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Things that went over your head...

Started by ming, 09 January, 2012, 11:00:01 AM

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norton canes

Quote from: positronic on 24 April, 2017, 08:24:59 AM
I just read a story in the 2000 AD's Greatest: Celebrating 40 Years collection where Kevin O'Neill appears as a character (who turns out to be the perp in this Dredd story). Can't remember the title or the Prog, but in the story O'Neill tries to sell Dredd a Dream Machine (which is like some kind of holographic TV that projects virtual fantasies). His name is mentioned several times in the story, so it isn't like one of those cameo background characters named after one of the 2000 AD staff or creator-droids.

In the plot of the story O'Neill is a really a disgruntled ex-employee of the company selling the dream machines, and O'Neill is going around as a (unauthorized) door-to-door salesman so that he can sneak into the conapts of the company's higher-ups and off them. It's one of the early Progs, because Dredd's in his apartment, and his housekeeper Maria and Walter the Wobot are there. The art wasn't by O'Neill but drawn by Carlos Ezquerra. I don't know if Ezquerra drew O'Neill as an actual caricature of his likeness.

It's 'Krong' from prog 5, isn't it?


positronic

Quote from: norton canes on 24 April, 2017, 09:32:07 AM
Quote from: positronic on 24 April, 2017, 08:24:59 AM
I just read a story in the 2000 AD's Greatest: Celebrating 40 Years collection where Kevin O'Neill appears as a character (who turns out to be the perp in this Dredd story). Can't remember the title or the Prog, but in the story O'Neill tries to sell Dredd a Dream Machine (which is like some kind of holographic TV that projects virtual fantasies). His name is mentioned several times in the story, so it isn't like one of those cameo background characters named after one of the 2000 AD staff or creator-droids.

In the plot of the story O'Neill is a really a disgruntled ex-employee of the company selling the dream machines, and O'Neill is going around as a (unauthorized) door-to-door salesman so that he can sneak into the conapts of the company's higher-ups and off them. It's one of the early Progs, because Dredd's in his apartment, and his housekeeper Maria and Walter the Wobot are there. The art wasn't by O'Neill but drawn by Carlos Ezquerra. I don't know if Ezquerra drew O'Neill as an actual caricature of his likeness.

It's 'Krong' from prog 5, isn't it?



Yes, that's the one. Funny that I forgot the reveal at the end about citizen O'Neill originally being the creator of SFX robot monsters (Dino DeLaurentis' KING KONG remake was in theaters at about the time that prog was published), and the reason he wanted revenge on the dream machine company execs was that feelgood holotech fantasies ruined the market for monster movies!

I don't know if anyone can say whether or not Ezquerra actually caricatured the 2000 AD artist's likeness there. I've never seen any pictures of Kevin O'Neill from the late 1970s, so I don't know what he looked like then.

positronic

Oh, and I think prog 5 is Carlos' actual first published Dredd too, isn't it? The very first Dredd story he drew wasn't published until later, right?

Lobo Baggins

Quote from: positronic on 24 April, 2017, 10:02:59 AM
I don't know if anyone can say whether or not Ezquerra actually caricatured the 2000 AD artist's likeness there. I've never seen any pictures of Kevin O'Neill from the late 1970s, so I don't know what he looked like then.

According to Dave Gibbons on the Face Book recently, Kevin O'Neill played the part of 'the Office Junior' (presumably, Billy Preston) in the Big E photostories in Tornado, but I seem to recall either O'Neill or Ezquerra saying that they'd never actually met at the time Krong was being drawn so the O'Neill character looked nothing like O'Neill the Art Bodger.
The wages of sin are death, but the hours are good and the perks are fantastic.

Dash Decent

Quote from: Lobo Baggins on 23 April, 2017, 03:09:17 PM
Looks a bit like John Wagner...

That was my first thought too.

There seems to be someone behind the Spirit's lady friend (you can see something between her and Dredd), so perhaps that person is the spear-bearer?

- By Appointment -
Hero to Michael Carroll

"... rank amateurism and bad jokes." - JohnW.

Lobo Baggins

Other characters at the party include -



Biffo the Bear from the Beano, possible Peter Pan with vuvuzela, Howard the Duck, Starzan from Wally Wood's Sally Forth and Popeye.



