Judge Dredd: Time's Squared

Page one of Judge Dredd: Time's Squared - sans lettering, you can make out my name-checks in panel one: the Shane Oakley block and the G.N Reid Underzoom.
Judge Dredd © 2007 Rebellion/2000AD
Judge Dredd created by John Wagner & Carlos Ezquerra

Prog 1551 flopped onto my mat this morning, bearing Judge Dredd: Time's Squared, the third part of Ian Edginton's & my time traveller stories. This is my first 2000AD story in colour*, which let me get a bit more experimental in places (I had a very tentative go at doing some Stickleback-style stuff in colour on page 3), though I'm not sure if my attempt to pastiche Carlos Ezquerra's photoshop colouring on page 4 really comes across.

My only sadness was that my little nods to my mates Shane Oakley and Graeme Reid (who provided much of the reference for this strip while I was away from home) in panel one of page 1 ended up covered with lettering; but those are the breaks, I guess. Knowing how this stuff goess, I put backup mentions in page 4, and I present page one here without lettering.

*I was surprised to realize this, but it's true; I've done full-colour strips for The Megazine, and colouring on other people's work for 2000AD itself, but never the full deal before now.

I spent ages on the effects in this panel, so here it is without lettering.
Judge Dredd © 2007 Rebellion/2000AD
Judge Dredd created by John Wagner & Carlos Ezquerra

A Treat For Mangamax...

More from Judge Dredd: Time's Squared; this time from a panel featuring the Robot Wars and the original small-chinned, skull-helmetted Judge Dredd.

I've always said that I love drawing Dredd so much because he's the only character I've worked on that I also read as a child; a double thrill then, to draw the exact Dredd I remember from that time (the first copy of 2000AD I ever read was number 11, containing the second episode of Robot Wars, albeit drawn by Ron Turner and not Mike McMahon, who I'm pastiching here).

This job has also been an excellent excuse to spend time reading old Dredd stories under the excuse of "reference." I was a tad hampered by the fact that I was in Edinburgh and my books were still in Nottingham, so many thanks to Graeme Neil Reid of this parish for helping me out with reference for the early Dredd stories.

I don't usually get advance notification of when a story will see print, but I'll keep an eye on my subscription copies and post as soon as it comes through.

Departing The Cupboard Of Doom

First things first - I've already packed me Daleks

All good things come to an end, and our sojourn in Edinburgh is due to end a week today. With the move rushing up on us, it's probably best for me to announce a "planned outage" until, say 15th July. The removal men delivered an unfeasable number of cardboard boxes this afternoon, and I've already packed my Daleks. Only 9,999 books to go...

Meanwhile, in an attempt to liven up a post that's likely to be around for a while, I thought I'd share some of the character sketches I did for Judge Dredd: Time's Squared.

Judge Dredd in the manner of Carlos Ezquerra from 1981
Judge Dredd © 1981, 2007 Rebellion/2000AD
Judge Dredd created by John Wagner and Carlos Ezquerra

Although only glimpsed fleetingly, the story features Dredd at various points in his history; I did character sketches of some of them so I could make Dredd look properly in period. Above is my analysis of Carlos Ezquerra's Dredd from The Apocalypse War (1982). I found this Dredd particularly fascinating as it's Carlos's first time drawing the character since he drew the very first Dredd story back in 1977, and he's radically altered the way he draws the character to accommodate the changes made by subsequent artists (most notably Mike McMahon).

I was a massive Carlos fan in my very early teens (when Strontium Dog started), and as a result of copying his drawings back then I can still do a reasonable pastiche of his rendering style; in fact when I did the panel set in The Apocalypse War, it was incredibly easy to slip back into those old drawing habits from nearly thirty years ago.
Analysing his stuff in detail has given me a renewed appreciation for his work, and at some point I'll do something about him on the lines of the Belardinelli appreciation from last month.

(Thanks due to Graeme Neil Reid of this parish for his help finding me reference for some of Dredd's other early adventures.)

Below are character sketches for the various iterations of Herbert George Sewell; with the exception of a new tank for The Brain, this is not so much character design as note-taking to remind myself what I did last time; it is, after all, eighteen months since I drew the last time traveller story...

Various iterations of Herbert George Sewell
Herbert George Sewell © 2007 Rebellion/2000AD
Herbert George Sewell created by Ian Edginton and Me.

Herbert George Sewell © 2007 Rebellion/2000AD
Herbert George Sewell created by Ian Edginton and Me.

Herbert George Sewell © 2007 Rebellion/2000AD
Herbert George Sewell created by Ian Edginton and Me.

Dredd Again, Again

Pencils from Judge Dredd: Time's Squared, the latest part of our Time Traveller sequence.
Judge Dredd © 1977, 2007 Rebellion/2000AD.
Herbert George Sewell created by Ian Edginton & me.

Some actual stuff about comics this time; much to my delight, I'm working on Judge Dredd once again. It's a one-off story written by Ian Edginton, another instalment in the occasional adventures of our unfortunate time traveller H.G. Sewell.

In 2004's Tempus Fugitive, Sewell arrives in Mega-City One from the nineteenth century and is busted by Dredd after testing positive for sugar, tobacco and caffeine. Things take a turn for the worse for him in Time Again (2005), when two of his future selves come back in time to bust him out of jail; Dredd not only defeats them but goes back in time to seize the original Sewell before he can build his time machine. The story ends up with four Sewells in the iso-cubes, one of them a hideous cyborg and one a brain in a tank!

In this story, the four escape from the cubes to seek revenge on Dredd. The story takes in various periods from Dredd's past (so I get to draw lots of cool stuff from my childhood) plus a there are nods to Doctor Who and even The Goodies :-)

Judge Lola from Tempus Fugitive (left) and with her new hairdo in the forthcoming Time's Squared (right).
Judge Dredd & Judge Lola © 2004, 2007 Rebellion/2000AD.

I also get to draw a favourite character of mine, the obscure but divine Judge Lola, who first appeared in Tempus Fugitive. I like Lola because she's un-typical for a strip like Dredd; she's a woman, she's black and, most importantly, she's quite stocky. There is, after all, no reason why all female judges should look like swimwear models...