Comics

2000 AD Covers Uncovered: Shadows of the past for Simon Davis and Durham Red with Prog 2327

13th April 2023

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 the return of Simon Davis for a gorgeous cover for the new Durham Red strip, Mad Dogs, on its second episode right here in 2000 AD Prog 2327. Inside, writer Alec Worley and artist Ben Willsher are following up their 2021 Red story, Served Cold, with the mutant vamp facing the needle but about to get offered a lifeline.

So, faced with that bit of brilliance on the cover, we wanted to see how Simon had put it together…

SIMON DAVIS: Tharg asked me if I would like to do a cover for the latest Durham Red story and I jumped at the chance.

I’d never painted her before so was slightly intimidated by how brilliant the previous artists on the character had been. This includes, of course, Ben Willsher, who is doing the current run.

A tale of two Reds – Simon Davis’ cover rough honouring both Ben Willsher’s new version of Durham Red and Carlos Ezquerra’s classic!

Matt sent me some character references for both Ben’s work and Carlos’s as he quite liked the idea of a silhouette of Ezquerra’s older design behind the seated figure.

I did a couple of roughs and finally settled on a very simple seated pose. I took reference photos and painted the finished piece in oils on board.

And the fully painted final version by Simon

So there you go, short and sweet but looking damn fine!

Thanks so much for Simon to sending that one along – You can find 2000 AD Prog 2327 wherever you pick up your weekly dose of Ghafflebette comics, including the 2000 AD web shop from right now – go get your hands on it!