How old is Johnny Alpha?

[JayzusB.Christ]

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!

Thirded. Nice one, Steve.

[Frank]

I think currently Johnny is 51

Maybe he uses Just For Mutants.

[JayzusB.Christ]

Or maybe that tattoo ink that his body absorbed leaked into his follicles.

[Funt Solo]

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

Back cover of prog 692 (& stunning work from MacNeil):

[JayzusB.Christ]

That's the one. 28 years ago.  Jesus Loueesus

[Steve Green]

Yeah I ignored a few dates.

The Final Solution gives a date of 2180, but Journey into Hell talks about Don Dork being trapped for 2 years since 2179... so Journey into Hell is 2181.

Plus it seems an awful lot to pack into Johnny's life bearing in mind Rage on its own is several months at least.

Like I said it was really just some content to fill up the fan film facebook page.

[Leigh S]

plus, Ragnorak Job/Rage establish 2170 as the year Alpha meets Wulf and that 15 years pass (I believe there is yet another typo in that story that states 2158 rather than 2185!) - plus 2 years anniversary of Wulfs death shown in Final Solution and 2180 is clearly wrong.

The only important date I think Steves list needs is 15 Billion years in the past where Alpha (travelling from 2176) kickstarts the entire universe by throwing a Timebomb back to before the universe technically existed!

[Steve Green]

Yeah that one and the 'incident at the end of the world' book-end the timelines nicely.

[Link Prime]

Magicking Alpha back to life was still silly. *

Reflecting on the strip since Johnny's resurrection, I've softened to it somewhat.
Somewhat.

Getting over the fact that Johnny was brought back from the dead at all, I still think the execution of "The Life and Death..." was sorely lacking.

Didn't need to be as ridiculous as it was.
Didn't need to disregard The Final Solution / Strontium Dogs / Durham Red.
Didn't need to 'punish' Feral, who was a pretty decent character.

A simple time travel story could have re-set the stage.
Lets say;
Feral (now Firefall- stop sniggering in the back) goes on a suicide mission to the past to somehow save Johnny from his Lyran fate.
After some violent and entertaining shenanigans his younger self takes Johnny's place, simultaneously;

- Johnny never dies.
- No previously published stories need to be retconned.
- Feral / Firefall gets that desired punishment- he simply wipes himself from existence.

Something along those lines would have been a slightly less biter pill to swallow for me.

[Frank]

Like the attempts to solve Dredd's ageing and explain how Fr1day related to Rogue, all the possible options are a bit silly and not particularly interesting from a storytelling point of view.

Wagner & Ezquerra should just have announced they were doing more stories featuring all the old favourites and told us not to worry too much about it. But that's not what comic readers expect:

[sheridan]

Magicking Alpha back to life was still silly. *

Reflecting on the strip since Johnny's resurrection, I've softened to it somewhat.
Somewhat.

Getting over the fact that Johnny was brought back from the dead at all, I still think the execution of "The Life and Death..." was sorely lacking.

Didn't need to be as ridiculous as it was.
Didn't need to disregard The Final Solution / Strontium Dogs / Durham Red.
Didn't need to 'punish' Feral, who was a pretty decent character.

A simple time travel story could have re-set the stage.

snip

Something along those lines would have been a slightly less biter pill to swallow for me.

Same here - I like some of the stories since The Retconning of Johnny Alpha, but the tortured process to get here (and the childish punishment of Feral along the way) did nobody any favours.

[TordelBack]

Wagner & Ezquerra should just have announced they were doing more stories featuring all the old favourites and told us not to worry too much about it. But that's not what comic readers expect:

They did do exactly that, for an entire decade (1999-2009, ten stories, about 400 pages), but as you say, we never stopped carping about it.

I think it's time to stop griping about Life & Death too - the last few SD stories have been good fun, I'd just keep my fingers crossed that John and Carlos have got a few more in them yet.

[Link Prime]

all the possible options are a bit silly and not particularly interesting from a storytelling point of view.

I agree with you there Frank, but it didn't have to be (and as it turns out it wasn't) that particularly interesting.
It just had to be functional, i.e. bring Johnny Alpha back to life. And on we go from there.

The multi-book 'Life and Death of Johnny Alpha' epic or

the tortured process to get here

is what failed in my view.

[Link Prime]

the last few SD stories have been good fun, I'd just keep my fingers crossed that John and Carlos have got a few more in them yet.

Agreed.

[Frank]

I think it's time to stop griping about Life & Death too - the last few SD stories have been good fun, I'd just keep my fingers crossed that John and Carlos have got a few more in them yet.

Long as Carlos keeps drawing them, I'll keep enjoying them.