The latest digest edition of classic Judge Dredd stories is out now!
Presented in a handy pocket size edition (15.2 x 22.9 cm, 6″ x 9″), Judge Dredd: Ghost Town brings together five stories celebrating the best of modern Judge Dredd classics in the aftermath of Mega-City One’s darkest hour.
After the destruction wrought by the Chaos Bug with most of the city in ruins, a decimated Justice Department is struggling to cope. With disease, corruption, and looting rife, there are some that seek to take advantage of the city’s condition, including dangerous psychic, Algol Rey.
Judge Dredd and Psi-Judge Anderson have survived, but after all the violence and horror, can they bring order back to a damaged city? Their limits as Judges are put to the test!
Written by comics legends and Judge Dredd co-creators John Wagner and Alan Grant along with modern masters Rob Williams (Suicide Squad) and Ian Edginton (Brass Sun)! Part of the new 2000 AD Digest line – bringing classic storylines to a brand new audience, for a low price.
Illustrated by Vertigo and Image comics master R.M. Guerra (Scalped), Simon Coleby (The Royals), Dave Taylor (Doctor Who) and Michael Dowling (Unfollow).
With IDW’s latest incarnation of Judge Dredd returning on 23 May, the official 2000 AD podcast talks to series writer Mark Russell about his first case for the lawman of the future.
From discussing the parallels between today’s world and Mega-City One to crafting believable and interesting dystopias, the writer behind critically-lauded The Flintstones and Exit Stage Left: The Snagglepuss Chronicles for DC Comics sets out how you can tell any story with Dredd’s world and why he decided to tell this one…
Issue one of IDW’s Judge Dredd: Under Siege by Mark Russell and Max Dunbar hits shelves on 23rd May!
The 2000 AD Thrill-Castis the award-winning podcast that takes you behind-the-scenes at the Galaxy’s Greatest Comic! As well as interviewing top creators and famous fans, we bring you announcements, competitions, and much more! You can subscribe to the Thrill-Cast on iTunes or on the podcast app of your choice, or you can listen now at www.2000ADonline.com/podcast
Wow! How’s that for a creepy cover? The master of intricate detail, Dave Taylor, brings another insanely complicated cover, I swear Tharg has implanted him with a masochist chip!
Current Judge Dredd tale Live Evil sees Mega-City One’s premier lawman reunited with Exorcist Judge Miryam Lamia. The troubled exorcist judge has an overactive sixth sense which allows her to see dead people, which, since the tragic events of Chaos Day, means she doesn’t get much peace. Imagine when she goes to the toilet!
When a deep space vessel crashes in Mega-City One and the crew are all murdered, Dredd calls on the troubled judge to help him get answers, whether she wants to or not…
I asked Dave to give us the lowdown on the creation of the cover, he said “Below is the sketch for the cover I did; very fast and very small. Fast to capture as much energy as possible and small because if it works small it’ll work big. That’s a rule. Follow it or be a foolish one.” (Try telling that to my wife – Pwls) “Tharg saw it, liked it, and gave me the big thumbs up, so to speak. He knows a good thing when he sees it. I knew it was a strong idea, now I just had to do the near impossible, which is to get the published image as good as it…”
Lamia and Dredd try a bit of crowd surfing…
Dave continues “I spent an hour or so hunting for the ghost faces in reference books and the net. I had a firmish idea of what level of caricature I would use (level 4 if you’re interested), not wanting the folk to look too cartoony like I do in the story, a little. Level 4 requires you to keep most of what you see in the photo and play around a little with the features. This is fascinating isn’t it? I got the face of Dredd, or FOD as we droids call it, just as I’d hoped I would. I see his skin as cling film, vampiric; his face aged as an Egyptian mummy. It was going well.”
I’d argue the blob-like Lamia looks more like the cling film-face in this partnership…
“Lamia was different matter. She’s a little aloof and doesn’t like sitting for long periods, but I got there eventually. I’m still not that sold truth be told.”
Typical, Lamia gets a new hair dryer just as she shaves all her off!
Dave continues “THE FUN BIT! I go in and out of the love of inking. I’m like that. Deal with it. I love another, her name is pencil. Man, she’s a hot one. I can’t put her down sometimes.”
“She’s behind you!!!” “Oooooh no she isn’t!” etc…
Dave sets the tone of the piece; “Took me a while but I eventually settled on this overall colour. Weird thing is that I usually mess about with the base colour a lot. A very lot. This one stayed as it was. You don’t know how weird that is. I do.”
“Because you know it all about that base, ’bout that base, no treble.”
