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!
What an incredible first few years in 2000 AD publishing history for the newly constructed Artdroid Toby Willsmer! Not many artists could claim not only winning the Art Stars competition, but then going on to set pulses pounding with covers and stories, including the Robo-Hunter strip in the zombie takeover tale The Darkest Judge and Cadet Dredd in Prog 2325
The Willsmer model is a classic 2000 AD artdroid, with some modern tweaks and upgrades. Built on an refurbished Bisley Mk1 chassis, augmented with some advanced Emond software patches then let loose with a host of bespoke subroutines of his own, he is a formidable addition to Tharg’s roster. He is quickly cementing a reputation for kinetic, literally explosive artwork that is irresistible to terrans and kills all known forms of Thrill Sucker dead. Toby has completed the cover of 2000 AD Prog 2332 (available 17 May) and what a stunner it is!
“Just listen to the gunfire and explosions in the city! Don’t linger on the pedways or ya won’t be lookin’ pretty!” Petula Clark, Downtown Remix, 2144.
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Over to Toby to tell you about his overall concept:
TOBY WILLSMER: I wanted to capture the moment just after Dredd had dealt with his perps and slid to a halt on his Lawmaster. I surrounded him with shootout carnage and burning stuff as a secondary light source and to add movement in there.
After decades of frustrating enforced celibacy, something on the ground had caught Dredd’s eye!
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Rough and colour scheme With the initial concept locked in, Toby got to work. He said “I came up with a fairly detailed rough idea and my initial thoughts on a colour scheme. Then sent them over to Matt to run his eyes over them.”
Once again, Dredd cursed the outdated Justice Department SatNav. There WAS no left turn, Drokk it!
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Linework and initial lighting and shadows “Once Matt approved the idea, I went ahead and drew up the detailed linework and added some basic shadows and textures.” And what amazing linework it is, wow!
Looking at Dredd’s Lawmaster screen, I guess he only has to follow the sound of bokking to bag his perp!
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Initial colours “From there I’ll head into the base colours, these help me to define where light and shadow will fall for the overall image. I wanted the city to be loose and dirty in the background and Dredd to be much more defined in the image bringing him to the front.”
‘Fan by Headlight’
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Main part details The image is really starting to pop now as Toby begins painting in the details. “As I wanted Dredd and his Lawmaster to have contrast lighting, I painted him first. This way I could balance the lighting and detail in the rest of the piece as I worked through it.”
“Six months for the Willsmer creep. Scrawling on the Megway.”
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Details to the city The final scrotnig painting. “I didn’t do much more on the city. Only detailing some parts, adding neon lights and some moonlight details on the buildings. At this stage, I’ll add all the small details/highlights to the whole image.”
I’m sure you’ll agree that this cover is a triumph! Thank you very much to Toby for sending the images and explaining his process.
You can get hold of the Willsmer Droid’s latest cover from anywhere the Galaxy’s Greatest is sold from 17 May, including at the 2000 AD web shop!
There’s lots more of Toby’s work available to marvel at online, including some outstanding 2000 AD pieces, so be sure to visit his website at willsmer.com. Highlights include this devilishly dark Judge Death bust…
“Curssssessss! Dropped my phone down the toilet AGAIN!!!”
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This Mean Machine poster…
And with one Bok! Banksy Jr III’s wall scrawling career came to an abrupt end.
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And these glorious ABC Warriors images, truly zarjaz!
Hammerstein just couldn’t get strawberry jam at the ABC Warriors afternoon tea party.
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.
(Roscoe’s zombified Dark Judge form first seen in Megazine 455)
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.
(Nick’s loose pencils of Roscoe’s Judge form and Judge Death)
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.
(And the final paints – Nick’s vision of Roscoe’s transformation from the dark to the light)
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…
(Judge Roscoe, Judge Deah – Not quite the two Dark Judge’s locked in an embrace that Nick was after.)
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…
(One last final image sent by Nick – Light Judge Roscoe)
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…
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, amongst all the other Ghafflebette thrills, we have the latest instalment of Cavan Scott and Luke Horsman’s Enemy Earth: Book 2, with all the fearful fauna and flora out to transform humanity. Against it all, just trying desperately to stay alive, two kids searching for sanctuary in the latest serial to make the jump from the 2000 AD Regened Progs to a full series in the Prog. It’s dark, it’s scary, it’s the entire planet out to get you!
