Liam Sharp - There's gold in them thar thrills!

Behold the striking features of Tharg the Mighty, majestically brought to life by the amazing Liam Sharp! This stunning cover is for Prog 1740, one of Tharg's famed 'jumping on' progs, where each story is a first-parter to help new readers in their quest for thrill power!

This issue sees the beginning of a brand new Judge Dredd Tale 'The Dasterdly Deeds of PJ Maybe' where we find out what's next for the murderous ex-mayor of Mega City One. This herald's the return of John Wagner and Colin MacNeil to the prog which means we're in for a treat. Next up is Savage Book 7: 'Secret City' by Pat Mills and the excellent Patrick Goddard which continues Bill Savage's underground battle with the dirty Volgs! There's also the welcome return of everyone's favourite ultra-polite corpse Zombo, in the wonderfully titled 'The Day the Zombo Died' by the brilliant Al Ewing and mad-as-a-box-of-frogs Henry Flint. The issue also (hopefully) sees the return of Download's coolest hitmen Sinister Dexter as they continue their war against familiar enemies from other dimensions in the ominously titled 'Charon's Crossing' by Dan Abnett and Anthony Williams. Finally the prog will feature the mighty one's latest brainwave 3hrillers, these are three part, stand alone stories that don't expect the reader to know over thirty years of 2000AD history. The first of these tales is 'The Silver -Tongued Exploits of Cosmo Nibs' written by Tom Eglington and illustrated by the superb John McCrea who's work was last seen in the Prog seven years ago! All of these pulse pounding thrills are wrapped up in Liam's magnificent cover, exciting times indeed!

So let's get back to the all important matter of that magnificent cover! Liam said "This was a no-messing, straight to completion piece. I didn't do a rough of the mighty one (my eyes could only stand his aura for an extremely limited amount of time) and literally went straight to the canvas, painting shadows and highlights over a gold acrylic primed surface."

And here it is, impressive eh?

Next Liam adds some digital magic, he continues "From that I imported the image into my computer on my scanner and set about working up the full colour version in Photoshop. Here's the result!"


And finally the image with 2000AD template, which Liam used to get an idea of how the final product will look...

Thanks a million to Liam for sending the images, it's great to see Tharg on the cover again and fantastic that it's by such a comics legend!

Tiernen Trevallion - La Placa Rifa!

And it's another wonderful cover by the brilliant Absalom artist Tiernen Trevallion! This cover could (and if you ask a certain writer, should) have been much different. Tiernen says "Matt and I had a similar idea, I was keen to do an action scene, a good old school copper/demon punch up, but we were running short on time so we went for this one. Errr... that's about it, really... sorry, Monday and all that..."

So, below we have Tiernen's pencils for the image...

Followed by his colour rough, which is where the twist comes in the tale...

Tiernen continues "No, there was one thing... I sent Gordon the colour rough, and he said he'd planned to NEVER REVEAL Harry's police badge... and there it is... right on the cover.... he was okay about it, and said we should use it now it's been drawn up..." Hmmmm, coincidence or are demonic forces getting revenge on the creative team for giving them a good pasting in the strip?

Again, the cooooool final image...

I love this cover, it's very intelligent, eye catching and the design work is ace, I particularly adore the colours of the logo. However, I can't help wondering what the alternative version would have looked like, and neither can Tiernen by the sound of it, he says "Anyway, there'll be another opportunity to show Harry giving some demonic forces a good shoeing, I'm sure." Let's hope so as Gordon's dense script and Tiernen's sublime visuals have been a huge hit with readers.

Thanks again to Tiernen for supplying the visuals, what a brilliant talent he is! Please visit his website here.

Cliff Robinson - Blooming Crackpot!

Blooming heck! The wonderful Cliff Robinson obviously has FAR to much fun in his work as this weeks' amazing cover will show! This is the cover for the current Dredd thriller 'Scream' which features the return of Prog 18's 'Brainblooms', human-plant hybrids that can imitate any known sound!

Below we see Cliff's rough thumbnails, he seems to have started working on the one to the bottom-left...

