Best place to start !
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I purchased this title as volume 1 was out of stock at the time. I couldn't have been more lucky!! The intro story (portrait of a mutant) gives you all the background you need to johnny's world and introduces the main characters brilliantly. The rest of the book is chock full of quality strips from there on in and even ties up loose ends from Portrait. Don't get me wrong this is awesome stuff but if your not a fan of early Wagner/Grant 2000ad strips then this is probably not for you although it is the best of the bunch. I find it takes a little effort to get into this sort of stuff but once you have youl be hooked!
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Better throw your money out the window!
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If you like quality comics, STAY AWAY from this.
I was duped into ordering the three volumes of Strontium Dog by reading the glaring reviews. Mind you, I love quality graphic novels: some of my favourite names are Neil Gaiman, Frank Miller, Alan Moore, Art Spiegelman, for instance.
If any of those ring a bell for you, don't even look at Strontium Dog. It's the worst of a simple-minded, silly, badly thought, worsely drawn, 70's comic strip. Makes you feel like throwing up. I've had to force myself to read 20 pages just to convince me that I was not hallucinating. I'll never trust Amazon fans' reviews again.
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Johnny Alpha, the Alpha male
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I saw this book in a shop in town and had to buy it right there and then. I was so deeply submerged in it that I missed my stop on the bus and had to walk two miles back down the road to get home. It was worth it.
The artwork is great, the stories are better. If I happen to be involved in the great war to end all wars, if by some miracle I survive, and by chance become mutated, possibly to the degree where normal people hate me and by coincidence I get offered a job as a bounty hunter, I promise I will never, ever smile.
Johnny Alpha is a mean, cold, heartless killer with heart. He NEVER smiles. His partner, Wulf Sternhammer is a norse maniac with a sledgehammer. And then theres the Gronk, an annoying, whiny, pathetic, fluffy gimp of a creature who just gets in the way. The greatest graphic anti-hero ever thought up.
And y'know what? compared to some 2000ad characters, even the Gronk could fill you with 'dredd'
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The beginning...
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After finally doing the right thing and releasing Judge Dredd's adventures in chronological order, 2000AD are now using the format for some of it's other quality strips. If any of the other classic 2K characters deserves the treatment it would be Strontium Dog so this collection(including the original Starlord episodes)is very welcome. The strips have also aged considerably better than the very early Dredd strips, the storylines having a grittier feel and the mutant persecution angle gives the ongoing scrapes of Johnny Alpha a humanity that Dredd lacks. It's a massive volume, and another area it benefits over the Dredd Case Files is in the continuity of the artwork. For the most part this is Carlos Ezquerra's show, and all the better for it, his iconic depiction of Alpha and chums being among his best work. When the occasional fill-in artist takes centre stage the blow is softened by the quality of the artists chosen(Ian Gibson in particular does a great job). The stories are great, with the exception of the bonus strips taken from old annuals, but it seems wrong to criticize the bonus material and if anything comletists will be glad they were included. Roll on book 2.
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Excellent book - has many classics
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Book 2 of the Strontium Dog series really has some epic stories in it. The Killing is my personal favourite and the whole story is included. Great series of books from Rebellion, cant wait for book 3.
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