Covers Uncovered Special – Black Beth and The Devils of Al-Kadesh
28th June 2021
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 though, we have a special treat for you in the shape of a very special Treasury of British Comics Scream! One-Shot Special – Black Beth and the Devils of Al-Kadesh! – all under a stunning cover from Andrea Bulgarelli, who sent along some truly amazing process shots for us to look at!
Black Beth and the Devils of Al-Kadesh is out on June 23 in the UK and July 21 in the USA – it’s going to be one of those must-see books of the year – be sure you don’t miss out!
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Black Beth and the Devils of Al-Kadesh features three incredible tales, all leading off with an amazing 32-page tale by Alec Worley (Durham Red) and drawn by DaNi (Coffin Bound), where the warrior-woman and her blind aide Quido have traveled to the wicked city of Shadrivar, in search of the evil witch Anis-Amuun.
It’s sword & sorcery questing at its best, a sea-spanning thriller which pits Beth’s curved blade against all manner of mystical creatures – and possibly Anis-Amuun herself!
But that’s not all! There’s also a back-up Black Beth tale from Alec Worley and cover artist Andrea Bulgarelli, and an all-new Death Man thriller from Doug Graves and Vincenzo Riccardi, plus pin-ups by David Roach and Andreas Butzbach.
But before all that, let’s take a few moments to appreciate just how good this one’s going to look when you see it on the shelf – all thanks to that gorgeous cover by Andrea!
Everything started off with the first pencilled version, with all those essential elements you see in the final cover already there in the mix…
Next, tightening everything up…. Andrea talks of ‘defining the poses of the characters and the details.’ But it does make a great bit of spot the difference… and the case of the disappearing tongue…
Stage three for Andrea is getting those characters paper and beginning the painting…
Onto step four, painting continues, acrylic on canvas paper. This is where Andrea lays the foundations of colours, including a decision to alter things – ‘I changed the sky, with a blood red!’
Next up, with the background of the sky and the ship in place, it’s time to start focusing on the character details…
More and more details being added, step by step, layer by layer, with Andrea concentrating on Black Beth’s armour – ‘I researched Black Beth’s armor with photos of real armor for coloring. I was inspired by Jesus Blasco’s style, which is my favorite.’
And then, to the final stage, where Andrea has all the details added and a finished painting all ready for printing!
As an extra, for all of you who love seeing the artist’s working conditions – Andrea sent along this final image…
And that’s everything, so a huge thanks to Andrea to sending all of those along (as well as my apologies for having to fumble through with remedial Spanish when talking to him!)
It’s a suitably striking and quite beautiful looking cover for something that’s going to be talked about a lot this year – Black Beth and the Devils of Al-Kadesh…