So, let’s see Luke Horsman’s latest cover and what went into putting it all together…
LUKE HORSMAN: For this cover, Tharg the Mighty tasked me with a design involving the mutant horde breaking through a security fence to our unlucky protagonists.
I worked up a loose layout for approval.
Once approved, I moved on to the usual black inks and grey tone inks so I can plan my colour depths.
I initially started to work the cover up in full technicolour, but decided it wasn’t quite working for me as a piece.
So for the final piece, to make it a bit more B-Movie’ish and “designed”, I dropped back the colours to a 2 tone style and added a few paper stock blending layers to bring it all together.
Job done.
Job done indeed. That’s a stunning cover to be sure, full of all the horrors to be found in Enemy Earth.
Our thanks to Luke for sending it all over and letting you see what went into making the cover. You can find 2000 AD Prog 2329 wherever the Galaxy’s Greatest is sold from April 26th, including the 2000 AD web shop.
As for previous Covers Uncovered from Luke, he talks Enemy Earth covers for Prog 2303 and Prog 2307, and we’ve interviewed him three times… here for an interview with Cavan and Luke about the very first Enemy Earth in the 2000 AD Regened Prog 2256 and here for a chat with them both for the first series of Enemy Earth that began in Prog 2301. And finally, there’s an interview here with Luke and writer Mike Carroll about another Regened strip, Action Pact, that was in Prog 2220.
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, a striking Dredd adorns the cover of Prog 2328 courtesy of John McCrea…
Now, just like Jock’s recent cover for Prog 2321, this one started off as work outside the Prog. But whereas Jock’s was a commission, this Dredd from John was just personal, a case of getting back on the horse after a long illness.
Now, thankfully for us, whereas Jock had no process images to show us (we did ask!) John has plenty. So, here’s John himself to tell us – and show us – all about it…
JOHN MCCREA: This cover was drawn about a year ago. I got long Covid in August ’21 and spent 6 months unable to do anything but sleep. I was literally sleeping 19 hours a day. It was not fun. I had been drawing a DC comic called Soul Plumber and had completed the first issue when Covid struck. After a couple of weeks, I realised I had to get help. So I asked my old pal and 2000ad regular PJ (Maybe) Holden to step in and draw the book until I was better again- sadly the best I could manage was inking several pages here and there during the remaining 5 issues.
Around March of ’22, I felt well enough to try drawing again. I figured a pic of everyone’s favourite fascist Joe Dredd was what I could manage, and this pencil drawing showed up!
A just getting better Dredd in pencils from the McCrea droid
I dutifully post the sketch on social media and it received a pretty warm welcome, but I was still unsure if it was any good, so I figured I would ink it. I find inking much easier than drawing so this didn’t seem impossible. Bear in mind I was sleeping 13 hours a day by this point and was pretty knackered the rest of the time.
After a sleep, a lot of sleep, John adds the inks.
Once again, social media came to the aid of my mangled ego. No one hated it.
So I chucked a bit of digital tone on it...
More sleep, more art… this time it’s added digital tones
At this point, it was starting to look almost professional.
So I decided to be a bit naughty and send it to Matt Smith, Tharg’s alter ego, and see if he fancied running it as a cover. Let’s face it folks, after 6 months of bugger-all work, the old bank account was looking pretty dusty so a few galactic groats seemed enticing!
To my surprise, he said yes immediately and paid me in what seemed like minutes. Joy!
Of course, it still needed some colour so I dropped my old colour co-conspirator Mike Spicer a line, and off we went!
Dreadful taskmaster that the McCrea droid is – Time to talk to Mike Spicer about colours!
As usual, I was a dreadful taskmaster and put Mike through the wringer- I had a definite idea of how I wanted the colour, with lots of overlap, etc. (I’m sure there’s an official term for this, but my brain is mush these days).
Mike, being the pro that he is, rose to the challenge.
A year later, here it is. I am still fond of it. If you like it, let ol’ green bonce know, as I love drawing for 2000 and another cover or two would be jolly fun.
And there you go – from illness to artwork!
