Amongst the many literary heroes that have been inspirations and beacons in my writing career there's one that stands head and shoulders above the others.
I feel almost disloyal saying it (especially with the Christian Bale thing) BUT he's even better than Batman.
Judge Dredd.
We're not talking about the rather disappointing Stallone movie, but the original, in brutal 2D and black and white, comic character.
I read 2000AD all through the 1980's right into the 1990's until a stint abroad, left me out of sync and from that I've never recovered. I did not miss an issue in 14 years, bearing in mind the comic was a weekly, that's an awful lot of material I have in my loft.
2000AD is a science fiction comice that's produced som of the most amazing stories for a generation. We've had mutant bounty hunters kidnap Hitler. We've had genetically produced dinosaurs rampaging across a nuclear wasteland, devouring all in their path. Strontium Dog, Rogue Trooper, the Ballad of Halo Jones, Dredd of course, Robo-hunter. The list goes on and on. It's where Alan Moore cut his comic-writing teeth and where the gods of art (Bolland, McMahon, Kennedy, Ezquerra, Talbot to name a very few) produced weekly masterpieces back in the day of pen and ink.
The publishers, Rebellion, have produced a series of collected stories, charting the career of all the greats. The art is psychotic, the writing razor sharp, the attitude punk, the colours blackest of all.
Check it out.
5 comments:
That sounds awesome.. I reckon I'll be getting myself a copy of that! Be rude not to as a long time fan of Old Stony Face.
I'm waiting for them to bring Necropolis out as a bound collection :)
I just found your blog by way of Lindsay Leavitt. I cannot wait to read your book!
Congratulations!
shelley
AH The Judge!! What a facist.
I loved the early Slaine strips, the faboulous flying longboats of the pagan north. The sky chariots. Beautifully drawn.
I wish I had followed Judge Dredd, I tended to dip in and out which is of course NOT the way to do it!
Oh the early Slaine strips with McMahon and Fabry were the truly great. That period was probably the 'golden age', or as close to it as humanly possible. What I loved was the conciseness of the dialogue. John Wagner is the master of 'less is more'.
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