Tag: 2000adcoversuncovered

Every week, 2000 AD brings you the galaxy’s greatest artwork and 2000 AD Covers Uncovered takes you behind-the-scenes with the headline artists responsible for our top cover art – join bloggers Richard Bruton and Pete Wells as they uncover the greatest covers from 2000 AD!

This week, 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…

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 another all-ages Thrill-fest with the return of Regened for Prog 2346. And on the cover, it’s Peter Yong’s second-ever 2000 AD cover with a cracking Cadet Dredd…

Inside, there’s four zarjaz tales brought to you by Joko-Jargo. We’re back on the streets of MC-1 with Cadet Dredd, where a cadet from Mega-City Two joins the Academy of Law in The Exchange. Dwarf private eye Renk returns courtesy of Paul Starkey and Anna Readman for Twinkle Toes. There’s another Future Shock, AutoCop, by Karl Stock and Toby Willsmer that takes a look at AI. And finally, we return to the wizarding school of Lowborn High for the latest adventure by David Barnett and Mike Walters, Wishing Well.

But we’re here to talk covers right now, and the great Cadet Dredd cover you’ll see on the front of Prog 2346 from 23 August comes from the incredibly talented Peter Yong. He’s a concept and storyboard artist from Australia who’s worked in the video games and animation industries. He first saw print in 2000 AD with his winning Angel Gang piece for Art Stars appeared in October 2021. After that came his cover for Prog 2288… and now this one!

So, over to Peter to tell us about the making of this second cover…

PETER YONG: This is the second cover that I have done for 2000 AD and when Tharg contacted me to do another, I was very excited! 

The brief for the cover was simple: Dredd on his Lawmaster coming towards us. Nothing to do now but have to some fun and do some very loose sketches:

I like to zoom out when I draw these so I can get a feel for the image as a whole. I was lucky enough to have a friend visiting England when my previous cover was on the shelves and he took a photo of it for me.

It made me think about making the general composition of the cover clear and punchy so it would hopefully stand out on a shelf. Here is what I submitted to Tharg:  

Here is another version of number 2, (which was actually my original) but I was not happy with it and changed it into what you see above. I didn’t even bother sending this through but here it is:

Tharg gave me his permission to proceed with sketch number 2 and I couldn’t be happier (it was my favorite).

Next come the pencils:

And then it’s over to the inking, nailing down the final lines for the piece. This part of the process took me way too long…My day job is a storyboard artist and designer in animation. I hardly ever make finished refined artwork, so I was overthinking things…a lot!: 

After a break from looking at this, I made some pose changes to Dredd and a slight redesign of the Lawmaster.

One of the things I love about 2000 AD is that the artists have free reign to give their interpretation of Dredd’s world and that there does not seem to be a “house” style. 2000 AD is so much more interesting because of this and it really inspired me as a youngster, seeing all the skill and creativity of everyone involved on display: 

I then laid in some basic colour.My plan was simple, give Dredd more colour than the background so he stands out!:

Then some more refinements and some more overthinking and then it’s done!:

I had so much fun doing this and I hope you enjoyed reading about the process. Thanks to Tharg for the opportunity and to everyone at 2000AD for all they do!

A second cover and a great cover from Peter Young there. Our thanks, as always, to the talented art droids for taking time away from the drawing board/screen to talk to us and share what they do and how they do it.

You can find 2000 AD Prog 2346 wherever you pick up your weekly dose of Ghafflebette comics, including the 2000 AD web shop from 23 August.

For more of Peter Yong’s artwork, be sure to check out his first ever Prog cover and his Covers Uncovered for it – Prog 2288. And then head off to take a look at more of his work at his website and Instagram.

Now, another look at Peter’s Angel Gang piece that won Art Stars back in October 2021 and his very first Prog 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!

Except this isn’t a Covers Uncovered, not really. That came yesterday with Stewart K. Moore‘s in-depth and quite brilliant look at the cover to Surfer, the new John Wagner and Colin MacNeil collection – an absolute thriller of a Dreddworld tale.

No, today we have the second part of Stewart’s look into the creative process, something he described as ‘On Surfer and the artistic long game, pitch fails and successes and the pitching process for 2000AD.‘ Yesterday we did Surfer and some of the artistic long game. So today is more about the artistic long game, about pitch fails and successes, and about Stewart’s experiences with the pitching process for 2000 AD.

Despite dipping into comics in the ’90s, Moore only really got serious about it when he returned to the medium in 2012, beginning the slow work on Project MKUltra: Sex, Drugs & the CIA, which finally came out from Clover Press in 2021 and has a collection coming in October 2023. The Tragedie of Macbeth came next, self-published in limited numbers in 2016 and now coming out from Clover Press. After this, Moore worked with David Lloyd‘s digital comic anthology Aces Weekly to produce The Boötes Void and Thrawn Janet, an adaptation of R.L. Stevenson’s short story.

And finally, after a few attempts that you’ll hear all about, he came to 2000 AD‘s attention, working with Pat Mills on Defoe: The Divisor, which saw print in Progs 2150-2161 (2019), to give us a stunning rendition of this clockpunk alternate past where the undead are kept at bay by zombie hunters like Titus Defoe. And of course, since then, we’ve been seeing his art regularly on covers, pin-ups, special projects such as The 2000 AD Encyclopedia, and Judge Dredd strips.

So, here we go, a deeper dive into the artist’s head, featuring thoughts on creating, disappointment, failure, the Defoe pitches that eventually led to Stewart’s work with Pat Mills, and the genesis of his latest book, The Tragedie of Macbeth, originally self-published but now brought to a wider audience by Clover Press and based on his drawings of Prague Shakespeare Company’s adaptation of Shakespeare’s masterpiece.

