2000 AD Covers Uncovered: Sometimes the buildings just aren’t melty enough – Steve Roberts on Prog 2325
30th March 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 both the all-ages Regened Prog and art droid Steve Roberts for the cover of 2000 AD Prog 2325 – with Dredd having a little trip to a dream world…
Inside the first all-ages edition of the Galaxy’s Greatest for 2023 there’s another case for Cadet Dredd, a return visit to the wizarding world of Lowborn High and the latest tale of the Mayflies, the gene engineered young clones who’ve escaped from the horrors of Nu Earth. You’ve also got a scrotnig Future Shock, Vin-E, Blow The Doors and a new Sam Slade prose adventure with the Robo-Hunter trying his hand at droid stand-up comedy.
And on the cover, we have the return of Steve Roberts – one of Tharg’s Droids from way back, whose art appeared on strips including Sinister Dexter, Bec and Kawl, Banzai Battalion, Angel Gang, and Black Atlantic while working on both the Prog and the Judge Dredd Megazine.
After those strips, Steve headed out of 2000 AD Towers and out of comics around 2010 to get involved in animation design work for Ragdoll Productions. At Ragdoll, he ended up working on The Adventures of Abney and Teal, Twirlywoos, B.O.T. and the Beasties, and co-created and wrote 50 episodes of the 2D animated show Dipdap – which went on to win a prestigious Childrens BAFTA award – not something many Droids can brag about!
But the lure of 2000 AD is strong for ex-droids and Tharg welcomed him back into the fold recently with a Regened Future Shock in Prog 2246, followed by the Regend series with James Peaty, Scooter & Jinx. And now here he is again, for the latest great Regened cover – which all started with cover roughs of Dredd in a dream world…
STEVE ROBERTS: The brief for this Regened cover was Cadet Dredd in a dream world. So lots of weird/surreal stuff going on.
I had a thought about Looney Tunes cartoon backgrounds that I remembered looking quite surreal at times.
I also doodled down some doors hanging in space which is a little obvious as surreal/dream imagery. I was thinking about Alice in Wonderland too. And even though the door thing was a little predictable it was a fun opportunity to draw Dredd stepping through one door in the distance and coming out of another floating door in the foreground.
I also wanted to draw Dredd quite large in frame as something a bit different to last Regened cover I did for the Prog.
I think perhaps one of the reasons this idea wasn’t chosen is because it wasn’t dynamic and punchy enough for a Regened cover. It’s a bit of a static image. So on to cover rough #2…
This was the one that ended up being chosen. The cover brief mentioned a possible melty city so I went for it with this one. Dredd’s pose is an excuse to draw his boots as big as possible! I love the way Mick McMahon draws Dredd, especially the chunky footwear!
I thought as this was a slightly unreal dreamy image I could really exaggerate the boots which would be fun. Dredd could be a bit distorted and bendy as well as the city. I also used to love drawing megacity one buildings when I first discovered 2000 AD so I was chuffed to be able to have a go at drawing some again.
Cover rough #3 was a variation on the Dredd hanging suspended in space but instead of a melting city I thought the city could be floating in pieces around him as if the buildings had come apart like a jigsaw. I possibly had Akira in mind with the floating pieces of building etc. I liked the idea of having a swirling colourful void-like background. That could go slightly 60s. A law master could be included too, floating about. I quite fancied having a go at drawing the original design Lawmaster.
However, I was quite relieved when this idea wasn’t chosen as I was a bit nervous about drawing the bike. Also looking at this again, I don’t think this Dredd pose is strong enough for a cover.
Cover rough #4 was another melting city. In fact this is the city I developed for the final cover but I used the Dredd from rough number 2. I think the positioning and pose of Dredd from rough 2 is stronger than this one but I liked the road and cars in background so wanted to include them in the final art.
I was really looking forward to doing this cover and just got straight into it with minimal planning, which probably isn’t sensible, but usually happens when I’m really into an idea and really want to get going on it.
I especially didn’t do a lot of forward planning on the city design. Just went with it and enjoyed adding loads of detail.
I decided to use (digital) watercolour and (digital) pencil crayon for the background to set it back a little, make it dreamy, and create a disconnect from Dredd in the middle of the frame. I decided to use black line and flat colours for Dredd to keep it more graphic and clear and make him pop out from the busy background. So he looks like he is suspended in midair above the scene. I made the decision to just make the city distorted and surreal so I calmed down the size of Dredd’s boots and the slight distortion I had in the rough. Hopefully the wash of colours in the background produced a dreamy unusual atmosphere.
Actually the lack of initial planning did almost backfire as I realised after completing a few of the buildings in the foreground that they weren’t nearly melty enough! So I had to make sure that I upped the meltiness on the remaining building otherwise it would come out looking too normal. Especially as Mega-City One building are pretty surreal looking anyway!
Hopefully it all came together! It was fun to do.
So there you go, thanks so much to Steve for sending more Regened thrill power along to us. You can find 2000 AD Prog 2325 from anywhere the Galaxy’s Greatest is sold, including the 2000 AD web shop – it’s out on 29 March.
For more from Steve, be sure to cast your eyes over his other Covers Uncovered for Prog 2246 and get reading this interview where Steve and co-creator James Peaty talk about the Regened strip Scooter & Jinx.
