Lowlife: Creation Part Five: All The Joy I See Through These Architect's Eyes

The parting of the waters from Lowlife: Creation Part 5
I was quite pleased with this until I started researching this post :-)
Lowlife © 2009 Rebellion Developments/2000AD
Lowlife created by Rob Williams and Henry Flint

Working on Lowlife, with its Mega-City One setting freed from the presence of Judge Dredd, I found myself thinking about the city and its place in the Dredd/2000AD franchise. And it occurred to me that, really, the city is the actual star of Judge Dredd. I mean, Dredd himself is a man of limited attributes and predictable reactions. His value is giving us a fixed point, a window through which to explore the endless fountain of new phenomena that is the Mega-City. It's the Mega-City that powers Judge Dredd, and Judge Dredd that has powered 2000AD for the last 30 years. It's no coincidence that 2000AD's spin-off is called The Megazine.

And it begins with Carlos Sanchez Ezquerra.

in 1977, Ezquerra is brought in by commissioning editor Pat Mills and writer John Wagner to produce concept art and a pilot episode for a future cop story for the planned new comic 2000AD. Called Judge Dredd, the concept was essentially Clint Eastwood's Dirty Harry set in 1990's New York. Ezquerra drew a far more futuristic setting for the pilot strip, Mills decided to go with it, and Mega-City One was born.*
*The Judge Dredd Story, The Judge Dredd Annual 1981, page 10, and David Bishop, Thrill Power Overload: Thirty Years of 2000AD, page 22.

Now at this point, I want to make sure that I'm clear about what I'm claiming. I'm not simply saying "Carlos Ezquerra invented Mega-City One." Judge Dredd and his world are the work of many hands, and even at the early planning stages many different people made important contributions. Mills recognized the potential in Carlos' drawings and carried the concepts forward. Doug Church introduced the notion of a vast "Mega-City" to Pat Mills after reading about the idea in Life magazine.*
*Thrill Power Overload: Thirty Years of 2000AD, page 23.

Mega-City One as we know it was developed by a number of writers and artists. Pat Mills helped to define Mega-City history and wider geography in The Cursed Earth, and John Wagner (often in collaboration with Alan Grant) shaped the city and introduced most of its key features and landmarks in a series of stories from about prog 110 onwards. In particular, they shifted the city from a 1950's-model where citizens lived a life of leisure served by robots, to a mass-unemployment scenario that parodied Thatcher's Britain of the early 1980's.
Nevertheless, Carlos Ezquerra planted the seed from which all of this grew.

Ironically, Ezquerra left the strip over the decision to give newcomer Mike McMahon the first published episode. I'd like to look at the artists who helped to define the look of the city during the years he was away; his return to Dredd with The Apocalypse War in Prog 245 is a useful stopping point.

I'm not going to try and talk about all the artists who drew Dredd in this period, just the ones who made contributions to the design of the Mega-City. This leads to some interesting omissions; for example, Brian Bolland, who is one of the all-time great Dredd artists, won't be discussed here as his talents lay in the direction of figure drawing and character expression rather than city design and world building.

Carlos Ezquerra

Carlos Ezquerra's seminal Mega-City pin-up from Prog 3
Judge Dredd © 2009 Rebellion Developments/2000AD
Judge Dredd created by John Wagner and Carlos Ezquerra

The co-creator of Judge Dredd (with writer John Wagner), Ezquerra came to 2000AD from sister publication Battle, where he'd been drawing WWII strips such as Major Easy. His dynamic drawing style, with its gritty rendering, along with his organic-looking "bubbly" future architecture, suggests a certain influence from French comics maestro Jean "Moebius" Giraud, and though I can't say for certain, it is fair to say that his work has a great deal in common with other Moebius-influenced European artists including Enki Bilal, Philipe Caza and Juan Giminez. Ezquerra was certainly the first to bring particular style to British comics.
It's hard these days to realize the impact that Ezquerra's designs had at the time. Though his Judge Dredd pilot strip was never published, the last page (a full-page view across the city) was used as a back-cover of Prog 3. I remember seeing this aged about eleven and it absolutely blew my mind. The sense of scale, the strangeness of the designs, the feeling of the future as a gritty, exotic place formed by unguessable processes, all of this generated an excitement I've rarely felt from comics or any other medium. Along with Italian Massimo Bellardinelli, Ezquerra dragged 2000AD away from the comfortable visual tropes of the 1950's and, importantly, gave it a signature visual style that distinguished it from the blocky, industrial designs of the recently-released Star Wars. That one page set a visual and imaginative standard for later creators to aspire to; ironically, as a leftover page from a rejected strip, it may be the most important piece of work Ezquerra ever did, and in its influence it may make him one of the most important artists in British comics in the last 30 years.


