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 month’s Judge Dredd Megazine issue 461 sees a brand-new Dredd begin, Risk Assessment by Michael Carroll and Colin MacNeil. And if the prospect of more zarjaz MacNeil droid art inside the Meg isn’t enough, Tharg arranged for us to be doubly treated this month with a new MacNeil Meg cover. It’s like Christmas has come early!

Although, as Colin’s going to tell you, this was originally a pin-up for inside the Meg. One thing you know about Tharg is that he knows a great-looking cover when he sees it – even if it’s not meant to be a cover!

COLIN MACNEIL: I doodled various ideas before settling on this one. Unfortunately, none of those doodles exist anymore, as I tend to use unused sketches to light the fire of an evening. Paper’s paper!

I recall they were the usual sorts of images you’d associate with Dredd. Like Dredd using his nightstick to batter a perp in an alley, or shooting some perp in a dramatic way, or towering heroically over Mega-City One.

Okay, okay, we’re going to be sending Colin a big box of firelighters just so this doesn’t happen again! Just imagine all the art that’s been tossed into that fire over the years!?!

But since fire claimed those sketches, we’ve just got the inked piece and the final pin-up image to show you. BUT, alongside those couple of images, we have Colin giving us the tale of the cover… so let’s hear what he has to say…

COLIN MACNEIL: Since it was to be a pin up, I wanted the image of Dredd to really dominate the page, so came up with the idea of viewing Dredd from behind, at knee level, as he strides mercilessly towards a group of citizens alarmed by his approach.

Why would he be striding towards them? There was only one good answer to this – the long-running theme of democracy within Dredd’s world. I added a riot shield to Dredd and made the crowd he was approaching citizens protesting for democracy. Marching and protesting for democracy is one thing, but going up against Dredd is a thing the citizens are not willing to do.

The placards echo those which have been seen in the long struggle for democracy in Mega City One, “DEMOCRACY NOW”, “JUDGES OUT”.

Other placards are more subtle, let us say. “UP THE PEOPLE”, “WE WANT IT”. The Judges have certainly been putting ‘it’ up the people for a long time and since the people have not removed yet the Judges, then they must really ‘want it’. 

“DEMOCRACY WHEN?” It’s been such a long struggle, when is it actually going to happen? “FREE DUM”, free dumb. Without a voice, there is no freedom. There is also another way to view “FREE DUM”. You’re dumb if you think they’re ever going to let you be free.

It was a good image, but it still needed something, then it came to me. I added a child to the front of the crowd, silhouetted through Dredd’s riot shield.

Whereas all the adults in the crowd have decided to give in to Dredd and the power of the state he represents, dropping their placards and starting to break and run, the child remains defiant...

Keeping the image of the child a silhouette was a conscious decision, so you can’t tell their gender or ethnicity. It represents every child.  The child is also giving Dredd “the finger”, with both hands.

The child has not yet learned to be afraid like the adults, or to give in like the adults. The innocence of youth, the defiance of youth.

The other thing about keeping the child silhouetted was to hide the figure a little. At first glance it’s just a picture of Dredd striding towards a group of protesters, but once you notice the defiant child, it is all you can see.

The image is no longer about Dredd, it’s about the child. …It’s about the future.

Originally this image was to be a pin up for the Meg, but as soon as Tharg saw the finished result he wanted to use it for a cover.

Obviously, I hadn’t left room for a logo, since it was to be pin up, so I did an extended version of it to allow space for a logo and that is the one that is used for Meg 461.

Thanks to Colin for sending us that – it’s a really stunning cover for this month’s Meg (but then again, every MacNeil cover is special, isn’t it?)

You can find the new Megazine issue 461, complete with part 1 of Judge Dredd: Risk Assessment wherever you get your Thrill Power prescription – comic shops, newsagents, and of course the 2000 AD web shop from 18 October.

For more from Colin, head over to the Thrill Cast from 2019 where he talks about Mechanismo and make sure you go and read his last Covers Uncovered for Megazine #437.

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 all eyes on Wrath from the fabulous fantasy fable, Feral & Foe. Is Wrath about to get bored to death in the latest adventure, Bad Godesberg? Well, that’s what the Owlbores do… but you’ll have to pick up 2000 AD Prog 2354 to find out!

But if you want to find out just how series artist, Richard Elson put together another great-looking cover, all you have to do is read on…

Elson’s been a mainstay of the comics industry for many years now, whether it’s Sonic the Comic or his 2000 AD work, including Atavar and Kingdom with Dan Abnett, But his work here on Feral & Foe, again with Abnett, really is looking soooo fine!

