This weeks Strontium Dog

[House of Usher]

That said, the story where he was dating that supervillain chick who was helping him master his fear of fire was quite sexy.

It's always the quiet ones in quilted smoking jackets...

Raunch sells comics. And everything else!

[Tweak72]

I am sad to say I really am not enjoying this chapter of SD at all. I really think Mr Wanger is off the boil with this whole story to the point where I would rate it as "The  Three Amigos" bad. But then IMO while I acknowledge Mr Wangers' superiority as a writer on Dredd, I have really felt that the SD stories of recent years have all been missing something barring Blood Moon. The last couple of episodes really lost me though.

[Trout]

I do like The Doors, you know. Elvis, too.

[TordelBack]

"The  Three Amigos"

It's not all about Precious, y'know.

[radiator]

I am sad to say I really am not enjoying this chapter of SD at all. I really think Mr Wanger is off the boil with this whole story to the point where I would rate it as "The  Three Amigos" bad.

The Three Amigos is great! It's much more lighthearted than the usual Dredd stuff and the plot is implausible (silly, even) but it's a fun, well paced little romp with stunning art. I tend to treat it as a 'what if' story - even the opening crawl kind of implies that we're not supposed to take it seriously.

I think people tend to hate on it because it's tied in with the Pa/Junior Angel resurrections and to be fair it's probably the point where Judge Death lost any semblance of credibility....

I still like it, though.

[Tweak72]

I think people tend to hate on it because it's tied in with the Pa/Junior Angel resurrections and to be fair it's probably the point where Judge Death lost any semblance of credibility....

While I really appreciate your POV on liking The Three Amigos, you have also hit the nail on the head for why I chose it to rate the SD by.
I also personally disliked it because it was a poor copy of Dredd Angel, a story that showed you how to write a Mean Machine story and sadly was also one of the last times Mean Machine had any semblance of credibility.

There are only so many lobotomies a person can have.

[Trout]

There are only so many lobotomies a person can have.

Sssh! It might not be Scott!

[Spaceghost]

I am sad to say I really am not enjoying this chapter of SD at all. I really think Mr Wanger is off the boil with this whole story to the point where I would rate it as "The  Three Amigos" bad. But then IMO while I acknowledge Mr Wangers' superiority as a writer on Dredd, I have really felt that the SD stories of recent years have all been missing something barring Blood Moon. The last couple of episodes really lost me though.

ppffft! You said Wanger.

[Proudhuff]

didn't Martian Manhunter come back a THARG?

[Trout]

The Martin Manhunter is indeed back from the dead in Brightest Day [spoiler]and there are apparently two other Martians running around, including a sexy girl.[/spoiler]

- Trout

[Leigh S]

I'm not in favour of arbitrary genre limitations and this is one. I'm assuming you're ignoring all the old Stront stories that could be almost directly transplanted to the Wild West, then? There are a lot of them, more still if you consider individual scenes. .

Yeah, like the story where the balloon headed alien can transmute matter into demonic beasties, or the one where an alien dictatorial computer sends Alpha to unwittingly wipe out the remaining humanoids, or the one where an alien uses a hallucanation inducing weapon to turn friend against foe, or the one where The Galaxy is invaded by brutal monstrous beasties, or the one where they go into Hell itself, or teh one where they travel back to get Hitler, or teh one where they visit a sorceror to resurrect a dead child, or maybe when they were fighting the trolls in ancient Norway....

Visually, I think Stront gives the impression of being more Western than it really is - rereading teh stronts for Dogbreath,  one of the major things that struck me about the series is that "Western in space" is such an inadequate term for what we see as to be almost redundant. Sure, the basic premise measn we are in bounty hunting in the frontier territory, but thats rarely the sole focus - you can point to stories like MaygerMonor that are more Westerny, but they are outweighed by tales that are completely mental!

[Trout]

This thread's going to make a terrible mess of my boxroom as I dig out all these stories to re-read them!

[Mark Taylor]

I'm not in favour of arbitrary genre limitations and this is one. I'm assuming you're ignoring all the old Stront stories that could be almost directly transplanted to the Wild West, then? There are a lot of them, more still if you consider individual scenes. .

Yeah, like the story where the balloon headed alien can transmute matter into demonic beasties, or the one where an alien dictatorial computer sends Alpha to unwittingly wipe out the remaining humanoids, or the one where an alien uses a hallucanation inducing weapon to turn friend against foe, or the one where The Galaxy is invaded by brutal monstrous beasties, or the one where they go into Hell itself, or teh one where they travel back to get Hitler, or teh one where they visit a sorceror to resurrect a dead child, or maybe when they were fighting the trolls in ancient Norway....

Visually, I think Stront gives the impression of being more Western than it really is - rereading teh stronts for Dogbreath,  one of the major things that struck me about the series is that "Western in space" is such an inadequate term for what we see as to be almost redundant. Sure, the basic premise measn we are in bounty hunting in the frontier territory, but thats rarely the sole focus - you can point to stories like MaygerMonor that are more Westerny, but they are outweighed by tales that are completely mental!

Although there certainly were a couple of stories in there that weren't so heavy on the sci-fi elements, I have to agree.

In reading the thread previously something about jamesedwards's whole take on this thing struck me as just plain, downright wrong, and at the time of my previous response to him I could quite put my finger on it. Then it struck me... somebody who considers "the future should differ in some significant way from the present" to be an arbitrary genre limitation for futuristic fiction and at that same time disparages "pointless sci-fi window dressing" is actually painting themselves into a corner.

Simply put, if you portray a fictional future which does not differ in any significant way from the setting, you've just rendered the entire futuristic setting "pointless sci-fi window dressing".

If you want to tell a story about what's going on in the present and do so in a pretty direct way, I'd argue that a sci-fi setting (established or otherwise) is not the best vehicle for this. To do it effectively in sci-fi you need to be a touch less direct and a bit more subtle.

[Mark Taylor]

Simply put, if you portray a fictional future which does not differ in any significant way from the setting, you've just rendered the entire futuristic setting "pointless sci-fi window dressing".

Sorry, that should read: if you portray a fictional future which does not differ in any significant way from the present, you've just rendered the entire futuristic setting "pointless sci-fi window dressing".

Since it's the core of the whole point I'm trying to make I'd probably best get it right.

[JOE SOAP]

You're all missing the point, Wagner is "gerrymadering" the timeline so that Johnny doesn't turn out gay.