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 the turn of cover artist extraordinaire, Neil Roberts, talking us through putting together the cover for the 2021 2000 AD Sci-Fi Special…
This summer, things are heating up in the world of Judge Dredd with the 2000 AD Sci-Fi Special!
It’s going to be a mega summertime storytelling event when we see characters from different Dreddworld series crossing over in one epic adventure! The whole thing is plotted by Michael Carroll and Maura McHugh, along with fabulous stories featuring Judge Dredd, Cursed Earth Koburn, Anderson, Chopper, Armitage, and Devlin Waugh!
Things begin with Judge Dredd meeting up with Cursed Earth Koburn in ‘Biohazard’ by Carroll and Ben Willsher, while over in Oz legendary skysurfer Chopper is a wanted man in ‘Dreamgazer’ by David Baillie and Tom Foster. Meanwhile, over in Brit-Cit, Armitage goes looking for everyone’s favourite vampiric dandy Devlin Waugh in ‘Natural Fern Killer’ by Liam Johnson and Robin Smith, whilst Hondo-Cit Judge Inaba has trouble on her turf, courtesy of Karl Stock and Neil Googe. All this plus Judge Anderson by Maura McHugh and Anna Morozova, before everything wraps up in ‘Apotheosis’, by Carroll and McHugh, and drawn by Thought Bubble 2000 AD art competition winner James Newell.
It’s going to be a summer thrill-power scorcher! And it all starts off with that great cover from Neil Roberts!
NEIL ROBERTS: Tharg messaged me with a proposition to do the 2000AD Sci-Fi Special cover artwork, and I couldn’t resist the chance!
The brief was for a multi-character piece, a group shot in front of planet Earth. What was particularly exciting for me was being able to paint some classic characters – Dredd, Anderson, Devlin Waugh, Armitage, Inaba and a personal favourite of mine, Chopper. (on his board, too!) Tharg sent on a load of reference images to keep me inspired and on track.
With that, I thumbnailed out a few designs – opting for a classic line-up composition, where everyone would be clear and legible within the frame.
After a few rounds of tweaking and revising the image (Chopper standing with his board felt way too sedate, so we had him surfing through space and gave Dredd a gun), Tharg settled on a final design and I set to painting.
After a few weeks, I sent off the image to the Nerve Centre, and we called it done. Phew!
And that was that – another cracking cover from Neil there! Thanks so much to Neil for sharing the experience.
You can pick up the 2000 AD Sci-Fi Special 2021 on 7 July in the UK and 4 August in the USA – get it from your favourite comic shops, newsagents or order NOW 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 though, we have a special treat for you in the shape of a very special Treasury of British ComicsScream! One-Shot Special – Black Beth and the Devils of Al-Kadesh! – all under a stunning cover from Andrea Bulgarelli, who sent along some truly amazing process shots for us to look at!
Black Beth and the Devils of Al-Kadesh is out on June 23 in the UK and July 21 in the USA – it’s going to be one of those must-see books of the year – be sure you don’t miss out!
Black Beth and the Devils of Al-Kadesh features three incredible tales, all leading off with an amazing 32-page tale by Alec Worley (Durham Red) and drawn by DaNi (Coffin Bound), where the warrior-woman and her blind aide Quido have traveled to the wicked city of Shadrivar, in search of the evil witch Anis-Amuun.
It’s sword & sorcery questing at its best, a sea-spanning thriller which pits Beth’s curved blade against all manner of mystical creatures – and possibly Anis-Amuun herself!
But that’s not all! There’s also a back-up Black Beth tale from Alec Worley and cover artist Andrea Bulgarelli, and an all-new Death Man thriller from Doug Graves and Vincenzo Riccardi, plus pin-ups by David Roach and Andreas Butzbach.
But before all that, let’s take a few moments to appreciate just how good this one’s going to look when you see it on the shelf – all thanks to that gorgeous cover by Andrea!
Everything started off with the first pencilled version, with all those essential elements you see in the final cover already there in the mix…
Next, tightening everything up…. Andrea talks of ‘defining the poses of the characters and the details.’ But it does make a great bit of spot the difference… and the case of the disappearing tongue…
Stage three for Andrea is getting those characters paper and beginning the painting…
Onto step four, painting continues, acrylic on canvas paper. This is where Andrea lays the foundations of colours, including a decision to alter things – ‘I changed the sky, with a blood red!’
