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!

It’s the summer spectacular of stories from a sideways universe! Yes, it’s July and that means the 2000 AD Sci-Fi Special is back for 2024! On the fabulous Mike Perkins cover – Judge Alpha!

It’s a 48-page spectacular of zarjaz strips with a difference – beamed from another dimension and harnessed by the power of Tharg where the five strips take familiar characters from the GGC and mixes, merges, melds, and smashes them together to give you something special, spectacular, and strange!

So expect to see the new Law in MC-1, when you get to meet the kick-ass Judge Alpha; uncover an all-new way of robo-hunting with Sinister and Dexter, the Robo-Sharks; experience Search/Destroy bounty hunting like never before as Friday is hunted for a crime he didn’t commit in Rogue/Dog; take to the high seas for adventures on the Red Wench with Stickleback; and gasp in amazement/bewilderment at the most violent sport of the future, taking Aero Ball to incredible/ridiculous heights with The Harlem Zombos!

All of that’s inside the 2024 Sci-Fi Special. But first, to talk us through a thriller of a cover… Mike Perkins…

MIKE PERKINS: ‘Judge Alpha?  Johnny Alpha as a Judge? And you’re asking if I’d be interested in producing a cover of this? – Who do I pay?’

Okay… I didn’t say that last bit but I’m sure it shot around my brain. 

Art droids everywhere wince at words such as these as they know Tharg will take note of the whole idea of the droids paying him instead of the other way round!

But we absolutely get what Mike means – who wouldn’t jump at the chance of showing us JUDGE ALPHA?!?!

Okay, back to Mike…

MIKE PERKINS: Tharg kind of knew what he was looking for, but I cobbled together a few roughs playing with established Strontium Dog images.

I, kind of, really wanted the crossed holster but it would have obscured too much of the Judge uniform.

I DID want the Westinghouse, though, and found the perfect image on the Termight Replicas page...

The single Alpha image was chosen from the roughs but the two previous recent covers I’d illustrated for Rebellion had been medium-range, straight-ahead shots, and I was wary of repeating that so I approached it as a more confrontational pose.

I did finish up a full-colour version of the cover too – but then decided on the gray and red version as it stood out much more strongly.

Johnny Alpha wasn’t in the Prog when I first starting getting it every week (from Prog 240) …probably because Carlos was busy on The Apocalypse War – BUT I was aware of him from the annuals and it wasn’t long before I’d bought all the previous issues and caught up with those other 239 Thrill-packed progs.

He’s always been a firm favourite …now if only I could get a Robo Hunter cover…

Well there you go – next up for the Perkins droid – Robo-Hunter. Tharg can make it so!

Thank you so much for Mike for sending along all that – it’s a ghafflebette cover worthy of the once a year magic that it the 2000 AD Sci-Fi Special! You can find it on the shelves right now – everywhere Thrill Power is sold, including the 2000 AD web shop.

If you want more Covers Uncovered from Mike we’ve a couple of gorgeous ones for you – here’s his most recent, the 2023 Christmas Judge Dredd Megazine, issue 463.  There’s also his splendid 2017 FCBD cover here.

Seriously, he’s just not done enough for 2000 AD! Tharg, Tharg… Mike’s after a Robo-Hunter, you can sort that, right?

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!

It’s the absolutely final EVER episode of Proteus Vex as Michael Carroll and Jake Lynch bring you the zarjaz double-length conclusion of Devious – and it’s Toby Willsmer bringing you a suitably thrilling cover for that finale…

Over the last few years, Proteus Vex has delivered perfection as a ghafflebette epic sci-fi saga, documenting the galaxy-spanning events of the empires of the Imperium Alliance, the Scorchers, and the Citheronians, and just what part Imperium Alliance agent Vex has to play in it all. It’s been a stunning series, full of everything you could want from something truly vast in proportions.

Originally co-created by Michael Carroll and Henry Flint, artist Jake Lynch has been onboard since the first tale, and now Carroll and Flint bring the whole thing to a suitably thrilling conclusion in Prog 2389, under that fittingly perfect cover from Toby Willsmer.

Although Toby’s a New Zealand-based artist, his formative years in the UK gave him a love of 2000 AD that he’s been regularly bringing to the cover of the Prog for a few years now, not to mention dazzling your eyeballs on several strips, including Robo-Hunter in the zombie takeover tale The Darkest Judge, Cadet Dredd in Prog 2325, and a Regened Future Shock in Prog 2346.

