The Dave Gibbons Rogue Trooper concept art arrived yesterday, along with the early text pitch outlining possible directions for character development.
I'll post the text up soon, but before I do I'm running it past Gerry Finley-Day (via the ever-helpful Pat Mills) to see if it's something he put together or if it has some other origin. It would be nice to know who to credit for this - if not GFD, then who? Steve McManus? I guess it really doesn't matter in the long run; the text is a nice snapshot of the development of a classic 2000AD character - still some way off from Rogue as we know him, but a number of important elements are already in place.
Anyway, here's some art for now, and I'll post up the text later - with or without input from GFD (I'll pass along any comment I get from him, though).
I'd also like to add a few words from Staz Johnson, partly as he gave us such a great GFD Rogue strip in Prog 2011, but mainly because I love the level of enthusiasm:
Rogue Trooper became my favorite 2000AD character almost from the moment the strip first appeared, in fact, my fascination with him dates from before the strip actually started. When I saw the pin-up that Gibbons drew just prior to the launch of the story, I thought that was the coolest thing I'd ever seen. I was in hospital, recovering from a rather nasty motorcycle accident when the Rogue strip first appeared, & for a week or more I had nothing to read but that one issue of the prog. Unsurprising then, that the sketchbook I had by my hospital bed filled up with sketches of Rogue, & various other 'future war' characters of my own invention, totally inspired by (read as 'ripped off from') Rogue. Perhaps that is part of the reason I feel such a connection to the character. Another reason being that I simply loved all of Dave Gibbons designs for the strip, from Rogue himself, the Norts, & those super cool gigantic tanks.
Working on the character was something of a dream come true, & even though I did 'drop the ball' to some extent in my first attempt, I was happy with the work I did on the GFD story.
Anyway, I could go one & on, but suffice it to say, that for me, it was a huge honour after spending years drawing Rogue for fun to finally get an opportunity to work on him for real.
I'll post the text up soon, but before I do I'm running it past Gerry Finley-Day (via the ever-helpful Pat Mills) to see if it's something he put together or if it has some other origin. It would be nice to know who to credit for this - if not GFD, then who? Steve McManus? I guess it really doesn't matter in the long run; the text is a nice snapshot of the development of a classic 2000AD character - still some way off from Rogue as we know him, but a number of important elements are already in place.
Anyway, here's some art for now, and I'll post up the text later - with or without input from GFD (I'll pass along any comment I get from him, though).
I'd also like to add a few words from Staz Johnson, partly as he gave us such a great GFD Rogue strip in Prog 2011, but mainly because I love the level of enthusiasm:
Rogue Trooper became my favorite 2000AD character almost from the moment the strip first appeared, in fact, my fascination with him dates from before the strip actually started. When I saw the pin-up that Gibbons drew just prior to the launch of the story, I thought that was the coolest thing I'd ever seen. I was in hospital, recovering from a rather nasty motorcycle accident when the Rogue strip first appeared, & for a week or more I had nothing to read but that one issue of the prog. Unsurprising then, that the sketchbook I had by my hospital bed filled up with sketches of Rogue, & various other 'future war' characters of my own invention, totally inspired by (read as 'ripped off from') Rogue. Perhaps that is part of the reason I feel such a connection to the character. Another reason being that I simply loved all of Dave Gibbons designs for the strip, from Rogue himself, the Norts, & those super cool gigantic tanks.
Working on the character was something of a dream come true, & even though I did 'drop the ball' to some extent in my first attempt, I was happy with the work I did on the GFD story.
Anyway, I could go one & on, but suffice it to say, that for me, it was a huge honour after spending years drawing Rogue for fun to finally get an opportunity to work on him for real.
