title: Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams

text: The civet is an endangered animal that first appeared in historic texts during the 12th century. In these texts, it was depicted that kings would be bathed in the oil created from the secretion of these cats, called Punugu oil, for aromatic purposes. In the 14th century the oil became known as a prestigious perfume. In the 21st century, the temple has used this oil to anoint the sacred image of Sri Venkateswara every Friday. Due to the weekly occurrence of this practice, the TTD reared nine of these civets in the Sri Venkateswara dairy farms to easily collect the secretions. In 2002, due to the endangered nature of the animals, this practice came under fire. The topic cropped up again in 2008, this time accompanied by the confiscation of their civets due to the violation of the 1972 Wildlife Protection Act. The temple tried to re-obtain the civets by stating that without these animals it would go against their ageless religious practices. If that plan failed, they had hopes of funding a zoo refuge for these animals and in turn be able to collect their secretions.


title: C. Sylendra Babu

text: Dr. C. Sylendra Babu (born 5 June 1962) is a 1987 batch Indian Police Service Officer serving as the current Director General of Police and Head of Police Force, Tamil Nadu Police. He holds a PhD degree in Criminology from the University of Madras.


title: C. Sylendra Babu

text: Sylendra Babu was born in the town of Kuzhithurai, Kanniyakumari District, Tamil Nadu. He attended the Govt Higher Secondary School, Vilavancode, Kanyakumari District. He has BSc (Agriculture) from the Agricultural College and Research Institute, Madurai and majored in agriculture extension from the Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore. Later, he obtained BGL and MA degrees in Population Studies from the Annamalai University and was awarded a PhD for his thesis on "missing children" by the University of Madras. In 2013, he obtained a Master of Business Administration degree in Human Resources.


title: C. Sylendra Babu

text: Babu is known to follow a strict training regimen and has written a Tamil book on Physical fitness. He has actively participated in and supported various sport activities such as swimming, athletics, shooting, and cycling. During the course of his police training, he was awarded the RD Singh Cup for Swimming at the National Police Academy, Hyderabad. In December, 2004 he represented India for the 100 metres event in the Asian Masters Athletic Championships, Bangkok. He has also participated in several 10k runs such as the Chennai Marathon and the Coimbatore Marathon. He led a contingent of 26 marine commandos for the Half Marathon event in the 2014 Auroville Marathon.


title: C. Sylendra Babu

text: On 8 February 2013, Babu organised and participated in an 890 km cycle rally from Chennai to Kanyakumari along with the members of Coastal Security Group and Indian Coast Guard. The rally was over a period of 10 days and aimed at creating awareness about the functioning of Coastal police and the Coast Guard among coastal residents. Being an ardent shooter, he has also participated in various police and civilian shooting competitions.


title: C. Sylendra Babu

text: Babu joined the Indian Police Service (IPS) as a member of the 1987 batch. He was trained at the National Police Academy, Hyderabad. He has served as the Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP), in Dharmapuri, Gobichettipalayam, Salem and Dindigul and as the Superintendent of Police (SP), in Chengalpattu, Sivagangai, Cuddalore and Kancheepuram districts and as the Deputy Commissioner of Police, Adayar-Chennai. He has also served as the Deputy Inspector-General (DIG) of Police of Viluppuram Range and as the Joint Commissioner of Police, Chennai. Later, he became the DIG of Police, Tiruchirapalli before becoming the Chief Vigilance Officer in Karur, served as Commissioner of Police, Coimbatore prior to becoming Inspector-General (IG) for Northern Zone, Chennai.


title: C. Sylendra Babu

text: In April 2012, he was promoted to the rank of Additional Director-General of Police (ADGP) of Prisons, Tamil Nadu. Later, he was appointed the ADGP of Coastal Police and then appointed as the ADGP of Railway Police. In March 2019, he was promoted as the Director General of Police (DGP) of Railway Police.


title: C. Sylendra Babu

text: During his tenure as the commissioner of Coimbatore city, he introduced computer literacy program in various schools in association with Lead India 2020. The schools are also adopted by the local police station under the program. He has organised free karate camps for children from the poor economic section. He has also initiated karate camps in various women's colleges.


title: C. Sylendra Babu

text: Babu was manager of the Indian national athletic team in various events. He held this role for the 2002 Asian Athletics Championships – Colombo, Sri Lanka, the 2003 World Championships in Athletics – Paris, France and the 2007 World Championships in Athletics – Osaka, Japan. He was also appointed an observer of the Indian athletics contingent for the 2008 Summer Olympics, Beijing.


title: C. Sylendra Babu

text: Babu was the president of the Throwball Federation of India, Tamil Nadu and also the vice-president of the Tamil Nadu Athletic Association. During his tenure as the president of the Coimbatore Rifle Club, from February 2010 to June 2011, he took the initiative to open rifle clubs in various schools across Tamil Nadu.


title: C. Sylendra Babu

text: While serving as the ADGP coastal security group, Babu cycled from Chennai to Kanyakumari - which is approximately 700 km. In 2017, he was a member of a cycling expedition from Kashmir to Kanyakumari covering 4,500 km in 32 days. Babu is a Super Randonneur, having completed 600 km bicycyle ride between Chennai to Rameshwaram in 36 hours.


title: C. Sylendra Babu

text: In March 2018, Babu lead a team of 9 Coastal Police Officers and swam 18 nautical miles across the Palk Strait (Thalaimannar, Sri Lanka to Dhanushkodi) in 12 hours.


title: National symbols of the Philippines

text: The national symbols of the Philippines consist of symbols that represent Philippine traditions and ideals and convey the principles of sovereignty and national solidarity of the Filipino people. Some of these symbols namely the national flag, the Great Seal, the coat of arms and the national motto are stated in the Flag and Heraldic Code of the Philippines, which is also known as Republic Act 8491. In the Constitution of the Philippines, the Filipino language is stated as the national language of the Philippines. Aside from those stated symbols in the Constitution and in Republic Act 8491, there are only six official national symbols of the Philippines enacted through law, namely sampaguita as national flower, narra as national tree, the Philippine eagle as national bird, Philippine pearl as national gem, arnis as national martial art and sport and the Filipino Sign Language as the national sign language. Thus, there is a total of twelve official national symbols passed through Philippine laws.


title: National symbols of the Philippines

text: There are symbols such as the carabao (national animal), mango (national fruit) and anahaw (national leaf) that are widely known as national symbols but have no laws recognizing them as official national symbols. Even Jose Rizal, who is widely considered a national hero, has not been declared officially as a national hero in any existing Philippine law according to historical experts. Although in 2003, Benigno Aquino Jr. was officially declared by the President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo as a national hero by an executive order. A National Artist of the Philippines is a rank or a title given to a Filipino citizen in recognition to the recipient's contributions to Philippine arts and letters and they are not considered a national symbol that represents traditions and ideals.


title: National symbols of the Philippines

text: Through the years, there were attempts to make those traditional symbols official. One of them is House Bill 3926, a bill proposed on February 17, 2014, by Bohol First District Representative Rene Relampagos of the Philippine House of Representatives that sought to declare, re-declare or recognize a number of national symbols. House Bill 3926 ("Philippine National Symbols Act of 2014"), aimed to encourage nationalism and unity; to guarantee respect, preservation and promotion of national symbols; and to correct the "unofficial" status of the symbols. Among the national symbols listed in the measure are Jose Rizal as the only historical Filipino to be recognized as national hero, adobo as national food and jeepney as national vehicle. It also includes the previous official national symbols, which were eleven during the filing of the bill. As of February 2014, the bill is still pending with the Committee on Revision Laws of the House of Representatives and is not yet a law that would make the proposed symbols as official national symbols.


title: National symbols of the Philippines

text: The Republic Act (RA) 8491, also known as Flag and Heraldic Code of the Philippines, stipulates the code for national flag, anthem, motto, coat-of-arms and other heraldic items and devices of the Philippines. According to Article XIV Section 6 of the Constitution of the Philippines, the national language of the Philippines is Filipino. Apart from RA 8491 and the Constitution, the Philippines has only six official national symbols enacted either through a proclamation by the executive department or through a Republic Act by the legislative department, namely sampaguita, narra, the Philippine eagle, the Philippine pearl, arnis and the Filipino Sign Language.


title: National symbols of the Philippines

text: In 1934, during the Commonwealth era, Governor-General Frank Murphy declared sampaguita and narra as national flower and national tree, respectively, through Proclamation No. 652. Philippine President Fidel Ramos proclaimed the Philippine eagle as the national bird in 1995 through Proclamation No. 615. Ramos also declared the South Sea Pearl or Philippine Pearl as the national gem in 1996 through Proclamation No. 905. In 2009, President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo declared arnis as the national sport and martial art through Republic Act 9850. On October 30, 2018, President Rodrigo Duterte signed Republic Act No. 11106, a law declaring the Filipino Sign Language as the national sign language of the Filipino deaf and the official sign language of the Philippine government involving communications to the deaf.


title: National symbols of the Philippines

text: A Philippine national symbol will be considered official once it is declared through a law or a proclamation. National symbols such as the cariñosa, carabao, "bangus" (milkfish), and "anahaw" (footstool palm) that are circulating through various sources have no official status and have not established by law. According to Nestor Castro, a Filipino cultural anthropologist, most of these unofficial symbols were passed on as tradition in schools every start of the school year when students were asked to buy posters containing the supposed national symbols. While official national symbols are declared through law, Castro and National Historical Commission of the Philippines (NHCP) Section Chief Teodoro Atienza considered that the public must be consulted first before declaration of national symbol.


title: National symbols of the Philippines

text: Throughout the history of legislation in the Philippines, attempts were made to expand the list of official national symbols. In February 2013, the Philippine Senate passed a bill declaring waling-waling ("Vanda sanderiana") as the national flower alongside Sampaguita. A similar bill in the House of Representatives had already been passed in 2012. Normally, the bill would become law after being signed by the President. However, it was vetoed by President Benigno Aquino III. The veto did not grant the waling-waling as the second national flower due to the confusion that it would create.


title: National symbols of the Philippines

text: A year later, on February 17, 2014, Representative Rene Relampagos, a congressman from the First District of Bohol, introduced a legislation in the Philippine House of Representatives that sought to declare, re-declare or recognize a number of national symbols. House Bill 3926 or the "Philippine National Symbols Act of 2014" aimed to encourage nationalism and unity; to guarantee respect, preservation and promotion of national symbols; and to correct the "unofficial" status of the symbols. It listed 26 symbols including the previous eleven official national symbols. The bill is not yet a law that would make those symbols official because it is still pending with the House of Representatives' Committee on Revision Laws as of February 2014.


