Strontium Dog

Strontium Dog is a long-running British comics series featuring in the British science fiction weekly 2000 AD, starring Johnny Alpha, a mutant bounty hunter with an array of imaginative gadgets and weapons.

Johnny Alpha
Johnny Alpha
Art by Carlos Ezquerra.
Publication information
Publisheroriginally IPC Media (Fleetway) to 1999, thereafter Rebellion Developments
First appearanceStarlord #1 (1978)
Created byJohn Wagner
Carlos Ezquerra
In-story information
Alter egoJohn Kreelman
Team affiliationsSearch/Destroy Agency
Notable aliasesJohnny Alpha
AbilitiesMutant eyes allow him to see through solid objects and read brainwave patterns,
limited telekinesis,
superb military skills,
has mastered Yogi trick of stopping & restarting his own heartbeat

The series was created by writer John Wagner (under the pseudonym T. B. Grover) and artist Carlos Ezquerra for Starlord, a short-lived weekly science fiction comic, in 1978. When Starlord was cancelled, the series transferred to 2000 AD. In 1980, Wagner was joined by co-writer Alan Grant, although scripts were normally credited to Grant alone. Grant wrote the series solo from 1988 to 1990. After Ezquerra's death in October 2018 the series was put in indefinite hiatus with no current plans for its continuation (other than some single-episode stories in special issues aimed at younger readers).

Series background

The premise of the series is that the Great Nuclear War of 2150 wiped out 70% of Britain's population and led to a huge increase of mutant births due to exposure to nuclear fallout (strontium-90). The mutants faced a high degree of racism, similar to that faced by the Jewish population of Nazi Germany. Laws were passed forbidding mutants from owning businesses and segregating them into ghettos such as a giant mutant settlement at Milton Keynes.

Following the end of this storyline, in 2180, one of the few jobs left for mutants is that of bounty hunter, a job considered too dangerous for normal humans. The strongest of mutants hunt down criminals throughout the galaxy for the Search/Destroy agency, whose distinctive SD badges give them the nickname Strontium Dogs. The SD agents operate from an orbiting space station known as The Doghouse.

The mutants of Strontium Dog differ from the usual depiction of mutants in American comics, such as those published by Marvel, in that they are generally afflicted with severe physical deformities and only rarely granted with superhuman powers. Often this leads to humour and character names being puns, as Spider-Dan in the Young Middenface spin-off and skull-faced Welsh mutant Dai the Death in Strontium Dog: Traitor To His Kind.

Even by the standards of 2000 AD, Strontium Dog plotlines can be bizarre. In one story, Alpha travels to an alternate dimension that passes for Hell. In another, he is sent by time machine to 1945 to arrest Adolf Hitler. There is a bleak, minimalistic edge to the series at times reminiscent of spaghetti westerns.

Earth

Earth is rarely seen in the strip. When it is, the focus is often New Britain – Great Britain after a devastating nuclear war. It is much closer to modern-day Britain than Judge Dredd's Brit-Cit by the same writers, but contains areas of nuclear devastation such as the Greater London Crater and Birmingham Gap; areas known to survive include Salisbury (now a major area and political centre), Glasgow, Newcastle, Dover, Christchurch & Bournemouth (now a combined conurbation), Cardiff, Isles of Scilly, and Winchester. The flying building of Upminster contains both the parliament and the monarchy. In the sequel series Strontium Dogs, it was stated that Britain had a large empire of outer-space colonies.

The mutants of New Britain live in ghettos, isolated from the human population and living in poverty. Later stories like Traitor To His Kind would reveal some figures in the government, such as the First Lord of the Military (himself having a mutant daughter) are attempting to slowly improve the mutants' lot, but much of this goes unnoticed behind the scenes; many other figures in the government want to go back to greater oppression or attempted extermination.

In The Final Solution, the government was usurped by the New Church and the incumbent monarch killed; the first Strontium Dogs story had it that after the destruction of the New Church by the Strontium Dogs, a hastily assembled junta government exiled all mutants from Britain. Crossroads, in prog 898, revealed that Earth was in a severe political mess, with twenty six "minor wars", and the rest of the galaxy was cutting ties. The later strip The Life and Death of Johnny Alpha ignored all of this, instead having post-Church New Britain ruled by a more liberal government.

Ireland is known to still exist, though little has been shown; the United States of America and Canada were both visited in The Mork Whisperer (2009); and the leader of a West African Mutant Republic was shown in The Final Solution. Antarctica was the setting of part of Outlaw, shown to have been turned into a tropical area with marshes and rainforests by the Rad Wars. The centre was Antarctic City (also the name of a megacity in Judge Dredd), with military and police matters handled by the Antarctic Militia.

