Judge Dredd by Mike McMahon, 2000 AD prog 2, 1977

Judge Dredd by Mike McMahon, 2000 AD prog 85, 1978

Michael (known as Mike or Mick) McMahon is a British comics artist best known for his work on 2000 AD characters such as Judge Dredd, Sláine and ABC Warriors, and the graphic novel The Last American. Judge Dredd, drawn by Mike McMahon for the first ever story This work is copyrighted. ... Judge Dredd, drawn by Mike McMahon for the first ever story This work is copyrighted. ... For the 1996 film, see Judge Dredd (film). ... Cover of the first issue of 2000 AD, 26 February 1977. ... For the album by Ash, see 1977 (album). ... Download high resolution version (604x768, 151 KB)2000 AD prog 85 cover: Judge Dredd by Mike McMahon This image is the cover of an individual issue of a comic book. ... Download high resolution version (604x768, 151 KB)2000 AD prog 85 cover: Judge Dredd by Mike McMahon This image is the cover of an individual issue of a comic book. ... For the 1996 film, see Judge Dredd (film). ... Cover of the first issue of 2000 AD, 26 February 1977. ... 1978 (MCMLXXVIII) was a common year starting on Sunday. ... Comics (or, less commonly, sequential art) is a form of visual art consisting of images which are commonly combined with text, often in the form of speech balloons or image captions. ... Look up artist in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... Cover of the first issue of 2000 AD, 26 February 1977. ... For the 1996 film, see Judge Dredd (film). ... For other characters with the same name, see Sláine. ... The stars of a long running 2000 AD comic strip written by Pat Mills, The ABC Warriors were a team of seven robots that had fought in the Volgan War (which also appeared in Invasion, featuring Bill Savage and Ro-Busters, featuring Hammerstein and Ro-Jaws) and been brought together...

Judge Dredd was created for IPC's new science fiction comic 2000 AD in 1977 by writer John Wagner and artist Carlos Ezquerra, but problems in pre-publication led to both creators walking out, and the first published story was written by Peter Harris and Pat Mills, and drawn by an inexperienced young artist called Mike McMahon. Mills, who was editor at the time, chose McMahon because he could do a passable imitation of Ezquerra's style, but the more he drew the more his own style emerged. His drawings became more angular and less organic than Ezquerra's; where Equerra's line was fluid, McMahon's was sharp. Before long Wagner returned to his creation, and McMahon became the character's most regular artist. Other artists, such as Ian Gibson and Brian Bolland, followed his lead, putting their own spin on the way McMahon was developing the character and his world. For the 1996 film, see Judge Dredd (film). ... IPC Media is a large British publishing company, mainly producing consumer magazines. ... Science fiction is a form of speculative fiction principally dealing with the impact of imagined science and technology, or both, upon society and persons as individuals. ... Comics (or, less commonly, sequential art) is a form of visual art consisting of images which are commonly combined with text, often in the form of speech balloons or image captions. ... Cover of the first issue of 2000 AD, 26 February 1977. ... For the album by Ash, see 1977 (album). ... John Wagner is a comics writer who has also written under the pseudonyms John Howard, T.B. Grover, Mike Stott, Keef Ripley, Rick Clark and Brian Skuter, among others. ... Carlos Sanchez Ezquerra (November 1947, Zaragoza), is a Spanish comics artist who works mainly in British comics and currently lives in Andorra. ... Pat Mills, nicknamed the godfather of British comics, is a comics writer and editor who, along with John Wagner, revitalised British boys comics in the 1970s, and has remained a leading light in British comics ever since. ... Halo Jones, drawn by Ian Gibson Ian Gibson is a British comic book artist, best known for his 1980s black and white work for 2000 AD. His sketchy, cartoonish style lends itself best to humourous strips, such as Robo-Hunter and Ace Trucking Co. ... Bollands cover to Hellstorm: Prince Of Lies #16. ...