Now, over to Richard to tell us all about this latest 2000 AD cover, all starting with four roughs to send to Tharg for approval…

RICHARD ELSON: As usual, I did 4 rough ideas for the cover. The second one was chosen so it was just a matter of scaling that up and tightening the pencils in preparation for the inks.

I inked on several layers: one for the owl, one for the swirl, one for Wrath, and one for the hair chains.

As usual, Wrath’s hair probably took as long to ink as the rest of the image combined. I think I might have to introduce her to some chain cutters before we do any more F&F!

The owl and swirl were inked on different layers to make the process of applying colour holds to the linework less tricky.

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It was a relatively straightforward colouring job. There are some pretty busy scenes in this series and not having to choreograph multiple figures for this cover was something of a relief.

As always, it has been great fun working with Dan on these episodes. To date, I think Bad Godesberg might be the most ambitious thing we’ve worked on together; I hope the readers get as much enjoyment out of it as I did.

Yes, Bad Godesberg is another fabulously funny fantasy from Abnett and Elson and that’s just the latest great cover Richard’s given us.

You can find 2000 AD Prog 2354 everywhere that stocks your weekly dose of Ghafflebette comics, including the 2000 AD web shop from 18 October.

To see more of those great Feral & Foe covers and read about how he made them, get clicking on these – Prog 2163, Prog 2192, and Prog 2227,  And for even more, we interviewed Richard and Dan about Feral & Foe here and for your listening pleasure, Richard talked to the 2000 AD Thrill Cast in 2019 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, as Dredd takes a little work visit to East-Meg Two in the hunt for answers about Hershey’s death in Poison, Alex Ronald returns to the cover of 2000 AD Prog 2353 for a classic Dredd pose set against the backdrop of a city that wants him dead…

So far, Judge Dredd: Poison has seen Dredd off-world and in Mega-City One in his attempt to uncover who it was who infected Hershey with the virus that led to her death and why. Written by Rob Williams and with typically great art from PJ Holden, we’ve now got Dredd deep into East-Meg Two… and that’s never a good thing.

Cover artist Alex Ronald’s time as a 2000 AD art droid is very much a game of two halves. He started off way back in Prog 984 on Judge Dredd, with his first cover coming on Prog 1869. Early work on Dredd, Vector 13, Rogue Trooper, and Sinister Dexter all showed us that he was more than capable of turning in some great-looking art. And then… he was gone, heading off for pastures new. Those pastures had a lot to do with working in the computer graphics industry and 3D modelling, all of which explained why, when he did get pulled back into comics, his art had a very different, very modern, computer-rendered painted style. And it’s that fine style that’s seen him working exclusively for Tharg as a cover art droid ever since, giving us some of the finest covers out there.

So, over to Alex to give you the skinny on putting this one together, all starting, as it often does, with a message from Tharg…

ALEX RONALD: The brief for this cover was “ Dredd facing us holding the rifle, backed with an East-Meg cityscape”

As with most of what I do these days, it all starts with some 3D work to kick off from...

I have a Dredd figure already made which just had to be reposed with the new gun, which I loosely based on the artwork from the story.

The background buildings were also some models that I already had so the only new scratch-built model this time was the gun.

About 20 years ago when I worked in a game studio in Edinburgh the resident concept artist used 3D  as a basis to start all his concept paintings and I’ve been hooked on this technique ever since. It’s good for editing your composition quickly and easily and you can light it in various ways to find what works best.

Initially, I went for a full figure shot but felt there was too much flag and not enough Dredd...

Scaling the sketch up to be a lot closer in on the figure felt about right so I redrew the pose again just to tighten up the composition...

Once I had approval to go ahead I painted the final art up over a weekend in July.

As much as possible I try to not make my digital paintings look digital. I tried some new pastel brushes on this one and liked the overall look.

Hope you all like it.

And that’s another great digital cover sorted from Alex Ronald right there. You can find 2000 AD Prog 2353 wherever you pick up you’re the Galaxy’s Greatest, including the 2000 AD web shop from 11 October.

As for more from Alex, there’s been plenty of covers uncovered from one of 2000 AD’s modern cover specialists… Prog 2191, Prog 2206, Prog 2255, Prog 2294, Prog 2306, and 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!