First of all, we’re all so glad to hear that John’s feeling at least a little better now. Good luck and good continued recovery to you John! We’d also like to thank him for taking the time and sending along the work for the cover for us to oooh and ahhh over. And finally, we can only agree with John that it would be great to see more of McCrea working for Tharg, either on the cover or on the inside!
You can find 2000 AD Prog 2328 wherever you pick up your weekly dose of Ghafflebette comics, including the 2000 AD web shop from 19 April!
And finally, one of those rare McCrea 2000 AD covers which we were fortunate enough to grab him to talk about in this Covers Uncovered!
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!
With Dreadnoughts: The March Of Progress it’s time to dive back into one of the most exciting debuts of recent years – and it all starts in Megazine issue 455, just look for the fabulous cover by John Higgins.
From the very first episode in the 30th Anniversary Megazine, issue 424, Dreadnoughts: Breaking Ground was exciting, gripping, and genuinely horrific. Michael Carroll and John Higgins took us right back to the earliest days of the Justice Department, 2035 AD, with Fargo’s Judge’s moving into every level of law enforcement.
Following new Judge Veranda Glover, Dreadnoughts tells an all too possible tale of a nation giving away its democracy and descending into fascism as the world of the Mega-Cities, the Justice Department, and Judge Dredd comes to pass.
So, over to John who was good enough to send along the process art for a stunning cover… all starting with this, the very first rough idea…
JOHN HIGGINS: I was just getting into the final episode and couldn’t spend too much time on the cover, so this was the very first rough idea that came to mind and that I sent to Matt/Tharg.
I suppose it is the classic Judge pose, dispensing justice. The cover will be a direct part of the first scene, with the Judges going into the night raid, amidst snow flurries against the rising weak wintery sun.
Next, an un-retouched scan of the painted artwork, I was thinking of doing “justice served” lettering around the bottom of the spent shell, but it was too small...
And then another version of the cover just marking the main areas digitally tweaked...
Finally, the digital enhanced cover artwork, added snow and strengthening the light sources, tweaking the highlights...
Thanks so much to John for sending it along – a beautiful cover to mark the beginning of what should be a magnificent series.
Dreadnoughts: The March Of Progress begins in Megazine issue 455, out on 19 April, available everywhere Thrill Power is sold, the 2000 AD web shop.
For more on Dreadnoughts, be sure to take a look at another striking image with John’s Covers Uncovered for Megazine issue 429. We also interviewed Michael Carrol and John not once but twice… sort of. There’s an interview with the creators of Dreadnoughts in Megazine issue 425 that ended up with far too much fascinating material cut for print. Luckily, we were able to put up all the extras right here.
Finally, you can (and should) get a copy of the first volume of Dreadnoughts: Breaking Ground – get it from the 2000 AD web shop!
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 Simon Davis for a gorgeous cover for the new Durham Red strip, Mad Dogs, on its second episode right here in 2000 AD Prog 2327. Inside, writer Alec Worley and artist Ben Willsher are following up their 2021 Red story, Served Cold, with the mutant vamp facing the needle but about to get offered a lifeline.
So, faced with that bit of brilliance on the cover, we wanted to see how Simon had put it together…
SIMON DAVIS: Tharg asked me if I would like to do a cover for the latest Durham Red story and I jumped at the chance.
I’d never painted her before so was slightly intimidated by how brilliant the previous artists on the character had been. This includes, of course, Ben Willsher, who is doing the current run.
A tale of two Reds – Simon Davis’ cover rough honouring both Ben Willsher’s new version of Durham Red and Carlos Ezquerra’s classic!
Matt sent me some character references for both Ben’s work and Carlos’s as he quite liked the idea of a silhouette of Ezquerra’s older design behind the seated figure.
I did a couple of roughs and finally settled on a very simple seated pose. I took reference photos and painted the finished piece in oils on board.
And the fully painted final version by Simon
So there you go, short and sweet but looking damn fine!
Thanks so much for Simon to sending that one along – You can find 2000 AD Prog 2327 wherever you pick up your weekly dose of Ghafflebette comics, including the 2000 AD web shop from right now – go get your hands on it!
