Messages

[Henry Flint]

Damn - I love Trevallion: he might even be by No.2 overall choice for the 'current ' tournament. But Henry Flint is No.1

[Colin Wilson]

Colin Wilson, by a mile or more

Ugh - digital only is a major bummer. Wonder if this is a COVID thing, or just the way things are going to be?

If it helps, I'll happily pay double for physical Firekind and Slaughterbowl books!

Dave Taylor

[Kevin O'Neill]

Kevin O'Neill doesn't need another vote, but here we are.

Michael Fleischer certainly has an iron grip on bottom thrill! It's going to be a titanic head-to-head struggle soon when he has two strips going on at the same time...

As for the Spinnies:

Artist – Carlos Ezquerra, for 31 consecutive episodes of pure class, can't be anybody else.

Writer – John Wagner, for the whole Dead Man / Road to Necropolis / Necropolis arc. Masterful stuff: I remember how thrilling it was at the time. That said, I like the build-up to Necropolis better than Necropolis itself: for a 26-part story, not much actually happens in it (compare it to the Cursed Earth, Judge Child, Apocalypse War...). So for...

Top Thrill, I'm going for the Horned God. What can I say that hasn't already been said?

MVP is a tricky one, without just picking one of those guys again. So I'm going to go for Arthur Ranson, not so much for this year, but in advance recognition: I think he might be my MVP of the 'dark ages' of 2000AD, which for me are roughly 700-949, and he gets off to a fantastic start this year, with Shamballa being perhaps the most beautiful art we've ever seen in the Prog.

Megazine Artist – Cam Kennedy: love his Dredd, and this subject matter really suits him, obviously, denying America a clean sweep (I'm not a huge fan of early Colin McNeil – although I love his current, more minimalist style)

Megazine Writer – John Wagner for America. As you guys said on the podcast, he really steps it up in this story: and he was already pretty good!

Megazine Top Thrill – Difficult not to pick America. Similarly...

Megazine MVP – not very imaginative of me, but it's got to be John Wagner again. He was the indisputably the Man, in those first years of the Megazine.

Best year and month just too hard... the year that Prog 335 was in!

[Mark Harrison]

Interesting match-up, both with strange and unique styles. Mark Harrison for me: he just keeps getting better.

[Arthur Ranson]

Arthur Ranson walks away with this one. He was a real bright spot in the dark days of the 90s: some of the most beautiful art we've seen in 2000ad.

But best ever? No, that's pushing it.

Agreed. The consistently great art in 2000ad is truly staggering, but...

The first Prog I ever read (160) had art by Gibson, Ezquerra, McMahon, Belardinelli, and Cam Kennedy. That's not just rose-tinted spectacles: look at it today, and that stuff is still f****** awesome!

Gallagher & Broxton

John McCrae & Alan Davis

[Phillips]

Tough one... Steve Parkhouse is so good, but it's got to be Phillips and Fabry

[Googe]

Googe and Carter

Paperback, 128 pages...

...featuring bonus Dredd stories with art by Carlos Ezquerra and Henry Flint

Interesting... given the page count, can we deduce that 'Ladykiller' must be in here? If so, great news and about time!

[Bryan Talbot]

Bryan Talbot is an easy choice, but there are 4 or 5 others I could easily pick alongside him.

There's something I just like about Jim Baikie, so he gets it. I think I'm biased against Bisley because of what we got in the 90s from people who tried to copy him. Not his fault, but sometimes life isn't fair! (Plus, Heavy Metal Dredd was awful.)