You could never say that I’m a HUGE fan of comic books. I definitely don’t hang out in the comic book stores or obsess about them in any way. There are some that I’ve collected over the years simply because the art or story is just so good as to transcend the comic-book genre.

Growing up in Ireland, my brother used to buy a little known comic book known as 2000AD. It sold for about 8 irish pence, well within reach of a schoolboy.  My brother was very protective of his prize but I managed to sneak a read more often than not.

This was an amazing comic with stories of the future world, far off galaxies and fantastic action. It was well ahead of its time. It sort of lost a lot of its thought leadership in the early 90′s but the first 10 years of it were nothing short of fantastic.

Some of the better artists in this strip included Carlos Ezquerra (Strontium Dog), Brian Bolland (Judge Death) and Simon Bisley (Judge Dredd).  Amazon is now selling collections of stories, extracted from the original comics, all neatly bound so you can experience the entire story without having to wait from one week to the next.  Some of the art is spectacular and even if you don’t appreciate the storyline, you can appreciate the talent of these artists.