Mick (formerly Mike) McMahon

Left: a slightly primitive Ezquerra-style Hall of Justice from an early McMahon Dredd.
Right: a more developed "McMahon organic" style from The Day The Law Died.
Judge Dredd © 2009 Rebellion Developments/2000AD
Judge Dredd created by John Wagner and Carlos Ezquerra

Possibly the pre-eminent Judge Dredd artist, McMahon came up with the "big chin, big boots" look that defines the character to this day. He also had an aptitude for drawing the Mega-City environment, so his Dredd strips were notable for their inventive, richly detailed urban scenes and cityscapes. Of all the artists working on Dredd during its early years, McMahon is the one most responsible for carrying forward the distinctive environmental design ethic initiated by Carlos Ezquerra, and his city design - particularly his pepper-pot-shaped City Blocks - has become the "standard model" for later Dredd artists.

Classic late McMahon "pepperpot" cityblocks from The Judge Dredd Annual 1982.
Judge Dredd © 2009 Rebellion Developments/2000AD
Judge Dredd created by John Wagner and Carlos Ezquerra

McMahon's drawing style changed radically from year to year, so there are technically several versions of "his" Mega-city one. But I think it is possible, broadly, to talk about McMahon's Mega-City as follows: his earliest strips were strongly influenced by Carlos Ezquerra, and while McMahon's own drawing style begins asserting itself from Prog 12 (his first contribution to the Robot War storyline), his Mega-City architecture retains a certain amount of the Ezquerra "organic" look up to his final contributions to The Day The Law Died (Judge Cal).

Mid-Period McMahon from Judge Dredd Year 3
Judge Dredd © 2009 Rebellion Developments/2000AD
Judge Dredd created by John Wagner and Carlos Ezquerra

After that story, possibly as a result of a stint alternating with Kevin O'Neill on Ro-Busters, McMahon's Mega-City tends slowly to become more rectilinear, as does his art style. In his last episodes of Dredd* (the first two episodes of Block Mania), even McMahon's signature curvaceous "pepper-pot" City Blocks give a sense of being bolted together out of metal or concrete plates in a recognizable fashion - the earlier Ezquerra-style architecture just seems to have somehow grown out of the ground.
It's worth repeating that in terms of his influence on Dredd, McMahon is second only to Carlos Ezquerra. He rebuilt the character and his world so thoroughly that both his contemporaries and the generations of artists subsequent have followed his lead - even Carlos Ezquerra changed the way he drew Dredd when he returned to the character. As his entry in Judge Dredd: The Complete Case Files states: "...his importance to the comic (2000AD) cannot be overstated."
For further examples of McMahon's world-building (including better examples of his more rectilinear design), check out his work on Ro-Busters and The A.B.C. Warriors.

*When I say "last episodes", I mean that McMahon's tenure as a regular Dredd artist ceased after Block Mania. He has drawn a few episodes since, but a combination of dramatic changes to his art style and his apparent lack of interest in the character mean that these later episodes have been much less popular with the 2000AD readership. However, his long-term influence on the development of both Dredd and the Mega-City cannot be overestimated.

Ian Gibson

An amazingly detailed Gibson cityscape from The Robot Wars.
Judge Dredd © 2009 Rebellion Developments/2000AD
Judge Dredd created by John Wagner and Carlos Ezquerra

Now remembered mostly as artist on Robo-Hunter and 2000AD all-time high-point The Ballad Of Halo Jones, Ian Gibson was one of the most prolific of the early Dredd artists - he provided nearly half of all the Judge Dredd episodes between Progs 14 and 55 (20 out of 41 episodes*). Gibson's city design is distinctive and difficult to describe - his work has none of the Ezquerra "organic" look, but instead uses complex angles, multiple levels and a proliferation of detail to create rich and exciting future environments. His clean, elegant drawing is balanced by a lively, "bouncy" inking style that lends life to even inanimate objects (making him a perfect choice to draw robotic characters in Judge Dredd and later Robo-Hunter).
Gibson's work was a perfect compliment to McMahon's and from Prog 22 they alternated on Dredd, confirming the strip as the most visually exciting in 2000AD and setting a standard for the other strips to follow. This was the point where Dredd's popularity began to take off, so I think it's fair to say that Gibson was instrumental in helping establish Dredd as the stand-out strip in 2000AD.
If you want to see the very best of Ian Gibson's world-building though, I thoroughly recommend the first series of Robo-Hunter, where he really lets rip on the robot world of Verdus.
Ian Gibson continues to contribute occasional Dredd episodes to this day, making him the second longest-serving artist on the strip, after Carlos Ezquerra.

