Tag: coversuncovered

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

This week it’s the return of 2000 AD Regened, with Joko Jargo taking over the Prog to deliver 48 pages of all-ages thrill-power, including more adventures with Cadet Dredd, the latest from the Rogue Trooper-verse in Mayflies, the next generation of Survival Geeks in ‘Splorers, and go right back to the beginning of Marlon Shakespeare’s story in Chopper Don’t Surf.

And to round out this Regened Prog, we have a new Future Shock from Karl Stock and Steve Roberts, the art-droid co-creator of Bec & Kawl and the only art-droid to have won a Bafta for his TV work on the CBeebies series DIPDAP!

Not only that, but Steve’s also responsible for the fabulously monstrous cover to this latest Regened Prog… so, time for Steve to talk Covers Uncovered…

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STEVE ROBERTS: I was really chuffed to get the chance to draw a cover for Regened. When Matt asked for a Cadet Dredd cover I did get a bit nervous because it had been a long time since I had drawn Dredd and I had to make sure I got it right. Especially as this was young Dredd.

It was a nicely open brief so here are some ideas that I sent over. One featuring a pack of some sort of alien spider creatures which sort of reminds me of Die Hard. A too static moody Head and shoulders shot that I thought I could attempt an Akira style city with. Then I sketched some sort of ridiculous mutie and finally we have the one that was chosen – a multi-eyed slug alien!

I think Matt was right to go with this one it had the most oomph. These are very sketchy but my preparatory drawing has definitely loosened up over time. I do feel that my drawing can lose a bit of energy as it goes through the various stages on the way to the final art. But I guess that is the way it goes!

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I would like to experiment more with a looser style in my finished comics in the future if possible. But I am a bit torn because I do love trying to ink really smoothly and clearly. Design-wise, I was quite keen to draw Dredd’s helmet like a slightly 70s motorbike helmet, so quite round, but I didn’t go the whole way with that.

I pencil and ink on paper as I have always done and then scan it in and patch it together if needed. Then I clean up the line art on the computer. I made a conscious effort to not use too much solid black shadow. I wanted to keep the image light and clear.

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Dredd’s arm was very wrong so I fixed it and had it outstretched which I think works a lot better – It was looking a little dislocated! I hadn’t noticed until I got the drawing scanned in and started working on it.

The composition worked well on the rough sketch but not so much on the final art.

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I got colouring in the way I always do with comic strip pages. This is with a nice solid black line art sitting on the top of flat colours. I also like to avoid using any gradients and airbrush tools. I like flat blocks of colour. I am always aware of not getting carried away when I’m colouring.

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When I looked at it though it felt a bit unfinished somehow. I felt I had played it safe so I decided to try something new and lose the line art completely and paint it digitally. I definitely hadn’t done this before for anything 2000 AD but it was an enjoyable process and as it had been so long since I had drawn anything for the comic, it seemed right to try something new.

It did take a little longer than expected so I’m not sure I’m up for doing a whole strip like it but I will definitely develop it further in the future. It would have been sensible to have had it mind from the beginning though as I wouldn’t have needed to ink it and could have painted digitally right on top of the pencils.

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And that’s the cover!

Thanks so much to Steve Roberts for sharing the latest Regened cover with us here, it’s great to see his work back in the Prog!

You can get hold of the Regened Prog 2246 from your local comic shops and newsagents and from the 2000 AD web shop.

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

This week – time to check out the devilishly good cover to Judge Dredd Megazine issue 435 – out on 18 August! The incredibly talented Alex Ronald supplies the Devlin Waugh cover, as everyone’s favourite bon vivant vamp has a date with the devil…

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Devlin Waugh‘s latest adventure, The Reckoning, reaches episode four, with the scandalously louche lothario finding himself in deep trouble as he and the Devil settle down for a little chat. Devlin Waugh: The Reckoning comes to you courtesy of Ales Kot and Mike Dowling, and Alex has taken inspiration for the cover straight from Mike Dowling’s incredible work inside, giving us a cover that’s the epitome of everything Devlin.

