Preview: ‘Flesh: Midnight Cowboys’ Is The Latest In 2000 AD’s Digital Releases

by Richard Bruton

It’s time to return to the weird world of time-travelling cowboys and murderous lizards – it’s the return of the 2000 AD classic, Flesh, with the new digital collection of Midnight Cowboys.

Flesh: Midnight Cowboys – cover by Mark Harrison

Flesh is one of the originals, one of the all-time classics of 2000 AD, appearing for the first time all the way back in Prog 1, set in the 23rd Century AND prehistoric times, a futuristic Western with the dinosaurs that roamed the Earth being farmed as meat by time-travelling ranchers of the Trans-Time corporation who send the dino-meat back to a hungry future. Seriously, it’s one of those strips where the summary just makes something aged 12 deep inside you get all excited.

Created by Pat Mills (Sláine, Marshal Law) and the Spanish artist Boix, that first series ran for the first 19 Progs. After that, the dinos have appeared in many different Flesh series, as well as appearing across a load of different strips in 2000 AD after that first 1977 series, including seeing Satannus appear in Judge Dredd: The Cursed Earth.

But in 2011, Mills returned to the events of the first series, with a black and white sequel, Flesh: Texas, followed in 2012 by Midnight Cowboys, featuring black and white artwork from James McKay.

The Trans-Time corporation has been hit hard, the Trans-Time base destroyed and the survivors are now stranded millions of years in the past with herds of valuable meat. Now they’ve been ordered to make the biggest cattle-drive ever across the prehistoric American landscape to Texas – where another base promises safety … and profit!

But between the dinosaurs and the mysterious Midnight Cowboys, it’s going to be one hell of a job getting back home.

Flesh: Midnight Cowboys, written by Pat Mills, art by James McKay. Originally published in 2000 AD Prog 1774-1785 (2012). Published exclusively as a digital edition on 7 April available from the 2000 AD app and the 2000 AD webshop.

Now… a little preview of what to expect in the pages of Flesh: Midnight Cowboy…