2000 AD Covers Uncovered – David Hitchcock on the return of Quilli for Prog 2195
19th August 2020
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!
This week it’s the turn of David Hitchcock to grace the cover of the Galaxy’s Greatest – with the terrifying return of Quilli for the cover of Prog 2195, which is out now!
Quilli, created by Hitchcock and writer Laura Bailey, first appeared in 2000 AD Prog 2091 (July 2018), before appearing again in The Quilli Committee in Prog 2134 (June 2019).
It all began as a tale of ventriloquism gone wrong, with Jerry Reginaldo claiming to be channelling an ancient God called Quilli through his puppet. Following his ‘tragic accident’ on stage, Quilli gained something of a cult following, leading to a journalist going undercover to get to the truth… and that didn’t end well either!
So, what terrors will this third Quilli tale bring forth? Only one way to find out – pick up 2000 AD Prog 2195 – available from newsagents, comic shops, and the 2000 AD web shop from 19 August.
So, over to David to take us through putting together the cover…
I initially spoke to Laura about an idea I had for a possible cover image. There was a scene that cried out for a cover slot, I sketched the idea out and thankfully the great green one requested to see it as finished art.
This particular instalment has a ‘Wicker Man’ feel to it, where the children are harvesting a plant which is later revealed to be used as a hallucinogenic.
I love drawing spooky woods and gnarly trees and I thought Quilli needed to be looming ominously in the background whilst in the foreground chaos ensued, as the police officer has a bad case of Quilli Vision.
This time I didn’t feel I could colour it traditionally as I did the previous cover. I asked Tharg if he could get it digitally coloured as it needed to have a ‘trippy’ look, maybe a strobe effect here and there and certainly a glowing effect on Quilli’s eyes.
All in all it needed to show the reader that the nightmare scene was actually the officer’s hallucination.
Thanks to David Hitchcock for filling us in on the latest appearance of Quilli – be careful with those ventriloquist dummies kids, you never know quite where it will end up!
You can follow David on Twitter – @dhitchcie, where you’ll be able to see more of his beautifully rendered artwork for the likes of Frankenstein Texas, Gothic, The Signalman, Springheeled Jack, and more.
To end, here’s a little recap of the previous appearances of Quilli, beginning with two pages from the five-page Terror Tale in Prog 2091…
And now, from Quilli‘s second appearance in Prog 2134 – the cover by David Hitchcock and the first two pages of The Quilli Committee…