For this week’s Prog, it’s the return of Toby Willsmer on the cover AND the return of The Fall of Deadworld by Kek-W and Dave Kendall inside – which is why Toby’s terrifying Judge Fairfax is staring out from the cover…

Toby’s been a pretty regular fixture in and on the Prog for a few years now, ever since winning the Art Stars contest in 2021. An illustrator based in New Zealand, he was a child of Britain in the ’70s and 2000 AD runs in his comics blood.

Since then you’ve seen him grace the cover several times and had his art set your eyeballs pulsing on several strips, including Robo-Hunter in the zombie takeover tale The Darkest Judge, Cadet Dredd in Prog 2325, and a Regened Future Shock in Prog 2346.

But now Tharg’s let him loose once more on a cover and it’s time for him to tell you all about it…

TOBY WILLSMER: Matt asked if would come up with a cover of Judge Fairfax with glowing red eyes, that was creepy and cool looking. I had a few initial ideas and began to scribble in the sketchbook...

I came up with three different ideas for Matt to choose from and he chose number 3.

Next, the rough…

I changed up the pose slightly to give it more movement and gave the background some sort of opening shape that would be the light source flaring into the space the character was in.

Once Matt had OK’d the rough I came up with a proposed colour scheme.

During this stage I had the idea of adding some wall at the top to give a ‘peeking through the wall’ look to it. Matt was a fan of the idea and went with it…

From there it’s my usual route of linework and then adding where I want some basic shadows to go. I kept the background none detailed as I would add in stuff and doodads as I coloured it up.

Then adding in the base colours to work from…

Then onto adding all the good stuff. All the bells, whistles and lighting until it’s finished…

…and here you go the finished cropped version.…

So there you go, thanks so much for Toby to sending that one along – it’s on the shelves wherever you pick up your weekly dose of Thrill Power, including the 2000 AD web shop from 4 October.

You can see his Art Stars winning entry here and there’s more Covers Uncovered from Toby for your pleasure – Prog 2240, Prog 2262, Prog 2269, Prog 2318, and Prog 2332. And you can find out more about him 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, Prog 2351 and a glorious John McCrea cover to celebrate a VERY special face-off in the pages of 2000 AD – Judge Dredd vs Robo-Hunter. That’s right, it’s Sam Slade, Brit-Cit’s finest Robo-Hunter, pitching up in Mega-City One and getting in Joe’s face – with Walter the Wobot right in the middle.

You can read the complete story from Garth Ennis and Henry Flint in the pages of 2000 AD Prog 2351, out on 27 September. It’s quite the meeting of two classics in a very special one-off tale you’re not going to forget in a hurry!

John burst on the scene as a bright young thing in 1989, with his debut in Prog 615, Fast Forward, swiftly followed by drawing Troubled Souls, a controversial and hard-hitting tale of the Troubles, penned by another debutante, Garth Ennis.

Since then, McCrea’s been a semi-regular name in 2000 AD and the Judge Dredd Megazine, but also found fame abroad with Hitman, again with Ennis, for DC Comics from 1996-2001. Since then, he’s worked at Marvel, DC, Image, Dynamite, and many more. But it’s always good to see his work both on the cover of 2000 AD and inside.

And surely you saw John’s most recent interior art in the Megazine – his stunning Darke’s Mob in the recent Battle Action crossover Megazine issue 460 and a truly magnificently unhinged Dreddworld version of a classic Battle Action character…

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But enough from us about John, time for John to tell us all about bringing two classic 2000 AD characters together…

JOHN MCCREA: I started reading 2000 AD from issue one (the space spinner went straight over the garden hedge, natch!) and have followed it ever since.

Sure there have been periods where I didn’t look at the Prog as much as I could have, but I will always have a soft spot for the characters created in the first three hundred issues or so. So it’s always a thrill when I get to draw a character I haven’t worked on before, especially when I know such a great creative team is doing the story inside. 

Matt Smith said three words ‘Dredd’, ‘Sam Slade’, and ‘Walter the Wobot’ and I was in (technically that’s six words but you know what I mean). I think Garth Ennis and Henry Flint may have been mentioned but I wasn’t really listening by that point.

The image popped into my head pretty quickly and I worked up a sketch…

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Matt thought my initial sketch made Dredd look like he wanted to clobber Walter and asked for his head to be turned more towards Slade.

So I erased Dredd’s head in Photoshop, printed it out, popped it on a lightbox and on the back of the piece of paper drew a replacement Dredd head…

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I then digitally placed the new Dredd head onto the original sketch, subtly altering Dredd’s shoulder pads, stance etc to accommodate the brand new bonce...

