Bolt-01 Cup - Best Strontium Dog - Starlord

[Colin YNWA]

Third and final of the all in votes to kick off the week and this time it's strips from Starlord.

After much debate at the start of the tourney I think this list is correct. If not well it will stay incorrect BUT still the one we are voting on and if so any strips omitted we'll say have been excluded due to breaking rule on taking performance enhancing drugs - such as the anti-thrillsucker Dexadril H12.

On that basis there are 11 stories for you to consider and share your 5 votes amongst.

You, the voter, YES YOU have 5 votes each to distribute how you want to the stories below. So you can give all 5 votes to one story, 4 to one and 1 to another. Or one point to five stories. Any combination of whole numbers you like. It's up to you. When you're voting just make it clear how many votes you are giving to which story... or my noggin will get confused!

What are the stories, well funny you should ask...

Max Quirxx - more info

Papa Por-ka - more info

No Cure for Kansyr - more info

Planet of the Dead - more info

Two-Faced Terror - more info

Demon Maker - more info

The Brain - more info

Eye of Doom - more info

Funfair of Fear - more info

Crazy Krulgor -  more info

The Collector -  more info

As this is an all in one we have all week and this one won't close until morning of Saturday 21st August - first thing.

The winner qualifies for the tourney proper. The runner up goes into a play-off which we can worry about later.

What on Earth is all this?

Why on Tharg's Earth head are we doing this?

Any questions, just ask as ever - and have FUN!

Oh and my 'More info' links... well I don't say how much more and they get pretty wonky at times!

[broodblik]

Two-Faced Terror 3
Planet of the Dead 2

[AlexF]

I'll be honest, I'm going off pretty hazy memories here...

No Cure for Kansyr: 2
Papa Por-Ka: 1
Max Quirxx: 1
Planet of the Dead: 1

[Dark Jimbo]

Brilliant! I've been looking forward to this one.

Max Quirxx: 1 point - The first ever Strontium Dog story has to get a vote. It's not massively memorable, but it's a masterclass in how to set up a new strip. Everything we need to know is here - the atomic wars, the scapegoated and despised mutant underclasses, Johnny's powers, the 'good man in a bad galaxy', the gadgets, Wulf...

Two-Faced Terror: 2 points - Even beyond the introduction of the Gronk, this is a great tale. It feels like the first Stront mini-epic, and Billy Joe is arguably the first truly classic villian.

The Brain: 1 point - A corker! A slight tale, maybe, but Wagner and Ezquerra are firing on all cylinders by this point, and giving it their all. The classic Johnny-Wulf-Gronk trio are firmly embedded in their roles and nothing clangs or feels out-of-place - making it particularly weird that The Galaxy Killers, which follows it, doesn't feel nearly as certain.

The Collector: 1 point - Psychedelic colour art by Ezquerra and a memorable villian, although the story isn't the best. It gets a point from me, though, for the entitled middle-class couple that Johnny and Wulf find themselves prisoners with. Indignant, they can't understand why a 'mutant collector' should want them  - turns out they have six toes on each foot, which technically makes these anti-mutant bigots mutants themselves. It's a great moment, somewhat lost in this little-read Annual story.

[Magnetica]

Papa Por-ka 2 points
Two-Faced Terror 1 point
The Brain 2 points


Would have given Two-Faced Terror 2 point as well if I could, but the Maths didn't allow for that.

[Magnetica]

Quick question.

I have the Search and Destroy collected edition but don't recognise a story called Eye of Doom. But there is a story at the end, which isn't actually named but is from a Summer Special and the preview page shows some art that refers to "Kane's Kolossal Komfort Kasino".

Is that what you mean? One of the characters does implore Johnny to not give him the evil eye at one point.....so I guess so?

[Colin YNWA]

Quick question.

I have the Search and Destroy collected edition but don't recognise a story called Eye of Doom. But there is a story at the end, which isn't actually named but is from a Summer Special and the preview page shows some art that refers to "Kane's Kolossal Komfort Kasino".

Is that what you mean? One of the characters does implore Johnny to not give him the evil eye at one point.....so I guess so?

Oh gosh I really can't remember any more! This was pulled from Barney and some other bits of advice / comments. Shall we say it is and hope I'm right?

[Magnetica]

Do you have a link to the Barney page for it?

When I Google it, I get the cover but the contents description is blank (for the Starlord Summer Special that is).

[Richard]

All my points to Planet of the Dead.

[Barrington Boots]

Two-Faced Terror 2 points
The Brain - 2 points
No Cure for Kansyr - 1 point

[Colin YNWA]

Do you have a link to the Barney page for it?

When I Google it, I get the cover but the contents description is blank (for the Starlord Summer Special that is).

When I say

Oh gosh I really can't remember any more! This was pulled from Barney and some other bits of advice / comments...

I mean the list of Starlord stories. I can't for the life of me remember where each was identifed.

[Funt Solo]

Quick question.

I have the Search and Destroy collected edition but don't recognise a story called Eye of Doom. But there is a story at the end, which isn't actually named but is from a Summer Special and the preview page shows some art that refers to "Kane's Kolossal Komfort Kasino".

Is that what you mean? One of the characters does implore Johnny to not give him the evil eye at one point.....so I guess so?

[Eye of Doom] is a 10-pager from the Starlord Summer Special, by Bill Henry and Brendan McCarthy. It is printed in Search/Destroy Agency Files 01.

When I place a title in square brackets it's because I never saw it printed - so for something like [The Galaxy Killers] - I never saw that title printed on the page - but everyone calls it that (maybe because of Barney). For stories that have no title in either Barney or on the page, I've sometimes just made it up. So, it's possible that I called this story [Eye of Doom] in my index, just to have something to call it. I like "Kane's Kolossal Komfort Kasino" - maybe I should change my index to that, if that's what the creators called it in pre-production.

[Aaron A Aardvark]

Two faced terror. 3
The brain. 1
Planet of the dead. 1

[Leigh S]

Max Quirxx - 1

Papa Por-ka - 1

No Cure for Kansyr - 1

Planet of the Dead - 0 - Alpha as Genocidal imbecile!

Two-Faced Terror - 1

Demon Maker - 1 Alpha's sister and Nigel!

[Trooper McFad]

Papa por-ka -2
No Cure for Kansyr -1
The Brain- 1
Funfair of fear-1