Johnny Alpha

The Strontium Dogs storyline focuses on John Alpha, whose mutated eyes allow him to see through walls and read minds. He is responsible for such legendary achievements as destroying the Wolrog homeworld, leading the mutant uprising on Earth, and bringing Adolf Hitler to the future to face trial. His legendary career and his assistance to mutants in trouble - such as donating a large sum of money to the Milton Keynes ghetto in "Mutie's Luck" - have made him an icon to Earth's mutants. He is a highly skilled and dangerous fighter.

A dogged bounty hunter, Johnny never gives up in the pursuit of his quarry. While he does work for money, he possesses a conscience and will often take a job, forego payment or sometimes drop a job entirely: in "The Doc Quince Case", he immediately relented and rescued a man he'd hunted down, and in "The Slavers of Drule" he took an assignment to track down a group of slavers because he felt it was the right thing to do. He also can be extremely vengeful when angered, as shown by his actions towards Nelson Kreelman and Max Bubba.

He is the son of Nelson Bunker Kreelman, a bigoted politician who drafted the anti-mutant laws and gained power on the back of bigotry. Despised, abused and hidden away by his father, Johnny escaped at a young age and joined the Mutant Army, becoming one of its key leaders by age 17 and playing a major part in the mutant uprising of 2167. He never revealed the identity of his father, changing his name from Kreelman to Alpha.

He has a "norm" sister called Ruth, who is married and has a husband (Nigel) and daughter. She and her family have traditionally been friendly to Johnny; she even helped him escape and caused Nelson Kreelman's blackmail during the Mutant Army uprising of 2167. However, after her daughter was abducted and almost killed by a criminal looking for revenge on Johnny, she forbade him from coming near her family again.

Alpha has a norm half-brother, the son of Nelson Kreelman by an affair, called Nelson Culliver, who after the war became head of the Anti-Mutant Squad at Scotland Yard. In "Traitor to His Kind", Culliver tried to have Alpha murdered, but was exposed and fired from his job. Alpha decided to assassinate him, but relented on meeting his children.

Weapons/equipment and mutant abilities

Like all Search/Destroy agents, Alpha is armed with highly advanced technology including a variable-cartridge blaster, electrified brass knuckles, a short-range teleporter, a "time drogue" that can briefly "rewind" the last few minutes of time, and "time bombs" which can transport somebody minutes or hours forwards or backwards in time (by which time the planet has moved along in its orbit, so that the victim reappears in empty space).

Over the years, Johnny Alpha's white, incandescent eyes have provided him with several mutant abilities. Most frequently, the high-level alpha radiation emitted from his eyes allows Johnny to see through walls and other solid objects, or to read people's minds. He has also used his piercing stare to inflict severe headaches on his opponents, or to "suggest" illusions or hallucinations (e.g., while fighting the Necromagus, Sabbat, Johnny made Sabbat believe the Grim Reaper was behind him).

Supporting cast

Johnny's original partner is Wulf Sternhammer, who is not a mutant but a normal human from Scandinavia; he became a Strontium Dog out of a sense of camaraderie with Johnny, and, despite the indignities, he viewed it as good work as it kept the galaxy "safe for decent people".[1] A blunt and straightforward brawler, Wulf was far less prone to doubt and introspection and tried to bring his friend back in line when he had doubts. Ever since Starlord #5, Wulf wore the fur pelt of a Gronk that he'd befriended - the alien's custom was for people dear to them to wear their skin, so part of them would live on. Wulf acted a lot like a stereotypical Viking and it was eventually retconned that he was a Viking, accidentally brought into the 22nd century when Johnny was pursuing a criminal gang through time.

Early strips included the Gronk, the brother of the Gronk that Wulf had met earlier. It was a timid, metal-eating alien from the planet Blas, in the Gallego system (a tribute to the fantasy artist Blas Gallego). The Gronk provided medical back-up and constantly worried about its "poor heartses", and in "Outlaw" showed it could survive multiple heart attacks. A gag showed that "the Gronk" was the name for most of its species, causing problems when mail arrives for "the Gronk". In the Strontium Dogs spinoff, the Gronk transformed into a gun-toting highly aggressive soldier.

King Clarkie the Second, a thinly veiled parody of Prince Charles was the monarch for much of the strip, being deposed late in the series for his pro-mutant views. While presented as a buffoon in several strips, he was also essentially harmless and well-meaning.

