Tag: 2000adcoversuncovered

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 art droid PJ Holden and the ape extraordinaire Noam Chimpsky in a new adventure written by Ken Niemand and drawn by PJ – A Terrifically Disturbing Adventure.

Since he first appeared back in Prog 2131, Noam Chimpsky’s swung into Mega-City One legend in style, the super-intelligent ape who’s set himself up as the protector of his block – all under the noses of the Judges!

But this time, with the appearance of a certain pair of psi-kids, Timmy & Thruppence, it might be that Noam’s not going to be able to protect his block from this particular troublesome twosome – as you can see from the cover!

So, over to PJ to explain all about the making of the cover…

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PJ HOLDEN: As ever, when it comes to covers, I fire off some ideas to Matt Smith (editorial ubermind and Tharg’s body)

Since Chimpsky isn’t in the first episode I’ve tried to go the psychological route… so here’s what I sent…

1) The twins looming over the city holding up Chimpsky (who is not happy about it).
2) Chimpsky caught in a maze.
3) The twins, as per the first page – except this is the idyllic version, everything is nice and sweet, and beside them is a little Chimspky doll. (Could be coloured like a children’s book?)
4) Similar to #1, but much closer on Chimpsky, below him are various hypnotised citizens and a couple of Judges.
5) Chimpsky just sitting minding his own business on the skyline of Mega-City 1.
6) Chimpsky, confused, surrounded by hypnotised citizens & a couple of Judges.
7) Realistic-looking Chimpsky on white background with stylised black hands reaching in from overhead – like he doesn’t know what’s about to happen.
8) Looking up at the twins, in their hands Chimpsky – like he’s a toy, but he’s not happy about it (maybe struggling to escape?)
9) Chimspky with the twins on either side, trying to grab his attention…

Matt, not one for messing about, wanted number 1, so I took the rough and enlarged it in clip studio...

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The next step is to do a first pass on the pencils (this is now my normal routine, this starts the image properly forming on the page for me, and I’m fairly forgiving of myself, as long as I get a good idea of where it’s going I’m happy.)

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Then another pass – pencilling over those pencils … tightening things, changing angles, making it work better. Trying to figure out how big I can go with the hands…

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And then to inks! Obviously, there’s no real ink here, it’s all been done digitally from beginning to end.

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Colours next, starting with simple flats. Flats are all about separating elements of the drawing so I can select them later to colour – so, while I usually go for realistic colours (or at least appropriate colours) sometimes it’s better to hit some weirder abstract colours – remembering this isn’t “colours” you’re doing – these are flats. So, for example, Thruppence’s hair – I’ve separated each chunk of hair into a different “flat” – ultimately they’ll all be the same (or similar) colours. I also didn’t really bother flatting the background, I figure I’d take care of that in the rendering stage (the foreground being the real important element)

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Background colours here were just me spraying stuff around in clip studio – you’ll note I wasn’t too concerned with keeping the foreground figures neat and tidy with the spray – because I knew when I rendered the foreground I’d have the flat layer to help me select them.

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Next… foreground colours – I’d sort of hit a wall here, it all felt too flat, too literal...

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I realised I’d need something to try and pull in the idea of hypnotisim, and that’s when I went psychedelic…

Adding a circular ruler to clip studio, I started drawing concentric circles, then masked off Chimpsky and the background and set the layer to dodge – which brightened the figures up.

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And there we have it – hypnotic, psychotic ape-dangling cover for your viewing pleasure.

You’re often faced with the question “Did I lose some essential quality of the sketch when getting to the finished version” and … maybe?

I think I still like the idea of massive hands – almost God-like trying to pull Chimpsky’s strings (we’ll get to see how successful they are at that later in the series) and in the end I sort of bottled that, BUT I do like Chimpsky little face and the stuff falling out of his pockets… so … swings and roundabouts.

There you go – And there you have it, another  great looking cover from PJ and the beginning of another Chimpsky adventure awaits! As usual, thanks so much to PJ for sending all that along for us.

You can find 2000 AD Prog 2301 wherever you pick up your weekly dose of Thrill Power, including the 2000 AD web shop from 28 September.

There’s plenty more from PJ here at the 2000 AD site, so make sure you take a look at his previous Covers Uncovered work. There’s the previous exploits of Chimpsky – Prog 2178 and Prog 2234. Then there’s the time PJ homaged Carlos Ezquerra with Prog 2221 and more Dredd on the cover of Judge Dredd Megazine 420. And if you want to hear what PJ has to say, there’s a couple of interviews with him about his Department K series here and here.

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, the unmistakable artwork of Nick Percival on the cover of The Judge Dredd Megazine issue 448 – the second half of the epic undead crossover event that began in 2000 AD Prog 2300, both out right now!

Yes, it’s 30 years since Sabbat the Necromancer brought Judgement Day to Mega-City One and we’re celebrating with a thrill-powered extra special two-part event across 2000 AD and the Megazine as the undead across the entire 2000 AD Megaverse take over!

