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, Dredd’s in a right psi-storm thanks to art droid Boo Cook covering 2000 AD Prog 2305 – out wherever you get your Thrill Power on 26 October.
Boo’s cover is for the current Dredd storyline by Rob Williams and Henry Flint Buratino Must Die, 6-episodes of Dredd and Mega-City One facing down the Sov Psi-Division who’ve come looking for Sov Psi-Div Judges Buratino and Isaaks after the issues of End Of Days.
BOO COOK: Well, not a massive amount to say about this one as it was pretty straightforward…
First up, getting asked to do a Dredd cover is always an occasion to do my special dance and I suspect it always will be.Sometimes the cover may require Dredd not being too upfront or obscured by some weird thingy but as an artist it’s always lovely to have a cover brief where Dredd is upfront and in your face.
I think Tharg’s brief was very simple for this one, something like “Dredd reacting to a massive PSI blast in the sky behind him” – music to my ears!I think the only addition to that was when I asked if there was anything specific that needed to be in the blast and he suggested the Sov’s hammer and sickle emblem.
I was provided with some gorgeous refs from the story by the eternally incredible Henry Flint where the psi-blast seemed to be largely some kind of pink cyclone so I just went with that, adding a few ghostly tortured faces into the swirl… I noticed Dredd’s nose was bleeding and I loved how Henry’s city blocks were also warping into the blast so I factored all that in as well.
This would be the visual referfence Boo’s refering to – Henry Flint’s opening page for Judge Dredd: Buratino Must Die –
Henry Flint art from Burantino Must Die pt 1 – 2000 AD Prog 2303
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BC: In my mind there was only really one angle I wanted to go with on this so I just provided Tharg with an ink rough which I coloured in Photoshop to give myself an idea of the colour balances I’d be dealing with, he approved it (thankfully) and then it was off to graphite land for some heavy penciling…
Boo Cook’s coloured ink rough for Tharg’s approval
… and then for some of Boo’s heavy pencilling
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BC: I seem to be mostly enjoying the pencil/photoshop approach these days so I went with that. The only changes I made from the rough were a few tweaks to the anatomy plus making the hammer and sickle a little smaller so that less of it was obscured by the Chinster himself and easily recognisable as the Sov emblem.
Then all that was required was to enter a psychedelic pink mind vortex for a few days until the colouring was done.
The pressure is always gonna be on a bit with a Dredd cover but I really enjoyed this one, it really felt great to be back!
And Boo’s final worked-up cover, Dredd right in the middle of that Sov psi-storm
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And that’s it! Thanks so much to Boo Cook for sending that one along.
You can find Boo’s brilliant Dredd cover on 2000 AD Prog 2305 wherever you pick up your weekly dose of Ghafflebette comics, including the 2000 AD web shop – it’s out on 26 October.
Every week, 2000 AD brings you the galaxy’s greatest artwork and 2000 AD Covers Uncovered takes you behind-the-scenes with the headline artists responsible for our top cover art – join bloggers Richard Bruton and Pete Wells as they uncover the greatest covers from 2000 AD!
This week, we have Simon Fraser, artist on Hershey: The Cold In The Bones, currently running in the Prog, as written by Rob Williams and featuring ex-Chief Judge Barbara Hershey as she tracks down all of the fallout from Judge Smiley’s clandestine operations that have poisoned her reign. She’s dying from a microbial virus, she’s faked her own death, yet she’s still fighting to get Justice down in Antarctic City…
Now, over to Simon to give you the skinny…
SIMON FRASER: Okay, so Matt (Tharg) wanted a cover. He was typically terse… something with Hershey in the snow.
I wanted to do something with her looking impressive and heroic, because she isn’t getting many heroic moments in this story.
I tried out a classic low angle from the back shot of her walking through the snow. She’s bulky because of the winterwear and I wanted to get the solid physicality of her, confident and powerful looking.
It came out nicely and I added a gun to help with all the implied danger. I photographed the drawing with my phone
SF: Next, some basic toning…
SF:Then I worked up 2 different treatments, one light with her contrasted against the snow, the other dark with the Aurora Australis.
The white cover has a clear graphic punch, but the aurora one has more colour.
Don’t ask me why I used the Megazine logo, that was a total brainfart.
SF: I sent the 2 versions to Matt and he went for the colourful and dark one.
