Post by Philip Ayres on Jun 5, 2012 10:05:59 GMT
I've limited my choices to the artists I remember as a child. Not that I think that the modern Dredd artists are no good, far from it in fact, but my recent return to reading to Dredd hasn't really given me one that stands out over all the others.
So, In reverse order:
5) Mike McMahon: narrowly edging out Cam Kennedy, McMahon's work didn't sit so well with me when I was younger but I've come to like his more stylised look as I've got older and it stands out over many other artists less traditional work.
4) Ron Smith: when I was growing up Smith was the go to man for the Dredd strip. Lots of one episode strips, only getting involved in something major as a bit part player. His longest strips just drawn by himself are two 7 partners: the Graveyard Shift and Dredd/Angel (I don't think McMahon or Bolland got anywhere close to drawing something that long by themselves though!)
3) Brian Bolland: my goodness look at that art, lovely clean lines. Beautiful. Sorely tempted to layout for the up and cominlg IDW HC. He's the artist that created Death, Anderson, Hershey, Justice 1, The Dark Judges. And when he left the strip, following the last episode of Block Mania, he turns in superb covers for the Titan trades and Eagle Comics reprints.
2) Steve Dillon: The first prog I ever read was 306, which contains the second part of the Dillon drawn Trapper Hag. Loved it then, love it still. I loved Cry of the Werewolf, I loved his City of the Damned episodes, and eventually when I read the reprints, I loved his two Block Mania episodes. Not as much Dredd work as the others on the list and, coupled with increasing US work, he didn't survive the transit of the strip to colour. But I love every Dredd strip I've seen him draw.
1) Carlos Ezquerra: My second 2000ad was 308 and my third 310. Respectively they contain The Prankster and The Starborn Thing 2. And I loved them. Even then I could see a humour in the art that, and that was emphasises when I later read a couple of parts of Requiem for a Heavyweight. This is at the end of his extended run from the start of the Apocalypse war, and after this point Stainless Steel Rat for President and Strontium Dog swallow his time for the next few years. But by then I'd read the Apocalypse War and some of it's spin offs and has marvelled at that. (and wonded why I couldn't get a trade with either of those first two strips in - they'd eventually see the light in Titan's Chronicles of Judge Dredd v23) for this run alone he'd probably get my vote. But then he goes and does something few of the early Dredd artists manage to do: he returns to the strip, makes the transit to colour and just keeps on working. People hail Necropolis but that's just the start, and he continues to produce Dredd to this day. I pick up a Dredd trade with his name on the front and I know we're in for a treat somewhere. Look at his The Pit work, his early Rico II stuff, Origins. All top, top stuff.
So, In reverse order:
5) Mike McMahon: narrowly edging out Cam Kennedy, McMahon's work didn't sit so well with me when I was younger but I've come to like his more stylised look as I've got older and it stands out over many other artists less traditional work.
4) Ron Smith: when I was growing up Smith was the go to man for the Dredd strip. Lots of one episode strips, only getting involved in something major as a bit part player. His longest strips just drawn by himself are two 7 partners: the Graveyard Shift and Dredd/Angel (I don't think McMahon or Bolland got anywhere close to drawing something that long by themselves though!)
3) Brian Bolland: my goodness look at that art, lovely clean lines. Beautiful. Sorely tempted to layout for the up and cominlg IDW HC. He's the artist that created Death, Anderson, Hershey, Justice 1, The Dark Judges. And when he left the strip, following the last episode of Block Mania, he turns in superb covers for the Titan trades and Eagle Comics reprints.
2) Steve Dillon: The first prog I ever read was 306, which contains the second part of the Dillon drawn Trapper Hag. Loved it then, love it still. I loved Cry of the Werewolf, I loved his City of the Damned episodes, and eventually when I read the reprints, I loved his two Block Mania episodes. Not as much Dredd work as the others on the list and, coupled with increasing US work, he didn't survive the transit of the strip to colour. But I love every Dredd strip I've seen him draw.
1) Carlos Ezquerra: My second 2000ad was 308 and my third 310. Respectively they contain The Prankster and The Starborn Thing 2. And I loved them. Even then I could see a humour in the art that, and that was emphasises when I later read a couple of parts of Requiem for a Heavyweight. This is at the end of his extended run from the start of the Apocalypse war, and after this point Stainless Steel Rat for President and Strontium Dog swallow his time for the next few years. But by then I'd read the Apocalypse War and some of it's spin offs and has marvelled at that. (and wonded why I couldn't get a trade with either of those first two strips in - they'd eventually see the light in Titan's Chronicles of Judge Dredd v23) for this run alone he'd probably get my vote. But then he goes and does something few of the early Dredd artists manage to do: he returns to the strip, makes the transit to colour and just keeps on working. People hail Necropolis but that's just the start, and he continues to produce Dredd to this day. I pick up a Dredd trade with his name on the front and I know we're in for a treat somewhere. Look at his The Pit work, his early Rico II stuff, Origins. All top, top stuff.