And when it comes to covering the Meg for the zombies take over tale… who else would Tharg call but the Percival droid? He’s been scaring us senseless with his tales of the Dark Judges with a style that horrifies… just like this…

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Okay then, over to Nick Percival to tell us all about the wrap-round cover that’s going to be giving you nightmares…

NICK PERCIVAL: Zombies! – Yeah, not exactly a hard sell for me!

I knew way in advance that this 2000AD/ Megazine crossover was happening and was I going to be heavily involved to create some of the Dredd interior artwork but those Dark Judges put a stop to that with their pesky deadlines!

But at least I got the chance to paint the Meg’s wraparound cover to go with the story.

Drokk it Nick, it would have been incredible to have seen you tackle Dredd in the crossover!

NP: Mighty Tharg had the cool idea of the undead Dredd sitting on the Justice Throne, so I ran with that, expanding the idea into a wraparound to include some of the decay and destruction and of course, a tiny bit of zombie shenanigans.

Those zombies and their pesky shenanigans, eh? And here’s Nick’s rough sketch of the cover in all its glory…

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NP: I wanted a dark and moody feel and a real grisly look to the whole thing – lots of grime, textures, lashings of blood with a rotted, dangerous vibe to final art.

The sketch was a very rough one, just to get the idea out there while it was still fresh in my head – I tend to pencil very loosely, which gives me the freedom to play with all the visual elements when I get to the painting stage and delve more into the lighting and the final forms, etc.

And now the final painted cover, complete with zombie Dredd perched on his throne…

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NP: I can’t wait to read the final story and see how it all ties together and if there is a next time, I’ll be there for my portion of brains and good old gory horror – which you’ll see plenty of in only a month when the new Dark Judges series kicks off in the Meg – just in time for Halloween!

Better get cracking skulls, as those DEADlines never end…

Oh wow – now that’s a terrifyingly great cover right there from Nick. Thanks to him for sending it along. And as for that new Dark Judges series that he’s talking about… well…

Yes, the galaxy’sss ssscariest quartet of foul fiends returns in Death Metal Planet just in time for Halloween.

But before that, do not miss out on the undead crossover event of the year – look out for both 2000 AD Prog 2300 and Judge Dredd Megazine 448 with that leaps out and eats you cover by Nick. Get them anywhere the Galaxy’s Greatest is sold, including the 2000 AD web shop.

Now, just to send you to bed feeling particularly spooked out, here’s a little bit more of that delightfully disgusting details from Nick’s prelims and finished art to send you to bed with some Dredd-ful nightmares…

And to leave you, let’s go closer and closer in on Nick’s zombie Judge…

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 the antipodean art droid Toby Willsmer on the front of 2000 AD Prog 2299 – out wherever you get your Thrill Power on 14 September. July.

Toby Willsmer’s bright, bold, and kinetic pieces have been a fairly regular fixture on the front covers of the Prog for a couple of years now, ever since we first burst into the Prog with a Sam Slade, Robo-Hunter piece that won the 2000 AD Art Stars competition back in January 2021. After that, it was just a few months before he made his debut on the front cover of the Prog with 2240’s Dredd in July 2021. Since then, he’s rather specialised in providing Tharg with images of Dredd perfect to leap from the shelves – and this cover is no exception, with Dredd delivering Justice the hard way.

So, what went into the making of yet another excellent Toby Willsmer cover? Well, here’s the art droid himself to tell you…

TOBY WILLSMER: I had an idea for an urban scene that would see Dredd caught in some sort of spotlight whilst blasting away on his trusty Lawgiver. So I came up with a couple of versions for Tharg to mull over...

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I’m a big fan of graffiti and had this one been chosen, I would have covered the wall in more of it.

However, this one was Thargs weapon of choice for the cover and as luck would have it was also mine...

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Once the mighty Tharg had chosen to have the perp being arrested by the Dreddlocks (couldn’t help myself). I went ahead and started to draw up the line work...

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With the line work all done and Tharg happy. I’ll add the shadows and some texture to the wall. This stage for me is important as it’s how I visualize the lighting and where I need to make sure the contrasting dark and light works as I intended.

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From there I add some base colours. It always looks a bit flat at this stage but from this I can see where I’m going to use the yellow lighting from the blasting Lawgiver.

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Once the basic colours are done I’ll add the yellow lighting from the gun blast and then the lighting that falls on Dredd from it. I tweaked the background a bit here so that it was a little rougher and grittier in appearance. Fading out to blacks in the dark corners drawing your eye into the main area.

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Then onto the fun bits, adding all the details and moving stuff. From smoking bullet shells from the Lawgiver, to bullet holes in the wall. Not forgetting the blast and bloodbath splats from an unfortunate perp that’s off-screen. You can’t beat some good old-fashioned gun blazing Dredd action and I have to admit I enjoyed doing this one.

