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ubscribers get this on a Saturday, always a joy to come home from a gig, stick the kettle on and relax for 30 minutes with an issue.
Comics
Being that Dredd3D just came out in the US after the UK premiere 2 weeks ago (special poster for Mondo by Jock, left) there have been numerous articles on which stories new readers should read up on should they want more from the character’s 35 year history. I thought it would be interesting to re-read one of the classics to see how well it held up today and see what others may be encountering for the first time.
‘The Cursed Earth’ is the first Judge Dredd ‘epic’, ie: a long form story recounting a significant event in the Dredd mythology. It ran from Prog 61 to 85 in 2000ad, way back in 1978 and coincidentally the premiere episode was also the first issue of the comic I ever bought as a child so I have fond memories of it.
Reading back through the collected edition was an enlightening experience though, all the art was present and correct, forever burned into my brain as I’d looked at it a thousand times as a child. The big shock though was the dialogue from writer Pat Mills, the man who started 2000ad and went on to write so many great strips for the comic but wasn’t Dredd’s main creator (that accolade falls to John Wagner and Carlos Ezquerra). Baring in mind that this was the late 70’s and 2000ad was slowly reinventing what British boys comics could be, it’s interesting to see how the character has developed with age and return to a time when storytelling was a lot more simplified.
I’ve picked out a few choice panels which made me smile but probably wouldn’t appear in today’s version of Dredd. Only two artists drew the saga* – Brian Bolland, all clean lines and perfect anatomy, and Mike McMahon – a scratchy, rough style with the classic big booted look to his characters. Each are fan favourites and both helped define the Dredd uniform as we know it today. *(Dave ‘Watchmen’ Gibbons actually inked a couple of Bolland episodes too for the record).
The panel above is hilarious and unfortunately there are a lot more like it that turn up throughout the epic. I wouldn’t be surprised if Sylvester Stallone read this and took it as gospel for his performance in the 1995 version of the film. Of course, back in 1978 this was gung-ho Dredd and my 8 year old self probably thought it was great.
The image on the left above is from the opening splash page of the first episode, check that dialogue – wow – another spiky speech balloon too which usually meant the character was shouting. To the right of it, Dredd goes all Scooby Doo trying to solve the mystery of a vampire terrorizing a village. It turns out to be a trio of medical robots who need fresh blood for the body of the cryogenically frozen last president of the United States.
Some campy comedy in these two panels, Dredd wouldn’t be so polite in the top one these days and the little ‘speed roll’ thought bubble made me laugh. More often than not this kind of thing would be said out loud preceded by a, “only one chance!, got to…”.
Above is one of the cliffhanger end panels that they were so fond of back in the day and still have their place in today’s comics too. I love the fact that he’s about to be eaten by a Tyrannosaurus and he still has the time for a bad gag to round things off.
Conscious Dredd: you can see Pat Mills’ own concerns with the environment and man’s cruelty to others shining through here in Dredd’s own thoughts, something of a rarity in comics back then.
Dredd in smile shock! Yes, he does crack the occasional smile but it’s as rare as hens teeth these days.
Two more final panels, the left one from the end of the first episode and the right from the penultimate part. Note the change in the character’s uniform and progression in drawing style by McMahon in just the space of 20 odd episodes. The rounded helmet has been straightened out and the chin is bigger – both artists really nailed their own takes on him during this run and helped iron out a lot of the creases in the original designs.
For a very enlightening insight into the creation of the character and the comic landscape at the time head over to Pat Mills‘ new blog as he goes into detail on the genesis of Dredd’s creation.
These images recently came up in an old 1994 2000ad monthly my friend David Vallade got from his local library. Carlos Ezquerra‘s original designs for Dredd, his lawmaster bike and law giver gun.
The style of the 70’s is present in the chopper-esque bike proportions and flared gloves. Note the diagonal zip on Dredd’s uniform and lack of eagle shoulder pad.
“Dredd’s breast chain and badge actual predated punk fashion and with the black clad uniform, screened by a black helmet and his knee-length boots, he was the most exciting British comic book character that radiated menace” – Steve MacManus‘ ‘The Judge Dredd Story’ 1994.
Perfectly timed to coincide with the release of Dredd3D in the UK (US fans have to wait 2 more weeks – haha!) is Prog 1800 (prog, short for programme – keep up) – out this Wednesday.
This is what’s known as a ‘jumping on’ issue, ie: all the stories are new or first episodes, something 2000ad does a few times a year. To commemorate the occasion they’ve got Simon Bisley back to do the first artwork in 18 years for the comic that he made his name in. It’s a striking Dredd but coupled with the tooled up, ‘look, here’s my arse’ pose of Anderson and a barely visible Judge Death, it’s not his best work but will certainly stand out on the shelf.
