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Strontium Dog Without Wagner or Ezquerra

Started by Frank, 15 May, 2019, 07:58:17 AM

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Steve Green

Quote from: IndigoPrime on 17 May, 2019, 11:04:36 AM
To be fair to Tharg, there's a world of difference between a key creator, alongside Ezquerra's family, saying "actually, they should continue this" versus continuing a strip created by two people who want nothing further to do with 2000 AD, and who would be against such a thing happening.

I think Matt Smith has acted honourably and respectfully on this issue. Ultimately, he could have said "well, Strontium Dog is very popular, and so we're going to be doing new stories", but he didn't. Even now, the only new thing we've had has been a Regened semi-reboot episode, and the Stix story. Perhaps they were intended to test the water; I dunno. But it's an unenviable position to be in, because whatever choice is made, it'll annoy some people.

I believe Chris said the Stix story had Carlos' blessing.

IndigoPrime

Well, there you go. He said OK and it happened. Now John is saying "do more, but please ensure Carlos's family benefit somehow". I honestly don't mind either way on this, but it's good that avenues are open. And as broodblik said, if this were a big US publisher, this likely wouldn't even be a conversation anyway. (A nice counterpoint, too, to recent suggestions Rebellion is somehow the big evil.)

Frank

Quote from: broodblik on 17 May, 2019, 11:30:18 AM
Just imagine if SD was owned by one of the American publishers. We would not have this discussion we would discuss how true the new version was compared to the old one.

Just imagine if Strontium Dog had been a strip John Smith created.



Rogue Judge

I've only been reading 2000ad for a few years, but Strontium Dog has become my favorite comic (not just my favorite 2000ad strip, my favorite comic period).

I'm current reading the SD novel 'Among the Missing' by Matt Smith and loving every minute; the neat thing being my mind creates the images for the story and all I see are Carlos' characters, environments and art. It will always be Carlos who comes to mind, no matter what.

With that said, I do want more Strontium Dog with Alpha. More glowing eyes, more mutants, more space western. I hope we haven't seen the last of SD.

My obvious creator vote would be Wagner and MacNeil. I think Henry Flint would be a top pick as well.

Rogue Judge

Quote from: Rogue Judge on 18 May, 2019, 01:02:32 AM
I'm current reading the SD novel 'Among the Missing' by Matt Smith and loving every minute

My point here, was that I would enjoy SD even at the hands of other creators, if done well. Smith/Flint SD, for example...

Robin Low

I don't post much these days, but I've posted a lot about Strontium Dog over the years. I have a lot of favourites in 2000AD, but SD is the only one that I rank alongside Dredd. That said I've been in two minds about posting anything about this.

Quickly, with regard to Ezquerra's family benefiting financially from future stories that sound great to me. But that's a business decision for others. Our opinions may have a subtle influence, but that's all.

I love Strontium Dog. My first exposure to it was in Best of 2000AD Monthly issue 6, The Gronk Affair (I thought I was suffering false memory syndrome, as it's not listed by Barney as reprinted there, but I dug out my copy and there it is). This is perhaps why I'm so fond of the Gronk, even though some consider him out of place.

I'm in a minority, I think, that was content (not happy) with Alpha's death and the way it happened. I love Simon Harrison's art. I also enjoyed Garth Ennis' and Peter Hogan's continuation of the series (although I still consider Dan Abnett's Durham Red follow-up rubbish). I could find some complaints, but overall it just felt right, even though its release schedule did it no favours. Not that he cares what I think, I'll never forgive Dave Bishop for the way he dealt with the series, even though I'll always respect him for turning the comic around after years of decline.

I was very happy to see Wagner's return to SD and his untold stories of Alpha and co. Unlike some, I never had a problem with knowing he wasn't going to die. In countless stories, we know that Dredd isn't going to die, but we still enjoy them. Hell, we didn't think Alpha was going to die, which was why it was such a shock.

The problem for me arrived with the resurrection. There were a lot of things I liked in that story, and in the subsequent ones. But I can't get over Wagner's refusal to engage with the storylines created by Ennis and Hogan. The really frustrating thing is that with a bit of thought Wagner could have done pretty much the same story and tied it into those stories. I can do it, so a writer of Wagner's calibre could have done it.

But it didn't happen, and that's that. Nothing is ruined and my childhood (or rather my teens to be precise) is safe and sound. It's all fine. It's just not for me any more - I enjoy Wagner's SD, but there's always a nagging thought of what might have been. The same goes for the recent Durham Red series. Nothing really wrong with it, it's just not for me. Not anymore.

So, where do I stand on continuing the series?

Hard reboot for a fresh, young audience. Do something like Grumpy Uncle Gordon did with Pa Angel in the Megazine (fuck that was good, even if its links to the original were tenuous.)

