Jock - Return of the King of Cool!

Hooray, Christmas has come early as I'm delighted to be able to share the work of the brilliant, brilliant Jock with you today! The artist has returned to the prog in fine style, producing an excellent cover for the the cover for the Free Comic Book Day prog (May 5th 2012 this year folks!)

Jock has kindly sent me his stunning roughs and final image for the cover, so let's have a look!

I love the first one, and I know Jock liked it too, particularly the Droste effect (Google it, I had too!) This wasn't chosen but let's hope Tharg commissions this image at a later date...

The next mean and moody image is the one that was chosen...
However Jock explains "Keith Richardson wanted more characters on the cover so we included Ichabod Azriel and Zombo. Nice to get a chance to draw Dom and Henry's characters though!"
And here are another couple of sketches, maaaaan Dredd looks hard as nails in 'em!


With the final design chosen, here's an early version...
Followed by the fantastic finished image. Wow, those colours really pop!
Jock is an astounding talent who's cool, iconic images are used again and again. Let's remind ourselves of some of his classic work. Selfishly, the first is probably my all time favourite 2000AD cover, the wraparound for prog 1450, perfect...


Closely followed by another of my all time favourite Dredd images...
Next up, the modern classic that was the cover to Megazine 4.02...
Next, here's the artwork for the first ever Dreddcon, held way back in 2000...
Next up, the cover of Prog 1304. Another strong image that has been used countless times, and understandably so!
Finally the stunning Dreddhead that was used as the official 2000AD T-Shirt design at the San Diego Comic Con this year...
Since getting his break in 2000AD, Jock's career has gone from strength to strength, becoming a cover artist for several massive titles as well as being co-creator of The Losers with long time collaborator Andy Diggle. Luckily for us, the dyamic duo of Diggle and Jock will be returning to the pages of the Megazine soon with their new project, the very cool sounding 'Snapshot!'

Thanks to Jock for sending those brilliant images, I've been beaming all day! Please visit his website to be further blown away by his work!