Flesh (comics)

Flesh
Created by	Pat Mills
Publication information
Publisher	Fleetway Rebellion
Schedule	Weekly
Title(s) 2000 AD #1-
Formats	Original material for the series has been published as a strip in the comics anthology(s) 2000 AD.
Genre	Science fiction
Publication date	February 1977 – present
Creative team
Writer(s)	Pat Mills Steve White/Dan Abnett David Bishop/Steve MacManus
Creator(s)	Pat Mills
Reprints
Collected editions
Flesh: The Dino Files	ISBN 190799226X

Flesh is a recurring story in the weekly anthology comic 2000AD created by writer Pat Mills.

Publishing history

Flesh first appeared as part of 2000AD's opening line up in its first issue in 1977. The series was set in the age of dinosaurs who were farmed for their meat by cowboys from the future. The series was initially planned by Mills to be in Action, but after that title suffered censorship, Mills held the story back for his next project which eventually became 2000AD.

The strip followed a similar path to Hook Jaw, one of the strips Mills had written in Action, in that it featured humans trying to dominate nature for their own purposes before being eaten by sharks in Hook Jaw and dinosaurs in Flesh. Mills' original story also shows some influence from Westworld as the frontier town on which the plot focuses is policed by an android and tourists treat the Dinosaurs as a theme park attraction. The first book ran for the first 19 issues of 2000AD as well as the 1977 annual.

Flesh Book One proved popular but the series was not mentioned again until during the Judge Dredd story The Cursed Earth when Satanus (a Tyrannosaurus cloned from the son of Old One Eye, the main dinosaur from the first Flesh story) appeared in the course of that story. Following this appearance the series returned with Flesh Book Two in issue 86, which was written by Kelvin Gosnell and drawn (with the exception of the last two episodes) by Massimo Belardinelli. The series again proved popular and ran until issue 99.

Further books followed in issues 800-808 and 817-825, written by Mills and Tony Skinner with art by Carl Critchlow, and issues 973-979 written by Dan Abnett and Steve White with art by Gary Erskine and Simon Jacob.

Bibliography

The dinosaurs have made a number of appearances over the years:

• Flesh:
  • "Flesh, Book 1" (with Pat Mills (1, 18-19), Ken Armstrong (2-4, 8), Studio Giolitti (5, 9, 10, 13) and Kelvin Gosnell (6-7, 11-12, 14-17); Boix (1-2, 8-10, 14), Ramon Sola (3-7, 10-12, 15-16, 19) and Felix Carrion (13, 17-18), in 2000 AD #1-19, 1977)
  • "Untitled" (2000AD Summer Special 1977)
  • "The Buffalo Hunt" (2000AD Annual 1978, 1977)
  • "Flesh, Book 2" (with Geoffrey Miller, Massimo Belardinelli (1-12) and Carlos Pino (13-14), in 2000 AD #86-99, 1978-1979)
  • "Legend of Shamana, Book 1" (with Pat Mills/Tony Skinner and Carl Critchlow, in 2000 AD #800-808, 1992)
  • "Legend of Shamana, Book 2" (with Pat Mills/Tony Skinner and Carl Critchlow, in 2000 AD #817-825, 1993)
  • "Chronocide" (with Steve White/Dan Abnett and Gary Erskine, in 2000 AD #973-979, 1996)
  • "Flesh 3000AD" (with David Bishop/Steve MacManus and Carl Critchlow, in 2000 AD #1034, 1997)
  • "Texas" (with Pat Mills and James Mckay, in 2000 AD #1724-1733, March-May 2011)

• Judge Dredd: The Cursed Earth (with Pat Mills (1-10, 21-25), John Wagner (11-16, 19-20), Chris Lowder (17-18) and Mike McMahon/Brian Bolland, in 2000 AD #61-85, 1978)
• ABC Warriors: "Golgotha" (with Pat Mills and Carlos Ezquerra, in 2000 AD #119-139, 1979
• Nemesis the Warlock: "Book V: The Vengeance Of Thoth" (with Pat Mills and Bryan Talbot, in 2000 AD #435-445, 1986)
• Satanus: "Unchained!" (by Pat Mills and Colin MacNeil, in 2000 AD #1241-1246, 2001)

Collected editions

• Flesh: The Dino Files (collects "Book 1" and "Texas", 272 pages, September 2011, Rebellion, ISBN 190799226X)

References

• Bishop, David (2007). Thrill Power Overload. Rebellion. pp. 260. ISBN 1-905437-22-6. 
• Flesh at Barney
• Satanus at Barney