Rogue Trooper: Origins

[ming]

Hey Ming, Which are did you win as i see this is up on Ebay now:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/ROGUE-TROOPER-DREDD-2000AD-Original-Concept-Development-Art-by-DAVE-GIBBONS-/200783942484?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item2ebfa7d354

Yeah, someone pointed that out to me earlier today.  Looks like an earlier, rougher pencil version of the one I picked up.  Different seller, and clearly overpriced (my (nicer) pencils plus the inked version cost considerably less than that).

Good job Gibbons didn't say they are mine I want them back!

And yeah, nice that Dave was okay that these got out in the wild one way or another (the seller confirmed that he picked up the concept art, plus the text, at Forbidden Planet in the early- to mid-90s.

[O Lucky Stevie!]

This the reason that Stevie rips the plastic off the Meg first & heads straight to the creator interviews.

If you don't receive a KTO for your efforts Ming then the world is in a far, far sorrier state than Stevie had previoulsy imagined.

Daresay that Rogue's thundering rages were quietly dropped as Slaine was in develpoment around the same time.

[ming]

A couple of days back I got a really nice email from Colin Wilson containing some great details about his time on Rogue and at 2000AD in general and I'm happy to be able to share some of what he wrote here.  Although it's hard to give Dave Gibbons enough credit for his efforts in creating the look of Rogue and the initial feel of the strip, Colin and Cam Kennedy both hit the ground running and quickly made the strip their own (Ewins too, but, for me, he never quite matched the gritty realism exhibited by Colin and Cam); it's an oft-repeated line, but no-one has ever provided such amazing, precise tech- and vehicle designs as Colin Wilson.  Combined with his natural fluid style, this made for some incredible reading and helped elevate Rogue to the fan-favourite position the strip rightly enjoyed.

From Colin:

"I've never seen any of Dave's prelim sketches for Rogue Trooper - at least I don't think so - as I was not involved with any of the pre-planning for the series. So it is fascinating to read those prelim notes (probably by G. F-D?)..... I know that Dave worked closely with Gerry Findley-Day and Editor Steve McManus for quite some time getting all of the RT elements in place before the character ever appeared in the weekly. 

I can remember when I was brought in the series.... Dave was never going to be able to produce enough pages to keep the story running every week in 2000AD, and Steve McManus asked me if I'd be interested in alternating RT stories with Dave. I was living in a squat in central London at the time, and already pretty pleased with myself doing semi-regular (and completely illegal!) Dredd and Future Shock stories for the weekly. (I think the only time I've talked about this stuff was in an interview I did for the Megazine a couple of years ago). And of course I jumped at the chance of having a regular gig on a series alongside a name like Dave Gibbons, especially after I saw the work Dave had done on those first few episodes.. Dave had already pointed me towards a wonderful Military Bookshop in Soho, I got the chance to visit Dave at the studio North of London he had at the time with Mike McMahon where I saw the first couple of episodes of the series, and I knew it was something that I could at least deliver a decent job on. It was all there, I simply followed Dave's lead.

One of the goals was that 2000AD needed another regular series to knock Dredd off the top of the weekly popularity polls the editorial office ran at the time. No pressure! But in those first 6 months that both Dave and I worked on Rogue together, we did it with Rogue.

It was a sensational period to be part of 2000AD..... Mike McMahon was doing his best work in the weekly, Brian Bolland was delivering those amazing Judge Death pages, and Dave and I were alternating stories on that first year of Rogue Trooper.

Six months later Dave was probably working on Watchmen with Alan Moore, and I was living in Paris and finishing RT pages on the kitchen table before mailing them over to the 2000AD office on the South Bank. The French editors that I showed some of those Trooper pages to weren't all that impressed, but I did get my first Euro gig, and never got the chance to do any further work for 2000AD again for about 15 years....."



I'll see if I can get a few comments from Cam this week...

[Pete Wells]

BRILLIANT stuff Ming! Thanks a million!

[SmallBlueThing]

Year Ming, this is so far beyond 'above and beyond the call of duty' that im at a loss for words. Seriously, very much appreciated! Unbelievably so.

SBT

[Proudhuff]

Aye well done Ming!

The Wilson Droid is one of my all time Favourites: the hardware, the tech, even the random rubble, along with the panel composition, fluidity of his line work and anatomy are IMHO some of the best work to grace the Prog and again IMHO he knocks the spots of Bolland's static work.

The recent 'What If' with Gunnar surviving the Quartz Zone was a highlight of recent progs too.

Wilson, Diggle and Betty Gibson also done this: http://www.andydiggle.com/assets/bioniccommando.pdf

[Colin YNWA]

Yeah Colin Wilson is amongst my all time greats (I bloody wish there were translations of his Blueberry stuff available... well yes I could learn French but I'd much rather feel indignant rage that the worlds not made to suit me!). The interview he gave in the Meg was fantastic (which I was kindly sent a copy of) and that adds some lovely favour to the info there.

As ever Ming, tyrant you may be, but surely the most benevolent there's ever been!