Bring back Ian Gibson on Dredd!

[Jim_Campbell]

Whats your point, callers?

The point, my point at least, is that Ian's final few contributions to the prog were a long way from his best work, and widely bemoaned as such both here and in wider fandom. If Ian isn't sufficiently enthused by the thought of working for 2000AD to pick up the phone and see if Tharg has anything for him, do you really want the Mighty One to try and talk him into taking on a job for which he has no enthusiasm?

Cheers

Jim

[wedgeski]

Oh, for fuck's sake. Tharg and Ian have each other's phone numbers: if Ian was desperate to work for 2000AD again, he knows how to make that happen. Or are you campaigning to have him work on a strip when his heart's not really in it? Because we know how well that worked out last time...

Fair point, but it doesn't hurt to remind Tharg of our enthusiasms.

[I, Cosh]

Some keen young blood to challenge my eyes and start their fledgling career gets my vote.

I'm with this. Invest in the future, not digging up the past. Unless it's an artist I like, of course.

Whats your point, callers?

Not really got one other than that some people would like to see Gibson back in the Prog and I'm not really bothered as he was never a favourite of mine and his last stuff was far from his best. My last sentence was a humourous acknowledgment that my attitude would be completely different if we were talking about someone I was a big fan of.

[Satanist]

I would also like to see him back in the prog...to fill in all the backgrounds he forgot to draw the last time.

KIDDING.

As a kid I read and reread that article in one of the old annuals on how he drew Dredd. Mind blowingly good stuff which I tried to ape on several occasions and failed every time. The man WAS great on Dredd and Halo but towards the end his heart just didnt seem to be in it. I say let it go and be thankful for what we got.

[Steve Green]

I think that's just a dismissive attitude to take - that someone's only as good as their last work.

Sure, it's up to Ian to approach 2000 AD if he really wants to have a crack at Dredd (which is a different prospect to an ongoing Robohunter strip)

I would have thought a one or two-parter 'see how it works out' would be a good way to start.

[Satanist]

I think that's just a dismissive attitude to take - that someone's only as good as their last work.

If I started doing a half assed job my firm is not going to keep me on just because I knocked it out the park when I started. Though I dont know how they would react if I started drawing tits on their accounts I dont imagine it would be good.

[James Stacey]

Fair point, but it doesn't hurt to remind Tharg of our enthusiasms.

That's my feelings. I'm sure Matt and Ian are able to contact each other if needed but it doesn't hurt to let Tharg know if there is a real desire to see someone back in the fold. Grievances might be unreconcilable for all we know but I'll still say it.

[Steve Green]

Not exactly 'when he started' is it though? Apart towards the end of that Robohunter strip, I seem to recall him being consistently good over a few decades.

To write someone off because of them lacking enthusiasm for a particular script just seems short-sighted, as if that one bit of work writes off everything that preceded it.

[Jim_Campbell]

I'm sure Matt and Ian are able to contact each other if needed but it doesn't hurt to let Tharg know if there is a real desire to see someone back in the fold. Grievances might be unreconcilable for all we know but I'll still say it.

Hey, I'm sure Matt could get in touch with Alan Moore as well. Why not start a petition to get him to commission a new book of Halo Jones? We'd all like to see it, and I'm sure Matt wouldn't mind wasting time he could otherwise be using to, y'know, edit the fucking comic on a fool's errand to placate the whims of a bunch of fans.

Gah.

Jim

[Grant Goggans]

If it was just those last ten pages of Samantha Slade, I might agree with Steve.  But it wasn't.  Gibson was more than capable of putting in some amazing composition and color, better than just about anybody else in the business, and you can see it in "Stim" and "Casino Royal."  They prove that Gibson could totally bring his A-game when pressed.  I get that many people don't like Samantha and didn't look at her stories twice, but "Stim" and "Casino" look hotdamned *amazing*, and if you don't agree, your eyes need checked.   They look a million times more detailed, vibrant, and rich than the Samantha stories that preceded them.

They also look a million times more detailed, etc. than anything else that he'd done for 2000 AD in *years*.

"At Home with the Snozzburns" is a pretty easy target, but none of the other Dredds in the early 2000s were anything like his best work.  "Sex Beast," "Lost in Cyberspace," "Terrorist," "Sniping," "Holding On" and several other background-skimping examples, sadly, come to mind.  He wasn't "consistently good" at all.

If we could be assured of Good Gibson, then I'd absolutely love to see him in the prog again.  But considering how uneven his 2000-2007 period really was, it makes about as much sense as rolling the dice and phoning Frank Miller.  Maybe he'll bring "Dark Knight Returns," and maybe the publisher wastes money on a cover that never gets printed.

[Skullmo]

I'm sure Matt and Ian are able to contact each other if needed but it doesn't hurt to let Tharg know if there is a real desire to see someone back in the fold. Grievances might be unreconcilable for all we know but I'll still say it.

Hey, I'm sure Matt could get in touch with Alan Moore as well. Why not start a petition to get him to commission a new book of Halo Jones? . . .
Jim

God idea!

Do we start the petition on this thread or another?

More Halo! That will be more and Gibson!

[Skullmo]

*Moore

[James Stacey]

I'm sure Matt and Ian are able to contact each other if needed but it doesn't hurt to let Tharg know if there is a real desire to see someone back in the fold. Grievances might be unreconcilable for all we know but I'll still say it.

Hey, I'm sure Matt could get in touch with Alan Moore as well. Why not start a petition to get him to commission a new book of Halo Jones? We'd all like to see it, and I'm sure Matt wouldn't mind wasting time he could otherwise be using to, y'know, edit the fucking comic on a fool's errand to placate the whims of a bunch of fans.

Gah.

Jim

It's called feedback, I'm sure Matt isn't adverse to it. What he does with it is up to him. I'm not sure how providing the fans something they might want is 'a fools errand'.

[Skullmo]

Unless of course the fans are fools!

[Jim_Campbell]

It's called feedback, I'm sure Matt isn't adverse to it. What he does with it is up to him. I'm not sure how providing the fans something they might want is 'a fools errand'.

I give up.