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Inking time! I print the pencils out onto an A3 sheet of paper and then lightbox onto a sheet of Bristol board.

I use Canson Bristol. It’s smooth and has very little bleed. I ink with Mitsubishi unipin pens, usually 0.2, 0.4 and 0.8 size along with a roller ruler and French curve.

These days I find it hard to do freehand lines so I use the ruler and French curves for a lot of my work. Scribbling in the black areas afterward is quite therapeutic, I find.

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Back to the scanner. I scan the final links in at 600 DPI and then add digital tones. I use Kyle Webster brushes to do this.

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I send the finished artwork to Mike Spicer for colours. Mike knows the kind of palette I like and there is usually very little correction on my part.

You can see here I wanted a few details added and fixed. Mike puts up with my incessant demands like the true pro he is!

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Ta-da! The finished artwork ready to go to Tharg and his minions to add all the cover blurb, logo etc…

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As with everything I draw, I am wracked with self-doubt after it is done. For instance, with this cover I now wonder if it would have been better to have Dredd holding a gun and pointing it at Sam over the top of Walter’s head?

Still, I think it works pretty well and I hope it connects with readers. 

Always with the doubt – these art droids are always paranoid and so self-critical when it comes to their work!

But John’s got absolutely nothing to be worried about here. He and Mike Spicer have given us something that’s going to pop from the shelves of whatever shop or newsagent you get your copy of the Galaxy’s Greatest!

You can pick up your copy of 2000 AD Prog 2351 from the web shop from 27 September. Even better, get your Thrill Power through your letter box each week with a subscription (complete with the sub-exclusive covers and free gifts that come along with it!)

For more Covers Uncovered greatness from John, be sure to have a look at these beauties… riding out with Dredd on Prog 2224 and ‘everyone’s favourite fascist’ on Prog 2328.

And now, as a special treat… the first couple of pages from Judge Dredd Vs Robo-Hunter in Prog 2351 by Garth Ennis and Henry Flint… a stunning one-off strip that you absolutely shouldn’t miss!

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 back the quite brilliant Henry Flint to the front of the Judge Dredd Megazine for the very special Battle Action crossover issue 460…

Henry’s fabulous cover leads us into a very special Megazine 460, where classic characters from the pages of Battle Action make their way into the Dreddverse, all thanks to a bit of what if-ing where Tharg wondered what might happen if the worlds of 2000 AD and Battle Action came together.

This 2000 AD & Megazine crossover all begins in Prog 2350, with Tharg imagining what might have happened if, back in 1982, Battle Action was merged into the pages of 2000 AD, with classic characters such as El Mestizo and Major Eazy getting a sci-fi makeover. But Tharg also pondered what might happen if the 1982 merger was so successful that it was worth launching a new monthly in 1984, this time with Battle Action characters crossing over into Dreddworld, meaning the likes of Darkie’s Mob and The Rat Pack getting a Mega-City twist.

And who better to give us a perfect Dreddworld cover than one of the true great modern day Dredd artists, Henry Flint?

Now, it’s true that Henry doesn’t do that many covers… but when he does… oh boy, they’re just the best. And here, we have even more Flint goodness as he’s on the back cover as well with a spectacular wrapround cover.

Henry, as you’d expect from an artist so damn good at what he does, is deep in deadlines and Tharg really didn’t want him taking any time off for chit-chat. But he was able to send us across his preliminary roughs and inks for the cover and this little insight into just how art droids can get it wrong occasionally…

HENRY FLINT: Here’s the latest Megazine cover plus some roughs. Including one where I accidentally thought Dredd was fighting Nazis, me jumping to conclusions. That thing where your brain is convinced it’s right when it’s not. Not the first time that’s happened.

Short and sweet and then straight back to work… just the way Tharg likes his art droids.

He then added – ‘Tharg originally referenced Prog 169 – The Civil War cover by Mick McMahon as a starting point.’ 

And yes, you can definitely see the DNA of the legendary McMahon droid’s cover to Prog 169, ‘A scene from the civil war in post-atomic America’ – stunning stuff…

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Okay then, back to Henry’s brilliant modern-day version of Dredd and the Judges fighting off the hoardes… beginning with the Dredd versus Nazis rough… which probably already has Tharg thinking of the possibilities…

And now, the roughs for the brief once Tharg had had a little word… and trust me, you NEVER want Tharg having a little word. Terrifying.

And from those to these, thanks to a load of work from the Flint droid…

Next, add a bit of magic with colours and, hey presto, a stunning Henry Flint cover…

And there you are, the final cover to the spectacular Megazine crossover special!

