Week 10 is quietly fascinating. No really BIG hitters, but some fascinating ties. What looks like some tough choices, some great stories, a local derby and a prime example of how a lesser thrill could just slip quietly through to later rounds by the luck of the draw. Good, interesting mixing coming this week.
Oh this one is interesting. Rain Dogs, beautiful though the Colin Wilson art is a bit of a footnote in 2000ad history. Seemingly written (???) to the plan to produce continental style albums, it never quite got to its potential. Mean Team, to my eyes, was an utter misfire. Starting with a creative team that should have been a gold seal of a winner it quickly ran off track and then was taken in a direction no one expected when the the writers left. It does seem to have fans, well enough to justify the nice looking trade collection that came out not that long ago. Which one will win out here?
Rain Dogs - more info (http://www.2000ad.org/?zone=thrill&page=profiles&choice=RAINDOGS)
Vs
Mean Team - more info (http://www.2000ad.org/?zone=thrill&page=profiles&choice=MEANT)
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 Saturday March 26th and the winner gets a place in Round 3 (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
Mean Team
mean team
Mean Team
That first book of the Mean Team is a huge part of how I fell in love with the Prog, gonna take a lot ot unseat that in my mind, even the awfulness of Book II.
No slight to Rain Dgs, which is perfectly good, but at no point does it capture the charm of a man swinging a morning star around his head with intent to murder, let alone the talking panther.
Mean Team
Mean Team
Mean Team.
Rain Dogs was fine. Mean Team was always naff for me and these days feels like nothing more than an exercise in nostalgia. I don't care about returning to either, but I'd sooner read Rain Dogs again, so that edges it.
Mean Team - and I appear to be alone in liking both halves of the tale, especially Massimo's artwork on Earth.
Much as I love Mule Variations, Frank's Wild Years, Heartattack & Vine and even early stuff like Closing Time, Rain Dogs will always be his defining album, for me.
Quote from: CalHab on 23 March, 2022, 01:05:59 PM
Much as I love Mule Variations, Frank's Wild Years, Heartattack & Vine and even early stuff like Closing Time, Rain Dogs will always be his defining album, for me.
You know what you are not far wrong there. I'm a big fan of it all - and disappointed with myself that I didn't use that as part of my intro - but there's not denying the post Swordfishtrombones works are his best and Raindogs is arguably the best of those, Alice, Mule Variations and Blood Money are all up there though.
Mean team
Quote from: Colin YNWA on 23 March, 2022, 01:12:50 PM
You know what you are not far wrong there. I'm a big fan of it all - and disappointed with myself that I didn't use that as part of my intro - but there's not denying the post Swordfishtrombones works are his best and Raindogs is arguably the best of those, Alice, Mule Variations and Blood Money are all up there though.
How could I have forgotten Swordfishtrombones!
Rain Dogs is good, shoutout to the sometimes overlooked Blue Valentine though, not to mention Small Change. Mule Variations perhaps a personal favourite.
Having said that I loved Mean Team book 1 as a kid. Still enjoy it! That artwork!
Rain Dogs
Cats > Dogs, HENRY MOON
Mean Team!
Rain Dogs. Because while I only bought the hardback because it was a fiver, I did at least give it a place on my shelf. Mean Team, no thanks.
SBT
Oh I don't know.....hmmmm....Mean Team.
Its the Mean Team
They'll knock out Rain Dogs too
Well unless you get some votes in today to turn this one around.
Mean Team - no contest.
VOTING CLOSED
Yep as expected, but why is Mean Team so popular, isn't it a bit rubbish (quite a lot ribbish?). i blame myself for not using the Tom Waits link to Rain Dogs in the intro. Would even that have prevented
Mean Team
Smacking a morning star into the face of Round 2 to score a place in Round 3.
Mean team
Quote from: Colin YNWA on 26 March, 2022, 06:56:47 AM
[but why is Mean Team so popular, isn't it a bit rubbish (quite a lot ribbish?).
overwhelmingly, surely, belardinelli?
Quote from: The Mind of Wolfie Smith on 26 March, 2022, 11:13:12 AM
Quote from: Colin YNWA on 26 March, 2022, 06:56:47 AM
[but why is Mean Team so popular, isn't it a bit rubbish (quite a lot ribbish?).
overwhelmingly, surely, belardinelli?
I whisper it but except for a few strips he's perfectly suited for I'm not a Belardinelli fan...
ye gods the darkness rises
Quite apart from Belardinelli's GLORIOUS art, this is a future sports story which is basically 'murder capture the flag' but also set inside 'Deathtrap Dungeon' and there are two main characters, one of whom is evil but sympathetic, the other of whom is a classic nice guy who is also A PSYCHIC TRAPPED IN THE BODY OF A MURDER-PANTHER. There's even a prologue to explain that the story exists on the grounds that Tharg did a survey of 8-year-old boys who said they'd moved on from liking dinosaurs and cowboys and now wanted D&D mixed with future sports, + murder.
The only wonder is that someone thought it was a good idea to turn the deathsport setting into a fantasy Earth quest setting.
Quote from: Colin YNWA on 26 March, 2022, 03:47:21 PM
Quote from: The Mind of Wolfie Smith on 26 March, 2022, 11:13:12 AM
Quote from: Colin YNWA on 26 March, 2022, 06:56:47 AM
[but why is Mean Team so popular, isn't it a bit rubbish (quite a lot ribbish?).
overwhelmingly, surely, belardinelli?
I whisper it but except for a few strips he's perfectly suited for I'm not a Belardinelli fan...
*moves motion to remove the Colin from post on grounds of insanity*
Quote from: Colin YNWA on 26 March, 2022, 03:47:21 PM
Quote from: The Mind of Wolfie Smith on 26 March, 2022, 11:13:12 AM
Quote from: Colin YNWA on 26 March, 2022, 06:56:47 AM
[but why is Mean Team so popular, isn't it a bit rubbish (quite a lot ribbish?).
overwhelmingly, surely, belardinelli?
I whisper it but except for a few strips he's perfectly suited for I'm not a Belardinelli fan...
Paging Mek-Quake! Mek-Quake to the front desk!
Mean team
Quote from: AlexF on 28 March, 2022, 03:03:25 PM
There's even a prologue to explain that the story exists on the grounds that Tharg did a survey of 8-year-old boys who said they'd moved on from liking dinosaurs and cowboys and now wanted D&D mixed with future sports, + murder.
The only wonder is that someone thought it was a good idea to turn the deathsport setting into a fantasy Earth quest setting.
I mean, you mentioned the world's most famous fantasy roleplaying game right in the previous paragraph...