But now… as we say a fond farewell to Proteus Vex… over to Toby to tell you all about the cover…

TOBY WILLSMER: Matt asked if I’d like to do a Proteus Vex cover and as this was to be his last appearance he was after an action-packed idea.

I’m a big fan of Jake Lynch’s work on Vex and jumped at the chance to go all out on a farewell cover.

I start with the usual mess in the sketchbook to get the ball rolling. I had a lot of ideas for different action scenes but settled on three that I thought I could pack some action into.

I took the ideas, opened up the trusty cover template and loosely drew them into something that Matt could choose from…

Matt chose number 1 and, as happens more often than not, I went back to my original scribbles as I felt they captured the dynamic I was looking for and refined the idea from there.

I wanted to use some vibrant colour in this and I put together a colour scheme that I intended to use and sent them off to Matt to run them past his eyes.

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With Matt happy I went ahead and drew up the line work and added some basic shadows and values...

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From there it’s onto all the fun stuff, adding the planned colour, lighting and details until it’s all done.

As I painted it I changed the exploding robot at the bottom making it a little more curvy in places as I felt it was too ‘boxy’ looking...

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As this was to be the last outing of the odd-looking Mr Vex. I wanted to do something to give it a little extra oomph.

I asked Matt if he was up for shattering the logo to connect the action and logo together. Matt was down for the idea and sent me over the logo for some shattering.

I had way too much fun doing this one!

Oh yes, there’s always something very special to see that logo-smashing going on. And Toby’s delivered a cover that really does mark that final Proteus Vex perfectly – thanks so much to Toby for sending it to us.

Prog 2389 is out on 3 July 2024 and available anywhere and everywhere Thrill Power is sold, including the 2000 AD web shop.

Now, if you want to see more art from Toby you can see his Art Stars winning entry here and there’s more Covers Uncovered here – Prog 2240, Prog 2262, Prog 2269, Prog 2318, Prog 2332, and Prog 2352. And you can find out more about him here.

As for more on Proteus Vex – we interviewed Mike Carroll and Henry Flint about the very first story here, and you can read a ‘Who is Proteus Vex?’ character primer here.

You can read Proteus Vex’s first stories in a collected edition, Another Dawn, which collects the first two storylines – Another Dawn and Shadow Chancellor. And no doubt the rest of Vex’s incredible, galaxy-spanning, epic sci-fi adventures with get the collected treatment in the months to come!

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!

Inside the Prog we’re up to part 3 of Rogue Trooper: Souther Belle by Geoffrey T Wessel and Dan Cornwell in a return to Nu Earth and the never-ending war between the Norts and the Southers. Created by the Southers to survive the poisonous wastes of Nu Earth, Rogue is the last of the Genetic Infantrymen. Together with the biochips of his fallen comrades in arms, Helm, Gunnar, and Bagman, they’re searching for the traitor that sold them out. 

But along the way to finding the Traitor General, there’s more stories to be told and we’re right in the middle of one of those here, as Rogue is on a rescue mission to track down the mysterious and deadly voice of the Nort propaganda broadcast Souther Belle. Rogue and the bio-chips have identified the voice as one of the female G.I. ‘Dolls’ – but will Rogue get there in time? And is all really as it sounds? Well, for that you’re going to have to be reading Souther Belle

But now, let’s peruse the incredible artwork from Andy Clark for this week’s Prog cover… the return of the big blue Nort-killing machine…

According to Andy, the brief for this one was simple… 

‘I think Matt’s brief for this one was something like “Rogue kneeling firing towards us”.’ 

And with that in mind, the Clarke droid set about working up a couple of rough cover ideas…

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Tharg – or at least his Earthly representative, Cyber-Matt – gives the nod to version 2 and Andy sets about doing his thing.

Just for a change for the art droids, this one was all pretty simple – going from pencils to figure inks to putting it all together with greytones…

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Then comes the final stages, adding colours, first flats and then final colour before doing what Andy’s previously described as poking and prodding until it all starts to come together or ‘A lot of mucking about and hoping, in other words.’

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Of course, despite it all sounding wonderfully simple, the art droids always manage to find a bit of a black cloud on an otherwise beautiful day and it seems the Clarke droid is no exception, signing off the latest missive with all this gorgeous art with this…

‘It didn’t come out as I hoped – but I like the texture in the landscape.’

