Flogging a Dead Horse [2]
MORE recycled artwork, but in this case at least it offers the viewer decent close-up shots of detail rendered almost-invisible when featured in the finished JUDGE DREDD composite of recent weeks.
The two facial close-up shots are of NEMESIS THE WARLOCK ['horsehead'. left] , and TOMAS de TORQUEMADA, a long-running fixture from 2000 AD comic, a strip set in far-future Earth, with much mass extermination of Aliens by the demented, Ku-Klux-Klan-like Torquemada, whose triangular pointed steel mask betrayed his 'human' origins.
This astonishing strip [always illustrated with much hyper-imaginitive designs] was originally inked by Kevin O'Neill, who drew in a very aggressive, spikey-looking style that must have taken him several days to complete a page. The events in this strip are truly mind-bending and surreal---even compared to the far-future World of Mega City One, as detailed in the pages of JUDGE DREDD, but for the commited reader these tales are an unforgettable experience, and one of the key qualities of 2000 AD's inventive History.
I met original NEMESIS artist O'Neill in early Summer 1984: although I am a cartoonist by nature, ironically I followed the more 'adult' 2000 AD much more avidly in the early 80s than I did, say, the BEANO of that period, which I felt had paled compared to past Glories: 2000 AD was ever-evolving, with highly ambitious scenarios, and indeed it still is. I can appreciate the styles of both 2000 AD and THE BEANO, and I enjoy both equally even today, but in the early-mid 80s it was 2000 AD I followed regularly, only picking up other comics sporadically.
I used to frequent the FORBIDDEN PLANET specialist comic store in Edinburgh, and one day I happened to look in, and O'Neill and early key Dredd artist Mike McMahon were sitting at a desk signing copies of the comic. I never got to speak to McMahon, but O'Neill proved to be the first-ever professional comics artist I ever met in real life, and I went nervously silent and never really knew what to say to him, although I forced a basic conversation between us: he was polite and patient with me. Just a few weeks later I finally made it to the offices of D C Thomson, where I spent half a day conversing with two long-standing writers and Editors up on Floor Two: I had a Million Questions about the Comics Industry for them, but at least---unlike others------they did invite me back!*
Great Anecdote:
------- some promising artists got an interview with D C Thomson Editors, but what did happen some times was that some prospective artists were only really interested in 'how much can I earn?', which was not really what they wanted to hear at DCT: some artists got a real Grilling, apparantly, and were told --in so many words---that 'this is sh**' regarding their artistic shortcomings, which sounds harsh but perhaps is the more honest route.
COPYRIGHT REBELLION 2015
The two facial close-up shots are of NEMESIS THE WARLOCK ['horsehead'. left] , and TOMAS de TORQUEMADA, a long-running fixture from 2000 AD comic, a strip set in far-future Earth, with much mass extermination of Aliens by the demented, Ku-Klux-Klan-like Torquemada, whose triangular pointed steel mask betrayed his 'human' origins.
This astonishing strip [always illustrated with much hyper-imaginitive designs] was originally inked by Kevin O'Neill, who drew in a very aggressive, spikey-looking style that must have taken him several days to complete a page. The events in this strip are truly mind-bending and surreal---even compared to the far-future World of Mega City One, as detailed in the pages of JUDGE DREDD, but for the commited reader these tales are an unforgettable experience, and one of the key qualities of 2000 AD's inventive History.
I met original NEMESIS artist O'Neill in early Summer 1984: although I am a cartoonist by nature, ironically I followed the more 'adult' 2000 AD much more avidly in the early 80s than I did, say, the BEANO of that period, which I felt had paled compared to past Glories: 2000 AD was ever-evolving, with highly ambitious scenarios, and indeed it still is. I can appreciate the styles of both 2000 AD and THE BEANO, and I enjoy both equally even today, but in the early-mid 80s it was 2000 AD I followed regularly, only picking up other comics sporadically.
I used to frequent the FORBIDDEN PLANET specialist comic store in Edinburgh, and one day I happened to look in, and O'Neill and early key Dredd artist Mike McMahon were sitting at a desk signing copies of the comic. I never got to speak to McMahon, but O'Neill proved to be the first-ever professional comics artist I ever met in real life, and I went nervously silent and never really knew what to say to him, although I forced a basic conversation between us: he was polite and patient with me. Just a few weeks later I finally made it to the offices of D C Thomson, where I spent half a day conversing with two long-standing writers and Editors up on Floor Two: I had a Million Questions about the Comics Industry for them, but at least---unlike others------they did invite me back!*
Great Anecdote:
------- some promising artists got an interview with D C Thomson Editors, but what did happen some times was that some prospective artists were only really interested in 'how much can I earn?', which was not really what they wanted to hear at DCT: some artists got a real Grilling, apparantly, and were told --in so many words---that 'this is sh**' regarding their artistic shortcomings, which sounds harsh but perhaps is the more honest route.
COPYRIGHT REBELLION 2015
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