Next up, with the background of the sky and the ship in place, it’s time to start focusing on the character details…
More and more details being added, step by step, layer by layer, with Andrea concentrating on Black Beth’s armour – ‘I researched Black Beth’s armor with photos of real armor for coloring. I was inspired by Jesus Blasco’s style, which is my favorite.’
And then, to the final stage, where Andrea has all the details added and a finished painting all ready for printing!
As an extra, for all of you who love seeing the artist’s working conditions – Andrea sent along this final image…
And that’s everything, so a huge thanks to Andrea to sending all of those along (as well as my apologies for having to fumble through with remedial Spanish when talking to him!)
It’s a suitably striking and quite beautiful looking cover for something that’s going to be talked about a lot this year – Black Beth and the Devils of Al-Kadesh…
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, time to go BIG, as the diabolical, mechanical marvel that is Mechastopheles takes the cover of 2000 AD Prog 2237 – all courtesy of Dave Kendall.
Wade into the action with the giant demon of the Deep with Prog 2237 – heading into battle, into the shops, and into the 2000 AD web shop on 23 June!
First stomping all under its titanic tootsies, Mechastopheles first burst into the Prog as a Tharg’s 3Riller in Progs 2045-2047, before graduating to an eight-part series in Progs 2092-2099 and is now featuring in Progs 2234-2237 for the four-part The Hunting Party.
Created by writers Gordon and Lawrence Rennie and artist Karl Richardson, this tale of demonic robotic mayhem all came about when Rennie Snr mentioned to Rennie Jnr that he fancied writing a story about a big robot demon in hell – which is, I think we can all agree, a perfect 2000 AD pitch!
The survivors of humanity are on-board Mechastopheles, years after the fall of Earth when the demons rose up and everything went very, very, very bad for all human-kind. But, here in The Hunting Party, we’re finding out that seeking sanctuary in a demonically powered gigantic Mecha might have some uniwue problems – especially now it’s obvious that the demon bound to the Mek, Apollyoneth Morga, has enemies in Hell too.
For this new series, the four-part The Hunting Party, Rennie Snr and Jnr are joined on art by Boo Cook, whose art gives an added dimension to all the diabolic goings-on happening inside and outside the Mecha monstrosity.
But for now, it’s over to the great Dave Kendall, who waved his magic paintbrush at the cover…
DAVE KENDALL: So my cover (and almost every illustration and comic page) starts with scribbles in my sketchbook. You can see that this cover filled around four pages. I did a couple of sketches to familiarise myself with the character and because of the underwater aspect it gave me an excuse to give Pacific Rim a watch. A movie I thoroughly enjoy. My kind of visual junkfood. Great inspiration for giant robots underwater.
You can see the progress in Sketch 1 and Sketch 2 below…
.
From there I came up with two concepts.
The first was a close-up portrait of Mechastopholes, with the second a more distant full figure shot that emphasised his imposing size.
Matt liked both but thought the full figure was more imposing.
.
The next stage is sketching it out in a more finished state in Clip studio. This would then be transferred to Bristol board as a blue line to be penciled in detail.
You can see those stages below, first the cover sketch and then the final Mechastopholes cover pencils…
The final pencils are then printed as sepia on watercolour paper and then bonded to mdf. This is then coated with acrylic medium and then when dried it’s ready to paint. I don’t have any stages of this process but it’s a careful build-up of darks and midtones with lights at the end.
Of course highlights don’t really occur under water so I avoid that in this illustration, just letting the flames and inner fire shine bright.
A careful scan and it’s sent to Matt for approval.
All of which leads us to this, the final Dave Kendall cover… that is a MASSIVE cover…
Thanks to Dave for sending us those stunning pieces of art. You can find it on the shelves on 23 June adorning the front of 2000 AD Prog 2237 – get it from newsagents, comic shops, and the 2000 AD web shop.
Now, a few of those magnificent Mecha shots blown up for you to see all that incredible detail in Dave’s work…
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!
