Forum’s Favourite Thrill - Armitage vs. Journal of Luke Kirby Round 2 Heat 120

[Colin YNWA]

Penultimate week, just two weeks to go - which if you consider that we started this Round in January is quite something. Enjoy these dog days of Round 2 as while we have some meaty ties in these last two weeks it's going to be nothing compared to some of the sinkers you will have in Round 3. You’ll look back at the easy days and decisions you’ve had to make in Round 2 with fondness. Just check out Funt Solo’s wonderful Round 2 so far thread to get a sense of what Round 3 will be…

Nice tie to end the week. These may be second tie thrills, but they are good fondly remembered second tier thrills and so this one could get interesting.

Armitage - more info

Vs

Journals of Luke Kirby - more info

Just reply in this thread naming your favourite thrill of these two series at the beginning of your post (or use Bold tags so I can spot it easily) and say what you like about these wonderful stories after that.

Match ends early on the morning of Sunday 1st May and the winner gets a place in Round 3 (of 9!!!).

What on Earth is ALL of this?

For those that need ‘um and can be bothered to follow ‘um there’s some simple rules

Any questions, just ask as ever - and have FUN

[broodblik]

Journals of Luke Kirby

[NapalmKev]

Journal of Luke Kirby.

I have little interest in Armitage.

Cheers

[abelardsnazz]

I like some of Armitage but LK has a complete and satisfying arc, plus art by the great John Ridgway.

The Journal of Luke Kirby.

[SmallBlueThing(Reborn)]

I really, really like Armitage. It's one of the relatively few Meg-originals that has given us a new and lasting character who has been welcomed back over the decades.

But Luke Kirby is better.

SBT

[Link Prime]

Nuthin against the old man, but The Journal of Luke Kirby was some quality stuff.

[Magnetica]

Armitage.

[rogue69]

Armitage

[JayzusB.Christ]

I like Armitage a lot, but the first Luke Kirby is in a class of its own.

[IndigoPrime]

That first Armitage story is great, bar some very weird art scaling in the last few pages. It’s creepy. It gave depth to Brit-Cit in a manner the main Dredd strip never managed. After that, it too often felt like diminishing returns. Variable art did not help, but the narrative was messy too. It’s a good strip for me, but not a great one.

Alan McKenzie is, to my mind, not the best thing that ever happened to 2000 AD. Moreover, most of his strips are dire. The Chopper one is perhaps a nadir, but there’s lots of other dross. Luke Kirby, though, was something else: a creepy, ingraining and essential strip. I’m really happy I got the HC. I’d have loved to have seen it continue (even if it arguably wrapped quite well in the last one-off, which IIRC was in a special). For me, it’s an easy winner here.

[Dark Jimbo]

Armitage has never clicked with me. Not to mention he's been an old man for over thirty years, now! Wouldn't he be well into his 90s? Luke Kirby is something quite special. Only wish it had run for longer.

[AlexF]

Yet another tricky tie where there's nothing obvious to compare, and the maths of it all is super tough.
There were no bad Armitage stories, I reckon, and some are quite a lot better than they had any right to be - especially the later period John Cooper ones. But it had some dodgy art, with Adlard's painting and Gillespie's weirdly ugly grimacing pin-up poses.

Luke Kirby started out super great and somehow just got gradually a bit boring, even if the art was stellar throughout. The best bits of Kirby are brilliant, but they're kind of in service to nothing much. Did Ridgway take so long to draw the Night Stalker because he didn't rate the story very muhc, perhaps..?
On the opposite end, Armitage arguably did as good a job of decades of Dredd in setting up the world of what Brit-Cit Justice Dept looks like, and had the distinct advantage of just telling fun crime/corruption stories without needing to create some grand narrative of everything.

I'm talking myself into a vote for consistency over moments of brilliance here, so it's Armitage for me.

[paddykafka]

As a massive fan of Inspector Morse, it has to be Armitage .

[The Mind of Wolfie Smith]

luke kirby

[Huey2]

That first Luke Kirby series is perfect - although it's as much Ridgway's success as it is McKenzie's; he's perfect for the tale.

The follow-ups are okay but it's not the same series - Luke is no longer innocent out of his depth but a confident wizard who has adventures in a wizardy world.