40 Years Of Scream!: The Archival Collection

NOT FOR THE NERVOUS!

Celebrating 40 years since IPC launched the UK's most iconic 'horror' anthology, this single volume collects all of the strips included in the 15-issue run of Scream!

Produced 'from the depths' of King's Reach Tower by the mysterious 'undead' editor Ghastly McNasty, the first issue of Scream! was unleashed on 24th March 1984. More tongue-in-cheek than horrific, the comic was an immediate hit with younger fans as it included a pair of fake vampire fangs attached to the cover and a number of fantastic new strips from such talents as Alan Moore, John Wagner, Jose Ortiz, Cam Kennedy, Tom Tully, Alan Grant and Eric Bradbury.

Jesus Redondo worked on several strips for 2000 AD including Tharg’s Future Shocks, Nemesis the Warlock, M.A.C.H. 1 and Return to Armageddon. In the 1990’s he worked on Motormouth and Killpower for Marvel UK and Kitty Pryde for Marvel US.. Cam Kennedy is another hugely popular 2000 AD artist, having illustrated many Judge Dredd strips and co-created luckless wannabe creator Kenny Who? and the Taxidermist. A key early Rogue Trooper artist, he has also drawn Batman/Judge Dredd: Vendetta in Gotham, Judge Dredd, Tharg the Mighty, Tharg’s Future Shocks, and The V.C.’s. His extracurricular work includes Axel Pressbutton, Batman, Lobo, Nick Fury: Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D., and Star Wars.. José Ortiz Moya’s sixty plus year career began after he won a contest which ran in the Spanish magazine Chicos. In the 1950s he worked on many digest strips for Editorial Maga, including Capitan Don Nadie, Pantera Negra and Jungla. Agency work saw him produce several strips for foreign publishers, particularly in Britain where he illustrated Caroline Barker, Barrister at Law for the Daily Express, Smokeman and UFO Agent for Eagle magazine and the Phantom Viking in Lion. In the seventies and eighties Ortiz worked on several British popular strips including The Tower King and House of Daemon for the new Eagle, Rogue Trooper and Judge Dredd for 2000 AD and The Thirteenth Floor for Scream!, which he co-created with John Wagner and Alan Grant. Whilst doing all of this work on UK kid’s comics, in the US Ortiz was also working on and is arguably best known for illustrating several stories for Warren’s horror titles, including Eerie and Vampirella.. Brendan McCarthy began working for 2000 AD in its early days and as his style developed, he created and designed many memorable strips for the comic, including the British, Japanese and OZ judges, the Judda/Chopper storyline, Zenith and Sooner or Later. His later comics work includes the celebrated Rogan Gosh, the controversial, banned Skin, the influential Strange Days, the Dr Strange/Spider-Man series Fever for Marvel and more recently. The Zaucer of Zilk for 2000 AD (being re-published by IDW in the US). During the eighties, he moved into designing pop videos and then went on to create the visuals for the groundbreaking hit cgi animated TV series Reboot. This led to work in Hollywood on such projects as the first Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie, Lost In Space and Highlander. He also co-wrote and designed the new instalment of the Mad Max franchise called Fury Road, with director George Miller. Brendan currently has a big new cgi animated feature film and a bizarre new comic series (Nano Nano) in the works.. Eric Bradbury began his comic career at Knockout, working on such humour strips as Blossom and Our Ernie. He moved onto the adventure western, Lucky Logan, sharing art chores with Mike Western (Bradbury would go on to ink Western’s pencils on The Leopard from Lime Street). High profile work on Mytek the Mighty (Valiant & Vulcan), the House of Dolmann (Valiant), Von Hoffman’s Invasion (Jet!), Death Squad (Battle), Hook Jaw (Action) and Doomlord (The Eagle) followed. Bradbury has been described as an ‘unsung hero’ of 2000 AD, having contributed to many popular strips in the long-running sci-fi comic. His credits in the ‘Galaxy’s Greatest comic’ include Rogue Trooper, Tharg the Mighty, Invasion and The Mean Arena.. Widely regarded as one of the best artists to ever grace the British comic industry, Mike Western began his career on Knockout, having already spent time working for GB Animation. During the 1950s he shared art chores with Eric Bradbury on the popular western strip Lucky Logan. In 1960 he moved onto TV Express where he drew No Hiding Place and Biggles. Buster and Valiant followed where Mike found himself drawing long-running strips such as Wild Wonders. In the 1970s he was very prolific, illustrating Buster's Leopard from Lime Street and several key strips for Battle, including Darkie's Mob, The Sarge and HMS Nightshade. Mike made an impact on the iconic Roy of the Rovers, illustrating the newspaper strip which ran in the Daily Star during the 1990s.