McMahon's early work was characterised by a quick, spontaneous approach that verged on the messy. His figures were lean and loose, his pen lines thrown down with verve and energy, and hatching was done with a fully-charged brush. He drew the bulk of the first long-form Judge Dredd story, "The Cursed Earth", with the slower, more meticulous Brian Bolland contributing occasional episodes. The Cursed Earth was the second extended storyline of the Judge Dredd character to appear in 2000 AD. The series is most notable because it was written by Pat Mills and added many core elements to the backstory of the world of Mega City One. ... Bollands cover to Hellstorm: Prince Of Lies #16. ...

Sláine by Mike McMahon, 2000 AD prog 336, 1983

Judge Dredd by Mike McMahon, 2000 AD prog 163, 1980

In 1979 McMahon took some time off from Dredd to draw Pat Mills's robot disaster squad Ro-Busters and its spin-off ABC Warriors, alternating with Kevin O'Neill and others, and under O'Neill's influence his work became tighter and his figures chunkier. He returned to Dredd the following year for the next long story, "The Judge Child", with a different, more considered style, and rotated with Bolland and Ron Smith. Writers John Wagner and Alan Grant gave McMahon the spookier, more atmospheric episodes to draw, and he responded with subtle lighting, texture and composition effects. Download high resolution version (666x768, 201 KB)2000 AD Prog 336 cover: Sláine by Mike McMahon This image is the cover of an individual issue of a comic book. ... Download high resolution version (666x768, 201 KB)2000 AD Prog 336 cover: Sláine by Mike McMahon This image is the cover of an individual issue of a comic book. ... Sláine is the name of several characters from Irish mythology, and at least one fictional character: Sláine mac Partholóin, one of the first group of settlers of Ireland after the Flood Sláine mac Dela of the Fir Bolg, the first High King of Ireland Sláine... Cover of the first issue of 2000 AD, 26 February 1977. ... 1983 (MCMLXXXIII) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Download high resolution version (629x768, 169 KB)2000 AD Prog 163 cover: Judge Dredd by Mike McMahon This image is the cover of an individual issue of a comic book. ... Download high resolution version (629x768, 169 KB)2000 AD Prog 163 cover: Judge Dredd by Mike McMahon This image is the cover of an individual issue of a comic book. ... For the 1996 film, see Judge Dredd (film). ... Cover of the first issue of 2000 AD, 26 February 1977. ... 1980 (MCMLXXX) was a leap year starting on Tuesday. ... For the Smashing Pumpkins song, see 1979 (song). ... Pat Mills, nicknamed the godfather of British comics, is a comics writer and editor who, along with John Wagner, revitalised British boys comics in the 1970s, and has remained a leading light in British comics ever since. ... Ro-Busters is a comic strip written by Pat Mills and drawn by Dave Gibbons, Mike McMahon and Kevin ONeill among others. ... The stars of a long running 2000 AD comic strip written by Pat Mills, The ABC Warriors were a team of seven robots that had fought in the Volgan War (which also appeared in Invasion, featuring Bill Savage and Ro-Busters, featuring Hammerstein and Ro-Jaws) and been brought together... 2000AD#387 featuring Nemesis the Warlock Kevin ONeill, born in London in 1953, is a British comics illustrator best known as the co-creator of Nemesis the Warlock and Marshal Law (with writer Pat Mills), and The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (with Alan Moore). ... Ron Smith, born 1924, is a British comics artist best known for drawing Judge Dredd for 2000 AD in the 1970s and 80s, but whose career stretches back to Deed-a-day Danny in 1949. ... John Wagner is a comics writer who has also written under the pseudonyms John Howard, T.B. Grover, Mike Stott, Keef Ripley, Rick Clark and Brian Skuter, among others. ... Alan Grant is a Scottish comic book writer born in 1949. ...

Following "The Judge Child" his art took a high contrast black and white direction, and in colour stories in annuals, explored patterns of flat colour. In 1981, when he began the Judge Dredd story "Block Mania", which he was slated to draw all nine episodes of, his drawings were tight and precise with well-defined areas of black and white. They looked fantastic, but they were taking an increasingly long time to draw, especially with all the crowd scenes the scripts called for, and McMahon bowed out after only two episodes. The story was completed by Smith, Steve Dillon and Bolland, and was followed by the 26-part "Apocalypse War", Carlos Ezquerra's triumphant return to the character he created, which he drew solo. 1981 (MCMLXXXI) was a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Steve Dillon is a British comic book artist. ...