Thanks to Henry for sending them over. They’re something very special. You can find Megazine issue 460 wherever you pick up your monthly prescription of thrill power, including the 2000 AD web shop – it’s out from 20^th September.

And now, just to show off even more of the incredible details of Henry’s work, the front and back cover separated and a few zoom-in images from what he sent over…

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, something different – it’s the subscriber-exclusive cover to the mega-crossover 2000 AD Prog 2350 by Andy Clarke!

On 20 September 2000 AD Prog 2350 asks the question – what would 2000 AD have been like if it had merged with stablemate Battle Action in the 1980s?

But we don’t just ask the question, we answer it – with a zarjaz 48-page stand-alone crossover event merging legendary characters from 2000 AD with classic characters from the ground-breaking Battle Picture Weekly and the controversial Action.

And to celebrate the event, subscribers to 2000 AD will be automatically receiving an exclusive edition of Prog 2350 with that Andy Clarke cover – a ghafflebette homage to the legendary Carlos Ezquerra’s notorious Kids Rule O.K.! cover for Action from 1976 – but now with the Judges in charge!

Meanwhile, the standard newsstand edition – available from newsagents, comic book stores, and the 2000 AD webshop from 20 September – features a superb line-up cover by Cliff Robinson and Dylan Teague.

In this latest of our mega-crossover events, you’ll have the chance to see Judge Dredd meets Kids Rule O.K.! in Juves Rule, El Mestizo meets Major Eazy in The Treasure of Solomon, plus Death Game 2049, Hellman of Hell Force, and more! But that’s just Prog 2350 – the crossover action then heads over to Judge Dredd Megazine #460, also out on 20 September, featuring a wraparound cover by Judge Dredd artist Henry Flint.

So, with the subscriber-exclusive cover homaging a legend, it was no surprise to find that cover artist Andy Clarke was having a bit of a moment when he got the job…

ANDY CLARKE: Once I’d got past a touch of the nervous-nellies (for obvious reasons), this was a good opportunity to take a good hard look at how (King) Carlos Ezquerra put an image together.

 As the composition was already set, I went straight to a finished drawing that I could work on with . . . if The Mighty One gave the okay to do so, of course.

For the Mega-City punks, I looked at Dredd strips that were gang-heavy to get an idea of the kind of look they have – there was a Metro Dredd strip I remembered doing that might’ve been useful too, but I couldn’t find it. Some Jamie Hewlett seemed like a good bet as well, just as a general reference point. Any excuse’ll do, but to me, the Tank Girl cast did have a future punk-y kind of look to them. This part took a bit longer than it should have as I got good and distracted by the Calvin & Hobbes books I rediscovered while looking through things.

Initially, I was going to take a crack at doing this one a little differently – loosen up a bit and just use enough grey to add a bit of substance to the figures without getting all that specific on details, add a bit of texture maybe and then keep the colours as flat as possible.

Something less laborious that would hopefully work out if I could get it to look how I wanted. A bit like these examples.

The Dredd pics were just things I did for myself a few months before I did the “Dredd underwater” cover for the Meg. Again, they’re pretty good examples of the simpler approach I was thinking about for this cover . . . but chickened out of.

And these are just “sketchbook” stuff/character design stuff really, but they’re pretty good examples for the approach I was thinking of taking…

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I thought it might look a bit more in keeping with the original cover as well.

But I bottled it in the end.

I stuck to what I did with the 2000 AD covers from last year: inks, greytone, flat colour, shadows and highlights.

Well, Andy says bottled it – we reckon the results look pretty damn great… here’s the next stages, greytones and flat colours added…

To finish up, it needed some tweaking to make it more presentable. Adjusting things – lightening or darkening certain areas to bring them forward or drop them back, saturating the colours a bit more – stuff like that.

And all that led to this… the final version that subscribers will see on the front of their Progs…

That’s a homage worthy of King Carlos we reckon!

Thank you to Andy for sending that one along. If you are a subscriber, Andy’s cover to 2000 AD Prog 2350 will have dropped through your letter box already. If you’re not a subscriber (and why the hell not?), be sure you don’t miss out on the next subscriber exclusive, the subscriber free gifts, and a great deal on the Galaxy’s Greatest by subscribing right here!

As for more Covers Uncovered action from Andy, be sure to have a look at his covers for Prog 2287, Prog 2290, Prog 2312, and 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 Simon Fraser for a very special moment in 2000 AD history – the finale to Hershey: The Cold In The Bones and the final farewell to ex-Chief Judge Barbara Hershey.

