First prog you ever read?

[Rara Avis]

Ah ok, I was sure The Gronk had killed Johnny but no matter. A little death never hurt anyone, right?

[Greg M.]

For good or for ill, the entirety of 'Strontium Dogs' (gun-toting Gronk, Feral's exploits) were pretty much retconned out of existence and dismissed.

[Rara Avis]

I read somewhere here that Feral met an undignified end - what happened?

The story with Johnny that ran recently, with the Galantians (?) was this not an SD story? Do we live in a post Strontium Dogs world now?

Red Durham's still ok though right?

[Greg M.]

I read somewhere here that Feral met an undignified end - what happened?

Force-fed and fattened up by aliens, nose chopped off, set fire to. Ouch.

When I say 'Strontium Dogs' no longer happened, I mean the series that ran after Alpha's death, and largely featured Feral and the Gronk. 'Strontium Dog' (singular) continues on.

As for Durham Red - that's a bit complicated. She went into cryogenic suspension, ended up in a distant future where she was worshipped as a saint, and took part in a massive interstellar mutant / human war. But that's probably best regarded as an alternate timeline now. Red hasn't yet appeared in post-Alpha's-resurrection continuity (though we have had a flashback series to her younger days.)

[Rara Avis]

Oh dear ... has his story arc concluded now? Is he presumed dead?

What about the Gronk, surely he's ok? Could we hope for a Alpha / Gronk reunion at some point?

'Atta Girl! What a trouper! Is this covered in any of the graphic novels? The last I heard of her she was either teaming up with Feral / Gronk and going after someone or she had just escaped from some Goth Lord, he put her on an island somewhere ...

[sheridan]

Read it until around prog 400 and then discovered girls and booze and the Prog was left by the wayside.
Had a job interview in 1993 and was very early so whilst perusing a newsagents for something to keep me occupied I spied that latest issue of the prog and bought it.
Been with it ever since and had it on order at my local newsie but when I moved away from North London in 2006 I decided to subscribe and have been ever since.

Did you get the job?  And I assume you were living around Tottenham before you moved away...

[sheridan]

Here's a supplementary question to throw out there for consideration: do readers who started buying 2000AD at a much later date than launch, whether it be the 600s, the 1000s, 1400s or even the 2000s, feel the need to fill in the back issues they missed or do you just accept that you're never going to accumulate forty years of back progs and just go with the flow from the point you picked up 2000AD for the first time?

I feel lucky that I got in to 2000AD in the early 300s.  I was eight years old and decided to fill in the gaps from 300 to 330 (which is the first one I bought, after having been given a bundle by the neighbour).  I didn't manage to do that before getting my first pre-300 prog.  I think the last one I bought was prog 3, which took me until I was in my very late teens, so about an average of 30 back progs a year.  At the time I was also buying reprints and collections, but particularly after I started moving around it became impractical to lug quite so many comics around, particularly when they had (roughly) the same content.

[dweezil2]

Here's a supplementary question to throw out there for consideration: do readers who started buying 2000AD at a much later date than launch, whether it be the 600s, the 1000s, 1400s or even the 2000s, feel the need to fill in the back issues they missed or do you just accept that you're never going to accumulate forty years of back progs and just go with the flow from the point you picked up 2000AD for the first time?

I had a smattering of Progs with gaps of varying lengths in the first three hundred issues and spent, idk, ten years (once I had disposable income) seriously filling in those gaps until I finally got a 'complete' collection. If I'd discovered 2000AD around, let's say, the Prog 1345 mark I don't know if I'd have been as driven to own every back issue (any more than I feel any need to own every issue of Action Comics^[1]) and I imagine that's a fairly common sense approach but let it never be said that Earthlets are blessed with common sense where Thrill-Power is concerned. 

What's the biggest gap (not necessarily of consecutive progs) anyone's ever plugged in their 2000AD collection?

^{[1]That's the Superman Action Comics not the "most violent comic in history" Action comic.} 

Although I started reading 2000AD with earnest from Prog 75, sadly those early issues were binned!

There followed a pattern of reading the Prog off and on from Prog 300 until I started reading regularly from Prog 716 until the present day.

I managed to plug the gaps as I went, from visiting comic shops, mail order and the old London Mart in Westminster until Ebay came about and I managed to plug the sought after first 300 Progs from a seller in Reading for £150 about 15 years ago.
All told it probably took me a good 20 years to complete my collection, but it sure was fun doing so! 

[Mattofthespurs]

Read it until around prog 400 and then discovered girls and booze and the Prog was left by the wayside.
Had a job interview in 1993 and was very early so whilst perusing a newsagents for something to keep me occupied I spied that latest issue of the prog and bought it.
Been with it ever since and had it on order at my local newsie but when I moved away from North London in 2006 I decided to subscribe and have been ever since.

Did you get the job?  And I assume you were living around Tottenham before you moved away...

I did get the job. I was living in Lower Edmonton at the time, just off Nightingale Road if you know the area. Job was the warehouse man at the Cash Converters but due to some knowledge of video players and computers I was promoted to head buyer in a short space of time. Not the greatest job in the world but it was owned by Frank McLintock (ex Arsenal Captain) and run by his two Sons. They were very generous and decent enough. I believe they have sold it on now. I stayed there for 4 years before going off to work for Barclays Bank.

[Lobo Baggins]

As for Durham Red - that's a bit complicated. She went into cryogenic suspension, ended up in a distant future where she was worshipped as a saint, and took part in a massive interstellar mutant / human war. But that's probably best regarded as an alternate timeline now. Red hasn't yet appeared in post-Alpha's-resurrection continuity (though we have had a flashback series to her younger days.)

Red is trying to track down the Goth Lord when she makes her cameo in The Final Solution, this is followed up in her first solo story, 'Isle of the Damned' by Alan Grant.  Then Peter Hogan takes over and she teams up with Frinton Fuzz from Outlaw!, her real name is revealed and she gets a whole load of backstory.  This is where the Doghouse II is introduced, as well as the Stix clan so it seems that Hogan's Run is canonical...

[Bolt-01]

iirc the Stix clan were introduced in Outlaw weren't they?

At the moment we've no knowledge at all of what happened to Red after Island of the Damned as far as current strontinuity is concerned.

[Timothy]

The Stix brothers were introduced in Outlaw. They have since expanded, with no real explanation, into a whole town full of identical hornery critters.

[Lobo Baggins]

iirc the Stix clan were introduced in Outlaw weren't they?

The original Stix's obituary in the 'In the Doghouse' feature in the 1983 2000AD Annual notes that he has two brothers, who turn up in Outlaw.  Their father, Silas Stix, turns up in Stone Killers (he has a picture of three Stixes on his wall).  Another pair of Stixes (both of whom have first names, but I can't remember them off hand) appear in Durham Red: Deals and Night of the Hunter.  There's also a Gronk text story in one of the yearbooks, where it's revealed that there's actually a whole clan of them.

[Link Prime]

The bottom line is this; all contemporary Strontium Dog / Strontium Dogs and affiliated stories set since the end of The Final Solution are now non-canon.
Some would argue whether Durham Red (by Dan Abnett) should be included in that bracket or not, although it is absolutely the case too in my view.

Just jump from Prog 687 to Prog 1689 and forget all (non-flashback) stories in between.

[Rara Avis]

That's quite a chunk to disregard but in a way is a relief because it kind of ended where I did and I'm not too behind the loop.

First they giveth, then they taketh away...

So Johnny died, is brought back to life magically and now continues to work as a Search/Destroy agent with some of his old crew but not as the Strontium Dogs I knew in the past?