“Now I start in on the “flats”. Some people live in flats, but that’s not what we’re talking about here. Or apartments. This is about laying down the basic, overall colour for each part of the figures (or whatever). Easy to fix as you go if you keep everything on separate layers (on photoshop), which brings me onto…”
Dredd has totally busted that one on the left in the cap staring at his boobs.
“My former self was telling you about the impotence of layers. While colouring Lamia I became somewhat stupid, rash almost, to the point of doing her whole figure on one single layer, probably without saving too, which is madness. Got away with it.”
It must be quite nice for Dredd not to be surrounded by people that’s HE’s killed for a change!
“This is the fun bit of colouring for me. The lighting. This is where you make your characters (Judge Dredd, sadly, is not MY character, but you feel me) come alive. You shape and form the figures…like…real shapes and stuff. It’s great!”
Dave needs to be careful, he’s having too much fun. The Mighty One will not stand for that…
“Lamia’s face is cold, I’m sure of it. I’ve not actually had the opportunity to actually touch it, but it looks cold, doesn’t it. The moment I add a little feminine colour to her cheeks it all goes horribly wrong and I have to start all over again.”
That guy on Dredd’s shoulder has a splitting headache!
“Once I’ve completely redrawn from scratch the entire image and have got to where I was with the now destroyed first pathetic attempt with the colouring, I remember this time to do her tats. These are living tats. Not like you have, or your older brother. No, these are ALIVE!!”
Got herself some cryin’. talkin’, sleepin’, walkin’ living tats!
“Hey, talking of things alive, I seem to have forgotten all about our ghosts, which are dead. Remember when you, or that nasty tattooed bigger brother used to get a torch and hold it under your chin? No, nor do I.”
I hope they’ve had some breath mints…
“Finally, as a sign of respect, I add some grit to the ghosts here collected. That’s all you need to do. Goodnight, and thanks for having me over again. I like the carpet.”
Who ya gonna call?
Phew! Thanks Dave, that was amazing! The scary thing is, Dave’s interior artwork is every bit as stunning and intricate as his cover work and he still finds the time to write this for us. What a droid!
Bzzzt… Bzzzzzzt… Beep! Cough! Cough! Splutter! (Fart!) Wooooooooop! P-WELS droid is online! Battery reserves at 2%… Insert pasty immediately…
Welcome to 2000 AD Covers Uncovered, where we take a regular look behind Tharg’s plush green curtain to marvel at the skill, ingenuity, imagination and alcohol that go into the creation of the galaxy’s most zarjaz covers! This week, art droid Nick Percival takes a break from painting Judge Dredd battling scary monsters to paint a picture of erm, Judge Dredd battling a scary monster. Tharg is too kind!
Earthlets will be aware that Dredd has been sold to slavers in the frozen Siberian Wastes, and is being forced to fish for deadly squidipedes by his evil handlers. The big bad in the story is called Maul (his parents couldn’t decide on Maurice or Paul, so they went with Maul,) a heartless, virtually indestructible villain. In the absence of any Hi-Ex, Dredd is going to have to use all his wits and ingenuity to beat him and get back to the Meg.
Nick said “It’s always fun to pop back to Dredd and this cover was a nice little palette cleanser between finishing the ‘Dark Judges: Dominion’ series for the Megazine and starting on its sequel, ‘The Torture Garden’, out later this year…”
Ssssspeaking of whi-, ahem, sorry, speaking of which, here’s Nick’s amazing wraparound cover from Megazine 389 – sleep well everyone!
A group shot from the bar at the 2000 AD 40th Anniversary Event last year…
Nick continues “As with all covers, I got the brief from Tharg to have the villain choking Dredd and first thing to deliver is the usual very rough, wonky old sketch which was approved…”
Maul just couldn’t get the top off his Mr Dreddy Bubble Bath.
“Then moving forward to slap on some digital paints and all done and dusted. It was nice have a brief artistic moment away from the undead and Judge Death & co, but hang on….I think I can hear them calling me from the studio now….mussst leave…cannot resissst…………”
Duty and the Beast!
So there we have it, Nick’s handy guide on painting a brilliant cover. Simply do an amazing sketch, then do an incredible painting over the top of it – simple!
HUGE thanks to Nick for taking time out from his busy schedule of painting horrific, nightmare inducing images for us. He is a legend!
Come back tomorrow when the mighty Clint Langley will show us how he created this weeks’ prog cover (plus some EXCLUSIVE images from the Mek Files!) and Phil Winslade paints an angry monkey in braces!
