Tag: interview

2000 AD brings you the galaxy’s greatest stories and art in thrill-powered tales every single week – but who are the droids behind these tales? Well, each month, we’ll sit down with one of the creators who’ve been responsible for keeping the thrill-power set to maximum to get those answers – this is 2000 AD Creator Files!

We’ll tell you more about the artists and writers who keep the Prog and the Judge Dredd Megazine a Thrill-full read! For over 45 years, 2000 AD has been bringing you the best new talent out there and we start off on one of the newer names you’ll have seen in the Prog recently…

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So, for the first of these Pro-Files, we’re talking to Anna Readman, the absolute epitome of keeping it fresh and new. Anna graduated Uni in 2020 and has already seen three of her strips in the Prog.

The first we saw of Anna here in 2000 AD was her artwork on the surprise return of Abelard Snazz in The Only Way Is Up in 2000 AD Regened Prog 2206 back in 2020. She burst into the pages with some fine style, repeated in Prog 2316 with Terror Tales: Half Life, and finished off with a strip she co-created with Paul Starkey, Renk, in Regened Prog 2022.

So, let’s talk to her for the debut Pro-Files…

Anna, here we go then, the first of these profile pieces we’ve done for 2000 AD! Anna, let’s start off with a little history – where do you hail from?

ANNA READMAN: I grew up in a sleepy town near Brighton called Lewes, which is mainly known for its outrageous Bonfire Night shenanigans and the local brewery, Harvey’s.

Did you have an interest in art and/or comics from a young age and how did you first get into comics as a reader – was it as a young child or later on?

AR: My Dad is Canadian and grew up reading comics and watching the 60s Batman TV show, so we used to watch reruns together and he would buy me Batman or Flash comics as a treat. Batman: The Animated Series was also the best thing on TV at the time, so obviously I became a huge a bat fan from a young age.

So many comics readers have parents, brothers, sisters to thank for getting them into comics. And yes, that Batman: The Animated Series really was fabulous. Have you ever seen the Batman: TAS comics that came out around the same time? All that fabulous Mike Parobeck artwork – it’s perhaps my favourite ever Batman series.

AR: I haven’t, but I’ll be sure to look it up and see if I can get my hands on them!

Was there any flirting with 2000 AD at that age or might that have come later on?

AR: I didn’t realise that 2000 AD was still being published at that age! I only had access to the old Judge Dredd Case Files at the local library and most of that went way over my head.

So, your dad got you into comics, particularly Batman. But where were you getting your comics reading from at this point? Was it parents, local library, or did you find them for yourself?

AR: It started with spending my pocket money on Batman Panini comics at the corner shop and ravaging the very small graphic novel section at the local library, before graduating to a pull list at Dave’s Comics in Brighton when I was old enough to catch the bus by myself to the city.

Dave’s Comics, one of the finest comic shops in Britain. An excellent place to have on your doorstep!

And at this stage was it just reading comics or was it reading and making comics?

AR: Reading and making. I still have tons of my old handmade and badly stapled comics back at my parents. I think my favourite is a LotR rip-off called Elf and an epic adventure comic called Bubble Boy.

And here, thanks to Anna, is some of that Bubble Boy comic, along with more of her comics from her childhood.

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I read that you were part of a secondary school comics club at some point that was run by Daniel Bell, one of those aforementioned small/self-publishers.

So from secondary school you were aware and reading a selection of self-published and small press works? What other comics were you into at this point?

AR: Dan introduced me to so many good comics like Runaways and Teen Titans (kid-friendly-ish comics, I was only eleven!) But what Dan did the most was teach me how to actually make and format comics. We would put out an annual comic anthology with the club members each doing a story (it wasn’t a popular club, maybe only 2 or 3 people) and Dan would do all the photocopying and pagination. Really showed me that anyone can make comics, which started my love of small press.

After school, you went on to study Illustration at Leeds Art University but were already making your own comics at that point, some of them as part of your Uni projects.

The first of your comics that garnered any attention was the Cormac McCarthy adaptation, Strangers in Everyland. That was a University project wasn’t it? How did that come about and what was the thinking behind choosing that particular author to adapt?

AR: It was a university brief to create a body of work inspired by a given author. We could pick the author from a list of names and Cormac McCarthy stood out as I had seen No Country For Old Men and loved it, so I picked him. Over the summer break I read, literally, all his books and researched and devoured all the journals and articles I could find about his work and McCarthy himself. It was a LOT of reading, but I absolutely loved it. Suttree stood out as my favourite, with a lot of passages I thought could lend themselves to be adapted into short comic vignettes, which I did.

When did you finish University? Were you working on other projects during your time there?

AR: I finished in 2020, right in the middle of the first pandemic lockdown. I did my final project on the kitchen table in my boyfriend’s house, which I had hurriedly moved into before the lockdown restrictions came into full effect. Because of the pandemic I never got a proper graduation, but by that time I was sick of Uni anyway and glad to move on to new things.

The next project of yours to come out was Area 07 – another University project, a five-page strip that’s available for all to read and enjoy at your website.

It’s semi-autobiographical in as much as it features a character called Anna coming back to her old house and family after having lived away for some time (university in your case), but it takes a dark, strange turn almost immediately, with you playing with a sense of darkness and exaggeration that features quite often in your work.

The way you portray the familiar of family and childhood home is wonderfully grotesque, morphing both family home and family members into something particularly fantastical. You also get to feature your brother as a troll, something that crops up quite a bit in your artwork – both in The Forgotten Trolls and The Lost Loiners. What’s the fascination there?

AR: My grandmother was Swedish, and she told many tales about trolls and creatures from her hometown Ystad, which I’ve visited many times and yes, there are actual trolls that live in the forests there! I have her book on John Bauer, who has always inspired me, and Lost Loiners was me trying to reconcile my Swedish heritage with my new home of Leeds.

One immediately obvious feature to Area 07 (and one that can be seen in much of your work to date) is the way you use the comics page and panels as integral parts of your storytelling, using shapes, layouts, and flows through the pages that many, much more experienced artists would have perhaps shied away from.

AR: Area 07 was another university project, inspired by the feeling of displacement from being away from home for so long. Everything seems foreign and changed, yet also very much the same. I think comics lend themselves to exploring ineffable emotional states into visuals, making yourself to be understood more than just straight prose or vocalization.

Since then, your career has been a mixture of work for publishers, 2000 AD and Z2 Comics, and your own self-published comics.

The first company gig for you came with 2000 AD and the Regened return of Abelard Snazz in 2000 AD Prog 2206 (Nov 2020) with The Only Way Is Up, written by Paul Cornell.

First of all, how did that first 2000 AD gig come about?

AR: Honestly, I have no idea. Matt just emailed me out of the blue. Broken Frontier had, very generously, done a spotlight on me as ‘One to Watch’ so maybe he saw my work there? Anyway, I was very surprised when I checked my emails that morning.

Yes, Andy Oliver and his team at Broken Frontier are doing excellent work promoting the UK comics scene. Folks can read the ‘One to Watch 2019’ article here, and we’ll get more into the promotion of your work later on.

In some ways, it was perhaps something of a controversial choice of strips for you to debut with, as you and Paul brought back the classic Alan Moore and Steve Dillon character Abelard Snazz. He hadn’t appeared in too many tales over the years but was much-loved and fondly remembered.

When we talked before, with you and Paul Starkey talking about Renk (that particular interview is right here), we touched on this point about Abelard Snazz and you had this to say – ‘It was a HUGE thing for me, and I absolutely felt like a complete imposter taking on a job as big as that AND drawing an Alan Moore and Steve Dillon character made it even more pressurised, but I did my best with it. It was a definite learning curve!’

AR: Yes, Matt took a real gamble on having such an unknown and new artist tackle a beloved and old character.

How did you approach the character and the strip? Did you adapt your work or your process at all to complete the job?

AR: I had just received an A3 printer/scanner as a graduation present (I didn’t have access to the university’s equipment anymore) and it was the first time I digitally penciled a strip, printed out the blue lines, and then traditionally inked over the top. It made everything tighter, and I was more confident in my inking.

How was the whole 2000 AD experience for you? Obviously you’d had feedback on your work already, but there’s a bit difference between University feedback on a project and a tough editor who knows what they want – and Tharg is one of the toughest! Seriously though, how did you find the experience of having an editor here?

AR: Matt as editor is great and generally lets me do what I want with the script (apart from that time I accidently gave Renk two arms), so it was a very positive first experience working with an editor and doing professional paid work. I’m very grateful that I’m still getting work to do (haha).

There’s a direct line to be drawn from your art and invention on Area 07 to what appeared on the page for Abelard Snazz. Both are full of complex comics storytelling and playing with the page and panels, exploring perspective and packed with details in the artwork.

What sort of feedback have you had from this 2000 AD debut?

AR: When I worked at OK Comics, it was great hearing from the hardcore 2000 AD regulars congratulating me on the strip and getting some positive reviews online. Reading about my work always weirds me out, but it nice it was positive. Also helps that my boyfriend and his Dad are huge 2000 AD junkies, so impressing the in-laws is always a win.

Dropping in another great comic shop mention – we’ll circle back round to OK Comics in Leeds a bit later if that’s okay. And as far as your boyfriend and his dad’s reading choices – Tharg definitely approves!

Following the debut in Regened with Abelard Snazz, it was four months before we next saw your art, in 2000 AD Prog 2225 (March 2021), this time working with John Tomlinson on one of his Terror Tales: Half Life, a disturbing thing about a man with half a brain and a violent streak he blames on his dead at birth identical twin.

I think it’s definitely your darkest and starkest work so far, a vicious thing, brutal ideas, brutal artwork. I imagine that’s exactly what you were going for?

AR: Yes, I love horror comics, especially the old EC stuff, and so I was really going for a bold, shock-factor look.

It’s also a short strip where your visual invention is constrained somewhat, again I imagine through necessity and tone, to give us a very traditionally laid out piece.

AR: The script was so tightly packed that there wasn’t a lot of movement for page layout creativity without comprising the plot, so in this case the more traditional layout served the story most.

Again, what were your experiences of this second strip? Any issues with the change of art for you here?

AR: I loved working on it! Really, really enjoyed doing the more horror noir style strip. Would love to do more.

Your third for 2000 AD was once more in Regened, Prog 2296 (August 2022), but vastly different from before with Abelard Snazz. This time, instead of working on an existing character, you and Paul Starkey developed Renk from scratch, a fantasy tale of a one-armed, cut-rate, dwarf private investigator for those who can’t afford the best wizards or mighty barbarian warriors.

It was over a year between the Terror Tale and Renk. Was this because you were pitching and getting rejected or because you were working on other things?

AR: I was working on other things and also working at OK Comics, but I was glad to get the Renk gig.

It’s a completely different project for you, the first time you’ve been involved with a collaboration that involves the sort of world-building for a strip that both yourself and Paul are obviously wanting to go further than simply a one-off short.

AR: It was all Paul, who did such a fantastic job of researching and writing such a vibrant world. All I had to do was to bring his words to life through my visuals.

Well, you say ‘all’ – it’s the bringing it all to life that makes it great comics rather than a great story and script!

This sort of off-kilter fantasy is, with its more traditional look, something you’d touched upon in Area 07 but also, as you’ve previously said, not something you were particularly familiar or interested in at that point. So I imagine the act of coming to it afresh and not being able to pull the sort of shortcuts out of the air that an artist who’s spent years in fantasy could do only made the whole thing a lot harder?

AR: Yes, I had to develop a new library of references, which was a fun task to do. Luckily my nerdy friends had big coffee table fantasy art books that I could borrow for inspiration.

What sort of visual inspiration did you dip into for this one? You talked of both Jeff Smith’s Bone and Chris Samnee’s Jonna and the Unpossible Monsters when I interviewed you and Paul about it – and I can particularly see the Bone reference when I went back over it.

AR: I think what both Smith and Samnee do is use a cartooning and storytelling style based on the more traditional cartoonists like Carl Barks and Walt Kelly but keep it contemporary and engaging for young modern readers without infantilizing the art or the audience. It’s why everyone, young and old, loves their comics; they’re universally admired by all who reads them. With Renk I try to approach it the same way; make it appealing for both the older 2000 AD fans and the new generation of readers.

You talked of how you felt your art was more suited – or perhaps your artistic personality – to the world of fantasy than sci-fi when we talked of both Renk and Abelard Snazz. I have to say I disagree in terms of what I’ve seen of your work, but obviously that’s from my perspective. What did you mean by that?

AR: I’m just terrible at drawing spaceships!

Hah! What reaction did you get, from editors and/or fans, about Renk?

AR: People really liked it, and it was especially nice to hear from kids reading it as well at OK Comics. In fact, a dad and his kid liked it so much they bought all the original artwork from me, which was nice to say the least!

Now that is absolutely lovely – both the feedback from kids and the sale of the art to one very happy father/kid reading team!

Have you and Paul plans for a second Renk story? Or perhaps a Renk series?

AR: Yes! And I’ve just finished inking it…

Fabulous – we’ll look forward to seeing it! In fact, a missive from Tharg – Renk episode 2 is slated to appear in 2000 AD Regened Prog 2346 – on sale 23 August!

That last question about another Renk story leads me nicely into the whole idea of pitching for work.

Have you been continually pitching ideas over the last few years – one of those artists/creators who find it relatively easy to come up with concepts? Or is it the other way with you – someone who has to really work up a concept/idea into something they feel ready to pitch and each project takes an incredible amount of time and work?

Or have you found that once you get that foot in the door, things become that little bit easier and it’s a case of past work and talent means you’ll get at least a better chance of getting a pitch to the next stage?

AR: I’ve actually never pitched to any publisher, let alone 2000 AD.

I’ll pause here a moment to let other creators take a deep breath and scream long and loud over that little revelation. Don’t hate her too much folks!

AR: If I have an idea for a story, then I draw and publish it myself. I’m a bit more DIY in that sense. However, there are limits to what you can achieve and financially sustain doing small press, so pitching is something that I want to do in the future (when a good idea comes…)

In between the second and third 2000 AD strips, you completed the Only Takes a Stranger strip (written by Alex Paknadei) for the 2021 Z2 Comics project, Graham Coxon’s Superstate.

What can you tell us about that one? How did it come about etc?

AR: I just got an email out of the blue from Z2 about the comic, and it sounded like a good gig. It went ok, but due to lateness with payments and weird printing dates, I don’t remember the project too fondly.

Oh, that’s terrible to hear. Late-paying publishers are never a good thing.

There’s also been Handlebar Gumbo, a collection of daily diary comics that you originally put out over Instagram and collected in 2021, a wonderfully free-flowing b&w thing covering art, work, cycling (and trying not to get killed cycling around Leeds), making comics, parents, and all the minutiae of daily life.

Have you done daily strips before this or was this your first attempt – and if so, what on earth made you figure that now was the time to get into the obviously pressurised grind of putting comics out daily?

AR: I’ve always loved reading autobio comics, like from Gabrielle Bell, Noah Van Sciver and Gabby Schulz, and enjoyed it when other people did the challenge of doing a daily comic, so I thought why not? I just wanted to see if I could actually force myself to create a comic every day, however bad, even after a hectic day of work. It was really fun and very challenging. Maybe I’ll do it again, but only if there is something in my life that warrants me documenting it.

It’s certainly a completely different style for your art, with a looser and lighter look. Has the daily comics experience fed into your comics-making process going forwards, made things simpler and quicker?

AR: No, I’m too detail-orientated and a perfectionist to work that loose and quick on my ‘proper’ comics. I can barely look at Handlebar Gumbo without cringing at the art.

Ah, the artist hating their own work – a common thread when we talk to them. But anyone who looks at Handlebar Gumbo should tell you how good it is!

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Now, even with that cringing at your artwork, you did return to autobio comics this year with the collection of your Hourly Comics Day strips in February 2023. You joined the many, many (slightly crazy perhaps) artists drawing a comic every hour to document the day. How was that experience?

AR: I participated in Hourly Comic Book Day for the first time this year and it was good fun, though a bit stressful, and I can see how circular and redundant the strips can get when your comics just end up about you drawing the comics, but it was a cool challenge nonetheless. I made a tiny mini out of it called Noodle Wranglin’ that people seem to like (probably because it’s cheap as chips.)

In this round-up of your work though, I wanted to end with Peach Fuzz, a new anthology series self-published in November 2022 and containing three different strips alongside some shorts. It seems to me to be the work that’s most indicative of where you are right now creatively.

Again, it’s you moving into different themes and ideas – what can you tell us about Peach Fuzz and what were you attempting with it?

AR: I was introduced to Daniel Clowes in my first year of university by one of my tutors and became completely and utterly obsessed with that era of alternative comics (even doing my dissertation on them). One-person anthologies like Eightball, Love & Rockets, Dirty Plotte, Optic Nerve and Acme Novelty Library have especially piqued my interest and to me are the perfect medium of showing the best of a cartoonists’ hand. So, doing one of my own has always been a goal of mine.

Well, Love & Rockets technically is Jaime and Gilbert Hernandez, but Anna’s point is sound – although it does make you feel old when someone does their dissertation on comics you can remember coming out in your teens and 20s!

Peach Fuzz is a comic that features the mundane and the everyday, even when it’s featuring a young man who happens to dress up in a homemade Danger Mouse costume in the lead-off strip Spring Awakening. You also bring your other job into it with the second strip, Plumber, a perfect description of an older guy habitually checking out the back issues at the comic shop. OK Comics is nothing like the comic shop you perfectly detail her, one that evokes memories for those of us old enough to have grown up around these dingy little places. So where did you draw inspiration for this one?

AR: I’ve been to a few dingy shops, but you’re right, those comic shops that have survived the hard winters are the ones who not only pay attention to the items they stock, but to the interior design, accessibility, and cleanliness of the shop as well (big up OK!) I think I just amalgamated all the gross shops I’ve seen in old photos and documentaries into a fictitious place to set the story in.

The final strip in Peach Fuzz sees you veer hard into sci-fi again, or at least speculative fiction at its best, with That’s The Way painting a perfect picture of an alt-world where the health service includes body part harvesting done in the same way that we do jury service.

AR: That story has been described to me as ‘Kafka-esque’. I’ve never read Kafka, but they sound important, so I’ll take it.

Definitely take it!

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I wanted to talk Peach Fuzz last because I think that you’ve brought together, like I said, three strips that encapsulate where you are right now, somewhat at a crossroads, so much potential ahead of you, the choices so many that the only way to approach them is to embrace a little from each. Was that the thinking here, to take all the disparate things that interested you and put out an anthology?

AR: It was never intentional, but yes, I suppose Peach Fuzz #1 does represent where I am right now. I’m still learning about who I am and what stories I want to tell, so a variety of interests and themes are bound to appear in my comics.

Do you see yourself continuing with Peach Fuzz as an outlet for yourself and your own work in the future, that necessary outlet?

AR: I have so many ideas for little comics and strips that putting it all under one umbrella title is the most sensible thing I can do with them. Making short stories is the best way for me to experiment with style and playfulness of my own visual language, as well as improving and refining my writing skill. Peach Fuzz is something that I want to continue for as long as possible, or as long as I need it to exist.

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You’re an artist who’s really just starting out, but you’ve already got an impressive body of work to your name. But like so many other young (and not so young) artists, you’re having to divide your time between professional gigs such as the 2000 AD and Z2 work, the self-publishing work, and the online material, commercial illustration, and commissions.

I suppose the time you’ve already spent at University, juggling study and projects, has helped you in being able to balance the demands of life as a professional artist?

AR: I think Uni tried to, but the reality of freelance is so much more chaotic and unpredictable that nothing can really prepare you for it.

Do you have a grand plan at this stage for moving forward or is it simply a case of fitting the work in when you can and when it appears?

AR: Yep, really, I’m just winging it at this point. I have long-term goals and big projects I’d like to do, but for now, I’m just seeing what comes my way.

And on that front, where do you see yourself working in future? – would you be happy moving into more and more work for publishers, whether that’s working as an artist on someone else’s script or as writer/artist/creator. Or do you think you’re always going to be using the self-published and made-for-yourself works to allow yourself a complete creative outlet?

