Nick Percival Special - Pacific Grim!

The dream team of Nick Percival and Mike Carroll are back in the Meg which sees (seas?) Dredd and Joyce battle the elements and more in the Pacific swirl of 'The Gyre.' As well as blowing our minds with unforgivingly harsh, visually stunning interiors, Nick has painted two glorious covers for the series. Over to Nick for more:

“I wanted this Dredd adventure to look quite different from any previous Dredd stuff, so really concentrated on visually creating a new mini-world for Dredd and Joyce to be stranded in, all influenced from Mike‘s great script. It’s permanently raining, so I wanted a bit of a hazy look to the art, where outside, not everything is in full-focus, hopefully increasing the atmosphere and mood. I was looking at the movie, ‘Se7en’ quite a bit (one of my favourite films) where it’s constantly raining."

"For the cover to Part 1, I originally had a figure shot of Dredd, pelted by heavy rain which was OK but ultimately decided on a piece with a grander sense of scale having Dredd entering the unknown, perilous waters of the Gyre...”



Rain man





"Gottle o Gyre!"





Dredd Seas

 

The design team did an excellent job on this cover, really integrating the text into the image. Extra oil rations to those droids please Tharg!







"Haul away Joe!"

Nick's cover for part three was balls to the wall action, however, the first idea was little more menacing!

“I wanted to do something very different to the cover for Part 1, which was all about setting the mood for story, so Part 3 was always going to be an action cover. Classic Dredd vs the villain type stuff. I actually sent Tharg a different image for Part 3..."



"I see you Joe Dredd, I drokkin' see you!"



"However, I woke up early the following morning with this new image stuck in my head, quickly sketched it out and sent it to Tharg, telling him to ignore the previous version. I had a lot of fun with this one and the whole story for The Gyre. It’s been cool to design and develop a new little world for Dredd to play in and Mike always has such good ideas for settings and characters, that it never gets boring.”

The finished article...

Krait balls of Gyre!

 

And here's how the finished Meg looks on your shelf, lawsome!

The Krait Skittish Face Off



HUGE thanks to Nick for sending the images and text. This was a classic series and I'd love to see Dredd return to the Gyre in future. It's too good to waste!

Clint Langley Special - The Hateful Eight!

 

Welcome to this ABC Warriors special, collecting together all of Clint Langley's Zarjaz covers for his and Pat Mills' excellent 'Return to Ro-Busters' story. I loved this story, a cracking return to the past but with some modern sensibilities both in terms of story and art. The whole conspiracy theory angle was ace, with many of the disasters of the past being false flag operations or even set up by Howard Quartz himself to earn yet more dirty cash!

 

Clint kicked the year off with this iconic image of Hammerstein. I like to think that this was the last thing the odious Howard Quartz saw in his human form...

 

Say "Aaaaaaaaaaaagh!"



I'm sure many of you know that ThreeA are working on making a range of high end 2000AD toys and I know they've been hard at work trying to crack Hammerstein from the start. This glorious image makes me want my Hammerstein figure right now!

Hammerstein Smush!



Clint was kind enough to send an alternative version of the cover using tone and a little spot colour, tremendous!

A shot of redeye!



Sob! the next one  is a heartbreaker! I remember my stomach doing a flip when I saw this. Ro-Jaws is easily one of my favourite 2000AD characters and I'd hate to lose the little nerk, thankfully he didn't meet his maker in this particular tale...   



A shot from the ABC Warriors Special of Strictly Come Dancing.



"Kiss me, Hammy!"

 

Say "Goodnight" at Gracie's as the P.D. troopers shoot up Gracie's Garage!







Chestburster



I bet he drinks Castrol Black Label.

And now the circle is complete! The Meknificent Sev... I mean eight graced the cover for the final part of the arc, showcasing the outstanding designs of these enduring characters.

Here are the inks...

The ABC Warriors variant of the Space Spinner.

And Clint's thrill power infused colours, amazing!

ABC Warriors: The pink hole!

 

A HUGE thank you to Clint for sending the images, he's done amazing things with this strip, completely capturing the feel of those original Ro-Busters tales but with a modern spin. A truly Meknificent artist!

Mark Sexton - Linky Monkey!

Ouch! Mark Sexton brings us this rather painful looking cover of jumping on issue, Prog 1973! The Mad Max storyboard and concept artist, and artdroid on the magnificent Dredd tale Ghosts, has given us an amazing cover fit for a jumping on prog! There's loads to discuss in this cover, so over to Mark to tell us more!

"Tharg (or his earthly incarnation, Matt Smith) requested an illustration - an iconic shot of Dredd, waist up, to be graced by appearing as a cover for the mighty Tooth!" Waist up because Dredd had no trousers on was my initial reaction here, which worries me - Pete.

