Wrap It Up

[Funt Solo]

Wrap It Up

2000 AD has had 82 wraparound covers, the JD Megazine has had 21 and there have been approximately (depending on what you count) 20 used for special spin-off publications.

Naturally, your greatest desire is to see a chart that shows how common they've been over the years:

[Funt Solo]

01 - Conjuring Thrills

The first wraparound cover, in 1979's prog 144, sets a template whereby Tharg is conjuring up thrills for the benefit and amazement of humanity:




It does that by borrowing (and acknowledging) a classic image from Close Encounters of the Third Kind (presumably rendered on the prog by John Burns from a photograph by Ronald Grant):




The top half is Bolland's rendition of the current (ish) thrill line-up. Oddly for a wraparound, the big-hitters are on the back cover, and Tharg shares prime position on the front with Ro-Jaws and Walter. Hammerstein and Mongrel (from ABC Warriors, but not in this prog) stand alongside Dredd, Slippery Jim DiGriz (from The Stainless Steel Rat) and Black Hawk. Wolfie Smith didn't make the cut:



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David Hine provides another Betelgusian conjuration for 1993's Winter Special, which features some of the mid-90s less regarded thrillage. Top-right is Tracer (perhaps an inspiration for Skip Tracer?), sharing the front with Dredd and Maniac 5. On the back we get Maniac 6, Janus (the Psi we love to loathe), Brigand Doom (whiffy Turpin-hatted zombie freedom fighter) and Tao de Moto:



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The Best of 2000 AD Special Edition [2] from (approximately) 1994 is a glorious affair from Colin MacNeil, that includes lots of familiar faces. Don't be fooled - that's not Zombo on the back next to Tyranny Rex, but The Visible Man!



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Later in '94, Paul Johnson splatters some blood over the horror-themed cover of the sixth Winter Special:



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Lastly for this collection, we project ourselves to 2004 and Clint Langley's cover for prog 1400. You can't keep a good thrill down, so Mongrel, Hammerstein and Dredd are still with us. There's something not quite right about Alpha's helmet, but then, there was only ever one artist who could manage that properly.



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Next: Dredd's under pressure!

[Le Fink]

Looking forward to seeing more of these, thanks for posting Funt!

[Blue Cactus]

Nice thread, most enjoyable so far Funt. That Colin MacNeil Mongrol is just great.

[Funt Solo]

That Colin MacNeil Mongrol is just great.

Here's a close-up. (I love how embarrassed The Visible Man is.)

[Colin YNWA]

Oh this is going to be fun.

Yep agree its very cool how embarrassed Visible Man is.

Interesting the picture from Close Encounters is by John Burns (or presumed so). I assume that's based on the Barney credits (or similar source). I wonder how the work was split its hard to tell from the rendering as it so tight to the photo.

[Funt Solo]

Interesting the picture from Close Encounters is by John Burns (or presumed so). I assume that's based on the Barney credits (or similar source). I wonder how the work was split its hard to tell from the rendering as it so tight to the photo.

Entirely based on the Barney credit, yes. That doesn't tell us much. I suppose for a lot of the early years, it's never entirely clear who's doing the coloring (either on the covers or on the center-spreads). I assumed that the Barney credit was referring to a splitting up of the line art.

[Colin YNWA]

Interesting the picture from Close Encounters is by John Burns (or presumed so). I assume that's based on the Barney credits (or similar source). I wonder how the work was split its hard to tell from the rendering as it so tight to the photo.

Entirely based on the Barney credit, yes. That doesn't tell us much. I suppose for a lot of the early years, it's never entirely clear who's doing the coloring (either on the covers or on the center-spreads). I assumed that the Barney credit was referring to a splitting up of the line art.

Yeah that makes a lot of sense. Would be fascinating to know for sure.

[Swerty]

Is the Bolland artwork in the recent max edition or is it one of the stolen.

[Swerty]

I've had time to google the Bolland artwork above and it is one of his missing pieces

[JayzusB.Christ]

Guy Pearse WAS Sláine well before Harry Styles* was in the running. 



*Sorry, it's a 2015 forum thing.

[Funt Solo]

Tech-report: you might have noticed that my Winter Special renders (up-thread) are a bit blurry. That's because I couldn't find any larger than 640 (pixels wide), and have posted them at 700. So, if anyone has any better renders of those, feel free to post 'em.

In the case of MacNeil's "Best of" (featuring Guy Pearce as Slaine, as noted) I couldn't find any online image that included the back cover or the spine art, so that's my own scan, hodge-podged together. (Again, if you know of a better one...)

[Funt Solo]

02 - Under Pressure

1980's prog 169 provides our second wraparound, and it's an odd fish. Tagged as "A Scene From the Civil War in Post-Atomic America", it's got nothing to do with anything inside the comic, but is instead depicting a scene from an only hinted at past conflict.




Inside the prog we're in the middle of The Judge Child saga, in the middle of an unconnected conflict on a far distant world.




At the time, though, this cover was compelling because it spoke to a history and a depth that other comics didn't have. It's as if you bought the original Star Wars movie on VHS but the box had a scene from the clone wars. It doesn't hurt that it's a McMahon, either, with Dredd standing up in the middle of a hail of bullets, as if they can't touch him.




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So, was Robin Smith thinking of the McMahon cover when he created the layout sketch for Bolland's classic prog 236 cover from 1981? This layout was presented in the floppy with Megazine 448:




This scan is missing a sliver of the left side, and the crease is clearly visible:




This one fills in the missing part from the previous one, and has a less noticeable crease. Notice the detail on the Block Mania lettering, and the texture visible in the group of perps on the left - especially Siouxsie Sioux's hair.




This tidied up version looks clean and neat, but loses a lot of the detail mentioned in the previous image. Also, the price is in the wrong place. It's such a surreal image, which marks it out as iconic. Why is Dredd standing on top of a block? The flying saucer things are great, but don't actually feature inside (like, ever).






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Next: slippery shenanigans...

[JayzusB.Christ]

My Grud, it's a stunning piece of work all the same, isn't it? Pure, distilled Mega City 1.

I've always loved how MC1 tends to use good old fashioned bullets rather than rubbish Star Wars lasers. They just feel a lot more dangerous and nasty, and Bolland nails it here as always.

[Funt Solo]

So good. I had the mug, but it went the way of all things.