And that’s it! Thanks so much to Toby Willsmer there for yet another one of his very distinctive Dredd covers for the Prog.

You can find 2000 AD Prog 2299 wherever you pick up your weekly dose of Ghafflebette comics, including the 2000 AD web shop from 13 September.

If you want to see more from Toby, head to his website, his Artstation site, and catch him on Instagram.

As for Toby’s previous covers, well, feel free to check out what he’s had to say about those in previous Covers Uncovered here – Prog 2241, Prog 2262, Prog 2269, and then there’s his 2000 AD Art Stars winning Sam Slade, Robo-Hunter piece. We’re certain we’ll be seeing more of his impressive work emblazoned on the covers of both Prog and Meg in the future!

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 time to get all Regened again as super talented droid Nick Roche returns to the cover of the 2000 AD All-Ages Prog 2296 with Cadet Dredd laying down some Dino-law to the Dinosaurs of the Cursed Earth!

2000 AD Regened Prog 2296 features five Scrotnig tales to get readers young and old excited – leading off with Cadet Dredd (of course!) in Two Tribes by James Peaty and Luke Horsman, new thrill Renk by Paul Starkey and Anna Readman, a ghafflebette Future Shock by David Barnett and Steve Roberts, more from the Justice Department’s strangest as Department K take on the Crisis of Infinite Estabons, as told by Rory McConville and Nick Dyer, and then it’s back to the world of the Survival Geeks as Gordon Rennie, Emma Beeny, and Neil Googe show us more from the ‘Splorers in The Big Splash.

And it’s all under a stunning Nick Roche cover… and as luck would have it, he’s here to talk to us now about it…

NICK ROCHE: Tharg asking me to do one 2000 AD Regened cover is lucky: Asking me to do a SECOND must surely be carelessness. But The Mighty One doesn’t make mistakes, so here we are again.

The last Cadet Dredd cover [Prog 2220] I did featured my bread and butter: A HONKING GREAT ROBOT. So it was nice to be asked to draw, (what’s next after ‘bread and butter’…? Oh yeah…) my Jaffa Cakes: DINOSAURS.

My first ever interior comics work featured Transformers that turned into biologically accurate dinosaurs, and I gave them SUCH accuracy, that a paleontologist called Dr Michael O’ Sullivan named a genus after me, a pterosaur called ‘Klobiodon Rochei’. 

Now, hands up out there if you thought Nick was pulling your leg with that claim? I know I thought it was a gag… but NO. It’s absolutely, totally, 100% true! Take a look at this from the Klobiodon wiki page… ‘the specific name rochei honors the comic book artist Nick Roche for his anatomically correct designs inspired by dinosaurs.’ Even better, from the actual paper by Michael O’Sullivan and David M. Martill, which says this… ‘Etymology: After comic book artist Nick Roche. Comic books are a medium where extinct animals are portrayed in an increasingly scientifically accurate manner, and Roche’s work in the late 2000s was one of the earlier examples in this renaissance in palaeoart.’

What an honour! They’re a talented bunch all these art droids! Okay, back to Nick…

NR: So it’s true, accuracy has its place, but sometimes it’s nice to just draw gnarly, exaggerated Cursed Earth dinos, and their moody little jockeys. So I betrayed my paleo chums and just drew some super fun dinolads. 

Here’s the brief from Tharg: “Another Cadet Dredd cover, maybe him surrounded by mutants mounted on dinosaurs or similar weird creatures, wielding lances pointing down at him, perhaps. ‘Another day in the Cursed Earth’, kind of thing”.

So I submitted the pencil sketch, expecting to have to redraft it, but it seemingly sated Tharg’s needs, allowing me to go straight to inks.

NR: I think that ‘Left-to-right diagonal slash’ composition is one that nearly always works. It’s a great way to draw your eye towards the main subject, and give the sense that they’re overwhelmed, outnumbered or outgunned.

I particularly enjoyed in this case subverting that by simply having Junior Dredd refuse to acknowledge he’s in an unwinnable scenario. A methodology all us droids try to approach at the Nerve Centre, though not always with success…

After my Bread and Butter, and now my Jaffa Cakes, I’m hoping to be asked back to draw the equivalent of, I dunno, my ‘Milky Tea’. Keep pouring, Mighty One, I’ll say ‘when’…

There you go, not just a fabulous cover from Nick there, but a little bit of Dino-knowledge at the same time! Thanks so much to Nick for sending it along.

You can find 2000 AD Prog 2296 wherever you pick up your weekly dose of Thrill Power, including the 2000 AD web shop – it’s out right now.

As for Nick’s previous Cadet Dredd cover for 2000 AD Prog 2220 – you can check the Covers Uncovered for that one right here.

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, for the thrilling double-sized finale to Brink Book Five: Mercury Retrograde, we welcome back INJ Culbard for the cover of 2000 AD Prog 2295 – out wherever the Galaxy’s Greatest is sold from 17 August.

