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Strontium Dog: Search/Destroy Agency Files #1
Strontium Dog: Search/Destroy Agency Files, Vol. 1
Earth, the late 22nd century. Following the atomic war of 2150, Britain has been devastated by 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!
Collects:
- Max Quirxx (Starlord #1-#2)
- Papa Por-ka (Starlord #3-#5)
- No Cure for Kansyr (Starlord #6-#7)
- Planet of the Dead (Starlord #8-#10)
- Two-Faced Terror (Starlord #12-#15)
- Demon Maker (Starlord #17-#19)
- The Brain (Starlord #21-#22)
- The Galaxy Killers (Progs #86-#94)
- Journey into Hell (Progs #104-#118)
- Death's Head (Progs #178-#181)
- The Schicklgruber Grab (Progs #182-#188)
- Mutie's Luck (Prog 189)
- The Doc Quince Case (Progs #190-#193)
- The Bad Boys Bust (Progs #194-#197)
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!
Collects:
- Max Quirxx (Starlord #1-#2)
- Papa Por-ka (Starlord #3-#5)
- No Cure for Kansyr (Starlord #6-#7)
- Planet of the Dead (Starlord #8-#10)
- Two-Faced Terror (Starlord #12-#15)
- Demon Maker (Starlord #17-#19)
- The Brain (Starlord #21-#22)
- The Galaxy Killers (Progs #86-#94)
- Journey into Hell (Progs #104-#118)
- Death's Head (Progs #178-#181)
- The Schicklgruber Grab (Progs #182-#188)
- Mutie's Luck (Prog 189)
- The Doc Quince Case (Progs #190-#193)
- The Bad Boys Bust (Progs #194-#197)
336 pages, Paperback
First published January 15, 2007
27 people are currently reading
153 people want to read
About the author
John Wagner
1,282 books188 followersJohn Wagner is a comics writer who was born in Pennsylvania in 1949 and moved to Scotland as a boy. Alongside Pat Mills, Wagner was responsible for revitalising British boys' comics in the 1970s, and has continued to be a leading light in British comics ever since. He is best known for his work on 2000 AD, for which he created Judge Dredd. He is noted for his taut, violent thrillers and his black humour. Among his pseudonyms are The best known are John Howard, T.B. Grover, Mike Stott, Keef Ripley, Rick Clark and Brian Skuter. (Wikipedia)
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Displaying 1 - 28 of 28 reviews
May 26, 2019
I never got into Strontium Dog quite as big as I did Judge Dredd, but any 2000AD comic still stands well above most other comic publications.
August 23, 2025
love the premise. They remembered to use the world building as part of the storytelling, so it did not get to repetitive.
The only bad thing was the dialogue. Most of the time i either skimmed it or just read the pictures.
The only bad thing was the dialogue. Most of the time i either skimmed it or just read the pictures.
March 31, 2013
The first 2000AD reprint book I’ve bought. I tend to assume I’ll have read most of them already, by way of Titan collections and the various best of 2000AD reprint mags (I loved 2000AD Extreme Edition while it lasted, even though I’ve never bought the original mag regularly). But this one was all new to me, and it was very good. What else would you expect from John Wagner, Alan Grant and Carlos Ezquerra? (Brendan McCarthy, Ian Gibson and Keith Page also contribute.) The first hundred pages or so are a bit murky, being black and white reprints of what I assume were colour pages from Starlord, but from then on, after the strip moved to 2000AD, it’s lovely and clear, and the stories stretch out into real epics: an intergalactic war, a trip to hell, a time travel mission to capture Hitler. I adored Wagner and Grant’s stories for Doctor Who Weekly; I wish I’d known back then that there was practically an entire comic of their work over at 2000AD every week. But it’s nice getting to read it now.
March 22, 2018
En las lecturas de mi añorada Cimoc, el personaje de Johnny Alpha me parecía rompedor, pero al revisitarlo muchos años después, me deja bastante decepcionado. El dibujo de este Ezquerra de trazo grueso, sucio y aspecto fanzinero me parece tan basto y poco atractivo como el Ernie Chan de los últimos Conan. Los guiones de Wagner y Grant son algo repetitivos. Lo mejor es, sin duda, el escenario, esa galaxia del 2180 tan ochentera, de ciudades tercermundistas, especies grotescas, gadgets extraños y criminales malencarados.
March 3, 2017
3.5
The adventures of mutant bounty hunter, Johnny Alpha and his sidekick, a time-displaced Viking named Wulf. Fun, pulp sci-fi from venerable British anthology comic, "2000 AD". Excellent art from the great Carlos Ezquerra.
