Be Pure! Be Vigilant! Behave! Further reading

These are most of the books mentioned in Be Pure! Be Vigilant! Behave! 2000 AD & Judge Dredd: The Secret History. Some of them were crucial, such as Comix by Les Daniels, which features a primary source for Judge Dredd. Others were character-shaping when I was growing up, like Stephen Leacock’s Maddened by Mystery or The Defective Detective. One by China Mieville is because the 2000 AD character Nemesis had an impact on his writing. If I had to pick an all-time favourite, it would have to be A Very British Coup by Chris Mullin. Even though Chris and I went to the same school, you will find no echo of its harsh, Judge Dredd-like teachers in his pages. But it is a magnificent dream of a Britain that might have been, and may yet come to be. That would be closely followed by Hidden History by Docherty and MacGregor; but be warned: it’s one of those books that could change your life and certainly your view of Britain as we remember the fallen in the World War One centenary years.

• 1984, George Orwell
• Animal Farm, George Orwell
• The Blood Never Dried, John Newsinger
• Catch 22, Joseph Heller
• Charley’s War, Pat Mills and Joe Colquhoun
• 1917 Russia’s Red Year, John Newsinger
• Comix: A History of Comic Books in America, Les Daniels
• Concrete Island, J. G. Ballard
• Conquering Armies (renamed Armies), Dionnet, Picaret and Gal
• Corum, Michael Moorcock
• The Dice Man, Luke Rhinehart
• Doctor Who, Song of Megaptera, audio play, Pat Mills
• Don Camillo, Giovannino Guareschi
• The Dredd Phenomenon: Comics and Contemporary Society, John Newsinger
• Ecodefense: A Field Guide to Monkeywrenching, Dave Foreman and Bill Haywood
• Elric of Melnibone, Michael Moorcock
• Erewhon, Samuel Butler
• The Exploits of Brigadier Gerard, Arthur Conan Doyle
• A Fate Worse Than Debt, Susan George
• Future Shock! The story of 2000AD, DVD
• Gulliver’s Travels, Jonathan Swift
• Flashman, George Macdonald Fraser
• Hidden History: The Secret Origins of the First World War, Gerry Docherty and Jim MacGregor
• How The Other Half Dies: the Real Reasons for World Hunger, Susan George
• Iron Council, China Mieville
• The Lord of the Rings, J. R. R. Tolkien
• Lower Than Vermin, Kevin Killane and Martin Rowson
• Maddened by Mystery: or The Defective Detective, Stephen Leacock
• The Making of Judge Dredd, Charles Lippincott, Jane Killick, David Chute
• Paleontology: an experimental science, Robert R. Olsen. In The Year’s Best Science Fiction No. 8, edited by Harry Harrison and Brian Aldiss
• Requiem Vampire Knight Series, Mills & Ledroit (Comixology digital edition)
• Scarred For Life Volume One, Stephen Brotherstone and Dave Lawrence
• Serial Killer, Pat Mills and Kevin O’Neill
• Story, Robert McKee
• The Tain, Thomas Kinsella
• Truths of the Unremembered Things, Paul Wilkins
• You Are Maggie Thatcher, Pat Mills and Hunt Emerson
• You Are Ronald Reagan, Pat Mills and Hunt Emerson
• A Very British Coup, Chris Mullin
• Valerian, Mezieres and Christin
• Very Good, Jeeves, P. G. Wodehouse
• Voyage to Venus, Frank Hampson
• War with the Robots, Harry Harrison