AR: I’d eventually like to move away from work-for-hire gigs and be able to have a reliable income from my own work, whether that is still small press, or ideally having creator-owned books published. However, for the time being, I’m happy to do any work that’ll pay the bills.

On that difficult subject of making a living in comics, did you see the recent research by one of our previous comics laureates, Hannah Berry, about the realities of making comics here in the UK?

How are you feeling about the realities of what you’re doing? Do you feel confident in the medium’s ability to support yourself financially or do you see it forever being a vocation that comes with a necessity to expand into work that’s invariably better paid, such as commercial illustration, or to supplement your income through outside/side gigs?

AR: I mean, I’m barely paying the bills now, and with a few big projects that I had lined up for this year being slated, I’m not super optimistic for the future. I’m just winging it and hopefully, things will go ok, but I know that realistically I might have to go back and get a day job again. Commercial illustration is something I don’t mind doing, but I don’t have any connections to the industry so that might be a hard one to properly get into.

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Of course, like a lot of our artists, particularly the younger ones, you were also, until very recently, working a second job – at OK Comics in Leeds (another one of the UK’s finest comic shops!), for whom you’ve become owner Jared’s in-house go-to artist for promotional work – something that’s turned a great comic shop into a great comic shop with some beautiful looking ads and windows!

How’s it going at OK? Did you enjoy life as a comic shop grunt, something so many artists and those involved in comics in whatever way have done in the past [I did many, many years myself at Nostalgia & Comics Birmingham in the 80 and 90s]

AR: I actually left OK to work freelance full-time at the end of November 2022, but I still go in weekly for comics and a catch-up. We recently celebrated 20 years of the shop, and it was a fantastic week of beer, merch and a raging party at the end. The folks at OK are the best, and some of my closest friends.

We’ve already mentioned the early championing of your work by Andy Oliver at Broken Frontier when he made you one of his ‘Six to Watch’ artists for 2019. And anyone reading this who’s truly interested in new and emerging works from the UK and further afield should already be a regular at the Broken Frontier site. What did that early championing of your work mean to you?

AR: Without that early championing of my work, I would not be where I am today. I’m not great at putting myself out there, and so BF really brought a lot attention to my work that has led to nearly everything I’m doing now. I will be forever grateful.

Has your work at 2000 AD brought you more exposure over the last couple of years?

AR: Definitely, and it’s also given me a lot of legitimacy and pride to say that I’ve produced work for such a well known and loved magazine.

How have you found the bigger comics world has responded to you? Heavens knows there’s far too many media outlets that ignore 90%+ of all comics in favour of the US superhero comics. And there’s also a thankfully small but far too vocal group of fans who seem to really not like comics all that much – or at least not any comics that aren’t exactly like what they used to read or speak exactly to them and their mates.

AR: The bigger comics world hasn’t really got to me yet, which I’m perfectly ok with.

What do you think it is about comics that makes it such a unique medium and one that you’ve selected as your chosen means of expressing yourself in art?

AR: Comics give you that rare opportunity to create a visually and narratively compelling world through just one author, enabling their voice to be heard and shown in their own unique storytelling and aesthetic identity. There is no other medium like it, or one I’m as interested in being a part of.

Before we finish, let’s talk a little about influences and your process…

AR: When I first started reading comics, I was into artists like Jim Lee and Bryan Hitch, which then developed to more nuanced creators like Brubaker & Phillips, who I still love to this day. At Uni I really got into the alternative cartoonists like Dan Clowes and Chris Ware, as well as the underground pioneers like Crumb and Pekar, who have all been a mainstay in my library. Nowadays I just love finding a unique voice, whether it’s the punk aesthetics of Julie Doucet or the sharp noir lines of Jose Munoz. The creators that stand out to me most are the ones with their own distinct identity, shown through their own hand telling their own stories.

One thing we always like to see here at 2000 AD.com is how the art gets put together. So can you walk us through your process here? Do you work traditionally or digitally, what tools do you use?

AR: I pencil digitally on an old Cintiq 13HD using either Photoshop or Clip Studio Paint and then print out the blue lines on A3 Bristol board and ink traditionally. If I’m drawing my own comics, then I’ll traditionally letter too using an Ames guide.

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Having already seen the rough pencils and finished inks for your Renk strip, it’s obvious that you’re an artist who puts a lot down onto the page from the very earliest stage. From talking to a lot of artists over the years, I know it’s something that frustrates many that they can’t just simply strip it all back to the very basics and get the idea down with minimal work. 

AR: It’s Alex Toth who said it best: “Strip it all down to essentials and draw the hell out of what’s left.” It’s something that sounds easy but is so, so difficult to do, and something I continually remind myself to implement.

No one should be arguing with a genius like Alex Toth!

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So far we’ve seen you work both in B&W and in colour. Are you an artist who’s confident in their colours or, like so many of you poor insecure artists, are you one who struggles with colour the most?

AR: I really am not very confident in using colour. It’s something I’m constantly working at, but B&W art will always be my strong suit.

And finally, we always like to end with a quick look at whatever you have coming out, either in the coming months or planned in the far-flung future. What sort of comics can we expect from you in the next year(s)?

AR: I had some big comics lined up this year, but due to some complications and bull**** that naturally comes with the comics industry, those have dissolved so who knows what is next… but, we do have the second Renk story coming up with 2000 AD, some smaller bits and bobs working with some new writers, and then maybe a Beatles Zombie mini comic and then of course Peach Fuzz #2 will be out for Thought Bubble 2023. Lots of my mates got in this year as well so it’ll be a swell hootenanny of a time hopefully. Good things ahead, hopefully.

And we shall leave it there dear reader – that’s PLENTY to be getting on with. Thank you so much to Anna for taking the time – and it was a lot of time – to talk to us. She’s definitely one of the art stars we’ll be seeing a lot more of over many, many years, whether that’s here in 2000 AD or further afield.

As we already told you, you certainly don’t have to wait all that long to see Anna’s art in the Prog, as the second installment of her and Paul Starkey’s Renk will be coming your way in 2000 AD Regened Prog 2346 – on sale 23 August!

We’ve got two interviews featuring Anna, or her art – there’s this interview with Cornell about Abelard Snazz and Anna’s art, and this interview with Anna and Paul Starkey about Renk. You can find out more from Anna and her comics at her website, Twitter, and Instagram. And of course, you must go and buy her comics from her shop. You really won’t be disappointed.

ANNA READMAN BIBLIOGRAPHY

Cormac McCarthy project – University project, 2019.
Area 7 – University project, self-published, March 2019.
2000 AD 2206 – Abelard Snazz: The Only Way is Up, Nov 2020 – Written by Paul Cornell.
2000 AD 2316 – Terror Tales: Half Life, March 2021 – Written by John Tomlinson.
Only Takes a Stranger, Graham Coxon’s Superstate, 2021 – Written by Alex Paknadei, Z2 Comics.
Handlebar Gumbo – Collection of daily diary comics, Oct 2021 –  self-published, available here.
2000 AD 2296 – Renk, Aug 2022 – Written by Paul Starkey.
Peach Fuzz #1 – anthology, Nov 2022 – self-published, available here.
Noodle Wranglin’ – collection of hourly comic book day strips, Feb 2023, available here.
Peach Fuzz #2 – anthology, due Nov 2023 – self-published.

Starting in the pages of 2000 AD Prog 2337, out 21 June, Dan Abnett and Tazio Bettin bring us the first part of a spectacular new series – Azimuth – It’s A Job For Suzi Nine!

Now, if you haven’t already read part 1 of our Azimuth chat with both Dan Abnett and Tazio Bettin, go and do that – these two fine gents talk to you about the ideas and concepts behind the series and a little of what you can expect in coming weeks.

Okay? You back? Told you it was a good read, didn’t I?

Here in this second part, it’s the Tazio solo show, talking about Azimuth, creativity, collaboration, and art.

But just to give you a quick reminder, here’s the idea behind Azimuth…

‘Welcome to the city of Azimuth, a data-driven metropolis, where anything is possible. Ruled by an aristocracy of the New Flesh, such concepts of life, death, and body forms are fluid. Anyone can take any shape, if it can be conceived by the imagination. Suzi Nine Millimetre, for example, is a cadavatar, whose existence is given purpose by the jobs she undertakes for her New Flesh masters.’

It’s one of those first episodes that really sets a fire under you, makes you want to know where it’s going and makes you wish a week away just to get the next episode in your hot little hands! [And boy, hot covers it. Remember all, wear sunscreen!]

Tazio, hello again. Let’s get a little more into you, as this is the first time we’ve interviewed you here at 2000 AD.com. You’ve worked for Titan, Dark Horse, Warhammer, and 2000 AD now. But few people will know too much about you. You’re an Italian artist. What’s your story? When did you first get into comics and how?

TB: That’s true, I don’t think I’m much known!

Oh, I think you’re getting better known with SinDex and I’m sure that Azimuth will have people talking about you!

TB: Yes, I’m Italian, specifically from the city of Padova, near Venice. I always loved to draw since I can remember. But like many, I followed the benevolent advice of concerned parents who tell their children not to study art, because you’ll never be able to live as an artist.

There you are kids – never listen to your parents about art advice!

TB: So I kept art as a mere hobby, studied Japanese language and culture in the University instead, lived in Japan for some years, then came back to Italy and worked in a tour operator office until around 2013. I was pretty miserable: it was a dull, stressful job that didn’t make me feel fulfilled. I felt like I wasn’t creating anything worth being remembered for.

But in the meantime, I managed to get some freelance work for tabletop roleplaying game publishers like White Wolf Game Studios, and I kept drawing as a means to get some relief from a dreary day in the office. Eventually, my contract expired. It was a bad time for tourism, and I found myself looking for a job once again.

As a half-joke, I submitted a portfolio of my very, very crude artwork to a Marvel talent scout who was visiting Italy at the time, C.B. Cebulski. And against all expectations I was selected to produce some test pages. That gave me the first spark, the determination to prove that I could make it. That I could learn perspective, anatomy, and storytelling proper, even if I was just some self-taught nobody.

My first real chance came when writer Victor Gischler participated to an event in my very city here in Italy. It was exciting and frightening to meet the author of Deadpool: Merc with a Mouth and Head Trip in person. But I took my courage in both hands and we got to know each other. From that fateful encounter, my first ever professional comic book project was born. Sally of the Wasteland, our creator-owned graphic novel published by Titan Comics.  It was a dream come true and even today I look at those pages full of happy memories and it’s a bit of a talisman for me.

What exposure to 2000 AD did you have? Was it growing up when you saw your first Prog or more into adulthood?

TB: I think my first ever exposure was in my teenage years. As you can imagine I read a lot of comics. I was an absolute fan of Pat Mills’ Slàine, one of the few 2000 AD titles published in Italy in the nineties. And of course, there was also Judge Dredd, though it was more in the periphery. I really started to appreciate the comic later in my life. In more recent years, Dan’s Brink captured me with its fantastic characters, mystery and plot twists, and Ian Culbard’s mind-blowing art.

So my exposure to 2000 AD has been, I’d say, gradual but ever-present throughout the years. I knew of this legendary, groundbreaking British publisher and hoped one day I could get to work for them.

Your very first 2000 AD work was back in 2021 (from what I can work out anyway!) with covers and SinDex with Dan. But the connection with Dan stretches back further than that as I understand it? There was work on Warhammer 40,000 comics and covers for Games Workshop novels, and that meant you came into contact with Dan.

Presumably, that’s where the SinDex job came about and from there, other 2000 AD covers from Tharg?

TB: That’s correct. After working on the Warhammer 40,000 comics, I took a trip to the UK to meet some of the people I’d been working with thus far; it was also a chance to visit Games Workshop’s headquarters in Nottingham and meet Black Library’s art directors, for whom I started freelancing, and still do.

It’s a great collaboration: it’s not only a beloved franchise, but Games Workshop is a fantastic client to work for. Eventually, I was proposed to work on the cover art for a special edition Dan’s novels Pariah and Penitent. As a Warhammer fan, it’s impossible not to know and be in awe of Dan. He’s written some of the most memorable books in Black Library’s catalogue. I mean, have you ever read Legion, or Double Eagle? I read those books three times each, not to mention his novels Triumff and Embedded, outside of the Warhammer franchise. So working on a cover for his book was a dream come true.

My contact wasn’t directly with him at the time, however, so I took the courage in both hands and got in touch with him. Dan has worked with some of the best talents in the industry and created several major franchises, so I was very hopeful and very frightened. But after a short time, he offered me to work on Sinister Dexter and I got my first chance to prove myself. That’s where it all started. Dan is a veritable volcano of ideas (that may be an Italian figure of speech I translated word by word, but I think you get the point) and a wonderful human being. It’s not only a great working relationship, but also a friendship I very much value and am profoundly grateful for.

‘A veritable volcano of ideas’ – Dan will be putting that on business cards! But it’s a great figure of speech and very apt.

So with your 2000 AD covers and SinDex under your belt, what does it mean to you to be here with your first co-created strip?

TB: The first thing I thought was “ok, you’ve proven that you can do a decent job. Now prove you can do more than that!” I like to set myself challenges to overcome. Every chance to work on a project is a chance to prove yourself, but when you are given freedom in creating the visual concept for something new, that’s an invaluable opportunity to show that you’re worth your salt. And hopefully I’m managing to do that!

Having already worked with 2000 AD and Dan on Sinister Dexter, plus some cover illustration work on Dan’s books – have you got a nice shorthand going on by now about what you’re looking for on a strip and Azimuth in particular?

TB: Well, every project is its own thing, as I mentioned, and a chance to go into a new direction. Azimuth is a new challenge I set to myself: to draw something using techniques and aesthetical choices I never tried before. Even the layout I’ve adopted for this project is new for me, as I’m no longer using the grid like I did in Sinister Dexter, so I’m not sure I can speak of shorthands. But it becomes progressively more natural and intuitive as I work on each subsequent page.

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Tazio, let’s talk about your art, both generally and specifically here on Azimuth. What’s your process like? Is it all job dependent or are you a strictly analogue or all digital artist, and how have you gone about making the art for Azimuth?

TB: My process is entirely analogue. First I draw some sketchy layouts, then develop them in a bigger format with traditional pencils, and subsequently ink them. Matt Soffe then brings those pages to life with his amazing colours, and I couldn’t ask for a better colourist in this project.

The world-building of Azimuth (sorry, Dan! I know you don’t like that term) involved amassing an extensive database of images, from photos of real-world places, costumes, and objects, to ancient paintings, mosaics, statues, and frescos, to use as inspiration. Just to give you a small spoiler, one of the locations we will be exploring in the future is a homage to the city of Sana’a in Yemen.

Tazio was good enough to send over his process images from Azimuth episode 1, page 1 from roughs to inks – presented here in a gallery but shown in full at the end of the interview.

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Oh, and you’re presumably not going to be able to sneak in any vintage cars into this one as you did in the last Sinister Dexter? Or will there be a sneaky Austin Allegro hiding in one of the panels?

TB: I wasn’t expecting the Allegro to make such an impression! When that scene came up, and Hosanna, one of the characters, remarks on it being junk, I simply researched which cars are notorious for being amongst the worst ever built: in every list I found, the Austin Allegro was present. I found it kind of adorable and chose it, and Dan was ok with my choice. As per vintage cars in Azimuth, who knows… anything can happen in this new, strange place!

[Oh, and if you’re wondering what all this talk of the Allegro is, it’s from a SinDex storyline where Tazio included one and there was an outpouring of love/hate from readers about that particularly awful car. Tazio talks more about it in a Covers Uncovered – the link’s below.]

And Tazio, what’s coming next for you after Azimuth?

TB: Most of what I’ve been working on in tandem with my Azimuth pages has been released by now. Last year I had the honour of working on Secrets of Salamonis, the latest Fighting Fantasy book written by none other than Steve Jackson, and The Upper Deck just published an expansion for Marvel: Legendary Encounters that features my art, titled Midnight Sons. Another card set should be released later on this year, if you want to see me draw some iconic Marvel villains! You can also expect to see more of my artwork for Black Library’s Warhammer 40,000 books.

And of course more Azimuth! Seriously, there is so much to explore in this new title, I hope it will be a very long series indeed.

Well, having seen the first episode – that’s something I reckon a lot of readers will be saying as well!

Welcome to the world of Azimuth – Tazio and Dan want to take you on a real adventure. And Suzie? Well, Suzie Nine Millimeter wants a job…

There we go – a thoroughly enjoyable chat there with Tazio – who’s work on Azimuth looks, I think we can all agree, absolutely amazing. Trust me when I say that this is one series you are absolutely going to love.

Once more, thanks to both Dan for chatting to us yesterday and to Tazio for the extended chat. You can see the very first episode of this new series in the pages of 2000 AD Prog 2337 – out on 21 June from anywhere you can find the Galaxy’s Greatest, including the 2000 AD web shop.

For more from Tazio, he’s had a few Covers Uncovered features since appearing in the Prog for the first time – Sinister Dexter covers for Prog 2259, and Prog 2283, plus he made a surprise guest appearance in one of Andy Clarke’s Covers Uncovered pieces for Prog 2290 where we talked all things Austin Allegro! Finally, there’s his cover for Hope… In The Shadows for Prog 2302.

Now, as promised, those full-sized process works from Tazio – layouts, pencils, and inks from Azimuth episode 1, page 1. And right at the end, the finished page with colours from Matt Soffe.

Starting in the pages of 2000 AD Prog 2337, out 21 June, Dan Abnett and Tazio Bettin bring us the first part of a spectacular new series – Azimuth – It’s A Job For Suzi Nine!

As you’ll read when you crack open the pages of the Prog, Azimuth is all about this…

‘Welcome to the city of Azimuth, a data-driven metropolis, where anything is possible. Ruled by an aristocracy of the New Flesh, such concepts of life, death, and body forms are fluid. Anyone can take any shape, if it can be conceived by the imagination. Suzi Nine Millimetre, for example, is a cadavatar, whose existence is given purpose by the jobs she undertakes for her New Flesh masters.’

And having read that first episode now, I am so excited to see where Dan and Tazio take this one. It’s yet another great strip from the Galaxy’s Greatest.

I chatted with both Dan and Tazio before I’d had chance to see that first episode and both fine gents wanted to remain a little tight-lipped about things that would be going on in the strip, but it’s still a fascinating insight into the white-hot creative process behind this one. In fact, there was so much to talk about that we’re splitting this one in two. First, time to chat to Dan and Tazio about the very idea of Azimuth and what it’s all about, then tomorrow we’ll talk to Tazio about his collaboration and his art.

So, wake up Suzi Nine Millimetre…

Dan, Tazio, hello. Dan, a pleasure to talk to you again. Tazio, we’ve spoken before with your covers for the Prog but never interviewed you before now. So… welcome!

TAZIO BETTIN: Thank you! It’s an immense pleasure for me!

Now, coming in 2000 AD Prog 2337 you have the new series called Azimuth.

So far – well, at least while we’re chatting – all we’ve seen of it is the ‘Starting in Prog 2337’ image that appeared recently. This one in fact…

From that there’s a definite Moebius vibe going on, sci-fi but familiar, ancient yet futuristic. Something with a mix of cultures, religious imagery contrasting with the architecture of the cityscape and that monolithic building in the background with another statue on it – a temple, a palace? a casino? We can see it’s a city enclosed by walls, and there are figures funneling into the city, so we know it’s not a city under siege or anything like that. And then we have the fungal elements there, the large mushroom/fungi structures, one of which has a building in it. And that’s without even mentioning the floating structures, half of them looking like floating rock structures, half of them more spacecraft-like.

I guess what I’m saying is that there’s a lot going on here, a huge amount of visual imagery that promises so much, offers so much. But right now it’s all just a tease – which is another way of saying I just don’t know what to make of it! If I had to hazard a guess here, I’d say we’re looking at something not of this Earth certainly, something of the future. An alien landscape, future technology.

And of course, then we have the title itself… Azimuth. The dictionary offers this… ‘the angle between North, measured clockwise around the observer’s horizon, and a celestial body’ So that’s no help at all. Or is it?

So… after all that speculation, what’s it all about Dan & Tazio? Who is, what is, where is Azimuth?

