Ultimate Not Wagner Tournament - Winner DAN ABNETT (+ what's next?)

[Colin YNWA]

Well after much drama - go check the Final Thread for details, the winner of the Ultimate No Wagner Tourney and holder of the Godpleton Cup is:

DAN ABNETT

I want to pull this out into its own thread so we had a proper chance to celebrate, not only Dan's work but that of the magnificent runner up Pat Mills, bronze cup (what?) winner Alan Moore and all the other writers we've discussed, mulled and by and larged deservedly praised to the hilt.

It was also a chance for me to thank all who have contributed to this. Its been such fun and has really kicked off some wonderful conversations / discussion and now with Broodbliks tourneys as well we have some fantastic additions to the chat around here and that's reflected in some astonishing increases in posts over the last couple of months. I wasn't sure if folks would be interested and engage with this, but its clear give a nerd a chance to debate their nerdery and vote and they will come. Long may it continue...

... I've decide a face off with Wagner would be pretty much pointless so I think I'll can that idea... but...

... speaking of continuing I'm hoping the fun will. I have my next tourney all planned and ready to go. AND ITS EVEN BIGGER. I'm going to start the prep for that on the boards in a week or so, but will discuss it here after we've had a chance to do one last celebration of Tharg's wonderful writers and Dan Abnett in particular.

Thanks again everyone its been a blast.

BOOM!

[broodblik]

This was a great tournament and as I already stated we are blessed with some great writers.

[IndigoPrime]

The odd thing is, although I really wasn't happy with how some of the rounds went (given that you had some serious heavyweights up against each other), that final really does make sense: the bloke who invented 2000 AD and at least three of its most important and enduring strips up against the bloke who is arguably now the comic's backbone, responsible for a slew of modern classics.

I genuinely can't imagine the Prog without Abnett. I'm so glad US publishers are smart enough to carve out 2000 AD exceptions in contracts, and also that Abnett has apparently successfully cloned himself to keep pumping out so many stories. (I'm very much enjoying his latest, too, which is meaningfully different from everything else in the Prog.)

[broodblik]

I am with Indigo here Abentt is such a great writer and even with his latest The Out it feels different in a good way. Adding to this there is a new Brink in the works. I cannot wait for the return of Slaine and hopefully Mills can do some more ABC and Savage as well

[maryanddavid]

I went to vote several times, couldn't make my mind up! Great fun comp Colin, thanks and well done!

[AlexF]

Yes, a full round of Florix Grabundae to Colin for hosting the tourney, and inspiring so many more!
It's be nice to think it got a few new boraders to join/re-engage jsut for the fun of casting a vote.

Is there an art compo coming up to design an actual Godpleton Cup I wonder? I'm reminded of my younger self in 1986 finding that the twisty-stemmed football World Cup looked a lot like Gargarax from that Anderson story...

[Colin YNWA]

Is there an art compo coming up to design an actual Godpleton Cup I wonder? I'm reminded of my younger self in 1986 finding that the twisty-stemmed football World Cup looked a lot like Gargarax from that Anderson story...

Given how Roger (Godpleton) ended his time here I dread to think what some of the entries (deliberate choice of word for those that remember) might look like!

[abelardsnazz]

Thanks Colin, that was a lot of fun and plaudits to Dan Abnett, plus all the others for keeping us so entertained over the years. Look forward to what's coming next.

[Greg M.]

Looking at the reasons people gave for their votes, Abnett seemed to edge it primarily because he's very, very consistent, and very, very prolific. Many voters seemed to count Pat's less successful outings against him, as if writing Dinosty somehow made Nemesis less brilliant. Abnett, on the other hand, seldom writes anything that's actively bad: the somniferous Brink, so beloved around these parts, is undoubtedly the polar opposite of what I want from comics, but it's obviously not hackwork. Pat, on the other hand, is the human equivalent of a big, mad firework display, exploding across the sky but occasionally misfiring, letting off a damp squib, or setting your neighbours alight. If the price you pay for genius is the occasional Hellbringer or Demon Killer, then for me it's worth it for the genuine Gods sired by The Godfather, be they Horned or Torquemada.

Thanks to Colin for managing the complexities of the tournament. I found the opening rounds the toughest, as they involved people whose work I had no strong opinions about - after that, I've got a pretty defined internal hierarchy of 2000AD writers, so whilst some of the rounds were frustrating - Smith vs Mills, Milligan vs Mills - I always knew which way I'd vote. The main thing I discovered from this tournament is just how highly I rate Summer Magic! If it'd been Alan McKenzie versus Abnett in the final, I'd definitely still have voted McKenzie.

[broodblik]

I am with you on how brilliant Nemesis is (and I want to add Slaine as well). I can recall a strip Abnett did for the Meg which I just struggled to read and that is Black Atlantic. So, I do not see everything he does as good because Abnett wrote it. I am not a fan of Sin/Dex for example. I tried to look at the bigger picture and compared the different type of stories the writers did. My conclusion was quite simple and that is Mills always concentrate on one theme for some reason and everything is almost ant-authority pro-chaos. 

[Greg M.]

I'd say Nemesis as a series presents a third way between the Scylla of destructive Khaos and the Charybdis of ultimate Order - that path is Purity's, and she rejects both as ultimately having nothing to offer humanity.

[Colin YNWA]

The thing with Dan Abnett is I'd raise the strips he has written that are superb to much more then just Brink. These strips exact ranking compared to Nemesis is for another day (and another competition I suspect - over to you Broodblik) but in the same ball park I'd put

Lawless
Kingdom

and yes I'd put the best of Sinister Dexter there as well.

There may be others. So for me (and I'm writing a post here I planned for the other thread!) he's a lot more than just consistent. He's consistently good, unlike Pat whose weaker work for me is very weak. When he's on the very best form he's on a par with Nemesis level quality (or there abouts), but with a far greater variety of ideas and styles of strip.

[Greg M.]

Kingdom is one I want to like more than I do - it does an awful lot right, and is the most traditionally 2000AD thing Abnett has ever written. Iconic, catchphrase-spouting, tough-guy lead with a great visual design, clear motivations and interesting origin - on paper, I should love it. But there's something a little bit decompressed about it - the average episode doesn't feel complete in its own right, in the way that, say, the episodes of a Gordon Rennie story invariably do.

The idea of Abnett having a greater variety of ideas than Mills - well, I'm not going to pretend I agree. I think Mills packs far more exciting ideas into each individual story. Maybe Abnett could be said to spread his out and explore them in a more measured way over separate strips?

[The Enigmatic Dr X]

I didn't always vote, but I have enjoyed this competition and it's been really good for the board.

Well done! Thank you!

[Colin YNWA]

The idea of Abnett having a greater variety of ideas than Mills - well, I'm not going to pretend I agree. I think Mills packs far more exciting ideas into each individual story. Maybe Abnett could be said to spread his out and explore them in a more measured way over separate strips?

That is actually very good way to express it. I do think Uncle Pat has this glorious way of throwing ideas out - I love the description of him as a firework by the way.

Maybe I was thinking more of themes, rather than ideas as well.