McMahon moved to Mills' new Celtic barbarian fantasy, Sláine, another story with a fraught pre-publication history, and all but disappeared from publication for nearly two years (He did draw a couple of stories for Doctor Who Magazine during this time). When he did return in 1983, it was with a radically different style, all sinuous figures, tangled pen lines, and incompletely filled in areas of black. Freed from sterile science fiction environments, he went to town on texture and tone, lashed together technology and gloriously organic backgrounds. Celts redirects here. ... // Barbarian is a pejorative term for an uncivilized, uncultured person, either in a general reference to a member of a nation or ethnos perceived as having an inferior level of civilization, or in an individual reference to a brutal, cruel, insensitive person whose behaviour is unacceptable in the purportedly civilized... Fantasy is a genre of art that uses magic and other supernatural forms as a primary element of plot, theme, or setting. ... Sláine is the name of several characters from Irish mythology, and at least one fictional character: Sláine mac Partholóin, one of the first group of settlers of Ireland after the Flood Sláine mac Dela of the Fir Bolg, the first High King of Ireland Sláine... Doctor Who Magazine (abbreviated as DWM) is a magazine devoted to the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who. ... 1983 (MCMLXXXIII) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

Sláine graphic novel cover by Mike McMahon 1986

The Last American issue 3 cover by Mike McMahon 1991

After his last work on Sláine in 1984, McMahon did another of his vanishing and evolving acts. He re-emerged in 1991, after a long illness that prevented him from drawing, with The Last American, written by Wagner and Grant, for Marvel Comics's Epic imprint, and another radical change in drawing style. The Last American is Ulysses Pilgrim, a disgraced US Army officer placed in suspended animation on the eve of a nuclear war and authorised to restore order after it - but when he's revived he discovers there's nothing to restore order to. For four issues he searches in vain for survivors, accompanied by three slightly deranged robots, and struggling not to succumb to despair. McMahon's art is blocky, all straight, edgy lines and enclosed, flat areas of deep, vivid colour, stylised yet straight-faced, perfectly straddling the low-key realism of the story and Pilgrim's increasingly desperate mental state. Sláine graphic novel cover by Mike McMahon This image is a book cover. ... Sláine graphic novel cover by Mike McMahon This image is a book cover. ... Sláine is the name of several characters from Irish mythology, and at least one fictional character: Sláine mac Partholóin, one of the first group of settlers of Ireland after the Flood Sláine mac Dela of the Fir Bolg, the first High King of Ireland Sláine... 1986 (MCMLXXXVI) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... The Last American issue 3 cover by Mike McMahon This image is a book cover. ... The Last American issue 3 cover by Mike McMahon This image is a book cover. ... 1991 (MCMXCI) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... 1984 (MCMLXXXIV) was a leap year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... 1991 (MCMXCI) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Marvel Comics is an American comic book line published by Marvel Entertainment, Inc. ... Epic Comics was a creator-owned imprint of Marvel Comics started in 1982, lasting through the mid-1990s, and being briefly revived on a small scale in the mid-2000s. ...

Since then his work in comics has been sporadic. A couple of Hellraiser stories, an Alien Legion one-off, the unfinished Mutomaniac in the short-lived weekly Toxic!, a handful of Judge Dredd-related stories, and a daring but poorly-received futuristic Batman story in Legends of the Dark Knight, saw him progressively simplify and flatten his style, then find new ways of introducing depth in Sonic the Comic, the miniseries Tattered Banners for DC Comics's Vertigo imprint, a return to ABC Warriors and a short Batman Black and White back-up story. McMahon's work never sits still, but frequently goes beyond comics fans' stylistic comfort zones, restricting his chances of further publication. Hellraiser is a 1987 British horror film exploring the themes of sadomasochism, pain as a source of pleasure, and morality under duress and fear. ... Alien Legion was an early Epic Comics title about the members of a military unit called Force Nomad, comprised of the dregs of the universe and similar to the French Foreign Legion. ... Toxic! was a British weekly comic published in 1991 by Apocalypse Ltd. ... It has been suggested that Batman (Earth-Two) be merged into this article or section. ... Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight, commonly referred to as simply Legends of the Dark Knight is a DC comic book featuring Batman. ... Sonic the Comic, known to its many readers as STC, was a UK childrens comic published fortnightly by Fleetway Editions (the merged companies Fleetway and London Editions, which progressively became integrated with its parent company Egmont until it became known as Egmont Magazines) between 1993 and 2002. ... DC Comics is one of the largest American companies in comic book and related media publishing. ... Vertigo logo Vertigo is an imprint of comic book and graphic novel publisher DC Comics. ... The stars of a long running 2000 AD comic strip written by Pat Mills, The ABC Warriors were a team of seven robots that had fought in the Volgan War (which also appeared in Invasion, featuring Bill Savage and Ro-Busters, featuring Hammerstein and Ro-Jaws) and been brought together...

