2000 AD Covers Uncovered: ‘I like weird’ – INJ Culbard takes us down, down, down for Prog 2278
21st April 2022
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, the brilliant INJ Culbard takes the reins for the cover to 2000 AD Prog 2278, out on 21 April from everywhere and anywhere that delivers Thrill Power. It’s a mind-bending cover from Brink: Mercury Retrograde as poor old investigative journo Mas heads down, down, down into the underworks in the company of retired Union boss Eugene Bardot. And it’s suitably twisted and strange…
So, without further ado, the unsettling beauty of INJ Culbard’s Brink cover…
INJ CULBARD: For the brief of Prog 2278, it was Bardot inviting Maslow into the vents. Again, I stuck with the concentric eye theme. Now, the layout for this seemed pretty straightforward forward…
INJ Culbard’s first layout for the Prog
But… well, something about it wasn’t weird enough, and I like weird. So… I did a quick copy and paste of Bardot to show him repeating off into the darkness. This got approval…
And then I went on to color, and this took me a while. Compositionally something interesting happened, the irises seem to almost spiral as they go off into the darkness.
Thanks to Ian for taking the time (and the punishment) to get this to us. But it’s well worth it to see his process in play, as his work on Brink, along with Dan Abnett, is always a highlight of any Prog it’s in!
2000 AD Prog 2278 is out on shelves and digital on 21 April – get it from the 2000 AD web shop, comic shops, and wherever you find your Thrill Power!
And to end, a look back over the Brink covers of the past… all of them featuring that idea of Culbard playing on circular imagery to create some of the best, most effective, and just plain disturbing images of the past several years…
