We previously reported on the upcoming auction at the end of this month of the first ever illustration by Carlos Ezquerra of Judge Dredd on a Lawmaster for 2000AD, along with an early version of his Lawgiver gun. Bidding on the art recently opened over at Heritage Auctions and is already pretty fierce, with bids currently over $5000.
The team who curate the Facebook Page, The Art of Carlos Ezquerra have kindly shared some background on the art with us, from the late maestro himself, revealed in an interview.
“In this one you can see those were my first ideas!” Carlos Ezquerra said. “The bike and there attached is the final lawgiver. And in a couple of sketches more, I had the finished Dredd. Mind you, he was here already but with a different model of helmet and yet you still recognise him.
“The eagle was in part inspired by the Harley Davidson image attached to the page,” he continued. “The Eagle is the national bird of America, but it is also the fascist symbol of Franco as well as other fascist orders like Mussolini’s Italy and Nazi Germany. And of course, Rome. This is also why Dredd’s suit is black, it’s symbolic.
“I love creating new characters,” Carlos, who passed in 2017, continued. “I have lots of designs that I have never had time to make stories for, I am always too busy drawing. People in British comics never have a good commercial sense. I’ve been so many years in 2000AD with different owners, and no one knew how to exploit my best quality: creation of characters. Sometimes I would take a design to a writer like Garth (Ennis) with Bloody Mary. I really enjoyed working with Garth; he is a creator like John.
“After I had designed Dredd and done the first story my agent Barry Coker told me it was better to go to work for Battle,” Ezquerra also recalled. “I was working for Fleetway, and inside Fleetway it did not matter where you worked, the pay was the same.
“It is a shame we didn’t own Dredd, but being pragmatic, if John [Wagner] and I kept the full rights from the first moment, maybe it would not be so popular and maybe not so many different artists and writers would be able to start their careers drawing Dredd!
“Anyway, there is a Spanish saying ‘Past water does not move the mill.’
Items include Carlos Ezquerra’s original art for the poster that was commissioned to promote the 2000AD 40th Anniversary Event in 2017, and a page from the 26-episode “Necropolis” storyline by writer John Wagner and artist Carlos Ezquerra was one of the most ambitious sagas in the Judge Dredd universe, which first appeared in 2000AD Prog 680 in 1990.
The items are being sold by different sellers, including the Ezquerra Private Collection, and some by Carlos’ family.
As we previously reported, other gems in the same auction include two terrific 2000AD covers, one by Brian Bolland, for Prog 77, promoting the “Cursed Earth” storyline, published in 1978, and another for Prog 452 (1986), by Cam Kennedy.
• Check out all items at auction by Carlos Ezquerra from Heritage Auctions here
With thanks to the team at The Art of Carlos Ezquerra
Also on downthetubes
• Judge Dredd Co-Creator Carlos Ezquerra dies aged 70
• In Memoriam: Artist and Judge Dredd co-creator Carlos Ezquerra – tribute by Joe Gordon
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John is the founder of downthetubes, launched in 1998. He is a comics and magazine editor, writer, and Press Officer for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. He also runs Crucible Comic Press.
Working in British comics publishing since the 1980s, his credits include editor of titles such as Doctor Who Magazine and Overkill for Marvel UK, Babylon 5 Magazine, Star Trek Magazine, and its successor, Star Trek Explorer, and more. He also edited the comics anthology STRIP Magazine and edited several audio comics for ROK Comics; and has edited several comic collections and graphic novels, including volumes of “Charley’s War” and “Dan Dare”, and Hancock: The Lad Himself, by Stephen Walsh and Keith Page.
He’s the writer of comics such as Pilgrim: Secrets and Lies for B7 Comics; “Crucible”, a creator-owned project with 2000AD artist Smuzz; and “Death Duty” and “Skow Dogs”, with Dave Hailwood.
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