Tag: interview

2000 AD Prog 2234 marks the return of Chris Weston to Judge Dredd, writing and drawing the done-in-one story, Adios, Rowdy Yates, giving us a tale that marks the end of a particular aspect of Judge Dredd’s history!

It’s the latest of Chris’ work on Judge Dredd, following his return to 2000 AD with various covers and then to the interior of the Galaxy’s Greatest with Prog 1800’s Dredd adventure The Death of Dan-E Cannon in 2012. After this, Chris has worked extensively with Rob Williams, their work together culminating in the Judge Pin saga.

We sat down recently with Chris to talk Judge Dredd, this latest tale, his love of 2000 AD, and why it’s always good to come home!

Hi Chris, we first knew you were up to something new with Judge Dredd when we saw the teaser image above that you put up on Facebook, with what looked like a modern Judge Dredd looking back to earlier days, complete with Carlos’ costume, Maria and Walter the Robot.

So… is one of those Dredds where something that happens to Dredd in the here and now has its roots in the past? All of which leads to a trip down memory lane?

CHRIS WESTON: Well, Richard, you’re not far off the mark! But I’m reluctant to go into the details, because I want the readers to discover the plot themselves when they read the comic.

What I will say is: I wanted to do something quite drastic to one of Mister Wagner’s earliest creations, and Tharg thought it best to ask him if we could have his permission first. Luckily, he had no problems with the idea, which was nice!

Well, having seen the strip, you’ve definitely done something drastic to something here!

It’s a single Prog Dredd, just six pages, but it sounds like there’s going to be plenty going on.

CW: Yes, just the one episode. But I cram a lot of detail and incident into those six pages: vast crowd scenes, plenty of violence and mass-destruction! On top of that, I’ve also managed to weave in a subtle meta-commentary on the nature of Dredd himself. You know, the usual! I’m very interested to see what people make of Dredd’s last words in this story… 

What can we draw from what appears to be a bullet hole in modern-day Dredd’s helmet?

CW: Oh, nothing too significant. It’s just some of the damage the Judge picks up along the way. I always liked the way Dredd’s costume got ripped to shreds in The Cursed Earth. He’s a character who benefits from receiving a lot of punishment, and distressing the uniform is a good way of showing that. 

Looking back at that promo image, there’s definitely two styles you’re using, or perhaps two different styles of Dredd – presumably a deliberate thing to evoke that bygone era in the reader’s minds?

CW: I really wanted the reader to feel like they’d been transported back to that era, and reproducing McMahon & Ezquerra’s early, lumpy line-work is a handy way of doing that. It’s a visual shortcut. Plus, I’m a fan too… and I’m nostalgic for those early Dredd stories and styles. I’m fortunate to be in a position where I can bring that look back, however briefly. 

You’re writing and drawing this one, something you’ve only really begun doing since 2009 and really only with Dredd (although of course there was that The Twelve: Spearhead one-shot in 2010). Firstly, was writing and drawing something that has always appealed?

CW: Oh yeah, definitely. While I’m sitting drawing, there’s a part of my brain that flies off into space and comes up with ideas for stories. The older I get, the harder it is to ignore those voices in my head. 

Was it a case of spending the early part of your career perfecting the drawing and only once you had the confidence of experience did you feel that writing was a possibility?

CW: It was more a lack of confidence in my writing abilities. To be honest, I don’t find drawing that easy either; I don’t think I’m a natural. It was like: one impossible task at a time. I always dreamed of writing my own stories, but it’s only now I’m deep into my middle age that I realise if i’m going to do it, I’d best get started. Time is running out… and increasingly quickly! 

Is there something about Dredd that gets into your head and finds story ideas spring forth?

CW: Definitely. It’s an incredibly fertile ground to grow crops in. The world is so big and so varied. And you can tell all types of different kind of stories: horror, action, comedy, romance. It all fits into Mega-City One.

And as far as writing and drawing your own work, is it the case that Matt (Smith) is more willing to listen to pitches for stories than other editors/companies?

CW: Hah. That’s a good question. There’s probably something in that, loathe as I am to admit it! I’ve certainly had pitches turned down at other companies… an Elseworld’s Batman story and a Superman one-off all about a debauched professional Superman look-alike… and I guess those rejections didn’t boost my confidence much.

See, we’d all have loved to have seen your Batman and that Superman sounds great!

You started out in comics with a somewhat unusual path – apprenticing for the great Don Lawrence, after which you landed your first 2000 AD work on Judge Dredd at the youthful age of 19 (if my maths is right!)How did that come about?

CW: Sheer good luck, discovering my favourite artist in the world lived near my house and was generous enough to give me his time. Don whipped me into shape and after a year under his tuition, I had a portfolio strong enough to get me work at 2000 AD.

CW: In truth, I don’t really think I deserved my place in The Galaxy’s Greatest Comic…I just wasn’t ready. But once again, I was lucky that there was a vacuum to be filled within those pages as the first wave of 2000 AD creators (Bolland, McMahon, Gibbons, Cam Kennedy, O’Neill etc.) had all buggered off to the States to pursue more prosperous work. 2000 AD was on the hunt for artists to replace them, and I just happened to be in the right place at the right time.

I think that’s why I’ve always poured so much time and effort into my work; to cram it full of detail and give the readers their money’s worth: I’m constantly trying to retroactively “earn” all that good luck I had at the beginning of my career; to pay the dues I don’t think I paid at the time.

I was going to ask you about the differences between working in the USA and for 2000 AD, as well as talking about what seems to be a period in your career where you went West to the USA and worked extensively for Marvel, DC & Vertigo… but looking back at an old CBR interview about your return to 2000 AD on the Judge Dredd strip, The Death of Dan E Cannon, I think this quote covers it all…

‘I went through that whole “Careerist Bollocks Phase” when I thought 2000AD would be a launching pad for fame and fortune in the U.S. market. I drew a couple of things that got attention at Vertigo and Marvel, worked with some big-name writers … but all the time I was still reading 2000AD every week and thinking “Bugger. I’d like to have drawn that.” Eventually, I just worked out I should be doing doing this for love and not for imagined acclaim and fortune sometime in the distant future. Hence my return to 2000AD.’

Does that still apply to this day? 

CW: I don’t really want to dwell too much on my past jobs. I’m incredibly grateful that American publishers and editors liked my artwork enough to give me a steady stream of assignments and I bust a gut to meet their expectations. It was an intense period in my life and I found all the deadlines and the vast workload quite stressful. I think, eventually, I burnt myself out, unfortunately.

Luckily, I got thrown a lifeline by Hollywood and landed myself a job on “The Book of Eli” which has led to quite a nice run of movie-work. It was just what I needed at the time, to step back from comics for a bit; earn some decent money for once and recharge the batteries.

(You can see the production work and storyboards Chris did for Book of Eli here at his website)

CW: Once I was ready to look for work in the comic strip industry again, I didn’t really want to throw myself back into the relentless slog of a US monthly comic book. It didn’t make me happy at all. I wanted to go back to my spiritual home: 2000 AD. The people there are a lot more laid-back and easygoing.

Is it a case of splitting your time between film work, prints, and 2000 AD now?

CW: Pretty much, yeah. I think I’m done doing the alternative movie poster prints, to be honest… unless I get a really good idea for one, or get inspired by a good film. There’s so many people who do those things better than me, so I’m not sure what more that I can bring to that medium any more. I think I peaked with my Prisoner poster! I’m never going to get a subject matter I love more than that!

(Again, the full range of Chris’ screenprints can be found here at his website.)

What do you think it is that brought you back to 2000 AD? The characters, the possibilities, the potential, the shorter format, the editorial freedom?

CW: It’s all those things. That’s why it’s such a dream gig for me, at 2000 AD.

How are you working now? traditional? Digital? A combination of both?

CW: I’m still traditionally hand-drawing.  I scan it in and colour it digitally. I’m a very reluctant computer user,  I must admit; I wish I was still hand-colouring with traditional paints… but, it’s quicker to colour digitally, and it gives you the ability to undo any mistakes you’ve made. The ability to quickly change and re-do your art makes it easier to get it closer to the way you see it in your head. Also, these days, I can make more money from the sales of original art than I get from the comic companies that commission it. So, if I went full-digital, I would be cutting off a very valuable source of income. 

Normally I rent space in a shared studio, but since the recent lockdown, I’ve been working from home. I’m not a morning person, so I start quite late and it takes me a long time to warm up. I start a job by trawling the net, looking for reference material, doing research and wasting too much time on Twitter. About midday, I kick myself up the bum and get on with the work properly.

Using my computer, I make a montage of the comic book page. This can involve reference photos I’ve taken of myself in the appropriate poses; models I’ve made in various 3d programmes: Sketchup models: digital figures… it’s a real mish-mash. Once I’ve settled on the composition of the page, I print it out, throw it on a lightbox and draw over it onto cartridge paper.  

I treat the digitally-created montage as a guide, more of a way to solve the story-telling issues. The finished drawing tends to come out looking quite different. I try to make it a bit looser and less copied-looking.

Once drawn and inked, I then scan it back into the computer and digitally colour it. I’m a very slow artist, so I end up working quite long hours, late into the night. But I take the weekends off. 

And we’ll end, as we always do, with the traditional ‘what’s next for you?’ question!

CW: Unfortunately, I don’t think I’m allowed to say! I’ve just started a new strip but I think I’m supposed to keep everything about it secret, frustratingly!

I did a couple of week’s work on Star Wars: Cassian Andor last year… and did some costume designing on another big-budget film that’s coming out in 2022. This last one definitely ticked a “dream come true” box and I can’t wait to tell everyone about it! I’ll just have to be patient, sadly.

Okay then, lots of wait and see moments in this one! But that’s no problem, as we know that seeing Chris’ name attached to something always means it’s something we’ll be looking forward to! Thank you to Chris for taking time out from making great art to talk to us here at 2000 AD.

You can find Chris’ Judge Dredd story in 2000 AD Prog 2234, out on 2 June, available from anywhere good comics and the Galaxy’s Greatest is sold, including the 2000 AD web shop.

All of Chris Weston’s Dredd work, whether with Rob Williams or as solo writer & artist is collected in Judge Dredd: Control, available from the 2000 AD web shop as a regular edition and limited edition web shop exclusive and you can see more of Chris’ work at his website, The Art of Chris Weston, and follow him on Twitter.

And while you’re here, make sure you check out a few other interviews with Chris! There’s talk of Cadet Dredd and giant monster poop for Regened Prog 2030 and two Thrill-Cast podcast interviews with Chris, the first one from 2018 with Chris and Jock talking about designing costumes and characters for Star Wars and 2000 AD‘s influence on their work, and then a more recent 2020 Lockdown Tape with Chris and Rob Williams talking about their Judge Dredd Control collection.

And we’ll end this piece with a little treat of some of Chris’ cover work for 2000 AD over the past few years…

They’re the team with all the interdimensional skills – and Department K are back for a new, extended series!

Having kicked off with a new story in 2000 AD Regened Prog 2233, the Dredd-world series starts a new case in 2000 AD Prog 2234 this week – courtesy of Rory McConville and artist Dan Cornwell!

While other Judges deal with crime on the streets, TekDiv’s Dept K tackle those interdimensional enemies perennially looking to break through the walls of reality. The first series of Department K begins in 2000 AD Prog 2234, out this week!

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Rory, PJ, Dan, hello and welcome. Trust you’re both keeping well and looking forward to post-Covid times…

PJ HOLDEN: Post Covid? There is only Covid. Now and forever. (I may have Covid fever)

So, after its debut Regened Prog 2196, we’re going to see the return of Department K in 2000 AD Regened Prog 2233, courtesy of Rory and PJ.

PJH: Yay!

And then, because Tharg is a lovely and generous master, we’re getting a brand-new Department K series starting in the pages of 2000 AD Prog 2234, this time with Dan on artwork.

PJH: Boo! BUT ALSO YAY!

(Okay, someone take the sugared drinks away from PJ right now!)

That first Regened series showed us Department K, the mysterious part of Tek-Div responsible for investigating all of those interdimensional threats that seem to break through the fabric of reality on a semi-regular basis in MC-1.

We saw the small team of Tek-Judge Kirby, Mech-Judge Estabon, and their resident interdimensional expert, Blackcurrant, joined by their new intern, Afua, who’s immediately thrown into the deep-end in an adventure on another dimension’s Earth.

