Forum’s Fav Thrill - Anderson Psi-Division vs. Max Normal Rd 4 Heat 30

[Barrington Boots]

As others have said Anderson has been wildly inconsistent over the years but it's a clear winner here for me.

[Rogue Judge]

Anderson Psi-Division for sure.

[Funt Solo]

Everyone's entitled to their onion, but I'm surprised by the votes for Max - I suppose if you're a modern reader you might be putting the 2019 series up against modern Anderson, but even there, that was a difficult series to love. Personally, I found the hip-talk belabored, tedious and difficult to parse - and it was effectively sixty pages that could have been told in a tighter format - like the old Judge Dredd Annual one-offs. I can tip my hat to the creative team for giving it a go, but it's not my cup of tea at all.




Up against that one major series and a few one-offs, you've got so much to choose from: Four Dark Judges was major canon for the city (despite suffering a bit from multiple artists). Hour of the Wolf, likewise, stands out as the strongest thing running in the prog at the time. Then Shamballa, Childhood's End and Satan: three out and out classics from the early 90s, when things were supposed to be rubbish.

There is a drop off in quality after that, and the experiment of things like Postcards From the Edge don't always work well (especially in hindsight), but we get a resurgence in the Meg with Half-Life, WMD et al (the Grant, Ranson blockbusters). I've been underwhelmed by the creative hydra of the modern era (tracking, as it does, the many adventures of Anderson's daughter), although I've been enjoying the single authorial voice of Maura McHugh and I'd like to see where she takes the character.




Anderson Psi Division knew she was getting my vote.

[Southstreeter]

Anderson, though the past few years have either bored or baffled me. Some good stuff up until the Ransom era (excluding the interminable Half Life).

Max Normal was readable and forgettable.

[Colin YNWA]

Well at the start of this it looked like we might be getting the shock of the tournament to date, but things settled down and sanity returned. I can predict which way this is going and will count up in the morning, so vote today.

[Dark Jimbo]

Wildly inconsistent it has certainly been (even when under the sole authorship of Grant) but Anderson easily trumps Max.

[Richard]

I agree with everything Funt said.

I also want to say that Arthur Ranson is my favourite Anderson artist, and his version of the character is the definitive one for me.

Anderson

[sintec]

Anderson

[Colin YNWA]

VOTING CLOSED

Now I have commented before how often I think votes are based on the highs of a series and folks are often able to ignore the lows as opposed to allowing the lows to level off the peaks and I'm not sure I'd vote that way... well Anderson is the example that calls poppycock. It may be a thrill that has lost its way of late... or even over the past 15 years.... but it was so consistantly good before that, from the beginning to the end of the Ranson era that the middling needless dragging on can't pull that down for me. I LOVE the recent Max Normal series, its was quite the brilliant surprise, but it can't compare in my eyes to the superb almost 20 year run of excellence that was Anderson... all of which is academic as regardless of my musing and a surprising early start to voting

Anderson PSi Divison

always knew it was going to make it through to Round 5.