Neil Roberts - Skinnyelbows.com

Thanks once again to Neil (Skinny Elbows) Roberts for his support of the blog. Here are the covers for Progs 1656 and 1659. Above we have the beautiful final Image for 1659 which depicts our favourite future lawman during his exile to the Cursed Earth.

Before we get to that, we have a sketch and final image of Jonny Alpha riding a Mork on the cover of 1656...

Onto 1659, first we have Neil's prelims, of which Tharg preferred number 1...

Here is the 'base render' of the cover. This is a version of the cover made from Neil's extensive library of bits and bobs...

Once the base render is complete, Neil does a 'paintover' where he adds a multitude of special effects, zing and Thrillpower to really bring the image to life!

Neil has a shiny new site at http://www.skinnyelbows.com/. Go there and prepare to be amazed!

Thanks again to Neil for supporting this blog!

Clint Langley - The Axeman Returns

Above is the amazing cover for Prog 1662 by the wonderful Clint Langley. Clint first started his long standing career with 2000AD (and, in particular Pat Mills) in 1994, with the comedic strip Dynosty. This satirical strip, which depicted the royal family as a bunch of dinosaurs, showed Langly as a very complex artist with a incedibly individual sense of style.

Since then, Langley has reinvented himself as the master digital art, wowing us with stunning covers, jaw dropping Slaine artwork and sublime ABC Warriors work. Again, his work is instantly recognisable and mind bogglingly complex! Please visit his site here, to see for yourself!

An exciting bit of site news, Clint has promised me his series of ABC Warriors covers sometime soon, so look out for the Warriors special, coming soon!

Mongoose Publishing - The Mega City Archives

Early next year sees the release of Mongoose Publishing's Mega City Archives. These fact-filled books will lift the lid on all aspects of Mega City life from the inner workings of the Justice Department to the diabolical elements of the criminal underworld. Though Mongoose is perhaps best known as a company specialising in role playing games, it's worth noting that these books aren't aimed at the roleplaying market but 2000AD fans in general. They are information tomes in their own right, so no squaxx should be without 'em!

The cover above is by Patrick Reinemann and is for Volume 1: The Justice Department, this will be released in January 2010. The two covers below are for Volume 2: Lawbringers which will explore Dredd and the Justice Dept. and Volume 3: Lawbreakers which looks at our favourite villains of the future. Both covers were by Angga Satriohadi and the books will be released in February and March 2010.

However, if Role Playing is your thing then Mongoose also have released some 2000AD related games. Below we see the fantastic covers for the Judge Dredd and Strontium Dog games by friend of the blog, Neil Roberts. Both covers feature a host of characters from both universes, so have fun playing 'Name That Perp' and 'Spot The Stront!'


Thanks to Will Chapman for sorting me out with the covers and to Mongoose Publishing for giving their kind permission to show them. You can find Mongoose's website here.

SB Davis - Sinister Dexter Cover Art

I'm a huge fan of Simon Davis' work and for me the above Sinister Dexter cover for Prog 1661 demonstrates just what an amazing talent he is. The image is so cinematic, if they ever made a Sinister Dexter movie (what do ya mean 'Pulp Fiction!?!) then this could easily be the poster for it! Really wonderful stuff.

Sinister Dexter is certainly one of 2000AD's Marmite strips, with fans seemingly loving or hating it in equal measure. Me, I love it. Like Dredd, it has it's enjoyable one offs but Dan Abnett is fantastic at crafting epic storylines where characters you genuinely care for are put in mortal peril. Add to this his amazing use of puns and faux swearing and you've got a winner!

Simon has been the artist on the strip for many of it's most important arcs including the heartbreaking Eurocrash, Gunshark Vacation, the terrifying ...And Death Shall Have No Dumb Minions as well as several others. His work on such pivotal tales, as well as his very individual take on the characters, has caused many to see him as the definitive Sinister Dexter artist. In fact, he earns the praises of Sin/Dex co-creator David Millgate in this month's Megazine interview.

Below are a range of Simon's excellent covers - the nature of this site means that I have to find many of the images where ever I can so apologies if the quality of some of the images isn't amazing!

First we have the cover of Prog 1225 which shows Finny in action against the Buzzsaw wielding maniac Motosierra in the Man in the Ion Mask story.

This is the cover of Prog 1359 which saw the boys on a mission to rescue an abducted Wendy from the Yakuza clans of Magnapore.

The next two covers are from the Slow Train To Kal Cutter story which featured the Sinister and Dexter's protege Kal Cutter's action-packed escape from Download aboard the Suleiman Express...

Next up, two covers from the fantastic ...And Death Shall Have No Dumb Minions storyline. This shocking arc had huge repercussions for many of the cast members as well as re-introducing a very old fellon...Following the events of Dumb Minions and Malone, we see a pissed off Finnigan returning to Download for a large dose of holy retribution for the many have wronged him. This leads him to The Nigel and Millicent Feasey State Penitentiary where he hatches an ingenius plan to spring a very special inmate...

Finally an absolutely wonderful cover from the Life is an Open Casket, a story which sees our boys almost back to normal, albeit in a very different Download...

See here for more Simon Davis covers!

Thanks to the Amazing PYE-01!

Huge, huge, huuuge thanks to PYE-01 for producing the amazing image above! PYE-01, or Simon Parr as some would call him, is Tharg's Head Design Droid and he has been instrumental in allowing this blog to function. Many of the covers we've been able to enjoy on this site have been sent by Pye, as he is my last port of call if I can't track down the cover artist themselves or if they don't scan their work.

It's so kind of him to give so much time to a blog that's basically undoing all the hard work that he has to do, so this is a very public thank you to him!

As well as having such a great design sense, Pye is a damned talented artist too. He has recently started a web site to show some of his fantastic work, you'll find it at http://www.pyeparr.com/ . I urge you all to look at his 'Lunchtime of the Dead' strip too, it's horrendously funny!

Thanks again Pye, you're a legend!

Karl Richardson - Holy Terror!

Karl Richardson is easily one of my favourite 2000AD cover artists who has been responsible for some amazing covers in recent years. Once again he has turned the thrill power to maximum with this fantastic depiction of Raziel the Angel from Tony Lee and Lee Carter's ace story Necrophim.

Karl tells me that this is a version of the final cover but not actually the finished one. I for one can't see any differences between this and the one on my prog (which was late, bloody postal strike, hence this late blog entry!) If any readers spot any differences, please leave a comment below!

To see more of Karl's amazing work, click here. Thanks again to Karl for sending me this fantastic image and driving me crazy playing spot the difference!

Art for Hearts Auction

The week beginning 2nd of November sees a very special auction on Ebay. Organised by 2000AD fan Ian Stacey, the 'Art for Hearts' auction will raise funds for research for the transplant team at Great Ormond Street Hospital. This cause is, quite literally, very close to Ian's family's hearts as their own son’s life was saved by a heart transplant just four weeks after his birth.

The auction is of original art and signed digital prints by children’s illustrators such as Korky Paul, Lynne Chapman and An Vrombaut. Most of the artwork is original although there are also some signed digital prints and screen prints too.

All proceeds from the auction will be donated to help fund research by the transplant team at Great Ormond Street Hospital. Transplanted organs do not have the same life expectancy as non-transplanted organs and the transplant team is looking at finding ways to combat this.

Full details of the auction are available to view at http://art-for-hearts.blogspot.com/
Best of luck Ian, I'll certainly be putting a bid or two in!

EDIT - HERE is a link to the auction.