2000 AD Online Forum

2000 AD => News => Topic started by: AlexF on 23 March, 2015, 11:19:36 AM

Title: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: AlexF on 23 March, 2015, 11:19:36 AM
http://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.co.uk/ (http://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.co.uk/) is now available for your reading pleasure.

I've mentioned it a few times before on the forums - in a nutshell, it's my attempt to do for 2000 AD's creator droids what Grant Goggans did for 2000 AD's thrills with his excellent 'Touched by the Hand of Tharg' site. http://www.2000ad.org/thrillpower/ (http://www.2000ad.org/thrillpower/).

To make it more exciting, I'll be drip-feeding the entries twice a week in sequence, but hopefully it'll remain as a resource. I aim to update entries with images as it's pretty bland currently.

Read, share, enjoy, let me know what you think!
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: Colin YNWA on 23 March, 2015, 11:34:00 AM
Superb and long may it continue.

Only had the chance to make a fleeting visit but fully intend to delve in later. Great idea, well done sir.
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: Jim_Campbell on 23 March, 2015, 11:34:27 AM
Quote from: AlexF on 23 March, 2015, 11:19:36 AM
Read, share, enjoy, let me know what you think!

That's fantastic work, and I enjoyed the hell out of reading it. A couple of factoids that might be worth dropping into the Tom Frame entry:

1) Tom was the uncredited colourist on many of the colour pages during the newsprint era, possibly the majority of them, given the number of times Steve Cook's excellent blog cites him as colourist on a cover or pin-up from that period.

2) According to Bear Alley's obit (http://bearalley.blogspot.co.uk/2014/10/jack-potter-1921-2014.html) for Jack Potter, he was actually Steve Potter's father.

Keep up the good work!

Cheers

Jim
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: AlexF on 23 March, 2015, 03:02:48 PM
Thanks both!

And I've now updated Tom Frame's entry, too. Funnily enough, I've only lately discovered Steve Cook's 'Secret Oranges' blog whilst doing research for an entry on him...

Tom Frame really was a key figure for 2000AD, wasn't he.
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: Greg M. on 23 March, 2015, 03:42:36 PM
This is a really great stuff - some very insightful analysis into the work of these comics giants, and extremely readable to boot! Re: your comment about Wagner's collaborations and Shako - I could be wrong, but I don't think they wrote it together - I think some episodes are Mills and some are Wagner.
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: Jim_Campbell on 23 March, 2015, 03:53:08 PM
Quote from: AlexF on 23 March, 2015, 03:02:48 PM
Tom Frame really was a key figure for 2000AD, wasn't he.

He really was. (Only today, I happened across this typically self-deprecating blog post (http://tuggingyourcoat.com/2015/02/27/the-hungry-planet/) about a classic Judge Child spread by Mick Mahon and noticed that in the comments, Mick mentions that the colours were done by Frame.)

For some reason, I seem to recall someone saying he was a demon pool player, too!

Cheers

Jim
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: Dark Jimbo on 23 March, 2015, 04:32:40 PM
Truly great stuff, this - going to be a damn fine resource.
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: Eamonn Clarke on 23 March, 2015, 07:12:38 PM
Excellent stuff, looking forward to further entries.
One little suggestion, some pictures might give your blog some more visual impact?
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: Eamonn Clarke on 23 March, 2015, 07:13:40 PM
Strike that. You've mentioned that already
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: maryanddavid on 23 March, 2015, 11:29:24 PM
Brilliant Blog Alex, well done. I have given it a plug on the Hibernia FB page, I think this deserves as wide an audience as possible.
Just a correction on Pat Mills, Planet of the Damned was created and the first instalment scripted by Pat, but the rest by someone else, possibly Alan Hebden, and Wagners Walk has nothing to do with  Pat, more than likely scripted by Finley-Day, and is a direct continuation of Hellman from Battle. R.E. Wright is the author of both, tells its own story.
I have passed the Blog onto to Steve MacManus too, keep up the good work!
The pool thing Jim, I think that came for the Deadline/Fleetway combined party (Christmas/after awards?) and was mentioned in Speakeasy or Comic World, I have them all pulled out, Ill see if I can find the mention.
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: Jim_Campbell on 24 March, 2015, 07:32:41 AM
Quote from: maryanddavid on 23 March, 2015, 11:29:24 PM
The pool thing Jim, I think that came for the Deadline/Fleetway combined party (Christmas/after awards?)

Of course, this Robin Smith star scan of the Frame droid made almost no sense without this piece of information...!

(http://img4.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20140830115037/britishcomics/images/thumb/a/a5/Lettering_robot_Frame.jpg/2000px-Lettering_robot_Frame.jpg)

(Edit to add: I've only just noticed that the pages Smith has thumbnailed on Frame's drawing board are recognisably from an Ezquerra Dredd, possibly 'The Executioner'...)

Cheers!

Jim
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: AlexF on 24 March, 2015, 08:41:02 AM
I'd been under the impression that 'RE Wright' was a pseudonym used by Mills (according to his page on Barney, anyway). But I bow to your superior knowledge! It certainly makes sense that he started Planet of teh Damned off and then handed over scripting duties.

Anyone know if there's a secret drawer somewhere with unprinted portraits of Tharg's droids? I've always wanted to know what Gerry Finley-Day looked like!
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: Dash Decent on 24 March, 2015, 10:29:09 AM
Quote from: Jim_Campbell on 23 March, 2015, 03:53:08 PM
For some reason, I seem to recall someone saying he was a demon pool player, too!

Frame after frame, apparently.
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: Dark Jimbo on 24 March, 2015, 12:00:54 PM
Quote from: Jim_Campbell on 24 March, 2015, 07:32:41 AM
(I've only just noticed that the pages Smith has thumbnailed on Frame's drawing board are recognisably from an Ezquerra Dredd, possibly 'The Executioner'...)

Yep, all from the first episode - on top is page three, then page six, then page five. Smith's got them pretty spot on!

This is a good idea for the blog actually, Alex - wouldn't it be good if wherever possible you could have one of the droid scans for each creator?
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: maryanddavid on 24 March, 2015, 11:53:50 PM
QuoteI'd been under the impression that 'RE Wright' was a pseudonym used by Mills (according to his page on Barney, anyway). But I bow to your superior knowledge! It certainly makes sense that he started Planet of teh Damned off and then handed over scripting duties.

I asked Pat Mills about it when I was doing Beyond 2000AD and he never heard of Wagners Walk, and Planet of the Damned was a leftover from the first issue of 2000AD that had not been used. The switch from monthly to weekly for the format of Starlord left a big hole in their first issues, so Planet of the Damned was dusted off.
If you read Wagners Walk, and the last Hellman, its a direct continuation, and according to David Hunt, Finley-Day had been scripting Hellman in Battle.
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: Richmond Clements on 25 March, 2015, 01:46:49 PM
Quote from: Dash Decent on 24 March, 2015, 10:29:09 AM
Quote from: Jim_Campbell on 23 March, 2015, 03:53:08 PM
For some reason, I seem to recall someone saying he was a demon pool player, too!

Frame after frame, apparently.

Consider yourself on a warning! ;-)
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: AlexF on 25 March, 2015, 05:02:08 PM
Thanks again for the kind words, all. Looks like I've got more updating to do!

I've started adding pics to the blog - will see what I can do about the Droid pin-ups, good idea that. Anyone know if DJ 1, D-Mil and Spex were real and specific people?
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: Colin YNWA on 25 March, 2015, 08:07:02 PM
Saw the picts today when reading the frankly glorious Pat Mills entry (I still insist that you must be WRONGWRONGWRONG (http://wrong), surely Mr Mills has more appearances than that?) and they really make the site sing.

Keep it up this is fantastic stuff.
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: Dandontdare on 26 March, 2015, 01:58:04 AM
Just had a long read through the entries to date and I love this blog! It's good solid bio but with all those little details and comments that only a true fan would care about. Good choice of pics on the Wagner piece, good luck choosing just a handful of images for Pat Mills!

The only thing I really don't like is that headache-inducing dotty logo - I'd prefer something that felt more classic 20000ad
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: judda fett on 26 March, 2015, 12:29:33 PM
Quote from: Dandontdare on 26 March, 2015, 01:58:04 AM


The only thing I really don't like is that headache-inducing dotty logo - I'd prefer something that felt more classic 20000ad

I'm sure a kindly Droid in the creative common would take a stab at a logo for you if you eventually do decide to change it.. Great content though, good work!
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: Pete Wells on 26 March, 2015, 01:15:23 PM
Just want to add my praise to this wonderful blog. Truly zarjaz!
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: AlexF on 27 March, 2015, 09:26:00 AM
Yeah, the dotty logo is quite a bit more in your face when I look at the site live than it did when I was cobbling it together. I've got some alternatives to try out (in a similar vein). But anyone who wants to throw something new at me, I'll gladly sub it in!

New entry just up this morning - it's the first of the artists to feature on the countup! No prizes for guessing who it is...
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: Colin YNWA on 27 March, 2015, 10:53:58 AM
Perfectly timed. Just finished the last of the first five entries and now I have my lunch time reading sorted!
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: AlexF on 07 April, 2015, 11:48:43 AM
Hero number 9 up as of today. It's perhaps the first 'surprise' (not really a surprise, though) - the first creator droid of a newer generation.
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: Colin YNWA on 07 April, 2015, 01:46:46 PM
Damnit I'm getting behind on these... or actually, cool I've got loads of these to catch up on...
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: Colin YNWA on 20 April, 2015, 09:01:15 AM
Slowly catching up with these, but one entry I think deserves particular comment and praise. For many it would be brave to list Alan McKenzie in a blog called 'Heroes of 2000ad', for some I dare say damned right foolish. He does seem to be one of the few creators to work on the comic who gets quite vilified, and not necessarily without course, though most of us don't really know the ins and outs at all.

Your write up of this time working for The Galaxies Greatest was a really nicely balanced, well judged piece. He after all might have been involved in some murky practices (I refer our learned friends to my statement about not really knowing the detail, I certainly don't pretend to) BUT much of his output as a writer wasn't bad. In the context of what was around it it was pretty good in fact. None of them are stonewall classics but there's some good honest fare there and I liked many of his strips.

I look forward to seeing how you handle Messers Millar and Fleischer!
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: AlexF on 20 April, 2015, 11:54:55 AM
Thanks Colin!
It's a blessing that there are really very few 2000AD creators that will stir up much controversy on the blog. McKenzie by the far the most divisive figure, I think. Much as I don't like the way he comes across in his writing on his blog, I do think the stories he wrote for 2000AD were made with the best intentions of being good for the comic - and his hit rate on that front wasn't bad. By the same token, I'm not sure there are many (any?) writers with no fails across their 2000AD back catalogue. Alan Moore, maybe (although liking Abelaard Snazz could be aminority opinion)? Michael Carroll hasn't put a foot wrong so far, but he has yet to be tested on trying out his own series...
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: Greg M. on 20 April, 2015, 11:58:39 AM
Quote from: Colin_YNWA on 20 April, 2015, 09:01:15 AM
None of them are stonewall classics but there's some good honest fare there and I liked many of his strips.

I would argue that 'Summer Magic' really is an absolute classic, up there with the best - it's a shame it's in legal limbo, because all that's served to do is allow it to fade away, rather than being cherished as a real 2000AD highlight. I recall the final Luke Kirby story being really good as well.
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: Colin YNWA on 20 April, 2015, 12:40:50 PM
Quote from: Greg M. on 20 April, 2015, 11:58:39 AM
Quote from: Colin_YNWA on 20 April, 2015, 09:01:15 AM
None of them are stonewall classics but there's some good honest fare there and I liked many of his strips.

I would argue that 'Summer Magic' really is an absolute classic, up there with the best - it's a shame it's in legal limbo, because all that's served to do is allow it to fade away, rather than being cherished as a real 2000AD highlight. I recall the final Luke Kirby story being really good as well.

See even when we're saying nice things about McKenzie we can't agree! Its defo the closest he go and I do really enjoy it, whether it stands against the likes of Zenith, Skizz, Dante etc etc I'm not quite so sure. I'm also a very big fan of the first Brigand Doom story. That one did drift off the boil more than The Journals Of Luke Kirby which was always at least very good, but that first story I'd rank as high (or almost) as the original Summer Magic. Both certainly look perfect.
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: AlexF on 28 April, 2015, 09:12:53 AM
One burning question answered: who has written more stories for Tharg, Gordon Rennie or Robbie Morrison?* http://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.co.uk/2015/04/no-14-robbie-morrison.html (http://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.co.uk/2015/04/no-14-robbie-morrison.html)

But who has written more Dredd?
Find out here: http://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.co.uk/2015/04/interlude-dreddcount.html (http://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.co.uk/2015/04/interlude-dreddcount.html)

*Actually it's not that simple: Rennie has written far more separate stories; Morrison has written more individual episodes.

Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: Colin YNWA on 30 April, 2015, 10:50:11 AM
Well those writer stats are surprisingly interesting, not that number crunching like this isn't always great, rather in some of the things it reveals, well once you get beyond the obvious.

I'd have personally ranked by episodes but it doesn't really change too much, the only real significant difference being with GMozz and even then you're pretty low down the chart.

The biggest, and very pleasant surprise from my perspective, is how quickly Mike Carroll has shifted himself up the rankings. Big fan of his Dredd and so good to see (and not a little surprised) how much he's done already. 
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: AlexF on 13 May, 2015, 11:05:47 AM
Bishop Bashing time http://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.co.uk/2015/05/no-17-david-bishop.html (http://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.co.uk/2015/05/no-17-david-bishop.html)
(sorry, couldn't resist)

This marks the last of the behind-the-scenes stuff for a while - it's pretty much just script and art droids from here on out. And hopefully this is where the numbers start throwing up surprises. How soon will your favourite appear?
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: Colin YNWA on 13 May, 2015, 01:37:32 PM
Quote from: AlexF on 13 May, 2015, 11:05:47 AM
And hopefully this is where the numbers start throwing up surprises. How soon will your favourite appear?

To be honest I've found a few of the entries quite surprising already. None of the current flock of letters, Steve Yeowell and Henry Flint I'd have thought from the current artists would have appeared ahead of some who have...

... mind all just further evidence to support the statement - what the chuff do I know!
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: Greg M. on 13 May, 2015, 03:28:59 PM
Quote from: AlexF on 13 May, 2015, 11:05:47 AM
How soon will your favourite appear?

Since I think your blog mentioned Pete Milligan was on the way, quite soon, I'm guessing.
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: AlexF on 13 May, 2015, 05:07:32 PM
I must confess I've not counted up the entries for individual letterers - the Tom Frame entry at No. 2 is essentially covering all. This is basically because the data isn't available online (Barney does an excellent but not entirely complete job with lettering credits) and I'm not yet at the point when I can justify leafing through each and every thrill of each and every Prog with a tally chart by my side. (and it doesn't help that I offloaded a huge chunk of festering Megazines recently)

But Annie Parkhouse and Ellie De Ville would be come in at 4 and 5, I'm pretty certain.

As for Peter Milligan, let's just say that there are two writers of a much newer vintage who are going to get a look-in first...
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: Colin YNWA on 13 May, 2015, 09:29:27 PM
Is it bad form to start trying to guess?
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: Colin YNWA on 15 May, 2015, 09:21:27 AM
I read the David Bishop entry last night and once again a well thought-out balanced assessment.

I've said it before here and no doubt I'll say it again, but regardless of what people think of the fella and the mistakes it might be perceived he made (poor Peter Hogan I've always like his work, well most of it) and despite some considerable bumps on the road, there is little doubt in my mind he left the Prog in a far, far better place when he left it than it was when he arrived.

People have talked about Rebellion and Jason Kingsley saving 2000ad and we shouldn't under estimate that BUT I think it was David Bishop that got it back into a place where it was worth saving.
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: AlexF on 15 May, 2015, 10:45:09 AM
Yeah, I think Bishop deserves particular credit for bringing back the rather old-fashioned idea of long-lasting characters, with his deliberate commissioning of long runs of Slaine, Sinister Dexter, Anderson Psi and Nikolai Dante alongside Dredd.

I wouldn't want to take away from Rebellion, though! They sure have boosted the comic.

Up today, and much less controversial, it's the much-beloved Ian Gibson - the third artist to feature.
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: Colin YNWA on 15 May, 2015, 12:42:17 PM
Quote from: AlexF on 15 May, 2015, 10:45:09 AM

Up today, and much less controversial, it's the much-beloved Ian Gibson - the third artist to feature.

Less controversial! I've not read it yet but naked (not)Halo and abandoning Samatha Slade midstream. We can find controversy wherever we look!
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: Colin YNWA on 19 May, 2015, 01:32:03 PM
Arh you've got to the Mighty Yeowell. Been waiting for this one, one of my all time favourites. I even defended what I perceived as fan criticism of this use of expansive whites (which you allude to) here

https://2000ad.wordpress.com/2013/07/12/steve-yeowell-a-fans-perspective/ (https://2000ad.wordpress.com/2013/07/12/steve-yeowell-a-fans-perspective/)

The thing is what I'm learning from this list is that I'm a bit rubbish at predicting who will appear when on it. Steve Yeowell seems to have been around almost constantly since Zenith burst onto the scene. Even when playing away with them there comics from across the ocean he never seemed to be gone long. I therefore expected him to appear much earlier in the list. Certainly I was very surprised when Ian Gibson appeared ahead of him. While Ian was one of the early stalwarts he seemed to have long absences. 

You said a few posts ago that before we get to Pete Milligan we have two more recent writers to cover first. I'm dead sure I know who they are ... really looking forward to being proved wrong.

Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: AlexF on 04 June, 2015, 05:01:38 PM
Back from my holiday; new entry up on the blog. http://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.co.uk/ (http://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.co.uk/)

It's time for John Smith, a comics writer who deserves essays and indeed books to examine his body of work in depth - but he'll have to settle for a hasty blogpost instead.
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: Greg M. on 04 June, 2015, 05:29:10 PM
More great blogging - cracking stuff. Particularly happy to see the John Smith entry, as I need little excuse to wax lyrical about his amazing body of work. For such an idiosyncratic writer, he's remarkably consistent in terms of quality - I can only think of a single story of his I wasn't that into (A Love Like Blood - I'm not counting his co-written stuff.) Revere, on the other hand, has steadily grown to become one of my very favourite stories - it benefits massively from being read in one go.
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: Colin YNWA on 05 June, 2015, 02:10:29 PM
Ah at number 21 probably my favourite 2000 ad writer and 22 probably the definative 2000ad artist.

