Garry Leach (https://2000ad.com/news/garry-leach-1954-2022/)
One of my favourite artists from that era and I always thought it was a shame there wasn't more in the Galaxy's Greatest (fortunately I also have copies of Warrior and A1). Glad to have seen pages from Attack of the 50th Woman at an exhibition at Orbital a few years back.
Another tribute:
https://downthetubes.net/in-memoriam-illustrator-designer-publisher-and-comic-creator-garry-leach/ (https://downthetubes.net/in-memoriam-illustrator-designer-publisher-and-comic-creator-garry-leach/)
Terrible news
Garrys art was in the first prog I have strong memories of - the episode of the VCs where Hen Sho makes sure Smith and Loon escape i the two remaining lifepods was powerful affecting stuff, even when I had no idea who these characters were
For me Garry Leach was as slick as Gibbons and Bolland, but actually outdid them from a design point of view, so I was always sad that Tharg wasnt able to maximise his use in the prog back in the day - guess he was in even greater demand than those two, but never seemed to earn the same acclaim, which he more than deserved.
So sorry to hear this. My only piece of original art is a page from Garry's classic 'Night of the Bloodbeast'. I met him at the UK Comic Con in the early 90's and told him I had it and he reminisced about the old page with his pal Steve Dillon, who was sitting next to him in the auditorium before the Eagle Awards were announced. Two of my earliest icons now gone and far too soon. Rest easy Garry.
I'll copy my bit from the RIP thread here:
Oh man. What a loss. I met him once at a con - Birmingham, I think. He came up to our table and was looking at our books. I spotted the portfolio he was carrying and saw the art and said, "Fuck me, you're Garry Leach!"
He smiled and said, "Yes I am."
He stayed for a good old chat. Lovely guy.
Aw that's awful. Loved his stuff especially in Warrior.
Just heard the bad news - gutted.
Fantastic artist.
RIP.
First noticed his work on the VCs, and never stopped noticing it afterwards. He had a real knack for twisting people's faces into an expressions that would burn into the brain.
Quote from: AlexF on 31 March, 2022, 09:10:57 AM
First noticed his work on the VCs, and never stopped noticing it afterwards. He had a real knack for twisting people's faces into an expressions that would burn into the brain.
Same for me.
Thankful to have cherry picked that VC's Hachette hardback last year.
Between Leach and Kennedy it's practically a desert island edition.