Forum’s Favourite Thrill - Grey Area vs. Leviathan Round 2 Heat 59

[Colin YNWA]

Dear Diary it's Week 8 and I'm thinking these dear diary intros have run their course. I mean they weren't that great to begin with and I'm still strung it out. This week we finish the first half of Round 2. We're still a wee bit off half way through the tourney overall (by my calculations that will happen halfway through week 11)... I'm still alone...

This tie will result in one of the big losses of this round for me. Both these strips are excellent. Grey Area has developed into a superb thrill, improving with each story. Alas - or hooray I suppose - we may not see it for a while as its creative team are focusing on the even better 'The Out'. Leviathan was a majestic done and gone thrill. Just a superb horror and whichever way this tie steers we're going to have that sinking feeling.

Grey Area - more info

Vs

Leviathan - 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 Friday 11th March  and the winner gets a place in Round 3 (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]

Difficult one but I will go for Grey Area.

[moly]

Grey area

[Magnetica]

Grey Area.

[rogue69]

Leviathan

[Link Prime]

Wow, tough draw, I really like both Thrills.

Leviathan was a fully formed and beautifully drawn horror tale, but Grey Area really developed nicely with the off-world caper and Mark Harrison taking over as lead artist.

Will go with my gut - Leviathan.

[abelardsnazz]

Ooh this is a toughie. Both are great so really hard to decide. Going to go with Leviathan.

[AlexF]

I loved loved loved Leviathan when it first ran in the Prog, felt like something genuinely new. Having re-read it a couple of times since it's no longer quite such a standout, although D'iSreali's designs for the ship itself are extraordinary. Grey Area was always kind of bland in its first incarnation, but got a lot better in the Mark Harrison era. But it seems perverse for me to ignore and Edginton thrill I actually do like in favourt of an Abnett one I think is only OK...

so Leviathan for me as well.

But I'm ok with either of these going through, and with either of them going out.

[IndigoPrime]

Nasty, but doable for me. Grey Area is solid Abnett fare, and it got better as it went along. However, I had issues with the undercurrent of sexism that unnecessarily pervaded the strip. (This, again, mostly improved, but not entirely; I'm not sure, whatever the reasoning, we really needed a character 'hilariously' called Resting Bitch Face.)

Leviathan was short, but sweet: a triumph of design, writing and art. It's also one of the few books I still have multiple copies of, because the extras weren't in the original full-sized HC, but... I don't want to be rid of that oversized art.

[Timothy]

Leviathan

[Blue Cactus]

Tough one this. I've just reread Grey Area and thoroughly enjoyed it but agree it has some weird sexism in there. Leviathan is a classic standalone thrill (plus that one extra episode I seem to remember happening - Tales from the Leviathan??).

Leviathan, just.

[The Mind of Wolfie Smith]

grey area

[IndigoPrime]

(plus that one extra episode I seem to remember happening - Tales from the Leviathan??).

There were actually three of those, running from Prog #2005 (2004's EOY special) to #1466. Feels like Edginton and D'Israeli could have used that playground for much longer, had they had mind to. Still, having a finite series was a good thing.

[Southstreeter]

Grey Area. After an uncertain start it just got better and better, with a great bunch of characters I really cared about, and some good long running stories.

Leviathan I thought had a great premise, which could have sustained many series without actually wrapping up the central mystery. It ended all too soon though, and for me is therefore more of a curiosity than a classic thrill.

[Dark Jimbo]

When Grey Area started it was a very mediocre thrill. After trundling along for a few years, Harrison got on the pencils it just soared, seemingly improving every time it came back for another run.

But, y'know, it's still not Leviathan. Just a little gem of a series. Seems massively truncated when re-read - could have done with being a trilogy to really make the most of the setting and design - but given Edginton's track record, maybe it's for the best he didn't let this one run and run.