2000 AD Covers Uncovered: Simon Davis Keeps The Fear Flowing In Thistlebone for Prog 2368
7th February 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!
On the front of 2000 AD Prog 2368 we have the latest Thistlebone cover from Simon Davis as The Dule Tree, the third series of his and TC Eglington’s folk horror fear-fest, reaches part five and the fear is rising and rising…
In the first two series of Thistlebone, we’ve seen the way that the horrors of the past have infected and infused the tiny village of Harrowvale with a madness expressing itself through modern-day cults and personal psychoses.
Now we’re back to the 70s and a film based on the 18th Century witch trials that happened in Harrowvale, which is every bit the terrible idea that you think it would be, given all we know already about Harrowvale and Thistlebone.
And the film poster look is something Davis is leaning into heavily on this current series, both in the covers he’s doing and this early promo work…
Last time, Prog 2364’s cover, it was the Hammer classic, Dracula AD 1972 that Simon used as a basis for the cover. This time… well, we’ll let Simon tell you…
SIMON DAVIS: When Tom and I first discussed doing Thistlebone in 2020, it was mainly born out of our love of Folk Horror films.
A particular favourite of mine is The Blood on Satan’s Claw (1971). It has a great poster by the genius that was Arnaldo Putzu so this absolutely had to form the basis of a cover design.
That’s the poster for the UK version of the film, complete with its absolutely terrible reproduction of Putz’s artwork. As Simon explains…
SIMON DAVIS: I sent that as it has a better reproduction of Putz’s artwork…the later version, where it’s called The Blood on Satan’s Claw (the one I have) has a wisp of hair to cover the woman’s modesty!
Robert Wynn Simmons wrote the screenplay (and only recently the book) of The Blood on Satan’s Claw. I think we’d be on safer ground if we just said Blood on Satan’s Claw, The Wicker Man, and Witchfinder Genrel are considered the unholy trinity (as they are referred to) of Folk Horror Movies and were a huge influence on Thistlebone. Satan’s Skin was deemed an inappropriate title for the UK release so The Blood on Satan’s Claw was used instead….Piers Haggard, the director, disliked it intensely!
Anyway, Simon sent along the film poster for the other version of the film, Satan’s Skin, where the poster art did a much better job of showing you that Putzu artwork…
Okay then, back to Simon…
SIMON DAVIS: I felt the original poster was perfect to be adapted into a Thistlebone cover, with Yvonne Kier’s Agnes Green character replacing Linda Hayden’s Angel Blake and the Behemoth being replaced by Thistlebone.
I went to the British Museum and took reference photos of the antler head piece that Thistlebone is based on and again decided to hand paint the 2000 AD logo.
And here’s that first rough for you, followed by Simon’s pencils and the painstaking and beautiful process of adding paint to it all, first Yvonne Kier’s figure and then the looming menace of Thistlebone itself…
SIMON DAVIS: It was a relatively uncomplicated painting process as the Thistlebone figure was mainly there to act as a contrast to the figure.
One final photo – the finished piece on the easel, with an original The Blood on Satan’s Claw film poster that hangs in my studio...
There you go, another fabulously fear-inducing Simon Davis Thistlebone for you! You can find it on on the front of Prog 2368, in newsagents, comic shops, and from the 2000 AD web shop.
There’s plenty more Thistlebone, here at 2000 AD.com – our interview Eglington and Davis here and you can find all of Simon’s previous Covers Uncovered Thistlebone pieces here as well – Prog 2223, Prog 2232, and Prog 2364. And of course, there’s also the essential reading of the first Thistlebone collection that’s available in all good comic shops and from the 2000 AD web shop.