Forum’s Fav Thrill - Harlem Heroes (Original) vs. Firekind Rd 4 Heat 19

[Colin YNWA]

Over the halfway mark already in Round 4, things are moving fast these days and I might consider one a day for future rounds, we'll see. This week is an interesting mix. We have a couple of contenders for the tourney as a whole, the one remaining Prog 1 thrill and I think this week will filters some of the 'lesser' thrills out... but as ever we'll see

While Firekind is hardly a new thrill it is one of those that I associate with helping 2000ad turn the corner as it stumbled through its troubled teens to become the 'adult' comic it is now. Given the rough ride John Smith thrills have had to date will that be enough to overcome the last remaining Prog 1er?

Form book:

Harlem Heroes (original) - Bye; Tales from the Doghouse; Bogie Man
Firekind - Bye; American Reaper; Mean Team

Harlem Heroes (Original) - more info

Vs

Firekind - 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 Friday 22nd July and the winner gets a place in Round 5 (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]

Firekind

[Trooper McFad]

Harlem Heroes

[The Mind of Wolfie Smith]

harlem heroes

[abelardsnazz]

Firekind. Is this the last John Smith story still in the running?

[Huey2]

Firekind

[Magnetica]

Harlem Heroes.

[AlexF]

Harlem Heroes is fun, Inferno often even funner (if far sillier). Firekind is neither fun nor silly but it's so bloody beautiful, and I'm damned if I can watch it fall to a future sports story I only like after defeating one I absoutely love!

FIREKIND

[Barrington Boots]

It's Harlem Heroes for me.

[rogue69]

Harlem Heroes

[paddykafka]

Firekind

[IndigoPrime]

I suspect this will really show up whether nostalgia wins. Harlem Heroes has some good ideas. It also leads with a black team, in a comic where diversity really isn't a thing in the main. (Imagine if McMahon's Dredd had stuck...) That said, it was also packed with... some questionable stereotypes (1970s comics) and the story itself these days doesn't really do much for me. It's fine.

Firekind is a very coherent slice of John Smith that nonetheless feels very different from ostensibly similar strips. I would argue that its appearance during (or at least close to) 2000 AD's nadir helped elevate it, as did its elusive nature when it came to reprint. Reading it back in the EC, it wasn't quite the masterpiece I had in my head; but it was still very, very good. Notably, I sold my HH book a while back and have no interest in getting another, but Firekind will stick around until the end if I find myself in a position of having to offload more books.

[SmallBlueThing(Reborn)]

Harlem Heroes. Has anyone ever done a deep dive into just how ahead of its time this was?

SBT

[Southstreeter]

Firekind but mainly because I'm not sure if I ever read HH beyond it's frequently reprinted first episode. FK is definitely a classic.

[AlexF]

Nice to believe that Harlem Heroes was ahead of its time - but wasn't it more a last gasp of Blaxploitation, or at least, a very late jumping on the bandwagon of the 'Harlem Globetrotters' basketball team who also had a weird spin-off TV cartoon show in which they fought crime while playing ball? Which I'm guessing was made in the mid 70s but repeated in the 80s otherise how would I remember it??

Kind of a depressing vision of the future that the one Aeroball team with any Black players has to recruit from a still-poverty stricken 2080s Harlem...