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 Rufus Dayglo to the cover of 2000 AD Prog 2358 with The Devil’s Railroad, the politically charged tale of a love story set against a powerful take on the refugee crisis that’s running in the Prog right now.
Beginning in Prog 2352, The Devil’s Railroad by Peter Milligan and Rufus Dayglo tells a tale of hard-hitting contemporary sci-fi that 2000 AD has always done so well. It’s thrilling and it’s relevant, Romeo & Juliet with a socially conscious backdrop, described by Milligan as ‘an often dark but always human story about that most basic and perhaps ancient of human impulses: the impulse to flee danger and seek out a better life for you and your family. Our heroes take the so-called Devil’s Railroad that they hope will take them to Earth, and a better life. It’s a harrowing journey through an unfriendly and sometimes bizarre universe.’
So, won’t you join our young lovers, Constance and Palamon, who’re just trying to find a new home, a safe place to bring their unborn baby into the world. But to do that, they’ve set out on The Devil’s Railroad…
Now, over to Rufus for the tale of putting the cover together – and, as is common with art droids, there were a few troubles before getting it right…
RUFUS DAYGLO: The first cover went through many permutations as I fumbled with the idea.
I wanted the young couple being chased, quite literally, by the Devil. It seemed such an easy idea… and yet I had real trouble landing on a composition I like.
You always have to leave room for titles and other stuff that Tharg’s editorial droids may place (and you don’t know what!) so it can be a bit of a guessing game.
I wanted to convey the urgency and desperation of their voyage, always about to be thwarted by circumstances or villains.
So, with that plan in mind, Rufus set about putting things together, beginning with a few cover roughs…
But none of them were ‘it’ so Rufus pulled elements from a couple of the roughs – literally taking the devil from A and the lovers from B…
… and putting them together to make this final cover rough…
Although not before playing around with another idea along the same lines and getting as far as adding a few rough colours…
But no, the decision was made and it’s back to the cover rough, adding pencils and inks…
And then on to colours, where Rufus found inspiration from the much-missed Garry Leach…
RUFUS DAYGLO: The colour scheme was heavily influenced by my friend Garry Leach’s second The VC’s Titan cover.. as the art hangs above my desk. So I did the Devil largely purple in a small tribute to Garry’s cover.
That would be this beautiful Garry Leach cover – The VC’s Volume 2, published by Titan in 1987, complete with bits of Rufus’ studio space!
And with that in mind, Rufus coloured his cover up to give us this stunning thing…
And that’s how another zarjaz Prog cover was made! Thanks to Rufus for sharing that with us. You can find Rufus’ cover on the Prog wherever you pick up your weekly dose of Ghafflebette comics, including the 2000 AD web shop.
For more on The Devil’s Railroad, make sure you read our interview with Milligan and Dayglo right here!
Milligan and Dayglo have a long history of making this sort of brilliant sci-fi, full of action but always questioning and looking deep into society, whether it’s the issues of identity and identity theft in the dystopian cyberpunk of Counterfeit Girl or the brutal take on war and the price those involved pay in their Bad Company tales. Bad Company: First Casualtiescan be found in Progs 1950-1961 and as a digital collection. Bad Company: Terrorists can be found in Progs 2061-2072.
And, whilst you’re looking at the very best future war tales, you should have The Complete Bad Company by Peter Milligan, Brett Ewins, Jim McCarthy, and Steve Dillon in your collections!
Finally, we’ve talked with Peter and Rufus before this about their work together, in 2017 for Bad Company: Terroristshere and for Counterfeit Girl in 2019 here.
And finally, finally, because we didn’t show them to you in their full sizes above, here’s Rufus’ initial roughs in all their glory…
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 cover artist extraordinaire Alex Ronald returns to grace the cover of the latest Judge Dredd Megazine, issue 462, featuring the new DeMarco P.I. series, A Picture Paints.
DeMarco P.I.: A Picture Paints is by Laura Bailey and Rob Richardson and sees with Galen scarred and battered but still out there looking for new clients. She’s joined in the Meg this month by a zarjaz lineup of Judge Dredd, Spector, Lawless, and a new Mega-City 2099 strip taking us right back to the beginnings of it all!
