamba songs.


I also read a critique of general Sci-Fi tropes from a more scientific, or at least real world-based point of view.  One that stood out was that starships wouldn't be orientated like battleships - i.e. floors which are long and thin - but more like skyscrapers - lots of smaller floors, one on top of another.  Fancy that, a starship that looks like an office block.  Not something you see in most science fiction...

Fungus

At its early best, Slaine was a rich history lesson told with a light touch. Ley Lines, Ogham alphabet, etc. Doubtful these would have cropped up in other forms. Other examples throughout Mills' work (best of all Charley's War?). Aquila does a neat job of presenting a lot of Romam period detail. And Dredd could hit the nail on the head on modern society time and again (see Sunday Night Fever and a ton of others, plus of course the democracy saga).

That's 'educational' and the spaceship example is interesting; I'm curious what the most practical and perhaps shocking 2000AD teachings would be... (excluding Dr & Quinch, who got there first I now realise).

shaolin_monkey

I learnt about prejudice and hate, and how a leader of a country can convince a majority that a minority are no better than refuse, herding them into ghettos, and persecuting them to the point of utter hopelessness.  How surprised was I after reading about Nelson Bunker Kreelman to then be taught in school about Nazi Germany!

Arkwright99

Thanks to Johnny Alpha* I learnt it was possible to kill someone by punching their nose bone into their brain. :o

*Might have been in Starlord rather than 2000AD but the point still stands.
'Life isn't divided into genres. It's a horrifying, romantic, tragic, comical, science-fiction cowboy detective novel ... with a bit of pornography if you're lucky.' - Alan Moore

JamesC

I learnt that the best place to holster you gun is on your ankle.

sheridan

Quote from: JamesC on 18 November, 2015, 12:04:43 PM
I learnt that the best place to holster you gun is on your ankle.

Well, maybe if you're actual riding on a bike when you want to use it...

Mardroid

Quote from: JamesC on 18 November, 2015, 12:04:43 PM
I learnt that the best place to holster you gun is on your ankle.

Heh.
I've often wondered how that works! I remember someone saying it is quicker to reach for the gun from your leg than your waist* if you're on a bike, (edit- Okay Sheridan just now mentioned that. I started this post a while back and just completed it) but, then what if you're not?

Do you perform a snap roll every time you need to fast draw? A good way to avoid incoming lead I guess until the criminals wise-up and compensate. Or the elderly judges put their back out.

*best place from a standing position in my opinion is in-between. Low slung on the thigh (they say 'hip' in the parlance but the gun is on the thigh) gunslinger style. From a standing position anyway.

2000ad has encouraged me to take a great interest in minutiae which doesn't really matter. I won't say it taught me that, as I think I had that habit before then.

Bad City Blue

I learned when you absolutely have to kill every motherfucker in the room.... get a shotgun.
Writer of SENTINEL, the best little indie out there

I, Cosh

We never really die.

TordelBack

Your name determines your future.

JayzusB.Christ

I was just thinking about this yesterday.

I learned from ABC Warriors that a freedom fighter on one side is a terrorist on the other.

I learned from Zenith that God might not exist (believe me, this wasn't an idea bandied about much in 1980s Irish primary schools). I also learned from Nemesis that my school history books were talking pro-Vatican bullshit in trying to tell us that the Spanish Inquisition rarely tortured anyone.

I also learned from Nemesis that it was the cowboys, not the Indians, who introduced scalping (though someday Stephen Fry will tell me on Q.I. that this is a total myth, of course).

Finally, I learned from Sláine what the words 'eunuch', 'concubine' and 'impotent' meant.

Nice one,  Pat and Grant! (I actually am grateful; 2000ad was a constant influence throughout my childhood and I wouldn't be me without it.)





"Men will never be free until the last king is strangled with the entrails of the last priest"

ZenArcade

French introduced it.....seemingly. Z
Ed is dead, baby Ed is...Ed is dead

JayzusB.Christ

"Men will never be free until the last king is strangled with the entrails of the last priest"

ZenArcade

So I read somewhere, it was to keep a tally during their wars against the British colonies. Z
Ed is dead, baby Ed is...Ed is dead

JayzusB.Christ

 Fair enough. I suppose they were fairly adept at full-on beheadings before that.

Pat Mills does have a tendency to present urban myths as if they were true, though; if it wasn't for QI and the internet I'd still believe the v-sign had something to do with Saxon archers, and that the f-word was some kind of acrostic legal term.
"Men will never be free until the last king is strangled with the entrails of the last priest"