Hooray! It's time to cast your votes for your favourite covers of the year, and what a year it's been! You can see bigger versions of each of the images below on my (award winning!) blog, as well as links to artist commentaries for each one - not bad eh? You'll find the relevant post here:
So, I'd like you to clearly list your THREE favourites, in order. THREE points will be awarded to your fave, TWO points for second and ONE point for third. I will try not to mess the maths up this year!
The closing date is midnight on FRIDAY 4TH JANUARY 2013...
Before we start, I'd like to once again thank all the artists, especially Simon 'Pye' Parr for their help over the year. Fine gentlemen all!
And so, the contenders are:
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v76/Wellsy/01Januarycopy.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v76/Wellsy/02Februarycopy.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v76/Wellsy/03Marchcopy.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v76/Wellsy/04Aprilcopy.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v76/Wellsy/05Maycopy.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v76/Wellsy/06Junecopy.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v76/Wellsy/07Julycopy.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v76/Wellsy/08Augustcopy.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v76/Wellsy/09Septembercopy.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v76/Wellsy/10Octobercopy.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v76/Wellsy/11Novembercopy.jpg)
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v76/Wellsy/12December-2.jpg)
Remember, you can see all of these covers much bigger on my blog here :
http://2000adcovers.blogspot.co.uk/2012/11/ktt-and-2000ad-cover-of-year-2012.html (http://2000adcovers.blogspot.co.uk/2012/11/ktt-and-2000ad-cover-of-year-2012.html)
and the closing date is MIDNIGHT on 4th January 2013...
1. 1811
2. 1803
3. 1767
A pre-emptive 'well done' to Pete for putting this together, and for the mighty thrills his cracking blog brings - a well-deserved KTT. Now onto the voting....
1st place (3 points): 1791 (Final Dante - Simon Fraser)
2nd place (2 points): 1767 (Absalom - Tiernen Trevallion)
3rd place (1 point): 1771a (Chris Weston)
1. 1771a Chris Weston. What an anniversary cover should be. Chris' 1776 cover was also fantastic.
2. 1805. D'Israeli. Pure unadulterated style.
3. 1774. Mark Harrison. Can't resist a good Triceratops.
I wish I had other votes available for Simon Fraser's beautiful 1791, Tiernan's 1767 and Bagwell's 1780.
1. 1771a Chris Weston. - only polite - it's been my wallpaper for weeks.
2. 1812 Cliff Robinson - Real 'Boom' cover for the strip event of the year
3. 1799 Simon Parr - Dredd event of any year needs acknowledging - ably done here.
1. 1771b - Mike McMahon
2. 1780 - Edmund Bagwell
3. 1811 - D'Israeli
1. 1774
2. 1771a
3. 1802
HOW in the name of FUCK are we supposed to select the best of that bunch? It's been an astonishing year of quality.
I could do this in a dozen ways but, after changing my mind several times, my votes go to:
1) 1771a Chris Weston's character montage
2) 1791 Si Fraser's Dante
3) 1781 Henry Flint's Dark Judges
It feels very. very wrong that I can't include several others, especially Carlos' Stront cover, but I have to choose someone.
Top work all round.
- Trout
Can I congratulate Sir Peter of Wells, KTT, on an improved user-friendly voter interface for this year's vote?
1 - Chris Weston - 1771a
2 - Clint Langley - 1803
3 - Ben Willshire - 1792
Dishonourable mention - 1765 - the Drag queen cover - Tharg should have said no to this one.
Bloody hell.
These are just the ones that jumped out at me first - although there are tons of candidates
1 - 1767 - Tiernen Trevallion (Amazing amazing amazing, beautifully painted fully atmospheric)
2 - 1811 - D'israeli (Awesome wrap, phenomenally grabbing and utterly unique)
3 - 1791 - Simon Fraser (Dante Finale - beautifully constructed, wonderfully melancholic)
1. 1802
2. 1771A
3. 1766
What a fantastic year of prog covers. So many of them could win. Here are the ones I liked the most.
