2000 AD Covers Uncovered: John McCrea’s Getting Norty on Subscriber-Exclusive Prog 2400 cover
18th September 2024
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, a look at the making of the spectacular subscriber-exclusive John McCrea and Mike Spicer cover to 2000 AD Prog 2400, the start of the ghafflebette mega-crossover story Nordland Rising – a story so big it had to spill over into Judge Dredd Megazine issue 472, also out this week!
Nordland is Rising, – all hail the Nort Empire!
It’s all-out war across the 2000 AD multiverse this week as the Nort Army invade throughout the whole of 2000 AD history! It all starts in 2000 AD Prog 2400 and concludes the same week with Judge Dredd Megazine 472 – it’s Nordland Rising and it will bring the world of 2000 AD to its knees!
Against this invasion, it will take a special kind of resistance and that’s just what we get, in stories featuring Judge Dredd, Rogue Trooper, Venus Bluegenes, Bad Company, Major Eazy, Judge Anderson, Jaegir, The V.C.s, and even the Fiends of the Eastern Front!
And it all comes under not one but two covers. There’s the standard newsstand edition by Cliff Robinson & Dylan Teague and a very special subscribers-exclusive wrapround cover from John McCrea and Mike Spicer!
Now, over to John McCrea, not only on cover duties here but inside with Judge Dredd: Nordland Rising…
JOHN MCCREA: I’ve always wanted to do a wraparound cover for 2000 AD, since seeing the fabulous Bolland, McMahon, Ezquerra etc wraparounds from the glory days of 2000. I had noticed the Prog was doing them occasionally and, when I was asked to draw some interior pages from the Nordland Rising crossover I thought this might be my chance. I dropped Tharg an email and asked if it was possible. Being the galaxy’s greatest editor (TM) he quickly decided that I should do a subscriber‑exclusive!
I’ve never drawn Venus Bluegenes before so I wanted to make her front and center. Let’s face it, Dredd and Anderson have had plenty of covers to themselves!
I don’t get to draw many wraparound covers so I really wanted this one to be epic, reflecting the scale of the story inside. The cover pencils came pretty easily, and I sent this rough to Tharg…
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As you can see I did not want to commit to drawing hundreds of little background figures and spaceships before the picture was approved. I’m not Chris Weston crazy.
John, NO ONE is Chris Weston crazy when it comes to detail!!
Tharg gave it the green thumbs up, so I tightened up my pencils to this…
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Then came ALL the spaceships. I really wasn’t looking forward to the pain in my hand when I inked this!
I used some carefully placed symbols to cover up some of the hard work of running figures and massed spaceships.
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Okay, next it’s the inks. I actually enjoyed every minute of this and it took me two days to ink, mainly because I took lots of breaks. You’ve got to look after your health when you’re a comic artist as it can be a brutal job. Take lots of breaks, get up and walk around, do some stretching exercises and eat your 5 fruit and veg a day!
Next – Inks scanned and digital tones added for a little extra texture. It’s always tricky getting the balance right with digital tone, I never want to overdo it and obscure the drawing, which is obviously the most important aspect.
With the cover approved by ol’ green bonce, I sent the inks to Mike Spicer with these few colour notes…
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Mike did his usual fabulous job but, being the fussy get I am, I had a few last notes…
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The final cover turned out well, I think. I can only hope that it encouraged a few more Earthlets to subscribe to the Galaxy’s Greatest. If that happened, then I’ll have done my job.
Thanks so much to John for sending that one along, it’s another great cover by John and Mike – if that’s not enough to send you all rushing for the subscribe page, we don’t know what is! And whilst you’ll have missed out on that particular sub-exclusive, subscribe right now to make sure you don’t miss out on the next one!
Nordland is rising right now, first in Prog 2400 and then over in Megazine 472, is out right now. And if you did miss out on John and Mike’s zarjaz subscriber-exclusive cover this time, don’t despair, as the standard edition has this little beauty from Cliff Robinson and Dylan Teague, available in all the usual places you find your Thrill-Power, including the 2000 AD web shop. And of course, be sure to pick up Meg 472, with a great cover from Jim Murray…
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And don’t leave here without having a look at all of John (and Mike’s) past Covers Uncovered from John, there’s plenty here to bring before your eyeballs – there’s that fabulous recent Armitage for Judge Dredd Megazine issue 467, and then multiple incredible Dredds on Prog 2024, Prog 2224, Prog 2328, Prog 2351, Prog 2361, the rollercoaster of emotions that was the Aquila cover for Prog 2380, and Prog 2386 featuring that other famous blue-skinned G.I.!
And finally, as John sent along huge size images, I get to show you some glorious blow-ups of his art, all that absolutely fabulous detail, all those characters…
