Tharg's Future Shocks is a long-running series of short strips appearing in the British weekly comic 2000 AD since 1977. The name originates from the fictional editor of 2000 AD and the book titled Future Shock , written by Alvin Toffler, published in 1970.
The series began in issue 25 of 2000 AD titled "Tharg's Future Shocks" in a single short story written by Steve Moore, who also created the format. This established the pattern of the series which would be two- or three-page short stories, which were normally self-contained.
These stories would be a testing ground for new artists and writers and creators resulting in the stories having a very mixed level of quality. [1] Authors such as Peter Milligan, Alan Davis, Alan Moore, and Grant Morrison found some of their earliest work published as Future Shocks.
Some characters proved popular enough to either appear in their own stories, or have multiple appearances in Future Shocks, such as Alec Trench, Bradley, D.R. and Quinch and Abelard Snazz.
2000 AD also begat several other science fiction and horror short stories under several different titles, including Time Twisters. Examples of the others include:
The stories have been collected into a number of trade paperbacks:
Two collections of Alan Moore's Future Shocks (Alan Moore's Shocking Futures) and Time Twisters (Alan Moore's Twisted Times) stories were released by Titan Books in 1986:
The contents of those two volumes have been collected together into a single volume, along with additional material from Moore:
Despite the title, this is not a complete collection of all Future Shock stories from the comic, only the Alan Moore stories in the 1986 and 1987 books described above.
All the Future Shocks written by Peter Milligan, John Smith, and Neil Gaiman and around half of Grant Morrison's were collected in:
A series of paperbacks collecting all Future Shocks is being published by Rebellion:
2000 AD is a weekly British science fiction-oriented comic magazine. As a comics anthology it serialises stories in each issue and was first published by IPC Magazines in 1977, the first issue dated 26 February. Since 2000 it has been published by Rebellion Developments.
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Ian Gibson was a British comic book artist, best known for his 1980s black-and-white work for 2000 AD, especially as the main artist on Robo-Hunter and The Ballad of Halo Jones, as well as his long run on Judge Dredd.
Tharg the Mighty or The Mighty One is the fictional editor of the British science fiction comic 2000 AD. The character was introduced on the cover of the first issue in 1977 and is one of only two characters to appear in almost every issue of the comic, the other being Judge Dredd. Tharg rarely appears in stories but strips involving him have been written by such notable writers as Alan Grant, Alan Moore and John Wagner, albeit usually credited to "TMO" – "The Mighty One".
D.R. & Quinch is a comic strip about two delinquent alien drop-outs. It was created by Alan Moore and Alan Davis for the British weekly comics anthology 2000 AD. It first appeared in 1983. The strip was the tale of how two alien teenage students Waldo "D.R." Dobbs, a scheming criminal mastermind, and Ernest Errol Quinch, his muscular purple-skinned companion in crime, have influenced Earth's history in various anarchic ways.
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Massimo Belardinelli was an Italian comic artist best known for his work in the British science fiction comic 2000 AD.
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Kelvin Gosnell is a British comics writer and editor. He was involved in the founding of the long-running comic 2000 AD in 1977, and was its second editor (1977–1978). He also edited Starlord (1978) and Tornado (1979).
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Abelard Snazz was a fictional comics character, created by Alan Moore, and first illustrated by artist Steve Dillon. A super intelligent man, nicknamed "The Man With The Multi-Storey Mind", he appeared on the pages of British magazine 2000 AD.
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