Trainspotter Special: Defoe enters the top 40

[Grant Goggans]

Some of you may recall that I keep a list of most prolific thrills, by number of episodes.  With the conclusion of the latest story, Defoe has entered 2000 AD's top 40, displacing the Michael Fleisher iteration of Harlem Heroes.

Note that only the numbered series in bold count.  The others are included just to put things in a sort of perspective.

1.    Judge Dredd                         2363
Strontium Dog universe                 588
Mills universe: Invasion! thru Deadlock      543 (does not include D 1990)
2.    Tharg's Future Shocks                      436
3.   Strontium Dog                         434
Rogue Trooper 1 + 2 + Tor Cyan              418
Rogue Trooper series one + series two           401
Millsrobots: Nem / ABC W / RoB / Deadlock   401
Sinister Dexter + Downlode Tales + Malone   393
4.   Sinister Dexter                         360
5.   Slaine                                    313
6.   Nikolai Dante                         302
7.   Rogue Trooper (Finley-Day version)              273
8.   Anderson: Psi Division                      258
The ABC Warriors + Ro-Busters              232
9.   Robo-Hunter (all episodes)              215
Edgeverse: Red Seas + Ampney + Stickleback   212
10.   The ABC Warriors                          176
Bill: Invasion! + Disaster 1990 + Savage       163
11.   Nemesis the Warlock                      158
Robo-Hunter (Wagner/Grant/Gibson canon)   148
12.   Ace Trucking Company      136
13.   Rogue Trooper (Friday)      128
14.   The Red Seas         121
Harlem Heroes series one + two + Inferno   119
15.    Dan Dare            116
Charley's War (reprint from Battle)      109
Indigo Prime + Tyranny Rex + Dead Eyes   87
16.    Savage            87
Mean Arena series one + series two      84
17.    Flesh            83
Devlin Waugh + Pussyfoot 5 + Strange   82
18.   Zenith            81
18.   Durham Red         81
MACH One + MACH Zero         80
The Harlem Heroes series one + series two   79
20.   The V.C.s         79
21.   Missionary Man         74
Caballistics Inc + Absalom         73
22.   Mean Arena (series one)      72
23.   Low Life            71
Harlem Heroes + Inferno         70
24.   Vector 13            67
25.   Devlin Waugh         66
Robo-Hunter (Millar / Hogan / Hughes)   66
26.   MACH One         64
27.   Tharg the Mighty         63
28.   Button Man         60
29.   Bad Company         59
29.   Strontium Dogs         59
31.   The Mind of Wolfie Smith      58
32.   Caballistics Inc.         57
33.   Ro-Busters         56
34.   Invasion!            55
34.   Blackhawk         55
36.   Armitage            54
37.   Finn            53
38.   Defoe            52
39.   Shakara            51
40.   Meltdown Man         50

[The Adventurer]

So this is total number of individual chapters? Does the Judge Dredd number include Megazine? Or have their been that many double/triple episodes in 2000 AD itself? How do you treat double length episodes?

Shouldn't 'Edgeverse' include Leviathan, American Gothic, and Detonator X?

[TordelBack]

Hipster old man, you surely put the work in for that KTT!  Fascinating reading, and great to see Not-Harlem Heroes knocked off any kind of list.  Amazing how the GFD Rogue still holds that high a place after being gone for a quarter century.  Also amazing to see that Wolfie Smith ran to 58 episodes!

[Grant Goggans]

So this is total number of individual chapters?

Yes.

Does the Judge Dredd number include Megazine? Or have their been that many double/triple episodes in 2000 AD itself?

Yes, the Dredd number is Megazine episodes as well.

How do you treat double length episodes?

Case-by-case.  I make a judgment call based on how it first appears.  If it is clearly structured as a single twelve-page episode, then it's a single double-length episode.  If it's a fifteen page Sinister Dexter like (for example) Lyrical Bollards, with a cliffhanger at the bottom of pages five and ten and big tracts of empty space on pages six and eleven where titles, captions, and credits should have appeared, it's three episodes.

Shouldn't 'Edgeverse' include Leviathan, American Gothic, and Detonator X?

[/quote]

Should it?