Alex Ronald had his start at 2000 AD back in Prog 984 on Judge Dredd, with his first cover coming on Prog 1869. His earlier work included Dredd, Vector 13, Rogue Trooper, and Sinister Dexter, before heading off for pastures new, including working in the CG industry as both illustrator and 3D modeller. His return marked a very different style that’s seen him work exclusively on 2000 AD and Megazine covers, giving a gorgeous look to some of the most stylish covers of recent years.

Now, over to Alex to tell us about having Devlin come face to face with the Devil…

ALEX RONALD: Matt was looking for a cover depicting the conversation between the Devil and Devlin In Hell.

I opted for something that was a mix between two panels in the comic, one which had an armless Devil leering over the smoking hero and another where we saw the Devil’s arms...

As usual with my covers I initially sculpt the figures in Z brush. I already had a full figure Devlin model from 2017 so I just had to repose and create the new clothing. The Devil itself was a new sculpt.

I set the models up in a 3D scene with lights and once I found a good camera angle, saved out the image to sketch over.

On approval it was down to my favourite part – the paint over.

I hope the readers like what I’ve done with it!

Oh, we’re sure they will!

Thanks so much to Alex for sending along the artwork – you can catch his Megazine cover, featuring the vampiest of vamps possibly meeting his devilish match, on the front of issue 435, available everywhere the best comics are sold, including in the 2000 AD web shop.

Now, if that wasn’t enough… a little more of Alex’s work on our beloved vampire dandy, with his cover to Devlin Waugh: Blood Debt, the essential collection of recent Devlin tales from Rory McConville, Ales Kot and Mike Dowling.

And now a few of those great Alex Ronald moments from 2000 AD past… beginning with his very first work for Tharg, 2000 AD Prog 984…

And then his very first 2000 AD cover – Prog 1869…

Now a few more recent covers – first the 2019 Christmas 2000 AD Prog 2162 – and you can see more of that one in Alex’s Covers Uncovered for that Prog here.

Next, covering the great Full Tilt Boogie for 2000 AD Prog 2191 – again, read his Covers Uncovered for this one here.

And finally, his latest Regened cover to 2000 AD Prog 2206, with another great Covers Uncovered 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 the triumphant return to the pages of the Galaxy’s Greatest to art-droid Mark Harrison, usually found beavering away on The Out, his incredible outer space adventure with Dan Abnett, their ‘love letter to the SF book-jacket art’, which returns soon for its second series!

But on the cover of 2000 AD Prog 2245, Mark’s turning his artistic talents to one Finnigan Sinister, freshly back from the dead and out for the blood of Dexter in the Sinister Dexter saga, Bulletopia Chapter Six, Somewhere Beyond The Sea, the series written by Dan Abnett with art from Tazio Bettin.

We chatted to Mark about all things Sinister and why shooting the reader is always a great thing!

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MARK HARRISON: The brief from Tharg/Matt was to go with one of Tazio Bettin’s images from the strip; a shot of the Edsel Car in amphibious mode skimming across the sea, Sinister firing a BFG.

(Love the way Tazio did the gun flash; an expanding plasma shockwave and an energy blast exiting along one plane. Nice energy. Sorry, artist appreciating something another artist has done and inevitably stealing it… which I did! 😉

And that would be this image of Tazio’s…

MARK HARRISON: The car was kind of skimming across the surface of the water like a hydroplane boat and I originally had it in that orientation, with Evil Sinister blasting to the side.

I thought I could do more with the cover. Sinister Dexter is latin for left and right and was used to denote sides of a shield in heraldry. I was also thinking of a graphic or shield/badge to do with a car, an emblem like Ferrari, so I also overlaid an insert image of Sinister and Dexter, to flip sides of a face, a contrast.

Sinister in the strip had been taken over, was a bad guy, dressed in white. I had noted that for it to work, Sinister should have been on the right of the cover, but before I could make that change Tharg/Matt suggested dropping all that for a less fussy approach and with Sinister “shooting the reader”.

