Studio: Metrodome
Director: Paul Goodwin
Producers: Sean Hogan, Helen Mullane

Featuring: Karl Urban (Dredd), Neil Gaiman (The Sandman), Paul Gravett (Comic Book Historian), Pat Mills (ABC Warriors, Slaine), Carlos Ezquerra (Judge Dredd), Matt Smith (2000 AD Editor) and Dave Gibbons (The Watchmen).

Extras include:

94 PAGE PDF 2000AD
ORIGINS E-COMIC 10 First Episodes from some of 2000 AD’s Greatest Characters! Including: Judge Dredd, Rogue Trooper, Slaine, Nemesis The Warlock, Strontium Dog, Halo Jones, Nikolai Dante, A.B.C Warriors, Kingdom, Shakara.

Running Time: 106 Minutes
Release Date: OUT NOW!

Price: £7.99/ £3.49 Amazon Instant Video. Also available VOD: iTunes, Google, PlayStation Store, XBox Video and Sky Store.
http://futureshock2000ad.com/index.html

If you were expecting some dry, verbose, fan directed 2000 AD love-in, you will need to look elsewhere. Future Shock! The Story Of 2000 AD is a wart and all headlong dive into the good, the bad and The Tharg Almighty of the comic book 2000 AD. Just like the comic book itself, the history explored by Future Shock! The Story Of 2000 AD is brutal, blunt and very much, thankfully, to the point. There are no wasted scenes, no padding, and no words that are not relevant in the entire production.

Firstly some context.

There were four significant events in 1977, although no one would realise how significant at the time. The Queen’s Silver Jubilee, an institution tradition; which The Sex Pistols would counter with the release of the soon to be banned single ‘God Save The Queen’, with the nihilistic lyrics ‘ God save the queen, the fascist regime, they made you a moron, potential H-bomb’. And into this cauldron of the establishment verses what many saw as anarchy, the remaining two, a little film, which all Hollywood Studios had rejected, bar one, called Star Wars – I have no idea what happened with that film (I’ll Google it later).

And lastly, a comic book inspired by the other three: 2000 AD, an anti-authoritarian, non-traditional in outlook, style and subject matter.

Future Shock! The Story Of 2000 AD tells the story, via those that were there back at the beginning in 1977 and those that are still there now, who know where the bodies and buried and which cupboards contain which skeletons. It is more than just a bunch of talking heads reminiscing too. There are facts, there are figures and there is more than enough conjecture to keep everybody debating until the next millennium. In Future Shock! The Story Of 2000 AD there is certainly the past to discuss but there is also the future of 2000 AD too.

Context is everything and that is exactly what you get in Future Shock! The Story Of 2000 AD, how 2000 AD got to be published is a direct result of anti-establishment views at the time, the state of the British comic book industry at the time – Pat Mills is incredibly honest and forthright here and Mills passion for 2000 AD never leaves the screen every time he appears. Star Wars piques the interest of IPC, the one time publisher of 2000 AD and a weekly comic book with science fiction themes is suggested.

What IPC did not bargain for is the shear bloody-mindedness of the founding fathers of 2000 AD, an unholy triumvirate of Mills, Wagner and Ezquerra (concept designer of Judge Dredd) who went helter-skelter into the tradition publishing world of the UK comic book industry and tore it a new hole.

Yes, there are talking heads but not one of them is boring. And amongst the usual suspects, Scott Ian from the band Anthrax, who wrote a song inspired by 2000 AD, the touching ‘I Am The Law’. Scott goes on the record in Future Shock! The Story Of 2000 AD to state Judge Dredd was punk as far as he was concerned because depicting a character like that ‘took a lot of balls’ and that was what punk was really about.

Director Paul Goodwin constructs a comprehensive document in Future Shock! The Story Of 2000 AD, for fans and non-fans alike. The former can feel smug and the latter will now know what all the fuss is about. Goodwin rightly points out: ‘2000AD is the comic that people don’t know they like. Its pop cultural influence is massive – it’s been referenced, homaged and outright ripped off in everything from other comics to films to television to music – and yet too many people are unaware of it.’

Well, your enlightenment is over. So, what are you waiting for? Go grab yourself a copy of Future Shock! The Story Of 2000 AD.

NOW!

 

Reviewer: Steve Hooker