Borag Thungg Earthlets – this week, it’s another Sssssscrotnig cover from the brilliant Nick Percival for Judge Dredd Megazine Issue 433 – a wraparound cover at that, celebrating the 10th and final episode of The Dark Judges: Deliverance, written by David Hine.
Megazine issue 433 is out right now – from newsagents, comic shops, as well as the 2000 AD web shop – go get it right now!
.
Across 10 episodes in the Megazine, those Dark Judges have been causing havoc in Deliverance, complete with a brand-new alien appearance designed by Percival, before everything comes to a head in the final episode… so, let’s see what Nick has to say about that his latest encounter with Death and the gang…
NICK PERCIVAL: We finally get to Part 10 and the series finale, so I wanted to do something a bit special for the last cover artwork. I pitched a wraparound cover with the four Dark Judges fighting each other. It was great fun to do and you get a good look at all of them using their various abilities against each other, which I don’t think I’ve ever seen before.
Dave Hine’s ending for the series really lent itself to some cool images, so it was a nice send off (for now!) of the gruesome foursome.
The cover and this episode also gave me another chance to show off the new alien based designs for Fear, Fire and Mortis which was such an integral part of the series and takes them in a bit of a different direction which is something we intend to explore down the line.
I’m busy on a three-part Judge Dredd storyline for 2000AD at the moment (another dark, spooky one) and Dave and I have already been chucking ideas around for where we can take the Dark Judges next. We’ve come up with a very cool premise that hopefully we can start fleshing out very soon.
It’s cool to be back on Dredd but I can’t leave those four bad lads alone for long – who knows what they’ll get up to…?
Ssssee you ssssoon…
And that’s that… with that, he was gone, cackling to himself and surrounded by four dark shadows, whispering into his ear… maybe that’s where the Percival Droid gets his ideas from?
Thanks to Nick for sharing the dastardly insssspiration – and also these wonderfully grotesque process bits from the cover… first up, the full-cover rough, followed by Nick’s finished piece, and then… because you need to see these things up close and personal… some blow-ups of the artwork.
I’d say don’t have nightmaresssss… but that that’s sort of the whole point of the Dark Judges, don’t you think?
If you want more of Nick’s incredible cover work, have a look at previous Covers Uncovered pieces, including for Megazine 425, Megazine 427, and Megazine 430,
You can catch the cover to Judge Dredd Megazine 433 on the shelves right now! So what are you waiting for, head to your local newsagent, run to your local comic shop, or just do the clicky for 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 Dylan Teague with the scrotnig cover for 2000 AD Prog 2236, with a damn serious looking Dredd packing a little bit of hardware… you can get hold of the cover when it hits the shelves and the 2000 AD web shop on 16 June!
For quite a while, Dylan’s been appearing on the cover as his lush colours have been making Cliff Robinson’s stunning covers look as good as they do, but it’s great to see his own brilliant work getting the attention it deserves there on the cover, especially when it’s a perfect Dredd.
Dylan’s artwork hasn’t just been gracing the cover of 2000 AD though, he’s also recently been on the inside pages with the art duties for last week’s Judge Dredd strip, Brief Encounter, written by Ken Niemand, a perfect little tale of love blossoming amongst the perps on the holding posts… looking something like this…
Dylan Teague art from Judge Dredd: Brief Encounter – 2000 AD Prog 2235
.
Now, over to Dylan for the breakdown of putting the cover together for Prog 2236… it’s a quick one this week, but that doesn’t mean the artwork’s any less wonderful!
I asked Tharg if he was looking for any covers and he said he could do with a backup Dredd cover. These type of covers are always useful to have in the drawer.
I’d done a sketch of Dredd that I was quite pleased with and I thought I could use it as a basis for the cover…
I scanned it in and used it as a base to start drawing the cover in Clip Studio. I added in a background using the ever helpful perspective rulers and sent a black and white rough to Tharg.
He was happy with the rough so I went ahead and finished it all up. I’ve always loved drawing Mega City one so I had a great time on the background of this.
And that’s it from Dylan – simple sketch, quick email, add a background, finish it up… and that’s it. Except, when I try and do that, Tharg ends up first splitting his sides laughing and then sends me back down to the lower levels of the Nerve Centre!
