Karl Richardson blows us away this week with an action packed cover. As the Megacity Skulls attack, Dredd calmly changes the clip in his Lawgiver, ready to dispense instant justice. Perfect, classic Dredd if you ask me!
Below we see a couple of Karl's initial sketches, a fearsome looking Dredd getting ready to re-educate with the aid of his daystick...
"Bend over sir..."
Next we get the beginnings of the cover, Dredd changing his Mag, looking mean as can be...
Clip Art
Karl said "Tharg liked the solitary figure of Dredd, but it was his idea to add the perps firing away - which is funny because one of my early scribbles (which I never ended up sending) was very similar, but a little cheesier/comedic - which is why I never sent it in..."
Below we see the final sketch. Being a greedychops, I'd have loved to have seen this as a wraparound, kind of a mixture of both images - a cool looking Dredd calmly loading his lawgiver on the front, then the chaotic, advancing perps on the back as Dredd's situation becomes clear. I also want the moon on a stick and Katy Perry's underpants.
"Can't you boys see, I'm changing?"
With the sketch approved, Karl inks this fantastic Dredd...
Bullet time...
And that awesome Dredd coloured, ooooooh!
So... Joe dresses to the left eh?
Next Karl begins to add the background...
I'm sure Dredd is standing in front of a Chopper smiley there.
If you look closely at the image above, you can see 'Rage Hard' amongst the graffiti. Squaxx with long memories will recall that Rage Hard was a violence-obsessed perp who gave Dredd a thorough pasting in Al Ewing and Karl's 'Rehab' story (Prog 1644-1648.) He was formally a mild mannered, albeit duplicitous scientist working on reverse engineering the Blockmania virus. However, Dr Alvin Templar sold out to racketeers, boosting the virus and turning it into a narcotic. Alvin took a massive dose of the drug and became the vicious Rage Hard!
After a fierce battle, Dredd managed to subdue and cube the perp. Unfortunately, whilst in his cell, Rage was transported through a dimension gate to Macro-Zone Alpha, a peaceful, communitarian version of Megacity One.
This dimension was peacefully policed by Rehabilitation Supervisors, the most liberal of which was Judge Joe. Of course, Dredd entered the dimension and captured his perp, leaving a trail of destruction in his path...
The doctor will see you now...
The story featured one of my favourite panels of recent years, the brilliant "Incoming Eldster!"
Agnes was particularly flatulent today!
Most recently, Rage Hard made an appearance in the Innocent storyline, which saw him as meek as a kitten having been subjected to a Justice Department drug testing which left him incapable of showing aggression. Is this the end for Rage Hard?
Karl certainly hopes not "I'd love to do another strip with him in but guess I'll be waiting a while!" Let's hope not!
Rehabilitation Mega-City One style
Back to the cover, here we see the image almost finished...
Those pesky Mega-City Skuls!
And that brilliant final image with smoke and lighting effects added as well as a little composition work and some work on the perps' spelling! Karl also invites us to suck his something or other, I'll ask him what next time he sends a cover...
A typical day of chaos for Dredd
And here's how the magnificent prog looks on your shelf.
Huge thanks to Karl for sending these exceptional images, this is a truly excellent cover which sums up our favourite lawman and his crazy city perfectly.
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