But to start, let’s go back to a few things Stewart mentioned as part of his Covers Uncovered for Surfer, where he was telling us about the artist’s problem of seeing the thing they want to achieve and then invariably failing to get there…

STEWART K. MOORE: I failed to draw an 89-page graphic novel in one week, damn it….it took four weeks, but I’ll get to that in a minute.

[For the Surfer cover] I put in some incredible hours, but I didn’t get what I wanted. So it’s a bit of a heartbreaker this one. It’s not like anything else. I think that’s a success of sorts.

But ultimately it didn’t go where I sensed it could, it only got so far.

The trouble with art is we artists can see and feel it right away, but showing others takes many hours of work. Those who can’t imagine what we see can then see it in an instant and can imagine it in an instant, although they had no idea just a moment before. I can still see it and feel it and I’m sorry I can’t show you it, this is as close I could get in that blistering heat.

Maybe next time. 

The Surfer cover wasn’t a failure but sometimes you do fail and hard.

Don’t despair, keep those things around in a drawer, you never know. My first pitch for Defoe failed hard.

And here, thanks to Stewart, is that first pitch for Defoe…

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SKM: Pitching is a tricky thing to discuss, the editor makes a judgement call based on certain things that are unknowable. Even a halfway decent pitch can get rejected by unknowables, for example, maybe the editor already has a hunch a spectacular artist like Colin McNeil would be interested, it’s just not clear. I advise artists to be self-motivated and not wait for pitch acceptance and try not to take rejection personally. But it’s not easy.

When I thought of adapting Macbeth to comics [which came out as a self-published comic in 2016], the prospect of a detailed work, like my last pitch, made me feel sick.

I wanted to paint it in oils (and still want to do a fully oil-painted comic – call me!), but it was the primal work of Louis le Brocquy that sprang to mind when I considered Macbeth, as a book, and it was Pat Mills that told me about it.

I think Pat saw an exhibition of Le Brocquy’s prints based on the Irish myth of The Táin [or Táin Bó Cúailnge, sometimes known as The Cattle Raid of Cooley, an epic of Irish mythology].

When he read up on Irish mythology a terrifying warrior leapt into his imagination, a greater transformative mythic hulk than The Hulk and a greater warrior than Conan – this was Sláine MacRoth!

The primitivist style of the le Brocquoy art gave me the impetus to drop all the detailed inking I’d just laboured over for my failed Defoe pitch and try something new for The Tragedies of Macbeth.

I stripped the story back to its simplest shapes and gave myself a strict 5 minutes to assess, after each page was done. After that I was not allowed to touch it!

I was drawing 6 pages a day and aimed to have a graphic novel in 7 days. I failed, it took 28. That’s one moon cycle, which is apt for a story about witches. I self-published 120 copies and sold 9 to Gosh Comics (they’re great supporters of the small press!).

That was 2015 or so and this month it came out, from Clover Press, as a definitive new graphic novel.

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In 2017 I started adapting Thrawn Janet and went back to detail, this time aiming for a classic horror style reminiscent of Hammer films of the 1960’s.

This was published in Aces Weekly, the greatest digital anthology comic out there. Aces’ editor-in-chief is none other than David Lloyd of V for Vendetta fame.

I sent a few to Pat and he liked them enough to send them in as a possible creative direction, I was soon working on yet another pitch test for a new Defoe story – The Divisor. 

This pitch took two months, can you believe that? Based on old material from a previous Defoe story that I’ve yet to see. I was waiting for a tram when I got the text from Pat, the art had passed the test and the game was afoot! (a rotten Reeks foot and the hardest project of my career!).

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If you are lucky a great style will emerge from you. I envy that, it didn’t happen for me. So I follow my stylistic whims as they come to me. I’m still looking for my Dredd-world style, It’s close, I can feel it.

Stick in artist, trust yourself, plough on Macduff!

I have a signing for Macbeth coming up at Gosh Comics 1 Berwick Street, London on Saturday 30th September from 1 to 2 pm.

Bring your copy of Surfer or any of my 2000 AD work along and I’ll be delighted to sign them. I will be bringing many sketches and drawings from my work on Judge Dredd and cover art too.

I will be signing any and all 2000 AD comics and books that I have worked on and I will stay and sign until everybody has their book signed. I’ll draw a free sketch of the dead King Macbeth in all my copies.

Thank you once more to Stewart for yet another fascinating dive into the creative process – it’s something all prospective artists should bear in mind – keep trying, keep failing, it makes you better, it gets you ready to get the job you want, get the art you want.

Remember, you can find the first part of this extended look at the artistic process from Stewart with his Covers Uncovered for Surfer here. You can (and should) pick up Surfer from all great comic shops and the 2000 AD web shop right now.

As for more stuff from Stewart, there’s plenty we’ve already published for you – including Covers Uncovered pieces for The 2000 AD Encyclopaedia, Prog 2179, Prog 2239, Prog 2340, Megazine 440, 2020 Sci-Fi Special poster, plus an interview about his Judge Dredd: Ascension Day strip here and an interview about Defoe: The Divisor here.

For Stewart’s other work, find and follow him on Twitter and Instagram, read his bio here at Lambiek, and buy all his works including his amazing adaptation of The Tragedie Of Macbeth that you’ve been reading about and the stunning MK-Ultra: Sex, Drugs & The CIA, all about the shadowy world of government conspiracies and covert ops. The MK Ultra complete collection comes out in Sept 2023 from Clover Press.

And, like he says, he’ll be appearing at Gosh Comics in London on Saturday 30^th September between 1 and 2pm for a signing for The Tragedie Of Macbeth.

