Alex Ronald - For Your Thighs Only.

2000AD Covers Uncovered is all about celebrating the artwork of 2000AD artists past and present so I'm delighted to present Alex Ronald's cover process for the forthcoming Vampire Vixens of the Wehrmacht. Alex was a prolific contributor to the Prog between 1996 and 2000, illustrating favourites such as Judge Dredd, Rogue Trooper, Sinister Dexter as well as an excellent run Missionary Man. Alex is real a fan favourite who is still active on the 2000AD Message Board today, kindly giving art tips to budding artists on there.

Over to Alex to tell us more...

"Vampire Vixens of the Wehrmacht is a tongue in cheek, action/horror comic set during WW2. It follows the adventures of a gorgeous Nazi vampire defector and a pompous British Army chaplain as together they take on Hitler's occult horde."

"Vixens takes a lot of it's inspiration from the secret agent world of James Bond, although in this scenario it would be fairer to say that the Bond girl has become Bond. That being the case I thought it would be fun to do a 007 style image for the cover of the comic."

"For Your Eyes Only might not have been the best of Roger Moore's cinematic outings but the poster image is certainly one of the most striking."

"No Mr Bond, I expect you to thigh!"

"Also released at the cinema in the same year and I'm pretty sure heavily influenced by the Bond poster was little known revenge movie, MS.45 (also known as Angel of Vengeance.) The twist of the body, the hint of a western 'High Noon' vibe and the fact the girl is hiding the gun behind her thigh gives this pose a slight edge over the original Bond girl stance. This is the image I set out to emulate."

Parp!

"3D modelling is my bread and butter day job and I use 3D a great deal for my own illustration projects at home. In this case it's a very simple two character composition. The reference posters dictate the angle of the shot so it's basically just a case of pushing back the faraway character until she is nicely framed within the, um legs..."

"Working from the customised 3D scene as a reference point, I started to sketch in the rough details of the characters. The Second stage is to block in the light and shadow just using tones. Lastly, a colour wash over the tones and from there embellish for several hours until finished."

Thigh Noon (Right! I'll stop with the thigh puns.)

"The final Image: With the Vixen's holster on her left hip and her hand hovering over, the distant foe may be forgiven for thinking she has the advantage in this gunfight. Unfortunately Vampires and dirty tricks go hand in hand!"

"Final touches are some wear and tear to the edges and a grime overlay to give the picture a degree of Grindhouse style degradation."

Draw!

Vampire Vixens of the Wehrmacht will be launched at the Glasgow Comic con on July 13th and will be available through mail order and digital download shortly after.

Limited to 200 copies. 100 of which sport the featured cover and an introduction by Mark Millar.

The second variant edition is introduced by film director and Lord of the Rings VFX artist Paul Campion.

The good old Zarjaz boys are also fans and wisely commissioned Alex to do the cover of Zarjaz number 12. I'm sure they weren't disappointed with the result!

The residents of Pete Wells Block are getting uppity again...

And here's a digital Dredd painting that Alex did to experiment with Photoshop back in 2010, ten years after working in the prog...

Before the Chaos...

And a mean looking Mean that was painted earlier still, always loved this...

"No one paints me less'n I says they kin!" 

Alex has recently produced some amazing Star Wars paintings, again modelling his subjects in 3D before painting them. Check out these beauties...

Like a Supertrooper, beams are gonna fine me...

This Grand Moff Tarkin is fantastic.

"You may fire when ready."

Alex modelled the Star Destroyer in about an hour!

Ah, 1977 all over again... 

Thanks to Alex for sending the words and pictures, I'm sure you'll join me in wishing him the very best of luck with the Vampire Vixens! Check out his brilliant blog here.