Thanks to Dylan Teague for that – a fabulous cover from a great artist. It’s one of the great Dredd images of the year so far!
Like Dylan says, it all starts off with the sketch he did, although frankly calling it a sketch is underselling it all just that little bit…
The original sketch from Dylan Teague’s files… sketch!!!
Another ridiculously good concept sketch for the cover from Dylan – perspective lines on the attack!
Dylan’s mocked up cover ready for Tharg’s approval
Final b&w version of the cover – move along citizen… nothing to see here.
And the final coloured version – a perfect Dredd cover!
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 the return of both Noam Chimpsky and his co-creator, PJ Holden to the cover of 2000 AD Prog 2234… out on 2 June from the 2000 ADweb shop, and all good newsagents and comic shops!
After plenty of appearances playing second fiddle to Judge Dredd, Mega-City One’s super-smart simian vigilante now get his very own series, from writer Kenneth Niemand and artist PJ Holden – it’s time for Chimpsky’s Law: The Talented Mr Chimpsky.
So, without further ado… over to PJ Holden…
PJ HOLDEN: It started something like this..
“Matt! Matt! Can I do a Chimpsky cover?” “Ok, but the Prog for episode 1 we have a cover for, best I can do is episode 3…” “OK!”
And off I go…
Episode 3 has Chimpsky about to be sucked out of an airlock, so I knew there’d be a few things I could play with there – and a more action-packed Chimpsky cover too!
(Well, somewhere along the line, things changed and this is now the cover of the Prog with the first episode… but, by happy circumstance, it also starts off with Chimpsky being sucked out the airlock!)
PJ HOLDEN: I set up my cover-image-template-idea-sheet and started banging out some ideas…
1. Big head Chimpsky (one white/possibly with black with stars behind?) [ok, not terribly imaginative, but I was thinking “COLLECTION!”] 2. Chimpsky being sucked towards the door. 3. Chimpsky being sucked to the door, but reaching to grab something. 4. Abstract Chimpsky lost in space background (very Saul Bass). 5. Chimpsky grabbing the other chimp. 6. Chimpsky surrounded by Jeppersons. 7. Chimpsky and the other ape. 8. Chimpsky being sucked towards door, but much closer on his face in panic. 9. Slightly abstract, Chimpsky shaped head with panels on the inside with various suspicious Jeppersons….
Matt liked the Saul Bass idea (I mean, I didn’t tell him I didn’t know how to do that, it just sounded like a cool idea and essentially I nicked it from the Vertigo Poster…)
And about 25 minutes later, I had this …
I admit it didn’t take any time at all, but some drawings are just … quicker than others!
Anyway, I was sitting with it, and after batting it over to Dylan Teague I figured I could make it pop a little more and ended up with the final piece.
Not sure how the readers will react to this, I know the message board really liked the previous Chimpsky covers and this is very different so we’ll see. But I do think whoever thought of Plummet of the Apes deserves some extra oil rations…
I really am going to have to pitch a more action packed Chimpsky cover at some point, one where he’s mid-flight!
And speaking of Chimpsky in mid-flight… how about this to tempt you? Remember what PJ was saying about Chimpsky being sucked out the airlock… well, here’s part of the first page of 2000 AD Prog 2234’s The World According to Chimpsky…
Gorgeous! And there’s more of that to look forward to in Prog 2234.
But with that, PJ was off, something about seeing what other Saul Bass covers he could come up with and reckoning he was really onto something and then going off about how Rory McConville still hasn’t gotten back to him about the Dept K & Conan crossover… you’ll need to read the Department K interview for more on that, I’m afraid.
You can find PJ’s great cover to 2000 AD Prog 2234 on the shelves of your local newsagent or comic shop now, or pick it up in digital from the2000 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 time to hand over the reins of the Galaxy’s Greatest to Tharg’s nephew, Joko Jargo, bringing you all the best of all-ages wonder with the latest 2000 AD Regened action, in Prog 2233, coming your way on 26 May, from wherever you get your Thrill Power – including the 2000 AD web shop!