Yes, bring your 2000 AD stuff for signing and sketching but be sure to pick up a copy of Macbeth as well, it’s such a great book – based on his drawings of Prague Shakespeare Company’s adaptation of Shakespeare’s masterpiece. He documents the stage performance in Prague and illustrates it against the ‘starkest memories, places and myths of his own homeland.’ It’s a really stunning adaptation of the play, with Stewart’s use of the comics page and storytelling pacing making this a perfect adaptation of the play.

Here’s a nice pic of him in front of his work in Gosh, just so you know who you’re looking for…

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 not a 2000 AD Prog or a Megazine cover we’re talking about but the cover to the new collection of John Wagner and Colin Macneil’s epic Surfer. The cover’s a wrapround stunner from Stewart K. Moore and, if you’ve been following these Covers Uncovered for a while, you know Stewart’s Covers Uncovered pieces are always epic!

Stewart’s entitled this particular Covers Uncovered…

On Surfer and the artistic long game, pitch fails and successes,
and the pitching process for 2000AD.

But in fact, because this particular Covers Uncovered is so epic, so huge, and so long, we’re going to split it in two. Today, you get the ‘Surfer and the artistic long game’ bit. Tomorrow, Stewart will take you through more of ‘the artistic long game,’ and we’ll get into the fascinating aspect of ‘pitch fails and successes and the pitching process for 2000 AD.’

So, today we’re all about Surfer, the John Wagner and Colin MacNeil collection of the two storylines that ran in the Judge Dredd Megazine. Surfer sees Wagner and MacNeill return to Dreddworld and also return (in a way) to Chopper and Supersurf 7.

It’s all about young surfer Zane Perks, whose troubles really begin when he lands himself the role of playing Chopper in a new film of Supersurf 7. What should have been a dream job swiftly turns into an absolute nightmare, with the (unbeknownst to Zane) illegal filming and surfing landing him in the iso-cubes. After that, on release, he’s then tied up with the mob, being forced to first escape MC-1 to pick up drugs from Canadia and then to do the even more dangerous thing of smuggling said drugs back into the city. It’s an absolute masterpiece and a start to finish zarjaz thriller that mixes the excitement of surfing – brought to life by stunning work from MacNeill – and a tense drama of crime and redemption.

Surfer is out right now, and should be there on the shelves on your local comic shop when you next go in. And of course, you can always pick up a copy from the 2000 AD web shop.

But now, let’s go deep into the creation of another stunning Stewart K. Moore cover.

As Stewart’s been doing for the last few Covers Uncovered, he sent along his rough and then a video of the process. It’s well worth watching the vids as they really do get so deep into the way that he works and allow you to see the minute detail that he puts into everything that he does – almost a ridiculous amount of detail, way, way more detail than a lot of us would notice.

This set of videos is a little different from what Stewart’s usually showing us though. He’s not showing you Zane, he’s not showing you characters in the foreground. No, he’s concentrating on the little group of characters in the background. The ones you maybe won’t even notice on the cover.

This lot, the one’s just in the entrance to Zuckerberg block…

So, here you go, the videos of Stewart’s process, enjoy!

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STEWART K. MOORE: I had two cover projects for Rebellion, back to back, in the summer of 2022. So the day I sent in the first I started the second. One of the problems of freelancing is bridging the project gaps, I’m always busy but somehow there are always gaps. Anyway, it was nice, that. Doubly nice because I was able to pull a stylistic 180-degree turn.

The first was Karl the Viking. The subject matter – a classic sword and sorcery story. It immediately suggested a painting in oils on canvas. So I did an oil painting – it felt right and I really enjoyed working on a Don Lawrence project, he was a master artist.

I enjoyed revisiting what felt like my artistic origins too. Dabbling with paint, listening to rock and punk and Ska while trying to understand the works of Frazetta and Vallejo and Bernie Wrightson and many more in the late ’80s.

Stewart added these notes to that Karl The Viking cover sketch…

SKM: ‘The fight on the drawbridge, Karl has dropped ‘from space’ into the centre of the fight. Light hits his hair, face, muscular arm and swinging sword, whilst the battle is shadowed by smoke from the fires.’

And, after a lot of work in oils (a LOT of work), we get this as the finished cover for the second and concluding reprint volume of Karl The Viking, a web shop exclusive hardcover that you can get here.

Written by Ted Cowan and Michael Moorcock, with art, incredible, beautiful, stunning art from Don Lawrence, along with Edmund Drury, Robert Forrest, and Ruggero Giovannini, Karl the Viking is the series which made Don Lawrence’s reputation, and it was on this basis that he was hired to revolutionise painted comic art with The Trigan Empire.

But as beautiful as Stewart’s work is on that Karl The Viking cover, we’re here to show you the cover to Surfer, so let’s get back to that…

SKM: But Surfer is Mega City One and so I did that in a digital style.

I wanted the oil to be classic and muted and natural in feel and the digital to push the envelope into something plastic, a little cartoonish, colourful, and utterly artificial.

I didn’t quite make it, but I closed in and it has been well received.

I feel we’ve got to strive toward the unusual and not readily accept the default image that comes to mind, lest that default be the fall-back. So I took some compositional risks here. I also wanted it to be a scene something like a game or animation cut-scene.

We all know how to make pictures and what ‘to do’, what makes a pretty picture; if we don’t there will be a book showing the way. Simples.

But with a comic like 2000 AD there have been millions of images by an array of maddeningly brilliant artists. How do you do something that fits with that merry band but also brings something new? That’s what keeps me awake at night.

Anyway, for Surfer I did a series of sketches. I can’t share them, I have plans for them. Oliver Pickles, my editor at Rebellion, chose a dynamic one. A fun visual grabber...