I then started working in earnest.I inked up the linework in ClipStudio…
SF: And then did a version of the dark cover (colouring in Affinity Photo), but it wasn’t working. It was coming out too dark and the focus of the page (her face) was too high. I should really have realised this earlier, but often you get quite far down the line before you notice any obvious problems. It helps to get a second set of eyes on this, so I showed my wife and she agreed.
I then had the idea of shining headlights at her, as if she’s standing in front of a car. That popped her nicely and gave me a very intense, low lightsource. That makes everything more dramatic because I can cast shadows over her face. The page focus is still off though.
Then I do a cheap trick and put a gun-sight on her back right at the focal point of the page...
Bingo, it all works now!
This is now one of those covers that shows a scene that doesn’t happen in the story. Those used to annoy me, but I understand how they happen now.
Covers have their own needs.
Yep, covers have their own needs – but hey, the artist tells their truth and the artist makes it work. And in this case, Simon’s made it work so well
So there you go, thanks so much for Simon to sending that one along – You can find 2000 AD Prog 2304 wherever you pick up your weekly dose of Ghafflebette comics, including the 2000 AD web shop from right now – today. Run, don’t walk, to wherever you get your Thrill Power and grab the Galaxy’s Greatest right now!
Every week, 2000 AD brings you the galaxy’s greatest artwork and 2000 AD Covers Uncovered takes you behind-the-scenes with the headline artists responsible for our top cover art – join bloggers Richard Bruton and Pete Wells as they uncover the greatest covers from 2000 AD!
This month, celebrating back-to-back covers on the Judge Dredd Megazine, it’s that most fiendish of art droids – Nick Percival!
Not content with giving us Zombie Dredd last month with Megazine 448, he’sssss back on Megazine 449 to show us the beginning of the latest sssssaga for those Dark Judges as we see what Percival and writer David Hine have in store for us with Death Metal Planet – beginning right here in Megazine 449 – out on 19 October!
So, without further ado… here’sssss Nick…
NICK PERCIVAL: I’m baaaaack. Yep, after last month’s Zombie Dredd cover it’s time to unleash the full wraparound cover artwork for the new Dark Judges ten-part epic, Death Metal Planet.
Since this cover is for part 1, it has to be a teaser-type image but does show some important elements from the new series. The story is set 25 years after Deliverance ended, so we now have an older Rosco as the main female lead (on the cover) and a hint of what is the mysterious Death Metal Planet, that Judge Death has his spiky paws around in the rest of the cover image.
As always, the cover starts with a loose rough sketch for Tharg, so The Mighty One knows how I’m thinking and is really just to get the main design elements sorted before getting in there with more detail and of course, the painting.
He’s got the whole world in his handssss… sing-a-long with Judge Death Nick Percival’s idea of a rough sketch for the Death Metal Planet cover
NP: I wanted a cool, blue/purple colour palette in keeping with cosmic, deep space setting but with a hint of the danger lurking ahead with the burning energy flowing from Death’s face. Hopefully we get a sense of some of the ominous tone and foreboding of what is to come.
And the music to sing along with – Death Metal of course! Nick Percival’s finished wrapround cover for Megazine 449 and the future of the Dark Judges
And that’s the cover all done and dusted. But Nick wasn’t finished there, wanting to share with you all a little of what to expect from the new Dark Judges storyline, Death Metal Planet…
NP: I’ve also included a sneak peek at one the new main villains of the series, who has some bizarre sinister plans of his own for Judge Death and since this is set in the future from the current Mega City timeline, we also get to see what some of the street Judges look like 25 years down the line, one of whom plays a large part in the story.
A sneak peek at one of the new villains coming in Death Metal Planet
I hope everyone enjoys the new epic – it has strange and crazy scenes for sure as well as the usual high body count we expect from J Death and the gang (and we even have a throwback to the classic, Judgement On Gotham – If I say any more, I will be sealed in a block of Boing ™ for the rest of my days….)
Now that’s just a tease and a half right there! We’re just going to have to see what he means in the course of Death Metal Planet.
The law of the future? Nick Percival’s design for a street Judge, 25 years hence.
There you go – another ssssstunning wrapround cover and details for the new Death Metal Planet there from Nick Percival. Thanks for sssssending that one along Nick.
You can all see both the cover and the beginning of Death Metal Planet on the shelves – and in the 2000 AD web shop – when Judge Dredd Megazine issue 449 comes out on 19 October.
