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2000 AD Covers Uncovered: Shadows of the past for Simon Davis and Durham Red with Prog 2327

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

This week, it’s the return of Simon Davis for a gorgeous cover for the new Durham Red strip, Mad Dogs, on its second episode right here in 2000 AD Prog 2327. Inside, writer Alec Worley and artist Ben Willsher are following up their 2021 Red story, Served Cold, with the mutant vamp facing the needle but about to get offered a lifeline.

So, faced with that bit of brilliance on the cover, we wanted to see how Simon had put it together…

SIMON DAVIS: Tharg asked me if I would like to do a cover for the latest Durham Red story and I jumped at the chance.

I’d never painted her before so was slightly intimidated by how brilliant the previous artists on the character had been. This includes, of course, Ben Willsher, who is doing the current run.

A tale of two Reds – Simon Davis’ cover rough honouring both Ben Willsher’s new version of Durham Red and Carlos Ezquerra’s classic!

Matt sent me some character references for both Ben’s work and Carlos’s as he quite liked the idea of a silhouette of Ezquerra’s older design behind the seated figure.

I did a couple of roughs and finally settled on a very simple seated pose. I took reference photos and painted the finished piece in oils on board.

And the fully painted final version by Simon

So there you go, short and sweet but looking damn fine!

Thanks so much for Simon to sending that one along – You can find 2000 AD Prog 2327 wherever you pick up your weekly dose of Ghafflebette comics, including the 2000 AD web shop from right now – go get your hands on it!

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2000 AD Covers Uncovered: Sometimes the buildings just aren’t melty enough – Steve Roberts on Prog 2325

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 both the all-ages Regened Prog and art droid Steve Roberts for the cover of 2000 AD Prog 2325 – with Dredd having a little trip to a dream world…

Inside the first all-ages edition of the Galaxy’s Greatest for 2023 there’s another case for Cadet Dredd, a return visit to the wizarding world of Lowborn High and the latest tale of the Mayflies, the gene engineered young clones who’ve escaped from the horrors of Nu Earth. You’ve also got a scrotnig Future Shock, Vin-E, Blow The Doors and a new Sam Slade prose adventure with the Robo-Hunter trying his hand at droid stand-up comedy.

And on the cover, we have the return of Steve Roberts – one of Tharg’s Droids from way back, whose art appeared on strips including Sinister Dexter, Bec and Kawl, Banzai Battalion, Angel Gang, and Black Atlantic while working on both the Prog and the Judge Dredd Megazine.

After those strips, Steve headed out of 2000 AD Towers and out of comics around 2010 to get involved in animation design work for Ragdoll Productions. At Ragdoll, he ended up working on The Adventures of Abney and Teal, Twirlywoos, B.O.T. and the Beasties, and co-created and wrote 50 episodes of the 2D animated show Dipdap – which went on to win a prestigious Childrens BAFTA award – not something many Droids can brag about! 

But the lure of 2000 AD is strong for ex-droids and Tharg welcomed him back into the fold recently with a Regened Future Shock in Prog 2246, followed by the Regend series with James Peaty, Scooter & Jinx. And now here he is again, for the latest great Regened cover – which all started with cover roughs of Dredd in a dream world…

Steve’s cover rough #1

STEVE ROBERTS: The brief for this Regened cover was Cadet Dredd in a dream world. So lots of weird/surreal stuff going on.

I had a thought about Looney Tunes cartoon backgrounds that I remembered looking quite surreal at times.

I also doodled down some doors hanging in space which is a little obvious as surreal/dream imagery. I was thinking about Alice in Wonderland too. And even though the door thing was a little predictable it was a fun opportunity to draw Dredd stepping through one door in the distance and coming out of another floating door in the foreground.

I also wanted to draw Dredd quite large in frame as something a bit different to last Regened cover I did for the Prog.

I think perhaps one of the reasons this idea wasn’t chosen is because it wasn’t dynamic and punchy enough for a Regened cover. It’s a bit of a static image. So on to cover rough #2…

Melty City! – Cover Rough #2 – the chosen one!

This was the one that ended up being chosen. The cover brief mentioned a possible melty city so I went for it with this one. Dredd’s pose is an excuse to draw his boots as big as possible! I love the way Mick McMahon draws Dredd, especially the chunky footwear!

I thought as this was a slightly unreal dreamy image I could really exaggerate the boots which would be fun. Dredd could be a bit distorted and bendy as well as the city. I also used to love drawing megacity one buildings when I first discovered 2000 AD so I was chuffed to be able to have a go at drawing some again.

Cover Rough #3 – Dredd just hanging around

Cover rough #3 was a variation on the Dredd hanging suspended in space but instead of a melting city I thought the city could be floating in pieces around him as if the buildings had come apart like a jigsaw. I possibly had Akira in mind with the floating pieces of building etc. I liked the idea of having a swirling colourful void-like background. That could go slightly 60s. A law master could be included too, floating about. I quite fancied having a go at drawing the original design Lawmaster.

However, I was quite relieved when this idea wasn’t chosen as I was a bit nervous about drawing the bike. Also looking at this again, I don’t think this Dredd pose is strong enough for a cover.

