2000 AD Covers Uncovered – Boo Cook’s Sov Psi-Storm for Prog 2305
26th October 2022
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, Dredd’s in a right psi-storm thanks to art droid Boo Cook covering 2000 AD Prog 2305 – out wherever you get your Thrill Power on 26 October.
Boo’s cover is for the current Dredd storyline by Rob Williams and Henry Flint Buratino Must Die, 6-episodes of Dredd and Mega-City One facing down the Sov Psi-Division who’ve come looking for Sov Psi-Div Judges Buratino and Isaaks after the issues of End Of Days.
BOO COOK: Well, not a massive amount to say about this one as it was pretty straightforward…
First up, getting asked to do a Dredd cover is always an occasion to do my special dance and I suspect it always will be. Sometimes the cover may require Dredd not being too upfront or obscured by some weird thingy but as an artist it’s always lovely to have a cover brief where Dredd is upfront and in your face.
I think Tharg’s brief was very simple for this one, something like “Dredd reacting to a massive PSI blast in the sky behind him” – music to my ears! I think the only addition to that was when I asked if there was anything specific that needed to be in the blast and he suggested the Sov’s hammer and sickle emblem.
I was provided with some gorgeous refs from the story by the eternally incredible Henry Flint where the psi-blast seemed to be largely some kind of pink cyclone so I just went with that, adding a few ghostly tortured faces into the swirl… I noticed Dredd’s nose was bleeding and I loved how Henry’s city blocks were also warping into the blast so I factored all that in as well.
This would be the visual referfence Boo’s refering to – Henry Flint’s opening page for Judge Dredd: Buratino Must Die –
.
BC: In my mind there was only really one angle I wanted to go with on this so I just provided Tharg with an ink rough which I coloured in Photoshop to give myself an idea of the colour balances I’d be dealing with, he approved it (thankfully) and then it was off to graphite land for some heavy penciling…
>
BC: I seem to be mostly enjoying the pencil/photoshop approach these days so I went with that. The only changes I made from the rough were a few tweaks to the anatomy plus making the hammer and sickle a little smaller so that less of it was obscured by the Chinster himself and easily recognisable as the Sov emblem.
Then all that was required was to enter a psychedelic pink mind vortex for a few days until the colouring was done.
The pressure is always gonna be on a bit with a Dredd cover but I really enjoyed this one, it really felt great to be back!
>
And that’s it! Thanks so much to Boo Cook for sending that one along.
You can find Boo’s brilliant Dredd cover on 2000 AD Prog 2305 wherever you pick up your weekly dose of Ghafflebette comics, including the 2000 AD web shop – it’s out on 26 October.