''The Clown'' is a series published in the comic anthology '' 2000 AD'' between 1992 and 1994. It was created by

Igor Goldkind Igor Goldkind was born April 20, 1960, in Lansing, Michigan, and raised in San Diego, California. He is an author, poet, and lecturer who currently specializes in digital storytelling and information architecture. Biography The son of San Diego ...

and Robert Bliss. The story is about a clown who goes on a violent rampage to avenge the decapitation of his pony Toby.

Creation and concept

Igor Goldkind was originally hired to launch '' Crisis'' and later worked in PR for ''2000 AD'' before eventually contributing one-off stories to both ''Crisis'' and ''

Tharg's Future Shocks ''Tharg's Future Shocks'' is a long-running series of short strips in the British weekly comic '' 2000 AD'' in 1977. The name originates from the fictional editor of 2000 AD and the book titled ''Future Shock'', written by Alvin Toffler, publi ...

''. He developed ''The Clown'' as a series for ''2000 AD'' and intended it to be a fond parody of

Neil Gaiman Neil Richard MacKinnon GaimanBorn as Neil Richard Gaiman, with "MacKinnon" added on the occasion of his marriage to Amanda Palmer. ; ( Neil Richard Gaiman; born 10 November 1960) is an English author of short fiction, novels, comic books, gr ...

’s divisive literary writing style, describing it as “''

The Sandman The Sandman is a mythical character in European folklore who puts people to sleep and encourages and inspires beautiful dreams by sprinkling magical sand onto their eyes. Representation in traditional folklore The Sandman is a traditional charact ...

'' on laughing gas”. Goldkind portrays the Clown as an “existential

Mr. Magoo Mr. Magoo (known by his full name: J. Quincy Magoo) is a fictional cartoon character created at the UPA animation studio in 1949. Voiced by Jim Backus, Mr. Magoo is an elderly, wealthy, short-statured retiree who gets into a series of comical ...

..more fixated on his ideas about reality than reality itself” and credits '' The Sorrows of Young Werther'' as an inspiration for the series’s satirical, solipsistic "metaphysical slapstick".

Publication History

* "The Clown Book 1" (in ''2000 AD'' #774-779, 1992) * "The Clown Book 2: Prologue" (in ''2000 AD'' #841, 1993) * "Vale of Tears" (with Greg Staples, in ''2000 AD Yearbook 1994'', 1993) * "The Clown Book 2" (with Robert Bliss/Greg Staples/Nick Percival, in ''2000 AD'' #881-888, 1994) The first book was reprinted in ''Classic 2000 AD'' #10-11, 1996

References

External links

*
The 2000 AD A.B.C. #26: The Clown
' at YouTube {{DEFAULTSORT:Clown 2000 A.D. 1992 comics debuts 1993 comics endings Parody comics Parodies of comics 2000 AD comic strips 2000 AD characters Comics characters introduced in 1992 Fictional clowns