Two allies who gained their own solo spin-off series were Middenface McNulty, a Scottish mutant raised in a ghetto/concentration camp called 'Shytehill' - presumably a reference to the Sighthill area of Glasgow - and whose head is covered with lumps; and Durham Red, a female agent whose mutation resembles vampirism and who is thus feared and despised by other mutants.

Feral, introduced in "The Final Solution", was a young, savage mutant. He initially despised the Strontium Dogs, who he saw as abandoning the mutants on Earth, but was inspired by the actions of Johnny Alpha. Feral witnessed Alpha's sacrifice in "The Final Solution", and in the original "Strontium Dogs" strips of the 1990s, he became first a rebel outlaw in the colony worlds and then a renowned SD Agent. In "The Life and Death of Johnny Alpha", this was ignored and he became a SD Agent soon after "The Final Solution" – due to his abrasive personality, he soon left and became an outlaw who tried to resurrect Alpha, only to give up. In this second timeline, he was executed for murder on an alien world.

In both the original series and the revival Alpha frequently encountered or worked alongside members of a mutant family known as the Stix Clan. All members male and female are identical in appearance, personality and dress sense. They all hail from a single town called Stixville on the planet Freedonia and are highly hostile to any outsiders. They often appear as antagonist to Alpha but at times have worked alongside him, however they usually double cross and betray him at some point showing only the slightest loyalty to other Stix. There is said to be only one good Stix, Father Phineas who is a Catholic priest, a genuinely good and kind person and thus unmentionable around the rest of the Clan.

The revival would introduce Negus, the First Lord of the Military, a stern-faced and middle-aged politician who would both hire Johnny and act as his Upminster contact. Negus was pushing for increased mutant rights, having a mutant daughter that he kept at home (something Johnny remarked as being a brave act for a man in Negus' position), though he still wanted to keep mutant and norm bloodlines separate.

Flashbacks to the pre-Wulf days of Johnny's life would introduce Precious Matson, a reporter from the mutant colony of Freedonia. A competent and dogged reporter, she became friends with Johnny and helped him against the terrorist leader Blood Moon. In "Life and Death", she began investigating the true events of Johnny's death and, with McNulty's aid, was able to resurrect him.

In 2018 “The Son” revealed that Wulf had had a son, Kenton Sternhammer, who joined the Search/Destroy Agency.

Date

The first Strontium Dog stories in Starlord and 2000 AD were set in the year 2180. Later, the story "Max Bubba" gave the date 2185 (just as in the Judge Dredd stories by the same writers, the date progresses in real time). However, although the stories "The No-Go Job" and "The Final Solution" were said to take place two years after the events in "Max Bubba," the date was again given as 2180. This discrepancy was repeated in the story "Judgement Day" (written by Garth Ennis), which gave the date 2178 even though it was set after the events in "Max Bubba."

Occasionally, some one-episode stories which appeared in annuals and summer specials were set outside the range of dates given above, being set in different points of Alpha's life.

Major stories

Original run

"Portrait of a Mutant", a flashback story in 1981, filled in the background of the series and Johnny's role in the Mutant Army; it introduced Kreelman and the Kreelers, his quasi-official anti-mutant police. Kreelman drafted laws stating mutants were not allowed to work or own businesses, leading to them being forced from their homes into slums and eventually into being forced into labour camps; the only option for many mutants was to join the nationwide guerilla Mutant Army. An attack was launched on Upminster in 2167 as part of a general uprising, but the Army's leaders were forced to surrender in the face of mass mutant executions. Kreelman used this as an opportunity to push forward the extermination of all mutants; Johnny Alpha and the other leaders escaped (thanks to Johnny's sister and mother) and led the Mutant Army in a second major uprising to prevent genocide. The Prime Minister and King agreed to draft into law a better deal for mutants, and - after hearing Alpha was Kreelman's son from Ruth - blackmailed Kreelman into resigning. The mutant leaders were pardoned on condition they go into exile in space, leading to the creation of the Search/Destroy agency; the Kreelers were disbanded and replaced with a new police force. This changeover was depicted by a panel showing Kreelers, which was then repeated but with a different uniform, showing that the same people and attitudes remained. In the present day, bookending "Portrait", Johnny tracked his father down and activated a time device, causing his father to relive his final moments: begging for his life, forever.

In the story "Outlaw", Kreelman was later freed, and, in disguise, had himself appointed head of the Search/Destroy agency. He used his position to frame Johnny and other Mutant Army veterans for murder. Johnny was soon made aware of the truth and had no qualms about dragging his own father before the deceived mutants who gunned him down on the spot.

