Main Menu

Sideshow Vote: Brother vs brother

Started by broodblik, 06 April, 2022, 04:10:22 AM

Previous topic - Next topic

broodblik

Let's do some time travel lets go back when we had two sci-fi comics 2000 AD and Starlord before they merged. Whom really had the best line-up before they became one?

- Starlord
- 2000AD
When I die, I want to die like my grandfather who died peacefully in his sleep. Not screaming like all the passengers in his car.

Old age is the Lord's way of telling us to step aside for something new. Death's in case we didn't take the hint.

Colin YNWA

2000ad - I often think that Starlord's line-up - much as i know it loved by many - is rather lionised due to its early demise. Both Strontium Dog and Ro-Buster improved as they moved to 2000ad.

Magnetica

#2
Starlord. All day long.

Can't agree Stront and Ro-busters improved in the move to 2000AD.

They actually got worse and it was a couple of years before they got good again.

sheridan

Let's look at the last line-up for Starlord before the merger:


       
  • Mind Wars
  • Ro-Busters!: The Tax Man Cometh!
  • Strontium Dog: The Brain
  • Holocaust
...and 2000AD (Robo-Hunter wasn't in Prog 85, but had appeared in previous weeks):

       
  • Dan Dare: The Doomsday Machine
  • The Fourth Wall
  • Judge Dredd: The Cursed Earth - Death Crawl!
  • Ant Wars
  • Tharg's Future Shociks: The Poacher
  • Walter the Wobot, Fwiend of Dwedd
The first 2000AD and Starlord had the following:

       
  • Judge Dredd: Crime and Punishment (The Day the Law Died / Judge Caligula)
  • Ro-Busters: Death on the Orient Express
  • Flesh Book II
  • Strontium Dog: The Galaxy Killers
The ones in bold are those that I think were strong stories.


I wouldn't say that Ro-Busters or Strontium Dog took years to improve once they made the jump, but I'd also say that their openers in the merged comic weren't there best either (what was going on with Galaxy Killers - a story about a mutant bounty hunter with a bunch of neat gizmos is press-ganged in to an alien war where being a mutant or bounty hunter are irrelevant and the gadgets are taken away).  The Orient Express story?  Nothing particularly 'off' about it, just didn't enjoy it that much - loved all the other Ro-Busters tales though, shame there were only four of them!

broodblik

Quote from: Magnetica on 06 April, 2022, 10:29:51 AM
Can't agree Stront and Ro-busters improved in the move to 2000AD.

I also did not like the first few Stront stories in the prog whereas the Starlord stories where much more superior. Ro-busters where always so-so for me nothing special.
When I die, I want to die like my grandfather who died peacefully in his sleep. Not screaming like all the passengers in his car.

Old age is the Lord's way of telling us to step aside for something new. Death's in case we didn't take the hint.

Art

Starlord

2000ad has the name and Tharg and Dredd but the early progs are awfully crufty until the Starlord merger, which replaced a lot of the dead weight with Dredd quality thrills making it the comic we know today.

maryanddavid


The Mind of Wolfie Smith

starlord

imagine if it had become starlord and 2000ad

AlexF

2000AD for me. Although as I was reading neither at the time it's not a fair vote, can't really assess the relative excitement of picking up each comic.
For the record, Death on the Orient Express is one of my all time faves! Prob cos I read it in an early 2000AD monthly as one of my first exposures to thrill power. Also cos it's crazy unsubtle.

The Corinthian

Starlord had Strontium Dog, Ro-Busters and Mind Wars. 2000AD had Judge Dredd and Robo-Hunter. Starlord has the edge.

Richard

I came here expecting to say 2000AD, but others' analysis has convinced me that, at the time we're discussing, Starlord was better.

Tjm86

Colin YNWA does have a point with regards to the rather nostalgic view some of us have of Starlord.  It's also worth remembering that Tooth did suffer distribution issues in the run up to the launch of Starlord that didn't help.

Looking back through the run down for each title though, it is swings and roundabouts.  Starlord's Strontium Dog was a powerful strip, certainly worthy of Tooth (as time did tell).  Ro-Busters dipped up and down during its Starlord tenure whereas Robo-Hunter's first outing on Verdus was a strong and consistent strip.

Starlord had little to contend with Judge Dredd, particularly with the quality of writing and art on the Cursed Earth at the time.  TimeQuake had some interesting ideas but much of it was pretty derivative.  Other than that, little really stands out.

By contrast Tooth has Inferno with Belardinelli on top form, Dan Dare sees Gibbons going all out with some of the more interesting stories of Dare's Tooth tenure.  Mach Zero is potentially one of the weaker offerings of this period and whilst Ant Wars might well regurgitate classic horror tropes ('Them' for instance) it did so with panache and arguably still stands the test of time.

Overall then it is hard to argue with the evidence.  Speaking as one who abandoned Tooth for Starlord at the time, Tooth really did have the stronger lineup on reflection.

TL:DR 2000ad

broodblik

It looks like we have a leader but for some reason everyone is quite nostalgic about it. We will close on Wednesday
When I die, I want to die like my grandfather who died peacefully in his sleep. Not screaming like all the passengers in his car.

Old age is the Lord's way of telling us to step aside for something new. Death's in case we didn't take the hint.

broodblik

Not a surprise winner because the quality of stories brought into prog carried a lot of weight

Voting closed the winner:

Starlord
When I die, I want to die like my grandfather who died peacefully in his sleep. Not screaming like all the passengers in his car.

Old age is the Lord's way of telling us to step aside for something new. Death's in case we didn't take the hint.