As for Alex, he’s long been a cover specialist for 2000 AD, specialising in digital masterpieces for Tharg since coming back into the fold after a stint in the computer graphics and 3D modelling worlds. And of course, before all that, he got his start from Tharg in 1996 when he jumped on to illustrate Dredd, followed by Vector 13, Rogue Trooper, and Sinister Dexter.
It’s always good to have him back on the cover – and this is a pretty damn fine cover indeed. So, why not let him tell you all about it?
ALEX RONALD: Matt had asked for a new cover for DeMarco and for it to be of a similar angle and composition to the Transmetropolitan cover by Frank Quietly.
That would be this one, a classic from Frank Quitely…
ALEX RONALD: I was supplied some sample pages from the story so I had all the reference images I needed for her outfit and look as well as a few shots of her in the busy streets of Mega‑City One.
I began by building 3D models of the citizens in Z Brush. I raided the archives of some of my old 80’s 2000 AD and Judge Dredd annuals as I wanted them to depict the clothing styles of the citizens as they were drawn in that period of time, especially by Mike McMahon and those annuals had the most excellent examples.
ALEX RONALD: The character building for so many citizens took a bit of time. I was on my summer holiday at this point and I built and posed one or two characters in the morning of each day. By the end of the week I had the volume of citizens required to give the scene a busy hectic look.
Alex, have to let you know, Tharg’s looking for you wondering about this whole holiday thing – and he’s not too happy, mumbling something about letting you have a morning off about five years ago.
ALEX RONALD: Once the composition was looking good I lit the models in such a way that the main character was highlighted but with the supporting cast were bathed in reds and purples. The inspiration for this came from Colin MacNeil’s Strontium Dog cover from prog 686
Again, that would be this one…
ALEX RONALD: Next phase was a sketch over for approval and then once the nod was given, I painted the image up to final stage for publication. I hope you like it.
Oh, these art droids… when they’re not cowering in terror from Tharg, they’re completely downplaying the incredible skills of what they do! Seriously, from putting together the 3D models to this sketch is incredible enough…and that’s saying nothing of Alex daring to call this a ‘sketch’!
But then to take that sketch and work all that digital magic on it to give us this incredible finished cover… wow…
Thank you so much to Alex for sending that along. Another spectacular looking cover from the Ronald droid complete. You can find that cover on Judge Dredd Megazine 462, out from 15 November wherever you pick up your copies of the Meg and the Galaxy’s Greatest, including the 2000 AD web shop.
And now, as a special treat for you, the first couple of pages from that new DeMarco, P.I. adventure, A Picture Paints, by Laura Bailey and Rob Richardson…
Every week, 2000 AD brings you the galaxy’s greatest artwork and 2000 AD Covers Uncovered takes you behind-the-scenes with the headline artists responsible for our top cover art – join bloggers Richard Bruton and Pete Wells as they uncover the greatest covers from 2000 AD!
This week, a debutante art droid in 2000 AD Towers – 17th & Oak for the spectacular cover of 2000 AD Regened Prog 2356 – it’s all about Dredd and the Mega-City…
Now that’s a majorly good Dredd & the City cover right there – a zarjaz debut indeed!
So, over to 17th & Oak for the story of who they are and how this great cover came together…
17th & Oak:I’m a Freelance Illustrator based in the south of the UK. My main avenue of work is partnering with movie studios to illustrate alternative versions of film posters used in the marketing campaigns of upcoming releases.
Titles I’ve worked on include Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, Renfield, Bullet Train, and The Mandalorian to name a select few. I’ve alsocreated art for book covers, blu-ray covers, steelbooks, merchandise, editorial, and even trading cards.
But this is my first professional venture into comic covers and wow… what a start, 2000 AD!
2000 AD has been a solid part of my life since my childhood in the late ‘80s/early ‘90s. It was my uncle who got me into comics. He loved the British comic scene and was an avid collector of 2000 AD.
I remember him having boxes full of Progs in the cupboard under the stairs. After telling me one day about 2000 AD he said that I could borrow his collection. As you can imagine my excitement was like a kid in a sweet/toy/comic shop at Christmas with an endless amount of cash! The only thing was that I could only take one box at a time. For the next year or so I was always seen carrying around a big brown box of 2000 AD Progs. It was a funny sight seeing a small kid lugging round a big box of comics like it was my pet. Whenever I was in the car I’d be sat in the passenger seat with my current 2000 AD box in the footwell and my head buried in the comic.