Throughout Brink Book Five: Mercury Retrograde, Dan Abnett and INJ Culbard have had us twisting and turning as we’ve followed investigative journalist Nolan Maslow as he goes deeper and deeper into his investigations of sect activity on the Habs in a story taking place parallel to events of Brink Book One, the death of Brinkman and Mercury going dark. It’s all adding extra layers to the story of Bridget Kurtis and her continuing fight to uncover the strange events and forces that haunt the remnants of humanity and driving them headlong into madness.

And now it all comes to an end with the double-length finale – brutal, inevitable, brilliant.

So, over to Ian now for the tale of putting together this final cover of Brink Book Five. Oh, and our apologies for the weird things going on in some of Ian’s answers here. We’ve tried to fix the glitching, but something strange is going on …

Ian, It’s the double-sized finale to Brink: Mercury Retrograde in Prog 2295, bringing the tale of Mas Nolan to an end and continuing the brilliance that you and Dan Abnett are creating with Brink. This fifth book has been both reinvention and revelation, seeing the events of the first book from a completely different angle and giving everything added depth (not that it was exactly short of depth in the first place).

When it came to putting the cover together for the finale, was it from a suggestion from Tharg or all your concept?

INJ CULBARD: I’m pretty sure this one was my suggestion. I wanted a portrait of Maslow (previous covers had been POV covers in a way, the rioters, the tunnels, the murder wall).

I just wrote something like “portrait of Maslow, against the backdrop of █████████“

Hmmm, not sure what’s gone on here Ian, something appears to be redacting your words here. Let’s keep going, I’m sure it’s just a glitch.

Was it another cover that was pretty simple in your head, one that came together pretty quickly, or was it something that generated a few cover concepts?

INJC: On paper, really simple, but that usually means much harder in execution. And it was. 

INJC: I got to this point and thought it wasn’t right. Something just wasn’t quite working – with that much light behind him he’d be a silhouette and I’d lose all that detail. I needed to rethink the lighting.

So at this point I’d been working in clip studio to get the drawing down, I’d exported to Photoshop the wrangle the color, but then I took the Photoshop file back into Clip Studio and did a final pass on the color. This knocks the color back into RGB values and it needs for print to be in CMYK values, and not only that but I have no black in my colors, and when converting from RGB to CMYK it keeps some black value in the color. So it’s a substitution processes at this point. 

Again, as with all of the Brink covers thus far (aside from the very first one back on Prog 1978), we’re here with the circular motif once more. I asked you last time and you brushed me off with ‘The Eye of Vovek is everywhere.’

So… one more time… what’s the secret sybolism you’re using here, is it the whole Eye of Vovek again, infusing everything in the series, influencing and corrupting as it goes?  

INJC: It’s ██████████ 

There it is again. No idea what’s going on there Ian.

So, without really giving away too much of the ending here, what’s the symbolism you’re using with the blazing planet/sun thing on the cover burning its way towards Mas?

INJC: Well, it’s because ████████████ and so ███████████ seemed appropriate. 

Okay, moving on… looking at the cover here, just with my untutored and artistically lacking eye, it’s more colourful than prior covers, the blazing depths of the thing in the background defining everything on the cover and the colours of that impacting the figure of Mas as well.

INJC: That’s as a result of what wasn’t working with my first pass. I decided to go for weird illuminations, so it created quite a different ambiance. 

So, you’ve got that initial sketch all done and the concept nailed down – next it’s off to slave away over the computer again in Clip Studio?

INJC: Absolutely. I work at a desktop (on a Cintiq 16… I’d like a 22 or 32 Cintiq if Wacom are listening), and mostly handle the coloring there in Photoshop. I lay everything out and draw it on an iPad Pro because I love the way the Apple Pencil handles (but a new one would be great, Apple).Clip Studio is fantastic and I’ve been using it since the very beginning, from when it used to be called Manga Studio. Everything I’ve ever drawn for comics was drawn in it.  The iPad I’ve been using since about the second quarter of Book Four and it has changed a lot for me. I’m no longer shackled to a desk, I can sit anywhere and work on the book. I think it’s useful to actually move your headspace into a different space entirely. Change up your environment when working. So the iPad Pro really has been great for that (again… if you’re listening).

Finally, with the end of Brink Book Five: Mercury Retrograde, what have we to expect for you, Dan, the Habs, Bridge, and everything else in Brink for volume Six?

INJC: In Book Six ████████ is ████████ and we find out about ████████████ and meet a ███ ████████████ called ██████ ████████████. It’s full of ███████████ and ███████████ and I’m looking forward to getting started on it. 

We have no idea why things broke down so badly there in the end. Let’s just chalk it up to the strangeness of Brink, eh?

Thanks so much to Ian for sending along those images and talking us through his latest cover.

