First Prog: 682 (cover artist); 717 (strip artist); 1082 (colourist)
Latest Prog: 1899?
First Meg: 3.46
Latest Meg: 342
Total appearances: 201 and counting
Art credits:
Judge Dredd
Colouring credits:
Judge Dredd
Nikolai Dante
Shimura / Hondo City
Justice
Bison
Synnamon
Sinister Dexter
Aquila
Age of the Wolf
Plenty of Future Shocks and
other one-offs
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| Late 80s comics art - way more fine art-y than comics have ever been before or since. Words by John Wagner |
On Gary:
After a promising
cover and a perfectly decent Judge Dredd one-off, Gary Caldwell disappeared for
a lot of years, only to return as one of Tharg’s best colourist Droids. At his
point he is, I think for those of us who pay attention to colouring*, heavily
associated with artist Simon Fraser, and especially his work on The Adventures of Nikolai Dante.
I certainly took
notice when that epic series started on its slow march to an ending with the
story Sword of the Tsar. Where the tone before had been generally bright and
breezy – even in the relatively gritty Tsar Wars episodes – it seemed to turn a
bit more subdued at this point. Perfectly matching the character of Dante
himself, who by now had given up believing he could live as a roguish charmer
and knew that he had a responsibility to trying to make his world a better
place.
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| Sorry about the blurring - that's all me and my feeble scanning skills. The clever use of greyscale is all Caldwell, mind. Art by Simon Fraser; Words by Robbie Morrison |
Much later on, when
Dante wakes up after having been stripped of his weapons crest, the blues and
greys really come to the fore, and it tugs on the old heartstrings like nothing
else.
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| Washed-out colours to reflect all kinds of pain. Art by Simon Fraser; Words by Robbie Morrison |
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| A picture of depsair painted in pink and red. Art by Simon Fraser; Words by Robbie Morrison |
Of course, Caldwell worked on plenty
of other Dante styles too – romantic, swashbuckling, political etc.
In the later books, he managed to add a 3Dish sort of sheen to some of the characters, presumably using some new computer-based colouring tools.
And he’s worked with plenty of artists besides Simon Fraser, although those two do seem to be especially in synch.
In the later books, he managed to add a 3Dish sort of sheen to some of the characters, presumably using some new computer-based colouring tools.
 |
| Look, the bad guy is all shiny while the good guy is hiding in shadow. Subversion. Art by Simon Fraser; Words by Robbie Morrison |
And he’s worked with plenty of artists besides Simon Fraser, although those two do seem to be especially in synch.
Here’s a small
celebration of the man's work…
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| Bright and breezy with PJ Holden. Words by Gordon Rennie |
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| Keeping it clean with Andy Clarke. Words by Robbie Morrison |
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| MC-1 has never looked pinker or bluer. Art by Simon Fraser; Words by John Smith |
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| A haze of vampire red Art by Paul Marshall; Words by Robbie Morrison |
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| Realistic colours meet impressionistic gore in Aquila. Art by Leigh Gallagher; Words by Gordon Rennie |
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| Green, red and blue as everything goes wrong for space super-merc Synnamon. Art by Laurence Campbell & Lee Townsend; Words by Colin Clayton and Chris Dows. |
*Which I must confess
I don’t do nearly as often as I should.
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