It is, to say the least, a bit of a moment.

She’s been a Cadet, a Judge, served as Chief Judge twice, seen her time as Chief Judge tarnished irreparably by the actions of Judge Smiley, been dealt a death sentence through an incurable virus, and then faked her own death to enable her to confront her guilt at what she allowed to happen on her watch.

That was Barbara Hershey’s life. And now, with the finale to Hershey: The Cold In The Bones in 2000 AD Prog 2349, out on 13 September, it’s all coming to an end. THE end.

Tick, tock, Hershey, tick, tock. Tick…

Hershey’s most recent adventures, written by Rob Williams and drawn, in such fine style, by Simon Fraser, have seen her travel the world to put right the scourge of Judge Smiley and Enceladus. It has been a masterpiece of storytelling and art that’s enabled Hershey to have the ending she deserved.

Now, it’s the final ever Hershey. So of course Tharg tasked series artist Simon Fraser to give us a cover to say goodbye. So, one last time, here’s Simon for the last Hershey cover…

SIMON FRASER: So I get the call from Matt that he wants a last Hershey cover, something classic.

I’m acutely aware that as we’re ending Hershey’s life in this story, this might be the last Hershey cover we ever get. So I want to see the old girl off right.

I immediately settle on the idea of doing an official portrait. I want this to look like a formal Justice Department Portrait taken of Hershey, maybe not when she starts as Chief Judge but when she’s a few years in.

This is her at the peak of her power, before the weight of the office eventually grinds her down, before the events of The Small House precipitate her downfall.

I don’t need to do an initial sketch in this case, I know exactly what I want, so I look for photo reference.

For doing detailed colour work I want to ref it, just to get that final level of polish this cover needs.

Then I just start drawing on 11″x17″ Strathmore.

My life is a confusion of Metric and Imperial measurements as I live in America, but all my tools are in centimeters.

Oh, the joy of being in the USA… they just cannot decide what to measure in!

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SIMON FRASER: I want a Dredd presence in the pic, but I’m not sure that I want something as overt as what I’ve drawn here.

I eventually settle on something more integrated, but more suffocating and indifferent. Which, to my mind, suits his position in the city and in Hershey’s life.

SIMON FRASER: I throw in some extra buildings to get a sense of depth, then I composite the whole thing together, rearrange the composition and do a very spare ink line.

I’ll be colouring it heavily, so I don’t want a lot of linework to fuss the place up.

Sadly I lack the confidence to go fully painted here. I like my lines holding it all together.

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Once I’ve got the lines all clean then it’s relatively easy to drop the big colour blocks in and then render them where I need it.

I want her to seem like a part of the city, but at the same time it’s an oppressive place.

I toyed with the idea of giving her a smile, but that’s really not what Justice Department is all about.

Goodbye, Judge Hershey.
She didn’t get many choices in her life, but she carried herself with conviction.
She served her city well.

And that, as they say, is it. Thank you to Simon for sending that along. And thank you to Rob Williams and Simon for giving us an ending to Hershey that will be talked about for a long, long time.

But of course, it’s not quite over yet. After all, we never did discover exactly how Hershey contracted that virus that eventually ended her life. Well, not yet anyway. But trust us, you’re going to want to be reading that one when it comes along very soon.

In the meantime, you can, you should, get hold of the zarjaz Simon Fraser cover to bid a fond farewell to a MC-1 legend on the front of 2000 AD Prog 2349, out on 13 September from anywhere the Galaxy’s Greatest is sold, including the 2000 AD web shop.

And of course, the first two parts of this last Hershey saga, Disease and The Brutal, are already available to adorn the finest of bookshelves in Hershey Book I: Disease. It’s not to be missed.

For more Hershey Covers Uncovered from Simon, be sure to make with the clicks for these… Prog 2176 for the surprise return of Hershey, a beaten and bloodied Dirty Frank on Prog 2218, Hershey really feeling the welcome in Antarctic City for Prog 2034, and the intense and action-packed Prog 2309 cover.  

You can find more from Simon at his website and on Twitter. And of course, make sure you’re listening to the Great Dante Read-Through Podcast where Simon and Edie Nugent talk all things Nikolai Dante.

And finally, here’s a little bonus… the first couple of pages from that final Hershey…

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 more Zarjaz Dredd from the pen of Jake Lynch for the cover of 2000 AD Prog 2348, out everywhere from 6 September.

