On This Day…20 Years Ago:Meet The Missionary Man!

Part Clint Eastwood in Unforgiven,part Robert Mitchum from Night Of The Hunter;except rather than a reverend-turned-serial killer,Preacher Saul Cain has left behind his life as as corrupt Texas-City Judge,responsible for murdering dozens of innocent mutant civilians during the city’s “purges“,to bring the Word of God to the unbelievers and law to the lawless in the Badlands of the Cursed Earth.

Missionary Man:Salvation At The Last Chance Saloon(Judge Dredd Megazine 2.29,29May-11Jun’93).Gordon Rennie(w).Frank Quitely(a).

Cover art:Frank Quitely.

stomm2000ad:

Mean-Machine Angel is one of those rare beasts in Judge Dredd’s world:a recurring villain who can actually give the Lawman a run for his money.

So much so,that needing Mean’s brutality and knowledge of the terrain,the Judges are willing to risk hypnotising him in order to locate some stolen clone-tanks housing infant Judges,in the vicinity of the Texas-City radlands.

“Dredd Angel”(Prog377,4Aug’84)art:Ron Smith;Complete Judge Dredd#37,art:Frank Quitely;Prog380(25Aug’84),art:Ron Smith;CJD#38,art:Frank Quitely

mosesgunn:

Missionary Man

Good as Quitely’s later stuff is, the Missionary Man and Hondo City strips he did are still some of my favorites.

Missionary Man now collected in a new graphic novel, and his Hondo City work has got a US collection. Both are must-bys for Quitely fans, and those who love comics too.

Comics Bulletin have reviewed the Hondo City Law graphic novel:

Take classic Japanese samurai epics like Lone Wolf and Cub, mix them into futuristic anime like Akira, then stuff the whole thing into Judge Dredd’s 2000 AD world of Mega Cities and Judges, and you have Hondo City Law.

Japan’s futuristic Hondo City – named for unfathomable reasons other than it “sounded Japanese” — was created by John Wagner in the Judge Dredd story “Our Man in Hondo” (included in this collection), along with the samurai-judge Inspector Totaro Sadu. Sadu and Hondo never appeared again until up-and-coming writer Robbie Morrison was offered the chance to write some stories for 2000 AD. Morrison resurrected one of his favorite stories from the past and created the story arc of rogue-judge Shimura and his protégé Judge Inspector Aiko Inaba.

As Judge Dredd was based on Clint Eastwood, Morrison based his Japanese Judge Shimura on acting legend Mifune Toshiro (Seven Samurai, Yojimbo), and gave him a villain in the form of the cyber-cult Deus X who believe it is man’s ultimate destiny to merge with machines. Shimura is a blend of old-fashioned and futuristic, carrying a hand-forged Wakizashi short sword and laser shuriken.

…

Morrison got everything spot-on with Hondo City Law. I lived in Japan for several years, have seen more than my fair share of Japanese action flicks, and I tend to be hyper-critical of Western writers imitating only the superficial aspects of Japan without the depth. Not here. Morrison’s stories were brilliant, and my only disappointment is that this is not Hondo City Law: Volume 1. I very much want more stories.

The art is equally impressive. There are four artists here, all of them different, all of them good. Colin MacNeil illustrates the original Hondo City story in fully-painted loveliness. Two of the stories, “Shimura” and “Babes with Big Bazookas”, have early Frank Quitely art that is just phenomenal. I found that I actually liked this Quitely art better than his current stuff which has become heavily stylized. Andy Clarke does “Executioner” and “Deus X”. This was the first time I had seen Clarke’s art, and I loved it. He has a realistic style similar to Travis Charest. The last story, “Hondo City Justice”, was drawn by Neil Googe and was my least favorite. He used a “manga style” that was fitting to the subject matter but was out of step with the style of the other Hondo City tales.

More.

mosesgunn:

Missionary Man

Frank Quietly

The first volume of the collected editions is out now.

the-emperor:

OK here is the video mentioned in the last post, you get a brief view of Vampire Vixens at 7:35.

Well, it wouldn’t be a documentary about the Scottish and comics, without a mention of 2000 AD - for that, jump to 15 minutes.

