2000 AD Covers Uncovered: Trouble On The Devil’s Railroad With Rufus Dayglo for Prog 2358
15th November 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 Rufus Dayglo to the cover of 2000 AD Prog 2358 with The Devil’s Railroad, the politically charged tale of a love story set against a powerful take on the refugee crisis that’s running in the Prog right now.
Beginning in Prog 2352, The Devil’s Railroad by Peter Milligan and Rufus Dayglo tells a tale of hard-hitting contemporary sci-fi that 2000 AD has always done so well. It’s thrilling and it’s relevant, Romeo & Juliet with a socially conscious backdrop, described by Milligan as ‘an often dark but always human story about that most basic and perhaps ancient of human impulses: the impulse to flee danger and seek out a better life for you and your family. Our heroes take the so-called Devil’s Railroad that they hope will take them to Earth, and a better life. It’s a harrowing journey through an unfriendly and sometimes bizarre universe.’
So, won’t you join our young lovers, Constance and Palamon, who’re just trying to find a new home, a safe place to bring their unborn baby into the world. But to do that, they’ve set out on The Devil’s Railroad…
Now, over to Rufus for the tale of putting the cover together – and, as is common with art droids, there were a few troubles before getting it right…
RUFUS DAYGLO: The first cover went through many permutations as I fumbled with the idea.
I wanted the young couple being chased, quite literally, by the Devil. It seemed such an easy idea… and yet I had real trouble landing on a composition I like.
You always have to leave room for titles and other stuff that Tharg’s editorial droids may place (and you don’t know what!) so it can be a bit of a guessing game.
I wanted to convey the urgency and desperation of their voyage, always about to be thwarted by circumstances or villains.
So, with that plan in mind, Rufus set about putting things together, beginning with a few cover roughs…
But none of them were ‘it’ so Rufus pulled elements from a couple of the roughs – literally taking the devil from A and the lovers from B…
… and putting them together to make this final cover rough…
Although not before playing around with another idea along the same lines and getting as far as adding a few rough colours…
But no, the decision was made and it’s back to the cover rough, adding pencils and inks…
And then on to colours, where Rufus found inspiration from the much-missed Garry Leach…
RUFUS DAYGLO: The colour scheme was heavily influenced by my friend Garry Leach’s second The VC’s Titan cover.. as the art hangs above my desk. So I did the Devil largely purple in a small tribute to Garry’s cover.
That would be this beautiful Garry Leach cover – The VC’s Volume 2, published by Titan in 1987, complete with bits of Rufus’ studio space!
And with that in mind, Rufus coloured his cover up to give us this stunning thing…
And that’s how another zarjaz Prog cover was made! Thanks to Rufus for sharing that with us. You can find Rufus’ cover on the Prog wherever you pick up your weekly dose of Ghafflebette comics, including the 2000 AD web shop.
For more on The Devil’s Railroad, make sure you read our interview with Milligan and Dayglo right here!
Milligan and Dayglo have a long history of making this sort of brilliant sci-fi, full of action but always questioning and looking deep into society, whether it’s the issues of identity and identity theft in the dystopian cyberpunk of Counterfeit Girl or the brutal take on war and the price those involved pay in their Bad Company tales. Bad Company: First Casualties can be found in Progs 1950-1961 and as a digital collection. Bad Company: Terrorists can be found in Progs 2061-2072.
And, whilst you’re looking at the very best future war tales, you should have The Complete Bad Company by Peter Milligan, Brett Ewins, Jim McCarthy, and Steve Dillon in your collections!
Finally, we’ve talked with Peter and Rufus before this about their work together, in 2017 for Bad Company: Terrorists here and for Counterfeit Girl in 2019 here.
And finally, finally, because we didn’t show them to you in their full sizes above, here’s Rufus’ initial roughs in all their glory…
