Strontium Dog - Question

[Mardroid]

I found the Robohunter musical very amusing*, when I actually knew the tunes they were singing to.

When I didn't, it could get a bit of a chore though and I was a bit too lasy to look every song up. My sense of humour can veer into farcr and an appreciation of silliness though.

I read it for the first time in Volume 2 just recently, actually.

[Lobo Baggins]

I hope Dogbreath are listening.... 

I now have an idea for "Dogs!, A Musical" based on "Old Awsum's Book of Practical Strontium Dogs", an Andrew Lloyd-Webber pastiche.

Look what you've done, Leigh S, you monster...

[Frank]

At least Wagner and Grant never resorted to a musical episode on Strontium Dog like they did with Dredd, Sam Slade, Last American etc.

Prog 538, 05/09/1987


National Song Year in Robohunter (Play It Again, Sam, 292-307) was hilarious. One of the best things Wagner & Grant ever conceived and expertly realised with Gibson's customary flair for character and expression.

Maybe if you don't enjoy it that's because you're supposed to sing along. It's interactive; I'd no more read it to myself than try to read a choose your own adventure book as a linear novel. I defy you to sing (or even mutter) the lyrics aloud without collapsing in a fit of the giggles:

http://i.imgur.com/P1txCsm.png

http://i.imgur.com/frlb3lF.png

[Mardroid]

I found the Robohunter musical very amusing*, when I actually knew the tunes they were singing to.

When I didn't, it could get a bit of a chore though and I was a bit too lazy to look every song up. My sense of humour can veer into farce and an appreciation of silliness though.

*I read it for the first time in Volume 2 just recently, actually.

Unable to edit anymore but I've corrected a glaring misspelling there. Weird, as one of those is the kind of misspelling my phone should have picked up and auto-corrected.

[Rogue Judge]

Grant is credited as sole writer, but Wagner was ctill co-writing most of the stories at this point.  Grant got the credit as he typed up the scripts.  I suspect this was part of their attempt to make it less obvious they were co-writing half of IPCs output at the time!

The Simon Harrison stuff is solo written by Grant, after Wagner and Grant split their writing partnership and Grant walked away with Anderson and Stront - I have a suspicion the Stone Killers is solo Grant as well, but that is just conjecture, biased by my reading of the story as being under par and slightly off compared to the preceding tales! It could jsut as well be the product of two writers tired of the strip.

I didn't realize Wagner was writing these stories with Grant, but it makes sense as everything they co-write seems to be pure gold. However, I quite enjoyed Stone Cold killers and the No-Go Job, they were on par with the other stuff for me, although a little heavy on the humor. Based on that, I wonder who of the two is mostly responsible for the majority of humor.

Good Heavens, you silly Billy! May I see your armpits, please? Oh, do be quiet! You might have known better than to mention (bone?) around that greedy fellow!

Tharg's translation service

Haha thanks for this. I really had no idea what he was saying here - this is just as ridiculous as I thought it would be. At least I can understand the important stuff...

More information on the nature of Wagner and Grant's working relationship and the decision to kill Alpha can be found in John Wagner's interview with the Class Of '79 fanzine.

I'm not sure there's a definitive answer to why Ezquerra left Strontium Dog. What we know for a fact is that what he worked on instead was Third World War, a project that offered a profit sharing deal intended to address the ownership and remuneration issues that led Wagner and Ezquerra to walk out on 2000ad in 1977.

It's great to read your first impressions of these stories and characters. My own take on Durham Red is that her main purpose was to be sexy, mainly because that would make for an interesting dynamic between her and Alpha ^[1]. The precise nature of her mutation and relationship to other characters seem like afterthoughts ^[2].

[1] Totally different to his relationship with Wulf. Not the same AT ALL!

[2] There's a section in Peter Hogan's Durham Red/Strontium Dogs stories where a reflective Red goes through all the vampire tropes and basically concludes that she's only a vampire in the sense that she drinks blood, although I've never been sure if that's all she survives on or if it's the same as the way you're occassionally seized with a burning desire for a beer.

