2000AD Covers Uncovered – Freak out! Le Reek, c’est Chic!
30th May 2017
Prog 2033 sports this action packed cover by the brilliant Paul Davidson! The image shows young Daniel Foe taking on the terrible Diehard Reeks with only his unshakable faith as a weapon. Can Titus Defoe save the boy in time or will he end up as worm food like his poor mother and brother before him?
I asked Paul to take us through his process. Very much the traditionalist, Paul approaches his work using good old fashioned pencils, inks and felt tips. Over to Paul…
“Tharg had something very specific in mind, so I pretty much nailed it on one sketch!” which is lucky for Paul; the mighty one isn’t known for his patience and it would have meant a ‘ten minute work out’ with Mek-Quake if he had not…
On this early pencilled image, you can see the stench coming from young Daniel’s pants where he has soiled himself…
Paul continues “Then it was out with the inks…”
“Hello Mr Christian. Can I eat you please?” Ooops, wring strip…
“A couple of hours later…”
“A little help please, Mr Defoe!?!”
“On with the colour…”
“Show him your cross!” “Cross!?! I’m bloody livid!”
Paul continues “More colouring in with the felt tips…” Ah yes, what could be more relaxing than spending an afternoon depicting the impending, grisly death of a minor by a horde of evil, undead ghouls…
“Excuse me? I wonder if you have five minutes to chat about the Lord?”
And finally, the image is done, wow!
What does a vegetarian zombie eat? Graaaains! (Sorry!)
And here is the final image for your enjoyment, I suggest you don’t look at it while eating your tea…
Die Hard 1671: A Good Day to Reek Hard!
So there we have it. I love this cover, which set my usually trustworthy artist detecting circuits haywire. With that composition, the colour choices, the hair of young Daniel, I instantly thought it was the work of the Ezquerra droid, all that was missing were the little dashes around the characters! I can’t think of a higher compliment than that!
For me, Paul is certainly one of the most exciting artists around at the moment and I’d urge everyone to check out his website (and awesome blog) here: http://www.pauldavidsonart.com/ He has a dazzling range of styles which are simply glorious! Check out this brilliant Dredd vs Death image…
“Stay still and take your drokking beating!”
Once again, Dredd wished there was a ‘Breath mint’ setting on his lawgiver…
Huge, huge thanks to Paul for once again stepping up for 2000AD Covers Uncovered. Here’s hoping we see more covers from this exciting art droid soon!