2000 AD Covers Uncovered: Call Him “The Perpinator”! Steven Austin is back for Prog 2363
3rd January 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!
It’s a brand new year of Thrill Power and Tharg’s got plenty of treats in store for you for 2024, starting with this very first Prog of the year, full of zarjaz strips and all capped off with a great Dredd cover by Steven Austin. It’s 2000 AD Prog 2363 and it’s out on 3 January.
Steven’s been a pretty regular artist here in the Prog since bursting in with a Time Twister – The Timeless Assassin, written by Rory McConville – in 2016’s Prog 1982. Since then, his distinctive artwork’s been seen on Judge Dredd, Judge Death, Judge Anderson, along with more Terror Tales, Future Shocks, Tharg’s 3Rillers, and Tales From The Black Museum. He’s also featured on a number of really striking covers over the last few years, of which this is merely the latest.
As for what to expect from Steven in the future, 2024 sees him providing artwork for a two-part Devlin Waugh tale in the Judge Dredd Megazine. But that’s rather getting ahead of ourselves. For now, let’s head back to the cover to this week’s Prog and get the skinny directly from the artist – so, here’s Steven Austin with a tale of Dredd and a pile o’ perps…
STEVEN AUSTIN: ‘I call this one ‘The Perpinator’!! It was a pitch I sent to Tharg, a good few months ago now. I’ve always quite fancied drawing Dredd atop a pile of defeated perps.
I went for a slightly low angle so you’re looking up at Dredd and to really make it pop I wanted Dredd’s head to slightly overlap the logo, as you can see in the initial rough that I sent across to Tharg.
STEVEN AUSTIN: My process doesn’t change, initial rough is blown up to A3 and then re-pencilled with an HB Technical pencil and then inked using a combination of a green (cased) Tombow brush pen and a Pentel brush pen.
And here’s Steven’s re-pencilling stage…
Followed by the inks…
But just how does an art droid get the required reference for a pile of bodies exactly? Well, that’s where pals come in handy, as Steven will tell you…
STEVEN AUSTIN: The pile of perps is made up of the usual variety of gang members and misfits you’d expect to find in MC1 but I threw a few familiar faces in there, at least to me, some of my convention and project partners in crime, Darren Stephens, Neil McClements and Chris Askham, I asked them to send me their best impersonations of being dead….or at least out cold.
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STEVEN AUSTIN: The final inks were then shipped off to Tharg where Mr Jim Boswell used his magic colour wand to bring the whole thing to life!!’
Wow, that’s a great cover to set us off on our year of Thrill Power! You can find it on the shelves, real and virtual at the 2000 AD web shop from 3 January.
And whilst we’re talking Steven’s great covers, do take the time to look through the archives at Steven’s other great covers that we’ve featured here at Covers Uncovered over the last few years – Prog 2184, Prog 2211, Prog 2286, and Prog 2311.
You can find more from Steven at his website and there’s also StevenAustinArt on Facebook.