Youtube // Strontium Dog - The Good, The Bad and The Mutie

It's happened. I have completed the starter set from Warlord Games. The Good, The Bad and The Mutie is set within the 2000 AD comic series called Strontium Dog and follows one of the saddest tales in the series. The game comes with 8 characters. Three are Strontium Dog agents - Johnny Alpha, The Gronk and Wulf Sternhammer and they face off against five villains of the Max Bubba Gang - Max Bubba, Brute Mosely, Lowdown O'Phee, Skull and Impetigo Jones.

Hope you enjoyed and as always, like, subscribe and follow if enjoyed this. You can also support the blog by using any of the following links:

Instagram: Adventures with Peps

Tik-Tok: Adventures with Peps

Youtube: Adventures with Peps

Ko-fi: Adventures with Peps

Amazon Link (yes I get a kickback, thank you for supporting me):

Comic: Strontium Dog: Traitor to his Kind

Comic Review 133 // Strontium Dog: Traitor to his Kind

Well, I had a lot of fun with Glimmer Rats last week. I found myself missing Strontium Dog, and I felt I had to get back to it. I have completed the official Johnny Alpha arc, but the creative team Wagner and Ezquerra felt like they still had stories to tell. So they managed to squeeze out a few more for us fans. This leads us nicely to the first novel Strontium Dog: Traitor to his kind.

Johnny Alpha – the mutant bounty hunter with the X-ray eyes – has been given his toughest job to date. The mutant underground has kidnapped King Clarkie The Second and the British government want Alpha to secure his release.

Finding himself working for the norms, Johnny must venture deep into the mutant ghetto and deep into his own past. As Johnny unravels a plot to start a new war with the mutants he must ask himself the toughest question. In order to save his own kind can Johnny Alpha betray them?

Written by John Wagner (A History of Violence) with art by Carlos Ezquerra (Preacher), this Thrill-packed tome brings you 2000 AD at its very best!

Right where to begin? The action in this graphic novel seems to take place after The Kreeler Conspiracy. These comics were published between 2000 and 2009 and lucky for us are all written by John Wagner and drawn by the talented but sadly past Carlos Ezquerra. Also with it being a modern piece, it is all fully coloured and a real treat to the eyes.

There are a lot of tales and characters to take in with this book, but rather than break down every story I am just going to go over the highlights. The first tale starred Kid Knee. This is a model I have been eyeing up from Warlord Games, so to read his story was a true highlight for me if a little sad and you can't help but feel a little down after this story. Good opening piece and a telling example of how the theme of this book will go.

The next tale is a prison break job, with our duo coming to the aid of Headly Foot, an ex- SD agent with an ankle and foot on his head. Having been found guilty of crimes he faces prison time until Johnny and Wulf rescue him. But are they being honourable or do they have other motives. Solid enough tale but nothing that really gripped me or inspired me.

Then we hit the title tale - Traitor to his Kind. In this story, King Clarkie has been kidnapped by a group of mutant terrorists. Due to his connection to the English government, Alpha is called in to assist in finding the missing king. This is such an enjoyable read with Johnny Alpha placed in a no-win scenario. If he helps the government he will be forever titled a traitor by his own kind, whilst if he chooses to not help he will have to watch another mutant vs norm war take place. Unsurprisingly Johnny chooses to save the king and become branded a traitor. There are a lot of twists in this comic that I won't reveal, but it is hard to watch it all happen, at times you find yourself wanting to slap people and wake them up to the tragic happenings around them. Amazing story and well worth the price of the issue alone.

We are treated to a fallout story, showcasing how Johnny is treated in the aftermath of the main story, it is a sad state of affairs, to be honest. It didn't really add much and felt a filler piece, but at the same time felt very Strontium Dog. With the duo heading off to claim a bounty with no epicness about. It is a very straightforward bounty job that gets messed up along the way.

The last story; The Glum Affair. Actually feels like a true follow-up to the Traitor to his kind story. As we revisit Glum, who is now in prison awaiting to be executed for killing a policeman. In an attempt to speak to his old friend, Johnny is meet with poisonous contempt and is forced to rescue/kidnap Glum to help prove his innocence. During their time on the run, Glum begins to realize his error and by the end of the story is praising Johnny Alpha once more. The true highlight of the story is the trio visiting a space station that is built as a Las Vegas in space, lots of gambling and criminals are aboard here and the bounty hunting fun soon takes over again, with plenty of twists and turns to keep you interested. This was a very strong ending for the comic and second only to the main story.

Overall the comic made a good job of showcasing Johnny Alpha as a stand-alone character, even when around his own kind. It comes across as aloof and arrogant but is in fact just a lonely lifestyle for the bounty hunter. We then watch what little life he has crumbled away, before getting the redemption tale that was needed. It is a great reworking of the Strontium timeline and I am excited to dive into the Blood Moon graphic novel next.

As always, like, subscribe and follow if enjoyed this. You can also support the blog by using any of the following links:

Instagram: Adventures with Peps

Tik-Tok: Adventures with Peps

Youtube: Adventures with Peps

Ko-fi: Adventures with Peps

Amazon Link (yes I get a kickback, thank you for supporting me):

Strontium Dog: Traitor to his Kind

Miniature Monday // Strontium Dog: Skull

Member number 4 of the Max Bubba gang is now complete. Simply known as Skull this is the weirdest of the characters in my opinion. Here are some official details:

History

Skull was a member of Max Bubba's gang. He took part in his plan to wipe out humanity, travelling back in time with Bubba to Iceland. He was killed in a fire-fight with Johnny Alpha towards the end — he was shot in the chest several times and stumbled back into a volcanic crater behind him.