In the 1986 story "Max Bubba", a lengthy story explaining Wulf's origins, Wulf was killed off at the hands of Max Bubba and his gang. This led to the epic "Rage", in which Johnny remorselessly hunted down his partner's killers. After that Johnny either worked solo, or with Durham Red or Scottish mutant Middenface McNulty.

Johnny was killed off in 1990, sacrificing himself to save mutants from extermination at the hands of Kreelman's illegitimate son, Lord Sagan. Artist Carlos Ezquerra disagreed with the decision to kill him and refused to draw it, so Johnny's final adventures were illustrated by Simon Harrison and Colin MacNeil. John Wagner later admitted in Judge Dredd Megazine's Thrill Power Overload feature on the history of the comic that "killing off Johnny Alpha was a mistake [that] I'm doing my best to rectify."[2] He later described it as "one of the big regrets of my career, probably the biggest."[3]

Post-death and Strontium Dogs

The medium of time travel allowed him to make further appearances. In the 1991 Judge Dredd Annual John Wagner wrote and Colin MacNeil drew "Top Dogs", in which Johnny and Wulf travel back in time to Mega-City One in pursuit of a criminal, whilst encountering and only narrowly escaping Judge Dredd. Johnny and Dredd renewed acquaintances in 1992 in the Judge Dredd story "Judgement Day", written by Garth Ennis and drawn mainly by Ezquerra.

The supporting cast would gain their own spin-off strip Strontium Dogs in the 1990s, written by Garth Ennis and Peter Hogan. It was criticised by Ennis in the book Thrill Power Overload as being anti-climactic and that the lead, Feral, "was nowhere near as interesting as Johnny". The series was scrapped when David Bishop became 2000 AD's editor. The first story, Monster starring Feral, revealed the Search Destroy Agency no longer existed and mutants had been driven off Earth by a hastily assembled UK junta government; colony worlds were also shown to be under military occupation and severely ill-treating mutants, with the alleged mutant resistance merely using their organisation to extort "liberation" taxes from mutants (an allegory for The Troubles in Northern Ireland, Ennis' home).

Ennis would bring back the Gronk in Return of the Gronk, turning him into an aggressive berserker: learning that Johnny Alpha was dead caused a heart attack which awakened his aggressive side of this one. The Gronk and Feral were teamed up, and went out for revenge against the necromancers who'd killed Alpha in The Darkest Star. In the process, Feral found out he was the son of the lead necromancer and both he and the Gronk discovered that the necromancers drew their power from torturing the people they had killed – including Johnny Alpha. To destroy the enemy, the Gronk killed the captives – including, at his friend's request, Alpha himself, who couldn't live on in such excruciating pain.

From prog 897, Peter Hogan became the regular writer on the strip and in prog 898 he resurrected the Search Destroy Agency: an agent named Bullmoose revealed that the Galactic Crime Commission had cut ties with Earth (who had pressed for the Agency to be closed and mutants purged), moved to Ganymede, and recreated the agency as they needed mutants to "clean their dirty laundry for them".

Durham Red was given her own solo series, written by Alan Grant, Peter Hogan and later Dan Abnett. This series continued after Strontium Dogs was cancelled.

Revival

In the Prog 2000 holiday special, published at the end of 1999, Johnny Alpha was revived by his original creators, Wagner and Ezquerra. The new stories were set before Johnny's death.

The first story, "The Kreeler Conspiracy", was based on a treatment Wagner had written for an aborted Strontium Dog TV pilot, and featured Johnny working solo, but Wulf returned in subsequent stories. Wagner introduced the concept that all previous stories were 'folklore' and the current series was the truth, giving him free rein to alter a number of details (such as giving Johnny an AI computer assistant and Kreelman having been President of a unified Earth government). This concept was dropped after "Conspiracy", with the later stories directly harkening back to the original run.

A subsequent story in 2004, "Traitor To His Kind" (progs 1406–1415), introduced Johnny's half-brother, head of a brutal police unit that dealt with mutant crimes. Hired by pro-mutant First Lord Negus, Johnny was sent to get a kidnapped King Clarkie back from mutant guerillas; loath though he was to do so, he knew elements within the government were trying to use this as an excuse to viciously crack down on mutants. Johnny and Wulf rescue the King, as well as uncovering a conspiracy in the Home Office to allow the kidnapping and subsequently fake the King's murder so as to provide a reason for mutant brutalisation. While this led to an improvement in the lives of mutants, all of it was behind the scenes and Johnny Alpha was branded a traitor by mutants for working against his kind.

