2000 AD Covers Uncovered: The Dark Judgessss Sssstep Into The Light… Nick Percival’s Latest Nightmarish Megazine Cover
17th May 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!
On the cover of the Judge Dredd: Megazine this month, issue 456, it’s the unmistakable grotesquery of Nick Percival and the Dark Judges.
We’re at part 8 of David Hine and Nick Percival’s Dark Judges: Death Metal Planet now, where poor Roscoe’s transformation into a Dark Judge is taking place.
But, as Nick will tell you, that particular transformation isn’t done yet… so, without further ado, over to Nick for the skinny and his cover process of Roscoe and Judge Death…
NICK PERCIVAL: Cracking on with Part 8 of Death Metal Planet, the plan for the cover was to have an image that would tease the transformation of Rosco into a ‘Light Judge’ – we last saw her in a zombified Dark Judge form at the end of Part 7 but she only stays that way for a brief amount of time before a new, powerful transformation takes place.
NP: I didn’t want to give away her new look completely on the cover, so on this image, she’s kind of in a state of mid-transformation, if you will. I still wanted a dominating image of Judge Death on there, so it’s kind of basic montage piece.
As ever, the pencils are just a very loose rough to get the idea down quickly, whilst it’s still fresh in my head, before going into the detailed final painted image.
NP: As I was doing the rough, I didn’t really have a clear idea of what she would finally look like and you can see the obvious differences between the two versions from the vague pencils to the final paints.
NP: When we were discussing the story idea of Rosco becoming a Dark Judge and then a Light Judge, I was hoping for some, dark twisted romance between Death & Rosco.
I was contemplating doing a homage to Gustav Klimt’s ‘The Kiss’ painting, with the two Dark Judges locked in an embrace – It would have been a cool image but wouldn’t have fitted in with the story, so was not to be – maybe something for the future if Judge Death feels he needs a girlfriend…
NP: We’re on the final lap of the story now (I’m currently painting Part 10 as I type this) but there are still a few twists and turns to come before it all concludes in an, intense, epic…well, that would be telling…
And with that, Nick retreated back to the drawing board to craft more nightmarish visions of Mega-City One’s futures. Always a guarantee to send a shiver down your spine, you can see Nick Percival’s Dark Judges cover on the front of Megazine 456, available wherever you pick up the Galaxy’s Greatest, including the 2000 AD web shop.
Finally, because Nick sends along his images at such a huge size, I always like to give you some zooming in – all the better to highlight all that Percival gore and gruesome stuff going on…
