The story begins in a garden shed in Scotland sometime in 1971…

…Pat Mills is the creator of 2000AD and one of the comic’s top writers. He is also the creator of Action, co-creator of Battle, Misty, Marshal Law, Requiem Vampire Knight, Charley’s War (described as “the greatest British comic strip ever created”) and the black comedy text novel Serial Killer. As 2000AD and Judge Dredd celebrates its 40th birthday, Pat at last writes the definitive history of the Galaxy’s Greatest Comic, and the turbulent, extraordinary and exciting events that shaped it.

Be Pure! Be Vigilant! Behave! is the infamous slogan of Torquemada, the comic’s favourite villain. It once appeared on the Berlin Wall, and symbolizes the subversive nature of 2000AD that changed so many readers’ lives and influenced generations of film directors, actors, rock bands, novelists and even school headmasters. Everything you’ve always wanted to know about Judge Dredd, Slaine, Nemesis, ABC Warriors, Flesh, Bill Savage and more, is in this book. Plus the writers and artists who created them and the real-life people and events they drew on for inspiration.

The scandals, the back-stabbing and the shocking story that was regarded as “too sensitive” to ever see the light of day is finally told. Pat relates the dark story of the maths teacher who inspired his version of Judge Dredd, the creators’ angry battles with the censors and each other, why certain writers, stories and even readers have been banished from the comic, a step-by-step account of how Judge Dredd was created, and how to write or draw for 2000AD today. There are new insights on the 2000AD creators’ invasion of American comics, their failed French invasion, the Judge Dredd films, the forthcoming Judge Dredd TV series, other possible films featuring 2000AD heroes, the unusual secret of the comic’s current success, the tough challenges it faces today, and its exciting future.

From the hilarious origins when Judge Dredd writer-creator John Wagner and Pat began their careers writing together in a garden shed by paraffin lamp, to the tragic stories of legendary comic artists who have passed, and the challenges as 2000AD fought for survival against The Suits determined to destroy it, this is a unique, personal, and passionate account by the man who made 2000AD happen. Funny, sad, angry, defiant, and outrageous: it’s the Comic Book memoir of the year

 


About The Author

Pat Mills is the creator of 2000AD, now in its 40th year, and still writes for the Galaxy’s Greatest Comic. He is also the creator of Action, and co-creator of the following: Battle, the girls supernatural comic Misty, Marshal Law, Requiem Vampire Knight, the anti-war saga Charley’s War, described as “the greatest British comic strip ever created”, and the black comedy text novel Serial Killer. For 2000AD, he developed Judge Dredd, and, with the artists, created Mach One, Savage, Slaine, Harlem Heroes, Flesh, Nemesis, Greysuit, Defoe, ABC Warriors and Ro-Busters. As well as Third World War for 2000AD’s Crisis, which led to the 2000AD series Finn. Although he wrote Punisher 2099 for Marvel, Metalzoic and Batman for DC Comics, and Marshal Law for Marvel Epic, he is one of the few British writers to be uninterested in mainstream American superheroes and prefers instead writing for the French comic book market with series like Sha and Requiem Vampire Knight (available in English language edition through Comixology). His Accident Man, co-created with Tony Skinner, is now a film starring Scott Adkins.

BE PURE! is published by Millsverse and the paperback and kindle editions can be purchased by CLICKING HERE

 


 

DOWNLOADING INFORMATION

Our audiobooks download as zipped files (due to their size and for your convenience). Once unzipped you will find all of the mp3 files for your audiobook named, and in correct file order.  Due to the way Apple has designed iOS, iPhones and iPads don’t recognise these zip files automatically (unlike Android devices).  So, if you buy one of our titles via your iPhone or iPad, there are two ways to find and listen to your files:

[1] Download for FREE iZip for iOS – then download the audiobook using the link provided either on the webpage or the email we sent you. After the file has downloaded click on the Open With option and choose iZip. The app will open and ask if you want it to unzip all the files, say yes. A minute or so later you will have a list of mp3 files in order, and you just need to tap on the one you want to play and it will start playing in the Audioplayer. You can easily play, pause, jump forward or back.

