More indestructible people from Millar. The Grudge-Father was the man behind the clones. Discorporated souls have a bone to pick with him, though, since they no longer have homes...clones, of course, have no souls. They turn into monsters and invade Europe and only he can save the day. In one nasty bit, a monster rips out the Grudge-Father's chest and kills him, but since this is a Mark Millar story, it handicaps him for about four pages. Baffling and ultimately useless.

A perfectly charming series with a large, fun cast, Hap Hazzard is set on the trader's world of Fred's Planet and features our young heroes Hap and Tricky involved in life, love, con games and quick schemes. More of these would have been excellent, but humor series were never much in favor in the late 80s. The last story was a forgotten Steve Dillon 7-pager found without a script and used as a scriptwriting competition.

Read the first half of it twice, have no freaking clue what happens in it. Sorry, but it's that incoherent.

A light comedy series about a pair of traveling antique dealers in the Cursed Earth, this was a popular feature, and arguably showcased the best 2000 AD/Megazine work from its two creators.

Characters from this series reappeared in Inferno and Judge Dredd and inspired the second series of 13 years later. Aeroball was seen played in Ro-Busters, probably part of Pat Mills’ desire to integrate concepts from different series into one “universe.”

By many accounts, the revamp of Harlem Heroes was far and away the worst thing to ever appear in 2000 AD, an ultra-violent "gang warfare with jetpacks" story full of cliché, hackneyed dialogue and stereotyped characters. Tharg threatened us with the final story over two years before publishing it. Incidentally, 2000 AD hits its nadir with this unbelievable line in prog 705: "Hey! What the hell happened to our quintuple X-rated movie?"

Trivia: One of 2000 AD's more unusual art moments comes in prog 704. Kevin Walker became ill while the art was in production and Simon Jacob finished the episode over his pencils. But Walker had already completed two panels on the first page, which Jacob left intact, resulting in an incredibly odd mismash of styles.

Harmony Krieg is a bounty hunter and hired gun who operates in the snowy wastes around Uranium City in what used to be Alaska. Her initial series was very well received, and she remained a popular feature through her final appearance, which saw her crossing paths with Judge Dredd in Mega-City One, but the character was eventually squeezed out as the 1997 contraction of the Megazine left it without space to continue the comic's recurring series. As her writer Chris Standley has apparently moved on from the business, Harmony has not returned.

Harry Twenty is a perfect example of a good early 80s strip. It's a rollercoaster adventure, with political overtones, extreme violence and bad puns. In some of the silliest naming ever in 2000 AD, the political prisoners aboard this orbiting prison satellite all have a name replaced by the number of years they've been sentenced. Naturally, a Japanese man named Sunset gets 77 years, hence 77 Sunset. Other great names are Root 66 and The Big Red One. Alan Davis contributes excellent art and villain Warden Worldwise is one of the most delightfully evil creations of his day.

This is the wonderful story of a boy with quite a quiff caught in a world gone bizarre. Can he survive long enough to prevent the planet becoming just a rumor? Full of puns, sight gags and satire, this eight-parter contains some very funny material, not the least of which is our hero's lady love's full and beautiful name, Scarlet O’Gasmeter.

Trivia: Contacted for a quote for the collected edition, the Vidal Sassoon company replied it was not the sort of product with which they wished to be involved. The quote was duly used.

Top moment: Hewligan and Scarlet’s frantic bid for freedom is interrupted by transmissions of cult 1960s teevee shows and they find themselves trapped in The Village from The Prisoner.

Holocaust Squads, which were introduced in the Judge Dredd adventure "Father Earth," are Justice Department's last line of defense against major disasters in the city, and most of their number don't survive their almost certainly suicidal rescue missions.

Judge-Inspector Inaba is a supporting character in Shimura. She has made a pair of solo appearances as well.

The execution of Indigo Prime revealed a mini-universe in 2000 AD which wormed its way through several short stories, one-shots and another John Smith-scripted series, Tyranny Rex. For ease of reference, all of the non-Tyranny episodes are grouped together here as Indigo Prime, the name under which a few of them appeared. Indigo Prime is an organization which works to protect reality from incursions outside our understanding, but is also willing to manipulate time and space in the services of very rich clients. Its agents, under the jurisdiction of Major Arcana, tend to be almost shockingly amoral, but those characters which we do meet are incredibly interesting eccentrics, and the constant feel that there is so much more we could know is one reason the strip evokes such strong memories in its fans.