Cover Rough #4 – more of the melting city

Cover rough #4 was another melting city. In fact this is the city I developed for the final cover but I used the Dredd from rough number 2. I think the positioning and pose of Dredd from rough 2 is stronger than this one but I liked the road and cars in background so wanted to include them in the final art.

I was really looking forward to doing this cover and just got straight into it with minimal planning, which probably isn’t sensible, but usually happens when I’m really into an idea and really want to get going on it.

I especially didn’t do a lot of forward planning on the city design. Just went with it and enjoyed adding loads of detail.

I decided to use (digital) watercolour and (digital) pencil crayon for the background to set it back a little, make it dreamy, and create a disconnect from Dredd in the middle of the frame. I decided to use black line and flat colours for Dredd to keep it more graphic and clear and make him pop out from the busy background. So he looks like he is suspended in midair above the scene. I made the decision to just make the city distorted and surreal so I calmed down the size of Dredd’s boots and the slight distortion I had in the rough. Hopefully the wash of colours in the background produced a dreamy unusual atmosphere.

Actually the lack of initial planning did almost backfire as I realised after completing a few of the buildings in the foreground that they weren’t nearly melty enough! So I had to make sure that I upped the meltiness on the remaining building otherwise it would come out looking too normal. Especially as Mega-City One building are pretty surreal looking anyway!

Hopefully it all came together! It was fun to do.

So there you go, thanks so much to Steve for sending more Regened thrill power along to us. You can find 2000 AD Prog 2325 from anywhere the Galaxy’s Greatest is sold, including the 2000 AD web shop – it’s out on 29 March.

For more from Steve, be sure to cast your eyes over his other Covers Uncovered for Prog 2246 and get reading this interview where Steve and co-creator James Peaty talk about the Regened strip Scooter & Jinx.

Steve’s cover art for Prog 2246
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2000 AD *Characters* Uncovered – Going behind the scenes with Dan Abnett & Mark Harrison for the creation of The Out’s Cheeerio

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!

But sometimes the artist involved goes above and beyond and gives us so much in-depth stuff that it can’t be contained in Covers Uncovered alone.

So, when Mark Harrison sent along the design and development process for the new character of Cheerio in The Out with his latest Covers Uncovered for Prog 2323, we had to put it in front of you as a new, irregular, feature… welcome to CHARACTERS UNCOVERED!

For his latest Covers Uncovered Mark did his usual deep dive into the creative process, going into his thinking and design process for the deliberately cinematic cover, his homage to all those wonderful painted cinema posters.

But with Mark, he just can’t help himself and always loves to give us all more, more, more! Concerned that he hadn’t really given us that much (oh, what wonderful things these artists are!) Mark decided he needed to, in his words…

Pad it out with a little behind-the-scenes concept art for Cheerio who features on the cover, to give the readers an insight into the sort of brainstorming that happens between Dan and me on this series.’

What does that concept art look like?… well, like this of course!

[Don’t worry, we’ve posted it in bits later so you can read it all!]

Not only did he send that, but he also went into all the detail of the back and forth between himself and writer and co-creator of The Out, Dan Abnett, all about the creation of Cheerio!

We’ll get into that in a bit, but first, here’s our potted history of Cheerio… beginning with the very first time we met him, from the final page of The Out in Prog 2319…

Cheerio, ‘the weirdo in the mangy mascot suit,’ is some kind of space white van man, delivering what you need, when you need it.

He and Cyd have history – not that kind (says Cyd) – and he used to work for Galaxoco, hence the corporate costume…

And as for why, if he’s independent, he’s still in the suit – well, it’s complicated.

Again, let’s have Cheerio explain it for you…

So there you go, the potted history of Cheerio, Cyd’s friend – Cheerio says it was more – from way back.

Now, with Cyd desperate to get away from both the Unanima and the Zoto, Cheerio’s stepped in to rescue her, even though he needed the Zoto to get him out of the damn mascot suit…

Yep, mates.

Or is it more? Well, Cheerio certainly thinks it was/wants it to be… Cyd’s absolutely insistent that it was really just mates.

Could it be that Cyd’s not telling us everything?

Okay then, that’s your brief history of Cheerio.

Now it’s time to hand over to Mark Harrison for the background to the creation of the character.

MARK HARRISON: As an additional sideline to the cover, here is a look behind the scenes at the sort of work the reader doesn’t get to see; in this case conceptualising a companion to Cyd; Cheerio.  

Together Dan and I generate ideas for the synopsis Dan has sketched out, taking the form of a long free-form conversation where we just say stuff, and from that the synopsis is shaped (subject to A LOT of change), and from that a line or two about the introduction of a new character.   

A possible discarded idea from Book Two; an idea thrown out there of an alien detective helping Cyd in her early days in The Out looking for Joey. He would have been more streetwise, tooled up with guns and knives and have dealings with the criminal lowlifes  of the galaxy.  

