How old is Johnny Alpha?

[Magnetica]

So we all know Dredd is meant to age in real time, but how old do we think Johnny Alpha is meant to be?

Strontium Dog, whilst being a strip that had appeared frequently, has not appeared anything like weekly, there were big gaps between the publication of books of the “Life and Death of Johnny Alpha” where the action followed on from the same point in the story, and he actually spent a big chunk of time being “dead”*.

So how much is he meant to have aged since his first appearance 40 or so years ago? I guess it is actually much less than 40 years.

*(Bizarrely supporting characters like Middenface don’t seem to have aged any more, despite having lived through the whole period).

[Frank]

(Bizarrely supporting characters like Middenface don’t seem to have aged any more, despite having lived through the whole period).

Kid Knee's sprightly for a guy who died at the end of his first adventure.

The strip ran for a little less than 12 years in its original run and Alpha came back from the dead a little more than 8 years ago, so he could be anything between 40 and 60, even without the narrative ellipses you mention above.

Alpha's ageing has never been a plot point in the same way it was for Dredd and I can't think of a story that made much of the passing of time, so I'm not sure it really matters. The silly resurrection^* makes the question of age moot.


^* with magic!

[JayzusB.Christ]

I remember a back cover that showed his birth and death years. He was thirty, apparently, when he died.

I didn't like his resurrection much either.

[Greg M.]

I, on the other hand, returned to reading 2000AD after a 5-6 year hiatus because of the resurrection story. Strontium Dog is one of the few reasons I still read the prog.

[Frank]

I, on the other hand, returned to reading 2000AD after a 5-6 year hiatus because of the resurrection story. Strontium Dog is one of the few reasons I still read the prog.

I love Strontium Dog, enjoyed the Life And Death storyline, and will be delighted to see the strip reappear for exactly as long as Carlos Ezquerra wants to draw it. Magicking Alpha back to life was still silly. *


* Yes, it's perfectly consistent with the presence and use of magic established in the strip over many years. It's still silly from a storytelling point of view. The creators should never have listened to fans who said the flashback excuse for the new stories meant they weren't enjoying the reboot as much as the strips they read before their balls dropped and they had to make their own tea when they got home from work. Never listen to what people think; that's what got the world into the mess we're in now. People are stupid and almost always wrong about everything.

[Greg M.]

I'm firmly in the camp that wants to see continuity moving forward, not stuck in a flashback bubble. The S/D flashback stories are frequently excellent, but they didn't lure me back to 2000AD.

[Steve Green]

While trying to conjure up content for the SD fan film page, I tried a guess at a timeline for the stories.

I think currently Johnny is 51.

It mostly seemed to reflect the year of publication + 200 years in the original run, and he spent 10 years in a coffin post 'death'

Here's the boring stuff.



793 AD
Johnny Alpha travels to the Scandinavian Pensinsula back from the 22nd Century to apprehend Max Bubba and his gang. He meets Wulf Sternhammer for the first time.
After defeating Bubba and his gang, they return to 2170, where Wulf partners with Johnny.
(Ragnarok)


1945
Johnny Alpha, Wulf Sternhammer and the Gronk are assigned by the Committee for Ultimate Retribution, to apprehend Adolf Hitler in his bunker and return to the 22nd Century to face justice. (The Schicklegruber Grab)

1987
Kaiakok-l Freedom Fighters kidnap US President Ronald Reagan and transport him to 2187
(Bitch)

2108
Johnny and Wulf arrive in Mega-City One running into Judge Dredd (Top Dogs)
After evading Dredd they return to 2176
(Top Dogs)

2114
Johnny Alpha arrives in Hondo-cit to terminate Sabbat
(Judgement Day)

2120
Nelson Bunker Kreelman born

2130
Diana, mother of Johnny Alpha and future wife of Nelson Bunker Kreelman born

2139
Nelson Bunker Kreelman (AKA Bunky) travels to Mega-City One
2149 Ruth Kreelman born.
2150
The Great War

2150
in later stage of her pregnancy Diana Kreelman is exposed to radiation while travelling from the Scilly Isles to Salisbury

Portrait of a Mutant
2150
Nelson Bunker Kreelman enacts strict anti-mutant laws

2150
John Kreelman born to Diana and Nelson Bunker Kreelman, John is a mutant

2162
John Kreelman runs away to join the Mutant Army led by General Armz, adopts the name Johnny Alpha

2167
First Mutant Uprising

2167
Alpha is seconded to William Blood Moon – 'Bloody Billy'

2170
Blood Moon

2170
The Mork Whisperer

2170
Max Bubba and his gang escape and time travel to 1st century Scandinavia

2173
Alpha's partner Sniffer Martinez is killed (A cure for Kansyr flashback)

2174
The Triton Wars

2176
Alpha captures Sadan the Demon Maker

2176
The Complaint

2176
Top Dog - Johnny and Wulf track a bounty back to MC-1 in the past

2179
Don Dork is trapped into the Hell dimension

2180
First Strontium Dog Story Max Quirxx Story (Starlord)

2180
Papa Por-ka
No Cure For Kansyr
Planet of the Dead
Two-faced Terror
Demon Maker
The Ultimate Weapon

2180
The Galaxy Killers

2181
Journey into Hell
Death's Head
The Schickelgruber Grab
Muties Luck
The Doc Quince Case
Bad Boys Bust
The Gronk Affair
A Sorry Case
Headly Foot Job
The Kid Knee Caper