One of the big developments in recent months is the digital editions of the comic. A recent upgrade which delivers the new issues the same week of publication through the free Apple Newstand app has seen many lapsed readers coming back to it via their iPads and Phones. Aside from a free 69 page sampler issue you can buy singles or there are various deals for 3, 6 or 12 subscriptions, which each come with extra issues for free from before the start date so that you can be up to speed with story lines. All info is here. Not got an iPad and want an Android alternative? Download direct for the 2000ad online shop. And if that sounds like a hard sell then it was, I don’t do it often but this is a special occasion.
One more thing, Koze and Onion from Soulful Creative did this tasty mural to promote the film using an image of Dredd by Bisley from the ‘Judgement on Gotham’ story.
[youtube width=”640″ height=”290″]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WZvfAYdn4DA&feature=player_embedded[/youtube]
Finally the day has come, Dredd3D is released and will, hopefully, wash away the (distant) memory of the 1995 Stallone blow out (which, to be fair, had a great looking Mega City 1 and Stallone’s chin looked the part). Here’s hoping also that it will open the door to many more franchises from the vast back catalogue that the comic holds – there’s already talk of Grant Morrison writing a Rogue Trooper screen play. Got my tickets for tonight with several other long-time fans / friends, some sort of review tomorrow…
Here’s a short featurette on the film and the world of Dredd from the comic
More Kevin O’Neill work, this time, pre-2000ad (for which he first became art director before drawing Ro-Busters, ABC Warriors, Dredd and Nemesis the Warlock). This was a 12 page fanzine from ’76 which apparently told robot war tales and has been on my wants list for what seems like forever.
Last week a copy came up on eBay, the first time I’d ever seen one listed in over a decade, I missed out to a higher bidder who was willing to shell out over £50 for a copy. Here’s the cover and one interior page, the most I can find of it on the net. 
Appearing online yesterday and seeing printed form with this weekend’s Megazine issue is a prologue to the Dredd3D film dealing with the villain Ma Ma‘s origins. Written by Matt Smith and drawn by Henry Flint, it’s pretty gritty and not exactly SFW as it includes the first ever utterance of the ‘MF’ word in a 2000ad strip (to my knowledge). If the film is anything thing like this and the reviews of ultra violence are to be believed then it’s going to be hardcore.
Lionsgate (the film’s distributors) have put together a nice motion comic of the strip too which you can watch above. Alternatively you can read the strip version over on Scribd.com OR you can buy a physical version when the Megazine arrives over the weekend.
Big news for Mike Mignola / Hellboy fans: there’s finally a release date for the next installment of the red devil – Dec 5th – with a book that we’ve been waiting for for years. It’s the return of Mike writing AND drawing his finest creation (aside from The Amazing Screw On Head, but more of that another time). Hellboy In Hell starts a new chapter in the mythos with Red cast down into hell after the events in the recent The Fury storyline.
Other new Mignola art: he’s been doing alternate covers for various B.P.R.D.-related covers all year under the ‘Year Of Monsters’ title, below are some both from the last few months and forthcoming issues. And finally, on the Super-Team Family ‘fictional team-ups’ blog that I posted about yesterday I found a couple of Mignola mash-ups which work nicely.
What? I never got that issue! Probably because it never existed, it’s the creation of Ross over at the Super-Team Family blogspot. He creates a series of ‘what if?’-style covers to comic team-ups that never existed – “but should have!” Here’s his interpretation of Old Stoney Face vs Bruce Banner‘s alter ego, using an old Brian Bolland image for Dredd by the look of things.
Speaking of covers this month sees the release of ‘The Art of Judge Dredd‘, (not to be confused with The Art of ‘Judge Dredd’ The Movie book that collects the concept art for the Stallone film of old). The new book collects comic covers old and new featuring the lawman and comes in two editions, one only sold through the 2000ad online shop with an alternate (nicer) cover. Besides the images there will be comments from creators and celebrities and ‘Inside Story’ info boxes giving the background to some of Dredd’s most iconic covers.
But if we’re talking 2000ad covers then there’s only one site on the web to go to: Pete Wells‘ incredible 20000ad Covers Uncovered blog. Week after week he posts images from the artists who create the covers including layouts, alternate versions, work in progress and artists’ comments – a unique resource.
The aforementioned Secret Oranges blog has just posted it’s 1000th entry – I don’t know how Steve Cook does it. Love that logo.
It’s a pretty big week for the UK comic 2000ad – this Friday the film Dredd 3D officially hits cinemas in the UK, based on the anthology’s lead character, Judge Dredd. The day after that the 35 year old publication hits no. 1800 with a whole host of new stories beginning for readers who want to jump on board. Not only that but the sister mag, the Judge Dredd-related Megazine bumps up its page size and includes concept images from the film as well as an exclusive prequel comic to the movie drawn by none other than… regular readers of this blog will know the answer… Henry Flint. 