title: National symbols of the Philippines

text: In February 2016, the House of Representatives approved on final reading of House Bill 6366, which declared the ancient boat balangay as the national boat of the Philippines. In April 2018, the House Committee on Basic Education and Culture approved House Bill 1022, seeking to declare baybayin, a pre-Hispanic writing system used in the Philippines, as the country's national writing system. As of 2019, both legislation are still unresolved as Senate concurrence and a presidential signature is pending.


title: National symbols of the Philippines

text: According to the NHCP Section Chief Teodoro Atienza, and Filipino historian Ambeth Ocampo, there is no Filipino historical figure officially declared national hero through law or executive order. Although, there were laws and proclamations honoring Filipino heroes. In the Rizal Law principally sponsored by Claro M. Recto and enacted in 1956, Jose Rizal is mentioned as a national hero in the "whereas" clause of the law. Although, "whereas" clauses function as a preamble or introduction and it is not part of the provisions. On November 15, 1995, the Technical Committee of the National Heroes Committee, created through Executive Order No. 5 by former President Fidel Ramos, recommended nine Filipino historical figures to be National Heroes: Jose Rizal, Andres Bonifacio, Emilio Aguinaldo, Apolinario Mabini, Marcelo H. del Pilar, Sultan Dipatuan Kudarat, Juan Luna, Melchora Aquino, and Gabriela Silang. No action has been taken for these recommended National Heroes until it was revisited in one of the proceedings of the 14th Congress in 2009.


title: National symbols of the Philippines

text: On August 3, 2009, shortly after the death of former President Corazon Aquino, widow of Benigno Aquino Jr., legislative measures have been filed calling for her official recognition as a national hero. Congresswoman Liwayway Vinzons-Chato filed a house resolution declaring Corazon Aquino a national hero. Although, a week after she filed the resolution, she realized that there is no Filipino historical figure declared through law. On August 10, 2009, she cited on her privilege speech in Congress the nine Filipino heroes recommended by National Heroes Committee in 1995. She then urge Congress to sign the resolutions declaring the nine Filipinos recommended by the National Heroes Committee plus Benigno Aquino Jr. and Corazon Aquino as national heroes. Congressman Salvador Escudero interpellated Vinzons-Chato's speech and stated that heroes are made in the hearts and minds of people and not through legislation. After the interpellation, it was moved by House of Representatives to refer the privilege speech of Vinzons-Chato to the Committee of Basic Education and Culture.


title: National symbols of the Philippines

text: In 2013, Bayan Muna Congressmen Neri Colmenares and Carlos Isagani Zarate filed House Bill 3431 aiming to declare Andres Bonifacio as National Hero due to his actual participation in the Philippine Revolution against Spain. Another measure filed by Congressman Rene Relampagos from Bohol in February 2014 sought to declare Jose Rizal as the sole Filipino national hero. According to the bill, he was a nationalist and well known for his Philippine reforms advocacy during the Spanish colonial era.


title: National symbols of the Philippines

text: Filipinos awarded with the rank or title National Artist of the Philippines are not considered to be national symbols because the title is given in recognition to the recipient's contributions to Philippine arts and letters and not as a symbol that represents traditions and ideals and convey the principles of sovereignty and national solidarity.


title: National symbols of the Philippines

text: Despite declaration from historical experts that there is no historical person declared as a national hero, in 2003, an executive order by then President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo officially declared Beningno Aquino Jr. as one of the national heroes according to a news report by "The Philippine Star". The recognition of Rizal and Bonifactio as national heroes is considered implied due to laws declaring their heroism according to NHCP.


title: National symbols of the Philippines

text: Here are the list of national symbols totaling to twelve and excluding national heroes that were enacted through Philippine law.


title: 2000 AD (comics)

text: 2000 AD is a weekly British science fiction-oriented comic magazine. As a comics anthology it serialises stories in each issue (known as "progs") and was first published by IPC Magazines in 1977, the first issue dated 26 February. Since 2000 it has been published by Rebellion Developments.


title: 2000 AD (comics)

text: "2000 AD" is most noted for its "Judge Dredd" stories, and has been contributed to by a number of artists and writers who became renowned in the field internationally, such as Alan Moore, Dave Gibbons, Grant Morrison, Brian Bolland, Mike McMahon, John Wagner, Alan Grant and Garth Ennis. Other series in "2000 AD" include "Rogue Trooper", "Sláine", "Strontium Dog", "ABC Warriors", "Nemesis the Warlock" and "Nikolai Dante".


title: 2000 AD (comics)

text: "2000 AD" was initially published by IPC Magazines. IPC then shifted the title to its Fleetway comics subsidiary, which was sold to Robert Maxwell in 1987 and then to Egmont UK in 1991. Fleetway continued to produce the title until 2000, when it was bought by Rebellion Developments.


title: 2000 AD (comics)

text: In December 1975, Kelvin Gosnell, a sub-editor at IPC Magazines, read an article in the "London Evening Standard" about a wave of forthcoming science fiction films, and suggested that the company might get on the bandwagon by launching a science fiction comic. IPC publisher John Sanders asked Pat Mills, a freelance writer and editor who had created "Battle Picture Weekly" and "Action", to develop it. Mills brought fellow freelancer John Wagner on board as script adviser and the pair began to develop characters. The then-futuristic name "2000 AD" was chosen by John Sanders, as no-one involved expected the comic to last that long. The original logo and overall look of the comic were designed by art assistant Doug Church.


title: 2000 AD (comics)

text: Mills' experiences with "Battle" and "Action" in particular had taught him that readers responded to his anti-authoritarian attitudes. Wagner, who had written a Dirty Harry-inspired tough cop called "One-Eyed Jack" for "Valiant", saw that readers also responded to authority figures, and developed a character that took the concept to its logical extreme, imagining an ultra-violent lawman patrolling a future New York with the power to arrest, sentence, and if required execute criminals on the spot. This would allow the new comic to be as violent as "Action" had been – a comic which had generated much controversy – but without attracting criticism, because the violence would be committed by an officer of the law. As Sanders put it, "The formula was simple: "violence on the side of justice" ... Dredd could be as violent as hell, and no one could say a thing."


title: 2000 AD (comics)

text: Meanwhile, Mills had developed a horror strip, inspired by the novels of Dennis Wheatley, about a hanging judge, called "Judge Dread" (after the reggae and ska artist of the same name). The idea was abandoned as unsuitable for the new comic, but the name, with a little modification, was adopted by Wagner for his ultimate lawman.


title: 2000 AD (comics)

text: The task of visualising the newly named "Judge Dredd" was given to Carlos Ezquerra, a Spanish artist who had previously worked with Mills on "Battle", on a strip called "Major Eazy". Wagner gave Ezquerra an advertisement for the film "Death Race 2000", showing the character Frankenstein clad in black leather, as a suggestion for what the character should look like. Ezquerra elaborated on this greatly, adding body-armour, zips and chains, which Wagner originally thought over the top. Wagner's initial script was rewritten by Mills and drawn up by Ezquerra, but when the art came back a rethink was necessary. The hardware and cityscapes Ezquerra had drawn were far more futuristic than the near-future setting originally intended, and Mills decided to run with it and set the strip further into the future. By this stage, however, Wagner and Ezquerra had both quit.


title: 2000 AD (comics)

text: Mills was reluctant to lose "Judge Dredd", and farmed the strip out to a variety of freelance writers, hoping to develop it further. Their scripts were given to a variety of artists as Mills tried to find a strip which would make a good introduction to the character, all of which meant that "Dredd" would not be ready for the first issue. The story chosen was one written by freelancer Peter Harris, extensively rewritten by Mills and including an idea suggested by Kelvin Gosnell, and drawn by newcomer Mike McMahon. The strip debuted in prog 2, dated 5 March 1977.


title: 2000 AD (comics)

text: IPC owned the rights to "Dan Dare", and Mills decided to revive the character to add immediate public recognition for the title. Paul DeSavery, who owned "Dare"s film rights, offered to buy the new comic and give Mills and Wagner more creative control and a greater financial stake. The deal fell through, however.


title: 2000 AD (comics)

text: "Dan Dare" was extensively revamped to make it more futuristic. In the new stories he had been put into suspended animation and revived in the year 2177. Several artists were tried out before Mills settled on Italian artist Massimo Belardinelli, whose imaginative, hallucinatory work was fantastic at visualising aliens, although perhaps less satisfying on the hero himself. The scripts were endlessly rewritten in an attempt to make the series work, but few "Dan Dare" fans remember this version of the character fondly. Belardinelli and Gibbons later switched strips, with Gibbons drawing "Dan Dare" and Belardinelli drawing the "Harlem Heroes" sequel "Inferno". When Gibbons took over "Dan Dare" in prog 28 the strip was refashioned as a "Star Trek"-style space opera.


title: 2000 AD (comics)

text: Mills had also created "Harlem Heroes", about the future sport of aeroball, a futuristic, violent version of basketball with jet-packs. Similar future sport series had been a fixture of "Action", and the similarly themed film "Rollerball" had been released the previous year. Wanting to give the new comic a distinctive look, Mills wanted to use European artists, but the work turned in on "Harlem Heroes" by Trigo was disappointing. Veteran British artists Ron Turner and Barrie Mitchell were tried out, but the newcomer Dave Gibbons won the editor over with his dynamic, American-influenced drawings and got the job. Mills wrote the first five episodes before handing the strip to "Roy of the Rovers" writer Tom Tully.


title: 2000 AD (comics)

text: The other opening strips were "M.A.C.H. 1", a super-powered secret agent inspired by "The Six Million Dollar Man"; "Invasion!", about a "Volgan" (thinly disguised and originally billed as Soviet, but changed before printing to a "neutral" antagonist) invasion of the United Kingdom opposed by tough London lorry driver turned guerrilla fighter Bill Savage; and "Flesh", a strip about time-travelling cowboys farming dinosaurs for their meat.


title: 2000 AD (comics)

text: After 16 issues, Mills quit as editor and handed the reins to Kelvin Gosnell, whose idea the comic had been in the first place. Gosnell also appeared as the fall guy in the "Tharg the Mighty" comedy photostrips that were a feature of the comic in its early years.


title: 2000 AD (comics)

text: Wagner returned to write "Judge Dredd", starting in prog 9. His "Robot Wars" storyline was drawn by a rotating team of artists, including McMahon, Ezquerra, Turner and Ian Gibson, and marked the point where "Dredd" became the most popular character in the comic, a position he has rarely relinquished. Dredd's city, which now covered most of the east coast of North America, became known as Mega-City One. Dredd had also been unmasked in issue 8 in a story drawn by Massimo Belardinelli, but the decision was made to make out that Dredd's face had been scarred and the panel had a 'censored' banner slapped on it. After this, there were no further attempts to show Dredd's face again.