1st. 1811 (Had no hesitation in selecting this D'Israeli cover as the best cover of the year)
2nd. 1767 (I love the restrained use of colour by Trevallion on this one)
3rd. 1803 (The level of detail and Langley's skill in blending the various elements, such as water, amazes me)
I can't do this. Too many to choose from, too many that would normally win if they were on any other comic.
My shortlist of ten (!) finally becomes this:
FIRST: 1774 Because I'm a sucker for gorgeous wraparounds, and FLESH is my favourite thing ever.
SECOND: 1791 Because it's beautiful and DANTE was my favourite thing ever.
THIRD: 1805 Because of the lack of pink elsewhere in boys' adventure comics and because DIRTY FRANK is my favourite thing ever.
SBT
1st. 1811 (D'Israeli)
2nd. 1771a (Chris Weston)
3rd. 1791 (Simon Fraser)
1802 - Ben Wilsher Pure Dredd, which enables it to stand out on the shelf (if you can bend down far enough) and to top it off, he tricks us into thinking he's another artist.
1783 - Karl Richardson Stunning action stance, highly detailed and just spot on.
1777 - Jon Davis-Hunt Beautifully framed and gorgeous hair, what more do you need.
1: 1771a Chris westons stunning aniversary cover if i had one complaint its that it should have been the full version...but its still amazing
2 1786: Iconic...perfect the best way to end John burns run on Nikolai dante
3 1791 see 2 except for simon fraser...
dishonourable mention to the worst cover of the year 1765...seriously steve...you're better than that
1.1811 D'Israeli
2.1804 Cliff Robinson
3.1772 Jon Davis-Hunt
Wow.So many great covers.
Blimey.
It has been a really good year for covers hasn't it? I had thought 1811 would be my clear winner, but now I look at them all, I think that's not going to make the top 3.
1) 1802. A great big Dredd chin. What the hell more could you want. Brilliant.
2) 1786. Dante by John Burns. Just beautiful
3) 1775. Zaucer of Zilk. I do love me a bit of McCarthy.
To be honest though, I could have 4 or 5 completely different top 3s, it's been that good a year.
A toughy alright, but..
1.) Prog 1802 - Ben Willsher. A lovely Dredd image. Nuff said.
2.) Prog 1771b - Mick McMahon. Its Mick. Back in the prog. Where he belongs.
3.) Prog 1785 - King Carlos. Sexy Mama!
1) 1811 - Reminds me of 2000AD covers of old. That's proper science-fiction, that is!
2) 1767 - gorgeous. Even in thumbnail here, the way the colours serve the composition is immediately apparent. And then you get to the detail...
3) 1786 - for all that Simon Fraser is The Man on Dante, I think this is the image I will take away with me of the Russian Rogue, now that we will meet no more.
That was a hell of a year, wasn't it? Even the stuff I didn't like, I didn't dislike, it just wasn't as good as the other stuff that was running at the time.
Hats off to Matt and all the droids for sterling work under the Mighty One's tyrannical yoke!
Cheers
Jim
1) 1781- made me feel 15 years old looking at it!
2) 1802- iconic Dredd (and my copy is covered in Thrill Powered signatures to boot)
3) 1810- vintage Clint / old Skool Thrill-bomb.
1st: Prog 1867 - Tiernen Trevallion (Absalom), because he's my new favourite 2000AD artist by miles and can do no wrong.
2nd: Prog 1802 - Ben Willsher, because it's an epic portrait of Joe that brings to mind 'America'.
3rd: Prog 1791 - The final Dante cover by Simon Fraser, because it was a great elegiac scene, beautifully coloured, and he was confident enough to not even include any of the wonderful characters from that strip!
Ack, just three? So hard... Okay, before I wibble and change my mind yet again:
1. 1791 (final Dante, Simon Fraser)
2. 1781 (Dark Judges, Henry Flint)
3. 1802 (Dredd face, Ben Willsher)
Honourable mentions: 1767, 1772, 1786, 1807, 1811. To name but a few.
This was tough because they are all great covers.
1st: 1811 - D'Israeli.
