The Mighty One

Steve MacManus, the editor of 2000 AD during its 1980s heyday, lifts the lid on how the UK’s most important comic came into existence and his extraordinary role in shaping it into a industry-revolutionising icon.

In 1973, a twenty-year-old MacManus joined Fleetway Publications as a sub-editor on UK adventure title Valiant. Six years later he took charge of the company’s most celebrated weekly, 2000 AD, shepherding it through its ‘Golden Age’ as he commissioned numerous hit series such as The Ballad of Halo Jones, Sláine, Rogue Trooper, Nemesis the Warlock and more. For many he remains the definitive editor of the multi-award-winning SF anthology.

Now, in this warm and witty memoir, MacManus vividly describes the fiercely creative environment that was British comics in the 1970s and ‘80s – from Battle and Action to the stellar rise of 2000 AD and Judge Dredd, he details the personalities at play and the corporate politics and deadline battles he and others engaged in on a daily basis. With keen insight, MacManus reveals how 2000 AD defined comics for a generation and became a global phenomenon.