We recently talked to Jake for the Creator Files, a huge interview that you really should carve out half an hour to read. It’s the Lynch Droid like you’ve never heard him before – with one of the new greats of Dredd art talking through his life and work.

But first, there’s his latest stunning cover to break down, one he’s calling ‘Widowmaker‘ after the Colt M2000 Widowmaker SMG Shotgun, the replacement for the Lawrod that first got an outing during Judgement Day. You know, the one Dredd described as ‘Effective.‘

As usual, Lynch was pretty laid back about the whole thing, sending over his process video and a little note… ‘not really sure what I can add other than, doodle to tone to colour!?’

Well, as you’ll see from both the process video and the screenshots we’ve included here, there’s a hell of a lot more than that that goes into putting together yet another incredible Lynch creation for the cover of the Prog!

Here’s the video in full for you – a minute and a half breaking down days worth of drawing…

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It all starts with what the Lynch Droid describes, in full technical jargon, as a ‘doodle’.  

That would be this…

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Then there’s some tones to be added to the rough doodle…

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Then there’s the worst moment for any art droid, the sending to Tharg for His Mightiness’ approval.

Following hours of tense, nervous pacing the floor, wondering if this is the time Tharg finally tells him it’s all over (the art droids, even ones as superbly talented as Jake, are always paranoid and a psychiatrist’s case study in imposter syndrome), it’s approved.

Sitting in a pool of sweat and tears, Jake picks himself up and heads back to the computer again, ready to get started.

The toned doodle is added to the 2000 AD cover template to make sure it all works – Tharg is never too impressed with a cover that cuts Dredd’s head off. That’s a guaranteed Rigellian Hotshot right there.

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Next comes greywash and inking.

And although it looks like a simple stage, the Lynch droid would like to point out that there’s hours of work here, building up the image digitally, adding more and more detail to the cover – what Lynch has previously described to us as ‘trying to work out how it will ‘pop’.

Hours later, something emerges that makes the art droid feel okay. I was going to say happy or satisfied but I’ve talked to enough of them now to know that the art droids aren’t really ever happy or satisfied with what they produce – all part of that imposter syndrome we mentioned. Plus the constant pressure from Tharg demanding to know where the hell the art is!

Next we have the equally painful, painstaking, and time-consuming process of adding in the colours. This would be the moment where the Lynch droid wonders why the hell he ever agreed to colour his own covers.

The first step is just to get the basic colours on – that’s the simple bit…

But after that, the Lynch Droid knows there’s more hours of toil ahead. Because, just like the inking, it’s not really a case of slapping a layer of paint on and having it done. No, this is digital and digital means many, many, many hours of adding in the digital paints, add a splash of colour, add some tones and shadows, look at the screen, change it, delete stuff, add stuff, delete stuff, add stuff, delete stuff, have the third or fourth big cry of the day, pick yourself up from the floor and repeat.

Or, as Lynch has told us before… ‘I wish it was as simple as just ‘washing’ colour over the toned artwork (though that is the starting point) – it’s a little more long-winded and often feels like reworking the whole pic over again, hardening it out.’

Slowly, painfully, through a veil of sweat and tears, it comes together. There’s tones and shadows, effects, detailing all added and the hours keep rolling by…

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Finally, there’s the briefest moment of joy when the artist can sit back and consider it all done.

Now, all they have to do is summon up the courage to hit send and get the verdict from The Mighty One.

And that, one and all, is how the latest bit of brilliance from Jake Lynch all came together. Thanks so much to him for sending that along and letting us in to his world.

You can find Jake’s latest Dredd on the shelves of your local newsagents and comic shop, not to mention from the 2000 AD web shop,from 6 September 2023.

But this time, he wasn’t finished yet – he also sent along another bit of process video for us, working in black and white this time…

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There’s plenty more of Lynch’s excellent Covers Uncovered available – for Progs 2017 , 2172, 2181, 2203, 2297, 2339, plus Megazine 446. And be sure to have a look at a trio of great interviews with Jake – The Red Queen’s Gambit (with Arthur Wyatt) and The Hard Way (with Arthur and Rob Williams), and then there’s talk of Dredd, Y-fronts, and more to do with his wonderfully daft Dredd & Zombo strip, The Immigrant, in the 2020 Sci-Fi Special. And finally, we recently talked to Jake for the Creator Files, a massive interview talking through his life and his art.

Finally, for more behind-the-scenes videos and info from Jake, be sure to go and sign up to his Patreon and follow him on Twitter.

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!

