Thursday 20 August 2009

Cover: Judge Dredd Megazine

Well, here's a piece I've been aching to talk about, and now it's in the shops... the cover for Judge Dredd Megazine #288!

(Above)
Judge Dredd Megazine#288:
Dredd looming over a troubled Mega City-1

After meeting the Mighty Tharg a couple of times at the Bristol Comic Expo, I'd put it to him about doing covers for 2000AD/ Megazine. After a few emails had been exchanged, I set about doing a couple of quick thumbnails:

(Above)
Thumbnail #1: Old Stoney Face above MC-1

(Above)
Thumbnail #2: More Dredd visible so you can see
all his cool bits, shoulder pads, badge and elbow pads

Of the two, Tharg preferred the mid-length body shot, so I took a quick reference photo and set about making Dredd in 3DSMax and ZBrush:

(Above)
Me attempting to strike a Dredd power pose.
We'd just moved in to our new house
so the studio was in a right old state!


The image was finished off in Photoshop, dropping in a red background, a few low-key lens flares to give it some kick and finally a few layers of colour correction and grain to tie it all together:

(Above)
"I AM THE LAW!"
The final piece sans logo and blurb
.

I can't say how cool it is to see my artwork on the cover of the Megazine! Which I clearly remember reading during my lunch breaks when it first came out way back in 1990. To be on the cover of the self same comics I read as a youngster will always be a real buzz.

(Above)
The finished product in my local newsagents - Woohoo!

As for this cover, Tharg seems to have liked it and I've recently completed another cover, hopefully to be used some time soon - but I'll save that for another post.

7 comments:

jake gumbleton said...

you are my hero neil, that is utterly wonderful mate!!!

Aidan said...

Drokk me sideways! Congrats!

OSD said...

This IS living the Dream

Ben Newman said...

nice work neil! looks great - I'll keep an eye out for it in whsmiths!

Mayavan Thevendra said...

That's gruddamn awesome Neil! Ace work!

Unknown said...

Hey Neil,
Thanks for the kind words mate. Gotta say, i love this image! Great example of iconic imagery :)

Ben said...

Now, if you'd done the Ben 10 logo I'd be impressed...