Aint nothing like the real thing (oddest versions of 2000ad characters)

[james newell]

That's why it's a funny joke, buddy.

Sorry, so totally missed that one.

[O Lucky Stevie!]

Now a fine artist. And this work looks incredible. Love him too.

& still swiping from Razzle by the look of it too.

[credo]

The version Bisley arrived at for Judgement On Gotham* worked much better. The book looks incredible, but my least favourite parts of it are Dredd**, the bike and the gun.

Trying to analyse it, I'd say Bisley was trying to make Dredd look (to his mind***) cool. Dredd's not cool; he's a stiff, like Darth Vader or Kirsty Wark.

I seem to remember an interview with Bisley, long before he ever drew a Dredd, where he opined about being unsure how to draw him. He was swithering between the musclebound imposing figure he eventually went with, and a much thinner, lither Dredd, who was imposing because of the uniform. I think he got that idea from an early Star Scan (McMahon, I think), where Dredd was drawn with absolutely massive pads and boots.

[Frank]

That's why it's a funny joke, buddy

Sorry, so totally missed that one.

Salright; it wasn't a very funny joke.

Tyranny Rex is one of the few post-prog 500 characters who makes it onto (or is recognisable in) those montage covers Tharg commissions for special occasions.

Partly because, with her shock of pure white hair, tail, and green, scaly skin*, she's instantly recognisable:





* To be fair to Fabry, the green skin was a Paul Marshall innovation. At the point Fabry produced this excellent image, the character's creator, the late Steve Dillon, had coloured her a sort of olive/beige.

[Link Prime]

To be fair to Fabry, the green skin was a Paul Marshall innovation.

Or maybe Gina Hart.

Fastner & Larsen went full Caucasian with ol' Tyranny.

[Frank]

Or maybe Gina Hart.

Fair point.

[credo]

wtf is Ms Rex wearing in that cover? Even by comic book standards that's ridiculous!

[IndigoPrime]

The tattered remains of a top because boobies. (God forbid at that time any women in comics not look like something that would have been in Loaded.)

[Link Prime]

I love the really large 'X' on the cover, a teasing hint of the possibility of x-rated material within.

Most teenage boys wouldn't be so easily fooled of course. < adjusts shirt collar >

[Leigh S]

I am now imagining "The Final Solution" drawn by Bisley... worse, I have spent today doodling the tresultant Hair Metal Alpha (and Red) we might have seen... the shame...

[sheridan]

And this...



I feel there's going to be a fair few Quality Comics covers in this thread!

Looks quite a lot like the first version of Johnny many will have seen - on the front cover of Starlord Issue 1...

[sheridan]

What's wrong with that second Nemesis cover (besides being a bit spoilerific)?

I was thinking it was pretty faithful to O'Neill's version (though depicting a Hicklenton scene).

[sheridan]

Admittedly, I liked Bisley's art at the time and thinkk Coleby is pretty incredible nowadays - but at the time, it did feel like Simon was some kind of secret password into the prog!

We don't hear much about Steve Bisley these days though ;-)

[IndigoPrime]

What's wrong with that second Nemesis cover (besides being a bit spoilerific)?

It's like a poor-man's take on the styles being used in the actual strip. In the flesh, I always thought this run of covers was mostly piss poor, bar perhaps the first four by Sam Keith. The later ones look like knock-offs drawn by a teenager – and, bizarrely, increasingly illustrated things that had happened months before. Also, what the hell was the artist thinking here, bar "I like drawing tits"?

[TordelBack]

Awful lingerie aside, surely that's the Mimesis? If it is, it's pretty close to actual scenes in Purity's Story, and even a 2000ad cover, if I'm remembering right.