More wonderful back and forth with Dan in email as we try to pin down the character:

From Mark: 
IDEA #3:  COMPANION:
Open with a big bear hug from a being we’ve yet to settle on, the detective/white van man that becomes a facilitator for Cyd in more ways than one. I’m thinking a big humanoid beaver… Space Ranger Pepe Le Pew.  Just to get you into trouble!

From Dan: 
“She manages, through sheer balls and bluff, to get off Zotol by hitching a ride with a medical delivery ship: basically an alien Han Solo who drives a spaceship “white van” – e.g. A bit dodgy and wide. His name is “Cheerio”…and she knows him. She hitched a ride with him in her early days in The Out.”

At this point, Cheerio is still a simple humanoid alien. I wanted to push a more alien look. Even hideous. Or the opposite. A romantic type- even boyfriend/girlfriend to Cyd.

From Dan: 
“… he IS a feline, and he IS a flirty Falstaff type. I think we have to downplay some of the innuendo, but I like the idea he’s got a crush on her which is what motivates him.” 

I wasn’t totally sold on the look of Cheerio in my mind as a big furball like Chewbacca so I thought how could we play with that…  wanting there to be a relationship with Cyd in the past, that he was like some musician living out of a van.  But I also wanted something conceptually alien, something that wasn’t defaulting to a human-centric viewpoint. I wanted something sci-fi about it. 

Then, to quote Dan Abnett:

“This is science fiction- we can do anything we like”. 

We could have both versions of Cheerio in the same character. Cheerio could be a mascot! A visually big alien Wombat-looking character with a more humanoid alien trapped inside. Literally a man in a suit. 

I loved the meta-humour of that and the juxtaposition. A rather dark idea; the hellish existence of a character trapped forever in something so seemingly cheerful and upbeat as a Disneyland character or football mascot yet, having made peace with that, bumbling his way through the galaxy.  

I worked out some sort of rules for the character (He was symbiotically linked so when the mouth was shut all senses were routed through the mascot suit) and came up with mannerisms (falling over – missing his (original) mouth with food and drink) to make the character more tragic and sympathetic. 

A companion and friend to Cyd, but definitely not a lover. So she says. 🙂 

Yep, so she says!

And as for the future of Cheerio, well, by Prog 2323 the Unanima have caught up with Cyd, Bag, and Cheerio and, well…

Which leads to this…

Oh heck.

What does it mean for Cheerio? What’s going to happen to Cyd? And will Bag ever get that deep clean and declutter that its so desperately wanting?

Well, as the saying goes, all this and more will be revealed in future episodes of The Out!

And that’s it folks – this week you not only got another deliciously deep dive into the mind of Mark Harrison for his cover to 2000 AD Prog 2323, but you also got a complete look at the creative process to come up with one of The Out’s most recent characters. Now that really is an artist going above and beyond!

Thank you so much to Mark, yet again, for the great insights he gives us and a special thanks to Dan Abnett for letting us use his email conversations!

For more here on 2000 AD.com concerning The Out, one of the Prog’s finest strips, destined to be a classic, be sure to have a read of the interview we did with Dan and Mark all about The Out right here. And don’t miss any of Mark’s endlessly fascinating Covers Uncovered pieces – Prog 2187Prog 2193Prog 2251Prog 2254Prog 2261, Prog 2314, and Prog 2317. And finally, if you’ve not had the pleasure yet or just want a copy of the finest new sci-fi strip from the Galaxy’s Greatest, go and get your copy of the first volume of The OUT, containing Books 1 & 2 of the series. Book 3 began in Prog 2312.

And finally, here’s that huge character sheet of Marks broken down into its parts…

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2000 AD Covers Uncovered: Mark Harrison takes us to the movies for Prog 2323 (bring your own popcorn)

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, another one of those spectacular covers for The OUT from Mark Harrison and another spectacular deep dive into the making of 2000 AD Prog 2323 for Covers Uncovered!

It’s a deliberately cinematic delight, with Mark drawing deep on the old painted film posters that adorned so many walls back in the day – and that, thankfully, are having a bit of a resurgence these days.

MARK HARRISON: Not much to this one, despite the complexity. Now, I may have said this before on another cover… It feels familiar but I can’t recall!

I had always wanted to do a faux film poster for The OUT comic strip in the style of painted posters that I loved (and collected) as a teen. 

The very first film poster I really took notice of was Tom Chantrell’s landscape poster for Star Wars which I saw dominating the London Underground way back in 1977.

God, I would have loved to have had that poster- that size- just filling a bedroom wall! (I currently have a one-sheet version in my kitchen.) 

Tom Chantrell’s 1977 poster for Star Wars – plastered on the London Underground and bedsit walls ever since!

I’ve since discovered that Chantrell was also responsible for some other great fantasy and science fiction posters (over) selling films like The Land That Time Forgot, Moon Zero Two, and a personal favourite; At the Earth’s Core.  

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Of course, the artist that became synonymous with the montage approach painted movie poster was Drew Struzan. I had a poster of Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom on my bedsit wall for most of the 80’s. 

Two from another master of the movie poster, Drew Struzan,
Indy & the Temple of Doom & 1975’s Return To Macon County

Painted posters fell out of fashion with the advent of sterile PhotoShop “floating heads” montages, but have recently made a comeback with directors wanting the same for their films or shows like Suicide Squad or Stranger Things. 

