Canned Heat

Canned Heat was a one-off story in the 2000 AD Winter Special 1993, written by John Wagner and drawn by Colin Macneil. Set in 2025, it concerned heroic Los Angeles police officer Rocky Schwartzenburger, who was shot more than thirty times and drenched in corrosive acid while getting his partner out of a firefight. While Rocky's partner, Howard, escaped with a sprained ankle, Rocky was so badly injured that doctors were forced to amputate his entire body, transferring his brain into a new robotic form, the fist "Cybo-Cop". The story was intended to be a pilot for an ongoing series, but was never followed up on. The term "canned heat" refers to the slang term "the heat" (meaning police) and, of course, the fact that Rocky effectively ends up as a brain in a can.

Supposedly, both Canned Heat and the story Tracer from the same issue (as well as a one-off titled The Burning Man from the 1994 2000 AD Yearbook were originally created for a proposed new Fleetway publication called Earthside 8, a "gateway comic" to lead younger readers into 2000 AD, which never got off the drawing board.