Every week, 2000 AD brings you the galaxy’s greatest artwork and 2000 AD Covers Uncovered takes you behind-the-scenes with the headline artists responsible for our top cover art – join bloggers Richard Bruton and Pete Wells as they uncover the greatest covers from 2000 AD!
This week, as Cavan Scott & Luke Horsman’s post-apocalyptic Enemy Earth reaches episode 3, we welcome art droid Luke Horsman to talk about putting together the cover for 2000 AD Prog 2303 – out wherever you get your Thrill Power on 12 October.
In Enemy Earth Cavan and Luke return to the world they created back in2000 AD Regeened Prog 2256, a world where Mother Nature has turned against humanity and the mutated flora and fauna is proving deadly. Can young survivors Zoe and Jules, together with Jules’ defence droid Nanni, survive as their bunker is overrun? Well, that’s what you see on the cover and what you’ll find out in episode 3 (of 10) of Enemy Earth!
So, over to Luke…
LUKE HORSMAN: I start with the usual rough layout. I like to keep things loose in this stage and spend more time in the inking phase.
I start inking in the main focus of the image first. I like to work in layers for ease of masking colours later, so with most of my work this is usually in the midground layer. I keep in a placeholder Prog logo so I’m aware of not drawing any detail that will be covered up, leaving plenty of space.
Midground inks finished...
I next bring in the foreground elements for framing and visual depth. Here I’m using plenty of blacks to draw the eye to the centre.
Lastly for the line work I bring in the background elements, with a little more framing.
Finally on to colours and finished off.
And that’s a wrap – another scrotnig cover completed! Thanks so much to Luke Horsman for sending that one along.
You can find 2000 AD Prog 2303 wherever you pick up the Galaxy’s Greatest, including the 2000 AD web shop from 12 October.
And if you want to know more about Enemy Earth, both Luke and Cavan talked about it right here.
Every week, 2000 AD brings you the galaxy’s greatest artwork and 2000 AD Covers Uncovered takes you behind-the-scenes with the headline artists responsible for our top cover art – join bloggers Richard Bruton and Pete Wells as they uncover the greatest covers from 2000 AD!
This week sees the start of Guy Adams & Jimmy Broxton’s nightmarish Hope… In The Shadows Reel Two inside the Prog and to set things off suitably atmospheric and moody we have Tazio Bettin on cover duties – as the shadows gather – and hell follows with her…
So, without further ado… over to Tazio to tell you all about it…
TAZIO BETTIN: I’ve sent along some colour sketches I did for this job – but perhaps the finished cover speaks for itself better.
Well, I don’t know – seeing the four colour sketches does give us a look inside the creative process and just how things get put together… the four different cover ideas all look damn fine…
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When you work on a cover where the keywords you set for yourself are “foreboding, gloomy atmospheres” it’s advisable to listen to a good doom metal record. I recommend Four Phantoms by Bell Witch.
It’s the first time in my collaboration with 2000 AD that I’ve drawn a cover that isn’t from a project I’m part of, and it’s quite exciting!
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I received a very short description dealing with the atmosphere and theme of Hope… In The Shadows that this cover is for, and a page of the strip to have an idea of the mood – and I was captured by the wonderful inks right away. I had just the perfect amount of information needed – enough boundaries to know what to work with, and enough freedom to explore ideas.
I felt inspired and let imagination fly, and several ideas immediately came to me. Horror is a genre I very much love, and I wanted this illustration to give off a feeling of foreshadowing, rather than immediate danger. In other words, I wanted it to be subtle and creepy. I also wanted it to include some symbolism. It must be all the books I’m recently reading about medieval literature and its focus on allegories… also the aforementioned record helped with picturing things in my mind.
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So I drew several sketches, selected some, and submitted them to Tharg.
In the end, as it often happens, the first idea I’d had was the one that worked best.
Unusually for me, colours came first in picturing this cover. I wanted a juxtaposition of warm, soothing colours and oppressive, dark, and cold ones – all creating a geometrical composition designed to give a sense of oppression and the promise of violence through the use of an almost solid red.
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All elements point towards the car, and the clouds closing on it are about to choke the light of the sun. Cloudy desert landscapes can be very evocative and melancholic, and I wanted that feeling going hand to hand with the sense of something sinister stirring.
So I pictured an ominous sky where you can see shapes in clouds, and dead hands slowly stirring under the ground to deny escape to the figure of the protagonist, slowly closing in despite the illusory feeling of freedom a car speeding in a desert highway would naturally communicate.
