RIPs

[Grugz]

actor David Legeno from the harry potters died whilst hiking

[ZenArcade]

Indeed they should Spikes, and I'm the sour boy today with this news. Z

[JayzusB.Christ]

The last original Ramone, Tommy, has died. 

Ah, crap. 

[Spikes]

Jan Shepheard. Influential Art editor/artist, who's career in British comics, spanned from the early 60's to the 90's. And whilst at 2000ad, Jan was responsible for designing the original Judge Dredd logo, amongst many others.


Very sad news. RIP Jan Shepheard.

[Trout]

Jan Shepheard. Influential Art editor/artist, who's career in British comics, spanned from the early 60's to the 90's. And whilst at 2000ad, Jan was responsible for designing the original Judge Dredd logo, amongst many others.


Very sad news. RIP Jan Shepheard.

By all accounts a great lady. All respect to her.

[TordelBack]

Sad news indeed, a person to whom all here owe a great deal.

[Steve Green]

RIP Jan

[Frank]

Really sad news. I'm at least as interested in the visual design side of 2000ad as I am in the stories, and I'd hoped Jan's enormous wealth of experience creating the comics that we love might have made her a candidate for a feature in the Megazine one day.  Her matter of fact and self deprecating summary of her contribution to the history of the comic in David MacDonald's excellent and informative One Eyed Jack and the Death of Valiant, detailing her long association with Anglo-era Marvelman, Buster, Valiant, 2000ad, Starlord, Tornado, Eagle, Scream, and Roy of the Rovers will have to serve as her monument here.

The feature contained in OEJATDOV detailing the vital and extensive part(s) played by the art editor in creating the comic that came into your hands each Wednesday is an eye opener - not just preparing the art for print, but extending artwork, creating logos, character design, and even consulting with the creators and editors on what kind of stories and characters should feature in the comic. Kev O'Neill credits Jan Shepheard as one of the formative influences on his work, informing the hand crafted ethic he employs on TLOEG to this day, and - of course - if she hadn't taken the move to Starlord as art editor instead of O'Neill, 2000ad would have lost a genius who created some of its most memorable art and characters.

That wee Dredd face on the J of the logo was one of the first things that drew my attention to the fact that 2000ad was the kind of comic that rewarded paying close attention, and that the people responsible weren't just hacking them out. That fantastic jagged and indented logo suggested to me the rubble and the dereliction of the post-Apocalypse War stories which were my introduction to the strip, and her scratchy, wind blown Strontium Dog ident conjoured the countless blasted John Ford desert landscapes in which the stories took place. Jan said she put the wee Dredd face there because she realised the strip needed and warranted something extra to draw attention to its worth, and she deserves no less herself. RIP.

[Frank]

[Steve Green]

Yeah, it would be great to have a feature on her contributions to the prog.

[JamesC]

I don't think they should ever have stopped using that Dredd logo.

[Ghost MacRoth]

^ Like button.

[Steve Green]

Yeah, I've always wanted them to keep the original logo.

[JOE SOAP]

I don't think they should ever have stopped using that Dredd logo.

So good they had to use it in 2 films.

[Frank]

Neil Craig, owner of the Future Shock comic shop in Glasgow's Byre's Road. He reminded me of Lucien the book keeper from The Sandman, and was responsible for one of the freakiest experiences of my life. I was about 14 or 15, and fantastically uncommunicative. You know how lots of folk describe comic shops as these great social hubs where they discovered a world of people with a shared interest - that wasn't me. I'd nod as I entered the shop, browse in silence, and endure as much small talk as it took to get my purchases through the till so I could leave with my haul.

I was the only person in the shop apart from him, and I'd been raking through the long boxes for about fifteen minutes, when suddenly he just started singing John Lennon's Imagine. Not TO me, not along with the radio, he just started singing - quite loudly. Nothing I'd experienced in life up until that point (or since) gave me any idea how to respond to such a social situation, but the tension it created in that small space was palpable. I grabbed my comics, did my best to act as if nothing unbelievably odd had just happened, and made for the subway station like Tam O'Shanter's horse.

If he just wanted to get rid of me so he could shut the shop, it worked, but I think it's more likely that he was just the kind of wonderfully odd character who did that kind of thing if he felt like it. For that reason alone, plus being friendly and helpful in the face of my teenage awkwardness, he'll never be forgotten.