Now there are two real heroes of 2000ad. Not that the rest aren't of course, but these two, these two... wouldn't it be a thing if they did a thing together (I don't think they have to date?)... man I think I'd explode in a rapturous nerdgasm if that ever happened.

Fantastic blogging as ever sir. 
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: AlexF on 12 June, 2015, 12:35:45 PM
Simon Davis: http://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.co.uk/2015/06/no-23-simon-davis.html (http://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.co.uk/2015/06/no-23-simon-davis.html)


Ian Edginton: http://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.co.uk/2015/06/no-24-ian-edginton.html (http://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.co.uk/2015/06/no-24-ian-edginton.html)


Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: Colin YNWA on 12 June, 2015, 02:18:57 PM
Finally Ian Edginton (how often do I misplace that 'G') - another example of how bad I am at predicting this list. While I know he's a relatively recent addition to things, he does seem to always have something on the go, so I'd assumed he'd have popped up earlier (where are you Ron Smith?).

One thing, I know Red Seas is seen as a cash in on 'Pirates of the Caribbean', but has it ever been explicitly stated? I always assumed it was, until when writing something for ECBT 2000ad, I realised that 'Red Seas: Under the Flag of King Death'  (I've said it before and I'll say it again surely the single greatest title to a comic strip ever!) started in October 2002, some 8 months or so before Pirates of the Caribbean was released and in fact either before, or just as shooting started. So given that Red Seas must of had some led in time, surely the earliest it could have been conceived is a good year before PotC came out? (I'm making an assumption here, I might be off with my guess at led in time needed?)

Now I still assume its a cash in, but was there that much fuss about PotC that Tharg would have commission a cash-in 12 month before its release? Has this ever actually been said. It may well be in Thrillpower Overload and I've just forgotten?
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: I, Cosh on 12 June, 2015, 03:12:00 PM
Quote from: Colin_YNWA on 12 June, 2015, 02:18:57 PM
'Red Seas: Under the Flag Banner of King Death'  (I've said it before and I'll say it again surely the single greatest title to a comic strip ever!)
So good he can't even remember it!

I came to it after the fact, but I always assumed it was just synchronicity rather than anything else.

Big Red Seas fan myself. Was going to write some guff about comparative mythology and earthy Scandinavian gods versus stuffy Greeks but I'd sound like I was talking about Sandman and you know all that anyway.
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: Colin YNWA on 12 June, 2015, 04:21:42 PM
Quote from: The Cosh on 12 June, 2015, 03:12:00 PM
Quote from: Colin_YNWA on 12 June, 2015, 02:18:57 PM
'Red Seas: Under the Flag Banner of King Death'  (I've said it before and I'll say it again surely the single greatest title to a comic strip ever!)
So good he can't even remember it!


Ha! I'm such a numbnut - and lets be honest 'Banner' is so much better - its one of the things that makes it work so well!
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: Colin YNWA on 14 June, 2015, 03:26:41 PM
Quote from: Colin_YNWA on 12 June, 2015, 02:18:57 PM

One thing, I know Red Seas is seen as a cash in on 'Pirates of the Caribbean', but has it ever been explicitly stated? I always assumed it was, until when writing something for ECBT 2000ad, I realised that 'Red Seas: Under the Flag of King Death'  (I've said it before and I'll say it again surely the single greatest title to a comic strip ever!) started in October 2002, some 8 months or so before Pirates of the Caribbean was released and in fact either before, or just as shooting started. So given that Red Seas must of had some led in time, surely the earliest it could have been conceived is a good year before PotC came out? (I'm making an assumption here, I might be off with my guess at led in time needed?)

Now I still assume its a cash in, but was there that much fuss about PotC that Tharg would have commission a cash-in 12 month before its release? Has this ever actually been said. It may well be in Thrillpower Overload and I've just forgotten?

I've come back to answer my own question. A quick trip to my nerd cave just now inspired me to throw off the shackles of my own bone idolness and check Thrillpower Overload. Its turns out its not at all inspired by PotC and was in fact first concieved and commissioned by EPIC in the late 90s just before the lines demise, which meant it never saw print. It was thrown as a pitch to Matt Smith some time later...

... of course whether it was commissioned by 2000ad knowing that PotC was on the way is another question...
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: Dark Jimbo on 14 June, 2015, 04:06:42 PM
Quote from: Colin_YNWA on 14 June, 2015, 03:26:41 PM
... of course whether it was commissioned by 2000ad knowing that PotC was on the way is another question...

I really do think it was as simple as Matt Smith saying, 'Zombies and pirates, eh? Seems like a good fit for us.' It's hardly an original concept in any case.
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: AlexF on 15 June, 2015, 11:59:37 AM
Ah, the importance of doing research! Yes, I am guilty of hastily assuming that the Red Seas was a cash-in in the same way that Skizz was a cash-in on E.T. (commissioned before the scale of success of E.T. became clear, at least).

I have to say, much as I liked the first two Pirates films, I continue to be surprised by how much of a fan base they have in the world at large. It seems a bit unlikely, but I hope at least some of them found their way into 2000 AD because of Edginton and Yeowell's efforts!

Synchronicity - Tharg's secret weapon.
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: Grant Goggans on 15 June, 2015, 07:34:14 PM
Just caught up with your blog today.  It's huge fun.  Sort of reminds me I need to get my "top 40 thrills" list updated with the last couple of years!
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: AlexF on 24 June, 2015, 06:22:05 PM
One of my all-time faves up today, and one of a handful of creators without whom there might genuinely be no 2000 AD today: Kevin O'Neill
http://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.co.uk/2015/06/no-27-kevin-oneill.html

And, not to skip over their contributions, John Tomlinson before him...
http://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.co.uk/2015/06/no-26-john-tomlinson.html (http://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.co.uk/2015/06/no-26-john-tomlinson.html)

and the irrepressible Colin MacNeil at Number 25.
http://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.co.uk/2015/06/no-25-colin-macneil.html (http://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.co.uk/2015/06/no-25-colin-macneil.html)
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: Colin YNWA on 02 July, 2015, 02:48:25 PM
Arh at last Ron Smith - great post, as ever, but really no. 29 I'd have thought he'd have been much higher. Probably would have been if not for the Star strips I guess.
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: Colin YNWA on 06 July, 2015, 02:32:15 PM
And now Cam Kennedy - the artist on a whole load of my favourite Dredd stories. The fact that a lot of his work appeared just as I was getting into my single longest time getting 2000ad and the first time it was mine and not either my brothers, or a friend across the road, whose copies I was reading, mean the mid to late 400s in someways define me as a 2000ad reader.

That probably has a lot to do with why 'Sunday Night Fever', 'The Warlord', 'The Falucci Tape', 'The Taxidermist'  (to name but a few, but never have been much of a fan of Midnight Surfer... sorry) and particularly 'The Big Sleep' and 'I, Beast' are some of my all time favourite Dredds. I also think Mr Kennedy's work is another. Just brilliant stuff.

To my shame I'd never heard of 'Zancudo' sounds right up my street.
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: Jim_Campbell on 06 July, 2015, 03:05:27 PM
Quote from: Colin_YNWA on 06 July, 2015, 02:32:15 PM
the mid to late 400s in someways define me as a 2000ad reader.

Kennedy consistently knocked it out of the park in his Dredds of this period, and absolutely defined how I 'see' MC-1 whenever I try to imagine it.

Cheers

Jim
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: AlexF on 09 July, 2015, 03:44:17 PM
Many thanks chaps for pushing the new content. I've fallen behind a bit after a short holiday.
Anyway, No. 31 up just now, it's time to celebrate the legendary John M. Burns.

http://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.co.uk/2015/07/no-31-john-burns.html (http://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.co.uk/2015/07/no-31-john-burns.html)

And, for those who like easy links, here's
Ron Smith: http://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.co.uk/2015/07/no-29-ron-smith.html

30 Cam Kennedy: http://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.co.uk/2015/07/no-30-cam-kennedy.html (http://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.co.uk/2015/07/no-30-cam-kennedy.html)

It's Judge Dredd fortnight, basically...
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: AlexF on 14 July, 2015, 02:12:44 PM
Garth Ennis, in with a bullet (and a dick joke)
http://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.co.uk/2015/07/no-32-garth-ennis.html (http://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.co.uk/2015/07/no-32-garth-ennis.html)
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: AlexF on 20 July, 2015, 11:48:21 AM
A rather hasty entry here that doesn't do justice to the innovative stylings of D'Israeli:
http://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.co.uk/2015/07/no-33-disraeli.html (http://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.co.uk/2015/07/no-33-disraeli.html)
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: AlexF on 21 July, 2015, 01:24:43 PM
What I hope is a respectful take on Brett Ewins, up today:
http://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.co.uk/2015/07/no-34-brett-ewins.html (http://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.co.uk/2015/07/no-34-brett-ewins.html)
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: Hawkmumbler on 21 July, 2015, 01:29:24 PM
I'm guilty as sin for not having read your blog thus far, AlexF. That will now be rectified. What a wonderful tribute to the great late Mr. Ewins.
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: Fungus on 22 July, 2015, 09:13:56 AM
A fine post on Brett Ewins. I too haven't kept up to speed on all blog entries, for one thing there's often a lot of detail and for another, been saving them up as a treat... A wonderful blog.
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: AlexF on 24 July, 2015, 12:01:11 PM
I have to confess I've no idea how the blog goes down on different formats. I imagine with all the pictures it can be a pin on a phone or a computer with a slow connection. And yes, I do tend to go on a bit - more, lately, than I was planning to at first!

Thanks for the kind words.

Up today, modern legend Rob Williams:
http://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.co.uk/2015/07/no-35-rob-williams.html (http://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.co.uk/2015/07/no-35-rob-williams.html)
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: AlexF on 01 August, 2015, 07:35:55 AM
One good Welshman deserves another...
Anthony Williams right here:
http://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.co.uk/2015/07/no-36-anthony-williams.html (http://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.co.uk/2015/07/no-36-anthony-williams.html)
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: AlexF on 01 August, 2015, 07:36:39 AM
It had to happen: Millar time.
http://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.co.uk/2015/07/no-37-mark-millar.html (http://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.co.uk/2015/07/no-37-mark-millar.html)
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: Colin YNWA on 02 August, 2015, 07:09:24 AM
Quote from: AlexF on 01 August, 2015, 07:35:55 AM
One good Welshman deserves another...
Anthony Williams right here:
http://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.co.uk/2015/07/no-36-anthony-williams.html (http://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.co.uk/2015/07/no-36-anthony-williams.html)

Another one I was expecting earlier - seems such a stalwart of the Prog and alongside Paul Marshal I'd suggest amongst the most under-rated artists in the Prog. Loved his work on Sinister Dexter.

Seems to have gone very quiet all round for the last year or so. Hope all is good in the World of Anthony Williams.
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: AlexF on 05 August, 2015, 05:50:00 PM
Kevin Walker
http://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.co.uk/2015/08/no-38-kevin-walker.html (http://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.co.uk/2015/08/no-38-kevin-walker.html)
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: AlexF on 09 August, 2015, 06:17:23 PM
One of 2000 AD's original superstars, Dave Gibbons:
http://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.co.uk/2015/08/no-39-dave-gibbons.html (http://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.co.uk/2015/08/no-39-dave-gibbons.html)
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: AlexF on 14 August, 2015, 06:27:51 PM
At long last!
It's script droid supreme Peter Milligan. One of a handful of 2000 AD writers who deserves a book rather than a short blog post. I've never really understood why he didn't get the respect and acclaim of Grant Morrison.

http://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.co.uk/2015/08/no-40-peter-milligan.html (http://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.co.uk/2015/08/no-40-peter-milligan.html)
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: Greg M. on 14 August, 2015, 07:40:56 PM
Hurrah, we've finally reached him! Great stuff. I think Milligan's lesser acclaim than Morrison boils down to a few things. He's my favourite comic writer ever, but he can be wildly inconsistent - though even  his failures are really interesting failures. He also doesn't have the affinity for mainstream US comics Morrison does - he can write 'em, but his metafictional leanings can become too pronounced. Ironically, X-Statix went the other way - start off with very artificial, parodic characters and then make you unexpectedly care about 'em.
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: Colin YNWA on 17 August, 2015, 01:24:18 PM
Shamefully behind on this at the moment and just read the Millar write up. As ever a very well balanced piece... though of course in this case surely balance isn't called for rather you should have vented bitter rage and bile like the rest of us?

Far too reasonable you!
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: credo on 19 August, 2015, 02:00:14 PM
Just discovered this blog and absolutely love it. Reading the Milligan and Smith entries (and making my way through 'The Best of Milligan and McCarthy) has once again convinced me that we need to see more trades of their work. While I would still dearly love a collected Tyranny Rex (and more in the prog), a 'Creators Series' line of trades could be great. There's plenty in there for (at least) two volumes each, and a lot of it's not been reprinted (and much of the rest has only seen reprint in floppies).
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: Colin YNWA on 19 August, 2015, 04:10:43 PM
So true a John Smith creators series would be fantastic and a fitting showcase for his work. Alas for whatever crazy reason I'm not sure he has the 'name recognition' to carry such a thing.

Failing that Tyranny getting a good showcase (and another series please, pretty please) would be some form of compensation.
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: AlexF on 21 August, 2015, 09:36:21 AM
It's a vicious circle, isn't it. A writer like Smith derserves a creator-backed collection partly to help get him more fans, but it would only be viable if he had the fanbase in the first place.

Meanwhile, on with the blog...
In at Number 41 it's Simon Fraser.
http://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.co.uk/2015/08/no-41-simon-fraser.html (http://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.co.uk/2015/08/no-41-simon-fraser.html)
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: Hawkmumbler on 21 August, 2015, 09:49:07 AM
Ah Mr. Fraser. A man of many talents. Drawing the bulk of one of the best sagas in comic book history (as if you need to ask) is one of them.
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: Colin YNWA on 21 August, 2015, 01:26:07 PM
I own the last page Lulu Romanov appeared in in Dante, leaving him bewildered and defeated, after the magnificent kiss the page before (some other lucky bugger owns that) in a way no man to that time had been able to. The 'acting' of all present is simply one of the wonders of this world, its a quite brilliant piece of storytelling. One of my favourite things what it is, that I have.
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: Link Prime on 21 August, 2015, 01:55:52 PM
Quote from: Colin_YNWA on 21 August, 2015, 01:26:07 PM
I own the last page Lulu Romanov appeared in in Dante, leaving him bewildered and defeated, after the magnificent kiss the page before (some other lucky bugger owns that) in a way no man to that time had been able to. The 'acting' of all present is simply one of the wonders of this world, its a quite brilliant piece of storytelling. One of my favourite things what it is, that I have.

I remember you posting that page Colin, I'm still reeling with jealousy.
It's really something.
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: AlexF on 28 August, 2015, 11:46:49 AM
Apologies for slowing down lately. I'll try to pick up the pace next week!

Anyway, on with the show: it's covers legend Brian Bolland Cliff Robinson
http://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.co.uk/2015/08/no-42-cliff-robinson.html (http://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.co.uk/2015/08/no-42-cliff-robinson.html)
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: Colin YNWA on 28 August, 2015, 12:06:35 PM
One of the things I love about this Blog (there are many) is the fact that sometimes it makes some real face slapping points, such as...

QuoteIt ran in the late 800s, and was perhaps the last in an annoyingly long line of new series that seemed intent on trying to recreate Judge Dredd.**

Now when this is said its obvious, but I've never pieced together why so many of these characters failed and what their problem was. Too many, to close together, never going to match the execution of the original anyway.

Pretty clear in hindsight, but something I'd not pieced together before, simply cos I'd not looked*, but wish I had.

*Well I say that, its quite possible I could have looked high and low and not spotted it, I'm quite sure many other get there a long time ago.
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: Proudhuff on 28 August, 2015, 12:34:44 PM
Hi Alex, my first dip into your blog, loverly stuff! very enjoyable.
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: AlexF on 30 August, 2015, 09:16:05 AM
Thank you!
Not that I'd really want anyone to read it all twice, but people who've been their from the start may like to know I've been updating to fix typos and add newer pictures to old entries.
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: AlexF on 03 September, 2015, 10:33:20 AM
Serendipity: noun
    the occurrence and development of events by chance in a happy or beneficial way.

Cliff Robinson, subject of the last post, gets a full episode in this week's thrill-mail.
Paul Marshall, subject of the next post, is back in the public eye thatnks to his Dredd epic, Darkside, being reprinted in Case Files 25.

http://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.co.uk/2015/09/no-43-paul-marshall.html (http://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.co.uk/2015/09/no-43-paul-marshall.html)
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: Colin YNWA on 03 September, 2015, 01:14:57 PM
Paul Marshal is YET another example of someone I was expecting much earlier in the chart. Seems to have been around for the longest time and always seemed to have something on the go.

As you say a very under-rated trooper for the Galaxies' Greatest.
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: Hawkmumbler on 03 September, 2015, 08:58:20 PM
Indeed. A much under appreciated talent and one of my favourite contributers to the galaxys greatest over the last 12 months.

But the real question still remains. What the hell happened to Samizdat Squad?!
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: AlexF on 10 September, 2015, 12:12:25 PM
Colouring droid Gary Caldwell locked and loaded at number 44:
http://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.co.uk/2015/09/no-44-gary-caldwell.html (http://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.co.uk/2015/09/no-44-gary-caldwell.html)

And then a little placeholder while I get on with the next batch.
http://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.co.uk/2015/09/the-200-club.html (http://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.co.uk/2015/09/the-200-club.html)
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: Dandontdare on 10 September, 2015, 01:52:10 PM
Quote from: AlexF on 10 September, 2015, 12:12:25 PM
And then a little placeholder while I get on with the next batch.
http://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.co.uk/2015/09/the-200-club.html (http://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.co.uk/2015/09/the-200-club.html)

Interesting list - although very hard to read with white type on coloured backgrounds, I had to click'n'drag to highlight it before I could read it.
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: Colin YNWA on 10 September, 2015, 04:52:40 PM
Quote from: Dandontdare on 10 September, 2015, 01:52:10 PM
Quote from: AlexF on 10 September, 2015, 12:12:25 PM
And then a little placeholder while I get on with the next batch.
http://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.co.uk/2015/09/the-200-club.html (http://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.co.uk/2015/09/the-200-club.html)

Interesting list - although very hard to read with white type on coloured backgrounds, I had to click'n'drag to highlight it before I could read it.