Sex: Male

Eyes: White

Unusual Feature: Horned Skull as head

Occupation: Criminal

Known for: Killing people.

Location of Death: Iceland

Weaknesses: Blasters, volcanoes

Paraphernalia/Weapons: Blaster, Time-travelling machine.

Notes:

From the photographs in the Warlord Games rulebook, Skull is painted in Green and Yellow. A very similar colour palate to Johnny Alpha. Now personally I am not a fan of the colour choice, especially as I want Alpha to stand out on the tabletop. I decided to go a different route, with Skull being a part of Max Bubba's gang, I thought a similar yellow to his coat would work. So with yellow being the dominant colour, I choose red to act as the secondary. This is a colour scheme I really enjoy pairing so expect to see it a lot. With Skull now completed I am left with two models left to paint Wulf Sternhammer and O'Phee. Hopefully, I can have these painted soon and start to do some battle reports!

As always, I thank you for stopping by, I hope you will leave a comment or give me a follow. If you are interested in starting your own Strontium Dog Adventures I will leave some Amazon links below. Cheers!

Amazon Links:

Photographed on an A5100

Strontium Dog Rulebook

Comic Review 121 // Strontium Dog Search/Destroy Agency Files, Vol.1

Birthday Post!! Turning 38 today and what better way to treat me, than with Strontium Dog Comic Review.

Well for those of you who follow my Youtube channel (thank you), I announced in my last vlog, that I was really getting into Warlord Games' Strontium Dog. Now as I long a time fan of 2000 AD I have now again tipped my toes into a Johnny Alpha story, but I have never gone back to the start to discover its roots.

Well time to change that! Welcome everyone to Strontium Month. All of February I will be solely reading Strontium Dogs comics (hopefully without burnout). Now lucky for me 2000 AD has collected them all in an easy way ie. digital like this one (Amazon Link).

Strontium Dogs Search/Destroy Agency Files, Vol.1

by John Wagner, Alan Grant, Carlos Ezquerra (Illustrator), Brendan McCarthy (Illustrator), Ian Gibson (Illustrator), Keith Page (Illustrator).

Earth, the late 22nd century. Following the atomic war of 2150, Britain has been devastated by a nuclear holocaust survivors rebuilt their lives, but many were warped by the mutating effects of Strontium 90 fallout. Unable to live or work amongst the 'norms', mutants were forced to grow up in ghettos and take the only job open to them - bounty hunting. These Search/Destroy Agents hunt the criminals too dangerous for the Galactic Crime Commission. One such Strontium Dog is Johnny Alpha, whose eyes emit piercing Alpha rays and enable him to see through solid objects - and into men's minds.

Now in the first volume collecting together all the Strontium Dog adventures from the beginning you can join Johnny, his norm Viking partner Wulf Sternhammer and alien medic The Gronk as they fight their way through a universe of violence and prejudice!

Personal thoughts

Like a lot of 2000 AD stories, it is quirky but hits home with the underlying tones of racism and xenophobia. Strontium Dogs is set in a future where nuclear war has to lead to a widespread mutation. Most mutants are now treated like garbage, unemployable and left to starve in the wasteland. The only way to survive is to join the Search/Destroy Agency - aka Strontium Dogs. This organization chases down criminals from across the galaxy and sometimes time itself and brings them to justice. This job is viewed with distaste by everyone as they believe the agents to be no better than the criminals themselves.

The main characters of the tale are Johnny Alpha, a mutant with pure white eyes that allow him to see through materials and read minds. Wulf Sternhammer, a Viking now stuck in the future following some unknown story that has not yet been revealed and the Gronk, a metal-eating alien with multiple hearts that get scared way too easily.

This first collection starts before 2000 AD and has the stories from Starlord in it. The stories read like sci-fi wild west which is a term I have seen many people describe it as. The stories for the most part are short and action-filled but can be very hit and miss. The writers I feel lacked direction and just had the art to go off and no background. It is only about halfway through that the characters start truly developing. Johnny seems like a robin hood style character, wanting to rescue and protect the downtrodden which I can only imagine will be a problem down the road. Wulf comes across as a loyal friend and all-around nice guy, but when his anger is provoked is a hard man to stop and the Gronk is like the lion from OZ, scared of everything but ultimately the bravest when it comes to protecting his friends.

Overall I enjoyed the book, the Hell series is a standout story. It was truly the first epic for the characters and seems the turning point for the progression of the characters. I loved how it had me guessing who was Satan was early on (even though it was none of them), and actually made me feel for some of the throwaway characters. Great writing and a great story. I enjoy the fact that the writers don't take it too seriously and try to inject humour into what would otherwise be a dark series.

I am excited now to jump into book two and see the characters fleshed out more. Have you read this series? Let me know your thoughts, also this is how I plan to write future omnibus novels going forwards, wanting to review the overall theme of the book rather than a story by story. Let me know if it works or not.

If you have the chance give me a follow. Thank you for stopping by and showing support and feel free to use these links to start your own adventures. I get a kickback if you use the Amazon link, so thank you in advance.

Instagram: Adventures with Peps

Youtube: Adventures with Peps

Ko-fi: Adventures with Peps

Amazon Link (yes I get a kickback, thank you for supporting me):

Kindle Edition - Search/Destroy Agency Vol.1

The Game: The Good, The Bad, The Mutie by Warlord Games