YES - it's here, what all this over complicated nonsense has boiled down to. What qualifying, play-offs (what the chuff was going on there???) and all those groups where no one knew which they had or hadn't voted for, all of that was for THIS.
The two Strontium Dog stories, featuring Johnny Alpha that are the most popular - EVER - battle it out to determine which rules supreme. I've learnt from this there is little point predicting these things, so I'm just going to sit back, watch and see what happens as we celebrate these two magnificent thrills.
As ever all you need to worry about is which of the following you prefer:
The Killing - more info (https://spectrumcomputing.co.uk/index.php?cat=96&id=4963)
VS
Rage - more info (https://theslingsandarrows.com/strontium-dog-searchdestroy-agency-files-03/)
Just reply in this thread naming your favourite of these two stories 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.
EXTRA TIME - Just to make sure we have planned for extra time and penalties this one ends early on the morning of Saturday 23rd October and the winner ... well they lift the Bolt-01 Cup
... there's a spreadsheet (https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1F3W5KkY37ZcH39J93nq5hR5_RhPIvaOapv7sZ0EmvUQ/edit?usp=sharing) to make following easier... if you fancy. If not, don't worry just VOTE!!!!
I've tried to explain the finals here. (https://forums.2000ad.com/index.php?topic=47894.0)
What on Earth is ALL of this? (https://forums.2000ad.com/index.php?topic=47697.msg1064493#msg1064493)
Why (https://forums.2000ad.com/index.php?topic=47696.0) on Tharg's Earth head are we doing this?
Any questions, just ask as ever - and have FUN!
Oh and my 'More info' links... well I don't say how much more and they get pretty wonky at times!
RAGE
Rage
Other favorites that I would have been happy to see win include: Incident on Zeta...The Killing...Ragnarok Job...Shicklgruber Grab...Portrait of a Mutant.
However, I'm happy to see Rage win as Bubba took Wulf away from us in Ragnarok but we received the most satisfying revenge story ever as a result of Johnny's Rage. Also, I love the designs of Bubba's crew, the humor, and Western elements as always.
Edit- Thanks again Colin for running this fantastic contest, we appreciate you keeping track of all the "complicated nonsense" and keeping us on track, it all comes down to this!!
Rage
A tough choice. But, Rage.
The Killing
I'm voting for The Killing too. If I could only read one SD story and it was one of those two, I'd go with that.
The Killing
I re-read a bunch of late-period Stront for this Tourney, but didn't bother with the classics because I feel I know them well enough... but maybe I don't? Is it cheating ot go an read both these stories before voting? At the moment my heart says Rage but my head says Killing, and I'm generally more of a head than heart kind of guy (which is how you end up deciding that Origins is better than Tour of Duty, y'know).
Good final!
After this tourney I have to re-read The Killing. I can not remember it being on off those that you have to read but due to its popularity I will have to give it a go again.
I just re-read Rage in time for this match up. Fantastic pacing all the way through, peppered with some astonishing moments. Yes, 'Because I hate you' but even better is the split panel 'At Last!' thought, then spoken aloud through gritted teeth when Johnny finds the tattooist that will lead him to Bubba. In many ways a perfect story.
But...
The whole notion of S/D agents ruthlessly working The Killing is a masterstroke. Add to that the incredibly array of characters, the despots edging towards their nemesis, the Osmongs, the ceremonial sacrifice (if you were a barber living on Zed, surely you'd take a year's sabbatical just before your 44th birthday) and you approach perfection.
and then there is that ending.
When I first read this, aged 15 I thought Alan Grant had missed a trick. He should have had Johnny throw the time bomb at Wulf and pretend to kill him, then he would get to collect the bounty AND the jackpot. Decades on (older? wiser?) I fully appreciate the power of Wulf's parting line
"Ve hunt men for money ja, but we only hunt der guilty. Killing for the sake of killing - Ve do not do this. Is sick."
The Killing
The Killing for me
The Killing
The Killing all day, every day.
Fascinating voting, a wave of support for Rage only to be followed by a tsunami in favour the killing. It's actually the killing for me too. It lodged its way firmly into my brain all those years ago and is still a great read today.
Portrait of a - Oh. Alright, then, The Killing instead. By virtue of being a more complete self-contained tale, it just edges out Rage; which has some cracking story beats and set pieces, but also a few longeurs and dead-ends. Damn close, though!
The Killing is what classic era SD is all about. Rage might have edged it without that dead end interlude in the middle.
Yeah, I'm convinced - The Killing!
The quality of the Stront stories is so extraordinarily high that comparing any of them is often like choosing a favourite shade of perfection. That said: Rage!
Just one of the greatest stories and one which, while still fantastic as a collected read, really made the most of the weekly episodic format. It really felt like an event. I can still remember the wait between progs: simultaneously wanting Alpha to hurry up catch Bubba but also not wanting the tale to end. I don't get the comments that it was meandering. Each false trail is essential to the tale. That ending can't be won too easily and Grant and Wagner ensure that each digression is exciting and interesting.
Bubba is probably the best 2000ad villain ever - there's nothing clever or special about him. He's just nasty, vicious and unimaginative.
Ezquerra, who has never drawn a bad image in his life, was producing career best stuff with this run of Stront stories
The Killing (of Moses Quest)
I'll see your The Killing (of Moses Quest) and raise you a The Killing (of the Damned).
Well it all comes down to today - this wasn't the final I expected, and the final isn't going the way I expected. On the one hand that's what I love about these tourneys, they shake my expectations, on the other hand RAGE! Well you still have a day to put this right and I'll count up in the morning.
In the beginning of the tourney I would have said that it is going to be Rage vs Portrait with a close victory for Rage but looks like both of these has been the last victims in The Killing
Getting my vote in for RAGE before it's too late!
..because I love you all.
The Killing
i've been determined not to vote on this tourney, sd never having really been my pot of tea.
but i'll break my principle right now to do my meagre bit - to try and flail and doubtless fail to prevent an absolute travesty happening.
RRRRRRRAAAAGGGGGEEEEEE!!!!!!
VOTING CLOSEDWell in the end it wasn't even close and Portrait of a... oh thats a different world... okay so in reality in the end it was even close and from a strong start there was just no stopping Rag... oh ... what.. hold on...
...wow I was NOT expecting that... what a fantastic final. Rage did indeed storm out the blocks and it seemed as it the firm favourite (well in my mind) was going to take this with ease as expected... but then The Killing started to pull votes back and pull level and then relentlessly, brutally pull ahead and was unstoppable. By the end votes started to reappear for Rage, but by then it was far too late.
The Killing seems to represent the purity of Strontium Dog as a high octane, rough and humorous thrill. Shot through with fantastic characters, stunning art and design, action and the element, possibly, Rage misses most, a buddy 'action movie' vibe.
Its testament that Strontium Dog as a thrill that there is such variety in these two stories. Yet they both feel right. In the end though we must celebrate the forum favourite Johnny Alpha thrill
THE KILLING