Sideshow Vote: I swapped a tea for coffee

[broodblik]

We all remember those times when the prog really went through a big dip in quality as it was trying to find the next Wagner or Mills (the 90s). We are talking about the new breed of writers to bring their new style to the prog. Some off the regular readers called it the Dark Ages of the Prog as a lot of readers left in this period. The next generation of writers left the prog and made huge differences in the States. Now whom of the wave of new writers do you believe was the most successful outside the prog and which was most successful within the prog? So, you have two votes one for best for the prog and one for the best outside the prog. Here are your candidates:
-   Garth Ennis
-   Mark Millar
-   Grant Morrison

[Colin YNWA]

I'm a little torn outside the Prog as I adore the work of Gmozz, but Garth Ennis' work on his various war stories, of all forms, has been sublime. In the end though

GMozz for work outside the prog. His Animal Man is possibly in my top two superhero runs. Love his Batman too, Seven Soldiers is fantastic and there is much more great stuff besides.

In the Prog is easier

GMozz 'cos Zenith.

[Link Prime]

I was just about to vote Morrison, but for sheer entertainment it has to be Ennis.
For Preacher, Hitman and The Boys alone.

[Link Prime]

Edit because I misread the OP:

Best in the Prog; Grant Morrison.
Best outside the Prog; Garth Ennis.

[The Mind of Wolfie Smith]

grant morrison and grant morrison

his cynical superhero lovecraftian pop culture masterpiece was second only to the archmage's moving space opera in the prog.

his animal man (and others) was second only to the archmage's from hell (and many, many, many, many others) outside the prog.

imho.

[Magnetica]

Work for Tharg: Grant Morrison.. It’s not close, in anyway, even though my vote is purely for Zenith, which is easily a top ten all time Tharg strip for me. For a long time I had it in fifth place, but a few recent strips are now vying with it for that place.

Compare that to some of my least favourite Dredds, from both Ennis and Millar (although Death Aid was quite good) and the likes of Mark Millar’s Robo-Hunter, Time Flies and Cannon Fodder it’s absolutely no contest.

But I did like Red Razors 🤣.

As for non Tharg work, I’m not qualified to comment as the only thing I’ve read is the Preacher reprints in the Megazine. And I didn’t really like the tone of that.

[Woolly]

Best for the Prog: Grant Morrison, even if it's just for Zenith.

Outside the Prog: Garth Ennis, even if it's just for Preacher (for me, anyway!)

The one who has actually had the most success: Mark bloody Millar. Further proof that we're living in the wrong timeline.

[Blue Cactus]

Of that ‘generation’ of writers in the prog, I like John Smith’s 2000ad work best. He didn’t have much luck stateside of course.

[Blue Cactus]

Best outside the prog: Morrison for me, even if he does repeat themes and ideas from Zenith a lot. Animal Man, Doom Patrol, Invisibles, love all that stuff. I do enjoy Ennis’s Hellblazer and especially his War Stories though. I’ve gone off Preacher although I loved it as a teen.

[JayzusB.Christ]

GMozz for Zenith.  It was absolutely brilliant.

And, though I never thought I'd say it, Garth for non prog stuff.  I hated his Dredds and his Stronts.  Preacher is a bit up its own arse.  But once he got all the Pogues and Bill Hicks and Unforgiven out of his system, he was brilliant.  I genuinely had tears in my eyes at the end of one of his Crossed stories. 

[AlexF]

I don't much care for his work, but Grant Morrison has undeniably made a bigger mark on comics both inside and outside 2000AD.

Zenith is obvs that best 2000AD work from any of those three, and while I enjoy Ennis's 2000AD work more, he was basically doing Viz-tinged fan fiction, while Morrison was at least trying to push some weird buttons.

I guess Ennis's non-2000AD work is both fun and successful but he's off doing his own thing while Morrison's superhero stuff has spawned many imitators and legions of adoring fans. Does this make his work better? Don't know, really, but I'm going with 'yes' for the sake of this vote...

[Proudhuff]

Best in the Prog; Grant Morrison.
Best outside the Prog; Garth Ennis.

[Funt Solo]

Best in the Prog; Grant Morrison.
Best outside the Prog; Garth Ennis.

Ditto this: Morrison for Zenith and with Ennis I especially rate his various war stories.

Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch were okay, I suppose - but didn't do much for comics.

[maryanddavid]

Morrison in the Prog
Ennis Outside.

[SmallBlueThing(Reborn)]

This one has caused me a great deal of brainache. I've never enjoyed Zenith- as I've said before, to me it just reads as a desperate attempt to do what Alan Moore did on (Miracle)Man and Captain Britain. If I'd never read both of those, if they weren't so seminal in my comics-reading as they were being published, Zenith may have been more impressive- but they were, and so when Zenith hit the prog I remember being disappointed that Tharg would print something so blatantly derivative. Plus, Steve Yeowell never did it for me as an artist. Nothing I've read by Grant Morrison outside the prog has impressed me at all, and much that I've read *about him* or *by* him in the form of biography has made him one of my least-respected writers in all of comics.

But he did Big Dave, which I love.

Ennis didn't do anything in the prog that I *love*- but his Troubled Souls/ For a Few Troubles More over in Crisis was as important to the teenage me of the time as any number of prog strips that I will happily laud to the skies. And, outside the prog, he wrote my second favourite run of Hellblazer.

Mark Millar is inarguably the most (popularly/ financially) successful of the three outside of 2000AD, but also not to my taste- though he has his moments.

So, all in all, I'd have to say that Garth Ennis was most successful in the prog, and Mark Millar outside it.

SBT