Look for the Zarjaz cover by the incredibly talented Art Droid Neil Googe, who sat down with us to share the making of this here cover…
Inside, you’re going to be enjoying the Scrotnig delights of a new Cadet Dredd, a new Future Shock, more from everyone’s favourite light-fingered nanny, Pandora Perfect, and the continuing tales of both Anderson, Psi-Division and Department K!
But now… over to Neil for his Covers Uncovered! And it’s a little different this time, as Neil sent over two beautiful looking finished cover versions, pre-colours, as well as a great video of his entire making a cover process!
First, those two covers…
The two versions of a Regened cover by Neil Googe… possibly the worst ‘Spot the Difference’ you could get!
.
NEIL GOOGE: Howdy all…
Neil here. Joko’s asked me to briefly talk about how I go about putting one of these covers together. First, lets talk about some basics. I work almost entirely on an 12.9 iPad Pro, using Clip Studio paint (CSP).
I work print size, at 600dpi, which basically means I am working double size, as most stuff gets printed around the 300dpi mark, a relatively standard practice for comics as this makes for a crisper linework image.
The reason I work print size, but double the resolution, rather than a traditional method of working double-sized print resolution, is because CSP has a “view print size” button. This means it displays on-screen exactly the size it would be in print regardless of resolution. If I worked double size regular resolution, it would show me the image twice the size of print.
Being able to see the image exactly as it would be in print is a huge help for me and something I always struggled with when working traditionally. To the point where a huge amount of my traditional originals are drawn print size using tiny pens… Yep… I used to do that!
Screenshot from Neil’s timelapse video – with backgrounds and rough images
.
Okay, next… As you’ll see in the video, the time-lapse starts at a point where there’s a background and a real rough image, that’s because… I draw my real roughs tiny, from there I build the background as a 3D model in SketchUp (more on that later), then place that and the rough together on my working size canvas and then get to work.
From this point, the process is very similar to traditional, except its a lot messier. This is because I can hide the pencils, erase, have multiple pencil layers and ink layers etc. But the process is the same as the way I used to work. Even on paper, after a real rough is done, I actually pencil and ink as I go, rather than pencil the image then ink it. It’s kind of like one process for me, not two separate ones.
Adding in the layers to the Dredd figure
.
I keep all the elements on separate layers, so Dredd, perps, backgrounds etc. etc. This makes it easier to make adjustments as the image progresses, tiny movements, scaling, transforms etc.etc. This is also because I use a few tricks, that require things to be on separate layers. But that’s an entire write-up on its own… and I am already waffling on!
As you’ll also see here, I also work important to least important in an image, it helps me keep the focus on the image, and, if deadlines get tight, at least the core focus of a piece is done. So Dredd gets done first, then perps, then backgrounds…
Going back to the backgrounds layer
So I was going to talk about SketchUp and how I use it in my workflow, but quite honestly, that’s a series of posts and videos on its own… so… Here’s a brief breakdown – I also use SketchUp. It’s an invaluable tool when used right, especially for comics. I also use a handful of other 3d apps, and CSP has its own built-in figure posing tool. One app I use in this image is called Handy… I wonder if you can tell at what point I used Handy?
Okay… there we have it, a Cadet Dredd cover done…all that’s needed now is for another of the Tharglings to color it, Gary Caldwell colored this one, and it’s ready to be released as a heavy does of thrillpower for your eyeballs.
Any questions, you can reach me on all the socials, my web site and I do have a youtube channel coming, but right now… yeah… you’ll see. Thanks all… Hope this helps oh mighty Tharg’s nephew… I did warn you I talk nonsense, and have about the most unprofessional workflow of any of your Tharglings.
Thank you to Neil for sending all that along both the images and that great video – what a star he is! Joko’s mentioned you in dispatches to Tharg, so maybe you’ll get double rations this week down in the Droid zone!
Look for that cover on shelves and in the 2000 AD web shop from 26 May! All the Regened action just bursting out of the Prog!
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 2000 AD Prog 2232, featuring a typically gorgeous Thistlebone: Poisoned Roots cover by Simon Davis to conclude what’s been a chiller of a series… Folklore Horror at its finest!
With TC Eglington and Simon Davis‘ Thistlebone: Poisoned Roots reaching its finale in 2000 AD Prog 2232, the blood is well and truly flowing in the woods. But whose blood?