The initial sketch had snakes slithering through the clouds instead of skulls, but that felt too much like immediate threat rather than foreboding gloom. So leering skulls it is, an image of inescapable doom. The lower half of the composition is also an unabashed homage to Mike Mignola’s amazing covers compositions.
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Well, I don’t think anyone’s going to argue that Tazio hasn’t delivered just what he was aiming for – foreboding gloom never looked so great!
2000 AD Prog 2302, with that gorgeously dark cover heralding the first episode of Hope… In The Shadows Reel Two, is out everywhere Thrill Power is on sale, including the 2000 AD web shop, from 5 October.
Every week, 2000 AD brings you the galaxy’s greatest artwork and 2000 AD Covers Uncovered takes you behind-the-scenes with the headline artists responsible for our top cover art – join bloggers Richard Bruton and Pete Wells as they uncover the greatest covers from 2000 AD!
This week, it’s the return of both art droid PJ Holden and the ape extraordinaire Noam Chimpsky in a new adventure written by Ken Niemand and drawn by PJ – A Terrifically Disturbing Adventure.
Since he first appeared back in Prog 2131, Noam Chimpsky’s swung into Mega-City One legend in style, the super-intelligent ape who’s set himself up as the protector of his block – all under the noses of the Judges!
But this time, with the appearance of a certain pair of psi-kids, Timmy & Thruppence, it might be that Noam’s not going to be able to protect his block from this particular troublesome twosome – as you can see from the cover!
So, over to PJ to explain all about the making of the cover…
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PJ HOLDEN: As ever, when it comes to covers, I fire off some ideas to Matt Smith (editorial ubermind and Tharg’s body)
Since Chimpsky isn’t in the first episode I’ve tried to go the psychological route…so here’s what I sent…
1) The twins looming over the city holding up Chimpsky (who is not happy about it). 2) Chimpsky caught in a maze. 3) The twins, as per the first page – except this is the idyllic version, everything is nice and sweet, and beside them is a little Chimspky doll. (Could be coloured like a children’s book?) 4) Similar to #1, but much closer on Chimpsky, below him are various hypnotised citizens and a couple of Judges. 5) Chimpsky just sitting minding his own business on the skyline of Mega-City 1. 6) Chimpsky, confused, surrounded by hypnotised citizens & a couple of Judges. 7) Realistic-looking Chimpsky on white background with stylised black hands reaching in from overhead – like he doesn’t know what’s about to happen. 8) Looking up at the twins, in their hands Chimpsky – like he’s a toy, but he’s not happy about it (maybe struggling to escape?) 9) Chimspky with the twins on either side, trying to grab his attention…
Matt, not one for messing about, wanted number 1, so I took the rough and enlarged it in clip studio...
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The next step is to do a first pass on the pencils (this is now my normal routine, this starts the image properly forming on the page for me, and I’m fairly forgiving of myself, as long as I get a good idea of where it’s going I’m happy.)
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Then another pass – pencilling over those pencils … tightening things, changing angles, making it work better. Trying to figure out how big I can go with the hands…
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And then to inks! Obviously, there’s no real ink here, it’s all been done digitally from beginning to end.
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Colours next, starting with simple flats. Flats are all about separating elements of the drawing so I can select them later to colour – so, while I usually go for realistic colours (or at least appropriate colours) sometimes it’s better to hit some weirder abstract colours – remembering this isn’t “colours” you’re doing – these are flats. So, for example, Thruppence’s hair – I’ve separated each chunk of hair into a different “flat” – ultimately they’ll all be the same (or similar) colours. I also didn’t really bother flatting the background, I figure I’d take care of that in the rendering stage (the foreground being the real important element)
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Background colours here were just me spraying stuff around in clip studio – you’ll note I wasn’t too concerned with keeping the foreground figures neat and tidy with the spray – because I knew when I rendered the foreground I’d have the flat layer to help me select them.
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Next… foreground colours – I’d sort of hit a wall here, it all felt too flat, too literal...
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I realised I’d need something to try and pull in the idea of hypnotisim, and that’s when I went psychedelic…
Adding a circular ruler to clip studio, I started drawing concentric circles, then masked off Chimpsky and the background and set the layer to dodge – which brightened the figures up.
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And there we have it – hypnotic, psychotic ape-dangling cover for your viewing pleasure.
You’re often faced with the question “Did I lose some essential quality of the sketch when getting to the finished version” and … maybe?