Part ways in and I realised it could be a wraparound, the jet trail leaves the page, there was fun to be had on that back page! I got the go-ahead for that extension.

Then the heatwave of 2022 came. It was so bad, so unbearable to work in, that I wrote to Oliver to apologise for the delay, let’s just say he’s not from Betelgeuse so I feared no Rigelion hotshots! The heat was enough of a punishment…awful, debilitating. Terrible. I have no air-con in the studio and usually, the heat doesn’t bother me. But this time it really did.

The picture was finished during this period, I put in some incredible hours, but I didn’t get what I wanted. So it’s a bit of a heartbreaker this one.

It’s not like anything else. I think that’s a success of sorts.

The design features a moment in the story where the lead character evades the judges by slipping into an underpass of some kind.

That would be these pages of gorgeous Colin MacNeil artwork…

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I studied the panels and tried to draw the same pedestrians I saw in the comic art panels, loosely based anyway.

I tried to draw Mr McNeil’s unique H Wagon / Manta too. I didn’t feel it would be right to draw a Manta the way I would (there are many designs, many artists have their unique take). His version is great, like a floating concrete tank, but I struggled to draw it. That’s the truth of it.

Of course, the H-Wagon that Stewart drew on the cover is obscured by the logo… but here’s what’s underneath…

And a close-up of the Judges inside the H-Wagon… this is what I mean by the amazing detail that Stewart will pack his art with…

And here’s a few panels showing you Colin MacNeil’s H-Wagons from Surfer for comparison – sorry Stewart, don’t feel too bad…

Okay, back to Stewart…

SKM: The physical stance of the Surfer has that unique, ungainly, monkey-like crouch quality we often see in 2000 AD characters. I got that right. If you look at the history of 2000 AD characters they don’t tend to be elegant like Marvel’s bounding pimped Nureyevs, no, they are oftentimes inelegant in 2000 AD. So I guess I managed that.

But ultimately it didn’t go where I sensed it could, it only got so far.

The trouble with art is we artists can see and feel it right away, but showing others takes many hours of work. Those who can’t imagine what we see can then see it in an instant and can imagine it in an instant, although they had no idea just a moment before. I can still see it and feel it and I’m sorry I can’t show you it, this is as close I could get in that blistering heat.

Maybe next time. 

Oh, Stewart, Stewart, Stewart, we know that readers of this and those fans picking up Surfer from the shelves will be thinking you absolutely nailed the cover. The insecurities of those art droids really are something!

Thank you once more to Stewart for another enthralling Covers Uncovered for Surfer. You can (and should) pick up Surfer from all great comic shops and the 2000 AD web shop right now.

But of course, that’s just the first part of this mammoth Covers Uncovered feature. We’ve done Surfer now, but there’s a load more to come, all about making art, pitching for work, and so much more. You can see that tomorrow. And believe me, you’re going to want to see it.

As for more from Stewart, be sure to go look at previous Covers Uncovered pieces – 2000 AD Encyclopaedia, Prog 2179, Prog 2239, Prog 2340, Megazine 440, the poster in the 2020 Sci-Fi Special here, and then there’s a look behind the scenes here for the 2022 Judge Dredd: Ascension Day strip and an interview about Defoe: The Divisor here.

You can follow him on Twitter and Instagram, read his bio 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, a deep look into the darker aspects of US intelligence and one of its most secretive and controversial experiments involving the CIA’s mind control program and its use of hallucinogenics. The collection comes out in October 2023 from Clover Press.

Stewart will also be appearing at Gosh Comics in London on Saturday 30^th September at 1-2pm for a signing for The Tragedie Of Macbeth. Bring your stuff for him to sign – and be sure to get yourself a copy of Macbeth as well – it’s another style completely from Stewart, he describes it as ‘very raw and hard and sheer.’ We’d describe it as gorgeous.

Stewart’s Macbeth is based on his drawings of Prague Shakespeare Company’s adaptation of Shakespeare’s masterpiece. Published by Clover press, Stewart documents the stage performance in Prague and illustrates it against the ‘starkest memories, places and myths of his own homeland.’ It’s a really stunning adaptation of the play, with Stewart’s use of the comics page and storytelling pacing making this a perfect adaptation of the play.

And now, to finish, plenty of screenshots from Stewart’s videos, showing you all that incredible detail in his artwork and the amount of work these art droids put into things…

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, Dan Cornwell’s back on the cover with a very impressive and mean-looking Dredd for Prog 2345, out on 16 August. And it all came about because of a pen test…

DAN CORNWELL: The proverb ‘Necessity is the mother of invention’ I believe sums up this cover.

I seem to spend a lot of time (more than I should) searching for the perfect tool, the perfect pen or paper – that will finally elevate my work to higher professional levels. But you soon realize it’s not the pen or paper (though they can help) that does that, it’s you. I’m still searching though.

Artists love finding new pens.

Anyway, this cover came about because of that hunt. The pen I use is a Pilot Pocket Brush Pen (Pilot Shunpitsu Pocket Brush Pen) which, unfortunately, is no longer available here in the UK. So, I went on a mission to find a suitable replacement. Tombow, Pental, etc. etc. but I could never find one that I liked as much as my Shunpitsu pen. They’re cheap disposable brush pens with a rubber brush tip and water based ink. Many artists don’t like them, but I do.

After months of searching I was looking at an empty one I had (I have about 40 empty, never threw them out, thankfully) and decided to take it apart to see if I could somehow refill it. After about 45 mins I managed to Frankenstein it. Now I have a lifetime’s supply of pens, and all I need is to buy the ink to fill them.

