A 2000 AD Ad

Constructing Tharg's Future Shop

Steve Cook

May 4, 2023

The brilliant and always groovy, Audrey Wong otherwise known as Cybaud; our fellow Droid in Tharg's 2000 AD Command Module back in the day. Here she's seen modeling a TDG (Thrill-Power Display Garment). c.1988.

Having rediscovered this photo I took of Audrey for 2000 AD yesterday, I also unearthed the original paste-up artwork for the 'Tharg's Future Shop' advertisement that she appeared in. Here it is in all its scalpel-sliced, letra-lined and burnished glory. It's strange to think back and remember just how long a simple half-page advertisement would take to assemble, compared to these days of Adobe InDesign.

Paste-up and colour mark-ups were what we did from dawn ‘til dusk. I remember working at an ad agency back in '81 and spending an hour with my colleagues looking for the word 'construction' that had fallen off and delayed the artwork from going to press. It was eventually found stuck to the sole of someone's shoe!

Ha! I’d almost forgotten my Betelgeusian three fingered scissors. Anyway, I hope this is of interest. I thought it worth committing to memory, because this way of working will never happen again.

And the finished, printed article! Thanks to Mac Mac Anorak, a member of the '77-2000AD group on Facebook for posting this. I have none of my progs here in the US, so that was mighty handy!

For more examples of the ancient ways, check this post:

Secret Oranges

Breeze & The Brain

I thought I’d share a few of the ads that I was asked to design and illustrate for 2000 AD’s weekly publication back in the late eighties and early nineties. Because of the relentless deadlines associated with the weekly nature of the comic, we would quite often find ourselves with a blank space where a paid advertisement was supposed to go, but hadn't …

a year ago · 3 likes · 11 comments · Steven Cook

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