2000 AD / Rebellion
2000 AD is the long-running British weekly science-fiction comic launched by IPC in 1977; since June 2000 it has been owned and published by Rebellion, which also controls the title’s character portfolio and wider publishing programme.
2000 AD / Rebellion
The first issue of 2000 AD was published on 26 February 1977. Developed during the mid-1970s revival of popular science fiction, the comic took shape under founding editor Pat Mills after Kelvin Gosnell proposed a new science-fiction title for IPC. Judge Dredd arrived in issue 2 and became its defining character, while the anthology went on to become home to strips including Rogue Trooper, Nemesis the Warlock, Sláine and many others.
Rebellion, the independent Oxford company founded by brothers Jason and Chris Kingsley in 1992, acquired 2000 AD and its character portfolio in June 2000 from the Fleetway / Egmont publishing operation. Under Rebellion the title has remained in weekly print while its archive has also been developed through collected editions, digital publishing and wider licensing. Rebellion’s wider business extends beyond comics into video games, including Sniper Elite and Atomfall, as well as books, television, film and board games. The current 2000 AD subscription service describes 49 regular issues per year, with a larger Christmas edition covering the seasonal break.
Why it matters
2000 AD occupies an unusually durable position in British comics culture: a continuous weekly anthology combining science fiction, satire, political allegory, distinctive graphic identities and successive generations of writers and artists. It became a major route through which British comics talent reached wider international audiences. Rebellion’s stewardship is significant to TMR because it links the historic publication to the preservation, republication and continued development of its extensive character and story archive.
Associated people
Coverage
This TMR entity combines 2000 AD with its present owner and publisher for relationship browsing. The combined name does not imply that Rebellion founded the comic: 2000 AD began under IPC in 1977, passed through later Fleetway ownership, and was acquired by Rebellion in June 2000. Individual object records retain their own exact publisher and edition histories.
32 objects
TMR holdings represented across 1990–2017.