Editing 2000 AD (comics) (section)

==== Early years ====
Wagner returned to write ''Judge Dredd'', starting in prog 9. His "[[The Robot Wars|Robot Wars]]" storyline was drawn by a rotating team of artists, including McMahon, Ezquerra, Turner and [[Ian Gibson (artist)|Ian Gibson]], and marked the point where ''Dredd'' became the most popular character in the comic, a position he has rarely relinquished.<ref>Jarman, Colin M. and Peter Acton (1995) ''Judge Dredd: The Mega-History'', Lennard Publishing, {{ISBN|1-85291-128-X}}, p. 58</ref> Dredd's city, which now covered most of the east coast of North America, became known as [[Mega-City One]]. Dredd had also been unmasked in issue 8 in a story drawn by Massimo Belardinelli, but the decision was made to make out that Dredd's face had been scarred and the panel had a "censored" banner slapped on it. After this, there were no further attempts to show Dredd's face again.

A new story format was introduced in prog 25 – ''[[Tharg's Future Shocks]]'', one-off twist-in-the-tale stories devised by writer [[Steve Moore (comics)|Steve Moore]]. ''2000 AD'' still uses this format as filler and to try out new talent.

Wagner introduced a new character, ''[[Robo-Hunter]]'', in 1978. The hero, Sam Slade, was a [[private detective]]-type character specialising in [[robot]]-related cases. José Ferrer was the original artist, but the editorial team were not happy with his work and quickly replaced him with Ian Gibson, who redrew parts of Ferrer's episodes before taking over himself. Gibson's imaginative, cartoony art helped drive the series' style from hard-boiled detective to surreal comedy. As the series continued Sam was joined by an idiot kit-built robot assistant, Hoagy, and after a crack-down on smoking in IPC comics, a [[Cuba]]n robot [[cigar]], Stogie, designed to help him cut down on [[nicotine]].

Other ongoing strips included ''The Visible Man'', detailing the misfortunes of Frank Hart, a man whose skin had been made transparent due to exposure to nuclear waste, and ''Shako'', (which followed the same formula as ''Hook Jaw'' from ''Action'' but with less success) the story of a [[polar bear]] pursued by the Army because it had swallowed a secret capsule.

''[[M.A.C.H. 1]]'' was killed off in 1978 but a spin-off, ''M.A.C.H. Zero'', continued into the 1980s. ''Flesh'' had a sequel in 1978, set on the prehistoric oceans, and Bill Savage appeared again in a prequel, ''Disaster 1990'', in which a nuclear explosion at the north pole had melted the polar ice-cap and flooded Britain.

In 1977 ''2000 AD'' launched the annual 48-page Summer Special, including a full-length ''M.A.C.H. Zero'' story drawn by O'Neill. The yearly hardcover annual also started in 1977 (cover dated 1978) and would continue till 1990 (dated 1991).

Pat Mills took over writing ''Dredd'' for a six-month "epic" called "[[The Cursed Earth (Judge Dredd story)|The Cursed Earth]]", inspired by [[Roger Zelazny]]'s ''[[Damnation Alley]]'', which took the future lawman out of the city on a humanitarian trek across the radioactive wasteland between the Mega-Cities. McMahon drew the bulk of the stories, with occasional episodes drawn by [[Brian Bolland]]. The story saw Dredd moved to the colour centre pages for the first time while ''Dan Dare'' was given the front page.

[[Steve MacManus]] took over from Gosnell as editor in 1978, starting with prog 86, dated 14 October. In that issue ''2000&nbsp;AD'' merged with ''[[Starlord (comics)|Starlord]]'', a second science fiction comic which had been launched by IPC earlier that year. As Gosnell was editor of ''Starlord'' and ''2000 AD'' at the same time, ''2000 AD'' sub-editor [[Nick Landau]] largely edited the latter comic himself during this time.<ref name="WPCleanerAuto1">{{Cite web|title=Seven Penny Nightmare|url=http://www.sevenpennynightmare.co.uk/|access-date=2022-12-16|language=en-US}}</ref> ''Starlord'' was cancelled after only 22 issues and merged into ''2000 AD'' from prog 86.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Carroll|first=Michael|date=2018-05-26|title=Eaglution of British Comics, part 1|url=https://michaelowencarroll.wordpress.com/2018/05/26/eaglution-of-british-comics-part-1/|access-date=2022-12-16|website=Rusty Staples|language=en}}</ref> Two ''Starlord'' strips strengthened ''2000 AD''{{'}}s line-up: ''[[Strontium Dog]]'', a [[Mutant (fictional)|mutant]] [[bounty hunter]] created by Wagner and Ezquerra, and ''[[Ro-Busters]]'', a robot disaster squad created by Mills. ''Ro-Busters'' gave O'Neill the chance to spread his artistic wings and led to the popular spin-off ''[[ABC Warriors]]''. ''Strontium Dog'' and ''ABC Warriors'' continued to feature in ''2000 AD'' for the next 40 years. (A third ''Starlord'' series, ''Timequake'', only lasted for four episodes and was not renewed.) ''Dan Dare'' was suspended while "The Cursed Earth" was finished in time for the merger. Wagner returned to ''Dredd'' following the merger to write "The Day the Law Died", another six-month epic in which Mega-City One was taken over by the insane [[Judge Cal|Chief Judge Cal]], based on the Roman emperor [[Caligula]].

Another cancelled title, ''[[Tornado (comic)|Tornado]]'', was merged with ''2000 AD'' a few months later from prog 127, contributing three stories to ''2000 AD'': ''[[Blackhawk (Tornado)|Blackhawk]]'', an historical adventure series about a Nubian slave in the Roman Empire which took a science-fictional turn in ''2000 AD'' with him becoming a gladiator in an alien world; ''[[The Mind of Wolfie Smith]]'', a coming of age/psychic story of a runaway teenager, and ''Captain Klep'', a single-page superhero parody. These stories, unlike ''Starlord's'', did not continue for very long. The last issue titled ''2000 AD and Tornado'' was prog 177, dated 13 September 1980.

''2000 AD'' featured an adaptation of [[Harry Harrison (writer)|Harry Harrison]]'s novel ''[[The Stainless Steel Rat]]'', written by Gosnell and drawn by Ezquerra, beginning in November 1979. Adaptations of two of Harrison's sequels, ''The Stainless Steel Rat Saves the World'' and ''The Stainless Steel Rat for President'', would follow later.   The appearance of the main character, galactic thief "Slippery" Jim DiGriz, was based on [[James Coburn]], evidently a favourite of Ezquerra's; Coburn was also the inspiration for ''[[Major Eazy]]'', which Ezquerra drew in ''Battle,'' as well as ''Cursed Earth Koburn'', a Dredd-universe reworking of the Major Eazy character, who first appeared in 2003. [[Gerry Finley-Day]] contributed ''[[The V.C.s]]'', a future war story inspired by the [[Vietnam War]], drawn by McMahon, [[Cam Kennedy]], [[Garry Leach]] and [[John Richardson (comics)|John Richardson]].

A feature of the early years of ''2000 AD'' was the opportunities it gave to young British comic artists: by the time the title celebrated its 100th issue Brian Bolland, Dave Gibbons, Ian Gibson, Mike McMahon and Kevin O'Neil were all established as regulars.