DAN ABNETT: Well, that’s a huge and impressive amount of speculation and deduction, Richard! And though some parts of it are incorrect, they are also all entirely correct.

There we are folks… the author being as mysterious as the author wants to be!

DA: Azimuth is a brand new strip from us, Azimuth is the name of the city, the entire location and setting, and Azimuth is… everything.

It is everything you need or want it to be. Or not. More than ever before, I think the comment “you’ll have to read it to find out” applies, though in answer to a secondary question “why should I read it?” I will say… the art. Tazio is brilliant, and this is simply wonderful.

TB: I feel very honoured to hear you inspected my artwork with so much attention to the details!  Thank you Richard!

Creating a setting for Azimuth has been an exciting process. Dan gave me an initial idea of what he wanted the world to look like, and we worked together in shaping it.

We started from an initial kernel of an idea over emails and Skype chats and developed the place gradually, starting from some concept and reference, through to the actual process of working on the pages.

With a coherent idea in mind, the place is literally developing with every page I draw. It’s a cooperative process, which I enjoyed immensely. One of the many things I love about working with Dan is that you always become an active part of where the story will go and what it will look like.

A new project means a chance for me to delve into a completely different style, and you are correct, of course: Moebius has been an obvious inspiration, as well as the many European comic artists I grew up with in my teenage years, like Bilal, De Luca, Pratt, Druillet, and Toppi. When I think about weird science fantasy, that’s where I built my visual vocabulary, and Azimuth certainly was the right place to put that vocabulary to use.

I like to try and keep my mind fresh by exploring different styles: it’s a great experience because one learns a lot from it. I try to avoid calcifying my work on one style: that is just a byproduct of how I see things anyways, and I’d rather try and explore new ways of expressing that. Drawing things always in the same manner will only limit your ability to evolve as an artist.

With Sinister Dexter, I used a rather heavy inking technique, with the occasional addition of halftone screens: it made for rather gritty and oppressive atmospheres, and I felt it was coherent with the story and with what we had seen up to that time on the strip. With Azimuth, I decided to go in a completely opposite direction: I wanted it to look bright, weird and full of strange details, without hiding anything behind solid blacks.

I wanted to depict a place that feels like it’s the nexus of an entire world. Such a place would be a melting pot of cultures and influences. As such, you will find architectural and aesthetic details inspired by many cultures and time periods, from Mesopotamian ziggurats to Cambodian stupas and French XVIII Century palaces, technological oddities, giant mushrooms (watch out for those mushrooms!), and weird creatures.

How many episodes have we got for this one?

DA: Initially, a block of ten, but this is ongoing, so there will be more chunks to come. We’re working on them now.

What sort of things can we expect from Azimuth in the future?

TB: From my side, I’ll be cryptic and say: watch for clues.

And that’s it? Oh c’mon…

TB: Okay, I’ll give you a hint. There are QR codes here and there that you can scan with your phone and read clues from. Also look for Easter eggs. They will give you some ideas of what kind of world this is, and where it comes from.

DA: Well it’s an extraordinarily weird and unsettling place, packed full of mysterious, so those very mysteries are the things we will be unlocking as we go. We’ll explore this city together.  

The opening arc focuses on our hero, a citizen called Suzi. That’s Suzi Nine Millimeter. She’s our guide, but she doesn’t know a great deal more than we do. As her name suggests, the journey around this city will be violent. Brutally violent, in places.

As you’ve said it will be an ongoing strip, you’ve obviously had many thoughts beyond this first series and have plans in place for where it’s going.

DA: Indeed. We have thought, and planned, further ahead than you can possibly imagine.

TB: All I’m going to say this: prepare to enter the rabbit hole, because there’s a lot for you to discover!

Dan, Tazio, you’ve already worked with each other on recent Sinister Dexter storylines. But was this something you co-created together or was it yet another great idea pouring forth out of the Abnett brain? (hardest working droid at 2000 AD possibly?).

DA: I’ve loved working with Tazio on SinDex. His work is extraordinarily good, both in terms of character and detail, and in the fundamental storytelling.

This idea sort of came from me first, in as much as I had a cunning plan, but it was created and developed from the very start with Tazio. We talk, by email and Skype, to brainstorm ideas, and because Azimuth is so visually inventive and driven, it was very much built for him to draw, with his strengths in mind. It is definitely a co-creation, even if I was the first to say “What if we..?”

Dan, there aren’t that many 2000 AD creators who, with three long-running series (SinDex, Brink, and The Out) would think the next step was to create something new like Azimuth. So why the new series now?

DA: Well, 2000 AD is hungry for a start. It needs to be fed. And this idea was exactly the right idea for us at the right moment. It’s great having established and well-received series like Brink, The Out and SinDex (not to mention Feral and Foe, or indeed resting strips like Kingdom or Grey Area that may rise out of slumber again at any moment).

Dammit, knew when I mentioned those three that I’d forgotten some – not Grey Area, more on that in a bit. And Lawless, of course Lawless, who could forget Lawless? Well, obviously myself AND Dan!

DA: But doing something shockingly different keeps you on your toes. It’s a way to channel ideas that might not find a place easily in well-established stories.  I also think there’s a knock-on effect. Something new exercises the creative muscles, which helps keep long running strips fresh and sharp too.

I was chatting to David Hine and Boo Cook recently about another completely new series in 2000 AD, Void Runners, and about the work that’s involved, exponentially more work, in bringing something absolutely new to the page as opposed to a new series of an established strip.

So what is the difference here in originating something a new title and expanding on an existing one? I imagine there’s months of planning and plotting, creating the worlds, the people, the cast, the backstories, the worldbuilding?

DA: I think that’s true to a certain extent, although with ongoing world-building, and plot-making, as complicated as it can get on things like Brink and The Out (where we’re constantly striving to both sustain and improve the quality), a blank slate can often seem invitingly easy.

But yes, there’s a lot of invention here, for Tazio with the look and the art and the ‘visual continuity’, and for me in the ‘world-building’ (a phrase I’m actually not keen on, though I use it a lot).

Yes, it’s one of those I use too much too, wincing as I say it, but it’s such a damn convenient shorthand!

DA: Azimuth, for example, has its own vocabulary and slang, which is consistent throughout and which you learn quickly because Suzi is talking to you as she guides you. So, for instance, I’ve had to create and maintain a database of terms and phrases to keep up with it, and I’ve filled a lot of notebook pages with material ready to use.

What sort of script do you send over Dan and how much creative input has there been from Tazio on putting this world together?

DA: It’s full script: panel-by-panel descriptions with dialogue, broken down (as I usually work) into ‘my’ best take on the frame-by-frame storytelling. But there are also often descriptive gaps, in terms of characters and specific locations, where I say to Tazio “I need this to be able to do that” and then invite him to take it where he wants to take it (provided that “this” can still do “that”). And we’ll often discuss a script once the bones are in place. Often, Tazio’s added a visual detail or character that is so cool, I’ve picked it up and run with it after, and made more of it.  

And whilst we’re talking of Tazio’s work, have you seen the finished pages yet Dan?

DA: Thus far, finished art, and I’m waiting on the lettered version. I’ve seen breakdowns and pencils along the way (which we use to brainstorm from, much like the scripts). It is, simply, awesome.

What were you after from having Tazio on the strip, what has he brought to Azimuth for you?

DA: I was simply after Tazio. I had an idea for something, and then realised what that would and could be if Tazio drew it. As I keep saying, he’s amazing, and we collaborate well. So having seen how good he was on SinDex, I wanted to see what he could do when he wasn’t ‘constrained’ by the requirements of a strip’s established parameters.

The hybrid cultural reference is one thing. The high strangeness is another. And the detail… I can be very precise and specific in the dialogue because I know the visual detail will be absolutely there to support it. 

Dan, another conversation I had recently was with Mark Harrison, your artist on The Out and a man always worth reading in our Covers Uncovered features when he decides to go deep, deep, deep into the motivations and reasons for his cover choices. Anyway, we were chatting about The Grey Area, a series that I distinctly remember being one that grew on me, going from something that was okay to something excellent. I was re-reading that recently and happened to ask Mark about the possibility of it coming back. After all, the end of the second collection does hint that there’s a lot more to come. Any chance we’ll be seeing you and Mark get on with that?

DA: Certainly. Mark and I both enjoyed working on it, and there’s a still a lot we can do with it. The series really came into its own once Mark was on aboard and ‘visually codified’ everything. But we’d delivered some big story arcs, and taken it to a decent ‘pausing moment’.

Mark didn’t co-create Grey Area, he simply came on board and made it his own. So he’d always hankered after co-creating something from the very start, so we decided to ‘rest’ Grey Area and create The Out. The Out was meant to be a nice creative contrast, and we had originally intended to alternate between the two strips, doing a book of one, and then a book of the other, keeping things fresh. We hoped people would enjoy The Out. We had no idea it would be quite the hit it has become. So we’ve stuck on it for a while. In due course we will give it (and us) a breather, and I’m sure Grey Area will be our change of pace.

Although of course there’s the small matter of The Out Book 4 to be getting on with as well! Not to mention more Brink with the great INJ Culbard. And I’m sure there’s more Sinister Dexter in the works. So, what’s next for you Dan, and how do you decide which series to concentrate on?

DA: You know me. I can multitask.

He most surely can readers.  

And how’s things going with Brink, SinDex, and The Out? When can we expect more?

DA: Great! Yes, there will be more of all of them before long… I’m not sure in which order, because that depends on Tharg’s scheduling, but all three are in the works.

And what else do you have that you’d like us to keep an eye out for that’s coming out soon?

DA: Beyond 2K, I have been doing Groot for Marvel, Vampirella for Dynamite, and I have a Cthulhu mythos graphic novel due out at the end of the year.

Alongside Brink, Ian and I have been asked back to Boom! Studios to do, at long last, a fourth series of our cult little anthropomorphic hit Wild’s End, the first issue of which is due this month. It’s great to be back on that.

Fantastic news. Seriously, any fans of Dan and Ian’s work on 2000 AD should hurry along to their local comic shop and order the new Wild’s End right now!

DA: And I have spent the last two years writing the Horus Heresy novel to end (literally) all Horus Heresy novels, for the Warhammer universe. It is immense, and was a hell of thing to work on. That’s now coming out, in large volumes, because it was too effing big for one book. The End and the Death Volume 1 is out there now for your reading pleasure.

Welcome to the world of Azimuth – Suzi Nine Millimetre has her job and we’re off on a stunning adventure…

And that was where we had to leave it. Dan had about 20 different things to write and Tazio had been allowed away from the drawing board by Tharg for a little too long! But be sure to join us tomorrow for a chat with Tazio – a little about Azimuth, a lot about art!

Thank you so much to both Dan and Tazio for taking the time to chat to us about Azimuth. You can see the very first episode of this new series in the pages of 2000 AD Prog 2337 – out on 21 June from anywhere you can find the Galaxy’s Greatest, including the 2000 AD web shop.

We’ve spoken to Dan a fair few times here at 2000 AD.com in the last few years – Dan and Mark Harrison talk The Out here and you can also hear them talk about it on the 2000 AD Thrillcast, Dan and Phil Winslade talk Lawless: Boom Town here. Dan and Richard Elson talk Feral & Foe series 2 here and Kingdom Vs Shako here. Then there’s Dan alone talking about the first Grey Area collection This Island Earth here. Dan & INJ Culbard talking Brink Book 2 here and Dan on his lonesome again on Brink Book Three: High Society here. And finally, more solo Dan on Sinister Dexter and The Beatles here. Phew, told you we’d chatted a fair bit!

And although this is Tazio’s first time being interviewed here, we have featured his excellent covers in the Covers Uncovered feature – Sinister Dexter covers for Prog 2259, and Prog 2283, and then there was an unusual guest appearance in this Andy Clarke Covers Uncovered for Prog 2290 where we talked all things Austin Allegro! Finally, there’s his cover for Hope… In The Shadows for Prog 2302.

2000 AD Art Stars is the competition that catapults new creators into the pages of the Galaxy’s Greatest Comic – and the latest round has just seen another new droid annointed by Tharg the Mighty – Alan Kerr.

Alan’s one-page Judge Dredd tale, The Telltale Incin Bin, was chosen from a record numbers of entries and now the dust has settled it’s time to chat…

As a way to mark the end of 2000 AD’s 45th-anniversary celebrations, Art Stars was switched up from pin-up images to the way more difficult theme of making the ultimate one-page Judge Dredd story!

More than 300 worthy entries flooded in but, in the end there can only be one winner chosen by Tharg the Mighty… and that was Alan! As a winner of 2000 AD Art Stars, Alan gets paid and will see his strip in a future Prog. So here’s the strip in full for you to enjoy and after that, a chat with Alan about what it means to win…

Alan, let’s start with a quick reaction to you winning Art Stars this time round – as the latest winner of the 2000 AD Art Stars contest… how does it feel?

ALAN KERR: Zarjaz.

Always the correct answer!

AK: I honestly didn’t think there was any real chance of me winning, so it’s an awesome surprise, on top of being very exciting. 2000 AD means a lot to me.

Thing is, it was a very different contest this time around -where previously it had been just a single pin-up image, this latest was a far tougher prospect – the one-page Judge Dredd tale.

Now, as anyone who’s ever had to sit down and contemplate a Future Shock will tell you, getting something done in full – beginning, middle, end – in just 5 pages is hard as hell. But to be able to write and draw a single-page Dredd story – well, how hard is that?

So, where did the germ of the idea come from with The Telltale Incin Bin? Was it something you’d been sitting on for a while or was it something thought up specifically for this Art Stars?

AK: It was weirdly straightforward, to be honest – something this compressed had so many constraints, it almost forced me into this story.

I always remember some writing advice, that the easiest way to build a story is to just make a character want something – and then add a complication.

This story needed to be really simple, so I tried to think of the simplest thing that a character could want – and crossing the road (to get to the other side) seemed like a funny idea. Dredd was the obvious complication! The whole page just fell into my head after that.

It seems to me – although I have no influence over Tharg’s choices in these matters – that a lot of the reason you won was because your strip had that classic mix found in Dredd over the years; that ever-present threat of being found out, the panic all Cits feel when confronted with the Law – whether or not they’re trying to get rid of a body, but most of all that sense of wonderful ridiculousness that runs through those great Dredds. I think all that’s right there in your one-pager.

AK: That’s very flattering, thank you. It was important to me that Dredd wasn’t the actual protagonist of the story – the best Dredd strips are usually about life in Mega-City One, not supercops with big guns. 

As far as the artwork goes, it’s another bit of classic Dredd, using exaggerated facial expressions to tell so much – a perfect example of show don’t tell going on as you’re letting the artwork do a lot of the heavy lifting in the storytelling.

AK: I’d like to take credit for this clever decision, but it’s just how I draw. I can’t help it.

You also stuck determinedly to a rigid grid structure, eschewing the temptation to go very splashy or push boundaries with the art – again, keeping to the old ‘keep it simple stupid’ adage. Where simple here means just tell the story, get the essentials over, show don’t tell, and use the art to tell us about character and emotion.

AK: That was a difficult decision, because the classic UK comic page doesn’t use hard gutters like this – but I thought something this compressed really needed the storytelling clarity of a clear grid. Also, Mike Mignola says that clean gutters make comics more readable, and I think we can assume that anything Mignola says about comic art is correct.

Yep, definitely!

And of course, there’s a nice pair of boots in there. Maybe not MacMahon Dredd boots, but boots nonetheless – and another great bit of show don’t tell with the laces in that panel.

AK: Don’t forget the hint of classic Mega City kneepads too! I was embarrassingly pleased with the idea of  hiding the untied lace in plain sight, behind the “step by step” line, I’m glad it’s being noticed.

Finally, the last panel gives us another bit of classic Dredd storytelling, the twist ending. Something that’s been done so many times and something you nailed so well here.

AK: Thanks! I agonised over the wording here. Would Dredd really take the time to tell a citizen their lace was untied? In the end I decided anyone as uptight as Dredd couldn’t help themselves. He’d straighten every wonky picture he saw.

What do you think it was about The Telltale Incin Bin that made it to the top of a rather large pile of entries and won Tharg’s approval here?

AK: I can’t say, some of the other entries I’ve seen were superb. The Mighty One moves in mysterious ways, after all. Who am I to question His will?

With an attitude like that, you should go far with Tharg!

Speaking of Art Stars, had you entered before now, when it was a pin-up competition?

AK: No, I never thought my stuff would stand out in a pinup competition, there’s too many amazing artists out there. I’m more of a nuts and bolts storyteller than a splash page artist.

I know we opened with the question, but let’s go a little bit more into what it meant to you to win this Art Stars. Are we into dream come true territory here?

AK: Absolutely, a literal childhood dream. It’s hard to really describe how big 2000 AD was to me as a kid. I always dreamed of getting something in the prog, but writing AND drawing? DREDD? As my first strip!? Come on. Ridiculous.

It’s unusual in many ways, the one page format, but it’s also unusual in that it calls for a good writer/artist, something that’s a rarity at 2000 AD. If/when you get to take things further, would you specialise at all – are you more a writer that draws or an artist who writes? Or would you consider yourself just a comic maker?

AK: I’ve never really thought about the distinction, I just do whatever it takes to get the ideas out of my head. I’d love to do both, but if I were to take it more seriously, writing would probably be more likely to fit into my life, because drawing full comic pages takes a LONG time. But who knows?

How old are you and when did you first get into 2000 AD? Was it a childhood thing – ‘my dad had a pile of them and I borrowed them’ sort of thing? Or was it something you got into later in life?

AK: I am, unpleasantly, 43.

Well hello fellow eldster!

AK: I was around 8 or 9 when 2000 AD hit me, I think. My older brother got me hooked – I can even remember the exact moment! He pulled me over to show me a Prog in the supermarket, and it was THAT Bisley drawing of Joe Pineapples shooting his rifle, in The Black Hole strip. I was obsessed immediately. I remember drawing nothing but robots with giant guns for months afterwards.

Congrats to that brother – serving Tharg well there!

AK: I should also mention the important part my parents played at this early stage, by not paying too much attention to what was actually in the Prog. I think that when my mum realised just how many exploding heads my brother and I were seeing on a weekly basis, it was quite a shock.

And congrats to Mum and Dad for supporting your choice of reading!

What strips/artists/writers were your favourites and what inspired you from 2000 AD and those creators to go about making your own comics? I’m guessing Alan Grant because of your connection with him in comics? (And frankly, because, hey, it’s Alan Grant!) I can also see you’ve done a pretty cool Nemesis on your Instagram – so Kev O’Neill as well?

AK: 2000 AD at that time had such an insane embarrassment of riches, it’s hard to know where to start. We also had the Best of 2000 AD monthly, which introduced me to a lot of classic content at the same time.

AK: So, sorry for the boring giant list, but some strips that immediately leap to mind from those early days are – The Horned God (obviously), Bryan Talbot era Nemesis, Zenith Phase 3 (for some reason no one ever seems to talk about Steve Yeowell’s incredible stylisation in this phase, but for me it’s some of the best comic art of all time), Song of the Surfer, Ace Trucking Co. (it’s easy to remember Ace as just silly comedy fluff, but the casual, throwaway world building in the strip is incredible), Strontium Dog (mid-era SD feels so effortless), Necropolis (I could talk about Ezquerra’s seedy neon colours in this for hours – you can see the influence in my Dredd page), the madness of Revere, and… Rogue Trooper: War Machine, which I still think is one of the best strips 2000 AD has ever made. Controversial, I know. Don’t @ me.

That’s just from the early days, of course. I could go on…!

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The prize for winning is the chance to see your one-pager in a future 2000 AD – what are your thoughts on that?

AK: It’s amazing. Even if it’s just a competition win… it’s there! I am part of the canon, that’s the rules and no one can tell me otherwise. Even if I’m not, really.

You’re in the Prog, you’re part of 2000 AD and Dredd now!

So, we know about your 2000 AD history, but what about you more generally? The ‘about’ bit on your website gives us this… ‘Alan is an illustrator, comic creator and 3D artist. He currently works as an artist in the computer games industry, in Scotland.’ But that’s a little bit light… tell us all about yourself!