Same here (highlighting them to read), but fantastic insight into how little droids individually contribute, going some way to explaining by wrongheadedness in expected any number of writers and artists to appear significantly higher in the list than they do.

Which all of course means they should all bloody well pull their collective fingers out and get more Tooth work under their belts... bloody slackers!
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: AlexF on 11 September, 2015, 09:15:41 AM
God, that was horrible! I've managed to make it legible at least, but basically inserting tables into blogger seems to be a bad idea...

Thanks for letting me know.

As for the stats themselves, it seems the only explanation is that there really is a semi-benevolent green alien putting the Prog together by himself each week.
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: AlexF on 11 September, 2015, 11:53:37 AM
Writing another of my wrongs, here's Tom Tully, who should've had his slot a few weeks ago:
http://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.co.uk/2015/09/no-45-tom-tully.html (http://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.co.uk/2015/09/no-45-tom-tully.html)
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: AlexF on 24 September, 2015, 02:32:51 PM
Back in action with Si Spurrier:
http://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.co.uk/2015/09/no-46-si-spurrier.html (http://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.co.uk/2015/09/no-46-si-spurrier.html)
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: Dark Jimbo on 24 September, 2015, 07:32:47 PM
God I love this blog. Keep up the good work, Alex!
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: Colin YNWA on 24 September, 2015, 08:52:34 PM
Quote from: Dark Jimbo on 24 September, 2015, 07:32:47 PM
God I love this blog. Keep up the good work, Alex!

Too true.

I was a bit unsure about Si Spurrier's early stuff, some I loved, some I really didn't, but he rose towards the top rapidly and now is amongst my fav 2000ad writers. Some of his US stuff is quite spectacularly good too. Wished he'd get himself back to the Prog to finish off (or not) Lobster Random.
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: Fungus on 25 September, 2015, 02:44:17 AM
Interesting. Lobster Random has appeared 2 or 3 times in those unwelcome Megazine floppies and I find it physicallly unreadable. I assure you I've tried. Verbose, yet dull stuff.

Point is, I'm always behind the curve and am reading A. Moore's Crossed +100. Been buying it through #7 with Mr Spurrier and hope for the best. Hm. Think positive thoughts!
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: AlexF on 29 September, 2015, 10:57:30 AM
His Marvel work on X-Men (X-Men: Legacy and X-Force) is a lot of fun. It's still very verbose and complexly plotted, so if that's a turn off be warned! I'd like to think he's a loyal enough dude that he'll come back to the Prog again some day. I wouldn't mind if he finished off Gutsville, too, although that's a very artist dependant project.

Up today, Richard Elson:
http://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.co.uk/2015/09/no-47-richard-elson.html (http://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.co.uk/2015/09/no-47-richard-elson.html)
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: Jim_Campbell on 29 September, 2015, 11:00:40 AM
Quote from: AlexF on 29 September, 2015, 10:57:30 AM
I wouldn't mind if he finished off Gutsville, too, although that's a very artist dependant project.

Frazer has said, quite recently, that he's working on it.

Cheers

Jim
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: AlexF on 02 October, 2015, 04:32:51 PM
Oh that is good news!

Meanwhile, the Hits roll on. No. 48 with a bullet, it's Steve Dillon
http://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.co.uk/2015/10/no-48-steve-dillon.html (http://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.co.uk/2015/10/no-48-steve-dillon.html)
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: AlexF on 09 October, 2015, 10:09:52 AM
At No.49, it's the indefatiguable Mark Harrison:
http://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.co.uk/2015/10/no-49-mark-harrison.html (http://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.co.uk/2015/10/no-49-mark-harrison.html)
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: AlexF on 16 October, 2015, 12:54:54 PM
At number 50, Mike McMahon
http://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.co.uk/2015/10/no-50-mick-mcmahon.html

I don't mind saying I was pretty daunted by this week's entry. I reckon he might just be the comic's most beloved artist by its fans and especially its creators - even though his style can be divisive. A delicious contradiction! I'd love to read a proper big book exploring and explaining his body of work.
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: sheridan on 23 October, 2015, 09:34:18 AM
Quote from: AlexF on 16 October, 2015, 12:54:54 PM
At number 50, Mike McMahon
http://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.co.uk/2015/10/no-50-mick-mcmahon.html (http://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.co.uk/2015/10/no-50-mick-mcmahon.html)

I don't mind saying I was pretty daunted by this week's entry. I reckon he might just be the comic's most beloved artist by its fans and especially its creators - even though his style can be divisive. A delicious contradiction! I'd love to read a proper big book exploring and explaining his body of work.

Ah, but which style? ;-)
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: AlexF on 01 December, 2015, 03:10:19 PM
Back in traction with Number 51...

it's John Higgins
http://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.co.uk/2015/12/no-51-john-higgins.html (http://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.co.uk/2015/12/no-51-john-higgins.html)
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: Colin YNWA on 03 December, 2015, 04:11:07 PM
Such a delight to have this back. Chuffed.

Great assessment as ever. Its funny I find John Higgins' style so singular that I've never really credited him the experimentation you illustrate so clearly. For me he's so distinctive I never get past - oh its John Higgins, regardless of what he's doing style wise.

Also this blog made me realise that John Higgins is the only artist whose palette gets close to Ian Kennedy's... well to my misguided eyes anyway.
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: AlexF on 13 December, 2015, 06:00:23 AM
As if the internet was lacking in articles about the man, here's Number 52:
Grant Morrison

http://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.co.uk/2015/12/no-52-grant-morrison.html
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: Colin YNWA on 13 December, 2015, 08:27:25 AM
Full disclosure, as I've never shyed away from here I'm a big old GMozz fan. Enjoy the vast majority of his work that I've read and bloody love a chunk of it.

As ever that write is an exceptionally balanced critique of the man's work in 2000ad (well aside from not thinking Phase III is one of the best things to grace the Galaxy's Greatest EVER). His work for 2000ad is what it is, the work of a true talent blustering their way through the early part of his career and like the next generation of any pop culture by necessity finding what has gone before something to push against. The next big thing has to find their own voice and appeal to their audience looking to brush away the past and find something that defines them by distancing itself from the past that surely got it so wrong as it so pants out there.

At the time it worked for me as I was the right age and finding the things that would define me and my pop culture consumption outside of what telly told me I should. In retrospect the biggest mistake of GMozz in 2000ad was by trying to redefine 2000ad for a 90s audience was that he forgot that the 2000ad that appealed to the 80s audience was actually getting it pretty much spot on and so by rallying against it he was rallying against something that worked. He also missed that 2000ad wasn't looking for its next generation of audience, rather unlike a lot of comics wonderfully growing up alongside the audience it'd always had. Just GMozz and me didn't get it at the time!
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: Colin YNWA on 13 December, 2015, 08:29:06 AM
Oh and as for wondering who'd care if you didn't finish the Blog. In the words of one L Skywalker. "I care"
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: AlexF on 16 December, 2015, 03:42:23 PM
My favourite Star Wars quote!

To test out who really cares, here's number 53, super-sub-editor supreme,
Simon Geller
http://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.co.uk/2015/12/no-53-simon-geller.html (http://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.co.uk/2015/12/no-53-simon-geller.html)
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: Jim_Campbell on 16 December, 2015, 04:31:26 PM
More good stuff! A quick aside... this:

(http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-pNHmFa9n0vY/VnF6dujgvRI/AAAAAAAADwo/886gQUU9Nl4/s320/diceman%2Bdice.JPG)

I'm pretty sure is Dave Gibbons. I've just asked him on Twitter and he says he's pretty sure he remembers doing the perspective mapping onto the cube, and that inks definitely look like his.

Cheers!

Jim
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: Link Prime on 16 December, 2015, 04:39:10 PM
Quote from: Jim_Campbell on 16 December, 2015, 04:31:26 PM

I'm pretty sure is Dave Gibbons.


Yep, undoubtedly Gibbons.
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: Fungus on 16 December, 2015, 05:10:12 PM
Especially Slaine...
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: Colin YNWA on 16 December, 2015, 07:26:17 PM
Yeah but it looks like a Fabry Slaine and an O'Neill Nemesis to me, so did he map existing images across and ink them from original pitures from previously published work???
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: Jim_Campbell on 16 December, 2015, 08:02:03 PM
I spent my formative years copying/tracing Gibbons' artwork. Both the Dredd and Slaine are unmistakably Gibbons (although the Slaine is clearly using Fabry as reference). The Nemesis is a remarkably good homage to O'Neill, but I think both artists were pen-rather-than-brush users and have a fairly precise approach to their line work, so I'm not surprised that Gibbons was able to effect a fairly convincing O'Neill homage.

Cheers

Jim
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: maryanddavid on 16 December, 2015, 11:32:10 PM
Keep up the good work Alex, great blog, and a great reference too.
Jim, I reckon all three are Gibbons, the Nemesis, especially around the Cloak and 'bit' are very Gibbons.
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: Jim_Campbell on 17 December, 2015, 06:17:21 AM
It's definitely all Gibbons. I was just attempting to explain (not very well) why some people seemed to think it wasn't.

Cheers

Jim
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: AlexF on 22 December, 2015, 01:21:23 PM
Eagle eyes there Jim!
And yes, it's not such a big surprise to find that a master artist is able to mimic the work of his peers.

Finding it hard to say now why I thought the Dredd had a Baikie-ish look to it!

Thanks
Alex
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: AlexF on 23 December, 2015, 10:55:31 AM
Sticking with editors past, it's Kelvin Gosnell at number 54:

http://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.co.uk/2015/12/no-54-kelvin-gosnell.html (http://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.co.uk/2015/12/no-54-kelvin-gosnell.html)
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: maryanddavid on 27 December, 2015, 12:59:57 AM
Nice piece on Kelvins writing Alex, but I think Kelvins contribution to the house of Tharg is always seriously overlooked.
Yes he suggested 2000ad to editorial, and was the Editor for the first year and a half, but it was Mills drive along with O'Neill, Landau, Wagner and Gosnell that made 2000AD the success then.

Gosnell's main Influence on 2000AD is Starlord, a more adult orientated title than 2000AD that he created, it brought to 2000ad Strontium Dog, the Millsverse and most importantly Steve McManus.

He did a lot of writing for the European market too, as well as creating the ill fated 'Look Alive' which had one of the first creator owned strips published by IPC, 'Gengis Grimtoad'.
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: sheridan on 27 December, 2015, 06:58:43 PM
Quote from: maryanddavid on 27 December, 2015, 12:59:57 AM
He did a lot of writing for the European market too, as well as creating the ill fated 'Look Alive' which had one of the first creator owned strips published by IPC, 'Gengis Grimtoad'.
I thought Genghis Grimtoad only appeared in Strip - did it ever get completed in a different comic?  I know some of the story was collected ('coz I have it), but never heard any more about it.
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: maryanddavid on 27 December, 2015, 07:38:30 PM
I did a little piece on it a while back Sheridan, have a read here. https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.401066826671487.1073741827.327287150716122&type=3 (https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.401066826671487.1073741827.327287150716122&type=3)
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: sheridan on 01 January, 2016, 06:30:49 PM
Quote from: maryanddavid on 27 December, 2015, 07:38:30 PM
I did a little piece on it a while back Sheridan, have a read here. https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.401066826671487.1073741827.327287150716122&type=3 (https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.401066826671487.1073741827.327287150716122&type=3)
Thanks - I had no idea (and hadn't liked the Hibernia page back when it was originally posted).
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: sheridan on 01 January, 2016, 06:31:33 PM
Quote from: sheridan on 01 January, 2016, 06:30:49 PM
Quote from: maryanddavid on 27 December, 2015, 07:38:30 PM
I did a little piece on it a while back Sheridan, have a read here. https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.401066826671487.1073741827.327287150716122&type=3 (https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.401066826671487.1073741827.327287150716122&type=3)
Thanks - I had no idea (and hadn't liked the Hibernia page back when it was originally posted).
Uh, liked in the facebook sense, as in I hadn't seen it back then, not that I had seen it but didn't like it!
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: AlexF on 06 January, 2016, 02:16:59 PM
On with the show, and yet another unsung hero of days gone by:
script-droid Alan Hebden
http://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.co.uk/2016/01/no-55-alan-hebden.html (http://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.co.uk/2016/01/no-55-alan-hebden.html)
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: AlexF on 12 January, 2016, 12:38:57 PM
Time to peek behind Tharg's curtain again for a brief celebration of long lost design droid
Graham Rolfe
http://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.co.uk/2016/01/no-56-graham-rolfe.html (http://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.co.uk/2016/01/no-56-graham-rolfe.html)

(and a couple of even more hidden heroes, besides).
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: maryanddavid on 12 January, 2016, 10:24:39 PM
Keep up the good work Alex!
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: AlexF on 19 January, 2016, 11:25:48 AM
Thanks, I will try!
Another hard-to-pin-down (thematically) fellow this week:
Al Ewing. Hope I've done him justice!

http://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.co.uk/2016/01/no-57-al-ewing.html (http://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.co.uk/2016/01/no-57-al-ewing.html)
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: Old Tankie on 19 January, 2016, 12:17:27 PM
I enjoyed that, not sure about the glasses!
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: BPP on 19 January, 2016, 01:38:48 PM
top work on that blog.
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: AlexF on 25 January, 2016, 09:50:38 AM
Another big name at number 58
...it's Brian bloody Bolland
http://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.co.uk/2016/01/no-58-brian-bolland.html (http://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.co.uk/2016/01/no-58-brian-bolland.html)
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: sheridan on 27 January, 2016, 10:52:56 AM
Quote from: AlexF on 25 January, 2016, 09:50:38 AM
Another big name at number 58
...it's Brian bloody Bolland
http://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.co.uk/2016/01/no-58-brian-bolland.html (http://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.co.uk/2016/01/no-58-brian-bolland.html)
Not sure if my comments went through on the blogspot post - if it did the confirmation was not very conclusive, so I'll post my comment here:
It took me some time, but I eventually got the second Titan Caligula Book (with the Klegg cover by Mike).  I'm pretty sure I had the original comics the rest of the story appeared in by then, but completism.

Aardvark is looking rather like Jeremy Hardy there!

I've read that the cover came first on Supercover, with Brian having free reign, though it could have been a throwaway sentence referring to most, but not all, of the covers.

Chief Judge wise - I'd say Cal, Sidney, Owen (even if it was actually Dillon's Mutant which got the top spot), Hershey and McGruder.  I'm wondering if there have been any 'alternity' versions which put a Brian creation in the top position?
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: Colin YNWA on 27 January, 2016, 11:10:25 AM
Just caught up at last and this blog, for all my tardiness is one of the greatest things on the internet.
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: AlexF on 28 January, 2016, 12:11:46 PM
QuoteNot sure if my comments went through on the blogspot post

Sorry Sheridan, it hasn't come through for some reason. I don't really know my way around Blogger that well, to be honest (as if the shoddy image placement didn't give that way). Thanks for taking the time to repost your comment here!
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: Dandontdare on 28 January, 2016, 07:45:41 PM
Quote from: Colin_YNWA on 27 January, 2016, 11:10:25 AM
Just caught up at last and this blog, for all my tardiness is one of the greatest things on the internet.

yes, I've been browsing around it myself - I like the way it isn't just dry biographical stuff, but talks about themes and motifs and has some (very reasonable) personal opinions in as well - clearly the work of a fan, but one who's done their homework.

Keep it up!
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: AlexF on 05 February, 2016, 08:47:19 AM
Bit late this week, sorry!
Anyway, a real doozy of an art droid up next: Arthur Ranson
http://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.co.uk/2016/02/no-59-arthur-ranson.html (http://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.co.uk/2016/02/no-59-arthur-ranson.html)
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: Colin YNWA on 08 February, 2016, 01:00:40 PM
Well its interesting that Arthur Ranson came straight after Brian Bolland, two artists with such a lot of common ground. As you say both are photo-realistic in style, or seem to be until you look at what they draw. Astonishing talents, both of whose lush and exquisitely realised techniques can completely overshadow their imaginations and creative splendor.

Oh and I also firmly agreed that R*Volutiuon not being hailed as a modern classic is an utter mystery. Love that story.

Yeah both fantastic talents but you know what I might go against commonly held opinion (I'd think, could be wrong) and say I prefer AR over BB... though that's no slight to either man.
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: AlexF on 12 February, 2016, 02:44:15 PM
Another artististic great from the new breed (if 15 years of service still counts as 'new'!)
It's Patrick Goddard
http://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.co.uk/2016/02/no-60-patrick-goddard.html (http://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.co.uk/2016/02/no-60-patrick-goddard.html)
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: AlexF on 26 February, 2016, 07:28:22 AM
|On with the show: it's Cat Sullivan.
http://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.co.uk/2016/02/no-61-cat-sullivan.html (http://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.co.uk/2016/02/no-61-cat-sullivan.html)
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: Colin YNWA on 02 March, 2016, 02:02:36 PM
You know I always assumed that Cat Sullivan was a woman.
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: AlexF on 11 March, 2016, 03:39:57 PM
At last! New input for your visual receptors.
It's Brendan McCarthy at No. 62
http://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.co.uk/2016/03/no-62-brendan-mccarthy.html (http://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.co.uk/2016/03/no-62-brendan-mccarthy.html)
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: Colin YNWA on 15 March, 2016, 02:05:57 PM
Its funny that Patrick Goddard and Brendan McCarthy are so close together. Mr McCarthy, though he's been in the Prog since the start(ish) has always felt like a rare treat. Patrick Goddard being new(ish) but seems prolific and I was surprised (which in itself is no surprise) that he was so low and I'd have certainly thought he'd done significantly more than Mr McCarthy.
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: AlexF on 23 March, 2016, 01:52:57 PM
To be fair, my counting system does favour artists who've done a lot of covers, even if their strip count isn't huge. But my favourite part of this exercise is the surprises about who has done far more than you realise. Many months down the line, we'll start seeing people who've actually contributed fairly little, but had a huge impact nonetheless.

Anyway, on with the show: it's Greg Staples.
http://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.co.uk/2016/03/no-63-greg-staples.html (http://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.co.uk/2016/03/no-63-greg-staples.html)
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: Dark Jimbo on 23 March, 2016, 04:47:22 PM
Another cracking read, Alex!

Quote from: AlexF on 23 March, 2016, 01:52:57 PM
...Oola Bint, a serial killer who, I think, continues to evade Dredd.

