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2019 Sci-Fi Special: A Tribute to Carlos Ezquerra

Started by Leigh S, 15 June, 2019, 10:07:51 AM

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jabish

That was a great special! Enjoyed all of it and the centre poster was magic. Carlos smiling surrounded by his creations. Lovely tribute and Cliff Robinson's art is just gorgeous. If he was doing strip work it would be amazing if he continued Spector. Because let's just say it, it was brilliant, pure class and it hit me that that's it. That is the last Carlos Ezquerra art we will see. It hit me when I read what John said in his intro. I read the scripts that follow it with Carlos in my head but we'll never know. I'm glad John wants to continue it cos it should be. I hope it is Colin MacNeil. His style is different but his storytelling is up there with the king. I'm glad they did this special. It was a treat. Nice one.

karlos

Exactly what I was thinking, Jabish - this is the last art by Carlos we will ever see.

Too sad for words, really.

sheridan

A great special - as with many on this thread, I've read the strip pages only so far, though I think I'll probably read the script pages within the next month.  So many script pages make me think it'd be a good basis for a fan art competition, or an advent calendar style month...

abelardsnazz

A great special, and a fantastic tribute to King Carlos.

Dave Kendall's art never fails to creep me out, in the best possible way - the man is a horror master.

I think that whoever draws the continuation of Spector, it will be an ongoing recognition of the great man's legacy. Some great dialogue in there too.

JayzusB.Christ

Lovely stuff.  Colin would work better for me, but I would be more than happy with Simon too.  For me, Coleby's the Garth Ennis of comic illustrators - at first I hated his stuff but now I think he's up there with the best.

Really enjoyed the special. And the Wulf story reminded me very much of being an extra on Vikings - you're surrounded at all times by blokes with long hair, plaits and bushy beards to the point where you forget that other types of people exist.  (Also, there were one or two that could have done with a dose of der happy stick.)
"Men will never be free until the last king is strangled with the entrails of the last priest"

JOE SOAP

The 2 names John Wagner proposed are of course perfectly suitable and great, but I'd like to see Kev Walker take it on because he hasn't been seen around these parts in yonks, and he's also great.


sheridan

Quote from: JOE SOAP on 30 June, 2019, 05:05:51 PM
The 2 names John Wagner proposed are of course perfectly suitable and great, but I'd like to see Kev Walker take it on because he hasn't been seen around these parts in yonks, and he's also great.

A decade since his last work on the Meg and eleven years since his last prog work (Mutieblock) - what's he been up to all this time?

Jim_Campbell

Quote from: sheridan on 30 June, 2019, 09:38:45 PM
A decade since his last work on the Meg and eleven years since his last prog work (Mutieblock) - what's he been up to all this time?

He's been on Marvel exclusive contracts for a pretty big chunk of that. Long-ish run on Thunderbolts that was great. Doctor Aphra. Not sure what he's up to currently, but he paints a lot of stuff for Wizards of the Coast as well.
Stupidly Busy Letterer: Samples. | Blog
Less-Awesome-Artist: Scribbles.

Colin YNWA

Late to the party but this was pretty damned good.

Okay so its dominated by Spector and rightly so. I love the little insight we get into John Wagner's genius here. He took a truly wonderful Carlos design, saw a problem, he was too clean cut, too good guy and turned that into the thing. It just works a treat and while I'm very sad we will not see Carlos deliver on the brilliant promise we see here I'd be happy to see this play out. Just wonderful and if we don't get any more the great what if of the scripts has me imagining what it could ahve looked like, though no doubt failing to capture the wonderful Ezquerra would have delivered.

The rest is in this strips shadow really. A decent Dredd from Grant and Smith with a nice, if none to subtle nod to Carlos. Fiends of the Eastern Front is a great little story but maybe a little off the tone of the original for the aims of the special?

Loved the Wulf Sternhammer story, thought it was pitched perfectly. Enough of its own, on the nail for the original at the same time. Just great.

From cover to poster the rest is a class production completely in keeping with the great it pays tribute to.

TordelBack

In much the same way that I still have't read Iain Banks' The Quarry, I put it off and off, but finally got round to reading the Carlos special: I thought it was terrific.  Okay, due to the type of story it is, the value of the Dredd opener lies almost entirely in seeing Robin Smith again (any excuse is a good one, Smith was a big part of 'my' era of 2000AD, and he's lost none of his chops), but the rest was just excellent.

Robo-elephant in the room is Spector.  It's been said by others, but after just two chunky episodes (I haven't tackled the scripts yet) I feel like I've been reading this character all my life. No-one writes robots like Wagner, and no-one drew natty future threads like Ezquerra. Really fitting for the last outing of the greatest comics partnership of all time that it should be the creation of something so very, very good.  Massive kudos to Jim too for absolutely nailing the Tom Frame look. I won't speculate here on how this should be continued (and don't envy whoever gets to do it), but it has to happen.  Trying not to be mawkish here, but I stared at that last panel for a long, long time.

Fiends is a great little short, Adams and Kendall really nailing that atmosphere. Perhaps a slight change in colour or tone between the first and second pages might have helped sell the time shift. 

Carroll and Goddard deliver a genuinely worthwhile Wulf solo story, which can't have been easy. It must have been tempting - but insufferably neat - to make Wulf's airport hook-up be Slugger O'Shea, and admire Mike's restraint.

Never really known what I'm supposed to do with memorial posters like Cliff and Dylan's amazing one here, but bloody hell that's a brilliant piece of work.

Oh, and McMahon's cover is distractingly amazing.  I'll embrace a Strontium Dog continuation on the sole condition that only Mick draws it.

Good job, Tharg.

Aside: Named our new cat The Squirrel.