The comical covert communications contained in comics indicia
Most readers likely ignore the information listed in the small print of a comic book’s indicia; a comic’s production facts and legal notices (date of publication, the comic’s publisher, copyright information, etc.) are generally of little interest to consumers eager to read the comic. But two publishers use reader disinterest in indicia to comical effect, placing amusing covert communications in their respective comics’ indicia.
Attentive readers of Britain’s weekly science fiction anthology comic 2000 AD (from publisher Rebellion) will notice a message in the publication’s indicia, a humorous communication from the comic’s editorial team entitled “Damage Report.” The inconspicuous feature often highlights the comic’s behind-the-scenes publication process, or shares the opinions or recent experiences of the 2000 AD production team.
For readers unfamiliar with 2000 AD, the comic has several science fiction conceits, such as depicting the publication’s editor as the extraterrestrial Tharg the Mighty, or referencing the creators and editorial team working on the comic as “droids”; an individual issue is called a “Prog” (short for “Programme”).
Damage Report debuted in 2004’s Christmas Special issue, Prog 2005 (December 15, 2004), and in the subsequent regular issue Prog 1420 (January 5, 2005); the feature has appeared in all subsequent 2000 AD issues to date.
Via email, Cyber-Matt (that is, 2000 AD editor Matt Smith), shares the origin of Damage Report:
“It came with a redesign of the Nerve Centre, 2000 AD’s editorial page. The designer at the time, Pye Parr, decided to give the page a refresh with the Xmas issue, and found he had a couple of lines spare at the end of the indicia, so came up with the Damage Report, initially talking about how the droids had broken something in the course of putting the issue together, or some other fictional malady — blocked sump pipes, malfunctioning flanges, that kind of thing.
It started to widen out into whatever was preoccupying the staff at the time, and with subsequent Nerve Centre redesigns it grew from just a couple of sentences to a whole paragraph. There was never any objective other than to come up with some funny in-jokes to fill a bit of space, and it was left to the sharp-eyed readers to find it.”
Smith also outlines his process for creating Damage Report: “I write the Damage Report every week when writing all the other editorial stuff. Sometimes, it takes me five minutes to come up with a bit of nonsense, sometimes it’s half an hour of brain-wracking trying to think of anything that’s happened that week.”
While Damage Report is intended to be humorous, the feature’s ongoing weekly publication for the past sixteen years also makes it a contemporaneous chronicle of 2000 AD, documenting prestigious award nominations and wins, the personal lives of the production team, and various pop culture and societal events. The feature serves as an impressive record of the publication’s behind-the-scenes production history.
For example, the indicia in Prog 1670 (February 3, 2010) conveys the challenges of the bad weather experienced by the 2000 AD team in the winter months of 2010: “Damage Report: Relief as the snow melts, enabling Thrill-service to get back to normal — yet disaster waits in the wings in the shape of flooding. The river that runs close to the Nerve Centre is growing dangerously swollen, and the droids are taking pre-emptive action by dropping all extraneous work, rolling up their trousers and stockpiling sandbags…”
In 2020, as humanity faced a global pandemic as frightening and deadly as some of the apocalyptic sci-fi settings featured in 2000 AD, Damage Report became an endearing weekly record of survival and hope in challenging times, evolving into a “Journal of the Plague Years” that deftly blends its commentary on real-world crisis with humor; take this example, from Prog 2182 (May 19, 2020):
“Damage Report: Journal of the Plague Years: week seven — working from home under extraordinary circumstances can focus the mind. You find yourself thinking how you can fit your print deadlines around the childcare. You troubleshoot in advance problems caused by remote access to artwork. But most of all you become obsessed by what day the bins are collected now…”
While 2000 AD has a long-sustained practice of including funny messages in its indicia, a new American publisher, Bad Idea, also includes humorous messages in its comics’ indicia. Releasing its first comic in March 2021, Bad Idea describes itself as a “dangerously unruly and equally experimental new comic book publisher”; Bad Idea eschews conventional comics publishing practices, choosing not to release its comics in a digital format and only distributing its comics as monthly serialized print publications to select comics retailers that must abide by “limit one per customer” and other sales rules.
To date, Bad Idea has embedded humorous messages in all its comics’ indicia, including the titles ENIAC, Whalesville x Rocks and Minerals, Tankers, and Hank Howard, Pizza Detective in Caligula’s Safe.
Unlike the indicia messages in 2000 AD, Bad Idea’s messages lack a nominal feature designation like Damage Report, and do not provide commentary on contemporaneous events or behind-the-scenes production information. Rather, the messages are distinctive; for example, readers of Hank Howard, Pizza Detective in Caligula’s Safe are offered “one (1) individual pineapple lover’s pan pizza at all participating BIG CALIGULA’S PIZZA locations in greater Cincinnati.” Or, in Tankers #1 (a comic featuring time travelers shooting dinosaurs), the indicia promises that no dinosaurs were harmed in making the comic book — except for one dinosaur that apparently had it coming.
While readers may not give much consideration to the indicia found in the comics they purchase, two publishers utilize humor and craft to make their respective comics’ indicia interesting to read, and worthy of close scrutiny.
NOTES AND FURTHER READING:
2000 AD Christmas Special Prog 2005 (Various, Rebellion, December 15, 2004) — as noted above, per Matt Smith, Damage Report debuted in the Prog 2005 Christmas Special.
2000 AD Prog 1670(Various, Rebellion, February 3, 2010)
2000 AD Prog 2181 (Various, Rebellion, May 12, 2020)
2000 AD Prog 2182 (Various, Rebellion, May 19, 2020)
2000 AD Prog 2216 (Various, Rebellion, January 27, 2021)
2000 AD Prog 2223 (Various, Rebellion, March 17, 2021)
Hank Howard, Pizza Detective in Caligula’s Safe (Robert Venditti, David Lapham, et al., Bad Idea [a trademark of Cincinnati Kid, LLC], May 2021)
Tankers #1 (Robert Venditti, Juan José Ryp, et al., Bad Idea [a trademark of Cincinnati Kid, LLC], May 2021)
“Vocab Lesson: Indicia” (Sean Kleefeld, www.kleefeldoncomics.com, November 13, 2012)
“Bad Idea Unveils Comic Series From Matt Kindt, Marguerite Bennet, David Lafuente & More” (Meagan Damore, www.cbr.com, September 29, 2020)
“Is a New Publisher Called Bad Idea Actually Good for Comics?” (Calvin Reid, www.publishersweekly.com, February 18, 2020)
“Bad Idea: The Complete Retailer List” (www.badideacorp.com)
The text and images above are the property of their respective owner(s), and are presented here for not-for-profit, educational, and/or review purposes only under the fair use doctrine of the copyright laws of the United States of America. Writing this article while torrential rainfall pours down outside for a record-challenging number of days in the American Midwest, the author contemplates building an ark.
