Comics

2000 AD Covers Uncovered – Jock Returns For The 2020 2000 AD Sci-Fi Special!

17th June 2020

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 year, the 2000 AD Sci-Fi Special marks 20 years since the Galaxy’s Greatest Comic joined games developer Rebellion, with a massive 100-page celebration of the last two decades! Inside, you’ll find brand new stories with classic Rebellion-era archive strips – with some special guests cropping up to really make this a true 2000 AD birthday celebration!

And all this under a stunning cover from a 2000 AD legend – Jock! So it’s time to settle down with one of the Rebellion era’s greatest artists and get him to tell us all about the making of a cover worthy of the celebrations!

You can find the 2000 AD Sci-Fi Special from all good newsagents and comic book stores on Wednesday 24th June! Or simply pre-order from the 2000 AD web shop using the link below!

PRE-ORDER NOW >>

I always try and fit in doing something for 2000AD if I can, and when Matt asked if I’d like to do the cover for this years Summer Special, I was happy to take it on.

It also turned out that it would be a ‘bookend’ homage to a Dredd piece I had drawn 20 years ago, marking the anniversary of Rebellion taking over the Galaxies Greatest Comic.

*The original 2000 AD Dreddcon – an image so damn good it’s worth doing again!*

Matt asked for a shot of Dredd looming over Oxford this time, rather than the London of the first Dreddcon image.

A fairly simple brief, with not too much wiggle room, so I comped together some shots of Oxford for the foreground and drew a quick sketch of Dredd.

*Jock’s original sketch – A Dredd so scary even the buses crash!*

I liked the pose, as did Matt, so once approved I blew up the sketch to full size and traced it off to keep the nuances of the way Dredd looked in the final piece.

Worked some more details into the figure and inked it over a couple of days while working on other projects. The final piece is quite large, on 16’ x 20’ art board.I reduced the size of his head slightly in Photoshop before sending the final file, so Dredd would feel as monolithic as possible – Dredd always looks best looking larger than life.

*And that makes Dredd larger than life… A Backstreet Boys lyric? Really?*

Chris Blythe was the colourist on the original Dreddcon piece and we were lucky to get him for this image too. Matt asked for a daytime scene to contrast the night of the original image, so we get the very apt bright blue skies of Oxford for the Summer Special.

The sun is out, the sky is blue
There’s not a cloud to spoil the view
Except Judge Dredd, telling you stay home.
(Buddy Holly’s first draft, unseen before now)

And that’s it – the making of an iconic cover, featuring an iconic character, by an iconic artist. Thanks to Jock once more for taking part. Hopefully, it won’t be too long before we see more of his art adorning the covers or pages of 2000 AD or Judge Dredd Megazine.

You can find the 2000 AD Sci-Fi Special from all good newsagents and comic book stores on Wednesday 24th June! Or simply pre-order from the 2000 AD web shop using the link below.

PRE-ORDER NOW >>

Now, a little more Jock from the archives…

First off, the cover from the 2012 Free Comic Book Day comic from 2000 AD, as featured by my esteemed colleague, Mr Pete Wells, legend around these parts, on Covers Uncovered from 2011.