science

The Thirteenth Floor (comics)

The Thirteenth Floor (comics) is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand The Thirteenth Floor (comics) rather than just read about it. In short: "The Thirteenth Floor" is a British science fiction strip character, appearing in titles published by IPC Magazines. The strip debuted in the weekly anthology Scream! on 24 March 1984, before continuing in Eagle until 28 February 1987.

Key takeaways

The Thirteenth Floor (comics) belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect The Thirteenth Floor (comics) to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of The Thirteenth Floor (comics) from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

"The Thirteenth Floor" is a British science fiction strip character, appearing in titles published by IPC Magazines. The strip debuted in the weekly anthology Scream! on 24 March 1984, before continuing in Eagle until 28 February 1987. The stories were written by John Wagner and Alan Grant; art was provided by José Ortiz. Since 2016 the property has been owned by Rebellion Developments, who have revived the strip in several specials. The plot was set in a tower block called Maxwell Tower, controlled by an experimental sentient computer called Max located on the 13th floor of the flats. Max himself narrated the strip, and as befitting a computerised custodian of hundreds of people, was quite chatty and light-hearted. However, he was also portrayed as having a programming flaw; programmed to love and protect his tenants, he could remorselessly kill anyone who threatened or even just annoyed them.

Creation

Assigned to create Scream!, Barrie Tomlinson and Gil Page found themselves walking a tightrope over the horror level of the contents so they were not in violation of the Children and Young Persons (Harmful Publications) Act 1955, or ended up generating negative press attention like that suffered by Action in 1976. Writers John Wagner and Alan Grant devised "The Thirteenth Floor" for the new title. At the time the pair contributed so many stories to IPC that managing editor John Sanders insisted they use pseudonyms for many of their scripts; as such on "The Thirteenth Floor" they were credited as 'Ian Holland'. Grant would recall that "Both John and I genuinely liked Max... who is perhaps one of the cruellest characters we'd ever devised. I was disappointed nobody ever picked the story up for a kids' television show". Art duties went to José Ortiz, whose body of work had included the urban gothic "The Tower King" and Wagner/Grant story "The House of Daemon" for the revived Eagle after a stint working in the American market for Warren Publishing.

Publishing history

Scream! IPC management were nervous about Scream! from the start, and the strip was plagued with interference. Following the 1984 National Union of Journalists strike the title was cancelled, reportedly due to low sales, though Tomlinson and Scream! assistant editor Simon Furman were among those who believe management were looking for an excuse to cancel it.

Eagle "The Thirteenth Floor" took a three-month hiatus before - along with one other Scream! strip, "Monster" - returning as part of Eagle (retitled Eagle and Scream!) in September 1984. The strip would run in 1987; alongside the strip, Max also began acting as the fictional 'editor' and host of Eagle, in a similar fashion to the character-editors of Tharg the Mighty (2000 AD), Starlord (Starlord)), The Big E (Tornado) and Scream!'s own Ghastly McNasty. Following the end of new episodes of the strip, "The Thirteenth Floor" continued as reprints, starting with the Scream! strips. In July 1987, IPC would consolidate its ongoing titles into the revived Fleetway Publications holding and sell them to Egmont Publishing; Max would continue to host Eagle until it was cancelled in January 1994. As "The Thirteenth Floor" had begun in Scream! it was not among the properties sold to the Dan Dare Corporation when they purchased both versions of Eagle from Egmont in 1998. In 2007, Irish publisher Hibernia Books licensed the first 11 Scream! episodes from Egmont, and published a collected edition limited to 700 copies. A second volume followed in 2014, along with a reprint of the first.

Rebellion Developments

… excerpt ends here. Continue reading the full article.

Illustrations

The Thirteenth Floor (comics): The hardback limited edition covers used for the Rebellion reprints. — The hardback limited edition covers used for the Rebellion reprints.

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with The Thirteenth Floor (comics)

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what The Thirteenth Floor (comics) claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to The Thirteenth Floor (comics) before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about The Thirteenth Floor (comics) ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of The Thirteenth Floor (comics)

In research: The Thirteenth Floor (comics) appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses The Thirteenth Floor (comics) in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: The Thirteenth Floor (comics) is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1984 comics debuts, 1987 comics endings, British comic strips, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for The Thirteenth Floor (comics) outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study The Thirteenth Floor (comics) in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what The Thirteenth Floor (comics) means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain The Thirteenth Floor (comics) out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is The Thirteenth Floor (comics) in simple terms?

Why does The Thirteenth Floor (comics) matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study The Thirteenth Floor (comics)?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on The Thirteenth Floor (comics).