title: 2000 AD (comics)

text: A new story format was introduced in prog 25 – "Tharg's Future Shocks", one-off twist-in-the-tail stories devised by writer Steve Moore. "2000 AD" still uses this format as filler and to try out new talent.


title: 2000 AD (comics)

text: Wagner introduced a new character, "Robo-Hunter", in 1978. The hero, Sam Slade, was a private detective-type character specialising in robot-related cases. José Ferrer was the original artist, but the editorial team were not happy with his work and quickly replaced him with Ian Gibson, who redrew parts of Ferrer's episodes before taking over himself. Gibson's imaginative, cartoony art helped drive the series' style from hard-boiled detective to surreal comedy. As the series continued Sam was joined by an idiot kit-built robot assistant, Hoagy, and after a crack-down on smoking in IPC comics, a Cuban robot cigar, Stogie, designed to help him cut down on nicotine.


title: 2000 AD (comics)

text: Other ongoing strips included "The Visible Man", detailing the misfortunes of Frank Hart, a man whose skin had been made transparent due to exposure to nuclear waste, and "Shako", (which followed the same formula as "Hook Jaw" from "Action" but with less success) the story of a polar bear pursued by the Army because it had swallowed a secret capsule.


title: 2000 AD (comics)

text: "M.A.C.H. 1" was killed off in 1978 but a spin-off, "M.A.C.H. Zero", continued into the 1980s. "Flesh" had a sequel in 1978, set on the prehistoric oceans, and Bill Savage appeared again in a prequel, "Disaster 1990", in which a nuclear explosion at the north pole had melted the polar ice-cap and flooded Britain.


title: 2000 AD (comics)

text: In 1977 "2000 AD" launched the annual 48-page Summer Special, including a full-length "M.A.C.H. Zero" story drawn by O'Neill. The yearly hardcover annual also started in 1977 (cover dated 1978) and would continue till 1990 (dated 1991).


title: 2000 AD (comics)

text: Pat Mills took over writing "Dredd" for a six-month "epic" called "The Cursed Earth", inspired by Roger Zelazny's "Damnation Alley", which took the future lawman out of the city on a humanitarian trek across the radioactive wasteland between the Mega-Cities. McMahon drew the bulk of the stories, with occasional episodes drawn by Brian Bolland. The story saw Dredd moved to the colour centre pages for the first time while "Dan Dare" was given the front page.


title: 2000 AD (comics)

text: Steve MacManus took over from Gosnell as editor in 1978, starting with prog 86, dated 14 October. In that issue "2000 AD" merged with "Starlord", a second science fiction comic which had been launched by IPC earlier that year. As Gosnell was editor of "Starlord" and "2000 AD" at the same time, "2000 AD" sub-editor Nick Landau largely edited the latter comic himself during this time. "Starlord" was cancelled after only 22 issues and merged into "2000 AD" from prog 86. Two "Starlord" strips strengthened "2000 AD"s line-up: "Strontium Dog", a mutant bounty hunter created by Wagner and Ezquerra, and "Ro-Busters", a robot disaster squad created by Mills. "Ro-Busters" gave O'Neill the chance to spread his artistic wings and led to the popular spin-off "ABC Warriors". "Strontium Dog" and "ABC Warriors" continued to feature in "2000 AD" for the next 40 years. (A third "Starlord" series, "Timequake", only lasted for four episodes and was not renewed.) "Dan Dare" was suspended while "The Cursed Earth" was finished in time for the merger. Wagner returned to "Dredd" following the merger to write "The Day the Law Died", another six-month epic in which Mega-City One was taken over by the insane Chief Judge Cal, based on the Roman emperor Caligula.


title: 2000 AD (comics)

text: Another cancelled title, "Tornado", was merged with "2000 AD" a few months later from prog 127, contributing three stories to "2000 AD": "Blackhawk", an historical adventure series about a Nubian slave in the Roman Empire which took a science-fictional turn in "2000 AD" with him becoming a gladiator in an alien world; "The Mind of Wolfie Smith", a coming of age/psychic story of a runaway teenager, and "Captain Klep", a single-page superhero parody. These stories, unlike "Starlord's", did not continue for very long. The last issue titled "2000 AD and Tornado" was prog 177, dated 13 September 1980.


title: 2000 AD (comics)

text: "2000 AD" featured an adaptation of Harry Harrison's novel "The Stainless Steel Rat", written by Gosnell and drawn by Ezquerra, beginning in November 1979. Adaptations of two of Harrison's sequels, "The Stainless Steel Rat Saves the World" and "The Stainless Steel Rat for President", would follow later. The appearance of the main character, galactic thief "Slippery" Jim DiGriz, was based on James Coburn, evidently a favourite of Ezquerra's; Coburn was also the inspiration for "Major Eazy", which Ezquerra drew in "Battle," as well as "Cursed Earth Koburn", a Dredd-universe reworking of the Major Eazy character, who first appeared in 2003. Gerry Finley-Day contributed "The V.C.s", a future war story inspired by the Vietnam War, drawn by McMahon, Cam Kennedy, Garry Leach and John Richardson.


title: 2000 AD (comics)

text: A feature of the early years of "2000 AD" was the opportunities it gave to young British comic artists: by the time the title celebrated its 100th issue Brian Bolland, Dave Gibbons, Ian Gibson, Mike McMahon and Kevin O'Neil were all established as regulars.


title: 2000 AD (comics)

text: In 1980 "Judge Dredd" gained a new enemy. Writer John Wagner realised that Dredd's habit of shooting just about everybody he came up against meant that it was difficult to create a recurring villain. The solution was Judge Death, an undead judge from another dimension where, since all crime was committed by the living, life itself was outlawed. The law had been thoroughly enforced on his own world, and now he had come to Mega-City One to continue his work. Judge Death first appeared in an atmospheric three-parter drawn by Brian Bolland which also introduced Judge Anderson and Psi Division, a squad of judges with psychic powers.


title: 2000 AD (comics)

text: Dredd soon began another epic journey in "The Judge Child". A dying Psi Division Judge had predicted disaster for Mega-City One unless it was ruled by a boy with a birthmark shaped like an eagle, so Dredd set off into the Cursed Earth, to Texas City, and into deep space in search of the boy, Owen Krysler, and his kidnappers, the Angel Gang. All of them were killed during the course of the story, however the Mean Machine, was later resurrected by Krysler during "Destiny's Angels". "The Judge Child" was drawn by Bolland, Ron Smith and Mike McMahon in rotation, and the later episodes marked the beginning of Wagner's long-running writing partnership with Alan Grant. The pair would go on to write "Strontium Dog", "Robo-Hunter" and many other stories for "2000 AD", as well as for "Roy of the Rovers", "Battle" and the relaunched "Eagle" in the United Kingdom, and a number of comics in America.


title: 2000 AD (comics)

text: With prog 178 all current stories, with the exception of "Judge Dredd", were wound up, and a new set of stories was launched simultaneously, consisting of "Mean Arena", set around a violent high-tech street football game, "Meltdown Man", whose hero was transported to a genetically engineered far future by a nuclear explosion, the return of "Strontium Dog" and "Dash Decent", a "Flash Gordon" parody.


title: 2000 AD (comics)

text: Pat Mills introduced "Comic Rock", which was meant to be a format for short stories inspired by popular music. The first story, inspired by The Jam's "Going Underground", was drawn by Kevin O'Neill and featured a complicated underground travel network on a planet called "Termight", in which a freedom fighter called Nemesis battles the despotic Torquemada, chief of the Tube Police. All that was seen of Nemesis was the outside of his vehicle, the Blitzspear. The story was a reaction to an earlier tube chase sequence Mills and O'Neill had done in "Ro-Busters", which management objected to.


title: 2000 AD (comics)

text: The only other "Comic Rock" story was a follow-up called "Killer Watt", in which Nemesis and Torquemada fought on a teleport system. This led to a series, "Nemesis the Warlock", in which it was revealed that Termight was Earth in the far future. Torquemada was changed from the Chief of Traffic Police to a despotic demagogue leading a campaign of genocide against all aliens, and Nemesis was the leader of the alien resistance. Mills and O'Neill were on a roll and produced a stream of bizarre and imaginative ideas, but ultimately O'Neill was unable to continue the level of work he was putting into it on "2000 AD" pay. He left to work for DC Comics in America, and was replaced on "Nemesis" by first Jesus Redondo and then Bryan Talbot.


title: 2000 AD (comics)

text: "2000 AD" would occasionally take a gamble on non-science fiction material. For example, "Fiends of the Eastern Front" was a World War II vampire story by Gerry Finley-Day and Carlos Ezquerra which was probably originally intended for "Battle". Its hero was a German soldier who discovered that some of his Romanian allies were vampires. Later in the war, when Romania changed sides, he was the only one who knew their secret.


title: 2000 AD (comics)

text: A readers' poll revealed that future war was a popular topic, so Gerry Finley-Day was asked to come up with a new war story. He, editor Steve MacManus and artist Dave Gibbons devised "Rogue Trooper", a "Genetic Infantryman" engineered to be immune to chemical warfare hunting down the traitor general who had betrayed his regiment, who debuted in 1981. He was supported by bio-chips of the personalities of three dead comrades, which, slotted into his equipment, could talk to him. Gibbons left the strip early on and was replaced by Colin Wilson, Brett Ewins and Cam Kennedy. "Rogue Trooper" replaced "Meltdown Man", which had recently ended its run.


title: 2000 AD (comics)

text: Another new strip in 1981, inspired by the brief CB radio craze, was "Ace Trucking Co.", a comedy about pointy-headed alien space trucker Ace Garp and his crew by Wagner, Grant and Belardinelli.


title: 2000 AD (comics)

text: In the "Judge Dredd" series, Mega-City One had grown too large and unwieldy: therefore authors Wagner and Grant they planned to cut it down to size. "Block Mania", in which wars broke out between rival city-blocks, turned out to be a plot orchestrated by the Russian city East-Meg One, and led directly to "The Apocalypse War", another six-month epic and a hard-hitting satire on the concept of mutually assured destruction. East-Meg One, protected by a warp-shield, softened up Mega-City One with nuclear warheads before invading. Dredd spearheaded the resistance, leading a small team to East-Meg territory, hijacking their nuclear bunkers and blowing East-Meg One off the face of the earth. "The Apocalypse War" was drawn in its entirety by Carlos Ezquerra, making a return to the character he created.


title: 2000 AD (comics)

text: A new writer, Alan Moore, had started contributing "Future Shocks" in 1980. He wrote more than fifty one-off strips over the next three years, while also contributing to various Marvel UK titles and the independent magazine "Warrior". In 1982 he gained his first series, "Skizz", a less sentimental take on the same basic plot used in "E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial", set in Birmingham and influenced by Alan Bleasdale's "Boys from the Blackstuff". The series was drawn by Jim Baikie.