So, how is it that we’re getting the two new series this time round?

RORY McCONVILLE: It was all down to Matt. After the positive reception to the first story, he got in touch asking about doing a full series but, given the amount of time that would’ve elapsed between the Regened specials, I think the idea was that it would be good to have another one-off that could reintroduce the team and serve as a launch pad for the full series that would then start in the following Prog.

What can we expect from these two new Dept K strips?

PJH: Well, we’re gonna rapidly bounce around the multiverse before bringing our little crew home, and then that’s me off – similarly to bounce around the multiverse. I leave it in the talented hands of Dan to make sure he can make the most of Rory’s scripts.

RMc: Yep, the Regened one-off is picking up where the previous story ended with the team still bouncing around different dimensions trying to make their way home. Quite a bit of time has passed since we last saw them but we get a few snapshots of some of the other adventures they’ve had along the way.

Now, it’s a special treat time for everyone… a quick preview of the Regened Department K from 2000 AD Prog 2233…

And now back to the interview…

RMc: And then the series that follows sees the team answering a call for help which leads to them investigating a very strange and suspicious incident in another dimension…

PJ, were you not available for the longer series? Did Rory burn you out with the outrageous writer demands this time around?

PJH: Sadly it just came down to over-commitment, concurrently I was doing a new thing with writer X that I can’t talk about for another publisher and was also doing Chimpsky, and when Dept K got the go-ahead for another series I just couldn’t make the timing work.

I was delighted Dept K got the go-ahead and it breaks my heart a little I can’t go on the journey with them, but you know, who knows, if it’s got legs maybe I’ll get to pop in and do the odd thing with them every so often.

It strikes me that it’s a series that works so well as an all-ages thing because there’s literally nowhere off-limits, no being tied to the darkness of MC-1, with all manner of wonderful strangeness available to you.

PJH: Well as you know, Rory and I were kicking it around as typical 2000 AD series, Matt suggested it might work as a Regened title, and to be honest, that might have been the magic moment for me. I think it allowed me to push hard in a whimsical / goofy direction, and I wanted to draw big weird alien things.

DAN CORNWELL: It definitely has a wide-ranging feeling to the strip. Nothing is off limits. It’s almost like Star Trek in that way. The only limit is Rory’s imagination and where he wants to go.

I’d imagine it’s also a load of fun to do?

PJH: It was! Not having to worry about continuity (I mean, 2000 AD/ Judge Dredd’s world isn’t bogged down in it, but at the same time there’s already a vocabularly – or a grammar of what you can do) suddenly you can loosen up.

DC: A lot of fun and a lot of work. When you work on Dredd or something along those lines – you have a depth of characters and designs to work from whereas this is all new.

PJ had the hard task of designing the lead characters but once you head out into space and beyond you have to really get your character designer hat on. PJ designed some of the Locusts, but there are many of them, and each one is different. Then there’s the other aliens and creatures we meet in the journey. One was particularly hard to design, but I’ll leave you to guess which.

And that seems like a perfect time to give you a special 2-page preview of the ongoing Dept K story, Cosmic Chaos…

With these new series, are you keeping all that fun lightness? No plans to go dark and bring the Dark Judges onboard or anything like that?

RMc: No Dark Judges yet, but you never know! We’re definitely keeping that bombastic Kirbyish sci-fi vibe but that’s not to say there aren’t darker elements – some I’m actually surprised we were allowed to include, but then I have to remind myself that a lot of kids’ entertainment is incredibly dark.

DC: In terms of the Regened strip it’s still all PJ. He’s got a wide range whereas I’ve found myself getting darker and using more shadows and dark environments, though part of the story requires that. Funnily – early in my career, my art was called cartoony, which kind of irked a bit. Don’t know why? So I have been pushing my art away from that and when I got this story I decided to continue along that vein. That’s not saying it’s dark, maybe just a bit more regular 2000 AD.

One important thing that sets Department K apart from the regular Dreddworld is the designs and the variety of the characters, with K being made up of a real technicolour mix of Judges. Will we be seeing any more this time around or is it still just that core quartet?

RMc: It’s still the core Department K group but we will be meeting quite a few new characters over the course of the series. There will be some regular MC-1 Judges at the beginning of the series but that’s about it on the Judge front. I think we’d probably expand the department with some new members if we got another run. 

DC: As Rory says, loads more characters and environments. Seriously, this series is limited only to Rory’s imagination.

Obviously, for a strip that began in Regened, Department K was pitched as all-ages, but you mentioned that it was originally intended/pitched to Tharg as a Judge Dredd Megazine series.

So, for the 2000 AD series, are you (hopefully!) keeping the all-ages aspect of it going?

RMc: That’s what we’re aiming for anyway. I think particularly when it’s running in the regular prog, you do want to ensure that it’s engaging for regular readers as well. Really though, the only difference for me between writing a regular 2000 AD story and an all-ages one is having no swearing and toning down some of the violence. The end goal of telling a compelling story is always the same. 

DC: I guess that depends on the response of the readers. PJ is well suited to the story as he co-created it. When I took over I did so doing it in my style. I don’t want to copy someone else. I would love to be able to turn on a bit of Esquerra, Sienkiewicz, Bolland, or Quitely but I can’t. I just do what I do. People may say my style is still cartoony, which if it’s liked and they feel its suits the story then everyone’s a winner. It’s still a fun strip even with me on visuals and I’ve definitely not gone all Dave Kendall with it!

It’s also something that gives PJ and Dan the chance to go wild with the visuals. We’ve already PJ going all Kirby (Jack this time) with the locusts in the Regened strip, with PJ getting the chance to do his own version of both Kirby’s Celestials and that great Kirby crackle.

DC: Yeah, hard not to go all Kirby when you’re doing weird visuals in space and time. As soon as you say space rifts, dimensional portals, the first think that comes to mind is Kirby crackle.

I’m presuming we’re going to be seeing more weird and wonderful stuff this time? No doubt with Rory just adding something like, ‘and now we have a universe full of aliens invading the page, each one with a dazzling array of weapons and armour, in as much detail as possible please.’ – an artist’s delight of course!

As far as the look that’s been established in Department K, it’s noticeably brighter and more colourful than your average Dreddworld series, which is part of the all-ages appeal I’m sure. But does it mean that your approach to the art has changed at all, or does it present any challenges unique to the strip?

PJH: All art is a challenge, there’s something that unlocks a bit with certain strips though – with a strip like this you have a sort of mission statement in your own mind – BIG! BOLD! BRASSY! I know if I was the ongoing artist I’d be asking Rory for all sorts of things (RORY! LET’S DO CONAN! RORY! LET’S DO A RETRO-80S STRIP! RORY! RORY! WHY ARE YOU NOT ANSWERING YOUR PHONE?)

Anyway, that’s Dan’s challenge now…

DC: I love nothing more that drawing hundreds of characters in one panel. Easy peasy.

You know, I think that’s sarcasm I’m detecting for Dan there!

PJ, speaking of your art, can you share a few process images with us for this new Department K?

PJH: Pencils and inks for the first three pages. That’s all you’re getting from me!

Okay then… three pages of pencils and inks from PJ it is… here they are in small form, larger versions right at the bottom of the interview!

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And Dan, you’re stepping in on the art duties for PJ on the new 2000 AD strip – what sort of style can we expect from you on Dept K? Will you be keeping to the existing look that PJ’s developed?

DC: I had to think about that before I started. Do I do a cheap imitation of PJ or just go about as I normally would? I chose the latter. Len’s colours are insanely good and he really adds the pizazz to both our pages. I can’t wait to see what he’s done.

How are you both working this time?

PJH: If I remember correctly, it was a bit of struggle (no reflection on the script- this is all me) and I ended up going all digital midway through – see if you can spot the join! (This is the continuing story of me and art, largely it’s my old age and failing body parts, specifically my eyes!)

DC: Traditional, as I always do. I love the process of making a comic page – including the screw-ups, it’s all a learning curve. It’s much easier to rectify mistakes digitally but I still haven’t really got to grips with digital art yet. I’ll need more time for that.

Now, time for a bit of Dan’s process stuff – he kindly sent along concept material, initial roughs, and full-page inks… again, full-size versions at the end.

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Importantly, this is the second of the Regened strips to make the jump from Regened Progs to 2000 AD Progs proper, following Alex de Campi and Eduardo Ocana’s Full Tilt Boogie.

How pleased were you to find out you’d made that special graduating class?

PJH: Delighted, but then slightly disappointed that I just couldn’t commit to doing it, but I have faith in Dan!

DC: Think I must have cheated somewhere down the line, don’t grass me up to Tharg!

RMc: It was great. I think Full Tilt Boogie had come out as a series by that point so we knew it was a possibility, and I think we both felt the concept had room to work as a longer-form series, but you don’t want to assume anything’s a given.

And how important is it that you’re blazing that trail for new, younger readers in the pages of 2000 AD?

PJH: Well, we’ve talked about this before, I love doing regened stuff because it is all ages, it’s the lifeblood of comics, and now my 12-year-old is smitten with writing and drawing his own work – so I see how much comics can mean to kids.
We’ve talked before about the importance of opening up comics in general and 2000 AD in particular up to new, younger readers, and hopefully, Department K really adds something different and all-ages appealing to the Prog.

RMc: If it helps get more kids into comics, then that would be terrific.

DC: It’s incredibly important we get new, younger readers interested in 2000 AD. We can’t have it dying out as we all get older. It has to have mass appeal to as many, varied readers as possible.

Obviously, it would be great to see more and more Regened style strips, and I’m sure we’d all agree that an all-ages regular comics from 2000 AD has a load of potential. Equally obviously, we all understand the difficulties of getting a new kids comic out there right now.

But do you think Regened and 2000 AD is going in the right direction for expanding the kids readership, the readership that absolutely devours the likes of Dav Pilkey and Raina Telgemeier books?

DC: Anything that encourages children and young adults to read is a good thing. If 2000AD can provide that gateway than that can only be a good thing right? For anyone in this industry.

PJH: I hope so, but these things are a) above my paygrade and b) almost unknowable really – if anyone knew how to have a successful millionaire seller like Pilkey’s Dogman, we’d all be doing it, surely!?

I suspect for that audience you need complete stories in single books – so it could be that’s what we’ll see, or it could be I have no idea what I’m talking about!

RMc: Yeah, as PJ says, today’s younger readers seem to be more into complete volumes. Obviously, this is kind of tricky for an anthology but I think it’s good that 2000AD are moving fast to release collected editions of the Regened stuff that’s more in that format. 

Finally, what’s all of you after this? PJ, I know there’s more Chimpsky coming out as well?

PJH: More Chimpsky! And another project I cant talk about, but will eat up a considerable amount of digital comic book pages.

DC: Working on something with John Wagner. Can’t say too much, but suffice to say – it’s *$£%ing awesome! Of course it is. 

RMc: Quite a bit of Dredd on the way. There’s a 3-parter called Project Providence with Staz Johnson that kicks off in the Megazine in June I believe. That’s picking up on a thread from a story that we previously did called The Fugitive. There’s also a one-off with Nick Dyer and then another 4-parter, which is connected to The Fugitive/Project Providence storyline that Staz is drawing at the moment. That’s all in the Meg. Fingers crossed there’ll also be another series of Dept K at some stage.
Outside 2000 AD, I’m currently co-writing a time travel crime series called Time Before Time for Image Comics. The first issue of that arrives on 12 May but we’re already working on the second arc. I’m also in the early stages of working on a WFH project for a US publisher but can’t really say much at the moment. 

And finally, finally, any out there ideas for new Regened strips?

DC: Has there been an Anderson origin story yet? Must have been? When she starts developing her abilities. 

PJH: All the time, but I’m learning to eat what’s on my plate before going around and pitching new ideas…!

RMc: Nothing at the moment. I’m happy out doing Dept K for now.

Any more thoughts developing that Regened Halo Jones that you mentioned the last time we chatted PJ? – A sure-fire way to get the forums hating you!

PJH: Oh I’m not touching that with a bargepole! (But you know, I’d put Alex DeCampi on it and DaNi… if I was in charge)

No, it’s new things! Always new things! (But if I can find the time, and Rory’s willing, and Dan is busy… Rory let’s talk that Dept K Conan idea I briefly mentioned upthread…)

RMc: Yeah, I think I’d be the same as PJ – new stuff all the way. 