This image was done using the Frankenstein pen. I wanted it to be a cover quality image as it would be a proper test of the pen.

I decided to draw Dredd. I know! Crazy! What a curveball. Who could have guessed? 

First up was the composition – I wanted to do a slightly beaten-down Dredd, yet still enough in the tank to give you a good daysticking. I also wanted a slightly low angle so you’re pov is like you’ve just been beaten down by Joe.

Unfortunately, I never scanned the pencils as this wasn’t intended to be a published piece.

Next I inked it with the Frankenstein pen. Thankfully it worked better than I expected. I added some slight ink textures with dry brushes, sponges and other textures.

Next, I scanned it and cleaned up the image...

Then I added the flat base colours. I wanted a muted tone to this Dredd so I used a less saturated palette. I had always envisaged this image to have a white background, so Dredd himself would be front and centre and the sole focus of the picture.

Lastly, I added shadows and highlights along with some brush textures and dust and scratches. I moved my signature over as it would work better for cover blurb if Matt wanted it.

Job done.

I was very pleased with how it turned out and sent it to Matt and asked if it was of any use? He liked it and said he could use it as a cover for the prog. All very fortuitous. As is my comic career some might say. 

Dan’s comic career is in no way fortuitous – don’t ever let him tell you that. He’s worked his way up and his talent shone through. And that’s the reason why he’s become one of the great modern-day Dredd artists already – just as this cover shows!

Thanks to Dan for sending that one along – amazing what happens when you’re just testing out a pen, isn’t it? You can find 2000 AD Prog 2345 wherever you pick up your weekly dose of Ghafflebette comics, including the 2000 AD web shop from 16 August.

For more of Dan’s excellent covers, you should go look at the Covers Uncovered for Prog 2217, Prog 2241, Prog 2277, and Prog 2279.

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 a debutant on the cover of 2000 AD Prog 2344 – Lee Milmore. It’s a nightmarish cover to announce the beginning of the Tharg’s 3Riller: Maxwell’s Demon, written by David Barnett and drawn by Milmore.

Lee Milmore first caught the eye of Tharg with his win at the 2000 AD & Thought Bubble talent contest in 2022 and since then he’s appeared in the Prog with the Future Shock: Relict, (Prog 2279) written by his fellow 2022 winner, Honor Vincent.

Maxwell’s Demon is the follow-up to Barnett & Milmore’s first collaboration, another 3Riller, The Crawly Man, in Progs 2297-2299. Barnett and Milmore took us into the pastoral folk horror of sleepy English villages, where horrors lie behind the quaint customs. We met young Caris, who was going to be sacrificed by her village until she was saved by the itinerant magician Herne and his dog Shuck. Caris turned out to be a powerful summoner and left the village after setting a demon on the village elders. Now, in Maxwell’s Demon, we return to catch up with them as Herne is attempting to exorcise an infomancy engine.

It’s more of the same from Barnett and Milmore and all introduced by a suitably nightmare-inducing cover from Milmore. For a first cover, that’s a beauty.

We’ll get into the making of the cover in a moment, but first I had to ask Lee what it meant to get his very first 2000 AD cover…

LEE MILMORE: Wow, it’s staggering. I’m on the cover of 2000AD. I always dreamed of being a 2000AD artist, not a comic book artist you understand, a 2000AD artist!

Most of my art heroes were/are in those hallowed pages and also, on the cover. And now I am. I don’t think deep down in my bones I ever thought this would happen.

So I feel very fortunate and just really fulfilled by this moment. Don’t get me wrong, it comes with a big dollop of cringe, I mean my cover followed Dave Taylor’s…and as Wayne and Garth were prone to say – I’m not worthy.

Wait, don’t tell Tharg I said that. I am worthy and please can I do another soon. Ahem.

We won’t mention it to TMO Lee. And we think this cover and the work you’re doing on the inside definitely shows us all you’re more than worthy!!

Okay, now it’s onto just how you made the cover…

LEE MILMORE: This cover came about while I drew part 1 of Maxwell’s Demon. David (Barnett) described a possessed meat machine with an HR Gieger vibe.

While I designed this Cronenburgian horror, the cover image just appeared in my mind – pretty much directly lifted from the strip itself.

Lee’s talking about this bit of horror in the first part of Maxwell’s Demon…

LEE MILMORE: I thought if we pulled in close it would be difficult to put your finger on what you were looking at, like most of what the great Kevin O’Neill did. I thought readers may even think it was an ABC warrior or something (although they may also end up being crushed it isn’t, which I didn’t think about until now).

So I made a quick mock-up, roughly painted over the top of the image from the strip. I took a deep breath and sent it over to Tharg to see if he’d deem it worthy. Tharg the decisive came straight back with a yes! I did a sort of embarrassing shimmy around my studio and after several hours was forced to clamp shut my massive gormless grin for fear of the wind changing.

Onto stage 2 and, OH DROKK! Now I actually have to do it – a week’s therapy ensued.

Finally, I was forced from my residency at the therapist with a firebrand, like Frankenstein’s monster. Apparently, ‘no they couldn’t do it for me, and I’d just have to put on my big droid pants and get on with it”

I went back to my drawing and copied it into its own cover document and examined it. I’d decided that, to make my life more difficult, I would paint it on paper with Acrylic Gouache and that I’d print out the lines as the base for the painting.

As I was going to do an analogue piece, I checked the drawing for rubbishness. What I found was it was a bit wonky. Don’t examine it too hard and you’ll retain a shred of respect for me.

So I threw some construction lines over the image and made it more symmetrical which was important for an image like this close in on the cover. Less so in the maelstrom of black ink from a greater remove.

