The Copper Conspiracy

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The Copper Conspiracy was a Dandridge story, running from 2000AD Prog 1824 onwards. It was written by Alec Worley, with art by Warren Pleece and letters by Ellie de Ville.

Synopsis

Part One

The story opens with Miss Blake being questioned by detectives about the theft of the Blade of Oberon by and from Shelley.

Three robotic 'coppers' trace Dandridge's journeys around the Mediterranean before catching up with him at a Monte Carlo hotel where he is partying with twenty Swedish models and whomever has been sent up to try to halt proceedings.

Part Two

Too drunk to effectively resist, the three coppers capture him and transport him back to Britain though he manages to sabotage the one carrying him, Dennis, from the inside and crashes in a field. He quickly analyses his kidnappers as being made from copper with a high-grade Animatum Spiritum complex metal frame powered by a ghost battery.

Part Three

Unable to find out who is behind the conspiracy, Dandridge goes to an old pub he used to frequent where he meets an old friend for the first time since his death.  He finds out from Chelsea Tommy that their is a special delivery at a nearby warehouse, but discovers the head of Shelley in a box.

Part Four

Dandridge is set upon by the coppers, and is aided by the body of Shelley, which erupts from a nearby create, sans head. With the fight over, Dandridge explores the van and finds more coppers in the back. Unlike the robotic coppers, these are supernatural automata which have been filled with concentrated ectoplasm.

Dandridge rewires one of the robotic coppers and disguises Shelley and himself (with Shelley's head remaining disembodied) so that it can drive the van back to its home base. This turns out to be a disguised underground factory underneath a Little Eater motorway service station. The factory contains ramshackle maintenance droids, an ectoplasm assembly line and the Blade of Oberon.

Dandridge decides that he doesn't have enough time to sew Shelley's head back on to his body.  As a consequence of this, the copper head is controlled remotely to attack Dandridge.

Part Five

Master Beta, the controller of the coppers captured him and explained the plan to drain his savoir fu in order to marshal the people of the people of Britain without complaint.

Shelley managed to pogo his disembodied head using it's vertebrae towards his body.

Locations featured

Camden - an unnamed biker bar

The French Riviera

Cannes

Monte Carlo

Records Department

The Ash Tree, a pub

Little Eater

The Lamb and Flag, a pub (referred to)

Wemberley Common (referred to)

Characters

Dr Spartacus Dandridge

Miss Angela Blake

Shelley

Roger Moore (mentioned)

The Sultan of Brunei (mentioned)

Inga, a Swedish model

Anita, a Swedish model

Dennis / The Fat Man / Number One, a copper

Number Two, a copper

Number Three, a copper

Chelsea Tommy

The Wailing Widow of Wemberley Common (referred to)

Master Beta, a government scientist

Number Five, a copper with a speech impediment (deceased).

Items

Blade of Oberon

Metamorphic Jacket

Roger Moore's Bentley

Hot air balloon

Ghost battery

Runic binding tape

Wollstonecraft's Self-Stitching Thread

Entities featured

Interview (fictional magazine)

Bonhomie (fictional magazine)

H.M. Ecto-Revenue.

Musical monthly (fictional magazine)

Radio Times (real world magazine, mentioned)

Evening Examiner (fictional newspaper)