Round 5 was always going to be a quickie and in two weeks we are done. I'm thinking maybe next round we'll go to one a day to give us more time to luxuriate (or for me to prep whatever's next if I'm honest, not had to think about that for some time!) Anyway not much else to say except a week of more bastard hard choices!
In a Round of stella ties this one for me is probably the zen... nah I can't ... the peak ... or low actually as one of these will have to go. Neither of these was on my list of probable finalists, but they were on my long list for my finalists - if that makes sense. Two absolutely top draw thrills, the sad passing of Alan Grant having pulled Anderson's early - well first 20 years! - into sharp focus and helped folks appreciate quite what an astonishing body of wotk iy was. Will that be enough though to topple the astonishing Zenith? Such a shame one of these must fall in this Round, but fall one must...
Zenith: Harry Twenty; Buttonman; Ace Trucking
Anderson: Hunted; Droid Life; Max Normal
Zenith - more info (http://www.2000ad.org/?zone=thrill&page=profiles&choice=ZENITH)
VS
Anderson Psi Division - more info (https://shop.2000ad.com/series/judge-anderson)
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 Sunday 14th August and the winner gets a place in Round 6 (of 9!!!).
What on Earth is ALL of this? (https://forums.2000ad.com/index.php?topic=48011.0)
For those that need 'um and can be bothered to follow 'um there's some simple rules (https://forums.2000ad.com/index.php?topic=48011.msg1070150#msg1070150)
Any questions, just ask as ever - and have FUN!
For Alan so it must be Anderson
Early Anderson was one of the best things in the Prog, but zenith was even better.
One of the best complete stories in the Prog ever and career best art by Yeowell.
Anderson.
Anderson PSi Division
Zenith
Zenith
Zenith
Anderson.
Cheers
Two series I have no love for whatsoever, but Anderson wins this because its not written by Grant Morrison and because of Alan Grant.
SBT
Anderson is very good, sometimes excellent. Often, though, the character works best in a supporting role in Dredd. Like in Dark Justice.
Zenith is one of the best multi-part series the prog's ever published.
Zenith, even though, at this stage of the competition we're deciding between excellence and excellence.
Early Anderson is wonderful, but Zenith is so good it gets past my distaste for Morrison's Morrisonisms.
Zenith
Zenith has seen off some big hitters eh? Anderson's had a comparatively easy ride so far.
Tough one this, I enjoy a lot of the Alan Grant Anderson, especially the later Ranson period, Half-life etc. Some of the more recent series have tried new things and some has worked for me and some hasn't. Anderson also feels a bit more like 'my' 2000ad as I didn't read Zenith at the time, just later on in collections, so it's kind of this weird thing that sits outside my standard prog reading.
Zenith is consistently good all the way through though (well almost. That .com story is blehh).
Ach I'm voting Anderson.
Zenith
Anderson has many great moments – notably Shamballa and the end of Satan. But it, like all long-running thrills, suffers from troughs. It was also short-changed by huge events happening in it that were never even referenced in Dredd – although that's not Anderson's fault, obviously. In more recent years, though, I've found myself (with exceptions like Half Life) just kind of tired of Anderson, despite attempts to breathe new life into the formula.
Zenith was almost all great moments. It's a bit self-satisfied at times, but one of those series I can re-read time and time again. There's no knockout blow, but Zenith wins on points for me.
From A to Z, it's Zenith for me
From Z to A, it's Anderson all the way.
She looks ready. Anderson.
Anderson
I agree with IndigoPrime so Zenith, but it still feels wrong to vote against Anderson, which contains some of my favourite stories. (But there are also some duffers.)
Zenith
zenith
Zenith. It's not a top thrill for me but I overall enjoyed it and prefer it to most Anderson stuff I've read.
Anderson
This one looks close BUT I think there is a front runner, but reckon final days votes could swing this. All I ask is don't make this a draw. I don't want to have to make a call on this one! A day to go and we'll know the result tomorrow morning
(https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-l7xDi7Nk1Bs/TqPIsncd5WI/AAAAAAAAAQ8/YQmDPdGCnNg/s1600/632seemtofitok.jpg)
Emphatically Anderson
AAAIEEE! The horizontal scale! It burns my eyyyyyyyyessss!
Quote from: Jim_Campbell on 13 August, 2022, 08:16:50 AM
AAAIEEE! The horizontal scale! It burns my eyyyyyyyyessss!
I'm with you. Seven (?) fonts on the same page. terrible.
Quote from: gogilesgo on 13 August, 2022, 08:53:47 AM
I'm with you. Seven (?) fonts on the same page. terrible.
The mad thing is: that "Emphatically Yes" block is at least all in variations of Futura, but look at all the whitespace underneath it. The block of type could be extended vertically into that space, giving it proportions that would require
way less egregious use of the horizontal scale...
(Anyway, sorry! Back to the voting!)
VOTING CLOSED
As you might expect its been very close and a right ol' battleBoth these thrills are absolutely superbZenith has the advantage of being contained, control and therefore consistantly brilliant
Where as Anderson has run and run. A character who for 20 years was served by great stories, but then couldn't be retired and no one seems to know quite what to do with?
I SUSPECT THAT'S WHAT HAS COST IT HERESuch a shame as it was so good, so good, for so long. In the end though
Zenithwill be checking his biorhythm for Round 6
I missed this one, but would have gone Zenith too - Not a bit of what (afair) Funt calls 'bloat'; everything is there to power the story onwards. The mix of everyday pop culture and dizzyingly huge multiverse-spanning events was just perfect.
Anderson is an incredible character and one that shaped the identity of the prog, but as has been mentioned, there are just too many duds. I'm also not a fan of massive MC1-continuity-shattering stories being thrown out there and then instantly forgotten about - A whole generation of Mega-City children disappearing into the Cursed Earth, for example; and Christianity being outlawed completely.
i read morrison's dress rehearsals - in starblazer and in harrier comics and in a couple of future shocks - and they all showed promise, but they also showed a talented and very smart young comics writer trying to make sense of what to do with the already long and magnificent shadow of alan moore. zenith was a casting of that shadow aside and becoming an inimitable grant morrison. as others have said, there was no fat at all on this supple and kinetic storytelling - and hindsight tells us that yeowell was the only artist who could have reflected all of this. it's a great superhero tale, a great occult story and an extraordinary evisceration of the eighties - in fact one of the few good contemporaneous daggers being brilliantly stuck in to a decade that might have been a little freer of #endofdays feelings than now, but was, nonetheless, a dark time that does not deserve all the fond nostalgia that people are feeling for it these days.
zenith is magnificent, flawless, stylish literature, that still reveals more upon every reread. in terms of 2000ad, in my opinion, only halo jones was greater. still that shadow, natch.
Why isn't Zenith in the Ultimate Collection?
It's better than that?