I think I still like the idea of massive hands – almost God-like trying to pull Chimpsky’s strings (we’ll get to see how successful they are at that later in the series) and in the end I sort of bottled that, BUT I do like Chimpsky little face and the stuff falling out of his pockets… so … swings and roundabouts.
There you go – And there you have it, another great looking cover from PJ and the beginning of another Chimpsky adventure awaits! As usual, thanks so much to PJ for sending all that along for us.
You can find 2000 AD Prog 2301 wherever you pick up your weekly dose of Thrill Power, including the 2000 AD web shop from 28 September.
There’s plenty more from PJ here at the 2000 AD site, so make sure you take a look at his previous Covers Uncovered work. There’s the previous exploits of Chimpsky – Prog 2178 and Prog 2234. Then there’s the time PJ homaged Carlos Ezquerra with Prog 2221 and more Dredd on the cover of Judge Dredd Megazine 420. And if you want to hear what PJ has to say, there’s a couple of interviews with him about his Department K series here and here.
Every week, 2000 AD brings you the galaxy’s greatest artwork and 2000 AD Covers Uncovered takes you behind-the-scenes with the headline artists responsible for our top cover art – join bloggers Richard Bruton and Pete Wells as they uncover the greatest covers from 2000 AD!
This week, the unmistakable artwork of Nick Percival on the cover of The Judge Dredd Megazine issue 448 – the second half of the epic undead crossover event that began in 2000 AD Prog 2300, both out right now!
Yes, it’s 30 years since Sabbat the Necromancer brought Judgement Day to Mega-City One and we’re celebrating with a thrill-powered extra special two-part event across 2000 AD and the Megazine as the undead across the entire 2000 AD Megaverse take over!
And when it comes to covering the Meg for the zombies take over tale… who else would Tharg call but the Percival droid? He’s been scaring us senseless with his tales of the Dark Judges with a style that horrifies… just like this…
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Okay then, over to Nick Percival to tell us all about the wrap-round cover that’s going to be giving you nightmares…
NICK PERCIVAL: Zombies! – Yeah, not exactly a hard sell for me!
I knew way in advance that this 2000AD/ Megazine crossover was happening and was I going to be heavily involved to create some of the Dredd interior artwork but those Dark Judges put a stop to that with their pesky deadlines!
But at least I got the chance to paint the Meg’s wraparound cover to go with the story.
Drokk it Nick, it would have been incredible to have seen you tackle Dredd in the crossover!
NP: Mighty Tharg had the cool idea of the undead Dredd sitting on the Justice Throne, so I ran with that, expanding the idea into a wraparound to include some of the decay and destruction and of course, a tiny bit of zombie shenanigans.
Those zombies and their pesky shenanigans, eh? And here’s Nick’s rough sketch of the cover in all its glory…
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NP: I wanted a dark and moody feel and a real grisly look to the whole thing – lots of grime, textures, lashings of blood with a rotted, dangerous vibe to final art.
The sketch was a very rough one, just to get the idea out there while it was still fresh in my head – I tend to pencil very loosely, which gives me the freedom to play with all the visual elements when I get to the painting stage and delve more into the lighting and the final forms, etc.
And now the final painted cover, complete with zombie Dredd perched on his throne…
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NP: I can’t wait to read the final story and see how it all ties together and if there is a next time, I’ll be there for my portion of brains and good old gory horror – which you’ll see plenty of in only a month when the new Dark Judges series kicks off in the Meg – just in time for Halloween!
Better get cracking skulls, as those DEADlines never end…
Oh wow – now that’s a terrifyingly great cover right there from Nick. Thanks to him for sending it along. And as for that new Dark Judges series that he’s talking about… well…
Yes, the galaxy’sss ssscariest quartet of foul fiends returns in Death Metal Planet just in time for Halloween.
But before that, do not miss out on the undead crossover event of the year – look out for both 2000 AD Prog 2300 and Judge Dredd Megazine 448 with that leaps out and eats you cover by Nick. Get them anywhere the Galaxy’s Greatest is sold, including the 2000 AD web shop.
Now, just to send you to bed feeling particularly spooked out, here’s a little bit more of that delightfully disgusting details from Nick’s prelims and finished art to send you to bed with some Dredd-ful nightmares…
And to leave you, let’s go closer and closer in on Nick’s zombie Judge…
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 the antipodean art droid Toby Willsmer on the front of 2000 AD Prog 2299 – out wherever you get your Thrill Power on 14 September. July.