Shooting AT the reader is good.

There are rules in comics and particularly in regard to eye-catching covers; a psychology. I’ve been told by editors/marketing over the years: “Have the character make eye contact with the reader”. “Shoot AT the reader.”’ Explode the frame”. I’m assuming that the confrontational aspect of the image arrests the reader or casual comic buyer. It “connects”. It’s not a passive image.

Some editors have interesting preferences. One time 2000 AD editor Dave Bishop had a penchant for headshots; (not literally shooting someone in the head… although I don’t know) and Paul Neary at Marvel UK would ask me to have the combatants look out at the reader… which was kinda odd if they were punching someone page left or right: “Look at me, I’m punching his face!”

I don’t always agree with their choices but I can see their point of view.

Of course, this cover became an exercise in revisiting some of those techniques that were used back in the day when layout artists and comic artists had to maximise the limited resources (colours and fidelity) of comics at the time and be contrary to their surrounding, safer imagery.

Comic shelves in WH Smiths were a crowded place back in the ’70s as children had little in the way of alternative distraction. So your comic had to leap off the shelf, kick the reader to the ground, lose some teeth before pumping a few caps into his wide, disbelieving eyes. Figuratively speaking. The go-to comic for this “Boot in the face” subtlety was of course 1970’s boy’s comic ACTION.

Doug Church (I think) was the ACTION layout artist to deliver the goods, covers that EXPLODED in you face like an IED, images that broke the frame, three primary colours to disrupt the synapses, whoosh lines and jagged caption boxes that SCREAMED at you. It all had to say… well “ACTION”. Along with “Blood” and “Death” and “Disembowelled”. (Different times).

Yes, Doug Church was a legendary contributor to Brit comics – Action, Battle, and 2000 AD, to name but three, all benefitted so much from his design work. And this is a perfect cover to show you what Mark’s talking about – ‘Covers that EXPLODED in you face like an IED, images that broke the frame, three primary colours to disrupt the synapses…’ Oh yes, just like this…

MARK HARRISON: Oh, I could wax lyrical about British comic art page layout which I consider to be the best in the world.

With that legacy in mind and remembering how it grabbed me as kid, I redesigned the cover to be more punchy.

Gone was the hydroplane angle on the car (which had been inspired by the JAWS 2 movie poster) This was more an aerial shot looking down, the car launching from the water towards us like Stingray from the Gerry Anderson show of the same name.

The car I partially sourced from an image online and exaggerated the perspective on the final image, to suggest a distorted stretched wide-angle, again, to create more dynamism.

The car’s top had collapsed back into morphing tech and Sinister had seemingly hauled himself into a firing position over the windshield defeating both gravity and acceleration (it’s comics) to blow away the reader.

Not just us, but the 2000 AD logo too! What a bastard.

The background of the cover would be rent apart in a stylised “Kapow!” framing, as if he had blasted through the cover, overlaying the frame with the car to create that illusion of depth. Whoosh lines emphasised the speed and energy. (It’s why you have particulate matter streaking past the USS Enterprise in Star Trek; otherwise it would look like it was hardly moving. By the way: Particulate matter in space to suggest motion: Good. Shaking a camera with the so called “wake” caused by the ship in the vacuum of space: bad.)

The seafoam (actually the second most difficult thing to get right on the cover and to look suitably translucent) helped suggest a snapped freeze frame, or a moment where the car hangs before dropping back.

The most difficult thing was nailing the angle of the car. I went through several versions of just rotating the image. Even upside down How much is too much? But ultimately (and a good rule of thumb) the simplest way is the best way. So a slight tilt. Don’t overthink it. “Thinking slows you down, Logan.”

The car and Sinister shooting was the main impetus. What remained was how to finesse the image with graphical choices so I provided a couple of iterations. I think Tharg/Matt chose my fave version; the three colour background; a nod back to the classic covers of ACTION which works better with the white car. But I also like the starkness of the just white background.

