Heavens to Betsy if Carlos does take the crown here he'll have earnt it. Here in the semi's he's up against Mike McMahon which was the other final I envisaged as possible. By the time we get to the finals we'll be all finaled out. By this stage it goes without saying we are into the GODS of 2000ad and so there's little need for introduction so...
Carlos Ezquerra - more info (http://www.2000ad.org/?zone=droid&page=profiles&choice=CARLOSE)
OR
Mick McMahon - more info (http://www.2000ad.org/?zone=droid&page=profiles&choice=MIKEM)
Alas we 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 the FINAL!!!!!, but please add anything else you'd like to say as well. It really helps if you use BOLD tags or otherwise make your vote clear.
This one will close and be counted on the morning of Thursday 4th February
What the hell is all this? Find out more about the Art Droid Tourneys and Quarter Finals semi finals (https://forums.2000ad.com/index.php?topic=47294.0) - I've not updated this - cos we know what we're doing right. There's a tiny bit more about the Semi's here (https://forums.2000ad.com/index.php?topic=47318.0) but it's mainly just a post about what's coming after...
Who made the 32 in both 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=47294.msg1050982#msg1050982) again not updated as we're getting good at this now aren't we.
Anything else just ask and I'll make something up.
Carlos Ezquerra
I think this one is the hardest decision of all...but for all Carlos' contributions to the prog, his love of the characters (Alpha) AND because I honestly prefer his artwork, it has to be KING CARLOS.
Also consider the appreciation he demonstrated to his fans - beyond his work in the progs, he did so many amazing commissions and convention sketches.
Carlos
Slaine versus Dredd/Alpha
(https://cafans.b-cdn.net/images/Category_85288/subcat_126491/dlVIqZrb_1401151329181.jpg)
vs
(https://www.thesun.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/NINTCHDBPICT000438508380.jpg?strip=all&w=698)
King Carlos.
McMahon is clearly one of the most important and influential artists in the history of 2000AD. His depiction of Dredd from around Prog 50 to Block Mania is amongst the best ever. His work on Ro-Busters and the first series of ABC Warriors was immense. He provided a unique take on Slaine and not just on Sky Chariots but episodes like The Night of the Shoggy Beast. He changed his style over the years, but for me it's that earlier work that stands out; I'm not a fan of the subsequent stuff.
And then there's Carlos. It's hard to add to what has already been said about him in earlier rounds, so I'll just say he gets my vote, and I didn't have to give it a second thought.
Carlos Ezquerra
mick
Carlos Ezquerra
Mick.
My love for 2000ad is so inherently grounded in the art of Carlos I can't vote for anyone against him.
Mick, although I know I am backing the losing side.
Carlos.
SBT
Carlos Ezquerra!
Carlos Ezquerra.
Coming up with an unranked Top Ten (or Five, or Three) is so much easier than these last few rounds... All-in-all, though, I have to go for Carlos. The weight of all his Dredd work (well, most of it) and the classic-era Strontium Dog (and the rest; Stainless Steel Rat is another gem, and then there's Fiends...) is just too hard to vote against, and in voting for Carlos firstly over O'Neill and now McMahon there's really no way I can alter course in the final, whoever else gets there...
Dredd vs Stainless Steel Rat
(https://i.pinimg.com/originals/55/fe/10/55fe1074fef67aa2c7f6ac910edad826.jpg?epik=dj0yJnU9WUxtMm5GTWt3TlNXWDRDbDBJdXNNZl9vc09KYm93OGUmcD0wJm49dXEzTldWUE5LRDd5SDVOZEcwc3hpUSZ0PUFBQUFBR0FZQi1z)
vs
(https://neotextcorp.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/f04b43242cf569e2ecd6a73330d17fc3.jpg)
Belardinelli.
Ezquerra
Carlos for me
Carlos Ezquerra
Carlos Ezquerra
It's got to be Carlos
[heresy]I never really liked Mike's exaggerated style[/heresy]
I can't add much to what's been said above... that early Tooth McMahon period was gold... but Carlos wins it for me. A core part of the prog for so long, with such an iconic legacy. We were so lucky to have him!
Two legends of the comic world but McMahon gets my vote.Its hard to call but the images above just edged my vote
Well the result is in no doubt from very early on. That said its been relatively quiet and so if anyone doesn't want to let the chance pass to mark their favourite from these two titans pop a vote in today and I'll announce the result tomorrow.
I feel like I'm a lemming: Ezquerra
This is a near impossible decision. Two titans of the Prog, with unique styles that — somewhat surprisingly — have never really been aped. Dredd _is_ Ezquerra, for the most part, and Strontium Dog is totally his. Everything he produced had weight and grit.
McMahon's output is limited by contrast to Ezquerra's, but no less important, having defined key elements of Dredd and ABC Warriors, along with in my mind being responsible for the finest Sláine artwork of all. Also, McMahon's art — throughout his different stylistic shifts — has a sense of dynamism and movement rarely rivalled in the world of comics.
It's almost impossible to choose. I dearly wish Ezquerra was still around, doing more Dredd and Strontium Dog indefinitely. But the title of these is also about favourites, and so if I ask myself who I'd most like to see rock up doing a new strip in the Prog tomorrow, given the chance, that'd be McMahon. So he — just — gets my vote here, as much as I hate putting one of these titans in front of the other.