Toby Willsmer’s bright, bold, and kinetic pieces have been a fairly regular fixture on the front covers of the Prog for a couple of years now, ever since we first burst into the Prog with a Sam Slade, Robo-Hunter piece that won the 2000 AD Art Stars competition back in January 2021. After that, it was just a few months before he made his debut on the front cover of the Prog with 2240’s Dredd in July 2021. Since then, he’s rather specialised in providing Tharg with images of Dredd perfect to leap from the shelves – and this cover is no exception, with Dredd delivering Justice the hard way.
So, what went into the making of yet another excellent Toby Willsmer cover? Well, here’s the art droid himself to tell you…
TOBY WILLSMER: I had an idea for an urban scene that would see Dredd caught in some sort of spotlight whilst blasting away on his trusty Lawgiver. So I came up with a couple of versions for Tharg to mull over...
First up, Toby’s preliminary rough for the cover – That’s Dredd in the corner, that’s Dredd in the spotlight…
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I’m a big fan of graffiti and had this one been chosen, I would have covered the wall in more of it.
However, this one was Thargs weapon of choice for the cover and as luck would have it was also mine...
Add in one Dreddlocked perp definitely losing his religion and there you go!
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Once the mighty Tharg had chosen to have the perp being arrested by the Dreddlocks (couldn’t help myself). I went ahead and started to draw up the line work...
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With the line work all done and Tharg happy. I’ll add the shadows and some texture to the wall. This stage for me is important as it’s how I visualize the lighting and where I need to make sure the contrasting dark and light works as I intended.
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From there I add some base colours. It always looks a bit flat at this stage but from this I can see where I’m going to use the yellow lighting from the blasting Lawgiver.
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Once the basic colours are done I’ll add the yellow lighting from the gun blast and then the lighting that falls on Dredd from it. I tweaked the background a bit here so that it was a little rougher and grittier in appearance. Fading out to blacks in the dark corners drawing your eye into the main area.
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Then onto the fun bits, adding all the details and moving stuff. From smoking bullet shells from the Lawgiver, to bullet holes in the wall. Not forgetting the blast and bloodbath splats from an unfortunate perp that’s off-screen. You can’t beat some good old-fashioned gun blazing Dredd action and I have to admit I enjoyed doing this one.
And that’s it! Thanks so much to Toby Willsmer there for yet another one of his very distinctive Dredd covers for the Prog.
You can find 2000 AD Prog 2299 wherever you pick up your weekly dose of Ghafflebette comics, including the 2000 AD web shop from 13 September.
If you want to see more from Toby, head to his website, his Artstation site, and catch him on Instagram.
As for Toby’s previous covers, well, feel free to check out what he’s had to say about those in previous Covers Uncovered here – Prog 2241, Prog 2262, Prog 2269, and then there’s his 2000 AD Art Stars winning Sam Slade, Robo-Hunter piece. We’re certain we’ll be seeing more of his impressive work emblazoned on the covers of both Prog and Meg in the future!
Every week, 2000 AD brings you the galaxy’s greatest artwork and 2000 AD Covers Uncovered takes you behind-the-scenes with the headline artists responsible for our top cover art – join bloggers Richard Bruton and Pete Wells as they uncover the greatest covers from 2000 AD!
This week, it’s time to get all Regened again as super talented droid Nick Roche returns to the cover of the 2000 AD All-Ages Prog 2296 with Cadet Dredd laying down some Dino-law to the Dinosaurs of the Cursed Earth!
2000 AD Regened Prog 2296 features five Scrotnig tales to get readers young and old excited – leading off with Cadet Dredd (of course!) in Two Tribes by James Peaty and Luke Horsman, new thrill Renk by Paul Starkey and Anna Readman, a ghafflebette Future Shock by David Barnett and Steve Roberts, more from the Justice Department’s strangest as Department K take on the Crisis of Infinite Estabons, as told by Rory McConville and Nick Dyer, and then it’s back to the world of the Survival Geeks as Gordon Rennie, Emma Beeny, and Neil Googe show us more from the ‘Splorers in The Big Splash.
And it’s all under a stunning Nick Roche cover… and as luck would have it, he’s here to talk to us now about it…
NICK ROCHE: Tharg asking me to do one 2000 AD Regened cover is lucky: Asking me to do a SECOND must surely be carelessness. But The Mighty One doesn’t make mistakes, so here we are again.
