Strontium Dog or Rogue Trooper

[chilipenguin]

It's my birthday next month and along with some more of the Dredd Complete Case Files, I'm thinking of getting some of either the SD or RT collections. Unfortunately, I haven't read much (if any) of either strip so I was wondering which one people would suggest. Are the early stories worth picking up or have they aged badly? Are there any major story arcs in the early collections that I would kick myself for missing?

Like I say, I know next to nothing about either character, it's out of simple curiosity that I am considering picking some of the collections up.

[O Lucky Stevie!]

Digging Dredd? Created by John Wagner & Carlos Ezquerra. Huge swathes of which have been written by John Wagner & Alan Grant.


Gotta be Stront. Why?

Created by John Wagner & Carlos Ezquerra. Huge swathes of which have been written by John Wagner & Alan Grant.

With the icing on Stront's lemon & lime cake is that it's practically all is drawn by Carlos.

[vzzbux]

It all depends on what you prefer reading. If it is just pure war then go for Rogue.





V

[Beeks]

Not even close

Strontium Dog all day every day...

[Spaceghost]

I'd go for Strontium Dog. Wins on all fronts, hands down.

[Colin Zeal]

Another vote for Strontium Dog here. Rogue is good, but SD just trumps it hands down.

[Alski]

Strontium Dog is one of the best reads from 2000AD, coupled with brilliant art.

Rogue Trooper is okay, but it goes on forever, stretching out a story that just gets OLD.

[Van Dom]

Yeah early Stront is actually very good, and kind of surreal in places. There's some excellent tales in the early years and you get to read about Johnny doing stuff he doesn't normally do much like flying around in space suits and the like. Go with the Stront!

[zombemybabynow]

SD

[Colin YNWA]

Personally I'd always go for Strontium Dog over Rogue Trooper. Its worth noting I'm not really a fan of Rogue Trooper though. The art in Rogue Trooper is exceptional but then its not exactly shabby in Strontium Dog! So story-wise definitely Strontium Dog every time. 

[IndigoPrime]

To my mind, Strontium Dog is one of a very tiny number of serials in 2000 AD that rivals Dredd for top dog. Bar a few early bumps, it's remarkably consistent, and the chunky volumes are a joy to read, even today. By comparison, Rogue feels very much like a strip that was of its day; the art's nice enough, but the scripts vary between reasonably good to poor and kitsch.

One thing I would say if you go with the Strontium Dog stuff: buy and read them in order:

Search/Destroy Agency Files 01
Search/Destroy Agency Files 02
Search/Destroy Agency Files 03
Search/Destroy Agency Files 04
The Final Solution
The Kreeler Conspiracy
Traitor to His Kind
Blood Moon

[Staz Johnson]

Much as I love Rogue Trooper (& I do!!), I'd have to agree that especially those early Strontium Dogs are well worth a read. I never was a reador og Starlord, so if there's a collection of those stories, I'd be interested to read that myself.

The problem  two main problems I have with Rogue, is that the whole mission to find the traitor was stretched out too long.. probably because they couldn't decide what to do with the character once that was going to be over,& the fact that once he did find the traitor, we never really found out who the traitor was.. he just remained the 'Traitor General'. We never discovered which of those Southerner generals in that satellite was the traitor, & we never found out if he was actually a Southerner, or infact a Nort infiltrator. I would have thought Rogue would want to know exactly who had betrayed the GI regiment & why. All that said, for just the beautiful Gibbons, Kennedy & Wilson art alone, they're worth re-reading.

[Richmond Clements]

I never was a reador og Starlord, so if there's a collection of those stories, I'd be interested to read that myself.

They're in volume one of the Agency Files.

[Colin YNWA]

The 'Starlord' stories are collected in the 'Agency Files' volume 1. I was so chuffed when I learnt that as I'd never read them and now have um.

Edited: Sorry beaten to it.

[SmallBlueThing]

Stront, definately. Colour the art and it could run alongside the best of the prog today- it's as chock full of incredible ideas, wild puns and wilder imagination as Dredd, Nemesis or anything you care to mention. One of British comics greatest strips.

Rogue is okay- but reading them as an adult i found them trying. There's no reason why war stories written for kids cant entertain and challenge adults (hello Charlie's War, Darkie's Mob and Bad Company) but early Rogue just doesn't. In fact, by the time id got up to the venus bluegenes episodes, i was more entertained by the biro cocks, muffs and nipples that had been scrawled on the art. Love the library.
SBT