The adventures of mutant bounty hunter, Johnny Alpha and his sidekick, a time-displaced Viking named Wulf. Fun, pulp sci-fi from venerable British anthology comic, "2000 AD". Excellent art from the great Carlos Ezquerra.
May 5, 2020
Strontium Dog was created by the men who also gave us Judge Dredd – John Wagner and Carlos Ezquerra – for Starlord, a short-lived anthology comic soon swallowed up by its stablemate, 2000 AD. It still regularly appears in that title, with its longevity and popularity probably second only to Dredd. This volume begins a chronological collection of all stories.
Wagner writes the first run, from ‘Max Quirxx’ to ‘Journey Into Hell’, with everything following by Wagner and Alan Grant, despite what the credits claim.
Search/Destroy agents, known as Strontium Dogs, are despised bounty hunters with a bewildering and mostly useless range of mutations, unlike Marvel’s X-Men. One notable exception is our hero: Johnny Alpha. A ruthless killer with a heart of gold, his glowing, alpha-ray emitting eyes are the only visible sign that he’s a mutant, with abilities that include telepathy, X-ray vision and, at least in the early strips, pretty much anything that the plot demanded. Alpha and Wulf Sternhammer, his Viking sidekick, can usually be found plying their trade on frontier planets that combine all the tropes of a Western with science fiction elements. Not dissimilar, in fact, to a sci-fi movie that came out around the same time.
The move to 2000 AD began with a couple of stories far longer than anything that had gone before. ‘The Galaxy Killers’, a space opera featuring spaceships very reminiscent of those by sci-fi illustrator Chris Foss, is resolved when Johnny and Wulf destroy the artificial Wolrog homeworld, yet another blatant steal from Star Wars. The longest story, at fifteen parts, is the frankly mental, though thoroughly enjoyable, ‘Journey Into Hell.’
The best story in this collection is ‘The Shicklgruber Grab’. This plays to the artist’s strengths, Ezquerra having previously illustrated many war stories, and toys with the time travel conundrum about would Adolf Hitler be killed when time travel developed. It’s packed with humour and action, and introduces Stix – a memorable villain based on Lee van Cleef – and then promptly kills him. This wasn’t to stop his identical brothers (and later cousins) coming back to continue in effectively the exact same role. The Gronk, able to eat anything, was another character to be similarly resurrected, and this would become something of a theme throughout the strip’s long history.
Ezquerra is inextricably linked to Johnny Alpha. He co-created the character and his work is always dynamic, though it can seem a bit rushed at times. Other artists occasionally tackle the character, no doubt cursing the complicated design (even Ezquerra struggles with the helmet sometimes). Ian Gibson produces a couple of chapters, though his style – much less bold than Ezquerra’s – doesn’t suit the strip. Brendan McCarthy draws three stories, and while he’s good, his approach is a bit too dark for this series, which takes an ill-considered turn into horror with his ‘Funfair of Fear’ in the book’s final section, collecting stories from Starlord Annuals and the Summer Special.
While it’s a bit all over the place when it comes to genre, Strontium Dog works best as a spaghetti Western. It doesn’t have the depth of Judge Dredd, largely because Mega-City One is as much a character as Dredd himself and these far-flung stories lack that detailed world building. However, Alpha looks ‘cool as der cucumber’, as Wulf would say, and these tales, ranging from space opera to gritty revenge-driven Westerns, have much to recommend them, not least a blast of nostalgia for any comic readers of a certain age.
Wagner writes the first run, from ‘Max Quirxx’ to ‘Journey Into Hell’, with everything following by Wagner and Alan Grant, despite what the credits claim.
Search/Destroy agents, known as Strontium Dogs, are despised bounty hunters with a bewildering and mostly useless range of mutations, unlike Marvel’s X-Men. One notable exception is our hero: Johnny Alpha. A ruthless killer with a heart of gold, his glowing, alpha-ray emitting eyes are the only visible sign that he’s a mutant, with abilities that include telepathy, X-ray vision and, at least in the early strips, pretty much anything that the plot demanded. Alpha and Wulf Sternhammer, his Viking sidekick, can usually be found plying their trade on frontier planets that combine all the tropes of a Western with science fiction elements. Not dissimilar, in fact, to a sci-fi movie that came out around the same time.
The move to 2000 AD began with a couple of stories far longer than anything that had gone before. ‘The Galaxy Killers’, a space opera featuring spaceships very reminiscent of those by sci-fi illustrator Chris Foss, is resolved when Johnny and Wulf destroy the artificial Wolrog homeworld, yet another blatant steal from Star Wars. The longest story, at fifteen parts, is the frankly mental, though thoroughly enjoyable, ‘Journey Into Hell.’