I’d decided to show a little more of the Infomancy Engine and wanted those lamprey mouths reaching out at the viewer, so scratched them in. Then I dropped the black lines into a light sepia that would easily disappear under the paint.

On to stage 3. I printed it out onto watercolour paper (a heavy stock) and stretched it onto a board.

You can see my trademark sloppy workmanship here – when other artists post their stretched paper the tape is always immaculate, mine looks like the wrinkled old skin of the hands that type this essay. Also note the way the printer ink is water soluble, which shows up my tears…so scruffy (sob).

Stage 4 is painting. I just want to get as much paint onto the canvas as quickly as possible now.

If you dwell too long I find you start to doubt and lose energy for what you’re doing. So I spend a day just blocking in, picking up detail using a Prussian blue.

I also rough in the tumour veins that grow from the machine and the exposed fleshy brain. But no attempt at rendering at this stage. I know I want the engine to burn internally so I also lay in a little yellow which I also draw up into the skull/bone parts.

Stage 5 – Once the rough blocking in is complete I just get on with painting, rendering the forms establishing the sickly lighting and fighting with the notion that it needs to look polished but it also needs to look like a painting. One day I’ll get that balance right.

Stage 6. I scan the drawing using my trusty A3 scanner and, in Photoshop, finalise the image. You can see the difference that the scanner makes to the colour, the other pictures were just via my phone.

I add a dark halo around the circumference of the Infomancy Engine. I work into the fiery insides to bring a better glow and add just a little steam. I think I sharpened up a few lines too.

I think I’m happy.

I send it over to the Nerve Centre and Tharg doesn’t send back an order to visit Mek Quake. Phew…first cover in.

And then I wait for publication. I’m very busy but it’s in my head all the time. And now that time is all but here.

I wish I could be cool about it, but it’s 2000AD, the cover of 2000AD. Hope I’m allowed back.

And most of all I hope you like it.

Lee Milmore there – hoping you all like his first cover. We think you will. Heck, we’re sure you will, nothing like a huge, terrifying fear machine to leap off the shelves!

Our thanks to Lee for sharing with us this hugely important moment – and congratulations to him once more for a debut cover!

You can find 2000 AD Prog 2344 from anywhere The Galaxy’s Greatest is sold, including the 2000 AD web shop from 9 August.

For more from Lee Milmore, do go back and read his interview (with Honor Vincent) about that very first 2000 AD strip, Relict, here. And of course, go look at his website 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!

This week, it’s the return of ex-Chief Judge Barbara Hershey to the cover of 2000 AD Prog 2343 as the climactic series of Hershey: The Cold In The Bones by Rob Williams and Simon Fraser continues inside.

But, despite what you might initially think, it’s not a Simon Fraser cover here. Instead, Tharg made a call to the Dave Taylor droid for this one…

It’s been a while since we saw Dave either on the cover or inside either the Prog or the Judge Dredd Megazine. Hopefully, we’ll be seeing his gorgeous artwork on the next series of the Ken Niemand-penned retro-infused alt-history of MC-1 epic Megatropolis series in the Judge Dredd Megazine soon. But right now, time to talk to him about this cover and how he’s hoping Simon Fraser doesn’t find out! (So no one tell him, okay?)

DAVE TAYLOR: I’m happy to talk about this cover as long as nobody tells Simon Fraser. I don’t want him finding out it was me that tried to blatantly ape his great style, and obviously failing dramatically!

UPDATE: Oh heck, seems Simon did find out… more on that in a while!

DAVE TAYLOR: Truth be told, this was a weird one to do. I’m a huge fan if Simon’s work, I love what he’s doing on Hershey, so it’s not comfortable to be asked to do a cover for his series, certainly not in a style that I might normally use.

I asked Tharg if it would be OK for me to do a kind of homage to Simon’s work, to basically do it in his style, and Tharg agreed this would be best.

So…OK then. I have to learn to draw like Simon, but not make it look like I’m copying him, so the readers don’t shout “Who’s this creep ripping off Mr Fraser?”

I got myself a copy of the first series and soaked it all up. I’d read it when it was first published but not in a collected form, so this helped refresh my memory of exactly how Simon goes about making pictures.

I found that, under the surface, our way of drawing wasn’t that different. There was a familiarity that I could latch onto about Simon’s line work and his approach to figure drawing.

So then I had a few attempts at coming up with the basic design for the cover, following Thargs suggestion of subject and referring to the few pages he’d sent me from this new series.

I did the sketch very small, 4×3 inches, in pencil, and scanned it into Photoshop to add the basic colour. Tharg gave me the green light so I went ahead and drew it up onto art board.

I tried to stay as faithful as I could without lightboxing the thing but now it’s done, I kind of wish I had lightboxed it. I think I lost a little of the drama, but who am I to argue?

All along, while drawing and then inking and colouring I kept thinking “how would Simon do that? Would he do it that way?” and so on.

When it was finished I found myself thinking “how is Simon going to react? I wonder if he’s particularly violent? He’s going to hate me!!” “

Fortunately for Dave, Simon Fraser is one of the nicest of art droids, so I think he, like us, will be impressed with what Dave’s done here, a stunning homage to his work on Hershey and a damn fine cover in its own right.

Am I right Simon? Simon? Simon? Put down the sharpened pencils Simon!!

UPDATE – Well, as we reported earlier, Simon DID hear about the cover and sent over this missive…

SIMON FRASER: I should give some context to this… I first saw Dave Taylor’s work back in the very early 90s when a mutual friend ( Ian Carney ) showed it to me. This is back when I was a highly motivated young hotshot ( in my own eyes ) trying to bust my way into the UK comics scene.