There’s just something about artists that makes you want to give them a big hug and tell them it’s all good. And then you send in Mek-Quake to get them back to work, expecting them to make something this damn good…

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So thank you so much to Andy for sending along the art that all went into creating such a great cover that you’ll find on shelves galaxy-wide from 26 June, as well as the 2000 AD webshop.

As for more Covers Uncovered action from Andy, be sure to have a look at his covers for Prog 2287, Prog 2290, Prog 2312, and Megazine 444. And then there’s that gorgeous triumvirate of covers for the soon-to-be-collected and rather excellent Smash! that Andy was responsible for– issue 1, issue 2, and issue 3. Oh, and you can get hold of Smash! The Broxteth Devil on 11 September.

And finally, here’s the full size versions of those initial roughs from Andy plus a little close-up Rogue… but before those, just something that Andy drew our attention to already, the rather strangely beautiful textural work on the landscape behind Rogue – greytones, flats, colours, and final version…

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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!

We’re off to take a look at the new Judge Dredd Megazine cover now – with the return of zarjaz cover star Alex Ronald and Mega-City 2099, taking us back to the earliest days of Dredd in 2000 AD!

Mega-City 2099 takes us back to the very first Dredd strips in the Prog, with a whole new set of adventures imagined by some of the finest script and art droids with that classic 1977 look and feel!

The new Mega-City 2099 inside Megazine 469 is by Ken Niemand and Conor Boyle, but on the cover this month, giving his very finest classic retro Dredd, we have superstar 2000 AD cover artist extraordinaire… Alex Ronald.

After an initial spell at 2000 AD in the mid-90s, Alex left for a second career in computer graphics, only to find the lure of Tharg too all-powerful, returning with a very different digital style and becoming one of the Mighty One’s specialist cover artists. And speaking of covers, here’s Alex to tell you all about this one…

ALEX RONALD: This cover is based on the Mega City 2099 strips so my first port of call was back to ZBrush to re-work the Dredd model I use for composition...

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ALEX RONALD: As you can see from the headshot, the early 70s style helmet is more rounded like a biker helmet and I reworked Dredd’s face to bring it more in line with the early look defined by Carlos Ezquerra and Mike McMahon.

My first draft for the cover was very close to what happens in the featured story, a giant superhuman lifting a Mega City police vehicle above his head and attacking the officers.

I have Dredd checking the pulse of an officer as the giant is reflected in a nearby window. 

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ALEX RONALD: In the end, I felt this might work okay as a story page panel but didn’t necessarily make a good cover image.

The final cover idea came from a panel from the very first Dredd story, but not the first printed. 

Yep… this one in fact, from the master, Carlos Ezquerra…

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ALEX RONALD: There’s a great low angle on Dredd drawn by Carlos firing his lawgiver. I based my cover on this but flipping the side so Dredd would be facing the right of the page rather into the spine.

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ALEX RONALD: My rough has Dredd on his own but by the time I went to painting up the full-colour image I thought it would add more value to add in the cops who had featured in the story.

Anyway I hope you like it, I had a lot of fun doing this one.

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Oh, we like it a lot! A mighty fine retro-inspired cover there from Alex! Thanks so much to Alex for taking the time to send over his art and talk to us about what he did. You can find the new Judge Dredd Megazine, issue 469, on the stands at your local newsagent, comic shop, and on the 2000 AD web shop right now!

If you want to read more about Judge Dredd 2099, we interviewed original series artist, Conor Boyle, here. And as for more from Alex, there’s been plenty of Covers Uncovered from one of 2000 AD’s modern cover specialists… Prog 2191, Prog 2206, Prog 2255, Prog 2294, Prog 2306, Prog 2353, Prog 2365, Prog 2372, and for Megazine 435 and 462.

Now, a little extra… going in close to some of Alex’s art…

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

This week, as we get to the ghafflebette finale to Ken Niemand and Nick Percival’s six-part run of Judge Dredd: Iron Teeth, it’s time to experience the classically grotesque art of another Percival cover…

Over six parts, Iron Teeth has taken Dredd (and us) down to the depths of the Undercity in a search for missing juves and to uncover the horrors to be found down in the darkness. And there’s no better artist when you’re looking for horrors and darkness than Nick Percival.

Between them, Ken & Nick are on a mission to bring even more of all things truly terrifying to Dredd, having started with The House On Bleaker Street (Progs 2247-2249) and then with Iron Teeth for the last six weeks. And as for what’s next… well, there are plans and there are plots, and then there’s the final page reveal that you’re all going to love on in this week’s Dredd!

