Messages

[Kek-W]

Boy is this ever not a match-up I wanted to see. Bad Company is the best. The literal best. (Personally I'm a huge fan of the series just called Kano). And Milligan's Future Shocks are some of my faves. But looking beyond that, I've gotta say I rate Kek-W's work higher than Milligan's other efforts: Deadworld, The Order obviously, but also Angel Zero, and he's earned a lot of credit for wringing beauty out of a couple of sequels, Grudge Father and Canon Fodder.

Milligan is a true titan of the pen (or keyboard) but I think when it comes to the house of Tharg, I'm voting for Kek-W this time.

A terrifying thought, to live in a world without Barney. Hell, if we need to rebuild it from scratch sign me up for some late-night data entry sessions. But hopefully it won't come to that.

Just wanted to check - this special was aimed at children, right? As in, 8-13 year-olds or so? And as such it was pretty fun. Not quite sure it's fair to judge it by 2000AD standards, but reckon a Phoenix fan would enjoy.

For what it's worth I'm in the 'Mytek the Mighty was the best thing by miles' camp, so take my opinion with all the grains of salt you need if you had different expectations. Weston's cover art is AMAZING.

[Rob Williams it is]

I find Williams's work is often weirdly dense and requires a bit of effort on my part to understand the thematic points he is definitely making. Whereas Hebden cuts through the bullshit and delivers intelligent, well-plotted thrills.
But you know, when Williams hits the right mix of tone and style and theme his work really sings. That's true for a lot of his Dredd, quite a bit of Low Life, but he did it best, I think in Ichabod Azrael. Bloody loved that strip, all three over-wrought series of it. Rob Williams it is!

[Abnett]

Yeah, it's gotta be Abnett. Just to pick one series, I love the original VCs but I think Abnett's continuation was miles better written, if far more serious in tone.

Beyond that, the sheer volume of puns in Sinister Dexter wins me over, and I'm in that camp that thinks Brink is one of the best ever 2000 thrills, with Lawless and Insurrection the best of the Meg.

(but I would vote for Finley-Day over pretty much all of Abnett's other work, it's tight man).

[Worley]

I rather like Ennis's Dredds, but on the whole didn't care for much of his other stuff, outside of Monsters and True Faith. Some of the throwaway jokes made me chuckle.

Worley has written fewer but also rather good Dredds, but he's getting my vote for putting the effort in and banging out memorable new creations. Dandridge > Time Flies and Age of the Wolf > Sleeze n Ryder, wouldn't you all agree?

And even Ennis at his most Ennis-y didn't pull out Realm of the Damned.

[Edginton]

Much as I love Nikolai Dante, I've got to give my vote to Edginton this time around, in part for the sheer volume of weirdness he has thrown our way. Although I confess part of it is that I haven't re-read Dante in quite a while but am currently enjoying a trawl through Ampney Crucis.

It's a fair argument that Bishop is better at the craft of writing, but I'm siding with everyone else - G F-D is the superior crafter of mad fun thrills. And I never got tired of his reminders at the end of each Rogue serial that War is the real joke!

Alan Grant all day long, obviously for his partnership with Wagner but as a solo writer about half of his Andersons are amongst the most literate scripts the Prog/Meg ever published, and I like some literateness does I.

I am also in that group of readers who loved the Final Solution and couldn't quite get on with Zenith, so not much contest!
(although in the interests of fairness I do think some of Grant's later solo Dredds might actually be less fun to read than Morrison's Dredd monstrosities...)

[Rennie]

I've loved about half of Grennie's stuff, disliked a fair chunk. Have loved or liked pretty much all of Moore's Tharg work.

But I'm still voting Rennie because what I've loved of it I've loved more - perhaps because I only started reading the Prog after Moore had already left, I imprinted on things like Cab, Inc stronger - to borrow Tback's phrase.

Also Rennie is a known boarder and I'm a massive suck-up.

Would pay money to see these two titans of tetch have a grumpy-off, too.

It's really a very strong Prog. Way better than Prog 1184, and at least on a par with Prog 184.

I do love Chris Weston's commitment to a permanently super-tense Friday. The character kind of only works as a coiled beast on the edge of exploding into shooty-death outbursts. With those popping veins and spittle-flecked teeth you can practically hear that his brain has an unending drone of 'OBEY ORDERS. FIGHT HARD. DIE WELL.' giving him a constant migraine. Also it makes it easier not to read the words.

I prefer Rob Williams' writing to Mark Millar's and I don't mind putting that in writing.

My thinking is that StarLord, Tornado, Crisis, Revolver and more obviously The Judge Dredd Megazine all count as Thargian publications - on the grounds that characters from each ended up in the Prog. (Well, Revolver is a tenuous link I'll admit, but Dan Dare is the connecting factor, and it only made it through 7 issues + a special)
But I draw the line at Eagle, Battle, Action and all the recent 'Treasury of British Comics' bits.

Of course, the logic on that is rather going out the window with characters like Black Max showing up in 2000AD, not to mention the Vigilant slated to assault the Megazine.
And I'd never have said Deadline counted as 2000AD, but many a creator and indeed one major character has since pulled the plough on Tharg's thrill farm. And arguably one could consider Preacher as relevant to this specific tourney round - the first place I encountered it was in the Megazine, after all.

I'm still voting Adams.

Argh quick decision time!

Just for the sheer bloody murder and my yountful love for violent sports that make no sense, I cast my vote for Tom Tully.