You can find 2000 AD Prog 2295 wherever you pick up your weekly dose of Ghafflebette comics, including the 2000 AD web shop from 17 August.

Now, although Brink Book Five is done with now, you can (and should) catch up with the whole saga of Brink, written by Dan Abnett, art by INJ Culbard in the four books available. As one of the finest modern series to feature here in the Progs it’s something that rewards re-reading, especially in light of the revelations here in Mercury Retrograde.

Buy them here – Brink Book One, Brink Book Two, Brink Book Three, Brink Book Four. Brink Book Five: Mercury Retrograde is available for pre-order right now from the 2000 AD web shop and will be released on 23 November 2022.

And to end, another look back at Ian’s Brink covers of the past… beautifully disturbing and fascinating imagery for an amazing saga. And be sure to check out all of Ian’s Covers Uncovered pieces for Brink – 2000 AD Prog 1978 & Prog 1989, 2000 AD Prog 2039, 2000 AD Prog 2272, 2000 AD Prog 2278, 2000 AD Prog 2284.

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!

Today, it’s time to say hello again to the wonders of the Winslade, as art droid Phil Winslade returns for a ghafflebette wraparound cover to Judge Dredd Megazine 447, out on 17 August, that marks the very special finale to the latest series of Lawless, Ballots over Badrock.

Inside Megazine 447, it’s a triple-length finale to Lawless: Ballots Over Badrock, as Dan Abnett and Phil Winslade bring things to a thriller of a conclusion – Will Jaroo survive meeting the Radtus monster? Will Marshall the Outlaw Metta Lawson survive an SJS beatdown? And will Phil Winslade’s drawing hand survive a triple-length episode with all that gorgeous b&w detailing he puts into Lawless?

Well… we’re not going to answer any of those, but we are going to let Phil take you through his making of yet another incredible wraparound painted cover – something he’s calling ‘Beauty & The Beast’.

PHIL WINSLADE: I was considering a whole Mission: Impossible scenario where Tharg got in touch with a self-destructing tape machine that burnt down half my kitchen but realised that my cultural references were so woefully anachronistic that most readers wouldn’t understand it.

So Matt emailed and said he wanted a cover with Jaroo and Mr Radtus having a barny. “Fine” says I.

Well, apart from referring to The Mighty One as this Matt fella, all seems good so far – ‘Jaroo and Mr Radtus having a barny’ is one of those lines you know will be making it to the title of this Covers Uncovered.

PW: So I needed something with some energy featuring the two characters. I came up with something I thought would work with a strong horizontal movement with Jaroo in jeopardy. I decided that the couple bursting out of Audrey’s stables had potential for lots of action and dramatic lighting as the scene was at night/dusk.

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PW: I also felt that a big double headshot would work and really emphasise the savagery of the battle. So I included that as an option.

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PW: At this point, I’m mainly thinking about the front cover although obviously keeping my options open as to the back cover. I felt that Drury was an important part of the narrative so had him in mind for that bonus feature.

He also gives some extreme foreground dynamic leading you from left to right and hopefully emphasises the movement of the other two figures.

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PW: Sketch one without Drury was more direct and had a more BLAM! quality so I wanted the option to be there for Matt.

(You know Phil, Tharg is going to be getting the droid recalibration chambers ready for you if you’re going to keep mentioning this Matt fella.)

PW: Matt (oh heck, you’ve really done it now,) chose option 3 which was probably the initial image I had in mind before I overthunked it.

I wanted to do a color sketch for my own guidance. I wanted to get that sense of light coming from the unseen hole in the wall. I also wanted the color palette to be different from the cover now adorning Lawless Volume 4. The blue/purple, green, and blues contrast nicely (I hope) with the warm pale oranges and browns. Well, I hope it works anyway.

And Phil was generous enough to share a video of the making of that colour sketch process with us in this short vid, which he describes as this…

PW: The video is all the procreate digital work – after the thumbnails and from initial drawing to color sketch to before any paint or ink was used.

So, keeping in mind this is all just for a colour ‘sketch’ for Phil’s own guidance… watch in awe Earthlets…

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Now, to give you a feel of just what that colour ‘sketch’ entails (yes, sketch… incredible how some artists define sketch!) we’ve pulled a few screenshots from Phil’s video… this is all digital work from Phil, from initial marks through getting the figures in place and then adding colours.

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PW: From that point everything was done analogue – tracing the cartoon, physically painting to the point of scanning and editing on PS (which doesn’t have a convenient time-lapse feature).

I traced the sketch onto the Bristol paper I use and taped that to the board and got out the acrylics. Colour is tricky when you paint. In bright sunlight colors look much brighter and less muddy than under artificial light so every evening you think “good grief this is awful” and in the morning light you think” hmm it’s not as bad as I thought…”.

Scanning can do strange things which you have to compensate and adjust – and what it comes out like in print on the different papers is unpredictable. The collections’ covers come out better than the Meg’s but it’s probably that I’m over-sensitive about it. It even changes when you use different apps to view it on your computer!