Nick recently had this to say about what ‘s coming… ‘But yeah, we know what comes next and if The Mighty One is game, we’re ready to start scaring folks once again. I have some seriously dark stuff ready that will make Iron Teeth look like Aunt May, so I’m good to go.’

But no more teasing, over to Nick for the skinny on his latest cover…

NICK PERCIVAL: It’s the final episode, so nothing hiding in the shadows anymore and we fully reveal Iron Teeth. For this cover, I wanted a little more action than the previous two cover paintings, since this is the climax of the story and Dredd and Iron Teeth finally face off.

So, in best panto tradition, “he’s behind you!”

I thought a nice shot of Iron Teeth leaping out the darkness, attacking Dredd would work. (Full disclaimer – this actual scene doesn’t happen exactly like this in this episode but I did the cover before I got the final script, so there you go)

Anyway, you can see from the loose rough that all the elements are there for Tharg to approve. Big Dredd as the central image and a bit of a Dutch angle to the image to give it a more dynamic feel.

I guess this scene is the moment just before Dredd reacts to the attack – the second before he’d start blasting away with his Lawgiver – I should do a before and after image but in the episode you see how Dredd manages to take down the evil creature -with a little help from his Poundland C-3PO robot sidekick.

I wanted a cool palette for this one, so blues and greys, hopefully giving it a nice moody, spooky, almost mystical feel, keeping the tone that’s been established for the whole story and sticking with the underground setting.

So, that wraps it all up (for now) with a slightly longer episode and our reveal (spoiler!) on the last page as a certain evil, supernatural fella makes his return. I had a lot of fun working with Ken on this and taken as whole, you can see this is just the set up for much more terrifying things to come for Dredd…

Thanks to Nick for sharing yet another cover to send a proper chill all the way down your spine – you can find it right now wherever Thrill Power is sold, including the 2000 AD web shop.

We’ve talked to Nick twice here about Iron Teeth, with a great interview about the storyline here and his Covers Uncovered for Prog 2382 here.

Now, for more of Nick talking all things comics and art, there’s plenty more interviews waiting for you – He talked about his six years drawing those Dark Judges  here, plus Nick and David Hine talked Dark Judges: Deliverance here and Death Metal Planet here. And if you’re after something all together more audio and/or visual, Molch-R talks to Hine and Percival about all things Dark Judges in the 2000 AD Thrill-Cast Lockdown Tapes here.

Then there’s a real treasure trove of terror in Nick’s collection of Covers Uncovered pieces – beautiful never looked this terrifying before…Prog 2247, Megazine 425, Megazine 427, Megazine 430, Megazine 433, Megazine 430, Megazine 443, Megazine 448, Megazine 453, Megazine 456, and Megazine 458.

And finally, Nick was good enough to send along some of his process work for a select few portions of Iron Teeth part 6… He even sent along images of the final page very special reveal that will no doubt play a BIG part in all things fearful for future Niemand & Percival Dredds. But there’s no way I’m risking the wrath of our Betelgeusian overlord and beloved purveyor of all things Thrill Power by showing you that! You’ll just have to enjoy the big reveal in this week’s Prog!

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

This week it’s another ghafflebette cover by the one and only John McCrea (with colours by Jack Davies) for Prog 2386, so overflowing with Thrill Power that it’s turned into a special extra-length 48-page Prog with seven zarjaz strips inside.

One of the new strips – you’ll have guessed from the cover – is a brand-new multi-part thriller featuring everyone’s favourite blue-skinned G.I. – the return of Rogue Trooper in Souther Belle by Geoffrey D. Wessel and Dan Cornwell. We’re back on Nu-Earth and back with Rogue, Gunnar, Helm, and Bagman, investigating a mysterious and familiar voice that’s going to send Rogue off on a rescue mission deep into Nord territory.

For those of you worried about the mental health of the McCrea art droid after that slight circuit meltdown with the last cover, you’ll be pleased to know in advance that this one went a LOT more smoothly…

JOHN MCCREA: This cover was originally a commission that I did about four years ago. I was very pleased with it and after the news of the Rogue Trooper film, and guessing that there would be new material appearing in 2000 AD, I decided to send the picture in to Matt and see if he wanted to use it. Happily he did.

I often look around for a visual cue or idea that I think might give me the hook on which to base my cover. I Googled pictures of Vietnam as that’s the real conflict I think of when I think of Rogue’s war. This was the photo that made me sense the image that I wanted.

