Classic 2000 AD Covers

Vintage Production Art for your delectation

Tharg Terrorises London!

The first piece of classic 2000 AD production art for today is from Prog #129, 8th Sept 1979. Art by Carlos Ezquerra. Colours by Tom Frame. Unusually, this one had the colouring on the acetate overlay instead of the usual blue line baseboard.

Return to Armageddon!

Production art from 43 years ago. 2000 AD Prog #188, 29th November 1980. Art: Ian Gibson. Colours: Tom Frame.

Jailbreak At Glasshouse G!

Another classic… Prog #253, 27th February, 1982. by Colin Wilson. 

Back when I first posted this on my original blog, I was unsure who did the colouring, so 2000 AD aficionado David Rees very kindly emailed the artist, Colin Wilson to ask if it was his own colouring, and this was his reply:

I've been following the Secret Oranges blog on a regular basis, and so I did see my old Rogue cover suddenly appear. Good scan of it too, much better than the one I had..... the colours are a lot brighter and cleaner. But nope, I have no idea who did the colouring on that, as back in the day no-one bothered to ask us artists about that sorta thing. We just drew the bloody things, and only ever saw the finished covers when the Progs came out!

I was never really all that happy with any of my covers for 2000AD from that period. I didn't do all that many anyway, and the printing was always a bit of a worry and I was always longing to get the chance of having something printed "like the printing they used in France"! There were always constraints about the content required etc....... I really loved some of those classic 'caption' covers in those day, but I never used to get any of the really good ones to actually draw. It was just the start of a very long-term bad relationship with "cover problems" which, for me, continues to this day. Once upon a time I used to fancy myself as a real graphic designer, but by the time i got to France - where they even expected the bloody things to be painted! - I had completely lost all confidence and I've never been really happy with any of them. 

Such is life....

colin

Thank you both!

The Long, Long Arm Of The Law!

Prog #465, 12th April, 1986. Cover art by Cam Kennedy. Colours by Tom Frame.

New Thrill: Ace Trucking Co.

Prog #232, 3rd October, 1981 and the very first episode and appearance of Ace Trucking Co. Cover art by Massimo Belardinelli.

Rogue Trooper

Prog #269, 19th June, 1982. Cover art by Colin Wilson.

Mean Arena!

Here’s 2000 AD Prog #187, 22nd November 1980. Art by Dave Gibbons.

There was a very descriptive comment from subscriber, sauchieboy back in the day. So I'm adding it here...

I loved that story, and I don't even have the excuse of being ten when I read it, since I only came across it after buying the back issues off a pal at secondary school who'd discovered the delights of drinking White Lightning cider and screwing shell-suited girls underneath the swings in the local park. 

There's something really appealing about the way Gibbon's figures look like burnished Silver Age characters, inexplicably torn from the pages of a sixties Marvel comic and dropped into the milieu of dilapidated tenement housing and hair-netted housewives which was the drab default setting during that period for any British comic story which wasn't about the second world war. The Slayers' matches could have been taking place in Pat Mills's fictional amalgam of Northpool or the Dundee/Anywhere construct of Dennis the Menace's home town.

Which, I suppose, reflected how the strip (and 2000ad in general) was seeking to disrupt and transform the stuffiness, complacency and morbidity that had afflicted British boys comics in that period by introducing what were perceived at the time as subversive American influences (Tallon was a Yank), such as excitement, colour and glamour. Once again, the colours on that art seem so much more vivid (and lurid) than the copy I have; there must have been a real art to laying down hues that would achieve the desired effect once they'd gone through the primitive printing process, and onto crappy paper.

Bubba Better Beat It!

2000 AD Prog #486, 6th Sept 1986. Art: Carlos Ezquerra. Colours: Tom Frame.

Monkey Business

Production art from Prog #184, 1st November 1980. Art: Mike McMahon. 
Colours: Tom Frame.

Crime Swoop!

2000 AD production art from Prog #338, 15th October 1983. Art: Ron Smith. Colours: Tom Frame.

Judge Dwedd!

Prog #191, 20th December 1980. Art: Ian Gibson. Colours: Tom Frame

Double Whammy!

Two cover artists for the price of one! 2000 AD production art from Prog #294, 11th December 1982. Artists: Carlos Ezquerra and Ian Gibson. Colours: Tom Frame

This Here's a Hijack!

This one had no black-line overlay. The original line work was by Carlos Ezquerra and the colours were more than likely painted by the late great Tom Frame. Prog #284 - October, 1982.

If you’d like to see more of these, you’ll find them here…

…and here.

All covers shown here © 2000 AD/Rebellion