2182
Roadhouse

2183
The Moses Incident

2184
The Killing

2184
Outlaw!

2184
Traitor to his kind
Shaggy Dog Story
The Glum Affair

2184
Big Bust of '49

2185
The Slavers of Drule

2185
Johnny and Wulf retire to Moondog Mountain, Smiley's World

2185
Wulf is killed by the Max Bubba Gang

2187
'Bitch' Freedom Fighters abduct Ronald Reagan from 1987

2187
A Royal Affair

2187
The Rammy

2187
Stone Killers

2187
The No-Go Job

2187
The Final Solution. Johnny Alpha is killed by Lyran Sorcery and the Doghouse is destroyed by a bomb

2188
Island of the Damned
Durham Red hunts down the Goth Lord

2193
New Doghouse is built

2194
Precious Matson enlists Middenface McNulty in the search for
Johnny Alpha's body

2195
Dave Heckle becomes Agency Controller of the new Doghouse

2196
Feral is executed

2196
Johnny Alpha is revived by the Stone Wizards at the request of
Middenface McNulty and Precious Matson

2197
Second Mutant Uprising (Dogs of War)

2199
The Stix Fix - Alpha and his crew are recruited from prison.

2199
Repo Men

2199 By Private Contract - Alpha and McNulty travel to MC-1 (circa 2139) to take Dredd to 2220 to be tried by clones of Chief Judge Cal.

2201   Kenton Sternhammer joins the Search Destroy Agency
   'The Son'
37th Century
Johnny, Wulf, and the Gronk time jump to the 37th century along with their prisoner Adolf Hitler.

[Lobo Baggins]

Kid Knee's sprightly for a guy who died at the end of his first adventure.

That's a different Kid Knee - current Kid Knee (with the eyepatch) is the original Kid's son.

Alpha is born in 2050 according to 'Portrait of a Mutant'.  It's 2080 in the initial Starlord stories, the next time we see a date in 'Journey to Hell', 2079 was 'two years ago', Johnny travels back in time to meet Wulf in 2070 according to 'The Ragnorak Job' and are partners for fifteen years, then Wulf has been dead for 'two years' by the beginning of 'The Final Solution'.  That makes him 37 when he died.

Any variation in given dates is the result of differing local dating systems and/or time distortion corruption.

[Colin YNWA]

Wow Steve Green that is mighty impressive!

[Richard]

I thought that By Private Contract was set in 2220. Although 2200 or 2202 would have made more sense, otherwise Middenface is about 90 or 100.

[TordelBack]

Wow Steve Green that is mighty impressive!

Too right.  I'm stealing that and printing it out to go in the front of my Agency Files/Mega-Collections. Fantastic work!

[Steve Green]

I thought that By Private Contract was set in 2220. Although 2200 or 2202 would have made more sense, otherwise Middenface is about 90 or 100.

2199 By Private Contract - Alpha and McNulty travel to MC-1 (circa 2139) to take Dredd to 2220 to be tried by clones of Chief Judge Cal.

I covered both. It talks about the job being advertised on 'The Flux' (I think).

So I took that to be a some kind of time job 20 years in Alpha's then future. But his own time being 2199.

Since no-one looked significantly older, the date was either a mistake or what I came up with.

[Steve Green]

Wow Steve Green that is mighty impressive!

Too right.  I'm stealing that and printing it out to go in the front of my Agency Files/Mega-Collections. Fantastic work!

Help yourself! Not sure it's entirely without errors, and there are a couple of missing bits - annual/specials.

Would be quite nice to get it properly laid out...

[Zenith 666]

Wow Steve Green that is mighty impressive!

Too right.  I'm stealing that and printing it out to go in the front of my Agency Files/Mega-Collections. Fantastic work!

Help yourself! Not sure it's entirely without errors, and there are a couple of missing bits - annual/specials.

Would be quite nice to get it properly laid out...

Your hired 😂

[Frank]

Any variation in given dates is the result of differing local dating systems and/or time distortion corruption.

Space magic!  See also the apparent youth preserving qualities of faster than light travel. *


* In the alternate universe where Alan Moore wrote Strontium Dog, Portrait Of A Mutant was a sprawling 365-week epic with a digressive anti-structure that included chapters written in the style of Joyce and Wilde which made knowing allusions to the works of said literary and dramaturgical titans with similar names and explained what humans experience as 'time' was, in fact, a solid object, so when Johnny Alpha set off a time bomb he was really only popping into the scullery to put the kettle on.