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Forum’s Fav Thrill - Firekind vs. Mean Team Rd 3 Heat 59

Started by Colin YNWA, 28 June, 2022, 06:06:58 AM

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credo

Firekind is an all-time classic. Mean Team has nice art.

JayzusB.Christ

Firekind, without a shadow of a doubt.  Sci-fi perfection, and one of the best strips Tharg has to offer.
"Men will never be free until the last king is strangled with the entrails of the last priest"

BPP

If I'd known it was harmless I would have killed it myself.

http://futureshockd.wordpress.com/

http://twitter.com/#!/FutureShockd

Funt Solo

Mean Team just wasn't very good. Happy to see it get some love, though.

Firekind
++ A-Z ++  coma ++

BPP

If I'd known it was harmless I would have killed it myself.

http://futureshockd.wordpress.com/

http://twitter.com/#!/FutureShockd

GoGilesGo

Incredibly gauche to quote myself but this is what I wrote on another thread last year

Quote from: gogilesgo on 22 April, 2021, 04:51:13 PM


Those seven pages of Mean Team's first episode are a masterclass in storytelling: peerless world building; multiple character sketches; team hierarchy explained; Bad Jack's motivation hinted at; a full semi final that shows us rules of play then a phenomenal ("Now pick up the flag and let's hit the showers") cliff hanger.

Incredible.


The final frame of Return of the Mean Team let down that whole arc but Survivor is a fun coda.

Mean Team for the win.


Dark Jimbo

Quote from: gogilesgo on 22 April, 2021, 04:51:13 PM
Those seven pages of Mean Team's first episode are a masterclass in storytelling: peerless world building; multiple character sketches; team hierarchy explained; Bad Jack's motivation hinted at; a full semi final that shows us rules of play then a phenomenal ("Now pick up the flag and let's hit the showers") cliff hanger.

Incredible.

Wagner/Grant pull the same trick with Ace Trucking. By the end of the first episode, you know the whole set-up and have a pretty good (if rough) idea of every respective character.

Regend writers ought to take note.
@jamesfeistdraws

Funt Solo

Quote from: BPP on 28 June, 2022, 04:51:52 PM


Because I still think I'm right, I'm just seeing you as Dewey in this scenario. I did say "Happy to see it get some love, though." So, y'know ... try to be nice.
++ A-Z ++  coma ++

JayzusB.Christ

 My grud, I haven't seen those Mean Team pages in years! I was only 11 when they came out and I remember really enjoying the absolute carnage contained therein.  Brilliant stuff (and also the introduction of the prototype of Batman's Ventriloquist).

The sequel was a bit lame though, and Avatar Firekind kept me reading through the prog's bad years, so I'll stick.
"Men will never be free until the last king is strangled with the entrails of the last priest"

Huey2

Tough draw. Too very good stories but totally different.

Firekind was probably the best thing 2000ad printed in the whole of '93 but... I'm going to have to go with

Mean Team

Perfect example of how to write for a weekly. Each episode had a cool set piece plus some new awesome development. Belardinelli was also at the top of his game.

the sequels of course never happened.


Jim_Campbell

Wow. A couple of draws have surprised me, but to see the (IMO) terrible Mean Team hold up against Firekind (which, I'll concede, is not Smith's best work and shines largely due to great Marshall art and because it ran in the company of some terrible strips in the prog at the time) is genuinely baffling...

Don't get me wrong — I'm not slating anyone for liking what they like, but I'm just, well, surprised that a chunk of certainly-not-terrible Smiffy is getting a run for its money against a complete pot-boiler that Wagner/Grant bailed on after the first series. Anthologies, eh...?
Stupidly Busy Letterer: Samples. | Blog
Less-Awesome-Artist: Scribbles.

Funt Solo

Might be a timing thing - by the time I got to Mean Team I'd already read quite a few future sports stories (even though Mean Team is only that for a short time), and I'd already enjoyed tons of excellent Belardinelli art. As has been mentioned before, his out-there space craziness and inventive biology was always riding high, but then his human figures could often come over as a bit static (as in the fourth panel posted up by BPP).

So, for me, Mean Team seemed like a not-as-good template remix of things that had come before, from the same creators, who had shone more brightly. I don't know how I'd feel if it was my first future sport story, and my first Belardinelli. I remember I wanted to like it, but ultimately it fell flat. It's better than Beyond Zero.
++ A-Z ++  coma ++

Colin YNWA

Quote from: Jim_Campbell on 28 June, 2022, 11:30:44 PM
Wow. A couple of draws have surprised me, but to see the (IMO) terrible Mean Team hold up against Firekind (which, I'll concede, is not Smith's best work and shines largely due to great Marshall art and because it ran in the company of some terrible strips in the prog at the time) is genuinely baffling...

I know right - it baffles me, it really does. Mean Team is one of my least favourite thrills ever. Firekind one of my favourites. I tell you what if this carries on I'm going to scrap all the votes that have gone before, start again and we'll do that until you all get it right!

BPP

Quote from: Funt Solo on 28 June, 2022, 06:44:48 PM
Quote from: BPP on 28 June, 2022, 04:51:52 PM


Because I still think I'm right, I'm just seeing you as Dewey in this scenario. I did say "Happy to see it get some love, though." So, y'know ... try to be nice.

I'm a delight, thank you.
If I'd known it was harmless I would have killed it myself.

http://futureshockd.wordpress.com/

http://twitter.com/#!/FutureShockd

Dark Jimbo

Quote from: Jim_Campbell on 28 June, 2022, 11:30:44 PM
Wow. A couple of draws have surprised me, but to see the (IMO) terrible Mean Team hold up against Firekind... is genuinely baffling...

Never bet against nostalgia...
@jamesfeistdraws