No. 136 Phil Winslade

 

First Prog: 1374
Latest Prog: 1451

First Meg: 350
Latest Meg: 424

Total appearances: 64 and counting
Including a one-off in Revolver

Marshall Metta Lawson. Technically not Winslade's creation, but she
sure has built up a commanding presence under his pen...

Creator credits:
Lawless

Other art credits:
Judge Dredd

Winslade - the key 2000AD artist who never quite was.

Notable character creations:
Everyone but the main character in Lawless -they're all great!

So many distinct players with distinct looks and personalities!
Words by Dan Abnett

 

Notable characteristics:
Leather clothing. Crowd scene. Elaborate backgrounds. Acting.

It's Winslade who first really made me think about the fact that Judges pull themselves into tight-fitting leather costumes every day. He makes that just a little bit fetishistic, which it definitely should be...
Words by Dan Abnett

On Phil:

Look, so Phil Winslade has a whole body of varied work behind him in his artistic career, but anyone coming to his work from a 2000AD perspective is really only here for one thing – Lawless! Beyond 50 episodes and a fair few covers for that series, he’s only ever contributed to the Prog a handful of times: one Dredd tale, one Dredd cover, and one Terror Tale.

Kinda jarring to see Winslade drawing Judges in colour, but he's no less good.
Anyone else getting mid-period Simon Coleby vibes?
Words by John Wagner

 

Already displaying that extreme attention to textural detail.
Words by Steve Moore

 They’re decent. And yes, at the very start of his career he had a slot in the first issue of Revolver, delivering some suitably art-y art to go along with a typically pretentious Revolver-style tale:

 

That weird mix of VERY good art with decent enoguh writing but an obscure sense of humour which defind early 90s 'comics from grown-ups'.
Words by Igor Goldkind.

But let’s get our Lawless love on! I mean, everybody loves Lawless, right? It’s kind of unassailably the best strip to run in the 30 year history of the Judge Dredd Megazine, barring perhaps America, and just maybe Devlin Waugh. And while Dan Abnett’s scripts and plots are a big part of that, frankly the thing that really grabs you by the lapels is Winslade’s art, which is just super detailed and gorgeous and consistently gobsmacking and has been in more issues than not since 2015. The man is a drawing machine! Especially when you consider just how much he pours into details such as hair braids, clothing folds, gorilla fur, rivets and rust patches on robots and machines, and those astonishing city scenes full of architectural detail.

Every page is an excuse to get lost in the art.
Words by Dan Abnett

I don’t often throw in comparisons to so-called fine art, but here’s a painting I’ve spent a weird amount of time with* that would not look at all out of place in an episode of Lawless:

 

Derby Day by William Powell Frith**

I kind of feel that rambling on more would be redundant. Instead, here’s a small selection of great, GREAT work from a great artist.

 

 

I don’t know that anyone wants Lawless to stop – especially after it kind of already came ot a satisfying(ish) conclusion a while back, before Abnett found a way to give it a whole new lease of life.

But, you know, I’d love to see Winslade have a crack at a 2000AD series, perhaps something super far future sci-fi ish like Full Tilt Boogie.

 

More on Phil Winslade:
You gotta listen to this Thrillcast where he and Dabnett discuss their ideas and methods and ambitions for Lawless.
And here's a Covers uncovered.

 

Personal favourites:
Lawless, by god

The Judges are bad enough, but the SJS, man, they're something else.
So much eeee-vil right here.
Words by Dan Abnett

 *thanks to a jigsaw puzzle I had as a child
**No relation, although by amusing coincidence my wife's maiden name is 'Powell'.