*total count and Prog numbers obtained by counting episodes in Judge Dredd: The Complete Case Files volume one. I'm prepared to stand corrected.



Ron Smith

Ron Smith's beautifully-rendered frontispiece to the Judge Dredd Annual 1981, with typical "tower block" style cityblocks.
Judge Dredd © 2009 Rebellion Developments/2000AD
Judge Dredd created by John Wagner and Carlos Ezquerra

An interesting one, this; Ron Smith is a veteran comic artist whose career goes back to the 1940's, and his city design is typical of the whole "future as the present with fins tacked on" approach that normally feels so dull and unimaginative in the Judge Dredd universe. Working against the revisionist vision of Future technology supplied by Ezquerra and McMahon, Smith's Mega-City is filled with Cityblocks that are 1970's skyscrapers on steroids; his citizens wear 20th Century suits with kneepads strapped on over the top; his cars are like 1950's automobiles with extra wheels (or none at all). Where the other Dredd artists show us an exotic future filled with strange sights, Smith's future parodies the world we know.
What makes it all work is the sheer exuberance with which Smith approaches his subject matter; where fellow comics veterans John Cooper and Barry Mitchell are obviously a bit out of their depth in the complex environment of The Big Meg, Smith dives in with gusto, piling on the detail to an extraordinary degree. That's why he's included here; although he's not really part of the new 2000AD future vision, he's created his own "evolutionary branch" of Mega-City design that's well worth a look.
Smith's drawing style is lively and energetic, and the streets of his Mega-City one seethe with activity in the way a big city should. His technological designs are a little old-fashioned looking, favouring 1950's-style details such as chrome headlights, metallic trims and fins, but are nevertheless imaginative, beautifully crafted and lovingly rendered. He's also a bit of a magpie; everything from Chris Foss concept designs to American supehero costumes are borrowed to add to the mix. Yet despite the complexity of his drawings, the storytelling is always clear. It's an astonishing technical feat.
What makes this all the more amazing is that Smith was also one of the most prolific Judge Dredd artists ever; for example, between his first appearance in 2000AD in Prog 104 and the start of The Apocalypse War (Prog 245) he drew just over half of all Dredd episodes (72 out of 140*). He also drew the Judge Dredd newspaper strip in The Daily Star. The sheer volume of his work means that he contributed many key episodes to Dredd's history (Cityblock 1-3, The Day The Law Died, The Judge Child, The Blood Of Satanus, Otto Sump and Chopper (Unamerican Graffiti) spring to mind).
Unfortunately, because of his rather retro approach, Smith has left little in the way of a lasting legacy in the world of Dredd, beyond individual characters (Otto Sump probably being the most frequently referenced). His work was shamefully under-represented in the old Titan Books Dredd reprints, though the new Complete Judge Dredd Case Files from Rebellion are finally making his work accessible to a new generation of readers.
*calculated by counting episodes listed in Smith's Wikipedia entry, 2nd April 2009.

Colin Wilson

Clean lines and European style: Colin Wilson's Judge Dredd
Judge Dredd © 2009 Rebellion Developments/2000AD
Judge Dredd created by John Wagner and Carlos Ezquerra

Though he worked on a relatively small number of Judge Dredd episodes in the period in question, Colin Wilson made a big impression. Also a devotee of French comics master Jean "Moebius" Giraud, Wilson took inspiration from the precise brushwork of Giraud's Blueberry western series.

A dab hand at the old perspective, our Colin.
Judge Dredd © 2009 Rebellion Developments/2000AD
Judge Dredd created by John Wagner and Carlos Ezquerra

His technological styling is post-Star Wars, possibly borrowing to some extent from Jodorowsky and Moebius' Incal Saga). The result was a striking and believable Mega-City, drawn in a precise, clean style that nevertheless implied plenty of grit and grime.

