Another strong week here...in week ... scchhh whatever (Week 8 keeping track fans). I mean that's all relative, but for this Round there are some great thrills coming up in this week's tie. I mean sure the normal peppering of dross, but some really strong thrills and for me at least, interesting ties.
Well even in a strong week there will be some naffin' great slumpers and here we have ano... mind you lot voted for Dash Decent over Department K (No, no I will never, NEVER get over that!) so I'd better be careful what I say here! Bonjo from Beyond the Stars was another throw away strip... if anything with Kev O'Neill art can ever be called throw away. It does however come up against one of the most respected (? that's not just me right?) self contained stories in Pete Milligan and to me an unrecognisable Richard Elson's Shadows. So my friends you must decide...
Which most rattles your thrill-receptors:
Bonjo from Beyond the Stars - more info (http://www.2000ad.org/?zone=thrill&page=profiles&choice=BONJO)
Vs.
Shadows - more info (http://www.2000ad.org/?zone=thrill&page=profiles&choice=shadows)
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 Thursday 16th December and the winner gets a place in Round 2 (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!
Bonjo
Shadows
'Bonjo from Beyond the Stars' was perhaps THE thrill I was most excited to track down as a youth hunting for Back Progs. It was in some of the really early ones, but only a handful, and it had Kevin O'Neill art.
I did eventually track down those Progs, and it was like reading NuRoboHunter all over again. SO TERRIBLE. SO RACIST. The art's decent enough, of course. There's a reason they didn't reprint it in 'Cosmic Comics' along with loads of other early O'Neill efforts.
Shadows isn't quite as good as it's reputation, but it's still pretty good and Elson's early scrappy style is kinda great.
If Shadows doesn't romp home with this one I'm gonna join Colin in the grumpy corner.
shadows
Shadows.
kev!
bonjo
Not read Bonjo so it's got to be Shadows.
I still fine to core premise pretty disturbing. And it's probably just as relevant today, if not more so.
Shadows
I hadn't realised until this vote that Shadows was by Richard Elson. His style has changed dramatically. Anyway Shadows gets my vote.
Shadows isn't the best strip by either of its creators, but it's been oddly overlooked regarding reprint. Bonjo, as stated earlier, has major problems when revisited today. Kev's art will always be great, but Shadows is the only one of these I'd want to read today.
Shadows for much the same reason as AlexF disliked Bonjo - though it stands in its own right too! Luckily we have a better version of what Bonjo could have been in Dash Decent!
I liked Shadows a lot. The double twist at the end was very nicely done.
Forgotten both of these...
Shadows for me too. The setting and ending is bleak as anything.
As a young reader I couldn't abide the art. Had no idea it was Elson!
Shadows
Shadows
Ahead of its time: a cyberpunk thriller cross between Johnny Mnemonic and The Net (both from 1995), with a climactic nod towards The Matrix (1999), as Nina (an elite member of a heirarchical future society) loses her status and becomes a shadow-person.
(https://2kstages.github.io/AtoZ/Shadows/shadows.png)
Bonjo From Beyond the Stars
A fairly harmless (although also casually racist), partial page strip about a moronic alien.
(https://2kstages.github.io/AtoZ/Bonjo/Bonjo.png)
I have no recollection of Shadows and I not sure if I've ever read Bonjo.
Neither it is then!
Cheers
Quote from: Funt Solo on 13 December, 2021, 07:02:54 PM
Shadows
Ahead of its time: a cyberpunk thriller cross between Johnny Mnemonic and The Net (both from 1995), with a climactic nod towards The Matrix (1999), as Nina (an elite member of a heirarchical future society) loses her status and becomes a shadow-person.
William Gibson's original short story of 'Johnny Mnemonic' was published in 1981 & reprinted in his 1986 collection
Burning Chrome, which was around the time of peak cyberpunk. As Arthur C. Clarke observed, science fiction cinema lags a generation behind the literature.
I was saying recently in the Ultimate Collection thread that I keep waiting for a reprint of Shadows because I've never read it. So I'm going to vote Shadows because I'm if it keeps getting mentioned Tharg will eventually do the right thing.
Quote from: O Lucky Stevie! on 14 December, 2021, 06:58:28 AM
Quote from: Funt Solo on 13 December, 2021, 07:02:54 PM
Shadows
Ahead of its time: a cyberpunk thriller cross between Johnny Mnemonic and The Net (both from 1995), with a climactic nod towards The Matrix (1999), as Nina (an elite member of a heirarchical future society) loses her status and becomes a shadow-person.
William Gibson's original short story of 'Johnny Mnemonic' was published in 1981 & reprinted in his 1986 collection Burning Chrome, which was around the time of peak cyberpunk. As Arthur C. Clarke observed, science fiction cinema lags a generation behind the literature.
Thanks, Stevie. My cyberpunk lore is weak. I'll re-write my blurb.
I'll vote Shadows here please Col.
This one had an even start and then BANG one thrill seems to have stormed ahead. Last chance to vote today and I'll count up in the morning.
Haven't read it for a very long time but I remember absolutely loving Shadows. An unnecessary TS Eliot reference works wonders for appealing to pretentious teenagers. I assume that's why Ian Edginton is using the same one in the new series of Kingmaker.
VOTING CLOSED
There were a few votes for Bojo, and at least one focuses on Kev O'Neill's art. But Shadows clearly is one of the fondly remembered early done and gone stories and for good reason. It was ahead of it time and yet still relevent today and
Shadows
Identies as a contender in Round 2
Quote from: Colin YNWA on 16 December, 2021, 06:29:40 AM
VOTING CLOSED
There were a few votes for Bojo...
Enough to get him into No 10, certainlly. But how did Bonjo do...?