AK: Well, I’m a full time games artist. Does that count as leaving the day job behind? I used to be an industrial engineer fixing sewage pumps, so in my head it really does.

All the illustration stuff is really just hobby work now, although I was briefly a freelance illustrator full-time in the past.

The comics are more like a compulsion than a hobby. I haven’t actually been trying to get published, or even particularly noticed online, for a long time now – but the urge to make the stories doesn’t seem to go away. To be honest, I started to enjoy it a lot more when I just made them for fun, and stopped trying to get anyone to read them. That’s a full time job in itself.

I can see on your website that you’ve been published before this Judge Dredd, with Kreepy Kat in several magazines and Lusi Sulfura published in the Wasted comic anthology created and published by Alan Grant. Which explains why, when I saw your name and your art, I was sure I’d seen something from you before!

Is that the extent of what you’ve had published so far?

AK: I think so? It’s hard to remember everything I’ve churned out at this point, and what it was for!

From seeing your work online I’ve enjoyed the various pieces to read on your website. There’s No-Man, Tombworld, World Without End, Amy Excalibur, Skull Hunters, Jenny Spider Freak Fighter, Jack Dragon, and the aforementioned Kreepy Kat.

Kreepy Kat is the old school style webcomic of the lot, the four panel square grid of gags from 2017 – unless I’m mistaken?  But how old are the rest of these works and in what order did you do them?

AK: Kreepy Kat and Lusi Sulfura were from around the same time, around 2005-2010-ish. Everything else is much later, from the last 5-7 years or so. For some reason the urge to make comics went away in between. It was quite relaxing, to be honest. Now the ideas won’t leave me alone, again.

I’d definitely recommend anyone who enjoyed what you did with the Judge Dredd one-pager to go and read them all, as there’s plenty of great comic making there.

No-Man has a very light, over the top feel about it, but you can definitely see the seeds of what made the Judge Dredd strip work here. And there’s even a mention of Hewligan’s Haircut – so although you didn’t reference it in your fave 2000 AD strips/creative teams, I guess you’re a Hewlett/Milligan fan as well!?

AK: Hewlett has been a big art hero of mine forever. No-Man is my love letter to that late 80s/early 90s Deadline-style hipster comic scene – which 2000 AD inevitably introduced me to, through Hewlett in Hewligan’s Haircut, Philip Bond in Time Flies, and Brendon McCarthy in Swifty (and Dredd, of course).

Likewise, Tombworld, although it may start off all serious tomb-raiding stuff, goes off on a great tangent and a equally great ending. And whilst World Without End might come off as out-and-out adventure fantasy, it’s still got the great characterisation and fun we saw in the Dredd strip – so obviously it’s a big part of your work, giving readers the light and the shade, but I think you’d describe yourself as going towards the light?

AK: Probably, although anyone who actually knows me might laugh at that description.

Part of the lightness is the limits of my art style – you can only get so dark in a story with art as cartoony as mine. But it’s also just my natural inclination when I start making anything – I like energy and excitement and momentum. Possibly to balance out my bleak personality.

It’s all typical 2000 AD storytelling, if you look at it – big concepts and trope subversions, all wrapped up in a Trojan horse of exciting, fast paced action/adventure stories. My favourite stories are always clever ones disguised as dumb ones, and I suspect that’s from absorbing 2000 AD as a kid, like Obelix falling into the magic potion.

And it goes on and on with the strips, all of them excellent little things – like Amy Excalibur where Merlin’s trapped in the body of a cat, with young Amy the new holder of the fabled sword after finding Excalibur round the back of her Gran’s caravan… a great little comic.

AK: Thank you. That’s my only strip so far intentionally made for young kids, but it’s still got that 2000 AD subversion of expectations, while still delivering on excitement (I hope).

Skull Hunters returns to the questing and temple raiding sort of adventuring in sharp contrast b&w. Same with Jack Dragon, albeit in colour, a reluctant hero with a demon-busting dragon in his tattoo. Then there’s Jenny Spider Freak Fighter, simple strip, simple job – retro-styling monster action in Freaktown, another fast and furious thing that looks great.

AK: Jack Dragon and Jenny Spider were living in my head for years before I finally found time to get them out. I have whole worlds planned for them. Skull Hunters is, er… not my favourite. I think you can tell I got bored of the idea halfway through! But part of the fun of any anthology is the strip you don’t like, right? Experiments inevitably make failures as well as successes.

Honestly, most of these have that 2000 AD Regened feel to them – and I mean that as a high compliment – Regened is a great thing, drawing in new young readers to 2000 AD and comics. Who knows, maybe that’s one way Tharg might be tempted to show off more of your skills?

AK: Who can say? As a dad, the idea appeals to me, but we must trust the wisdom of Tharg.

With your work, it does seem as though you’re perfectly happy working in B&W or colour – any preferences there?

AK: Whatever suits the story. I probably prefer B&W, because it’s faster! But sometimes the idea demands colour, and I have to grudgingly accept. I’m not the greatest colourist, but I can get by.  

So, with your own comics, any thoughts on taking them further, plans for more… etc. etc. etc.?

AK: I’m not sure I have much else to say here. I could drone on for hours about esoteric minutiae in my comics, but I’m not convinced anyone would be particularly interested.

I don’t have any plan or real ambitions with any of these strips. I just love making stuff, and telling stories. I hope other people read them, and like them, but I’ll be making them either way.

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When making your work, can you tell us a little of your process?

AK: Everything I do is digital these days, I really like how loose it allows the early stages to be – so I tend to thumbnail panels straight onto the “final page” to work out my panel layouts, and dialogue spaces etc. Being a writer-artist, I rarely script anything outside of my head, since I already roughly know who’s doing what and what’s going where, but these thumbnails help me catch out problems in the layout that aren’t obvious in my head – especially missing spaces for dialogue, and awkward panel flow.

My thumbnails will just be really sketchy stick figures, so the next stage is working these up into digital “pencils”. This stage starts incredibly rough, and gets refined with no logical process at all, until it’s fairly detailed. I used to go straight to final inks a lot faster, out of impatience to get to the fun stuff, but I’ve found the longer I spend on pencils and the more detailed these are, the better the final outcome.

Then I make a new layer, and do my final inks on this, with colours then on separate layers underneath. I tend to slap on basic colours quickly, and then spend a long time agonising over hue changes to balance out the whole page.

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My shadows are usually then a multiply level on top, usually all one colour to make the page feel coherent, and give it that cel-shaded look I use. Then, a new layer for highlights, coloured linework, tinkering for hours, weeping over single pixels… all the classic fun of being an artist.

Then I export the art into a vector app, and do all my lettering there. I’m quite proud that Tharg thinks my lettering is good enough for the Prog, despite the original plan being to re-letter the winning page.

One of the nice things about being a writer-artist at this stage is being able to change the dialogue to fit the final art, either to make the space work better, or to suit the characters more. Sometimes they can surprise you.

With the Art Stars under your belt, what’s next for you at 2000 AD? Have you plans to pitch to Tharg, our lord and master, for future work – maybe a Future Shock first, maybe something else? And again, would this be as writer & artist, writer, or artist?

AK: I would love to pitch ideas. I have a bag full of them, and more knocking at the door every day. It’s exhausting. The chance to get them out of my head and into the world would be great! How do you email the rosette of Sirius, anyway…?

Carefully?

AK: The absolute dream would be as writer-artist, but as I said earlier, writing feels more realistic given the constraints of my life outside comics… if there is such a thing. But who knows? I have no plans or expectations. I just like making comics, and if anyone reads them, that’s a cool bonus.

Finally, feel free to tell us what’s next for you further afield…

AK: Well, I’m a dad to a toddler and a baby right now, so my utopian idea of future success would be getting a full night’s sleep. Anything else is all gravy.

And parents up and down the country, the world even, are reading this and nodding sagely – or is that exhaustedly?

The end indeed. Many thanks to Alan Kerr there for answering a few questions. And congratulations to him once more for winning the latest – and most difficult – Art Stars. You’ll be able to see his one-page Judge Dredd, The Telltale Incin Bin, in the pages of a future Prog. As for more Art Stars competitions in the future? Well, watch this space as they say.

For more of Alan’s comics and all his social media presence, head to alankerronline.tumblr.com and enjoy!

Now, for the full versions of the process art that Alan sent along to us… roughs, pencils, inks, early colours, finished colours, final published page, complete with Alan’s lettering…

Void Runners is the new psychedelic sci-fi series from David Hine & Boo Cook that burst into the pages of 2000 AD Prog 2334. It’s all about surreal space adventures, psychedelic cosmic fever dreams, spectacular alien worlds and even more bizarre alien beings.

In Void Runners, the hunt is on for the mythical Kali’s Dust that allows the tyrannical Ankorites to rule over the network of planets and systems known as The Federation. Faced with supplies running low, the Ankorites and their ruthless foot soldiers, The Subjugators, call on notorious Void Runner Captain Alice Shikari to track down the pleroma – the deep-space creatures that are the source of Kali’s Dust.

But Shikari’s no slave to the Federation and has visionary ideas of her own about spreading joy and enlightenment to the masses!

David Hine’s already described this one as ‘a sci-fi version of Ken Kesey’s Magic Bus trip across the USA in the 1960s’ on the launch of the series, where ‘the bus is a spaceship, crewed by Captain Shikari and her piratical crew of Void Runners.’ And he went on to describe what to expect… ‘See fascistic cops who share one mind between three bodies, gigantic jellysquids who are also the oldest, wisest creatures in the cosmos, a battle with kamikaze space sharks and an actual vision of the ultimate meaning of the Universe. WARNING: Do not lick the pages!”

And if that doesn’t make you want to read the series, I don’t know what will!

So, with something very special happening, time to chat to David about the world of Void Runners. Before we begin though, Boo sends his apologies – right now he’s knee deep in paint and pain with the looming deadlines for the final two Void Runners episodes. And Tharg… well, Tharg’s hinted that it would be a very bad idea for the Cook droid to be leaving the drawing board to do an interview until those pages are done. Well, I say hinted, it was more an instruction and mutterings about no more rations until it’s all done!

But don’t worry, if/when Tharg allows, we’ll try to pin Boo down for a chat as well. But here, flying solo, is David Hine…

David, we have a brand-new series from the pair of you that started in 2000 AD Prog 2334 – Void Runners. I’ve seen the first couple of issues and it’s looking rather fabulous.

So, first things first, what’s Void Runners all about? Feel free to give us the elevator pitch version or the long version!

DAVID HINE: My elevator pitch is “Moby Dick in space on acid.” We didn’t actually go with that one because, although it sounds cool, it wasn’t really accurate. It’s actually more like “Dune meets Star Wars on ‘shrooms.” I hate elevator pitches.

Yep, but I do like ‘Dune meets Star Wars on ‘shrooms’ – and after seeing the first couple of episodes I think that one works a treat!

How long is this first series going to be?

DH: Eight episodes of six pages in real-world terms, though time and space are relative and if you stare at some of Boo’s pages in the right state of mind they could be perceived as infinite.

Just from the first couple of episodes that I’ve seen, we’re already in the realms of huge space operas here – a Federation of planetary systems that have been discovered by humanity, now controlled by the evil Ankorites and their foot soldiers, the Subjugators.

DH: Yeah, the Ankorites are a corrupt form of the Christian anchorites, who retreated from the world, often walled up in a cell attached to a church, where they spent their lives contemplating the nature of God. Julian of Norwich was one of these. She wrote the oldest surviving works in the English language that are known to be written by a woman. Her ‘Revelations of Divine Love’ are wonderful.

Our Ankorites are an example of how religious (and political) dogmas can create monstrous institutions. Their intentions may be pure but the conclusions they come to are flawed and have led them to rule the Federation with an iron fist.

Lovely bit of work on that first page by you both by the way, that’s a great line from you David about ‘inhabited by the many life forms that humans have encountered and, on occasion, interbred with.’ That coupled with Boo’s great little illo of the lined up races really does give us an immediate sense of both the scale of the thing, the fact that we’re a long, long way from Earth here, and the fact that humanity has done its usual thing.

DH: The Federation could be seen as a metaphor for Western Empire and colonization but it’s a bit more complex than that. This is so far in the future that humanity has interbred with many thousands of alien species, so what we think of as humanity barely exists in a pure form.

The conflict here is between those who want to impose order and maintain absolute control, and those who are endlessly curious and who want to pursue every possible life choice, no matter what the risk. It’s stagnation against diversity. Order against chaos.

And then comes the introduction of the story driver here, the search for the Pleroma and their Kali’s Dust, the thing giving the Ankorites their powers and control, and their use of the wonderful Captain Shikari, the heroine of the piece.

DH: Kali’s Dust is a psychedelic substance that gives the user visions and allows a degree of telepathy, a union of minds. The Ankorites are like the priests of most religions in that they believe that they are the only ones capable of handling this kind of power. The Subjugators are warrior priests, who have access to a limited amount of the dust and form ‘triumvirates’, groups of three who share a single mind. Use of Kali’s Dust by anyone else is punishable by death.

That’s where Captain Alice Shikari enters the picture. She’s a total DustHead who uses the drug for recreational purposes – sensual delights, enhanced music appreciation, all the usual stuff. But the Dust has also enhanced her ability to track Pleroma, the magnificent beasts who roam the farthest reaches of the universe and are the only source for Kali’s Dust. The Ankorites would love to execute Shikari but they are running out of supplies of the Dust and Shikari is their best bet to find more.

Obviously, Void Runners is a quest with Shikari playing the lead and venturing forth for the Ankorites to sniff out the dust for them, but I’d imagine there’s going to be a lot more to it than just a simple quest here?

DH: Shikari’s own agenda is basically to party but it turns out that she has a greater destiny. That will be revealed as the story progresses. No more spoilers for now.

Hey, always better to have it unfold and enjoy it without spoilers!

Shikari adds that element of bumbling comedy and chaos to all this serious Federation-dominating stuff from the Ankorites.

DH: This is a cosmic version of Ken Kesey’s Merry Pranksters and their Magic Bus trip across the USA in the early sixties. I guess Shikari has elements of Neal Cassady (the driver of the original Magic Bus,) Alice in Wonderland, Lucille Ball, and definitely Captain Jack Sparrow. But there was no specific model for the character.

I had a very clear image of her in my mind as a smart, funny, charismatic, completely insane and unpredictable character and once I described her to Boo, he took her to the next level. I’m overjoyed with the result.

With Void Runners, how did it all come about? Was it an idea from you or from Boo or more of a collaboration?

DH: Boo is the instigator. He literally came to me and asked me to come up with something mad and trippy for him to draw. I knew his work well. He painted the cover to the issue of Richard Starking’s Elephantmen that I had written and drawn, and we had been following each other on Instagram so we were kind of peeking into one another minds and seeing some common ground.

I had the germ of an idea for an updated version of the Magic Bus Trip. I had developed some of those ideas for another publisher who had the weird idea that psychedelics were ‘Too Sixties‘ and gave my pitch the boot. Quite emphatically. Lucky for us Matt Smith is a much more broad-minded individual.

Yep, Tharg’s always been a happy home to a bit of psychedelic storytelling!

I’m always fascinated by the beginnings of any strip, particularly the amount of worldbuilding and background that both writer and artist have to put into the idea before we even come to the first episode hitting the shelves. Presumably both you and Boo had many conversations and meetings to create the expansive worlds and the beings inhabiting them here?

DH: I made the trip to Bristol for the Lawless convention in 2022 specifically to meet up with Boo and talk over ideas. Since then it’s been emails, messenger and the occasional telepathic communication.

Boo did lots of sketches of the characters, the spaceships and various non-human creatures and those visuals influenced the way I wrote the characters. Moondog was always going to look like the real-world musician Moondog but the ship’s cook, Bartleby is straight out of Boo’s imagination and his personality developed from his deceptively brutal appearance. Same with the Subjugators – their look is all Boo.

I gave Boo some guidelines on visual style but only in general terms. We talked about the way cephalopods create a chameleon camouflage effect through chromatophores, which are the cells in their skin that contain pigment, which changes colours rapidly and almost magically. Boo suggested giving Shikari a similar ability, though in her case the skin patterns reflect mood rather than provide camouflage. That ties in really well with the psychedelic scenes.

How’s the collaboration working between you? 

DH: It’s brilliant from my perspective. Boo gets what I’m talking about and always ramps up the visuals by a couple of levels beyond what I imagined. Most importantly he gets my sense of humour and actually makes the visual gags very funny.

One of my favourite scenes involves Shikari and Moondog stripping down to their undies and wriggling through a Pleroma’s internal organs. Seeing those finished panels made me laugh out loud.

Alas, no image of that yet – that particular bit of comedy is still to come in a future episode!

DH: The peak experience is when we see the visions triggered by Kali’s Dust. They are really beautifully rendered and probably the most far-out art 2000 AD has published since Brendan McCarthy’s classic work on Judge Dredd.

Yes, there’s definitely a lot of McCarthy influence in Boo’s work, although he’s taken it to some wonderfully different places.

Apart from that Elephantman cover, is this the first time you’ve worked together?

DH: Yeah, that was only one image but I loved it and Boo very generously gave me the original art, so it made a lasting impact.

So far, in just the first 10 pages I’ve seen I think you’ve done a perfect job of establishing it all. That first episode could easily have come off as exposition overload to get over all the information you needed to establish the series background. David, I’m sure you’ll agree that what made that first episode flow so beautifully came from the way that Boo filled the pages of background and intro with incredible designs and artwork.

DH: There was a lot of information to get into the first few pages. The setting doesn’t relate to anything else in 2000 AD, so we had to establish the nature of the Federation, its hierarchy, the concept of the psychedelic drug and the main characters.

It could have been confusing or overly detailed but it works because Boo constructs each page as a holistic design rather than just a series of panels. The art really is outstanding.

Oh, it really is – a career-high from Boo here I reckon, and I know I’m not the only one thinking that.

So, moving onto the artistic side of things David, you’ve already told us of how Boo came on board but what has he brought to the world of Void Runners that you initially saw in your head?

DH: Boo always goes the extra mile. He knows what I’m after but he delivers a lot more. Going back to that first page of Part 1 [pictured above] – I asked for a diverse bunch of alien creatures but I wasn’t expecting such unique individuals. Each of the aliens is only a few centimetres high but they are all good enough to become developed characters. They each come with a ready-made backstory in their visual appearance.

Then there are little extra touches like the Furby-type character that is strategically placed on Page 5 to spare out blushes…

There are loads of little touches like that, which are pleasant surprises and prove that Boo is totally invested in his work. He’s a visionary artist. Looking at these pages is the closest you can get to a psychedelic experience, without psychedelics.

What can we expect for the future of Void Runners? Where will you be taking us in this first series?

DH: To the deepest hidden depths of the subconscious and beyond the outer limits of space, where no sentient life-form has been before.

So, nothing too big then!

And have you already mapped out plans for future series? Should The Mighty One give you his blessing of course!

DH:  I know where Shikari and her crew are going but I haven’t figured out all the stops along the way in any detail yet. I like to leave myself some surprises. This series is definitely a jumping-off point and I hope it will be just the first stage in an epic odyssey.

Now, to end with, as usual, what sort of things can we look forward to from you both after Void Runners? Obviously David you have more Dark Judges with Nick Percival to come. But what else can we expect, either from Tharg or elsewhere?

DH: I have several long-term projects at various stages and one massive project that is now completed but, frustratingly, won’t be announced until July. The next big creator-owned one will be Beastly with Mark Stafford. Our fourth, our biggest and our best graphic novel collaboration.

And of course, Dave was too modest to tell you what the others were, so I shall – he and Mark Stafford have made The Man Who Laughs (adapting Victor Hugo’s classic, SelfMadeHero, 2013), Lip Hook (SelfMadeHero, 2018), and The Bad, Bad Place (Soaring Penguin, 2019). All three are excellent and come highly recommended.

Thank you so much to David for sharing his time with us to talk Void Runners. It was every bit as enjoyable, informative, and out there as I was expecting after reading the first two episodes of the series. If you’ve already had the pleasure of getting your mind stretched out by the first episode, you’ll already know this one’s a sure-fire hit!