There were other ideas. To overlay a texture of grainy Grindhouse film (flecks of dust, a trapped hair, film stripes) but that’s mixing the metaphors as it were, or styles. This was old school comic book, not old school film. Maybe for another cover!

And there we go – (one Finiggan + one Edsel + one BFG) x one Mark Harrison = one funting incredible cover.

You can find 2000 AD Prog 2245 on the shelves of comic shops and newsagents as well as the virtual shelves of the 2000 AD web shop from 18 August!

Thanks to Mark for sending the details along, always so good to read his thinking about putting his covers together. For more from Mark, try these… Covers Uncovered Prog 2187, Covers Uncovered Prog 2193, plus an interview with Harrison and Dan Abnet about The Out.

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

This week, it’s time to take a trip to the weird side of the Justice Department, with Dan Cornwell on the cover of 2000 AD Prog 2241 as Department K defend the dimensions from the Valox…

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Since first appearing in 2000 AD Regened Prog 2196, you’ve been loving the reality preserving wonderful weirdos of Department K, whose simple (hah!) brief is to tackle interdimensional enemies that are looking to burst through into the reality of MC-1. Created by Rory McConville and PJ Holden, that first 2-parter (in Prog 2196 and Regened Prog 2233) introduced us to the wonders overseen by Judge Kirby and her team… Judge Estabon, the new intern Afua, and the ‘what the hell is he anyway?’ Judge Raspberry, as they kept MC-1 safe from all manner of cosmic beastie.

In 2000 AD Prog 2234, Dan Cornwell hopped on board the thrill ride, taking over art from PJ, and joined Rory in Department K‘s first long-form adventure, Cosmic Chaos, which has involved the Dept getting very up close and personal with a load of very large, very powerful, and very cosmic entities and those who try to kill them. Which is where Dan’s incredible cover to 2000 AD Prog 2241 comes in, as we get set to meet the Valox, whose only role in life is to go around destroying the increasingly sick multiverse. I mean, a goal in life is great, for sure, but maybe not that goal?

As for Mr Dan Cornwell, well he’s one of a number of great breakthrough 2000 AD artists in the last few years, ever since he got his first big break with the art on Rok of the Reds (and its follow up, Rok the God) with a certain couple of gentlemen you may well know, going by the names of John Wagner and Alan Grant. Since then, he’s become a much in demand art droid here at the Nerve Centre, with art on Judge Dredd and Max Normal. And now we get to see his fabulous work on the cover to 2000 AD Prog 2241, out right now…

So, without further ado… Dan Cornwell to tell us how he put that little beauty together…

DAN CORNWELL: Matt asked me if I could provide a new cover for the Department K story I’ve been doing for the prog. Obviously, I jumped at the chance as it’ll be only my second cover to date.

First off I had to provide some roughs for Tharg to view and chose which he felt would work best for a cover. I sent 4 simple design ideas. They were all of a similar design but each slightly different.

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The final consensus was the fourth image worked best with the team in the foreground with the two Valox and the egg behind. It worked well compositionally and left enough room for all the masthead logos, coverline etc.

Once I was given the green light I then pencilled the final image on larger than normal stock paper. I used Strathmore 400 series Bristol. This is slightly larger – and more expensive – Tharg’s worth it though – than the normal board I use which is A3 in size. I also normally use extra smooth heavy stock cartridge paper but I pushed the boat out for this one. (And it needed using up at some point)

Unfortunately, I forgot to scan the pencil stage as I got too keen and just went straight into inking.

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The inks were then scanned, cleaned up, some splatter and texture added here and there and then sized up.

Next up I added colours. Starting with the flats. The colour scheme I had envisaged was quite a bold one with a bright red background, but I left the final decision for later on in the process.

At this point, I didn’t have any idea as to what colours Len O’Grady was using on the Valox or the egg as he was in the process of colouring the pages himself. This is when the colour scheme changed.

