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General Chat => Film Discussion => Topic started by: Sandman1 on 10 January, 2017, 04:38:20 PM

Title: The depictions of Mega-City One
Post by: Sandman1 on 10 January, 2017, 04:38:20 PM
Do you like the depictions of the city from the two films?

I do not really like any of those depictions. The one from 95 is too... cartoonish and lack those bleak social conditions. And the latest one wandered off too far from the source material and didn't have that interesting futuristic look. But the story Six from Dredd Megazine 221-222 have some nice illustrations of the city.   
Title: Re: The depictions of Mega-City One
Post by: IndigoPrime on 10 January, 2017, 05:55:00 PM
The first is amusing in that you can see the same bits of redressed scenery in several scenes, because the redressing wasn't enough. Bits of that movie work, but it's very shiny shiny 1990s. The point about MC-1, bar in the early days, was that it looked like a jewel from the air, but a disaster when you were up close.

The newer one was a lot more 'five minutes into the future', but I liked it a lot. Mind you, I like grimy sci-fi, and Dredd was very much that.
Title: Re: The depictions of Mega-City One
Post by: Sandman1 on 11 January, 2017, 03:00:20 PM
Quote from: IndigoPrime on 10 January, 2017, 05:55:00 PMThe point about MC-1, bar in the early days, was that it looked like a jewel from the air, but a disaster when you were up close.

The newer one was a lot more 'five minutes into the future', but I liked it a lot. Mind you, I like grimy sci-fi, and Dredd was very much that.

Do you have any favourite depiction of the city? 
Title: Re: The depictions of Mega-City One
Post by: IndigoPrime on 11 January, 2017, 03:28:38 PM
From the comic? Anything by McMahon or Flint, really.
Title: Re: The depictions of Mega-City One
Post by: Sandman1 on 12 January, 2017, 11:11:00 AM
Quote from: IndigoPrime on 11 January, 2017, 03:28:38 PM
From the comic? Anything by McMahon or Flint, really.

I'm maybe a bit too inquisitive, but why do you think those depictions stands out from the rest?
Title: Re: The depictions of Mega-City One
Post by: IndigoPrime on 12 January, 2017, 12:27:52 PM
Loads of character, and depicting the madness of the future.
Title: Re: The depictions of Mega-City One
Post by: Sandman1 on 12 January, 2017, 10:41:32 PM
Quote from: IndigoPrime on 12 January, 2017, 12:27:52 PM
Loads of character, and depicting the madness of the future.

Your examples sounds like two interesting ones, so I'm going to look them up.
Title: Re: The depictions of Mega-City One
Post by: Fragminion on 03 March, 2017, 08:14:09 AM
I liked both to be honest.
Title: Re: The depictions of Mega-City One
Post by: JayzusB.Christ on 03 March, 2017, 08:39:39 AM
I loved the second one. Not plastic and shiny like the comic version (incredible as the comic version is) but bleak and grey and concrete, with the requisite amount of filthy shanty towns contrasting nicely among the oppressive tower blocks.
I had just come back from six months in Asia when Dredd came out, and I could see the worst parts of both Bangkok and Beijing in MC1. (Hong Kong was more the comic version, while Kuala Lumpur reminded me of DKR Gotham.)
Title: Re: The depictions of Mega-City One
Post by: Michael Knight on 07 March, 2017, 06:30:56 PM
I feel both movie depictions have their respective merits. Do feel with todays special effects the 95 movie would appear even better. Wasn't too gone on Mega City One as depicted in 'Dredd' on first viewing but its definitely grown on me with repeat viewings.
Title: Re: The depictions of Mega-City One
Post by: Jim_Campbell on 07 March, 2017, 06:48:33 PM
Quote from: Sandman1 on 11 January, 2017, 03:00:20 PM
Do you have any favourite depiction of the city?

Cam Kennedy. By a mile.
Title: Re: The depictions of Mega-City One
Post by: Richard on 07 March, 2017, 06:58:51 PM
In the comic, I loved Ron Smith's version. He made the city look massive, with streets half a mile above the ground; he made the interiors of the blocks look massive too. He made the city look bigger and more advanced than any real place that now exists.