title: 2000 AD (comics)

text: Moore wrote another series, "D.R. and Quinch", spun off from a one-off "Time Twister". Drawn by Alan Davis, the strip featured a pair of alien juvenile delinquents with a penchant for mindless thermonuclear destruction. He went on to create "The Ballad of Halo Jones" with artist Ian Gibson. Halo was an everywoman in the far future, born into mass unemployment on a floating housing estate, who escaped the earth and became involved in a terrible galactic war. Three books were published, and more were planned, but Moore's demands for creator's rights and his increasing commitments to American publishers meant they never materialised.


title: 2000 AD (comics)

text: A new character, "Sláine", debuted in 1983, but had been in development since 1981. Created by Pat Mills and his then wife Angela Kincaid, "Sláine" was a barbarian fantasy strip based on Celtic mythology. Kincaid was a children's book illustrator who had never worked in comics before, and her opening episode was drawn and redrawn several times before the editors were satisfied. Other stories were written for artists Massimo Belardinelli and Mike McMahon, but these could not see print until Kincaid's episode was ready.


title: 2000 AD (comics)

text: In 1985, after appearing as a supporting character in "Judge Dredd", "Judge Anderson" finally appeared in her own series, written by Wagner and Grant and initially drawn by Brett Ewins. New artist Glenn Fabry debuted on "Sláine", but, due to his slowness, he was rotated with David Pugh. In the "Judge Dredd" story "", Wagner and Grant introduced a pro-democracy movement in Mega-City One, which is after all a police state. This would provide plotlines for years to come.


title: 2000 AD (comics)

text: In 1986 the comic reached its 500th issue. A new "Sláine" story, "Sláine the King", began, entirely drawn by Fabry. Peter Milligan, a writer who had been contributing "Future Shocks", began two series, the bleak future war story "Bad Company" and a strange, psychedelic series called "The Dead". In 1986, "2000 AD" was selling 150,000 copies a week.


title: 2000 AD (comics)

text: In 1987 IPC's comics division was hived off and sold to publishing magnate Robert Maxwell as Fleetway. "2000 AD" was revamped, with a larger page size and full process colour on the covers and centre pages. Richard Burton became editor. Kevin O'Neill returned for a short "Nemesis" series called "Torquemada the God". Not long after came the debut of "Zenith", "2000 AD"'s first serious superhero strip, by new writer Grant Morrison and artist Steve Yeowell. The title character was a shallow pop singer with superhuman powers, caught up in the intrigues of a 1960s generation of superhumans and the machinations of some Lovecraftian elder gods.


title: 2000 AD (comics)

text: Wagner and Grant began a new "Dredd" Epic, "Oz", featuring Chopper, a popular supporting character. Chopper was a skysurfer who had been imprisoned for competing in an illegal surfing competition a few years previously. A legal "Supersurf" race was being held in Oz, the future Australia, and Chopper escaped to compete. Dredd also went to Oz, partly to deal with Chopper, but mostly to investigate the Judda, a clone army created by Mega-City One's former chief genetic engineer. The Judda were defeated, and Chopper narrowly lost the race to Jug McKenzie. Dredd was waiting at the finish line, but McKenzie distracted him and allowed Chopper to escape into the outback. This ending was apparently the cause of some dispute between Wagner and Grant, and was a contributing factor (it was "The Last American", a mini series for Epic Comics which would mark the end) in ending their regular writing partnership. Wagner kept "Dredd", while Grant continued "Strontium Dog" and "Judge Anderson". However the pair would still come together for occasional collaborations.


title: 2000 AD (comics)

text: The "Oz" storyline had some lasting implications. Kraken, a Judda cloned from the same genetic material as Dredd, was captured by Justice Department, who had plans for him. Chopper also spun off into his own series, written by Wagner and drawn by Colin MacNeil.


title: 2000 AD (comics)

text: The "ABC Warriors" finally had their own series again in 1987 as a spin-off from "Nemesis". This was written, as ever, by Pat Mills, and drawn by two artists in rotation, newcomer Simon Bisley and science fiction artist S.M.S.


title: 2000 AD (comics)

text: In 1988 Grant and artist Simon Harrison began a new "Strontium Dog" story, "The Final Solution". It took nearly two years to complete, and ended with the death of Johnny Alpha, who sacrificed his life to save mutants from extermination. Original artist Carlos Ezquerra did not agree with the decision to kill the character off, and refused to draw it.


title: 2000 AD (comics)

text: The number of colour pages was increased, allowing for one complete strip per issue to be painted. Initially the colour pages were reserved for "Judge Dredd", but were later given over to a new "Sláine" story, "The Horned God", fully painted by Simon Bisley. The series was collected as a series of three graphic novels, then as a single volume, and has remained in print ever since.


title: 2000 AD (comics)

text: In 1989 the colour pages were increased again, allowing for three colour stories and two black and white in every issue. One of the colour series was "Rogue Trooper: the War Machine", written by Dave Gibbons and painted by Will Simpson. The original "Rogue Trooper" series had run out of steam after the Traitor General had been dealt with, though continued with Rogue's adventures on Horst and the 'Hit' series, so Gibbons revamped the concept, creating a different genetic infantryman, Friday, in a different war, albeit in the same universe.


title: 2000 AD (comics)

text: One of the black and white stories, "The Dead Man", was a low-key beginning for a major event. In the Cursed Earth, villagers come across a man, burnt from head to toe, with no memory of who he is or what happened to him. As he tries to piece his memories back together, he is being hunted by the evil beings who left him in that state. A creepy, atmospheric horror-western, it was drawn by John Ridgway and written by "Keef Ripley", a pseudonym for John Wagner. By the end of the series the Dead Man had discovered his identity: he was Judge Dredd.


title: 2000 AD (comics)

text: As "The Dead Man" ended, a new "Judge Dredd" story, "Tale of the Dead Man", explained how Dredd had ended up in that position. Dredd was getting older and the democratic movement was causing him to doubt his role, so Justice Department had groomed Kraken, the former Judda cloned from his bloodline, to replace him. Kraken was now ready for his final assessment, and Dredd himself was chosen to assess him. Although Kraken performed faultlessly, Dredd thought he perceived a hint of his former allegiance to the Judda in him, and failed him. He then resigned as a judge and took the 'Long Walk' into the Cursed Earth. There he met the Sisters of Death, and only barely survived the encounter. This could mean only one thing: Judge Death was back.


title: 2000 AD (comics)

text: This set up the latest six-month epic, "Necropolis". After Dredd had left, Justice Department had put Kraken through one final test, and given him Dredd's badge. But the Sisters of Death, spirit beings from Judge Death's dimension, were able to use Kraken's inner conflict to take control of him and use him to bring Judge Death and the other Dark Judges back from the limbo dimension Dredd had exiled them to. The Sisters possessed all the city's judges and began to enforce Death's twisted law. Out in the Cursed Earth, Dredd had recovered his memory and returned to defeat the Dark Judges. He then tried to lance the democratic boil by holding a referendum on whether the Judges should continue to govern the city. The judges won, by a small margin on a desultory turnout, and Dredd was satisfied.


title: 2000 AD (comics)

text: "2000 AD" gained an influx of talent from other comics. Garth Ennis and John Smith had come to prominence writing for "Crisis", a "2000 AD" spin-off for older readers, while artists Jamie Hewlett and Philip Bond were the stars of "Deadline", an independent comics and popular culture magazine founded by Steve Dillon and Brett Ewins. Smith created "Indigo Prime", a multi-dimensional organisation that polices reality, whose most memorable story was "Killing Time", a time travel story featuring Jack the Ripper. Garth Ennis and Philip Bond contributed "Time Flies", a time-travel comedy, and Hewlett was paired with writer Peter Milligan for the surreal "Hewligan's Haircut". Writer John Tomlinson and artist Simon Jacob created "Armoured Gideon", an action-comedy series about a giant killer robot charged with keeping demons from invading earth.


title: 2000 AD (comics)

text: The "Judge Dredd Megazine", a monthly title set in the world of Dredd, was launched in October 1990. With John Wagner focusing his attentions there, Garth Ennis became the regular writer of Dredd in the weekly.


title: 2000 AD (comics)

text: American writer Michael Fleisher, who had written "The Spectre" and "Jonah Hex" in the 1970s, was recruited to write the continuing adventures of the new "Rogue Trooper", along with several other strips, none of which went down very well. Another new writer who failed to set "2000 AD" on fire was Mark Millar, whose revival of "Robo-Hunter" was particularly unpopular. Millar has since gone on to become a successful writer of American superhero comics such as "The Authority" and "The Ultimates".


title: 2000 AD (comics)

text: "2000 AD" went all-colour about this time (prog 723, dated 23 March 1991), in response to a short-lived new colour weekly, "Toxic!", launched by Pat Mills and many of the core "2000 AD" team of creators. "Toxic!" only lasted 31 issues but many of the creators who had worked on the comic eventually found their way to work for "2000 AD". "Button Man", a contemporary thriller by John Wagner and Arthur Ranson, was originally intended for "Toxic!" but ended up in "2000 AD".


title: 2000 AD (comics)

text: A new "ABC Warriors" series, written by Mills and Tony Skinner and painted by Kev Walker, began in 1991, in which Deadlock took over the warriors with his "Khaos" philosophy.


title: 2000 AD (comics)

text: The old IPC strip "Kelly's Eye" was revived, by the new creative team of Alan McKenzie, Brett Ewins, and Zac Sandler, in 1993, when the publishers realized they no longer had the rights to the character.


title: 2000 AD (comics)

text: Robert Maxwell died in late 1991, and Fleetway was merged with London Editions, a Danish-owned company that owned rights to Disney characters, to become Fleetway Editions.


title: 2000 AD (comics)

text: In 1992, "2000 AD" and the "Judge Dredd Megazine" ran their first crossover story, "Judgement Day", in which zombies overran Mega-City One. Written by Garth Ennis and drawn by Carlos Ezquerra, Peter Doherty, Dean Ormston and Chris Halls, the story teamed Judge Dredd with Johnny Alpha through the medium of time travel. John Smith and artist Paul Marshall created "Firekind", a slow-paced story about dragons and alien societies, which was accidentally published with its episodes in the wrong order.


title: 2000 AD (comics)

text: The "Strontium Dog" world was eventually spun out to encompass a wider field, gaining the plural name "Strontium Dogs" – characters such as female vampire Durham Red, the albino Feral Jackson, and former Johnny Alpha sidekick The Gronk – the latter, normally a timid creature with weak 'heartses', became a gung-ho action character upon learning of Alpha's death. However, in the 12-parter "The Darkest Star", it transpires that the one to "actually" kill him was the Gronk himself; changed into a form designed by a cadre of Lyran necromancers to bring him endless agony, Alpha asked his friend to end his torment.


