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2000 AD Covers Uncovered – And It’s Goodnight From Him!

Prog 2049 saw the end of Greysuit as John Blake took on the entire British intelligence service singlehandedly. Is this the end of the line for the rogue agent or did he just have a particularly tricky time with a jam doughnut?

Below we see Alex’s rough which depicts Blake’s bloodstained glasses, perhaps he should have gone to Specsavers?

John Blake was a huge fan of Roy Orbison

Here’s the chilling final cover, something tells me things arent going to end well…

Grey’s Anatomy

Huge thanks to Alex for sending the images, a truly magnificent send off for this excellent series!

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2000 AD Covers Uncovered – False Flag!

Alex Ronald – mild mannered artist or false flag enabling black ops agent? You decide Earthlets! As Grerysuit nears its murderous and no doubt extremely bloody conlusion, Alex brings us the second of his Greysuit trillogy of covers.

Delta Assassin John Blake’s programming has well and truly broken down, resulting in a gruesome revenge spree on those who corrupted him. Not content with erasing the spectres of his past, he is also determined to bring down the system by exposing the government’s more controversial activities. Next on Blake’s hitlist is Dunstin Wood, head of the evil Monarch Project that created him, what grisley fate does Blake have for him?

Below, we see Alex’s rough, it seems that Old Dustin is going to go out with a bang! 

Wood not Bang?

With the rough approved by the Mighty One, Alex creates one of his amazing trademark digital masterpieces; a real subversive cover that 2000 AD does so well!

Union Whacked?

Thanks to Alex for sending the fantastic images! Be sure to check out more of his amazing work at his wonderful blog!

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2000AD Covers Uncovered – Mills and Vroom!

Prog 2040 saw the spectacular return of the pschological spy thriller, Greysuit. When we last saw Delta Class Assassin John Blake, he was in the clutches of arms dealer Hugo Prince, deep in the Bolivian Jungle! Not one to be fazed by a little thing like an armed to the teeth militia, Blake soon makes his thrilling escape! 

Tharg decreed that popular cover artist Alex Ronald should capture the mayhem of Blake’s high speed retreat through the jungle which, of course, he did admirably! Below we see his digital rough…

An image of my postman delivering items marked ‘Fragile’

Followed by his splendidly rendered final image, wow!

The challenges on Top Gear were beginning to get silly…

Huge, huge thanks to the talented Mr Ronald for sending the images. Be sure to check out his amazing blog from some utterly jaw dropping images!

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2000 AD Covers Uncovered – Rushing Paradox!

Prog 2016 saw the introduction of a fascinating new character in Dredd’s world, the super speedy, super resourceful mutant Paradox Vega. It was obvious that in the recent Dredd arc ‘Deep in the Heart’ that Dredd and Paradox have previous, but writer Mike Carroll isn’t ready to tell us how they met just yet…

Who better to bring Dredd’s capture of Paradox to life than fan favourite cover droid Alex Ronald? Alex, who was trying out a new, looser style, was instructed to call upon Robin Smith’s iconic cover of Prog 495 for reference…

“Oh no you don’t!”

 Alex said “Since the summer last year I’d been trying to change my style a bit starting with a couple of covers I did for the Walter Hill crime book Trigger Man…

Water way to go.

“Hey Love, I finished work earl…”

Alex continues, “I’ve been keeping it a bit more loose than usual and leaving in pencil lines, etc.” Below we see Alex’s gorgeous roughs which have almost as much energy as Paradox herself!

If you have to get shot, you should get shot by the best!

As soon as I saw this cover, I thought the Ronald droid’s software had been given the MacNeil92.exe patch, to channel the painterly style of Colin MacNeil. Alex said “When I did this Dredd cover I tried out painting it with a colour palette along the lines of Colin MacNeil circa early 90’s Mechanismo era. This was to help me get a more painterly feel and bring up my colours to a more vibrant level than the usual dark blue tones I’ve used in the past…” Mission accomplished Alex, it’s glorious!

“Stop or I fire, Crazylegs!”

Alex was also kind enough to send his roughs and finished version of his recent Anderson cover of Megazine 379. Thrill buffers at maximum Earthlets!

She looks ready…

Psi-Ex!

Huge thanks to Alex for sending the covers, we can’t wait to see his next one! Be sure to check out Alex’s amazing blog here for more eyepopping artwork! 

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2000AD Covers Uncovered – Wolf Stern Howler!

Alex Ronald is back with this brilliant cover to celebrate the climax of Black Shuck! As readers will know, Shuck had to face the dastardly King Coenwulf as his poor wife was giving birth to twins. Sheesh, the lengths some blokes will go to avoid childbirth!

Alex has been illustrating for the Galaxy’s Greatest Comic for over twenty years (time for a service, Tharg!) and his digital paintings are virtually unrecognisable from his original, more traditional work. Of course, this isn’t his first Black Shuck cover, he painted the magnificent cover that launched the series too…

 Orc manoeuvres in the dark.

Below we can see Alex’s rough for the cover…

Shuck was over the (full) moon with his new horsey string puppet.

He says “As you can see the werewolf pose changed a bit between rough and final. I felt the foreshortening of the left arm and the lack of wolfy hair wasn’t really working.
Hopefully the shirtless spread arms was a bit of a better approach…”

Shucks to be you Coenwulf!

Another brilliant cover from an artist truly at the top of his game. You can see many more amazing breakdowns of Alex’s work here and please, please visit his site, there’s work on there to die for!

Huge thanks to Alex from sending the images and text!