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There was a skill to compositing elements to a movie style poster, to look for patterns or structure you can work around and balance the overall separate elements with. 

One artist I definitely felt inspired by was Noriyoshi Ohrai, a Japanese artist (traditional painter) who came to my attention when I saw his version (and my favourite version) of The Empire Strikes Back film poster. 

His film poster work typified this montage pattern approach. It was so dynamic and layered. I bought a couple of books on his work and they are filled with wonderful, punchy paintings that have great compositional and colour choices. It was his style that influenced the cover to Durham Red: The Empty Suns

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So that was the background and inspiration in place and I already knew what I wanted to do; a big floating head of Cyd, Bag and include dotted around elements of the story (actually cut and pasted from the strip and painted over to harmonise with the cover. 

I was using a chisel-shaped painting brush in PhotoShop that I had used once before on a Dredd poster which I quite liked so went with that.

At some point I think I realised I should send a sketch to Tharg to okay the design (d’oh!) so I drew the sketch over the composited art and sent that off. 

Luckily Tharg liked it so I continued with the composition, moving stuff around, squinting at it, resizing. Funnily enough, the hardest thing was choosing the background colour. I settled on purple but I dithered with white and black for ages. 

It can be small things like this that the reader probably doesn’t even think about that can stymie you. I played with some borders but eventually went without. 

I did a final pass to punch up the contrast and colours until I was relatively satisfied with it and posted it off hoping it would be well received.  

Now that I see 2000 AD  are printing covers up, I might tap old Thargie Pie for a freebie. (Dammit- I put in the hours!) This one I wouldn’t mind having myself on the living room wall. What a funny circular thing life is! 

It’s true – Tharg’s recently given the okay to reproduce the thrill power for new and classic covers to the Prog and Judge Dredd Megazine. You can find the ever-growing selection here.

And the always generous Mighty One would like it known that he’s magnanimously gifting the prints to the artists involved – he may be a demanding master but he’s a generous one! [Is that okay Tharg? Can I have that bread and water ration you promised now?]

There you go, another incredible image to grace the front of the Galaxy’s Greatest, another fabulous Mark Harrison creation to go with another magnificent episode of The OUT.  

Thanks so very much to Mark for sending it along – you can find Prog 2323 in shops and on the 2000 AD web shop from 15 March.

We’re building up quite a little reference library of Mark’s Covers Uncovered pieces now, all of them an insightful and fascinating deep dive into the creative process – be sure to have a look at these – Prog 2187Prog 2193Prog 2251Prog 2254Prog 2261, Prog 2314, and Prog 2317. And do be sure to read the interview we did with Dan Abnett and Mark Harrison all about The Out right here.

And for those of you yet to embrace the beauty and joy of experiencing The Out, you can catch up with Books 1 and 2 in the first collected volume, available from the 2000 AD store right here. Seriously, in years to come we’ll be talking of this as one of THE classics of 2000 AD.

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2000 AD Covers Uncovered – Surfs Up With Tom Foster For Megazine 454

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 back to the cover of the Judge Dredd Megazine for art droid Tom Foster. And it’s a great cover from the ghafflebette Surfer by John Wagner and Colin MacNeil, a thriller of a tale of surfing and crime in MC-1.

After winning the 2013 2000 AD Art Portfolio Competition at Thought Bubble, Foster’s distinctive style has been a sure-fire hit with you Earthlets, most notably on Storm Warning, the series he co-created with John Reppion and Leah Moore, and his recent Dredd work with Ken Niemand – A Penitent Man and An Honest Man, with the third and final instalment, A Fallen Man, coming later in 2023.

But that’s for later in the year, we’re here to talk with Tom about that great Megazine cover… or at least we thought we were talking to Tom…

TOM FOSTER: Hello, I’m an AI and I would like to introduce you to my process for making this exciting, dynamic, and trending on ArtStation, cover for The Judge Dredd Magazine.

Not really of course, I’m Tom Foster – and, while it would certainly be very funny and not tiresome of me to write the whole walkthrough from the point of view of a fictional AI, I can absolutely guarantee you that I can’t be bothered. So let’s begin where all non-James-Corden humans start their artistic journey – with an idea…

(1) The Mighty Tharg himself was good enough to furnish me with a pitch for this cover, which is often the easiest way. With the rough idea of what I’d be drawing already decided, I could busy myself with figuring out how to stage it.

A diagonal composition can be very useful for suggesting movement, drama and emotional turmoil, but this one was particularly tricky as all three principal vanishing points were outside of the image area. As with most dramatic compositions though, it made sense to have the focal point be relatively simple – so the time I lost to plotting out my perspective grids, I gained in not having to draw lots of complex figural detail.

(2) With a rough layout sketched out and approved, I moved onto the pencils. In this case the bulk of the work was in populating the background city.

I was quite pleased with how detailed it looked.

Then Cliff Robinson’s ‘Taking Liberties’ cover for Prog 2316 came out and I just about had an aneurysm.

