First image from Dark Justice up on the 2000AD Facebook page

[Dodsy]

Or you can see it right here:


I knwo the Dark Judges aren't everyone's cup or tea but this pages looks amazing.
I guess they manage to get out of the bottle. Wonder what happens to PJ?

Also the Facebook page says it's been moved back to Spring 2014, sure it'll be worth the wait.

[Steve Green]

A bit more here in an article about Greg.

http://www.thestar.co.uk/what-s-on/greg-is-drawn-to-his-career-in-a-fantasy-world-1-5987487

Gives an indication of how long Dark Justice is going to be.

[Simon Beigh]

That Dredd he is painting in the photo looks cool!

[sheldipez]

His mum was similarly keen to discourage the hobby: she banned him from having his favourite comic, Judge Dredd, in the house, saying it was too violent.

I hope he gives her the fingers everytime he visits 

Lovely stuff, can't wait for this

[Frank]

A bit more here in an article about Greg.

http://www.thestar.co.uk/what-s-on/greg-is-drawn-to-his-career-in-a-fantasy-world-1-5987487

Gives an indication of how long Dark Justice is going to be.

"he worked up his portfolio and, in the summer of 1990, got a train to London to attend a comic book convention where the editors of Britain's biggest titles were on hand. "The queues to meet them were so big," he explains. "There was no way I could get to the front. Then I saw Simon Bisley who is one of the best illustrators in the world. He was having a beer but I begged him to look at my work.

"He took one glance and said: 'Come with me'. Then he took me to the head of the queue to meet the editor of 2000AD. They more or less gave me a job on the spot." That Monday, back home in Dronfield, he was phoned with his first commission: draw a Judge Dredd story. "It was every dream I ever had come true," he remembers"


Aaaaah!

[JayzusB.Christ]

At just 19, he became the youngest ever illustrator to work on Britain's biggest superhero series, 2000AD

Hmmmm.

Anyways, it looks insanely good and I can't wait - just hope it's the scary Dark Judges here and not the funny ones. 

To be honest, I didn't like Greg's early stuff much at all - in fact, I preferred the Slaine picture he sent into a computer magazine as a kid to his first (?) Dredd, Babes in Arms.  These days he's one of the best in the  business, possibly even surpassing his mentor Bisley, and I can't understand why he hasn't risen to Bolland- or Fabry-like superstardom.

[Simon Beigh]

I can't understand why he hasn't risen to Bolland- or Fabry-like superstardom.

Well if prices of his artwork are a leading indicator, I'd say he was well on his way to Bisley and Bolland status, if not there already!

[TordelBack]

Hmmmm.  Reflecting on that excellent image from the Spring, I wonder how heavily Logan (for it is he) will feature in this story?  It occurs to me that Mortissss has a particular role in preparing/transforming corpses to be suitable vessels for the Dark Judges.  Despite the removal of Logan's we-hardly-knew-ya arm, could  be Death's route back to the material plane?  And could this be his final misfortune?

[Frank]

... and the information that his fee for Dark Justice is buying Staples a new Mustang demonstrates why Tharg doesn't commission as many fully painted strips as he used to. As far as his being the youngest artist to see their work in 2000ad, I always thought that honour belonged to the then eighteen year old Steve Dillon, but glaring factual errors are one of the joys of reading a feature on something you know a lot about in a newspaper.

Babes In Arms was the first Staples work on Dredd I could think of too, but Barney informs me his debut was Rough Guide to Suicide, 1 episode (Prog 761), also scripted by Garth Ennis. I just dug it out and realised why I couldn't remember it - it's a frighteningly inconsequential story and Staples's painted art tends much more toward the Ormston/Percival axis than Bisley at that point.

By the time he worked on Judge Joyce's visit to MC1 Staples was a full-blown Bisley clone. He seemed to acquire Bisleyisms as a way of quickly giving his work a professional polish and obscuring some of the weaknesses in his draughtsmanship, which meant it wasn't really until he ditched the acrylics for inks and a solid black line (around the time of his first Dark Judges story) that his own aesthetic began to shine through and I realised what a talent he is. He's up there with the very best now, isn't he?

[IndigoPrime]

Depends on the Mustang.

As for Staples, I seem to recall his figure work being rather iffy to begin with. Once that was sorted, he became a much stronger artist.

[Simon Beigh]

... and the information that his fee for Dark Justice is buying Staples a new Mustang demonstrates why Tharg doesn't commission as many fully painted strips as he used to.

Possibly, although I'm sure page rates have been discussed elsewhere and they don't vary hugely whether you are Bisley, Bolland or whatever. Might have remembered that wrong or it might be different for paintings.

I suspect it's the people like me that will be queuing up for when he sells the pages on. I am hoping I might be able to afford one page, but his prices tend to be pretty expensive, so I am not holding out much hope.

So Tharg's fee paid for the deposit on the 'stang, and the collectors cash will pay for the rest...

[Frank]

I'm sure page rates have been discussed elsewhere and they don't vary hugely whether you are Bisley, Bolland or whatever. Might have remembered that wrong or it might be different for paintings.

Like you, I'm speaking off the top of my head and possibly out of my arse here, but I'm sure when Colin MacNeil was discussing work and page rates he said he was paid more for painted art, since it took so much longer to produce because with b/w art the publisher then had to pay a colour bodger to stay inside the lines and remember which colour Dredd's kneepads were.

I won't make a fool of myself by quoting hazy memories of outdated page rates, but I'm sure they were about what you'd expect to pay for a 28" LG telly for the spare bedroom, rather than a 46" Panasonic for the living room. At 60 pages, that probably means Dark Justice has paid for one of these. Tharg seems to have given Staples a fair bit more time to work on the book, and I'm sure his pay poke has to reflect the number of hours he spends on it.

Like the others you mention, Staples seems to be in great demand with US publishers and their deeper pockets nowadays. I expect the recent Bolland Dredd cover and Bisley and Fabry's brief returns to Slaine involved some disturbance to the publisher's established pay structure. All of the above appear to have been commissioned with an eye towards a second pay day when trade collections hit the shelves - Tharg recycles more than polystyrene cups.

[Steve Green]

Nice to see traditionally painted art - I doubt it would happen but it would be great to have an exhibition of the entire story as a complete thing before the original art is broken up.

[radiator]

All of the above appear to have been commissioned with an eye towards a second pay day when trade collections hit the shelves - Tharg recycles more than polystyrene cups.

I believe the Dark Justice trade is hitting the shelf very soon after it runs in the prog. A canny move for sure - I know for one I'll be buying in book form as well as digital prog. 2000ad in general are so much smarter at marketing these days, with stuff like this and the Trifecta trade. Remember the days when we'd get two or three 2000ad trades a year - mostly old stuff, and often missing key stories?

[Simon Beigh]

Nice to see traditionally painted art - I doubt it would happen but it would be great to have an exhibition of the entire story as a complete thing before the original art is broken up.

That's a nice idea. I'd travel a few miles and pay a few quid to see that.

All of the above appear to have been commissioned with an eye towards a second pay day when trade collections hit the shelves - Tharg recycles more than polystyrene cups.

I believe the Dark Justice trade is hitting the shelf very soon after it runs in the prog. A canny move for sure - I know for one I'll be buying in book form as well as digital prog. 2000ad in general are so much smarter at marketing these days, with stuff like this and the Trifecta trade. Remember the days when we'd get two or three 2000ad trades a year - mostly old stuff, and often missing key stories?

No I don't thank God. They must have been dark days...