Jake Lynch - No one expects the Russian Inquisition!

Sadly, Prog 1917 sees the final part of the excellent Orlok strip, Eurozoned. Our resourceful anti-hero has been captured by the fiery Khukov and is undergoing some rather nasty looking torture! Throughout this strip, new droid Jake Lynch has dazzled me with amazing art - his use of tone, panel layout and architectural design have absolutely blown me away! I see touches of Flint and Jock in his programming, as well as Jake's own unmistakable touch - most exciting droid for some time!

Over to Jake to tell us how this painful looking cover came about... 

"Tharg sent the brief 'Khukov's right arm extending down from the left of the page, holding a scalpel, while in the b/g we see Orlok strapped in a chair, looking worse for wear, but unaccountably grinning, you snivelling wretch." Good old Tharg, nice to see he's mellowing in his old age...

"Brief in hand I begin by quickly knocking up some thumbnails for The Mighty One to peruse (this angered him greatly). Sealed with a Rigellian Hotshot, he selected number 5."

Check out those golden spirals and Z patterns! Number 6 all the way for me!



I call this 'Visions from the vasectomy clinic.'

"I first attempted to to simply redraw it using the thumbnail as reference but no matter how much I tried, I didn't feel I quite nailed the attitude of the thumb so decided to simply enlarge it and use it as the rough. I use Manga Studio to do a really awful line drawing, picking out what I feel are the important points before exporting it into Photoshop to do the rest."



"I spy, with my bloody eye, something beginning with S..."

"I've mentioned in other places how I paint - start with a tonal study which I then use as a starting point for colour, tweaking and tweaking until it's done. Generally, when painting, you start with the the big strokes, big brushes, blocking in the shapes. As you go along, the brushes get smaller as more and more detail is added til you're done. I add a Letratone effect to mirror the strip.  I keep the smile subtle, but, in hindsight, I kind of wish I hadn't.  I paint it with a large bleed area on the off-chance it needs to be re-jigged for type."



"Smiiiiile, though your heart (and everything else) is aching!

Smile, though it may be breaking!"

"I like the tone thats emerging, but decide to go with something a bit dirtier..."



"Fetch... the comfy chair!"

"Nervously, I submit the finished pic to Tharg with a ration of Styrene cups to ease the process. As I'm still standing I presume it all went w- ARRRRGHhhh!"

Sadly, at this point, Jake's voice was drowned out by the sound of maniacal giggling from Mek-Quake and the sound of screeching metal - I hope he's okay... 

"Aw maaaan, can I not even have a shit in peace?"

And here's how the cover looks on your thrillshelf, fab!

As a bonus, Jake sent his fabulous Orlok badge painting, I love, love, love this!

"Say my name..."

Massive thanks to Jake for sending the images and write up, very entertaining and informative. I do hope we get more Orlok soon, (and a Dredd from Jake too, pretty please Mr Tharg?)  You can see more of Jake's fantastic art here!