Void Runners began in 2000 AD Prog 2334 and runs for eight episodes until Prog 2342, with a break for Regened Prog 2336. It’s a psychedelic thrill ride that only the Galaxy’s Greatest can give you – don’t miss out on another great trip!

Before you leave though, be sure to check out Boo Cook’s excellent Covers Uncovered for the first Void Runners cover to Prog 2334 – it’s every bit as psychedelically great as you’d expect! And remember David’s words… ‘Do not lick the pages!’ – after all….

And finally, if you’re loving Void Runners, don’t delay, head out and buy those great Hine/Stafford books today!

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In the latest 2000 AD, Prog 2330, out everywhere the Galaxy’s Greatest is sold from 3 May, you’ll find one of Tharg’s Future Shocks from two new droids to the Prog (well, the old ones do wear out with all the punishment TMO throws at them after all.) It’s called Look At Your Hands and is by Elizabeth Sandifer and Laura Helsby.

In just five pages, they tell of a future-ish horror of AI and conspiracy theories, showing what can be done, sparingly, stylishly, with just five pages. It may be Sandifer and Helsby’s first work in the Prog, I don’t think it’s going to be their last by any means!

Elizabeth, Laura, you’re the latest new droids that Tharg has deemed worthy of stepping up and getting your names into the Galaxy’s Greatest with your Future Shock: Look At Your Hands appearing in 2000 AD Prog 2330.

So, the first question really should be just what does it mean to you to get yourself published in the Prog?

LAURA HELSBY: Everything! It’s a dream come true, honestly. I know that may be a tad cliché but it’s true, I’ve been a fan of 2000 AD since I can remember. As most comic creatives are, I’m a huge Dredd fan and so it’s really an honour to contribute to such an important publication. 2000 AD have always been the best example of what British comics can be, and to have such talent in their ranks too, I feel humbled. To be able to follow in the footsteps of such Future Shocks alumni as Neil Gaiman and Grant Morrison… well, need I say more?

ELIZABETH SANDIFER: Yeah, I mean, exactly what Laurz said. Even my non-comics-reading American friends understand the weight of a sentence like “My professional break is on the same feature Alan Moore broke in on.” It’s a huge honour, but it’s also something of a statement of intent.

And of course, the second question should be just what is Look At Your Hands all about?

ES: It’s about a woman who starts seeing creepy AI-generated hands in the real world, tries to find out why, and to her horror does so. 

I have to say, I really enjoyed this particular Future Shock – one of several recently that have really worked.

ES: Thank you! 

LH: Ditto, that means the world.

It’s definitely following a long line of Future Shocks taking their inspiration from real-world events, mixing a familiar trope of ‘I know there’s something up with the world and the people’ and then mixing in current questions about AI art – in particular just how badly it deals with fingers.

I imagine there are quite a few FS writers out there cursing you for getting in with the first story referencing AI’s bizarre hand problem!

So, was it something that was spurred by recent thoughts on AI art in particular or was that merely a useful hook to put the story on?

ES: It started largely from the visual hook. I just thought it would be fun to make a real artist draw AI hands, and started trying to build a story out from it. Which, that’s a pretty specific image, and so it makes a lot of the decisions for you, especially if you try to avoid the obvious things like “evil AI” or “we’re all living in a simulation.” 

In terms of big ideas, it’s probably less about AI art specifically than a larger set of big angry thoughts about the cheapening of art and the devaluing of human artistic vision that comes with its production under capitalism, of which AI art is merely one of the most literally dehumanizing symptoms. I am very fun at parties. 

LH: Of course, El is the brains behind the story, and she did such an incredible job,  just wanted to say here that I hate AI Art, in as far as it’s non-consensual theft of artists’ work. And that is something I’m very unapologetic and passionate about, and that was one of the reasons I was SO into the story, as well as an excuse to draw hands a lot, and to hopefully be in 2000 AD of course!!! 

Laura, I think you’ll find that all fans of 2000 AD are with you on the whole AI art and the exploitation of artists to farm the images. There’s only one being who should be benefiting from the work of his artists and we all know who that is.

How did this one come about? Did you know each other already and pitched it as a complete thing, writer with artist attached? Or was it all arranged through Tharg with Elizabeth pitching the script first?

ES: It was arranged with Tharg after being loosely pre-arranged between us. I thought of Laurz pretty early in developing the idea; we’d met back at Thought Bubble in November, and I’d absolutely adored their work. It immediately put me in mind of that lineage of ultra-clean British artists – people like Jamie McKelvie, Dave Gibbons, or Mike White who just always offer crystal-clear storytelling. But with a really nice punk grit to it that just made me immediately desperate to work with them. I remembered them tweeting about how much they love drawing hands, and for that matter about how much they hated AI art, and thought “well, talk about the right person for the job.” So I reached out to them and asked if they’d like me to pitch their name as a possible artist. Which Tharg proved amenable to. 

LH: Yeah it’s just like El said, I was tabling at Thought Bubble when El approached my table and was such a sweetheart, gave me a bunch of her amazing comics and the rest is history, she reached out about a possible opportunity via a pitch to make a short for 2000 AD and, how could I say no??? Working with a brilliant writer on a story I’m visually and mentally stimulated by, and to top it all off, the chance of being an art droid for Tharg!! No brainer. I was really just very lucky El thought of me for the story and suggested me when pitching it, very thankful to her for it, it’s one of my proudest moments in comics thus far. 

ES: Yeah, it’s hard to say no to an infamous galactic conquerer like Tharg. 

It’s a truth universally acknowledged that it’s so difficult to set up a great Future Shock in just four or five pages, but we’ve seen a fair number done quite perfectly recently – this one included.

What do you think of the FS format, is there a specific mindset you have to get into for such concise storytelling?

LH: I bloody love it! I adore short stories in comics, most people who know me know how much I love punk music and culture, and to me, short stories are the comics equivalent of a punk song, short and punchy! Like BAM! Right in your face and gone before you know it, but you (hopefully) can’t get it out if your head all day. I don’t know if the mindset is much different for me for a short as it is for a full issue or multiple issues, apart from the fact that because I know it’s gonna be over way sooner, I sorta throw myself into it more, like really smash right through it. 

Also, I love Future Shocks in as far as they can often help introduce new talent, it’s a wonderful ongoing feature from 2000 AD that I’ve always loved, and right now, am particularly grateful for.

ES: It’s weird, because on the one hand, for all that it’s quite short, it’s enormously flexible. “Five pages, twist ending.” Y’know, that’s very good. You can see why there’s nearly fifty years’ worth of material there. But the flip side of that is that there’s nearly fifty years of material. It’s a format that’s been very extensively explored. And so you have to have a really clear idea of what you’re doing. It’s less, I think, that it’s hard to be that concise than that it’s hard to be that laser-focused. If you’re not crystal clear on your idea and what you want to do with it, you will absolutely be found out by the format.

One thing that you both do here, really well, is tell a huge tale sparsely – simple storytelling, minimal captions, one person’s introspective thoughts on what’s going on with the world that leads, logically and perfectly, to a revelation that not only is there a ‘vast conspiracy that operates the world,’ but that this one questioning soul has found it/them.

Similarly, Laura, your art style here has that same simplicity to it, a thin, lightweight line that focuses on the characters, our foreground for the most part. Backgrounds are simple, if there at all. But when it’s called for, particularly when there’s panel-to-panel transitions that jump in time, such as on page 2 where you both summarise, again so simply but so effectively and sparingly, how our seeker’s investigations have led to this moment in time, you really push the backgrounds to get that story flowing so well.

LH: Thank you, that really means a lot. I tend to use backgrounds very sparingly where I can, I don’t like to clutter the panels too much, and it puts all our focus on to the key element in the frame. Also, I just think it looks cool, so I do tend to only use more extensive ones when setting a scene.

Can you both talk us through your thought processes of putting it together and the stylistic choices you made? 

ES: For my part, I found myself thinking that the Future Shock really lends itself to horror as a genre—as do AI hands, really. A lot of my favorite Shocks—I’m thinking stuff like Alan Moore and Jesus Redondo’s “Ring Road” or Grant Morrison and John Hicklenton’s “The Invisible Etchings of Salvador Dali” – make great use of a tight individual perspective and an unreliable narrator, so that the twist ending works as an awful truth sprung on character and audience at the same time. And I thought that individual perspective would help us get away with what are, as you note, some pretty big swings in terms of reveals. To be entirely pragmatic about it, you can get away with a lot less exposition if your narrator doesn’t understand what’s happening. 

LH: When I was roughing it out, I just really wanted to give this story some grunge, something gritty. I wanted it to look real, and yet, at the same time, very not real, if that makes any sense, I wanted to visually get across the idea that something was wrong in this world, but through the WAY it was drawn as much as what was drawn. 

ES: Which I love, by the way. There’s a bit of splatter at the lip of the coffee cup on page one that just turns my stomach slightly every time I see it, and it’s absolutely perfect. And don’t get me started on your astonishingly gross moldy teacup on page three.

Just for Elizabeth, a chance to revisit those stomach-turning moments from Laura’s art…

Laura, following on possibly from that one, can you talk us through your process in getting from script to page? 

LH: My process is probably pretty standard, I like to read through the script a good few times to really familiarize myself with the story. Usually, it’s on the first pass through the script where I start to visualize some panels in my head, I’ll get really excited about the idea of it and it’ll be pretty fully formed in my head even at that first exposure. For example, the third panel of page one, I love the first-person perspective shots of this story and they instantly inspired me. Everyone who knows me knows how much I adore drawing hands, they just hold so much energy and emotion in them, so panels where hands are the focus, are my favourite and I get very excited to draw them.

Next, is thumbnails, one of my fave parts about short stories, I really get to have fun and just chuck it all out there and see what sticks. Not everything will work, and that can be frustrating sometimes, but that’s all part of the job. I was so excited for this story that I thumbed out the story very, very quickly.

LH: Lucky me, everyone liked the thumbnails so then I go straight to pencils, I scale up my rough and use it like inkers use pencils beneath, as a guide. Here’s the thing about my pencils, they’re tight, like, probably too tight haha! I make more work for myself than is necessary I guess, my mates always say they could be finished inks. I just like to have everything definitive for when I get to inking.

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LH: Speaking of the glory that is inks, that’s next up! Now my pencils are nice and refined, there’s not much thinking to be done, it’s all there for me, I can just let the lines flow and the line weights can just naturally decide themselves, I find that the less I think too hard about how I’m inking, the better. Empty head, only inks.

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LH: And then we add the grey tones! This isn’t something I do a lot, but we felt it would benefit the look of the story, give some texture and grit, like I mentioned earlier. This is just lots of experimenting to see what works, which tones, which brushes and textures, if there should be a gradient or some noise, it’s all just playing around, I think it looks pretty cool though, so I’ll be using greys more in the future for sure!! 

Now, moving away from the Future Shock… as you’re both new to 2000 AD, can you tell us a little about yourselves?

LH: Well obviously I’m a comics artist, ha, but I’m mostly known for my inking style, my lines, as well as the fact that I LOVE drawing hands,.. and clothes, the folds are just so fun! I love doing both covers and interiors, I especially dig gigs that feature punk and music generally, Queer  or political themes. I’m very politically minded, or invested rather, I want to abolish the monarchy and get rid of the Tories, that should tell you enough haha.

I also play guitar and video games, a lot, maybe too much? Nah, never too much! I collect vintage vinyl and cassette tapes, and I love basketball, like to shoot some hoops in my spare time. OH! And I’m addicted to tattoos! 

ES: I’m mostly established as a critic – the thing that’s most relevant here is probably an ongoing project called Last War in Albion that’s a history of the Alan Moore/Grant Morrison rivalry that treats that feud as a magical war for the soul of the 21st century. But over the past few years, I’ve been moving into fiction writing. Beyond that, I spend too much time on Twitter and have a horrible but delicious tendency to cook over-elaborate meals. 

You’re both UK based, am I right?

ES: I’m actually an American interloper. You took over our comics industry in the 80s, now I’m coming for yours. 

LH: Yessir! Manchester born and raised. 

ES: I’m glad one of us has authenticity or credibility.

When did you first discover comics? And what was it that really got you into the medium?

EH: That would have been in, like, 1991 or so when the first series of Marvel Trading Cards – the ones with a ton of Mark Bagley and Art Adams art – were the big fad in school. And so I got into them, and, because I was an absolute dweeb, just completely overshot cool and became a comics nerd who was still into it three months later when the rest of the playground had moved on.

LS: Hmm, it’s hard to pinpoint it, I used to read things like the Beano when I was absolutely tiny, but as I started to grow I remember one trip to the beach when I was around 6 – before we left for home we visited a gift shop, it was also a newsagents and they had a spinning rack of comics, I think the bag had two in. And I read it on the way home, it was Batman: Black and White: An Innocent Guy. Might have been a little young for that issue, haha, but it got me. I was hooked, I got home and got straight to trying to draw the panels from the book myself, I still have those somewhere. 

At what point did you decide that comics were something you were interested in pursuing professionally?

LH: When I was 15, we had to put an aspiration in our High School leavers yearbook, and I just instinctively put “comic book artist.” Guess I was right huh!

ES: Surprisingly late. It was always something I thought idly about, but I only actually took a serious stab at it a few years ago when my husband Penn Wiggins, who’s an artist, basically went “hey, I’d like to try drawing comics, would you write me something?” So I turned out… actually, what I did was a five pager that pastiched Future Shocks into Tadgh’s Faerie Shocks and did a twist-ending fantasy story. And it turned out we quite liked doing comics, so we turned out a few shorts, then moved on to self-publishing an ongoing fantasy series called Britain a Prophecy, and got enough buzz with that to catch Tharg’s eye. 

A few old chestnuts here to end with as well… what/who influences your work? Any specific writers/artists/works that triggered a desire to work in comics?

LH: There’s so many! Dave Gibbons was one of my first real inspirations, I read Watchmen at an early age and just adored his work, luckily met him too, very nice guy. I love David Aja’s work a lot, as I started to make comics, I really became inspired by his lines and his perspective and composition of his shots. But to reel off a few, I adore artists like Chris Shehan and Skylar Patridge, they both have such grit to their work, in different ways, but it’s there, there’s texture, substance, and of course, they’re both just incredible artists, and wonderful people. 

ES: As a couple of my answers have probably revealed, despite being an American I’ve always had a real love for the British scene – that whole tradition from Alan Moore and Neil Gaiman up through people like Warren Ellis, Kieron Gillen, or Al Ewing. I’m very much the 90s kid whose Sandman trades were among her prized possessions. 

As for 2000 AD, were you aware of the comic growing up or was it something you came to later in life? Any particular big entry point for you both that turned you into fans?

ES: Later in life for me, when I was doing some research into Alan Moore and Grant Morrison’s early years that became Last War in Albion, and so started reading their stuff, then the larger magazine to understand the context – I basically just read the first five hundred Progs or so back to back. I think the point where I was firmly a fan was Shako. There’s a kind of mad thrill to “the only bear on the CIA death list” as a sentence that has literally never left my head. Really, Pat Mills in general made an impression. There’s a beat in “Invasion!” back in Prog 1 where he quietly has a Margaret Thatcher stand-in get publicly executed in the midground of a panel that was just very inspirational in its ostentatious and defiant directness. You can pour over American mainstream comics of the 1980s but you never really see Reagan take a bullet to the head as a throwaway gag, y’know? 

LH: I was aware of the Prog from an early age, once I’d gotten into comics beyond the Beano I started to branch out and 2000 AD always appealed, I mean, look at it!! It’s cool as hell! Like I said earlier, I’m a Dredd fan, I can’t remember the first Dredd story I read but the bold black and white inky art definitely left its mark on me! Mick McMahon cursed me to be a black-and-white artist! (Cursed in a good way, I’d have it no other way!!) 

ES: Oh, man, McMahon. Absolutely classic pick there. 

And as far as getting published here for your Future Shock, has it been the usual story of submit, get rejected, submit again, rejected again, submit again, etc. etc. or was this a case of Tharg seeking you out to feature in the Prog?

ES: I met Tharg at Thought Bubble, where he was unconvincingly disguised as a human named “Matt Smith,” and was given the green light to pitch. Look At Your Hands is my second one, and was accepted pretty straightforwardly. The first one, which should show up soon, went through one round of revisions before Tharg took it. So reasonably straightforward.

LH: El was the lead on this one, and I’d never pitched to 2000 AD before, so this was actually a one-pitch winner for me! Which was a wonderful feeling.

Oh, a straightforward pitch for two Future Shocks with no rejections, just revisions for Elizabeth and a one-pitch winner for Laura – lots of writers and artists are really clenching their teeth right now!

Have you seen the finished work yet or is that something you’re looking forward to? Maybe a celebratory trip to the local newsagent to see it on the shelf there?

ES: One of the nice things about being a critic is that you know many disreputable people who get “review copies,” one of whom nicely slipped me the PDF, so I have seen it. Which is good, because I tragically don’t think my local shop carries rack copies of 2000 AD. 

El, do send us the name of the owner, Tharg has a nice job for Mek Quake.

LH: El sent me the preview PDF from her pal, so lucky me I got to see it in all its glory, with Jim Campbell letters !! THE Jim Campbell, I was very happy to see his name on the credit cards, he’s a legend. To be honest I got a little teary-eyed when I opened the PDF to see our names in the intro by Tharg, being called a debuting droid… now that’s special to me, as a 2000 AD fan, that’s special. But you can be sure I’ll be at the local shop trying to find it, I can’t wait to point to it on the rack and say “I made art that is in there” that “I did that” feeling, I can’t wait.

ES: I got that PDF while I was out at dinner, and literally *squealed* to see that we’d gotten Jim on letters. Penn, who’s really taken to lettering on top of art, was insanely impressed. I think slightly more so than he was that I got the damn thing published, actually.

Finally, a chance for you to push whatever else you have on the boiler right now… what can we expect to see from you over the next few months – either for 2000 AD or elsewhere?

LH: Well I am working on something right now but that’s in veryyyy early development, it’s music based and it’s written by the amazing Dave Cook, I’m very lucky to be working with him. I’ve also got a mini-series coming out late this year, if all goes to plan, by Devils Due Comics, called The Claims Adjuster, written by Chuck Satterlee, and on top of that; lots of shorts in anthologies and covers too! I’ll have all these and more at my table at Thought Bubble comic book convention in Harrogate UK in November of this year, so if anyone reading wants to, please stop by, have a chat and just a generally good time. Cheers!!

ES: Well, like I said I’ve got another Future Shock in the pipeline, and another pitch on Tharg’s desk. Most of my work is on my Patreon —my current critical project, which is an episode-by-episode series of essays on the Jodie Whittaker era of Doctor Who, along with Britain a Prophecy and ebooks of all my past projects, Last War in Albion included. I’ll be dropping a big behind-the-scenes deep dive on Look At Your Hands there as a higher-level reward soon. And I’ll be at Thought Bubble, probably making any excuse I can to ditch my table and head over to Laurz’s to be like “hey you wanna go pitch a D.R. and Quinch revival?”

And with that idea of a DR & Quinch revival teasing us, we bid farewell to Elizabeth and Laura. They’re two new droids with a huge future in the Galaxy’s Greatest ahead of them we’re sure. And thanks so much to them both for talking to us, it was a real pleasure.

You can see the fruits of their labours, Look At Your Hands, in the pages of 2000 AD Prog 2330, out everywhere the greatest comics are sold, including the 2000 AD web shop.

You can find links to all Elizabeth’s work, including the fascinating Last War In Albion, right here, and all of Laura’s links right here.

Finally, the full-sized art we promised you with Laura’s pencils and inks from the Future Shock and those two pieces of Elizabeth’s comic work…

The toughest cop in 70s New York meets the toughest lawman in 2145AD Mega-City One? Oh yes, it’s a cross-time caper with a difference that’s running right now in Judge Dredd Megazine – ‘One-Eyed Jacks’.

Written by Ken Niemand and with art from Ian Richardson on episode 1 (Megazine #452) and Kieran McKeown, it’s the team-up no-one saw happening, as Dredd gets a case that echoes through the centuries all the way back to the hard as nails NY cop, Jack McBane – who we last saw in the John Wagner and John Cooper created One-Eyed Jack in 1975’s Valiant comic.

