Forum’s Fav Thrill - Blackhawk vs. Red Seas Rd 3 Heat 45

[Colin YNWA]

The ties in Week 6 are a bit of a mixed bag.  A couple of very interesting ones that are hard to call mixed in with some very lopsided potential batterings and BOTH versions of Bill Savage making an appearance - but which will survive?

Ohhh interesting one this, and I have a horrible feeling you'll get it wrong. Will nostalgia and love of Massimo B overpower common sense, the glory of The Mighty Yeowell and epics Harryhauseneque high seas high jinks. I have a horrible feeling it will (Any personal bias showing through here? Any at all???). The form book tells us nothing, Blackhawk only had Killer to beat and Red Seas washed away Cannon Fodder (well it wasn't really that straightforward). So what will the result be here...

Blackhawk - more info

Vs

Red Seas - 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 Saturday 18th June and the winner gets a place in Round 4 (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]

Red Seas

[abelardsnazz]

Red Seas.

[Aaron A Aardvark]

Red Seas hasn't stuck with me the way I thought it would.

Blackhawk

[The Mind of Wolfie Smith]

blackhawk

[BPP]

Red seas Yeowell's masterclass in elegant minimalist linework.

[Blue Cactus]

I recently reread the whole of Red Seas in the UC collections and it's great. An epic tale but filled with small character moments, and as others have said invoking Harryhausen films from my childhood. Seeing Yeowell experiment his style is a treat.

I didn't read Blackhawk until the phonebook collection was published and I found I enjoyed the Rome-based early stuff from Tornado more than the intergalactic 2000ad version, despite being a massive fan of Belardinelli.

The Red Seas.

[Huey2]

Blackhawk!
Belardinelli's artwork once Blackhawk journeys through the black hole is simply incredible. The best fantasy artwork the prog has ever seen - ever.
And the story itself is a lot of fun. Ursa and Zog are two of - if not the best - supporting characters to appear in the comic.

[AlexF]

Really tricky. Artwise, no contest - Belardinelli is both on better form and delivering more weirdness than Yeowell. Storywise, no contest - Edginton actually crafts a coherent narrative and brings in new characters and fantasy tropes neatly, where Blackhawk staggers from episode to episode with far less direction (especially since I'm not counting the Tornado years).

So what do I judge on? I don't have nostalgia for Blackhawk, only came to it through gradual back prog accumulation. Red Seas I remember loving the first two books and then getting gradually less inspired. Have been rereading the digital collection and it IS better that way but still not grabbing my attention - not helped by Edginton continually going to the 'what fantasy stories from my youth can I shoehorn into THIS story' well.
I will say both strips do great work with showing characters having lots of fun getting drunk...

I think, for the fun of the smaller stories (Meanwhile...; With a bound...) and the greater coherence, I'm plumping for Red Seas. Not gonna cry if Blackhawk pushes through. Macmacs all round.

[rogue69]

Red Seas

[IndigoPrime]

Like AlexF, I have no Blackhawk nostalgia. I did at one point own the phonebook but I long ago sold it on, because, frankly, I just didn't care. The story was... fine. Red Seas was an odd one. It felt like it went on forever in the Prog, and I kept losing the narrative threads. It felt a bit dull and that it had overstayed its welcome. In the UC, though, I read it through across a few evenings and, wow, it's really very good indeed. One of those strips that properly hangs together in collected form, rather than – with Blackhawk, say – showing up the limitations and thinness of an ongoing storyline.

[Funt Solo]

Blackhawk was suitably bizarre and outlandish when it got adopted by 2000 AD - but it was history folded into occult druidism wrapped in sci-fi and then posted to an illiterate hermit living on a remote Scottish island who survived entirely on hallucinogenic mushrooms - and even he got bored of it.

So, The Red Seas, even if it did peddle one too many pantheons and make the central character invincible. That series set inside a hollow earth is a favorite.

[norton canes]

Gonna have to stem the Red Sea tide. Blackhawk

[Southstreeter]

Blackhawk

[Magnetica]

Blackhawk was one of the strips when I started my unbroken 2000AD reading run from Prog 127. But it was my least favourite. But it had sublime art and memorable characters such Batak, Ursa and Zog.

Red Seas was an epic. I've never reread it, but feel I should do. Given that, I probably haven't experienced it to it's maximum potential.

I read all of Blackhawk a few years back, including the Tornado strips, which weren't that great.

So on the basis of which I want to reread most, and which is more important to 2000AD's legacy, I am going for The Red Seas.