BEATNIKS BROADCASTIN' COMPANY: December 2010

First of a weeks worth of Russian and Eastern European films, mainly made before the collapse of the Iron Curtain ,I was curious to see this film after reading a post on The Red Dead Redemption forum about having the next Red Dead game set in the Russian Civil War in a Ostern setting (Ostern is a genre of cinema which ran parallel to the Western(It litrally translates as Eastern but set in parts of what became the Soviet Union , usually the films would be set durring the early 1920's) Red Dead Revolution does have a nice ring to it , perhaps you could have a descendent of Niko Belic as the protagonist , be cool if that happened but I think that most people are familiar with the western but still it would make a fascinating game.
This film apparently is the movie of choice for Cosmonauts just before they go into space, it wasn't released for years as they felt it may of offended Breznev but it turned out to be a big hit with him and went onto to be one of the most popular Russian films of all time.

In a years time the new Dredd film will be out , not sure just yet what to make of it as I've been following its progress .I'm sure it'll be much gritter than Stallones version (and much less corny), but from the props I've seen so far not as futuristic.

these vehciles that look more 20th Century than 22nd Century so it's somewhat confusing, if the flm was about Judge Fargo (Dredds Clone template Dad ) which would be set around 2030 then I could understand these vans been in the movie , perhaps they'll mess around with the wheels(fatten the tyres maybe) in cgi .. but the future don't look so high tech from these photos so far .. I like the idea of film been gritter and tougher but I hope that dosen't mean that also the futuristic look of the original comic will be sacrificed .. perhaps with each film(I think three have been planned we will see Mega City One expand and get more futuristic with each episode )..The film is not the only Dredd release I'll be looking forward too hopefully a game will come out too (I'm hoping for a sandbox style game much like GTA but been on the right side of the law ...there's plenty of things that could be incorporated into such a game such as Mega City itself, The Cursed Earth and the Under City..I doubt they'll be any Sky Surfing though (not this time around : )
If it's the same team that worked on the Rogue Trooper game it should be pretty good , I'd rather if game was a 3rd person , although Dredd Vs Death(A first person shooter) had it's moments I don't think it worked as well as Rogue .
Want to take this oppotunity to feature my 10 fave Dredd Artists over the years , (I'll feature a few videos If I can find them too , starting with Brian Bolland)

Brian as well as Brett Ewins and Al Williamson were the three artist I tried to copy as a 14 year old trying to learn to draw . I really enjoyed Brian's stories as I figured he drew Dredd the way I'd like to see him , but by the time I was reading 2000ad he had started working for DC but he did draw some wonderful covers for Eagle Comics (which reprinted many 2000ad stories in the 80's )plus much of his old stories were reprinted by Titan books , but here's much more about the man , when he gave a slideshow lecture at Saint Martins College .

Carlos is the guy who started it all (along with writers John Wagner and Pat Mills) but he was the man who came up with Dreddys uniform helmet bike , the city , the badass gun and he's still drawing him today , I read Origins again the other night now I want to re-read the other Ezquerra Dredd epics, The Apocalypse War,Necropolis and Helter Skelter , without Carlos there'd be no Dredd(Or Major Eazy ,Johnny Alpha or Rat Pack come to think of it )Here's the trailer to Origins , I'd like to see Fargos character explored more in time .I may draw a little fan strip myself about his early days on the streets of New York or Washington as work began to form the first Mega City.

Mike McMahon is the very first artist to have a Dredd story published (not sure who drew the first first strip though it may of been Carlos or it may of been John Cooper (Johnny Red/One Eye Jack Artist)but Mikes was the very first published way back in 1977 his first few stories were drawn much like how Carlos would of drawn the strips but he soon found his own style and man what a style , totally unique and always developing and changing , nothing like it had ever been seen before in British comics .. We can also thank Mike for getting Dredds Helmet and Uniform just right , the early stories the helmet was more rounded but his look evolved when Mike drew him .. Mike drew Dredd for a few more years and then moved onto Slaine book one which is reviewd in this video (his style of drawing evolved again )
he's an artist who dares to change styles with different stories.The nice thing is Mike has worked in America but sometimes returns to the Galaxy greatest comic now and again.