(3) With the inks I realised that subtle shading effects were not going to be too much use here. With so many forms in the image, it was far more effective to try and create a good balance of black and white and let the colouring deal with the bulk of texture and tonal variety.

(4) People who read a lot of these step-by-steps will be very familiar with the flatting part of the process. I certainly am. Took an eternity to separate out, this did.

I know, I know ‘call the U.N.’…

(5) With the human rights atrocity of flatting out of the way, I was free to do the fun bit – making it look pretty. As so many people do when they’ve run out of options, I turned to the world of anime for help. Anime background artists are often very good at making cityscapes, which could so easily be dull and grey, richly colourful without seeming gaudy and ridiculous. I have a big book of anime architecture, which was a tremendous help. I also watched Akira all the way through for (gasp) the first time.

(6) After rendering the forms as much as seemed advisable with a composition that might tend towards being cluttered, I added a few finishing touches. I’m not a big fan of using effects that seem overtly digital, as I find they often clash with the more traditional linework, but I really wanted some ambient light in the city – particularly with all those billboard screens and windows all over the place.

My compromise was to try and go no further with my digital trickery than might be possible with a double exposure effect in traditional cel animation. The process was different (mostly using a series of Hard Mix layers), but the effect, I think, is similar. This is by no means a new approach, but it’s one that I’ve resisted using in the past. Here, it seemed like the right choice.

So that’s all. If you’re still imagining how much better it would have been if I’d committed to the idea of writing this whole thing as a satire on AI-generated content, then by all means try it yourself and see how long you can milk references to image scraping and big-titted manga girls before you realise you’re essentially writing an on-the-nose whimsy piece for The Daily Mash and give yourself over to screaming.

And that’s it – say no to AI kids, the last thing Tharg needs is the Droids getting ideas above their stations!

Thanks so much to Tom for sending his breakdown of his cover. You can find Judge Dredd Megazine Issue 454 everywhere the Galaxy’s Greatest is sold, including the 2000 AD web shop from 15 March.

For more from Tom here at 2000AD.com, check out his Covers Uncovered features for 2000 AD Progs 19862225, 2281, and 2310, and his great Storm Warning cover for Megazine issue 450. 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.

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2000 AD Covers Uncovered – Megazine 453 & Nick Percival – Ain’t No Party Like A Judge Death Party!

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 time for another fiendisssshly fabuloussss cover right now from Nick Percival for Judge Dredd Megazine issue 453 – out for your delight and delectation on 15 February wherever you get hold of the monthly magnificence!

It’s the latest cover to go along with the new Dark Judges storyline, Death Metal Planet, where some misguided (and that’s putting it mildly) death metallers have freed Judge Death just so he can take part in their Deathfest. Yep, it’s not going to end well, is it?

So, without further ado, here’s Nick to take us backstage at the deadliest festival you’ll ever experience, now with added father/daughter cameos…

NICK PERCIVAL: Since we’re now at the halfway point in Death Metal Planet, it was a good time to feature a cover with Judge Death on the mic, doing his thing.

We’ve been playing up the dark humour in this series a fair bit, so I wanted to reflect some of that with an image of Death really going for it and blasting out, what I’m sure is a lovely little tune.

The sketch is pretty bang on with this cover and I didn’t need to really tweak anything too much for the final painted version.

I thought it’d be cool to have the severed heads as his ‘backing singers’ – it is still a horror story after all!

I’ve stuck with the funky colour palette (ramped up blues and purples) that’s been so dominant in the series so far, to keep some continuity going.

It was good fun to do but I should warn (little tease) that things do take a much darker and somber tone at the end of Part 6 to bring us back into true Dark Judges territory as we continue. There will be many surprises and of course, blood…

[We’d expect nothing less Nick!]

Oh, and a side note -this episode features a little cameo in the crowd of yours truly…

and also one of my daughters (hey Maddie!) as a fan of the support band ‘Runt’...

She suffers a particularity grisly fate, though. My daughter thought it was cool but my wife has been giving me hard stares ever since! (Comics, eh? – What a laugh!)

Well, I mean, what’s the world coming to, eh? If you can’t feature your own kids in your comic art and have them brutally killed by Judge Death – what’s the point of fatherhood for a comic artist?

Our thanks once more to Nick for sharing all the magnificently gruesome Dark Judges artwork there – you can find Judge Death screaming at you on the mic on the cover of the new Magazine, issue 453, on the stands and in the 2000 AD web shop from 15 February.

If you’re in the mood for more of Nick’s Covers Uncovered work, be sure to have a look at these – Prog 2247, Megazine 427, Megazine 430, Megazine 443, and Megazine 448.

Now, before we leave you, here’s a great band shot Nick sent along…

And a few gloriously gruesome close-ups of Nics’s art for you…

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2000 AD Covers Uncovered – Joe Strikes A Pose For Simon Coleby & Prog 2319

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 incredible cover this week from Simon Coleby, whose work we usually see gracing the cover and the insides of the Prog for his tale of Number-Earth nightmares, Jaegir. However, this week Tharg has assigned him the task of showing us Joe Pineapples in all his glory for 2000 AD Prog 2319, out right now!

