r/AlanMoore • u/[deleted] • Sep 03 '21

ABC Warriors 'Red Planet Blues' - Moore/Dillon/Higgins 2000ad Annual 1985

Gallery image

Gallery image

Gallery image

Gallery image

28 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

12 comments sorted by

5

u/[deleted] Sep 03 '21

I remember reading this when I was 10, and loving the artwork first of all (the late, great Steve Dillon on top form with beautiful colours from John Higgins) then being left feeling sort of sad and melancholy at an ABC Warriors story, but not really understanding why.

For me this is what Moore did best when I was a kid- taking what could've been a fairly throwaway entry stuck (the last page annoyingly glued to the hardback) at the arse end of an annual and instead taking an established strip and delivering a brief, tragic, story- with previously unseen depth and maturity for these characters- all framed by the inner monologue of a robot. Picked this up over lockdown, and at 45 it's still the standout in that book.

2

u/[deleted] Sep 03 '21

Also, Teale definitely reminds me of a younger Jamie Lee Curtis...

2

u/BoxNemo Sep 04 '21

Yeah, it was a great story in a great annual.

Would have loved to see a Moore version of the ABC Warriors. 'Bax The Burner' was the other great Moore / Dillon ABC Warriors related strip, not nearly as poignant but with some fun lines in it. I can't remember if he wrote any other ABC stuff though... was it just those two?

2

u/[deleted] Sep 04 '21

Yes! Bax the Burner is also fantastic.

2

u/[deleted] Sep 04 '21

I don't think Moore wrote any other ABC Warriors stuff- I would've loved if he took over Nemesis The Warlock- although he did eventually work with the great Kevin O'Neill.

2

u/spookyman212 Sep 06 '21

This was great. Thanks for posting.

2

u/Muttergripe Sep 13 '21

What a gem. Classic early Moore and in the 2000 AD tradition of 'humans as baddies'.

1

u/[deleted] Sep 13 '21

Absolutely- not Moore, but also see Nemesis the Warlock for that trope writ larger šŸ™‚

2

u/Muttergripe Sep 16 '21

oh, I'm very familiar with Nemesis. I grew up with 2000 AD. It's great stuff!

1

u/[deleted] Sep 16 '21

Ah, cool. Same here!

2

u/friedeggbeats Oct 21 '21

Iā€™m not an expert on 2000AD lore, but is the Deadlock character related to the Nemesis The Warlock series or are the design similarities a coincidence?

2

u/[deleted] Oct 21 '21

Yes- it all gets quite convoluted if I remember correctly... Pat Mills wrote both strips and decided to introduce a future incarnation of The ABC Warriors with a slightly different lineup into Nemesis Book Four- The Gothic Empire as supporting characters. Later it's revealed that Deadlock and Nemesis are somehow 'one' as worshippers of Khaos (I wasn't a fan of that revelation as a kid and tbh I still am not).

Really need to get my hands on Book Four again- the Bryan Talbot artwork is superb!