The two-part Judge Dredd story by Chris Weston and I started in this week’s 2000AD #1888. It’s called ‘The Heart Is A Lonely Klegg Hunter’ (a nod to the Carson McCullers novel) and follows Sensitive Klegg as he attempts to integrate himself into Mega City One life. And Chris, along with Mike Dowling on interior colours, made it look absolutely glorious.
That’s the cover to this week’s #1889 actually, with Chris colouring himself. Here’s some of the’ insanely detailed interior pages in B&W (I don’t have Mike’s coloured final pages to hand).
Love how he gets the mix of making it all look dynamic and world-immersive, but never forgets the character. The pathos of Sensitive Klegg. I do like a bit of pathos. I guess Klegg is similar to Dirty Frank in that respect – Frank make a wee cameo here too. The first time we’ve seen him since Trifecta, and he seems a bit preoccupied with something. Hmmm…
Sensitive Klegg seems such a strong, memorable character purely due to his concept. The Kleggs, his race, are hugely carnivorous, man-eating, terrifying aliens long established in Dredd’s world. So flipping that on its head to make a Klegg who’s the opposite and good natured and loves literature and is just… sensitive is a fun idea. I’m sure a lot of writers do the easy trick of trying to look at the status quo of something and reversing it.
What’s weird about coming up with a character like Sensitive Klegg is that he wasn’t planned. I was writing Dirty Frank exploring LUNA-2 in Trifecta and a Klegg security guard seemed a startling page-turn cliff-hanger. Then I thought it’d be funny to make him a bit dim and trusting. No great plan. No deep thought. Sometimes stuff just sort of appears on the page and you’re surprised how well it works. Dirty Frank was similar. Aimee Nixon was the star of Low Life, Frank a background character made up on the spot. But he clicked straight away and seemed to demand more ‘screen’ time.
And, re-reading ‘The Heart Is A Lonely Klegg Hunter’ I’m pretty pleased with how it mixes comedy, character work and pathos in a short, sharp area (six pages for episode one). The initial concept was suggested by Chris Weston during a phone conversation – what if Trapper Hag hunted Sensitive Klegg? We suggested it to Matt Smith, 2000AD’s editor. He said that Hag wasn’t available and suggested we use The Hunters Club instead (“shouldn’t that have an apostrophe?”). That’s the set-up. Then it was a case of making Klegg-y so downtrodden and sympathetic that readers would care about him when The Hunters Club come calling. Part of writing – and trying to do the job well – is manipulating readers. Make them feel something for a character before you do bad things to them. Make readers hate a character and really want them to get their come-uppance. If you’re making the readers feel *something* then you’re probably on the right track.
Also released this week – in its entirety – was the six-issue Infinite Comics mini-series THANOS: A GOD UP THERE LISTENING from Marvel. This was written by me and drawn by a team of artists, ranging from the storyboard guys on layouts – Mast & Geoffo, Daniel Govar – to the finishing artists – Iban Coello, Neil Edwards and Paco Diaz. The Infinite Comics process was new to me. I wrote the scripts ‘Marvel style’ when normally I write full script. Marvel-style means I would write the plot for each issue’s 60 screens, and write some placement dialogue. Then the storyboard guys broke the issue down into layouts, then the finishing artists work over their layouts. Finally I come in at the end to rework dialogue to better fit the ‘animated’ feel of the screens as they progress.
Images via my CBR interview on the book, which you can find here: http://www.comicbookresources.com/?page=article&id=53716
It’s huge fun writing any big Marvel icon, obviously. I’ve read their comics all my life. And Thanos means you get to indulge your meglomaniac side with dialogue like “I have not schooled you enough in the high learning of hatred.” You know, gritty, everyday banter… The plot involves Thanos fighting a war against EGO THE LIVING PLANET (I think he deserves upper caps). This guy. He seems nice.
Monsters at war…
Which brings us to Thane, the unfortunate son of Thanos. It’s his journey here, really. The poor guy has discovered that he has a father, and that father just happens to be this reality’s greatest monster. And when this realisation hit, Thane’s powers activated and he accidentally killed every living soul in the city he’d previously called home. Thane is determined not to become his father, so he heads off across the galaxy to find the truth about Thanos, to see who this Titan was, so he can ensure that he does NOT follow down that path. It’s a tragedy, albeit with some big cosmic battle-y fun in the Thanos and Ego war. But, again, if I’m doing my job right hopefully you care for Thane here. He didn’t ask for this. His battle throughout is retaining his sanity when faced with concepts like a genocidal monster in love with death and a planet whose face moves according to continental landmasses. Can he stay good and not become a monster?
You can buy the book digitally here (below) and there’s a trade paperback of it coming, I believe.
https://www.comixology.com/Thanos-A-God-Up-There-Listening-Infinite-Comic/comics-series/23825
Next week the final issue of THE ROYALS: MASTERS OF WAR (issue #6) is released. My comps just showed up and I skim-read it. Very happy with how it finishes up. Here’s Simon Coleby’s awesome cover:
Follow
Recent Comments