Dredd Reckoning blog by Douglas Wolk

Greg M. · 28 December, 2011, 10:32:20 AM

I don't envy anyone having to dissect that god-awful tripe, though I do find Graeme's views on Nigel Dobbyn's art a bit harsh. I'm not going to claim that 'Red Razors 2' is his finest hour (how could anyone be inspired to their best work with a script that bad?) but I don't see Dobbyn as 'generic' or 'bland' as the article asserts - his work on, say, Strontium Dogs: The Darkest Star is frequently gorgeous and hugely atmospheric.

radiator · 28 December, 2011, 11:31:40 AM

Another fantastic entry - we're very lucky to have so many quality 2000ad blogs running at the moment, cos for a while there after 2000adreview went on hiatus there wasn't much about.

I'll stick up for Dobbyn too, I always enjoyed his artwork. Gorgeous colours, superb design sensibiliity and expressive, chunky characters - i love his take on Feral and the Gronk. A shame that he never got more decent scripts to work with.

PreacherCain · 28 December, 2011, 12:05:05 PM

Do we really live in a world where Red Razors counts?

Another vote for Dobbyn''s art. Really liked seeing his SD stuff again in the recent Meg reprints. It's be nice to see his work again, what's he up to these days?

TordelBack · 28 December, 2011, 12:52:52 PM

Quote from: Greg M. on 28 December, 2011, 10:32:20 AM..I don't see Dobbyn as 'generic' or 'bland' as the article asserts

Aye, about as far from generic as you can get - distinctive and individual I would have said (although I had never noticed the similarity of his faces to John Byrne's until Douglas pointed it out!), with a terrific sense of design. The visuals for the aliens and tech in (for example) Medivac 318 were beautifully simple and wholly convincing, despite their perhaps less-than-entirely-original conception - the ambulance in particular stays with me as an example of what a plausible vehicle you can create with essentially a plain box, as long as the design is coherent.

That said, Red Razors is complete crap and nothing Nigel could have drawn could have made it pleasing to behold, but I suppose after Trash it must almost have seemed like a good gig. What madness led to this being collected and widely distributed is beyond me - surely even the most rabid Millar completist is just going to coming away thinking that his 2000AD work was missable shite? A shame, since some* of it is pretty good - Beyond Science, for example.

Another great article from Douglas, mind.

*Some.

radiator · 28 December, 2011, 01:03:36 PM

Someone commented this on the article, but I think it deserves another airing; the script originally stated that the kid who finds the badge at the end of Red Razors II was supposed to hold it aloft in defiance, but Dobbyn was so fed up by that point that he drew the kid discarding it. Doing so could have landed him in trouble, but the editor either didn't notice or didn't care.

TordelBack · 28 December, 2011, 01:08:58 PM

Amusingly, that's about the best moment in the whole sorry affair.

douglaswolk · 28 December, 2011, 06:45:26 PM

It's worth noting that there's a new edition of "Tales From Beyond Science" coming out in late January--from Image, surprisingly, with a bunch of new interstitial Rian Hughes artwork. (I do like Millar's stories from TFBS a bunch, although my favorite thing by far that he's done was his run on Superman Adventures... which barely anyone noticed. Go find #41, which is particularly wonderful.)

The Byrne observation was all Graeme's!

JOE SOAP · 28 December, 2011, 07:32:15 PM

Quote from: radiator on 28 December, 2011, 01:03:36 PM
Someone commented this on the article, but I think it deserves another airing; the script originally stated that the kid who finds the badge at the end of Red Razors II was supposed to hold it aloft in defiance, but Dobbyn was so fed up by that point that he drew the kid discarding it. Doing so could have landed him in trouble, but the editor either didn't notice or didn't care.

I thought it was a Dirty Harry piss-take, good to hear it was Dobbyn's idea cos the original intention was naff.

douglaswolk · 23 January, 2012, 07:22:15 AM

This week: Brenna Zedan and I dig into The Batman/Judge Dredd Files, and also touch on the uncollected "Vendetta in Gotham," as well as Wagner and Grant's Legends of the Law arc.

http://dreddreviews.blogspot.com/2012/01/batmanjudge-dredd-files.html

radiator · 23 January, 2012, 01:37:37 PM

Excellent entry this week - probably the longest one yet. Looking forward to next week's take on Heavy Metal Dredd...

douglaswolk · 06 February, 2012, 07:11:45 AM

I'm very happy with how this week's entry turned out: Joe McCulloch and I discuss Case Files 17, as well as a bunch of other Garth Ennis projects, at significant length (over 8000 words, I believe), and he's got a lot of exceptionally smart things to say.

http://dreddreviews.blogspot.com/2012/02/complete-case-files-17.html

douglaswolk · 13 February, 2012, 07:33:12 AM

This week: Graeme McMillan returns, and we discuss Devlin Waugh: Swimming in Blood, and John Smith's work in general.

http://dreddreviews.blogspot.com/2012/02/devlin-waugh-swimming-in-blood.html

radiator · 13 February, 2012, 12:21:02 PM

Good stuff as always.

In defence of Siku, while he has an unarguably divisive visual style, the reproduction of his work in the DC Devlin Waugh trade does it no justice (as with many of the early Rebellion/DC 2000ad books). I have both that book and the old Hamlyn edition of Fetish, and his work presented in the latter - on much nicer, heavier paper - is lush and gorgeous - colours so rich and vivid they scorch your eyeballs.

The repro in the DC Swimming in Blood trade is awful - dark, dull and desaturated to the point of illegibility. I keep the Fetish trade as my reading copy for that story.

radiator · 20 February, 2012, 11:12:00 AM

Case Files 18 today - that wraps up the last of the Case Files for now.

From here on, looks like we'll be moving on with the standalone Dredd trades and other spin-offs - starting next week with Goodnight Kiss.

brendan1 · 22 February, 2012, 11:56:26 AM

Quote from: radiator on 13 February, 2012, 12:21:02 PM
Good stuff as always.

In defence of Siku, while he has an unarguably divisive visual style, the reproduction of his work in the DC Devlin Waugh trade does it no justice (as with many of the early Rebellion/DC 2000ad books). I have both that book and the old Hamlyn edition of Fetish, and his work presented in the latter - on much nicer, heavier paper - is lush and gorgeous - colours so rich and vivid they scorch your eyeballs.

I lobe Siku.

OK, his increasingly grotesque iterations of the Dredd chin and helmet reduction got to the point of absurdity - to the point where Wagner told him to wind it the fuck in - but overall I really enjoy his artwork.