The Gronkinator Gets Gronked!
The once timid,metal-eating,furry little alien known as The Gronk,former medic to Strontium Dog,Johnny Alpha has a change of heartses after evil scientists set homicidal robotic versions of himself on him and his friends,in Return of The Gronk(Progs817-24,9Jan-27Feb’93).Script:Garth Ennis
Brilliant cover(Prog817,9Jan’93)and designs by former art droid,Nigel Dobbyn
Swift Justice!
Former art droid,Nigel Dobbyn’s fantastic commission piece of Judge Shadow,dark counterpart to Sonic the Hedgehog.
First published in 2000AD Progs897-99(22July-5Aug’94),Strontium Dogs “Crossroads” was important as we first hear of the Gothking,uncle to Jayem D’ma the Gothlord,who Red executed on the “Island of the Damned”(see previous post).
The Gothking has taken a contract out on Red’s life and being a keen hunter is determined to have her head on his wall..
It’s a shame Nigel Dobbyn gives Red such a dodgy “poodle” haircut as he’s a great artist,reminiscent of Alan Davis and draws exquisitely bizarre mutants especially the transmogrification of Feral(see above).
FutureQuake Press have just announced the release of Dogbreath #24 which includes the sixth Sun and Moon story “Reservation Dogs” that I wrote and the sublimey talented James Feist drew. The spectacular Gronk cover is courtesy of Nigel Dobbyn who also writes and draws a Gronk story inside, it brings the days of the Gronkinator flooding back.
Zarjaz #12 is also out with a cracking cover from my Vampire Vixens collaborator Alex Ronald (his big return to drawing Dredd for a comic in 10 years and, despite his years working on the title in 2000 AD, his first cover for the character):
These are the Strontium Dog and 2000AD fanzines (respectively) and are jam-packed with thrills, I can guarantee it as I worked as script consultant on both of these comics, although not every story had my beady eye cast over them (as the FQP chaps try and work quite a way in hand) enough of them have my mucky metaphorical fingerprints on them for me to feel especially pleased at the results (I did get a script consultant credit for Zarjaz #11 but really I arrived after most of the scripts had been greenlit, so I feel these two are really the first ones I had a lot of input into and I’m suitably proud of the results).
Don’t forget that in the latest batches of releases there is also FutureQuake #18, an anthology of Future Shock-style stories with this blinding cover by Neil Ford:
So you should pop over to the FQP shop and get the chaps to bundle up all three of them for you into one envelope to save on shipping, or keep an eye out for them at any number of cons throughout the rest of the year (I believe Birmingham and ThoughtBubble will be two big ones they like to attend).
2000 AD Covers Uncovered takes a look at two covers for the 2000 AD fanzines Zarjaz and Dogbreath (both of which were nominated for an Eagle Award this year). First up, the cover to the next issue of Zarjaz by Alex Ronald:
Those Zarjaz boys are back and boy, are they back in style! They’ve kept to their policy of commissioning 2000AD droids to produce fantastic wraparound covers for their fine fanzines, with absolutely dazzling results. Big names cover artists of the past include Colin MacNeil, Leigh (phwooor) Gallagher, Clint Langley, PJ Holden, Richard Elson and Dave Kendall. This time we’re treated covers from the brilliant Alex Ronald and the wonderful Nigel Dobbyn.
First, let’s look at Alex’s amazing cover for Zarjaz 12. Quite simply, it’s gorgeous; if this were on a prog, it would easily bag my cover of the year (and we’ve had some stunners this year.) Done very much in the style of Alex’s Crackdown 2 comic and his brilliant Vampire Vixens of the Wehrmacht tale for Wasted, it’s a digital masterpiece.
For Nigel Dobbyn’s Dogbreath cover and more goodies, you’ll have to pop on over there.
If you look at Alex Ronald and Nigel Dobbyn’s 2000 AD credits you’ll see a long history of working on Dredd and Strontium Dog (and their spin-offs) respectively (a good slice of Nigel’s run with Feral and the Gronk having been recently collected in Judge Dredd Megazine supplements). So, even though they are no longer at the House of Tharg, they still haven’t lost their love for the characters and stories.
Dogbreath is proud to announce that Nigel Dobbyn will once again be chronicling the adventures of the Gronk! Dogbreath 24 will not only see the second part of ‘Small Universe’ but Nigel is also providing the cover for the issue as well.
Given Nigel’s recent reprints appearing from Rebellion don’t miss out on this chance to see a classice 2000 AD artist revisiting this classic serial!
Check out the Meg supplements in Judge Dredd Megazine #305 and 306 for Nigel’s earlier work on the character.
Droid Nigel Dobbyn made the character of The Gronk his own in a run of Strontium Dogs stories written by Garth Ennis (reprinted in the current Megazine and the previous one). Now he has returned to the character in the Strontium Dog fanzine Dogbreath, and he has created this scrotnig cover for the next issue:
Finished wraparound cover for Dogbreath fanzine - Dogbreath logo to be added.
