On 26 February 1977 a new weekly comic appeared in Britain’s newsagents, vying for the attention of children who’d grown up on the Beano and graduated to stronger stuff such as Warlord. The cover promised readers the inevitable free gift – a plastic ‘space spinner’ – yet the stories inside offered something more substantial and daring. 2000AD had arrived.

Now celebrating its 40th year, 2000AD is Britain’s longest running science-fiction comic and still delivers a heady mix of thrills, from mutant bounty hunters and wisecracking hit-men to vengeful gladiators and robotic knights. Yet its success took even its creators by surprise. "I thought it would last a couple of years at most", writer John Wagner admits.

If there is one story that embodies the essence of 2000AD, though, it’s Judge Dredd

Taking its cue from the science-fiction and action films of the 70s, the writers and artists of 2000AD brought an imaginative, occasionally satirical, edge to their strips that continues to this day.

"Its roots are very strongly embedded in a punk attitude," original editor Pat Mills reflects. "All the stories had that potential to be subversive from the beginning."

In Flesh, a strip that made its debut in the first issue and is still written by Mills today, time-travelling cowboys hunt dinosaurs for their meat, beaming it back to feed the hungry masses in the 23rd century.

If there is one story that embodies the essence of 2000AD, though, it’s Judge Dredd – the heavily armed ‘Lawman of the Future’ who acts as judge, jury and executioner on the mean streets of Mega-City One, a dystopian vision of a future American metropolis. "It’s a comedy, it’s a horror, it’s a drama and it’s a police procedural," artist PJ Holden explains.

The crime-ridden city, with its impossibly vast high-rises, chronic unemployment and violent citizens, has always offered rich pickings for storytellers seeking to parody the preoccupations of the day.

"Dredd’s world can be ridiculous," Holden laughs. "You’re dealing with characters that are two tons in size or compete to be the ugliest looking person in Mega-City One."

In one story, the citizens elected an orangutan as their mayor. "They give the citizens the vote and the citizens do stupid things with it," jokes Jason Kingsley, owner of 2000AD’s parent company, Rebellion. "If you ask the people what they want… they want Dave the Orangutan."