2000 AD and Tornado #127
Prog 127 — cover-dated 25 August 1979 — is the first issue to carry the merged title '2000 AD and Tornado,' marking the second and final absorption of a sister IPC title into what would become Britain's longest-running weekly anthology comic. It is the debut issue of the A.B.C. Warriors story arc 'Steelhorn,' which delivers the first appearances of the war-robot Steelhorn and his molten alter-ego 'The Mess' — characters who would anchor one of Pat Mills's most durable shared-universe mythologies. Simultaneously, the issue marks the in-continuity 2000 AD debuts of Tornado survivors Black Hawk and Wolfie Smith, both of whom received genre-shifting rewrites to fit the sci-fi tone of their new home. The Judge Dredd story present — 'Night of the Fog,' scripted by John Wagner and drawn by Brian Bolland — has been reprinted multiple times, cementing the issue's place as a snapshot of the strip at a creative high point.
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Tornado was a short-lived IPC boys' action weekly launched on 24 March 1979, partly assembled from stories already commissioned for other cancelled titles and plagued by a troubled editorial history that included the departure of its founding editor Kelvin Gosnell before launch. After only 22 issues its low sales prompted IPC management to fold it into 2000 AD; regular editor Steve MacManus was on holiday when the order came down, so the merger was overseen in practice by Alan Grant. Of Tornado's strips, only Black Hawk, The Mind of Wolfie Smith, and the one-page comedy Captain Klep crossed over — and both Black Hawk and Wolfie Smith required substantial narrative retooling to fit 2000 AD's science-fiction identity. The cover of prog 127 was drawn by Dave Gibbons, who reportedly included a likeness of himself as Tornado's fictional editor character 'Big E.'
Trivia · 8 facts
- First appearance of Steelhorn and 'The Mess' (his molten, indestructible form): the A.B.C. Warriors story 'Steelhorn, Part 1' debuts in this issue, scripted by Pat Mills with art by Brendan McCarthy.
- Prog 127 is the first issue published under the merged title '2000 AD and Tornado' (IPC, published 25 August 1979); the title ran under this banner from prog 127 through prog 177 before reverting to plain '2000 AD' with prog 178.
- The Judge Dredd story in this issue is 'Night of the Fog,' written by John Wagner (credited as John Howard) and drawn by Brian Bolland, lettered by Tom Frame; it has since been reprinted in Judge Dredd (Titan, 1981) #1, Fleetway/Quality's Judge Dredd #14 (1988), and the Fleetway collection Judge Dredd: Metal Fatigue (1991).
- Black Hawk makes its 2000 AD debut here; the strip was substantially reworked from its Tornado incarnation — where the character was a Roman-era Nubian slave turned centurion — into a science-fiction gladiator strip set in an alien arena, written by Alan Grant and Kelvin Gosnell under the shared pseudonym 'Alvin Gaunt,' with art by Massimo Belardinelli.
- The Mind of Wolfie Smith, about a psychic teenage runaway, also transitions into 2000 AD in this issue; it was written by Tom Tully with art by Ian Gibson.
- The cover was produced by Dave Gibbons, who also handled pencils, inks, and colours on the wraparound/introductory Tharg strip welcoming the Tornado characters; the editor was Steve MacManus, credited in-universe as 'Tharg the Mighty.'
- Bill Savage appears in this issue in 'Disaster 1990,' the Invasion! prequel running from progs 119–139, scripted by writers including Gerry Finley-Day; the strip links the Volgan War continuity that underpins both the A.B.C. Warriors and Ro-Busters strips in what later became known as Pat Mills's 'Millsverse.'
- The A.B.C. Warriors 'Steelhorn' two-parter (progs 127–128) was later reprinted in the Titan Books A.B.C. Warriors Book 1, ABC Warriors Vol. 1 (the 1983 Titan collection), and the Rebellion graphic novel A.B.C. Warriors: The Meknificent Seven.