Wilson balances clean linework with a dramatic use of silhouettes
Judge Dredd © 2009 Rebellion Developments/2000AD
Judge Dredd created by John Wagner and Carlos Ezquerra

It's also well worth checking out Wilson's Rogue Trooper strips from the same period - in terms of envrionment design, these are, I think, stronger than the Dredds. Wilson went on to work in the French market, including working on several Young Blueberry Westerns, before returning to 2000AD with Rain Dogs and more Dredd in the late 1990's. There was a compendium of these later stories issued along with The Megazine a couple of months ago.

Steve Dillon

Dillon's double page spread of Orlok the assassin spreading Block Mania remains one of my favourite ever Dredd spreads.
Judge Dredd © 2009 Rebellion Developments/2000AD
Judge Dredd created by John Wagner and Carlos Ezquerra

Now better known for his work with Garth Ennis on Preacher, Steve Dillon came to Dredd following runs on SF strips such as Absolom Daak: Dalek Killer for Dr. Who Weekly and Laser Eraser and Pressbutton for Warrior magazine. A superb natural draughtsman who can turn his hand to just about anything, Dillon was careful to include definitive Mega-City details in his strips, such as Ezquerra's looped overhead roadways and McMahon's late-period "pepperpot" Cityblocks. His own future design shows a gritty post-Star Wars influence, and is convincingly realised. Dillon is important because his approach - of taking the wilder flights of Mega-City architecture and toning them down to fit a more conventional style of design while maintaining an integrated futuristic feel - has become one of the more popular approaches over the last twenty years or so, followed by artists as diverse as Colin McNeill and Paul Marshall.

Full Circle

Following Carlos Ezquerra's tour-de-force return to Judge Dredd with the twenty-five part Apocalypse War epic, the wheel had come full circle regarding Mega-City design. Writers John Wagner and Alan Grant had established the city as the urban Hell we know and love today, and a range of artistic models for Mega-City One had been tried. In short, all the big stuff had been invented, and for subsequent artists it was not so much a case of starting from scratch as picking an existing approach to work from.

Many artists have worked on Judge Dredd since, far too many for me to even do highlights, but the current generation of practitioners contain what, in my opinion, are two of the most exciting "city builders" of the last 20 years:
(Note: when I relate these guys to Ezquerra or McMahon, I'm identifying them with a style of design, not saying that they're copying that particular artist. As an example, I'd describe my own work as "post-Ezquerra" in this context)

Henry Flint

A typically magnificent cityscape from Henry Flint.
Judge Dredd © 2009 Rebellion Developments/2000AD
Judge Dredd created by John Wagner and Carlos Ezquerra

Following in the grand tradition of Mike McMahon, Flint's future design also shows a certain hyper-detailed Kev O'Neill influence, tempered by a sensibility all his own. His renderings of cityscapes and urban spaces are superb, with dramatic compositions and a terrific understanding of perspective and lighting. One of the few 2000AD artists whose work recreates the thrills of my childhood progs. His terrific Mega-City is to be found in Judge Dredd and early episodes of Lowlife, though for his greatest world-building efforts, try Shakara!

Dave Taylor

Who's the daddy? Spreads like this are the reason I rate Dave Taylor as the best current Mega-City artist.
Judge Dredd © 2009 Rebellion Developments/2000AD
Judge Dredd created by John Wagner and Carlos Ezquerra

Dave Taylor's Mega-City is another country; they do things differently there. He's taken the post-Ezquerra "bubbly" look and pushed it to its logical conclusion, then added a dash of William Gibson super-technology and some magic all his own. Delineated in clear line and lovely subtle European-style colouring, Taylor's Mega-City is an organic-looking techno-purgatory with streets full of bizarre citizens and weird phenomena, mapped out in bold compositions and cinematic lighting. His is the first version of the Mega-City to give me that same thrill of strangeness that I got from the original Ezquerra Dredd back in the 1970's.

The swine can even make back alleys look interesting.
Judge Dredd © 2009 Rebellion Developments/2000AD
Judge Dredd created by John Wagner and Carlos Ezquerra

You won't be surprised to hear that Dave's my current favourite designer of the Mega-City; every time I see his stuff I'm torn between outright admiration and utter jealousy that I can't come up with anything that cool.

(And with that, I'm stopping. This article isn't so much finished as abandoned; it was way more work than I expected, and despite omitting so much, it's eating into my working time and I've got to let sanity prevail. All I can say is, if there's an artist I've missed who you feel deserves recognition here, please leave a tribute to them in the comments.)