[2] Slightly easier – download the zip file to your PC or MAC, unzip it to a folder you know the location of (such as your Music or Documents folder), then use iTunes to transfer the files in the same way you would a music album.

We hope you enjoy your audiobook and come back for more soon!

Author

Pat Mills

Narrator

Pat Mills

Producer/Director

Neil Gardner

Released

2017

File Size/Quality

192kbps (better than CD), 256kbps (superb quality), 320kbps (highest quality)

3 reviews for Be Pure!

  1. Rehan Mirza (verified owner)

    This is a great reading of an engrossing book. Maybe Pat Mills could take up doing audiobooks for a second career if the comics thing doesn’t work out! After 50yrs of creating and writing for comics Pat Mills finally tells his side of the story.
    The Be Pure book is much more than its title states. It falls into three areas:-
    1. Pat Mills memoirs/career.
    2. The Secret History of 2000AD and Judge Dredd
    3. Polemic on comic creators rights (rightly so) and the current comic market.
    Each one is as enjoyable as the last.
    The Spokenword edition benefits greatly from having the Author give the reading. A clear and concise reading of the text make from a audiobook you wont want to stop.

  2. Ceiron Bounds (verified owner)

    Sometimes funny, sometimes sad, sometimes infuriating but always interesting I enjoyed this audiobook a great deal. Revealing the truly unfair way creators are treated in the archaic British comic book industry I’m sure there are a lot of people behind the scenes who will wish this tome was never released. Well done Pat! They don’t like it up ’em!

  3. Nick Joy

    The creator of 2000AD tells a fascinating tale of the genesis of ‘The Galaxy’s Greatest Comic’ as well as the daily trials and tribulations of being a writer at the heart of London’s comic scene.

    As a fan of 2000AD (yes, I was just the right age – eight – to have bought the first issue in 1977) I also have a great interest in its origins and production. In recent years we’ve had a number of peeks inside this industry – Steve MacManus’ The Mighty One: My Life Inside the Nerve Centre (2016), David Bishop’s Thrill-Power Overload (2009, expanded for the fortieth Anniversary) and Tim Pilcher’s 2013 Comic Book Babylon, which is admittedly about DC Comics’ Vertigo UK office. The common thread across all of these works, and now Mills’, is the miracle that anything was actually produced of any quality on a weekly basis.

    ‘Be pure! Be vigilant! Behave!’ is a quote by Torquemada from Mills’ and Kevin O’Neill’s Nemesis the Warlock and was subsequently scrawled into the Berlin War. It also provides a three-act structure to the work. The author begins by stating that this is history as remembered by him. He accepts that others might remember things differently, and has deliberately not used names where he felt this would be indiscreet. Saying that, he doesn’t pull punches, setting out his stall with a first chapter titled ‘Through a minefield of imbeciles and chimps’!

    We’re told of his and John Wagner’s early years writing for girls comics and ‘humour department’ titles like Whizzer & Chips and Whoopee!, then on to Battle Picture Weekly and Action. He bemoans the workhouse conditions in which comics were churned out in the UK, with no time for research, and how the French system was far more superior. The unwillingness of the publishers to credit the creators (and allow related royalties) is also a despicable action that led to many British artists and writers moving abroad or working for US publishers.

    There’s something thrilling about hearing an author reading their own words, this recording being a case in point. As anyone who saw him at the 2000AD 40th Anniversary event or watched him on the Future Shock documentary will attest, Mills has a passion for his work. He still is that angry young man affronted that so few fictional heroes were/are working class, and his at times angry delivery of his own prose highlights the frustrations he had to endure.

    If you haven’t yet read it, Serial Killer: Read Em and Weep Book One is Mills’ and Kevin O’Neill’s fiction detective novel set in the comics industry. From what Pat shares in this fascinating overview of turbulent times in comics production, that book has far less fiction than you might at first think!

    Verdict: Clearly a must-have for any fan of 2000AD and Judge Dredd, this is also an essential purchase (either as book or audio) for anyone with an interest in the process of producing magazines and comics. It’s also a nostalgia-inducing remembrance of an explosion within the British comics scene from the man who was right in the thick of it. 9/10

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