2000 AD Covers Uncovered – Dredd makes Lawson mistle-toe the line
17th December 2019
Welcome to the final festive Judge Dredd Megazine of the year, issue 415, with cover artist Staz Johnson breaking out the eggnog for a covers uncovered feature the moist unlikely Christmas party you’ll ever see… Dredd and Marshal Metta Lawson are out for Christmas drinkies…
2000 AD Covers Uncovered lifts the veil on the making of the Christmas Megazine cover, a very special present for all you loyal Earthlet readers from Tharg The Mighty.
To mark the festive season, artist Staz Johnson talks us through what it takes to get Dredd and Lawson together for a bit of a festive knees up. And as Staz tells us, Christmas came early this year when Tharg’s earthly representative, Matt Smith, got in touch…
Staz Johnson: The initial concept for the cover came directly from Matt. He asked if I fancied doing the Christmas Meg cover & suggested Lawson & Dredd stood at a saloon bar. Since the figures were essentially static it was important to try to capture the nature of the characters in their stance/body language.
So I spent a little time sketching out figures. Lawson was easy, I tapped into the idea that she would be taunting Dredd, so her stance should be casual & playful. Dredd was more difficult, simply because I wasn’t sure how to depict him:- should he be imposing & disapproving? Dismissive? Embarrassed? In the end I was put in mind of the moment in Judge Death Lives when Anderson puts her arm around his waist & he appears very uncomfortable, so I decided to go for him putting up a totally inappropriately tough exterior because it’s the only way he knows how to deal.
I pieced together a thumbnail from the various sketches, enlarged it & printed it out as a blueline & drew the finished pencil over it, adding a few appropriately Chrismassy touches. I did wonder whether Matt might not be sure about Lawson’s mistletoe tiara.
I submitted this to Matt, offering to try different ideas if he wasn’t happy, but he thought it was fine & told me to go ahead with the inks, which I duly did. I did the inks over a print out of the pencils, this time in a sepia colour rather than blue.
When completed I scan it as a black & white bitmap which doesn’t pick up the sepia, just the black line.
This was my second Christmas cover (I did one for the Prog a few years ago) & I’m still to do my preferred option… a wraparound cover of as many 2000AD characters involved in a huge snowball fight, complete with a Dredd snowman etc…. just like they used to do on the cover of The Beano when I was a kid!
Can’t see Matt going for that one though…
Well, you never know Staz… Tharg? What you think?
Thanks to Staz for drawing back the curtain on the making of this lovely Xmas Meg cover. You can find Judge Dredd Megazine #415 in stores and on the 2000 AD website from 18 December.
And, as a little bonus… here’s that previous 2000 AD Christmas cover, Prog 2061 from 2017… pencils by Staz, colours by Chris Blythe.