You’ll notice that Rory’s STILL ignoring PJ about that Dept K & Conan strip!

Okay then, thank you to Rory, PJ, and Dan for spending the time to answer the questions.

You can find Department K by Rory McConville and PJ Holden in the next 2000 AD Regened, Prog 2233, out on 26 May. And then you can find the first series of Department K by Rory McConville and Dan Cornwell starting in 2000 AD Prog 2234, which is out on 2 June. You can grab copies from comic shops, newsagents, and from the 2000 AD web shop.

And you can catch up with all things Department K with their first outing, back in 2000 AD Regened Prog 2196 – grab it here! And be sure to check out the interview with Rory and PJ about that very first Department K strip.

Before you go though, take the time to enjoy the full-size versions of all the art we threw at you in the galleries above!

First – PJ Holden’s pencils and inks for the first three pages of the Regened Dept K!

Now, Dan Cornwell’s full-sized images… the roughs, the concept art for the characters, and the final, inked page…

Tummy trouble? Bowel bother? Alimentary anxiety? You need The Intestinauts… micro-bots designed to get right to the bottom of the problem… before heading out the bottom of the problem.

And in 2000 AD Prog 2230, the micro-bots made for all your medical maladies return in the new series Intestinauts: Symbiotic Love Triangle, by gross-out merchants extraordinaire, Arthur Wyatt and Pye Parr.

Carefully wiping down all surfaces and keeping a good social distance, because the last thing anyone wanted was to need to get the Intestinauts exploring us internally… we chatted to Arthur and Pye…

BORAG THUNGG, EARTHLETS – Prog 2230 is out on 5 May!

Arthur, Pye, we’re getting a new Intestinauts in Prog 2230. Is it another Tharg’s 3Riller or a longer series this time around?

AW: Symbiotic Love Triangle is a 3Riller, so three parts. I’m hoping the next one we do may go bigger – all the way up to six! There’s a couple of one part thrills I’ll pitch some time as well, maybe we’ll get to do a one-pager again just to keep people on their toes. Intestinauts can be effective at any scale!

For those who didn’t have the pleasure of these heroic micro-bots fighting intestinal injury, digestive distress, and alimentary ailments, can you give us an idea of both what’s gone before and what to expect here in the new series?

AW: We all love spaceports, and their boundless opportunities for unfettered commerce and exciting new culinary opportunities, but what about when exotic cuisine and/or alien gastric parasites cause intestinal distress? That’s when Intestolab Biotech’s Intesinauts come in…

The process is simple:
1: Feeling like you made a tummy mistake? Take Intestinauts Maximum Formula in handy pill form.
2: A squad of I-R unit micro-robots, each with their own combat specialities, makes its way from your stomach down through your alimentary canal, using high powered nano-weaponry to take out parasites, disease bearing spores, bacterial colonies etc…
3: The micro-robots programming directs them to head for The Big Flush, i.e. exit through the toilet bowel next time you use the facilities. Easy and convenient self disposal!
4: The bot bodies dissolve upon receiving a termination signal, and their onboard telemetry and data matrices (personality? “Soul”?) uploads to Intestolab servers.
5: Intesolab engineers combine all the data telemetry, selecting for the most effective outcomes, to continuously upgrade all I-R unit subtypes. Newly created I-R bots “remember” millions of previous missions that their subtype have undertook!

What could go wrong?
(Things frequently go wrong. That is how we have a comic)

Now, in previous Intestinauts (and Infestinauts), we’ve learned so much of this micro-world of these cure-all wonder-bots and their vital (albeit somewhat gross) work in the muck and the slime of some poor sod’s gastrointestinal tract or dealing with some hideous skin infection. But the end of the Infestinauts ramped things up to another level with a whole corporate war between the group behind the Intestinauts and the Bowel Bots.

Will we be taking it all to the next level in the next adventure?

AW: Will we see a gigantic Bowelbot Prime many millions of times the size of the average Intestinaut? Only time and the second page of panel 2 will tell – but how? And why? But yes, we will be seeing more of this conflict and how it spills out into the rest of their world.

And more importantly, will we be going deeper into the smallest yet greatest love affair of all time – I’m talking of that between I-R-101 and I-R-102 of course.

AW: Intestolab Biotech has detected a significant synergistic relationship between I-R-101 and I-R-102 when placed together and have exploited it, maximizing effectiveness and therefore profits. All shareholders should be greatly pleased by this!

The Symbiotic Love Triangle however may involve a different combination of entities… and a lot of attention in this outing will be going to I-R-404, a rookie bot who manages to get themselves lost.

Now, every time I read Intestinauts I’ve had a great time and couldn’t help but think that you’re both having a blast giving us all of the gags about the end results of a Venusian Vindaloo, tapeworms, and amoebic dysentery. It’s effectively the pair of you putting a story around a series of poop gags, right? And we all know how much fun that is!

AW: You know, for kids!

This sort of all-out comedy is something that 2000 AD doesn’t all that often, but when it does, it does it very well – I’m thinking of the likes of DR & Quinch, Hewligan’s Haircut, and more recently with Survival Geeks.

I’m presuming you have your own favourites and how do you feel these sort of strips fit into the world of 2000 AD?

AW: Love all of those. Also assorted weird offbeat Peter Milligan things. I first started reading the Prog (The Monthly I’d started on earlier and DR & Quinch were a highlight). It’s an important part of a balanced Thrill diet – even in the “serious” strips. Dredd is basically a comedy a lot of the time, Slaine needs Ukko, ABC Warriors needs Ro-Jaws, Sinister Dexter needs terrible puns.

Probably not a huge surprise but I always used to love when a comic would have a fake parody advert or a choose-your-own-adventure section or encourage you to ruin the comic with scissors to make a boardgame.

Will Tharg ever greenlight the idea that’s possibly in the back of your minds that all this is secretly taking place in MC-1 and you’ll finally get the okay to give Dredd some digestive distress needing the Intestinauts to jump into the Judge?

AW: It’s not a secret Dreddworld strip. Could one of the spaceport terminals offer a trip to MC-1? Possibly, but it’d have to be via dimension warp technology. There are a few nods to some other Rebellion properties in there though.

Okay, Arthur’s taking a toilet break – time to hand the toilet brush of intestinal investigation to artist Pye Parr…

Pye, as the artist, have you got that sort of juvenile glee going on that we imagine comes with this sort of thing?

Pye Parr: I’m absolutely riddled with juvenile glee. Arthur will tell you about all the interesting interpersonal relationships between doomed AI robots, corporate skullduggery and stuff like that. I’m in it to draw veiny fleshy innards and indistinct hairy stuff, floating lumps of poo and people being sick. And robots. Love drawing robots.

The whole working on something about bodily functions thing – ever tempted to put the odd Fungus The Bogeyman refernce in amongst it all?

PP: Man, my favourite bit as a kid in that book was the CENSORED bit over the bogeymen’s toilet. I was so annoyed by the ‘publishers’ adding it over the art to deny me the sight of the horror. I added one of those on a one-pager we did where the whole strip is a cutaway of the bowels and the Intestinauts get blasted out into the big flush when they get to the bum. It hides nothing, but that’s the point. 

And if you’ve never had the joy of Raymond Briggs’ Fungus The Bogeyman… go buy it now. We’ll wait for you to come back and we all know you won’t regret it.

Right then, now that you’ve all gone and bought a copy of Fungus… back to Pye Parr…

How do you put the whole grossness of the pages together?

PP: Okay, process…

Well, at this point Pye just kept firing pictures across to us, cackling as he did so, something about I’ve done the work, you show the readers the pain, or something like that. So, here’s Pye Parr’s process to putting together the intestinal insanity… it’s a lot. A perfect insight into the whole insanity of being an artist.

First off… designs, infographics, and logos… Pye said he ‘got carried away,’ we think he might need to be carried away somewhere safe…

When he’d finished with the maniacal laughter, he did point out how he puts together a page.

PP: First off, step one… I do a thumbnail of the page digitally, in black and white. mainly just to decide panel layout and angles/composition. It’s pretty much stick men – here’s the thumbnails to a page…

PP: Next up, step two… I mainly work digitally, but I almost always do the pencils IRL, for two reasons – first I’ve actually made something I can hold, one of the downsides of digital art is it doesn’t really exist outside of your screen, but mainly because I find I draw in a more focussed way with a real pencil.

It’s very easy to vaguely waft around a brush in clip studio and it looks like you’ve roughed out a background, but then you come to ink it and find you’ve done absolutely nothing useful. It’s like I try harder with a pen and paper somehow, Anyway, I bought some new coloured pencils before I started this strip so I used those, hence them being all green and red. I don’t worry too much about drawing a full page either, just stick panels where they fit and draw slightly more than I need so I can crop them once they’re scanned in and get the nicest panel layout I can.

For some reason, I decided to work on A2 here (just the paper I had to hand), which looks nice, but took bloody ages. 

PP: With the pencils done, it’s time for step three, time to scan them in and do the lettering. I always do a rough pass at the letters over the pencils so if there’s not enough room I can fix it before inking. I’ll send this to Matt/Arthur at this point to make sure I’ve not screwed anything up.

At this point, I changed the page layout from the thumbnails in step 1 on a few pages. Mainly cos I thought a few of them could do with pumping up in size to make the page more interesting, but also I’d drawn a couple of the panels a lot larger and more detailed in the end than I intended.

Also, I spend a lot of time on logos and background design stuff, I’ve included some screen grabs of the logos I make to fill up the background of the panels, plus infographics (which both Arthur and I enjoy a lot) and the original designs I did for the Intestinaut suction traps.

(Yep, we’ve seen the obsessive behaviour over those already)

PP: Onto step 4, ‘Inks’ (clip studio paint): I work at print size but double resolution so 600dpi. I normally do some very simple colour flats at this stage too.

PP: Now we’re onto step five, colours. Once I’ve inked the whole part/story I’ll go back and finish all the colours together. I could do it one page at a time but I find I’ve forgotten which colours/techniques I used and it’s hard to keep it consistent otherwise. 

PP: And finally, step 6 and a final pass on lettering. There’s normally a bit of shuffling about here as stuff doesn’t sit as well over brighter/darker areas once the colourings finished. 

And here’s the final Intestinauts page we’ve been showing you… this is what Pye Parr’s been driving himself mad with over the last few months…

And Pye, now you’ve finished, for now, on the adventures of the bowel bandits, what’s next for you?

PP: Covid/homeschooling basically ruined my work life for 6 months, so I’ve got jobs coming out my ears that I’m desperate to get onto and that everyone seems to be shouting at me to finish, so quickly: designing book 3 of the Trigan Empire series for Rebellion, a book cover for a collection of podcasted horror stories, a comic thing with Alec Worley, a personal project I’ve been beavering away on involving cars and robots which is finally turning into something good, a set of WW2 warplane jigsaws…. and hopefully more Intestinauts!

So… thanks to Arthur and Pye for taking time out from putting together the next Intestinauts spectacular and figuring out just how many different ways they can find to gross Tharg out.

You can find part one of the three-part Intestinauts: Symbiotic Love Triangle in the pages of 2000 AD Prog 2230, out everywhere from 5 May, including the 2000 AD web shop.

For more Intestinauts, check out their previous pustule-like appearances, first with a Future Shock in 2000 AD Prog 1822, followed by their appearance in the 2018 Free Comic Book Day Prog (the very first Regened Prog), and finally in the Tharg 3Riller of Progs 2106-2108 where we met the Infestinauts.

With 2000 AD Prog 2224, Dan Abnett and Richard Elson are bringing us the second season of their fantasy epic with a difference – Feral & Foe.

Although after the ending of season one, getting Wrath and Bode back is a BIG surprise…

Running in 2000 AD Progs 2162-2174 , Feral & Foe is the fantasy tale of Necromancer Bode and warrior Wrath, two unfortunate former evil minions of the defeated Malign Lord. It’s five years after the Last-of-All-War, the Malign Lord’s plan to eradicate humanity failed and the land is now full of those who used to be part of his army of darkness, all of them, Wrath and Bode included, fleeing retribution from the Wretchfinders.

With a choice between being declared Feral & Foe and sentenced to execution, or working for the Wretchfinders in capturing their own, Bode and Wrath choose to keep their heads and set off on a new life filled with dangers, misadventures, lots of magical action and a fair few laughs.