I was down living in London, knocking on the doors of Egmont Fleetway ( as it was then ) and drawing my first book ( Lux & Alby Sign-On & Save the Universe ). I thought I was hot shit back then. Then I saw some of the work coming out of Liverpool, Dave Taylors principally. Not only was it spectacularly good, but he was clearly drawing from the same European influences that I was, but better. I resented him immediately. Then I heard that Dave was now over in France actually working with Jean Giraud ( Moebius )himself. My resentment grew blistering!

I remained peripherally aware of Dave’s work and career over the decades, as one stays aware of a 400lb apex predator in one’s immediate vicinity. Now and again someone would compliment me on my intricate cityscapes and compare me to that other guy who does intricate, spectacular cityscapes in 2000 AD. I moved country a bunch of times,  never quite escaping the shadow.

I ended up in New York ( as one does ) and got involved with a bunch of New York comics-related stuff ( inevitably very cool ). While casually chatting to Chip Kidd one evening at the Society of Illustrators Bar, I wondered aloud if he had any interest in doing comics himself (  not in any way fishing for a gig ). Chip says that he is in fact already working on such a project and the artist is another Brit, you may know him ….Dave Taylor!

I turned my head away,  manfully containing my rage, sipped my beer through clenched teeth and stared at the immense Norman Rockwell painting over the bar.

Now …..THIS!

Oh heck. Time to leave before things get messy I think. Sometimes you can never tell how the art droids will react. Time for Tharg to take the extra caffeine out of their special wake-up oil mixture I think!

Our thanks go, as always to Dave for taking the time to talk about the cover and send in his artwork. And thanks to to Simon for sending in his thoughts on the cover. Tharg has sat them both down in a small room and isn’t letting either droid out until they kiss and make up. Or at least stop throwing pointy pencils at each other.

You can find 2000 AD Prog 2343 wherever you pick up your weekly dose of Ghafflebette comics, including the 2000 AD web shop from 2 August.

For more Covers Uncovered pieces from Dave, do check out the covers to Megazine 431 and Megazine 438. We also interviewed Dave about Megatropoiis here and he talks about it on the 2000 AD Thrill Cast here. There’s also an interview with Dave and Ian Edginton about their work on Fiends of the Eastern Front 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, it’s another stunning cover by Dylan Teague for Judge Dredd Megazine issue 459, that looks very much like this…

Yes, it’s Dredd out on the streets on Mega-City One, locked and loaded and in a mean mood. Although, thinking about it, when isn’t the city’s finest lawman not in a mean mood?

So, without further ado, here’s how another brilliant Teague cover comes together, all starting with an idea to pitch to Tharg The Mighty. Dylan had this to say…

DYLAN TEAGUE: ‘I know that Tharg can sometimes need a sort of generic Dredd cover, as he features in both mags all the time. I was trying to come up with something quite graphic and after a few failed sketches came up with this as a concept.…

After that initial sketch – which Tharg of course said an emphatic yes to – it was time to get down to the business of getting the cover sorted out.

Back to Dylan again…

DYLAN TEAGUE: From this it was just a case of getting Dredd right and then the background. Dredd always takes me ages to work out, every part of his costume takes a while to get right and then render, eventually got it done and then moved on to the background.

This was a bit more straightforward, though I didn’t manage to keep it quite as graphic as I’d initially envisaged.

Art droids, always finding problems where readers only see brilliance!

All that’s left to show you is how it all came together. First, what Dylan described as ‘getting Dredd right and then the background.’ So it’s a case of building the layers on Dredd bit by bit, just like this…

After that, all that’s left to do is add a few colours and that’s it, another magnificently moody piece of Dredd cover art from the Teague droid.

Okay, okay, adding the colours takes hours and hours to get right – something the Teague droid always does so well…

Thank you so much to Dylan for sending over the artwork – it’s another great cover that you can find on Megazine 459, out on 16 August wherever you get your Thrill Power, including the 2000 AD web shop.

For more from Dylan, and another great study of Dredd, take a look at his Covers Uncovered piece for Prog 2236.

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 sees the return of Ken Niemand and Tom Foster for Judge Dredd: A Fallen Man, the third part of their trilogy following former Judge Kyle Asher, freshly returned from his 20 years on Titan for beating a citizen to death and now working as an auxiliary. It follows A Penitent Man (Progs 2225-2230) and An Honest Man (Progs 2281-2286) and something tells us it’s just not going to end too well for poor Kyle. Not if Dredd’s got anything to do with it.

To mark the start of the third and final part of the trilogy, we get to welcome back Tom Foster to the cover of Prog 2341 with a fabulous Dredd image – although, as you’ll discover, he’s got issues with it…

TOM FOSTER: Alright, I’ll level with you. At the time of writing, I’m just over halfway through the third-to-last chapter of this story. By the time you read this I should be (if all goes according to plan) a few days into drawing the penultimate part – and part one will already be on newsagents’ shelves and in the hands of whichever subscribers are fortunate enough to live in a district with a prompt postal service.

So, if this ‘Covers Uncovered’ has an air of desperation about it, it’s because this droid is currently gears-deep in the process of trying to get it all finished in time for the solemn and immutable deadline, the spectre that haunts a comic book artist’s dreams like a sleep paralysis demon.

Those familiar with my working methods, or even just my general essence, may have good cause to suspect that this frenzied dash to the finish is the result of poor time-management and fecklessness. For once though, I’m happy to say this is not the case. But, whatever the root cause, the implications are the same: I am racing face-to-face with my own doom and we are about to smash into each other in a cataclysm of blood and zygomatic arches.

But sure, let’s use up a chunk of my remaining time to go over the process for the cover of Prog 2341.

