Worst Dredd Artists

[JayzusB.Christ]

Bejaypers, Chris Weston's first post and he's already slagging himself off. You're wrong, Weston, that strip (and Worms for that matter) had great artwork. It's just that your stuff has since become even greater.

[Trout]

Thanks, Wake.

[Emperor]

Actually, I'd nominate some of my own early Dredds. The artwork I produced for "Crazy Barry, Little Mo" still makes me cringe with embarrassment. My decision to take on the JD strip "SIX" was a deliberate attempt to make amends to Mr. Wagner... and to prove to myself I could do a decent Dredd.

All this did was make me go and look at them. I suppose such self-analysis is the spur to greater improvements and all artists look back on their early work and wince but I didn't think there was a problem at the time and they stand up nicely with hindsight too - they are at least as good as the others Dredds I sampled from that time for comparison purposes and Tharg was clearly happy as you got a string of Dredds and a lot of further work in no time. So I'm afraid we won't be adding you to the list at this time, hope you aren't too disappointed

For me the intriguing thing was seeing that it is still distinctively Westonesque and there are already little design flourishes you see later on, like quilting and epaulettes.

[vzzbux]

Crazy Barry and Little Mo was one of my fave mini Dredd stories of that era and may still hold there. There was nothing wrong with the art, in fact it kind of enhanced the story.
Also enjoyed the follow on story as much. I know it was a different artist But Will made that his own as well.







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[Chris Weston]

Aw, you're all too damn kind. Genuinely , that couldn't be a nicer welcome to the forums. Thanks.

(I wasn't fishing for compliments, honest!)

[jamesedwards]

Don't know if this counts, but for me of the worst artists to work on Dredd was the colourist Alan Craddock. To be fair, it was early days for computer colouring, but man, this guy almost ruined a lot of otherwise quality Dredd material from that era (incuding America II and large swathes of The Pit) - the colour palette choices are downright baffling and maybe it's just me, but unless you're colouring your own linework, I think it's a bit disrespectful to 'improve' that of another artist by adding horrible and entirely unnecessary textures and rendering.

I know that Kev Walker freaked out after he saw Craddock's colouring on his Mercy Heights pages and refused to let anyone else colour his work for many years afterwards.

Feast your eyes on this monstrosity - believe or not, there's a Frank effing Quitely cover under there somewhere! Yuck!

He did the entire Rogue Trooper Action Special - it's really horrible.

[jamesedwards]

Aw, you're all too damn kind. Genuinely , that couldn't be a nicer welcome to the forums. Thanks.

(I wasn't fishing for compliments, honest!)

I'll give you one - "The Filth" was so nice to look at a bit of wee came out. Possibly. I do love that series more than most other Morrison stuff.

[brendan1]

Crazy Barry and Little Mo was one of my fave mini Dredd stories of that era and may still hold there. There was nothing wrong with the art, in fact it kind of enhanced the story.
Also enjoyed the follow on story as much. I know it was a different artist But Will made that his own as well.

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Well, yeah. Re-read that last night. Really enjoyable stuff from Wagner and Simpson, plus a nice Dredd back-cover poster in Ciudad gear a few weeks later.

I think I most remember Chris Weston's early work on the fabulous "Killing Time". He draws a nice double-arm amputation. Cheers for that particular nightmare, Chris.

[jamesedwards]

My favourite bits of Chris Weston's stuff were always the weirdly sexual looking tanks - often with a chain gun or some sort of cannon positioned like it was a big old warcock. Didn't Marvel actually have to edit a lot of dick-like machineguns out of The Twelve?

[brendan1]

I bet John Ridgeway would be quite polarising. As you can guess with my recent musings on Simpson/ Weston era Dredds, I'm in the 650-ish era at the Mo(ment) and Ridgeway's Dead Man could be ill-thought of; some of it looks really scrappy and the almost wavery line-work can seem a bit poor. But it really works so well in that script.

I suppose you could say the same for his Luke Kirby work, but it just fits so well.

And I know I keep banging on about "The Raggedy Man" - and his rather clunky, old-fashioned boot/helmet work on Dredd probably grated with some - but I can't think of a better artist to draw that little gem. I love it. It's a quite brilliantly scripted and drawn mini-Dredd classic, right down to the typically mordant humour of the last few frames.

[brendan1]

My favourite bits of Chris Weston's stuff were always the weirdly sexual looking tanks - often with a chain gun or some sort of cannon positioned like it was a big old warcock. Didn't Marvel actually have to edit a lot of dick-like machineguns out of The Twelve?

*cold shower for edwards*

[brendan1]

Baikie's Dredd is great! In the Bath is a classic little story, helped in no small part by his artwork.

Read that this evening. I would like to revoke my Baikie vote. It was verrrry wrong. Not my favourite, bit like Burns, but that is a great Dredd.

SORRY JIM

[Dreddzilla]

Who did this work? 

[The Corinthian]

Who did this work? 

I feel siku.

[vzzbux]

I am sure Siku wouldn't appreciate that Corinthian.






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