As you can see it’s just not simply tracing the drawing but just the idea of it that I needed to jump off, and this was the pencil drawing that resulted from that picture.

I’m not entirely sure why I made Rogue left-handed, but I’d imagine all Genetic Infantry are ambidextrous. It’s certainly a trait I would build in if I was creating the perfect soldier. There, I’ve solved my problem. 

I lightboxed my pencil sketch, and tightened it up, getting Gunnar right. He’s a tricky gun to draw, and I am sure I got the perspective wrong on the ammo clip. Not that I noticed at the time, sadly.

As with most things I’m doing when I’m inking myself, I kept the pencils reasonably loose and energetic, even in the redraw. The background is just shapes, an idea of the masses involved – rubble strewn ground is my bread and butter!

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Next I started inking, using a Mitsubishi unipin fine line pen…

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I finished the inking with a Zig Scroll and Brush for the heavier black areas and for thickening up the outlines. I dropped a gas mask in on the ground to imply the Nort menace…

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I then added a grey wash using watered down Indian ink. I thought this gave the picture more of a swirling, hazy feel that suited the subject. You can also see here that I altered Rogue’s right foot at this stage, it needed widening to give it more weight.

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When Matt confirmed that he was going to use the picture, I realised that I had not drawn it to 2000 AD proportions, so I extended the scan image using Photoshop. You can also see I finally remembered to clean up the correction lines on the right foot!

Once that was done it was off to Jack for colouring. 

I loved what Jack did with the color palette, but as you can see from this picture I am a fussy bastard! However, I think the end result was worth it.

Thankfully a hell of a lot simpler than the monumental exercise in getting it just right as the last cover! Thanks so much to John for sending all that through and it’s yet another in a series of really great character portraits of the finest of 2000 AD.

Prog 2386 is out right now and available in all the usual places you find your Thrill-Power, including the 2000 AD web shop.

If you want more Covers Uncovered from John, there’s plenty here to bring before your eyeballs – Prog 2024, Prog 2224, Prog 2328, Prog 2351, Prog 2361, not forgetting the near-breakdown inducing cover for Prog 2380’s Aquila cover, and his fabulous Armitage for Judge Dredd Megazine, issue 467.

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 one but two art droids – Pye Parr and PJ Holden – collaborating on the brand-new Intestinauts cover to 2000 AD Prog 2385…

Pye Parr and Arthur Wyatt’s Intestinauts have returned for more bowel-bothering brilliance in their latest series – Busted Flush – that reaches part 4 in this week’s Prog 2285.

Usually called in for oral application for those tummy troubles, the Intestinauts are miraculous micro-droids who do battle in the nightmarish conditions of your GI tract. But in Busted Flush, they’ve found themselves in unfamiliar territory, as the Instestolab is compromised and they’ve no choice but to do battle with the terrifying Omega-Genocide-Four.

As for the cover and why it’s both Pye and PJ Holden involved… we’ll let Pye & PJ tell you the tale…

PYE PARR: Initially I was going to draw this myself, but deadlines being what they are (and my time-keeping being what it is…), I realised about a week from the print date I was never going to get it drawn in time, so I asked PJ if he could save me from the wrath of The Mighty One and do all the hard work for me.

Luckily he could, and did it with style!

I sent him the rough Matt had approved, plus some ref from the strip pages and we went from there.

PYE PARR: Nobody else has drawn Intestinauts before, so I was quite excited to see what he came up with. I think the only thing I asked for was the brain on a separate layer to the dudes so I could knock back the linework.

Being a TruePro(tm) he smashed it, improving on the rough by bringing one of the robots forward to give it a bit more depth. 10/10, no notes. 

PJ HOLDEN: So Pye phones me, and says “Oi! Mate, can yer do me a cover, quick like, for the mighty one doth protest mightily at my tardiness!” and I says, “But you don’t have a TARDIS” and he says, “No, tardy – TARDY” and I says, “Wow, mate, I don’t think you can use that word no more, as it’s pretty offensive”.

So then he emails me, asking if I can do him a cover, and the fool that he is attaches his rough, and I take one look at it and think – but I can bang this out in 10 minutes? And he’s gonna pay me for that? What an eejit.

PYE PARR: HA!! I think the important thing is: it may have taken you 10 minutes, but it would have taken me about 4 hours, and I didn’t have ’em!

PJ HOLDEN: So then I drop his rough into clip studio, drop an image from Wikipedia of a brain over it, and then just sort of trace it and turn it around in an hour and a half (because I had to stop halfway through to have a sandwich and do some messages, and have a nap) and send him the inks.

