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Underground > Comic Books >

Interview with Kevin O'Neill on Barbelith Webzine

08:54 / 18.06.01

FROM THE ZINE

quote: They make an exotic and intimidating group. Marshall Law is tall and muscular, clad in barbed wire and restraint-ware, fresh from the killing of another super-hero. Alongside is Nemesis - an alien demon with double-jointed legs and a face that resembles a savage and over-used sword. Around him, dead humans pile up at his feet. A tiny, fat and malevolent creature wearing an ill-fitting Batman costume is hovering around them. This 'Batmite' drips lunacy from an almost hallucinogenic aura. But nothing can compare with the initial shock of meeting Kevin O'Neill, the artist who has kept these creatures in his head for twenty years, drawing their murders, mutilations and occasional sexual depravities. For O'Neill appears overwhelmingly ... normal.

I did this interview over a year ago now, and I really enjoyed meeting Kevin and writing about him. There was a fascinating disjuncture between his private persona and the pornography of violence that he drew. I was just wondering what people thought of his work?

deletia

10:42 / 18.06.01

I must confess to finding it an active turn-off. I mean, really not very nice to look at, not very interesting, ugly...

The Marshall Law with the Punisher rip-off had its moments, when it was slightly pulled towards Silver Age pastiche by its subject matter, but in general Marshall Law summed up his characteristics - angular lines, messy backgrounds, "humorous" features (grafitti, absurdly enlarged breasts, phallic imagery), a prurient obsession with ugliness for ugliness' sake...all characteristics which seem to have carried over to the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, and turned me off buying it. He is an artist who will usually stop me from buying books, even if I love the writer.

However, as a gazeteer of the mental geography of the average comic book reader, he is pretty much without equal.

11:00 / 18.06.01

Does anyone remember a series he drew called Deathrace 2020? That was brilliantly twisted...

11:17 / 18.06.01

I don't know a lot about Kevin O'Neil's other work but the art in League of Extraordinary Gentlemen was excellent.

08:20 / 29.03.03

Hey, you should add that to the interview section. I think Morrison is the only interview there as of now.

The Natural Way

13:02 / 29.03.03

The art in League IS excellent, you mean.

I think peep's O'Neill-love might be divided along transatlantic lines. Not only did brit-kids grow up with O'Neill, they grew up with 2000AD and its huge roster of different artists in general, and that's gotta affect how we judge what constitutes *good* comic art.

14:07 / 29.03.03

I'm just going on memory here since I don't have the work in question, but I remember being impressed by O'Neill's use of negative space in LoEG, as opposed to the jam-packed panels in Marshall Law. Not that I didn't like Marshall Law, or thought that the crowded pages were ineffective.

The only comic of his I didn't enjoy is Bat-Mite. Death Race was awesome, and possibly the closest his particular "ugly" style has come to a perfect fit.

20:34 / 04.04.04

I loved his style from the moment that I first saw it in 2000ad all those years ago. Nemesis is wonderfully grotesque, along with the ABC Warriors. I find Marshall Law a little different because of the more extensive use of color which by necessity changes the style.

It also reminds me of another 'scratchy' artist - Mike McMahon who was one of the first to draw Judge Dredd, and his style developed into a more angular style on Judge Dredd, with big feet and hands, which then developed even further in Slaine.

Anyone else like Mike McMahon

Yotsuba & Benjamin!

21:33 / 04.04.04

I've been a huge fan since Marhall Law, which inexplicably was one of my favorite comics growing up. It somehow perfectly encapsulated all my favorite things about comics in one book. I had loved Punisher, I had loved Super Heroes, I had loved drawing characters with writing on them. Enter Marshall Law. I revisited it a few months ago and boy, had I skimmed through that growing up!

Yikes!

Still, I love Kev.

22:05 / 04.04.04

his Nemesis was fantastic. I like his stuff a lot, but not as much as a friend who loves him. league was great, Marshall Law fitted nicely, but it was always his Nemesis I'll remember. Torqumada was fantastic.

yawn - thing's buddy

14:11 / 05.04.04

O'neill is an ink-god.

no question.

Haus of Mystery

15:43 / 05.04.04

Yuss. His artwork's so perverted and wrong. And therefore right.