The lovely Oola was cubed long ago, in Prog 2005.
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: maryanddavid on 23 March, 2016, 10:41:50 PM
Great stuff Alex.  Patrick Goddard is really underrated, I'm lucky enough the have a piece of art of his, a Savage piece, really nice.
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: AlexF on 24 March, 2016, 09:34:03 AM
Quote from: Dark Jimbo on 23 March, 2016, 04:47:22 PM
Another cracking read, Alex!

Quote from: AlexF on 23 March, 2016, 01:52:57 PM
...Oola Bint, a serial killer who, I think, continues to evade Dredd.

The lovely Oola was cubed long ago, in Prog 2005.

Ah, that explains why she hasn't been seen for ages! Wonder if she survived the Chaos Bug? I do like the theme of quiet perps escaping Dredd's attention.
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: AlexF on 31 March, 2016, 08:49:47 AM
Hot on the heels of brother Brendan, it's Jim McCarthy:
http://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.co.uk/2016/03/no-64-jim-mccarthy.html (http://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.co.uk/2016/03/no-64-jim-mccarthy.html)
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: AlexF on 10 April, 2016, 02:05:57 PM
Another mainstay from yesteryear, who has shown his skills in the Prog very recently, too.
Jesus Redondo:
http://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.co.uk/2016/04/no-65-jesus-redondo.html (http://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.co.uk/2016/04/no-65-jesus-redondo.html)
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: AlexF on 18 April, 2016, 12:13:47 PM
Here's something you've never seen before:
A comics fan writes about Alan Moore on the internet.
http://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.co.uk/2016/04/no-66-alan-moore.html (http://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.co.uk/2016/04/no-66-alan-moore.html)
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: Colin YNWA on 18 April, 2016, 09:07:53 PM
Hold on how did I miss the Jesus Redondo entry? One of my favs. I have some catching up to do...
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: AlexF on 25 April, 2016, 02:15:53 PM
Sort of in honour of Jesus Redondo and Alan Moore, a small interlude to cover some stats around the humble Future Shock:
Writers here http://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.co.uk/2016/04/interlude-shockcount.html (http://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.co.uk/2016/04/interlude-shockcount.html)
Artists here http://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.co.uk/2016/04/interlude-shockcount-continued.html

normal service will resume...
...when I get around to it.
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: Hawkmumbler on 25 April, 2016, 07:35:25 PM
Bloody brilliant stuff! Your tend to forget just HOW MUCH Moore has written, and tend to break it down to benchmark titles like Halo Jones, Watchmen and Lost Girls. I completely forgot he had a run on Supreme and just how many Future Shocks he penned. :lol:
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: AlexF on 01 May, 2016, 08:32:55 PM
A long one this week, perhaps to make up for my unconsciously short-changing his hero status.
It's Andy Diggle.
http://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.co.uk/2016/05/no-67-andy-diggle.html (http://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.co.uk/2016/05/no-67-andy-diggle.html)
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: Colin YNWA on 02 May, 2016, 07:22:58 PM
Well damnit - There I was just trying to get caught up on my favourite blog which I've got woefully behind on and realising I know next to nowt about one of my favourite artists, covered there in - I find I've  now got extra homework to do. Thanks for the linkie to that Down The Tube interview... when will I ever get caught up.

Oh and Nemesis Book II is superb. Sure its somewhat in the shadow of what surrounds it BUT taken on its own value its quite wonderful art and I reckon if he hadn't been sandwiched between two slices of yummy O'Neill bread and like say Brian Talbot, or any of the other later artists had there his own defined period of Da Warlock his work there would be very VERY fondly remembered, much more so than it is now I suspect. As I've said before, this spiders - so very, very hairy!

Right I'm off to do my homework.
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: pauljholden on 02 May, 2016, 07:50:47 PM
Quote from: AlexF on 01 May, 2016, 08:32:55 PM
A long one this week, perhaps to make up for my unconsciously short-changing his hero status.
It's Andy Diggle.
http://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.co.uk/2016/05/no-67-andy-diggle.html (http://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.co.uk/2016/05/no-67-andy-diggle.html)

Andy was also my first editer.

-PJ
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: Dark Jimbo on 02 May, 2016, 09:50:36 PM
Quote from: Colin_YNWA on 02 May, 2016, 07:22:58 PM
As I've said before, this spiders - so very, very hairy!

He managed to draw the sexiest spider I've ever seen!
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: AlexF on 04 May, 2016, 11:12:05 AM
QuoteAndy was also my first editer.

-PJ

He did a bunch of good in a fairly short window!
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: Colin YNWA on 09 May, 2016, 09:52:43 PM
Well I loved the interludes...

...almost...

and I respect the your blog your rules thing...

... I mean its not as if I'd get close to the kinda dedication you've shown to your quite excellent blog... so it would be churlish to critise wouldn't it...

... Well paint me churl and call me Mr Ish those rule are crazy.

Plain bonkers...

...I'm sure I'll get back to being nice next time.

But really madness... mutter mumble moan groan...
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: AlexF on 10 May, 2016, 12:06:17 PM
What possible complaint could you have about my utterly transparent rules  :D
(In all honesty, I think it basically makes sense up until the one offs bit)

Getting back to normal service, here's fantasy art specialist Carl Critchlow.
http://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.co.uk/2016/05/no-68-carl-critchlow.html (http://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.co.uk/2016/05/no-68-carl-critchlow.html)
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: Jim_Campbell on 10 May, 2016, 01:04:19 PM
Quote from: AlexF on 01 May, 2016, 08:32:55 PM
A long one this week, perhaps to make up for my unconsciously short-changing his hero status.
It's Andy Diggle.

Just a minor sidebar... ISTR recall the reason Andy gave for commissioning himself for that first Lenny Zero story was that he waived the writer's fee, which gave the title a little extra budget to spend on the cover* for the upcoming 10th anniversary issue.

Cheers

Jim

(Which turned out to be that Frank Miller cover...)
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: AlexF on 12 May, 2016, 01:08:43 PM
Now that's a high-quality sidebar!

So was Diggle getting back at Miller by writing some not-so-great issues of Daredevil many years later..? ;)
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: Colin YNWA on 12 May, 2016, 08:02:39 PM
Quote from: AlexF on 12 May, 2016, 01:08:43 PM
So was Diggle getting back at Miller by writing some not-so-great issues of Daredevil many years later..? ;)

Well I shouldn't derail the thread as we have our own thread for whittering about Daredevil - but christ that was some poor Daredevil he wrote. Made to look all the worse for the glorious stuff that surrounded it. Mind not that it wasn't doing its own work on being bad all by its lonesome.

Guess that Red Rock West type mini was okay, if not original, but pretty good. The rest...
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: AlexF on 22 May, 2016, 07:19:57 AM
Someone had to be at number 69
turns out it's Simon Coleby:
http://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.co.uk/2016/05/no-69-simon-coleby.html (http://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.co.uk/2016/05/no-69-simon-coleby.html)
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: Colin YNWA on 29 May, 2016, 08:06:19 AM
Must catch up, must catch up...

On Diggle. I've said here often that I'm not as big a fan of the Diggle era and hold that Dave Bishop did all the real ground work (possibly supported by Diggle of course). My big beef has always been that a LOT of potentially great stories were curtailed by his apparent insistence that stuff be about 8 - 10 parts only. Drives me nuts.

Turns out (with thanks to Jim Campbell) that pesky facts got in the way of my prejudices and these stories suffering from being of a very defined length that limited them so much was in fact a mandate from higher powers that were working on a deal to reprint in French style albums (see the mentioned Rain Dogs). So I'm not sure how much Mr Diggle had control over my biggest beef with Mr Diggle.

As I've said before pesky facts getting in the way of my long held beliefs and prejudices.

As well as pesky family life getting in the way of long held desire to catch up .... apparently we need to be out for 9am, so Mr Crtichlow and Coleby will have to wait...
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: AlexF on 20 June, 2016, 11:36:38 AM
I've got some catching up to do an' all!
New post up today: colouring Droid Len O'Grady:
http://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.co.uk/2016/06/no-70-len-ogrady.html (http://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.co.uk/2016/06/no-70-len-ogrady.html)
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: Eamonn Clarke on 20 June, 2016, 08:59:49 PM
He was colourist on the recent Aquila run that ended in prog 1978.
Have you used comicbookdb.com for creator credits?
Apologies if this is egg instructions.
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: Colin YNWA on 20 June, 2016, 09:08:10 PM
Well the new post reminded me I'd not caught up the old posts and so did now and as ever brilliant.

Just came by to say chuffed that you choose an image from a piece of Carl Critchlow art I actually own. Oh the fame is getting to me darlings.
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: AlexF on 21 June, 2016, 02:55:53 PM
Thanks for the tip there, Eamonn, I'll remember that!
I've been enjoying the book club, too, looking forward to more episodes (says the man who can't even maintain a twice-weekly schedule on a simple written blog)
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: Eamonn Clarke on 21 June, 2016, 06:23:58 PM
Cheers. Next episode out on Sunday
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: Tjm86 on 21 June, 2016, 07:05:06 PM
I thought Cheers finished years ago.  Woody Harrelson is all growed up now!
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: AlexF on 04 July, 2016, 04:09:39 PM
The supply of heroes is endless! Sadly my capacity to keep up is not.
Anyway, on with the show, and one of my favourite contemporary creators, too:
Boo Cook
http://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.co.uk/2016/07/no-71-boo-cook.html (http://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.co.uk/2016/07/no-71-boo-cook.html)
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: Hawkmumbler on 05 July, 2016, 11:29:34 AM
Boo Cook is a real gem and one of the biggest diamonds in the 2000AD creative force. Harry Kipling has to be one of the best visual comedies in the prog and Blunt is shaping up to be a cracking Dredd world series, beautiful stuff!
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: AlexF on 08 July, 2016, 02:02:43 PM
You're so right!

Onwards we must go. Time again, sadly, for another entry of a hero gone before his time, Steve Moore.
http://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.co.uk/2016/07/no-72-steve-moore-rip.html (http://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.co.uk/2016/07/no-72-steve-moore-rip.html)

If I'm honest, one of the reasons I actually pushed myself to start this blog was to try to get some appreciation for 2000AD creators up on the internet before they became a string of obituaries.
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: AlexF on 16 July, 2016, 01:44:52 PM
Time for more obscene gushing on my part, as we hit one of my all-time favourite artists:
John Ridgway

http://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.co.uk/2016/07/no-73-john-ridgway.html (http://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.co.uk/2016/07/no-73-john-ridgway.html)
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: Hawkmumbler on 16 July, 2016, 01:49:27 PM
Excuse me, that's John 'bloody hell can he draw good' Ridgway, thank you!

A personal favorite of mine as well, lovely atmospheric art.
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: AlexF on 25 July, 2016, 11:29:19 AM
Another champion draw-er hits the countdown:
Frazer Irving
http://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.co.uk/2016/07/no-74-frazer-irving.html (http://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.co.uk/2016/07/no-74-frazer-irving.html)
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: Colin YNWA on 25 July, 2016, 09:13:43 PM
I did it, I did it I caught up. Sorry for my slack attitude towards your great blog. If its any consolation I'm still to find time to listen to one of Eammon's podcasts and that's something I'm very excited about. I must stop reading all those comics and read more things about those comics...

...I digress what motivated me to put done my funny books and make a conserted effort to catch up wasn't just your brilliance but that of Frazer Irving. One of the most under-rated artists the Galxies Greatest has ever seen. And when I say under-rated I mean mainly by me. Ask me to do a top ten 2000ad artist list and he probably won't appear. Ask me to name 5 artists whose work I prefer to his and I'd struggle. Its just he seems to slip my mind.

Possibly its 'cos he's so deceptive as an artist. As you say there's some many lines BUT somehow he never looks fiddly or fussy. He somehow combines all this effort and inksmithery (I think its a word, I should check) and make everything look vrey stark and simple. He's a perfect 1 on the Lee scale (a scale based on the number of lines you draw divided by the impact of the art - named after the very worse of fiddly artists Jim Lee, so many lines, so little impact!). Every, I mean every line is used to perfect effect so that when you look at it you don't notice. It all blends into perfect, simple expression and atmosphere. As though each line is borne perfectly and immaculately from the last.

Just wonderful.
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: AlexF on 27 July, 2016, 10:47:20 AM
In my head Irving was highly rated at the time he was ion the Prog, but I agree he's sort of slipped out of the unspoken pantheon of all-time greats. Mind you, it's a bulging pantheon.

Here's more fodder for that dilemma of 'shoudl I read comics, or read waffle about comics'?

It's the endlessly imaginative Kek-W
http://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.co.uk/2016/07/no-75-kek-w.html (http://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.co.uk/2016/07/no-75-kek-w.html)
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: AlexF on 28 July, 2016, 08:21:02 AM
Immediately after writing that comment about Frazer Irving being 'forgotten', I get the latest Thrill-Mail into my inbox - featuring a massive pic of a new T-Shirt based on Irving's Judge Death cover! Tharg doesn't forget!
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: AlexF on 29 July, 2016, 12:44:05 PM
It's the one you've all been waiting for:
1990s favourite droid, Michael Fleisher
http://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.co.uk/2016/07/no-76-michael-fleisher.html (http://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.co.uk/2016/07/no-76-michael-fleisher.html)
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: Hawkmumbler on 29 July, 2016, 01:04:16 PM
Quote from: AlexF on 29 July, 2016, 12:44:05 PM
It's the one you've all been waiting for:
1990s favourite droid, Michael Fleisher
http://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.co.uk/2016/07/no-76-michael-fleisher.html (http://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.co.uk/2016/07/no-76-michael-fleisher.html)
My initial reaction was a resounding "WHO?" only to read your, once again excellent article and discover I had read and LOVED his turns on Rogue Trooper. Good stuff indeed!
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: I, Cosh on 29 July, 2016, 01:12:20 PM
Quote from: AlexF on 29 July, 2016, 12:44:05 PM
It's the one you've all been waiting for:
1990s favourite droid, Michael Fleisher (http://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.co.uk/2016/07/no-76-michael-fleisher.html)

That was a nice, considered take on the chap but I do have to take issue with one point. I can certainly think of at least one with a worse reputation...
Quote...perhaps the comic's least fondly-remembered creator droid...
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: Hawkmumbler on 29 July, 2016, 01:22:36 PM
Quote from: Hawkmumbler on 29 July, 2016, 01:04:16 PM
Quote from: AlexF on 29 July, 2016, 12:44:05 PM
It's the one you've all been waiting for:
1990s favourite droid, Michael Fleisher
http://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.co.uk/2016/07/no-76-michael-fleisher.html (http://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.co.uk/2016/07/no-76-michael-fleisher.html)
My initial reaction was a resounding "WHO?" only to read your, once again excellent article and discover I had read and LOVED his turns on Rogue Trooper. Good stuff indeed!
Scratch this, it wasn't a Fleicher Trooper stroy I was thinking off but a GRennie one by mistake. DOH!
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: Colin YNWA on 29 July, 2016, 08:56:28 PM
Quote from: The Cosh on 29 July, 2016, 01:12:20 PM
That was a nice, considered take on the chap but I do have to take issue with one point. I can certainly think of at least one with a worse reputation...
Quote...perhaps the comic's least fondly-remembered creator droid...

Oh Gerry Finley-Day wasn't that bad!
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: AlexF on 03 August, 2016, 11:34:41 AM
Nothing controversial about the latest hero, and one of Tharg's most prolific recently-constructed droids, too:

The Dredd-killer himself, Michael Carroll
http://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.co.uk/2016/08/no-77-michael-carroll.html (http://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.co.uk/2016/08/no-77-michael-carroll.html)
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: Mike Carroll on 03 August, 2016, 02:28:34 PM
Cool! Nice one, Alex - thanks! I'm chuffed to be included on the blog, though I'm not sure I've earned my place yet!

Cheers,
Mike
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: JayzusB.Christ on 04 August, 2016, 12:24:31 AM
How have I missed this thread so far?  Brilliant stuff.  The Fleisher entry is highly entertaining - Harlem Heroes actually wasn't too bad, in hindsight; but the Rogue stuff and Junker kind of were.

While I have you, Mr Carroll, thanks again for doing the talk for the Hay Festival in my hometown - think you managed to talk my ex-squaxx brother back into the fold, after a regular-reading gap of nearly 30 years!
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: AlexF on 04 August, 2016, 09:05:26 AM
QuoteI'm not sure I've earned my place yet!

An appearance on my blog is purely an accident of mathematics, not a marker of merit.



....but dude, come ON! You've earned it and then some. And don't stop now!
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: Colin YNWA on 09 August, 2016, 10:19:03 PM
Quote from: AlexF on 04 August, 2016, 09:05:26 AM
QuoteI'm not sure I've earned my place yet!

An appearance on my blog is purely an accident of mathematics, not a marker of merit.



....but dude, come ON! You've earned it and then some. And don't stop now!

I'll say in spades. I've done my homework on time for one sir and as I've said before in the review threads I'm a big fan of the Mike Carroll Dredd. So much so that I'd ignore your clearly logical and sensible decision to dismiss calling Mike Carroll the successor to Mr Wagner and say he could well be. Being handed an epic (I think its called 'Even Empires Tumble... or Every Empires Falls ...summit) is almost like the last test and for me one past in spades...

... okay so there's no sign of Mr Wagner going anywhere soon, but good to know if he did there's a damned good backup plan!

What I'd love to see is Mr Carroll do a new strip, show his sizeable chops on a new series... mind he seems to be kept pretty busy in Mega City One.
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: AlexF on 12 August, 2016, 03:52:33 PM
Following immediately on From Michael Carroll, who else could it be but

PJ Holden...
http://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.co.uk/2016/08/no-78-pj-holden.html (http://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.co.uk/2016/08/no-78-pj-holden.html)
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: pauljholden on 12 August, 2016, 11:45:47 PM
This is ace but I feel compelled to correct a few things:

1)The awesome Johnny Woo / Dredd page is actually by Patrick Goddard (I did a couple of woo/dredd strips, but this isn't one)
2) First 2000ad work was with Gordon drawing... sino cit (Johnny Woo's first appearance)
3) dredd vs the wolf creature thing is another one of Gordon's.
4) SJS Ishamel, was created by Gordon and me, for a Class of 79 strip at-I think-WR Logan's suggestion. He's since had a couple of appearances in 2000ad (none by me sadly)
5) oh boy all that art makes me wince. I have wronged far more writers with my pictures than I have ever been wronged by writers.

