Adapting Established Characters
Here we see me finally backtracking on a pledge I made way back in 2011, when I started up this site: I vowed to feature original-to-me characters and concepts only, however a recent public site I joined is running an art competition for their members, and I have bitten the bullet and decided to join in.
One caveat that also applies to me: entrants have to adapt existing [established in the sci-fi comics enthusiasts' world] characters from the UK comic 2000 AD into thematic imagery, and that is what we see here---
---so let's get this out of the way with a disclaimer:
COPYRIGHT 2015 REBELLION
OK, I have selected 2000 AD comic as in my view it is the only real creative ongoing comic still standing in the UK market: the once-booming British comics market is a poor shadow of it's past glories, with even long-running fixtures like the DANDY obsolete and out-of-the-running, online endeavours to create comics on computer screen have not really taken off in any big way, and most comics in the stands are really bland corporate extensions of tried-and-tested media characters, which is very different from the quirky UK comics we used to get in abundance: the BEANO is still standing of course, but compared to past glories at it's 50s/60s peak with Baxendale/Watkins/ Reid/Nixon and others, it's fair to say that it is well past it's truly creative apex. Modern color techniques and increased pages are a welcome improvement, however: although the archive editions I have of now-vintage UK comics portray a marked decline in overall standards deemed acceptable today, partly brought about by reduced scale in standardized page image sizes.
COMMANDO [est 1961] is another notable exception still putting stuff out regularly, though even here I have noticed reprinted material.
Anyway, back to 2000 AD:
the publication started way back in 1977, and it has always been a quirkily British concern, with much of it's original readership staying with it all this time, and aging in real time, along with Judge Dredd [!] I have a fair whack of the comics' history on file, and it's highly entertaining and constantly inventive:
-----the characters seen here are JUDGE DREDD, of course, and the baby characters are a satirical version of two of the strangest characters ever to grace UK comics:
NEMESIS THE WARLOCK [left] and TORQUEMADA.
This one is as detailed as a Christmas card, so hit dat ZOOM function!:
supplementary material--including unused elements--will follow. [phew!]
One caveat that also applies to me: entrants have to adapt existing [established in the sci-fi comics enthusiasts' world] characters from the UK comic 2000 AD into thematic imagery, and that is what we see here---
---so let's get this out of the way with a disclaimer:
COPYRIGHT 2015 REBELLION
OK, I have selected 2000 AD comic as in my view it is the only real creative ongoing comic still standing in the UK market: the once-booming British comics market is a poor shadow of it's past glories, with even long-running fixtures like the DANDY obsolete and out-of-the-running, online endeavours to create comics on computer screen have not really taken off in any big way, and most comics in the stands are really bland corporate extensions of tried-and-tested media characters, which is very different from the quirky UK comics we used to get in abundance: the BEANO is still standing of course, but compared to past glories at it's 50s/60s peak with Baxendale/Watkins/ Reid/Nixon and others, it's fair to say that it is well past it's truly creative apex. Modern color techniques and increased pages are a welcome improvement, however: although the archive editions I have of now-vintage UK comics portray a marked decline in overall standards deemed acceptable today, partly brought about by reduced scale in standardized page image sizes.
COMMANDO [est 1961] is another notable exception still putting stuff out regularly, though even here I have noticed reprinted material.
Anyway, back to 2000 AD:
the publication started way back in 1977, and it has always been a quirkily British concern, with much of it's original readership staying with it all this time, and aging in real time, along with Judge Dredd [!] I have a fair whack of the comics' history on file, and it's highly entertaining and constantly inventive:
-----the characters seen here are JUDGE DREDD, of course, and the baby characters are a satirical version of two of the strangest characters ever to grace UK comics:
NEMESIS THE WARLOCK [left] and TORQUEMADA.
This one is as detailed as a Christmas card, so hit dat ZOOM function!:
supplementary material--including unused elements--will follow. [phew!]
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