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I decided that I would go for a limited palette. Remove the red background and go for a more uniform colour all over.
As the image progressed I gravitated towards a green theme. (I sound like Simon Bisley from that late 80’s Green Man documentary)

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I added texture to the background then I decided to add a design element to the light coming from the egg. Once I was content with how it was going I then added all the extra stuff such as mist, dust and scratches and some colour holds to push the Valox back a bit making the team pop a little more. Then I stopped because I could have gone on and on and on… You have to know when to stop.

And stop he did, but only before giving us a really great cover to match a really great series. Thanks so much to Dan Cornwell for sharing that with us. You can catch 2000 AD Prog 2241 everywhere the Galaxy’s Greatest comic is sold right now!

And for more on Department K, be sure to look up these interviews with the creative teams, first this one on Prog 2196 with Rory McConville and PJ Holden, and then a triple-header of Department K chat with McConville, Holden, and new boy Dan Cornwell.

And finally, to see Dan Cornwell putting together his very first 2000 AD cover, have a gander at this Covers Uncovered for Prog 2217!

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

This week, the debut of a brand-new art droid… Toby Willsmer on the cover of 2000 AD Prog 2240 giving us his bullet-ridden look at Dredd in action…

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Toby is an illustrator based down in New Zealand, but he was a child of Britain in the ’70s and 2000 AD runs in his comics blood. He was the winner of the January 2000 AD Art Stars contest, with a great looking Sam Slade Robo-Hunter, which led to this, his very first work here at 2000 AD… and a rather fine debut it is as well!

You can get hold of 2000 AD Prog 2240 from the 2000 AD web shop, as well as all good newsagents and comic shops, from 14 July.

TOBY WILLSMER: I’d shown Matt a piece I had done with explosions and a character shooting face on and he asked me if I would like to do a 2000 AD Dredd cover with a similar dynamic. As my first 2000 AD cover the answer was a yes from me!

Matt’s brief was “Dredd racing towards us, guns blazing, big explosions in the background, etc”. After a quick back ‘n’ forth regarding the background scene I started to come up with an image in my head of how it would look and scribbled some really quick ideas to make into roughs. I came up with a couple of roughs (above and below) for Matt to look at and he liked the dynamic of the second rough and gave me the go-ahead to work it up.

I went ahead and did the linework for approval, leaving the background lines as just guidelines and explained that I would define and detail the explosions as I painted them.

From here I added where I want the light source and shadows.

Next… add some base colour for the overall piece.

I start by adding thin colour to the foreground parts building up colour depth as I go along.

Once I’m ok with the initial colour stage I’ll start to add some basic background colours to make sure the foreground and background colours work together.

As the background was to be all explosions I blocked in large parts with rough colours knowing they would be mostly painted over in the next process as I start to add debris and movement into it.

Here’s the fun bit, blow stuff up and throw stuff in the air. Adding as much depth and movement to the explosions as possible.

At this stage I decided to add Dredd’s boot to his trailing leg.

I sent the tweak over for approval and it was left in for the final piece.

By now I’m happy with how it’s all coming together and I’ll add all the details and bells and whistles to the overall piece until it’s done.

Then send the finished piece off to Matt and await his feedback.

Now that is a damn good Dredd cover, a classic debut! Thanks to Toby for sending all his process along for us all to see.

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

Now, a little bit more of that great Willsmer artwork… first the Sam Slade, Robo-Hunter piece that won the 2000 AD Art Stars competition back in January –

And now a couple grabbed from his Artstation site –

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

Today, it’s the turn of cover artist extraordinaire, Neil Roberts, talking us through putting together the cover for the 2021 2000 AD Sci-Fi Special…

This summer, things are heating up in the world of Judge Dredd with the 2000 AD Sci-Fi Special!

It’s going to be a mega summertime storytelling event when we see characters from different Dreddworld series crossing over in one epic adventure! The whole thing is plotted by Michael Carroll and Maura McHugh, along with fabulous stories featuring Judge Dredd, Cursed Earth Koburn, Anderson, Chopper, Armitage, and Devlin Waugh!

