Another titanic battle in my eyes. I'd suggest Jesus Redondo has gone through a bit of a reevaluation in the eyes of fandom over the last few years. Always liked I think his work has been reassessed and is seen as the masterclass it is. Dark and foreboding, yet light and energetic. I've said it before and I'll say it again no one draws hairy giant spiders like him, not even Ron Smith. Greg Staples has grown as an artist in front of us. Starting as arguably one of many Bisley clones (I daren't check Barney for dates on this!) his style has tightened and tightened and grown in technic to the point where his rare appearance these days on the cover present an astonishing degree of detail and craft.
Alas we still have to pick our favourite and to do so just pop the name of the art droid you'd most like to go through to Round 2, but please add anything else you'd like to say as well.
Jesus Redondo - more info (http://www.2000ad.org/?zone=droid&page=profiles&choice=JESUS)
Or
Greg Staples - more info (http://www.2000ad.org/?zone=droid&page=profiles&choice=GREGS)
This one will close and be counted on the morning of Saturday 21st November.
What the hell is all this? Find out more about the Art Droid Tourneys (https://forums.2000ad.com/index.php?topic=47044.0)
Whose in the two different tourneys?
Entrants in the Current Art Droids Tourney (https://forums.2000ad.com/index.php?topic=47044.msg1042917#msg1042917)
Entrants in the Classic Art Droids Tourney (https://forums.2000ad.com/index.php?topic=47044.msg1042893#msg1042893)
Rules for what they are worth (https://forums.2000ad.com/index.php?topic=47044.msg1042867#msg1042867)
Anything else just ask and I'll make something up.
Staples started out as an artist whose work I didn't like, improved spectacularly to someone whose work I thought was pretty great - Mad City, Dead Reckoning - and then improved even more to someone whose art is amazing but too realistic for me to be into. I need a bit of weird. Redondo gives good weird.
Redondo
Redondo. Love him.
SBT
Staples.
For fully-painted stand-alone illustrations I'd vote Greg Staples all day long but overall it's surprisingly easy to give my vote for Jesus Redondo this round. A singular talent who we've been fortunate to have had do so much work in the Prog over the years. So many incredible designs and stand-out characters and creatures, and those Alan Moore Time Twisters are absolutely incredible - worth a vote just for those!
Jesus Redondo.
Yes well, while Staples is an unbelievably accomplished artist with a fascinating trajectory of development of his art and a spectacular portfolio, Redondo has the decisive advantage of drawing my all-time favourite comics short story The Time Machine, which has seldom been out of my thoughts for almost 4 decades, plus another which has terrified me for just as long, Ring Road. Added to that, even Nemesis Bk II and Return to Armageddon and the rest of his huge catalogue of brilliant Future Shocks/Time Twisters are just gravy.
I'll save my appreciation for the specifics of his art for the next round, which I'm confident there will be.
Jesus Redondo.
Jesus Redondo for Nemesis, Return to Armageddon and Future Shocks.
Gonna surprise myself by going for Redondo.
The Stapler.
I mean, c'mon.
The simple fact of it is, if someone wanted to write a sprawling space opera epic populated with weirdoes and featuring loads of derring-do and nasty back-stabbing in equal measure, I can't think of an artist I'd rather have draw it than Jesus Redondo.
And yeah, no slight to Staples and his extraordinary painting skills, but he kinda went from 'sloppy newcomer' to 'oooh this is really fun comics art' to 'OH wow, that's like proper amazing art but I can't really read it, ya know'.
Staples for me.
Jesus Redondo
I'm not sure I'd have predicted how spectacularly one-sided this is so far - I thought everyone loved the man with the great-and-correctly-spelled first name. (I mean, yeah, Jesus is a pretty good name too.)
Jesus Redondo.
Quote from: Greg M. on 18 November, 2020, 04:58:01 PM
I'm not sure I'd have predicted how spectacularly one-sided this is so far - I thought everyone loved the man with the great-and-correctly-spelled first name. (I mean, yeah, Jesus is a pretty good name too.)
Greg is beyond great, and by all accounts a righteous dude to boot. But he's up against my nightmares:
(http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-VYWX-6xQ_kc/Uw682WGMqOI/AAAAAAAAEEA/Wbv6t6j458M/s1600/2000ad+0320+11.png)
Jesus.
Redondo for me. Armageddon and the Nemesis hairy spiders win the day. Just. Greg is very very good though.
Redondo - he was the master of that dark, ink-heavy continental style that shaped British comics in the 70s
Staples
Jesus!
(That's my vote by the way, not just blasphemy)
Jesus Redondo for Return to Armageddon.
This one seems to be going one way, much to my surprise as I was expecting this to be much closer. Again I think that the contrasting styles of both of these has draw so much praise and rightly so. Get any last votes in today and I'll count up in the morning.
Jesus
VOTING CLOSEDQuote from: Greg M. on 18 November, 2020, 04:58:01 PM
I'm not sure I'd have predicted how spectacularly one-sided this is so far - I thought everyone loved the man with the great-and-correctly-spelled first name. (I mean, yeah, Jesus is a pretty good name too.)
Precisely this. Greg Staples may not have been a ... ready... ready Staple of the comic but he's had steady output across its time. The excitment generated by his 'Dark Justice' made me think he might win this one. However I'm very glad there is so much love for Jesus Redondo, one of my absolute favourites and it delight me to be able to say
Jesus Redondo is through to the second round.