2000 AD Covers Uncovered: DeMarco stands out from the crowd on Alex Ronald’s cover for Judge Dredd Megazine 462…
15th November 2023
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 cover artist extraordinaire Alex Ronald returns to grace the cover of the latest Judge Dredd Megazine, issue 462, featuring the new DeMarco P.I. series, A Picture Paints.
DeMarco P.I.: A Picture Paints is by Laura Bailey and Rob Richardson and sees with Galen scarred and battered but still out there looking for new clients. She’s joined in the Meg this month by a zarjaz lineup of Judge Dredd, Spector, Lawless, and a new Mega-City 2099 strip taking us right back to the beginnings of it all!
As for Alex, he’s long been a cover specialist for 2000 AD, specialising in digital masterpieces for Tharg since coming back into the fold after a stint in the computer graphics and 3D modelling worlds. And of course, before all that, he got his start from Tharg in 1996 when he jumped on to illustrate Dredd, followed by Vector 13, Rogue Trooper, and Sinister Dexter.
It’s always good to have him back on the cover – and this is a pretty damn fine cover indeed. So, why not let him tell you all about it?
ALEX RONALD: Matt had asked for a new cover for DeMarco and for it to be of a similar angle and composition to the Transmetropolitan cover by Frank Quietly.
That would be this one, a classic from Frank Quitely…
ALEX RONALD: I was supplied some sample pages from the story so I had all the reference images I needed for her outfit and look as well as a few shots of her in the busy streets of Mega‑City One.
I began by building 3D models of the citizens in Z Brush. I raided the archives of some of my old 80’s 2000 AD and Judge Dredd annuals as I wanted them to depict the clothing styles of the citizens as they were drawn in that period of time, especially by Mike McMahon and those annuals had the most excellent examples.
ALEX RONALD: The character building for so many citizens took a bit of time. I was on my summer holiday at this point and I built and posed one or two characters in the morning of each day. By the end of the week I had the volume of citizens required to give the scene a busy hectic look.
Alex, have to let you know, Tharg’s looking for you wondering about this whole holiday thing – and he’s not too happy, mumbling something about letting you have a morning off about five years ago.
ALEX RONALD: Once the composition was looking good I lit the models in such a way that the main character was highlighted but with the supporting cast were bathed in reds and purples. The inspiration for this came from Colin MacNeil’s Strontium Dog cover from prog 686
Again, that would be this one…
ALEX RONALD: Next phase was a sketch over for approval and then once the nod was given, I painted the image up to final stage for publication. I hope you like it.
Oh, these art droids… when they’re not cowering in terror from Tharg, they’re completely downplaying the incredible skills of what they do! Seriously, from putting together the 3D models to this sketch is incredible enough… and that’s saying nothing of Alex daring to call this a ‘sketch’!
But then to take that sketch and work all that digital magic on it to give us this incredible finished cover… wow…
Thank you so much to Alex for sending that along. Another spectacular looking cover from the Ronald droid complete. You can find that cover on Judge Dredd Megazine 462, out from 15 November wherever you pick up your copies of the Meg and the Galaxy’s Greatest, including the 2000 AD web shop.
As if you fancy looking at some more of Alex’s Covers Uncovered pieces, there’s plenty for you – Prog 2191, Prog 2206, Prog 2255, Prog 2294, Prog 2306, Prog 2353, and Megazine 435.
And now, as a special treat for you, the first couple of pages from that new DeMarco, P.I. adventure, A Picture Paints, by Laura Bailey and Rob Richardson…