Things begin with Judge Dredd meeting up with Cursed Earth Koburn in ‘Biohazard’ by Carroll and Ben Willsher, while over in Oz legendary skysurfer Chopper is a wanted man in ‘Dreamgazer’ by David Baillie and Tom Foster. Meanwhile, over in Brit-Cit, Armitage goes looking for everyone’s favourite vampiric dandy Devlin Waugh in ‘Natural Fern Killer’ by Liam Johnson and Robin Smith, whilst Hondo-Cit Judge Inaba has trouble on her turf, courtesy of Karl Stock and Neil Googe. All this plus Judge Anderson by Maura McHugh and Anna Morozova, before everything wraps up in ‘Apotheosis’, by Carroll and McHugh, and drawn by Thought Bubble 2000 AD art competition winner James Newell.

It’s going to be a summer thrill-power scorcher! And it all starts off with that great cover from Neil Roberts!

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NEIL ROBERTS: Tharg messaged me with a proposition to do the 2000AD Sci-Fi Special cover artwork, and I couldn’t resist the chance!

The brief was for a multi-character piece, a group shot in front of planet Earth. What was particularly exciting for me was being able to paint some classic characters – Dredd, Anderson, Devlin Waugh, Armitage, Inaba and a personal favourite of mine, Chopper. (on his board, too!) Tharg sent on a load of reference images to keep me inspired and on track.

With that, I thumbnailed out a few designs – opting for a classic line-up composition, where everyone would be clear and legible within the frame.

After a few rounds of tweaking and revising the image (Chopper standing with his board felt way too sedate, so we had him surfing through space and gave Dredd a gun), Tharg settled on a final design and I set to painting.

After a few weeks, I sent off the image to the Nerve Centre, and we called it done. Phew!

And that was that – another cracking cover from Neil there! Thanks so much to Neil for sharing the experience.

You can pick up the 2000 AD Sci-Fi Special 2021 on 7 July in the UK and 4 August in the USA – get it from your favourite comic shops, newsagents or order NOW from the 2000 AD web shop.

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

This week though, we have a special treat for you in the shape of a very special Treasury of British Comics Scream! One-Shot Special – Black Beth and the Devils of Al-Kadesh! – all under a stunning cover from Andrea Bulgarelli, who sent along some truly amazing process shots for us to look at!

Black Beth and the Devils of Al-Kadesh is out on June 23 in the UK and July 21 in the USA – it’s going to be one of those must-see books of the year – be sure you don’t miss out!

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Black Beth and the Devils of Al-Kadesh features three incredible tales, all leading off with an amazing 32-page tale by Alec Worley (Durham Red) and drawn by DaNi (Coffin Bound), where the warrior-woman and her blind aide Quido have traveled to the wicked city of Shadrivar, in search of the evil witch Anis-Amuun.

It’s sword & sorcery questing at its best, a sea-spanning thriller which pits Beth’s curved blade against all manner of mystical creatures – and possibly Anis-Amuun herself!

But that’s not all! There’s also a back-up Black Beth tale from Alec Worley and cover artist Andrea Bulgarelli, and an all-new Death Man thriller from Doug Graves and Vincenzo Riccardi, plus pin-ups by David Roach and Andreas Butzbach.

But before all that, let’s take a few moments to appreciate just how good this one’s going to look when you see it on the shelf – all thanks to that gorgeous cover by Andrea!

Everything started off with the first pencilled version, with all those essential elements you see in the final cover already there in the mix…

Next, tightening everything up…. Andrea talks of ‘defining the poses of the characters and the details.’ But it does make a great bit of spot the difference… and the case of the disappearing tongue…

Stage three for Andrea is getting those characters paper and beginning the painting…

Onto step four, painting continues, acrylic on canvas paper. This is where Andrea lays the foundations of colours, including a decision to alter things – ‘I changed the sky, with a blood red!’

Next up, with the background of the sky and the ship in place, it’s time to start focusing on the character details…

More and more details being added, step by step, layer by layer, with Andrea concentrating on Black Beth’s armour – ‘I researched Black Beth’s armor with photos of real armor for coloring. I was inspired by Jesus Blasco’s style, which is my favorite.’

