2000 AD Online Forum

Blimey, how convoluted is the Strontium Dog timeline?

I'm in the process of trying to figure out what order things happened in. I'm having a spot of bother with the whole Wulf/Max Bubba thing.

As I understand it, Johnny goes back in time to 793 AD to capture Bubba, sending Bubba & Wulf forward to 2170 AD. All the other Wulf-featuring tales then take place, then Bubba stakes the pair of 'em out on Smiley's World, leading into Rage, etc...

Thing is, The intro to Smiley's World gives the date as 2158.

Anybody got any rational explanations for this? It would help me immensely...

Clarification: It wasn't the intro to Smiley's World, it was the last episode of Max Bubba (The Ragnarok Job) in Prog 465.

Rational explanation: Wagner got the dates "wrong" when he was writing some of that stuff. As did Grant, incidentally.

Yes. IIRC (which I probably don't) - the first Strontium Dog story from Star Lord was set in the 2180s.

As such - I'd take all dates with a pinch of salt, and just try to fit which stories go in which order - slotting in the new 'flashback' stories into the old continuity.

15 years have passed between Alpha first capturing Max Bubba in 2170 (see the second ep of Ragnarok job", so the 2158 date is a mistaken transposition of 2185

Thing is, The intro to Smiley's World gives the date as 2158.

As the Watcher says, the last two digits have been transposed as it's supposed to be 2185, as the Ragnorak Job occured '15 years ago' in 2170.

Seems to be a bit of a blind spot for Alan Grant - he transposes the last two digits of the year in the Judge Dredd story 'Agro Dome', too, so that is seems to be taking place in 2120 rather than the proper year of 2102.  I've a good mind to write to my MP about it!

As Odders says, the original Stronty stories give the date as 2180 in the original Starlord stories (200 years in the future, in other words) which is reinforced every other time there's a date gived (2179 is 'two years ago' during 'Journey into Hell', for example.)

However, by the time of 'The Final Solution', it's 2180 again.  Subsequent stories have taken this date instead of the proper one, so 'Judgement Day' is set in 2178 (in other words, right in the middle of Johnny's 6 month long quest to find Max Bubba during 'Rage!') and 'Strontium Dogs' happens in 2181.

Maybe Earth re-aligned it's calendar round about that time - it's been known to happen before. Wasn't the 18th Century only 87 years long or somehting like that?

"...the 2158 date is a mistaken transposition of 2185."

Groovy. Thanks Watcher (and everyone else)!

Did we ever see a completed Strontium Dog time?

Also has anyone updated the Dredd time line to include what we now know from Origins?

Watcher has done some spectacular work on researching this.
As you'd know if you read Dogbreath!

I understand it's traditonal to shout "whore" at this point.

Whore!

Thank you.

I forgot the link.

Link: Buy it here!!

I've got that copy. Is there a full time line in it? I can't remember?

Nah, but the case files detail the times, and the Wulf series is a direct result of Watcher's research.

I know I'll regret doing this but in which issue of Dogbreath did the case files begin?

Ha! Don't fret. I could lie and say issue 1...

But they began with the relaunch issue, which was #15.

"Also has anyone updated the Dredd time line to include what we now know from Origins?"

Yes.

Not that it's official or anything.

Regards

Robin

Rac: Whore.

Good pimping though.

Bolt-01

Cheers for the kindly words!

The Stront timeline is pretty easy to put together in the sense theres only a few dates ever given, but has a good few continuity questions and oddities that can be solved with a bit of lateral thinking!

Erm.. Buy Dogbreath!


 

Here's another question.

How old does everyone think Middenface McNulty is? In Portrait of a Mutant we first see him in 2167. Johnny is 17 and Middenface calls him child in one scene. Obviously he could only be a couple of years older and he could be patronising Alpha but he has been drawn to look quite old.However when we first see him in Young Middenface he is described as being 12 and he is intereacting with Kreelers. Kreelers were first seen in Portrait in 2162 helping Kreelman at a rally when he was trying to be elected Civic leader. Would they have arrived on the streets of Glasgow that quickly after this election?

So what gives? Should I just ignore or is there an interesting continuity explanation.

I was thinking the same thing while reading Portrait in the Agency Files #2. Same for the Weird brothers too, and for that matter, the supporting cast in Outlaw, none of whom appear to have aged in the years since the War. Though I admint this is had to tell with the Torso.

"So what gives? Should I just ignore or is there an interesting continuity explanation."

With regard to the general question of the older mutants, there's a very easy explanation: mutations exisisted prior to the Great War of 2150 - remember, it is Dredd's world, too. Even if you prefer to keep the two separate, in part two of Portrait it's stated that "Previous nuclear wars had created mnany mutations."

With regard to McNulty, remember that Kreelman enacted his anti-mutant laws in 2150. It's reasonable to conclude that McNulty was born mutant before that date; he probably has at least a decade on Alpha. The Young Middenface stories presumably take place in the 2150s.

Regards

Robin