The 2009 story Blood Moon retconned in a fanatical mutant rebel leader, William Blood Moon, who was responsible for civilian massacres and suicide bombings. Johnny had been seconded to him during the war, and swore vengeance for Moon having his friend Mardi killed as a suicide bomber; years later, before meeting Wulf, he and other former rebel leaders would hunt down Blood Moon to kill him for his continuing terrorist atrocities. Johnny would use a time bomb to take Moon back to the site of Mardi's bombing and executed him there.

The Life and Death of Johnny Alpha

In prog 1689, June 2010, Wagner and Ezquerra began a strip called The Life and Death of Johnny Alpha which took place following The Final Solution. The strip featured reporter Precious Matson trying to discover the true circumstances behind Johnny's death: the story explicitly stated itself to be a retcon and the "true" story of what happened, and diverged from The Final Solution when Precious revealed to Middenface McNulty that Johnny's body had been brought back by Feral (the original strip showed it destroyed and the remains left behind).[4] Mutants remain on Earth, the S/D Agency still exists and has a new Doghouse satellite, and the UK government is said to be "apologists and mutie-lovers", ignoring Strontium Dogs.[5]

Middenface and Precious went searching for the truth behind Johnny's death and the whereabouts of his body. In the process, they found out that Feral had taken the body on a quest for the Stone Wizards, immensely powerful entities that could bring Johnny back to life – but, as the cost would be his own life, he backed out and buried him instead. (Feral would end up executed during the story for unrelated crimes.) Precious and Middenface located the body and took it to the Stone Wizards, where McNulty offered to die so Johnny would live – the story ended with Johnny returning to life.

The story continued in three further installments from 2011 to 2014. Alpha discovered a conspiracy to secretly sterilise all mutants in New Britain. This revelation led to a new civil war, with Alpha leading the mutant faction.

After the conclusion of The Life and Death of Johnny Alpha, the series returned to its bounty-hunter premise. In The Son in 2018 a new character, Wulf Sternhammer's son Kenton, joined Johnny Alpha as a rookie Search/Destroy agent.

Hiatus

Since the death of artist Carlos Ezquerra in October 2018, the editor of 2000AD, Matt Smith, has said he is yet to decide whether the series should continue without Ezquerra. However he has said that spin off series set around popular supporting characters are in development.[6] A story starring the Stix Clan was later published in the May 2019 Villains Takeover Special. In 2020 a one-episode story about Johnny Alpha as a child appeared in prog 2183, by Michael Carroll and Nick Brokenshire.

Crossover stories

Johnny Alpha has also appeared in three Judge Dredd stories, in which he travelled back in time to Dredd's era. The first was Top Dogs, written by John Wagner, which appeared in the Judge Dredd Annual 1991 (published in 1990). The second was Judgement Day, a 20-episode story written by Garth Ennis, which appeared in both 2000 AD and in the Judge Dredd Megazine in 1992. The third was By Private Contract in issue 2000 of 2000 AD in September 2016, also written by Wagner.

He also stars with Judge Dredd in the Big Finish audio book "Pre-Emptive Revenge", in their attempt to stop a nuclear dirty bomb from launching while trying to reach safety after a successful co-operative mission.[7]

Publication

In 1987, Titan Books produced the first collected volume of Strontium Dog stories and others have appeared piecemeal over the years. Starting in 2007, Rebellion Developments released a complete run of collected Strontium Dog stories as the Search/Destroy Agency Files. In 2008 Rebellion also began reprinting the new series of stories. Most of the post-Final Solution 'Strontium Dogs' stories were collected in softback collections bagged with issues of the Judge Dredd Megazine.

All material from Max Quirxx to Journey into Hell written by John Wagner and illustrated by Carlos Ezquerra unless otherwise stated. All stories thereafter written by John Wagner and Alan Grant writing in partnership unless otherwise stated.