Inside the Prog, we have more from Joe Pineapples in the Tin Man series by Pat Mills and Clint Langley, but it’s always such a pleasure to see Simon’s work – whether it’s on the cover or in the Prog!

Simon sends his apologies for this one – as it’s a short and sweet one! As Tharg demands, Simon’s been beavering away with other work and had to send this Covers Uncovered last minute. But he did send us along some great process art to show you!

Okay then, here’s what he had to say about it…

SIMON COLEBY: Anyway — here’s all I have for the Joe Pineapples cover. It was the most straightforward brief ever – Tharg simply asked me for ‘a Joe Pineapples cover.’ That was it — no demands of context, setting or whatever. I did four roughs. Tharg chose the one he preferred. I drew it. Everyone was happy — time for a pint.

And that was it! Sometimes these things take a long time, sometimes a cover just comes together like that. This one starts off with the four roughs that Simon sent off to Tharg…

After Tharg picked the one he preferred, Simon got to work, first pencils, then inks, and finally sent off to Tharg to get colourist extraordinaire Jim Boswell to add his magic for the finished cover!

So first it’s pencils of the big man striking heroic pose…

Next, inks and inks over the trade dress for composition…

And once Simon’s finished with it and happy, it’s sent over to colourist Jim Boswell to make the whole thing pop… just like this!

So there you go, thanks so much for Simon to sending that one along – we never mind it being short and sweet, a droids gotta get Tharg’s work done. You can find 2000 AD Prog 2319 out right now – get it at all the best comic shops and newsagents across the land, or from the 2000 AD web shop.

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2000 AD Covers Uncovered – Prog 2318 sees Toby Willsmer getting to grips with Keeper Hag!

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!

On the cover of Prog 2318, we have Toby Willsmer, giving us a touching little moment between Keeper Hag and Judge Dredd – out on 8 February wherever you get your weekly dose of Thrill Power!

Based in New Zealand but born and raised in ‘70s Britain, Toby first got his work published in the Prog after winning the January 2021 2000 AD Art Stars contest, with a great-looking Sam Slade Robo-Hunter, and since then has been a regular cover artist on the Galaxy’s Greatest, with his distinctive visuals have been jumping out at you regularly on the cover of several Progs, including this one.

Featuring Keeper Hag getting a little too up close and personal with Dredd, Toby’s cover takes inspiration from the current Dredd strip, The Hagger They Fall by Arthur Wyatt, Rob Williams, and Paul Marshall, with Dredd following up the events of the Atlantis attacks by The Red Queen (soon to be collected in Judge Dredd: Requiem) and on the trail of Keeper Hag. And you know what? I reckon they’ve found each other…   

Now, over to Toby to tell you all about it…

TOBY WILLSMER: Matt/Tharg asked if I could come up with a cover with a close-up of Dredd straining in the Keeper Hag’s grip. In my head I had an idea I thought might work.

1 – Sketch – My usual place to start is with a good ol’ 2b in the sketchbook. Quickly getting down the ideas and seeing what works and what doesn’t.

2 – Roughs sheet – I put the ideas I had into the template and drew over them until I had something that I liked to show Matt.

3 – Rough colours – As there was no need to have a specific background for this cover. I went ahead and came up with a couple of colour schemes that I thought would complement the two figures.

4 – Cover lines – Once Matt was happy with his chosen rough and colour scheme I went ahead and drew up the linework. It was during this stage that I added Dredd holding his trusty Lawgiver to see what it might look like. So drew up a couple of quick options and fired them off to Matt to see if he preferred that… He did.

5 – Cover shades – With the outline all done and updated, it’s the usual route to finish the piece. Adding the shades and shadows first.

6 – Colour stage 1 – Then the base colours get added.

7 – Colour stage 2 – Adding the background splurge colour fest until I’m happy with the result.

8 – Colour stage 3 – And lastly adding all the details and lighting to give the piece some life.

There you go, another cover completed! But hold on, that’s not all, as Toby also sent along a video of the entire cover process, from blank page to finished cover. It’s always so good to see the magic unfold before your eyes…

And thanks so much to Toby for sending all of that along to us to put before your eyes! You can find 2000 AD Prog 2317 wherever you pick up your weekly dose of Ghafflebette comics, including the 2000 AD web shop from 8 February.

And for more of Toby’s incredible covers, do have a look at what he’s done previously – Prog 2240, Prog 2262, Prog 2269, Prog 2299, all of them stunning pieces!   

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2000 AD Covers Uncovered: ‘Fighting the desire to add beyond what was necessary’ – Mark Harrison takes us OUT once more for Prog 2317

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 2000 AD Prog 2317 and on the cover we have the unmistakable artwork of Mark Harrison with yet another incredible cover for The Out!

Inside the Prog, we have more spectacular sci-fi adventuring in The OUT Book Three by Dan Abnett and Mark Harrison.