So it comes down to this: I like individual pages and episodes of McMahon's art more than any single thing Ezquerra (or any other comics artist) ever produced - I feel my life is richer for having seen them, like the best art. But I like Ezquerra's body of work more than McMahon's - it's almost like Mick is an artist but Carlos is an entire medium: 'gritty SF action in pictures' as a medium for storytelling, rather than a genre of stories. If that makes any sense at all.
Anyway, Carlos.
That's a good way of putting it. Might have been enough to sway my own vote had you written that up an hour ago. Maybe.
Quote from: IndigoPrime on 03 February, 2021, 03:37:44 PM
That's a good way of putting it. Might have been enough to sway my own vote had you written that up an hour ago. Maybe.
You can change your mind - though I will curse you if you do!
Ha! I think I'll stick with McMahon, because this one's about favourites. He has that 'something' in a very slightly greater quantity for me than Ezquerra does (despite Ezquerra being well ahead of most others).
That's a really interesting way of looking at it.
Yes there are single images from McMahon that more readily come to mind like:
when Dredd returns to Mega City One from Lunar One
The Judges' tanks in front of the mob in Block Mania
A two credit freezy whip hitting a cit and sparking a block war
Ukko losing at dice
Hammerstein and Mongrol centre spreads in the first series of ABC Warriors
But Carlos has his too:
Dredd with stub gun
Request denied
Who's gonna mess with us?
Today is the day of the Strontium Dog
Stix shot through the heart
Overall I'm sticking with Carlos for volume and consistency.
This page below shows us what a great storyteller Mike is:
(https://64.media.tumblr.com/d71d5c92749459f857ec84ba58d8bb32/tumblr_mrjn35sVgQ1ruw7pqo7_r1_500.png)
Sorry, I can't do this one. I love them both equally.
Early McMahon would be a dead heat, but as I'm not so keen on his later stuff it's got to be Carlos.
I have to agree with Southstreeter - early McMahon was great, but I didn't warm to his later more experimental style. Carlos moves forward into the Final!
Another day, another tough decision. I'm going to pick Carlos Ezquerra in this match up. His mastery of flowing action is winning here against McMahon and his varied beautiful styles. I'm a particular fan of Ezquerra characters diving for cover/through windows, etc. I wish I had a set of images picked to illustrate this, but you know what I'm talking about! Also, I would not like to be called out by any Ezquerra-style gunslinger of any era. Things would not end well for me!
Should have been the final! McMahon's peaks are arguably the greater, but on average, King Carlos is the master. (Literally: was he not a big influence on McMahon?)
VIOTING CLOSED
Two legends*, rightly hailed, but its clear now that one is almost universially raised to a level above the others. To an extent I'm really surprised by the extent to this victory. Not necessarily that Carlos wins, I think he was always such a strong favourite. Rather that its quite so one sided. In the semi's across both sides there are three artists I prefer at least (I'm lucky I've only had to make one decision so far!) - that's not to say that I don't think Carlos is as astonishing, of course he is, he's brilliant. The surprise is that art is subjective, that opinions amongst 2000ad fans so diverse that one talent seems to largely unify opinion.
Mike McMahon is rightly give much praise here, is held up as a legend, but this vote, if it has no other purpose is a fitting tribute to
Carlos Ezquerra
It'll take a shock of unprecedented proportions to stop him in the final surely?
* I don't wish to forget the vote for Massimo here and of course 3 legends got votes here!
Does a clash of styles on wildly different stories create closer contests? The two giants in this contest are best known for their classic Dredd action styles so it is easy to compare and contrast. The Flint/D'israeli confront over on the Current Artist shootout was a very close battle, but the artists could not have been more different.
I guess it also depends where people see these artists. I'd say very early McMahon was close to Ezquerra, but then he was more or less instructed to create a knock-off. But his Dredd quite quickly diverged from other artists, and his style evolved into something unique. Then you have Sky Chariots, which from his anxiety about the finished product resulted in something breathtaking. His more recent efforts are divisive, but I love the energy in the finished product.
So even in this challenge, I'd say we're looking at two quite different artists — albeit obviously not poles apart to the extent of Flint/D'Israeli.
I think another factor is both Kev O'Neill and Mike McMahon have such defined styles which have transformed over the years. Certainly latter work from McMahon, where as Carlos, well he's developed and flexed but he's always been very Carlos. His work hasn't diverged too much from utterly comfortable comic book art. All be it very, very good comic book art.
This isn't the best way to express this but Carlos' art feels comfortable and safe, in a high octane, energetic way - but I look at his work and I feel at home.
I look at Mike McMahon and Kev O'Neill's work and I feel like I'm at some bangin' party and we don't always feel comfortable at some bangin' party full of new and difficult things.
The choice in this vote does just highlight how amazing Block Mania/Apocalypse War is as a comic book double-header.
El Rey
Carlos Ezquerra (sorry Mick!)
Ezquierra. But that's probably because I dislike Mick.
Incorrect thread - sorry!