2000 AD Covers Uncovered: John Higgins on Megazine 468 & the return of Dreadnoughts
15th May 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 head over to the Judge Dredd Megazine for this latest Covers Uncovered – with Megazine 468 adorned by the latest incredible John Higgins art for the new series of Dreadnoughts – Nothing To Fear…
The third series of Michael Carroll and John Higgins’ Drednoughts starts right now in this month’s Megazine with Nothing To Fear. We’re right back to the very start of the Justice Department once more, right back to the difficult transition faced by America as democracy falls and the rule of the Judges takes hold.
Except this time, we’ve moved from seeing how Judge Glover dispensed Justice in Colorado and on to Judge Beckett, riding into a small town in Wyoming that’s just not ready for the new regime at all.
It’s 2035 AD – Obey the law and you’ll have nothing to fear… yeah, right…
As John will tell you in a moment, he’s not been able to send along a full set of process images for this one, just the final image worked up – it’s a case of Tharg’s art droids just keeping their heads down and drawing, drawing, drawing. Well, wouldn’t you with Mek-Quake lumbering over you threateningly?
But still – plenty of process to look at for what’s become another really quite stunning series of Dreadnoughts covers.
First things first though, it all started with Tharg’s Earthly representative getting in touch with an idea for what was required…
JOHN HIGGINS: The cover started with Matt’s “I was thinking of a moody shot of a Judge silhouetted by rain and lightning”
We tried a couple of ideas, with full body and more abstract silhouetted which was moody but probably too abstract. I had done a depiction of Judge Beckett without his helmet, (colour by Sally Jane Hurst) and I liked the unflinching deep set eyes looking coldly out, it just sparked his character for me.
That’s this shot of Judge Beckett from a future episode…
JOHN HIGGINS: So for this cover I had him back in his Judges helm but kept the eyes. Matt felt it has the strength in the cover image he wanted, very “judgmental’ – you know that, in this guy’s eyes, you ARE found wanting!
I did a digital colour rough, I wanted to work out colour and wet detail.
The final physical painting I unfortunately forgot to photo at each stage, Sally Jane keeps telling me off for not doing that, but I was just head down going for it.
Well, Sally Jane, as always, is absolutely right John! So hopefully we’ll have more images to show you from the Higgins droid. As it is though, you have this fabulous set of process shots of the digital work, each stage adding layers and colours and details – leaving us with Judge Beckett giving us the epitome of ‘a moody shot of a Judge silhouetted by rain and lightning’ – just as requested!
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And all of that leads John to go physical for the final painting. No process of that, as John mentioned, but there is this absolute beauty of an image that we’ll end with…
Thanks so much to John for sending along this latest stunner of a cover through to us – you can find it everywhere Thrill Power is sold right now, comic shops, newsagents, and the 2000 AD webshop. You just won’t
For more on Dreadnoughts, be sure to take a look at another striking image with John’s Covers Uncovered for Megazine 429. And the first series of Dreadnoughts, Breaking Ground, with another gorgeous cover for Megazine 455 and Dreadnoughts: The March Of Progress. Plus, we’ve interviewed Michael Carrol and John Higgins about Dreadnoughts in print at the Megazine in issue 425. But that was a long, long interview that just wouldn’t fit in the Meg – luckily, we were able to put up all the extras right here. And finally, some entertainment for your eyes and ears – John was video-interviewed for 2000 AD’s From The Drawing Board here and Mike and John were interviewed for the Thrillcast Lockdown Tapes here.
And of course, you should absolutely be gazing lovingly to your bookshelf right now and seeing the first collection – Dreadnoughts: Breaking Ground. If you happen to be missing that, get with the clicky-clicky and buy it now from the 2000 AD web shop!
