2000 AD Covers Uncovered – A legend returns: it’s Mick McMahon on Prog 2250
22nd September 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!
And this week we not only get the thrill-powered jumping-on Prog for you with 2000 AD Prog 2250, featuring 48-pages with FIVE new on-going stories and two great one-offs, but a return of the absolute 2000 AD legend that is Mick McMahon on the cover!
It’s all coming out on 22 September! Just look for the big boots of Dredd on the cover!
We were honoured to chat to Mick McMahon about putting together yet another iconic cover featuring the one and only Judge Dredd, that looks just like this…
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So, without further ado… Mick McMahon!
MICK MCMAHON: The brief is Dredd in action, so pretty open-ended. My first move is to draw some Dredds and hope that one of them feels ‘right’. As I sketch on these first sheets I gradually start leaning towards the idea of a big Dredd filling the cover with a white background.
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And here’s the three Dredd’s that Mick’s highlighted on those initial sketch pages… where you can see the whole thing really coming together, from basic shapes to complete cover idea in miniature…
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MICK MCMAHON: Just for once I get it ‘right’ more or less first time. I can sometimes spend a week faffing around with this stage.
Oh yes… and when it comes together this way, the McMahon-ness of Dredd just screams out from even the sketch stages – it’s unmistakenly, brilliantly McMahon! All of which gives us this… the rough drawing of the cover…
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MICK MCMAHON: I scan the sketch into photoshop and make up a dummy of the cover, and mail it to Matt.
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MICK MCMAHON: Matt likes it, so I proceed with the pencils. All the drawings so far have been done on Staples A4 copy paper. The pencils will be drawn on Staples A3 copy paper. I print out the rough drawing in blue and use this as a base for the pencils. I use a Derwent Graphic HB pencil for all my pencil work.
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MICK MCMAHON: I usually use Daler Rowney Bristol Board for the inks, but this time I decided to experiment with Arches 140lb hot press watercolour paper.
I print out the pencils in blue and ink them with Pilot size 10 lettering pens.
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MICK MCMAHON: I scan the inks into Photoshop and proceed with the colouring.
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And that, 2000 AD fans, is how an absolute legend gets the cover done!
Thank you so much to Mick for sharing just how he does it. It’s a stunner of a cover, unique, stylish, striking, something that can only come from an absolute legend of 2000 AD!
You can see Mick’s incredible cover on the front of 2000 AD Prog 2250, available at the 2000 AD web shop from 22 September.