Best known for writing Transformers comics, Simon Furman was instrumental in making Marvel UK a success. During the eighties and nineties he worked on many titles for them, including the aforementioned Transformers and also Action Force, Thundercats, Doctor Who Magazine as well as two series he helped create – Dragon’s Claws and Death’s Head. More recently he has written the Annihilation: Rohan miniseries for Marvel US and the ten issue maxi-series To The Death series, drawn by his Transformers workmate, Geoff Senior.

John Wagner has been scripting for 2000 AD for more years than he cares to remember. His creations include Judge Dredd, Strontium Dog, Ace Trucking, Al’s Baby, Button Man and Mean Machine. Outside of 2000 AD his credits include Star Wars, Lobo, The Punisher and the critically acclaimed A History of Violence.

With over 300 2000 AD stories to his name – not to mention over 250 Daily Star Judge Dredd strips – Alan Grant’s prolific creative record speaks for itself. Outside the Galaxy’s Greatest Comic, Grant is well-known to Batman fans following a lengthy run on various incarnations of the title. More recently he has adapted Robert Louis Stevenson’s classic novels Kidnapped and Doctor Jekyll and Mr Hyde in Graphic Novel format with artist Cam Kennedy.

Perhaps the most widely respected comic writer of the modern era, Alan Moore’s contribution to the comics world is incalculable. Creator of some of 2000 AD’s most popular series, including Abelard Snazz, The Ballad of Halo Jones, D.R. & Quinch and Skizz, he has also worked on A.B.C. Warriors, Ro-Busters, Rogue Trooper, Ro-Jaws’ Robo-Tales, Tharg the Mighty, Time Twisters and several one-off strips. Outside of the Galaxy’s Greatest Comic, Moore is best known for his work on the classic Watchmen, which redefined the superhero genre in 1986, but this is simply touching the surface of a career which has included 1963, A1’s Warpsmiths, Bojeffries Saga and Maxwell the Magic Cat, AARGH!, Batman, Big Numbers, Brought to Light, Captain Britain, Deathblow, Flesh and Bones, From Hell, Glory, Green Lantern Corps, Lost Girls, Miracleman, A Small Killing, Snakes and Ladders, Spawn, Supreme, Swamp Thing, Superman , V For Vendetta, WildC.A.T.S. and Youngblood. Moore is now owner and chief writer of the America’s Best Comics line, distributed by WildStorm, and including Promethea, Tom Strong, Tomorrow Stories, Top Ten and The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, which has been made into a major Hollywood movie.

One of the most prolific writers in the comic’s history, Gerry Finley-Day holds a special place in many 2000 AD fans’ hearts as the creator of classics like Rogue Trooper, Fiends of the Eastern Front and The V.C.s, as well as Harry 20 on the High Rock and Ant Wars. A keen “ideas man”, Finley-Day’s concepts of the horrors future warfare had in store were key to both Rogue and The V.C.s’ continuing popularity, ensuring that their recent return to the Galaxy’s Greatest Comic was well-received. Finley-Day also scripted episodes of Judge Dredd and Dan Dare, and co-scripted much of Invasion! (and entirely scripted the prequel story, ‘Disaster 1990!’).