2000 AD Covers Uncovered – Neil Roberts’ Sci-Fi Special cover brings the heat to Dreddworld!
5th July 2021
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!
Today, it’s the turn of cover artist extraordinaire, Neil Roberts, talking us through putting together the cover for the 2021 2000 AD Sci-Fi Special…
This summer, things are heating up in the world of Judge Dredd with the 2000 AD Sci-Fi Special!
It’s going to be a mega summertime storytelling event when we see characters from different Dreddworld series crossing over in one epic adventure! The whole thing is plotted by Michael Carroll and Maura McHugh, along with fabulous stories featuring Judge Dredd, Cursed Earth Koburn, Anderson, Chopper, Armitage, and Devlin Waugh!
Things begin with Judge Dredd meeting up with Cursed Earth Koburn in ‘Biohazard’ by Carroll and Ben Willsher, while over in Oz legendary skysurfer Chopper is a wanted man in ‘Dreamgazer’ by David Baillie and Tom Foster. Meanwhile, over in Brit-Cit, Armitage goes looking for everyone’s favourite vampiric dandy Devlin Waugh in ‘Natural Fern Killer’ by Liam Johnson and Robin Smith, whilst Hondo-Cit Judge Inaba has trouble on her turf, courtesy of Karl Stock and Neil Googe. All this plus Judge Anderson by Maura McHugh and Anna Morozova, before everything wraps up in ‘Apotheosis’, by Carroll and McHugh, and drawn by Thought Bubble 2000 AD art competition winner James Newell.
It’s going to be a summer thrill-power scorcher! And it all starts off with that great cover from Neil Roberts!
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NEIL ROBERTS: Tharg messaged me with a proposition to do the 2000AD Sci-Fi Special cover artwork, and I couldn’t resist the chance!
The brief was for a multi-character piece, a group shot in front of planet Earth. What was particularly exciting for me was being able to paint some classic characters – Dredd, Anderson, Devlin Waugh, Armitage, Inaba and a personal favourite of mine, Chopper. (on his board, too!) Tharg sent on a load of reference images to keep me inspired and on track.
With that, I thumbnailed out a few designs – opting for a classic line-up composition, where everyone would be clear and legible within the frame.
After a few rounds of tweaking and revising the image (Chopper standing with his board felt way too sedate, so we had him surfing through space and gave Dredd a gun), Tharg settled on a final design and I set to painting.
After a few weeks, I sent off the image to the Nerve Centre, and we called it done. Phew!
And that was that – another cracking cover from Neil there! Thanks so much to Neil for sharing the experience.
You can pick up the 2000 AD Sci-Fi Special 2021 on 7 July in the UK and 4 August in the USA – get it from your favourite comic shops, newsagents or order NOW from the 2000 AD web shop.