Henry Flint is a legend really, isn't he?

[I, Cosh]

I was rereading the latest Meg Dredd storyline the other night .There are a couple of panels in it (the view of the burial fields at dusk on the very first page and the vehicle driving up the trench to the city wall) which I could stare at for hours. As I slipped into a daze, it got me thinking that Henry Flint really deserves to be named amongst the greats. It's a crying shame that, simply because he wasn't working in 1982, he'll never get the wider acknowledgement I think he deserves.

Looking it up, I am a bit surprised that he hasn't done more Dredd. Maybe it's the impact of the stories he has drawn – Total War, big chunks of Day of Chaos – which has made him seem such a great fit. To be honest, there is no other artist on Tharg's speed dial who I'd rather see working on Dredd than Flint.

First and foremost, he draws a mean Dredd and he does it in exciting, interesting but still readable pages. Then what I find really great about his work is that, like all the best, his approach is always subtly changing. Something which is particularly clear with his colouring. If you were to look at something like the The Gingerbread Man with its full, lush colours and compare that with the deliberately washed out greens of Titan, then look at the way he's using more little blocks of colour to be mixed in the eye in Dead Zone. If you looked at all that, it would obviously be the work of the same guy but the evolution would be striking.

I suppose some could suggest that any modern Dredd artist is only building on or interpreting what has gone before and that you need to have created some of the elements yourself to be great. I would only have one word to say to that: SHAKARA!

After a slight pause, I'd probably add Zombo. Then I'd reflect that, despite how much the strip has changed and the way D'Israeli has made it his own, there is still a Flinty footprint in the seat of Low Life's pants. Which made a real treat to see him coming back to the story of Aimee Nixon in Titan.

Anyway, Henry Flint. Good lad.

[ZenArcade]

He is consistently my favourite prog artist. Z

[Zenith 666]

Check out his Rogue trooper (Friday) art to see how his style has evolved.rightly earned his place up there alongside the great Dredd artists.consistently incredible work.

[Jim_Campbell]

There's a reason we had him as a "Standing On The Shoulders Of Giants" category in the art comp. Henry's the quintessential 2000AD artist -- great swathes of McMahon and O'Neill, a dash of Ezquerra... but still a style that's unquestionably his own. He's a giant of the modern era.

Cheers

Jim

[oshii]

He's brilliant.  Utterly, utterly brilliant.

[Dark Jimbo]

...it got me thinking that Henry Flint really deserves to be named amongst the greats. It's a crying shame that, simply because he wasn't working in 1982, he'll never get the wider acknowledgement I think he deserves.

You're right, he's perhaps the only modern Dredd artist who you'd rank without question beside Bolland, McMahon, Ezquerra, Smith, Dillon (which is not to say that there aren't some great artists currently, just that Flint is that good). He'd be my first choice to illustrate any given Dredd story between now and the end of the prog.

[Jim_Campbell]

I'm conscious that the next thing I'm going to say opens up that thing where every artist not named understandably feels aggrieved for not getting a mention, but I'd put D'israeli in that modern giant category, too, albeit in a completely different way. I'd single out Henry and Matt not just for their artistic skills, but the sheer body of work they've racked up at the Galaxy's Greatest across multiple strips.

Cheers

Jim

[I, Cosh]

I'm conscious that the next thing I'm going to say opens up that thing where every artist not named understandably feels aggrieved for not getting a mention, but I'd put D'israeli in that modern giant category, too, albeit in a completely different way. I'd single out Henry and Matt not just for their artistic skills, but the sheer body of work they've racked up at the Galaxy's Greatest across multiple strips.

I agree. I actually edited out a bit about D'Israeli being the one whose constant experimentation with his own style puts him in a similar bracket for me.

[The Enigmatic Dr X]

Don't all modern artists smell of poo and aren't proper anyway because they use computers?

[Skullmo]

...it got me thinking that Henry Flint really deserves to be named amongst the greats. It's a crying shame that, simply because he wasn't working in 1982, he'll never get the wider acknowledgement I think he deserves.

You're right, he's perhaps the only modern Dredd artist who you'd rank without question beside Bolland, McMahon, Ezquerra, Smith, Dillon (which is not to say that there aren't some great artists currently, just that Flint is that good). He'd be my first choice to illustrate any given Dredd story between now and the end of the prog.

I'd stick Jock and Hairsine in there too.

[Colin YNWA]

Yeah I've said it here before but Henry Flint is for me (subjective, subjective, subjective) the definative 2000ad artist, as well as being my favourite. Its only that he was in the so called 'Golden Age' and for whatever reasons he's not been completely taken my America (though I think there's a large element of his choice in this) that he's not consistantly ranked amongst the greats of the first 500 issues. His body of work for the comic is arguably beyond peer. For me (and this is controversial) only Steve Yeowell gets close in the post Golden Age Age.

Flint's art is dynamic, edgy, anarchic, imaginative and yet with it all when needing to be deeply human. Just look at that last spread page of Day of Choas, Dredd's head bowed in grim defeat, not many artists could have done that as well as him. The very definination of 2000ad.

[TordelBack]

Flint is extraordinary, certainly one of the definitive Dredd artists of the 'second half'.  However, I'd stick MacNeil right alongside him - both artists whose work constantly evolves in exciting ways, who handle everything from big action to backgrounds to page design to intense character work.  That their Dredd pages are backed up by a large body of excellent work on other 2000AD/Meg strips is icing on the cake.

[strangelysaucy]

...it got me thinking that Henry Flint really deserves to be named amongst the greats. It's a crying shame that, simply because he wasn't working in 1982, he'll never get the wider acknowledgement I think he deserves.

You're right, he's perhaps the only modern Dredd artist who you'd rank without question beside Bolland, McMahon, Ezquerra, Smith, Dillon (which is not to say that there aren't some great artists currently, just that Flint is that good). He'd be my first choice to illustrate any given Dredd story between now and the end of the prog.

totally this.
One of the modern greats fosho!

[IndigoPrime]

Flint's an interesting one for me, because we really saw how his work evolved and, to my mind, it took a while before everything fully clicked. His early stuff has some pretty dodgy anatomy, and some questionable composition, but it was always infused with energy, which is a big plus when it comes to comic art. Gradually, he became very good, and then eventually superb. Today, I would agree that he's at the very top of the heap when it comes to artists who have ever contributed to 2000 AD. His latest Megazine strip was first-rate.

As for D'Israeli, I'm not sure there's a comic artist I've so consistently enjoyed (perhaps McMahon comes close). He's so insanely versatile, and yet all his varied styles I've seen have been wonderful, whether he's illustrating steampunk Martians attacking humanity, a warped Victorian London, a madcap contemporary superhero yarn, far-future genetically modified dinosaurs running rampant, or the thrills and perils of being aboard the world's biggest ocean liner.

Now I just want to re-read Leviathan rather than getting on with my work. Damn.

[TordelBack]

D'Israeli is probably the artist whose 2000AD work I most look forward to overall, it's always fascinating on every level, but in terms of Dredd he isn't in the running. The big surprise for me of late has been Simon Davis, who has doggedly fought his way up the personal rankings really starting with Damnation Station and later Ampney Crucis to his recent Slaine, which is simply staggering. I'd happily say that SBD and D'Israeli are the modern titans of the non-Dredd prog, with large bodies of work more than worthy to join the gods of the 80s on Mount Betelgeuse.

By the way, this isn't to say that there aren't a dozen artists snapping at their heels.