2000 AD #505
2000 AD prog 505 (cover-dated 17 January 1987) marks the first appearance of Durham Red, one of the most enduring characters to emerge from the long-running Strontium Dog strip — a vampiric mutant bounty hunter whose immediate reader popularity earned her her own spin-off series and decades of ongoing stories. Her debut arrived at a charged cultural moment: a mid-1980s British comics scene pushing against adolescent-audience conventions, and a wider pop-culture landscape already saturated with vampire imagery, making her a resonant and politically layered addition to 2000 AD's mutant-underclass allegory. The issue also ran concurrent instalments of Bad Company and Sláine the King, placing it squarely within the editorial high-water mark that defined 2000 AD's late-IPC era, just before the title transferred to Fleetway under Robert Maxwell later that year. Durham Red's introduction in this prog seeded decades of continuity — solo series, novels, and revivals that ran well into the 2020s.
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Prog 505 was produced in the final months of IPC Magazines' stewardship of 2000 AD, before the title's comics division was sold to Robert Maxwell's Fleetway operation in 1987. The Strontium Dog story that debuts here — 'Bitch', part 1 — was written by Alan Grant and drawn by Carlos Ezquerra, the strip's near-exclusive artist since co-creating it with John Wagner for Starlord in 1978. The naming of the new female character involved a genuine creative disagreement: Wagner favoured 'Durham Red' while Grant reportedly held out for 'Chelsea Blue', reasoning that a Chelsea accent would suit her better if Strontium Dog ever became a film; Wagner's preference prevailed. The cover of the issue itself, depicting Durham Red, was also drawn by Ezquerra, giving the character an immediate visual prominence that signalled her importance to the strip from the outset.
Trivia · 8 facts
- First appearance of Durham Red (real name unrevealed), a mutant Search/Destroy bounty hunter whose mutation gives her a vampiric compulsion for blood — created by writer Alan Grant (with John Wagner) and artist Carlos Ezquerra.
- Durham Red debuts in part 1 of the Strontium Dog story arc titled 'Bitch', written by Alan Grant and drawn by Carlos Ezquerra; the arc ran through prog 529.
- The cover of prog 505 was illustrated by Carlos Ezquerra and features Durham Red — making it both her story debut and her cover debut.
- The issue was published by IPC Magazines in January 1987 (cover date 17 January 1987), just months before IPC's comics division was sold to Robert Maxwell as Fleetway.
- Prog 505 also contained ongoing episodes of Sláine the King (script: Pat Mills, art: Glenn Fabry) and Bad Company (script: Peter Milligan, art: Brett Ewins/Jim McCarthy), two of the title's defining mid-to-late-1980s serials.
- Judge Dredd appeared in a standalone strip titled 'Slick Dickens', written by Wagner/Grant with art by Steve Dillon, running concurrently in the same prog.
- Durham Red proved so popular that following the death of Johnny Alpha she headlined the spin-off series Strontium Dogs and later her own Durham Red title, with stories by writers including Peter Hogan and Dan Abnett continuing into the 2000s and 2020s.
- The character's name origin involved an internal debate: Alan Grant wanted 'Chelsea Blue'; John Wagner's choice of 'Durham Red' won out — documented in David Bishop's Thrill-Power Overload.