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 both the all-ages Regened Prog and art droid Steve Roberts for the cover of 2000 AD Prog 2325 – with Dredd having a little trip to a dream world…
Inside the first all-ages edition of the Galaxy’s Greatest for 2023 there’s another case for Cadet Dredd, a return visit to the wizarding world of Lowborn High and the latest tale of the Mayflies, the gene engineered young clones who’ve escaped from the horrors of Nu Earth. You’ve also got a scrotnig Future Shock, Vin-E, Blow The Doors and a new Sam Slade prose adventure with the Robo-Hunter trying his hand at droid stand-up comedy.
And on the cover, we have the return of Steve Roberts – one of Tharg’s Droids from way back, whose art appeared on strips including Sinister Dexter, Bec and Kawl, Banzai Battalion, Angel Gang, and Black Atlantic while working on both the Prog and the Judge Dredd Megazine.
After those strips, Steve headed out of 2000 AD Towers and out of comics around 2010 to get involved in animation design work for Ragdoll Productions. At Ragdoll, he ended up working on The Adventures of Abney and Teal, Twirlywoos, B.O.T. and the Beasties, and co-created and wrote 50 episodes of the 2D animated show Dipdap – which went on to win a prestigious Childrens BAFTA award – not something many Droids can brag about!
But the lure of 2000 AD is strong for ex-droids and Tharg welcomed him back into the fold recently with a Regened Future Shock in Prog 2246, followed by the Regend series with James Peaty, Scooter & Jinx. And now here he is again, for the latest great Regened cover – which all started with cover roughs of Dredd in a dream world…
Steve’s cover rough #1
STEVE ROBERTS: The brief for this Regened cover was Cadet Dredd in a dream world. So lots of weird/surreal stuff going on.
I had a thought about Looney Tunes cartoon backgrounds that I remembered looking quite surreal at times.
I also doodled down some doors hanging in space which is a little obvious as surreal/dream imagery. I was thinking about Alice in Wonderland too. And even though the door thing was a little predictable it was a fun opportunity to draw Dredd stepping through one door in the distance and coming out of another floating door in the foreground.
I also wanted to draw Dredd quite large in frame as something a bit different to last Regened cover I did for the Prog.
I think perhaps one of the reasons this idea wasn’t chosen is because it wasn’t dynamic and punchy enough for a Regened cover. It’s a bit of a static image. So on to cover rough #2…
Melty City! – Cover Rough #2 – the chosen one!
This was the one that ended up being chosen. The cover brief mentioned a possible melty city so I went for it with this one. Dredd’s pose is an excuse to draw his boots as big as possible! I love the way Mick McMahon draws Dredd, especially the chunky footwear!
I thought as this was a slightly unreal dreamy image I could really exaggerate the boots which would be fun. Dredd could be a bit distorted and bendy as well as the city. I also used to love drawing megacity one buildings when I first discovered 2000 AD so I was chuffed to be able to have a go at drawing some again.
Cover Rough #3 – Dredd just hanging around
Cover rough #3 was a variation on the Dredd hanging suspended in space but instead of a melting city I thought the city could be floating in pieces around him as if the buildings had come apart like a jigsaw. I possibly had Akira in mind with the floating pieces of building etc. I liked the idea of having a swirling colourful void-like background. That could go slightly 60s. A law master could be included too, floating about. I quite fancied having a go at drawing the original design Lawmaster.
However, I was quite relieved when this idea wasn’t chosen as I was a bit nervous about drawing the bike. Also looking at this again, I don’t think this Dredd pose is strong enough for a cover.
Cover Rough #4 – more of the melting city
Cover rough #4 was another melting city. In fact this is the city I developed for the final cover but I used the Dredd from rough number 2. I think the positioning and pose of Dredd from rough 2 is stronger than this one but I liked the road and cars in background so wanted to include them in the final art.
I was really looking forward to doing this cover and just got straight into it with minimal planning, which probably isn’t sensible, but usually happens when I’m really into an idea and really want to get going on it.
I especially didn’t do a lot of forward planning on the city design. Just went with it and enjoyed adding loads of detail.
I decided to use (digital) watercolour and (digital) pencil crayon for the background to set it back a little, make it dreamy, and create a disconnect from Dredd in the middle of the frame. I decided to use black line and flat colours for Dredd to keep it more graphic and clear and make him pop out from the busy background. So he looks like he is suspended in midair above the scene. I made the decision to just make the city distorted and surreal so I calmed down the size of Dredd’s boots and the slight distortion I had in the rough. Hopefully the wash of colours in the background produced a dreamy unusual atmosphere.