This next rough is fascinating, Cliff tells me "My left ear, glasses and watch are visible on one of the roughs. I filmed myself with my camcorder then printed out the pose in blueline and pencilled over the top. I often do this as it saves a lot of time and can be fun, although I'd never let anyone see the original photo's of me posing like a complete pillock!"

Ah, so now we know what Dredd looks like under the helmet, Cliff Robinson!

And below is a mock up of the cover with some of Cliff's trademark terrible puns! A story - last year I broke a rib in a car crash and made the mistake of telling Cliff that it was agonising when I laugh. For days and days afterwards he sent me (absolutely terrible) jokes, the swine!
For some reason, Cliff had a change of heart (I suspect it was Tharg induced) and went for his alternative design. Of the brainblooms themselves, Cliff said "The brainbloom faces were also from photo's of me gurning like a fool. But again, the original photo's are unavailable for publication... heh!"

You can tell they're Cliff as he left in his pointy ears and bulging veins...

Midway through the process Cliff obviously decided to go for a more dynamic pose for both Dredd and the Brainbloom in the foreground....
Here's the cover rough mock up...
And finally, those stunning, trademark perfect Cliff Robinson inks which shows that he truly is the best in the business...

Absolutely amazing. The inks were then sent to the similarly brilliant Dylan Teague to be coloured and once again, we have a frikking AMAZING 2000AD cover.
Thanks SO much to Cliff for sending the images, he's always such a brilliant supporter of the site. Thanks also to Dylan for his amazingly fast response and support!

Naturally I couldn't let this post go without re-telling the disgraceful story of the cover of Prog 18. From this blog:


"According to The Judge Dredd Mega-History, this cover for Prog 18 by Don Lawrence further angered Carlos Ezquerra (Dredd's creator, who was already pissed off because the début strip of his character drawn by someone else.) Apparently, Lawrence was having trouble getting the look of Dredd right (an old woman is about as far wrong as you can get!) so an Ezquerra Dredd from 'Bank Raid' (which was to be the first Dredd tale but was considered too violent - try to keep up!) was pasted over the top. Shocking!"

Green Fingers Ma Mahaffy - now you see her...

Now ya don't!

Sean Phillips - Criminally Good!

For this week's cover we see Anderson dressed as a perp as she goes undercover in this gritty cover by the awesome Sean Phillips. This is Sean's first 2000AD cover for 12 years and, as you can see, it's excellent!

Below is Sean's digital sketch...

Followed by the lush painted version...

The Criminal and Marvel Zombies artist got his 2000AD break working with Pat Mills and John Smith on the political comic Crisis in the late eighties. Thankfully, by the time Crisis was cancelled, Sean had crossed over into the Prog and Meg. As well as working on 2000AD favourites such as Dredd and Sinister Dexter, Sean co-created two of the Megazine's biggest characters, as well as the overall look for the Meg on it's launch.

Below is a cracking gatefold inner cover from Megazine no 1 which introduced readers to Dredd's world, it's great to see Sean's versions of the city and some of it's classic characters...

And some spoof Ads for the Judge Pal Club, which invites children to snitch on adults to earn Pal Points for prizes!

Judge Pal - The Juve's Friend

Below is Sean's first 2000AD cover, Prog 646 waaaay back in September 1989. Already there are signs of Sean's moody, noiresque style with a hard as nails Dredd glaring at the reader from the dark...

Next, onto two of my all time favourite covers, the first is for Prog 780 which was a relaunch issue. The re-launch was entitled 'The Megablast!' hence Megacity-One's premier law man running from that huge explosion!

Next, Prog 800, another landmark prog. This issue featured the first part of Garth Ennis' excellent Dredd strip 'The Marshall', which featured fantastic art by Sean. The story told the tale of a lone survivor of a clan of Cursed Earth peacekeepers which were accidentally wiped out by the Justice Department. Just look at that cover, it's amazing!

Much of Phillips' Dredd work (including The Marshall) were reprinted in the Hamlyn Graphic Novel, Tales of the Damned, for which Sean provided this lovely cover...

While we're on with reprint covers, here's Sean's cover for the 'Law in Order' reprints which has Dredd in exactly the same pose as Clint Langley's Star Scan in this weeks' issue - freaky huh!?!