2nd: 1802 - Ben Willsher.
3rd: 1771a - Chris Weston.
HM: 1781- Henry Flint.
1st. 1811. Pure unadulterated D'Israeli genius.
2nd. 1767. Class from the Trevallion art unit.
3rd. 1805. Another D'Israeli. I make no apology, it's a fantastic image.
What a year! We really are lucky little blighters.
Process of elimination? Failed. Ranking them in my head, rationally? Failed. Divorcing my opinion of the cover from the strip within? ...well, I managed that part, just.
Went with gut in the end, like I should have started with!
1 - 1776 - Chris Weston - Because, on reflection, the Chaos Bug ramp-up remains the key Dredd 3D event of the year for me and this just captures it so bloody well.
2 - 1791 - Simon Fraser - ...because parting is such sweet sorrow.
3 - 1774 - Mark Harrison - A scorcher that practically demands interest in the contents.
HM - The first three of Ben Wilsher's covers.
1. 1811 - D'Israeli: I love the way this one comes together.
2. 1774 - Harrison: Same reasons as above, plus dinosaurs and planes.
3. 1771a - Weston : Nice character collage
I had only jumped on late this year, but there were nice covers this year from what I see on those previews.
Extremely hard to narrow it down to top three, but here goes;
in first place Chris Westons' 1776
second, the brillaint John Burns 1786
and finally good old Absolom in 1767
Ask me again tomorrow and I'll probably change my mind. So don't ask.
1 - 1772 - Jon Davis Hunt
2 - 1771a - Chris Weston(this is almost guaranteed to win)
3 - 1774 - Mark harrison
1st) 1811 - D'Israeli - (okay, why is Frank still standing when the heavier taxi is blown away? WHO CARES!)
2nd) 1781 - Henry Flint - like last December's 'explosion Dredd' this just SCREAMS 'comics' in the best way.
3rd) 1786 - John Burns - Glorious. How we'll remember Dante. Top of the World.
Special mention to Ben Whilsher's crowded covers (1768, 1792, 1796) which may not get many votes but, like Henry Flint, have a great sense of composition to grab the eye.
Dammit we need 10 votes.
At the moment I'm thinking...
1). 1810 (Clint Langley's Ro-busters)
2). 1808 (Edmund Bagwell)
3). 1770 - (Leigh Gallagher)
but could easily have chosen a dozen other favourites.
1) 1787
2) 1802
3) 1774
1789 - John Burns' Dante
1806 - Nick Percival's Brass Sun
1777 - Jon Davis-Hunt's Age of the Wolf
I could of easily picked 10 others.
I've taken my time over this, but my list hasn't changed for 24 hours so I'll go with.
1791 - Simon Fraser - just so bold and wonderfully evocative of what it represents and perfect for the final Dante
1771b - Mike McMahon - I'm a sucker for a Tharg cover and this is a particularly good one
1805 - D'Israeli - I know 1811 has all the pizazz but this is just so... magnificent!
I'd just like to mention Chris Weston's 1771a cover. It'd have been a sure win BUT for the fact that we've seen the wrap around version it should have been and forever this one will always be a case of what could have been.
My first full solar year of aquiring 2000ad and my first ever forum post!
3 points - Simon Fraser 1791
2 points - D'izzy 1811
1 points - Henry Flint 1781
Some mind-bendingly good covers all round. But the final Dante cover was just totally right.
1. 1799
2.1812
3.1787
That is all.
1. 1771a
2. 1772
3. 1767
Hmmm, naming no names but there's a fair few less than brilliant covers in that lot...
As for my favourites I'd go for:
1. 1767 - Absalom/Trevallion
2. 1771b - Tharg/McMahon
3. 1791 - Dante/Fraser
1. 1811
2. 1771a
3. 1781
1. 1811--D'Israeli/Low Life wraparound. Design, scale, color, composition, excitement, comedy: wonderful.
2. 1791--Simon Fraser/Dante. Gorgeous on its own, striking because the world is so identifiably designed that we can immediately tell that the important thing about this image is who's absent from it.
