There’s two types of detailed art when it comes to comics; you either get the Darrow pencils that are hyper detailed to the point of looking realistic or you get the cartoony detailed look as you see with Ulises Farinas’ work. This type of work comes few and far between and should garner your attention. Oh wait, he’s drawing a new Judge Dredd book? Huh…is it good?
Judge Dredd: Mega-City Two #1 (IDW Publishing)
This is not your typical Judge Dredd book, namely because Dredd is doing an exchange program at Mega-City 2, which looks and feels a lot like a futuristic Hollywood of today. Considering Dredd has always been a humorous lens to view science fiction we have ourselves a pretty impressive premise to run on; plenty of references to actors, filmmaking and the laissez faire nature of California are made. When Dredd learns Mega-City 2 doesn’t carry out punishments on drug dealers as severe as he’s used to — he’s taken aback. Oh and the denizens don’t drive motorcycles but cars. What is this madness?!
Look at that detail. LOOK AT IT!
Writer Douglas Wolk does a bang up job throughout this issue capturing the hard edge and irritated Dredd well. He exacerbates this by having all the technology talk over him and he over it creating a sense of confusion and anxiety on every page. The overarching goal of his makes some sense too and it’ll be interesting to see how Wolk weaves in some detective work along the way. It’s hard to say how much insight he had in developing this futuristic Hollywood, who knows maybe it was all on Farinas, but it’s vibrant, alive and incredibly fun to look at.
Reoccurring theme for Dredd in this issue.
And then we have Farinas, who imbues a cartoony simplistic style on Dredd and renders everything else in incredible detail. The two page spread, seen above, does an impeccable job in showing the grit, grime and seedy side of the city. I got a Blade Runner vibe from how he’s drawn the cities, although the color makes it pop a lot more. Think of it as a cartoon version of Blade Runner and you’ll get the idea. How cool is that?!
What are those red things?
Is It Good?
It sure is. Dredd fans shouldn’t pass this up and everyone else should at least take a peek at the beautiful art.
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