It’s been a series of creeping horrors, as the darkness spreads deep in Harrowvale, with Simon Davis’ beautifully sinister artwork amazing us at every turn. And now, it’s time for one final scare courtesy of Davis.
When we talked to Simon in ourThistlebone interview, he laid out just how he puts his art together, with everything starting with reference and modeling before he puts together the story in some incredible watercolour roughs, exquisite things that many artists would be proud to call their finished work. After this, he begins it all once more with traditional drawing, finishing it off with gouache, ink, crayon, and oils.
Now, over to Simon… one last time… the terror of Thistlebone…
SIMON DAVIS: Like my previous cover for this Thistlebone story, I wanted to create an image that encapsulated the feel of it rather than be narratively specific.
I tried a few variations of this design with different British mammals, eg a hare, a weasel, an owl, etc, but it just didn’t seem to work. A badger had featured in the story a few times so I was a little puzzled as to why I hadn’t thought of it before.
So I started to play with various badger/bonemask images and finally settled on this.
I really like images against white that are simple shapes and compositions and always try to have in the back of my mind how they will look on a shelf in a shop.
Matt Smith is always open to perhaps the more obscure imagery that maybe would put off other editors so I am very grateful to him for giving me the go ahead for this as it was one of those ideas I really wanted to paint.
It was painted in oils on a wooden panel and is (hopefully) pleasingly symmetrical.
Short and sweet but damn, the end result just looks so horrifyingly good. You can look for the newsagent terrifying cover on 2000 AD Prog 2232, available from 19 May from everywhere comics to chill and thrill are sold, including in the 2000 AD web shop.
For more on Thistlebone, be sure to check out the interview with writer TC Eglington and Simon Davis here and Simon’s previous Covers Uncovered for 2000 AD Prog 2223. And be sure to pick up the first volume of Thistlebone is from the 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!
A little late with this one, but we figured you wouldn’t mind, after all – it’s Leonardo Manco’s stunning cover for 2000 AD Prog 2228 and the finale of Sláine: Dragontamer! Leo sends his apologies for the delay, but we know there’s no need!
So… over to Leonardo Manco to talk about that fabulous Sláinecover! Think of it as a love letter to a character this artist has obviously loved working on.
LEONARDO MANCO:When Tharg asked me to do a cover for this Sláine series finale, there were a few things that made it a big thing – it was the last cover for the Sláine. It was my first cover for 2000 AD. And, as always, time was pressing!
It was this last factor that led me to discard dozens of ideas that I did not even put on paper, and so I only focused on a small handful of those ideas to get to the final idea, and because time was pressing and because everything takes me extra time, I was trying to be specific and detailed but, at the same time, as minimalist as possible in terms of composition and details!
So here we go with the ideas that I was working on and some of my previous sketches.
Leonardo Manco’s intitial ideas – a lot to do with an axe!
Stage 1 – At first, all the ideas that came to mind were pretty classic: Sláine posing with his axe. Sláine running with his axe. Sláine in a defensive stance with his axe. Sláine with his arms covered in thick veins… with his axe.
More of the same. Something that has been seen over and over again and I really wanted to get away from all of these things for this last cover.
Axes out…Sláine’s message to you, dear reader!
Stage 2 – Another idea that came to my head was that of Sláine holding his axe towards the reader, and on this one, written in blood we read “kiss my axe” with Ukko doing a kind of F#$% You.
It was not bad, but previously I had already done something similar, so it was not worth repeating, also it looked like Sláinechallenging the reader, something more for the cover in the middles of a series, and it was not the case. (Also, I think that, at that time they did not speak in English, much less write.)
On the other hand, I had already written this famous phrase in a hidden way between the pages of this book and, without a doubt, you haven’t seen it yet! HO HO HO!
And yes, he also posed with his axe.
So, discarded.
Another of Leo’s initial ideas… the sadness, the sadness!
Stage 3 – Then, I came up with the idea of putting Ukko in the foreground looking back, as though to the past, with a sad expression while his notes fly into a whirlpool of time where Sláine is waiting to cross the threshold.
It didn’t seem like a bad idea to me, but in the end I discarded it, because the final product would have a lot of fairy tale stuff and without the tone of irony that most 2000 AD covers have.