-PJ
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: AlexF on 14 August, 2016, 09:10:29 AM
Ach, I did um and ah over whether I'd put in a Goddard by mistake - mortifying!

I do understand why people wince on seeing their old work, but you've nothing to be ashamed of, sir!
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: GordonR on 14 August, 2016, 10:24:22 AM
I feel compelled to correct something too:

QuoteHe's done a proper chunk of work with the same handful of people, is what I'm getting at. In itself, this paints a picture of a chap that people like to work with, which speaks both to the quality of his work as it does to the man's obvious affability.

No, he's just difficult to shake off, once he attaches himself limpet-like to you.

Which reminds me - I really need to change my phone number and email address.  Again.
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: Hawkmumbler on 14 August, 2016, 02:16:16 PM
Man, what happened to Samizdat Squad? That was a fun strip and it just kinda of vanished, but that's a wonderful write up on our man PJH, AlexF. Loving your blog as ever!
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: AlexF on 18 August, 2016, 04:07:38 PM
Hey everybody, it's Leigh Gallagher at number 79:
http://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.co.uk/2016/08/no-79-leigh-gallagher.html (http://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.co.uk/2016/08/no-79-leigh-gallagher.html)
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: Hawkmumbler on 18 August, 2016, 04:28:07 PM
Mr. Defoe is very much a favorite of mine. Squarely in the House of Bolland school of art, he's a tremendous talent and following he recent departure from the aforementioned Mills series I look forward to seeing where he ends up next.
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: AlexF on 07 September, 2016, 12:19:18 PM
Back after a brief Sumer holiday, and with another peek mostly behind the scenes of the comic at the publicity department...

It's Igor Goldkind and Michael Molcher
http://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.co.uk/2016/09/no-80-igor-goldkind-no-80-michael.html (http://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.co.uk/2016/09/no-80-igor-goldkind-no-80-michael.html)
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: AlexF on 09 September, 2016, 03:50:54 PM
From the ridiculous to the sublime:
Chris Weston is Hero number 81
http://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.co.uk/2016/09/no-81-chris-weston.html (http://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.co.uk/2016/09/no-81-chris-weston.html)
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: Greg M. on 09 September, 2016, 05:05:58 PM
Agree that Weston is an awesome artist.

Disagree that Weston wasn't the best match for Nemesis - I wish we'd got a whole book of Nemesis out of him, he'd have been the perfect fit. (Nice to see my page from 'Bride of the Warlock' turning up though.)

Good stuff, as ever.
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: I, Cosh on 09 September, 2016, 05:45:52 PM
Quote from: AlexF on 09 September, 2016, 03:50:54 PM
From the ridiculous to the sublime:
Chris Weston is Hero number 81
http://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.co.uk/2016/09/no-81-chris-weston.html (http://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.co.uk/2016/09/no-81-chris-weston.html)
"Why are they purple?"
- The clue's in the name of the strip.
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: Frank on 09 September, 2016, 06:38:09 PM
Quote from: Greg M. on 09 September, 2016, 05:05:58 PM
Disagree that Weston wasn't the best match for Nemesis

God, yes. I can see Alex's point regarding the anthropomorphism of WestoNemesis himself, but then Hicklenton had already essayed an organic Nemesis, made of sensuous, bulging, varicose, and tumescent man meat.

Weston wasn't then a stylist in the manner of O'Neill or Hicklenton, but Mills's unique genius is tailoring his tales to take full advantage of the enthusiasms and strengths of his collaborators. WestoNemesis would have been a more grounded but still gonzo affair, and the strip was in need of a new direction.

Alex fills the hole same hole in me that Douglas Wolk once did.


P.S. That's not how you spell Kurten
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: Dark Jimbo on 09 September, 2016, 06:45:08 PM
Quote from: Frank on 09 September, 2016, 06:38:09 PM
WestoNemesis would have been a more grounded but still gonzo affair, and the strip was in need of a new direction.

Nemesis and Torque are certainly a bit 'safe', but the Termight architecture is amazing and the background cast at the wedding are astonishing - the costume designs are second only to O'Neill.
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: AlexF on 09 September, 2016, 07:00:46 PM
Quoteits in the name of the strip
Do you know, I'd never noticed the 'indigo' bit of Indigo Prime before.

And yes to all those pointing out Weston's godly (or perhaps ungodly) Termight architecture!
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: I, Cosh on 10 September, 2016, 09:48:19 AM
Quote from: AlexF on 09 September, 2016, 07:00:46 PM
Quoteits in the name of the strip
Do you know, I'd never noticed the 'indigo' bit of Indigo Prime before.
Yeah, case of me being a big dense there. Sorry about that and keep up the good work.
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: Magnetica on 10 September, 2016, 10:57:57 AM
Chris Weston is an interesting one for me. I really didn't like his art for ages, I think primarily as I didn't like Indigo Prime or Cannon Fodder.

But now, his art is just sublime. The Dredds and covers he has done in the last two or three years have been just brilliant. I think the turning point in me liking him was Six, which remains one of my favourite ever Dredd stories, and that cover for Meg 231 is just great. That was back in 2005 and I seem to recall him not featuring for Tharg for years after that until around 2013.

Basically if we can't have Bolland in the Prog (2000 excepted) lets have more Weston.
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: Colin YNWA on 10 September, 2016, 11:32:21 AM
Chris Weston is a really interesting one for me. I'd go as far as to say I actively didn't like his art when he started. It felt so lumpy and inconsistent. What Alex F calls gurning I saw as distortion. Its means that Killing Time, while a nice story has always been one of the most over-rated 'classics' in my mind, even with my love, big big love of Mr Smith.

Over the years though he's refined and developed to the extent that for that second half of his career I've gone from enjoying to out right loving what he produced. To the very zenith which was the poster in this years Summer Special. So much said in such an apparently simple image. It captures so much about what Dredd has become as a man over the years and rivals Henry Flint's bowed Dredd at the end of Day of Choas for the best ever single image representation of Dredd today.

The older he gets the better he is.

As for Ivor I almost enjoyed his Hershey, if he'd just focused on story rather than style a little more it could have been great. Molch-R it hard to know how much of an impact he's had on the comic from the outside BUT it seems the staff behind 2000ad is constantly growing (didn't he used to do all the marketing for Rebellion and 2000ad was just one of his portfolio? Don't know if that's still the case) and their product expanding each year. So someone, aside from just Matt Smith editorship, is doing a really good job... mind my money would be on Robo-Keef...
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: Greg M. on 10 September, 2016, 12:44:31 PM
Quote from: Colin_YNWA on 10 September, 2016, 11:32:21 AM

The older he gets the better he is.

I'm probably going to seem a bit contrary here, but my views on Weston are almost the exact opposite of yours. His earlier stuff showed promise, and I will always love Crazy Barry, Little Mo (particularly that Prog 635 star-scan of them) but when he hit his stride in the 1990-2000 era he was untouchable. However, as he's refined his style, it's become less to my liking - less grotesque, maybe -  and that Dredd pin-up was the image of his I've liked the least, despite the undeniable talent on display.

Ah, individual taste. It's a weird thing, ain't it?
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: Magnetica on 10 September, 2016, 01:22:58 PM
Quote from: Colin_YNWA on 10 September, 2016, 11:32:21 AM
Chris Weston is a really interesting one for me. I'd go as far as to say I actively didn't like his art when he started.

Yes I didn't quite phrase what I wrote like that but really that is what I meant.

Quote from: Colin_YNWA on 10 September, 2016, 11:32:21 AM
while a nice story has always been one of the most over-rated 'classics' in my mind, even with my love, big big love of Mr Smith.

This is where we differ. Firekind and the most recent series of Indigo Prime aside, I have actively disliked John Smith's writing. Heresy round here I know. But as I say, the last series of Indigo Prime was winning me round.


Quote from: Greg M. on 10 September, 2016, 12:44:31 PM
Ah, individual taste. It's a weird thing, ain't it?

Well quite.
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: Colin YNWA on 10 September, 2016, 01:30:23 PM
Quote from: Greg M. on 10 September, 2016, 12:44:31 PM
Ah, individual taste. It's a weird thing, ain't it?

And one of the great joys of 2000ad fandom. We all have the commonality of loving the comic and yet the reason for that and the specific can be very very different. This is to a great bond but some very interesting discussions. I really enjoy hearing the views of those I disagree with and trying to understand why they like or don't like what I do or don't... still following this... and thus informing my opinion.

Normally when I understand the opposing view to mine I find it reenforced my opinion but with increased clarity. Occasionly the differing insight can of course change my opinion which is always fun.

Still something 2000ad fandom generally does very well... mind I keep out of the Politics Thread or avoid running Facebook when it turns out my opinion isn't popular!
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: AlexF on 15 September, 2016, 04:29:55 PM
And on we go:
Jim Baikie at No. 82
http://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.co.uk/2016/09/no-82-jim-baikie.html (http://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.co.uk/2016/09/no-82-jim-baikie.html)
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: AlexF on 20 September, 2016, 01:09:13 PM
Another much unsung hero at No. 83:
Dylan Teague

http://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.co.uk/2016/09/no-83-dylan-teague.html (http://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.co.uk/2016/09/no-83-dylan-teague.html)
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: AlexF on 24 September, 2016, 10:20:20 AM
2000AD's great all-rounder, Steve Parkhouse:
http://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.co.uk/2016/09/no-84-steve-parkhouse.html (http://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.co.uk/2016/09/no-84-steve-parkhouse.html)
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: Frank on 24 September, 2016, 11:45:11 AM
Quote(Luke Kirby) is always going for walks in the woods or meadows with older men, caught in that pull of wanting to grow up fast

Great read as always, Alex, but your thoughts on Kola Kommandos wander off the trail towards the end.

Great observation about Baikie's Dredd work too; if you're only going to work on a few, best make them among the most important ever published. In Mighty One, Steve MacManus remarks how weird it is that Baikie and Cam Kennedy live on the same tiny island - yet I've never even heard either man mention the other.

You'd think they would have been the equivalent of Ewins/McCarthy's Hanwell massive, swapping pages and helping out with deadlines.


Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: ming on 24 September, 2016, 05:23:35 PM
Quote from: Frank on 24 September, 2016, 11:45:11 AMYou'd think they would have been the equivalent of Ewins/McCarthy's Hanwell massive, swapping pages and helping out with deadlines.

Cam lives in Jim's field (in a house) and they're a stone's throw from each other...
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: Colin YNWA on 24 September, 2016, 09:57:43 PM
Two absolute favourites of mine at 82 and 84. Okay so Steve Parkhouse's best work hasn't been in the Prog, though artistically he's done some stella work. No his best work as a writer was on Doctor Who and his current artist endeavours on Resident Alien are quite sublime.

Now ya Baikie, yah Baikie is out and out quality and one of the true greats of Tharg's driods. He truly should be remembered with the very best in my mind. His work on Dredd is quite gritty and brilliant, with a fine comic edge as you note. For me Skizz was the best thing Alan Moore did in the Prog (a couple of favourite Future Shocks aside I'm sure) adore it and don't dislike books 2 and particularly 3. But in New Statemen he reveals his absolute true genius. There's a panel, I think in episode 4 which is a simple rendition of one character silouetted, back to reader talking to another facing him. Its a simple not particularly significent panel but its astonishing, absolutely astonishing it conveys so much emotion and meaning. Its quite brilliant.

He's flawless and his understated style sense of character is almost unsurpassed. Just look at the picture in the article of the baby tweaking Dredd's nose he captures Dredd's straight faced frustrated dignity so perfectly. Look at the use of colour, the light hearted pinks to capture the crowd and the Judge watching on uncharacteristically relaxed as the normally fearsome Dredd is reduced as he strides past (you can feel the increase in speed in Dredd's step). The reds and oranges behind Dredd echoing is feelings. So much evoked in a relatively simple image.

I adore Jim Baikie.
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: AlexF on 02 October, 2016, 07:28:50 AM
Slowing down a bit, sorry all!
Anyway, here's Siku at number 85
http://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.co.uk/2016/10/no-85-siku.html (http://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.co.uk/2016/10/no-85-siku.html)
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: AlexF on 23 October, 2016, 08:23:10 AM
The honour roll continues with a personal favourite, Peter Doherty:

http://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.co.uk/2016/10/no-86-peter-doherty.html (http://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.co.uk/2016/10/no-86-peter-doherty.html)
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: AlexF on 19 November, 2016, 11:11:52 AM
Another long delay, sorry folks.
Herewith another personal favourite (aren't they all): Simon Harrison

http://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.co.uk/2016/11/no-87-simon-harrison.html (http://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.co.uk/2016/11/no-87-simon-harrison.html)
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: Frank on 19 November, 2016, 12:37:50 PM
.
(http://i.imgur.com/42lHW8D.png)


Cor, lovely - I don't remember seeing that anywhere before. Excellent observations; Harrison was clearly working the photocopier like twin decks to produce Feral's Hulk-outs, but I think the Irish Priest's sock blackness of Revere was just what happens when an artist buys an airbrush and gets their Geiger on*.

If you want to get a reaction on social media, just post a bit of Simon Harrison art - he's divisive like King Solomon. I'm in the LOVE camp, with the proviso that anyone following Carlos on Stronty Dog was on a hiding to nothing. Tharg could have rehired Bolland to draw The No-Go Job (http://www.2000ad.org/?zone=prog&page=profiles&choice=580)** and the first time Alpha had to shout NUMBER 3 CARTRIDGE(!) we'd all still have thought that's not the way Carlos did it.

On the recent ECBT podcast (https://player.fm/series/everything-comes-back-to-2000ad/ecbt2000ad-ep285), you can almost hear the raised eyebrows at Tharg's suggestion Harrison was chosen because he was working in a similar style to Ezquerra, but I sort of know what he means. Harrison has the familiar European line and approach to modelling as the King, and Carlos's grotesques have a similar knobbly quality to Harrison's physiognomy.

The difference would be that ALL Harrison's characters have faces like a knobbly knee contest, and there's no comparison in tems of the fledgling artist's anatomy and grasp of storytelling. Like you, I would have killed to have seen Harrison's take on Dredd. Like Hicklenton and Bisley, his style would have been inappropriate for Wagner Dredd, but if John Smith had got the gig instead of Ennis ...


* 1993 seems a bit early for pixel bashing on an ST. Carlos seems to think he was the first artist to use his Mac for anything other than scanning finished art onto disk; I'm not sure I can think of anything substantial sooner than Wilderlands (Sept 1994 (http://www.2000ad.org/?zone=prog&page=megprofiles&choice=2.63)) and John Higgins's landmark Dredd cover (http://www.2000ad.org/?zone=prog&page=profiles&choice=919) from Dec 1994.

** ... and given him the two years necessary to produce 48 pages
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: Colin YNWA on 20 November, 2016, 03:39:35 PM
Quote from: AlexF on 19 November, 2016, 11:11:52 AM
Another long delay, sorry folks.
Herewith another personal favourite (aren't they all): Simon Harrison

http://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.co.uk/2016/11/no-87-simon-harrison.html (http://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.co.uk/2016/11/no-87-simon-harrison.html)

Wonderful to have you back - been missing you.
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: AlexF on 25 November, 2016, 12:22:28 PM
Blogger is not my friend! I had to reinput this next post 4 times, so if it's more riddled with bad layouts and typos than usual, that's the reason.

It's no lsight at all to Hero number 88, the mighty Sean Phillips:
http://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.co.uk/2016/11/no-88-sean-phillips.html (http://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.co.uk/2016/11/no-88-sean-phillips.html)
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: Fungus on 25 November, 2016, 01:45:06 PM
I could linger over #88 for the rest of today  :)  Phillips is an absolute favourite, great to see the breadth of his output in one place. Don't recall seeing that Rogue Trooper cover before.
Wonderful stuff, Alex.
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: Frank on 25 November, 2016, 07:12:56 PM
Quote from: Fungus on 25 November, 2016, 01:45:06 PM
Don't recall seeing that Rogue Trooper cover (https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-E53y1CXF1J0/WDgJ9qoyoyI/AAAAAAAAGY4/oWc7mp6fel06qqMjw9boetBOmRIK4WKzwCK4B/s640/roguefw.jpg) before

I like to imagine someone unfamiliar with the character picking up that book to see what psycho-sexual drama the tortured Klimt figure on the cover [1] is articulating, then finding 60 pages of soldier man wearing a bush on his head and killing space Germans in black and white.

Fantastic blog entry, Alex - this is my era. Phillips was so ubiquitous I hadn't realised what little strip work (http://www.2000ad.org/?zone=droid&page=thrills&Comic=2000AD&Field=Artist&choice=seanp) he did for Tharg - parlaying staff artist duties into becoming goto guy for covers [2] makes him Rave era Tharg's replacement for Robin Smith. Or gouache Cliff Robinson.

I always assumed the fella in the photo with Phillips (https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-_eJn2tf86j0/WDge5ekApgI/AAAAAAAAGb8/5ihZfQmjy-cZXGvF9mZz9afgsxLsn7YsgCK4B/s400/Bobbsy%2Btwins%2BNEW.jpg) was Duncan Fegredo, but an image search is inconclusive (http://s21.photobucket.com/user/DuncanFegredo/media/ZITTY_FEGREDO.jpg.html) [3]. It could be David Bishop, but this is how he looked in 1988 (https://1.bp.blogspot.com/_l_ds-CD9ytM/RyMZLrRklwI/AAAAAAAAAQk/vMmNwUAHVhY/s400/P1010004.JPG). Those Bobbsey Twins badges remind me some of Phillips' covers (and I'm sure some design work) were credited thus. Could the guy on the right be elusive art assistant Kevin Brighton (http://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.co.uk/2015/04/no-8-steve-cook.html)?


[1] Mine has a £1 Bargain Books sticker obscuring Rogue's left arm, which I feel compliments the strong graphic elements of the composition.

[2] I can't find your story about Phillips' cover for Meg 1 being bumped for Fabry in TPO. Makes sense though; the Phillips image was the one used in all the pre-release publicity material. Maybe Phillips obscured half of Fabry's image with logo as revenge (joke)

[3] Check the name of that Photobucket account, though...
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: GordonR on 25 November, 2016, 07:27:19 PM
Fairly sure that's Sean's wife in that picture...
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: Frank on 25 November, 2016, 07:40:03 PM
.
I've had a good look, but no emoticon from the selection above communicates the complex range of emotions I have just experienced. Thank you, Gordon.


Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: AlexF on 01 December, 2016, 11:15:44 AM
Time for one of Tharg's more newly-constructed droids, Jon Davis-Hunt
http://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.co.uk/2016/12/no-89-jon-davis-hunt.html (http://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.co.uk/2016/12/no-89-jon-davis-hunt.html)
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: Old Tankie on 03 December, 2016, 12:38:27 PM
Thank you, I enjoyed that.
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: AlexF on 07 December, 2016, 05:32:38 PM
Back to the early 90s again, with Simon Jacob:
http://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.co.uk/2016/12/no-90-simon-jacob.html (http://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.co.uk/2016/12/no-90-simon-jacob.html)
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: Greg M. on 07 December, 2016, 05:47:13 PM
I loved Simon Jacob's work at the time, and would echo the cry for a complete collected Armoured Gideon (not least because I can't remember anything about Bk 4, apart from the body-swap theme.)
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: AlexF on 13 December, 2016, 03:11:36 PM
While we all wait eagerly for a full collected hardback of Rogue Trooper, the Fr1day years, here's the man who did the best he could to make us care again: Steve White.

http://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.co.uk/2016/12/no-91-steve-white.html (http://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.co.uk/2016/12/no-91-steve-white.html)
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: Frank on 13 December, 2016, 09:19:57 PM
.
In all the hours I've wasted here, I cannot remember a single person ever mentioning Steve White's name or discussing his work [1]. You've proven your worth, Alex.

Black Light and non-Pat-Flesh performed the same function in my reading of the comic as bran flakes do in my diet, so this - perhaps the first and last time two 2000ad readers discuss White's work - will limit itself to Friday.

I liked the way the dialogue read like William Burroughs creating a cut-up (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m1InCrzGIPU) work from Jane's Glossary Of Military Terms and Technology. It seemed like a fresh approach to a strip which, hitherto - despite being ostensibly about war - had left the artists to convince the reader of the reality of the battles and the tech, concentrating on quests and character clashes.

Sticking out a mile from the verisimilitude were the catchphrase and the whimsical treatment of Eightball. Your observation that White's sensibilities are mainstream chimes with my feeling at the time, that a catchphrase was probably the kind of thing a successful strip should have, but I was never convinced LET'S KNIFE(!) was it.

The Winnie The Pooh stuff might have been a necessary light touch, to balance the military realism, but Tharg already had whimsy coming out of his yazoo in the early nineties [2]. I was vaguely aware White was trying to build on the mythology established by Fleischer, with the jihadis. He fashioned it into a silk purse, but I'd rather he'd created something original.

Finally, how weird is it that he also banged out some covers? Plenty artists have decided they fancy a go on the typewriter, but I can't remember Ian Edginton ever submitting a cover image of Stickleback made out of macaroni.


[1] Friday gets a lot of mentions, but that era's always figured as a Fleischer joint

[2] Grudgefather, Timehouse, Dead Meat
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: Link Prime on 14 December, 2016, 01:47:22 PM
Quote from: AlexF on 13 December, 2016, 03:11:36 PM
Steve White.

The man who euthanized killed the original Rogue Trooper ('Ascent' Pt 4, Prog 949).
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: AlexF on 15 December, 2016, 10:53:22 AM
Well, for my next trick, I might either endear myself to the fan community forever, or else devalue the whole project in the eyes of the creators.

Anyway, the 92nd most prolific contributor to 2000AD and the Judge Dredd Megazine is...




is...





Stephen Watson, Paisley.
http://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.co.uk/2016/12/no-92-stephen-watson-paisley.html (http://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.co.uk/2016/12/no-92-stephen-watson-paisley.html)
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: Fungus on 15 December, 2016, 12:05:56 PM
Now, that's just silly   ;)

Good work!
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: Frank on 15 December, 2016, 12:15:04 PM
.
Matt Nixon and/or Sloano did have a point, though. What was the editor thinking, dishing out work to a talentless chancer like Frank Quitely? The nineties were terrible!


Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: GordonR on 15 December, 2016, 04:48:21 PM
From Bishop's reply to those would-be 'bad boys of 2000AD fandom' of the mid-90s, Matt & Sloano*:

QuoteCriticising the work of others while hiding behind a nickname is pure cowardice.

Thank goodness nothing like that happens these days, eh?



*I had a drink with one of them at one of the old UKCACs at that time, although I can't remember which one of the pair it was. The other one chickened out of the offer to meet to pour his vitriol on me in person.  Unsurprisingly, the one that did turn up was a total chocolate soldier, face to face.
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: AlexF on 17 December, 2016, 11:32:37 AM
Just opened up the Christmas prog and in another marvellous bit of serendipity, I see Mr Watson has the Star Letter! A Christmas miracle.
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: AlexF on 13 January, 2017, 04:02:27 PM
Holidays, illness, life etc all pushed aside, I'm back in business with Hero No. 93, the Biz himself:

http://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.co.uk/2017/01/no-93-simon-bisley.html (http://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.co.uk/2017/01/no-93-simon-bisley.html)
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: Frank on 13 January, 2017, 04:54:57 PM
Quote from: AlexF on 13 January, 2017, 04:02:27 PM
The first time I read the Black Hole story I didn't really understand what was going on, but I enjoyed reading it anyway, and that's mostly thanks to Bisley (and SMS):

http://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.co.uk/2017/01/no-93-simon-bisley.html (http://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.co.uk/2017/01/no-93-simon-bisley.html)

I'm still not sure I get everything that's going on. To be honest, some of what I knew I was missing only fell into place after listening to Julius Howe and Eamonn Clarke's authoritive and entertaining discussion of The Black Hole (including what was actually, deliberately missing from the story):

http://megacitybookclub.blogspot.co.uk/2016/08/mega-city-book-club-8-abc-warriorsthe.html


Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: AlexF on 19 January, 2017, 12:33:46 PM
Cracking on, it's Dermot Power:

http://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.co.uk/2017/01/no-94-dermot-power.html (http://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.co.uk/2017/01/no-94-dermot-power.html)
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: Greg M. on 19 January, 2017, 02:59:52 PM
A talented chap, despite his art being associated with an unpopular era and several not-particularly-good scripts. (Book of the Dead is obviously dreadful, but I also didn't like Slaine: Demon Killer / Queen of Witches at all.) Although I'm not a fan of post-Horned God Slaine (as is probably clear) I did enjoy 'Treasures of Britain' despite myself – definitely the best of Power's art to grace the prog.
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: Link Prime on 24 January, 2017, 04:12:57 PM
Quote from: Greg M. on 19 January, 2017, 02:59:52 PM
A talented chap

Very much so.

A very prolific 2000AD cover artist too.
http://www.2000ad.org/?zone=covers&page=artist&choice=dermotp&Comic=2000ad

The brilliant cover to Prog 911 was probably the best thing about Wilderlands.
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: AlexF on 30 January, 2017, 07:12:47 AM
Time for another contemporary hero, always a bit of a worry as I suspect they're more likely to read what I've wrote.

It's Ben Willsher
http://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.co.uk/2017/01/no-95-ben-willsher.html (http://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.co.uk/2017/01/no-95-ben-willsher.html)
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: AlexF on 24 February, 2017, 08:49:39 AM
Still coming down from the 40th, but am slowly getting back into the swing.
Next up is one of the few creators who wasn't in Hammersmith:
Andy Clarke

http://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.co.uk/2017/02/no-96-andy-clarke.html (http://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.co.uk/2017/02/no-96-andy-clarke.html)
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: Old Tankie on 26 February, 2017, 08:27:46 AM
Glad you are back on the job, really enjoying your hard work.
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: Tomwe on 02 March, 2017, 01:53:26 PM
Quote from: AlexF on 24 February, 2017, 08:49:39 AM
Still coming down from the 40th, but am slowly getting back into the swing.
Next up is one of the few creators who wasn't in Hammersmith:
Andy Clarke

http://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.co.uk/2017/02/no-96-andy-clarke.html (http://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.co.uk/2017/02/no-96-andy-clarke.html)

Added your blog to my Feedly. Great stuff  :thumbsup:
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: AlexF on 03 March, 2017, 02:36:25 PM
Thank you!
Here's the next hero, the UK's very own Comics Laureate, Charlie Adlard:

http://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.co.uk/2017/03/no-97-charlie-adlard.html (http://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.co.uk/2017/03/no-97-charlie-adlard.html)
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: AlexF on 09 March, 2017, 03:36:12 PM
Time for another colourist, Eva de la Cruz at number 98.

http://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.co.uk/2017/03/no-98-eva-de-la-cruz.html (http://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.co.uk/2017/03/no-98-eva-de-la-cruz.html)
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: AlexF on 16 March, 2017, 07:42:14 AM
At 99, it's David Hine

http://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.co.uk/2017/03/no-99-david-hine.html (http://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.co.uk/2017/03/no-99-david-hine.html)
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: AlexF on 24 March, 2017, 12:43:05 PM
Hero No. 100, come on down.

Proudly presenting Nigel Dobbyn:
http://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.co.uk/2017/03/no-100-nigel-dobbyn.html (http://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.co.uk/2017/03/no-100-nigel-dobbyn.html)
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: AlexF on 31 March, 2017, 03:03:08 PM
Here's another hero who, in my head, is a newcomer to Tharg's droid shelter, but has actually been delivering scripts for more than a decade at this point. We are all getting old!

Arthur Wyatt
http://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.co.uk/2017/03/no-101-arthur-wyatt.html (http://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.co.uk/2017/03/no-101-arthur-wyatt.html)
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: AlexF on 08 April, 2017, 08:13:36 AM
Covers legend Jason Brashill is up next
http://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.co.uk/2017/04/no-102-jason-brashill.html (http://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.co.uk/2017/04/no-102-jason-brashill.html)
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: Colin YNWA on 08 April, 2017, 09:45:25 AM
Quote from: AlexF on 24 March, 2017, 12:43:05 PM
Hero No. 100, come on down.

Proudly presenting Nigel Dobbyn:
http://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.co.uk/2017/03/no-100-nigel-dobbyn.html (http://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.co.uk/2017/03/no-100-nigel-dobbyn.html)

Catching up but wanted to stop by, not just to once again hail your superb blog but to salute the criminally under used Nigel Dobbyn.

I've always really loved his work and find it astonishing that he's not done more for Tharg. I get the description that his art is friendly and suspect that's part the reason he feel out of favour. To me though your description of the fact that this can make thigns more horrific hits the nail on the head. There are any number of strips in the last few years that I think would have been elevated by his art.

I'm lucky enough to own a three page sequence from the first Medivac 318 series when the nursey is supporting a wounded soldier while waiting for a pick up. Its beautiful, haunting and some atmospheric. I adore those pages and remember them from the day I first read them as being so atypical of 2000ad and yet therefore so 2000ad. Just glorious.

A full return for ACE Trucking is surely needed and Dobbyn's is perfect for the series... or any number of others!
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: Dark Jimbo on 10 April, 2017, 05:38:43 PM
Quote from: Colin YNWA on 08 April, 2017, 09:45:25 AM
Quote from: AlexF on 24 March, 2017, 12:43:05 PM
Hero No. 100, come on down.

Proudly presenting Nigel Dobbyn:
http://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.co.uk/2017/03/no-100-nigel-dobbyn.html (http://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.co.uk/2017/03/no-100-nigel-dobbyn.html)

Catching up but wanted to stop by, not just to once again hail your superb blog but to salute the criminally under used Nigel Dobbyn.

A full return for ACE Trucking is surely needed and Dobbyn's is perfect for the series... or any number of others!

If there was any justice, Tharg would have let him write that 101 Gronks strip that he pitched!

Well, Tooth's loss was STC's gain - his artwork on the Knuckles solo series was truly something special to behold. He and Richard Elson were the Mcmahon/ Ezquerra of that comic.

And you have to love the guy for his very 'punk' handling of the final Red Razors episode, if nothing else!
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: Link Prime on 13 April, 2017, 12:09:12 AM
Quote from: Colin YNWA on 08 April, 2017, 09:45:25 AM
I get the description that his art is friendly and suspect that's part the reason he feel out of favour.

From the horses mouth a few weeks ago; "My Durham Red wasn't sexy enough".

Always loved his stuff, and it would be insane not to utilise his talent again in 2000AD or the Meg.
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: AlexF on 22 April, 2017, 05:32:01 PM
The hits roll on, No. 103 with a bullet...

Alec Worley
http://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.co.uk/2017/04/no-103-alec-worley.html (http://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.co.uk/2017/04/no-103-alec-worley.html)
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: AlexF on 27 April, 2017, 08:20:13 PM
Time for another retro hit, here's Kev Hopgood:

http://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.co.uk/2017/04/no-104-kev-hopgood.html (http://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.co.uk/2017/04/no-104-kev-hopgood.html)
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: AlexF on 20 May, 2017, 08:06:09 AM
I'm still working away, honest!
Here's the next installment, the much-missed (by me, anyway) Dom Reardon
https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=2028913439060318539#editor/target=post;postID=1272107704575688139;onPublishedMenu=allposts;onClosedMenu=allposts;postNum=0;src=postname (https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=2028913439060318539#editor/target=post;postID=1272107704575688139;onPublishedMenu=allposts;onClosedMenu=allposts;postNum=0;src=postname)
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: sheridan on 20 May, 2017, 10:38:52 AM
It came up on one of the facebook groups, but which artist has contributed the most Dredd's?  Carlos is the number one artist generally, but that's going to be split between Dredd, Strontium Dog, Stainless Steel Rats and Third World Wars (can't remember if you count Crisis).
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: AlexF on 22 May, 2017, 12:45:49 PM
Have I got a post for you!
Way back in the early days of ther blog I had a go at answering this very question...

http://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.co.uk/2015/04/interlude-dreddcount-part-2_29.html (http://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.co.uk/2015/04/interlude-dreddcount-part-2_29.html)

And the answer is either Carlos or Ron Smith, depending on wether or not you count the Daily Star Dredd (I generally don't in my opverall counts), and how much an episode of that is 'worth' compared to an episode of Dredd in the Prog/Meg. (And yes, I do count Crisis, as well as Starlord and Tornado.)

In terms of overall art contributions to the Prog, it's definitely Carlos, with a current count of 1,059 progs/Megs. 2nd to him is still Massimo Belardinelli, with 490, even though his last Prog was decades ago now! Nearest of the current active artists to chase that figure is Steve Yeowell, currently up to 439 Progs/Megs.

I am intrigued that although 2000AD has long been and continues to champion new British artists (a good thing for sure!), it's two Europeans who are by some margin the Prog's longest-serving heroes.
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: sheridan on 22 May, 2017, 06:08:38 PM
Quote from: AlexF on 22 May, 2017, 12:45:49 PM
Have I got a post for you!
Way back in the early days of ther blog I had a go at answering this very question...

http://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.co.uk/2015/04/interlude-dreddcount-part-2_29.html (http://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.co.uk/2015/04/interlude-dreddcount-part-2_29.html)

And the answer is either Carlos or Ron Smith, depending on wether or not you count the Daily Star Dredd (I generally don't in my opverall counts), and how much an episode of that is 'worth' compared to an episode of Dredd in the Prog/Meg. (And yes, I do count Crisis, as well as Starlord and Tornado.)

In terms of overall art contributions to the Prog, it's definitely Carlos, with a current count of 1,059 progs/Megs. 2nd to him is still Massimo Belardinelli, with 490, even though his last Prog was decades ago now! Nearest of the current active artists to chase that figure is Steve Yeowell, currently up to 439 Progs/Megs.

I am intrigued that although 2000AD has long been and continues to champion new British artists (a good thing for sure!), it's two Europeans who are by some margin the Prog's longest-serving heroes.

Thanks, that matched the general consensus.
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: AlexF on 28 May, 2017, 07:46:19 AM
Here's everyone's favourite forgotten editor-turned writer from the 1990s,
Peter Hogan

http://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.co.uk/2017/05/no-106-peter-hogan.html (http://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.co.uk/2017/05/no-106-peter-hogan.html)
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: CalHab on 29 May, 2017, 12:03:11 PM
A very enjoyable read. I'd pretty much forgotten about Hogan's Run on Robo-Hunter and was completely unaware that Ridgway had ever drawn Strontium Dog.

I did like this amusingly Freudian typo:
Quote from: Heroes of 2000AD
Tharg-in-Chief Steve MacManus was hard at work prepping The Judge Dredd Megazine, basically designing tit to be 2000AD for grownups.
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: sheridan on 31 May, 2017, 12:59:58 PM
Quote from: CalHab on 29 May, 2017, 12:03:11 PM
A very enjoyable read. I'd pretty much forgotten about Hogan's Run on Robo-Hunter and was completely unaware that Ridgway had ever drawn Strontium Dog.

I've completely forgotten about that!

QuoteI did like this amusingly Freudian typo:
Quote from: Heroes of 2000AD
Tharg-in-Chief Steve MacManus was hard at work prepping The Judge Dredd Megazine, basically designing tit to be 2000AD for grownups.

That's what inspired Brit Cit Babes then?
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: AlexF on 31 May, 2017, 01:53:06 PM
Seems like the sort of typo I should just leave hanging!
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: AlexF on 13 April, 2018, 08:46:20 AM
Revival time for the forum thread that remains the only place I advertise my blog!

Last week I uploaded Karl Richardson, as some folks have seen:
http://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.co.uk/2018/04/no-107-karl-richardson.html (http://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.co.uk/2018/04/no-107-karl-richardson.html)

This week here's the outrageously prolific INJ Culbard. At the time I first compiled my stats on 'how many progs has s/he contributed to', Culbard had completed just one book of Brass Sun. When I wrote up this post several months ago, he was up to 96 already. But now he's way into the 100s! I care about these things.

Anyway, here's my analysis of the man's Thargian body of work:
http://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.co.uk/2018/04/no-108-inj-culbard.html (http://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.co.uk/2018/04/no-108-inj-culbard.html)

I'll try to keep to a weekly schedule from here - too many creators out there who need more love on the internet, especially for their 2000AD output. That said, next week there's a chap who's probably more famous, at this point, for his later stuff...
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: Blue Cactus on 13 April, 2018, 10:44:40 AM
The blog is back! Hooray!!!!!!   :D
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: AlexF on 19 April, 2018, 10:43:21 AM
Here's a biggie...
international superstar Glenn Fabry.

http://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.co.uk/2018/04/no-109-glenn-fabry.html (http://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.co.uk/2018/04/no-109-glenn-fabry.html)
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: broodblik on 19 April, 2018, 11:44:40 AM
AlexF I really enjoy your blog keep up the good work  :D
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: AlexF on 26 April, 2018, 09:47:36 AM
Thank you! I surely intend to.

