Favourite CURRENT art droid - QUARTERS - Colin MacNeil or Cliff Robinson

broodblik · 25 January, 2021, 01:35:29 PM

Some more covers from Cliff:

The Mind of Wolfie Smith · 25 January, 2021, 03:24:26 PM

colin

IndigoPrime · 25 January, 2021, 03:45:12 PM

Bucking the trend, I'm going to go for Cliff Robinson. I like Colin MacNeil's art a lot, but his people have always seemed a bit weird and stiff to me. Cliff Robinson has sort of become Bolland these days and I wish he'd do more strip, but his Dredd is superb.

SmallBlueThing(Reborn) · 25 January, 2021, 05:37:11 PM

I have to go with Colin MacNeil- which pains me, because I love Cliff Robertson's art so bloody much. But, America, Insurrection. Those textures and big chunky robots. Yeah, Colin.

SBT

Rogue Judge · 25 January, 2021, 06:20:55 PM

Colin MacNeil. A tough one for sure, but I'd take MacNeil drawing Dredd if I had the option.

JayzusB.Christ · 25 January, 2021, 09:47:07 PM

Cliff is awesome, of course, and incredibly, never stops improving his style.

But the America and Chopper artist wins - it's Colin for me. Now stop undoing all his great death scenes, Tharg.

Trooper McFad · 26 January, 2021, 09:55:01 AM

MacNeil for me

Andrew_J · 26 January, 2021, 05:38:25 PM

I'm going for craftsmanship on this occasion: Cliff Robinson

sixmo · 26 January, 2021, 10:25:10 PM

Cliff Robinson has some pretty sweet technique. Some lovely one-off Dredd strips. The original Simp, West Side Rumble with Ike the Spike, Crazy Joseph, et al.. My favourite is the Christmas Tale one with the nice Christmas loving citizen who is suddenly magically transformed into a homicidal maniac with a claw and a glass plate in his skull so you can see his brain sort of sloshing around. Super work, but too infrequent for me.

Colin MacNeil is a go to artist for big Dredd stories for a long time because he is so bloody good at them. Great characterisation and storytelling. If something consequential is going to happen in Dredd-world there are maybe two artists that you want to see involved, and Colin MacNeil is one of them. I mean, in fairness, either Song of the Surfer or America alone would swing most contests.

Colin MacNeil is my pick here.

DrJomster · 26 January, 2021, 10:56:31 PM

Another one for Colin here. Love the look of his work. Especially Dredd. Just awesome.

Buy yes, if this was a covers vote, I'd be with Cliff.

shaolin_monkey · 26 January, 2021, 11:20:52 PM

Cliff Robinson

Colin YNWA · 27 January, 2021, 06:38:34 AM

This one has a day to go. If you still fancy voting pop it in today and I'll count up in the morning and announce the art droid into the semi finals.

Huey2 · 27 January, 2021, 09:44:16 AM

Cliff Robinson

The Enigmatic Dr X · 27 January, 2021, 09:22:41 PM

Robinson.

For lots of reasons, for every damn cover, but mostly for this...

Three more more years and I hope he'll do one for my 25th wedding anniversary!

I, Cosh · 27 January, 2021, 10:19:33 PM

Are this pair the longest serving competitors in the Current Artists pool?

Two very good artists but ones that it's hard to rank against each other given their respective strengths. Cliff's the master of striking, detailed covers while Colin in the last ten years has become a master of conveying atmosphere and character with a few lines and a lot of empty space.

When I took a look at Barney I was actually surprised how much strip work Cliff has done. It's sporadic but there's a healthy amount of Dredd one offs in there. Strangely, given his penchant for detail, it's the humourous ones that stick in the mind. Maybe it's something about applying that level of "realism" acting a straight man for the script but the original Simp stories and things like Couch Potatoes are wonderful. The big handicap for him is never having a strip to call his own.

Of course people tend to associate MacNeil with America and Song of the Surfer but (whisper it) those have never been in my favourites artwise. Where he's really made his mark for me is with the style that's been evolving in his Dredd work over the last (checks notes...) 15 years. Fewer lines and detailing but trusting in space and blocks of colour to fill it in. It definitely helps that he's been working from some of the meatiest Wagner strips over this period but the two go hand in hand. The impact he has brought to the key moments of Tour of Duty or Guatemala is unstoppable.

It's never static though. There's always something changing. You can see the development from the painted Devlin Waugh stuff through the different styles on the books of Insurrection. The wonderful mixture of seaside postcard and folk horror that made Strange & Darke seem like Beryl Reid's Garden of Earthly Delights. Then the slow journey to what we see now.

I vote Colin MacNeil. Lets see him back in the Prog soon.