2000 AD Covers Uncovered: Going down shootin’ with Patrick Goddard for Megazine 466
20th March 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!
Borag Thungg Earthlets – time to have a good look at the cover of the latest thrill-powered issue of the Judge Dredd Megazine, featuring an amazing Dredd cover by Patrick Goddard…
That cover’s pulling a scene out of the current Judge Dredd: Ravenous, by Michael Carroll and Anthony Williams, which hits its third and final part inside.
Stuck out on a rig close to Texas City with a bio-engineered beastie on the loose that uses another dimension to almost instantly repair itself, things aren’t looking too great for Dredd fight now as he ended the last episode on his way to make a huge splash in the Black Atlantic. Will he survive? How will he survive? And exactly how is he going to find a way to kill the unkillable nasty?
It’s yet another great cover from Patrick Goddard, full of the classic look and the great action we’ve come to expect, the sort of thing we saw in his art last time he was inside the Prog, for the incredible 13-part Rogue Trooper: Blighty Valley with Garth Ennis, getting its well-deserved collection, out on 2 July 2024.
Okay, enough from us, let’s hand it over to Patrick to fill you in on how this latest Meg cover got made…
PATRICK GODDARD: Here’s some of the progress pics I found of the Meg Cover – the brief was very straightforward, with Matt wanting Dredd pursued by the creature from the strip falling off the rig John Woo style. I was sent a few pages of Ant Williams’s strip so I could read the scene in full and use his designs etc
I sent through a couple of rough ideas and number 4 was picked but they wanted Dredd firing back at the creature…
PATRICK GODDARD: My initial sketches had Dredd’s back fully to the reader but it just didn’t feel right to me. I think you need to see a bit more of Dredd on the cover so changed his pose a little to show more of him – although this brings up the issue that he’s a hard man to pose with those big old shoulder pads!
I just about managed to get his arms working and then went to work inking it up. Len O’Grady went on to do the great colouring and it was all finished.
In hindsight, I wish I drew Dredd blasting more heavily, taking big chunks of the creature off but I wasn’t sure if that was how the strip progressed.
Oh, art droids, always something they’re not happy with – almost as though Tharg likes planting the seeds of doubt to keep them in their places! Patrick, Patrick, Patrick, it looks just zarjaz to us!
So, like he said, once that fourth rough was picked as the cover it was all about getting more of Dredd on the cover and having him going down guns blazing. So,lots of versions of Dredd to get it all just right…
After that was fixed, time to pencil it up, getting all that perspective right… although still there with the back of Dredd’s head that needed changing…
Next comes inks, and plenty of them plus the altered version of Dredd, giving a bit more face to you…
Then scanned in and sent across to master colourist Len O’Grady to add all those fabulous colours to really make the whole thing pop! And pop it so does…
Absolutely great cover from Patrick for you there – it’s going to be launching off the shelves from 20 March – find it in comic shops, newsagents, and the 2000 AD web shop.
If you’ve loved all that – and we’re sure you will have done – there’s plenty to be getting on with here at 2000 AD – there’s plenty of Covers Uncovered, with Patrick’s art for the covers of Progs 2185, 2205, 2219, 2244, and 2264, plus his upcoming Rogue Trooper: Blighty Valley cover. We’ve also interviewed him twice, about the Judge Dredd: Special Relationship story (written by Rob Williams) here, and about Judge Dredd: Unearthed (with Williams and Chris Weston) here. There’s also a 2000 AD Thrill-Cast here with Patrick, Garth Ennis, and Keith Burns talking Battle Action, and Patrick talks to Molch-R in the 2000 AD Lockdown Tapes here. Oh yes, plenty there to be getting along with for you! And hopefully it’s not going to be all that long before we get to see his cracking art both on the cover and inside the Prog and/or the Meg!
And finally, make sure to follow Patrick on Twitter and Instagram.