The best story in this collection is ‘The Shicklgruber Grab’. This plays to the artist’s strengths, Ezquerra having previously illustrated many war stories, and toys with the time travel conundrum about would Adolf Hitler be killed when time travel developed. It’s packed with humour and action, and introduces Stix – a memorable villain based on Lee van Cleef – and then promptly kills him. This wasn’t to stop his identical brothers (and later cousins) coming back to continue in effectively the exact same role. The Gronk, able to eat anything, was another character to be similarly resurrected, and this would become something of a theme throughout the strip’s long history.
Ezquerra is inextricably linked to Johnny Alpha. He co-created the character and his work is always dynamic, though it can seem a bit rushed at times. Other artists occasionally tackle the character, no doubt cursing the complicated design (even Ezquerra struggles with the helmet sometimes). Ian Gibson produces a couple of chapters, though his style – much less bold than Ezquerra’s – doesn’t suit the strip. Brendan McCarthy draws three stories, and while he’s good, his approach is a bit too dark for this series, which takes an ill-considered turn into horror with his ‘Funfair of Fear’ in the book’s final section, collecting stories from Starlord Annuals and the Summer Special.
While it’s a bit all over the place when it comes to genre, Strontium Dog works best as a spaghetti Western. It doesn’t have the depth of Judge Dredd, largely because Mega-City One is as much a character as Dredd himself and these far-flung stories lack that detailed world building. However, Alpha looks ‘cool as der cucumber’, as Wulf would say, and these tales, ranging from space opera to gritty revenge-driven Westerns, have much to recommend them, not least a blast of nostalgia for any comic readers of a certain age.
May 22, 2019
Botín de saldos en la Feria del Libro de Bs As, primera entrega. Del semillero interminable que era la 2000 AD llegan estas aventuras espaciales protagonizadas por Johnny Alpha, un "perro de estroncio" -como se conoce a todos los mutantes, descastados de la sociedad- convertido en el mejor cazarrecompensas que existe. Johnny, junto a Wulf su compañero no mutado y El Gronk, un alienígena no especialmente valiente pero un gran médico, protagonizarán variadas aventuras... por un precio. Muy a tono con Juez Dredd y toda la camarilla de personajes creados por la misma revista en la misma época, Wagner y Grant -bajo el seudónimo TB Grover- divierten y se divierten con absurdas aventuras, crítica social, contundente humor negro y muchos tiros y explosiones. Los secunda un Carlos Ezquerra en total plenitud, lo que es mucho decir, impreso además aquí en glorioso blanco y negro. Mi único pero se debe a la edición y, no, no a la edición original de Rebellion sino a la que corresponde al castellano de Ediciones Kraken: dividieron cada tomo original de estos recopilatorios en tres tomos pequeños, que quedan "cortados" en cualquier parte. Así, este que reseño en verdad es sólo un tercio del recopilatorio original -el del medio, encima- que tengo la fortuna que empieza con una aventura autoconclusiva (y probablemente la mejor del libro, la del Cerebro en el planeta Larg) pero termina de cualquier modo, dejando en ascuas a los lectores. No es culpa del material original, sin embargo, una muy buena muestra de la historieta británica de esta época, que se sostiene feliz y dinámica a cuarenta años de publicada.
December 16, 2020
In the future, nuclear war caused widespread mutations in the population (mainly via Strontium 90). Johnny's mutation gave him alpha particle emitting eyes that can see through materials and into the minds of people. As mutants, they are discriminated against and the only job they can hold is as intergalactic bounty hunters and are known as Search/Destroy agents or Strontium Dogs.
This first book includes stories about Johnny and Wulf from their initial Starlog days before moving over to 2000AD. The quality of the stories are quite uneven, as if the writers were still not quite sure what to make of the characters in the beginning, while introducing the idea of bounty hunters in the future and the technology behind some of their equipment (especially the time based ones).
Some of the more interesting stories includes a journey to a dimension where Hell is real, and they have to fight their way through it to escape via a meeting with Satan. The timid alien Gronk ("Oh, my heartses!") is introduced as a comic relief character but rises in importance as the stories progresses.
Other stories introduce Johnny's sister (the only background provided on Johnny in this book) and an early time travel arrest story: "The Schicklgruber Grab" involving Hitler and a sock. By the end of the book, more details about the SD universe have been introduced and the characters are a bit more fleshed out.