The last Cadet Dredd cover [Prog 2220] I did featured my bread and butter: A HONKING GREAT ROBOT. So it was nice to be asked to draw, (what’s next after ‘bread and butter’…? Oh yeah…) my Jaffa Cakes: DINOSAURS.
My first ever interior comics work featured Transformers that turned into biologically accurate dinosaurs, and I gave them SUCH accuracy, that a paleontologist called Dr Michael O’ Sullivan named a genus after me, a pterosaur called ‘Klobiodon Rochei’.
Now, hands up out there if you thought Nick was pulling your leg with that claim? I know I thought it was a gag… but NO. It’s absolutely, totally, 100% true! Take a look at this from the Klobiodon wiki page… ‘the specific name rochei honors the comic book artist Nick Roche for his anatomically correct designs inspired by dinosaurs.’ Even better, from the actual paper by Michael O’Sullivan and David M. Martill, which says this… ‘Etymology: After comic book artist Nick Roche. Comic books are a medium where extinct animals are portrayed in an increasingly scientifically accurate manner, and Roche’s work in the late 2000s was one of the earlier examples in this renaissance in palaeoart.’
What an honour! They’re a talented bunch all these art droids! Okay, back to Nick…
Nick Roche’s pencils for the cover – just yer typical day on Cursed Earth traffic duty
NR: So it’s true, accuracy has its place, but sometimes it’s nice to just draw gnarly, exaggerated Cursed Earth dinos, and their moody little jockeys. So I betrayed my paleo chums and just drew some super fun dinolads.
Here’s the brief from Tharg: “Another Cadet Dredd cover, maybe him surrounded by mutants mounted on dinosaurs or similar weird creatures, wielding lances pointing down at him, perhaps. ‘Another day in the Cursed Earth’, kind of thing”.
So I submitted the pencil sketch, expecting to have to redraft it, but it seemingly sated Tharg’s needs, allowing me to go straight to inks.
Inks for Nick’s Cadet Dredd – Oi! Dino, NOOOOOO.
NR: I think that ‘Left-to-right diagonal slash’ composition is one that nearly always works. It’s a great way to draw your eye towards the main subject, and give the sense that they’re overwhelmed, outnumbered or outgunned.
I particularly enjoyed in this case subverting that by simply having Junior Dredd refuse to acknowledge he’s in an unwinnable scenario. A methodology all us droids try to approach at the Nerve Centre, though not always with success…
After my Bread and Butter, and now my Jaffa Cakes, I’m hoping to be asked back to draw the equivalent of, I dunno, my ‘Milky Tea’. Keep pouring, Mighty One, I’ll say ‘when’…
There you go, not just a fabulous cover from Nick there, but a little bit of Dino-knowledge at the same time! Thanks so much to Nick for sending it along.
You can find 2000 AD Prog 2296 wherever you pick up your weekly dose of Thrill Power, including the 2000 AD web shop – it’s out right now.
As for Nick’s previous Cadet Dredd cover for 2000 AD Prog 2220 – you can check the Covers Uncovered for that one right here.
Every week, 2000 AD brings you the galaxy’s greatest artwork and 2000 AD Covers Uncovered takes you behind-the-scenes with the headline artists responsible for our top cover art – join bloggers Richard Bruton and Pete Wells as they uncover the greatest covers from 2000 AD!
This week, for the thrilling double-sized finale to Brink Book Five: Mercury Retrograde, we welcome back INJ Culbard for the cover of 2000 AD Prog 2295 – out wherever the Galaxy’s Greatest is sold from 17 August.
Throughout Brink Book Five: Mercury Retrograde, Dan Abnett and INJ Culbard have had us twisting and turning as we’ve followed investigative journalist Nolan Maslow as he goes deeper and deeper into his investigations of sect activity on the Habs in a story taking place parallel to events of Brink Book One, the death of Brinkman and Mercury going dark. It’s all adding extra layers to the story of Bridget Kurtis and her continuing fight to uncover the strange events and forces that haunt the remnants of humanity and driving them headlong into madness.
And now it all comes to an end with the double-length finale – brutal, inevitable, brilliant.
So, over to Ian now for the tale of putting together this final cover of Brink Book Five. Oh, and our apologies for the weird things going on in some of Ian’s answers here. We’ve tried to fix the glitching, but something strange is going on …
Ian, It’s the double-sized finale to Brink: Mercury Retrograde in Prog 2295, bringing the tale of Mas Nolan to an end and continuing the brilliance that you and Dan Abnett are creating with Brink. This fifth book has been both reinvention and revelation, seeing the events of the first book from a completely different angle and giving everything added depth (not that it was exactly short of depth in the first place).
