Semi Finals: 1 - Pat Mills or Alan Moore - Ultimate not Wagner Tourney

[CalHab]

Mills for writing so many of the prog's greatest moments.

[robprosser]

Be pure! Be vigilant! Vote Mills!

Pat for me due to the immense contribution he's made.

[BPP]

Pat Mills. Not just for his writing but for his dedication to producing talented original artists on his work.

From prog one to the recent series of Defoe he's delivered.

[sintec]

I've been considering this one for a few days now - great as the bearded ones work is if we're talking writing for Tharg it has to go to Mills. He is responsible for so many of the mainstays of the prog - it's hard to imagine the prog without Slaine, Nemesis, and the ABC Warriors.

[Colin YNWA]

BING BING - last orders, last orders at the bar please!

Arh do you remember the time when we could go the pub and they would ring time, they were... they have what... what.... REALLY... bloody hell???

Well stay safe folks and while we are waiting for the second wave get your votes in quick as this one will be closed in 24 hours - Thursday morning.

[IndigoPrime]

I'm not going to give Mills "responsible for 2000 AD" points. I get it. He invented the comic. But this is about the writing. If it wasn't, we may as well have given him the win before the competition even started.

So on the writing, then, this is quality vs quality and quantity and... well, let's just say quite a lot of diminishing returns. Moore is of course the first of those. Not everything from his 2000 AD output is gold — DR and Quinch has aged quite badly, but Halo Jones remains great (even if as I age I'm less enamoured with how it looks), Skizz is a top-notch one-and-done (how lucky we are that there were no sequels!), and his Time Twisters are some of the best examples of quality levels per page you'll see in any comics, ever. (I still have my Titan Moore books, because his work deserves such double-dipping.)

Mills is a force of nature. I respect the man, but it's been a while since I've regularly enjoyed his work. I couldn't stand American Reaper and Greysuit. ABC Warriors feels like a comic-book on a loop. Sláine's Simon Davis run started off like an amazing Hellboyish romp in ancient myth, but descended into page after page of literal all-caps rants. And then there's stuff like Dinosty and the horrible modern incarnation of Flesh.

But. ABC Warriors through to Black Hole. Sláine through to Horned God and the Books of Invasions (for which it turns out the one thing I abhorred wasn't in fact Pat, but instead down to Tharg). Flesh's classic pulpy run. Metalzoic (yes, I know, originally in DC, but it was in the Prog, in black and white). Those perfect first few books of Nemesis (and most of the rest of the run is at least very good). Savage.

Urgh. Not an easy decision. Even shaving off the stuff I don't like, I'm pitting the best Time Twisters—some of the best comics I've ever read—against classic Nemesis and Sláine. Mills tips it, by the narrowest of margins.

[Colin YNWA]

VOTING CLOSED - but feel free to add votes and comments but the call is made.

Well it seemed like this was going to be head to head, really close as votes started even, but then one of the legends seemed to edge more and more votes. Its goes without saying there was just respect, even love for the mighty Wizard of Northampton, but it soon became apparent, just like the final 12 years ago Bill Savage was going to have none of this Glycon nonsense and opened up with two barrels to blast

PAT MILLS

Into the final.