2000 AD Covers Uncovered: Taking names and cracking skulls with Steven Austin for Prog 2311
8th December 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, Steven Austin brings you the cover for the final regular Prog of the year, featuring Dredd and his pals doing a little bit of community policing as they politely shut down the illegal fight between the champs of Tyson Fury Block and Caitlyn Jenner Block – as featured in the conclusion of the Judge Dredd tale inside, The Re-Match.
STEVEN AUSTIN: Matt contacted me and asked if I could produce a cover similar to the panel from The Rematch part 2 – where Dredd and the his Judicial cohorts are cracking skulls after raiding the venue as the fight is in full swing.
Matt requested Dredd front and centre with the other judges behind going off into the distance. For this to work, I had to take a slightly higher vantage point than in the opening panel and wanted to compose it in such a way that the judges almost make an arrow pointing toward the logo.
The colourist Jim Boswell, who has coloured all of my recent strips and covers recognised the opportunity to play with the reds on the helmets and has used muted hues throughout the rest of the composition so that the judges really pop.
As per usual I began with a pencil rough, which Matt liked but requested that I increase the size of Dredd slightly, which I did. This rough then went onto the lightbox where I worked up final pencils.
On completion of these I inked the piece with a combination of a Tombow Fudenosuke brush pen and a Pentel brush pen, I find the Tombow great for outlining and the Pentel for filling.
Following this the piece made its way to Jimbo for him to work his magic with the crayolas.
And work his magic he did… that Boswell art droid knows how to make a cover pop – something very much like this…
So there you go, thank you so much to Steven for sending that one along – you can find 2000 AD Prog 2311 wherever you pick up your weekly dose of Ghafflebette comics, including the 2000 AD web shop, right now.
You can see more from Steven here at the 2000 AD site with his Covers Uncovereds for Prog 2184, Prog 2211, and Prog 2286, and then check out his website and Facebook.