PJ HOLDEN: Largely I just inked over his roughs, but I did think the two little ’nauty bots floating side by side could do with a bit of jussin’ up, so I drew one like he was a bit closer and one a bit further. We talked a little about trying to get some depth in to the picture.

PJ HOLDEN: My email to Pye about this read “Bit busy-looking in the centre but all elements are layered, so you can play with that a bit and blur some of it…” – i.e., fix it in the colours, mate! I knew no matter what a mess I made Pye was gonna colour it lovely and it would look great, and I was right.

PYE PARR: He did it with days to spare too, but time was so tight at my end I had to colour it on the day of the print deadline.

PYE PARR: I remember phoning Matt at about 5.30, and the way he answered the phone very much suggested he was expecting bad news… 

“H-hello…” 
“IT’S DONE!!” 
“OH, thank God!” 

Hah. 

Very much taking it to the limit – but sometimes greatness takes time! Thank you so much to both Pye and PJ for taking the time. Hopefully the punishment from Tharg won’t be too damaging to mind, body, and soul!

You can see what nearly gave Tharg’s Earthly representative conniptions on the shelves, real and virtual, everywhere the Mighty One’s finest is sold, including the 2000 AD web shop.

For more about those incredible Intestinauts, always there to alleviate your alimentary ailments, look no further than this interview with Arthur and Pye from 2021 and you can see & hear them chat all things Intestinauts on the Thrill Cast here and here.

For even more of Pye Parr’s artwork on Covers Uncovered – take a look at these – Megazine 443, Prog 2230, and Prog 2275. And to see how PJ Holden puts his covers together, we have these for your consideration – Covers Uncovered work, complete with the previous exploits of Chimpsky – Prog 2178, Prog 2221, Prog 2234, Prog 2301, and Prog 2308.

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!

Another zarjaz Nick Percival cover this week for the cover of 2000 AD Prog 2384, Earthlets, with Dredd stalking through the undercity in search of Iron Teeth…

We’re up to part three of the six-part Judge Dredd: Iron Teeth by Ken Niemand and Nick Percival, and Dredd’s deep in the undercity looking for those juves who’ve got themselves mixed up with the nightmarish urban legend made oh so real, Iron Teeth. And if you’re talking nightmarish, there’s few artists out there who do it as well as Nick does!

Nick apologises for this one being a bit of a quickie, but that’s because he was busy stealing a moment from Tharg to answer a few interview questions for us about this latest Dredd series, his art, and what it’s like to be bringing the horror to Dredd! So we’ll forgive him that. Tharg though? Well, our Betelgeusian boss might not be so forgiving and then Nick’s really going to experience a nightmare all his own!

Okay then, without further ado… Nick Percival…

NICK PERCIVAL: We’re hitting the middle of the story, so time to finally get a clear reveal of Dredd’s new nemesis, Iron Teeth.

I wanted a big, punchy close-up of the creature’s face, leaving nothing to the imagination and here he is. Of course, we need Dredd on there too, so the the image was always going to be a montage piece with Dredd on the hunt in the foreground and Iron Teeth’s ugly mug taking up the lion’s share of the piece.

As with all my cover roughs, everything is very loose, just to get the idea down quick and give Tharg an idea of what he’ll be getting.

I wanted a very different colour palette from Part 1’s cover, so went for blues as the dominant colour. Since Iron Teeth is a supernatural being, the plan was to give it a slightly hazy, mystical feel, with the swirling blue mist and so on.

Hopefully it stands out on the shelves and makes you want to dive into the spooky stuff inside…

And that’s it folks! Short but sweet… well, not sweet so much as a hideous vision of what Dredd’s having to deal with right now, but you get the idea!

Thanks so much to Nick for taking the time and sending the art over for this one. You can find it out right now everywhere Thrill Power is sold, including the 2000 AD web shop.

As for more of Nick’s Covers Uncovered work, there’s plenty to be looking at – start off with the most recent, his intro to Iron Teeth on the wrapround cover of Prog 2382 and then take a look at these – Prog 2247, Megazine 425, Megazine 427, Megazine 430, Megazine 433, Megazine 430, Megazine 443, Megazine 448, Megazine 453, Megazine 456, and Megazine 458.