Being that I’ve read the comic since I was 8 years old and have stuck with it every week, through the printers strikes, the mergers, the format changes and the lean years when a lot of the original creators went to the States to seek fame and fortune (and better deals), this is a very big deal. I’ll be celebrating this nicely timed piece of synchronicity this week with a series of related posts leading up to the big weekend of Thrill Power.
First up I’m digging in the archives for some vintage artwork from the first golden period of the comic. Some of you may remember me posting the original artwork for Kevin O’Neill‘s ‘Tube Warrior’ last year, which is one of my most prized pieces of original comic art. That was the black and white line art but it appeared on the comic’s cover in full colour.
Enter Steve Cook, from the already legendary Secret Oranges blogspot, which amazingly celebrates it’s 1000th post this week. His collection of original production art is vast and we were going through a pile of images at his studio when the colour version of the same piece appeared at the top of the pile. Knowing that I had the original, and probably seeing me trying not to completely freak out in front of him, he graciously presented it to me for my birthday, for which I am eternally grateful. Note the header for the ‘Galactic Olympics’ booklet which was a fictitious games with things like ‘laser slalom’ as I remember.
2000ad Prog 174 cover production art, 1980.
Illustration: Kevin O’Neill – ‘Tube Warrior’ Colours: Tom Frame
(300 x 230 mm, black line art acetate overlay, paint on paper).
US TV spot for Dredd 3D, titled ‘Legendary‘. Not long to wait now but in case you’ve not been paying attention: Filmed in 3D, the film returns the celebrated character to the dark, visceral incarnation from John Wagner and Carlos Ezquerra‘s revered comic strip. In this adaptation, Judge Dredd teams up with a rookie (Cassandra Anderson) who possesses psychic abilities. Together they fight to wrest control of Mega City One’s dystopic streets from a brutal prostitute-turned-drug kingpin named Ma-Ma.
Starring Karl Urban (Star Trek) and Olivia Thirlby (Juno) and Lena Headley (Game of Thrones)
Written by 28 Days Later‘s Alex Garland
Released by Lionsgate Films in the UK on Sept 7th and the US on Sept 21st
More info here
Also there will be a prequel comic available next week (physical or online, I’m not sure yet) with artwork by none other than Henry Flint, which makes me very happy as he will be getting even more exposure.
As readers may know, I’m a fan of Henry Flint‘s art, kind of obvious since I got him to provide visuals for all my recent releases. One of his finest comic book creations – along with writer Robbie Morrison – is the alien Shakara, a lone assassin, seeking revenge for the destruction of his race. This ran for five series’ in the UK comic anthology 2000ad and finished last year with an epic finale that I won’t spoil here.
This final series is now collected (along with the 4th series) in a graphic novel priced £14.99 – or even cheaper if you get it from Forbidden Planet! The first 3 chapters are also available at the bargain price of £12.99 here. For anyone who enjoyed Kevin O’Neill‘s Nemesis the Warlock or Simon Bisley‘s take on the ABC Warriors books, this is on par with those classics – stunning visuals and plot set pieces to blow your mind.
I’ve also been reminded that Factory Road still have a small quantity of the 2 colour screen printed tea towels that they made for our recent exhibition, sporting Henry’s line drawing for my album cover. Check them out on their shop.
New Dredd 3D poster, first seen on Everything Comes Back To 2000ad
Love this sort of thing on comic covers, stolen from King Megatrip‘s blog, go check out his Mega-posts.
I stumbled upon this today whilst surfing the net for something else. It’s a book of ‘personal work’ by Moebius, forms and shapes that have no purpose other than for him to express himself in a non-work context. Similar to the method Henry Flint used in his ‘Broadcast’ book – of letting his mind go and just drawing to see what came out – these were collected into a book named ‘Quatre-vingt huit’ (’88) in 1990.
Not all the images are this finished but these are some of my favourites, that he could produce work like this in his spare time is incredible. Apparently it’s now quite a rare book but a quick search will net you a digital copy, hopefully someone will reprint it now that he’s gone.
Always enjoy Jim Mahfood‘s work, very much looking forward to his take on Tank Girl this summer. He also has a new book out collecting his online adventures as a working artist, Los Angeles Ink Stains. He has a print out to go with it too as well as toys, T-shirts and more. Go here
Nice font there, possibly by Mike Hinge? Interesting choice of cover ‘image’, forces you to focus on the type. The contents of the portfolio can be seen over on fredschiller’s site, there’s a great final page that looks like a storyboard for the opening of a film which I’ve nicked to show below.