I was absolutely delighted to see that the cover of Prog 2051 was painted by verteran artdroid and all round good egg, David Millgate. The artist has been working for the galaxy’s greatest comic for over twenty two years and, among many other things, is responsible for co-creating one of Tharg’s most popular thrills, Sinister Dexter. Dave has always been a fan of Judge Dredd so it was great to see him return to painting MegaCity One’s most famous lawman!
Dave was keen to tell us about returning to his spiritual home, he said “I was kindly invited by Rebellion to attend the 2000AD 40th Anniversary show this year. I decided it would be cool to paint a new Dredd piece, but I certainly wasn’t thinking ‘front cover’ at this point.To be honest the whole thing was kind of done just flying by the seat-of-my-pants. It was more a case of…”Oh no! Now I need something new to display on my creators table!”
“I decided to sketch Dredd from a lowish angle, to make him look iconic. I had no idea what kind of background I was going to put behind him either. Once I had the prelim sketch done my initial idea was to do some generic Mega-Cityscape as a backdrop, but the moment I start thinking words like ‘generic’ I get worried that I’m not trying hard enough, or maybe I’m just copping-out?” (Cop-ping out! Ha! Geddit? No? Just me then… P-Wls)
He’s got no pants on…
David continues “I’d done a couple of other Dredd paintings using an old film-noir lighting effect where the character was illuminated by rays of light streaming in through venetian blinds. I thought that technique would lend itself to the new sketch I’d done, so I just went with that!”
That time Joe accidentally stick the pin in his chest…
“My name… is Judge Dredd… and I… am a nosey neighbour!”
David continues “I like the way the light creates those stripes across Dredd’s chin and the way it picks out the colours of his Judge’s uniform. On reflection, it almost looks as if there’s the faint hint of a smile or a smirk on his face, but if he is smiling (?) he’s smiling in the same way the Mona-Lisa isn’t!”
Old Moany Face!
“I was thrilled when Tharg decided to use it as a 2000AD cover. It worked out great!”
Gruddammit Dave, we were too! It’s a fantastic cover, he’s hoping the mighty one cranks up the Millgate droid again soon. I’d love to see him return to Sinister Dexter…
Beneath all that glorious cross hatching is one seriously cross law man! A conflicted Judge Dredd must take down a rag tag squad of ex-judges who heroically helped him save the city in it’s darkest hour. In hot persuit of the desperate War Buds as they attempt to save the tortured Med-Judge Costa from the Euthanasiam, Dredd is forced to confront demons from his own past. Are the War Buds simply taking the same course of action he himself has?
Veteran design droid from the House of Tharg, Luke Preece, has provided an outstanding cover which hammers home all the urgency, conflict and determination from this modern classic of a story.
Below, see see Luke’s awesome digital rough. As ever, he has used his trademark “Dredd did a Thing… It’s really awesome!” placeholder text, which is somewhat at odds to the actual story within!
If by awesome, you mean hunting down a group of eldsters who helped save your city, then yeah!
With the rough completed and approved by Old Green Bonce, Luke meticulously pencils the cover using nothing more than a steady hand, a pencil and six cans of Castrol XXXX.
Lines and lines and lines and lines and lines and lines!
Next Luke begins to ink the image with his trusty Pigma Micron pens!
Dredd loved playing with his toy Lawmaster…
And here are those stunning, completed inks. If you love them as much as I do, then be sure to visit Vice Press’ zarjaz erm… Zarjaz Exhibition in Leeds throughout September where you can see those inks up close and personal like!
Koom Skrree!
With the inks complete, it’s time to fire up the trusty Wacom and colour this bad boy! Luke made a really cool video, charting his progress with the cover, check it out HERE.
Headshot, grim.
And here is the incredible, finished cover, an absolute classic!
Think Bike (for your safety, not his!)
Huge, huge thanks to Luke for sending the files, this is truly one of my very favourite covers of the year. The rendering style is incredible and shows just why Luke’s prints are so popular. Remeber to check out more of Luke’s work HERE.
Mirror, signal, Cyclops Phylon TX Laser, maneouvre. Jake Lynch continues his love affair with the Lawmaster with this absolutely awesome cover for Prog 2043. Jake is one of the goto droids for damn cool Dredd images and this cover certainly doesn’t disappoint!
Jake was kind enough to send some process images, so buckle up and let’s go! Jake said “This cover continues my obsession with trying to work out how a Lawmaster works!” Below is Jake’s rough…
Dredd stopping on a ‘No Stopping’ sign. What? Are YOU gonna tell him?
Jake builds up the inks and adds some tone. Note the reverse Z design…
Dredd waits at the Drive-Thru Hottie House.
Jake begins to add colour…
The Enceladus cover variant.
