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!

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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:

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Thumbnail #1: Old Stoney Face above MC-1

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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:

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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:

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"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.

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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.