"Had a bit of a think - there’s been some many iconic Dredd covers, where do you start?!? But it occurred to me that an iconic Dredd image would probably be a common thing that a very large number of perps in Mega-City One see - just after they’ve been shot… So with that morbid idea, I sketched out that idea (bottom left version)."

"I always like trying to tell a little story in every illustration if I can, so that felt like the best idea. I sketched out a few other possibilities - most of them terrible - and sent them to Matt. As is so often the case, the first idea is the strongest and that’s what he wanted..!"

I love all of these sketches, the top left is particularly cool, with the crowd all obviously looking at whoever, or whatever, Dredd has just shot. Very clever! The top right is terrifying too!

 "A macabre version of the Brady Bunch titles for the Dreddy Bunch was soon shelved"

 

"Sadly for buyers of original art, I did this digitally (straight after I finished the art for the recent Judge Dredd: Ghosts storyline written by the very lovely Michael Carroll)."

 

"So - take the sketch and attempt to make it pretty. Many, many sketchy trial and errors between there and the next, trying to get elements of Dredd right. He’s a tough character to make “feel” right - where everything looks balanced, and practical. I like trying to make things look like they exist for real..."

 Judge Dredd: Ghost.

 

I know Mark is a huuuuuge Dredd fan and he's obviously stressed over ever detail, as evidenced in his next quote: "Awful… Then inking, which takes me a while. Fixing many things on the way, as is evident… I had real problems with the head, no matter what I did, it felt wrong with Dredd bending his neck down to look at us. So eventually I finally did him looking down his nose at us with a sneer and bingo! Instant Dreddishness. Huzzah!" 

 



 Dredd gets lost in the giant dildo factory...

 

Next up, some  blatant cheek and provocation from the Antipodean artist!

 

"Then background bits - SO much easier after Dredd! Included are various jokes, including a certain chainlink obsessive and Pete Wells’ Sausage Surprise… 

 

As many fans will know, second biggest Dredd collector John Burdis (quite rightly) has a campaign to establish that the correct number of links in Dredd's chain is seven. Got it? SEVEN and only seven! Great to see Mark did six, just to wind him up!

 

Please note: Pete Wells' Sausage Surprise has since been renamed Pete Wells' Chipolata Disappointment, following a libel claim by my wife... 

 SEVEN DAMMIT!!!

Mark obviously had lots of erm... fun inking the background, his only comment being "…and then the f#¢&ing buildings in the background!"

Note the abundance of Star Wars vehicles in Megacity One, however, one has to ask why Luke's X-34 Landspeeder is flying upside down? I wonder if Dredd is looking at a Skywalker shaped stain?



"Dredd... you've got an erm... you might wanna just... wipe your nose a bit. Yep, it's gone."

 

"…aaaand then colour! Usually colour takes me bloody aaaages, because I’m not a natural colourist - but this one came together much quicker than usual!  And there’s a blood splatter on Dredd’s uniform. You have to have a bloody splatter on Dredd’s uniform, it’s an unwritten law, isn’t it?"

 

I thought it was tomato sauce...

"You've got red on you..."

 

I couldn't possibly publish this post without referencing Mark's previous IDW Dredd cover. Again, this image is an absolute stunner, one of my very favourites of recent years. I adore the blood splatter on the pedway... 

 

 Beatcop...

 

So many cool background details! How many can YOU spot?



He's just not a people person...



A huuuuuuuge thanks to Mark for the files and excellent write up. Mark is genuinely one of the most exciting new Dredd artists around at the minute, his love for the character absolutely shining through in his work. As a fan, it means a lot.

I'd also like to thank Mark for putting my sausage on the cover (where it belongs) and for taking the piss out of Burdis (which is what he deserves!)

Alex Ronald - Eager Alien Poet.

 

Alex Ronald is back with another absolutely perfectly rended cover, this time featuring everyone's favourite alien, the wonderful Sensitive Klegg. The hilarious 'Undercover Klegg' story by Rob Williams and D'Israeli is currently running in the Prog and sees Dredd's tolerance pushed to the absolute limit!

 

Below is Alex's black and white rough which is typically detailed and intricate...

 

 Flower Power

 

Next up, Alex's brilliant 3D model!!! This is simply perfect, I NEED a 3D printer so I can put this on my shelf, it's beautiful! Alex said "Originally I had the Klegg a bit smaller then resized him before doing the final image."  





Dredd and Klegg form an unexpected Abba tribute band. 

Most readers will know that Alex has been working closely with Planet Replica's on a few projects of late. He has helped produce the forthcoming Mekon Statue, based on Dave Gibbons' work, which is just gorgeous!

