Robbie Morrison or Rory McConville - Writers Solhiem Cup - Tie 13

[Colin YNWA]

Team Classic vs. Team Current
Only work for Tharg to be Considered

Nikolai Dante is probably the greatest strip 2000ad has ever known [option]. Shakara ain't bad either... So the degree of the challenge facing Rory McConville isn't to be underestimated. That said Rory has achieved that hardest of feats of crafting a place for himself as one of the stable of modern Dredd writers and he does give very good Dredd. Add to that new thrills like Department K and his work might well hold up well here?

Time for you to decide your favourite as the droids square up to the tee...

Robbie Morrison - more info

OR

Rory McConville - more info

Remember for this tourney you have 5 votes to distribute as you please between these two artists, whole numbers only. So you can vote 5 - 0; 4 - 1; or 3 - 2; either way depending on how much more you like one artist's work over the other.

If you can't be doing with that just name your favourite - remember bold tags, or other ways of highlighting always appreciated - and I'll give them 3 votes and nowt to the other droid.

Three day votes, so this one ends morning of Saturday 10th July

Remember we only consider work for Tharg in these Tourneys

What the heck is all this about - well we have a thread for that

How does this voting work? Look here

I don't understand how this works, what are the rules of the Solhiem Cup - yep got ya covered there too

Anything else just ask and I'll make something up. Most importantly, have fun!

[abelardsnazz]

Rory has written some great stuff but his best work may still be ahead of him. Not that I'm saying Robbie's isn't, but we already have Dante, complete and magnificent.

Rory McConville 1, Robbie Morrison 4.

[broodblik]

Robbie 4: Rory 1

[SmallBlueThing(Reborn)]

Robbie 4
Rory 1

SBT

[Magnetica]

Rory's early Dredds seem to have some good ideas but then seemed to skip forward to a bunch of captions like you get at the end of some films explaining what happened to the characters. He seems to have taken on board the "feedback" on that and now actually tells the story.

Department K is promising and is enjoyably entertaining.

But It's Robbie Morrison: Dante, Shakara, Bendatti Vendetta. But Shimura did nothing for me.

Overall, given my voting record going to have to go

5 nil to Robbie.

[IndigoPrime]

McConville's take on Koburn was good, and he's written solid one-offs. I don't consider him a top-tier Dredd writer yet (few are), but he's a safe pair of hands with the character, which isn't nothing. The only thing I actively disliked that he wrote was his Devlin Waugh, which steamrollered all of the intriguing background stuff Smith created that never needed to be explained.

Morrison has had his ups and downs (both in Dredd). In his early days, there's quite a bit of yikes: the risible Brit-Cit Brute; big chunks of barely comprehensible Shimura. But then you have Bendatti Vendetta, the superb Shakara and masterpiece 2000 AD series Nikolai Dante.

Morrison has had too many wobbles and McConville has written too much readable fare for this to be a whitewash. But the sheer dominating shadow of Nikolai Dante weighs heavily in my score here, further strengthened by Shakara, which deftly managed to reinvent Nemesis for the 21st century—no mean feat.

Morrison 4 / McConville 1

[sintec]

Morrison 4 : McConville 1

[AlexF]

Yeah, IP nailed it with his analysis, although I'm more forgiving of McConville's Waugh. (While still being glad that Ales Kot has taken over - he's really bringing something all his own to the strip; leaning in even harder on the sex is def. the way to go).

Anyway, Morrison 4, McConville 1

Kind of weird thinking how long it has been since Robbie Morrison was in the Prog - but then, Shakara aside, he doesn't come across as the biggest Sci-Fi person.

[Colin YNWA]

Kind of weird thinking how long it has been since Robbie Morrison was in the Prog - but then, Shakara aside, he doesn't come across as the biggest Sci-Fi person.

Yeah when I realised quite how firmly he was planted in Team Classic I felt very sad.

GET HIM BACK IN THE PROG THARG!!!

(see all CAPS and three exclaimation marks - that means its super important).

[IndigoPrime]

The disappointment for me was McConville's Waugh just felt formulaic and obvious. Smith went for warped epic blockbuster and/or the bizarre. Kot sits in a similar space, albeit with more claustrophobic and creepy stories. It feels like the same universe. McConville's take was to tear down the mystery and spell it out. That never sits well for me. Some tales just don't need telling. (It'd be like someone explaining oddball Hellboy stories in captions, rather than just letting the strangeness be.)

[rogue69]

Rory McConville 1, Robbie Morrison 4.

[Link Prime]

I'm tempted to throw young McConville a bone, but Morrison has delivered the goods time and again over the decades.

Morrison 5 / McConville 0

[The Mind of Wolfie Smith]

4-1 to robbie

wow. i find myself in general agreement for what feels like the first time. i have been getting a tad worried about my critical faculties.

[Dog Deever]

Morrison 4 McConville 1

[Colin YNWA]

Just as Dante had to end so must this vote. This time tomorrow I'll be counting up so get that vote in today.

As for me - well this is a toughie. I really like Rory McConville's work. His Dredd is really good. I actually liked his Devlin Waugh and Department K shows how fresh and original his work is... well for a Kirby tribute anyway! But come on Robbie Morrison, writer of Nikolai Dante and Shakara. There are few who have written thrills as good... well in Dante very, very few, if any so on that basis:

Robbie Morrison 4 : Rory McConville 1