Actually the lack of initial planning did almost backfire as I realised after completing a few of the buildings in the foreground that they weren’t nearly melty enough! So I had to make sure that I upped the meltiness on the remaining building otherwise it would come out looking too normal. Especially as Mega-City One building are pretty surreal looking anyway!
Hopefully it all came together! It was fun to do.
So there you go, thanks so much to Steve for sending more Regened thrill power along to us. You can find 2000 AD Prog 2325 from anywhere the Galaxy’s Greatest is sold, including the 2000 AD web shop – it’s out on 29 March.
For more from Steve, be sure to cast your eyes over his other Covers Uncovered for Prog 2246 and get reading this interview where Steve and co-creator James Peaty talk about the Regened strip Scooter & Jinx.
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!
But sometimes the artist involved goes above and beyond and gives us so much in-depth stuff that it can’t be contained in Covers Uncovered alone.
So, when Mark Harrison sent along the design and development process for the new character of Cheerio in The Out with his latest Covers Uncovered for Prog 2323, we had to put it in front of you as a new, irregular, feature… welcome to CHARACTERS UNCOVERED!
For his latest Covers Uncovered Mark did his usual deep dive into the creative process, going into his thinking and design process for the deliberately cinematic cover, his homage to all those wonderful painted cinema posters.
But with Mark, he just can’t help himself and always loves to give us all more, more, more! Concerned that he hadn’t really given us that much (oh, what wonderful things these artists are!) Mark decided he needed to, in his words…
‘Pad it out with a little behind-the-scenes concept art for Cheerio who features on the cover, to give the readers an insight into the sort of brainstorming that happens between Dan and me on this series.’
What does that concept art look like?… well, like this of course!
[Don’t worry, we’ve posted it in bits later so you can read it all!]
Not only did he send that, but he also went into all the detail of the back and forth between himself and writer and co-creator of The Out, Dan Abnett, all about the creation of Cheerio!
We’ll get into that in a bit, but first, here’s our potted history of Cheerio… beginning with the very first time we met him, from the final page of The Out in Prog 2319…
Cheerio, ‘the weirdo in the mangy mascot suit,’ is some kind of space white van man, delivering what you need, when you need it.
He and Cyd have history – not that kind (says Cyd) – and he used to work for Galaxoco, hence the corporate costume…
And as for why, if he’s independent, he’s still in the suit – well, it’s complicated.
Again, let’s have Cheerio explain it for you…
So there you go, the potted history of Cheerio, Cyd’s friend – Cheerio says it was more – from way back.
Now, with Cyd desperate to get away from both the Unanima and the Zoto, Cheerio’s stepped in to rescue her, even though he needed the Zoto to get him out of the damn mascot suit…
Yep, mates.
Or is it more? Well, Cheerio certainly thinks it was/wants it to be… Cyd’s absolutely insistent that it was really just mates.
Could it be that Cyd’s not telling us everything?
Okay then, that’s your brief history of Cheerio.
Now it’s time to hand over to Mark Harrison for the background to the creation of the character.
MARK HARRISON: As an additional sideline to the cover, here is a look behind the scenes at the sort of work the reader doesn’t get to see; in this case conceptualising a companion to Cyd; Cheerio.
Together Dan and I generate ideas for the synopsis Dan has sketched out, taking the form of a long free-form conversation where we just say stuff, and from that the synopsis is shaped (subject to A LOT of change), and from that a line or two about the introduction of a new character.
A possible discarded idea from Book Two; an idea thrown out there of an alien detective helping Cyd in her early days in The Out looking for Joey. He would have been more streetwise, tooled up with guns and knives and have dealings with the criminal lowlifes of the galaxy.
More wonderful back and forth with Dan in email as we try to pin down the character:
From Mark: IDEA #3: COMPANION: Open with a big bear hug from a being we’ve yet to settle on, the detective/white van man that becomes a facilitator for Cyd in more ways than one. I’m thinking a big humanoid beaver… Space Ranger Pepe Le Pew. Just to get you into trouble!