And now, it’s time for season two… but be warned… you’re not going to find out just how Feral & Foe come back here, far too spoilery and fun to get to be shocked and amazed when you read it in 2000 AD Prog 2224!

Feral & Foe returns this April for its second season. I suppose the first thing to ask is for something of a recap and summary of what the strip is all about.

Dan Abnett: Feral & Foe is savage fantasy… two main characters who were on the losing (and evil) side of a “Great Fantasy War” who have to become collaborators and work with the ‘good’ guys. It’s not redemption, it’s survival. There was a lot of fun world-building for this, deliberately playing with and subverting all the classic fantasy tropes. I came up with the idea in response to what Rich wanted to draw, and I think we devised something that’s recognisably high fantasy yet is entirely its own thing. Strong streak of horror in it too.

With your previous strips, we’ve talked of the top line of the series, the simple series pitch, with me describing Brink as “True Detective meets Outland” and you describing The Out as “A love letter to the SF book-jacket art we grew up with.” So what about Feral & Foe?

DA: Feral & Foe is (tritely) “what happens when the Lord of the Rings is over, Sauron’s dead, and you’re an Ork”.

Now, in terms of this second series, the big question after the final episode of series one is how the hell are you managing to get a second series out of it? After all, the final page of the final episode was pretty… well… FINAL.

DA: It really was.  It was a massive and – essentially – uncontrolled magical conflagration.

DA: It would be far too easy to use ‘magic’ as a get out of jail free card… our heroes have survived thanks to ‘magic reasons’ and can continue their adventures. But that is, kind of, the only way out… so I thought if it had to be magic, then it also had to be complicated. It had to be ’magic with massive consequences’. 

Once I thought of an unexpected way of doing that, I felt I had a story that was worth pitching, and that Feral & Foe could continue.

Thus, without spoiling anything, this ‘season’ goes off on a very unusual tangent and literally mixes everything up, to comedic, horrific and “high adventure” effect…

Richard Elson: To say that I was delighted with the way Dan solved this conundrum is an understatement. I am having the time of my life drawing series 2 of Feral & Foe. It has taken me no time at all to grow immensely fond of our little group of characters and when I got the script for part one of this series I genuinely laughed out loud at the brilliance of what Dan was doing. I’m hoping that the readers will be as massively entertained as I have been by the direction that the story has taken.

So, given that we are getting a second series, what can we expect from this one? How many episodes here? What direction are you taking it?

DA: Essentially, this series is the same sort of length as the first, and like the first it has a significant meta-story that is explored through episodic stories. It also become something of a quest, leaning heavily into the tropes of ‘lonely questing fellowships on a mission’ found in classic fantasy and mythology, with a knowing nod to role playing adventures like Dungeons and Dragons. We expose some deeper lore of the world, and – most of all – there is significant development for the main characters.

What responses have you had to the first series of Feral & Foe?

DA: Resoundingly approving… which gave us the confidence to do more (and think up a way of getting out of the apparently inescapable ending of the first season).

In relation to creating new series such as Feral & Foe with Richard or The Out with Mark Harrison, did you have a plan of working together already?

DA: I have good, long-standing working relationship with Rich, as I have with Mark on The Out, Ian on Brink and Phil on Lawless. Feral & Foe was created specifically FOR Rich. We always discuss what they (the artists) are dying to draw, what interests them, and how that could become a story. Lots of collaboration and brainstorming, which I think makes for a strong strip.

Rich delighted me with the ideas he’s thrown back in response to my outlines and Feral & Foe has grown way beyond initial imaginings because of that brainstorming.

Rich and I have been working on Kingdom for a long time. It’s a very popular strip, a bit of 2K mainstay, and we love it.   Since the early days, we agreed that we’d only produce new Kingdom stories when Rich was free (from other jobs) to work on it: it wouldn’t be a strip that continued with other artists when he was busy.  So, we kind of do a series a year, roughly. When we assembled to plan the next Kingdom run I was a little undecided where to take Gene’s story next (I usually know well in advance, but I was less sure this time). When we talked, it became clear that Rich had a real ‘sword and sorcery’ itch he wanted to scratch. So I suggested we did something new for a change. Try something brand new for a ‘season’ to have a bit of fun and exercise creativity in a different direction.

Feral & Foe was the result of me listening to Rich’s ‘ingredient list’ and coming up with a framework to contain all the various things he was excited by. It actually happened very fast…we were up and running within a few weeks of deciding to rest Kingdom and do something else. I think you can feel that freshness and renewed vigour in that first series. It just got us fired up really quickly and we went for it.

With Feral & Foe, both Rich and I assumed we were on the starting line for another book of Kingdom, and then suddenly we were doing something else. It was like a last-minute holiday, booked at short notice because we suddenly realised we had a long weekend free. Entirely spontaneous and ‘what the hell’. I don’t know which is better – finally getting to go on that dream holiday you’ve been planning for years, or suddenly going off on an unplanned vacation at the drop of the hat.

Richard, as with most people, you’ve already worked with Dan (the most prolific writer around perhaps?) on Avatar and, more recently, Kingdom. How does this successful collaboration work for all concerned?

RICHARD ELSON: Working with Dan is a total joy. He is a really top bloke, brimming with great ideas and his work rate is inhuman. Having said that, I always feel like he’s investing a lot of energy, enthusiasm and passion into whatever it is that we are working on together.

Back when Dan came up with the original idea for Feral & Foe, we had a long phone call where he filled me in on his ideas for the story. Matt and I both chipped in with suggestions and preferences. I did a sheet of designs, with notes on things I thought might be visually interesting to add into the mix, while Dan came back with a more polished draft which got the green light and (as with any new series) we’ve been incrementally evolving it as we’re working away on it.

In terms of the look for Feral & Foe, what dictated the style you adopted for it?

RE: Environments are pretty important to Feral & Foe, so there’s a bit more in the way of elaborate scene setting than usual. The ambient atmosphere (in my mind) is kind of mythical, murky and Brothers Grimm/Arthur Rackham-ish and smells really bad.

I’m going to have to try and find a way of getting all of that into the drawings, but it’ll no doubt end up looking like my regular stuff.

Richard, what’s your process for creating Feral & Foe, how are you working?

RE: The art is all done digitally, in Photoshop. I think there’s a slight change to the line quality part way through this series as I switch to using a cintiq 24 pro, from the cintiq 13 that I was previously using. I’m much happier with the look of the work from that point on. Trying to get a finish that I am happy with, working digitally, is an ongoing process for me; I hope I’m getting closer using my current set up.

RE: I always approach my pages in the same way; I start with a small thumbnail, to layout the panels, then proceed to a blue line rough to choreograph the figures, a redline pencil to tighten up any bits that might need a bit of work before inks and finally, colours. You can see the separate stages in page two of the first episode.

We’ve included those four stages above as a quartet of images and at the end of this interview as four separate images – all the better to see all the details of Richard’s art.

Finally, what are your future plans, both with Feral & Foe and with new strips coming up this year?

DA: Feral and Foe wil keep Rich and me occupied for a little while yet. Beyond it, from me, you can expect more Brink, more of The Out, the bloodstained continuation of Bulletopia in Sinister Dexter (or should that be Dexter?), and, of course, Lawless blazes on in the Megazine. It’s interesting (and healthy, I hope) that in each case, including Feral and Foe, the status quo of each strip changes significantly… perhaps forever. There are some big twists, surprises and revelations in store.

RE: I’m not exactly sure what I will be doing when Feral & Foe part 2 ends. Hopefully, something pops up (it usually does, fortunately), but I have nothing definite at the moment.

Yep, I reckon there’s definitely going to be something that crops up for Richard – he’s too good not to have some art out there!

And a huge thank you to both Dan and Richard for taking the time to answer those questions.

You can find the new series of Feral & Foe kicking off in 2000 AD Prog 2224.

Now, those four individual stages of Richard putting together page two of the first part of this second season of Feral & Foe that we promised you…

And finally from us, you can also see more of Richard Elson’s process of putting his art together with his Covers Uncovered piece for the Feral & Foe cover to 2000 AD Prog 2163 here as well as his Judge Dredd vs Shako cover for 2000 AD Prog 2192 here.

Back in June 2019, Thistlebone blew into the pages of 2000 AD like a chill North wind, bringing a creepy and deliciously dark folk horror tale to life thanks to writer TC Eglington and artist Simon Davis.

That first series is being released as a collection on 29 April, but before then we have the beginning of Thistlebone Book Two: Poisoned Roots in 2000 AD Prog 2221, out on 3 March.

Time to take a deep breath and step back into the horror as we chat to TC Eglington and Simon Davis about folk horror, creating something to terrify, and what it means to revisit Thistlebone…

Tom, Simon, Thistlebone returns this spring with the second series, Poisoned Roots – presumably bringing back all the horrors we experienced in the first series.

Now, just for those who perhaps haven’t caught up, or for those waiting for the collection (out on 29 April!), can you give us a quick catch-up for series one?

TC EGLINGTON: Thistlebone is a folk horror tale following the story of Avril, a woman who survived an abduction from a bizarre cult as a child. Decades later she is drawn back to the woods where she experienced her ordeal. Disturbing memories and dark forces stir as she recalls her past.

We tried to create something disquieting, atmospheric and beguiling with Thistlebone, punctuated with stabs of genuine horror. It is realistic, but there are aspects that have a dreamlike quality as the reader experiences sections of the first story through Avril’s viewpoint, memories that are distorted by her confused mental state. Simon’s artwork was been perfect for this, as his style conveys mood so well.

SIMON DAVIS:  Yes, everything Tom said. I have a love of the genre that’s referred to as Folk Horror…one inextricably linked to nature, isolation and the old ways. We hadn’t worked together before yet shared a love of the genre and get on well, so this seemed the perfect opportunity to create something new together.

Hopefully it was unsettling. Because of modern society’s general disconnect from the natural world…food production, species depletion etc… I feel that nature holds a lot of primal fears for the modern city dweller. I think setting the first story in the overpowering presence of a forest already creates a feeling of unease and oppressiveness. It’s a folk-horror story in a lot of ways…the fear of modern industrialisation, myth and fear.

And now, what can we expect from this new series of Thistlebone? After all, anyone that’s already seen the conclusion to the first series would imagine that the book was pretty definitively closed on Avril’s experiences with the Thistlebone cult. So how on Earth have you managed to continue the tale – do you grab a thread from the first series or does it head off in some new and horrific direction?

TCE: With the new series of Thistlebone, we follow Seema, the journalist responsible for persuading Avril to return to Harrowvale in the first series. When an archaeological discovery at the centre of the woods reveals ancient skeletons killed in ceremonial methods, Seema is drawn back into the mysteries surrounding the Thistlebone cult. The more she digs into the past, the more she reveals the malignant roots of the cult, ultimately putting her own life at risk.

SD: I think Tom and I had such fun on the first series, we felt a second was a good idea. It seemed to go down well and find a home with the readers. The first was a self-contained story but also within that there is scope to continue. Because the premise is bound up with history and that the land has born witness to a multitude of civilisations and will do so again is a very potent way to frame the present day. We are just a little and brief connect with a place and the awareness of that is fertile ground for storytelling.

TCE: Chronologically, it follows the events of the previous series, but there is more explanation of the past.

It is a story of the old traumas of the land haunting the present, which seemed an apt theme for a modern folk horror tale. Seema is at the centre of that. Unlike Avril, she is a rational person caught up in an obsession for truth, but encounters disturbing beliefs that challenge her own views. She confronts the differing perspectives of Hillman, Malcolm Kinniburgh, and Avril in an effort to find answers, but is only drawn deeper into the horror.

I think with this story, I wanted to create a layering of events, a sort of fictional psychogeography for Harrowvale to give it more depth. The influence of those distant terrors echo throughout the story in bizarre and disturbing ways.

Are we looking at another 10-parter here?

TCE: This series is 12 episodes, giving us a bit more room to explore the characters, landscape and nightmares of Thistlebone.

In the first series, we saw an exploration of the isolation of rural life, the insular nature of it all, and the inevitable reliance on, respect for, and sometimes something akin to a worship of nature and the old ways.

It was also a series that used the already damaged/fragile mental state of Avril to tell the story through a single character’s perceptions, often distorted and unreliable, something that really works wonderfully well when you settle down and read it all in one go (did we mention there’s a collection out in April?)