Next a couple of montage covers, the first is 852 featuring Tharg, Sam Slade, Slane, Tyranny Rex and of course, Dredd...

Followed by Prog 980, this time featuring Cannon Fodder, Dredd and Venus Bluegenes.



To finish off the prog covers I have, here's eco-witch Finn facing off against a giant dragon on Prog 945...
And a true classic, Dredd responding to a Code 99 Red (judge down) on the cover of Prog 999!
Onto the Megazine, as I said earlier, Sean was co-creator of both Devlin Waugh and Armitage. We'll start with upper class Vatican Vampire, Devlin Waugh. Co-created with John Smith, Waugh was an English, spiritual emissary from the Vatican, described as a cross between Noel Coward, Terry Thomas and Arnold Schwarzenegger.

The first story dealt with an infestation of vampire inmates at a brilliantly designed underwater prison known as Aquatraz. In a story was both gruesome and terrifying, so the camp, hilarious quips from Waugh really lifted the mood. Philips' art throughout was amazing, making a really memorable character. Blow is the cover from the Hamlyn reprint...


Next Armatige, a grizzled, Brit-Cit detective, very much in the mould of Inspector Morse. Co-created by Dave Stone, this character was perfect for Philips, looking at where his career has taken him since. Below is the début cover of the strip showing Armitage, a Brit Cit judge (Sean states that Brenfan McCarthy, designer of the Brit Cit uniform is a huge inspiration to him) and rookie detective Treasure Steel...

Below is the cover for Deathmasques, a Virgin Novel where Dredd and Armitage reluctantly team up. I absolutely love this cover!
Sean returned to Armitage in 2009, providing this great cover for the Brit Cit detective's return...
Aaaaaand finally, to bring this article full circle, we have a perp dressed as a psi-Judge! This was the saucy cover for Meg 1.13 featuring Lisa, ace hacker-come prostitute and one of Armitage's many contacts. Again, it's an amazing bit of foresight from the mighty Tharg!

It's been an amazing year for returning artists in the prog, Bryan Talbot, Jesus Redondo, Liam Sharp and now Sean Phillips - long may it continue. Make sure you visit Sean's blog and site for more of his fantastic, hard-hitting work!

Alex and Nigel, Zarjaz Cover Artists!

Those Zarjaz boys are back and boy, are they back in style! They've kept to their policy of commissioning 2000AD droids to produce fantastic wraparound covers for their fine fanzines, with absolutely dazzling results. Big names cover artists of the past include Colin MacNeil, Leigh (phwooor) Gallagher, Clint Langley, PJ Holden, Richard Elson and Dave Kendall. This time we're treated covers from the brilliant Alex Ronald and the wonderful Nigel Dobbyn.

First, let's look at Alex's amazing cover for Zarjaz 12. Quite simply, it's gorgeous; if this were on a prog, it would easily bag my cover of the year (and we've had some stunners this year.) Done very much in the style of Alex's Crackdown 2 comic and his brilliant Vampire Vixens of the Wehrmacht tale for Wasted, it's a digital masterpiece.


If you haven't seen Alex's brilliant webcomic for Crackdown 2, you can watch part 1 of 5 here:



And finally some more of Alex's digital Dredds!

Go to Alex's blog 'Never Finished, Only Abandoned' to see more...

Next up, is the super versatile Nigel Dobbyn with this brilliant Dogbreath cover. Featuring everyone's favourite Gronk, this cracking cover proves once again that Dobbyn is the master at drawing the cute little aliens from Blas.

Here's the fantastic line work for the cover too:

Like Alex, it's been a while since we saw Nigel in the prog but he's certainly been busy while he was away. A quick look at his portfolio shows he has worked on treasures such as Billy the Cat, Sonic the Comic, Angelina Ballerina, Thunderbirds and Mr Bean. Again, it looks like the artist has developed exponentially since his previous 2000AD strips and I'd love to see him back in the mighty prog. A final image from Nigel, just to prove he is the master of Gronkdom, is this beauty...
Make your way over to the Quaequalm Blog to grab BRILLIANT wallpapers of most of the Zarjaz and Dogbreath covers to date and while you're there, order some comics, you won't be sorry!