A few weeks ago the exciting news broke that American comics company IDW will be printing original Judge Dredd comics, as well as offering deluxe, treasury editions of older stories!
I'm very excited by this news and feel confident that Dredd is finally going to get the recognition and respect he deserves across the pond. IDW produce some great comics and have some excellent artists and writers on their books so it looks like we're in for a treat! As publicist Dirk Wood says, "It's gonna be big!"
Chris Ryall, IDW's Editor-In-Chief has been a fan of Dredd for years, saying that the character is"One of those that we always wanted to do" and as a result there's going to be a whole 'program' of exciting Dredd titles coming. Chris continues, "We've been making big plans; 'Dredd' is a very important thing to us, we're having a blast with it and we're going to do an awful lot of things. I think people are going to see Dredd back in a really big way." Sounds good to me!
IDW recently released the teaser image above by Zach Howard and Nelson Daniel. Zach has been kind enough to send a breakdown of the teaser. Below are his thumbnail sketches...
Followed by some incredible pencils, sunning detail here and the lawgiver looks awesome!
And finally these cracking inks. A really stunning image I'm sure you'll agree...
The inks were then sent to Chilean artist and colourist Nelson Daniels who made 'em look just perfect. I adore the halftone shading, it really reminds me of old skool 2000AD artwork but with a real modern sensibility, so cool!
And here's the finished ad. If all the artwork is as accomplished as this then we're in for a treat! Thank you so much to Zach for sending the images, they're wonderful! Both artists have really nice websites that are well wsorth checking out, please visit 'em asap! Zach's is here, Nelson's here.
The image below was initially used to break the news of the deal...
This was, of course, the iconic cover image of Prog 1485 by the legendary Cliff Robinson (more on him later...), and more recently was be made into a Royal Mail stamp!
To celebrate this exciting deal, let's look at some classic Dredd covers and artwork with an American theme. We'll kick off with this brilliant Boo Cook cover...
A haggard looking Dredd from Clint Langley which kicked off the current Day of Chaos epic.
Followed by John Burns' exquisite print from Bristol Comic Con 2010...
Which was remarkably similar to his Star Scan of prog 863...
Next up, a few classics from Cliff Robinson, I've always loved this cover of Prog 474...
A recreation of on of my all time favourites, 'The Statues of Liberty' from Prog 496...
And this Megazine cover for the story Cadet, which looked at the career of young America Beeny...
Which brings us rather nicely to the brilliant Dredd tale America, which may be great starting place for new American readers. Here is the oppressive cover for the graphic novel by the brilliant Colin MacNeil...
And Dredd's chilling opening monologue...
This poignant cover is for America 2: Fading of the Light...
And this is for the reprint of America for Classic 2000AD in 1995...
Finally, a great Lee Carter image from the Scotch Corner blog...
I really can't wait to see what IDW come up with for Dredd, as well as Zach and Nelson they have an amazing roster of artists (a cover or two by Ashley Wood would be nice!) and writers! Hopefully there'll be a bunch of variant covers from new and existing Dredd artists, which I'll do my best to put up each month!
No comments:
Post a Comment