Previewing ‘Strontium Dog The Son’: Featuring The Final Wagner And Ezquerra Johnny Alpha Story

by Richard Bruton

Released in time for a late Christmas pressie, Strontium Dog: The Son is the final John Wagner and Carlos Ezquerra Strontium Dog together with plenty more for all the Johnny Alpha fans in your life!

Coming out on Wednesday 23rd November… very shortly in fact. Where the hell does the time go at this end of the year? I swear a few weeks ago it was July. Anyway, Strontium Dog: The Son collects up plenty of Strontium Dog greatness from the recent years.

But the obvious big draw and the big name on any Strontium Dog collection has to be Ezquerra, the strip’s co-creator and the man whose staggeringly great artwork made Johnny Alpha’s exploits one of the big draws of first Starlord and then 2000 AD. And although there’s a sadness in knowing we’ll never see any more of King Carlos’s Stront work, there’s also a delight in being able to read it one last time here, in something of a classic storyline full of all the iconic Johnny Alpha moments for Carlos to draw.

Just like this…

Oh yes, beautiful work as always.

In The Son, Johnny Alpha is assigned to mentor a new recruit to the ranks of the Strontium Dogs here. But this is no ordinary recruit, as young Kenton Sternhammer is the son of his beloved old mate, Wulf.

And that means problems for Johnny. After all, while Kenton obviously wants to follow in his dear old dad’s footsteps, Johnny’s not that keen, knowing that it’s death that usually marks the end of a Stront’s career.

It’s a storyline that’s full of all that great Strontium Dog action, undoubtedly cool artwork from Ezquerra, and sees Wagner getting the chance to do a little more mourning of one of the great characters as well…

After The Son, there’s a collecting up of various strips from over the years, including plenty of King Carlos greatness, this time with Alan Grant, another great who’s loss we mourn, comes with Durham Red in ‘The ‘Nobody Wants This Job’ Job’ and ‘What If…? Max Bubba hadn’t killed Wulf?’ from 2012.

Outside of the triumvirate of Ezquerra, Wagner, and Grant, there’s three more recent stories from the vast Strontium Dog universe – ‘Once Upon A Time In Der Vest’ by Rob Williams and Laurence Campbell, (a one-off in the 2020 Christmas Prog #2212), ‘Wulf Sternhammer: Valhalla’ by Mike Carroll and Patrick Goddard from the 2000 AD Summer Sci-Fi Special 2019 and ‘Stix: Let Sleeping Dogs Lie’ by Matt Smith and Chris Weston from the 2000 AD Free Comic Book Day Villains Special 2020.

Now, as good as all of those are – and they are – I particularly enjoyed seeing Campbell’s moody visuals (and the Gronk) on ‘Once Upon A Time In Der Vest’. I don’t think anyone who’s going to get and thoroughly enjoy this book is here for anything other than a wonderful final opportunity to devour the art of King Carlos once more, one last time.

Strontium Dog: The Son, written by John Wagner, art by Carlos Ezquerra, additional stories and art by Rob Williams, Alan Grant, Mike Carroll, Matt Smith, Laurence Campbell, Patrick Goddard, Chris Weston

Originally serialised in 2000 AD Progs 1772, 1785-1790, 2078-2081, 2212, 2000 AD Summer Sci-Fi Special 2019, 2000 AD Free Comic Book Day Villains Special 2020.

Now, a little preview for you all…