Here we have a look at some of the road signs, Jake does a great job of coming up with some very authentic looking ideas here…
The ‘Get in Lane’ sign is based on the Pedestrianisation system of Norwich.
And here’s the final image; Jake said “The difference between rough and final layout of signs was a case of keeping it readable.” Great job fella!
Dredd swotting up on his Highway Code Test.
Simply awesome! Thank you so much to Jake or sending the images. Be sure to check out his fantastic print at the Vice Press Zarjaz Exhibition at The Gallery at Munro House in Leeds from 22nd September 2017.
Who judges the judges that judge the judges, eh? I don’t know but they ruddy well need to have a look at Judge Pin! This highly strung SJS judge is currently performing her role with just a little too much zeal, murderously judging those she feels don’t live up to the badge! Will pin be a thorn in Dredd’s side?
This fantastic new character has been brought to us by Rob Williams and phenomenal series artist, Chris Weston in the new Dredd thriller, The Fields.
I asked Chris to talk us through the creation of this terrifying cover, he said “Tharg provided the artistic brief: “Something quite sparse – a creepy, spot lit image of Pin holding a bloody knife in one hand, and a Judge’s helmet in the other. “
(Incidentally this marks my third 2000ad cover to feature a large figure-shot of a character with a knife: see also my Indigo Prime Ripper cover and Rogue Trooper cover from over twenty years ago. The trilogy is complete!)”
I’ve put together the blade trillogy below, it’s a nice representation of Chris’ artistic development. Those other two covers are 26 and 23 years old!
Knife to see you, to see you, knife!
Chris continues “The first thing to do was get my reference material, which meant my wife once again reluctantly posing for a photograph. But I think it’s great that Karen is gracing the cover of the Galaxy’s Greatest Comic on the week of our 20th wedding anniversary! It seems appropriate!”
That time when Chris forgot his wedding anniversary…
Chris lets us know a little about the ‘inspiration’ for this nasty little character “With my reference in hand, I then produced a prelim of Judge Pin in all her murderous glory. I “May” have looked at some photos of a prominent politician for more inspiration… Possibly one known for making dramatic “cuts” to the police force, who can say? We all know S.J.S stands for Strong, Just and Stable, right?” I don’t know what he’s talking about…
Highly Strung and Unstable?
Next Chris looked at colour choices for the uniform; “I wasn’t entirely sure what colours the SJS ere sporting these days, so I provided Tharg with a couple off choices to pick from. I really liked the blue trim on the helmet, but that was too much of a departure from previous continuity. Soon after this, Dylan Teague, THE colourist had turned in his finished work, and I felt it was better to stick to the colours he chose. They were a combination of the two roughs I supplied anyway, so it was no hardship.”
I’m loving the blue, that’d look great in Brit-Cit…
The thin blue swine?
“You’ve got red on you…”
“With the rough approved by Tharg, I then proceeded to ink up a tighter version of the figure. These days I scan the art in full colour and don’t bother to bitmap or threshold the image because I like the paper textures and the brush-strokes to be visible on the printed page. It gives it a more organic hand-produced quality.”
“Pin pin!”
Next Chris begins to digitally colour the image “I then produced a layer made up of flat colours, which I use as way of selecting the desired areas I wish to colour. I actually quite like the look of this flat, coloured art. It looks like something out of a European comic book. One day I may just do a strip in this style.” Yes! Yes! Yes!
Chris is very talented in the art of flatulence
“Now I just began the process of modelling the figure in Photoshop; building up the colours to produce shade or subtracting them to make highlights.”
Pin prick?
Until finally the image is complete “Eventually, I look up at my clock and realise I’ve spent far too long on the job, and for the sake of my own bank balance, I should knock it on the head and move on to the next assignment!”
She has such pleasures to show you.
Phew! There we have it, one of the most sinister covers to feature on the Prog for a long time! Huge, huge thanks to Chris (and poor Karen!) for the images and excellent commentary, both social and artistic!
Chris is truly one of the 2000AD greats and it’s always an event when he appears in and on the Prog. I’m very excited (and a little bit scared) to find out more about Judge Pin, how will she feature in Dredd’s future?
Who judges the judges? Prog 2027 sees Judge Dredd give his final assessment of Harvey, one of the fearsome, more advanced Mark 8 Mechanismo Units. These new and improved versions of the Justice Department lawbots are no less deadly, yet more empathic versions of the Mechanismo droids we’ve seen before. Has Tek Division got it right this time?
Tharg asked exceptional artist Matt Ferguson to provide one of his trademark ubercool covers for the series and, of course, Matt didn’t disappoint!