"Can I not shit in peace?" 

Alex also modelled Henry Flint's movie Dredd and I eagerly await a super cool pose from Mr Flint!



Dredd's deodorant hadn't dried yet... 

We will also see Alex's work in the forthcoming Strontium Dog Fan Film as he's modelled some of the ships for that, exciting stuff!

Below is Alex's final cover, and what a cover it is! I absolutely love this one...

 How do I loathe thee? Let me count the ways!

 

Thank you to Alex for sending the wonderful images, I suspect Alex is going to storm the cover vote again this year too! Check out more of his excellent work here.

Tiernen Trevallion - World Record Gastric Balloon Attempt.

Could it be curtains for Intuitor Browne and Raleigh as they become wyrmfood aboard their flimsy balloon? The ever-brilliant Tiernen Trevalion brings us this fantastic cover which shows the horror of the Wyrmqueen.

Below we see Tiernen's pencils, if you look closely, you can see Raleigh is actually throwing some breath mints into the Wyrmqueen's maw...



Feed me Seymour!

And behold his wonderful inks.

 "In it's belly you will find a new definition of pain and suffering as you are slowly digested over a thousand years."

 

 

And finally, Tiernen stays true to form with a two tone extravaganza, brilliant!

 

Shudder, it's like my wedding night all over again...

 

And here's how the prog looks on your shelf...

 

Mary Pop In.

 

A massive, wiggling thank you to Tiernen for sending the images. Another classic! 



Ryan Brown - Barking Mad Max!

 

It's bugs on the windshield time as Gene the Hackman makes his epic journey across the wilderness thanks to Ryan Brown! Will Gene be able to stop the megaswarm before it reaches the Kingdom?

 

Below we see Ryan's initial sketch, he says "Tharg asked me to do a kingdom cover in the style of Mad Max. He wanted vehicles driving towards the viewer with insects attacking the cars!" 

 

 In the future, blue snots are the worst kind of snots.

 

He continues "I wanted to make Gene the Hackman's face focused and angry in the fight. I used the picture below as reference but did'nt push the dog element to much in his face..."

Gene looking woof

 

And the finished image looks like this, George Miller would be proud!

 

Maybe Them should learn the Green Cross Code...

Cliff Robinson - Selfie Abuse!

In a year of excellent 2000AD covers, this was my absolute favourite! I make no secret of my adoration for Cliff Robinson's work, and this topical cover for Prog 1959 really made me smile!

Below we can see Cliff's rough, fans of cover speech bubbles will be thrilled to see Cliff had included one in his original vision... 

In 2137, retro phones were all the rage...

 



And here are Cliff's astonishing, brutal inks. Simply brilliant!

 



"Get that drokkin' camera out of my face!"

 

Genius as ever from one of Tharg's premier artdroids. Here's to more Cliff in 2016!

Jake Lynch - Silly Cons Carnage!

 

Aaaaaaandd, we're back!

 

I've been held captive by Thrisis Thrill Suckers since November but have managed to escape with the help of a couple of Rigellion Hotshots! So massive apologies for the lack of updates for a couple of months, consider that a solidary blip in this fine blog's history. Onwards and upwards my friends! Let the thrillpower commence!

 

I'll mix it up over the next few weeks until I'm back on track, starting with one of my favourite covers of last year (and the reader's too, scooping fourth place in the cover of the year vote!) Jake Lynch's crazy cover of Prog 1957!

 

Below is the image Jake started with and the chaos just spiralled out from there!  



 

Dredd farting

 

Like every good riot, the picture took on a life of it's own...

 

"Feeling run down?" 

Some tone added...

 Just an average Mega City Commute...

 

The lunacy continues with added lawmasters, manta tanks and the odd broken tooth! 

 

 Now that's a road hog!

 

Time to add some colour...

 

Dredd is late for his flower arranging class. 

And finally some added bloodstains and exploding heads (of course!)

"How's my driving? Call Megacity 911 if you have a problem, creep!"

An absolutely stunning cover from Jake who was placed TWICE in the reader's 2000AD cover of the year vote. This has so much energy and megacity lunacy it screams "Buy Me!"

Jake's work was also seen in this amazing poster in the end of year prog...



Howler singing Silent Night - genius!



Among the many highlights of this glorious festive treat, were a lovely looking pasty for Pete and naughty old Pete Wells on Dredd's naughty list! The very best Christmas present for me and something I'd like to publicly thank Jake for. I'm still beaming about it now!

A sweet mince pasty I hope!

A huge thanks to Jake for sending these images and for making my Christmas!

Damn, it's nice to be back!