A perfectly charming series with a large, fun cast, Hap Hazzard is set on the trader's world of Fred's Planet and features our young heroes Hap and Tricky involved in life, love, con games and quick schemes. More of these would have been excellent, but humor series were never much in favor in the late 80s. The last story was a forgotten Steve Dillon 7-pager found without a script and used as a scriptwriting competition.

Read the first half of it twice, have no freaking clue what happens in it. Sorry, but it's that incoherent.

A light comedy series about a pair of traveling antique dealers in the Cursed Earth, this was a popular feature, and arguably showcased the best 2000 AD/Megazine work from its two creators.

Characters from this series reappeared in Inferno and Judge Dredd and inspired the second series of 13 years later. Aeroball was seen played in Ro-Busters, probably part of Pat Mills’ desire to integrate concepts from different series into one “universe.”

By many accounts, the revamp of Harlem Heroes was far and away the worst thing to ever appear in 2000 AD, an ultra-violent "gang warfare with jetpacks" story full of cliché, hackneyed dialogue and stereotyped characters. Tharg threatened us with the final story over two years before publishing it. Incidentally, 2000 AD hits its nadir with this unbelievable line in prog 705: "Hey! What the hell happened to our quintuple X-rated movie?"

Trivia: One of 2000 AD's more unusual art moments comes in prog 704. Kevin Walker became ill while the art was in production and Simon Jacob finished the episode over his pencils. But Walker had already completed two panels on the first page, which Jacob left intact, resulting in an incredibly odd mismash of styles.

Harmony Krieg is a bounty hunter and hired gun who operates in the snowy wastes around Uranium City in what used to be Alaska. Her initial series was very well received, and she remained a popular feature through her final appearance, which saw her crossing paths with Judge Dredd in Mega-City One, but the character was eventually squeezed out as the 1997 contraction of the Megazine left it without space to continue the comic's recurring series. As her writer Chris Standley has apparently moved on from the business, Harmony has not returned.

Harry Twenty is a perfect example of a good early 80s strip. It's a rollercoaster adventure, with political overtones, extreme violence and bad puns. In some of the silliest naming ever in 2000 AD, the political prisoners aboard this orbiting prison satellite all have a name replaced by the number of years they've been sentenced. Naturally, a Japanese man named Sunset gets 77 years, hence 77 Sunset. Other great names are Root 66 and The Big Red One. Alan Davis contributes excellent art and villain Warden Worldwise is one of the most delightfully evil creations of his day.

This is the wonderful story of a boy with quite a quiff caught in a world gone bizarre. Can he survive long enough to prevent the planet becoming just a rumor? Full of puns, sight gags and satire, this eight-parter contains some very funny material, not the least of which is our hero's lady love's full and beautiful name, Scarlet O’Gasmeter.

Trivia: Contacted for a quote for the collected edition, the Vidal Sassoon company replied it was not the sort of product with which they wished to be involved. The quote was duly used.

Top moment: Hewligan and Scarlet’s frantic bid for freedom is interrupted by transmissions of cult 1960s teevee shows and they find themselves trapped in The Village from The Prisoner.

Holocaust Squads, which were introduced in the Judge Dredd adventure "Father Earth," are Justice Department's last line of defense against major disasters in the city, and most of their number don't survive their almost certainly suicidal rescue missions.