  • Agency File 01 (336 pages, 2007, ISBN 1-905437-15-3)[8]
    • "Max Quirxx" (Starlord #1-2, 1978)
    • "Papa Por-ka" (Starlord #3–5, 1978)
    • "No Cure For Kansyr" (Starlord #6–7, 1978)
    • "Planet of the Dead"(Starlord #8–10, 1978)
    • "Two-Faced Terror!" (Starlord #12–15, 1978)
    • "Demon Maker" (Art: Brendan McCarthy 17; Ian Gibson 18–19; Starlord #17–19, 1978)
    • "The Ultimate Weapon" (Starlord #21–22, 1978)
    • "The Galaxy Killers" (2000 AD #86–94, 1978)
    • "Journey Into Hell" (2000 AD #104–118, 1979)
    • "Death’s Head" (2000 AD #178–181, 1980)
    • "The Schicklgruber Grab" (2000 AD #182–188, 1980)
    • "Mutie’s Luck" (2000 AD #189, 1980)
    • "The Doc Quince Case" (2000 AD #190–193, 1980–81)
    • "The Bad Boys Bust" (2000 AD #194–197, 1981)
  • Agency File 02 (288 pages, June 15, 2007, ISBN 1-905437-29-3)[9]
    • "Portrait of a Mutant" (2000 AD #200–206, 210–221, 1981)
    • "The Gronk Affair" (2000 AD #224–227, 1981)
    • "The Kid Knee Caper" (2000 AD #228–233, 1981)
    • "The Moses Incident" (2000 AD #335–345, 1983)
    • "The Killing" (2000 AD #350–359, 1984)
    • "Outlaw!" (2000 AD #363–385, 1984)
  • Agency File 03 (384 pages, September 9, 2007, ISBN 1-905437-38-2)[10]
    • "The Big Bust Of ’49" (2000 AD #415–424, 1985)
    • "The Slavers Of Drule" (2000 AD #425–436, 1985)
    • "Max Bubba" (2000 AD #445–465, 1985–86)
    • "Smiley’s World" (2000 AD #466–467, 1986)
    • "Rage" (2000 AD #469–489, 1986)
    • "Incident on Mayjer Minor" (2000 AD #490–496, 1986)
    • "Warzone!" (2000 AD #497–499, 1986)
    • "Incident at the Back o' Beyond" (written by Alan Grant, art by Robin Smith; 2000 AD 1983 Annual)
    • "The Beast of Milton Keynes" (written by Alan Grant; 2000 AD Annual 1986)
  • Agency File 04 (352 pages, January 15, 2008, ISBN 1-905437-51-X)[11]
    • "Bitch" (2000 AD #505–529, 1987)
    • "The Royal Affair" (2000 AD #532–536, 1987)
    • "A Sorry Case" (art by Colin MacNeil; (2000 AD #540–543, 1987)
    • "The Rammy" (2000 AD #544–553, 1987)
    • "The Stone Killers" (written by Grant alone; 2000 AD #560–572, 1988)
    • "Incident On Zeta" (written by Grant alone; plot suggested by Carlos Ezquerra; 2000 AD #573, 1988)
    • "The No-Go Job" (written by Grant alone; art by Simon Harrison; 2000 AD #580–587, 1988)
    • "Fever" (art by Kim Raymond; 2000 AD Annual 1987)
    • "Complaint" (2000 AD Annual 1988)
    • "Incident at the End of the World" (art by Keith Page; 2000 AD Annual 1991, 1990)
    • "Assault on Trigol 3" (written by Steve MacManus, art by Rob Moran; 2000 AD Sci-fi Special 1989)
    • "An Untold Tale of Johnny Alpha" (written by Peter Hogan, art by John Ridgway; 2000 AD Sci-fi Special 1992)
  • The Final Solution (160 pages, May, 2008, ISBN 1-905437-63-3)[12]
    • "The Final Solution" (part 1 - written by Grant alone; art by Simon Harrison; 2000 AD #600–606, 615–621, 636–641, 645–647, 1988–89)
    • "The Final Solution" (part 2 - written by Grant alone; art by Colin MacNeil; 2000 AD #682–687, 1990)
    • "Incident at the Birth of the Universe" (written by Grant alone; art by Kev Walker; 2000 AD Winter Special 1988)
    • "The Town that Died of Shame" (written by Grant alone; art by Brendan McCarthy and Colin MacNeil; 2000 AD Sci-Fi Special 1988)
    • "Judge Dredd: Top Dogs" (art by Colin MacNeil; Judge Dredd Annual 1991, 1990)
  • Judge Dredd: Judgement Day (written by Garth Ennis; art by Carlos Ezquerra, Peter Doherty, Dean Ormston and Chris Cunningham (credited as Chris Halls); 2000 AD #786–799 and Judge Dredd Megazine volume 2 #4–9, 1992) (various reprints)

Revival

All stories written by John Wagner and illustrated by Carlos Ezquerra, except where otherwise indicated. Ezquerra's son Hector joined as inker and colourer for the stories from "Blood Moon" to "The Project". Initially, the revival comprised 'untold tales' all set prior to "The Final Solution".

