The VCs

The VCs was a future war series that appeared in 2000AD prog 140 – 178. Written by Gerry Finley-Day the strip told of Steve Smith a raw recruit assigned to the hard-bitten crew of a space patrol ship 'The VCs' engaged in a war of survival against an alien spacies known as 'Geeks'. The twist is that Smith is the only Earth-born crew member – the rest of the crew are all from colonies on the other planets of the solar system and so have all been genetically enhanced or mutated. A major theme of the series was the racially based antagonism between the crew and the high mortality rate amongst the main characters.

After the Geeks launch a devastating attack against Earth and Mars the VCs become part of a retaliation mission against the Geek homeworld. Routinely the VCs are singled out for suicide missions resulting in the death of another crew member. Ulitmately Smith is the sole surviving member of the original VCs and leads a heroic but fatal attack on the Geek homeworld that ends the war.

The first issue was drawn by Mike McMahon who designed the craft and the main characters. The main series artists were Cam Kennedy, Gary Leach and John Richardson.