Well if Week 1 was a gentle phasing in of quality from Round 1 with some pretty ropey ties, Week 2 hits us right between the eyes with the other end of things. This is the week that if I'd been feeling a little fast and loose with the draw I could have opened with. There's some mouth watering ties and some decisions that will make your eyes water. THIS is what Round 2 is all about...
You hear that, you hear it... that's the Match of the Day theme blasting away as Gary Linekar introduces live coverage of this top draw tie. It will be cruel to lose a thrill as strong as one of these so early, but that's the thrill of the cup :
Cradlegrave - more info (http://www.2000ad.org/?zone=thrill&page=profiles&choice=cradle)
Vs
Scarlet Traces - more info (https://shop.2000ad.com/series/scarlet-traces)
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 28th January and the winner gets a place in Round 3 (of 9!!!).
What on Earth is ALL of this? (https://forums.2000ad.com/index.php?topic=48011.0)
For those that need 'um and can be bothered to follow 'um there's some simple rules (https://forums.2000ad.com/index.php?topic=48011.msg1070150#msg1070150)
Any questions, just ask as ever - and have FUN!
Easy choice for me Scarlet Traces not a fan off Cradlegrave
Ooh... I'm a big fan of Scarlet Traces but having just re-read Cradlegrave in the Hachette collection, the atmosphere and creeping dread make for one of the best horror stories Tooth has ever done. Sorry Ian and Matt, for me it has to be Cradlegrave.
Scarlet Traces.
Tough draw! I go hot and cold on Scarlet Traces, but I really liked the recent ending (that isn't actually an ending, damn you Edginton and your ability to keep the plates spinning).
Cradlegrave is something truly special, though. It's totally unlike anything else 2000AD has done, and totally scary and horrible and I love it.
Cradlegrave.
Quite a match up this, two strips that demonstrate the scope of 2000ad. A gradually expanding sci Fi epic and a tense, horrifying stand-alone story. Flawless art on both too. Scarlet Traces, for some reason, loses me sometimes and I think a collected reread would suit it. Cradlegrave grabbed me on a weekly basis and also works read in one sitting. The sheer oppressive atmosphere of the thing is incredible.
So cudos to SC but for me it's Cradlegrave.
I really like Scarlet Traces, but it's simply no Cradlegrave.
Oh, bloody hell. I read Cradlegrave the other night. It holds up really well (unlike the comparatively throwaway and cliched ALLB). But Scarlet Traces takes one of my favourite books of all time and expands it into a decades-long epic. Both of these deserve a place in the next round, but for me it's Scarlet Traces by a whisker. Quality and quantity over quality and brevity, basically.
scarlet traces
Scarlet Traces
Cradlegrave
I've only read the last two or three books of Scarlet Traces so it's always been the case that I've never really got my head around the characters. It also seems to be a strip that can be absolutely stunning one week then a bit so-so the next.
Cradlegrave is small but perfectly formed. Cradlegrave
I quite enjoy Scarlet Traces (the recent run was ace), but Cradlegrave is on another level.
One of Tooth's best horror series.
Cradlegrave storms it for me, given that I think it's one of 2000ad's best stories ever. A whole new genre - chav horror (I'm preparing to stand corrected by an avalanche of prior examples, and sorry to use the word 'chav' but it's how Skully describes himself and the other main characters).
You'll hear some mumbly weirdo who uses my name singing its praises on Eamonn's podcast.
Scarlet Traces is good sci-fi with great art. Cradlegrave is too dark for my tastes.
First really, really tough draw for me here. Both of these are fantastic thrills - Cradlegrave is Hammer House of Shameless and Scarlet Traces is a highly appealing League of Extraordinary Popcorn.
If I was voting for what I want to re-read or read more of, it'd be Scarlet Traces. If I was voting for a purer originality and a genuine feeling of horror it would be Cradlegrave.
Cradlegrave
Cradlegrave is a great one-off. I've never really got the love for Scarlet Traces. I liked the first series (which I think wasn't in the prog?) but since then have struggled to engage with it. I'm not sure I might have missed a series somewhere along the way (was there another one that wasn't in the prog?), and whenever a supposedly long running character returns I'm just scratching my head as to who they are.
