The Mighty One: My Life Inside the Nerve Centre

Steve MacManus, the editor of 2000 AD during its 1980s heyday, lifts the lid on how the UK’s most important comic came into existence and his extraordinary role in shaping it into a industry-revolutionising icon.

In 1973, a twenty-year-old MacManus joined Fleetway Publications as a sub-editor on UK adventure title Valiant. Six years later he took charge of the company’s most celebrated weekly, 2000 AD, shepherding it through its ‘Golden Age’ as he commissioned numerous hit series such as The Ballad of Halo Jones, Sláine, Rogue Trooper, Nemesis the Warlock and more. For many he remains the definitive editor of the multi-award-winning SF anthology.

Now, in this warm and witty memoir, MacManus vividly describes the fiercely creative environment that was British comics in the 1970s and ‘80s – from Battle and Action to the stellar rise of 2000 AD and Judge Dredd, he details the personalities at play and the corporate politics and deadline battles he and others engaged in on a daily basis. With keen insight, MacManus reveals how 2000 AD defined comics for a generation and became a global phenomenon.

About the Author :
Born in London, Steve MacManus joined the boys' weekly comic Valiant as sub-editor in 1973. In 1975 he moved to Battle Picture Weekly. While working on Battle he also freelanced on Action, appearing as the title's mascot Action Man, who performed and wrote up stunts and activities such as exploring London's sewers or flying a hot air balloon, as well as writing The Running Man, and Sport's Not For Losers.

In 1978 he was headhunted to work on a new science fiction title, Starlord, and from there he joined 2000 AD. He wrote scripts for the title’s M.A.C.H. 1 strip, and was the main writer for its spin-off M.A.C.H. Zero, as well as contributing episodes of The V.C.s.

In 1979 he was promoted to editor of 2000 AD, a job he held until 1986. This period is widely regarded as the title's "golden age", during which John Wagner, Alan Grant, Pat Mills and Alan Moore produced some of their best work, and new talents like Peter Milligan and Grant Morrison joined the line-up. MacManus had a hand in the creation of one of the comic's most enduring characters, Rogue Trooper, alongside writer Gerry Finley-Day and artist Dave Gibbons.

In 1987 MacManus became managing editor of the 2000 AD Group, during which time he launched Crisis, a politically aware comic that featured initial work by newcomers Garth Ennis, John Smith, Sean Phillips and Duncan Fegredo, among others.

In the early 1990s MacManus edited the first twelve issues of the Judge Dredd Megazine, and co-edited the Batman/Judge Dredd crossover Judgement on Gotham with DC Comics' Denny O'Neil.

2016 saw the publication of his memoirs, The Mighty One: My Life Inside the Nerve Centre. This was followed by a prequel entitled Elmsworld, recalling his days at Dartington Hall, a progressive school founded by Dorothy and Leonard Elmhirst. (In 1907, at age 17, Dorothy had inherited a sum so large that it made her one of the wealthiest women in The United States. When she met and married Yorkshireman Leonard Elmhirst, thirteen years later, they set out to recreate a rural community at Dartington Hall —near Totnes, Devon.) Among their projects was the school, whose curriculum was to flow from the children’s interests and, In Dorothy’s own words, be “A place for adventure.” Among the five star reviews for Elmsworld on Amazon, is one that describes the memoir as, “A valuable document of a social experiment unlikely to be repeated.”

In 2019, MacManus published his first novel, The SheerGlam Conspiracy, which he plans to be the first in a series of black comedies set in the frenetic world of British comics publishing in the late 20th Century.