Future Shocks
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Future Shocks is the name given to a long running series of short strips in the weekly comic book 2000AD. The name originates in a book titled Future Shock, written by Alvin Toffler, published in the UK only a short time before 2000AD was launched.
[edit] Publishing history
The series began in issue 25 of 2000AD titled Tharg's Future Shocks in a single short story written by Steve Moore, who also created the format. This established the pattern of the series which would be two or three page short stories which were normally self-contained.
These stories would be a testing ground for new artists and writers and creators such as Peter Milligan, Alan Davis, Alan Moore and Grant Morrison found some of their earliest work published as Future Shocks.
Some characters proved popular enough to spin into their own ongoing story in 2000AD, D.R. and Quinch being one of the most notable examples. 2000AD also began several other science fiction and horror short stories under several different titles, Time Twisters being the best known. However Future Shocks remains the best known of all of 2000AD's series of short stories.
[edit] Publications
Two collections of Alan Moore's Future Shocks (Alan Moore's Shocking Futures) and Time Twisters (Alan Moore's Twisted Times) stories were released by Titan Books in 1986:
- Alan Moore's Shocking Futures (1986), Titan Books; reprints a selection of Future Shocks short strips originally published in 2000 AD between 1981 and 1983, with various artists. ISBN 0-907610-71-4
- Alan Moore's Twisted Times (1987), Titan Books; reprints a selection of Time Twisters short strips originally published in 2000 AD between 1980 and 1983, with various artists. ISBN 0-907610-72-2
The contents of those two volumes has now been collected together into a single volume, along with additional material from Moore:
- The Complete Future Shocks (tpb, Rebellion, 2006 ISBN 1-904265-88-X)
