Behold, the mighty Bayo Akinsiku, or Siku to you and me, is back! Siku painted this epic cover of Prog 1682 for the fantastic, but ever so lengthily titled 'The Grievous Journey of Ichabod Azrael (and the Dead Left in his Wake') for Prog 1682.The image has a somewhat religious feel about it which is understandable as Siku is a committed Christian who has been jointly responsible for some massive religious comics such as the Manga Bible and the Manga Jesus trilogy of books.
Siku got his break for 2000AD nearly 20 years ago painting a satirical Judge Anderson strip based on the controversial Rodney King riots of 1991. No stranger himself to controversy, Siku delights in the fact that his unique style of artwork splits fan reaction straight down the middle. His imaginative redesigns of the Judge uniform along with Dredd's ever-expanding chin have had some fans of the future lawman gnashing and wailing like never before!
The artist worked on many 2000AD favourites such as Tales to Telguth, Harlem Heroes, Slaine and Sinister Dexter among others but will most probably be remembers for his outstanding work on Pan African Judges and the wonderful Dredd/Devlin Waugh epic Fetish.
Siku was a natural choice for both these stories. Having lived in Africa for nineteen years of his life, his knowledge of the surroundings and love for the country gushed from every one of his lush double page spreads.
The artist worked on many 2000AD favourites such as Tales to Telguth, Harlem Heroes, Slaine and Sinister Dexter among others but will most probably be remembers for his outstanding work on Pan African Judges and the wonderful Dredd/Devlin Waugh epic Fetish.
Siku was a natural choice for both these stories. Having lived in Africa for nineteen years of his life, his knowledge of the surroundings and love for the country gushed from every one of his lush double page spreads.
Below we see two Megazine covers for the Fetish epic:
This cover of Megazine 3.33 is a prime example of Siku's brave re-imagining of Dredd's suit his wonderful mega-chins that would split fan opinion!
A Sinister Dexter cover, very much in the visual style of the computer game 'Evil Genius', of which Siku was Visual Director.
Finally, a wonderful image that Siku did for his very entertaining interview at the wonderful 2000AD Review site (you can read it here.) Again, capturing the artist's ever changing style, this image captures Siku's slighly more minimalist 'Meatmonger' Dredd.
I'm a big fan of Siku work, he's a very brave artist with the confidence to stamp his own vision on an institution such as Dredd and would love to see him back in the prog.You can visit his website here. Thanks to Siku for the HUGE Ichabod image!
Siku hasn't been a favourite artist of mine, but as you say - he's brave and has his own unique vision and that's worth the odd "eh" moment from me. Especially when you get moments like his work on Slaine: The Swan Children, Judge Dredd: Fetish or... that very cover.
ReplyDeleteCracking blog, Pete. Keep it up. And long may Siku keep dividing audiences. Is this the right place to ask for his return to the prog in a storytelling capacity?
I've recently interviewed Siku for the Meg'. Think the resulting piece will be in the June issue.
ReplyDelete