Tag: judgedredd

Posted on by

2000 AD Covers Uncovered – Dreddian Rip!

Tsk – quite literally 2000 AD Covers Uncovered as Jake Lynch has Dredd destroying the cover of Prog 2017, for shame!!! The Lynch droid was firing on all cylenders as he gave us this arresting cover and has kindly provided us with a sequence of images to show how this cover, quite literally, came to life. Below we see Jake’s thumbnail sketches, nice and loose and full of raw Thrillpower…

Jake ponders the correct approach for bursting through paper…

With the general pose decided, Jake goes on to produce his rough, using the 2000 AD cover template as his trusty guide…

“Cover me!”

General layout in place, it’s time for those gritty inks…

Rip Torn?

Next tone and lighting is added. Either that or Jake spilt his milk on the picture…

Dredd the Ripper!

Jake then uses his digital crayons to colour the image.

Drokk, Paper, Sizzles!

And finally, the special effects are added to make Dredd rip out of the Prog! Please note, Tharg does not take kindly to Prog rippage of any kind! Any perpetrators will find themselves on the painful end of a Rigellion Hotshot! 

No Progs were harmed during the making of this cover.

Huuuuge thanks to Jake for sending the zarjaz images! You can see a video of how Jake begins putting a page together on 2000AD’s excellent ‘From the Drawing Board’ series on YouTube – enjoy! 

Posted on by

2000 AD Covers Uncovered – Rushing Paradox!

Prog 2016 saw the introduction of a fascinating new character in Dredd’s world, the super speedy, super resourceful mutant Paradox Vega. It was obvious that in the recent Dredd arc ‘Deep in the Heart’ that Dredd and Paradox have previous, but writer Mike Carroll isn’t ready to tell us how they met just yet…

Who better to bring Dredd’s capture of Paradox to life than fan favourite cover droid Alex Ronald? Alex, who was trying out a new, looser style, was instructed to call upon Robin Smith’s iconic cover of Prog 495 for reference…

“Oh no you don’t!”

 Alex said “Since the summer last year I’d been trying to change my style a bit starting with a couple of covers I did for the Walter Hill crime book Trigger Man…“

Water way to go.

“Hey Love, I finished work earl…”

Alex continues, “I’ve been keeping it a bit more loose than usual and leaving in pencil lines, etc.” Below we see Alex’s gorgeous roughs which have almost as much energy as Paradox herself!

If you have to get shot, you should get shot by the best!

As soon as I saw this cover, I thought the Ronald droid’s software had been given the MacNeil92.exe patch, to channel the painterly style of Colin MacNeil. Alex said “When I did this Dredd cover I tried out painting it with a colour palette along the lines of Colin MacNeil circa early 90’s Mechanismo era. This was to help me get a more painterly feel and bring up my colours to a more vibrant level than the usual dark blue tones I’ve used in the past…” Mission accomplished Alex, it’s glorious!

“Stop or I fire, Crazylegs!”

Alex was also kind enough to send his roughs and finished version of his recent Anderson cover of Megazine 379. Thrill buffers at maximum Earthlets!

She looks ready…

Psi-Ex!

Huge thanks to Alex for sending the covers, we can’t wait to see his next one! Be sure to check out Alex’s amazing blog here for more eyepopping artwork! 

Posted on by

2000AD Covers Uncovered – Manhunt?

Long time readers of the good old 2000AD Covers Uncovered Blog will know that Neil Roberts, cover artist of Prog 1991, has been a long time contributor and friend of the site. Easily one of Tharg’s more aesthetically pleasing models, the Roberts droid is famed for going to great lengths to actually pose for his covers before undertaking them, often with hilarious results! Follow the link to see some examples of his earlier modelling work!

It’s ironic that the master of disguise Roberts droid was chosen for this cover as it launches the brand new Judge Dredd thriller ‘Ladykiller’, featuring the notorious, chameleon-like PJ Maybe! Neil said “This one was very straightforward I’m afraid! No selfies or anything like that!” (Drat! – Pete) “The brief was to have Dredd roaring down the road with H-Wagons and more in support…”

Neil is a past master at rendering the Lawmaster, providing stunning covers for Mongoose Publishing and, of course, Prog 1659, both shown below…

The Iso-Block 666 day release to the model village was always popular…

Ohhh, it’ll be nightmare to get those stains out!

Neil continues “I sent a thumbnail to Tharg for approval, he liked it and I painted it from there! Here’s the thumbnail sketch...”

As you can see, those big wobbly things go past the green stuff with the big blobby things in the sky. A solid concept…

Neil continues “The colour scheme was based on a classic 2000AD Monthly cover from way back (black sky, white road, green buildings – real 4 colour process stuff…”

“Last one to the Grand Hall is a Rookie!”

That four colour scheme will have most likely have been painted by 2000AD legend Tom Frame who, as well as lettering a huge number of 2000AD strips, coloured many classic covers of yesteryear. Check out Steve Cook’s excellent Secret Oranges blog to see more of Tom’s handy work. Also, here are the inks of this classic cover…

“Jovus! It was only an overdue library slug!”

