Review by Luke Williams
For those not in the know, the Apex volumes are one of Rebellion’s many bids at parting hardcore 2000AD fans with their hard earned. Each volume collects high quality scans of the original work of a specific artist, along with editor notes, amendments; warts and all, at (almost) working page size. Effectively, as close a representation to having the original art as you can, without spending thousands of pounds.
For those who are completely oblivious to the work of the Carlos Ezquerra, this is the guy who co-created Judge Dredd for 2000AD, Strontium Dog for Starlord, and “Third World War” for Crisis; who drew the two best Dredd mega epics, “Apocalypse War” and “Necropolis”. His bold, kinetic, granite hard, cooler than cool art also illustrated the adventures of Battle’s Major Eazy, the Rat Pack and countless other British comics strips. He was part of the artistic spine of the British comics industry since the mid-1970s, and, sadly lost to us, prematurely, in 2018.
Rebellion /Tharg finally gets around to releasing one of the most (if not the most) inevitable Apex editions. Bolland was probably the most marketable, McMahon and O’Neill are definite fan favourites, but Carlos is not called “King” for nothing. The book’s title, Judge Dredd by Carlos Ezquerra, is slightly misleading, as there is quite a bit of Strontium Dog included, but that’s nit picking.
After the release of the regular book sized Art of Carlos Ezquerra in 2022, your reviewer despaired that the Apex volume under discussion was never to be. Thankfully, either by the fact that I don’t lurk that much on the internet – or hopefully, that Rebellion are better at keeping the subject of these Apex editions secret, I’ve been proved wrong. This was a nice surprise when the pre orders opened for it earlier this year.
Your reviewer is perusing a digital edition of this collection. Art books aren’t meant to be digital, what’s the point of that? How can you really look at a portion of the art through a small electronic window? The art should be able to be viewed all at once, with your eyes and your head the zoom function. Luckily, my slipcase hardbacked edition is on its way, too. Or, at least, I hope it is.
This volume has examples of Carlos’s late 1970s to mid Eighties work, and it’s fascinating to compare and contrast the pages of denser, tighter work on early Starlord “Strontium Dog” strips (both lettered and un lettered) moving onto the classic, but bizarre “Journey into Hell” and later “Dredd”. The most recent work is the cover to the volume, a reprint of the “Judgement Day” “Hot Shots” cover from Prog 796.
For most of these Apex books, with a few exceptions, you get a collection of random pages. If you are lucky, you get a complete episode of a strip. That’s fine: these books aren’t designed to be oversized collections of strips, you are buying them as a representation of the artist’s work so you can examine every line and linger over every brushstroke. Here, however, Tharg has managed to collate seven complete strips: Judge Dredd Annual stories from the mid-Eighties, the classic “The Executioner” (with three pages reproduced from film, rather than the original art for completeness’ sake) and “Night of the Rad Beast”. Throw in a few Titan Books album, Starlord and annual covers and contents pages, early development sketches and pages from the first Dredd strip “Bank Raid”, and you’re all good.
This isn’t a collection of Carlos’ best work, but it does feel more like a collection of stories than any other Apex edition (save Zenith Phase 1 and Arthur Ranson’s Button Man), although that is not to say that there are poor pages here. Indeed, far from it: this is a wonderful collection of the great man’s work. Perhaps it’s not an intentionally different approach to that taken with the other volumes, just fortuitous that the contributors to this volume are lucky to own complete strips.
Considering that Carlos Ezquerra was so prodigiously industrious, this could also be an indication there will be more volumes: there is certainly enough of a variety; apart from “Strontium Dog” and “Judge Dredd”, there is his work on “ABC Warriors”, “Fiends of the Eastern Front”, “Future Shocks”, “Third World War” (which, at one point, John Freeman tells me Titan considered collecting, and Carlos had kept almost all his pages); and various strips for Battle etc.
If there is a criticism, it’s that a short essay or introduction to the volume wouldn’t have gone amiss, but if you are a Carlos fan, 2000AD fan, or just a fan of great comic art, you won’t regret buying this book.
Luke Williams
• The Judge Dredd by Carlos Ezquerra: Apex Edition is available now on the 2000AD webshop for both the standard and the webshop-exclusive slipcase editions
Head downthetubes for…
• In His Own Words: Carlos Ezquerra on his Early Judge Dredd designs
• Judge Dredd Co-Creator Carlos Ezquerra dies aged 70
• Read Joe Gordon’s tribute to Carlos Ezquerra
Some links to books above are AmazonUK Affiliates
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Brought up on a diet of Commando, British Boys Annuals and Asterix, Lucas Williams’s day job limits his reading time. Luckily for everyone else this also restricts his writing time.
Categories: 2000AD, British Comics, British Comics - Collections, British Comics - Current British Publishers, Comics, Features, Reviews
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