Your thoughts on Duram Red make sense - create a sexy S/D partner for Alpha (less hair than Wulf...and less happy stick). Thanks for the Interview link too, it is very informative and interesting. For those interested about their working relationship and the death of Alpha, I have included the following from the interview:

WAGNER: We were still writing them together, though they appeared under Alan's name. In the same way the Dredd's appeared under my name but we actually co-wrote almost all of them during that time. As you say, whoever did the typing got the cash. We had a 'red book' in which we balanced it all up. It makes an interesting read, a real trip down memory lane.

LOGAN: Carlos Ezquerra never accepted Johnny's death as part of Strontium Dog continuity, How did you feel about him being killed off?

WAGNER: I can't remember if I co-wrote Johnny's last story; I think Alan may have done that one on his own. I could check the red book, I suppose - no matter, I must have agreed to it happening. Do I regret it? I don't know, maybe a little, but nobody lives forever. Johnny had to die sometime. It doesn't stop me telling new Strontium Dog stories. Is it only the possibility that the hero might die that makes a story worth reading? Does knowing when and how Johnny will die take away the pleasure of stories that happened earlier in his life? Surely not. You know for a fact when you read a Dredd that he is not going to die, but that doesn't spoil it for you.

What a unique working relationship, they must have been some chums. I agree with Wagner that "Johnny had to die sometime". I feel like he never recovered from the death of Wulf.

[Bolt-01]

LoboBaggins- No. Just No!

[Lobo Baggins]

LoboBaggins- No. Just No!

Fear not, Bolt, twas an empty threat.

Ruthless as I can be, even I am forced to think twice before unleashing an Andrew Lloyd-Webber pastiche upon the world...

[Tony Angelino]

The musicals were a bit of a Wagner/Grant trait and I just couldn't bear them. For some reason Johnny Alpha escaped that particular fate.

[Rex Banner]

The musicals were a bit of a Wagner/Grant trait and I just couldn't bear them. For some reason Johnny Alpha escaped that particular fate.

There was the little Chums of Dennis interlude in Rage.

[Tony Angelino]

Forgot about that but its not on the same scale as the other offenders.

[Rogue Judge]

I think Carlos was bound to have noticed a drop in the quality of the scripts as well. I loved the Max Bubba story but for me the strip was never as good afterward.

At least Wagner and Grant never resorted to a musical episode on Strontium Dog like they did with Dredd, Sam Slade, Last American etc.

I personally think at that point S/D may not have been reaching the heights that it was during the Wagner/Grant collaboration, there was not a noticeable drop in script quality. Although Stone Cold Killers and the No Go Job lack the intensity of before (like Outlaw or Rage for example), I think they are still right up there in quality.

I have to agree about the musicals. I first (and last) read the Last American maybe 15 years ago and didn't know what the sneck I was reading. I enjoyed the dystopian and depressing elements, but all the singing was so confusing and strange I haven't read it since. Maybe I ought to give it another try, the McMahon art alone warrants another read. I don't think I have read a musical in Dredd yet (if I did it wasn't memorable).

[Tony Angelino]

I re-read The Last American recently but have managed to misplace my issues somewhere so I cant check if the musical bit lasts for an entire issue or whether its only part of it.

I unfortunately received the Heavy Metal Dredd volume of the Mega Collection recently and the first story was a musical one. It was from the Megazine though.  There might be more musical stories in it but I'm just not brave enough to check.

[Skullmo]

My understanding was that the last Wagner/Grant Strontium Dog series was The Rammy. After that it was just Grant (apart from Incident on Zeta which was Grant and Ezquerra)

[Rogue Judge]

My understanding was that the last Wagner/Grant Strontium Dog series was The Rammy. After that it was just Grant (apart from Incident on Zeta which was Grant and Ezquerra)

Only one way to be sure...maybe we should check the red book? 

[TordelBack]

I have always loved the musical stuff, even though I frequently didn't know the tunes in question when I was wee. Was the most recent Wagner example the singing wotsits from The Kreeler Conspiracy?