Bisley does Zenith - all very odd

[Colin YNWA]

and the Phase 2

https://www.comics.org/series/24982/covers/ - with one credited to Bisley (issue 2) but with a ? against it.

Doesn't look like they made it to Phase 3 - not listed on Grand Comic Database at least.

[I, Cosh]

For what it's worth, Demon Dave is claiming at least three four of those (including the one credited to Bisley) on his own site and the signature looks the same on the others. Dave DeVries Comics Gallery.

And the originals seem to be more Mckean/Sandman influenced (at least in terms of layout) but that's all been chopped off for the final product.

[IndigoPrime]

I get what he was going for, but it's like he's doing covers for an entirely different story that's in his head rather than the one that's in the actual comic.

[The Corinthian]

While I do like the style of cover art - which presumably led to Bisley's cover run on Doom Patrol - I'm also moved to wonder what the actual feck.  Zenith smoking a fag?  The utterly unrecognisable lumpy face on the second issue?  And, weirdest of all, Zenith's dad is Donald Trump?

Bisley's first Doom Patrol covers were in 1989, presumably before this.

[ming]

I mean, it's better than the shockingly bad covers on the Quality Nemesis run I once had, but...

For honesty's sake they should have gone with Quantity instead of Quality.

[JayzusB.Christ]

Bejaypers. So none of them are Bisley at all?

That Masterman cover is just very wrong too. Vampire possessed by a dark god he may be, but he's supposed to look like a white supremacist's wet dream, not a superzombie from a metal album sleeve.

[ming]

Bejaypers. So none of them are Bisley at all?

That Masterman cover is just very wrong too. Vampire possessed by a dark god he may be, but he's supposed to look like a white supremacist's wet dream, not a superzombie from a metal album sleeve.

No, not Bisley - and now I'm really wanting to see how he might have approached Zenith back in the day... 

[The Corinthian]

There's a pretty good feature on the US reprints in Comic Archive's 'Beyond 2000AD', which goes into some detail about how they went from featuring lush new Brian Bolland covers to... this.

[Link Prime]

I mean, it's better than the shockingly bad covers on the Quality Nemesis run I once had, but...

For honesty's sake they should have gone with Quantity instead of Quality.

Latter ones weren't great, but I loved the few that Sam Keith drew.
I know he's an acquired taste, but I've been a fan for as long as I've been reading comics.

[IndigoPrime]

I had a slightly different view. The first cover looked really moody and cool. I was: OOH. Issue 2's throne was fine and 3's Nemesis vs the giant was funny. And then I'm not sure what happened. The quality of the imagery nose-dived, took a brief turn towards sexism (I mean, WTF, issue 10—although #18 is arguably even worse?) and then went to shit towards the conclusion, where the covers didn't even attempt to align with the stories inside. Mind you, at some point, the signature switches to Flint rather than Keith, and so I assume he didn't do the entire run.

[pauljholden]

From the era where Quality Comics entirely dispensed with quality as far as its covers went.

I don't know for sure, but one of "qualities" other habits was to weirdly uncomfortably the interior art to fit the dimensions of a US comic page, so it's likely the interior had also dispensed with any quality too.

[IndigoPrime]

I do recall a lot of stretched/cropped/hacked art when I later saw the originals.

I liked Quality a lot in terms of getting me access to a lot more 2000 AD than I otherwise would have been able to read as a kid. But in hindsight, it was total shit compared to Best of 2000 AD Monthly, and I'd have been better off trying to fill the gaps with back issues—even though they were MUCH harder to find in those days.

I also recall feeling ripped off by Quality's tendency to pitch a series as a 'complete' thing, but inexplicably miss out chunks of it. (I vaguely recall ABC Warriors #1 starting part-way though the run, for no good reason.)

[Link Prime]

Had a look at that on Barney out of curiosity - Keith did the first 12 covers, have to say I like them all!
http://www.2000ad.org/?zone=covers&page=artist&choice=samk&Comic=usreprints

Crazy that his style is still so instantly recognizable after all these years.

a brief turn towards sexism (I mean, WTF, issue 10)

Never for fun! 

The real truffles from this Barney rummage were the Tom Grindberg Nemesis covers for 'Spellbinders'.
Sweet effin jeebus;
http://www.2000ad.org/?zone=reprint&page=usprofiles&choice=spell08

[SmallBlueThing(Reborn)]

I'm sure this is well-known and I've just missed it, but why was Cursitor Doom renamed "Amadeus Wolf" for the Quality reprints..?

SBT

[IndigoPrime]

What's going on with the cover of issue 11 of Spellbinders, which features inside Nemesis book 6 and Fiends of the Eastern Front?