On that note, here's horror/painting legend, Nick Percival:
http://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.co.uk/2018/04/no-110-nick-percival.html (http://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.co.uk/2018/04/no-110-nick-percival.html)
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: Frank on 26 April, 2018, 01:31:09 PM
Quote from: AlexF on 26 April, 2018, 09:47:36 AM
On that note, here's horror/painting legend, Nick Percival:
http://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.co.uk/2018/04/no-110-nick-percival.html (http://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.co.uk/2018/04/no-110-nick-percival.html)


'monsters expose their own frail bodies but also their malignant airy soles'


Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: AlexF on 01 May, 2018, 09:16:03 AM
Ah Frank, you always know how to bring a smile to my face!  :lol:
It's a toss-up whether I bother to fix that particular typo...
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: AlexF on 05 May, 2018, 07:44:07 AM
Running late already, but here's Mr Lee Carter for your grunge-tastic enjoyment:

http://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.co.uk/2018/05/no-111-lee-carter.html (http://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.co.uk/2018/05/no-111-lee-carter.html)
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: Frank on 05 May, 2018, 10:09:09 AM
Quote from: AlexF on 05 May, 2018, 07:44:07 AM
http://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.co.uk/2018/05/no-111-lee-carter.html (http://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.co.uk/2018/05/no-111-lee-carter.html)

Notable characteristics:
Georgeous realism. Astonishing Ugliness. An impressively grim imagination. And, something very specific in the way he draws people's faces. They're kind of bumpy, with fleshy jowls and rugged chins ... painfully detailed rendering of the human form, often merged or surrounded by some horrifically weird goings on, tinged with depravity.

I'm pretty sure he used real-world photos – often of deliberately seedy or squalid places, presumably that he took himself – which really help get the tone right. Carter's people, whether photo-derived or not, are very much comics-art people, with a hint of otherworldliness to their face and skin


Lee Carter is from Hartlepool.


Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: Frank on 05 May, 2018, 10:23:23 AM
Quote from: AlexF on 05 May, 2018, 07:44:07 AM
http://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.co.uk/2018/05/no-111-lee-carter.html (http://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.co.uk/2018/05/no-111-lee-carter.html)

There's surely more than one Lee Carter in the UK. But might this piece of reader art from the early 90s be the work of the same man? It's pretty damn good for fan art!


Fantastic analysis, Alex, with attention to detail appropriate to and redolent of your subject matter.

Lee Carter confirmed the reader drawing from 758 (Nov 1991) is his work. That was posted from his monkey-hanging hometown, but by 822 (Feb 1993) he'd moved somewhere that sounded more like his surname*

There are similarities in the pose and elements of the uniform - especially the eagle, which is like a fingerprint for artists, rarely changing from their debut - but the Clwyd image features the signature combination of chin, jowels and grimly set mouth described in your post:

(https://i.imgur.com/XKZaWu8.png?2) (https://i.imgur.com/dcrIeOH.png?3) (https://i.imgur.com/sIHPG64.png?4)

* On no account perform a general google search on the word Cartrefle, unless you want to become deeply despondent about human nature.
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: LeeCarter_Artdroid on 07 May, 2018, 12:50:40 PM
Cheers AlexF, that was awesome of you, really enjoyed it, have to admit I've been hoping I would make it on the site  :),
  Both readers art are mine, one must have been sent while I was at college in Wales :)
  Thankfully I quickly got better :)
Thanks again :)
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: broodblik on 07 May, 2018, 02:39:49 PM
@Lee Carter looking forward to your take on Durham Red. I loved your work on Indigo Prime and Angelic
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: LeeCarter_Artdroid on 07 May, 2018, 04:28:45 PM
Cheers , it's great to see the progression,  Angelic andIndigo Prime show a improvement, as did the Rogue Trooper strip. I'm looking forward to seeing how the works looking in the next 20 years :)
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: AlexF on 08 May, 2018, 01:48:28 PM
 :D
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: AlexF on 11 May, 2018, 10:35:01 PM
A late-night treat for anyone still lurking: it's Rufus Dayglo
http://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.co.uk/2018/05/no-112-rufus-dayglo.html (http://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.co.uk/2018/05/no-112-rufus-dayglo.html)
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: AlexF on 17 May, 2018, 03:12:58 PM
A hero of two very different 2000AD eras next,

it's Colin Wilson
http://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.co.uk/2018/05/no-113-colin-wilson.html (http://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.co.uk/2018/05/no-113-colin-wilson.html)
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: Mike Carroll on 17 May, 2018, 03:39:28 PM
Colin Wilson - Excellent!

I love your site, Alex - it should be required reading for every fan!

Do please keep up the good work!

Cheers,
Mike
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: AlexF on 26 May, 2018, 08:56:07 AM
There are just too many amazing creators to get through!
But I'll keep plugging away.

Here's Will Simpson:
http://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.co.uk/2018/05/no-114-will-simpson.html (http://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.co.uk/2018/05/no-114-will-simpson.html)
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: Frank on 26 May, 2018, 10:51:14 AM
Quote from: AlexF on 26 May, 2018, 08:56:07 AM
Here's Will Simpson:
http://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.co.uk/2018/05/no-114-will-simpson.html (http://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.co.uk/2018/05/no-114-will-simpson.html)

I couldn't agree more with your observation that Simpson seems to have fallen out of conversation concerning great and/or important 2000ad artists. *

He was 1989-Tharg's equivalent of Bolland or Gibbons; one of your blog's joys is that it provokes ideas like an alternate reality where it was the style of Simpson, rather than Bisley, that influenced the incoming generation of painters.


* Simpson's art is one of the few enthusiasms the pert and luscious Douglas Wolk and I do not share: 'Will Simpson's art on the first part of the sequence is, as usual, a little too delicate for Dredd' (link (http://dreddreviews.blogspot.co.uk/2011/11/complete-case-files-14.html))

Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: Magnetica on 02 June, 2018, 10:45:48 AM
Quote from: AlexF on 26 May, 2018, 08:56:07 AM
There are just too many amazing creators to get through!
But I'll keep plugging away.

Here's Will Simpson:
http://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.co.uk/2018/05/no-114-will-simpson.html (http://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.co.uk/2018/05/no-114-will-simpson.html)

Maybe I'm missing something, but why do refer to "Friday" as "Fr1day"?
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: I, Cosh on 02 June, 2018, 11:07:20 AM
Quote from: Magnetica on 02 June, 2018, 10:45:48 AM
Quote from: AlexF on 26 May, 2018, 08:56:07 AM
There are just too many amazing creators to get through!
But I'll keep plugging away.

Here's Will Simpson:
http://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.co.uk/2018/05/no-114-will-simpson.html (http://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.co.uk/2018/05/no-114-will-simpson.html)

Maybe I'm missing something, but why do refer to "Friday" as "Fr1day"?

http://www.2000ad.org/functions/cover.php?Comic=scans&choice=774
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: Frank on 02 June, 2018, 11:22:46 AM
Quote from: Magnetica on 02 June, 2018, 10:45:48 AM
Quote from: AlexF on 26 May, 2018, 08:56:07 AM
There are just too many amazing creators to get through!
But I'll keep plugging away.

Here's Will Simpson:
http://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.co.uk/2018/05/no-114-will-simpson.html (http://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.co.uk/2018/05/no-114-will-simpson.html)

Maybe I'm missing something, but why do refer to "Friday" as "Fr1day"?

As Top (Helm) dies*, he gives Friday his helmet and writes his name in blood, using the 1 as the I:

https://i.imgur.com/ttU6HJL.png?1


* prog 653
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: AlexF on 01 July, 2018, 07:20:14 AM
I haven't given up, honest. Just had to pause for a while to hunt out the necessary back-Megs and long-forgotten Specials to do justice to...

Dave Stone
http://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.com/2018/06/no-115-dave-stone.html (http://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.com/2018/06/no-115-dave-stone.html)
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: Frank on 01 July, 2018, 08:41:27 AM
Quote from: AlexF on 01 July, 2018, 07:20:14 AM
I haven't given up, honest. Just had to pause for a while to hunt out the necessary back-Megs and long-forgotten Specials to do justice to...

Dave Stone
http://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.com/2018/06/no-115-dave-stone.html (http://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.com/2018/06/no-115-dave-stone.html)

I only skim-read Armitage after the second or third series*, and couldn't tell you much about the plot of those. I sometimes worried I might be missing out on the strip's transformation into something interesting; thanks for setting my mind at ease.

Thanks also for the insight into what it feels like to belong to a class of people depicted negatively in popular fiction. Pat Mills stories must be hard work for you.


* I think I reengaged sometime during the Young Armitage stories, when there were massive tanks running around and it no longer seemed reasonable to dismiss the strip on the grounds that it was just a Look-In version of a show I didn't watch on telly.
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: broodblik on 01 July, 2018, 08:48:56 AM
Quote from: AlexF on 01 July, 2018, 07:20:14 AM
I haven't given up, honest. Just had to pause for a while to hunt out the necessary back-Megs and long-forgotten Specials to do justice to...

Dave Stone
http://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.com/2018/06/no-115-dave-stone.html (http://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.com/2018/06/no-115-dave-stone.html)

Thank You for this blog and hopefully you can continue with it for a long time.

I am must agree with Frank that Armitage was not that interesting.
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: Woolly on 01 July, 2018, 01:33:44 PM
Armitage joins Tor Cyan in my list of characters with unachieved potential.

The Sean Phillips painted original story is still awesome though.
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: BPP on 01 July, 2018, 02:31:41 PM
Armitages last outing, Underground, was basically a pretty good Dredd story with top tier Patrick Goddard art.
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: AlexF on 03 July, 2018, 12:46:24 PM
QuoteThanks also for the insight into what it feels like to belong to a class of people depicted negatively in popular fiction. Pat Mills stories must be hard work for you.

You'd think, wouldn't you, but it's really only with Greysuit that Mills has got me down. I would say that it's very easy to know that one is bracketed with a particular class but also to think 'but they're not really talking about me, I don't have that kind of money or those connections, I'm not like that at all...'

In other Pat Mills-baiting traits, I'm also a practicing Christian and regular churchgoer - but Nemesis the Warlock remains my all-time favourite series. Who knows, if I hadn't found 2000AD at an impressionable age, I might be an insufferable evangelical type, so thank Mills for that escape.

Back on topic, for anyone who hasn't read the two-volume Hachette Armitage collection, I recommend them both, although only for half the stories in each, roughly.
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: Dandontdare on 03 July, 2018, 04:30:31 PM
Can't believe you've done 115 of these now - always a fascinating read and an invaluable resource thereafter. Congratulations and keep up the great work!
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: Fungus on 03 July, 2018, 04:39:09 PM
What Dan said. Always enjoyable. What gets me is the level of detail, no short-cuts taken and interesting regardless of the creator involved ! In short, they're all worth a read...
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: sheridan on 03 July, 2018, 08:32:32 PM
Yep, great stuff, and we most assuredly are still reading them!
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: Richard on 03 July, 2018, 08:51:06 PM
Just discovered this today, it's great stuff! I have much catching up to do!
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: AlexF on 04 July, 2018, 02:09:18 PM
Thanks all for the moral support!
And also to Karl Stock for getting a name-check in this month's Megazine.


You guys did read the obit for Michael Fleisher, didn't you..?
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: AlexF on 06 July, 2018, 08:14:55 AM
Next up, an artist who may, at this point, be more famous in the US than the UK...

Trevor Hairsine
http://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.com/2018/07/no-116-trevor-hairsine.html (http://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.com/2018/07/no-116-trevor-hairsine.html)
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: AlexF on 24 July, 2018, 10:48:45 PM
I'm sure you're less interested in me apologising for being slow than you are in getting to the next Hero:

David Roach
http://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.com/2018/07/no-117-david-roach.html (http://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.com/2018/07/no-117-david-roach.html)
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: Frank on 25 July, 2018, 12:01:18 AM
QuoteNow, (cheesecake) is not all (David Roach) has done, by any means, but it's such a glaring feature that I have to lead with it. I don't know what then-editor Richard Burton was thinking, but he clearly wanted it and asked for it.

Not sure David Roach was what Richard Burton wanted at all (55m 44s (http://ecbt2000ad.libsyn.com/ecbt2000ad-ep285)). Burton's memory is hazy at best*, but he seems adamant that the girly stuff was all down to Roach.

The Prophet was printed in greyscale when it first ran in 2000ad. Like you, I assumed it was drawn in colour and originally scheduled to run in that way, but Roach insists the original art was grey wash.

One day, you'll write a blog post that isn't insightful and thought-provoking, but this wasn't it.



* Burton accuses Roach of a swipe from Penthouse in this interview, but later retracted that when it was pointed out he was thinking of Mick Austin (https://2000adhallofhomage.wordpress.com/tag/toni-shilleto/)
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: AlexF on 25 July, 2018, 01:57:02 PM
Burton may not have explicitly asked Roach to do 'the girly stuff', but he did hire an artist who has full-on girly stuff in his portfolio (I got to see this once at a Bristol Con many years ago), and he did put him on strips which require girls in almost every panel...
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: broodblik on 25 July, 2018, 03:30:26 PM
Thanks again AlexF for your great site
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: AlexF on 01 September, 2018, 10:42:46 AM
Time for another hero, the late, lamented Mike White:
http://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.com/2018/09/no-118-mike-white-rip.html (http://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.com/2018/09/no-118-mike-white-rip.html)
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: AlexF on 08 September, 2018, 09:41:39 AM
And another:
top cartoonist Steve Roberts

http://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.com/2018/09/no-119-steve-roberts.html (http://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.com/2018/09/no-119-steve-roberts.html)
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: AlexF on 21 September, 2018, 06:41:49 AM
I'm miles off keeping a weekly schedule, but nonetheless I assure you all I am still plugging away.

Here's a relative newcomer, but no less a hero:
T.C. Eglington

http://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.com/2018/09/no-120-tc-eglington.html (http://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.com/2018/09/no-120-tc-eglington.html)
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: AlexF on 19 October, 2018, 10:52:52 AM
If ever there was an artist/writer whose work is tough to pin down, it's the next hero on the ever-ongoing list, Mike Collins:

https://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.com/2018/10/no-121-mike-collins.html (https://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.com/2018/10/no-121-mike-collins.html)
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: AlexF on 04 November, 2018, 06:37:17 PM
Everybody loves early 1990s 2000AD, right?
Here to represent is Mick Austin, a creator trapped in the wrong era if ever there was one...

https://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.com/2018/11/no-122-mick-austin.html (https://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.com/2018/11/no-122-mick-austin.html)
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: broodblik on 04 November, 2018, 06:55:30 PM
AlexF keep up the good work, I really like your blog
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: AlexF on 11 November, 2018, 08:59:05 PM
The purple patch for fans of early 1990s 2000AD continues with...

Steve Sampson
https://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.com/2018/11/no-123-steve-sampson.html (https://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.com/2018/11/no-123-steve-sampson.html)
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: CalHab on 12 November, 2018, 08:31:08 AM
Another excellent article. Sampson's Anderson work, in particular, was always good as I remember.
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: Frank on 16 November, 2018, 07:27:24 PM
Quote from: AlexF on 11 November, 2018, 08:59:05 PM
The purple patch for fans of early 1990s 2000AD ... [/url]

If that was deliberate, I get that (https://i.imgur.com/7fUHHAp.jpg)! *

It's a frequently made point that art gods like Weston, Coleby and Staples - the very best talents Tharg can call on, today - were given their big breaks before they were the finished article**, turning in some strips of variable quality before they located the genius button.

So I sometimes wonder whether creators like Sampson, Steve Tappin or Calum Alexander Watt (https://www.artstation.com/calumalexanderwatt), whose work was sometimes similarly wonky or stiff, might have followed equally stellar trajectories given the opportunity to continue drawing comics and improving.

To me, Sampson's current work (https://thedarkinker.artstation.com/) demonstrates his talent is for illustration. Maybe his sequentials would have improved with experience, but use of photographic reference always seems to lead to static compositions, however fine the technique may become.


* Dark Days says the purple tint was his way of trying to mitigate reader disappointment that he was having to run monochrome material

** Partly because the move to full colour meant trusty stalwarts were taking twice as long to turn in pages, partly because many of those trusty stalwarts found it was more rewarding to be trusty and stalwart for other publishers
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: Sinx on 28 November, 2018, 12:26:41 PM
I love this blog - just so cool to read about the artists who've contributed to the Galaxy's Greatest over the years!

Quote from: Frank on 16 November, 2018, 07:27:24 PM

It's a frequently made point that art gods like Weston, Coleby and Staples - the very best talents Tharg can call on, today - were given their big breaks before they were the finished article**, turning in some strips of variable quality before they located the genius button.

I think Simon Fraser may have an assistant/apprentice according to the YT 2000AD creators video, but yes on the whole I think all the major publishers want the artists to be the finished product. I guess the international talent pool is just so huge now any publisher who can actually pay a decent page rate has their pick of the bunch. I wish I'd tried breaking in during the 90's US boom - honestly some of the art that came out then even on major character books like The Thing and Hulk was garbage  :D
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: Dandontdare on 28 November, 2018, 01:00:45 PM
I'm a big fan of Sampson's work - got to the end of that piece and wondered why you hadn't mentioned the great Hershey solo strips, but then realised I was mixing him up with Marc Wigmore, who has a similar style.
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: AlexF on 28 November, 2018, 05:04:17 PM
Ha! Poor old Marc Wigmore - he was actively touted as the next big thing but absolutely did not survive the jump fro the Meg to the Prog. I've no idea how much this may be to do with fan response but I imagine the larger Prog readership is/was less forgiving of the more esoteric art styles.