Below we see Matt’s rough sketches for the image. In a nod to his sold out Vice Press Block War print and his seminal Prog 1984 cover (a few prints of these are still available over at Vice Press,) we see the law machine against a glorious, ad-free moon!
Below are Matt’s initial sketches…
Drokking Hedgehogs!
Harvey’s back seat driver didn’t last very long.
The chosen idea is refined for maximum coolness…
“No tailgating Creep!”
With the composition sorted, work begins on Harvey…
Bike-cop-on-it Exploder (sorry.)
Harvey REALLY starts taking shape – terrifying!
Ugh! He’s got oil patches under his armpits!
Next the background elements are added. Squaxx will recognise at least one of those names, that of the magnificent Mr Chris Weston who gave Matt some feedback on the buildings and general thoughts on composition. Matt modestly said “It’s always good to get feedback from people, they always spot stuff I can do better!”
The other block name is that of fellow artist Mark Englert, whose exceptional Taco Belvedere blog is well worth a few hours of your time!
Will Dredd keep death off the roads?
And with that, this astounding cover is finished. Huge, huge thanks to Matt for sending the impossibly cool images. Please check out his awesome website at http://www.cakesandcomics.com/
Welcome to 2000 AD Covers Uncovered, where this week we offer you a double whammy from fan favourite Ryan Brown! Ryan has delivered two covers to the Nerve Centre recently, Prog 2018’s ‘The Order’ cover and the prestigious cover of Prog 2020, Judge Dredd’s 40th birthday Prog!
I asked Ryan to tell us about his recent covers, starting with his terrifying Order cover of Prog 2018. Ryan said “Heres the rough for ‘The Order’ cover, I wanted to have a war of the worlds style image , a little B-movie looking, it is a giant worm after all!”
The Judge Dredd Blobs/Order crossover cover
Ryan’s zarjaz digital art has, quite rightly, been blowing fans away for some time now. As a long time 2000 AD fan himself, Ryan is aware of the thrill of appearing in the Galaxy’s Greatest Comic and is keen to bestow this honour on fellow Squaxx. Like a modern day Santa Claus, Ryan put two of his friends into the painting. He said “Here’s some reference of two of my friends I used for the fleeing victims. They are called Laurence and Mark and are two massive 2000 AD fans!”
Mark and Laurence before being eaten by a giant beastie!
So below you can see Laurence and Mark being rewarded for their years of devotion by being murdered by a giant, mutant Wyrm. Oh Ryan, you’re so nice!
“Whisht lads, had ye gobs ah’ll tell ye’s all an awful story…”
Ryan also painted the cover of Prog 2020, the 40th Anniversary of the first Judge Dredd thrill! The cover is for new Dredd tale “Thick Skin,” which finds MegaCity One’s premier lawman investigating a strange case of melting celebrities!
Ryan said “Tharg wanted me to do a cover where Dredd was surrounded by people with melting skin, but they couldn’t be scary 🙁 So i gave them strange melted noses which gives them more of a silly look I think! I did’nt want Dredd looking threatening, just a bit agitated. Here’s the rough…”
The Planet Replicas ‘Hands on the Judge Costume’ competition entered it’s third week…
Again, Ryan used a fan for reference for the picture, he said “I’ve included an image from a Dredd cosplayer I found on the web. I liked his pose so wanted to do something similar.”
The Butler is it!
With a bit of detective work, I managed to find out that the cosplayer is none other than Dredd fan, Jared Butler, aka Max Replica! Not only is Jared the body of Dredd in this recent cover, he acually provided the VOICE of the lawman for the awesome Judge Minty fan film! Jared is a professional voice over artist, notably being the ‘voice double’ for Johnny Depp in several official Pirates of the Caribbean projects and other Depp vehicles. Jared was thrilled to be used on the cover, he said “That is so cool! The photo was snapped when I was walking back to my hotel room from San Diego Comic Con. You can see my bag in my hnd, it’s like Dredd just finished his shopping!”
Jared sent a more official photo, which I am thrilled to share below…
“Drokkin’ weather control is on the fritz again!”
You can read a great interview with Jared on his experience recording the voice of Dredd over on the excellent Judge Tutor Semple blog.
Finally, Ryan found another reference that he couldn’t resist using. He said “I also found an image of a melting womans face which I liked 🙂 he he he!” Let’s hope the police never have a reason to check Ryan’s internet history, he’ll have a lot of explaining to do!
“Plastic surgery? Moi? I don’t know what you mean dahling!”
And here’s the finished cover, awesome!
The more attractive attendees of the 40th Anniversary Celebration.
Massive thanks to Ryan for sending the images. Be sure to check out Ryan’s website to see lots more amazing 2000 AD related images!