From Dan: “She manages, through sheer balls and bluff, to get off Zotol by hitching a ride with a medical delivery ship: basically an alien Han Solo who drives a spaceship “white van” – e.g. A bit dodgy and wide. His name is “Cheerio”…and she knows him. She hitched a ride with him in her early days in The Out.”
At this point, Cheerio is still a simple humanoid alien. I wanted to push a more alien look. Even hideous. Or the opposite. A romantic type- even boyfriend/girlfriend to Cyd.
From Dan: “… he IS a feline, and he IS a flirty Falstaff type. I think we have to downplay some of the innuendo, but I like the idea he’s got a crush on her which is what motivates him.”
I wasn’t totally sold on the look of Cheerio in my mind as a big furball like Chewbacca so I thought how could we play with that… wanting there to be a relationship with Cyd in the past, that he was like some musician living out of a van. But I also wanted something conceptually alien, something that wasn’t defaulting to a human-centric viewpoint. I wanted something sci-fi about it.
Then, to quote Dan Abnett:
“This is science fiction- we can do anything we like”.
We could have both versions of Cheerio in the same character. Cheerio could be a mascot! A visually big alien Wombat-looking character with a more humanoid alien trapped inside. Literally a man in a suit.
I loved the meta-humour of that and the juxtaposition. A rather dark idea; the hellish existence of a character trapped forever in something so seemingly cheerful and upbeat as a Disneyland character or football mascot yet, having made peace with that, bumbling his way through the galaxy.
I worked out some sort of rules for the character (He was symbiotically linked so when the mouth was shut all senses were routed through the mascot suit) and came up with mannerisms (falling over – missing his (original) mouth with food and drink) to make the character more tragic and sympathetic.
A companion and friend to Cyd, but definitely not a lover. So she says. 🙂
Yep, so she says!
And as for the future of Cheerio, well, by Prog 2323 the Unanima have caught up with Cyd, Bag, and Cheerio and, well…
Which leads to this…
Oh heck.
What does it mean for Cheerio? What’s going to happen to Cyd? And will Bag ever get that deep clean and declutter that its so desperately wanting?
Well, as the saying goes, all this and more will be revealed in future episodes of The Out!
And that’s it folks – this week you not only got another deliciously deep dive into the mind of Mark Harrison for his cover to 2000 AD Prog 2323, but you also got a complete look at the creative process to come up with one of The Out’s most recent characters. Now that really is an artist going above and beyond!
Thank you so much to Mark, yet again, for the great insights he gives us and a special thanks to Dan Abnett for letting us use his email conversations!
For more here on 2000 AD.com concerning The Out, one of the Prog’s finest strips, destined to be a classic, be sure to have a read of the interview we did with Dan and Mark all about The Out right here. And don’t miss any of Mark’s endlessly fascinating Covers Uncovered pieces – Prog 2187, Prog 2193, Prog 2251, Prog 2254, Prog 2261, Prog 2314, and Prog 2317. And finally, if you’ve not had the pleasure yet or just want a copy of the finest new sci-fi strip from the Galaxy’s Greatest, go and get your copy of the first volume of The OUT, containing Books 1 & 2 of the series. Book 3 began in Prog 2312.
And finally, here’s that huge character sheet of Marks broken down into its parts…
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, another one of those spectacular covers for The OUT from Mark Harrison and another spectacular deep dive into the making of 2000 AD Prog 2323 for Covers Uncovered!
It’s a deliberately cinematic delight, with Mark drawing deep on the old painted film posters that adorned so many walls back in the day – and that, thankfully, are having a bit of a resurgence these days.
MARK HARRISON: Not much to this one, despite the complexity. Now, I may have said this before on another cover… It feels familiar but I can’t recall!
I had always wanted to do a faux film poster for The OUT comic strip in the style of painted posters that I loved (and collected) as a teen.
The very first film poster I really took notice of was Tom Chantrell’s landscape poster for Star Wars which I saw dominating the London Underground way back in 1977.
God, I would have loved to have had that poster- that size- just filling a bedroom wall! (I currently have a one-sheet version in my kitchen.)
Tom Chantrell’s 1977 poster for Star Wars – plastered on the London Underground and bedsit walls ever since!
