2000 AD Covers Uncovered: Simon Fraser, Prog 2309 – ‘I want the whole thing to pop as hard as it can’
23rd November 2022
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 Fraser for a second cover for this first part of Hershey: The Cold In The Bones, which reaches its thrilling conclusion here in 2000 AD Prog 2309.
The first part of Hershey: The Cold in the Bones ends in this Prog, and Rob Williams and Simon Fraser have delivered eight episodes of chilling thrills down in Antarctic City, all culminating last Prog when Hershey and Frank discovered what the connection to Smiley and Enceladus was down here in the cold.
Yes, things are coming full circle for Hershey in her final mission to right the wrongs of Judge Smiley that were committed on her watch. But the microbial virus coursing through her body means that time is not on her side…
Hershey’s prepares for the worst in The Cold in the Bones episode 5, 2000 AD Prog 2308
Now, over to Simon to tell you all about putting together the cover to 2000 AD Prog 2309…
SIMON FRASER: So it’s unusual for me to get to do 2 covers on a story, so I wanted them to look very different. The first Hershey: The Cold In The Bones cover was very moody and quite still. I want this one to be as intense and action-packed as possible.
The scene where Frank & Hershey are attacked by the Enceladus Spider/Plants/Triffids seemed the obvious scene to choose.
The thumbnail is very loose, drawn on the back of a script page…
Then I worked it up into a pencil drawing on a sheet of Strathmore 300 series. Then, because I like to make my life more difficult, I thought it would be fun to actually ink this page, not digitally, but with actual ink and a G nib.
It’s been a while since I did this so I was rusty as hell. All the more reason to do it. I got so excited by this process that I forgot to send the pencil to Matt for approval before I started inking it.
‘Then, because I like to make my life more difficult, I thought it would be fun to actually ink this page,
not digitally, but with actual ink and a G nib.’
Now comes the problem. I have an A3 scanner, but I haven’t used it for 2 years. It’s in a stack of stuff and I don’t think I can be bothered to dig it out and then set it up and then chase random technical bugs all afternoon. So I took a picture of the page with my phone. Now I do this with my pencils normally, but never for a page of inks. The resolution and fidelity requirements are much higher for black & white linework. I won’t be inking over these lines in Clip Studio, these are the lines that will be printed.
For the record, my phone is a Galaxy Note20 5G and it did a spectacular job using just the daylight through my window. After a fairly minimal amount of level adjustment in Affinity Photo, the linework was scanned and looking pretty good.
(If anyone wants to buy a used A3 scanner, DM me )
Now comes the tedious part, masking out all the major colour blocks. With some illustrations, I can have 20 different Alpha Channels masking out all the important areas. That lets me adjust colour and tonal relationships right up to the end. It’s very easy to get overworked and dull when you’ve been layering textures for hours, so being able to pop up the saturation or push it back is really useful.
In this case, I didn’t need many masks at all, but the major one was a very complex shape. The advantage of inking digitally is that all the black lines are clean and it’s easy to make clean and well-finished lines that respond well to the Magic Wand tool. This is a hand-inked page though, so there is a ton of random crap and ragged lines to deal with.
Masking takes a while.
Because this is essentially one big shape, the depth of field is fairly short and I want the whole thing to pop as hard as it can, I’m choosing one of my very favourite colour relationships, Red & Green.
I want this cover to SCREAM, so I’m keeping it very simple. It’s also quite Christmassy, which is season appropriate.
I want the creatures to have a specific texture. I’ve got a set of texture brushes which I like to use for this. I also get very liberal with the splatter brushes because there are many fluids spraying around and all those particles and squirts add to the visceral energy of the piece.
(Yes, because nothing says Christmassy and seasonal like fluids spraying around and all those particles and squirts!)
So there you go, thanks so much for Simon to sending that one along – You can find 2000 AD Prog 2309 wherever you pick up your weekly dose of Ghafflebette comics, including the 2000 AD web shop. It’s out on 23 November.
And if you do fancy getting your hands on a nice A3 Scanner (providing Simon can dig it out from wherever it is), you can find get in touch with him through his website and Twitter.
For more Hershey, you can pick up the first in Hershey’s quest to make things right in the Disease collection. As for more of Rob and Simon talking about what they’re doing on Hershey, check out this interview with them, listen in to them on the 2000 AD Thrill-Cast and read Simon’s thoughts on creating his Hershey covers with 2000 AD Covers Uncovered – Prog 2176, Prog 2218 and Prog 2304.
Finally, be sure to subscribe to The Great Dante Readthrough podcast that Simon and his wife, Edie Nugent, are doing. It’s an excellent behind-the-scenes glimpse at one of 2000 AD’s greatest sagas – you can find that everywhere you get podcasts (Apple, Spotify, Podbay, and others, including from Simon’s website.)