Saturday 6th May is Free Comic Book Day and once again, Tharg the Mighty has ordered his droids to put together a free prog that is absolutely throbbing with Thrillpower! The Prog contains a brand new Judge Dredd tale by Matt Smith and Phil Winslade, a treacherous Blackblood romp by Pat Mills and Kei Zama and Dan Abnett and DaNi bring us a berand new Judge Anderson Strip featuring a classic MegaCity villain! Add Kek-W and Dave Kendall’s Deadworld to the mix and a dash of Guy Adams and Jimmy Broxton’s Hope and you’ve got a series risk of Thrillpower Overload!
There are few artist’s with the chops to do justice such a Scrotnig package. Enter, the legend who is Mike Perkins! Mike first appeared in the Galaxy’s Greatest twenty four years ago and has since worked on fan favourites such as Carver Hale, Tharg’s Future Shocks and Vector 13.
Mike was kind enough to send us his cover process for the issue. Over to Mike…
“My brief for this cover was “Something along the lines of X-Men : Days of Future Past – perhaps with progs in the background” I opted to put some of the characters featured in the Free Comic Book Day prog in the background (it gave me the excuse to draw Tapper Hag – C’MON!!) accompanied by some of my favourites!”
Below is Mike’s glorious rough…
Mike risks a Rigellion Hotshot by putting Tharg on the wall of shame!
Mike continues “Once the pencil rough was approved I moved straight on to the black and white inks – following on with the colours…”
Rot that pesky Invisible Man!
Jaegir? Bombed! Blackblood? Scrapped! Hag? Trapped! Death? Dead! Slaine? Slain! Mortis? Bleached! Nun in a Gasmask? Wait? What!?!
“Initially we decided to put various progs in the background to emphasize the history of the comic and I provided 3 versions – a faded background, a full colour background and, my preference, the black and white background…”
The PWLS droid suffers thrillpower overload at the sight of so many covers!
Dredd and Anderson in desperate need of some comic storage boxes.
Exed Men
“I also provided the artwork without the background there at all as I felt it was becoming a little too busy – especially when adding the text. Tharg – in his divine beneficence – decide to opt for this one and added the solid yellow behind in order for it to “pop” off the shelves…”
That bit in the bottom right is giving Anderson flashbacks to her Boing(R) coffin…
And pop it does! Mike has provided a fantastic cover for an excellent prog! In closing, an ecstatic Mike said “After all these years – my first 2000ad cover! May there be many more!!!” With a cover of this quality, I completely agree!
A huge, huge thanks to Mike for sending the images, they’re brilliant! Be sure to check out more of his work on his official site at http://www.mikeperkinsart.com/
Be sure to pick up your free Comic Book Day Prog this Saturday Earthlets!