Quote from: Southstreeter on 25 January, 2022, 06:20:09 PM
Cradlegrave is a great one-off. I've never really got the love for Scarlet Traces. I liked the first series (which I think wasn't in the prog?) but since then have struggled to engage with it. I'm not sure I might have missed a series somewhere along the way (was there another one that wasn't in the prog?), and whenever a supposedly long running character returns I'm just scratching my head as to who they are.
Scarlet Traces listing (https://2kstages.github.io/AtoZ/ScarletTraces/data.html) for you.
Quote from: Funt Solo on 25 January, 2022, 06:23:17 PM
Quote from: Southstreeter on 25 January, 2022, 06:20:09 PM
Cradlegrave is a great one-off. I've never really got the love for Scarlet Traces. I liked the first series (which I think wasn't in the prog?) but since then have struggled to engage with it. I'm not sure I might have missed a series somewhere along the way (was there another one that wasn't in the prog?), and whenever a supposedly long running character returns I'm just scratching my head as to who they are.
Scarlet Traces listing (https://2kstages.github.io/AtoZ/ScarletTraces/data.html) for you.
adding to this you can get the first volume of the series which contains all the stories which was not originally published in the prog:
https://shop.2000ad.com/catalogue/XB621/scarlet-traces-volume-01 (https://shop.2000ad.com/catalogue/XB621/scarlet-traces-volume-01)
Tough draw! Scarlet Traces for me though.
Scarlet Traces for me.
Cradlegrave. Scarlet Traces is great, but Cradlegrave stands out as a unique and outstanding story in the prog's history.
Quote from: Funt Solo on 25 January, 2022, 06:23:17 PM
Quote from: Southstreeter on 25 January, 2022, 06:20:09 PM
Cradlegrave is a great one-off. I've never really got the love for Scarlet Traces. I liked the first series (which I think wasn't in the prog?) but since then have struggled to engage with it. I'm not sure I might have missed a series somewhere along the way (was there another one that wasn't in the prog?), and whenever a supposedly long running character returns I'm just scratching my head as to who they are.
Scarlet Traces listing (https://2kstages.github.io/AtoZ/ScarletTraces/data.html) for you.
Thanks. Think I missed The Great Game, which seems to have far more to do with recent series in the prog than the original two that I did read at the time.
I loved The Great Game - I picked it up on a rare visit to Londinium's Forbidden Planet, without knowing in advance that it existed. A happy day.
As might be expected its going to be close this one. I think Cradlegrave has the slight edge so far. This final day of voting could change all that. If you've not already get um in today and I'll count up in the morning.
Scarlet Traces
Just a week and a bit ago I was looking forward to round 2 and some draws where I'd read more than one of the thrills. Well I guess I should be careful what I wish for as now I'm landed with this stinker of a choice.
I love both these thrills and for entirely different reasons. Scarlet Traces is a grand intergalactic tale with world shattering events. Cradlegrave is a claustrophobic journey to the dark heart of suburbia. D'Israeli's art on ST is bright, innovative and experimental where Cradlegrave is more muted with a sense of realisim and grime. There both brilliant in their own rights.
gaaaaah I was hoping waffling for a while might lead me into a decision.....
Cradlegrave takes it by the narrowest of margins.
VOTING CLOSED
This one is tough. There was of course a lot of love for both of these thrills and the loser equalled the number of votes for a losing thrill. In the end this is what Round 2 will prepare us for as more and more of the votes become like this as the tounrey goes on. Accepting that in getting to the favourite thrill we will have to let some great thrills go. In this one it was always close but John Smith classic always, just kept ahead of the Great Game. Maybe it has the advantage of being a 'short' story and therefore a clear, defined beginning, middle and end. While the wonderful Scarlet Traces seems like an epic that has no end in sight. In the end though we need to salute
Cradlegrave
as it keeps pur eyes glued to Round 3