First of all, let’s be clear on one point – this cover has problems. Some of those problems are the result of logical sacrifices in service of the concept and some are the result of my own surfeit of limitations and ignorance, but problems they remain – and the biggest, by some measure, is wideness.

Judge Dredd is too wide. His face is too wide. His helmet is too wide. His whole vibe is too wide.

To understand this overabundance of width it is necessary to journey back to the beginning, when I was just a fledgling Prog 2341 cover artist, starting out on my journey to make the cover for Prog 2341, with nothing but hope in my heart and a bagful of dreams.

As is the custom, I started with a layout sketch. Here, I was presented with my first problem. This is a Dredd story – Dredd being on the cover is generally a plus here – but Tharg also likes covers to reflect the actual chapter of the story that they are to accompany. So, what does Dredd do in this chapter? He stands and looks at a screen.

‘Hang on though’, I thought to myself ‘if I show the action on-screen reflected in Dredd’s visor, it’ll create the suggestion of Dredd’s involvement and foreshadow any confrontation to come later in the story’. It seemed like an excellent idea.

Then I realised just how narrow those bits of Dredd’s visor that he looks out of are. ‘No problem,’ I thought ‘I’ll just fudge the proportions a bit.’

Little did I suspect that that fudging would come back to fudge me in turn. Fudge me something rotten.

I rushed through the layout, a hanging offence, with the rationale that I’d drawn Dredd’s head a million times, so there was really no need to over-prepare. Idiot.

I based the whole composition around using Dredd’s helmet as a design element that didn’t really have to correspond to functional reality. But then, of course, I still wanted it to look convincing and to have Dredd’s whole chin in shot, so a certain amount of proportional shenanigans was necessary to have the visor take up the requisite amount of active space to have a nice clear shot of our stealth gunman reflected therein.

With the penciling stage, I started to notice some irregularities. The neck seemed wrong, springing up out of his body like one of He-Man’s buddies. The whole head seemed alien-like and unconvincing. ‘No problem’, I continued to think, ‘I’ll fix it in Photoshop before I ink it.’

A whopping great fudging was now lumbering inexorably in my direction.

I did my best to mitigate the damage and then printed out the pencils for inking. This stage went not too bad. I used a smaller brush for the figure in the visor and a bigger one for Dredd, just to give some sense of scale (a Winsor & Newton 7 Series size 0 for the figure and size 2 for Dredd, for all you brush-heads out there).

Then, again, I tried to compensate for the flatness in the image engendered by poor proportion, by really highlighting the middle of Dredd’s face and darkening out the outer edges of it.

While this worked in part, there’s only so much dimension you can add this way. I only really fully realised my folly the day after I’d finished the colours.

Seeing a thumbnail-sized preview of the image on my desktop, I was suddenly struck by how wrong it looked, how much like a mid-late 90’s abomination of horrible superhero anatomy and colour gradients.

You can simulate this process now yourself by standing up the cover on a shelf in front of you and slowly stepping backwards away from it. You’ll see all the nuance disappear – all the seemingly-aligned elements of facial anatomy giving way to a snarling, two-dimensional monstrosity that even Rob Liefeld would have humanely euthanised on the spot.

Like all intelligent people, I keep a skull around the house – for contemplative and instructional purposes. As any good skull should, it provided a chilling portent of the error of my ways. I noticed that, when viewed from the front, the jaw is really only about two ‘mouths’ wide. One in the middle (obviously) and roughly one half on either side. No doubt this was covered in one of my many anatomy books, but my youthful abandon conditioned me to ignore it.

Even with someone like Dredd, whose mandible often suggests a state of medical emergency, there’s only so much you can stretch these proportions before things start to look prohibitively unrealistic, particularly if you show his full array of pearly whites (as I had), betraying the underlying anatomy to the viewer.

So it was that I realised that, not only had I made this mistake here, but in a hundred other drawings, some contained within this very issue.

Fortunately, this process was an instructional one that has now informed the way I think about all faces and my work has improved as a result, but it came at a cost.

The thumbnail of this cover still haunts me and I can offer no better advice to budding artists than to consult this verse I’ve composed on the subject:

“If plagued by troubled doubt you be,
when drawing head anatomy,
consult the skull upon your shelf,
’tis wiser counsel than yourself.”

And we will leave poor art droid Foster there – the art droids really do beat themselves up over things when they think something’s wrong. Thanks to Tom for opening up to us – it’s almost a form of therapy sometimes!

You can find 2000 AD Prog 2341 wherever you pick up the Galaxy’s Greatest Comic, including the 2000 AD web shop from 19 July.

For more from Tom here at 2000AD.com, check out his Covers Uncovered features for 2000 AD Progs 1986, 2225, 2281, and 2310, his great Storm Warning cover for Megazine issue 450 and his just as great Surfer cover for Megazine issue 454. We’ve also interviewed him a couple of times – he talks about his 2013 Thought Bubble talent search win here and the Judge Dredd: A Penitent Man strip here. Finally, if you want to see and hear him, there’s his 2000 AD Thrill-Cast Lockdown Tapes appearance here and his far too funny From The Drawing Board video can be found here.

And as a special bonus for you, here’s the first three pages of Tom’s great artwork on the first episode of A Fallen Man… starting in Prog 2341…

Oh, and if you’re wondering why Tom’s labeled the cover ‘After Romita Sr’, well that would be because he’s homaging the classic John Romita Sr cover to Amazing Spider-Man #55 (Marvel Comics, 1967)… although, as he said to me when I enquired, ‘I know the composition’s a little different (it could just as easily be seen as an homage to Bolland’s cover for prog 161), but that Doc Ock over was definitely the more prominent in my mind while I was working on this one, so it just seemed appropriate to acknowledge it.’