Future Shocks is the name given to a long running series of short strips in the weekly comic 2000 AD. Comics (via Latin from the Greek "" kōmikos, of or pertaining to "comedy" from kōmos "revel" The name originates in a book titled Future Shock, written by Alvin Toffler, published in the UK only a short time before 2000 AD was launched. Future Shock is a book written by the Sociologist and Futurologist Alvin Toffler in 1970 Alvin Toffler (born October 3, 1928) is an American Writer and futurist, known for his works discussing
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Publishing history
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. The Mighty Tharg is a recurrent character in Science fiction Comic 2000 AD, one of only two characters to appear The short story is a literary genre of Fictional Prose Narrative that tends to be more concise and to the point than longer works of fiction such Steve Moore (born 11 June 1949 is a prolific British Comics writer 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 such as Peter Milligan, Alan Davis, Alan Moore and Grant Morrison found some of their earliest work published as Future Shocks. Peter Milligan is an British writer best known for his Comic book, film and television work Alan Davis (born 1956 is a British writer and artist of Comic books Biography UK work Alan Davis was born on June 18, 1956 Alan Moore (born November 18 1953 in Northampton) is an English Writer most famous for his influential work in Comics, including the acclaimed Grant Morrison (born January 31 1960 is a Scottish Comic book writer and artist
Spin-offs
Some characters proved popular enough to spin into their own ongoing story in 2000AD, D.R. and Quinch being one of the most notable examples. DR and Quinch is a Comic strip created by Alan Moore and Alan Davis, which first appeared in issue 317 of the weekly Comic book
Other similar series
2000 AD also began several other science fiction and horror short stories under several different titles, Time Twisters being the best known. Horror fiction is broadly Fiction in any medium intended to scare unsettle or horrify the audience However Future Shocks remains the best known of all of 2000 AD's series of short stories. Examples of the others include:
- Future Shorts, single page Future Shocks [1]
- Past Imperfect [2]
- Pulp Sci-Fi [3]
- Ro-Jaws Robo Tales, stories presented by Ro-Jaws [4]
- Tales from Beyond Science, a short run series all drawn by Rian Hughes [5]
- Tales From the Black Museum, an equivalent set in Mega-City One [6]
- Terror Tales, Future Shocks evil twin, covering horror, that still occasionally appears [7]
- Time Twisters [8]
- Vector 13, although wrapped in its own story stretching beyond the series, it still featured one off stories largely focused on anomalous phenomena. Rian Hughes is a British Graphic designer illustrator and Comics artist noted for his work on 2000AD, where he illustrated Mega-City One is a huge fictional City-state covering much of what is now the Eastern United States in the Judge Dredd Comic book Vector 13 is a 2000 AD comic strip which featured the Eponymous agency setup to investigate anomalous phenomena and conspiracy theories
Publications
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:
- Alan Moore's Shocking Futures (1986), Titan Books; reprints a selection of Future Shocks short strips originally published in 2000 AD between 1981 and 1983, with various artists. Titan Publishing Group is an independently owned publishing company established in 1981 Year 1986 ( MCMLXXXVI) was a Common year starting on Wednesday (link displays 1986 Gregorian calendar) Titan Publishing Group is an independently owned publishing company established in 1981 ISBN 0-907610-71-4
- Alan Moore's Twisted Times (1987), Titan Books; reprints almost all of Moore's Abelard Snazz strips, and a further selection of Time Twisters short strips originally published in 2000 AD between 1980 and 1983, with various artists. Titan Publishing Group is an independently owned publishing company established in 1981 Abelard Snazz was "The Man With The Multi-Storey Mind" a super intelligent 2000A ISBN 0-907610-72-2
The contents of those two volumes has now been collected together into a single volume, along with additional material from Moore:
References
External links
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