SD: Tom wrote that really well in the first series and the feeling of the unreliability of memory continues in the new story…but for a different character.

It is my role as the artist to add elements of this into the visuals too…incidents vary and change depending who’s telling the story which hopefully achieves a state where , as a reader, you don’t really trust any of the characters to be a reliable witness to what’s actually happened in the past or in what is happening now.

TCE: A lot of the horror of Thistelbone is rooted in beliefs and the power beliefs have over us. There is also the psychological unease of the landscape’s effect on people. And there is, of course, some outright visceral terror. It helped to have Avril as an unreliable protagonist, which allowed us to have imagery in there that hovered between the real and imagined.

Tom, one very creepy aspect of Thistlebone was the idea of the speech patterns of the cult shifting into the speech patterns of other characters, never more chilling than that moment one of the kids appears to speak in tongues.

TCE: I was fascinated with the idea of glossolalia, and how to convey audible hallucinations in comic form. It linked nicely to a piece of experimental writing I had tried years ago. I had been playing around with William Burroughs cut-up technique, but I took it a step further and cut up words into smaller and smaller chunks. I would take famous passages and use pairs of letters from each word in a sentence to compress it down. It created this sort of jumbled proto-language, an uncanny babble that feels familiar in parts but is also just distortion. It feels a bit more realistic than trying to write an approximation of glossolalia, especially since I could take famous sayings and use that as my source. I could then play around with it to give that feeling of meaning emerging from it.

With the second series I use it once again, and there are some weird coded messages I mixed in, partly for my own amusement. The original idea also has a slightly tenuous folk horror connection, too. I had been struck by a line in a book about a myth that human language had been seeded from the sounds of rivers, and that was what I was trying to create with this invented degraded language. I had notebooks with pages of this babble written in it.

I have proper hobbies now. 

Despite the first series being just 10 parts, a mere 50 story pages, it’s a collection that reads a lot longer. Partly this is because Simon has constructed his pages in such a way, it seems to me, to be open and expansive, yet cleverly contain so much, allowing there to be far more going on in a short tale than would otherwise be the case.

SD: Yes , the visual side of it was always going to be something that I would try and make quite dense. 50 pages isn’t very long but to describe a story by how many pages it is is not necessarily a fair one. Hopefully we’ve packed it with ideas and visuals that will permeate far beyond the actual storyline.

TCE: With the first series, it was a very conscious decision to give Simon’s art space to breath, yet tell a compelling and nuanced story. Atmosphere is everything in folk horror, and the imagery was key to creating something unique. While some of the tropes of folk horror are there, we tried to push it in a different direction.

Where did the inspiration for Thistlebone come from? Was it something rooted in where you grew up, that sense of the rural English landscape and people?

SD: Yes. Tom and I have a love for the countryside and nature. I live in East London but only moved here at 40. Before that I lived in villages in Warwickshire and Worcestershire so have a deep love for all things rural. So, when putting together we had long chats, went for a ramble in some woods and Tom sent me synopses to hone it from there.

TCE: The inspiration for Thistlebone came from a number of sources. Originally, I had considered adapting particular British folk mythologies into a story but I wasn’t happy with any of the attempts I created along these lines. However, I did pick up some of the general ingredients of local mythologies. What you tend to find when you do a bit of digging is that a lot of rural folklore has very muddled origins, with meaning and ritual projected onto them by different generations over time. This in itself fascinated me, and it fitted neatly with more current horrors; Fear of the land and fear of belief systems.

We had discussed doing a folk horror tale for a long time as it was a genre we both loved and it seemed it hadn’t been done much in comics. There were lots of conversations about the sorts of things we both liked, and what we wanted to include. We both went on a trip to a local woodland for inspiration – ancient yew trees and fallen oaks. The story went through several versions that I showed Simon, before we settled on the final approach. I was interested in the idea of a cult with a charismatic leader, like a mix between Aleister Crowley and Charles Manson, and how far those beliefs could lead someone to doing terrible things. Visually, I tried to include lots of stuff that Simon would enjoy, the sort of wonderful British imagery used in local folk ceremonies, as well as the scenery of untamed countryside, and lots of nods to folk horror films.

There are a few direct references. The mask, for instance, is inspired by an ancient deer bone mask discovered on an archaeological dig in Yorkshire. There was something instantly striking and primaeval in its appearance that seemed to fit perfectly for this.

TCE: In the second series, I also found inspiration from an actual case of a tree collapsing and revealing human remains tangled in its roots – this has happened on a few occasions, apparently.

There are also a couple of real events that I drew inspiration from for a key part of the second series, but I can’t discuss them without ruining some of the story. Suffice to say, it is appropriately strange and nightmarish.

Simon, can you give us an idea of the process you’ve used on Thistlebone?

SD: My process is quite labour intensive but I find that it works ok. I don’t use computers at all… not because I fear them but just because I simply love physically painting. I start with getting together a lot of reference… I use models for the characters as this helps with consistency and then do the complete story in watercolour roughs.

I started this extra preparation when doing Slaine and tonally it really helped. It hopefully gives the story a better flow as I am aware of what is to follow and can change mood to best fit with the narrative.

The final pages are around A3 size and are gouache, ink and crayon on hot-pressed watercolour board.

SD: This story, Poisoned Roots, was started after a gap of about a year. I took a year off comics to concentrate on straight painting. I felt I needed to do this as both strands of my creative life are important to me and ,to a large extent, when I’m doing comics I get so immersed in that world that I can’t devote any serious time to painting.

After a year or so, I wanted to come back to Thistlebone. Tom had already written the story and he and Matt Smith had been very patient in waiting for me to start. As I mentioned before, I use a lot of models for the strip but this year, with the pandemic and the various lockdowns, has proved quite challenging as regards that. I know it’s nothing in comparison to what a lot have people have had to deal with but it still posed a few logistical problems. Socially distanced and remote photos via WhatsApp were the way around it.

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Now, you mention the process of doing watercolour roughs with your work – we get to see some of these in the forthcoming Thistlebone Book 1 collection (above) and I can confidently speak for readers when I say that it’s amazing to see the quality and style of your watercolour roughs.

In fact, I know a lot of artists who would see these roughs and consider them print ready in many ways.

SD: Ha! Thanks…there is an energy to them which I like and often find hard to transfer to the final artwork. These roughs are a vital part of the overall storytelling. This time, due to the problems outlined above, I did the complete story in rough form before I started to save a bit of time, while we were all in isolation. This really helps me to be able to shift the storytelling visually and tonally at critical times so that it doesn’t look all the same. This is quite a problem with episodic storytelling in 2000 AD. Episodes can look great individually but when they are collected, there is no variation in tone so it all looks a bit ‘samey’.

When it comes to your art here, you’re doing so much on each and every page. But there’s a few specific things I wanted to ask about.

Firstly, something I noticed when it was first published, but seeing it in full in the collection really brings it home to me – it feels as though there’s so much of the art through the first series is predominantly based on a horizontal full page width panels…

SD: Ah yes, I do tend to approach my layouts quite cinematically so this horizontal panel width is a useful solution.

Similarly, there’s very few pages with anything like a nice, neat grid going on and a lack of solid, rigidly defined panel borders, adding to that organic feel of a page, allowing the flow of the background to continue.

SD: I also try (and Tom is great for giving me the space) to do an overall image and then place the panels on top of it. This kind of gets around having to do a background for each panel, to show where the characters are.

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Simon, your career in comics has been dominated by your fully-painted style, on strips such as Sinister Dexter, Black Siddha, Stone Island, Missionary Man, Judge Dredd, Ampney Crucis, and Slaine for 2000 AD. But, unlike a lot of your contemporaries, you haven’t (as yet) been lured across the pond, with, as far as I know, just a single JLA graphic novel, Riddle of the Beasts, for DC Comics. Is this a deliberate decision on your part? Is it a case of fitting in very well at 2000 AD?

SD: I love 2000 AD and can’t see any reason to go elsewhere. To be able to do fully painted artwork on a weekly comic is almost unique I imagine. I cherish the simplicity of my working life for 2000 AD too…get script, do painting, deliver pages, have a beer with the editor… it’s something that I can’t imagine happening elsewhere. I have no interest in superheroes so that’s why I haven’t painted them. However, US comics in the late ‘80s and early 90’s were incredible. A lot of painted artwork and diverse and crazed ideas but that seems to not be the case now. To be honest, I don’t read comics regularly anymore…apart from Hellboy that is. Some of the current artwork on the US titles is incredibly beautiful though and I love love LOVE looking at it…Jock, Ben Oliver , Otto Schmidt etc but I have zero desire to do that stuff myself.

However, your work in comics is just part of what you do artistically. You’ve worked on storyboards for TV and videos for Muse and Tori Amos – what was that like, did you get to live a little of the rock and roll lifestyle?

SD: That was a while ago and they were just fun things to do really. I like music so it seemed a natural thing to do. I like not being defined as just doing one thing. I designed Oscar Isaac’s tattoo in Annihilation and painted the poster for Ben Wheatley’s last film and these jobs were a joy to do. Working with people I really admire is a real bonus.

You’re also a well-established and award-winning painter, with full memberships of the Royal Birmingham Society of Artists and the Royal Society of Portrait Painters. Where did your love of portraiture come from?

SD: My father was a painter so I have always had art around me and portraiture always fascinated me. Comics are beautifully throwaway but usually the character is king over the artwork side of things. Painting, for want of a better word, proper paintings was something I natural moved into as there is a little more gravity and longevity to it all. I’m currently vice-President of the Royal Portrait Society (RP) and really like having these two strands to my creative output. Boo Cook and I have a folk-horror style music project called Forktail too (that Tom contributes to also) so that completes my unholy trinity of creativity.

Was it something that was always there and informed your comic style, or did comics come first?

SD: I have worked for 2000 AD for 27 years this coming September…I know…terrifying! So that came first. The two differing disciplines do often cross-pollinate…usually composition-wise more than anything.

Finally, what can we expect from you after this series of Thistlebone? Are you already planning series three? And what other delights on the comic page (or anywhere else!) can we look forward to?

TCE: As for future projects, I have several exciting things on the go at the moment but nothing I can talk about just yet. I would love to do more Thistlebone as it has been so rewarding to work on. I’m just waiting to see how everything settles into place after the upheaval of the last year.

SD: We haven’t really talked about it. I have a lot of painting commissions and projects that have been piling up that I must turn my attention to but never say never.

And with that, we leave Tom and Simon busy plotting how best to fill our dreams with Folk Horror imagery and nightmarish creations.

Thistlebone Book One is out on 29 April. Thistlebone: Poisoned Roots starts in 2000 AD Prog 2221 – out 3 March from wherever great comics are sold, including the 2000 AD web shop.

And finally, it wouldn’t be fair to just show you Simon’s beautiful process pages in those small versions, so here they are in all their glorious and gorgeously disturbing glory, complete with a potentially small spoiler with the final page of Part One of Thistlebone: Poisoned Roots… (So only read on if you’ve already seen Poisoned Roots part 1 in Prog 2221…)

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2000 AD prog 2220 is out on 24 February and it’s REGENED time once more, with the Galaxy’s Greatest bringing you a Prog of all-ages action and adventure to thrill and amaze!

Each Regened Prog brings you a mix of new and old, mixing returning series and brand-new thrills destined to become firm favourites. Later this year, you’ll see more from the hit series Pandora Perfect by Roger Langridge and Brett Parson, and the Judge Dredd-world series Department K by Rory McConville and PJ Holden, as well as plenty of new thrills including Lowborn High by David Barnett and Philip Bond.

As for Prog 2220, there’s more Cadet Dredd, a new Future Shock, and three new tales – Viva Forever by David Baillie and Anna Morozova, Action Pact by Michael Carroll and Luke Horsman, and an all-new tale from the world of Rogue Trooper – Mayflies by Mike Carroll and Simon Coleby – who we talk to right here!

Okay then, Mike, Simon – the new Regened Prog 2220 ends with Mayflies, the new story set in the universe of Rogue Trooper and Jaegir – can you give us a teaser for what it’s all about?

Michael Carroll: Mayflies sort of grew out of a story I came up with a few years back that I unsuccessfully pitched to, oh, loads of publishers. I won’t say what that story actually is, but (a) it’s absolutely awesome and (b) given the number of rejections it’s received I’m willing to entertain the notion that I’m only one who thinks that it’s absolutely awesome.