It was the comic equivalent of binge-watching. Once I’d finished an issue, I’d put it to the side and grab the next one of the top and once I’d finished a box it was back to the source for a fresh new pile of escapism.
As you can tell, 2000 AD holds such fond memories for me so getting to work on a cover is a dream come true and an absolute honour.
The piece I’ve created has been received so well and I’ve been made to feel very welcome in the comic world by the fans. So let me talk about it and my process.
Firstly, there’s two things that most of my art pieces share – perspective and a restricted colour palette. Extreme perspectives are what I’m known for and this piece is no different.
I was asked to draw Cadet Dread standing in front of Mega City One. Simple right?
A main goal of all of my work is to tell a story by capturing a moment in time. With this cover, I wanted to give the sense that Cadet Dredd had just accomplished something, an arrest of a perp for example off camera and he’s standing in a way that is warning everyone else not to mess with him.
To fully communicate this I knew the POV had to be from below which automatically makes Dredd look strong, mean and proud. This would also show the dizzying heights of Mega-City One.
Usually, I tend to have the perspective leading into the corners so the whole piece would have been at an angle but for this one, I decided to keep it straight. Mainly because I liked the idea of the city leading up to the title which would be placed right over the vanishing point creating a dynamic connection between the title and Dredd which your eye naturally follows. Because the brief was simple I wanted to keep the composition and the story simple.
Once the perspective grid has been established, I’m ready to get started. I haven’t drawn Dredd since I was a teenager which was so long ago that I feel like I’ve never drawn him so this was an exciting challenge.
After loads of research to understand how the armour sits on his body, I whipped up a quick sketch. It took a bit of trial and error but I eventually got it to the point that I was happy with his pose and angle…
First up – getting the sketch done, getting that perspective in there
It was then time to move on to the city. Originally I was going to do him holding his gun but decided to have him holding his baton. For some reason, I find the baton way more intimidating than the gun.
Usually for cities, I use reference material but, for this one, I decided not to and drew it straight out of my head making it up as I went along. A strangely therapeutic approach to cities as I can just draw anything that spills out of my head and I’m not bound to a certain look. Having fantasy/sci-fi as subject matter allows me to do this as it doesn’t need to be based on anything in the real world. I find I tend to create unique-lookingcities when I do it this way.
For an idea of what I was going for, I was keeping films like Blade Runner and Akira in my head but I wanted a certain style of brightness to it, a little like Vegas, which gives off the feeling that it’s not a dangerous city at all – but of course, we know different.
And the final sketch with colours that got the okay from Tharg
I’ve been told that my sketches have a tendency to be a little too advanced (well, for my corner of the Illustration industry, maybe not for comics) but I need to take it to a level that I’m happy with so I believe I’ve communicated exactly what I’m going for. Also, I need to know that what I’ve sketched out can be accomplished.
Using perspective in such an extreme way can be quite tricky. If one vanishing point is wrong it can throw off the whole piece and potentially make the look of the piece completely different so I need to know for certain that that won’t happen.
Colour plays a big part as well in communicating the feel of what I created that’s why I always add basic colour to my sketches from the start.
My sketch got approved instantly! Whoop!
Sometimes I’ll have clients asking to change, add, or remove certain parts but not on this occasion.
Now this is where the hard graft begins. How I create my art has always been very much rooted in comics; pencils, inks, colours. Even though I mainly work digitally, I still take the comic book approach. I’ll take my sketch and draw a tighter more detailed one. Once I’m happy with that I’ll start inking and adding in even more detail. I love giving people lots to look at so I’ll add in as much as humanly possible to each piece I do.
Next – onto the inks, getting the lines down for those perpectives
… and more inks added to the cover, lots of ’em!
As I mentioned before, I use a restricted colour palette. I find that the small amount of colours really brings the piece together and gives it a comforting sense of unity. I know that it looks like I’ve used a whole bunch of colours but I actually only used five.
I take a screen printing approach to colouring using block colours and a clever use of halftone patterns to create highlight, shade, and in some cases completely new colours. Layering certain colours on top of each other with halftones tricks the eye into seeing different colours. I’m a huge fan of traditional printmaking methods so I incorporate this into my work as often as possible. Often I scour the Internet in search of colour palette ideas but what’s great about this piece is that the colour palette was already decided for me because of Dredd’s outfit – Green, Blue, Red, Yellow, and Black for the inks makes my colour palette.
