The Forbidden Planet International Blog Log

(Classic Carlos Ezquerra Mega City skyscape. From 2000AD prog 03, 1977.)

You know, even if D’Israeli wasn’t a fabulously talented artist and a genuinely nice bloke, his blog would STILL be worth reading for some of the enthralling posts he puts up concerned with the actual craft of comics and the thoughts that go behind the process.

Take, for example, this last post: All The Joy I See Through These Architect’s Eyes. It starts thus:

Working on Lowlife, with its Mega-City One setting freed from the presence of Judge Dredd, I found myself thinking about the city and its place in the Dredd/2000AD franchise. And it occurred to me that, really, the city is the actual star of Judge Dredd. I mean, Dredd himself is a man of limited attributes and predictable reactions. His value is giving us a fixed point, a window through which to explore the endless fountain of new phenomena that is the Mega-City. It’s the Mega-City that powers Judge Dredd, and Judge Dredd that has powered 2000AD for the last 30 years.

And after that D’Israeli masterfully takes us through generations of Mega City architecture and design, looking at the work of seminal Mega City artists; Ezquerra, McMahon, Gibson, Smith, Wilson, Dillon and then highlighting a few of the current crop of Mega City artists. It’s a fascinating, intelligent and illuminating article and, like many in the comments of D’Israeli’s post, I think this should get more recognition – perfect for inclusion in the Megazine.

D’Israeli is currently working on Lowlife: Creation, written by Rob Williams. His work with Ian Edginton has been reviewed here, here and here and you can next see his work included in the April release of Torchwood: Riftwar, a collection of comic pages from the Official Torchwood Magazine, which also features Ian Edginton, Paul Grist and Simon Furman.