Talking of returning to 2000ad , here's another Dredd veteran who's returned recently Brendan McCarthy , whose trippy artwork is always pleasing to see . Not only has Brendan worked on comics but also movie storyboards , pop videos , cgi animation , adverts he get's about as you will see in this video , I guess he was inspired to some extent by McMahon , and in turn Jamie Hewlett(Tank Girl/Gorrilaz in very much inspired by McCarthy and Brett Ewins well in my view anyway ) , I guess inspiration is passed on from generation to generation

I've mentioned Brett here twice in this post already but I really like his work especially his work on PSI Judge Anderson ..another character that will be bought to life in the new movie , his style reminds me of the Jack Kirby/Steve Dikto era and again another artist whose style evolves constantly . He's probably most known for his work on a story called Bad Company which has been described as Frank Miller meets Battle Picture Libary (I guess that's a fair assessment )but you could say that story is like Apocalypse Now in space , now that would make a fine series of movies

Ian Gibson, here's another artist who again worked on some of the very first Dredd stories and from time to time graces the pages of 2000ad in the present , as you can see a very individual distinctive style , Ian would go onto work with Alan Moore on the 3 Ballad of Halo Jones books and also create with Dredd creator Sam Slade Robohunter , he also worked on Star Wars Droids series and Enemy of the Empire where Boba Fett scraps it out with Darth Vader .

Steve Dillion was seriously young when his first work was published in 2000ad I recall , I think he was only about 16 , since then he's gone onto great things most famously Preacher

Colin Macneil , Who I must confess prefer his more painterly Dredd to when someone else colours his drawings which has mainly been the case recently , He is best known for a story which Wagner wrote and he painted called America , which was more about the citizens living under the Justice Departments regime ,

the script matched the breathtaking artwork, certainly a landmark story . I suspect to paint such an epic in such detail is painstaking on the artist(paint costs alot too) , he's an artist I look at from time to time for inspiration, colour wise,working in photoshop is quicker in some ways and don't have to worry about buying paint , but certainly MacNeil is up there with all the other definate Dredd artists he captures the essence of Ezquerra and McMahon and brings it alive with colour .

Another painterly Dredd artist, first time I saw his art was an original at my local Libary in about 1982 , a really cool picture of Boba Fett and Cloud City (there was an exhibition of UK Marvel artwork at the time)In time I'd see more of John's paintings firstly on front covers of Transformers comics and then inside a Battlestar Galactica annual (at the time I didn't recognise that he also drew strips I thought he was just a cover artist but then I recognised his signature having studied his covers) John would render Dredd very realistically with flashes of brillant spacey colour , by the time 2000ad started printing full colour hand painted stories I would really look forward if John was going to illustrate the story .

The final Artist I will write about here today is Cam Kennedy , who I guess was the reason I started reading 2000ad all those years ago, I was reared originally on Battle picture weekly where Cams work would appear in complete stories as well as a few serials , the best of which was a story called Fighting Mann which was about a retired Colonel (Walter Mann )who is searching for his son who has gone missing durring the Vietnam War , it was the first time I ever heard of this war , usually war comics would concerntrate on World War 2 or The Korean War so this was something new , so it was an educational tool reading these comics at a tender age (you have to remember I was about 6 or 7 at the time) Cam would work for Battle as well as 2000ad for a few years the first time I saw his Sci Fi work was when my Dad bought me the wrong comic , this comic turned out to be prog 280 of 2000ad which Cam drew a Rogur Trooper story entitled "Hats Off to Helm" , well that was it I was a fan! Cam would later go onto illustrate Dredd illustrating The classic Midnight Surfer storyline as well as many others , he's probably most famous in the States for The Light and Darkness War , Star Wars Dark Empire and a few Boba Fett stories , I think he's just retired but somehow I think he'll be back if your that talented I imagine it's hard to stop..Here's a short documentary which features Cam and Dredd writer Alan Grant's take on Jeckle and Hyde.