We sat down to talk to artist Kieran McKeown, a relative newcomer to the pages of the Galaxy’s Greatest, about ‘One-Eyed Jacks‘, being a recent addition to Tharg’s art droid collection, and how a broken hip as a kid led to a lifelong love of 2000 AD, not to mention a career in comics!

Hello Kieran, let’s start by talking about ‘One-Eyed Jacks’, the Judge Dredd series that hits episode 4 in the new Megazine issue 455.

From the very beginning with the announcement of the series, it was a fascinating idea from Ken Niemand, bringing together Mega-City One and 70s New York City, with Judge Dredd and Jack McBane (One-Eyed Jack from classic Valiant/Battle Action Weekly comics of the 70s) investigating some deadly goings-on.

But the clever/cool thing about it, seems to me at least, is that it’s not your simple time travel thing. No, instead it’s an adventure taking place across both timelines, with the big bad guy the only one with the direct link. Dredd and McBane are simply having to run their cases in their own ways, knowing about the links but not having any contact with each other.

Well, that is until episode 3 when Dredd gets a message from the past from a Detective with a very familiar name who’s working undercover for McBane. (You want more on that – better get looking at Megazine issue 455 and part 4!)

Kieran McKeown: Yeah, I think you’ve nailed it there. I don’t actually know how it’s going to end myself. I only get the scripts about a month ahead of the reader. But as you say, it’s not your standard time travel stuff like ‘Life on Mars’ or ‘Back to the Future.’ Those I would say are more ‘Fish out of water’ stories. As far as I can tell, we’re not going to see Dredd in bell bottoms beating on hookers and pimps in Harlem. 

And just like that I really want to see Dredd in bell bottoms in Harlem.

KM: Instead this is about characters from two different timelines being inexorably drawn together in what I’m guessing will be a big climactic smash.

You came on board with episode two, taking over from Ian Richardson. What was the deal there? Was it something planned or a last-minute thing for you?

KM: I don’t know why Ian had to drop out. Yeah it was quite last minute. I was working on a book with Peter Milligan at the time for Aftershock. But there has been a bit of upheaval at Aftershock and the book had to be put on hold for a few months. So I had a gap in my work schedule for the first time in about four years. I threw myself on the mercy of the Mighty Tharg and he happened to have this opening to take over art duties on this Dredd/McBane crossover.   

Obviously, it’s a shame to lose Ian for this one but you’ve come onto it on fire, full of action and energy, as well as perfectly contrasting the two time periods involved.

KM: Thanks! 

What problems are there for an artist when you have to take over the visuals from another artist partway through the project?

KM: Hmmm…well I’ve done it quite a bit in my career and it hasn’t been too problematic. I can only draw the way I draw so I wasn’t really going to try to mimic Ian. As it happens, I think Ian and I are a pretty good match. But as with any other project, I just focus on doing the best work I can within the time allowed.   

It seems, to the outsider at least, to be one of those fun jobs to do given that there was way more visual variation involved with getting to draw both modern MC-1 and ’70s NYC. You filled the 70s scenes with all many of funky 70s clichés, really tapping into the whole Dirty Harry, Blaxploitation vibe there – was this something Ken was asking for in the script of something you added?

KM: Yeah, it was great. It wasn’t something Ken stressed per se but I just wanted to nail the ’70s look. When I’m working on a project in a particular genre, I try to consume a lot of visual media in that genre. It’s a way of keeping me motivated and inspired. 

My leisure time helps fuel the creative juices. So for this project, I’ve been watching a lot of movies and shows from the ’70s or based in the ’70s. French Connection, Dirty Harry, Taxi Driver, Mean Streets, In the Heat of the Night, The Warriors, Life on Mars and the David Simon series ‘The Deuce’. I love movies from that era anyway so it’s been fun.  

I’m not sure how young or old you are – did you have any knowledge of One-Eyed Jack from the original comics?

KM: No, it was before I was born. But he’s a cool character. Dirty Harry with an eye patch. 

We’re at episode four of ‘One-Eyed Jacks’ now, how many episodes can we expect?

KM: Two more I think. The turnaround time is a bit tight on this story so I’m actually only one chapter ahead of the publication schedule. 

So not really much chance to get you to spill the beans on what to expect in the last two episodes then!

KM: Ha, well as I mentioned I’m not too far ahead of the reader on this one. But what I will say is that it’s one of the best scripts I’ve worked on in my career to date.  

You came to the attention of Tharg for the first time with the Thought Bubble artist search in 2016. Now, although you didn’t win that year, you were a finalist.

KM: 2016… wow time flies. Yeah, that’s right.  Looking back on my TB entry now, the pages hurt my eyes. While I was gutted at the time, I can clearly see now I wasn’t ready. Unfortunately, that insight only comes with time away from your work. 

When you’re drawing, it’s hard to see the wood for the trees. I think it’s some kind of perceptual trick that your brain plays on you when you draw. Your brain fixes the drawing for you in your head…but only in your head!  It’s only when you look back at your work 6 months to a year later that the mistakes really jump out at you!  

Was that your first major dipping into comics?

KM: Well, I had actually drawn a short story in a Transformers comic for Titan a few years previously.  But again, that work was so horrible, I’d rather not talk about it! 

Oh dear, poor Kieran, you know what’s coming next, don’t you? Yep, here’s a little something from that Transformers story – issue 15, 2008. No matter how old, no matter how obscure, the Internet can always dredge up your early work!

Of course, looking at what you’ve had published since 2016, you’ve forged a great career with work for DC Comics, Dark Horse, and IDW.

KM: My bank balance says otherwise! But thanks. Ah yeah, I’ve worked pretty steadily since breaking in around 2018 if memory serves. I started out at Dark Horse working on Halo and then Aliens. Halo was a baptism of fire but I really enjoyed the Aliens series. Then I worked quite a bit for DC Comics on Wonder Woman, Crime Syndicate, Batwoman, Task Force Z and the War of Earth 3 crossover event. This was interspersed with gigs at IDW, Aftershock and back at Dark Horse on some video game properties. Along the way I got nominated for an Eisner for Best Newcomer.  I didn’t win that either- there’s a pattern emerging! Ha! 

<Passes box of tissues to artist sobbing with self-doubt and self-flagellation.>

KM: But I’ve had lots of editors and writers who have been very supportive of me along the way. Spencer & Konner at Dark Horse. Andy Schmidt, my writer on Crime Syndicate. Brian Cunningham, formerly of DC and now at Aftershock. Peter Milligan and of course, the Mighty Tharg!   

Looking back over Progs and Megazines, was it really only with the recent Prog 2300 that you first got Tharg to publish your art?

KM: Yep that’s right.

That was the Meat Arena strip with Karl Stock in the special zombie crossover event reimagining Judgement Day.

KM: Yeah, Karl wrote a great wee script.  I’d love to revisit the Meat Arena world at some point.  

Since then, you’ve started in the Megazine with ‘One-Eyed Jacks’ and also had the one off Dredd, the rather brilliant Taking Doors, again with Ken Niemand, for the 46th anniversary Prog 2320.

KM: Yeah, it’s been great. Another great script. Having worked with longer form storytelling in US comics for years, it was really cool working on these short 5-6 page stories. It was really something to see how Karl and Ken are able to write a complete and compelling story in just 5-6 pages. It seems like a really useful writing exercise and probably explains why so many legendary writers started out at 2000 AD.

So, going back to that first 2000 AD strip – what did it mean to you when Tharg got in touch after the obvious disappointment of the TB contest?

KM: Ah it was awesome. If memory serves, Tharg did approach me previously about doing a Future Shock or two. But unfortunately at that time, my schedule just didn’t permit me. But I always wanted to work at 2000 AD at some point.

Coming off a lot of superhero stuff, it was really nice to be given the opportunity to work in the 2000 AD sandbox.    

Ah, that makes sense now – I was going to ask you how you bypassed the usual entry point into 2000 AD, with Tharg making art droids pay their dues on Future Shocks et al before getting a chance to handle Dredd. But it makes sense now you’ve said that – obviously Tharg had seen enough of your work at the other companies to see that you’d be a good fit for the Prog.

KM: Yeah, I suppose it is. I really don’t know. I try not to second guess the Mighty One or look a gift Quaxxan in the mouth. I think maybe because I had gotten a bit of experience in US comics I was allowed to jump the queue a bit. I do think I’m quite a good stylistic fit for Dredd. And it might simply be that. But 2000 AD have lots of awesome talent and certified legends drawing in their books, so it is a huge honour.     

Were you a 2000 AD fan from an early age or did you come to the Galaxy’s Greatest later on in life?

KM: Yeah, for sure. I can remember my first exposure to 2000 AD quite vividly. I broke my hip when I was young. So I had to spend a week or two in a hospital- and for a young hyperactive kid that was a peculiar kind of torture. Anyway, my Dad brought me two comics he had picked up in the hospital newsagent. They were 2000 AD reprints in American-sized formats. One was Judge Dredd: The Day the Law Died. And the other was an ABC Warriors book with art by Simon Bisley. Those books blew my tiny mind. I was probably too young to even be reading them. But  I must have re-read those books about 5 times apiece during my hospital stay. 

A tip of the hat here to your dad! Krill Tro Thargo! And you’re right, those are two great entry points to set you off on a lifetime of Thrill Power.

KM: When I got out of hospital, I started buying 2000 AD at my local newsagent every Sunday after Mass. 

So, Earthly religion immediately followed by the cult of Tharg, eh?

KM: I kept that going for a few years. While I got into American comics shortly after, I still kept up reading 2000 AD.  Firstly because 2000 AD was the only comic they sold in my local newsagent and secondly 2000 AD was just different to American comics – a bit more subversive & brutal.      

So – what is your process? Are you working analog or digital these days?

KM: I work digitally. I used to work completely analog. However, I made the switch after working on Wonder Woman a few years back. That book pretty much broke me physically. It wasn’t an especially difficult book in terms of the artistic demands but the deadline was very tight. 

After I delivered that book, I was so physically drained, I couldn’t work for about a fortnight. So I said to myself ‘never again’ and thereafter I switched to 100% digital workflow. Digital saves me on average 60 mins a day. 60 more minutes I can spend with my family or attend to basic hygiene! 

You do lose out on the original art income stream, but because I’m still looking to establish myself, my original art sales probably wouldn’t be very much anyway. It’s something I may look at down the line if I manage to garner a decent level of interest in my original artwork. But for me, right now, the trade‑off is worth it – especially as I have a young daughter.       

Can you take us through your process from first ideas through to finished artwork?

KM: Well as I mentioned a big part of my process is constantly feeding my artistic muse. Every day, I try to consume visual imagery that I find both inspiring and relevant to the project I’m working on. So as I said, for this project I’ve been watching a lot of 70s era movies and shows. 

Stephen Kings wrote that: “If you want to be a writer, you must do two things above all others: read a lot and write a lot… reading is the creative center of a writer’s life… you cannot hope to sweep someone else away by the force of your writing until it has been done to you.” 

For an artist, I think looking at great imagery- whether in a movie, a comic book or on social media – is the creative centre of their life.

A couple of old standards now to round things off – what are your influences on your art?

KM: Well, I consider Cam Kennedy the best comic artist of all time. There have probably been bigger names in comics – but in terms of a level reached, Kennedy was the best. He really brought a fine art sensibility to his art. His 2000 AD work is great but he really hit his peak on Light & Darkness War & Star Wars: Dark Empire. I just love the art in those books- the harmony of composition and the striking use of light and dark. I look at those pages the way I look at a painting in an art gallery. I’d love to inject more of his style in my stuff but I just haven’t found a way to reverse-engineer what makes his stuff so great. There’s levels to this game! 

I also love Mike McMahon’s highly stylized work on 2000 AD. The boldness of the shapes and the lines. I wish I had that courage. His work actually feels so fresh and modern – which is a sign of a great artist.  

Other than that, the guys I really like include Eduardo Risso, Mike Mignola, Goran Parlov – and then you have the modern guys like Sean Murphy, Stuart Immonen, Dan Mora, Daniel Warren Johnson etc. I also really admire my fellow Irish artists – in particular Declan Shalvey & John McCrea. There really are some incredible artists working in comics today. I really think the talent at the top level is as good as we’ve ever had in this industry.  

What 2000 AD strips/character would you absolutely love to be given a chance with?

KM: The League of Fatties! Seriously though, I really love Dredd and it’s been an honour to work on UK’s most iconic comic book creation. So if Tharg keeps offering me Dredd gigs I’ll happily take them. 

Hey, why not a League of Fatties solo strip – ‘The Day The Diet Died!’ ‘The Donut War!’ ‘Piefecta!’ – oh the punning fun you could have there!

KM: Other than Dredd though, I’d really like to do Rogue Trooper. Oh and of course, being Irish, I’d love to draw Slaine. He’s such a cool character. Those Simon Bisley Slaine images have been seared into my brain since I was a kid. 

Finally Kieron, something we always like to do, what’s coming up for you in the near, or not so near, future, whether that’s for Tharg, our Lord and Master, bow down before him etc etc, or elsewhere?

KM: Tharg is as inscrutable as he is wise so I await his further command!  In the near term, I have to wrap up the series for Aftershock Comics in the US.  The book is called Satellite of Love. Again, it’s dystopian sci fi… but it really speaks to a lot of stuff going on in the world and culture today. The book is written by Peter Milligan, 2000 AD alumnus and bona fide comic book legend.  It’s quite reminiscent of Peter’s X-Statix book in many respects.  But I’d for sure love to work for the Mighty One again real soon. I love the 2000 AD universe.    

A huge thank you to Kieran for taking the time to chat with us here. You can find his art adorning the pages of the current Judge Dredd strip in the Megazine, One‑Eyed Jacks, right now. The storyline began in Megazine issue 452 and it’s a huge bit of 70s crossover fun with Ken Niemand, Ian Richardson, and Kieran, bringing together two perfect hard-men characters as Dredd and McBane, One-Eyed Jack, team up (sort of) across time!  

You can find Kieran online at his Instagram.

And now, as a bonus, here’s a little look at the original John Wagner and John Cooper One-Eyed Jack strip from Valiant comic in 1975 – available as a collection from the 2000 AD web shop!

This year 2000 AD returned to Harrogate’s Thought Bubble convention in person for the annual art and script convention to pick the droids of the future!

It’s the only talent search of its kind in the UK, with the prizes being paid work with the Galaxy’s Greatest Comic. Previous winners who have gone on to great things include Paul Starkey, James Newell, Rory McConville, Laura Bailey, Will Morris, and Tom Foster, all of whom saw their work in the pages of 2000 AD with a Future Shock and many of whom have become regulars in the Prog and the Judge Dredd Megazine.

Before this year’s judges, 2000 AD editor and writer Matt Smith, writers Leah Moore, John Reppion and Al Ewing, prospective script droids have a two-minute live pitch for a four-page Future Shock. As for the brave souls looking to become the next of Tharg’s art droids, they had to draw pages from writer Kek-W’s Tharg’s Terror Tales: Music Of The Spheres, originally drawn by Dan Cornwell. Matt Smith worked his way thorugh a huge line of contestants to whittle them down to seven to go before the live audience and the judging panel of artists Steve Yeowell, Liana Kangas and Anna Morozova. The judges dissected each of the seven, giving advice and ideas to all the artists before choosing just one winner.

And those winners this year are… drum roll please… Tom Watts for the script contest, whose pitch for a Future Shock will be published in a future Prog, and artist Mike Walters, who will illustrate Tom’s Future Shock. Congratulations to them both and welcome to the family of Tharg!

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Tom & Mike, first of all, huge congratulations to you both for vanquishing all of your rivals and impressing our lord and master Tharg enough to win the script and the art contest at Thought Bubble.

It’s been a couple of weeks now, so I suppose the most obvious question is whether it’s all sunk in yet and quite what it means to you to have won?

TOM WATTS: I think I’m still in shock that I was able to pitch, never mind winning! It certainly means a lot to be able to write for the galaxy’s greatest comic. My father was a huge 2000 AD fan when he was growing up, and he instilled in me a love of reading and telling stories. I’ve been training for years on how to write and sought advice from many professionals, so to be able to get a story published finally in 2000 AD is a dream.

MIKE WALTERS: It’s still not even remotely sunk in yet, still can’t quite believe it, from the announcement that I’d won to now, it all feels like a very surreal dream that I’ll wake up from at any moment.

Had you entered the contests before or was this your first time – and how did you find out about the talent search?

TW: This was my first time entering the competition, and I really didn’t know what to expect. Although I’ve been writing and getting feedback for six years, I felt I was ready to put my story skills to the test. My father sent me the link to be able to pitch at Thought Bubble and I decided it would be a good way to get feedback from professionals and gauge where my gaps were.

MW: I’ve only entered once before way back in 2017 which is when I first learned of it, myself and two friends (one of whom now has a few Future Shocks under his belt) went to Thought Bubble thinking we might get to the judging panel at least, the reality was that we weren’t nearly as good as we thought we were at the time. I guess we needed the wakeup call at the time because I’d say my work has improved exponentially since then. At the time my friends and I were expecting to do well from it, I look back at the work now and it’s actually quite funny because I just think honestly, you’ve got to be joking haha. 

What was the process of getting to the final like and how daunting was it to be the first set of entrants for a couple of years to be back in front of a live audience and live judges?

TW: I must admit, I tried not to think about the time gap between the last set of live pitches. My main focus was to get there early enough and to just have as much fun as I could! Speaking in front of a whole room of strangers is always difficult, but I figured that even if I pitched and failed, the experience would have helped me grow as a person.

MW: I came to Thought Bubble this year with much more realistic expectations than I did back in 2017, thinking that I’d at least get some good feedback, but I thought that would be it. So once Tharg himself told me I’d been put through to the judging panel, the feeling was at first an almost childlike excitement, followed by an immediate sense of dread (no pun intended). It was made worse once I jumped on Twitter later that day to see that all of the judging panel were artists whose work I admired. 

Tom, can you tell us a bit more about what the whole pitching process involved from your perspective?

I think my favourite pitching technique I’ve heard so far has to be from Laura Bailey who pitched without notes and was determined to practice under different pressures – including having her friend Soph heckle her and continuously play the countdown music while Laura pitched drunk. It’s certainly an interesting way to be sure that you’ve got it nailed down and I suppose you could technically count the booze as a writing aid for tax purposes!

TW: I certainly like the way Laura thinks! Like Laura, I wanted to pitch my story live and without a script. This way I felt that I could better communicate my love of the idea. This meant ninety per cent of my preparation involved cutting unnecessary details. Like the end product itself, I needed to show the whole story and twist with just the most significant moments. Then I practiced this on repeat to a timer and, once I felt I was ready, the rest was up to fate.

Tom, it’s obviously going to be a while yet until your winning entry will see print as a Future Shock, but what can you tell us about Love Birds and what you think so impressed the judges?

TW: Love Birds is a horror-love story about a scientist trying to win back her husband, by secretly gathering a vial of potent “love pheromones” to feed to him. The problem is, is that these pheromones are only produced by a vicious race of intergalactic Terror Birds that she’s terrified of, so must live amongst them to learn their ways.

The feedback I got was that the idea was bonkers! They loved the interplay between these unique bird creatures and the scientist. But ultimately, I’m still pretty stunned I was chosen!

Are you looking forward to seeing Mike’s artwork on your tale – what do you think he’ll bring to it?

I saw Mike’s winning pages on Twitter, and I loved the striking images he managed to create. I enjoyed the way he took the characters from the script and made them vivid, contrasting, and unique. His art added so much more to the characters’ personalities and backgrounds. I can’t wait to see what Mike does with the characters of Love Birds. It’ll be like getting to meet them for the first time!

For both of you – I’m assuming this is either your first professional comics work or some of your first at least- but how did you both get to this stage?

MW: I’ve been drawing comics since I was 17, after being encouraged heavily by a college tutor to pursue it, within a year I knew that I wanted to do this for a living so I spent a good few years just drawing my own stories. 