Here, we’re going back a few weeks to Prog 2347 and Stewart K. Moore’s black and red cover for the finale of the first series of Portals & Black Goo by John Tomlinson and Eoin Coveney.

Stewart was full of apologies for delivering it a bit late, but, as always with his Covers Uncovered, it’s eminently forgivable as it’s another great read and a wonderful insight into the creative process. So don’t worry Stewart, we all forgive you and can’t wait to see more art in the Prog from you!

The cover here was very much part of a set of two, as he not only did the cover for the final episode of Portals & Black Goo but also did the cover to the series opener (you can read that epic Covers Uncovered, including videos of the process, here).

So, let’s let Stewart tell you all about putting together the cover to Prog 2347…

STEWART K MOORE: This one, like the last one, was a pleasure because it bookends the story Portals and Black Goo. Not a wraparound this time but this is the sister cover to the previous one, Portals and Black Goo’s opening and closing covers, the first a mad scene and the last a quiet one. In both cases we see Nona and she is the focus of the latter cover too.

Tharg’s brief was basically a description of what you see here with Nona on a bench at the centre. The wine glass suggesting it could be wine or blood, (in fact it’s certainly blood!) and some of that blood is dripping down her chin.

I don’t think I have any video recording of the drawing underway for this one. But for that kind of thing see my previous Portals Covers Uncovered (again, here.)

I wanted her seated ‘hen toe’d’ so to speak. A typically punk style that you would see ‘back in the day’ in which the punk sits with knees together and toes pointed in. But It didn’t look good. My failing, I didn’t like what I produced.

So instead I gave her a more dominant position, with her feet spread out. ‘man-spreading’ you might call it. It’s a very dominant and confident position.

I have a bit of a bugbear about exploitative images of female characters, if out of character, that is. If it’s a sexual scene, that’s fine. If the character is a vampire or somehow it’s in her character to be overtly sexual, that’s ok too.

But I must admit when I see Judge Anderson on patrol with her zipper and décolletage on display it pisses me off. She’s an officer of the law for grud’s sake! It’s always annoyed me out of context and context is key. It seems a cheap way to win eyes if it’s random like that. 

But here I made a decision that might look like I was doing that very thing. I made sure she was in the dark (vampires aren’t much for the light), she’s wearing dark clothing and in partial shadow, so she is almost a silhouette. She’s also a vampire and so, maybe there’s some room for the vampish confidence. I hope I got it right.

Characters staying in character is vital, especially if you do make a decision to break character, it’s just so much more powerful if you’ve been strict about their behaviour and this really comes into its own when they are contrasted with very different character types.

Here are two examples of female characters together. The first a rocket launch sequence in which you’ll see that one catches the eye of the King and his mistress notices the glances and isn’t happy.

The second they shoot side by side.

Thanks to Stewart for sending that along, it doesn’t matter that it was late, it’s just great to hear all about the thought processes behind making the art. Stewart’s fabulous cover to 2000 AD Prog 2347 is still available in the 2000 AD web shop.

Portals & Black Goo ran in 2000 AD Progs 2340 to 2347 and there’s interviews with Eoin Coveney here and John Tomlinson here all about it.

If you want to see more and read more from Stewart, you can go look at his Covers Uncovered pieces for the 2000 AD Encyclopaedia, Prog 2179, Prog 2239, Prog 2240, and Megazine 440, and the sort-of Covers Uncovered for his very special poster in the 2020 Sci-Fi Special here. Then there’s an interview with Stewart here for the 2022 Judge Dredd: Ascension Day strip. There’s also a two part Covers Uncovered all about the cover to the recent John Wagner and Colin MacNeil Surfer collection here and here. It’s a meditation on art, pitching, and why failure is a good thing sometimes and it’s typically great reading from him.

And of course, to see his work inside 2000 AD, you should have a look at his Defoe: The Divisor series in print or digital in 2000 AD 2150 to 2161.

Follow him on Twitter and Instagram, see what he does here at Lambiek, and buy all his works including The Tragedie Of Macbeth and the quite magnificently wonderful and completely out there MK-Ultra: Sex, Drugs & The CIA – the collection comes out in Oct 2023 from Clover Press –As I’ve told you before, it’s a blistering look at one of the most secretive and controversial government experiments in history, the tale of the CIA’s mind control program and its use of hallucinogenics, and is a stunning work of comics gazing deep into the dark side of US intelligence.

Now, finally, a little reminder of the cover Stewart did for that very first episode of Portals & Black Goo…