The Complete Zenith

[Patrick]

I lost interest somewhere during Phase Three, but I think that was mostly due to the way the story was published in what seemed like four episode chunks, several months apart, and the fact that it was obviously trading on being a burlesque of the huge superhero crossover stories I hadn't read, still haven't read, and have no interest in reading. I really enjoyed all the other phases, and Phase Three reads much better in one sitting.

Yeah, but Phase 3 did have the attraction of watching Steve Yeowell progressively dismantle not only his own drawing style, but almost the fundamentals of drawing comics. Here's a black shape, here's a white shape, forever dancing on the very edge of making sense. He hasn't done anything nearly so exciting since.

[robert_ellis]

His odd DOOM PATROL issue came close but you're right Phase III looks amazing.

[TordelBack]

i thought the hollow-earth-dinosaurs sequence of Red Seas came close to the level of Phase III - in places Yeowell conveyed vast spaces, fortifications and armies of giant beasts with a couple of lines and blocks.  It's very impressive.

[JOE SOAP]

Creators Take Sides Over Zenith

[radiator]

Hmm, BC are really trying to stir up some trouble over this, aren't they?

[JOE SOAP]

Slow news day. It's this or 'lost' Dr. Who episodes.

[radiator]

Just realised that I'll be on holiday when this goes on sale. Reckon I'll be able to order via the internet on my phone?

(if I decide to, I'm still undecided).

[IndigoPrime]

Wow. So not content with essentially running with "as I understand it", which is astonishingly shaky from a legal standpoint (not to mention potentially misleading and inaccurate), we get:

- Bloke dumped on my 2000 AD in the past says THIS IS V BAD, OK?
- Bloke still writing loads for 2000 AD says NO, ACTUALLY, IT IS OK!

Stellar reporting.

[Recrewt]

It gets better, Ian Edginton left a comment:

"Actually Jim, Rich hasn't spoken to me or, to my knowledge Pete Hogan at all. He's just lifted a chat we were having straight off Facebook. Would've been nice if he asked first but then again, it would have meant that Pete and I weren't 'creator's taking sides' but just a couple of blokes having a chat about comics. Where's the fun in that tho' eh?"

[TordelBack]

Bleeding Cool can be a bad, bad place.

[Jimmy Baker's Assistant]

Bleeding Cool are on a bad run. First the Doctor Who hoax, and now this.

Assuming Hogan actually meant what he said, A 2000AD boycott would be weird. This isn't an ethical dispute, but an apparently inactive disagreement over missing paperwork.

[Richmond Clements]

It gets better, Ian Edginton left a comment:

"Actually Jim, Rich hasn't spoken to me or, to my knowledge Pete Hogan at all. He's just lifted a chat we were having straight off Facebook. Would've been nice if he asked first but then again, it would have meant that Pete and I weren't 'creator's taking sides' but just a couple of blokes having a chat about comics. Where's the fun in that tho' eh?"

Haha! Priceless!

[The Monarch]

Rich johnston is a scum sucking lying hypocritical piece of crap....

and in other news the sky is blue

[Patrick]

i thought the hollow-earth-dinosaurs sequence of Red Seas came close to the level of Phase III - in places Yeowell conveyed vast spaces, fortifications and armies of giant beasts with a couple of lines and blocks.  It's very impressive.

Oh yeah, no criticism of his current work intended. He's a fantastic artist who really knows how to pick his lines. But he's a mature artist now. Zenith phases 2-3 were his experimental period, his creative adolescence if you like, when he loosened up and branched out and found his own voice, and there's something particularly exciting about watching that happen.

[Frank]

Phase 3 did have the attraction of watching Steve Yeowell progressively dismantle not only his own drawing style, but almost the fundamentals of drawing comics. Here's a black shape, here's a white shape, forever dancing on the very edge of making sense. He hasn't done anything nearly so exciting since.

i thought the hollow-earth-dinosaurs sequence of Red Seas came close to the level of Phase III - in places Yeowell conveyed vast spaces, fortifications and armies of giant beasts with a couple of lines and blocks.  It's very impressive.

Oh yeah, no criticism of his current work intended. He's a fantastic artist who really knows how to pick his lines. But he's a mature artist now. Zenith phases 2-3 were his experimental period, his creative adolescence if you like, when he loosened up and branched out and found his own voice, and there's something particularly exciting about watching that happen.

I think Yeowell's one of the greatest artists 2000ad's ever produced, and I'd enthusiastically endorse Patrick's description of Phase III as the purest expression of what makes him so fantastic. The few years following that career-defining work that Yeowell spent trying to accommodate the strictures of US comics had a detrimental effect on his art; all those open lines and suggestion give way to something more quotidian, constrained and lightweight when Daniel Vozzo needs lines to be closed up so he can colour inside them.

Looking at zzzenith.com again recently, I was struck by how quickly Yeowell's art regained the impressive darkness, weight and expressiveness of his best work on the strip once he was letting rip in monochrome once more, and to this day he's your man if you're after depicting the formless, infinite horror of something that can only exist in the imagination. The book's worth reading for Yeowell's extraordinary art alone.