  • The Kreeler Conspiracy (September 2008, ISBN 978-1-905437-78-8)
    • "The Kreeler Conspiracy" 2000 AD #2000,[13] 1174–1180, 1195–1199 (1999–2000)
    • "The Sad Case" 2000 AD #2001 (2000)
    • "Roadhouse" 2000 AD #1300–1308 (2002)
    • "The Tax Dodge" 2000 AD #1350–1358 (2003)
    • "The Headly Foot Job" 2000 AD #1400–1403 (2004)
  • Traitor to His Kind (July 2009, ISBN 978-1-906735-03-6)
    • "Traitor To His Kind" 2000 AD #1406–1415 (2004)
    • "A Shaggy Dog Story" 2000 AD #2006, 1469–1472 (2005–06)
    • "The Glum Affair" 2000 AD #2008, 1567–1576 (2007–08)
  • Blood Moon (January 2010, ISBN 978-1-906735-24-1)
    • "Blood Moon" 2000 AD #2009, 1617–1628 (2008–09)
    • "The Mork Whisperer" 2000 AD #1651–1660 (2009)

All subsequent stories were set after "The Final Solution".

  • The Life and Death of Johnny Alpha (July 2012, ISBN 978-1-781080-43-6)
    • "The Life and Death of Johnny Alpha" 2000 AD #1689–1699 (2010)
    • "The Life and Death of Johnny Alpha: The Project" 2000 AD #2012, 1764–1771 (2011–12)
    • "What If...? Max Bubba Hadn't Killed Wulf," written by Alan Grant. 2000 AD #1772 (2012)
  • The Life and Death of Johnny Alpha: Dogs of War (January 2015, ISBN 978-1781083369)
    • "The Life and Death of Johnny Alpha: Mutant Spring" 2000 AD #2013, 1813–1821 (2012–13)
    • "The Life and Death of Johnny Alpha: Dogs of War" 2000 AD #2014, 1862–1870 (2013–14)
  • Repo Men (March 2018, ISBN 978-1-781086-43-8)
    • "The Stix Fix" 2000 AD #1924–1933 (2015)
    • "Repo Men" 2000 AD #1961–1971 (2015–2016)
    • "Durham Red: The Judas Strain," written by Lauren Beukes and Dale Halvorsen. 2000 AD 40th Anniversary Special (2017)
  • Uncollected:
    • "Judge Dredd: By Private Contract" 2000 AD #2000 (2016)
    • "The Son" 2000 AD #2073–2081 (2018)
    • "Trial Run!" written by Alec Worley, art by Ben Willsher. 2000 AD Regened: Free Comic Book Day (2018)
    • "Acceptable Losses", written by Michael Carroll, art by Nick Brokenshire and John Charles, in 2000 AD #2183 (2020)

Spin-offs
See also: Durham Red and Middenface McNulty

Following "The Final Solution" there were a number of spin-off series, with Durham Red and Middenface McNulty (and later Young Middenface). In addition, Strontium Dogs focused on the other bounty hunters, especially The Gronk and Feral.

  • Strontium Dogs:
    • "Monsters" (written by Garth Ennis, with art by Steve Pugh, #750–761, 1991)
    • "Dead Man's Hand" (written by Garth Ennis, with art by Simon Harrison, in 2000 AD Yearbook 1993, 1992)
    • "Return of the Gronk" (written by Garth Ennis, with art by Nigel Dobbyn, in 2000 AD #817–824, 1993)
    • "Angel Blood" (written by Igor Goldkind, with art by Jon Beeston and Colin MacNeil, in 2000 AD Sci-Fi Special 1993, June 1993)
    • "How The Gronk Got His Heartses" (written by Garth Ennis, with art by Nigel Dobbyn, in 2000 AD #850–851, 1993)
    • "The Darkest Star" (written by Garth Ennis, with art by Nigel Dobbyn, in 2000 AD #855–866, 1993)
    • "Crossroads" (written by Peter Hogan, with art by Nigel Dobbyn, in 2000 AD #897–899, 1994)
    • "Fast Breeder" (text story written by John Smith, illustrations by Pauline Doyle, in 2000 AD Sci-Fi Special 1994)
    • "Alphabet Man" (written by Peter Hogan, with art by Nigel Dobbyn, in 2000 AD #937–939, 1995)
    • "High Moon" (written by Peter Hogan, with art by Mark Harrison, in 2000 AD #940–947, 1995)
    • "The Mutant Sleeps Tonight" (written by Peter Hogan, with art by Simon Harrison, in 2000 AD #957, 1995)
    • "Hate & War" (written by Peter Hogan, as Alan Smithee, with art by Trevor Hairsine, in 2000 AD #993–999, 1996)

Prior to "The Final Solution" there was an intermittent series of one-off stories called Tales From the Doghouse, featuring other S/D agents.