Stan Laurel



Little Bo Peep (plus sheep).
The wages of sin are death, but the hours are good and the perks are fantastic.

Lobo Baggins

And a better scan of the final scene (although it still doesn't help)...

The wages of sin are death, but the hours are good and the perks are fantastic.

positronic

Quote from: Lobo Baggins on 24 April, 2017, 02:06:26 PM
Biffo the Bear from the Beano, possible Peter Pan with vuvuzela, Howard the Duck, Starzan from Wally Wood's Sally Forth and Popeye.

Wow, that's awfully specific. I would just have guessed Tarzan. Was that quoted from somewhere?

JudgeJudi

Prog. 437's "something abnormal about norman" features Judges Amos and Andy (who seem to either be twins or clones).

JudgeJudi

How did I miss first time around reading Judgement Day:

Judge Bruce is Lenny Bruce...

That Sabbat is a parody of the Dennis the Menace character Soppy Walter and even worse I missed that Dennis turns up himself!

Jim_Campbell

Quote from: JudgeJudi on 30 April, 2017, 08:59:51 PM
That Sabbat is a parody of the Dennis the Menace character Soppy Walter and even worse I missed that Dennis turns up himself!

Sabbath is the most piss-poor excuse for a major Dredd villain ever conceived, and Judgement Day was the worst 'epic' until Helter Skelter... and I include Inferno in that assessment.* I quite liked some of Ennis' shorter Dredds, but his extended storylines bear no kind of scrutiny at all.

*All right, maybe the Egyptian thing deserves the real turkey award, but still...!
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Less-Awesome-Artist: Scribbles.

positronic

Quote from: JudgeJudi on 30 April, 2017, 08:59:51 PM
How did I miss first time around reading Judgement Day:

Judge Bruce is Lenny Bruce...

That Sabbat is a parody of the Dennis the Menace character Soppy Walter and even worse I missed that Dennis turns up himself!

But an Aussie version of Lenny Bruce? I can see where I'd miss that; I'd just assumed it was perhaps a common surname in Australia. At any rate, he doesn't get much on-panel time in Judgment Day, but perhaps you're thinking of OZ.

It's easy to see where I'd not recognize the Sabbat thing, since the only Dennis the Menace I'm familiar with is the American comic panel (later a long-running comic book) created by Hank Ketcham, and the other Dennis appeared in The Beano, which I've never read.

positronic

Quote from: Jim_Campbell on 01 May, 2017, 12:06:39 AM
Judgement Day was the worst 'epic' until Helter Skelter... and I include Inferno in that assessment.* I quite liked some of Ennis' shorter Dredds, but his extended storylines bear no kind of scrutiny at all.

Would the shorter ones you're referring to be included in the Dredd Garth Ennis Collection TP? I have that, but was putting off reading it after reading Judgment Day, which seemed more of a by-the-numbers sort of account of epic-scale mass destruction like you'd find in a typical Marvel crossover story -- but it definitely doesn't help that the villain can't really be taken seriously. Dredd's character is more or less reduced to assuming command of the crisis and barking orders like a drill sergeant.

sheridan

Quote from: positronic on 01 May, 2017, 06:53:36 AM
Quote from: JudgeJudi on 30 April, 2017, 08:59:51 PM
How did I miss first time around reading Judgement Day:

Judge Bruce is Lenny Bruce...

That Sabbat is a parody of the Dennis the Menace character Soppy Walter and even worse I missed that Dennis turns up himself!

But an Aussie version of Lenny Bruce? I can see where I'd miss that; I'd just assumed it was perhaps a common surname in Australia. At any rate, he doesn't get much on-panel time in Judgment Day, but perhaps you're thinking of OZ.

It's easy to see where I'd not recognize the Sabbat thing, since the only Dennis the Menace I'm familiar with is the American comic panel (later a long-running comic book) created by Hank Ketcham, and the other Dennis appeared in The Beano, which I've never read.

Interesting fact about the two Dennises - they were both published for the first time, completely independently, on the exact same day: 12 March 1951.

JudgeJudi

Quote from: positronic on 01 May, 2017, 06:53:36 AM

At any rate, he doesn't get much on-panel time in Judgment Day, but perhaps you're thinking of OZ.


If I was thinking of OZ, I'd mention OZ.