Round 2: 8 - Alan Grant or Alan Moore - Ultimate Not Wagner Tourney

[JayzusB.Christ]

Clash of the Alans. Not an easy one. 

Alan Grant is a great writer, capable of brilliance - all those years on Dredd and Strontium Dog, the development of Anderson (though I'm kinnnd of sick of her now).

But man, Halo Jones.  And the idea of mixing ET with Boys from the Blackstuff for Skizz.  Mind the Oranges, Marlon.  Rogue Trooper one-offs with an emotional punch that the strip had never seen before.  And Time Twisters that haunted me for years. 

I feel bad about this, but it's got to be Moore.

[Richard]

Definitely a tough one. Alan Grant's solo Anderson stories Triad, Shamballa, The Jesus Syndrome, Childhood's End, Satan, Hour of the Wolf and several others are among the best stories ever to be printed in 2000AD. I also really like his solo Dredd story The Art of Geomancy. So I would vote for him over most other writers. But his work is inconsistent, whereas I don't think Alan Moore has ever written a dud. Halo Jones is phenomenally good, and his Future Shocks and Time Twisters are all brilliant. So it's Moore for me, but that was an unlucky draw for Grant.

[TordelBack]

Now you are really asking questions.

Here are two writers whose respective contributions are 5 years of (almost) pure gold versus 40ish years of everything from tin-plated cack to burnished platinum. 

On the matter of the Wagner/Grant partnership, I think this is a distraction: the partnership was very obviously a real thing, from both their own words on the subject and the material they produced. You can't separate them, what they produced in that shed (etc.) came from a meeting of two brilliant minds. So from my PoV anything with both their names/pseudonyms on it gets added to Grant's score in my head, as does anything with Grant-solo from that period, even if he did just type it up!.

And that stuff is utterly fantastic, almost certainly the Number 1 reason Dredd and the comic in general is still living in people's heads today. Just pay a visit to Facebook, if you dare, it's the T.B. Grover (etc.) years that represent 2000AD for the vast majority.

Anyway.

Outside of the partnership work, I find Grant to be the definition of uneven. I'm not as pushed about his Anderson as some here not-mentioning-any-names: I think there's a lot that's really, truly brilliant, and a lot that's plodding maudlin rubbish. I actively dislike Mazeworld. I like the solo Strontium Dog run & the Middenfaces, dislike the solo Durham Reds. He has written (solo) several of my favourite Dredds, moving and insightful, and some of my least favourite, preachy and jarring, sometimes only weeks apart.

As noted earlier in this struggle of champions, Moore has written three of my favourite 2000AD strips and most of my favourite shorts, and he was front-and-centre when the comic first hooked me: there's no point restating my verging-on-the-not-platonic love for the man (and errrr his 2000AD writing!). In absolute terms, I know whose writing I prefer. 

But would we have had a viable, enjoyable 2000AD/Meg without those 5 years of Alan Moore? Probably. Could we have had one without 38+ years of ALN-1? I very much doubt it.

Alan Grant it is.

[Trooper McFad]

Grant for me

[Ghost MacRoth]

Looks like a foregone conclusion for Moore, but I vote Grant for so many Dredd/SD stories written and co-written that are just brilliant.

[Rogue Judge]

Moore for Skizz and Halo Joned.

[Funt Solo]

The Hairy Wizard

[IndigoPrime]

Gandalf?

[JayzusB.Christ]

Speaking of wizards, what's happened to the Baldy Wizard? I've lost track a bit, sorry.  Zenith was one of the best things ever in the prog, but Inferno wasn't.

[Greg M.]

Speaking of wizards, what's happened to the Baldy Wizard?

Beaten by Alan Grant. Beats a chaos magician, gets beaten by a chaos magician. There's some kind of symmetry there.

[Buttonman]

Alan Grant for a body of work that is measured in decades. Like the Moore but he jumped a bit to early for 2000ad icon status

[Tomwe]

Aaaagh it was always gonna get hard soon. My heart says Grant, but head says Moore.
eff it, gonna say Alan Grant.

[JayzusB.Christ]

Speaking of wizards, what's happened to the Baldy Wizard?

Beaten by Alan Grant. Beats a chaos magician, gets beaten by a chaos magician. There's some kind of symmetry there.

So Grant beats Grant, then Alan beats Alan.  There's something very sinister going on here, and I'll bet there's sock puppet gods and wanking over sigils involved.

[Greg M.]

That's certainly the preamble to every post I make on here.

[Huey2]

Alan Grant.

2000ad's golden age of the '80s was down to the fact that he and John Wagner were writing 60 - 100% of the comic each week and churning out classics like a production line. I doubt 2000ad would still be around today if it wasn't for that foundation and fan base that those two built up.

I don't think I've read a Grant story that was ever less than good. Some stories I've liked more than others but all of them had a set piece or a line of dialogue or an idea that made me glad I'd read them. And the best ones are absolutely fantastic.