title: 2000 AD (comics)

text: The "Summer Offensive" was an eight-week experiment in 1993, when new editor Alan McKenzie gave free rein to writers Grant Morrison, Mark Millar and John Smith, to a mixed reception. Morrison wrote a Dredd story, "Inferno", and a drug-influenced comedy adventure, "Really & Truly". Smith contributed "Slaughterbowl", in which convicted criminals on dinosaurs are pitted against each other in a deadly sport, with the survivor being paroled for a year and granted wealth – but being forced to enter the Slaughterbowl again the next year. Millar wrote "Maniac 5", an action-packed series about a remote controlled war-robot. During this run was a satire of British tabloid attitudes titled "Big Dave", written by Morrison and Millar and drawn by Steve Parkhouse.


title: 2000 AD (comics)

text: John Tomlinson became editor in 1994, and a second crossover between "2000 AD" and the "Megazine", "Wilderlands", began. Written by Wagner and drawn by Ezquerra, Mick Austin and Trevor Hairsine, it followed on from "Mechanismo", a series of stories in the "Megazine" in which Justice Department, opposed by Dredd, tried to introduce robot judges. With Wagner writing, "Judge Dredd" was again the flagship strip.


title: 2000 AD (comics)

text: Former "Megazine" editor David Bishop became editor of the weekly in 1996 but sales continued to decline. Unsuccessful series were dropped, and a number of new series were tried out, some more successful than others. Writer Dan Abnett introduced "Sinister Dexter" in 1996, a strip about two hitmen influenced by the film "Pulp Fiction", which became a regular feature. In 1997, writer Robbie Morrison and artist Simon Fraser, who had worked with Bishop on the "Megazine", created "Nikolai Dante", a swashbuckling series set in future Russia starring a thief and ladies' man who discovers he's the illegitimate scion of an aristocratic dynasty. There were also gimmicks, like the "sex issue", sold in a clear plastic wrapper, "The Spacegirls", a series attempting to cash in on the popularity of the Spice Girls, "B.L.A.I.R. 1", a parody of Tony Blair based on "M.A.C.H. 1", and an adaptation of the Danny Boyle film "A Life Less Ordinary".


title: 2000 AD (comics)

text: A new "Dredd" epic, "Doomsday", appeared in 1999 and again ran in both "2000 AD" and the "Megazine". Wagner had been laying the foundations for this story for several years, introducing the main villain, semi-robotic gang lord Nero Narcos, and supporting characters like Judge Edgar of the Public Surveillance Unit, and Galen DeMarco, a former judge who had quit after falling in love with Dredd and become a private eye.


title: 2000 AD (comics)

text: 1999 also saw the return of another character, "Nemesis the Warlock". After a break of ten years, writer Pat Mills decided to bring the story to an end with "The Final Conflict". The series was drawn by Henry Flint in a style that recalled Kevin O'Neill's early work on the series, as well as Simon Bisley's "ABC Warriors" work.


title: 2000 AD (comics)

text: The decade ended with a special 100-page issue called "Prog 2000". Behind a cover by Brian Bolland, "Nemesis" wrapped up for good in a final episode drawn by Kevin O'Neill. War broke out in "Nikolai Dante", and writer Gordon Rennie and artist Mark Harrison introduced future war story "Glimmer Rats". Another old favourite, "Strontium Dog", was revived by Wagner and Ezquerra, telling new stories of Johnny Alpha set before his death, with the conceit that previous stories had been "folklore" and the new stories were "what really happened", allowing Wagner to revise continuity.


title: 2000 AD (comics)

text: The publisher has been owned by Rebellion Developments since 2000, with editors Andy Diggle and (since 2002) Matt Smith at the helm. Rebellion continues to develop stories (and computer games) based on classic characters such as "Rogue Trooper" and "Judge Dredd", and has also introduced a roster of new series including "Shakara", "The Red Seas" and "Caballistics, Inc.". It has also published a tie-in to the film "Shaun of the Dead" in a story written by Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright.


title: 2000 AD (comics)

text: The comic continues to uncover new British talents, including Boo Cook, Dom Reardon and Al Ewing. It has also benefited from an improved dollar-pound exchange rate that has meant the comic can now afford to re-employ some of the talent thought lost to America.


title: 2000 AD (comics)

text: A number of shorter self-contained stories, partly created by the new wave of talent, have run including "London Falling", "Stone Island" and "Zombo". Other developments include a revamping of the "Judge Dredd Megazine" which has included a section acting as a showcase for British small press comics. Starting in program 1500 was the Judge Dredd story "The Connection", a 'prelude' to a 23-part Judge Dredd epic "Origins" which filled in a lot of the details about Dredd's past.


title: 2000 AD (comics)

text: In prog 1526, dated 28 February 2007, "2000 AD" celebrated their 30th anniversary. The issue saw the start of two new storylines: "Nikolai Dante" (by Robbie Morrison and Simon Fraser) and "Savage" (by Pat Mills and Charlie Adlard), along with a one-off episode of "Flesh" (by Pat Mills and Ramon Sola). The run-up to this saw the first arcs of new series "Stickleback" and "Kingdom".


title: 2000 AD (comics)

text: "2000 AD" was also made available online through Clickwheel, another Rebellion Developments-owned firm. Starting in December 2007, the latest issue was made available to download as a PDF. In early 2008 it was announced that an archive of the 2007 issues would be added to the service. The Clickwheel Comics Reader was launched in July 2008 which would allow the digital versions of the comics to be downloaded and read on the iPhone and iPod Touch.


title: 2000 AD (comics)

text: On 19 March 2012 the Royal Mail launched a special stamp collection to celebrate Britain's rich comic book history, which included "2000 AD".


title: 2000 AD (comics)

text: In 2015 a documentary about the history of the comic was made, called "Future Shock! The Story of 2000AD".


title: 2000 AD (comics)

text: On 1 October 2016, signings were held at comic shops in the UK, Ireland, Australia and the US to mark the publication of the 2000th prog. In the same week a 40th birthday convention was announced, which was held in Hammersmith, London in February 2017. At the convention itself, it was announced by the Kingsley brothers that Rebellion would be willing to speak to outside software developers on developing "2000 AD"'s intellectual property. In the same year, former editor Steve MacManus published his memoirs, "The Mighty One: My Life Inside The Nerve Centre".


title: 2000 AD (comics)

text: In 2017, founding editor Pat Mills published his memoirs, "Be Pure! Be Vigilant! Behave! 2000 AD and Judge Dredd: The Secret History". Later in that year, Hachette Partworks began publishing "", initially an 80-volume fortnightly series of hardback books featuring classic stories from the first 40 years of the comic. Now the Collection has been extended to 140 volumes. This followed the success of "", which had started in 2015 and later been extended to 90 volumes.


title: 2000 AD (comics)

text: In June 2018 (July in the United States) a special issue was published, the "2000 AD Sci-Fi Special 2018", which contained stories written and illustrated entirely by women.


title: 2000 AD (comics)

text: Starting in May 2019, "2000 AD" began publishing periodic "all ages" issues every quarter, marketed as "2000 AD Regened", and targeted at younger readers. In these issues, "Judge Dredd" is replaced by "Cadet Dredd" stories.


title: 2000 AD (comics)

text: Although there is no overall shared universe containing all "2000 AD" stories, some stories spin-off or crossover into other stories. These include the numerous stories that occur in the Judge Dredd universe. Many stories by Pat Mills, which are frequently interlinked, link into the Dredd universe as well, though have been partially retconned by the writer. Many stories written by Ian Edginton feature shared themes and references.


title: 2000 AD (comics)

text: A long-running theme is that the editor of "2000 AD" is Tharg the Mighty, a green extraterrestrial from Betelgeuse who terms his readers "Earthlets". Tharg uses other unique alien expressions and even appears in his own comic strips. Readers sometimes play along with this; for example, in prog 201 a pair of readers wrote to Tharg claiming that they preferred to be called "Terrans"; the resulting controversy ended in Tharg allowing readers to vote for the preferred term in prog 229. In prog 240 Tharg announced that the result was a draw, and "Terran" became an accepted term for readers' letters in the Nerve Centre. In similar vein, Tharg used to draw distinction between male and female letter-writers with "Earthlet" and "Earthlette" until a letter was printed in Prog 314 complaining about the use, and Tharg agreed to use "Earthlet" (or "Terran") regardless of gender. From prog 531 the term "Earthlette" was reintroduced.


title: 2000 AD (comics)

text: Another running theme is Tharg's use of robots to draw and write the strips, which bear a marked resemblance to the actual writers and artists. A fictional reason for Tharg to use mechanical assistance was given when the robots "went on strike" (reflecting real-life industrial action that occasionally halted IPC's comics production during the 1970s and 1980s). Tharg wrote and drew a whole issue himself, but when he ran it through the quality-control "Thrill-meter", the device melted down on extreme overload. The offending issue had to be taken away, by blindfolded security guards, to a lead-lined vault where there was no danger of anyone seeing it accidentally.


title: 2000 AD (comics)

text: Many of these have since moved on to work for American publishers such as DC Comics (especially the Vertigo and Wildstorm imprints) and Marvel Comics.


title: 2000 AD (comics)

text: In 2021, Rebellion Publishing and Penguin Random House released five audio drama adaptations of classic "2000 AD" stories:


title: 2000 AD (comics)

text: "2000AD" video games for 8-bit computers include games based on Strontium Dog by Quicksilva for the ZX Spectrum in 1984, "Nemesis the Warlock" and "Sláine" by Martech in 1987, "Rogue Trooper" written by Design Design / published by "Piranha" in 1986 and "Judge Dredd" by Virgin Games in 1990, all released for the Amstrad CPC, Commodore 64 and ZX Spectrum platforms. Melbourne House also released a "Judge Dredd" game on the Commodore 64 and ZX Spectrum in 1987. "Judge Death" and "Halo Jones" games for the ZX Spectrum were being developed by "Piranha" but never released.


title: 2000 AD (comics)

text: Krisalis Software released an adaptation of "Rogue Trooper" for the Amiga and Atari ST in 1991, and the merchandising that accompanied the 1995 "Judge Dredd" film included tie-in games for the IBM PC (MS-DOS), Game Boy, Game Gear, PlayStation, Sega Genesis and Super Nintendo Entertainment System.


title: 2000 AD (comics)

text: A "Judge Dredd" arcade game was created but never completed nor released. It can be found online, where it is available for free, but requires an arcade / coin-op emulator. It features Mean Machine and other Angel Gang members.


