2000 AD Covers Uncovered: Synthi-caff for Mr Arse Wedge? John McCrea’s Armitage for Megazine 467
17th April 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!
Another month, another zarjaz Judge Dredd Megazine cover to show you – this month it’s the return of Brit-Cit’s finest Detective Judge, Armitage, courtesy of John McCrea, adorning the front of Megazine 467…
Detective Judge Armitage first appeared back in 1991, the creation of Dave Stone and Sean Phillips. Since then, this grumpy, stubborn, opionated, and arrogant copper who’s always butting heads with his bosses has featured pretty regularly here in the Megazine, always proving he’s the best plainclothes operative in the Brit-Cit Justice Department.
Inside Megazine 467, we have the beginning of a new Armitage tale by Liam Johnson and Warren Pleece, all under this fantastic cover from the McCrea droid. So, taking advantage of one of his breaks – Tharg gives his droids one every month or so just so they can get an oil change and do some promo – here’s John to tell us about his latest cover…
JOHN MCCREA: 2000 AD has been lucky to have two of the best character designers in all of comics – Carlos Ezquerra and Brendan McCarthy. Brendan’s alternative Judge designs are incredible, so when I was asked to do an Armitage cover for the big Meg, I definitely had to get a Brit Cit Judge in there!
My first pass was this one, using a triangle design to allow for dead space on the upper right for type…
JOHN MCCREA: Tharg sent Mek Quake round to my hab to point out (in no uncertain terms) that Armitage doesn’t use a gun so I had better amend that post haste! I complied.
Ooops! One quick removal of gun later and John came up with this one…
JOHN MCCREA: Tharg forgave my oversight, so it was on to inks. I decided that the reason Armitage was so annoyed on this cover was that the barista (coffee pourer to you and me) had misspelled his name, writing Arse Wedge on his cup o’ Synthi-Joe – which is why he’s commanded the Judge to take out the offending fella.
At least that’s the stupid story I made up while inking this. What a job! After the inks, I popped on some digital tones.
JOHN MCCREA: Off it went to Mike Spicer for colors, and after a few notes we had a Megazine cover all ready to go!
My quest to draw every significant 2000ad character (at least once) continues apace!
Well, you can tick Armitage off that list right now John!
Thanks so much to the McCrea droid for this latest ghafflebette cover – you can see it in all its glory on the front cover of Judge Dredd Megazine 467 wherever the Galaxy’s Greatest is sold – in newsagents, comic shops, and from the 2000 AD web shop.
If you want more Covers Uncovered from John, take a gander at these – with some magnificent Dredds on Prog 2024, Prog 2224, Prog 2328, Prog 2351, and Prog 2361. Now, let’s all ask Tharg to let John do more covers and, even better, return to the inside of the Prog – I think we’d all love that! After all, this is a man on a mission to draw every single major 2000 AD character!