This isn’t that story, though, I promise! Failure is often a good foundry: if an idea doesn’t work then instead of throwing it away, try twisting it around, turning it inside out, breaking it apart and putting it back together in a different way, combining it with something else. In this case, I took that never-got-off-the-ground story and tried to come up with a way to make it work in the Rogue Trooper universe. I ended up in a very different place from where I started, as often happens!

Mayflies features a group of clone troopers who are removed from their gestation pods earlier than scheduled… so, in keeping with the Regened-issue all-ages approach, they’re effectively teenagers – but of course they have decades of G.I. Trooper training and experience implanted in their brains.

MC: The lead character is Rose, designed to be a scout. She’s a loner by nature – well, actually, by science rather than nature – but she needs the back-up of her team. Zuli’s the squad leader, then there’s Wrecks, a ground-trooper – when his DNA was being compiled the strength and speed parameters were accidentally dialled a little too high. Artie was built to be an engineer, and Otto’s a strategist. They don’t get a lot to do in this story, but maybe in the next adventure they’ll get to shine. Rounding out the team is Slink, designed to be an infiltrator. And that’s all I’m going to say about Slink at this time!

So they are the Mayflies… They have every skill they need to get the job done – but they don’t know who they are.

Simon, this is a return to Nu-Earth and the Nort-Souther conflict for you, having done a number of Jaegir series, how did you come to get involved?

Simon Coleby: My involvement in the Mayflies project came about in the most informal way imaginable. I was following a discussion on social media about Rebellion’s Regened comics and I mentioned, quite sincerely, that drawing a strip in that style appealed to me very much. I was delighted when Michael messaged me to discuss the story he was developing, and to gauge my interest. The story sounded terrific and so, after receiving my orders from Tharg in the Nerve Centre, I was in place for the job.

One of those incredibly rare occasions where I didn’t almost immediately regret a comment I’d posted on Facebook!

I knew Michael’s story was to be set in the Rogue Trooper universe and so while I was briefly waiting for the script I produced a drawing of Rogue, just to try and find a slightly Regened spin on my drawing style.

SC: I had thought that working on an all-ages story might make for an enjoyable, even a relaxing, piece of work. I couldn’t have been more wrong – it was one of the toughest challenges I’ve faced for many years!

Mike, this is the second story in this Regened Prog for you alongside Action Pact with Luke Horsman – is that something of a surprise?

MC: It is indeed! I only delivered the script for Mayflies at the end of November last year, so I expected that it’d appear in the next Regened issue, not this one! That’s a pretty quick turn-around, especially given that we’ve all had lockdowns and Grudmas and insurrections and weather to deal with.

And Mike, Is this your first story set in the Rogue Trooper-verse (for want of a better description of it)? Are you excited to be getting into the history of the Nort-Souther war?

MC: Mayflies is my first official Rogue-verse story, but before I had any professional comics work published I wrote some Rogue-related strips for the 2000AD fanzine Zarjaz, excellently illustrated by Dave Evans. I’ve just checked my spreadsheet and that was back in 2007 –  fourteen years ago!

I imagine you’re a fan of Rogue Trooper of old? But he’s one character that seems, perhaps, to be in the past, his somewhat limited storylines possibly all played out.

MC: I really loved the original Rogue Trooper. It was fantastic, inventive stuff for the most part (but don’t get me started on the revelation that Gunnar, Bagman and Helm had those nicknames before they ended up as biochips in Rogue’s gun, backpack and helmet!), and the artwork was perfect. Dave Gibbons, Steve Dillon, Cam Kennedy… pure magic distilled into ink! The hunt for the Traitor General was tremendous fun, though I was a little disappointed when they finally caught him. That would have been a nice way to end the whole the series, but because it carried on there was a sort of “what do we do now?” feeling to the strip – it took a while to regain its footing.

SC: I wouldn’t wish to say that there is absolutely no scope for more of the traditional Rogue Trooper war stories, although it is perhaps a little difficult to imagine how that scenario could be taken in an interesting new direction. Many of the original stories were superb – the art by Colin Wilson and Cam Kennedy is some of my all-time favourite work from 2000AD.

It might be argued, however, that a war story that focuses on the actual conflict is something of a self-limiting format. Nothing very much can change – the war can’t be won by either side – or the story is over. The temptation is always going to be to introduce increasingly dramatic combat and more eccentric characters to retain reader interest. Rogue stalking through chem-clouds and destroying yet another squad of anonymous Nort soldiers are strong images, but there are possibly only so many times they can be presented before they start to become somewhat mundane.

Is this the reason you think that we’ve seen offshoot series such as Jaegir and this Mayflies strip come out – that the whole Nort-Souther war is a fascinating environment for stories but not necessarily for new Rogue Trooper stories?

SC: The Rogue Trooper universe does seem to offer huge scope for building on some of the peripheral elements of the world, though. I feel that’s what Gordon and I do in Jaegir. As I’ve mentioned elsewhere, I do not feel that we are really telling a ‘war story’, but a story about characters in a time of war.

Likewise, I feel Mayflies offers a fresh and contemporary step back into that world. Michael has introduced new characters which offer huge potential for something exciting and interesting. As soon as I read the script, I had the feeling that this would bring a new energy to a world we’re all very familiar with. This story is the first look at something, and it will be exciting to see where it goes. If circumstances allow, I would love to contribute more to this story, but whoever takes on the art role, this has the potential to be a hugely exciting and energetic story.

MC: That’s certainly the case for me. We’ve seen different aspects before, with War Machine and The 86ers and Tor Cyan, for example, but for me Jaegir really blasted open a new path, and on a much larger scale. It’s easily one of my favourite strips in recent years.

One thing that was really noticeable with Mayflies was that it’s a strip that doesn’t really feel like a Regened strip at all – it’s something that could just as easily have been seen in a standard 2000 AD Prog.

Firstly, for those of us used to seeing Jaegir, having Simon’s art on Mayflies makes it very familiar – I don’t think Simon’s changed his art style one bit for the transition from standard 2000 AD Jaegir artwork to this Regened Mayflies artwork?

MC: When I was developing the script for Mayflies I saw a comment on Facebook from Simon about how he’d like to work on a Regened script, so I contacted him immediately. I’ve been a fan of his art for thirty years – he’s one of those artists who just keeps getting better and better – so this is a dream come true for me! Thanks to an anonymous benefactor I’ve been lucky enough to get an early look at his finished pages for Mayflies and they are absolutely incredible.

Simon has a unique way of bringing solidity and weight to his art. Everything feels real, and yet cinematic at the same time. In the past decade or so there’s not been a single page of his artwork that hasn’t made me go “Wow!” at least once.

Similarly, the tone of the story and some of the content here is decidedly older than a lot of what’s been seen in Regened before. Yes, there’s been storylines covering war before in Regened, but this seems to take a darker view – with the inclusion of the concepts of Rose being marked for disposal, the genetic engineering being shown in all its unpleasantness, the Nort Commanders order to terminate all the survivors on the Souther ship apart from the Mayfly specimens – all of that is very dark.

Is this new Regened darkness something you talked over with Tharg at all?

MC: If we skip back to this exact week in 1976, two action-packed comics launched at just about the same time were DC Thomson’s Bullet and IPC’s Action. Compared to its stable-mates Bullet was fairly hard-hitting, but Action just surged ahead of the pack like a wide-eyed, Mauser-wielding psycho on a stolen burning motorbike fuelled by adrenaline and fury. And almost half a century later its influence is still lingering. From our present-day perspective it’s clear that Action went too far, but going too far is the only way to test the boundaries of what’s acceptable… and to stretch them a little. By doing so, Action made room for 2000AD to come into existence.

So, yeah, Tharg and I had some back-and-forths as we worked out the right balance of action for Mayflies… Regened is an all-ages comic so we don’t want to show people being massacred, but this is a war story: to pretend that everyone comes out of it with little more than a few scratches would be disingenuous. And kids know that, too: certainly, by the time they’re eight or nine, they know when a story is patronising, or has been otherwise sanitised for them… I think we managed to get the balance right!

Simon, I presume you’re working in the same way as you’ve told us about in your covers uncovered pieces for Mayflies? A fairly traditional process of fineliner rough sketches, through to pencils and inks before scanning it in and then over to Dylan Teague to add his colour magic to it all?

SC: Having done this for rather a long time, my drawing style is somewhat established. Without wishing to stray too far into cliché it is a part of who I am, I suppose much like my accent, vocal mannerisms or other aspects of my personality. I felt that trying to drastically change my style for this story would be a mistake and would inevitably look contrived.

There are already artists who take, perhaps, a somewhat manga-influenced approach to their art, and they do so quite brilliantly. That style of work seems to be well-suited to stories aimed at younger readers, but it isn’t what I do. If I tried to adopt that kind of visual approach, I felt that at best I could only produce a pale imitation of those artists who do that kind of work naturally.

My work is somewhat chiaroscuro, as I generally tend to gravitate towards darker-themed projects. I did take a slightly different approach for Mayflies, however. Customarily, I use rather a lot of texture in my drawing – splatter, grease pencil and other tools all have a place in my work. For this project, I opted to shelve all those tools which generally contribute ‘grittiness’ to my art. I decided to only work with very clean lines and solid shadows. Working with that limited palette was a huge challenge. I wanted the work and storytelling to be as clear as possible, and so I found myself debating over almost every line or area of detail – did it contribute anything, and did it help the story?

SC: It was a very intense process, though I enjoyed it very much. I also opted to use a small amount of digital rendering in some of the feathering, again to try and add a slightly enhanced element of sharpness and cleanness to the line-work.

Whether anyone will notice any of this I really can’t say. I feel that this work is a little sharper and fresher than my customary art, but I’ll have to see if readers notice that at-all.

Likewise, in some of the areas of action, I took a slightly different approach from my usual work. In a story such as Jaegir, for example, the violence is quite extreme and graphic. With this being for an all-ages audience, I clearly needed to restrain that somewhat. There is a panel where Rose punches a Nort officer. If that were a scene in Jaegir, there would inevitably be blood, sinew and smashed teeth. In this tale, I went for the classic ‘wallop in the chops’. I must admit, that might be my favourite panel of the story!

Of course, having Dylan colouring the strip was an absolute joy. The guy is an artistic genius, and I was thrilled by how much his colours added to my drawings!

And as far as the future for Mayflies, without giving away the ending of this first episode, do you have hopes that there’s going to be the opportunity to do more for either Regened or 2000 AD?

MC: I haven’t yet talked about it in any detail with Tharg, but I do have plans for more Mayflies stories should it prove popular enough. We’ve only begun to explore the characters and their situation, so, yeah, there’s a lot more to tell.

I think a series could work in the regular progs, although that wouldn’t be ideal: it’d feel unfair to create new strips for the younger Regened readers and then continue those strips in a comic they’re not allowed to read!

In an ideal world Regened would be a separate monthly publication, a younger companion to 2000AD. That’s been tried before – with Judge Dredd: Lawman of the Future, in the mid-1990s – and the comic market isn’t nearly as vibrant now as it was then, but with the right balance of stories it could definitely work!

2000 AD Regened Prog 2220, is on sale from newsagents, comic book stores, and from the 2000 AD web shop on 24 February 2021.

Thank you to both Mike and Simon for taking the time to chat to us here at 2000 AD. You can find Mayflies in the brand-new Regened Prog 2220, out on 24 February and available right here at the 2000 AD web shop.

For more from Mike Carroll, head to his website, his writing blog, and his Rusty Staples comics blog. Here at the 2000 AD site, there’s the chance to read him talking about the recent Judge Dredd: Desperadlands saga with artist Will Simpson here, as well as the just-completed first series of Dreadnoughts – Breaking Ground – over in the Judge Dredd: Megazine here.

For more on Simon Coleby’s artistic process, do be sure to check out these great Covers Uncovered pieces from Simon – The Vigilant on the cover of Judge Dredd Megazine 421 and his Hookjaw cover for 2000 AD Prog 2202, and you can (of course) follow him on Twitter.

And Simon was also kind enough to send along some more of his amazing artwork and the initial concept piece for the Mayfly characters.

