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

• 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

• * 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

• 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

• * 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. VaughanLast 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

July

• 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 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

• 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

• 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

• 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

February

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

October

• JSA Annual #1

Deaths

January

February

• * 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

April

May

June

• * Hart Amos, Australian comics artist, dies at age 86.
• * Jeff MacNelly, American cartoonist and comics artist, dies at age 52.June 22: Onofrio Bramante, Italian painter and comic artist, dies at age 73. June 24: Frans Verschoor, Dutch comics artist, dies at age 44.June 26: Tove Jansson, Finnish novelist, illustrator and comics artist, dies at age 86.

July

• * Bowen, Swedish comics artist, dies at age 71.
• * Alvin Hollingsworth, aka Alvin Holly, American painter and comics artist, dies at age 72.
• * Pepo, Chilean comics artist, dies at age 88.
• * Ies Spreekmeester, Dutch comics artist, dies at age 86.July 17: Philippe Vandooren, Belgian novelist, journalist and publisher, dies at age 65.July 28: Chic Stone, American comics artist and inker dies at age 77.July 31: Lars Jansson, Finnish comics writer and artist, dies at age 73.Specific date in July unknown: Anibal Uzál, Argentine comic artist, dies at an unknown age.

August

September

October

November

December

Specific date unknown

• John L. Curtis, Australian illustrator and comic artist, dies at age 82 or 83.
• Bill Lacey, British comics artist, dies at age 82 or 83.
• Charles Gilbert, aka Chargil, Imagil, Atgil, Mac K.B., Aagg, Belgian painter, illustrator and comics artist, dies at age 93 or 94.
• Juan Martínez Osete, Spanish comic artist, dies at age 78 or 79.

Exhibitions and shows

Conventions

First issues by title

DC Comics

Marvel Comics

Independent titles

Initial appearances by character name

• Nemesis (Soseh Mykros) in JSA annual #1, created by David S. Goyer and Uriel Caton, published by DC Comics.