2000 AD Covers Uncovered: Everybody’s Gone Surfin’, Surfin’ MC-1…
22nd February 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!
This week, on the cover of 2000 AD Prog 2219 we have Patrick Goddard and colourist Dylan Teague giving us a wraparound skysurfing spectacular from their Judge Dredd strip, Against The Clock.
Patrick Goddard’s been a mainstay of both 2000 AD and the Judge Dredd Megazine since he made his double debut in November 2000 on both 2000 AD and the Megazine.
His first published work came with the John Wagner written Judge Dredd: Jimping two-parter in Megazine 3.71-3.72, quickly followed later in the same month with Sinister Dexter: Lucky in 2000 AD Prog 1220.
His crisp and super clean artwork has featured on plenty of strips since then, including Mean Machine, Young Middenface, Chopper, Savage, Sinister Dexter, Anderson, Grey Area, Armitage, Wardog, and of course Judge Dredd. Most recently, he’s been the go-to artist on Ales Kot’s recent work on the Vampire dandy extraordinaire, Devlin Waugh in the Megazine and given us more Aquila in the pages of 2000 AD where he’s most recently taken the returned from the dead gladiator down into hell in The Burning Fields.
All of which brings us up to date with 2000 AD Prog 2219, out on 17 February, with Goddard’s stunning skysurfer cover art as well as contributing the interiors for Judge Dredd: Against The Clock, where he’s twisting and turning through the skies of MC-1 for the tale of a skysurfing delivery worker.
Now, over to Patrick to tell us all about putting together this super-soaraway skysurfing cover…
PATRICK GODDARD: I drew six rough thumbnails for Matt to choose from, it was a pretty straightforward brief of having a double page wraparound cover of the skysurfer flying over an imposing Mega City 1.
We went with option 2 but having her showing the baby on her back ( I was trying to hide it for the reveal in the strip).
I think I drew the city at A4 and then enlarged it to trace over using a lightbox.
I drew Mona (skysurfer) separately so I could play around with her placement over MC1, I tried a few different poses and chose the most dynamic one.
Once it was finalised, I just had the task of drawing it! I think my eyes may have suffered a bit mind!
I knew Dylan was colouring it and he asked for any colour suggestions for Mona, so I sent some colour ideas and he worked his magic and we got the final cover, simple really.
It was nice to be asked to do a cover for a strip that I’d drawn, so you already had all the ref and a feel for the character.
Thank you so much to Patrick for taking the time here to share that absolutely gorgeous wrapround cover with us. Make sure to pick up 2000 AD Prog 2219 from the 2000 AD web shop from 17 February where you have not just the pleasure of staring in awe at that cover but also get to see Patrick and colourist Dylan Teague drawing the Judge Dredd strip inside.
As an added extra, Patrick also sent along his initial character studies of his skysurfing heroine…
For more great cover breakdowns from Patrick, be sure to check out these Covers Uncovered for Prog 2021, Prog 2185, and Prog 2205.
And you can also see and hear Patrick on the 2000 AD Thrill-Cast Lockdown Tapes where he’s talking Aquila: The Burning Fields