All the colours of Dredd!
Getting the base colours onto the inks
Once the inks are done and the colour palette established it’s a case of seeing which colours work best where and then building it up into the finished piece.
The last thing I do is add a few little details like the glimmering and glare of the lights, steam/smoke, graffiti etc...
Building up the colours…
… and even more building up the colours – plus sneaking in a bit of graffiti right under Dredd’s nose
And there it is – 17th & Oak’s very first 2000 AD cover – boyhood dream achieved!
As you can tell, I’ve developed quite a few rules for myself when it comes to my art. Perspective, colours and even the process (pencils then inks then colours). I believe this is because of my background in Graphic Design which is an artform with boundaries and I’ve taken the same self-restricted approach with my illustration, it just doesn’t look like it.
Working with 2000 AD marks the start of my comic book cover journey so keep an out for the perspective-led, detailed, and colourful artwork of 17th & Oak!
Oh yes – if this is how good his debut cover is, we reckon there’s definitely going to be more Prog covers from 17th & Oak in the future!
Now, a couple of extras from 17th & Oak, just to give us more glimpses behind the magic – the finished cover with the original perspective grid that started it all off and a reminder of just how that simple five-colour palette makes the entire cover work…
And that’s how the cover all came together – a really impressive debut! Thanks to the mysterious new art droid only known as 17th & Oak for sending all the details along. (Well, mysterious until you head to the ‘About Me’ section of his website anyway!)
You can find this latest incredible cover for 2000 AD Regened Prog 2356 wherever you pick up your weekly dose of the Galaxy’s Greatest, including the 2000 AD web shop.
For more from 17th & Oak, head to www.17thandoak.com. And to give you a little idea of his previous work, here’s just a few from his web gallery. He really does like a good bit of perspective!
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 and beyond!
This week, we’re going away from the Prog for a moment to celebrate the coming together of superheroes from across the ages of Brit comics with the release of the first issue of Smash!
Across three issues writer Paul Grist and artists Tom Foster, Anna Morozova, Jimmy Broxton, and VV Glass are going to unleash the power of Brit comics’ greatest, including Janus Stark, The Spider, Cursitor Doom, Robot Archie, Jane Bond, and The Steel Claw. There’s even a visit to the Thirteenth Floor with the psychotic AI Max!
It’s a no-letting-up, fast-paced, action-adventure mini-series that features the very best and the most outlandish heroes, superheroes, and anti-heroes that comics can offer! It all begins in Victorian London with Janus Stark creating a demonic prize way too tempting, some sixty years later, for The Spider to avoid planning a heist! And that’s just the start of it all, with heroes from across the ages coming together to attempt to thwart the King of Crooks!
Smash! #1 arrives in comic book stores and on the 2000 AD webshop and app on 25 October. Each issue has a stunning cover by Andy Clarke, and he’s here right now to tell you all about putting the cover to SMASH! Issue 1 together…
ANDY CLARKE: I’ll admit, as with the Battle Action cover, I knew the characters in Smash! by name only. I’d seen the odd piece of artwork before – The Spider in particular, but I hadn’t seen any of the comics. Despite my ignorance, I was well up for taking a crack at these covers – it felt like something fresh and new (to me) to have a go at. So when editor Oliver Pickles asked if I’d like to do them, I didn’t have to think about it, it felt exciting to give it a go.
Oliver was able to provide a whole bundle of reference material, past and fairly present, so I could familiarise myself with the characters. There was some great classic-looking artwork in there, a couple of terrific Chris Weston pieces and some superb pages for issue 1. It makes things a lot more enjoyable when you have art from Anna Morozova and Tom Foster to look at and spur you on. Top stuff.
And here’s that reference material that Oliver sent over to Andy…
The Spider by Chris Weston & The Steel Claw by Jesus Blasco
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Classic Janus Stark by Ian Kennedy and the Smash! issue 1 version by Tom Foster
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More reference – Anna Morozova’s take on The Spider and Jane Bond (no relation) from Smash! issue 1
ANDY CLARKE: Oliver had the initial idea of looking at Sean Murphy’s Batman covers for composition ideas to start with – it made a lot of sense as the kinda film-poster feel of those covers would suit these multi-character Smash! covers pretty well.
