2000 AD Covers Uncovered: Patrick Goddard’s Prog 2378 Has Aquila Hell Riding…
20th April 2024
Every week, 2000 AD brings you the galaxy’s greatest artwork and 2000 AD Covers Uncovered takes you behind-the-scenes with the headline artists responsible for our top cover art – join bloggers Richard Bruton and Pete Wells as they uncover the greatest covers from 2000 AD!
Borag Thungg Earthlets – we’re taking you back in time now to a whole two weeks ago to take a look at the incredible cover and process Aquila artist Patrick Goddard put into the cover for 2000 AD Prog 2378…
Right now in the pages of 2000 AD you can find the latest blood-soaked sword and sorcery tale of one time Gladiator Aquila in The Rivers Of Hades Book Two.
Originally one of Spartacus’ failed rebel army, gladiator Aquila ended up with a Roman eagle carved into his chest and crucified for his part, along with 6,000 others. In his dying moments his prayers to the ancient Gods of his ancestors are answered by Ammit the Devourer, underworld goddes of retribution. Made ageless and powerful, Aquila served his mistress well, hunting down and dispatching the souls of evil men across the Empire for Ammit to feast on. But after far too many years of bloodshed, Aquila has found the price for his salvation far too high and he’s now decided he wants out of the deal.
But the only way to do that is to confront Ammit herself. And the first part of that is to find her, which is why he’s ventured down into the pits of Hades to retrieve the spirit of Nero, who knows where to find her.
And that’s where we are right now in The Rivers of Hades Book Two. Aquila, Hades, Spartacus, Demons (many, many demons), and the souls of the damned joining up into two mighty armies. It’s absolute hell – literally – and the blood is going to flow down in Hades until Aquila gets what he wants!
As for why this Covers Uncovered is a little late, Patrick apologises for the delay in getting this to us – something about our Lord and Master, The Mighty One, His Thargness himself making sure that the Goddard droid was getting the pages for Aquila in on time and had assigned Mek-Quake to make sure he didn’t do anything but draw, draw, draw.
Anyway, without further ado… over to Patrick to tell us all about putting this one together…
PATRICK GODDARD: This was one of the most straightforward briefs for a cover, a simple shot of Aquila charging the Goat type demon on horseback that features in the episode.
I sent through the usual 6 ideas, trying to work out a composition that allows the action to flow and still have enough room for any type on the cover.
Number 5 was the winner…
So I went straight into the pencils, this time at A4 and enlarged it to A3 to trace off onto the art board. I made a few tweaks to the ‘horse’ to get more of a look of their face but failed to capture the same energy of Aquila riding compared to the thumbnail (this happens all too often unfortunately!).
I added a bit of ink wash and background as I had the time, it didn’t need it, it was more of me wanting to make the original art to work a little better…
Then it was off to Dylan who did a fab job as always with the colours!
That’s super-colourist Dylan Teague and yes, he’s always going over and above to make every cover he colours absolutely pop!
Another stunning cover from Patrick that hacked and slashed its way off the shelves recently! If you missed it, why not do yourselves a favour and pick it up from the 2000 AD web shop. But better yet, save yourself the worry of ever missing another dose of the Galaxy’s Greatest by taking out a subscription – Thrill Power delivered right to your door!
And for more of that Goddard greatness, there’s plenty more online here at 2000 AD.com to delight your optical circuits! We’ve interviewed him twice, about the Judge Dredd: Special Relationship story (written by Rob Williams) here, and about Judge Dredd: Unearthed (with Williams and Chris Weston) here. For those of you who like to listen, there’s a 2000 AD Thrill-Cast here with Patrick, Garth Ennis, and Keith Burns talking Battle Action, and Patrick talks to Molch-R in the 2000 AD Lockdown Tapes here. As for more Covers Uncovered, we’ve had the pleasure of seeing Patrick’s art on the covers of Progs 2185, 2205, 2219, 2244, and 2264, plus the recent Megazine 466 and his upcoming Rogue Trooper: Blighty Valley cover.
And finally, make sure to follow Patrick on Twitter and Instagram.