2000 in comics

Events

Year overall

• German website Comicforum goes live
• Rebellion Developments takes over 2000 AD from Fleetway.
• The merger of AOL and Time Warner is announced.
• In Bologna, the cartoonist Igort and the editor Carlo Barbieri found Coconino press, a publishing house specialized in authorial comics; the firm takes its name from the Arizona county, which served as the setting of Krazy Cat’s strips.
• Jeroom creates his gag comic Ridder Bauknecht.

  January

• January 3: The final daily episode of Charles M. Schulz' Peanuts appears in print. The Sunday comics continue one month longer.
• January 4: The British comics magazine Buster ends its run after 40 years.
• The Voronov plot, di Yves Sentie e Andrè Juliard, fourteenth episode of the series Blake and Mortimer.
• Beginning of Apocalypse: The twelve, a cross-over involving all the X-Men comic books.
• Sotto un nuovo sole by Alessandro Sisti and Corrado Mastrantuono, marks a turning point for the PKNA series, with the destruction of the evil Evronian empire by the super-heroine Xadhoom and the final sacrifice of the same, for her people's sake. In the following months, the main PKNA storylines end and many characters of the series leave the scene.
• B D. Meurtres, by Andrè-Paul Duchateau and Tibet.
• La piste des maudits, by Francois Corteggiani and Michel Blanc-Dumont, eleventh episode of La jeunesse de Blueberry.

  February

• February 13:
• * After nearly half a century of publication the final episode of Charles M. Schulz's long-running and best-selling newspaper comic Peanuts is published. Schulz had announced his retirement a month earlier. The episode happens to coincide with Schulz' death, a day before the final episode is published. Both events make headlines all over the world.
• * The state of California declares Peanuts Day.
• The final episode of Daniel Clowes' David Boring is prepublished in Eightball.

  March

• Legion of Super-Heroes vol. 3 is canceled by DC with issue #125.
• The discontinuation of Big Panda results in the formation of Keenspot.
• First issue of Batman: Gotham Knights.
• Edward Reiser, director of the Alpha Agency and superior of Nathan Never, is killed in the album Il patto, by Antonio Serra and Roberto De Angelis. His death causes significant revelations and changes in the series, with the emerging of the new super-villain Mister Alpha.
• Le prophete, by Morris and Patrick Nordmann.
• In Buffy the vampire slayer, Old friend, by Andi Watson and Cliff Richards, ending of the Bad bloods saga.

  April

• Il figlio del diavolo by Mauro Boselli and Majo; first issue of the series Dampyr, with the debut of the principal characters In the following album, La stirpe della notte, the vampyre Draka, nemesis of the hero, makes his debut.
• Shenzhen by Guy Delisle.
• First issue of the limited series The punisher, by Garth Ennis.
• First issue of Powers, by Brian Michael Bendis and Michael Avon Oeming.

  May

• May 27:
• * The final episode of Mort Walker's Boner's Ark is published.
• * Dozens of U.S. cartoonists pay tribute to the final episode of Peanuts on the same day. Originally intended as a tribute, it becomes an unintential in memoriam since Schulz died unexpectedly earlier this year.
• May 28: After 87 years of publication Bringing Up Father is terminated.
• First issue of Swamp Thing by Brian K. Vaughan
• Last day in Vietnam, by Will Eisner.
• in the Danish magazine Anders & Co., Riverside Rovers, by Paul Halas and Francisco Rodriguez Peinado; debut of Felicity Fieldmouse, mother of Morty and Ferdie and sister of Mickey Mouse.

  June

• Frontiere sanglante – by Jean Giraud and Michel Rouge, final album of the Marshall Blueberry series.

  July

• July 1: Comics character Abraham Tuizentfloot receives a statue in Wuustwezel, Belgium.
• July 19: The Flemish newspapers Het Laatste Nieuws and De Nieuwe Gazet change the title of their weekly children comics supplement De Plopkrant, based on the popular TV show Kabouter Plop, into De Plopsakrant, based on the theme park Plopsaland.
• I coraggiosi, by Michele Masiero and Lina Buffolente, final adventure of Comandante Mark.
• Reinventing Comics: How Imagination and Technology Are Revolutionizing an Art Form, by Scott McCloud.

  August

• August 1: In the Italian Disney magazine Topolino, the first chapter of the Mickey Mouse story Topolino e le cronache della frontiera by Giorgio Pezzin is published. It's a long space opera starring characters of the Mickey Mouse universe.
• August 25: The death of Donald Duck comics artist Carl Barks makes global headlines, but predominantly in Europe and Latin America where his comics are far more beloved than in his home country.
• August 30: Ring of fire, by Doug Petrie and Ryan Sook.
• Sotto il ponte di pietra by Mauro Boselli and Luca Rossi; debut of two recurring characters in the Dampyr series, both living in Prague: the angel Caleb Lost and the amiable devil Nikolaus.