Broken Frontier continue their reviews with Hondo-City Law:

Robbie Morrison, co-creator of beloved 2000AD characters like Nikolai Dante and Shakara, has created a shiny yet dark reflection of a Mega City in Hondo-City. A place perfect on the outside but rotten on the inside, the only force for good are the Judges and even there corruption is present in the highest ranks. Hondo-City Law collects a variety of stories, all born in the streets of Hondo-City.

Our Man in Hondo recollects the first meeting of Judge Dredd and Judge Inspector Sado (who would later play a pivotal rol in one of Dredd’s multi-arc events). Sado is Dredd’s perfect reflection in another part of the world, Clint Eastwood versus Toshiro Mifune. Written by Dredd’s co-creator and main chronicler John Wagner, it is a stunning game of chess (well… chess with robots, explosions and rogue sleeper agents) between the two seemingly perfect Judges, trying to find the crack in each others harness. They find themselves to be two Judges riding the same bleeding sharp knife of the law but on different edges of the blade, who will crack and who will turn out victorious? Colin MacNeill paints it all in hues that are bright and grungy at the same time, topping off the inner duel to perfection.

Next up is Shimura spotlighting Hondo-City’s other top cop, Judge Shimura, accompanied by cadet Judge Aiko Inaba, who take on a cybernetic corporate entity bend on dominating the Japanese megacity. The story is a nice mix of action and cyberpunk with some Japanese storytelling mixed in, but is especially noteworthy for deepening the dark underbelly of the Judges in Hondo-City, revealing questionable ethics for the sake of profit and ties to the Yakuza underworld. Glimpses of the dark beast beneath the shining pavements of Hondo-City. It also features one of the earliest published works of current superstar artist Frank Quitely. From the start his excellent  sense of staging and space is apparent. His clean style is spot on for Hondo-City’s antiseptic streets, while his posed and transfixed figurework and facial characteristics exemplifies the inner troubles of being a Judge in Hondo-City.

…

Hondo-City Law is an action fest TPB full of double ententes, shady ethics and ofcourse uncompromising characters in a shady world where nothing works as good as a big explosion. The clean Japanese counterpart of the American Mega Cities is highly recommended as a visiting place in all tourist destination packages in the worlds of 2000AD!

bluedragonninja:

Judge inspector inaba

A successful spin-off from Shimura, this is the art for the cover to Judge Dredd Megazine 3.32 by Frank Quitely.

Leigh Gallagher will be attending the MCM Expo this weekend and will be bringing some lovely Defoe prints with him (like the above):

Helloooooooo…….OK, so even though I’m smack bang in the middle of moving house, I’m still coming to this weekend’s LONDON MCM EXPO!!! Not been for a couple years and really looking forward to it.

I have my own table in the Comic Village for Saturday, where as usual, I’ll be doing free head sketches and giving grooming tips. On the merchandise front, I’ll have some copies of the original Defoe collection ( still awaiting Book 2 out in October!), BUT ALSO I’ve permission from the great THARG himself to do limited edition prints of some of my favourite 2000AD covers!

Each A3 print is on shiny, shiny card stock and limited to only 25 copies, priced at £10 each, all signed and numbered by me. Once you buy it, you’re free to frame it, or glue it to your chest, or eat it in a sandwich….up to you!

He has a complicated timetable so if you want to catch him (and marvel at his luxuriant hair) then he has everything listed on his blog.

There is a strong 2000AD showing and you can catch droids of the present and past there, including Frank Quitely, Rufus Dayglo, Warren Ellis and Lee Townsend.

On the April 9th 2011, Guinness World Records got themselves down to London’s Kapow Comic Con to oversee the attempt for ‘most contributors to a comic book’ with an impressive 62 artists in total! The team also got the record for ‘fastest production of a comic book’ at 11 hours 19 mins and 38 seconds. We also managed to catch up with a few comic book legends to present them with some records for their achievements…

A number of droids and ex-droids contributed, including: Mark Millar, Frank Quitely, Steve Yeowell and Dave Gibbons, Steve Yeowell, all lettered by Jim Campbell (who wrote The Inspectre for the Megazine with Kev Walker).