Both films have different virtues on this score. I was blown away by the city the first time I saw the 1995 film. But I also like the decaying nightmare of despair depicted in the 2012 one.
Title: Re: The depictions of Mega-City One
Post by: Sandman1 on 08 March, 2017, 10:59:11 PM
Quote from: Jim_Campbell on 07 March, 2017, 06:48:33 PMCam Kennedy. By a mile.

Why is it so great?
Title: Re: The depictions of Mega-City One
Post by: Jim_Campbell on 09 March, 2017, 07:19:19 AM
Quote from: Sandman1 on 08 March, 2017, 10:59:11 PM
Why is it so great?

Because it lives and breathes in a way few artists can capture. It's full of incidental detail and crammed with... stuff that looks strange and mysterious but somehow also looks worn, lived in, but functional. You have no idea what half these things are supposed to do, but you have no doubt that they all do something.

(Thinking about it, I get a similar vibe from D'israeli's MC-1.)
Title: Re: The depictions of Mega-City One
Post by: Sandman1 on 09 March, 2017, 04:24:40 PM
Quote from: Jim_Campbell on 09 March, 2017, 07:19:19 AMBecause it lives and breathes in a way few artists can capture. It's full of incidental detail and crammed with... stuff that looks strange and mysterious but somehow also looks worn, lived in, but functional. You have no idea what half these things are supposed to do, but you have no doubt that they all do something.

Can you recommend comics with his illustrations?
Title: Re: The depictions of Mega-City One
Post by: sheridan on 09 March, 2017, 06:36:36 PM
Quote from: Sandman1 on 09 March, 2017, 04:24:40 PM
Quote from: Jim_Campbell on 09 March, 2017, 07:19:19 AMBecause it lives and breathes in a way few artists can capture. It's full of incidental detail and crammed with... stuff that looks strange and mysterious but somehow also looks worn, lived in, but functional. You have no idea what half these things are supposed to do, but you have no doubt that they all do something.

Can you recommend comics with his illustrations?

Midnight Surfer and a bunch of one-offs he did throughout the eighties.
Title: Re: The depictions of Mega-City One
Post by: Jim_Campbell on 10 March, 2017, 07:26:42 AM
Quote from: sheridan on 09 March, 2017, 06:36:36 PM
Midnight Surfer and a bunch of one-offs he did throughout the eighties.

Yup. Midnight Surfer is probably the standard against which all other depictions of MC-1 are judged, in my book.
Title: Re: The depictions of Mega-City One
Post by: JayzusB.Christ on 10 March, 2017, 09:07:12 AM
Quote from: Jim_Campbell on 10 March, 2017, 07:26:42 AM
Quote from: sheridan on 09 March, 2017, 06:36:36 PM
Midnight Surfer and a bunch of one-offs he did throughout the eighties.

Yup. Midnight Surfer is probably the standard against which all other depictions of MC-1 are judged, in my book.

I'm a Kennedy MC1 man too.  I'm not quite sure about his later potato-chinned wide-groined Dredd, but his MC1 is absolutely perfect.  A shabby, lived-in, plastic-and-concrete nightmare.  For me, Sunday Night Fever is pure, 100%, stone-cold MC1.  The overwhelming scale brings home the utter inescapability of the place, and you can almost smell the piss and puke in the nooks and crannies where the homeless huddle together.  Lovely.
Title: Re: The depictions of Mega-City One
Post by: sheridan on 10 March, 2017, 09:39:58 AM
Y'know, there's so much which is simply great - in general Midnight Surfer is the magnus opus for a number of reasons, but I think my single favourite depiction by Cam of the Mega-City is from the Back on the Streets splash page.

As ever, Barney (http://www.2000ad.org/?zone=droid&page=thrills&Comic=2000AD&Field=Artist&choice=camk) is your friend - I doubt there's anything on that list that isn't great, though if I get a chance later I'll try to pick out the best of the best.
Title: Re: The depictions of Mega-City One
Post by: Dog Deever on 10 March, 2017, 01:13:44 PM
Can't remember which prog because it's from the old Titan collection (no 15), a one part story about a stookie addict...
(http://i63.photobucket.com/albums/h134/Dog_Deever/mc1_zpsztu5jru6.jpg)

