One from the re watch pile…

Future Shock! the Story Of 2000AD (2014)

Film: Truly, the best comic fans I know are the ones who grew up with the English comic, 2000AD. Sure, like many comic fans, I bought Marvel and DC as a kid, but these companies had (and still have) ‘style guides’ and even though we like to think we like one artist over another, the companies control the look to fit a company wide aesthetic… even Jack Kirby whilst he worked at DC in the early 70s had the heads of Superman that he drew redrawn by Curt Swan, an artist who probably drew Superman MORE than anyone else, ever!

I think if I had have been Kirby I would have been totally insulted and would have told them to stick their job right up their Hall of Justice.

2000AD was a totally different animal.

2000AD is a science fiction comic which celebrates the diversity of writing and art and within a single weekly issue, you were treated to at least 4 different artist and story teams, telling stories from all of the galaxy, and very rarely from the superhero sub-genre. It introduced the world to characters like Judge Dredd, Strontium Dog, Bad Company, Rogue Trooper and Slaine, just to name a few. It was more like the French comic Metal Hurlant (which is known in the English speaking world by its ‘other’ name Heavy Metal) mixed with an London punk attitude which shouted ‘UP YOURS’ to authority.

It interesting to point out that even DC realised that maybe they could do something different, something that didn’t have a style guide, and came up with the comic line Vertigo in the 90s which abandoned the strict Comic Code Authority restrictions and made a comic line truly for adult comic collectors, and by adult I don’t mean it was full of tits and violence… well not, always.

(It’s interesting to point out that Stan Lee experimented with doing more adult comics in the 70s and it always fell short, mainly due to the content still being somewhat juvenile rather than truly ‘adult’. DC’s Karen Berger understood better than Lee as to what adults wanted, stole all of 2000AD’s talent, thrived with Vertigo comics whilst Marvel, in the 90s, highjacked Image comics aesthetic and very quickly almost went into bankruptcy)

That’s enough of the history lesson though, what are we here for? Well, this documentary talks to the brains, the original talent and the past fans who became the talent of the comic, and how it thrived even beyond the time of its name! Future Shock is mainly a talking heads styled documentary but it’s subject is fascinating as the comic truly was a document of the time it was released, which is important for ANY science fiction to be relevant.

A massive amount of the UK’s comic talent pool are interviewed here, from Pat Mills to Neil Gaiman, Brian Bolland to Dave Gibbons, Cam Kennedy to Peter Milligan, Emma Beeby to Lauren Beukes… so many talented people with such interesting things to say about the history of UK comics, their own careers and what was happening historically in the Uk at the time.

The documentary is intercut with some pretty cool animation of the old art, and a decent heavy soundtrack that carries the subject changes along nicely (as an aside, seeing Dredd ACTUALLY punch his fist through Judge Fear’s head may have been one of the most exciting things I’ve ever seen).

I’ve watched a lot of comic docos and honestly, I find all of them to be really engaging and definite rewatchers, but this one stands out as being a superstar. It never gets boring, it travels along at quite the clip. If I’m to criticise it at all it’s not due to the makers, but due to writer Alan Moore’s resistance at being interviewed about his craft, and his absence is really quite obvious and unfortunate as his comics that 2000AD published (The Ballad Of Halo Jones and Skizz, just to name a few) are an amazing introduction to his work.

Score: *****

Format: Future Shocks was reviews on the UK, region B Bluray release which is presented in an excellent, except for archival footage, 1.78:1 image with a perfect LPCM 2.0 audio track, which is fine considering most of the audio is Interview dialogue.

Score: *****

Extras: Arrow have provided a Mega-city full of extras, some of which were made by Arrow Video and are great supplements to the original doco:

Steve MacManus Interview is a 25 minute discussion with MacManus who was the editor of 2000AD from 1979 to 1986 and author of The Mighty One: Life in the Nerve Centre. His reflections on this amazing period for the comic is quite fascinating.

Extended Chapter featurettes just expands some of the discussions in the doco, specifically heap Entertainment” The Appeal Of Comics, Dredd Extended, Dredd 2012 True in Sporit and 2000ad VS The USA.

2000AD Strip Featurettes look at a bunch of different characters through the eyes of the creators, including Bad Company, Tharg’s Future Shocks, Rogue Trooper, Sláine and Strontium Dog.

Art Jam shows some time lapse footage of artists Jock and Henry Flint drawing pictures of Judge Dredd and Nemesis the Warlock.

King’s Reach Tower sees Pat Mills revisit the place where 2000AD was born, King’s Reach Tower.

Soundtrack Studio takes a look at the production of the soundtrack by Justin Graves from Crippled Black Phoenix.

Extended Interviews has more comic knowledge from Mills, Morrison, Gaiman, Gibbons and Berger.

Blooper Reel proves that even in a documentary, people can foul up what they were saying. Special mention goes to the Australian Women’s Weekly for getting a mention.

There is also a teaser trailer and the Uk Launch trailer.

In addition this package contains a booklet with an essay from Pádraig Ó Méalóid about the history

of the comic, some cool art and a few little notes about the disc itself.

Score: *****

WISIA: Seeing as how I love comic documentaries, this will get revisited regularly, especially considering how many extras there are!