I’ve since discovered that Chantrell was also responsible for some other great fantasy and science fiction posters (over) selling films like The Land That Time Forgot, Moon Zero Two, and a personal favourite; At the Earth’s Core.
More of Tom Chantrell’s movie poster work adored by Mark Harrison
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Of course, the artist that became synonymous with the montage approach painted movie poster was Drew Struzan. I had a poster of Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom on my bedsit wall for most of the 80’s.
Two from another master of the movie poster, Drew Struzan, Indy & the Temple of Doom& 1975’s Return To Macon County
Painted posters fell out of fashion with the advent of sterile PhotoShop “floating heads” montages, but have recently made a comeback with directors wanting the same for their films or shows like Suicide Squad or Stranger Things.
Two recent movies/series that returned to proper painted posters – The Suicide Squad & Stranger Things Stranger Things art by Kyle Lambert – The Suicide Squad artist? I couldn’t find a name, anyone want to help?
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There was a skill to compositing elements to a movie style poster, to look for patterns or structure you can work around and balance the overall separate elements with.
One artist I definitely felt inspired by was Noriyoshi Ohrai, a Japanese artist (traditional painter) who came to my attention when I saw his version (and my favourite version) of The Empire Strikes Back film poster.
His film poster work typified this montage pattern approach. It was so dynamic and layered. I bought a couple of books on his work and they are filled with wonderful, punchy paintings that have great compositional and colour choices. It was his style that influenced the cover to Durham Red: The Empty Suns.
More movie inspiration for Mark – Noriyoshi Ohrai’s Empire Strikes Back poster and his own art for Durham Red: The Empty Suns
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So that was the background and inspiration in place and I already knew what I wanted to do; a big floating head of Cyd, Bag and include dotted around elements of the story (actually cut and pasted from the strip and painted over to harmonise with the cover.
I was using a chisel-shaped painting brush in PhotoShop that I had used once before on a Dredd poster which I quite liked so went with that.
At some point I think I realised I should send a sketch to Tharg to okay the design (d’oh!) so I drew the sketch over the composited art and sent that off.
Luckily Tharg liked it so I continued with the composition, moving stuff around, squinting at it, resizing. Funnily enough, the hardest thing was choosing the background colour. I settled on purple but I dithered with white and black for ages.
It can be small things like this that the reader probably doesn’t even think about that can stymie you. I played with some borders but eventually went without.
I did a final pass to punch up the contrast and colours until I was relatively satisfied with it and posted it off hoping it would be well received.
Now that I see 2000 AD are printing covers up, I might tap old Thargie Pie for a freebie. (Dammit- I put in the hours!) This one I wouldn’t mind having myself on the living room wall. What a funny circular thing life is!
It’s true – Tharg’s recently given the okay to reproduce the thrill power for new and classic covers to the Prog and Judge Dredd Megazine. You can find the ever-growing selection here.
And the always generous Mighty One would like it known that he’s magnanimously gifting the prints to the artists involved – he may be a demanding master but he’s a generous one! [Is that okay Tharg? Can I have that bread and water ration you promised now?]
There you go, another incredible image to grace the front of the Galaxy’s Greatest, another fabulous Mark Harrison creation to go with another magnificent episode of The OUT.
Thanks so very much to Mark for sending it along – you can find Prog 2323 in shops and on the 2000 AD web shop from 15 March.
We’re building up quite a little reference library of Mark’s Covers Uncovered pieces now, all of them an insightful and fascinating deep dive into the creative process – be sure to have a look at these – Prog 2187, Prog 2193, Prog 2251, Prog 2254, Prog 2261, Prog 2314, and Prog 2317. And do be sure to read the interview we did with Dan Abnett and Mark Harrison all about The Out right here.
And for those of you yet to embrace the beauty and joy of experiencing The Out, you can catch up with Books 1 and 2 in the first collected volume, available from the 2000 AD store right here. Seriously, in years to come we’ll be talking of this as one of THE classics of 2000 AD.
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 back to the cover of the Judge Dredd Megazine for art droid Tom Foster. And it’s a great cover from the ghafflebette Surfer by John Wagner and Colin MacNeil, a thriller of a tale of surfing and crime in MC-1.
