2000 AD Covers Uncovered: John McCrea’s Dredd on Prog 2375 – always room for more sneer…
27th March 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 time for another treat from our Lord & Master, The Mighty One, as Tharg gives us even more thrill-power in a bumper 52-page Prog 2375 – with Dredd, Rogue, Thistlebone, and Proteus Vex all featuring on the zarjaz front cover by John McCrea…
Inside the Prog we have continuing thrills with the crew of the Full Tilt Boogie and the beautiful madness of Indigo Prime, plus the stunning (and terrifying) finale to folk horror Thistlebone: The Dule Tree. But that’s by no means all – there’s also a one-off Rogue Trooper from David Barnett and Paul Marshall (we think we mentioned there’s a film coming out, yes?); a double-length, 10-page opener, to the latest series of Mike Carroll and Jake Lynch’s magnificent space opera epic Proteus Vex in Devious, and then a new Dredd story by Rob Williams and R.M. Guera that acts as a prologue to the new series beginning next week – Rend & Tear with Tooth & Claw, that’s been trailed as a multi-part survivor horror story that takes Dredd into the snowy wilderness of the territory which once was called Alaska.
But back to that fantastic McCrea-droid cover, one that’s a lesson in always coming back to your art and giving it a second chance. In fact, this one started with the initial rejected sketch to a previous cover of John’s, Prog 2361, this one in fact…
JOHN MCCREA: Ok, this cover started with the previous cover, Prog 2361- Dredd standing over the beaten body of some poor mega city punk.
When I was penciling that one, I thought my initial sketch was lacking in dynamics and the posture wasn’t quite good enough.
Yes, the McCrea unit comes not only pre-programmed with that great fluid line and impressive loose style but, like all of Tharg’s art droids, there’s also a hefty chunk of self-doubt in there to keep him in his place.
This is the initial sketch in question that McCrea did for Prog 2361…
And this is what he had to say about it back on the Covers Uncovered for that one…
JOHN MCCREA: It’s ok, but there’s something missing. Too straight on, not enough tension in the pose. I dunno. (Any actual wonkiness in the drawing would have been sorted out, but technical faults aren’t the problem here).
Okay then, back to the now and John talking about this current cover…
JOHN MCCREA: However after that cover was completed and a few days later, I glanced over the first sketch again and thought I could maybe make something of it. I rarely throw away any art as I hate to waste a drawing – I have realized that time can help you see the faults in a drawing that you didn’t catch before, and maybe figure out ways to improve it.
So I scanned the picture and noodled with it in Photoshop, basically cutting the limbs out and shifting them around like one of those paper dolls. I also altered Dredd’s head, fixing the wonky shape and adding a little more sneer to the face, and ended up with this…
The stance is much more interesting, the whole thing giving off a more ‘don’t f*** with me’ attitude. So I inked it…
I have always wanted to do a cover with extra characters in circles within the main picture, so quickly mocked this up and sent it to old green bonce.
Tharg loved it and agreed to get back to me when he had decided which issue it was to be fronting.
A month or so later a Regelian Hotshot alerted me to the characters that had been selected, so onwards!
I had to draw the three characters on a separate sheet of paper- I had not left any room on the art as originally I was not thinking of it as being a cover, just a cool pic of Dredd I was drawing.
I decided to make the circles containing the characters representative of the stories and this is how they turned out.
Then I scanned them and popped them onto the art, extended Dredd’s baton to fit the format and my work was done!
(And yes, you can all insert your extending Dredd’s baton gags right here.)
JOHN MCCREA: I sent it off to colourist Jack Davies and, when I got it back, had zero notes! Jack’s magic palette pulled the whole thing together!
I hope all you Earthlets enjoy this issue!
Enjoy the issue John? We think the Earthlets will be loving it – starting with your fantastic cover. You Earthlets can find it on the front of Prog 2375, in newsagents, comic shops, and from the 2000 AD web shop.
If you want more Covers Uncovered from John, take a gander at these – with more Dredd on Prog 2024, Prog 2224, Prog 2328, Prog 2351, and Prog 2361.
Now, as a little treat for you, here’s a few selected crops and blow-ups from John’s art that he sent over…