Judge Dredd Megazine cover by Mike McMahon 1994

Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight issue 55 cover by Mike McMahon 1993

In 2004 Com-X brought The Last American back into print as a graphic novel, and have mooted a new McMahon comic called Heavy Plant. Download high resolution version (567x768, 103 KB)Judge Dredd Megazine Vol 2 No 56 cover by Mike McMahon This image is a book cover. ... Download high resolution version (567x768, 103 KB)Judge Dredd Megazine Vol 2 No 56 cover by Mike McMahon This image is a book cover. ... For the 1996 film, see Judge Dredd (film). ... 1994 (MCMXCIV) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar, and was designated as the International Year of the Family and the International Year of the Sport and the Olympic Ideal by United Nations. ... Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight issue 55 cover by Mike McMahon This image is a book cover. ... Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight issue 55 cover by Mike McMahon This image is a book cover. ... It has been suggested that Batman (Earth-Two) be merged into this article or section. ... Batman: Legends of the Dark Knight, commonly referred to as simply Legends of the Dark Knight is a DC comic book featuring Batman. ... 1993 (MCMXCIII) was a common year starting on Friday of the Gregorian calendar and marked the Beginning of the International Decade to Combat Racism and Racial Discrimination (1993-2003). ...

Bibliography

Comics work includes

• Judge Dredd (in 2000 AD # 2-4, 6-7, 12, 15, 18, 20, 23-24, 26, 28, 30, 32, 34, 36, 39, 43-44, 58-85, 89-91, 96-97 & 100, 1977-79)
• Ro-Busters (in 2000 AD # 103-115, 1979)
• The ABC Warriors (in 2000 AD # 121-22, 125-26, 129, 132-33 & 137-39, 1979)
• The V.C.s (in 2000 AD # 140, 1979)
• Judge Dredd (in 2000 AD # 144-45, 147, 160-61, 162, 166, 170-71, 176-78, 183-85 & 193-96, 1979-80)
• Doctor Who (in Doctor Who Monthly # 58-59, 1981)
• Judge Dredd (in 2000 AD # 236, 1981)
• Slaine (in 2000 AD # 335-336 & 343-360, 1983-84)
• Muto Maniac (in Toxic! # 1-7, 1991)
• The Last American (4 issues, Epic, 1991)
• Judge Dredd (in Judge Dredd Megazine vol.2 # 53-56, 1994)
• Judge Dredd (in Judge Dredd Megazine vol.3 # 3, 1995)
• The ABC Warriors (in 2000 AD # 1240-42, 2001)

Further reading

• Colin M Jarman & Peter Acton (1995), Judge Dredd: The Mega-History
• David Bishop (1995), "Mike McMahon" (interview), The Complete Judge Dredd Special Edition No. 2
• Patrick Brown (1996), "Mike McMahon", The Panelhouse issue 4 pp. 19-22
• David Bishop (2002-2003), "Thrill-Power Overload!", Judge Dredd Megazine vol 4 issues 9-18, issues 201-209

External links

• Creator Profile at 2000AD Online
• The Art of Mike McMahon
• Mike McMahon at Lambiek.net
• Mike McMahon interview at Class of 79
• The Last American at Nuke Pop