This first book includes stories about Johnny and Wulf from their initial Starlog days before moving over to 2000AD. The quality of the stories are quite uneven, as if the writers were still not quite sure what to make of the characters in the beginning, while introducing the idea of bounty hunters in the future and the technology behind some of their equipment (especially the time based ones).
Some of the more interesting stories includes a journey to a dimension where Hell is real, and they have to fight their way through it to escape via a meeting with Satan. The timid alien Gronk ("Oh, my heartses!") is introduced as a comic relief character but rises in importance as the stories progresses.
Other stories introduce Johnny's sister (the only background provided on Johnny in this book) and an early time travel arrest story: "The Schicklgruber Grab" involving Hitler and a sock. By the end of the book, more details about the SD universe have been introduced and the characters are a bit more fleshed out.
November 25, 2017
The stories are great fun, Strontium Dog beginning to develop into the Space Western it would eventually be. My only problem with this volume is the pretty ropey reproduction- whether it’s just way the early art is produced or something more, my copy has some very hazy, scratchy reproduction in the early, and a lot of black in the later ones. Usually these books look absolutely beautiful, I’m hoping this isn’t indicative of the way the others are going to be.
July 20, 2017
Solid Esquerra fun whole time through (yes, I'm ignoring those god awful Annual bits that were here). But I have to say.... the stories are a bit repetitive. Strontium Dogs come, are not liked, they look for the criminal, they find, they fight, they collect the reward.
But the Esquerra art is brilliant.
But the Esquerra art is brilliant.
January 3, 2018
Storywise this is 5*, but reproduction this loses a star. Some of the pages in the early part aren't pure b&w, appear sort of faded. Also some stories have text across what would have been the spread in its original format, but are impossible to read in hardback form.
March 21, 2021
Fantastic artworks and great story lines with a real sense of compassion and rage at injustice running through it. Strontium Dog stands with the best of 2000AD's output and feels as relevant today as it when it was published 40 years ago.
December 31, 2017
Great set of books to introduce Johnny Alpha. I loved the Johnny goes to hell series. Highly recommend.
July 31, 2020
I like Johnny Alpha but it’s not my favourite 2000ad strip
August 3, 2022
Excellent compilation of the first classic Strontium Dog stories. Full review: https://fakegeekboy.wordpress.com/200...
March 14, 2017
Johnny better not be after you!
Johnny alpha, wulf and their odd little pal, the gronk - the strangest little creature are the futures greatest bounty hunters. Johnny is a mutant, his gifts given to him by strontium 90. A fun set of adventures. Not quite Dredd level, but fun.
Johnny alpha, wulf and their odd little pal, the gronk - the strangest little creature are the futures greatest bounty hunters. Johnny is a mutant, his gifts given to him by strontium 90. A fun set of adventures. Not quite Dredd level, but fun.
October 3, 2020
So I bought a massive pile of these #2000adultimatecollection books from my friend who didn't have space for them any more.
The book I read first is #strontiumdog volume 1. It's complete nonsense. Space slavers, a trip to hell, Hitler...
There are a few flashes of themes that I remember from reading this as a kid though, morality, bigotry, resistance.
The book I read first is #strontiumdog volume 1. It's complete nonsense. Space slavers, a trip to hell, Hitler...
There are a few flashes of themes that I remember from reading this as a kid though, morality, bigotry, resistance.
April 25, 2012
Wow - Johnny Alpha has come along way! I first Johnny Alpha as part of the 2000AD Monthly "best of" story repeats by Wagner and Grant (2 of my favourite writers) and Ezquerra (my favourite artist). I didn't know of single greatest writer "T B Grover" (wink wink), had never seen a gronk and all of the stories were big multi-issues with Wulf and Johnny (until Max Bubba...).
This another comic that took me a long time to start - the opening stories from Star Lords were a bit too short and cheesy without being being funny. Over 4 months I read about 30 pages.
Once the second Gronk became part of the team and the darkly humourous style and Johnny and Wulf chracters were settling the stories started to improve and I was able to push on making it my short break read.
Then it got up to the 2000AD/Star Lord amalgamations with decent length multi-part stories with the trademark, over the top spaghetti western antics, grim humour/ bad pun endings that I loved. "T. B. Grover" split out into Wagner and Grant and there are 5 or6 major stories that I knocked off in a couple of nights of afterwork reading.
At the end are inlcuded 4 Star Lord Annual stories by others writers really show how good Grant and Wagner are - they other stoties just "don't get it".
I would have liked to give this 5 stars, but the early stories were a real chore and with no page number of indexing I couldn't jump to the good stuff. I am looking forward to S&D case files Volume 2 & 3, which should hopefully cover the golden era of SD stories that I loved as a teenager.
