The return of Flesh in 2000ad comic:

Since i am a long term reader of 2000ad who was there when Flesh appeared in Prog 1 and the subsequent superior Flesh Book 2 i feel compelled to add my thoughts on the return of Flesh that was published this week in 2000ad 34 years after the original.

In short i was utterly dismayed at the standard of the art in the strip by the newcomer James McKay.

James McKays blog:

http://www.jamesmckay.info/

Here is some hyperbole about Flesh/James Mckay


"James has done the impossible. He's brought Flesh back to life with a Vengeance. After Ramon Sola's brilliant interpretation of Flesh in Book One, I never thought I'd find another artist who could do justice to its varied themes - cowboys, time travel, science fiction and dinosaurs. James has achieved this and more." - Pat Mills, Author of Slaine and Requiem - Vampire Knight

"James is the embodiment of that new generation of British graphic novel artists who approach their work with a fresh look. It isn’t surprising that his work has already won over the French public." - Olivier Cadic, Director, Cinebook Ltd

"Working at Com.X with James was great fun. I remember clearly the afternoon he displayed his ability to stand on his head. But my overriding memory is of a hugely talented young artist whose passion for the natural world coupled with his capacity for hard work would surely lead him to great things." - Mick McMahon, Illustrator, Judge Dredd, The Last American

"James is an artist of rare talent, with an amazing eye for detail, composition, colour and character - everything you could ask for in comics and a whole lot more." - Paul Duffield, Illustrator, Freak Angels




There are samples of James McKays art for Flesh in the "Comics" section of the blog which will enlarge when clicked upon.Now going by these illustrations i have no problem with his art whatsover and these were the samples i looked at before i saw the art in the comic.I like his style in the samples and was very much looking forward to more as its beautifully drawn...

A sample is shown second from the top.

There is a clear and distinct difference in the art at the top of the page and the art in the blog so what went wrong ???

I opened the comic and i literally said "OMFG !!".

As far as i can tell the art in the comic has been inked with a brush but its not only the inking as its the general style of it which is very sloppy along with substandard composition and a lack of a sense of scale in the double page spread within the strip.There is quite a lot of ink spatter that is used throughout in addition to the brush work.

In short its a godawful mess that i find unreadable and it seems like Pat Mills has lost the plot in terms of artwork but art is subjective so Pat Mills has the right to love it and i have the right to hate it and criticise it.

There also seems to be a very strong Robert Crumb influence going on in this style which is not present in the Flesh samples in the blog and while i quite like Robert Crumb i dont want a Robert Crumb style Flesh strip.

I draw and ink with a brush and i could and have done better myself and its clear that inked brushwork is not the artists strong point but its not clear why the artist went for this style so did he fall or was he pushed ??

What was wrong with the style in the Flesh samples ??

I didnt think much of the script either and it was hard to tell exactly what was going because of the art and the script.

A sloppy horrible mess.