Stage 4 – So, lacking ideas and with time against me, as usual, I began to investigate all the Sláine covers that had been made, until I reached his first cover, where he is in the middle of a battle. So, I thought, if a fight begins on his first cover, then, on his last cover, that battle should be already concluded.
For the end, Leo eventually went right back to the beginning – the first Sláine cover for the first Sláine appearance, art by Angela Kincaid for 2000 AD Prog 330, 1983
I dedicated myself to go in that direction and decide which visual elements I would use and which not, for this final cover.
And since, in the first cover of Sláine, the perspective is from below, then the last one should be from above.
The idea of including Ukko on the cover still seemed appropriate to me, since he was always an important character in the book, but I didn’t want to place him there, posing for the photo, or being an accomplice of Sláine as in the previous sketches, this would give a sense of continuity, that the party continues, and it was not the idea.
It seemed better to me to play with the relationship between them during all these years, and since that childish and tender bulling had always existed between them, I thought it would be interesting that on this last cover, Ukko gave him back some of it.
Leo’s final Sláine taking shape, with Ukko giving Sláine the finger… sort of!
The tips of the spears and other elements, they were put there for two important reasons: first, to ‘nail’ the main figure in the centre and, second, with all of them pointing upwards, it gives greater emphasis to Ukko’s finger, which in the center of the image, points downwards.
I decided that the detail of the mucus trickling from Ukko’s finger must have been long and stretched, this would give a feeling of time and calculated childish evil. The time it takes you to figure it out, maybe that’s the time it has been falling from Ukko’s fingertip to Sláine’s forehead.
Also, in the image composition, I took special care that the gaze between both is on the same straight line, to create a central axis of attention.
At first, I thought about adding blood and guts everywhere (it was a massacre after all), but those details would be distracting elements that would not add anything to the main idea, which was to focus the view on the central part of the image, so all those gory elements were discarded.
The triskelion is the supreme symbol of the Druids, according to Celtic culture, and they were the only ones who could carry this sacred and magical symbol that, for them, represented learning and the past, present and future – so it seemed appropriate to place it on this last cover.
Additionally, it would symbolise the evolutionary process of the character and, as we’re used to reading from left to right, it seemed strategic to place this element on the left, while the papyri of the stories of Sláine written by Ukko are carried by the wind to the right to lose themselves outside the margin of the cover.
I did not want Sláine’s posture to look tense or combative as it’s the last cover and there is nothing more to show or prove, so I thought of several possibilities, but the most appropriate was to somehow emulate the posture of Michelangelo’s David.
For a moment I thought about adding some emblematic characters from some of his sagas, scattered on the stage, as I had thought in the previous sketches but then I discarded that idea, because this was about Sláine and his end, and nothing else.
The finalised image in blue pencil and inks – all with that Golden Triangle and the Fibonacci Spiral
Once the image was composed in a blue pencil sketch and using the Golden Triangle and the Fibonacci Spiral to create a more symmetrical harmony composition, I started to work on it directly with a more precise sketch made with pen.
Later, I would use this preliminary sketch to trace on the final pencil.
My pencils were never overworked since I solve everything with the inks in the final process and the pencils are always subject to last-minute changes and modifications.
It is in the inks, and not in the pencils, where I work with all kinds of details and finishes.
Final inks… SO much detail!
Then, the steps of rigour – the base of flat colors, then some layers of the same tones to give lights and shadows, and all that.
Flats and tones added
The colour palette is in shades of ochre, to create the feeling of something old, and there are only colors coming out of that palette in the places that I want to create a focus of attention.
Final stages now – ochre, ochre, ochre!
Once the cover was finished, I added some small details that occurred to me at the last moment which, at first glance, are hidden… but you’ll discover them if you’re paying due attention! – Some small drawings made by Ukko, on the papyri that he tells the adventures of Sláine, small drawings made through narcissistic and childish anger (so typical of immature people!) in a love and hate loop, where Ukko kills Sláine, then cries for him, then Sláine revives, and then they love each other again, and so on and so on – more or less the relationship that existed between them for almost four decades!
Remember what we said about the details?