Neil continues “Here is the finished piece as sent to Tharg for his droids to work their magic on…”

The re-vamp of Top Gear contained even less humour than it’s 21st century forerunner…

So there you have it, the making of this modern classic. Will Dredd get his er… man? If so, what will be the cost to the city? Find out in the Galaxy’s greatest!

Huge thanks to Neil for once again providing some excellent images and commentary!

Posted on by

The Cursed Earth Uncensored special edition!

The special limited edition of Judge Dredd: The Cursed Earth Uncensored is now available to pre-order exclusively from 2000ADonline.com!

With the ‘banned’ episodes – ‘Burger Wars’ and ‘Soul Food’ – and colour spreads restored, this hardcover edition has only been made possivle following recent changes in UK law governing parody, meaning The Cursed Earth will be reprinted its entirety for the very first time this July.

This special edition will include a numbered bookplate, affixed inside the book, signed by Chris Lowder (aka ‘Soul Food’ writer Jack Adrian) plus other creators to be confirmed.

Also, supplied separately with each order will be one of 250 limited edition A3 posters of the ‘Burger Wars’ double page spread by artist Mike McMahon. This high resolution scan of the original black-and-white artwork will be delivered rolled, rather than folded, and is exclusive to the 2000 AD webshop!

Pre-order now!

Posted on by

Can you help find The Missing Daily Dredds?

Can you help track down two missing episodes for the next collection of The Daily Dredds?

Thanks to dedicated fans, last year missing episodes of the long-running Judge Dredd stories from The Daily Star newspaper were unearthed so that they could be included in The Daily Dredds Volume 1, making it the first ever truly complete collection of these fascinating and entertaining strips.

2000 AD‘s reprographics droids are now busy working on a second volume of The Daily Dredds – and they once again need the help of fans to track down two missing episodes from a later story.

The Sheriff of Festering Hole ran for 57 episodes (numbered from #1373 to #1429) in the Daily Star from 30th July 1990 to 3rd October 1990, written by John Wagner and Alan Grant, with art by Mike Collins.

However, so far they have been unable to find good copies of the episodes numbered #1415 and #1416.

Any Earthlets who have access to either scans or good/excellent physical copies of these two missing episodes should contact 2000 AD by e-mailing press@rebellion.co.uk

The Daily Star strip, which ran for around 2,980 episodes from 1981 until 1998, went further than merely compressing existing stories from the weekly anthology comic – it was responsible for fleshing out many of the aspects of Dredd’s world mentioned in 2000 AD.  It was written by co-creator John Wagner and writing partner Alan Grant, while fan favourite artist Ron Smith produced the vast bulk of the strip, though later contributors included Ian Gibson, Barry Kitson, Steve Dillon, and Mike Collins.

Posted on by

Pre-order ‘The Cursed Earth Uncensored’ now!

For the very first time the ‘banned’ episodes of Judge Dredd from the late 1970s are to be reprinted – and you can now pre-order the collection from the 2000 AD shop!

Published in 2000 AD in 1978, The Cursed Earth was the first great Judge Dreddepic, but the story ran into trouble when two episodes – ‘Burger Wars’ and ‘Soul Food’ – featured parodies of Burger King, Ronald McDonald, the Jolly Green Giant, the Michelin Man, and a number of other prominent corporate characters in a raucous and shameless satire of American consumer culture. After concerns of legal action at the time the then publisher IPC decided all subsequent collections of this classic strip would omit the satirical stories.

Now, following recent changes in UK law governing parody, Judge Dredd: The Cursed Earth Uncensored will reprint the story in its entirety for the first time this July – a hardback edition full of sparkling action-packed parody from Pat Mills and John Wagner, complete with restored sumptuous colour spreads from Brian Bolland and Mick McMahon!

The most-requested reprint in 2000 AD history, The Cursed Earth saw Judge Dredd travel into the irradiated wastelands of middle America to deliver a vaccine to Mega-City Two on the West Coast, encountering a bizarre world of dinosaurs, murderous mutants, aliens, and deadly terrain in an insanely imaginative rollercoaster ride through the twisted landscape of American culture.

In ‘Burger Wars’, after World War III self-styled ‘burger barons’ had taken control of whole areas of middle America and were worshipped with religious zeal. Dredd and his comrades are captured and forced to consume burgers and shakes, only escaping thanks to the guards being fat and lazy due to too much fast food. They are then captured by the rival side and placed on trial for eating “the wrong kind” of burger.

In ‘Soul Food’, on their way through the Great Utah Dustbowl Dredd encounters the copyright infringing creations of Dr. Moreau-like scientist Dr Gribbons – including a Jolly Green Giant, a Michelin Man, and others – who drugs Dredd’s team in order to remove fluid from their nervous systems to keep his creations alive.

Comics Alliance recently featured some of the restored art from The Cursed Earth while you can get up close and personal with some of the original art from the series over the 2000 AD Tumblr, courtesy of generous Earthlet Mark Perry.