Rabbits in Mega-City One

I'm taking today off Red Grow the Roses, and dedicating it to tidying the garden and sorting my comics.

I've been reading weekly sci-fi comic 2000AD since I was 16 (and kept every issue). It's a bit of an odd fish: while not exactly aimed at adults (they still substitute fake swear words for real ones most of the time for example, Grud damn it) it has grown older with its readership and does tackle a lot of adult issues, often satirically. In the guise of futuristic and fantasy action thrillers it purveyed BDSM, fetishwear, nudity and ultraviolence to my teenaged years, and has shaped my imagination probably more than I care to know. ("See Nikolai Dante shag his way round the Nu-Russian Empire! Watch Celtic barbarian Slaine get it on doggy style with a nun! Gasp as the blood drips down Durham Red's vampiric cleavage*!")

Anyway, this week their flagship comic strip Judge Dredd has started a story revolving around the 2131AD Sex Olympics, which had me just about wetting myself with laughter. Taking swipes at Britain's Got Talent, family values and the teenage chastity movement on the way, it revolves around a crisis in the national champion's trouser department which leads to the first mutant participant in the sport ...

[click to expand]

Yes, there on the table is a bowl full of vibrators. You'll never see that in a Marvel comic, will you.

2000AD: buy it** for the teenager in your life. It never did me any harm...

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*Durham Red is the vampire, not her cleavage. Her cleavage does not drink blood. I just wanted to make that clear.

** I have a postal subscription, but it's available in all newsagents in Britain, and not even on the top shelf. Elsewhere in the world you probably need a specialist comic shop. For some reason their website http://www.2000adonline.com/ is not completely functional.