Patrick Goddard - Road Rage!

The mighty Aquila is back in Rome and back in the Prog in his latest saga 'Where all roads lead." Regular readers will know that there has been a change of artist for the strip with Leigh 'The Handsomest Man in Comics' Gallagher stepping aside for Patrick 'The Most Well Endowed Man in Comics' Goddard. It's an inspired move, with Patrick's intricate, beautifully detailed artwork complementing Leigh's perfectly.

This arc introduces the mysterious Veiled Priestess, who will quite literally fight tooth and claw against the followers of false gods and prophets. Pat was kind enough to send his astonishing preliminary bit's and bobs over, so over to Mr G to tell you more... 

"After getting the call to do a cover, it was a nice and simple brief of Aquila standing in the square ready for battle, with the Veiled Priestess faded into the background. I sent Tharg a few ideas and he picked No.2!"

The titles are as follows: 1 - 'The Parp;' 2 - 'On your Marks...;' 3 - 'The Hokey Cokey;'

4 - 'The Radcliffe Toilet Stop' 5 - 'The Full Moon' & 6 - 'The Triple K' - Pete

Back to Patrick, "As I had already drawn the episode, the reference was already done so it was pretty much straight forward just to draw it out. When I've done covers, I've generally drawn them A4 in size as it helps me gage the proportions more easily and sort out any layout problems (which I badly failed to do as I didn't leave enough space for the main title/heading!!). I think I just got carried away drawing the background and it got higher and higher leaving little room for the Priestess, Doh!!"

Naturally, what Pat meant to say there was he purposely placed the Priestess so that she interacted with the comic's logo, foreshadowing her as a major force in the story - yeah, that was it...

"I draw in blue pencil as I find it less messy and then tighten things up with a normal HB/H pencil if need be."

I always really enjoy seeing Patrick's artwork in the flesh, there's a myriad of perspective lines other technical elements beneath his inks which shows just how much work he puts into panel of every page.
  

'Ha! Nice sandles, ya pansy - OUCH!'

With the pencils down, Pat gets ready for inking; 'I then expand the rough up to full size (A3) and trace it off onto the board ready for inking. As I'm a left hander, I have a fear of dip pens (from a chidhood mental trauma of using calligraphy pens in school!) So I just use a variety of technical pens to ink the majority of it and use a brush to put in any heavier lines and blacks. I like using the rougher side to the bristol board I use as it's better to get the dry brush effect I like.'

Aqulia hadn't realised they could all see his balls.

Pat says 'That's it done from me, no real magic, just a straightforward drawing which took about a day to do and then it's shipped off to be coloured!'

Pah, no magic indeed! It's a great image which absolutely nails the character and is technically awesome. Straightforward drawing? It makes me weep!

The cover was masterfully coloured by Gary Caldwell, I should have a clean image for you soon, fingers crossed!

Finally is the cover how it appears on your shelf, I really like how the Priestess interacts with the logo, foreshadowing her as a major force in the story. Very clever.

A million whalloping great thank yous to Patrick who has long been a supporter of this silly little blog. The images he's sent are truly outstanding. I couldn't imagine a better artist to follow Leigh but once again our Betelgeuisian overlord has chosen wisely! 

Henry Flint - Dredd Underbelly

Over at CBR.com Henry Flint talks about this months' glorious Dredd 2 cover for the Megazine. Cool! 

Clint Langley - The Dog's Molochs!

Prog 1949 sees the end of Slaine's 'Book of Scars' and once again, Tharg and Clint Langley have a treat for us in the form of a scrotnig Variant cover! I know variants divide the readership, but as the writer of a covers blog, it's ruddy good news for me!

There are two variants, the one above showing a brooding, rather cheesed off looking Slaine and the one below featuring Niamh's killer, the evil Moloch...

Ow, that eye piercing always freaks me out! 

The glorious hardback collection of Book of Scars comes out in November, featuring not only the special anniversary story but also a covers gallery and more! Speaking of which, Clint was kind enough to send a tantalising glimpse of one of the, quote, "many extras" he's putting together for the graphic novel. Once again, Clint beautifully channels the late, great Massimo Belardinelli, we see his take on Slaine's post-Burning Man warp spasm...  

Old One Eye... oops, wrong strip!

Belardinelli's bonkers yet brilliant original.

Warp spasm 2013!

Below are the covers as they'll appear at your newsagent, let's hope no one of a fragile disposition sees those!

Moonpig. 

Cop a load of that Axe.

A  great walloping thank you to Clint for sending the images, as usual they are amazing! The graphic novel is released on November 12th 2013, order it now Earthlets!

Mick McMahon - The Warped Warrior!

A true 2000AD legend returns to the prog this week. After his triumphant revisit of Sky Charriots last week, Mick McMahon has made all our Christmases come early by painting this beautiful Slaine cover for Prog 1848.

Mick has written a brilliantly in-depth, typically self-depreciating step by step which goes from completely different initial sketch to fully rendered masterpiece. Wonderful reading, check it out here:  http://tuggingyourcoat.com/2013/09/03/book-of-scars-cover/

Nick Percival - Slaine again.

Another fantastic Slaine Anniversary Star Scan in this weeks' prog, courtesy of the brilliant Nick Percival.  Nick says "I wanted to have a go at giving a slightly weary, older look to Slaine with this piece, since the character has obviously gone through so much over many stories. I mentioned to Pat Mills a long time ago, it’d be cool to do either a ‘year one’ Slaine epic or a ‘Dark Knight’ style one where Slaine is ancient – white beard, lost an eye, etc but can still dish out large amounts of damage.  While I never got around to painting that version,  it was cool to create this final piece in celebration of Slaine’s 30th!"

It's a shame we never saw the one eyed warrior (is that a euphemism?) but I'm sure you'll agree that this painting is a stunner. We can look forward to seeing Nick long awaited graphic novel 'The Family' coming soon and he's also hard at work painting a Judge Dredd horror story by Mike Carroll, can't wait!!!