3. 1775--McCarthy/Zaucer. Expresses very clearly the wonderful thing we're about to get. Plus nobody else in the WORLD uses that color scheme.
1. 1811 D'Israeli - Low Life.
2. 1767 Tiernen Trevallion - Absalom.
3. 1772 Jon Davis-Hunt - Age of the Wolf.
Oh god. How can a man possibly choose?
1. 1767 (Trevallion) - Trevallion draws some seriously gorgeous covers. I want this and the cover to the Absolom Ghosts of London TP as posters. Please Tharg. Please.
2. 1772 (Davis-Hurt) - This one was my desktop wallpaper for a good chunk of the year. I just really like Davis-Hurt's style here. Even though Age of the Wolf isn't as good as it could be, it always looks really nice.
3. 1781 (Flint) - For a pin-up cover which heralded an all too brief revival of some great villians... this was a really great cover.
Honorable Mention
1771a (Weston) - Doesn't make the cut even though it is amazing cover. Mostly because... I wish it was the full wrap around cover version we got the second half latter as a pin-up
1. 1802
2. 1771a
3. 1767
1. 1811 D'Israeli
2. 1801 Clint Langley
3. 1804 Cliff Robinson
1. 1807 - If a cover's supposed to get you curious about what's inside AND manages to kick you in the balls with a size 12 steel-toed boot of absolute fucking badass, this is the one.
2. 1775 - C'mon folks. Brendan McCarthy. That is all.
3. 1771 - Should have been #1 but I wanted the whole thing as a cover, not half.
So many great covers this year - reflecting the stellar content of the Prog. Choosing three favourites is tricky, but my highlights are these:
1st 1811, D'Israeli
2nd 1745, McCarthy
3rd 1771a, Chris Weston
Thanks again for all the hard work this year, Pete!
:thumbsup:
An incredibly tough choice this year but after a lot of thinking I'm going for:
1. 1771A
2. 1781
3. 1804
I tip my hat to all of the artists though, as the standard was really high and made choosing just three almost impossible.
Top three:
#1. 1791 by Simon Fraser. Not the most instantly striking but, on reflection, packs a real punch and has a lovely, sunset colour scheme.
#2. 1767 by Tiernen Trevallion. A bustling, busy cover which really uses the contrast in colour beautifully.
#3. 1781 by Henry Flint. Lovely stuff.
No room in the list for D'Israeli or a wonderfully colourful McCarthy? Strewth mate.
Well that was hard. I spread them out all over the floor and whittled them down through much wailing and gnashing of teeth. My final three surprised me:
1-1804
2 -1807
3 - 1767
And I'd like to award a wooden spoon to 1765 for what is possibly the worst cover of all time
Regarding Flint's Dark Judges, am I the only one put off by the "Weeee're Baack" that was on the actual cover?
QuoteRegarding Flint's Dark Judges, am I the only one put off by the "Weeee're Baack" that was on the actual cover?
Personally I loved it. Let me do this...
(http://img62.imageshack.us/img62/9531/whyasheep.jpg)
(Which was a reference to this (http://www.pauljholden.com/blog/2012/04/28/just-one-page/))
3. 1802
2. 1783
1. 1811
3) 1771a Chris Weston
2) 1781 Henry Flint
1) 1791 Si Fraser
After much pontificating and pondering:
1) 1811 - wonderful D'Israeli
2) 1774 - stunning Mark Harrison
3) 1791 - melancholy Simon Fraser
Mega thanks to Pete Wells for his 'covers blog' ( congratulations on the KTT).
So many wonderful covers this year, finally settled on these three.
1 1791
2 1800
3 1771b
filip
1. 1767
2- 1781
3- 1792
Might as well toss my hat into the ring. A horribly difficult choice this year, there are easily another 15 that could have made the list...
Deep breath, here we go:
1 - Colin MacNei... I mean Ben Willsher's 1802, pure, in your face Dredd! Ben even managed to fool me that he'd painted this one...