When it came to putting the cover together for the finale, was it from a suggestion from Tharg or all your concept?
INJ CULBARD: I’m pretty sure this one was my suggestion. I wanted a portrait of Maslow (previous covers had been POV covers in a way, the rioters, the tunnels, the murder wall).
I just wrote something like “portrait of Maslow, against the backdrop of █████████“
Hmmm, not sure what’s gone on here Ian, something appears to be redacting your words here. Let’s keep going, I’m sure it’s just a glitch.
Was it another cover that was pretty simple in your head, one that came together pretty quickly, or was it something that generated a few cover concepts?
INJC: On paper, really simple, but that usually means much harder in execution. And it was.
Ian’s initial cover concept – not quite working
INJC: I got to this point and thought it wasn’t right. Something just wasn’t quite working – with that much light behind him he’d be a silhouette and I’d lose all that detail. I needed to rethink the lighting.
So at this point I’d been working in clip studio to get the drawing down, I’d exported to Photoshop the wrangle the color, but then I took the Photoshop file back into Clip Studio and did a final pass on the color. This knocks the color back into RGB values and it needs for print to be in CMYK values, and not only that but I have no black in my colors, and when converting from RGB to CMYK it keeps some black value in the color. So it’s a substitution processes at this point.
(Ian’s colour flats for Mas on the cover)
Again, as with all of the Brink covers thus far (aside from the very first one back on Prog 1978), we’re here with the circular motif once more. I asked you last time and you brushed me off with ‘The Eye of Vovek is everywhere.’
So… one more time… what’s the secret sybolism you’re using here, is it the whole Eye of Vovek again, infusing everything in the series, influencing and corrupting as it goes?
INJC:It’s ██████████
There it is again. No idea what’s going on there Ian.
So, without really giving away too much of the ending here, what’s the symbolism you’re using with the blazing planet/sun thing on the cover burning its way towards Mas?
INJC:Well, it’s because ████████████ and so ███████████ seemed appropriate.
Okay, moving on… looking at the cover here, just with my untutored and artistically lacking eye, it’s more colourful than prior covers, the blazing depths of the thing in the background defining everything on the cover and the colours of that impacting the figure of Mas as well.
INJC: That’s as a result of what wasn’t working with my first pass. I decided to go for weird illuminations, so it created quite a different ambiance.
(Lighting all sorted – the final cover to end Brink Book Five)
So, you’ve got that initial sketch all done and the concept nailed down – next it’s off to slave away over the computer again in Clip Studio?
INJC: Absolutely. I work at a desktop (on a Cintiq 16… I’d like a 22 or 32 Cintiq if Wacom are listening), and mostly handle the coloring there in Photoshop. I lay everything out and draw it on an iPad Pro because I love the way the Apple Pencil handles (but a new one would be great, Apple).Clip Studio is fantastic and I’ve been using it since the very beginning, from when it used to be called Manga Studio. Everything I’ve ever drawn for comics was drawn in it. The iPad I’ve been using since about the second quarter of Book Four and it has changed a lot for me. I’m no longer shackled to a desk, I can sit anywhere and work on the book. I think it’s useful to actually move your headspace into a different space entirely. Change up your environment when working. So the iPad Pro really has been great for that (again… if you’re listening).
Finally, with the end of Brink Book Five: Mercury Retrograde, what have we to expect for you, Dan, the Habs, Bridge, and everything else in Brink for volume Six?
INJC: In Book Six ████████ is ████████ and we find out about ████████████ and meet a ███ ████████████ called ██████ ████████████. It’s full of ███████████ and ███████████ and I’m looking forward to getting started on it.
We have no idea why things broke down so badly there in the end. Let’s just chalk it up to the strangeness of Brink, eh?
Thanks so much to Ian for sending along those images and talking us through his latest cover.
You can find 2000 AD Prog 2295 wherever you pick up your weekly dose of Ghafflebette comics, including the 2000 AD web shop from 17 August.
Now, although Brink Book Five is done with now, you can (and should) catch up with the whole saga of Brink, written by Dan Abnett, art by INJ Culbard in the four books available. As one of the finest modern series to feature here in the Progs it’s something that rewards re-reading, especially in light of the revelations here in Mercury Retrograde.
