Comics

2000 AD Covers Uncovered – Dredd Under Fire In The Latest From Jake Lynch

11th March 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, with the cover to 2000 AD Prog 2172, it’s a welcome return to Jake Lynch, who gives us a cracking bit of Dredd in action – under fire and in trouble – on 11 March.

Dredd shows us his loathing of the good old exclamation point!

It’s all part of the current Judge Dredd serial, The Relic, with Dredd on the hunt for an off-world perp who’s just in MC-1 to retrieve his ancestral remains.

The first step, as it so often is, involved The Lynch-droid prostrating himself before TMO and begging for the chance to get back on cover duties. Sufficiently satisfied, Tharg passed the quivering Lynch-droid to his Earthly representative Matt Smith, who took a little look-see over the initial rough.

Now, over to Jake Lynch…

So that initial rough was just an idea for Dredd that I submitted to Matt, who liked the concept but suggested some return fire for Dredd to be diving into.

Dredd still has to pass that cycling proficiency test.

That taken on board I first tone up the rough…

Another Lawmaster trashed – oh, you know there’s going to be forms need filling in for that.

…and then tidy and colour, adding the suggestions and re-editing the figure and damage to bike for a little more impact.

And that’s that! A short but sweet look into just how Jake Lynch put that cover together. A big thanks to him for that, and you’ll be able to see the cover out there in the wild on 11 March.