The painting part took 3 or 4 days after Matt approved the sketch he wanted. Painting always has a “without a net” quality for me. I don’t do it enough to ever feel particularly confident. I hope it has some sense of movement and drama and people enjoy all that Lawless inside.

And that folks, is Phil Winslade in peak artist’s worry mode. Which, of course, as you and I know and we can all plainly see, is absolute nonsense – these painted Lawless covers are always some of our absolute faves when we look back on the year’s best covers.

Despite the worries, he’s done it again with the stunning finished painted cover of Megazine 447, sending along these final painted images before the trade dress gets put on…

And that’s it! Thanks so much to Phil Winslade once more for sending that one along. You can see it in all its glory adorning Judge Dredd Megazine issue 447, out right now from everywhere the Galaxy’s Greatest is sold, including the 2000 AD web shop.

It’s packed full of Thrill Power, a one-off Judge Dredd, the conclusion of Psi-Judge Anderson: Dissolution, and of course, the triple-length finale to Lawless: Ballets Over Badrock by Dan Abnett and Phil Winslade – who we all hope is currently enjoying a little time off and icing his drawing hand and wrist – after all, that amount of incredible detail has to hurt!

And if you’re looking for more of that wonderful Winslade cover work… you can find it here – more Lawless for Megazine 418 and Megazine 422, and some older Dredd covers for Megazine 365 and 2000 AD 1879.  Well worth taking a look!

And finally, because we know you love to see these things in all their glorious detail, the full-sized versions of those screenshots we took from the video Phil sent along…

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, with a strung-up Jaegir, it’s the return of art droid Alex Ronald to the cover of 2000 AD Prog 2294 – out on 10 August in all the usual Thrill Powered places.

Since first appearing in the Prog back in the 90s, with a first appearance in Prog 984, Alex Ronald’s stylings were to be seen on Judge Dredd, Vector 13, Rogue Trooper, and Sinister Dexter before he moved on to other things in the CG industry where he worked as both an illustrator and 3D modeller.

But the lure of 2000 AD meant a return to working for The Mighty One, with his computer-rendering and painted style making him an accomplished cover artist marking him out and providing some of the most striking and stylish covers in recent years.

This week, Alex is headed out into the wasteland of Nu-Earth for a Jaegir cover. Inside the Prog, Gordon Rennie, Simon Coleby, and Len O’Grady are giving us a technicolour masterclass of a tale in Jaegir: Ferox that finds Kapitan Kapitan-Inspector Atalia Jaegir of the Nordland State Security Police in something of a bind at the hands (and thorny tentacles) of General Kurga, one of her own side who sees himself as Number-Earth’s saviour.

Now, over to Alex for the breakdown of the cover, which all started from Tharg giving his art droid the reference image The Mighty One wanted from an internal panel from Jaegir: Ferox.

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ALEX RONALD: The reference image for the cover had Jaegir her being pulled up to a wall by the bio wire, arms out-stretched.

I ran into an issue trying to replicate this with the cover dimensions since she seemed far off and removed from the viewer when I had her fully in shot.

I felt the cover image would be stronger tighter in, focusing on her eyes and the rage at being captured. So instead I opted to have her straining against the wire which allowed me to go closer and have her full upper torso in frame.

As you can see from the rough, initially I had the wire across her face which reminded me of one of the Hellraiser characters. But for final art, I thought it best to remove that and allow her distinctive facial scars to be seen in their full gory glory.

As with most of what I do, it’s a rough 3D model which I sketch over, add detailing then paint on top of that after approval.

I hope you like it.

Oh, we do like it Alex, we do indeed! Thanks so much to Alex for sending that one along to join the growing library of Covers Uncovered entries here.

You can find 2000 AD Prog 2294 wherever you pick up your weekly dose of Ghafflebette comics, including the 2000 AD web shop from 10 August.

And for more Covers Uncovered goodness from Alex, be sure to click through and have a look at his work on Prog 2016, Prog 2047, Prog 2162, Prog 2191, Prog 2206, Prog 2255, and Judge Dredd Megazine 435.

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 welcome Paul Marshall once more to Covers Uncovered for his Zarjaz cover of 2000 AD Prog 2293, out everywhere that thrill power is sold, including the 2000 AD web shop, on 3 August.

Prog 2293 sees James Peaty and Paul’s Skip Tracer: Valhalla get to episode seven, with the former soldier turned psi-tracker returning to the Cube, now under the malignant influence of a nearby blackstar and full of a crazed zombie army all muttering ‘Valhalla‘.

And, as you can see, the cover has Marshall pulling out all the stops to show us just what trouble Nolan Blake’s got himself into this time!

PAUL MARSHALL: Tharg asked me if I could provide a cover for Skip Tracer: Valhalla showing Nolan Blake blasting away at a horde of approaching Zombie delinquents….Obviously I was only too happy to say yes.