This another comic that took me a long time to start - the opening stories from Star Lords were a bit too short and cheesy without being being funny. Over 4 months I read about 30 pages.
Once the second Gronk became part of the team and the darkly humourous style and Johnny and Wulf chracters were settling the stories started to improve and I was able to push on making it my short break read.
Then it got up to the 2000AD/Star Lord amalgamations with decent length multi-part stories with the trademark, over the top spaghetti western antics, grim humour/ bad pun endings that I loved. "T. B. Grover" split out into Wagner and Grant and there are 5 or6 major stories that I knocked off in a couple of nights of afterwork reading.
At the end are inlcuded 4 Star Lord Annual stories by others writers really show how good Grant and Wagner are - they other stoties just "don't get it".
I would have liked to give this 5 stars, but the early stories were a real chore and with no page number of indexing I couldn't jump to the good stuff. I am looking forward to S&D case files Volume 2 & 3, which should hopefully cover the golden era of SD stories that I loved as a teenager.
May 16, 2016
A great collection of early Strontium Dog stories featuring the great team of Johnny Alpha (mutant), Wulf (a "norm" who compares everything to "der cucumber") and Gronk (an alien medic). The best bit of this book has to be the Journey to Hell arc which pits our heroes against a strange Hell dimension.
The only problem is that, as I understand, a lot of the original colour pages have been turned to black and white which makes them somewhat difficult to read. This is most apparent with the "Annuals" at the back of the book (one of which was re-published in this year's Free Comic Book Day 2000AD).
The only problem is that, as I understand, a lot of the original colour pages have been turned to black and white which makes them somewhat difficult to read. This is most apparent with the "Annuals" at the back of the book (one of which was re-published in this year's Free Comic Book Day 2000AD).
October 15, 2020
Love this series. Back in 1978, early 80's as a youth, reading Starlord and 2000 AD, I loved the original comics. Long since thrown out by my Mom.
Fond memories of science fiction stories packaged into a collection of graphic novels. Read this one the day I bought it. Adolescent me loved the over the top science fiction of it all. Still do, yes there is a chunk of nostalgia going on here but I enjoyed it again as an old bloke, Strontium Dog doesn't disappoint, even if the 2000AD of our reality did.
If you look carefully, you will see it on the bookshelf in my profile photo.
Fond memories of science fiction stories packaged into a collection of graphic novels. Read this one the day I bought it. Adolescent me loved the over the top science fiction of it all. Still do, yes there is a chunk of nostalgia going on here but I enjoyed it again as an old bloke, Strontium Dog doesn't disappoint, even if the 2000AD of our reality did.
If you look carefully, you will see it on the bookshelf in my profile photo.
August 22, 2014
Good. Took a while to settle in but that's to be expected. By the end of the volume the stories were more interesting and consistent and had a similar house feel to Dredd strips. Ezquerra's style feels much better suited to SD than Dredd (his style is too scruffy and round to suit Mega-City One, in my opinion) and the various alien environments have a slightly groovy 70s feel. Looking forward to seeing how it progresses in volume 2.
October 22, 2023
Enjoyable pulp nonsense with a dash of humour. The Journey to Hell storyline here is dreadful but the rest are fun. Great black and white artwork.
[Later edit: the inclusion of Journey to Hell makes sense after reading further as it introduces antagonists who appear in the next volume, which is much more consistently good than this one.]
[Later edit: the inclusion of Journey to Hell makes sense after reading further as it introduces antagonists who appear in the next volume, which is much more consistently good than this one.]
January 11, 2014
This is a massive book containing the first three years of Johnny Alpha's adventures as Strontium Dog.
Strontium Dog gets overlooked due to Judge Dredd's fame, but it is worth a read. The artwork is consistently of a good standard. I find the writing less thrilling, but still worth reading.
Strontium Dog gets overlooked due to Judge Dredd's fame, but it is worth a read. The artwork is consistently of a good standard. I find the writing less thrilling, but still worth reading.
May 24, 2016
Another of the classic 2000AD characters, Strontium Dog, or Johnnie Alpha in the 22nd century is the archetype of cool. Bounty hunter, mutant, with superpowers and Wulf the German speaking sidekick, he goes against characters like Flys eyes Wagner, Satan and... Hitler. Good fun altogether
August 22, 2014
Fun, but not as good as I remember from my childhood. Sci-Fi meets Western with an underlying message about bigotry being bad, 2000AD style.
January 3, 2018
Classic collection from "2000AD" comic, first in a series about the Strontium 90 mutated Johnny Alpha.
Displaying 1 - 28 of 28 reviews