Carlos Ezquerra's design for Judge Dredd's uniform really shouldn't work, with the giant pads, an incredibly distinctive helmet and the huge badge and chain. And yet it has remained essentially unchanged in nearly 50 years, with just the tiniest variations giving individual artists extreme leeway.
Partly it's survived because it's so specific - there is always the eagle on the shoulder, and there are very strong opinions on how many bars the helmet respirator should have - but also open to constant interpretation. Even in the golden age of 2000ad, McMahon, Bolland, Smith, McCarthy, Kennedy, Higgins and Carlos himself had very different looks for the main character, while always been quintessentially Dredd. Maybe it's the chin.
Ezquerra knew what he was doing with the mad hybrid of fascist leather street cop and pirate regalia, and it's a design that can not be improved upon, because nobody would be crazy enough to try.
Besides, everybody knows that the real design freedom comes in doing the city itself, and the massive apartment blocks and sprawling crowds of block maniacs in Mega City-One come in a bewildering amount of styles, and that's where the great artists really get their freak on.
I was never bothered about Dredds subtly changing look, perhaps helmet respirator technology changed in the mega city over the years.
ReplyDeleteAnyway I'm loving the blog. As a squaxx since '82 I find I share a lot of similar experiences hunting down progs (and other stuff) in a small town in southwest Scotland, yet to discover the joys of the dedicated comic shop that awaited in the cities.
It must be a common story, back then (sigh!)
Thanks for your always entertaining scribblings,
Phil