We’ve also interviewed Nick a few times – he talks about finishing six years worth of work on the Dark Judges work here and we’ve talked to Nick and Dark Judges’ writer David Hine about two Dark Judges storylines – Deliverance here and Death Metal Planet here. And finally, Molch-R talks to Hine and Percival about all things Dark Judges in the 2000 AD Thrill-Cast Lockdown Tapes here.   

Finally, as has become a thing now, time to zoom in to that fabulously horrific artwork to really send a shiver down your spine…

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, not one but two Brink covers from Brink series artist INJ Culbard – for the new Prog 2383 and his last cover for Prog 2379. Both perfectly, absolutely, brilliantly Brink…

Throughout Brink’s previous five books, Dan Abnett and INJ Culbard have delivered something perfect – a sci-fi thriller and a crime noir procedural in a universe where the last of humanity has been forced to evacuate to overpopulated space station habitats, the Habs. Against an ever-more nightmarish world of sect-crime and madness, we’ve been with Habitat Security Officer Bridget Kurtis from the start, watching with her as things get strange and as Mercury went dark.

Now we’re into Brink Book Six: Consumed, with Kurtis part of a team finally tasked with delving deeper into what happened with Mercury and where the sects come into it all. But before all that, we have Kurtis on a 10-day stopover on Belleholme Hab. Bonner’s off enjoying the golf.

Kurtis? Well, she’s always one to find trouble no matter where she is, and it’s usually sect-related…

We’ve had a few weeks of Brink: Consumed by now and two excellent Culbard covers. But Tharg has been even stricter later with the art droids and reckons they should be grateful for the regularly scheduled breaks they get – after all, what could an art droid do with more than 30 minutes every couple of weeks?

All that means that this week you get a two-for-one – two incredible Prog covers, one zarjaz artist. So, without further ado, over to Ian, starting with Prog 2379…

INJ CULBARD: I’m going to talk about the first two covers I’ve done for the Prog in relation to Brink: Consumed (Book Six). 

The brief for the first was simple. Habitat in space, the mouth we see in Book Five and on the first page of this series to be seen as if consuming (as per the title for this run) the Habitat itself.

So I responded quickly to the brief with the following image (and a brief explanation in case it wasn’t clear what I’d drawn). I have a general layout I’ve been following since… I can’t think when. Certainly, Book Five, where there’s a circular centre to the composition.

Oh no Ian, it’s way, way further back than that – right the way back to Prog 1989 we reckon.

INJ CULBARD: Part of the reason I do this is because I know that any one of these covers is likely to serve as the cover to the next collected volume and if you look at the Brink logo on those books, it has this curving crescent that cuts through it, so I’m covering all my bases. I’m ensuring it can work for either cover, for the Prog or the collection. 

I got the thumbs up to go ahead.

The initial pass was too cartoony. I think I deleted it. Gone forever. Good riddance. Instead of the heavenly maelstrom, I ended up working the fur into a dissolve into black starry background for the final thing, so here’s all that fur work… 

And then to color, working with the established palette. So, in all, a really simple process.

The next one, not so much. That was way harder for some reason. 

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Next brief: The sigils and some drops of blood from the slaughterhouse. 

So I knew we would see the faces of Bridge and Wade reflected in these drops of blood, and so I quickly sent over the following image.

I got approval and then proceeded. And what I ended up with I simply didn’t like.

I happen to still have it on my desktop so I’ll show you that now so you can see what a difference self-doubt and second-guessing makes.

It just didn’t work for me. Too messy? Too close?

So I went back to the drawing board, and took a step back both in terms of assessment but also visually, scaling the characters down so they were further away and showing more of the building behind them, warping in the volume of this blob of blood, not colouring the line… just keeping with the drawing.

Throwing in some pedestrians, giving the eye more work to do.

So you’ve got this guy (second on the left) wearing a Roscoe’s hat… if you remember Book Five, we briefly see that Roscoe’s is a no-tell hotel and everything is very pink and magenta in that hotel, so that guy’s wearing pink tinted shades, so I guess everywhere is like being in Roscoe’s for him. I don’t know about you but when I see extras/bit parts in stories I start giving them little biographies.

And then colours, again using established palettes, but I liked the way reflective surfaces are portal-like. So she’s observing and everything is back to front, kind of where she’s at in the investigation, you sort of think you know what you’re looking at but something isn’t quite right.  

Wow – two covers to double your Thrill Power! So many thanks to Ian for sending them our way. They’re both absolutely stunning, perfect covers to show off one of the greatest modern tales of the Prog!

