| Home
¦ News ¦ 2000AD News Round
Up 10/12/03
News Round-Up:
10 December 03
 Eric
Moore does his bit for the site and reports on Dreddcon 4
Dreddcon Thoughts
An amazingly short
1 hour 45 minute car ride from darkest Kent to Oxford was a pretty good portent.
Myself and buddy Ian (Captain Skank on the big site) had breakfast and got to
venue at about 9.45.
There already
was a smattering of folk so it was the usual "should I know you, is he a
message boarder?" sort of thing up until 10.00 and the start of the event.
Except it didn't start – and didn't start until about 10.20 in the end I
think, with more folk arriving all the time.
Once in, clutching
the freebie Heroclix figures, it was up to the top room. We were pretty much the
first to arrive and the only Droids in the there to begin with were Simon Davis
and Steve Yeowell. Simon did Ian a dead nice Dexter and we had a good natter over
his techniques. I'm not a fan of Simon's style but I can appreciate his talent
and he's a real nice guy to boot.
Steve Yeowell
produced a cracking Robot Archie and we had a nice chat about various things,
including Jack Staff and artists sensitivity to criticism (kind of pertinent with
the latest Dredd tale). Mike Collins had arrived by then so it was a Laser Eraser
for me and a Pressbutton for Ian. Mike also had photocopies of the first part
of "American Gothic" – a supernatural Western written by Ian Edginton.
Jaw-droppingly good art, in my mind the best of Mike's work I've seen. Such a
shame we have to wait till next summer for it.
Next up, Dom Reardon
and a chance for me to finally buy a piece of his art – Hannah facing off
against Demon-Jenny in Cabalistic. He also did me (and I reckon about 75% of the
folk there) an excellent Hannah Chapter.
Jock was alongside
with loads of original art – including his Shako pin-up from Prog 2004,
which Ian bought on sight (he was going to ask Jock for a sketch of the beastie
but this was far better) and his Batman pin-up from an upcoming Legends Of The
Dark Knight. I had in mind to ask for a Bat-sketch and the fella certainly didn’t
disappoint. Ian got a Rico Dredd, which is similar to the mug art but a lot meaner.
Grabbed a sandwich had a few beers and met up with a messageboard acquaintance
then it was back to the top room.
Have to say here
that this year's bash had the same problem as last years. I'd loved to have seen
the talks of course but I'm a bit of a sketch collector and try to get one from
each artist if possible. Trouble is there's just so many Droids at these events,
each taking their time and having a natter while drawing that it eats into the
day big-time. And so it was here – we were having such a good time waiting
in line for sketches that we missed everything. Would have been nice to seen them
but I figured the talks would be detailed on the messageboards so I could catch
up there.
Ian Gibson had gone by now which was a disappointment but the queue for Carlos
Ezquerra was only half the length of the room so it was into that.
Carlos had, quite
rightly, the biggest queues of the day and as we got nearer we could see he was
getting more and more tired. I asked him for a Durham Red but he said he was tired
and would I mind a Dredd or Alpha? Course not – asked for an Alpha which
turned out superb and, while sketching, Carlos said how pleased he was that seventies
boys comics were finally getting the recognition they deserved and what a blast
it was to draw ex-Judge Coburn. A follow-up tale is in the pipes folks.
Boo Cook was a
lot of fun and a blast to talk to. He produced his first ever Hershey for me and
what a sweetie she is too. Pull your finger out Tharg and give the fella a Dredd
commission now!
Spent the last
part of the day in the bar making full use of the pound a pint offer and attending
the not too successful auction. Can’t help feeling if some original art
rather than sketches were offered then there'd have been more takers.
So, a great day
that went so fast it was untrue. The usual mix of friendliness, camaraderie, outrageous
comments and scandalous rumour. It was also interesting this time to note an obvious
distinction becoming apparent between those who were there because they're fans
of 2000 AD and want to meet the folk and maybe take mementoes home with them,
and those who consider it an opportunity to profit from the event by selling stuff
on. Shame.
Eric Moore
So What's
New?
Much stuff was
announced/rumoured at the con, so after a trawl through the messageboards, here's
what we've managed to come up with. Thanks/apologies to all those on the 2000AD
messageboard for the info!
If anybody thinks
we've missed anything or if any of the below is all just bollocks, please contact
us at the usual address: gavinhanly@dsl.pipex.com.
- The return of
Tyranny Rex by John Smith & Steve Yeowell
- The return of
Invasion/Bill Savage set 3 years after the end of the first series
- The return of
Chopper in Spring, running over 10 issues.
- Ian Edginton and
Mike Collins on American Gothic, A supernatural western (see above)
- John Wagner and
Carl Critchlow on a Cursed Earth story, and a Dredd story featuring Dredd, his
Clone, Rico and Vienna
- An all "Dredd's
world" Megazine for the first 4 issues next year
- Next year will
be the last year of seasonal relaunches. Allegedly. And there may be another page
size change for the weekly.
- A sequel to the
Judge Coburn Megazine story from Rennie and Ezquerra is in the offing
Updated
- more from Eric Moore:
- The Caballistics
spin-off featuring an earlier Dept Q would be set in the early 30's, maybe featuring
a badly scarred Biggles and would be drawn by Frazer Irving. Great as that sounds,
it's no more than an idea - Gordon hasn't written anything yet and it only exists
as a pitch he sent to Tharg.
- Ditto with the
Shako strip - maybe Tharg is waiting to see the reaction to the pin-up?
- Also quite surprised
to hear from both Dom and Gordon that neither knows how Caballistics will end!
- Rufus Dayglo is
doing "Whatever happened to to Giant", catching up with the original
Harlem Heroes legend. Hopefully my badgering of him to put Artie Gruber into a
panel will pay off...
There must
be more. Let us know!!
Check
the forum for more news updates |
