First Prog: 1203
Latest Prog: 1977
First Meg: 240
Latest Meg: 337
(says Barney, but he may have appeared since then…)*
Total appearances: 132 and counting
-mostly as a colourist, but he has drawn bit, too. And, more than likely, I’ve short-changed him quite a bit. (I’ve counted up colouring credits listed on Barney, but last I checked, that runs out at Prog 1913.)
-mostly as a colourist, but he has drawn bit, too. And, more than likely, I’ve short-changed him quite a bit. (I’ve counted up colouring credits listed on Barney, but last I checked, that runs out at Prog 1913.)
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| O'Grady on Dave Gibbons |
Art credits:
Judge Dredd
Tales from the Black Museum
Colouring credits:
Judge Dredd
Banzai Battalion
Sinister Dexter
Interceptor
Tyranny Rex
Anderson, Psi Division
Hondo City Justice
Strange & Darke
Jaegir
The Zaucer of Zilk
Notable characteristics:
Bright and clear, but
also moody when he wants to be. Has facility with the full range of genres and
styles, from straight-up action to moody war to bizarre comedy.
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| O'Grady on Cliff Robinson |
On Len:
Being a colourist
appears to be a pretty steady job. I’ve no idea how it compares to being a
penciller / inker / all-in-one artist in other ways, but that aspect of it at
least has to be desirable. O’Grady got his first work for Tharg in Prog 1203,
and has worked on a least one series a year since then, as good a hit rate as
anyone. And it is good.
I won’t pretend I know
anything about the arcane world of colouring; all I can give are my
impressions. As I see it, O’Grady is the master of colouring things the colour
they actually are. Sure, he uses mood lighting when appropriate, but he doesn’t
go overboard with it – sometimes the mood is simply ‘let’s convey the story’.
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| The man has blue skin. And no mucking about. O'Grady on Simon Coleby; words by Gordon Rennie |
He’s part of a rare
pantheon of colourists who’s had a crack at a straight art job as well. Not
enough work for even as foolish a commentator as me to suggest any general
patterns, but it is, I think fair to say that he’s more on the cartoony end.
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| O'Grady on O'Grady Words by Gordon Rennie |
Back to the colouring,
and it’s very much worth noting that O’Grady has been paired with a pretty wide
range of art droids. Most recently he’s been coupled with Simon Coleby on the
super-gritty war series Jaegir.
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| Using colours to set to tone of war: brown, grey and scary. With explosions. O'Grady on Coleby; words by Gordon Rennie |
But shortly before
that he was coupled with no less a vibrant coloursmith than Brendan McCarthy,
on Zaucer of Zilk. According to O’Grady’s blog, he did the first round
of colouring, then McCarthy did the final presentation. An honour indeed!
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| Bright and cheery meets dank and dreary. O'Grady on McCarthy; words by Al Ewing |
And, then, going back
through time, you get sinister countryside goings on with Strange & Darke:
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| Green lands are not necessarily pleasant O'Grady on Colin MacNeil; words by John Smith |
some crazed hijinks on Dredd:
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| Cartoony noir O'Grady on Mike Avon Oeming; words by Robbie Morrison |
And 80s action
thriller time with various people on Sinister Dexter
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| Clothes coloured as they appear in real life. O'Grady on Adrian Bamforth; words by Dan Abnett |
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| An orange glow for the seedy side of Downlode O'Grady on Andy Clarke; words by Dan Abnett |
And back to Dredd
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| Blue, black and blue again O'Grady on Phil Winslade; words by John Wagner |
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| Rain, comedy, alien superfiends - it's all going on here O'Grady on Henry Flint; words by John Wagner |
More on Len O’Grady:
Here’s his website
the man's been a busy boy, and not just for Tharg!
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| Foregrounding the foreground O'Grady on Cliff Robinson |
*Barney updating team,
we sorely miss you!
