Comments on: Comics: A Beginner’s Guide: SF

By: Martin Skidmore

Martin Skidmore — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 22:20:28 +0000

I like Esquerra, and I agree with what you say. I picked out a couple of favourites, but I do see him as the definitive Dredd artist, the one who most defines the look of the character for me.

That’s another interesting point – anyone’s idea of a definitive artist on any character or title can vary, and it often isn’t the best or first or favourite. Herb Trimpe is my idea of the definitive Hulk artist, though Jack Kirby fits the other three criteria. That’s just longevity, obviously, but it is often more complicated than that.

By: a logged-out pˆnk s lord whatnot

a logged-out pˆnk s lord whatnot — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 15:33:53 +0000

*scrabbles around for potato-related joke but it is too hot*

By: chap

chap — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 15:30:21 +0000

No mention of Ezquerra in the list of quintessential Dredd artists? He seems to be often unfairly dismissed as a journeyman, but he’s a fantastic storyteller with a real solidity to his work.

By: Martin Skidmore

Martin Skidmore — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 12:41:58 +0000

I think there is a collection, in the Dredd Case Files imprint, of Ro-Busters or ABC Warriors later in the year. If so, I will be grabbing it instantly.

By: Tom

Tom — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 22:09:48 +0000

I think the superhero trappings of Nexus were there to sell it to the direct market – notably, every time they revive the property the first story is a fairly straightforward superhero one. But once the main run of the series gets going it’s certainly as much sci-fi as superheroics: the stuff I remember is all the business with the heads, the Gucci assassins, the Gravity Well plotline etc.

ABC Warriors I think is in print, but tread carefully as there’s a LOT of rubbish later stories around.

I think they should rush out a RO-JAWS collection to cash in on the success of Wall-E, too. There was some marvellously demented stuff in Ro-Busters.

By: Martin Skidmore

Martin Skidmore — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 22:00:12 +0000

I bought all the Nemesis volumes, and while there is some really terrible stuff later on (a photo story!), there is some good stuff too, I thought. Is there an ABC Warriors collection in that series yet?

Gosh, I haven’t thought about Nexus in ages – it was very good, yes. I tend to think of it as more or less a superhero strip, really.

By: Tom

Tom — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 17:49:42 +0000

re Nemesis – it’s honestly not that worth bothering with the second collection (god help us if there’s a third too) – once past Book IV: The Gothic Empire (which was intended to be the first and only Nemesis story) the strip nosedives a bit, though Brian Talbot’s art is still pretty nice. I’d recommend getting Pat Mills’ other big 2000AD sci-fi story, The ABC Warriors, which though it never comes close to meshing into any kind of overall plot has enough gonzo inventiveness to be pretty much the definition of thrill-power: magnificent O’Neill and McMahon art too.

My favourite American SF series is Mike Baron and Steve Rude’s Nexus, about an existential superpowered future assassin – Rude’s super-streamlined hi-gloss art is part of the appeal but the comic is enormously charming and slyly intelligent too, a mix of 50s space opera, tongue-in-cheek Nivenish culture-building and 80s smarts and cynicism. And it builds at least two or three coherent 30-plus issue plots without making a big song and dance about it or ever seeming particularly saggy: even the apparently indulgent detours end up relevant.