All-Star Future Shocks

' Where legends are born!' Future Shocks these self-contained short stories from the pages of 2000 AD have been the testing ground for many of comics greatest writers and artists. From the far reaches of the galaxy to the lowest depths of hell, discover what lurks within the fevered imaginations of such luminaries as Neil Gaiman, Grant Morrison, Kevin O'Neill, Brian Bolland, Alan Grant, Peter Milligan, John Higgins, Alan Davis and Mark Millar to name but a few.

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.

Neil Gaiman only wrote four strips for 2000 AD but his success outside of the Galaxy’s Greatest has been phenomenal. Gaiman is the best-selling author behind such world-renown titles as The Sandman, Mr Punch, American Gods, Stardust and has recently written a well-received episode of Dr. Who.

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. His television work includes scripts for the BBC series Ace Lightning and the Carnival of Doom.

Mark Millar is one of 2000 AD’s most prolific story creators, with many co-creation credits including Babe Race 2000, Big Dave, and Slaughterbowl. He has also written for Judge Dredd, Judge Anderson, Rogue Trooper and Zenith with Grant Morrison. Outside of the Galaxy’s Greatest Comic Millar has written The Authority, Aztek, Batman, The Ultimates, and Vampirella. His creator-owned project, Kick-Ass, was turned into a feature film and directed by Matthew Vaughn.

Grant Morrison is one of the most successful ex-2000 AD writers, with a host of critical awards and a huge following. He began his career on Marvel UK’s Zoids before coming to the Galaxy’s Greatest Comic, where his strip Zenith became a fan-favourite. At first a prolific writer of ‘mature readers’ comics, including the award-winning Animal Man, Batman: Arkham Asylum, Doom Patrol, The Invisibles and The Filth for Vertigo, he has gone on to write successful runs on the X-Men and Batman and won numerous awards for his work on All-Star Superman.

Peter Milligan is one of 2000 AD’s most prolific story creators, and has now, of course, graduated to much wider comics fame. As well as co-creating Hewligan’s Haircut with Jamie Hewlett, Milligan created the classic future war story Bad Company, in addition to creating Freaks, Shadows, Sooner or Later, The Dead and Tribal Memories. He also contributed several short stories and Future Shocks, and has written Judge Dredd and Rogue Trooper stories. His work outside the Galaxy’s Greatest Comic has received enormous critical and fan acclaim; notably Vertigo’s existentialist superhero mystery Enigma, via The Eaters, Human Target, Girl, Tank Girl: The Odyssey, A1, Animal Man, Batman, Minx, Shade the Changing Man, Skreemer and Vertigo Pop! London, a rock ‘n’ roll tale of the big city. For Marvel he cocreated the best-selling X-Statix, a vicious pop culture satire, illustrated by Mike Allred. More recently, he has returned to Vertigo, working on the series Greek Street.

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. Simon written several issues of Judge Dredd: Lawman of the Future. More recently he has shared scripting chores with Dan Abnett on Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy.

Simon Spurrier was born in 1981. Working as an art director for the BBC, he took an unscripted tangent toward Tharg’s Mighty Organ – contributing multiple Future Shock, Judge Dredd and original series to 2000 AD – and has since become an award winning author and graphic novelist on both sides of the Atlantic. He lives in a state of perpetual quantum flux between prose and comics: a superposition easily collapsible by tweeting at @sispurrier.

A contributor to most of the major British anthology comics, including early issues of Doctor Who Weekly and Hulk Comic for Marvel UK, Steve Moore wrote the second story-arc for the newly revived Dan Dare in 2000 AD. Alan Hebden scripted a number of comics in the late1970’s and early 1980’s, including Major Eazy for Battle, Mind Wars for Starlord and Return of the Mean Team for 2000 AD. Steve is still working in the industry today, writing various war stories for DC Thomson’s Commando.