After a period of time I felt I needed to do more so I went to Staffordshire university to study Cartoon and Comic arts, I graduated around 3 years ago and haven’t really ever stopped making comics since. Even if I take a tiny bit of time away from it, comics just seem to creep back in and I can’t stop myself from drawing them.

TW: This is my first professional writing gig at all, but I’ve been training to write for at least six years. This involved getting regular feedback from Script Executives and setting harsh deadlines for myself. I suppose, being able to secure a chance to write for 2000 AD is the satisfying culmination of this for me.

Have you been published anywhere, either in fanzines or your own material?

TW: I helped edit a true crime book my father was self-publishing about a grisly murder that took place in Blackburn, my hometown. It was a real joy to help my father bring this passion to life. But other than this, I have never been published anywhere.

MW: I’ve previously been published in comics published by Futurequake press, I think I drew around 5 or 6 stories for them, the two biggest stories I got to do (at least in my mind) were Rogue Trooper and Dredd. It wasn’t official 2000 AD, but it still felt like a huge deal to be drawing such legendary characters. 

Yes, sadly that route for prospective droids for Tharg has been closed off since the tragic death of Bolt-01 and the end of Futurequake Press, which many script and art droids found was a great training ground for their development.

MW: Yeah, I did some strips for them for quite a while, I was actually in the process of working on a MACH 1 story when Bolt-01 tragically passed away, so there’s about 12 pages of that which will never see print unfortunately. I’ve considered finishing it up at some point for fun as I’ve still got the script somewhere.

TW: Yes, I’m afraid I wasn’t ever involved in Futurequake. But it certainly sounded like a phenomenal resource for people who wanted to gain skills and experience.

And thinking about how writers and artists get to the level that you’re now at, that level of pro-publication with something like 2000 AD, what sort of things have you done to progress and improve to get to professional standard?  

TW: I’ve been writing almost every day for at least six years now. But writing into the void isn’t as good as getting consistent feedback on your work. At university I took every writing course I could get my hands on, and since graduating I’ve spent most of my hard-earned money on direct training from Story Executives in Hollywood. It’s not always been easy. In fact, there have been many times that I wished I hadn’t ever wanted to write! But I loved doing it enough to keep going. To other prospective writers, I would recommend finding a mentor!

MW: Well I don’t feel even remotely “pro” as of yet, to be honest even when the prog is out and I can see my art in print I don’t think I’ll feel like a “pro”. But that being said, I love nothing more than getting critique from actual pros. One of my favourite moments from Thought Bubble 2017 was being told flat out to my face by an artist that my inking was… well he used a four letter word to describe it. Some people don’t like this kind of feedback, however I find it very helpful as there’s no sugar coating, it’s straight to the point and being that I’m a competitive type of person, I like proving people wrong. Ironically Matt Smith praised my inking this year, so take that, artist who shall remain nameless!

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Well, with that mention of your inking, it seems a perfect time to ask you about your own artistic process. How do you construct your pages?

MW: When I read a script of any story I generally make notes in my head of what angle etc I want and how I want that page to play out, I see it very much like watching a film in my mind, if it’s a well-written script the layout stage is usually fairly easy to do. 

I do my layouts on my iPad in procreate, this is purely to save paper and time, as on occasion I’ve wasted a lot of paper scribbling out ideas and throwing them in the bin, in this case there’s no need for a bin, I just press undo. 

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Initially, I was going to draw the whole strip on procreate, but very quickly I found that I wasn’t going to get the outcome I was looking for, at this point I switched to paper. For drawing comics I use Schoellershammer Bristol board, mainly because it comes in pads of 50 sheets rather than the standard 20 sheet packs you get in art shops, on top of that it’s just really good quality paper.

A lot of people blow up their rough layouts and trace them onto their art paper but unfortunately, I don’t have the tools necessary to do this, so I opt to just draw the entire thing from scratch, tweaking each element as I go and always referring back to the script and my initial layout if there’s any confusion. 

As you can see my first pass of pencils is very loose and I focus purely on gesture as opposed to detail, I use very hard leaded pencils for this as they’re easier to erase if I make mistakes (generally for my first pass I’ll use a 4H lead) 

When penciling I am a little all over the place in that sometimes I might pencil super tight and have every line be exactly where I want it, other times I’ll keep it much more loose and trust my inking skills to get the job done. 

During the judging panel, I was asked by Steve Yeowell if I use reference for my faces, as it was something they all praised quite a bit. For the initial layout I don’t as I feel that overuse of reference particularly for faces or figures can make things look particularly stiff. 

The only reference I use for faces is an app I have on my phone which has a series of rotatable 3D head models with adjustable lighting (the app is called Head Model Studio on the Apple app store if anyone wants to get it). I use this as more of a guide than anything, just to get the basic shading down, particularly when heavy shadows are involved. 

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For my general pencils I still use wooden pencils, many artists use mechanical ones or those weird clutch pencil things but they just never agreed with me. It’s annoying because it means that I’m constantly sharpening my pencils, but mechanical pencils always felt a little too clinical to me. 

For inking I use fineliner pens, at the moment I’m using a set of Uni Pin fineliners because they’re easy to find and give a pretty good line, for most linework I tend to gravitate toward the 0.3 pen.

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A couple of old favourites now… When it comes to 2000 AD, have you been a lifelong fan or was it something you came to later in life? (Well, I say later in life, for all I know you’re mere children – or at least relatively! How old are the pair of you?)

MW: I started reading 2000 AD when I went to university at about 21, so it’s been about 6 years or so now. Being that one of my tutors, the great John Charles is a colourist there, and with some of my friends being big fans, I had to see what all the fuss was about. Needless to say I wasn’t disappointed. I pulled out all my Progs recently and well, I have a lot more than I thought… later that day I went and bought this week’s Prog. It’s like an addiction really – haha. 

TW: I’m 29 years old, but some of my earliest memories are my father reading Judge Dredd to me (to my mother’s dismay). I was familiar with the characters from a very young age, and it certainly inspired me to become a writer. Just because it brought my father and I so much joy when we were together – and it still does!

And if you could get your hands on any 2000 AD character, what would be your dream gig for Tharg?

MW: Dredd, without question. Although I’d also love to have a crack at Sinister Dexter too. Truth be told I’m happy to draw anything, just throw your scripts at me!

TW: Probably Bill Savage. I love how his stories always play around with the morality of “how far will you go to save your country?”. Each character in the story has a different moral limit, and some of the people Bill is fighting can be really nice guys! It’s just so beautifully done.

What about those writing and artistic influences? What/who is it that you owe a debt to?

MW: In terms of artistic influences I must confess that many of mine come from more American comics rather than 2000 AD, my two biggest being Greg Capullo and Todd McFarlane. That being said I’m a big fan of guys like Brian Bolland, Ron Smith and Dave Gibbons.

TW: 2000 AD definitely! The stories I’m mostly drawn to involve action, horror and science-fiction in some way. But I certainly owe a debt to my writing teacher John Truby, the author of the Anatomy of Story. When I read his books on how to write, they were invaluable. Also, movies from James Cameron & Christopher Nolan have some great lessons for writers to learn in them.

And now that you’re on the first steps of your 2000 AD journey, what are the next steps for you – what’s coming up for you in the near, or not so near future and where would you like to think you’ll be in a few years’ time?

MW: At this moment in time I’m just anticipating the Future Shock script, I can’t wait to get started. From there I guess I’ll see what the future brings, hopefully more strips to draw!

TW: I’d love to be able to write more stories for 2000 AD, but I know this decision is not ultimately up to me! Right now, I’m just happy to get the chance to write a Future Shock and hope our readers enjoy it.

For the future? I’d like to see both of the novels I’m working on published – one of which is a horror story set in the Lake District about two brothers fighting the undead. But I’ve learned to leave some of the future up to chance!

Well, thank you so much to Matt and Mike for talking to us – and congratulations again to both of them for their wins. We’ll look forward to seeing the fruits of their labours in 2023!

You can find both of them online at all the usual places… Tom Watts – Instagram & Mike Walters – Twitter, Instagram.

And remember, 2000 AD will be back at Thought Bubble in 2023 on the hunt for more new talent – have you got what it takes to fill the pages of the Galaxy’s Greatest Comic with thrill power? There’s only one way to find out Earthlet!

The Dark Judges are back… and so are David Hine and Nick Percival, ready to thrill and scare you with their latest adventure. Welcome to the Death Metal Planet.

The new Dark Judges series, Death Metal Planet began in Judge Dredd Megazine issue 449 and continues through into the new year. It’s a direct continuation of the events of the last series, Deliverance, albeit 25 years on. While The Dark Judges, in their new alien bodies, are held imprisoned in stasis by Um and Whisper, the planet of Thanatopia blossoms and the few people left alive has flourished, including an older Rosco.

But the relative paradise is about to be shattered – as a Death Metal Band, The Lizard Lords, and a hundred private ships from Earth are headed to the planet to stage Deathfest… have a wild guess who the guest of honour is going to be!

So, what’s in store for a grown-up Roscoe, could this be the end of Thanatopia, will the Dark Judges be getting back to Earth, and most importantly is Judge Death really a death metal fan? Some of these questions might just be answered in our chat with series writer and artist, David Hine and Nick Percival…

David, Nick, welcome to you both – I hope you’re both keeping safe and well. Now, the latest Dark Judges story, Death Metal Planet, began recently in Judge Dredd Megazine issue 449. I suppose the first thing to ask you is just what’s Death Metal Planet all about? 

DAVID HINE: Firstly it’s about bringing some kind of closure to Rosco’s story. It also reveals how the Wild Kids survived and grew into adulthood. Most importantly I wanted to explore Judge Death’s relationship to Heavy Metal music.

NICK PERCIVAL: Yeah, I hope Rosco gets more attention in the future of 2000 AD Universe Lore-  Apart from Dredd and Anderson, she’s become Judge Death‘s main nemesis, having faced off against him and the Dark Judges four times now, which is a big deal when you think about it. Death Metal Planet kind of concludes her journey but certainly not in the way you might expect – some very cool things are going to happen to her. Oh, and there’s some Death Metal stuff too…

All of the signs up until the point of the opening of Death Metal Planet were that we (and the Dark Judges) were headed slowly and surely back to Earth for them to wreak their havoc once more. 

DH: They’ll get back to Earth eventually. The Dark Judges go on forever and forever is a long time.

NP: I still have enough drive in me to finish with an epic Dark Judges story set back on Earth, so who knows?

But it hasn’t quite worked out like that at all, with the reveal that it’s been somewhere in the region of 25 Earth years that have passed with the Dark Judges held in the perpetual cycle of hate and mutual destruction, kept there by Um and Whisper remaining in their trance state and ‘maintaining the illusion that holds the Dark Judges in its spell.’

One thing that this does establish is that the Dark Judges are, as things stand right now, completely off limits for the next 25 years – as they’ve been trapped on Thanatopia all this time. Although I suppose nothing is inescapable and there are time twists and the like that Tharg can use to get them back if they’re needed.

DH: Or there’s the Metaverse solution. The idea of alternative timelines has been around in science fiction for decades, but we seem to be living in a period where Metaversions are everywhere. I was always amused by those DC Superman stories where Lois Lane marries an ape or whatever. “Not a dream! Not an imaginary story!” They weren’t fooling me.

What I’m trying to say is that you’re right, Tharg the Mighty calls the shots and if he wants to mess with alternative time streams then he undoubtedly will.

NP: It’s comics, so obviously anything is possible and we’ll come up with a suitable solution to that if needed. It would be cool to see variants of Death and the gang clashing together or maybe Dredd getting thrown forward in time to sort them all out.

Anyway, the other aspect of the whole 25 years on thing is that Nick gets to imagine just what the Judges will be like in a quarter of a Century.

DH: I’m not even sure what year is current for 2000 AD these days. Whatever the year Judges are still pretty hardcore.

[2144 AD Dave, but yes they are ALWAYS hardcore!]

NP: Yeah, that was a lot of fun. I didn’t want to stray too far from what the Judges look like in the current timeline, hence keeping the colour of the uniforms pretty much the same and so on. They’re a bit less bulky but much more durable, coated in tight-fitting armour with some cybernetic elements and enhancements. Of course, the first thing to get ditched in the re-design was that bloody eagle!

Was all of this carefully coordinated with Tharg or was it simply a case of TMO letting you do as you please, knowing he can always retroactively write it off as a fever dream of two older droids?

DH: Hey! Less of the “older droids”!

Elderly? Later middle-aged? Whatever makes you happy young Mr Hine!

DH: Tharg has been very hands-off. It’s just been a case of figuring out how to keep bringing Death and Co. back in a relatively credible way. It occurs to me that the most likely solution to the 25-year gap problem would be that Rosco went totally mad in the middle of Deliverance and is imagining everything, while the real Judge Death is back on Earth slaughtering the masses. But you didn’t hear that from me.

Nope, didn’t hear a thing.

NP: Ha! – Sounds like a plan, Dave. Tharg, as always, has been great throughout our relationship with the Dark Judges. He gives me a great deal of freedom with the art which always means you can keep your enthusiasm high (which you really need on big series’ like this).

Because you know you’re being trusted, it means you deliver the best work possible (within the time limits of course!) He also chips in with cool ideas and keeps everything on track.

Anyway, Nick, what were the particular restraints, difficulties, and enjoyable bits of getting to define a look for the Judges and MC-1?

NP: As I mentioned, earlier, I still wanted everything to make sense and look like a natural progression from current street Judges. I would imagine Mega-City One has only gotten more dangerous over those twenty-five years, so body armour was more appropriate to reflect those conditions and I did a bit of upgrading to some of the tech.

We don’t spend too much time on Earth, so you don’t really get to see how other elements would have evolved – I didn’t get an opportunity to do a revamped Lawmaster, for instance (unless Dave has sneaked one in for later)

It does mean that we finally, if only for a few pages, get to see and experience a calm, relaxed, almost beautiful world where Whisper’s roots have extended everywhere. We also get to imagine the last 25 years for Rosco, who’s more than deserved whatever peace she can find amongst the darkness of her life and history. You’ve certainly put her through a hell of a lot.

DH: Exactly. Rosco has now starred in three series with the Dark Judges, beginning with John Wagner’s Dominion, then Torture Garden and Deliverance. Those three stories ran into one another with barely a break for Rosco to catch a breath, so I figured she needed some downtime. She has had 25 years of peace where she could grow old gracefully and now she has to jump back into the fray to save us all yet again, like Old Man Logan or Batman in The Dark Knight Returns.

NP: When we pick up, it does feel like she’s finally found some inner peace and is happy with her current situation. Then the shit hits the fan with the arrival of the Lizard Lord and she’s reluctantly thrown back in to having to deal with the Dark Judges again. At least she had a pleasant 25 years…

Your version of the Dark Judges manages something important, it’s something really dark, yet also has a vein of richly black humour running through it, a balancing act that many have tried (and failed) to get right in the past. 

Gone are the days of the Dark Judges being the comedy relief. You manage to give us Dark Judges that are suitably terrifying – and look rather wonderfully monstrous in their new duds of course Nick! – but you’ve also taken every opportunity to fill each series with comedy characters in the supporting cast.

DH: The humour has always been the key to what makes 2000 AD so entertaining. It is a tricky one because there’s a lot of horror and tragedy there too.

NP: I think there has to be dark humour in there. I’m not a fan of the ‘comedy’ Dark Judges but you can have elements of comedy around them. I think what we’ve done with Judge Death is make him so driven by his desire for killing, that sometimes he will end up in these absurd situations but he’s never really aware of it, since for him the final result will always be mass killing and death. In the series, you’ll see him do a few wacky things but he’s deadly serious when doing it. It may look bizarre in some scenes but most of the weird stuff is always going on around him – he’s just getting ready for the next massacre.

David (or Nick talking about David!) – the writing is both lyrical and tight, a touch of action, a hefty bit of tension, and then there’s the completely over-the-top ridiculousness, those comedy moments that are so enjoyable – but it’s all done with a delicate balance that makes the laughter a nervous laughter, the sort that happens just before you know you’re getting ready to scream.

DH: Thanks! That’s what I’m aiming for. For me the touchstone for getting the balance right between horror and humour is the movie “Mandy” with Nicolas Cage. I just watched it for the fourth time and it still makes me laugh like a hyena, even while people are being burned alive, impaled, chainsawed, or having their head squashed until their eyes pop out.   

NP: Exactly. Dave’s writing is so intense and over the top in some places but it’s great because as a reader, you’re constantly on edge never really quite knowing who’s safe and who may be next on Death’s list. He does some savage things in this series – really brutal stuff but I love that Death is so blasé about it all.

I think it’s obvious that both of you really are enjoying what you’re doing here, enjoying the characters, and that means you’re never overplaying the comedy, getting things just right.

Now, in Death Metal Planet, that comedy comes in with the second episode and the return of Akan and newfound friends – the magnificently insane Lizard Lords. 

So, are you big fans of Death Metal yourselves? Is this a tongue-in-cheek yet affectionate thing here?

DH: I’m ambivalent about Metal. Alice Cooper was my rock hero when I was a teenager and I adored Motorhead. When metal music went in the Death Metal direction it became increasingly parodic, Grindcore, DeathPornTechnoDoomCore, or whatever the latest iteration is. I prefer Drone or Minimalist Techno. It helps me meditate.

NP: There is a very strong element of parody with the Lizard Lords (I’ve recently seen a couple of comments where some readers seem to have missed that! I thought we were being fairly obvious with it but there you go).

The problem with parody – no matter how obvious you make it, sadly someone’s always going to not get it!

NP: Like Dave, I’m ambivalent about Metal but can’t deny it’s always has some fantastic dark visual elements attached to it and perfect for exploiting and poking fun at. It’s a little bit of a love letter to Judgement On Gotham in places too, which was fun to explore and a perfect fit to surround Judge Death with.

I can’t help but have a little Hitchhikers Guide in mind with seeing Lizard Lords – shades of Disaster Area and their loudest sound in the universe best listened from within large concrete bunkers some thirty-seven miles away from the stage, whilst the musicians themselves played their instruments by remote control from within a heavily insulated spaceship which stayed in orbit around the planet – or more frequently around a completely different planet. They have that sort of wonderfully ridiculous nature about them.

DH: You’re right. I had forgotten Disaster Area. Mind you, Lizard Lords have better songs.

But of course, all it takes is an idiot or two with guns, guitars, and a plan to free Judge Death and then the joke becomes deadly serious!

DH: One of the guitars is an actual rocket launcher. Inspired by Mad Max Fury Road.

NP: The Lizard Lords are obsessed with Judge Death and I can’t believe they really thought this was going to end well for them…

Well, you know what it’s like… a few drinks with your mates, one thing leads to another and next thing you know you’re hatching a plan to free Judge Death.

Nick, in a recent Covers Uncovered, you had this little snippet to tease us with… ‘we even have a throwback to the classic, Judgement On Gotham – If I say any more, I will be sealed in a block of Boing for the rest of my days.’ We’re a couple of episodes into Death Metal Planet here and now, so I’m sure you can share with us exactly what you meant there – right? Right?

NP: Well, we have a flashback scene coming up from Judgement On Gotham where Death was on stage, killing a few of the Heavy Metal band members from that crossover – As a fan of that comic, that was cool to do but more broadly speaking, Death Metal Planet does have some moments that feel similar in tone to Judgement On Gotham and it’s not a spoiler to say that in our series, Judge Death does get a chance to strut his stuff again on stage, albeit on a larger scale with a much more gruesome and darker outcome…

You were also talking last time about what might be your ultimate Dark Judges storyline – the eliminate all life through the universe and get a well-earned rest. I can understand why Tharg might not be too keen to okay that right now and thus ending Judge Dredd and all the Dreddworld tales 

But how about pitching it as a special – we had the recent Zombie Judgment Day redo, maybe the next Sci-FI Special could be the Final Dark Judges tale?

DH: Sounds like a good idea to me. We do touch on that a little in this series. I love the idea of pushing the story of Judge Death all the way to the end. He’s immortal and he can’t stop killing. He can only stop when all living things throughout the universe are exterminated. Imagine the state of him in a billion years from now, hunting down that last living soul so he can finally find some peace.

