2000 AD Covers Uncovered: John McCrea goes Rogue for Prog 2386
12th June 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!
This week it’s another ghafflebette cover by the one and only John McCrea (with colours by Jack Davies) for Prog 2386, so overflowing with Thrill Power that it’s turned into a special extra-length 48-page Prog with seven zarjaz strips inside.
One of the new strips – you’ll have guessed from the cover – is a brand-new multi-part thriller featuring everyone’s favourite blue-skinned G.I. – the return of Rogue Trooper in Souther Belle by Geoffrey D. Wessel and Dan Cornwell. We’re back on Nu-Earth and back with Rogue, Gunnar, Helm, and Bagman, investigating a mysterious and familiar voice that’s going to send Rogue off on a rescue mission deep into Nord territory.
For those of you worried about the mental health of the McCrea art droid after that slight circuit meltdown with the last cover, you’ll be pleased to know in advance that this one went a LOT more smoothly…
JOHN MCCREA: This cover was originally a commission that I did about four years ago. I was very pleased with it and after the news of the Rogue Trooper film, and guessing that there would be new material appearing in 2000 AD, I decided to send the picture in to Matt and see if he wanted to use it. Happily he did.
I often look around for a visual cue or idea that I think might give me the hook on which to base my cover. I Googled pictures of Vietnam as that’s the real conflict I think of when I think of Rogue’s war. This was the photo that made me sense the image that I wanted.
As you can see it’s just not simply tracing the drawing but just the idea of it that I needed to jump off, and this was the pencil drawing that resulted from that picture.
I’m not entirely sure why I made Rogue left-handed, but I’d imagine all Genetic Infantry are ambidextrous. It’s certainly a trait I would build in if I was creating the perfect soldier. There, I’ve solved my problem.
I lightboxed my pencil sketch, and tightened it up, getting Gunnar right. He’s a tricky gun to draw, and I am sure I got the perspective wrong on the ammo clip. Not that I noticed at the time, sadly.
As with most things I’m doing when I’m inking myself, I kept the pencils reasonably loose and energetic, even in the redraw. The background is just shapes, an idea of the masses involved – rubble strewn ground is my bread and butter!
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Next I started inking, using a Mitsubishi unipin fine line pen…
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I finished the inking with a Zig Scroll and Brush for the heavier black areas and for thickening up the outlines. I dropped a gas mask in on the ground to imply the Nort menace…
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I then added a grey wash using watered down Indian ink. I thought this gave the picture more of a swirling, hazy feel that suited the subject. You can also see here that I altered Rogue’s right foot at this stage, it needed widening to give it more weight.
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When Matt confirmed that he was going to use the picture, I realised that I had not drawn it to 2000 AD proportions, so I extended the scan image using Photoshop. You can also see I finally remembered to clean up the correction lines on the right foot!
Once that was done it was off to Jack for colouring.
I loved what Jack did with the color palette, but as you can see from this picture I am a fussy bastard! However, I think the end result was worth it.
Thankfully a hell of a lot simpler than the monumental exercise in getting it just right as the last cover! Thanks so much to John for sending all that through and it’s yet another in a series of really great character portraits of the finest of 2000 AD.
Prog 2386 is out right now and available in all the usual places you find your Thrill-Power, including the 2000 AD web shop.
If you want more Covers Uncovered from John, there’s plenty here to bring before your eyeballs – Prog 2024, Prog 2224, Prog 2328, Prog 2351, Prog 2361, not forgetting the near-breakdown inducing cover for Prog 2380’s Aquila cover, and his fabulous Armitage for Judge Dredd Megazine, issue 467.