Comics

2000 AD Covers Uncovered – Nick Percival Bringing The Scares To Dredd In Prog 2247

1st September 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!

This week, it’s 2000 AD Prog 2247, featuring a creepy and kooky Nick Percival cover for the beginning of the three-part Judge Dredd tale, The House On Bleaker Street, written by Kenneth Niemand and with suitably terrifying art from Nick Percival.

So… let’s hand it over to Nick Percival for the tale of making the cover…

PROG 2247 out now

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NICK PERCIVAL: It’s always good to return to Dredd now and again and this spooky story was a good palette cleanser after a year of Dark Judges shenanigans.

The House on Bleaker Street (which is a sly wink for people that’ll get the reference) is a great script by Kenneth Niemand (first time I’ve worked with him) and totally tailored to the stuff I like to illustrate, so a nice, dark, horror tale for Dredd.

I couldn’t really give too much away on the cover image, since this three-parter reveals a new nemesis for Dredd that we don’t see until Part 2, so it’s a fairly generic layout but still gives a Scooby-Doo ‘haunted house’ type spooky vibe. So, a nice big image of Dredd with the mysterious House on Bleaker Street below with some hint of supernatural forces at work. (Cough..zombies..cough!)

(Damn, nasty cough you’ve got there, Nick!)

And that’s what Nick has the temerity to describe as a SKETCH!

Nick Percival: I wanted a ghost-like, ethereal feel to the piece with lots of mist and soft edges, giving it an otherworldly feel. Really enjoyed working on this one and it sets up some potential for things that can be developed further down the line for Dredd which world be fun to do.

Jinkies!

The finished cover to Prog 2247 – giving that Scooby-Doo vibe, Dredd style!

Thanks to Nick for sending along the imagery to what is SO much a Nick Percival cover! There’s no one better to give the readers the scares as Percival, let’s face it!

2000 AD Prog 2247 is out on 1 September from everywhere thrill-powered comic books are sold, including the 2000 AD web shop!

As for what you can expect from The House on Bleaker Street, Nick was kind enough to send us along a couple of images… try not to have nightmares!