I submitted a couple of ideas for basic comps, one looking through the zombies at Nolan, at eye level amid the action, the other a down-shot similar to the scene in the previous episode…

And this is what Paul’s referring to… from Prog 2292, with Abe attempting to buy Nolan some time…

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PM: Tharg went for the Birdseye view, so I got to work!… it had to be a fairly quick turnaround so I think it took a few days to complete from start to finish.

I used a Blue pencil to draw and Brushpens and Fineliners to ink. I also provided plenty of ‘overdraw’ on the image and ‘dead space’ to allow room for cropping, plus leaving room for the logo, Taglines etc.

Now, as for the images Paul sent along… first we have those basic compositions, starting with the one Tharg rejected with versions A & B…

… and now the one deemed cover worthy by The Mighty One…

All it took then was the simple (hah!) process of pencilling and inking the thing to get it to a final inked version… pretty much like this one…

Finally, it’s sent to colourist extraordinaire, Mr Dylan Teague to work his technicolour magic on it… all of which leads us to the final published cover…

And that’s it! Thanks so much to Paul for sending that one along.

You can find 2000 AD Prog 2293 wherever you pick up your weekly dose of Ghafflebette comics, including the 2000 AD web shop from 3 August.

For more from Paul, be sure to look back over his previous Covers Uncovered – PJ Maybe on Prog 1753, Judge Dredd on Prog 1998, and Skip Tracer on Prog 2249.

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 Andy Clarke with his third cover in the past few months for Tharg, this time with the cover of 2000 AD Prog 2289, out wherever you get your Thrill Power on 13 July.

The veteran art droid first of all wants to point out that getting three covers in a few months is absolutely all on merit and categorically denies that he owes The Mighty One many, many years’ worth of art in payment for all that droid-oil he’s been consuming to get him through the day.

Right, that over and done with – time to let Andy tell us all about putting together his latest 2000 AD cover, featuring one-half of the greatest gunshark team in Downlode, Raymone Dexter, currently starring in Malice in Plunderland by writer Dan Abnett and artist Tazio Bettin.

ANDY CLARKE: Sinister Dexter was my first comics work, so getting the opportunity to come up with a cover for the series again was fantastic. I always had a lot of time for these two – Dex in particular – and even though we’re missing one-half of the partnership as things currently stand, it was nice to have Carrie there on this one.

Dan Abnett was always really great, really generous with support and encouragement. Not being burdened by an abundance of confidence, when he seemed to like what I was doing on the SinDex stories I worked on, it was a real boost.

For this one, Tharg had a very clear brief, so it was fairly straightforward to come up with a sketch that got the point across.

The tricky part was reffing the car and getting the guns to look right – I don’t find them all that easy to draw, and they don’t seem to get any easier the more I do them. I could’ve gone with one of Dex’s guns doing that recoil thing too – where it pulls back and you briefly see the inner barrel (or whatever it’s called) as it’s fired – but it wouldn’t have really added anything . . . and I didn’t have the patience to sit like a lemon trying to get it to look right.

Breaking in again for just a moment or two and seeing as Andy just mentioned the car – when I first saw the cover I just knew from bitter experience what it was, one of the worst possible cars that’s ever been made, the encapsulation of the crappiness of the British car industry in the 70s and 80s, the abysmal Austin Allegro. I checked on this with Andy, wondering why he had to pick that particular car but he came back with this… ‘Yep, that was all Tazio Bettin,’

Well, that was all too intriguing to leave, so it was off to ask Tazio about it…

TAZIO BETTIN: I’m not a car expert at all, so I asked my father, who definitely knows better. The panel where the Allegro first appears had, in the script, Dexter and Carrie looking at a car (they were in need of transportation), and Carrie commenting it’s a pile of junk.

Tazio Bettin: This prompted me into checking what is a notoriously crappy car. My father suggested some models. The Allegro appears consistently even in Internet rankings of “worst cars of all time”. So in my mind it had to be it, for Carrie’s remark to ring comically indisputable to the reader.

The car does look cheap and ugly, but in a kind of (to me) adorable way. As if it was saying “I’m sorry I’m a terrible car, but at least you can say that I look a little vintage?”

No, sorry Tazio, I’ve driven one. It’s unforgivable awful not adorable. Like driving mud. Badly designed and built mud.

TAZIO BETTIN: Lastly, the number plate. I am disseminating Easter eggs throughout all the comic. I’m sure the readers will have spotted at least some or all of them, and this was a chance I couldn’t pass on. What could such a demure-looking car be saying through it’s plate? Just to up the conicity a little, I went with the philosophical “to be or not to be” spelled on alphanumeric.

Okay… so there you go. The wonders of the artistic process and the lengths they go to, eh?

