A 2000AD boyhood comic hobby turns into a specialist Mastermind subject

A boyhood hobby has led a man to making it through to a semi-final appearance in the famous black Mastermind Chair.

Chris Matterface, 54, from Pelsall, near Walsall, appeared on the BBC programme with his specialist subject the 2000 AD comics from the 1980s and 90s.

Gaining a credible 23 points the comic enthusiast made it through to the next round, where he will have to pick a new specialist topic.

“I can’t give away exactly what I’m answering questions on in the semi-final, all I’ll say is that it’s popular music based, but people will have to wait and see exactly what that is,” he said. The semi final is due to be filmed soon, and will broadcast on BBC1 and BBCiPlayer at a future date.

The 2000 AD comics have been published every Wednesday, except over the Christmas period, since 1977 and focus primarily on science fiction stories.

“It was very much aimed at kids when it first came out in the 70s, trying to catch that wave of scifi popularity,” Matterface said.

“Over the 80s it started to morph into something for a much older audience. By the time I went to university it was required reading for most students.”

“There’d be nothing worse than picking something as a specialist subject, and then you go on there and you get almost all the questions wrong.”

Picking a subject which has attracted hundreds of superfans meant he was aware others were comparing their answers against his while watching Monday evening’s programme.

“I couldn’t keep up with the notifications last night, the notification pings were going crazy on my phone, I had it upside down while the programme was on so I wanted to take it in.”