Really & Truly was a 2000 AD

2000 AD (comic)

2000 AD is a weekly British science fiction-oriented comic. As a comics anthology it serialises a number of separate stories each issue and was first published by IPC Magazines in 1977, the first issue dated 26 February. IPC then shifted the title to its Fleetway comics subsidiary which was sold...

comic

Comics

Comics denotes a hybrid medium having verbal side of its vocabulary tightly tied to its visual side in order to convey narrative or information only, the latter in case of non-fiction comics, seeking synergy by using both visual and verbal side in...

 strip, created by Grant Morrison

Grant Morrison

Grant Morrison is a Scottish comic book writer, playwright and occultist. He is known for his nonlinear narratives and counter-cultural leanings, as well as his successful runs on titles like Animal Man, Doom Patrol, JLA, The Invisibles, New X-Men, Fantastic Four, All-Star Superman, and...

 and Rian Hughes

Rian Hughes

Rian Hughes is a British graphic designer, illustrator and comics artist, noted for his work on 2000AD, where he illustrated Robo-Hunter, Tales from Beyond Science, Really and Truly and Dan Dare, among others...

. It ran in 1993

1993 in comics

-January:* Doom Patrol #63: " The Empire of Chairs," Grant Morrison's final issue as Doom Patrol writer.-February:* Action Comics, with issue #686, suspends publication following "The Death of Superman."...

 as part of the "Summer Offensive" and dealt explicitly with drugs. Grant Morrison wrote it in one night after taking Ecstasy

Methylenedioxymethamphetamine

MDMA is an entactogenic drug of the phenethylamine and amphetamine class of drugs. In popular culture, MDMA has become widely known as "ecstasy" , usually referring to its street pill form, although this term may also include the presence of possible adulterants...

 http://www.2000ad.org/thrillpower/2kad6.html

Characters

• Really, one of the main characters
• Truly, the other lead
• Johnny Zhivago, a cosmonaut
  Astronaut
  An astronaut or cosmonaut is a person trained by a human spaceflight program to command, pilot, or serve as a crew member of a spacecraft....
  
  
• Scuba Trooper, a beat poet
  Beat generation
  The Beat Generation refers to a group of American post-WWII writers who came to prominence in the 1950s, as well as the cultural phenomena that they both documented and inspired...
  
  
• Captain Nice, a government drugs agent who travelled in the House of Fun
• Boss Buddah, a gangster

Plot

Really and Truly have to make a Hanna-Barbera

Hanna-Barbera

Hanna-Barbera Productions, Inc. was an American animation studio that dominated North American television animation during the second half of the 20th century...

 Josie & the Pussycats via On the Road

On the Road

On the Road is a novel by American writer Jack Kerouac, written in April 1951, and published by Viking Press in 1957. It is a largely autobiographical work that was based on the spontaneous road trips of Kerouac and his friends across mid-century America. It is often considered a defining work of...

 style cross country run. However, they have a well-defined "mission" (to deliver a consignment of drugs), big guns, much stranger passengers (Zhivago and Scuba Trooper) and far more determined, and unusual, pursuers (Nice and Buddah).

Publication

In its original run the strip appeared in eight installments in 2000 AD #842-849, (1993), and was recently reprinted in Yesterday's Tomorrows: Rian Hughes' Collected Comics (Knockabout Comics

Knockabout Comics

Knockabout Comics is a UK publisher and distributor of underground and alternative comic books.-History:It was formed by Tony Bennett and Carol Bennett in the 1980s to distribute Gilbert Shelton's Freak Brothers titles as well as British work from creators such as Hunt Emerson and Bryan...

, 256 pages, 2007

2007 in comics

-January:*January 10: Superman & Batman vs. Aliens & Predator released.*January 24: The Boys is canceled with issue #6.-February:*February 2: Newsarama reports that The Boys has been picked up by Dynamite Entertainment....

, ISBN 0861661540)

The House of Fun is a colloquial term for the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). Morrison reused the name later - it was the title of Volume 1 issue #22 of The Invisibles

The Invisibles

The Invisibles is a comic book series that was published by the Vertigo imprint of DC Comics from 1994 to 2000. It was created and scripted by Scottish writer Grant Morrison, and drawn by various artists throughout its publication....

. http://www.barbelith.com/bomb/1_22.htm

See also

There were influential things in the air at the time:

• Riot Grrrl
  Riot grrrl
  Riot grrrl was an underground feminist punk movement based in Washington, DC, Olympia, Washington, Portland, Oregon, and the greater Pacific Northwest which existed in the early to mid-1990s, and it is often associated with third-wave feminism...
  
  , influential early "Girl Power
  Girl Power
  The phrase "girl power", as a term of empowerment, expressed a cultural phenomenon of the 1990s and early 2000s. It is also linked to third-wave feminism...
  
  " movement that hit its peak in the early nineties.

• Nineties rave culture, the UK rave scene also went overground and hit its peak in the early nineties (before being made illegal in 1992).

• Tank Girl
  Tank Girl
  Tank Girl is a British comic created by Jamie Hewlett and Alan Martin. Originally drawn by Jamie Hewlett, it has also been drawn by Rufus Dayglo, Ashley Wood, and Mike McMahon.The eponymous character Tank Girl drives a tank, which is also her home...
  
  , another earlier (and later) comic featuring a strong female lead and her oddball adventures.

External links

• 2000 AD profile