And then, to the final stage, where Andrea has all the details added and a finished painting all ready for printing!

As an extra, for all of you who love seeing the artist’s working conditions – Andrea sent along this final image…

And that’s everything, so a huge thanks to Andrea to sending all of those along (as well as my apologies for having to fumble through with remedial Spanish when talking to him!)

It’s a suitably striking and quite beautiful looking cover for something that’s going to be talked about a lot this year – Black Beth and the Devils of Al-Kadesh…

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

This week, time to go BIG, as the diabolical, mechanical marvel that is Mechastopheles takes the cover of 2000 AD Prog 2237 – all courtesy of Dave Kendall.

Wade into the action with the giant demon of the Deep with Prog 2237 – heading into battle, into the shops, and into the 2000 AD web shop on 23 June!

First stomping all under its titanic tootsies, Mechastopheles first burst into the Prog as a Tharg’s 3Riller in Progs 2045-2047, before graduating to an eight-part series in Progs 2092-2099 and is now featuring in Progs 2234-2237 for the four-part The Hunting Party.

Created by writers Gordon and Lawrence Rennie and artist Karl Richardson, this tale of demonic robotic mayhem all came about when Rennie Snr mentioned to Rennie Jnr that he fancied writing a story about a big robot demon in hell – which is, I think we can all agree, a perfect 2000 AD pitch!

The survivors of humanity are on-board Mechastopheles, years after the fall of Earth when the demons rose up and everything went very, very, very bad for all human-kind. But, here in The Hunting Party, we’re finding out that seeking sanctuary in a demonically powered gigantic Mecha might have some uniwue problems – especially now it’s obvious that the demon bound to the Mek, Apollyoneth Morga, has enemies in Hell too.

For this new series, the four-part The Hunting Party, Rennie Snr and Jnr are joined on art by Boo Cook, whose art gives an added dimension to all the diabolic goings-on happening inside and outside the Mecha monstrosity.

But for now, it’s over to the great Dave Kendall, who waved his magic paintbrush at the cover…

DAVE KENDALL: So my cover (and almost every illustration and comic page) starts with scribbles in my sketchbook. You can see that this cover filled around four pages. I did a couple of sketches to familiarise myself with the character and because of the underwater aspect it gave me an excuse to give Pacific Rim a watch. A movie I thoroughly enjoy. My kind of visual junkfood. Great inspiration for giant robots underwater.

You can see the progress in Sketch 1 and Sketch 2 below…

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From there I came up with two concepts.

The first was a close-up portrait of Mechastopholes, with the second a more distant full figure shot that emphasised his imposing size.

Matt liked both but thought the full figure was more imposing.

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The next stage is sketching it out in a more finished state in Clip studio. This would then be transferred to Bristol board as a blue line to be penciled in detail.

You can see those stages below, first the cover sketch and then the final Mechastopholes cover pencils…

The final pencils are then printed as sepia on watercolour paper and then bonded to mdf. This is then coated with acrylic medium and then when dried it’s ready to paint. I don’t have any stages of this process but it’s a careful build-up of darks and midtones with lights at the end.

Of course highlights don’t really occur under water so I avoid that in this illustration, just letting the flames and inner fire shine bright.

A careful scan and it’s sent to Matt for approval.

All of which leads us to this, the final Dave Kendall cover… that is a MASSIVE cover…

Thanks to Dave for sending us those stunning pieces of art. You can find it on the shelves on 23 June adorning the front of 2000 AD Prog 2237 – get it from newsagents, comic shops, and the 2000 AD web shop.

Now, a few of those magnificent Mecha shots blown up for you to see all that incredible detail in Dave’s work…

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

Borag Thungg Earthlets – this week, it’s another Sssssscrotnig cover from the brilliant Nick Percival for Judge Dredd Megazine Issue 433 – a wraparound cover at that, celebrating the 10th and final episode of The Dark Judges: Deliverance, written by David Hine.

Megazine issue 433 is out right now – from newsagents, comic shops, as well as the 2000 AD web shop – go get it right now!