NP: That would be a cool scenario – Death’s final quest to end all life in the Universe.

We’ve talked about this before but Dark Judges really does seem like such a wonderful fit for Nick’s artwork. Sure Bolland’s art in black and white would be the ultimate version of the Dark Judges. But with the colour era and to really get the evil of the quartet of nightmares, I don’t think anyone gets it more right than Nick.

DH: Nick is exceptionally good at bringing dead matter to life. Rotting entrails never looked so good. It has been a lot of fun seeing him re-imagine the Dark Judges in a different guise for each of the series. We don’t see any totally new versions of the core group of Fire, Death, Mortis and Fear in this one but there are some neat twists on the concept of the Dark Judges. The Dead Juices will flow again.

NP: That’s nice to hear – thanks. Obviously, the inspiration comes from Dave’s writing and since we’re now on our third series together, we pretty much know how the other person thinks regarding these characters, so it’s a great fit.  I’m still having a blast illustrating them and we’ve got some very cool imagery coming up.

For this series, I’ve gone for more of a funkier colour palette, lots of neon glows, hard lighting and so on -it works for the storyline and you’ll see what I mean as the series progresses. It’s always a challenge to keep things fresh and I like to give each Dark Judge their own colour scheme. Sometimes artists can be a bit afraid of colour and images can be quite muted but I always remind myself that this is comics and you can pretty much do whatever you want, so I like using bold colours to create mood and tone – it doesn’t need to be realistic, so to speak.

Just to add a little more to that, here’s what Nick had to say about his process last time we talked…

NP: ‘I’m a stickler for detail, so painted art gives me a style to add all the decay, texture and gnarly bits that look so cool on the characters.’

‘I still draw out the pages traditionally – pencil on board – and I work quite large, about A1 in size. My pencils are extremely loose though. I’ll scan those pencil pages in and then paint digitally using Photoshop and Painter. I still use the same painting techniques as when I used ‘real’ paints but now I also have access to things that digital excels at – textures, lighting and FX touches. For me, it’s all about the final image and I don’t care how the art was produced. There’s some snobbery about painted digital art but that’s Grandad talk – use whatever tools you like to get the job done and produce a strong final image.’

‘I think you can see from those examples of my rough page layouts that I do them really quickly and it’s just to get the flow of the page worked out and where the focus will be. Things can change quite a lot between this stage and final paints but all the information I need is there for me to tell the story and get working on the final pages.’

Oh, one thing about the Death Metal – we recently saw Dan Abnett and his talented relatives and friends come together and give us the complete Lawless the Musical. 

Surely it would be churlish of you to do anything less here – whether it’s yourselves or any talented death metallers? Or maybe Tharg could be convinced to commission someone to create the Death Metal Planet soundtrack?

DH: I don’t know about Nick but I am definitely not musical. You could put together a very motley bunch of musicians among the comics fraternity. I’ve seen Liam Sharp on vocals, Charlie Adlard on Drums and Phil Winslade on guitar. Boo Cook makes some interesting noises as Owlmask. Not sure if any of those are heavy or death-y enough though. I did work on a comic with Emily Lazar of September Mourning. They’re kind of melodic hard rock but there’s a lot of death in the lyrics.

NP: I’m not musical at all. I’ll have a go when AI takes over music creation, as it’s currently trying to do with art…(sad face)

No, no, no… AI is just the worst.

I was about to suggest Napalm Death could step in for the soundtrack – but it seems they’re grindcore and not death metal…. hmmm, what do I know eh? Sign of getting old when you’re way, way behind on modern music.

NP: Side note – Drawing ‘Napalm Death’ gig posters was actually my first paid, professional work.

Oh wow… now that’s a great gig!

And finally, What are your plans after this, both with the Dark Judges and other work?

DH: There’s a setup at the end of this series for another possible Dark Judges story, though it is hard coming up with new twists for the characters. 

Other work includes a secret project coming up for 2000 AD, as well as another music comic project, which is totally secret, and a semi-secret graphic novel with Mark Stafford, called Beastly. Also a collaboration that has been bubbling under for far too long. I need to focus on that one in the New Year. It’s secret.

NP: Well, Dave and Tharg know that I’m always up to continue the Dark Judges (any other artist will have to arm wrestle me to take over) and where we leave them with this series, it does feel that there’s at least one more epic needed to see our vision through – I have some ideas. I can also hear Dredd knocking at the door, so it’d be cool to revisit old stoneyface for some meaty, dark epic storyline – Again, I have ideas and speaking with writers and so on.

Non-comics work is all film-related and fingers crossed, should have some very interesting announcements in the New Year.

Thanks so much to both David and Nick for talking Death Metal Planet with us. You can find episode three of the series in the new Megazine, issue 451, the first of the new format Megazines with even more pages for your festive fun!

You can get hold of the Christmas Megazine from 14 December wherever the Galaxy’s Greatest is sold, including the 2000 AD web shop.

And finally, for more things Dark and Judgy… be sure to have a read of the previous interview we did together about the last Dark Judges series, Deliverance, back in 2020, and then there’s plenty of great art on display when Nick talks to us for Covers Uncovered where he discusses the making of the covers for 2000 AD Prog 2247, Megazine 425, Megazine 427, Megazine 430, Megazine 433, and Megazine 448.

And finally, as Nick sends his art over at high resolution, it’s always fun to show you the incredible details of his artwork by getting in close to the art!

The magic infused noir horror of Hope… In The Shadows is reaching the end of Reel Two in the pages of the Prog right now – we talk to its court-creators Guy Adams and Jimmy Broxton.

Set in an alternate 1940s USA where magic is commonplace and WWII was won through occult means, Hope follows Mallory Hope, former New York cop turned Hollywood PI and magician who returned from the nightmares of war just to find that the nightmares came back with him.

With a demon attached to his soul and his wife seduced by magic while he was gone, vanishing and taking their young son with her, Hope knows the heavy cost being a practitioner of the dark arts can exact.

That was then. This is now. Reel One of Hope… In The Shadows saw Mallory called in to investigate a cursed film. Now, in Reel Two, Hope’s wife Alice is back. This is not the reunion Mallory was hoping for…

Guy, Jimmy, we’re currently deep into Hope… In The Shadows Reel Two in the Prog, continuing our nightmarish journey through this magic-infused post-WWII alt-America.

Reel one of this latest Hope had Mallory investigating a haunted/cursed film set, very much in the sort of ballpark of previous Hope storylines. But here in the second Reel, it’s gone a hell of a lot more expansive, a lot more worldly, and is busy switching between Mallory and his no longer missing wife Alice.

That first episode showed us just how dangerous and deadly she can be – those poor patrons of that doomed diner. It was also an opener that built up the tension perfectly, narrative and art just a superb example of how comics can do this sort of thing like no other.

Jimmy Broxton: Well, you are too kind, but it was great to have the opportunity to expand on what we had already seen, following Alice’s journey with the ‘MacGuffin”  (a Hitchcock reference for ya), to new locations outside of the more familiar noir trappings. Sun-scorched desert locales, rattlesnakes, infinite highways, and the like. Pure Americana, but visual gold.

Guy Adams: The idea with this series was always to expand, not just in pure comics real estate (we’re twice the size, a conservatory extension of bonus horror). Ongoing series need to unfurl I think, to keep changing the stakes, the shape of the world.

In a series that has, thus far, been confined to just Mallory Hope and his investigations, the second episode sees you getting into something far, far bigger – the nuclear threat, the coven, the President’s arrival… all very big ideas that we’re going to see, no doubt, developed in future episodes.

JB: In Hope we have always alluded to a real-world setting, Hope is, in effect an alternate history of post-war America with supernatural/occult overtones. It’s entirely consistent within that worldview to have “real world” historical protagonists interact directly with our fictional characters, as opposed to just seeing them in newspaper headlines or on theatre awnings.

We have Alice and her fellow coven-mates getting together and the most powerful man in the world quaking in his boots – what manner of things are you setting up here? And just how will poor Mallory Hope get involved?

JB: I couldn’t possibly comment.

Spoilsport! Okay, how about this then? From just those first couple of episodes, I’m getting the feeling that you’re building to a rather dreadful crescendo – are we looking at a possible end to the series and is it going to be going out in a magical/nuclear inferno?

JB: I couldn’t possibly comment on that either.

Dammit, two for two. Let’s try again one last time… So, how close am I to thinking that this series of Hope is feeling like the very last one?

JB: Or that.

Three strikes. That Jimmy Broxton doesn’t spill the beans!

Okay then, what sort of things have you dreamed up for Hope‘s future?

JB: Guy hasn’t told me yet, but we do bounce ideas around. I’ll pitch in with things I’d like to see, or even just things I’d like to draw. I did suggest we turn the series into a trendy, drag-themed ultra-camp comedy, as Mallory (now pretending to be a woman), goes undercover to investigate a spate of gruesome murders on Broadway. Renaming it “Hopey – Does my Ass Look Big In This?” So far both Guy and Tharg have remained eerily silent.

GA: And intend to remain so.

Probably for the best.

All the way through, Hope has been a series that’s visually led, with Jimmy’s artwork essential in setting the mood and the tone for a series that is, frankly, all about the mood and the tone.

JB: Well, you said it, it really is all about the mood and tone, or as I call it: ‘atmosphere.’

GA: It better had be visually led, it’s a comic! Both Jimmy and I have dropped the ball if it isn’t. I realize this may sound like a sarcastic reply but it really isn’t. I’m constantly baffled by work that forgets what medium it belongs to…

Oh I know, the number of comics I see where the authors forget that basic concept of comics being a visual storytelling medium!

GA: I’m lucky that I work across a lot of different mediums as a writer. I’ve written novels, stage plays, comedy sketches, comics, audio drama and am currently writing and directing a short film (the latter, I’ll admit has been a long time coming, as most readers will guess I’ve long been a frustrated movie director!) I can’t help but work that way.

I’m ASD/ADHD, my brain is constantly backfiring and roaring like Jimmy Dean’s last ride, I need to channel it, game it, distract it… Still, the joy is feeling the language of each different medium, the rhythm of it, the structure, the flow…  And I do mean feel, referring you back to my Crazy Brain Soup I can honestly admit that I find it very hard to intellectualize any of this, it’s a gut thing.

When writing audio drama it’s all about the ears. Still hugely visual as a medium but you need to hear it (you won’t believe how many scripts I’ve had to rework during my occasional stints as a script editor, that contain elements that rely purely on silent, visual cue to progress a story…)

When writing comics it’s not about the words. Or shouldn’t be. Just the same as when you’re writing a movie. You should be thinking in pictures, the rhythm of the page, the number of panels, the size of those panels and how that will affect the pace and flow. And yes, oh yes, atmosphere! If your script doesn’t convey how all this should feel then you’ve really blown it. Then, once that visual world is there, the story all but fully formed, the words come along as a bonus treat.

Obviously, the noir feel to Hope across all the series so far, both in the writing and the black-and-white classical imagery evokes a real sense of time and place.

JB: That is definitely the plan, we want it to feel authentic, it’s essential really, if you want the readers to join you on the ride, you have to draw them in and convince them the journey is worth taking.

It’s a series absolutely soaked in the noir writings and art of the past of course – and last time we spoke you both mentioned a few touchstones. Any particular references and inspirations you’ve taken for the latest series? And have either of you ventured into the worlds of Chandler and Hammett yet?

JB: My inspirations are mostly visual, and mostly cinematic. With this series, I’ve been more focused on trying to capture the feel of the great illustrators of that era, most notably Sickles.

GA: As wonderful as Chandler and Hammett are they’re predominantly novelists so, yeah… Not part of the mix at all. This is about cinema.

Grrr… OK, I can’t resist… So, both writers worked in Hollywood too of course (and Hammett also wrote comic strips). Chandler had the greatest success, co-writing the script for Double Indemnity with Billy Wilder (adapting James M. Cain, now there’s a cinematic writer). Billy Wilder most certainly creeps onto the pages for Hope, how could he not?

Both Hammett and Chandler nearly adapted Patricia Highsmith’s Strangers on a Train for Hitchcock (not together). Hitchcock… Now, that naughty little bastard has influenced a lot of my work, Jimmy, how about yours?

JB: Oh crikey, yes, absolutely! Hitchcock is a massive influence on what I do with Hope. There’s a scene in a previous story, where a small girl screams in close up, it’s pure Hitchcock, and deliberately so. The last few episodes of Reel One of Hope… In The Shadows, the corrupted, perverted and demonic party scene (how often do we get to string those words together when discussing one’s output? Thank you Guy…), is basically (in my mind) the climax of To Catch a Thief via the Marquis De Sade with a touch of Dennis Wheatley thrown in, did I thank enough Guy already?

Hitchcock was always pushing the boundaries of what was acceptable, to the censor and the public, I’d like to think we are doing the same here, not in a salacious or deliberately provocative way, that’s easy, but in a far more subtle and cerebral fashion, at least that’s my excuse, I have no idea what Guy’s is.

Jimmy, your style throughout Hope has been obviously photo-realistic and you certainly don’t shy away from obvious likenesses for readers to pick up on. What was your thinking of the inclusion of so many real-life characters as well as characters with obvious likenesses of others?

JB: First off, I don’t consider my work on Hope to be ‘photo-realistic,’ that’s a term for art that tries to emulate or reproduce a photographic feel. My art is far from that, the line work is too loose and stylised to be considered photo-real. My objective is to create a kind of naturalistic authenticity.

Yes, apologies for that – that was lazy shorthand on my part! Stylised but naturalistic is far better!

JB: So the characters look like actual people (sometimes well-known people as you mention), but they don’t look like photographs. Anatomy is plausible, and the lighting/perspective etc. is firmly rooted in reality. This is essential I think to allow for the suspension of disbelief that is required to successfully create the ‘doomed diner’ that you mentioned.

Was the idea to include familiar faces and real-world characters something that was script based or was it more a case of it coming out in the discussions between you both?

JB: Guy often mentions people he wants our characters to “resemble” or at least reference. I usually take it literally and just go for it, but sometimes I play with the suggestions. For example Tiff, our film director, was described as being James Whale of Frankenstein fame. He was played in the excellent film Gods and Monsters by Sir Ian McKellen, so I cast him instead.  On other occasions I’ll just add “actors’ for fun. In the doomed diner scene, Guy had Lauren Bacall and David Lynch, I thought it might be fun to have Arthur Mullard as the diner owner.

GA: McKellen has a far more interesting face than James Whale. I do occasionally imagine him having a conniption in the middle of WH Smiths though, shocked to see him, poured into a basque (and whatever else).

I usually cast all the parts, aye. Gloria Swanson – Billy Wilder’s back, Sunset Boulevard – was my suggestion for Norma. I even cast myself in the first reel, I thought it was about time given who Hope actually looks like!

And on that point, as far as how you put the series together, is it still a case of ‘I wash, he dries,’ as you said back when I first talked to you about Hope back in 2017?

JB: More or less, but now I also do the ironing, often re-cutting scenes, moving and adding panels, taking different viewpoints etc. I would never dream of messing with the script, or doing anything that didn’t serve it 100% that is sacrosanct but I do see it as a script writer/director situation, with me being the director. Hopefully Guy agrees.

I’m not suggesting that I’m in charge, far from it, Guy’s scripts are the most important thing, but he graciously allows me the breathing room I need to do my best work, and tell his stories as best I can, as of course does the boss who actually runs the show- Tharg.

GA: I sort of agree! Strictly speaking you’re cinematographer I’d say. You’re lining up the camera, getting the coverage, choosing the angles, the frames. You’re the gaffer too, master of light.

I’ve always been very open with Jimmy that he should change things however he sees fit. The relationship between writer and artist varies a lot. I’ve worked with artists that really want to be led and, *whispers*, look… I don’t dislike that, as mentioned above I believe very strongly that any comic writer should be thinking of every visual aspect to a script, the angles, the shots, the framing… I have a very strong mental image of what each page should look like and there can be a real, transcendent pleasure in seeing that brought to life. I’ve also worked with artists who change things without discussion or – it sometimes seems – thought (you’ll get no names from me but there’s nothing that itches quite so much as a story falling apart in front of your eyes because the imagery has worked against the script and something vital has been lost).

The times a Jimmy page looks exactly like I’ve expected it to are rare. Extremely so. And that’s lovely too of course, because it’s Jimmy and I love him and he excites me.

Back then Guy, you talked about leaving room in your scripts to let Jimmy play – with you sketching out thoughts and ideas for staging, albeit from a full script, but with more than enough leeway to let Jimmy add his own ideas.

After all this time, is that still the basic way you’re collaborating, or has the familiarity that comes with a long-running series bred comfort and shorthand?

JB: ‘Shorthand’?! Guy knows not the meaning of the word. His scripts are rich and full, and as interesting and enjoyable to read as the comic itself. In fact, they are often bloody hilarious, one day I dream of a mega, ‘absolute’ style edition of the collected Hope that includes Guy’s scripts, it’s criminal that so few folks get to see them.

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Jimmy, thanks for sending some of your art along for us – how do you go about constructing your pages?

JB: Here’s something very rare, thumbnail layouts for Hope. Rare, because I don’t usually do any. My process rarely involves layouts or thumbnails for the pages. Instead, I compose the page from the disparate elements I have drawn, all separately as required.

I have no real idea of the final design of the page until I start composing. However, when I’m running late, or behind schedule (which is rather too often) I’ll produce very basic thumbnail layouts for Tharg so he can get them lettered. I’ve included some from Hope ITS 2 episode 3 here and the finished unlettered pages.

Although diabolically crude, I’m always surprised how much they look like the finished pages when viewed very small.

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Now, I don’t think it’s pushing things to say that Hope looks like nothing else in the Prog and it’s been that way since we first saw the series. What have you both to say about the notion that 2000 AD is a still somewhere that is pushing boundaries in terms of being able to publish a weekly anthology that’s capable of putting out works such as Hope?

JB: that’s the beauty of 2000 AD, that it allows for such wild varying creative approaches.

It’s always been that way, long may it continue! I’m honoured and frankly amazed that I’m allowed to participate in and add to that legacy. It’s a great privilege, for which I’m incredibly grateful.

GA: It’s so essential isn’t it? This artform we’re all reveling in needs variety, it needs breadth, it needs a wider range of voices.

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Finally, both of you, what’s coming up soon and not so soon from you? Both for Tharg and elsewhere.

JB: Well, not sure how much I can reveal, but Guy and I have pitched a couple of new series ideas to Tharg. We also have a creator owned project in the works. Guy may well wish to spill the beans here….

GA: Nah…

Drokk it!

JB: Other than that, I’m doing a lot of cover work, most notably for Dynamite in the US.

They have the rights to some wonderful properties, so Vampirella, Red Sonja and Bettie Page (to name but a few) have strutted across my drawing board of late. Most recently I created a set of 5 covers featuring Barbarella, something of a fanboy wish come true.

GA: As mentioned above I’m doing a weird little film. I’m writing and recording commentaries and documentaries about film for companies like Arrow (my wife, writer and genius Alexandra Benedict, and I have recently started recording commentaries together, Monkey and the Sex Queen, skipping their way through old classics like The Dunwich Horror. A new audio series is currently doing the pitching rounds and tomorrow I’ll be sat in a TV writer’s room for the first of a few sessions for a possible new show. I’m also writing a novel about a drive-in and the ghost of Orson Welles.

Thank you so much to Guy and Jimmy, one of the best double acts in comics! It was a pleasure chatting to them for this one. You can find our first chat about Hope… For The Future from 2017 right here.

You can find Hope… In The Shadows Reel Two running in the pages of 2000 AD right now. The series began with Reel One in Progs 2276-2279, 2281-2287, and 2289, and continued with Reel Two in Progs 2302-2305, 2307-2308, and 2310. Get it wherever Thrill Power is sold, including the 2000 AD web shop.

The previous Hope storylines were Hope… For The Future (Progs 2011-2016, 2044-2049 – collected as Hope… For The Future) and Hope… Under Fire (Progs 2150-2161).

And now, as promised, the full-sized images of Jimmy’s art for Hope… In The Shadows Reel Two episode 3, pages 3, 4, and 5…