There's also some nice street-level backgrounds in The Taxidermist where everything is believable and grotty. I prefer the more curvy Mega City stuff like Cam and Carlos (who is also one of my 'definitive' MC-1 artists). Gibson also did some really great depictions in his earlier stuff (Rumble in the Jungle, IIRC, has some mad-busy stuff) though his later MC-1's tend to be less crowded.
Title: Re: The depictions of Mega-City One
Post by: Woolly on 10 March, 2017, 05:37:32 PM
Quote from: Sandman1 on 09 March, 2017, 04:24:40 PM
Quote from: Jim_Campbell on 09 March, 2017, 07:19:19 AMBecause it lives and breathes in a way few artists can capture. It's full of incidental detail and crammed with... stuff that looks strange and mysterious but somehow also looks worn, lived in, but functional. You have no idea what half these things are supposed to do, but you have no doubt that they all do something.

Can you recommend comics with his illustrations?

Someone will be along with the Dredd case file volumes that you need, but in the meantime..

Batman/Dredd - Vendetta in Gotham.
Star Wars - Dark Empire (and Dark Empire II, if you're a masochist.)
The V.C's - one of 2000ad's greatest
Rogue Trooper - see above

Admittedly, none of these will show you his Mega-City One, but you do need to see them!
Title: Re: The depictions of Mega-City One
Post by: Richard on 10 March, 2017, 06:08:50 PM
Case Files 30 will have Return of the Assassin in it, which is his best work on Dredd. But that'll probably be in December. In the meantime, there is The Cam Kennedy Collection (which happens to contain a Dredd story which isn't in either the Case Files or the Restricted Files, for some reason).
Title: Re: The depictions of Mega-City One
Post by: sheridan on 11 March, 2017, 12:10:25 PM
Quote from: Woolly on 10 March, 2017, 05:37:32 PM
Someone will be along with the Dredd case file volumes that you need, but in the meantime..

Batman/Dredd - Vendetta in Gotham.

Admittedly, none of these will show you his Mega-City One, but you do need to see them!

True - though Vendetta had a pretty good depiction of Gotham City (though I'm not particularly a Batfan, so can't compare to other depictions).
Title: Re: The depictions of Mega-City One
Post by: sheridan on 11 March, 2017, 12:11:06 PM
Quote from: Dog Deever on 10 March, 2017, 01:13:44 PM
Can't remember which prog because it's from the old Titan collection (no 15), a one part story about a stookie addict...
(http://i63.photobucket.com/albums/h134/Dog_Deever/mc1_zpsztu5jru6.jpg)

There's also some nice street-level backgrounds in The Taxidermist where everything is believable and grotty. I prefer the more curvy Mega City stuff like Cam and Carlos (who is also one of my 'definitive' MC-1 artists). Gibson also did some really great depictions in his earlier stuff (Rumble in the Jungle, IIRC, has some mad-busy stuff) though his later MC-1's tend to be less crowded.

Thanks Dog - that's precisely the picture I was thinking of (also appeared in the Judge Dredd Calendar last year, but in a really tiny thumbnail).
Title: Re: The depictions of Mega-City One
Post by: Richard on 11 March, 2017, 02:16:02 PM
Just realised the book I thought was called The Can Kennedy Collection is actually The Art of Kenny Who?
Title: Re: The depictions of Mega-City One
Post by: Sandman1 on 11 March, 2017, 04:02:38 PM
Quote from: Woolly on 10 March, 2017, 05:37:32 PMSomeone will be along with the Dredd case file volumes that you need, but in the meantime..

Batman/Dredd - Vendetta in Gotham.
Star Wars - Dark Empire (and Dark Empire II, if you're a masochist.)
The V.C's - one of 2000ad's greatest
Rogue Trooper - see above

Admittedly, none of these will show you his Mega-City One, but you do need to see them!

I'm not so interested in his art style per se, just the depictions of MC-1. The architecture of the buildings, how the city looks from street level and from long distances, and the discordance between the filth and the lustrous part.   
Title: Re: The depictions of Mega-City One
Post by: Dog Deever on 13 March, 2017, 12:01:23 AM
Quote from: sheridan on 11 March, 2017, 12:11:06 PM
Thanks Dog - that's precisely the picture I was thinking of (also appeared in the Judge Dredd Calendar last year, but in a really tiny thumbnail).
glad to be of assistance  :).

Quote from: Sandman1 on 11 March, 2017, 04:02:38 PM
I'm not so interested in his art style per se, just the depictions of MC-1. The architecture of the buildings, how the city looks from street level and from long distances, and the discordance between the filth and the lustrous part.