Now, back to Andy…

ANDY CLARKE: Once the sketch was approved, I tightened it up and put in the car damage in the hope that it looked convincing: what does it really look like if bullets are smacking into a car? Haven’t a clue. Sure there’s reference out there somewhere, but sometimes too much ref makes me tentative. So, it may not be remotely accurate, but it kinda looks okay.

From there, I inked the outlines and only put black in the areas I was sure needed to be black and wouldn’t be better served in grey. With the greytones I try to do all the detailing, after that’s done, the flat colours are added.

Round about here, I thought maybe the suggestion of a background might be a good idea. So I looked for a suitable parking structure to use as a base, did a rough, blocky sketch and placed it in – messing around with the layer options, adding some blur, so it was there, but not drawing too much attention. Keeping the background colour non-specific also helped knock it back. 

To finish off, I changed some of the greys to colour, added gradients and highlights – the bullet sparks and muzzle flashes needed a little more zing and some random dust and dirt spatter was added to beef it all up a bit. Some spray-diffused ink texture for the ground and that, I think, was it.

And that’s it! Thanks so much to both Andy Clarke for telling us all about the latest cover (and to Tazio Bettin for chipping in with a little extra info – even if he’s completely wrong about any redeeming features on the Allegro).

You can get hold of 2000 AD Prog 2290 on 13 July wherever the Galaxy’s Greatest is sold, including the 2000 AD web shop.

And for more Andy Clarke talking about his covers (and paying off that droid oil debt) have a look at the Covers Uncovered for 2000 AD Prog 2287 and Judge Dredd Megazine 444.

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 2000 AD Regened with all-ages Thrill Power designed to give young readers their first dose of the Galaxy’s Greatest comic!

On cover duties for 2000 AD Regened Prog 2288 (out on June 29^th) we have Peter Yong, winner of the last 2000 AD Art Stars competition in 2021!

Peter’s a concept and storyboard artist from Australia who’s worked in the video games and animation industries whose Angel Gang piece for Art Stars won back in October 2021. After that, as he’ll tell you, he was delighted to get the call for this Regened cover! So now, over to Peter…

PETER YONG: It all started last year when I submitted the Angel Gang piece for the 2000 AD Art Stars competition – to my surprise I won!

PY: Shortly after, I was contacted by the mighty Tharg to create the cover shown here. I have been a professional artist for over 15 years, working in animation and video games but this is my first comic cover!

I am a huge 2000 AD fan, so I was excited and a wee bit nervous. 2000AD was one of the reasons I pursued art in the first place!

The brief that I received for the cover was very broad: I was to draw Cadet Dredd and it didn’t have to tie into any story. So I got drawing and came up with 3 options:

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PY: I wanted to keep the composition simple and striking. I find it really helps to zoom out and draw these quite small. I always like when a composition is clear and readable.

I was delighted when Tharg chose number three. However, I was asked to make the beasties more alien. A welcome change for me because looking at it again, it seems like Dredd has just entered an alligator enclosure and is manhandling a few of the occupants…ha ha!

I resubmitted with some alien-looking guys but wondered if they were too scary looking for an all-ages issue?

PY: Tharg replied with some great suggestions so I made some tweaks. I liked the look of these guys and I was very happy to get rid of the tentacle arms from the previous version (…what was I thinking?…)

PY: I thought I had the skill and confidence to take this directly into ink….Unfortunately, none of this was the case, so I had to draw it roughly first to clarify the forms.

PY: Next was Inking. I used Clip Studio Paint as I really like the feel of the “GPen” in the program. When I Ink I try not to just trace the rough, but try to push and enhance the drawing more.I feel like this helps to keep the finished product lively and spontaneous. It’s also so much more fun when I think like this!

PY: Next is colour. Put simply, my approach was to try and make the Alien’s colour contrast against Dredds. Referencing the other Cadet Dredd covers, I wanted it to be colourful and not so serious.

PY: And finally I added all the shadows, some rim light and some other little effects and it’s done!

PY: I have to say, a huge thank you to Tharg (Matt Smith) and Mike Molcher. Having the opportunity to create a cover for 2000 AD is definitely a dream come true!

As a product of the Art Stars competition, I think it is an amazing platform to see up-and-coming artists and have their work published. 2000 AD has always been a place to showcase amazing stories and mind-blowing, interesting art and I am so thankful for the hard work Matt, Mike and everyone at 2000 AD do!

And that’s it! Thanks so much to Peter for sending that one along. And just like him, you can get involved with the 2000 AD Art Stars competitions and get your art in the Galaxy’s Greatest (and get paid for it too – Tharg really is a generous dictator benefactor!) when 2000 AD Art Stars returns later this year with an exciting new challenge!

You can find 2000 AD Prog 2288 wherever you pick up your weekly dose of Ghafflebette comics, including the 2000 AD web shop from 29 June 2022.

And you can find out more about Peter at his website – http://peteryongart.com/ and his Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/peteyongdraws/

Now… the full-sized versions of those initial three sketches sent over to Tharg for his approval…