The last SD story with Alpha and Kenton was a bittersweet story that makes for an elegantly simple and happy conclusion to the series. I'll miss it, but I don't need anymore.

Thank-you John and Alan, thank-you Carlos, Simon and Colin. Thank-you Garth and Peter, thank-you Steve, Nigel and Mark. Thank-you everyone else who wrote and drew one-offs, spin-offs, fill-ins and covers. I loved what you did. I always will.

Regards,

Robin

Jim_Campbell

Quote from: Frank on 17 May, 2019, 07:18:23 PM
Just imagine if Strontium Dog had been a strip John Smith created.

I would politely venture that there is a substantial difference between being respectful of the handling of a character when one of its creators, a much-loved one, has died suddenly, and running out of patience with a creator who had been promising scripts for five years and not delivering and who had ignored repeated warnings that the strips would be reassigned if something wasn't forthcoming.
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JayzusB.Christ

Quote from: Jim_Campbell on 18 May, 2019, 11:56:24 AM
Quote from: Frank on 17 May, 2019, 07:18:23 PM
Just imagine if Strontium Dog had been a strip John Smith created.

I would politely venture that there is a substantial difference between being respectful of the handling of a character when one of its creators, a much-loved one, has died suddenly, and running out of patience with a creator who had been promising scripts for five years and not delivering and who had ignored repeated warnings that the strips would be reassigned if something wasn't forthcoming.

Which reminds me of the one (afaik) time John Smith did Strontium Dogs. It was a text story in a special, and as was the case with most of his text stories,  it was excellent.   I really wish he'd come back to the prog.

As for continuing Strontium Dog without Carlos, well, personally I was never really happy about the undoing of his messianic death anyway.  But that's done and dusted now - I think Colin McNeil could do the job if it was to continue.  His Johnny was always spot on.
"Men will never be free until the last king is strangled with the entrails of the last priest"

Frank

Quote from: Robin Low on 18 May, 2019, 08:54:17 AM
Thank-you John and Alan, thank-you Carlos, Simon and Colin. Thank-you Garth and Peter, thank-you Steve, Nigel and Mark. Thank-you everyone else who wrote and drew one-offs, spin-offs, fill-ins and covers. I loved what you did. I always will.

I don't share your affection for Strontium Dogs*, but I'm in the parking bay right beside yours at the Place Of Peace, happy to gaze into the rear-view mirror and reflect on the forty years of Carlos we're so lucky to have.

No version of Sevco-Strontium Dog interests me, but I'm happy for others to enjoy it (if it ever happens)


* ... and I thought Wagner's total disregard for the corporate mess created in his absence was very, very funny. For the purposes of nuance: I love Simon Harrison, Steve Pugh's and Mark Harrison's art, I think Monsters is a decent story in its own right, but I would be very happy if The Final Solution - which is great - had been the last ever Strontium Dog story.

Swerty

I'd love to see it in the prog every week to be honest.

sheridan

Funnily enough, nobody has suggested the writer that Wagner* said could do a decent job of it.

Michael Carroll.

Wagner also mentioned a couple of artists, but unfortunatley I didn't make a note of them.

* in answer to a question at Lawless, if not Enniskillen also.

sheridan

...and for my take on everything else.

I rate No-Go/Final Solution in my favourite SD stories (I consider the two to be one story).

I liked Strontium Dogs, and this would be my preferred route for post-Ezquerra Doghouse/SD-era stories (including Middenface, the Tendring Fuzz family, Red and whomever else is still alive).

If Wagner and Ezquerra's family are fine with it, then I'd be also be fine with the continuing adventures of Johnny and Kenton, at the hands of Carroll and whichever established artist is available to draw.  I would not want less established artists to handle art duties - Future Shocks and one-off Dredds are their testing grounds, as they have been for many years.

Judge Olde

I really enjoyed SD over the years. Carlos was amazing. Final Solution was a story I struggled to get into, I found Simon Harrisons art hard to follow, though I did like elements of it - then Colin came onboard & I was blown away, then Johnny sacrificed himself - I was gutted, the story made a huge impression on me - literally it was the longest time I can remember between progs. I know it wasn't Wagner, but the story had me. Something very different had happened.

I read & found the return of Alpha less enjoyable, it was far from awful - but for me it had lost something. I think it would be interesting to explore some other characters from the rebuilt doghouse, perhaps someone like Carroll could create decent reoccurring characters in the SD world, perhaps interacting with other already introduced characters. It'd be great if it benefited Carlos' family too (of course)

Frank


IAMTHESYSTEM

That is incredible work capturing the 'mean' Bounty Hunter look of Johnny Alpha and Wulf.
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