I can see the argument for - there's that single panel that shows those three occupying possible parallel universes adjacent to Ampney Crucis's - but I'm not aware of any actual narrative ties between those three serials and the three ongoing stories, whereas Stickleback, Red Seas, and Ampney are very intertwined.  (Is there one for Leviathan, though?  Part of me thinks maybe?)

But you can make the exact same argument based on the exact same evidence that Halo Jones and Colony Earth are part of the Judge Dredd universe, per Helter Skelter, and also that Babe Race 2000 and Kingdom are part of the Sinister Dexter universe, per a couple of cameos there.

I vote no, because nothing that happened in American Gothic has impacted the narrative of any other Edginton story in any way at all, nor vice versa.  If you disagree, then add 31 or so episodes to the total.

[Grant Goggans]

Hipster old man, you surely put the work in for that KTT!  Fascinating reading, and great to see Not-Harlem Heroes knocked off any kind of list.

Thanks very much, and I was glad to see it finally knocked off.  I'm sorry that the great Meltdown Man and the occasionally great Shakara will soon also leave the list, but as Kingdom and Ampney Crucis rise, we'll soon see Finn, which I loathe, also join it!

Amazing how the GFD Rogue still holds that high a place after being gone for a quarter century.

Let's hear it for the good old days of year-round thrills!

Also amazing to see that Wolfie Smith ran to 58 episodes!

Just to clarify there, the totals do include Starlord and Tornado episodes, which also explains Blackhawk's high total, and gives Strontium Dog and Ro-Busters an additional 20 or so points.  (And the "Strontium Dog universe" tally includes Young Middenface from the Megazine, etc.)

[JamesC]

Very impressive, although I'd say that Invasion and Savage should be counted together.

[Grant Goggans]

They can be, totaling 163 episodes, but the series that is called "Invasion!" and the series that is called "Savage" are simply two separate series and, objectively, must be counted distinctly.

It's the reverse situation of Robo-Hunter, where there are 215 episodes of that series under that name, but only 148 of them by the original creators which "matter."  (Actually, I think I have an arithmetic error there, I'll check when I get home.)

[Dark Jimbo]

I don't really like to swear, even on the 'net, but - if I might cheapen myself for a moment - I fucking love this.

As for the Edgeverse, I'd say Leviathan is an explicit part of that. William Ashenden (the evil architect of the ship) was in Stickleback's first series, and the eye of Hastur (the demon from the bilge) is a motif that crops up repeatedly in Crucis. American Gothic and Detonator X were simply written by Egdington - wouldn't say they were part of his 'multiverse' any more than Brass Sun.

[Grant Goggans]

Huh.  I don't remember Ashenden in Stickleback.  Where does he show up in the first story?

And yes, it's 149 Grant/Wagner/Gibson Robo-Hunter episodes.

[Tombo]

Huh.  I don't remember Ashenden in Stickleback.  Where does he show up in the first story?

It's his City Father's token that Detective Bey and his mate nick so that Bey can get into the party (which Stickleback and his crew subsequently crash).  You can see Hastur's medallion around his neck when they tie him up.

edit:  meant to add I love these Top 40 charts you do.

[The Adventurer]

I believe The Jolly Cripple appears in Detonator X (though I have not reread it in a very long time) and the same brand of beer appears in American Gothic as does Leviathan. Tenuous connections I know, but since alternate universes are kind of a running thing in the Edgeverse I've always considered it enough.

[PsychoGoatee]

Very cool list, I often forget just how big the gap is between Dredd and the others.

Also interesting is comparing these to 20 page comic books, so there'd be approximately 130 issues of Strontium Dog in that format.

[moly]

Awesome work doing this

[The Enigmatic Dr X]

And this is why I love this board.

Does the VCs include the original and new series? I assume so, as one is a continuation of the other, but just wondering.

[Grant Goggans]

It's his City Father's token that Detective Bey and his mate nick so that Bey can get into the party (which Stickleback and his crew subsequently crash).  You can see Hastur's medallion around his neck when they tie him up.

edit:  meant to add I love these Top 40 charts you do.

Check that out!  Yes.  Add 13 to the Edgeverse.

Brands of beer, meanwhile... nope, can't see those for my own purposes.

And yes, The V.C.'s is treated as one ongoing, continuous narrative, as that was clearly Abnett's original intent.