The first Indigo Prime agents we meet are Basalt and Foundation, in the 1986 Future Shock "A Change of Scenery," where the operation was called Void Indiga (TM). This operation is seen again briefly in “Woody Allen,” a Tyranny Rex story from the 1988 Sci-Fi Special which introduces Major Arcana. Two disgraced former agents named Fervent and Lobe were introduced in another Tyranny story called "Soft Bodies." These two psychic cowboys got their own series, “The Issigri Variations,” in 1989, which also features Major Arcana and the originally-introduced Basalt and Foundation, along with Lobe’s former girlfriend Almaranda, an overweight fortune teller. Five additional episodes, with splendid art by Chris Weston, appeared under the Indigo Prime logo (used for the first time) in 1990 and fleshed out the grand concept, introducing us, at least briefly, to four other agents. (Some others make very curious cameo appearances.) After that, there was an Almaranda two-parter, and then there was the blood and thunder of “Killing Time,” easily one of the greatest things to ever appear in 2000 AD. This was a truly shocking ten-part story in which agents Max Winwood and Ishmael Cord allow Jack the Ripper to complete his last murder in order for them to battle the Iscariot, a creature outside time and space who was using the Ripper to ensure its own freedom. Smith’s scripting on this beast is a masterwork of horror - each episode builds upon the previous with some absolutely stunning moments and horrendous imagery. 2000 AD should always be dangerous and unconventional - it’s what makes it better than any other comic - but heroes in adventure series just don’t meet the sort of fate which awaits Winwood and Cord and the supporting characters.

The cruelty of “Killing Time” was followed by a worse fate for its readers: after spending five years building up and finally letting rip on a fantastic storyline like that, Smith says he became bored of the concept and dropped it. For years, Tharg featured color pinups of Winwood and Cord (Weston must have prepped dozens as possible front covers in 1991), but the incredible tapestry and background of Indigo Prime has been sadly abandoned. The tragedy is that any number of tired old “thrills” like Slaine or Rogue Trooper can limp back to 2000 AD for yet another pointless rehash, but one of the most unique and truly thrilling strips to ever appear in 2000 AD rests in comparative peace.

On the other hand, all times and places are relative to Indigo Prime; they could end up returning for a 13-week run when nobody suspects.

Trivia: Smith elected to change the organization’s orginal name, Void Indiga (TM), after noting the similarly-coined Void Indigo, a Marvel graphic novel by Steve Gerber.

Top moment: Episodes nine and ten of “Killing Time” are inarguably amazing, but for sheer “did I just read what I think I did” quality, it’s probably the bit in which the previously macho “go ahead and kill me, I don’t care” Dr. Culver breaks down and begs screaming for his life. Throne of Blood, The Godfather, The Wicker Man - there’s never been a death scene as amazing as that.

This sequel to Harlem Heroes, featuring several of the same characters in another bizarre “future sport,” was even more violent than its predecessor.

Trivia:It was revealed in David Bishop's Thrill-Power Overload investigation into 2000 AD's history that the comic was very nearly cancelled in 1978 over the Inferno episodes in progs 68 and 69. The cliffhanger saw an unconscious Giant doused with rocket fuel from his damaged jet pack and about to be set on fire by their enemy Artie Gruber. IPC management was incensed over the imagery and very nearly shut the comic down. With the trademark infringements to be seen in Judge Dredd over the next few weeks, it was an interesting time in the Command Module...

"Kismet" was a one-off Time Twister about a time-travel tourism company. The company returned in a subsequent two-part adventure.

In the days before the Apocalypse War which devastated Judge Dredd's world (2000 AD progs 245-270), War Marshall Kazan had imprisoned his city's psychic judges in a hidden gulag, with "special" treatment reserved for Judge Viktor Zadek, who had attempted to kill the mad marshal. Almost twenty years later, a new city is being built where East-Meg One had once stood, and Zadek's specialties are needed to exorcise the ghosts of the war.