Restricted Files 01 Question

[Goosegash]

Just a little thing, but it's been niggling at me - how come the first story in Restricted Files 01 (The Judges Graveyard) is credited to Kev O'Neil, when it's very clearly Ron Turner's work? O'Neil's signature is on the first page, but everything else about it, from the shape of the judges helmet to the weird angular lettering looks exactly like it does in Turner's other Dredd strips.

I've always liked Turner's art myself, although I can understand why some people thought it was maybe too old-fashioned for 2000AD at the time. He was a retro-futurist before the term had been invented, mainly by virtue of the fact that his style hadn't really changed since the fifties!

[maryanddavid]

I dont have the story to hand, but O'Neill was influenced by Turner at the time, so this may be some explanation.

David

[Patrick]

I do have the volume to hand, and that's clearly not Ron Turner.

[Goosegash]

I do have the volume to hand, and that's clearly not Ron Turner.

Really? I'm not saying you're wrong, but even if it's not him, there are portions of this that are so close to Turner I'm tempted to do a side-by-side comparison with his other stuff, just to prove a point.

[Jim_Campbell]

I'm not saying you're wrong, but even if it's not him, there are portions of this that are so close to Turner I'm tempted to do a side-by-side comparison with his other stuff, just to prove a point.

That's definitely O'Neill. Look at the robot head at the bottom left corner of Pg3; classic Kev.

Also: the anatomy (certainly not Kev's strong point at this stage in his career) is too clunky to be Turner, but the imaginative flair is, for want of a better word, too spiky for Turner. Turner came from that illustrative tradition of Hampson and Bellamy which for all its fantastic technical skill, when applied to science fiction tended to produce a version of the future that (to lift a phrase from D'israeli) looks like the present sprayed silver with fins stuck on.

I suspect that if you put some pages side by side, the similarities won't be as great as you think they are...

Cheers

Jim

[Dark Jimbo]

That strip is so obviously O'Neill that... well, it just is O'Neill, that's all.

[Patrick]

What Jim said (although I think he might be a bit harsh on Frank Bellamy, who might have made a great Tooth artist if he hadn't died the year before it came out). Aside from the more assured figurework and old-fashioned sensibility, Turner also had a much smoother and more refined line and a better sense of space than this strip. He was a veteran artist who knew exactly what he was doing, even if he was a bit stuck in the past, whereas this strip is clearly the work of someone finding their feet. The only thing even slightly Turneresque is the shape of the helmet.