2000 AD and Tornado #160
2000 AD and Tornado #160 (12 April 1980) is the first appearance of the Angel Gang — Elmer 'Pa' Angel, Link Angel, Mean Machine Angel, and Junior Angel — who became some of the most durable and widely imitated villains in British comics history, described by later critics as second only to Judge Death in Dredd's rogues' gallery. Their debut occurs within 'The Judge Child', the third and most ambitious of the Dredd 'mega-epics', which pushed the strip into galaxy-spanning science fiction territory and introduced several other long-running characters, including Judge Hershey. Mean Machine Angel in particular proved so reader-beloved that writer John Wagner brought him back from the dead, spawning decades of further stories and a cameo in the 1995 Judge Dredd film. The cover by Mike McMahon — a raw, in-your-face group portrait of the four villains — was later singled out by multiple comics creators as one of the defining images of 2000 AD's early era.
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The Judge Child storyline (progs 156–181) was scripted by John Wagner and, from roughly the midpoint of the arc onward, co-written by Wagner's housemate Alan Grant — the beginning of a writing partnership that would shape Judge Dredd for the next eight years. Art duties across the full run rotated among Brian Bolland, Ron Smith, and Mike McMahon, with McMahon drawing the episodes in which the Angel Gang are first encountered as well as providing the prog 160 cover. The issue appeared under the combined '2000 AD and Tornado' masthead that IPC had used since absorbing the short-lived Tornado weekly in August 1979; that branding was dropped a few months later, around prog 178. Wagner wrote using the pen name T.B. Grover, a common practice among 2000 AD contributors at the time.
Trivia · 8 facts
- First appearance of the Angel Gang: Elmer 'Pa' Angel, Link Angel, Mean Machine Angel, and Junior Angel all debut in this issue as antagonists of the 'Judge Child' storyline.
- The story is part of 'The Judge Child Quest', the third Dredd 'mega-epic', running from progs 156 to 181 (1980), which also introduced Judge Hershey and the Judge Child (Owen Krysler).
- Script credited to John Wagner (writing as T.B. Grover); Alan Grant joined Wagner as co-writer during this storyline, marking the start of their celebrated eight-year collaboration on Dredd.
- The prog 160 cover and the Angel Gang's debut episodes within the arc were drawn by Mike McMahon, whose character designs for the Gang have remained their definitive visual template.
- The issue was published under IPC's combined '2000 AD and Tornado' masthead, a branding that ran from prog 127 (August 1979) until prog 178 (September 1980), following the absorption of the Tornado weekly.
- Mean Machine Angel, distinguished by a behaviour-control dial implanted in his forehead, proved so popular with readers that Wagner resurrected him in the 'Destiny's Angels' storyline (progs 281–288, 1982), after he and the rest of the Gang were killed off by the end of 'The Judge Child'.
- The entire Judge Child storyline — including this issue's content — has been reprinted in Judge Dredd: The Judge Child Quest (Eagle Comics, 1984), and in Rebellion's Judge Dredd: The Complete Case Files Vol. 04 (2006).
- The Angel Gang appeared in the 1995 Judge Dredd feature film, portrayed as Cursed Earth cannibal fanatics; Pa Angel was played by Scott Wilson and Mean Machine by Christopher Adamson.