So, at the end, here we had a final cover with the druidic symbols of the past, present and future representing all these years of adventures, the relationship between Sláine and Ukko, a tribute to that first cover…and some dead soldiers over there, because they could not be missed!.
And the final, FINAL Sláine – Leonardo Manco’s finest!
And that´s it.
I gonna miss you Sláine. Bye bloke.
Cheers,Leo Manco.
Well, I told you it was going to be impressive, didn’t I? And it so was. And you can tell, just from the way Leo speaks, that this one was a real love letter to a classic character.
Now, some extras, as Leo sent the images along in huge files, perfect for pulling out some magnificent details…
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 – Quaequam Blag! – the unexpected return of an art droid who escaped the Nerve Centre was happily waved farewell by a proud Tharg… it’s Dermot Power on the cover of 2000 AD Prog 2229, where Dredd puts the boot down…
Dermot Power’s scrotnig artwork first appeared in the Prog on the cover of 2000 AD 699, before getting inside with his first Judge Dredd strip in Prog 722. And he was last seen in the Galaxy’s Greatest with the Slaine strip, Treasures of Britain Part 2 (Progs 1024 to 1031) before bowing out with his last cover gracing the front of Prog 1107. He’s worked on the Prog, Judge Dredd Megazine, and put his paints to work on the art for Batman/Judge Dredd: The Ultimate Riddle in 1995.
After that, well, he’s gone on to do the concepts and designs for a few films. Although you probably won’t have heard of many of them… something called Star Wars: Attack Of The Clones and The Force Awakens? Some funny little series about a boy wizard… Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, The Prisoner of Azkaban, and The Goblet of Fire, as well as something called Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them and The Crimes of Grindelwald. And if they don’t ring a bell, what about the minor hit that was Batman Begins, or Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, V For Vendetta, Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland, Ready Player One, and Dumbo?
Okay, okay, so the Power droid’s not done too badly for himself since leaving Tharg’s loving embrace.
But with his film work on the back burner because – well, you know, <gestures wildly at everything>, he had some time on his hands and that means time to draw some Dredd for YOU!!!
.
That was the start of it – a quick rough Dredd piece. Now, let’s hand over to Dermot to give us the lowdown on putting the boot down…
DERMOT POWER: First thing to say is that I didn’t intend this to be a Dredd cover! But the Virus film industry shutdown meant I had lots of free time on my hands last year and I used this downtime to go back to traditional painting after decades of working digitally.
I loved drawing Dredd back in the day and was curious to see how I would paint him now. Turns out not very different – I was hoping to inject a bit of MacMahon in to my usual very Bolland-influenced version. All those big beautiful soft chunky shapes. I think I got some of that in there but there could be a lot more.
After that initial sketch, Dermot worked the image up to full pencils and tight inks…
Looking great so far… back to Dermot…
DERMOT POWER: The problem with Dredd is there is so much stuff to draw. If you are doing Batman you can hide most of him in the shadow of his cape, and if it doesn’t work out you can do another one in about an hour. Much harder to do with Dredd. All those fiddly little pockets and chain links – it is very easy to lose control of the composition with all that clutter – there is a danger of getting bored by the time you are putting clasps on a belt pocket. I get bored very quickly so need to get art done and out of sight or I’ll start ‘fixing’ it.
For example with this Dredd painting I decided the blue-grey background was too blue so I repainted it a slightly warmer grey and in the end it looked exactly the same when I photographed it. If it was digital that would be just pulling a slider but being real paint it took hours.
Then I went to the Warhol exhibition in the Tate and thought ‘maybe I should be braver with the colour’ and painted the background Yellow.
And here’s that Warholised version with that added yellow…
DERMOT POWER: Yeah, that lasted for a few days before I grew tired of it and filled it all in grey again.
That’s what happens when you have no deadline and lots of time on your hands.
I might do another one but start with the bright yellow background. Definitely going to do that. I Just need another Virus to shut the film industry down again.
And all of that work takes us to this… the final image, with Dredd putting his McMahon-style boot down hard on the robots…
So, thanks to Dermot Power for taking the time – but then again, he did have loads on his hands! Hopefully, it won’t be as many years before we get to see his art back on or in 2000 AD again!