After her Tankinar troubles, Cyd was looking at a lifetime of house arrest on the Unanima capital world – and then she found out that someone had left the back door open. How did it happen? More importantly, why did it happen and is it part of some plan on the part of the Unanima? Well, that’s something we’re going to discover as this amazing series unfolds. For the moment though, Cyd’s getting out of there and back into the Out as quick as possible…

Right then, over to Mark Harrison for the breakdown of the cover. As usual from Mark, it’s a fascinating deep dive into the artist’s mind and shows you just how much goes into making the cover look THIS good…

MARK HARRISON: Not much to say on this one I’m afraid as it was it was another case of knowing exactly what I wanted to do and just pitching it to Tharg.

[Well, he says there’s not much to say, but… well, you’ll see what I mean]

The idea had been kicking around in my head for some time. A simple image of a traveller walking in an open desert thumbing a lift from a city-sized spaceship hanging in a cloudless sky.

But oh boy, how simplicity has a tendency to be a trial of complexity when computers add numerous iterations and choice to the mix.

(Mark’s preliminary cover)

Cyd was always walking away but I moved her around, centred her,  resized, her, and wondered what worked best. This happened with all the elements, squinting to see what “felt” right.

The background was to be a highway, like the poster for Steven Spielberg’s Close Encounters of the Third Kind (which I had already parodied in the Luwot Holiday in Grey Area).

[For more on Grey Area – keep reading to the end where we’ve got a load of Mark Harrison bonus features for you!]

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Maybe an Alien city in the background? But it was all too fussy and detracted from the clean simplicity. 

I added Saturn rings, cloud effects… trying to make it otherworldly… No.

It had to be stripped down to the basics. Which I found to be very hard to do. But it helps if you follow those who have gone before. 

(One of those ‘evocative sci-fi book covers with an endless horizon’ that Mark’s talking aboutby the great Chris Foss)

I wanted to evoke those evocative sci-fi book covers with an endless horizon. That sterile bleakness that they conveyed. (To do it justice it should have flowed onto the back cover.)

I spent more time removing stuff I’d added, reducing and reducing until in some versions it was just silhouettes or lights – an impression of something over the horizon.

It was all about moodthis was supposed to be a moment of stillness.

Maybe some library sound effect of desert wind catching Cyd’s dress in the midday sun? (A direct downlight – I played with lighting but I wanted this hot dry stillness) Foley work of Converse on a glassy path? The ominous low-frequency electrical hum of something very massive hanging in space? Maybe a tinny sound of music playing from Bag or the chirping of alien desert cicadas? 

If the ship had come to land it would have been hissing steam and dripping fluids like a steam train or David Lynch spaceship. I love “organic” detailing applied to machines.

The ship itself went through many changes. I started off with an organic look, curved shapes, lots of lights, lots of fuss. Then I went with simple shapes – spheres, pyramids… bricks?

BRICKS.

Of course! It was there from the off. No prizes for guessing the reference here. Yeah you got me, but I painted the target large and loud in luminous paint.

“The ships hung in the sky in much the same way that bricks don’t.”
Douglas Adams, The Hitchhiker’s Guide to The Galaxy. 

Everyone should know The Hitchhikers Guide. A massive influence on me and my teenage years (and onwards) and on my very first strip the Travellers which had irreverent (but adoring) humour poking fun at the sci-fi clichés of the genre. (There’s still a bit of that in The Out.) I had to acknowledge that beloved book in some way.

[Again, for more on The Travellers, keep going to the end and the bonus features!]

So the ship became a rectangle, a yellow brick, and that also informed the fishing ship in the strip which Cyd hitches a lift with.  

Again, I messed with detail, Foss (as in Chris Foss) stripes, and ‘greebles’ – the little model kit parts sci-fi model makes would put on starships for detail.

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But it was getting too fussy again.

It’s a really fine line because I do subscribe to the John Harris school of mass; that something looks bigger the less detail it has on it on it. Harris is  an artist that can capture mass very simply with a loose style that coveys atmospheric depth and scale. 

(More of Marks’s recommended reading – John Harris’ work)

So I tried it but my brain screamed ‘needs detail’ so I compromised.

I mixed in an overlay of a fishing trawler (since this wasn’t supposed to be a JCB in space)  to give me some ideas and a texture to sell a Lego feel.  

The interior of the ship suggest cargo containers so I wanted that grunge and panelling on the outside. 

There was an open maw at the front for when the ship deploys a magnetic field; a “tractor net” to capture space-borne squid-like creatures. As an Easter egg, the maw’s light effect is copied from the planet killer in ‘The Doomsday Machine’, one of my favourite Star Trek TOS episodes. [Again, check out the bonus features!]

I submitted two versions of the cover so I’ll be interested to see which one they go with. 

Well, by now we’ve all seen the final cover. But here’s the alternative one…

And here’s the clean version of the cover that was used…

It was a cover I fought with. To make it look simple.  Fighting the desire to add beyond what was necessary. 

Knowing what to leave out in comic art (and still make it readable) is just as important as the line work itself and can be considered a sign of maturity and excellence. 

Thankfully I still have a way to go and have fun along the way. I’m still learning and that’s the great thing about this job.  

Never give in! Never surrender! (your style!) 