You can find 2000 AD Prog 2383 wherever you pick up your weekly dose of Ghafflebette comics, including the 2000 AD web shop from 17 August. And if you happened to miss Prog 2279 – how about checking out a subscription to guarantee you’ll never miss any more of the Galaxy’s Greatest?

Of course, you REALLY, REALLY need to have all five volumes of Brink in your life and on your shelves – a stunning series that rewards repeated reading so well – buy them here – Brink Book One, Brink Book Two, Brink Book Three, Brink Book Four, Brink Book Five.

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Finally, be sure to check out all of Ian’s Covers Uncovered pieces for Brink – 2000 AD Prog 1978 & Prog 1989, 2000 AD Prog 2039, 2000 AD Prog 2272, 2000 AD Prog 2278, 2000 AD Prog 2284, 2000 AD Prog 2295.

And now, more covers from Ian from Brink over the years – perfect to see what Ian’s talking about with the circular design features…

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! Time to head over to the Judge Dredd Megazine for this latest Covers Uncovered – with Megazine 468 adorned by the latest incredible John Higgins art for the new series of Dreadnoughts – Nothing To Fear…

The third series of Michael Carroll and John Higgins’ Drednoughts starts right now in this month’s Megazine with Nothing To Fear. We’re right back to the very start of the Justice Department once more, right back to the difficult transition faced by America as democracy falls and the rule of the Judges takes hold.

Except this time, we’ve moved from seeing how Judge Glover dispensed Justice in Colorado and on to Judge Beckett, riding into a small town in Wyoming that’s just not ready for the new regime at all.

It’s 2035 AD – Obey the law and you’ll have nothing to fear… yeah, right…

As John will tell you in a moment, he’s not been able to send along a full set of process images for this one, just the final image worked up – it’s a case of Tharg’s art droids just keeping their heads down and drawing, drawing, drawing. Well, wouldn’t you with Mek-Quake lumbering over you threateningly?

But still – plenty of process to look at for what’s become another really quite stunning series of Dreadnoughts covers.

First things first though, it all started with Tharg’s Earthly representative getting in touch with an idea for what was required…  

JOHN HIGGINS: The cover started with Matt’s “I was thinking of a moody shot of a Judge silhouetted by rain and lightning”

We tried a couple of ideas, with full body and more abstract silhouetted which was moody but probably too abstract. I had done a depiction of Judge Beckett without his helmet, (colour by Sally Jane Hurst) and I liked the unflinching deep set eyes looking coldly out, it just sparked his character for me.

That’s this shot of Judge Beckett from a future episode…

JOHN HIGGINS: So for this cover I had him back in his Judges helm but kept the eyes. Matt felt it has the strength in the cover image he wanted, very “judgmental’ – you know that, in this guy’s eyes, you ARE found wanting!

I did a digital colour rough, I wanted to work out colour and wet detail.

The final physical painting I unfortunately forgot to photo at each stage, Sally Jane keeps telling me off for not doing that, but I was just head down going for it.

Well, Sally Jane, as always, is absolutely right John! So hopefully we’ll have more images to show you from the Higgins droid. As it is though, you have this fabulous set of process shots of the digital work, each stage adding layers and colours and details – leaving us with Judge Beckett giving us the epitome of ‘a moody shot of a Judge silhouetted by rain and lightning’ – just as requested!

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And all of that leads John to go physical for the final painting. No process of that, as John mentioned, but there is this absolute beauty of an image that we’ll end with…

Thanks so much to John for sending along this latest stunner of a cover through to us – you can find it everywhere Thrill Power is sold right now, comic shops, newsagents, and the 2000 AD webshop. You just won’t

For more on Dreadnoughts, be sure to take a look at another striking image with John’s Covers Uncovered for Megazine 429. And the first series of Dreadnoughts, Breaking Ground, with another gorgeous cover for Megazine 455 and Dreadnoughts: The March Of Progress. Plus, we’ve interviewed Michael Carrol and John Higgins about Dreadnoughts in print at the Megazine in issue 425. But that was a long, long interview that just wouldn’t fit in the Meg – luckily, we were able to put up all the extras right here. And finally, some entertainment for your eyes and ears – John was video-interviewed for 2000 AD’s From The Drawing Board here and Mike and John were interviewed for the Thrillcast Lockdown Tapes here.

And of course, you should absolutely be gazing lovingly to your bookshelf right now and seeing the first collection – Dreadnoughts: Breaking Ground. If you happen to be missing that, get with the clicky-clicky and buy it now from the 2000 AD web shop!