title: 2000 AD (comics)

text: A "Judge Dredd Pinball" game was released for MS-DOS in 1998. The same year saw the release of a Judge Dredd videogame for the Sony PlayStation which was developed by Gremlin Interactive and published by Activision.


title: 2000 AD (comics)

text: With the purchase of "2000 AD" by Rebellion Developments, a computer game company, several more "2000 AD"-linked games have been released or are under development. "" was released in 2003 and "Rogue Trooper" followed in 2006 for the Xbox, PlayStation 2 and Microsoft Windows. An updated version for the Wii entitled "Rogue Trooper: Quartz Zone Massacre" was released in December 2009.


title: 2000 AD (comics)

text: A licensed Judge Dredd choose your own adventure style game "Judge Dredd: Countdown Sector 106" was released in 2012 by Australian and UK-based Tin Man Games for iOS, subsequently for Google Play and Steam.


title: 2000 AD (comics)

text: Although the various stories and creators have also won awards, (see the various entries for details) the comic itself has its own trophies:


title: 2000 AD (comics)

text: "2000 AD" has an extremely lively and thriving fanbase, which has produced a number of independent fanzines.


title: 2000 AD (comics)

text: In 1998 W.R. Logan, frustrated at the lack of activity from the comic's publishers both in promoting the title and also in making best use of new talents, decided to create an independent title using "2000 AD" copyrighted characters and situations. This was titled "Class of '79", named after the year of Dredd's graduation from the Academy of Law – 2079. The first couple of issues contained work from now-professional comics creators Rufus Dayglo, Boo Cook, Henry Flint and PJ Holden and won the best Self Published/Independent Comic Award at the 1999 National Comics Awards.


title: 2000 AD (comics)

text: In 2001, Andrew J. Lewis created "Zarjaz" comic, with strips featuring characters from a variety of "2000 AD" stories. There were also interviews with Alan Grant, Frazer Irving and Alan Moore, as well as an extensive article on breaking into comics as a writer.


title: 2000 AD (comics)

text: Another long-running fanzine, dedicated to the world of Johnny Alpha, is "Dogbreath", originally run by the pseudonymous Dr Bob it is now being produced by FutureQuake Publishing. In 2003, Arthur Wyatt created "FutureQuake", a fanzine devoted to the Future Shocks format. Although "Class of '79" and "FutureQuake" now appear to be on hiatus, the other titles are in continuous publication, "Zarjaz" having started up again with a new issue 1.


title: 2000 AD (comics)

text: In addition, a number of small press comics have emerged from the "2000 AD" fanbase, including "Solar Wind", "Omnivistascope" and "The End Is Nigh".


title: State governments of the United States

text: State governments of the United States are institutional units exercising functions of government at a level below that of the federal government. Each U.S. state's government holds legislative, executive, and judicial authority over a defined geographic territory. The United States comprises 50 states: 9 of the Thirteen Colonies that were already part of the United States at the time the present Constitution took effect in 1789, 4 that ratified the Constitution after its commencement, plus 37 that have been admitted since by Congress as authorized under Article IV, Section 3 of the Constitution.


title: State governments of the United States

text: While each of the state governments within the United States holds legal and administrative jurisdiction within its bounds, they are not sovereign in the Westphalian sense in international law which says that each state has sovereignty over its territory and domestic affairs, to the exclusion of all external powers, on the principle of non-interference in another state's domestic affairs, and that each state (no matter how large or small) is equal in international law. Additionally, the member states of the United States do not possess international legal sovereignty, meaning that they are not recognized by other sovereign states such as, for example, France, Germany or the United Kingdom, nor do they possess full interdependence sovereignty (a term popularized by international relations professor Stephen D. Krasner), meaning that they cannot control movement of persons across state borders.


title: State governments of the United States

text: The idea of "dual sovereignty" or "separate sovereigns" is derived from the 10th Amendment to the Constitution, which states that "the powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people." Structured in accordance with state law (including state constitutions and state statutes), state governments share the same structural model as the federal system, with three branches of government—executive, legislative, and judicial.


title: State governments of the United States

text: The governments of the 13 states that formed the original Union under the Constitution trace their roots back to the colonial governments of the Thirteen Colonies. Most of the states admitted to the Union after the original 13 have been formed from organized territories established and governed by Congress in accord with its plenary power under Article IV, Section 3, of the Constitution.


title: State governments of the United States

text: Six subsequent states were never an organized territory of the federal government, or part of one, before being admitted to the Union. Three were set off from an already existing state: Kentucky (1792, from Virginia), Maine (1820, from Massachusetts), and West Virginia (1863, from Virginia). Two were sovereign states at the time of their admission: Texas (1845, previously the Republic of Texas), and Vermont (1791, previously the "de facto" but unrecognized Vermont Republic). One was established from unorganized territory: California (1850, from land ceded to the United States by Mexico in 1848 under the terms of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo).


title: State governments of the United States

text: The legislative branch of the U.S. states consists of state legislatures. Every state except for Nebraska has a bicameral legislature, meaning it comprises two chambers.


title: State governments of the United States

text: The unicameral Nebraska Legislature is commonly called the "Senate", and its members are officially called "Senators".


title: State governments of the United States

text: In the majority of states (26), the state legislature is simply are called"Legislature". Another 19 states call their legislature "General Assembly". Two states (Oregon and North Dakota) use the term "Legislative Assembly", while another two (Massachusetts and New Hampshire) use the term "General Court".


title: State governments of the United States

text: Until 1964, state senators were generally elected from districts that were not necessarily equal in population. In some cases state senate districts were based partly on county lines. In the vast majority of states, the Senate districts provided proportionately greater representation to rural areas. However, in the 1964 decision "Reynolds v. Sims", the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that, unlike the United States Senate, state senates must be elected from districts of approximately equal population.


title: State governments of the United States

text: In 40 of the 49 bicameral state legislatures, the lower house is called the "House of Representatives". The name "House of Delegates" is only used in Maryland, Virginia, and West Virginia. California and Wisconsin call their lower house the "State Assembly", while Nevada and New York simply call the lower house the "Assembly". New Jersey calls its lower house the "General Assembly".


title: State governments of the United States

text: The executive branch of every state is headed by an elected Governor. Most states have a plural executive, in which several key members of the executive branch are directly elected by the people and serve alongside the Governor. These include the offices of Lieutenant Governor (often on a joint ticket with the Governor) and Attorney General, Secretary of State, auditors (or comptrollers or controllers), Treasurer, Commissioner of Agriculture, Commissioner (or Superintendent) of Education, and Commissioner of Insurance.


title: State governments of the United States

text: Each state government is free to organize its executive departments and agencies in any way it likes. This has resulted in substantial diversity among the states with regard to every aspect of how their governments are organized.


title: State governments of the United States

text: Most state governments traditionally use the department as the standard highest-level component of the executive branch, in that the secretary of a department is normally considered to be a member of the Governor's cabinet and serves as the main interface between the Governor and all agencies in his or her assigned portfolio. A department in turn usually consists of several divisions, offices, and/or agencies. A state government may also include various boards, commissions, councils, corporations, offices, or authorities, which may either be subordinate to an existing department or division, or independent altogether.


title: State governments of the United States

text: The judicial branch in most states has a court of last resort usually called a Supreme Court that hears appeals from lower state courts. New York's highest court is called the Court of Appeals, while its trial court is known as the Supreme Court. Maryland also calls its highest court the Court of Appeals. Texas and Oklahoma each have separate courts of last resort for civil and criminal appeals. Each state's court of last resort has the last word on issues of state law and can be overruled only on issues of federal law by the U.S. Supreme Court.


title: State governments of the United States

text: The structure of courts and the methods of selecting judges is determined by each state's Constitution or legislature. Most states have at least one trial-level court and an intermediate appeals court from which only some cases are appealed to the highest court.


title: State governments of the United States

text: Although the exact position of each component may vary, there are certain components common to most state governments:


title: State governments of the United States

text: Education is one of the largest areas of spending by state governments. This includes K–12 education (primary and secondary schools) as well as State University systems.


title: State governments of the United States

text: Health care is one of the largest areas of spending by state governments. This includes spending on Medicaid and the Children's Health Insurance Program.


title: With or Without You

text: "With or Without You" is a song by Irish rock band U2. It is the third track on their fifth studio album, "The Joshua Tree" (1987), and was released as the album's lead single on 16 March 1987. The song was the group's most successful single at the time, becoming their first number-one hit in both the United States and Canada by topping the "Billboard" Hot 100 for three weeks and the "RPM" national singles chart for one week, with a further three weeks at number two.


title: With or Without You

text: "With or Without You" features sustained guitar parts played by guitarist the Edge with a prototype of the Infinite Guitar, along with vocals by lead singer Bono and a bassline by bassist Adam Clayton. The song originated from a demo recorded in late 1985 that the group continued to work on throughout "The Joshua Tree" sessions. Ostensibly a troubled love song, the track's lyrics were inspired by Bono's conflicting feelings about the lives he led as a musician and domestic man.


title: With or Without You

text: Critics praised the song upon its release. It is frequently performed on the band's tours, and it has appeared on many of their compilation albums and concert films. "With or Without You" is U2's second most frequently covered song. In 2004, "Rolling Stone" magazine ranked the song 131st on its list of "The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time".


title: With or Without You

text: In late 1985, U2 convened at a house that drummer Larry Mullen Jr. bought to review material the group had written during The Unforgettable Fire Tour. During this time, a rough demo of "With or Without You" was written, with lead vocalist Bono composing the song's chord sequence. The band continued to work on the song at STS Studios, creating many permutations of the track, but not making any progress. Guitarist the Edge considered the song at that point to be "awful". The track consisted of a Yamaha drum machine beat and a bass part played by bassist Adam Clayton using an Ibanez bass guitar with a short scale. According to Clayton, these early versions of the song sounded too sentimental and "very traditional because the chords just went round and round and round".


title: With or Without You

text: The sessions for "The Joshua Tree" started in earnest in 1986, and U2 were recording at the Georgian mansion Danesmoate House in Dublin. The group attempted to take the song in a different direction, although Bono was reluctant. Under the direction of co-producers Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois, the Edge pursued more ambient guitar playing, Clayton turned up the volume on his bass, and Mullen experimented with an electronically enhanced drum kit. Despite the work they continued to put into the track, the group considered abandoning the song, as they could not find an arrangement they liked.