And there we have it, yet another quite magnificent look inside the head of the artist. Mark actually apologised when he sent this one over as he was unimaginably busy for various reasons and was concerned this one was a bit short and light! You know, these art droids that make your weekly Prog so thrill powered really are the most wonderful things!

Anyway, thanks so very much to Mark for sending it along – it’s yet another classic image to grace the cover, a cover you can find wherever you get the Galaxy’s Greatest on the front of 2000 AD Prog 2317, including the 2000 AD web shop, right this minute!

Now, be sure to check out Mark’s previous Covers Uncovered entries (all as wonderful as this one) for the covers of Prog 2187Prog 2193Prog 2251Prog 2254, Prog 2261, and Prog 2314, and be sure to go back and read the interview with Dan Abnett and Mark Harrison all about The Out right here.

And of course, no shelf, physical or digital, should be without the first volume of a series that’s going to go down in history as one of the greats of 2000 ADThe OUT.

Now, a few bonus features for you, because frankly Mark always sends along so much, fills his Covers Uncovered pieces with so many references, that there isn’t always space to fit them all in!

So, you all need to check out the work of Chris Foss, John Harris, you should certainly all go and immerse yourselves in the Hitchhiker’s Guide to The Galaxy (start with the radio show or the books, then move onto the BBC TV show), and of course Close Encounters is a sci-fi classic you should all have watched!

As for one of those Easter eggs Mark mentioned, the ‘open maw at the front for when the ship deploys a magnetic field; a “tractor net” to capture space-borne squid-like creatures…’ that he copied from the Star Trek Original Series episode The Doomsday Machine. Well here’s the panel from this week’s episode of the Out and a still from ST:TOS…

And here are the panels from this week’s episode where we first see how Mark’s ideas took shape, where, in his words, ‘the ship became a rectangle, a yellow brick and that also informed the fishing ship in the strip which Cyd hitches a lift with’ …

Next, Mark mentioned his first-ever published strip, The Travellers. Well, this was a new one on me, so I asked him about it. According to Mark, it was his ‘humorous take on the role-playing game Traveller. It was published in White Dwarf Magazine back in the 80’s. It was a one-page strip that was my first commissioned work that I wrote and illustrated.’

Well, if you haven’t ever seen it before, there’s great news, as the whole thing has been archived over at 2000 AD.org (Barney, the monumental 2000 AD resource site) at this sub-site – http://www.2000ad.org/markus/travellers/.

So, here’s a little look at what you can find there…

And finally, Mark also mentioned that he’d already referenced Close Encounters in his previous 2000 AD work with Dan Abnett, when they collaborated on the second book of the excellent Grey Area, which was the strip that introduced me to Mark’s artwork and one I absolutely love.

Here’s what it was all about…

North America, 2045. The Global Exo Segregation Zone (aka the ‘Grey Area’) is a huge holding area in Arizona housing aliens hoping to visit earth: a melting pot for disputes, crime and inter-species misunderstandings! 

The only thing standing in the way of chaos is the Exo Transfer Control squads: heavily-armed immigration cops that keep the peace and make sure everyone has their papers in order… E.T.C. Captain Adam Bulliet has a lot on his plate; The Arakshu want revenge on humanity for their dead ambassador, increasing numbers of aliens are having rapturous visions, and his fraternisation with Officer Birdy isn’t nearly as discrete as he thought. Not to mention a dizzyingly colossal god star is descending on Earth, and Bulliet’s team are the ones suiting up to meet ‘n’ greet the second coming. But they might end up going further than they expect…

So, it’s obviously a perfect opportunity to give you a little of that to gawk at as well, isn’t it?

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2000 AD Covers Uncovered: Neil Roberts Gets (Proteus) Vexxed For Prog 2315

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 another stunning cover featuring Proteus Vex by artist Neil Roberts for Prog 2315…

Inside the Prog, Proteus Vex continues its stunning latest adventure Crawl Space by Michael Carroll and Jake Lynch, where Proteus Vex is back in action and making dramatic moves in the Scorcher war.

Now, over to Neil…

NEIL ROBERTS: It all started off with a brief from Tharg, something along the lines of: “Proteus Vex character shot. Blasting away towards us. Based on the classic Ron Smith ‘Dredd cover”. I quickly delved into my reference folder for some other inspirational images:

From there, I worked up a few thumbnails, based on the references and character design:

One note was to lose the rocket pack on the back. Which was easily done at this stage.

And, basically, all I then do is sit down and paint. There’s no secret to the process – I paint for a day or two until the image is finished. I must add the debt I owe to Mike, Henry, Jake, Jim and Simon for creating the incredible world I briefly get to play in!

Short and sweet there from Neil! Thanks as always for him for sending along the images for another great looking cover! You can find 2000 AD Prog 2315 out right now, on the 2000 AD web shop and from wherever you get hold of the Galaxy’s Greatest!

For more of Neil’s incredible covers, be sure to check out his Covers Uncovered for Proteus Vex on Prog 2214, Prog 2268, the 2021 Sci-Fi Special, Regened Prog 2196, Dredd’s toothy belly button on Prog 2189, Ritterstahl in repose for Prog 2014, and Dredd riding out on the cover of Prog 1991.