More reference to set the gears inside Andy’s head working – Sean Murphy’s recent Batman covers, all evoking that classic film poster look to things
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So, with that in mind (but in the back somewhere, so it wasn’t too prevalent), I roughed up some sketches for all three, just really to see if anything popped out that I could carry across them all so they had a connection of some kind.
Pretty soon, the Idol looked like it would be the thing that could link the covers together – the Idol also did a lot of the heavy-lifting for each layout/composition in the end, it helped tie everything together. And, as the series is set in different decades, I wanted to add a 1960s (for issue 1) and a 1980s (for issue 2) background pattern or design as a nod to that.
Once it was agreed the Idol would be the one element repeated on all three covers, I thought that once I’d inked the outline, done all the grey-tone, the flats, the colour and rim-lights on it for issue 1, I could drop it into the other two covers without having to redo it from scratch each time. Then all I had to do was alter the colours and highlights on the Idol for #2 and 3 so it matched the colour-scheme around it. Bit of a cheat really, but it saved some time.
Andy Clarke’s initial sketch roughs for the cover of Smash! issue 1
And here’s Paul Grist’s sketch of the Idol, sent to every artist to maintain the look
The sketch for #1 came together fairly quickly, but 2 and 3 took a little longer to finalise. So, while I thought about those, I got on with working up the cover for issue 1 – I’d come back to 2 and 3 after #1 was done. I was hoping I’d have a better idea how to proceed on the other two once the first one was complete.
The process with these covers was the same as with my 2000 AD ones. The only extra this time was I thought I’d make things a little easier for myself by looking at Chris Weston’s Spider piece and make some quick models of the equipment (the gun, the back-pack etc.) in SketchUp. As The Spider was central to each of the three covers, I thought it might benefit and I wasn’t all that confident about drawing that stuff from scratch each time and from different angles.
And that’s just what Andy did. So, working through his process pieces that he sent over, first we have those SketchUp models of The Spider’s equipment…
Andy’s model renderings of The Spider’s gun, back-pack and… actually, what they hell are those things?
And after that we have the process of Andy working through the stages – pencils, inks, adding the greys, adding flat colour, and then making it all pop for the final version…
Pencil stage first – and Andy’s pencils really are incredibly detailed and tight
Now to the inks – as usual, Andy inks the outlines and leaves the detailing for the next stage, adding in the greys
Next up, adding in the greys – and Andy’s an artsit who leaves it to this stage to really go to town on the details
Nearly there – adding in the flat colours
And hey presto – with just a touch of a button, it’s all done. Actually no, more like after hours and hours and hours of back-breaking colouring work, it’s all done!
Well, what can we say except SMASHing! stuff from Andy right there! The covers to all three issues look amazing and the insides promise a cross-time caper with all the excitement of the best Brit comics and their unique take on superheroes! This is one series you shouldn’t miss.
You can find SMASH! issue 1 in comics shops and from the 2000 AD webshop and app on 25 October, and there’s also the chance to pick up all three SMASH! Issues in a bundle from the webshop 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 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 nightstickto 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’s final inks for the pin-up
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.
You’d look like that if you had Dredd, nightstick at the ready, marching towards you too
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...
Oh Juve, Juve, Juve… the innocence, the defiance
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.
Future iso-cube resident right there
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.
The finished pin-up image. Time to play a little compare and contrast between this and the finished cover!
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.
And the final, final cover image – extended and ready for the logo
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.
The chosen layout scaled up and pencilled
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.
Inking all the different layers – including those hair chains!
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Putting it all together and combining the inked layers to give us the final inked cover
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 & Foehere 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 onthis 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.
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...
Stage 1 – Judge Fairfax cover ideas
I came up with three different ideas for Matt to choose from and he chose number 3.
Next, the rough…
Stage 2 – roughing it out
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…
Stage 3 – the colour rough, with and without the ‘peeking through a wall’ theme.
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.
Stage 4 – lines and shades
Then adding in the base colours to work from…
Stage 5 – the base colours
Then onto adding all the good stuff. All the bells, whistles and lighting until it’s finished…
Stage 6 – adding all the bells, all the whistles, all the lighting… all the good stuff!
…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.
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…
John McCrea’s absolutely bonkers version of Jonas Darke in Megazine 360
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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 20th 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…