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Across 10 episodes in the Megazine, those Dark Judges have been causing havoc in Deliverance, complete with a brand-new alien appearance designed by Percival, before everything comes to a head in the final episode… so, let’s see what Nick has to say about that his latest encounter with Death and the gang…

NICK PERCIVAL: We finally get to Part 10 and the series finale, so I wanted to do something a bit special for the last cover artwork. I pitched a wraparound cover with the four Dark Judges fighting each other. It was great fun to do and you get a good look at all of them using their various abilities against each other, which I don’t think I’ve ever seen before.

Dave Hine’s ending for the series really lent itself to some cool images, so it was a nice send off (for now!) of the gruesome foursome.

The cover and this episode also gave me another chance to show off the new alien based designs for Fear, Fire and Mortis which was such an integral part of the series and takes them in a bit of a different direction which is something we intend to explore down the line.

I’m busy on a three-part Judge Dredd storyline for 2000AD at the moment (another dark, spooky one) and Dave and I have already been chucking ideas around for where we can take the Dark Judges next. We’ve come up with a very cool premise that hopefully we can start fleshing out very soon.

It’s cool to be back on Dredd but I can’t leave those four bad lads alone for long – who knows what they’ll get up to…?

Ssssee you ssssoon…

And that’s that… with that, he was gone, cackling to himself and surrounded by four dark shadows, whispering into his ear… maybe that’s where the Percival Droid gets his ideas from?

Thanks to Nick for sharing the dastardly insssspiration – and also these wonderfully grotesque process bits from the cover… first up, the full-cover rough, followed by Nick’s finished piece, and then… because you need to see these things up close and personal… some blow-ups of the artwork.

I’d say don’t have nightmaresssss… but that that’s sort of the whole point of the Dark Judges, don’t you think?

If you want more of Nick’s incredible cover work, have a look at previous Covers Uncovered pieces, including for Megazine 425, Megazine 427, and Megazine 430,

You can catch the cover to Judge Dredd Megazine 433 on the shelves right now! So what are you waiting for, head to your local newsagent, run to your local comic shop, or just do the clicky for the 2000 AD web shop!

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

This week – it’s Dylan Teague with the scrotnig cover for 2000 AD Prog 2236, with a damn serious looking Dredd packing a little bit of hardware… you can get hold of the cover when it hits the shelves and the 2000 AD web shop on 16 June!

For quite a while, Dylan’s been appearing on the cover as his lush colours have been making Cliff Robinson’s stunning covers look as good as they do, but it’s great to see his own brilliant work getting the attention it deserves there on the cover, especially when it’s a perfect Dredd.

Dylan’s artwork hasn’t just been gracing the cover of 2000 AD though, he’s also recently been on the inside pages with the art duties for last week’s Judge Dredd strip, Brief Encounter, written by Ken Niemand, a perfect little tale of love blossoming amongst the perps on the holding posts… looking something like this…

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Now, over to Dylan for the breakdown of putting the cover together for Prog 2236… it’s a quick one this week, but that doesn’t mean the artwork’s any less wonderful!

I asked Tharg if he was looking for any covers and he said he could do with a backup Dredd cover. These type of covers are always useful to have in the drawer.

I’d done a sketch of Dredd that I was quite pleased with and I thought I could use it as a basis for the cover…

I scanned it in and used it as a base to start drawing the cover in Clip Studio. I added in a background using the ever helpful perspective rulers and sent a black and white rough to Tharg.

He was happy with the rough so I went ahead and finished it all up. I’ve always loved drawing Mega City one so I had a great time on the background of this.

And that’s it from Dylan – simple sketch, quick email, add a background, finish it up… and that’s it. Except, when I try and do that, Tharg ends up first splitting his sides laughing and then sends me back down to the lower levels of the Nerve Centre!

Thanks to Dylan Teague for that – a fabulous cover from a great artist. It’s one of the great Dredd images of the year so far!

Like Dylan says, it all starts off with the sketch he did, although frankly calling it a sketch is underselling it all just that little bit…

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