It’s REGENED time again with 2000 AD Prog 2220 – out on 24 February – where the all-ages adventures are back to thrill and amaze regular readers and brand-new readers alike!

This Regened Prog is the first of four this year (the others will be 2000 AD Prog 2233 – 26 May, 2000 AD Prog 2246 – 25 August, and 2000 AD Prog 2256 – 3 November) with the now-familiar mix of returning series and brand-new thrills destined to become firm favourites. Over the course of the year’s all-ages action you’ll see the return of the hit series Pandora Perfect by Roger Langridge and Brett Parson, and the Judge Dredd-world series Department K by Rory McConville and PJ Holden, but there’s also plenty of new Regened surprises coming through the year, including Lowborn High by David Barnett and Philip Bond and Viva Forever by David Baillie and Anna Morozova.

But first of all, hitting hard and fast in Prog 2220, we have Action Pact by Michael Carroll and Luke Horsman, a frenetic, all-out action strip that Mike and Luke have taken time away from their packed schedules to talk to us about.

2000 AD Regened Prog 2220, is on sale from newsagents, comic book stores, and from the 2000 AD web shop on 24 February 2021.

Okay, Mike, Luke, Action Pact: The Radyar Recovery…

First up, what’s Action Pact all about – in the couple of preview pages I’ve seen it’s obviously <ahem> action packed, lots of explosions, trucks, making an escape, that sort of thing?

Michael Carroll: The series title does kind of hint at what it’s all about! It’s an action-packed science fiction yarn.

If you picture it as Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid crossed with Steel Magnolias, with maybe just a hint of Shakespeare’s Measure for Measure sprinkled around the edges… you’d be way off: it’s nothing like that at all. Not unless those things have all got an awful lot of spaceships, aliens, robots, blasters, rocket-boots and giant monsters that I never noticed before!

My original idea was to have a series that was absolutely nothing but action scenes from start to finish: everyone is constantly being attacked, chased or rescued, and in fact that’s what the first draft of the script was like – there wasn’t a single panel in which someone wasn’t getting shot-at or being punched or crashing backwards through a window or wrestling a giant killer cyborg or dangling one-handed from a crashing spaceship’s landing gear – but a non-stop barrage of action gets exhausting very quickly: we need the quiet moments to highlight the exciting parts. This gives the characters a bit of breathing space, too, so they can patch up their wounds!

And did the pun title come first or the strip?

MC: I thought of the title years ago, but I never did anything with it. At one stage I had plans to use it for a Young Adult adventure series. It was one of those things that came very close to happening, but in the end the publishers and I wanted different things from the series, so we abandoned it.

The title hung around for a few years in my “Cool Titles” list, along with dozens of others that’ll probably never see the light of day (but I won’t mention any here in case someone else nicks ‘em) until I started developing this new story and I realised it would be perfect.

It’s an all-new strip, presumably unconnected with anything previously in 2000 AD?

MC: Yep, completely new! For a brief while I toyed with the idea of setting it in the Proteus Vex universe, but I decided against that because I wanted Drake – the lead character of Action Pact – to be human, and there are no humans in Proteus Vex. Besides, this is a very different kind of story: Proteus Vex is told from the point of view of an unseen narrator far in the future, long after the events of the story have faded into legend, whereas by its very nature Action Pact needs to much more immediate.

As this is for Regened, what sort of changes have you made to your work to fit in with the all-ages brief of these Regened Progs?

MC: I’m quite used to writing for readers of all ages, so I don’t think I’ve had to make too many concessions. But one thing that’s important for us to bear in mind – and for anyone else who’s writing stories suitable for younger people – is that the folks buying the product are frequently going to be the adults, not the kids, so if the adults think that the comic or book or whatever is unsuitable for their kid, they’ll leave it on the shelves. So we keep the violence and gore to a minimum, even though the kids themselves don’t mind reading about exploding heads or eyeball-eating aliens or psychopathic blood-crazed zombie-vampires.

That’s one of the things I enjoy most about writing the Regened stories… the challenge of giving a story a ton of action and a sense of danger without resorting to the sort of violence that would make a concerned parent snatch the comic away from their kid’s hand.

Although you’re planning something that’s initially a one-off strip for Regened, I’m presuming that there’s an element of world-building going on here, thinking of back-story, working up histories for the characters and the worlds, as well as formulating plans for any potential future for the strip?

MC: Oh yeah! The basic idea behind Action Pact does lend itself rather well to more stories. I won’t go into any detail here because that would spoil this first tale, but, yeah, I’ve got a few more planned: if this one is well-received and The Mighty One gives it the go-ahead, I’d like to do a full series, especially now that I’ve seen Luke’s fantastic character designs and the way he brings the action to the page – it’s frenetic and in-your-face and exciting as anything! Brilliant stuff!

As for the future, I’d prefer to keep Action Pact as an all-ages tale, though: it would be easy to to “age-up” the series and introduce more adult themes, in line with most other 2000AD stories, but it doesn’t need that and I really want to keep this one accessible to everyone.

Similarly, Luke, I’d assume there’s an awful lot more work involved for you in terms of designing the world, designing the characters?

Luke Horsman: There is, but Mike fleshes his characters out very well, so there was a strong starting point to run with. I had a good idea of the visuals in mind before I started drafting so it came together relatively quickly.

Are you colouring your own work in Action Pact?

LH: Matt Soffe has done the colour work for this, he also did the Cadet Dredd strip I worked on – he has great colour pallets and textures.

Next, what changes to your style have you adopted for this strip?

LH: Not much change, I went slightly more cartoony in some parts to emphasise the action, but for the most part it was my standard style.

And finally, in terms of art Luke, one thing that’s really good to do is chat process involved – how are you working now – traditional, digital, a mix of both? And can you describe to us the process involved in making your art?

LH: I work solely digital these days, it’s a lot quicker and far less mess than traditional inking. Though I try to use as many organic brushes as possible as to not loose the traditional heavy tapered brush style I tend to go with. I use textured dry brushes akin to using a sponge with real ink, toothbrush ink spatter and even a brush made of my inky fingerprint for certain mucky smoke effects.

My rough stage is very loose, I’m very gestural and like to roughly play with the shapes and flow of the page. Spending most time inking.

And Luke was kind enough to send through a couple of examples of that loose roughs stage and the same panels complete with inks…

As far as Action Pact is concerned, and thinking about the whole all-ages thing, is there any big shift in your thinking when it comes to creating something all-ages and more than that, is there necessarily any real difference between strips in Regened and strips in 2000 AD in terms of content, bar the obvious things such as swearing and more graphic violence?

LH: No big shift for me really. The script of a strip dictates where I go with it generally, Mike did a great job on this one. Super fun and silly. My thinking and process is pretty much the same with any title – have fun with the story organically and try not to think too hard about it! It would be great to see more from these characters – the script leaves a lot of scope for a fun universe to play around in.

MC: I don’t think this is especially difficult to do. Sure, over the years a lot of “adult” aspects have emerged in 2000AD, but two of its best and longest-lasting strips – Judge Dredd and Strontium Dog – have for the most part managed to get along perfectly well without changing all that much from the early days.

It’s a mistake, I think, to associate kids’ fiction – or all-ages fiction – with simplicity or childishness, and a worse mistake to build on that and assume that the kids only want clear-cut, unambiguous stories. Kids are more than capable of understanding and appreciating complex story-structures and ambiguous themes… if you give them the chance. Just about any eight-year-old Star Wars fan will be able to argue both sides of whether Obi Wan Kenobi had the right to lie to Luke Skywalker about his father. Kids do understand this stuff – they just don’t encounter it very often because adults assume that it’ll be too complicated for them.

Nearly finally, in terms of creating comics for children – and yes, this is rather a huge topic, sort of a ‘solve the problem with comics’ question – how do you see comics for children succeeding in the future?

LH: That’s a tough one, for sure. I guess just give the kids as much original content, fun and variety as possible.

MC: The Regened issues of 2000AD are, for me, a very welcome trek back through territory that has of late been very sparsely populated. The quality of today’s kids’ comics is extremely high, but the quantity is woefully inadequate. How are kids supposed to discover comics if there isn’t enough variety for them to find something that snags their interest?

Unfortunately, therein lies a pretty big problem: launching a new title into an empty market is like whistling in a vacuum, but the market won’t grow if there’s no product to whet the appetites of the potential customers.

Sure, a publisher with a large back-catalogue could plunder its archives and produce a bunch of low-cost reprint titles, but modern young readers aren’t going to be able to identify with strips like Shiner or Whacky or Bully Beef and Chips – a lot of that old material just won’t work. I mean, I’ve never seen a real-life park-keeper or a teacher wearing a gown and a mortarboard and I grew up in the seventies – I can’t imagine what a modern-day kid would make of them!

This is where Regened and Rebellion’s Cor!! Buster specials – and even the new Roy of the Rovers, I expect (I’ve not read them because football) – stand out: quality new material, accessible to all… the only drawback being the low frequency: only one Cor!! Buster special a year means that it’s likely that the kids who enjoyed the first one would have mostly forgotten about it by the time the second one was published. A year to an eight-year-old is equivalent to almost seven years for someone of my vintage!

And finally, as we always like to ask, what can we expect from both of you this year, whether 2000 AD related or elsewhere?

MC: This year… I’ve got another new Regened strip lined up: Mayflies. Some more Judge Dredd strips, Dreadnoughts: The March of Progress and my third Judges novella, Necessary Evil, are waiting in the wings. Later this year, all going well, I’ll be writing my fourth Judges novella, the third Proteus Vex series, and a couple of projects not yet ready to be announced. So, yeah, a pretty busy year ahead!

LH: Outside of the day to day indy comic work I’m working on a pet comic project called Oathbound. It’s going to be a series based on Vikings and Norse mythology. Illustrating the birth of the Norse cosmos, the misadventures of the gods and heavily inspired by the Poetic/Prose Edda and Icelandic sagas. Got to love a Viking! A preview issue is currently available! Wink wink, nudge nudge.

Thank you to both Mike and Luke for taking the time to chat to us here at 2000 AD. You’ll be able to find Action Pact in the brand-new Regened Prog 2220, out on 24 February and available right here at the 2000 AD web shop.

You can read more of Mike Carroll’s thoughts on so many things at his website, his writing blog, and his always worth a read Rusty Staples comics blog, and catch up with him talking about the recent Judge Dredd: Desperadlands saga with artist Will Simpson here, as well as the just-completed first series of Dreadnoughts over in the Judge Dredd: Megazine here.

As for Luke Horsman, you can find an interview about a previous Regened Future Shock here, you can find him here, and read the preview of Oathbound right here – it looks like this…

Beginning in 2000 AD Prog 2213, out 6 January, we’re kicking off the New Year in fine style with a brand-new Judge Dredd adventure written by Michael Carroll – Desperadlands.

But the big news is that it features the return of Will Simpson to 2000 AD with his first interior artwork in the Prog since 2001 – and it looks every bit as gorgeous as you’d expect! Look for it inside Prog 2213, out right now!

We were going to chat to Michael and Will together about the strip, but Will sent over so many wonderful images means we’ve already shown you Will’s artwork (right here) and now we’ve got the chance to speak to writer Michael Carroll.

Desperadlands brings us back to the land of crime and lawlessness that is Ciudad Barranquilla, Banana City, the South American Mega-City where the Judges are more corrupt than the gangs. Dredd’s been here before on Simpson’s watch, with the lawman going undercover in the Banana City storyline. This time, Dredd is here in full uniform, investigating a mystery with connections to the Justice Department. I could tell you more, but let’s leave that to Michael Carroll…

Okay Mike, in 2000 AD Prog 2213 we have the beginning of a new Judge Dredd series, Desperadlands. And it’s a bit special as it’s the first time we’ve seen a certain Mr William Simpson on the inside of the Prog since June 2001, nearly two decades ago!

So, what can you tell us about what to expect from Desperadlands?

Michael Carroll: It’s a four-part adventure that takes Dredd back to South America. Initially, we discussed the idea of a direct sequel to the Banana City storyline from 2000 AD prog 623, in which Dredd tracks rogue MC1 Judge Barry Kurten to Ciudad Barranquilla, where he’s joined that city’s corrupt Justice Department. Problem with that is that time passes in Dredd’s world at the same rate it does for us… and that was thirty-one years ago.