Take a look at the pic I posted above, it's a longshot of the city and, as I mentioned, there are some nice, grimy, street-level panels in The Taxidermist (also by Cam) as well as 'The Falucci Tape' from around the same era. As others have said, Midnight Surfer is like a whistle-stop tour of Cam Kennedy city scenes which, if you're able to get a look at, you'll see for yourself what we're on about.

I'd also throw Carlos Ezquerra's cityscapes into the mix too- from distant, scratchy background stuff to full blown views of a weird and fantastical vision of the future, though I pretty much love anything drawn by Carlos. I also bought a Colin MacNeil page pretty much because of the cityscape and panel layout. Like all artwork- you pays your money, you takes your choice and one opinion is as valid as another.
Title: Re: The depictions of Mega-City One
Post by: TordelBack on 13 March, 2017, 09:41:10 AM
I'm a Cam Kennedy man too - no-one marries everyday squalor and hi-tech futurism to create spaces his people actually live in quite like he does - but from the modern era I'd suggest looking at Henry Flint's splash pages in Total War, and at his and and Colin MacNeill's big splash pages in Day of Chaos (if you can look past the carnage and smoke): they do a good job of showing individual spaces between and around blocks (under the corpses and fall-out clouds).  Obligatory shout-out for Kim Raymond's insane swooping megways and skeds.   
Title: Re: The depictions of Mega-City One
Post by: TordelBack on 13 March, 2017, 09:43:28 AM
Accidental extra "l" in MacNeil, my apologies.  Is there actually a reason we don't have an edit window on certain sub-forums?
Title: Re: The depictions of Mega-City One
Post by: sheridan on 13 March, 2017, 12:43:41 PM
Quote from: TordelBack on 13 March, 2017, 09:41:10 AM
I'm a Cam Kennedy man too - no-one marries everyday squalor and hi-tech futurism to create spaces his people actually live in quite like he does - but from the modern era I'd suggest looking at Henry Flint's splash pages in Total War, and at his and and Colin MacNeill's big splash pages in Day of Chaos (if you can look past the carnage and smoke): they do a good job of showing individual spaces between and around blocks (under the corpses and fall-out clouds).  Obligatory shout-out for Kim Raymond's insane swooping megways and skeds.   
Great picture:
(http://i1050.photobucket.com/albums/s410/sauchieboy/2000AD373-Page16KimRaymondDekkermakingofajudge.jpg) (http://s1050.photobucket.com/user/sauchieboy/media/2000AD373-Page16KimRaymondDekkermakingofajudge.jpg.html)
Looking forward to reading the interview in this month's Megazine!
Title: Re: The depictions of Mega-City One
Post by: sheridan on 13 March, 2017, 12:44:58 PM
Quote from: TordelBack on 13 March, 2017, 09:43:28 AM
Accidental extra "l" in MacNeil, my apologies.  Is there actually a reason we don't have an edit window on certain sub-forums?
Wish I knew - that picture I just posted was a reference to the last sentence of the paragraph I quoted - but immediately after having posting it I don't have the option to edit out everything but those eleven words :(
Title: Re: The depictions of Mega-City One
Post by: Sandman1 on 13 March, 2017, 02:10:39 PM
Quote from: Dog Deever on 13 March, 2017, 12:01:23 AMTake a look at the pic I posted above, it's a longshot of the city and, as I mentioned, there are some nice, grimy, street-level panels in The Taxidermist (also by Cam) as well as 'The Falucci Tape' from around the same era. As others have said, Midnight Surfer is like a whistle-stop tour of Cam Kennedy city scenes which, if you're able to get a look at, you'll see for yourself what we're on about.

Quote from: TordelBack on 13 March, 2017, 09:41:10 AM
I'm a Cam Kennedy man too - no-one marries everyday squalor and hi-tech futurism to create spaces his people actually live in quite like he does - but from the modern era I'd suggest looking at Henry Flint's splash pages in Total War, and at his and and Colin MacNeil's big splash pages in Day of Chaos (if you can look past the carnage and smoke): they do a good job of showing individual spaces between and around blocks (under the corpses and fall-out clouds).  Obligatory shout-out for Kim Raymond's insane swooping megways and skeds.   

Will definitely look them up in the near future.