title: With or Without You

text: Bono and his friend Gavin Friday continued to work on the song after Lanois and Eno declined to do so. Bono credits Friday with rescuing the song and rearranging it, believing it could be a hit. Eno added a keyboard arpeggio, similar to the one from "Bad". The song's fate was still in doubt when the Edge was sent a prototype of the Infinite Guitar by Canadian musician Michael Brook, with whom he had collaborated for the "Captive" soundtrack. The instrument allowed sustained notes to be played, producing "a similar effect to the E-Bow", but with the ability to provide all the "mid-points between no sustain and infinite sustain" that the E-Bow cannot provide. The prototype included elaborate assembly instructions and as the Edge recollects, "one wrongly placed wire and you could get a nasty belt of electricity. This piece of gear would have failed even the most basic of safety regulations." On subsequent tours, his guitar technician occasionally received electric shocks from the instrument when preparing it for performances.


title: With or Without You

text: Listening to the backing track to "With or Without You" in the control room, Bono and Friday heard the sustained effect that the Edge was creating with the Infinite Guitar in the other room. The combination of the two playing simultaneously caught their attention. According to Lanois, "I said, 'That sounded pretty cool,' so we listened back and I said, 'Jesus, it's better than I thought.'" The Edge immediately recorded an Infinite Guitar part in two takes. The band considers the song's recording to be one of the album sessions' breakthrough moments, as it was recorded amid concerns that they had run out of ideas.


title: With or Without You

text: Eno sequenced the song's electronic drum beat on the Yamaha DX7 synthesiser. Rather than connect it to the recording equipment via a DI unit and maintain the instrument's pristine sound, the producers plugged it into a Mesa Boogie guitar amplifier and then miked it to give the sound more personality. As a result, Lanois said it sounded "more like people playing in a room". The sequenced beat was chosen to give the song a feeling of discipline, so that when Mullen's acoustic drums enter the song, "they mean something", in Lanois' words.


title: With or Without You

text: Producer Steve Lillywhite was hired by U2 in December 1986 to help mix some songs for "The Joshua Tree"; "With or Without You" was one of them. While Lillywhite and engineer Mark Ellis were mixing it, Eno entered the room and told them that he wanted to change the introduction. Ellis said: "And it was kind of awe-inspiring because he said, 'Right, send this guitar through those ten effects over there and send that guitar through those ten effects over there and then feed them back to each other.' So what started as a traditional bit of rhythm guitar, bass, and drums suddenly became something quite otherworldly and spiritual, and the sound of the music you were hearing started to give you a feeling of where the song was going to go prior to the lyric. I thought that was really visionary." Ultimately, "With or Without You" was the most debated song of those on which Lillywhite worked, as Eno and Lanois each had ideas different from his. Lillywhite, who wanted a more mainstream approach to his mix, favoured "a little more crash, bang" sound to Mullen's drums that enter later in the song, while Eno preferred that the drums remain "more mysterious and more supportive".


title: With or Without You

text: Bono wrote the lyrics during his first night visiting Côte d'Azur in 1986, while struggling to reconcile his responsibilities as both a married man and a musician. His wanderlust in belonging to a musical act was often at odds with his domestic life. While writing the lyrics, he realised that neither facet of his life defined him, but rather the tension between the two did. He explained that the final lyric is about torment and how repressing desires only makes them stronger.


title: With or Without You

text: "With or Without You" is written in a 4/4 time signature and is played at a tempo of 110 beats per minute. Although certain stanzas of lyrics are repeated, the song does not follow a traditional verse-chorus form. Lanois says of it, "It has tension and builds like one of those great Roy Orbison songs, where every section is unique and never repeats. I like that kind of sophistication [...]."


title: With or Without You

text: The song begins with a minimal drum beat of eighth notes played by Mullen, while a backing track—Eno's synthesiser—plays a "rippling" triplet arpeggio of the chord D major. A high sustained guitar part (played by The Edge's Infinite Guitar) enters, played "dry" in the left channel before reverberating on the right. At 0:09, Clayton's bass guitar begins to play eighth notes in time with the kick drum, and the song's four-bar sequence of the chord progression D–A–Bm–G, begins. This chord progression is never explicitly played but is "implied" by the root notes played by Clayton and the guitar parts of The Edge.


title: With or Without You

text: Bono's vocals enter at 0:28 in a low register, a stark contrast from Bono's typical singing style to that point in the group's career. He stays below the middle C for the first two and a half stanzas, centering his melody on the mediant F. At the end of each of the first two stanzas, his vocals drop an octave, from A to A. Author Susan Fast called Bono's vocals on "With or Without You" the first occasion on which he "extended his vocal range downward in an appreciable way". At 0:58, an additional sustained guitar part joins the mix. The drums increase in intensity at 1:45, before The Edge begins playing the song's signature guitar riff at 1:53. The riff, a perfect fifth opening to a sixth, features a prominent use of delay. When the riff is played, it is answered by Bono singing "And you give yourself away", a line on which backing vocals appear at 2:06 and 2:32.


title: With or Without You

text: A stanza begins in which Bono sings the song's title in a high, passionate voice as the drums get heavier. At 3:03, the song bursts out in emotion as Bono begins open-throated "Oh-oh-oh-ohh" vocals, which are double-tracked, and the rhythm increases to play sixteenth notes on the guitar, cymbals, and tambourine. After another stanza of Bono repeating the song's title, the music dies down at 3:38 to a similar state as it was at the beginning of the song. Ten seconds later, Bono sings in a falsetto while a bass synthesiser doubles the bass guitar. After the vocals complete, The Edge begins a simple guitar figure. He explained that its understated nature was meant to resist the temptation to play an intricate guitar solo as an ending. The second time the figure is played, the signature guitar riff from earlier re-appears and the song regains some of its intensity. The song concludes with a fade-out.


title: With or Without You

text: The lyrics ostensibly describe a troubled relationship between two lovers, although the lyrics have been interpreted in religious contexts. The "Washington Post" interpreted the song as both an acerbic love song and a tune lamenting the moral contradictions one faces with their religious faith. Toby Creswell echoed these sentiments, saying it "can be read as a song about either marital romance or spiritual need". Bono explained that the lyrics had romantic intentions, saying, "there's nothing more revolutionary than two people loving each other. One, 'cause it's so uncommon these days, and two, 'cause it's so difficult to do." In 1987, Bono explained that "And you give yourself away" lyric refers to how he sometimes feels exposed being in U2, and that his openness, both to the public and music press, can do damage to the group. Author Niall Stokes interpreted the line as encompassing the theme of "surrendering the ego" to one's love and spiritual faith. According to Bono, the song was heavily influenced by Scott Walker's album "Climate of Hunter."


title: With or Without You

text: The band's manager Paul McGuinness was resistant to U2 releasing "With or Without You" as a single, as he thought it was too sonically unusual for release. Gavin Friday, having helped the band complete the track, disagreed and thought it would be a "certain No. 1". The song was selected as the lead single from "The Joshua Tree". United States radio stations were allowed to play the song at 11:30 a.m. on 4 March 1987, with strong warnings by Island Records against playing it earlier. The single was released on 16 March 1987, two weeks after the album was released. It was the group's first single to be widely issued on compact disc. Clayton referred to the song's nature as a challenge to radio, saying, "You don't expect it there [on radio]. In church perhaps."


title: With or Without You

text: "With or Without You" debuted at number 64 on the US "Billboard" Hot 100 chart, and on 16 May 1987, it topped the chart to become U2's first number-one single in the US, proving Friday's prediction true. The song spent three weeks atop the chart, and 18 weeks in total on the Hot 100. The song also topped "Billboard"s Album Rock Tracks chart, Canada's "RPM" Top 100, and the Irish Singles Chart. According to "Billboard", the song was the group's breakthrough with American audiences. The single peaked at number four on the UK Singles Chart, spending 11 weeks in the top 75 of the chart. The single also peaked at number two on the Dutch MegaCharts Top 40. In 2009, the song re-entered the UK Singles Chart at number 43 on the week ending 31 May, based on download sales due to Shaun Smith's performance of the song in the semi-final of "Britain's Got Talent".


title: With or Without You

text: Two videos were shot in Dublin in February 1987 and were co-directed by Meiert Avis and Matt Mahurin. The first includes abstracts shots of dancer (and Edge's future wife) Morleigh Steinberg edited in between shots of the band playing the song. A second alternative version can be found in the Super Deluxe version of the album.


title: With or Without You

text: "With or Without You" was first played live at the second show on the Joshua Tree Tour on 4 April 1987, and was a regular for the rest of that tour. It was played at most shows on 1989's Lovetown Tour. During these tours, two extensions to the song not present on the studio version were played: an extra verse with lyrics that typically read "We'll shine like stars in the summer night/We'll shine like stars in the winter light/One heart, one hope, one love" or modifications thereof, which appears on the "Rattle and Hum" movie; and a snippet of Joy Division's "Love Will Tear Us Apart" (along with the "shine like stars" lyrics) which can be heard in the live album and concert film "Live from Paris". Since the PopMart Tour, it has been more common for Bono to repeat the "Ohh" at the climax of the song, with the "shine like stars" verse sung rarely.


title: With or Without You

text: "With or Without You" was played at most Zoo TV Tour concerts and every concert on the PopMart Tour. It was dropped from the set list during the third leg of the Elevation Tour. It was initially a rare inclusion during the Vertigo Tour - over the two months of the tour's first leg, it was only played four times. It became a regular concert inclusion during stadium concerts on the second leg in Europe and remained in the set list for the third leg. It has been played on every night of the U2 360° Tour, occasionally with the "shine like stars" coda. The song regularly closed out the main set on the Innocence + Experience Tour, again occasionally with the "shine like stars" coda.


title: With or Without You

text: Live performances of the song also appear in the group's concert films "", "", "", "", "", "U2 3D", and "U2 360° at the Rose Bowl".


title: With or Without You

text: The song received universal acclaim from critics. "Rolling Stone" called it an "inventively arranged tune... that builds from a soothing beginning to a resounding climax". Bill Graham of "Hot Press" praised the song, suggesting it may be Bono's "most controlled vocal, building from an almost conversational first verse over a bare rhythm section to a soul-baring confession". Graham suggested the lyric "And you give yourself away" was essential to U2's message. The "Sunday Independent" suggested that the song was proof the band could be commercially accessible, yet not resort to rock clichés. "NME" called it "some kind of love song" and found musical and lyrical symmetry between the song and the group's 1981 album "October".


title: With or Without You

text: Mike DeGagne of AllMusic praised the song for Eno's and Lanois' "gleaming" production work, Bono's vocals and "poetic deftness", and for The Edge's "astute but assertive" guitar playing. DeGagne described Bono's singing as "unleashing all his vocal power, moving from a soft, subtle intro and middle to an explosive burst of unyielding energy toward the end". He made religious comparisons to the musical arrangement, saying the "discerning air sounds almost church-like as it slowly unravels". Readers of "Rolling Stone" voted "With or Without You" the "Best Single" in a 1987 end-of-year poll, while it finished in 15th place on the "Best Singles" list from "The Village Voice"s 1987 Pazz & Jop critics' poll.