And yes, he is of the same ilk as Sampson, like a 90s indie movie splurged onto a comics page, although perhaps more Greg Araki to Sampson's straight up Tarantino.
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: Dandontdare on 28 November, 2018, 05:51:01 PM
They're both very much 'of their time'. I recall swimming against the prevailing trends in the 90s - whilst everyone was raving about the fully-painted Bisleyesque stuff, I found a lot of it murky and impenetrable, I much preferred the more graphic styles of Wigmore and Sampson for the clarity of storytelling and great mood-enhancing colours. Those black & red Hershey strips are some of my favourite art ever to grace the Meg
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: Tjm86 on 28 November, 2018, 09:25:44 PM
See this is my issue with much of Langley's work.  On one level it is stunning but on another completely impenetrable.  It is a complete ocular overload that makes the narrative illegible.  This is the greatest problem with recent Slaine and ABC Warriors strips.   Gibbons, Gibson, Bolland, Ezquerra, Kennedy, McMahon, Smith, Wilson,  O'Neill ... all of them understood this.  For comics to be a visual medium it has to be something the reader can manage visually.  The artwork has to provide something that the reader cannot obtain from the text alone, that brings the reader along ...
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: AlexF on 29 November, 2018, 09:52:31 AM
Typical, you wait ages for a female creator to appear on the Blog, and then three show up at once...

Modern legend Emma Beeby
https://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.com/2018/11/no-124-emma-beeby.html (https://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.com/2018/11/no-124-emma-beeby.html)

Old master Hilary Robinson
https://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.com/2018/11/no-125-hilary-robinson.html (https://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.com/2018/11/no-125-hilary-robinson.html)

Queen of colours Gina Hart
https://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.com/2018/11/no-126-gina-hart.html (https://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.com/2018/11/no-126-gina-hart.html)


Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: AlexF on 29 November, 2018, 09:53:21 AM
And yes, I did wait until I'd finished all three entries before posting just so I could make that joke.
P14 puns forever!
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: AlexF on 12 January, 2019, 11:58:17 AM
You ever had one of those months where you find yourself writing a 3,000 word essay on the merits of Tony Skinner?
I love writing this blog, even if it does take me ages.

https://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.com/2019/01/no-127-tony-skinner.html (https://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.com/2019/01/no-127-tony-skinner.html)
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: AlexF on 14 February, 2019, 10:21:32 AM
I seem to have fallen from twice a week to once a month (if that), but the Heroes blog keeps rolling on.
It's back to the 1970s today to hang out with Chris Lowder (mostly credited as Jack Adrian, in case you're wondering):

https://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.com/2019/02/no-128-chris-lowder-aka-jack-adrian.html (https://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.com/2019/02/no-128-chris-lowder-aka-jack-adrian.html)

Up next, a true grotesque, followed by true comics royalty...
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: CalHab on 15 February, 2019, 10:19:32 PM
For the three-strips-in-a-prog, I'm going for Wagner, Grant, Mills and Abnett, but there must be more?
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: Greg M. on 16 February, 2019, 06:12:17 AM
Both Grant Morrison (Judge Dredd / Big Dave / Really and Truly) and Mark Millar (Grudgefather / Robo-Hunter / Babe Race 2000 - the infamous Prog 883) have achieved the dubious honour.
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: AlexF on 18 February, 2019, 10:05:45 PM
Si Spurrier's definitely done it, Prog 1482.
Steve Dillon's done it, if you count Prog 588 in which he both writes and draws Hap Hazzard, as well as drawing a Future Shock.
I'd imagine Gordon Rennie's on that list, too, surely.
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: AlexF on 15 May, 2019, 02:23:34 PM
Another long delay, but I hope this one's worth the wait - partly slow because I had a lot to say, and wanted to get it right, inasmuch as that's possible with no less a legend than...

John Hicklenton

https://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.com/2019/05/no-129-john-hicklenton-rip.html (https://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.com/2019/05/no-129-john-hicklenton-rip.html)
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: AlexF on 10 July, 2019, 09:40:57 AM
I'm not giving up just yet!
Another hero, another blogpost:
Bryan Talbot

https://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.com/2019/07/no-130-bryan-talbot.html (https://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.com/2019/07/no-130-bryan-talbot.html)
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: Frank on 10 July, 2019, 11:42:32 AM
Quote from: AlexF on 10 July, 2019, 09:40:57 AM
Quote from: AlexF on 15 May, 2019, 02:23:34 PM
Another long delay, but I hope this one's worth the wait - partly slow because I had a lot to say, and wanted to get it right, inasmuch as that's possible with no less a legend than...  John Hicklenton

https://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.com/2019/05/no-129-john-hicklenton-rip.html (https://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.com/2019/05/no-129-john-hicklenton-rip.html)
I'm not giving up just yet!
Another hero, another blogpost:  Bryan Talbot

https://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.com/2019/07/no-130-bryan-talbot.html (https://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.com/2019/07/no-130-bryan-talbot.html)

'We never do find out who it is that Blackblood fears so much' - Because I read Nemesis/ABC Warriors backwards, I assumed that was Brother Mills setting up the revelation that Nemesis and Deadlock were, somehow, the same thing.

Interesting to read those two posts together and the virtues of one Nemesis artist (clear storytelling, accessibility) contrasted with those of their successor and polar opposite. Because he was my first Nemesis artist, I'll always prefer the sensation and repulsion of the Hickster.

An interesting mental exercise is imagining if Talbot had drawn The Two Torquemadas. I think his OG Torque would have come across as more of an RKO villain, whereas Hicklenton's warped features and anatomy utterly convinced me he was the most evil man who had ever lived.

I'd never noticed Dredd's man-meat before. I assume this to be the source of the 'sex feelings' the Black Widow story aroused in you and will never be convinced otherwise.


Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: broodblik on 10 July, 2019, 08:14:01 PM
Thanks for rebooting to old memory circuits for me AlexF, I miss mister Talbot's work in the prog. He will always be my ultimate Nemesis artist.
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: norton canes on 11 July, 2019, 11:42:57 AM
"Talbot didn't design the overall look of Judge Fear, but he was the first – in Diceman 1 – to dare to draw a face so horrific it would send a man mad"

Er, didn't Bolland draw Fear with an open face-gate and a head full of eyes at the end of Judge Death Lives?
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: Hawkmumbler on 11 July, 2019, 11:46:15 AM
As much as I love Kev's work on Nemesis, who couldn't, Brians work on Goth Empire is for me the definative look and high point of the series. Love it.
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: Greg M. on 11 July, 2019, 12:37:32 PM
Although the blog implies a certain disapproval of Hitaki as a character (I presume AlexF is critical of the 'honourable samurai' stereotype?), he's my favourite ABC Warrior. He's a great bit of Talbot design - those spindly limbs contrasted with his chunky ornamented armour make him really stand out.
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: AlexF on 12 July, 2019, 07:35:58 PM
Frank: I didn't notice it at the time either (and I've got to imagine Bish-Op missed it too), but I'm sure it fed into my erotic nightmares.

Norton Canes: dammit, you're right. But Talbot's version is scarier!

Greg M.: to be fair, the 'noble samurai archetype' as problematic is Mills's fault rather than Talbot's, who simply draws an excellent version of that stock character. I certainly loved Hitaki at the time (as with all things Japanese), and as far as I understand it (not very far), the reason why people like me are sniffy about characters like Hitaki these days is that he was created by British people based on a stereotype rather than an actual nuanced understanding of samurai and their place in Japanese culture, and his purpose here is to make us say 'coooool!' when he charges into the fray with a sword while yelling Banzai! - which is absolutely NOT cool in the proper historical context.

-which probably makes me a wet pinko Social Justice Warrior.
-which I am a) proud to be, and b) curious why Mr Mills hasn't yet putted the mighty ABCs against a team of robotic and non-violent SJWs...
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: Greg M. on 12 July, 2019, 08:10:53 PM
I suppose the counter-argument here is that Hitaki is not a Japanese man - he's a robot built by a future society with a romanticised (and by that token, not necessarily historically accurate or nuanced) take on the samurai archetype and the concept of Imperial Japan.  Whilst I'm not going to pretend I share your sensibilities on this one, I'm equally not going to try and suggest Hitaki was designed by Mills as some kind of satire on the representation of Japanese warriors in popular culture - we both know he was designed to make 10-year-old boys think he was super-cool, and in that context, I feel he's a raging success.
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: Dark Jimbo on 12 July, 2019, 08:12:30 PM
Hitaki's problem is that his tenure was so brief - he was never given a chance to be anything more than a one-dimensional archetype.
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: Link Prime on 17 July, 2019, 11:30:57 AM
Quote from: Greg M. on 12 July, 2019, 08:10:53 PM
he was designed to make 10-year-old boys think he was super-cool, and in that context, I feel he's a raging success.

That he was.

Always disappointed that Mills never resurrected Hitaki or Ronn after their initial short lived tenure - both were a million times more appealing in the Mek-Nificent 7 line-up than Zippo, Steelhorn or the recently returned Happy Shrapnel.
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: AlexF on 24 July, 2019, 07:46:58 PM
When one is guesting on two podcasts that happen to pop up in the same weekend, both times touting a still-ongoing blog project, one had better have new content ready to show for it!

And so, on to the next hero, cover artist of today, strip star of yesterday Alex Ronald:
https://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.com/2019/07/no-131-alex-ronald.html (https://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.com/2019/07/no-131-alex-ronald.html)
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: Lorenzo on 25 July, 2019, 09:39:39 AM
Really enjoyed that. I had forgotten his stuff from The Pit. I know there were many reasons - mainly time, but I found his early stuff truly terrible! So many frames lacking in any detail, only drawing the backs of heads. Hated the early Photoshop effects as well. He really did show an amazing upward path in quality. Most of his covers are brilliant.
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: Jim_Campbell on 25 July, 2019, 10:14:31 AM
Quote from: Lorenzo on 25 July, 2019, 09:39:39 AM
Hated the early Photoshop effects as well. He really did show an amazing upward path in quality.

Not really fair to blame the shitty 90s digital colouring on Alex, though... mostly, that's Alan Craddock. Mostly.
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: Lorenzo on 25 July, 2019, 10:19:17 AM
Quote from: Jim_Campbell on 25 July, 2019, 10:14:31 AMNot really fair to blame the shitty 90s digital colouring on Alex, though... mostly, that's Alan Craddock. Mostly.
OK. I'll pass most of my hatred on to Alan Craddock then.  >:D
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: AlexF on 01 December, 2020, 11:20:09 AM
Hey! The Heroes Blog is back!
I'm aiming to pwer through the last 20 or so heroes before this concept reaches its natural end. Since I've been quiet for more than a year, there are quite a few heroes who have racked up big counts who were missed out, so the running order has gone rather haywire.

Nonetheless, they are heroes all.
Here's Tiernen Trevallion:
(http://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.com/2020/07/no-132-tiernen-trevallion.html)

and there'll be another one Friday, with two each week to follow for the next couple of months.
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: broodblik on 01 December, 2020, 11:42:41 AM
Great I enjoyed the return of the Heroes. Tiernen just gets better with each outing.
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: AlexF on 04 December, 2020, 09:19:15 AM
You know who else keeps getting better?
Hero number 133, Jake Lynch

https://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.com/2020/12/no-133-jake-lynch.html (https://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.com/2020/12/no-133-jake-lynch.html)
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: Colin YNWA on 04 December, 2020, 10:47:56 AM
Quote from: AlexF on 04 December, 2020, 09:19:15 AM
You know who else keeps getting better?
Hero number 133, Jake Lynch

https://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.com/2020/12/no-133-jake-lynch.html (https://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.com/2020/12/no-133-jake-lynch.html)

Superb assessment of one of my new favourites too Jake Lynch. We've seen many grow in front of us on the page but few quite as quickly and comprehensively as Jack Lynch I'd suggest. He's kinda got it all. He's does dirty and gritty, he does weird and spooky (can't wait to see his Proteus Vex) he does strong and imposing covers so well - how anyone manages to do a Dredd pose cover and make it feel fresh and new is beyond me! Jake Lynch has done that so many times of late.

I worry he's getting put into - when we can't get Flint get Lynch - slot, but love they way you don't even mention Flint as a comparison until its unavoidable at the end. Something I've never been able to do as I've always seen so much Flint in his work. Yet always he's been so much his own artist as well.
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: broodblik on 04 December, 2020, 10:51:03 AM
Jake Lynch for me is also one of those artist which has improved  immensely. When he started I just did not like his work (if I can recall that was Orlok) but he has grown on me and I am enjoying his Dredd quite a lot these days. So I am evening looking forward what he will be doing on Proteus Vex, filling those Flint shoes are no small feat.
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: Art on 04 December, 2020, 06:26:02 PM
That's lovely. Should say that Class of '79 was a bit before my time on the small press scene - I was more in the FutureQuake/Zarjaz/Solar Wind scene.
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: BPP on 04 December, 2020, 08:49:39 PM
Lunch's figure work is great - it clearly pushes all the right influences for the readers but... his constant failure to draw anything like a background in 90% of his work makes him one of my least favourite. World building is crucial to Dredd and his strips too often are reduced to interchangeable chase sequences.
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: Bolt-01 on 06 December, 2020, 09:15:55 AM
Quote from: Art on 04 December, 2020, 06:26:02 PM
That's lovely. Should say that Class of '79 was a bit before my time on the small press scene - I was more in the FutureQuake/Zarjaz/Solar Wind scene.

In all fairness - Art 'was' FutureQuake - without his work the comic would not exist.
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: AlexF on 07 December, 2020, 07:55:40 AM
Another relative newcomer for y'all:
Rory McConville

https://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.com/2020/12/no-134-rory-mcconville.html (https://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.com/2020/12/no-134-rory-mcconville.html)
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: Colin YNWA on 07 December, 2020, 04:39:16 PM
Meant to say this awhile ago but I'm a bit surprised by the company Tiernen Trevallion is keeping. By which I don't mean he's started hangin' out with those kids down the park again and drinking cheap cider, rather I always think of him as far more established than the other folks popping up with similar 'scores' to him. So with Rory McConville that's easily explained as a writer can build a body of work far faster than an artist. With Jake Lynch though I think of Tieran as established and Jake as recently having come through. Funny how that works.

Speaking of Rory McConville I love his Dredd. With him, Mike Carroll and Kenneth 'is he still a mystery' Neimand Dredd feels in good hands with fresh(ish*) talent. Just like Mike Carroll did with Proteus Vex I'd love to see what he'd do with his own series.

*I appreciate that Mike Carroll has been writing Dredd for quite a long time know, but for some reason I still pop him in my headspace list of bright young things?!?
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: Art on 07 December, 2020, 08:07:10 PM
In all fairness - Art 'was' FutureQuake - without his work the comic would not exist.

very much it's own thing, but yeah I guess it existing in the first place was my fault. :-)

I think Zarjaz may have predated it a little?

But Class of '79 was before that and a motherlode of big names now, as well as the birthplace of Heston (Jake writing, Henry drawing, Logan doing edits).
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: AlexF on 08 December, 2020, 09:34:19 AM
Quote from: Art on 07 December, 2020, 08:07:10 PM
In all fairness - Art 'was' FutureQuake - without his work the comic would not exist.

very much it's own thing, but yeah I guess it existing in the first place was my fault. :-)

I think Zarjaz may have predated it a little?

But Class of '79 was before that and a motherlode of big names now, as well as the birthplace of Heston (Jake writing, Henry drawing, Logan doing edits).

Ah, thanks for clearing that up - I was a bit confused when I read that Jake Lynch WROTE the first Heston stories, but why can't one person be good at two things? I confess I was kinda hoping those super early Heston stories might get reprinted in the 'Krong Island' collection but there are probably lots of good reasons why that wouldn't quite be right.

Oh, and anyone whose first 2000AD credit was after Prog 1500 is legit a newbie in my eyes (making Mr Wyatt an old hand, by a whisker!) :P
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: AlexF on 11 December, 2020, 01:03:31 PM
A brace of colourists today, Abigail Bulmer and John Charles:
https://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.com/2020/12/no-135-abigail-bulmer-and-john-charles.html (https://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.com/2020/12/no-135-abigail-bulmer-and-john-charles.html)
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: AlexF on 14 December, 2020, 09:45:11 AM
And here's a hero not so much of 2000AD as the Judge Dredd Megazine:
the unstoppable Phil Winslade.

https://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.com/2020/12/no-136-phil-winslade.html (https://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.com/2020/12/no-136-phil-winslade.html)
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: AlexF on 18 December, 2020, 08:54:39 AM
And here's another art legend who has racked up a phenomenal prog count just in the last few years:
Dave Kendall

https://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.com/2020/12/no-137-dave-kendall.html (https://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.com/2020/12/no-137-dave-kendall.html)
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: AlexF on 21 December, 2020, 11:11:42 AM
A jump from the present ALL the way back to 1977 - here's an unsung hero among unsung heroes,
Mike Dorey

https://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.com/2020/07/no-137-mike-dorey.html (https://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.com/2020/07/no-137-mike-dorey.html)
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: Colin YNWA on 21 December, 2020, 11:36:51 AM
What a fantastic image to start that post with!

Mike Dory is a late 60s early 70s British action movie in comic form. Sometimes his sci-fi looks a bit crude and dated, but damn he does hard and gritty like no one else!
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: AlexF on 26 December, 2020, 08:33:55 AM
Sorry, meant to post this on Xmas eve, a fitting time for one of 2000AD's great Annuals and Specials contributors, Eric Bradbury:

[spoiler]https://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.com/2020/12/no-139-eric-bradbury-rip.html[/spoiler]
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: Colin YNWA on 26 December, 2020, 09:55:37 AM
While I've made it absolutely clear elsewhere I'm no longer speaking to you while I plot your eventual and complete downfall I just need to pop by and comment on this one.

Firstly my utter shock that Eric Bradbury hadn't appeared already as I just assumed he'd have done much more for Tharg. Secondly what a great write up. Bradbury is a true underrated genius and indeed never put a foot wrong. As you point out its criminal that Tharg never gave him a horror story to work on. I mean what would his legacy with 2000ad have been if he'd been give say 'Fiends of the Eastern Front' not chuffing 'Mean Arena'?!?

Right I'm back to not speaking to you and trawling Sheffield's less salubrious dives to find someone who will... do ... things to others for money...
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: AlexF on 08 January, 2021, 08:02:37 AM
Rolling on into the new Year, but at a slower pace, here's another proper heavy-hitter, Alan Davis:

https://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.com/2021/01/no-140-alan-davis.html (https://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.com/2021/01/no-140-alan-davis.html)
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: Andrew_J on 08 January, 2021, 11:29:14 PM
That's a great reminder of Alan Davis' work, thanks. 
Title: Re: New 2000 AD creators blog
Post by: AlexF on 11 January, 2021, 09:19:07 AM
And speaking of past masters, here's Garry Leach:
https://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.com/2021/01/no-141-garry-leach.html (https://heroesof2000ad.blogspot.com/2021/01/no-141-garry-leach.html)