smith, steven :: 2000ad: Return to Armageddon

2000ad: Return to Armageddon - trade paperback cover by Jesus Redondo

Artist: jesus redondo (All)

2 Comments - 1,094 Views - 0 Like

2000ad: Return to Armageddon - trade paperback cover by Jesus Redondo Comic Art

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Published cover; colours by Dylan Teague

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Artwork Details

Title:	2000ad: Return to Armageddon - trade paperback cover by Jesus Redondo
Artist:	jesus redondo (All)
Media Type:	Pen and Ink
Art Type:	Cover
For Sale Status:	NFS
Views:	1,094
Likes on CAF:	0 1
Comments:	2
Added to Site:	10/7/2014
Comic Art Archive:

Description

Some spoilers below�

Back when I was 10, when I first read it, this story scared the bejesus out of me. It was Tom Baker Dr Who-type terror � you could of course stop watching and do something else but the storytelling kept you coming back for more.

Space pirates, zombies, prophecies, mad scientists, �hero�s journey�, gods meddling in the affairs of mere mortals, Genesis meets Revelation with a dash of the Bhagavad-Gita, slave uprisings, robot uprisings, Hollywood one-liners, larger-than-life villains, a plague of locusts, boy meets girl, boy beheads girl, girl returns favour--no trope was left unturned by the late Malcolm Shaw; cliff-hanger chased cliff-hanger, the story moved relentlessly and thrillingly on.

The story was commissioned by Steve MacManus, who didn�t seem that pleased with the end result: �It didn�t work; pitched just slightly off. The artwork didn�t help*.� The 10-year-old me couldn�t have disagreed more � the writing was wonderful, Mr. Redondo�s art was perfect. I don�t mean that in a passive-aggressive way � if its editor considered it a failure, then it was, to me at least, a glorious failure.

Re-reading it now, 30 years later, it still shines. The plot moves so fast you get whiplash � the first episode starts with a spaceship colliding with a dimensional rift, introduces a quarter of the main cast, and then ends, five pages after it started, with the discovery of a devil. Shaw acknowledges that the story doesn�t make complete sense until you get to the big reveal near the end � "I could find no logical explanation [for the occassional lurching madness of the plot]," says someone in a closing chapter, almost winking to the reader directly. The story benefits from an immediate cover-to-cover re-read -- characters� odd behaviour and out-of-nowhere crazy notions suddenly make perfect sense.

The writing is wonderfully full-on and full of tongue-in-cheek B-movie greatness:

�Both sides of the Earth are in perpetual darkness. The only light�s coming from burning corpses.�

�First come, first severed.�

�Where did you learn to handle a sword like that?� �Hate is a great teacher.�

�The scum! They�ve tasted their last human. Now they must taste some ice-cold steel.�

The main artist�s work is some of the finest to grace 2000ad � you can feel the hatred and rage seething off the page when the Destroyer shouts, �Fool! He shall know what it is to a suffer,� before transforming his better half into a �freak that can�t die". The zombies and the winged or horned beasties are gruesome. The art seems to effortlessly keep up with the pace of the writing. Gore--Falcon Eddy�s smashed skull and Eve�s beheading, say--is mostly off-screen and all the more effective for it. Nobody draws shadows like Mr. Redondo - or cheekbones on a heroine.

I�m not sure how much of my love of this story is down to nostalgia � I have fond memories of discussing the plot with my late older brother � and it is probably best enjoyed as a weekly serial rather than all in one go, but Return to Armageddon is well worth checking out now it is back in print.

* http://viciousimagery.blogspot.co.uk/2007/02/28-days-of-2000-ad-7-steve-macmanus-pt.html

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About the Owner

	s smith
Joined:	September 2012
Last Login:	April 2025
Country:	UNITED KINGDOM
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dale jackson
Member Since 2007

Posted on 10/8/2014

Lovely cover , also great to read your reasons for liking his art .

Greg Meldrum
Member Since 2010

Posted on 10/9/2014

Yeah, great cover and a really great write-up on both it and the charm of the series in general.

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