After winning the 2013 2000 AD Art Portfolio Competition at Thought Bubble, Foster’s distinctive style has been a sure-fire hit with you Earthlets, most notably on Storm Warning, the series he co-created with John Reppion and Leah Moore, and his recent Dredd work with Ken Niemand – A Penitent Man and An Honest Man, with the third and final instalment, A Fallen Man, coming later in 2023.
But that’s for later in the year, we’re here to talk with Tom about that great Megazine cover… or at least we thought we were talking to Tom…
TOM FOSTER: Hello, I’m an AI and I would like to introduce you to my process for making this exciting, dynamic, and trending on ArtStation, cover for The Judge Dredd Magazine.
Not really of course, I’m Tom Foster – and, while it would certainly be very funny and not tiresome of me to write the whole walkthrough from the point of view of a fictional AI, I can absolutely guarantee you that I can’t be bothered. So let’s begin where all non-James-Corden humans start their artistic journey – with an idea…
(1) The Mighty Tharg himself was good enough to furnish me with a pitch for this cover, which is often the easiest way. With the rough idea of what I’d be drawing already decided, I could busy myself with figuring out how to stage it.
A diagonal composition can be very useful for suggesting movement, drama and emotional turmoil, but this one was particularly tricky as all three principal vanishing points were outside of the image area. As with most dramatic compositions though, it made sense to have the focal point be relatively simple – so the time I lost to plotting out my perspective grids, I gained in not having to draw lots of complex figural detail.
(2) With a rough layout sketched out and approved, I moved onto the pencils. In this case the bulk of the work was in populating the background city.
I was quite pleased with how detailed it looked.
Then Cliff Robinson’s ‘Taking Liberties’ cover for Prog 2316 came out and I just about had an aneurysm.
(3) With the inks I realised that subtle shading effects were not going to be too much use here. With so many forms in the image, it was far more effective to try and create a good balance of black and white and let the colouring deal with the bulk of texture and tonal variety.
(4) People who read a lot of these step-by-steps will be very familiar with the flatting part of the process. I certainly am. Took an eternity to separate out, this did.
I know, I know ‘call the U.N.’…
(5) With the human rights atrocity of flatting out of the way, I was free to do the fun bit – making it look pretty. As so many people do when they’ve run out of options, I turned to the world of anime for help. Anime background artists are often very good at making cityscapes, which could so easily be dull and grey, richly colourful without seeming gaudy and ridiculous. I have a big book of anime architecture, which was a tremendous help. I also watched Akira all the way through for (gasp) the first time.
(6) After rendering the forms as much as seemed advisable with a composition that might tend towards being cluttered, I added a few finishing touches. I’m not a big fan of using effects that seem overtly digital, as I find they often clash with the more traditional linework, but I really wanted some ambient light in the city – particularly with all those billboard screens and windows all over the place.
My compromise was to try and go no further with my digital trickery than might be possible with a double exposure effect in traditional cel animation. The process was different (mostly using a series of Hard Mix layers), but the effect, I think, is similar. This is by no means a new approach, but it’s one that I’ve resisted using in the past. Here, it seemed like the right choice.
So that’s all. If you’re still imagining how much better it would have been if I’d committed to the idea of writing this whole thing as a satire on AI-generated content, then by all means try it yourself and see how long you can milk references to image scraping and big-titted manga girls before you realise you’re essentially writing an on-the-nose whimsy piece for The Daily Mash and give yourself over to screaming.
And that’s it – say no to AI kids, the last thing Tharg needs is the Droids getting ideas above their stations!
Thanks so much to Tom for sending his breakdown of his cover. You can find Judge Dredd Megazine Issue 454 everywhere the Galaxy’s Greatest is sold, including the 2000 AD web shop from 15 March.
For more from Tom here at 2000AD.com, check out his Covers Uncovered features for 2000 AD Progs 1986, 2225, 2281, and 2310, and his great Storm Warning cover for Megazineissue 450. We’ve also interviewed him a couple of times – he talks about his 2013 Thought Bubble talent search win here and the Judge Dredd: A Penitent Man strip here. Finally, if you want to see and hear him, there’s his 2000 ADThrill-Cast Lockdown Tapes appearance here and his far too funny From The Drawing Board video can be found here.