So instead Desperadlands is a new tale mostly set on the far outskirts of the region governed by Ciudad Barranquilla rather than in the heart of the city itself. It also brings Dredd back into contact with former Judge Doya Meekins. I introduced her in the very first Dredd strip I ever wrote, Blood Culture (However, that wasn’t my first published Dredd: that was Salvage which appeared in Prog 1715… exactly ten years before the first episode of Desperadlands appears.)

In the first episode Dredd and Meekins are called in when a body is found in the middle of a field in South America, and evidence reveals a connection with Syan Hegedos, a former MC1 Judge who’s on the Department of Justice’s most-wanted list for reasons that are revealed in the second episode – so I won’t spoil them here!

We’re in the lawless world of Ciudad Barranquilla here, so many opportunities to compare and contrast the world of MC-1 and BC. And again, Mike, you do seem to enjoy exploring the entire world of Dredd.

MC: I do! Every writer and artist who’s worked on the strip has contributed to a very rich tapestry of fascinating sandboxes full of gardens of earthly (and sometimes unearthly) delights. In fact, it’s such a rich and inventive tapestry that very often great ideas have been introduced to serve a specific story, and then afterwards mostly – if not completely – ignored. Aside from Banana City itself, Desperadlands also explores another of those very striking elements that’s rarely been revisited even though it’s potentially hugely rewarding, story-wise.

What’s so appealing about taking Dredd out of familiar surroundings?

MC: If you want to show the heart of a character you have to strip away all their trappings, peel them back to the very core (which is something that I actually did literally in a one-off tale called The Carousel a few years ago).

I’ve often felt that Dredd is at his best when he doesn’t have his support network backing him up, when he doesn’t have hundreds of other Judges and the considerable resources of the Department of Justice at his beck and call. So one easy way to accomplish that is to take him out of the city. Plus there’s that well-populated sandbox just sitting there… why would we confine ourselves to just the tiny corner represented by Mega-City One when we’ve so much more room for adventure out there?

That applies not just to physical locations, but to characters and social situations, too, and it’s one of the things I love about the world of Judge Dredd: it’s big enough and varied enough that we don’t have to restrict ourselves to a “Crime/Perp/Monster of the Week” formula… and even if we do choose to follow that sort of path, the very nature of the Judge Dredd strip means that our weekly crime or perp or monster is going to be very different to that of any other comic.

Do you have any big plans for this one, or is it a nice Dredd gets out of MC-1 adventure?

MC: Well, time will tell, but fingers crossed it’ll be a bit of both! As it stands, this one is loosely connected to some of the tales I’ve already written – it’s another chapter in Doya Meekins’ story, for example – plus of course it also glances back in the direction of the Banana City storyline… but we’ve been careful to make sure that new readers don’t need to have read those ones. That’s something that’s always at the back of my mind: don’t scare away the new readers! Every episode of every story should leave brand-new readers thinking, “OK, I didn’t quite get all of what’s just happened in this story, but I like it enough to read more.”

We’ve also planted a couple of tiny story-seeds in Desperadlands that with a bit of luck will get a chance to grow into something big and fruitful down the road. I certainly hope so! Working with Will Simpson has been fantastic. I first met him back in the late 1980s – around the time Banana City was published – when he was a guest at an event in Dublin run by the Irish Science Fiction Association, and I was hugely inspired by his dedication as well as his skills. I’ve wanted to work with him ever since. So… that’s a pretty hefty career-goal ticked for me!

And finally, what can we expect you in the future?

MC: I’ve got another Judge Dredd two-parter on the way, plus a few things that too early in development to talk about right now. There’s also Dreadnoughts currently running in the Judge Dredd Megazine, and I’ve delivered the second series. The second Proteus Vex series, The Shadow Chancellor, is currently in the prog, plus there are two new Regened stories coming soon that I’m pretty excited about: Action Pact and Mayflies. I delivered my third Judges novel six months ago, so that should be along soon, too, plus I’m still the series’ editor, which has often been a huge amount of work… but always very rewarding!

Thank you to Mike for talking to us and giving us this look inside just a little of what to expect from Desperadlands. I think you can agree, just from the art up here, that we’re all in agreement with Mike that it’s a great thing to see Will Simpson back in the Prog, but it’s also great to bring in 2021 with Mike back writing Dredd!

You can get hold of Desperadlands Part One in 2000 AD Prog 2213, out on 6 January and available from the 2000 AD web shop.

Now, for a little bonus, a little look back at some of Simpson’s previous Judge Dredd work… first from Banana City in Progs 623-625.

The new Judge Dredd adventure, the Michael Carroll written Desperadlands, began in 2000 AD Prog 2213 and featured the triumphant return to the pages of the Prog of the brilliant William Simpson, his first interior art for nearly 20 years!

2000 AD Prog 2213 is out right now – get it from the web shop here!

Will Simpson has been working in comics since the early 1980s, with early jobs including Warrior (Big Ben), Marvel UK (Transformers) and, of course, 2000 AD. Since then, he’s done memorable work on Hellblazer, Vamps, and Batman at DC Comics and, more recently, ascended the Iron Throne of storyboard artists with his work for nearly a decade on Game of Thrones. Seriously, you want a weapon designing? Simpson’s your go-to guy.

As with so many young artists, his first 2000 AD work came early in his career with Future Shocks – kicking off with Nerves of Steel with Peter Milligan in Prog 408. After this there was work on Judge Anderson with Alan Grant and John Wagner and co-artist Barry Kitson (Hour of the Wolf, Progs 520-531, 1987), and his first Dredd, The Fall Guy with Alan Grant came in the Judge Dredd Mega Special 1988. Following this, there were a few more Dredds with John Wagner, including Banana City (Progs 623-625, 1989), Tale of the Dead Man (Progs 662-665, 1990), and The Chief Judge’s Man (Progs 1244-1247, 2001). And of course,he was the artist responsible for the reimagining of Rogue Trooper in War Machine, written by Dave Gibbons (Progs 650-653, 667-671, 683-687, 1989-1990).

But right now, we’re going to talk Desperadlands. Originally, we were going to run one interview with Mike Carroll and Will Simpson chatting about the strip together, but Mike had loads of fascinating things to say about his writing and Will had a huge amount of art, which means we’re going to run the interview in two parts. Mike’s interview is up later but, right now, we’re here with Will Simpson and we’re taking a good long look at the artwork… which looks just like this…

Okay Will, in 2000 AD Prog 2213 we have the beginning of a new Judge Dredd series, Desperadlands. And it’s a little bit special as it’s the first time we’ve seen your art inside the Prog since June 2001, nearly two decades ago!

So, first things first… welcome back Mr Simpson!

Will Simpson: Sooooo nice to be back!

What’s it like being back in the Prog?

WS: At the moment it’s like some kind of floating myth that hasn’t quite solidified yet…as I haven’t seen a hard copy, so I know I exist on paper, cause the pages are in my studio, but until it’s in a copy of the mag, I’m still in my limbo, knowing I’ve done some artwork, but if I was down the pub, no one would believe me! Ha! Luckily….I can’t go to a pub!!!!  Covid advantage! Other than that, the myth feels very cool! 

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Will, what can you tell us about what to expect from Desperadlands?

WS: Surely I can’t divulge!?

Oh, there’s no need to divulge – your co-conspirator, Mr Carroll spills the beans with us in an interview later in the week!

WS: All I’ll say is that it’s full Of Guns, bikes and Space stuff, misfits and Dirty Harry Dredd! My kind of Sci-Fi! I think the story is more about hinting what’s out there, as we haven’t been Bananas in years, so we get an idea of a world that’s been carrying on into the old west, sort of. It’s displaced and has very ‘Movie ‘western values’.  Grab what you can and shoot what you like and the law can piss off! It sets up potential deeper trips. 

Will, what brings you back to 2000 AD? Was the lure of Dredd simply too much for you?

WS: I think going as a guest to Cons and only talking about the ‘do you remember when’s’ gets you wondering about what you liked best in your career…and when it comes to the comic world, I always loved my 2000 AD period and it’s freedoms, that becomes the hindsight of, ‘if I could do it over, what would I change?’ and there are things I would change. One of the great benefits of film work, is it buys time to consider other things. 

I was lucky to be with Michael on a World Con panel and we got talking. It’s the way opportunities happen. It was very easy to contemplate making space, if Michael has a script and if Matt was up for it.So, I got to do a couple of covers and a poster magazine, before Matt agreed to Desperadlands. It was tentative steps for me, at the same time, having to fit between more film work…and I enjoyed every tense and changeable minute! Comics are where I started and 2000AD was where I really learned to enjoy what I could do! 

I know you’ve been a bit busy in the last few years with the whole sitting on the iron throne thing with the Game of Thrones storyboarding gig. Did you miss doing comics in that time – is it just something in the blood?

WS: It’s in the blood. I don’t think I would’ve gotten storyboarding work if I hadn’t produced so many comic pages, learning storytelling. Art has so many ‘landscapes’ of criteria and comic artists are profoundly full of unique ability, capable of delivering believable worlds of the imagination at the drop of a hat. It’s the most unrestrictive platform to play on, why wouldn’t I want back on that rollercoaster in some way!

I suppose after attending my first convention in years, doing a panel about Game of Thrones, and when we touched on the comic art that led to the film work, a guy came forward and said, ‘ you’re that Will Simpson, I thought you were dead!’ I realised I needed to do more comic work and keep benefitting from my ‘live’ status! 

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One fascinating thing here is that you’ve returned to the painterly stylings of your earlier work with this new Dredd. Work that you were a pioneer of and one of the earliest examples of the painting style that became incredibly popular later on.

WS: There’s a continuity in my mind, and after checking that Matt wanted colour, I knew that I wanted to approach it in a way that was as close to the original as I could muster, after all these years. 

And over the years, whether it was the run on Hellblazer (that I fondly remember), or Vamps, or many others, your style has shifted over the years. In fact, looking at the last Dredd you did, The Chief Judge’s Man (Progs 1244-1247, 2001), it’s a radically different style again.

Is this something that you like to do every so often, keeping things fresh?

WS: I think it’s probably more about where your head is at, at a particular time because so much is on instinct. I mean, some companies and stories require different approaches, but 2000 AD is a state of mind and I had to get into a place where the Story desires I had in the past, were equally manipulative here, the push to establish a setting of some depth. One of my favourite things in Dredd was Mega City One, and how every artist had a different approach to it and yet we all knew it was the same place…just a different background, depending on the tale. It has to be Fresh, cause we change, and so it should. 

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While talking about the artwork, how do you create now? Are you painting old school or using digital now?

WS: I’m still a caveman. I get the charcoal out of my fireplace and after I’ve cooked the wild boar, I mix the fat in with my egg yolks and then…..I pick up my 2B pencil and start scribbling! Pencils, paper, artboard, ink, acrylic, watercolour, gouache and sometimes oil paints, and then after I’ve scanned and pieced together my pages, maybe a little bit of photoshop highlighting, and that’s the art! I’m very old school. I’m in awe of what is done on computer, but I’m better with my tools. It does mean I have lots of physical artwork and a need for great amounts of storage space!!!

Other artists could probably do it digitally, but not me. There’s lots of happy accidents creating a page and moving paint around. 

How do you go about putting a page together and how has that changed over the years? 

It’s still basically the same process. I read the script, I make my thumbnail notes. I draw up the page, on paper or art board in pencil, usually 2B and sometimes quite loose, then Ink or paint. After, I scan and clean and check little things I need to highlight or alter. And that’s that. Repeat! The only difference now, is the computer stage. I do need to play more with the computer! 

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And finally, are you already thinking about what’s coming up next for you here at 2000 AD?

I hope this story proves some kind of worthy mark in the Dredd universe and Michael is ready for more!? I’m certainly itching to step back into the Dredd beast, so depending on my other deadlines on the other work I’m doing, my pencil’s ready!!!! One conversation with Michael and you know he has enough ideas to outlast my capability of getting them all down! There’s hundreds of years of work in his portfolio!! 

Thank you so much to Will for talking to us and sending over so much artwork to show you. It was one of those things where the technology and the timing managed to go wrong in every way that they could, yet still Will prevailed and sent things over, just so that you could see them.

Now, seeing as Will took the time and trouble to send us all of these wonderful pieces of process art from Desperadlands part 1 from 2000 AD Prog 2213, Here they are in full size, just so you can all see just how incredible the work here is…