Covers Uncovered: Simon Fraser feels the Cold in the Bones for Prog 2304…
19th October 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, we have Simon Fraser, artist on Hershey: The Cold In The Bones, currently running in the Prog, as written by Rob Williams and featuring ex-Chief Judge Barbara Hershey as she tracks down all of the fallout from Judge Smiley’s clandestine operations that have poisoned her reign. She’s dying from a microbial virus, she’s faked her own death, yet she’s still fighting to get Justice down in Antarctic City…
Now, over to Simon to give you the skinny…
SIMON FRASER: Okay, so Matt (Tharg) wanted a cover. He was typically terse… something with Hershey in the snow.
I wanted to do something with her looking impressive and heroic, because she isn’t getting many heroic moments in this story.
I tried out a classic low angle from the back shot of her walking through the snow. She’s bulky because of the winterwear and I wanted to get the solid physicality of her, confident and powerful looking.
It came out nicely and I added a gun to help with all the implied danger. I photographed the drawing with my phone
SF: Next, some basic toning…
SF: Then I worked up 2 different treatments, one light with her contrasted against the snow, the other dark with the Aurora Australis.
The white cover has a clear graphic punch, but the aurora one has more colour.
Don’t ask me why I used the Megazine logo, that was a total brainfart.
SF: I sent the 2 versions to Matt and he went for the colourful and dark one.
I then started working in earnest. I inked up the linework in ClipStudio…
SF: And then did a version of the dark cover (colouring in Affinity Photo), but it wasn’t working. It was coming out too dark and the focus of the page (her face) was too high. I should really have realised this earlier, but often you get quite far down the line before you notice any obvious problems. It helps to get a second set of eyes on this, so I showed my wife and she agreed.
I then had the idea of shining headlights at her, as if she’s standing in front of a car. That popped her nicely and gave me a very intense, low lightsource. That makes everything more dramatic because I can cast shadows over her face. The page focus is still off though.
Then I do a cheap trick and put a gun-sight on her back right at the focal point of the page...
Bingo, it all works now!
This is now one of those covers that shows a scene that doesn’t happen in the story. Those used to annoy me, but I understand how they happen now.
Covers have their own needs.
Yep, covers have their own needs – but hey, the artist tells their truth and the artist makes it work. And in this case, Simon’s made it work so well
So there you go, thanks so much for Simon to sending that one along – You can find 2000 AD Prog 2304 wherever you pick up your weekly dose of Ghafflebette comics, including the 2000 AD web shop from right now – today. Run, don’t walk, to wherever you get your Thrill Power and grab the Galaxy’s Greatest right now!