  September

• The final issue of the Flemish comics magazine Stipkrant, a weekly children's supplement of the newspapers Het Nieuwsblad, De Standaard, Het Handelsblad, De Gentenaar and De Landwacht, is published.
• First issue of the Italian magazine Euramaster tuttocolori, focused on the French comics.
• Pedro and me, graphic novel by Judd Winck.
• September 27: The first episode of Kim Duchateau's comics series Esther Verkest is published in P-Magazine.
• September 29: The first episode of Hanco Kolk and Peter de Wit's comic strip S1NGLE appears in the newspaper Het Parool.

  October

• 5 October: In the Danish Disney comics magazine Anders And & Co the first episode of The Three caballeros ride again! by Don Rosa is published.
• 17 October: In the Italian Disney comics magazine Topolino, the first episode of Paperino e il seguito della storia, by Luciano Bottaro is published. It's a sequel to the 1958 story Il Dottor Paperus..
• 23–24 October: During the Stripdagen in Den Bosch, the Netherlands, cartoonist Willem wins the Stripschapprijs. Karin van Wylick of the library of Rotterdam wins the P. Hans Frankfurtherprijs.
• The story of a childhood, first volume of Persepolis, by Marjane Satrapi.
• Deogratias: A Tale of Rwanda, by Jean-Philippe Stassen.
• Giles: beyond the pale, by Christopher Golden, Tom Sniegoski and Eric Powell.
• First issue of Ultimate Spider-Man.
• Top secret by Jean Van Hamme and William Vance, fourteenth album of the XIII series.
• La Sorcière... mal aimée by André-Paul Duchâteau and Tibet.

  November

• November 10: Quelque part entre les ombres, by Juan Díaz Canales and Juanjo Guarnido, first album of the Blacksad series.
• Dentiblù publishes amateurishly Zannablù e il segreto della besciamella, first album of Zannablù, an anthropomorphic animals series with demented humor.
• La città gialla by Alessandro Barbucci and Barbara Canepa, first album of the series Sky Doll.
• In Dylan Dog gigante, L’esercito del male, by Robin Wood and Giovanni Freghieri, the longest Dylan Dog story written until then.
• Les quatre fleuves by Fred Vargas and Edmond Baudoin.

  December

• December 8: The kids are alright, by Chynna Clugston Flores, first album of the Blue Monday series.
• Minor Miracles, by Will Eisner.
• Cairo! by Jean and Philippe Graton; Michel Vaillant participates in the Dakar rally.
• Golden Gate, by Jean Van Hamme and Philippe Francq.
• Dutch comic artist Peter Pontiac publishes his autobiographical graphic novel Kraut, about his father's past as a Nazi collaborator and his mysterious death several decades later. The book will be updated twice, in 2005 and 2011.

  Publications by release date

Year overall

February

• Strange Adventures vol. 2, #4, final issue cover-dated February

  October

• JSA Annual #1

  Births

Deaths

January

• January 1: Chon Day, American cartoonist, dies at age 92.
• January 5: Goseki Kojima, Japanese comics artist, dies at age 71.
• January 6: Don Martin, American comics artist, dies at age 68.
• January 14: Pat Boyette, American comics artist, dies at age 76.
• January 19: Antonio Palacios, Spanish-Argentine comics artist, dies at age 78.
• January 26: Keith Willingham, American comics artist, dies at age 74.
• January 31: Gil Kane, Latvian-American comic book artist, dies at age 73.

  February

• February 1: Bill Holroyd, British comics artist, dies at age 80.
• February 12: Charles M. Schulz, American comics artist, dies at age 77.
• February 18: Steven Hughes, American comics artist, dies at age 46.
• February 18: Will, Belgian comics artist, dies at age 72.
• February 19: George Roussos, American comics inker and colorist, dies at age 84.
• February 20:
• * Elliot Caplin, American comics writer dies at age 86.
• * Fred Rhoads, American comics artist, dies at age 78.
• February 26: György Szitás, Hungarian comics artist and illustrator, dies at age 73.

  March

• March 3: Nicole Van Goethem, Belgian cartoonist, animator and film director, dies at age 58.
• March 10: John Henry Rouson, American painter, cartoonist and comics artist, dies at age 91.
• March 14: Don Komisarow, American comics artist, dies at age 85.
• March 20: Johan Anthierens, Belgian journalist, columnist, critic, writer, publisher and comics writer, dies from cancer at age 62.