title: With or Without You

text: "With or Without You" has become one of U2's best-known songs, and it often appears in music critics' rankings of the best songs of all-time. In 2000, the song appeared at number eight on "Rolling Stone"s list of "100 Greatest Pop Songs", compiled by "Rolling Stone" and MTV music critics to rank songs released since The Beatles' breakthrough. In 2005, "Blender" ranked the song at number 268 on its list of "The 500 Greatest Songs Since You Were Born". The following year, readers of "Q" voted "With or Without You" the 17th-greatest song in history. In 2012, "Slant Magazine" listed "With or Without You" as the 40th best single of the 1980s. Music television network VH1 ranked the song number 13 on the "100 Greatest Songs of the 80s" countdown in its series "The Greatest". In 2004, "Rolling Stone" placed the song at number 131 on its list of "The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time"; the song was re-ranked to 132nd on the magazine's 2010 version of the list, and to 211th on the 2021 version. The song appeared as one of seven U2 songs in Toby Creswell's 2006 music reference book "1001 Songs: The Great Songs of All Time and the Artists, Stories, and Secrets". Creswell said the song struck a perfect balance between the "vigour and spit and attitude" of the group's teenage years and their new-found appreciation for the "power of understatement". In 2019, "Rolling Stone" ranked the song number seven on their list of the 50 greatest U2 songs, and in 2020, "The Guardian" ranked the song number four on their list of the 40 greatest U2 songs. U2 have included the song on two of their compilation albums, "The Best of 1980–1990" and "U218 Singles". In 2022, "New York Magazine's" Vulture.com ranked the song at number 12 in its list of all 234 U2 songs.


title: With or Without You

text: In the NBC sitcom "Friends", the song is the theme song of the relationship between Ross Geller and Rachel Green. It is first played on The One with the List, wherein Ross apologizes to Rachel for the list he made in which he described the negative attributes of Rachel. Rachel then prevents the song from continuing after ringing up the radio station, informing them about what Ross did.


title: With or Without You

text: The song is featured in the 1994 film "Blown Away", as well as in the finale episode of "The Americans".


title: Roger Black (actor)

text: Roger Black is an American insult comedian, actor, voice actor, animator, writer and producer known for his character Yucko the Clown.


title: Roger Black (actor)

text: Yucko first became a guest on "The Howard Stern Show" by carrying a Howard Stern sign onto the field during a major league baseball game. At the height of the D.C. Sniper attacks in 2002 Roger dressed as Yucko The Clown carried a target as he pumped gas at various gas stations around the D.C area. He later became a regular guest, appearing in the studio and eventually competing and becoming a finalist in the "Get John's Job" contest.


title: Roger Black (actor)

text: He is also known for starring in "The DAMN! Show" along with fellow writer Waco O'Guin and the MTV2 series "Stankervision", which included sketches from "The DAMN! Show" and ran for one season of eight episodes.


title: Roger Black (actor)

text: O'Guin and Black's animated comedy series "Brickleberry", executive-produced by Daniel Tosh, premiered on September 25, 2012, on Comedy Central. The series was canceled in January 2015 and ended in April of that year.


title: Roger Black (actor)

text: In 2018, Black and O'Guin created the Netflix animated series "Paradise PD" and in 2022 both worked together to create "Farzar", also a Netflix adult animation series.


title: Masterpiece (2015 film)

text: Masterpiece is a 2015 Indian Kannada-language action film written and directed by Manju Mandavya. This film was released on 24 December 2015, starring Yash and Shanvi Srivastava in the lead roles, it also features Suhasini Maniratnam, P. Ravi Shankar and Chikkanna in the supporting roles, the music is composed by V. Harikrishna. The film was released on 24 December 2015.


title: Masterpiece (2015 film)

text: Yuva is a local troublemaker who is living with his mother Durga, his sister, and sister's son Lochan. Durga disapproves of many of Yuva's antics where she reads him stories of "Subhash Chandra Bose", "Chandrashekhar Azad" and "Bhagat Singh" when Yuva was a child, in the hope that he would one day become like them. However, Yuva is exact opposite. Consequently, she gives a TV interview about his upbringing and how his actions have not been good, thus giving the public an impression that Yuva is a rogue. Yuva and his friend "Bruce Lee" help Noor Ahmed, a local politician, to get elected in college and local elections, thus gaining political connections in the process. Alongside this, Yuva falls in love with a carefree girl named Nisha. When Nisha gets caught in the middle of a chase between the police and a gangster known as Boss, Yuva knocks Boss unconscious, sending him into a coma.


title: Masterpiece (2015 film)

text: After Boss is admitted to the hospital, Yuva's family begins to be threatened by various actions by Boss's henchman. Yuva's nephew Lochan is kidnapped and returned later that day unharmed. Durga gets locked in a storage closet in a temple where Yuva saves her from intoxication. Yuva lodges a complaint to the police commissioner, only to be mocked since the police had saw his interview. Yuva realises that his family is in danger and begins to change his laid-back attitude. When Yuva and Nisha visit a mall, Nisha disappears and Yuva receives a phone call from Boss's brother Danny; in order to save Nisha, he must help Boss escape from the hospital. Yuva does what is told, but is knocked unconscious along with Nisha, and Yuva is later framed as a drug smuggler. Noor Ahmed and Bruce Lee take Yuva and Nisha to their hideout, where they watch Durga wishes for Yuva to be encounter killed by the police, before a commotion breaks out against Durga.


title: Masterpiece (2015 film)

text: Yuva realizes that his family has been disrespected and plots to prove his innocence by capturing Boss and his men. Yuva captures Boss, along with Danny and his right-hand men. Yuva and "Bruce Lee" decides to record a video before finishing them. While Bruce Lee is recording the whole incident, Boss admits that he had corrupt cops supporting him the whole time in the cocaine trade and proclaims that India can't change. Yuva realizes Boss's point of view and takes up a stand, revealing that while he initially set out to make his mother proud, Now, he is set on making his motherland proud by proclaiming that illegal drugs will no longer be available in local stores. Yuva kills Boss and his men in "Dirty Harry"-style, causing him to get arrested. The video goes viral throughout the country, causing widespread support for Yuva. Durga visits him in prison and feeds carrot halwa to him; as she leaves, she finally sees "Bhagat Singh" in her son and becomes a proud mother.


title: Masterpiece (2015 film)

text: The film was announced on 21 October 2014, to coincide with the occasion of Deepavali, a Hindu festival, by film producer Vijay Kiragandur. The film would be titled "Masterpiece" and would be produced under his banner, Hombale Films. Manju Mandavya made his directorial debut, who also wrote the screenplay and dialogues for the film. On titling the film as "Masterpiece", he said, "Masterpiece was a spontaneous title that somehow clicked when I was getting into the structure of the story and when the hero's character was developing in my mind." V. Harikrishna was chosen to compose the music for the film and Vaidhy was chosen as cinematographer.


title: Masterpiece (2015 film)

text: During the announcement, it was also announced that Yash would play the lead role in the film and that Suhasini Maniratnam would portray the role of his mother. The director said that two actresses, Anushka Shetty and Priya Anand, were under consideration to play the female lead. Following speculations, Shanvi Srivastava was signed in late-December 2014. Chikkanna was cast in an important side role marking his 25th film in acting.


title: Masterpiece (2015 film)

text: Filming was scheduled to begin in November or early-December 2014, following the filming of "Mr. and Mrs. Ramachari", another Yash-starrer. While delayed, reports said filming was to begin in the second week of January 2015. In June 2015, it was revealed that model Ekta Rathod would make a cameo appearance in the film. In the midst of filming, "The New Indian Express" carried a report in July suggesting that Yash could be playing a negative role in the film, which however was not confirmed by the makers. in the course of filming in September, it was revealed that the film would incorporate elements from the life story of a revolutionary leader of British India, Bhagat Singh. A schedule in Mysore was completed, following which the song sequences were filmed.


title: Masterpiece (2015 film)

text: A celebratory song was filmed across Bengaluru, and the song appears in the movie when Yash's character falls in love. The song also features Chikkanna and Shanvi Srivastava, and over 1,500 backup dancers. The song Annange Love Aagide turned into a chartbuster.


title: Masterpiece (2015 film)

text: The background music and soundtracks are composed by V. Harikrishna, with lyrics for the soundtrack penned by Manju Mandavya, Narthan and Ghouse Peer.


title: Masterpiece (2015 film)

text: The audio launch event of "Masterpiece" was supposed to happen in a unique way, For the first-time the team members of "Masterpiece" had planned for an interesting audio release. Masterpiece music album includes 5 songs and was supposed to be released on 5 different days, starting from 2 December as follows: "Annange Love Aagidhe" (2 Dec), "I Can't Wait Baby" (4 Dec),


title: Masterpiece (2015 film)

text: Arachana Nathan of The Hindu wrote" Masterpiece also attacks those who do not know Kannada. A Russian working as a masseuse in Goa is told to learn Kannada through an app because she ‘massages’ five people a day and knows only four languages. Masterpiece is definitely one of a kind. Not necessarily in a good way." Shashi Prasad of "Deccan Chronicle" scored the film at 3 out of 5 stars and says "The veteran Suhasini is at her usual best, and the humour part is again made enjoyable by Chikkanna with his natural abilities. It is a must for Yash fans and for the actual movie buffs, better wait for the intermission. Till then enjoy Yash advertising himself as ‘Rocking Star,’ and couple of fresh scenes, dance and the cute ghost!" A Shardhha of The New Indian Express wrote "The obvious flaw in the film is the second half, which could have continued with the momentum built in the first half. But instead, it sways away to get into a cat and mouse chase scenario, slowly losing the intensity." Shyam Prasad S of "Bangalore Mirror" scored the film at 3.5 out of 5 stars and says "There are the good songs, eye-candy locales and the chest-thumping dialogues. All tihs works with those enamoured by Yash, the rest can chill somewhere else."


title: Season of Storms

text: Season of Storms (Polish original title: "Sezon burz") is the sixth novel and eighth overall book in the "Witcher" series written by Polish fantasy writer Andrzej Sapkowski, first published in Poland in 2013. It is not a sequel to the original "Witcher Saga", but rather is set between the short stories in the first book in the series, "The Last Wish".


title: Season of Storms

text: "Fox Children", the second installment of "The Witcher" comic book series published by Dark Horse Comics, is based on one of the chapters of "Season of Storms". The book, with translations by David French, was published in May 2018 in hardcover format in the US and paperback format by UK Orbit (US) and Gollancz (UK). It is also available in both territories as an e-book and audiobook.