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Colin MacNeil wanted to paint America 2, and here's the proof

Started by Frank, 06 March, 2015, 09:14:13 PM

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Frank


Courtesy of Colin Noble on the Judge Dredd fan group. How heartbreaking is this - MacNeil originally intended to complete the second part of America in the same gorgeous painted colour as the first series, before time (and, I'm assuming, money) dictated otherwise.

Interesting to see how the decision to redo this page in monochrome led to not just a change in layout but some less subtle storytelling decisions (the foregrounding of the skull, for example). How did the extra content in the Mega Collection manage not to mention this?





Dark Jimbo

@jamesfeistdraws

TordelBack

That is genuinely heartbreaking, I'm not sure I needed to see that.

The 200 page hardback Mega Collection volume in question cost STG£1.99. That's not exactly a lot of budget left over for a definitive piece of original hardhitting Untold Story Comics Journal assessment. Save that for the oversize deluxe in a few years - this us still low cost reprint with an eye to snaring new readers, albeit with top class production values.

Geoff


maryanddavid

That's a great find Butchie, cheers for showing!  To be fair, they couldn't mention it if they didn't know of it.

JOE SOAP

Quote from: Butch on 06 March, 2015, 09:14:13 PM
Interesting to see how the decision to redo this page in monochrome


If the whole thing had been rendered in monochrome, in a style similar to Insurrection, I'd have eaten that up as a nice contrast to its predecessor.



Fungus

'Heartbreaking' is a bit silly. Enjoyed everything about the America volume as presented.

Fungus

Drokk me. 1000 posts. I did think it was probably too many.

TordelBack

I dunno man, almost every review I read takes a pop at the art on Fading of the Light, and how jarring it is after America - it's bothersome to think we nearly had it in yet-another-of Colin's painted styles, rather than My First Digital Textures. If the America series is to represent the best of Dredd (and it probably does), it would be great to have it looking like that page.

Congrats on the kilopost!

Apestrife

I'v read such in interviews with both Collin and Wagner. While Collin tried to paint the thing, he wasn't up for it and went/tried digital.

As some have said, an interesting failure. One I think works better and better with each reading. And especially in the recent hardback. It doesn't bother me as much as it did before. Especially not when read in between America and Cadet.

Darren Stephens

It does make me a little sad at what could have been, but having said that, I still thought America 2 was nicely done. Barring some overly, erm.....enthusiastic computer colouring. And I know, I'm one to talk about overly vibrant digital colouring, heh. :lol:
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Jim_Campbell

Quote from: Apestrife on 07 March, 2015, 07:54:10 AM
While Collin tried to paint the thing, he wasn't up for it and went/tried digital.

Not sure if this reads how you meant it to, but Colin had nothing to do with the colours on America II – he drew the story in traditional pen and ink, and Alan Craddock did the digital colour. I'm sure Alan's a lovely man, who's kind to animals and small children, but he was a terrible colourist. By every objective criterion, he was a terrible colourist, and there are great swathes of the Prog and the Meg from this era that are just horrible to look at.

Cheers

Jim
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Darren Stephens

The Pit suffered badly from horrendous colouring. Probably the worst I've ever seen, in 2000AD at least. The big two American publishers where also churning out some eye stabbingly bad stuff, too.  :|
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IAMTHESYSTEM

Sorry Colin couldn't complete it. Would have been a must buy if it had been painted by him.
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tombonin

Bad colouring can bring down the best art. Even though America II is a bit rough round the edges Colin's B&W stands up - he's a great talent.

Very interesting to see the different story telling takes. Thanks for sharing.