2 - Simon Fraser's final Dante cover of 1791. When this came through my letterbox I got goosebumps. Sometimes I look at it and feel sad, other times it fills me full of hope! A really suprising, intelligent cover.
3 - Karl Richardson's double tapping Dredd of 1783, day of chaos indeed!
Coverbah(tm), this vote supposed to be enjoyable!
HM - Clint Langley for the amazing Swamp Thing cover and his b&w Hammerstein. Amazing!
A tough choice again this year, but after a lot of agonising here we go...
1st: Tiernan for 1767's Absalom. Wonderful.
2nd: Ben for 1802's Dredd. Iconic.
3rd: D'israeli's 1805. Frank. No more need be said.
Honorable mention. JDH's 1772.
1. 1811- D'Israeli 'Moonshot'
2. 1767- Trevallion 'The Big Smoke'
3. 1781- Henry 'God Child' Flint 'Weee Haaave Reeturrned!'
My choices.
1st 1771a. Pure genius. The full version has been my screen wallpaper for an absloute age.
2nd 1772. Just love this one.
3rd 1776. Another Weston. He is fast becoming one of my top art droids.
V
My son's choices.
1st place. 1801. It really stood out and looked real.
2nd place. 1774. They really looked like they were fighting with the humans and the ships.
3rd place. 1772. It looked like the werewolf has trashed the city and the hunter is trying to kill it.
Robbie
1st) 1811 - the God City rises! gorgeous colouring.
2nd) 1802 - the detail in a simple idea was amazing
3rd) 1791 - after the bombast, a moment of quiet contemplation
a stonking year alround.
The votes are in from the BURNS household jury>>>>> they are as follows:
in 3RD place with 1 point: prog 1781 Henry Flint Dark Judges
in 2ND place with 2 points is: prog 1774 MArk Harrison Flesh
and in 1ST placae with 3 points is : prog 1771a Chris Weston 2000AD character montage.
Thus concludes the verdict from Sunny and Dry Ayrshire Area! :D
1; 1774
2; 1801
3;1789
1: 1811 by D'Israeli. This blew me away when I unwrapped it but the extra surge of thrill-power when I finished reading and discovered it continued on the back was unparalleled.
2: 1791 by Simon Fraser. A beautiful capstone to 15 years of storytelling.
3: 1767 by Tiernan Trevallion. Because Absalom's kicking a puppy.
Ben Willsher's covers to 1792, 1796 and 1802 very nearly made the cut, as did Simon Parr's 1799 and Chris Weston's 1771a.
No1 : Prog 1811 by D'Israeli. Incredible bit of work. I loved it even more after reading the breakdown of its creation on the Covers Blog.
No2 : Prog 1771a by Chris Weston. A sort of homage to that classic image of old by Bolland and that other classic cover of old by Colin McNiel. Just a beautiful labour of love from the Weston droid!
No3 : Prog 1767 by Tiernen Trevallion. Superb image. Love the detail. Love the colours. Love it all. :)
1802 3rd
1787 2nd
1767 1st
The choice of first is easy enough, but the rest is near impossible!
1. 1771a
2. 1775
3. 1781
BUMP!
Just to remind you the closing date for this is midnight TONIGHT! It's a close run race at the minute so your vote can make all the difference!
Hope you have honed your skills on your abacus this year Pete.
V
Here they all are in order (annual dispute over which side Prog 2012 / 2013 falls on notwithstanding).
(http://futureshockd.files.wordpress.com/2013/01/one.jpg)
That image is 11 meg. :o Mods might want to change it to a link before it bankrupts people on mobiles
BPP. It's prog 2013 not 2012
If you look at Pete's first post (after all he is running the vote) it is all there.
His maths may be a little dodgy but this is one of his babies and Prog 2012 was in the previous years nominations.
V
I know that vzzbux - i do the image for something else and view 2012 as part of the years covers rather than 2013 - mentioned it in the post.
Am sure everyone can blank out muddy-dredd-tharg and substitute Bagwell's Kirby Tharg in their minds eye.
CLOSED!!!
Thanks everyone, mathematically shonky results to follow!