2000 AD Covers Uncovered – INJ Culbard on Prog 2295’s Brink: Mercury Retrograde finale
18th August 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, for the thrilling double-sized finale to Brink Book Five: Mercury Retrograde, we welcome back INJ Culbard for the cover of 2000 AD Prog 2295 – out wherever the Galaxy’s Greatest is sold from 17 August.
Throughout Brink Book Five: Mercury Retrograde, Dan Abnett and INJ Culbard have had us twisting and turning as we’ve followed investigative journalist Nolan Maslow as he goes deeper and deeper into his investigations of sect activity on the Habs in a story taking place parallel to events of Brink Book One, the death of Brinkman and Mercury going dark. It’s all adding extra layers to the story of Bridget Kurtis and her continuing fight to uncover the strange events and forces that haunt the remnants of humanity and driving them headlong into madness.
And now it all comes to an end with the double-length finale – brutal, inevitable, brilliant.
So, over to Ian now for the tale of putting together this final cover of Brink Book Five. Oh, and our apologies for the weird things going on in some of Ian’s answers here. We’ve tried to fix the glitching, but something strange is going on …
Ian, It’s the double-sized finale to Brink: Mercury Retrograde in Prog 2295, bringing the tale of Mas Nolan to an end and continuing the brilliance that you and Dan Abnett are creating with Brink. This fifth book has been both reinvention and revelation, seeing the events of the first book from a completely different angle and giving everything added depth (not that it was exactly short of depth in the first place).
When it came to putting the cover together for the finale, was it from a suggestion from Tharg or all your concept?
INJ CULBARD: I’m pretty sure this one was my suggestion. I wanted a portrait of Maslow (previous covers had been POV covers in a way, the rioters, the tunnels, the murder wall).
I just wrote something like “portrait of Maslow, against the backdrop of █████████“
Hmmm, not sure what’s gone on here Ian, something appears to be redacting your words here. Let’s keep going, I’m sure it’s just a glitch.
Was it another cover that was pretty simple in your head, one that came together pretty quickly, or was it something that generated a few cover concepts?
INJC: On paper, really simple, but that usually means much harder in execution. And it was.
INJC: I got to this point and thought it wasn’t right. Something just wasn’t quite working – with that much light behind him he’d be a silhouette and I’d lose all that detail. I needed to rethink the lighting.
So at this point I’d been working in clip studio to get the drawing down, I’d exported to Photoshop the wrangle the color, but then I took the Photoshop file back into Clip Studio and did a final pass on the color. This knocks the color back into RGB values and it needs for print to be in CMYK values, and not only that but I have no black in my colors, and when converting from RGB to CMYK it keeps some black value in the color. So it’s a substitution processes at this point.
Again, as with all of the Brink covers thus far (aside from the very first one back on Prog 1978), we’re here with the circular motif once more. I asked you last time and you brushed me off with ‘The Eye of Vovek is everywhere.’
So… one more time… what’s the secret sybolism you’re using here, is it the whole Eye of Vovek again, infusing everything in the series, influencing and corrupting as it goes?
INJC: It’s ██████████
There it is again. No idea what’s going on there Ian.
So, without really giving away too much of the ending here, what’s the symbolism you’re using with the blazing planet/sun thing on the cover burning its way towards Mas?
INJC: Well, it’s because ████████████ and so ███████████ seemed appropriate.
Okay, moving on… looking at the cover here, just with my untutored and artistically lacking eye, it’s more colourful than prior covers, the blazing depths of the thing in the background defining everything on the cover and the colours of that impacting the figure of Mas as well.
INJC: That’s as a result of what wasn’t working with my first pass. I decided to go for weird illuminations, so it created quite a different ambiance.
So, you’ve got that initial sketch all done and the concept nailed down – next it’s off to slave away over the computer again in Clip Studio?
INJC: Absolutely. I work at a desktop (on a Cintiq 16… I’d like a 22 or 32 Cintiq if Wacom are listening), and mostly handle the coloring there in Photoshop. I lay everything out and draw it on an iPad Pro because I love the way the Apple Pencil handles (but a new one would be great, Apple).Clip Studio is fantastic and I’ve been using it since the very beginning, from when it used to be called Manga Studio. Everything I’ve ever drawn for comics was drawn in it. The iPad I’ve been using since about the second quarter of Book Four and it has changed a lot for me. I’m no longer shackled to a desk, I can sit anywhere and work on the book. I think it’s useful to actually move your headspace into a different space entirely. Change up your environment when working. So the iPad Pro really has been great for that (again… if you’re listening).
Finally, with the end of Brink Book Five: Mercury Retrograde, what have we to expect for you, Dan, the Habs, Bridge, and everything else in Brink for volume Six?
INJC: In Book Six ████████ is ████████ and we find out about ████████████ and meet a ███ ████████████ called ██████ ████████████. It’s full of ███████████ and ███████████ and I’m looking forward to getting started on it.
We have no idea why things broke down so badly there in the end. Let’s just chalk it up to the strangeness of Brink, eh?
Thanks so much to Ian for sending along those images and talking us through his latest cover.
You can find 2000 AD Prog 2295 wherever you pick up your weekly dose of Ghafflebette comics, including the 2000 AD web shop from 17 August.
Now, although Brink Book Five is done with now, you can (and should) catch up with the whole saga of Brink, written by Dan Abnett, art by INJ Culbard in the four books available. As one of the finest modern series to feature here in the Progs it’s something that rewards re-reading, especially in light of the revelations here in Mercury Retrograde.
Buy them here – Brink Book One, Brink Book Two, Brink Book Three, Brink Book Four. Brink Book Five: Mercury Retrograde is available for pre-order right now from the 2000 AD web shop and will be released on 23 November 2022.
And to end, another look back at Ian’s Brink covers of the past… beautifully disturbing and fascinating imagery for an amazing saga. And be sure to check out all of Ian’s Covers Uncovered pieces for Brink – 2000 AD Prog 1978 & Prog 1989, 2000 AD Prog 2039, 2000 AD Prog 2272, 2000 AD Prog 2278, 2000 AD Prog 2284.