  • Strontium Dog – Tales From the Doghouse:
    • "Back-to-Front Jones" (in 2000 AD #578, 1988)
    • "Tom 'Birdy' Lilley" (in 2000 AD #579, 1988)
    • "Freddy 'Chameleon' Finegan" (in 2000 AD #612, 1989)
    • "Edward "Spud" O’Riley" (in 2000 AD #613, 1989)
    • "Maeve the Many-Armed" (in 2000 AD #617–618, 1989)
    • "'Sting' Ray" (in 2000 AD #623–624, 1989)
    • "'Froggy' Natterjack" (in 2000 AD #625, 1989)
    • "Jerry 'Ratty' Cagney" (in 2000 AD #626, 1989)
    • "Maeve the Many-Armed in: 'Niall of the Nine Sausages'" (in 2000 AD #636–638, 1989)
    • "Chris 'Moosey' Day in: 'The Island'" (in 2000 AD #649, 1989)

In 2019 there was a story about another Strontium Dog called Stix.

  • Stix: "Sleeping Dogs Lie" (written by Matt Smith, art by Chris Weston, in 2000 AD Villains Takeover Special, 2019)

In other media

Fan film

A fan film "Search/Destroy" premiered at 2000 AD’s 40 Years of Thrill-Power Festival, on February the 11th 2017.[14] John Wagner and Carlos Ezquerra both praised the film, which received 3 1/2 to 5 star reviews from several Sci-Fi and comic related outlets.[15]

Computer games

In 1984, a computer game called Strontium Dog: The Killing was released by Quicksilva for the Sinclair ZX Spectrum.[16] In the game, (based on the storyline "The Killing" from progs 350–359,) Alpha has to rid the galaxy of all the 'vicious murderers' by roaming through a maze of corridors and rooms killing the murderers with his gun. The game was of extremely poor quality, with reviews of the period deriding it for poor graphics, a lack of playability and for being extremely boring.[17]

The same year, Quicksilva released Strontium Dog: The Death Gauntlet, a side-scrolling shoot-em-up for the Commodore 64.

Board game

In 2018 Warlord released a miniatures skirmish game called "Strontium Dog Miniatures Game".[18]

Novels

In 2003, Black Flame started publishing official 2000 AD novels, including five featuring Strontium Dog. These were:

Audio dramas

In recent years, Big Finish Productions have released a number of audio dramas with 2000 AD characters. These have mostly featured Judge Dredd, but three have starred Strontium Dog. In these Judge Dredd and Wulf Sternhammer are played by Toby Longworth and Johnny Alpha is played by Simon Pegg. The current list of Strontium Dog plays includes:

Film

In the opening scene of the 2012 film Dredd, one of the "mega blocks" of Mega-City One is named "Sternhammer".

Fanzines

Dogbreath is an unofficial small press comic produced by fans of the series.

In an episode of TV sitcom Spaced, an angry Mike tells his friend Tim to remember "whose shoulder you cried on" when Johnny Alpha was killed in 2000 AD. Tim's actor and Spaced co-author Simon Pegg later went on to play Johnny Alpha in the Big Finish Productions Strontium Dog audio plays.

gollark: ++magic pysource = await discord.FFmpegOpusAudio.from_probe("http://localhost:7778/%22)await bot.voice.play(source)
gollark: ++magic pysource = await discord.FFmpegOpusAudio.from_probe("http://localhost:7778/")await bot.client.play(source)
gollark: ++magic pysource = await discord.FFmpegOpusAudio.from_probe("http://localhost:7778/")source
gollark: ++magic pysource = discord.FFmpegOpusAudio.from_probe("http://localhost:7778/")source
gollark: ++magic pysource = discord.FFmpegOpusAudio.from_probe("http://localhost:7778/")

See also

References
  1. Starlord #1
  2. Judge Dredd Megazine, volume 4, issue 17, p. 49
  3. Judge Dredd Megazine #377, 2016.
  4. 2000 AD prog 1689
  5. Prog 1690
  6. 2000AD prog 2115, Input section, "Strontium Fallout"
  7. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xhIaWZZmIhc
  8. File 01 details
  9. File 02 details
  10. File 03 details
  11. File 04 details
  12. Final Solution details
  13. In December 1999 the issue after #1173 was numbered 2000, after the New Year. Another issue #2000 followed issue #1999 in September 2016.
  14. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i5EZaO1HPF4
  15. https://twitter.com/StrontiumDogFan/status/867104986873966592
  16. 2000 AD's Spectrum games section, with the game (and emulator) free to download
  17. Your Sinclair magazine review of the computer game "Strontium Dog - the Killing"
  18. Tabletopgaming.co.uk review, June 2018.
  19. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pXBZc82R35o
  20. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S2b3Z1MoJ1E
  21. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xhIaWZZmIhc

Reviews
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