CREATING 2000AD'S AQUILA!!!

Hey again,

So enough time has passed since the Aquila Prologue (written by Gordon Rennie, art by me, colours by Dylan Teague, letters by Simon Bowland and logo by Simon Parr) debuted in 2000AD's Prog 2012 (bloggy post HERE), and I'm made up to say it's been VERY well received! So an overly long, uncomfortable awkward hug to everyone that's raved about it!

Got a bunch of stuff to share with you here so gather around...apart from you there...you smell funny.

I'm hoping that I nailed the design of his face first time, though that was probably due to all the research time I had to spend looking up "hot black men"...luckily Nik didn't walk in on me...

Next up, we have a pile of rough designs we considered for Ammit The Devourer--an Egyptian demon known to be part Lion, hippo and crocodile. We eventually settled for a design that was practically none of those things and I came up with a concept that highlighted "The Devourer of Souls" aspect...

This is the one we settled on:

Next we have the making of the final colour page you see at the top of this post, featuring Aquila and The Devourer. Gordon scripted:

PAGE TEN

Panel 1

Splash-page shot. Aquila, grimly walking away from the burning building he was held captive in. Shapes behind him in the smoke and flames.  The Devourer. The Egyptian Scales of Judgement. Images from Aquila’s past and (maybe even) future; battles, burning cities, monsters, gods and demons, emperors and conquerors, supernatural creatures from Ancient World mythology. Go wild here, Leigh. If we like the look of it, it’s going into a future story.

CAPTION:

From out of rebellion, a reaper will come.

Down from cruel cross, an avenger descends.

Servant of a demon, slayer of kings,

Hunter of gods and men.

The world will be this gladiator’s arena, 

And he shall know no rest,

Until his task is done.

• LOST FRAGMENT OF THE SIBYLLINE PROPHECIES, COMPOSED CIRCA 400BC.

Loose pencils:

Inks:

And GLORIOUS colours by that talented twelve year old boy,Dylan Teague:

Which brings us to the final published page lettered by my buddy Simon Bowland, seen at the beginning of this post.Gotta say, I'm pretty damn chuffed with how it turned out!

 I'm hoping to be getting the first script of the full series from Gordon in the next couple of weeks and I honestly can't wait!

Catch you soon.

L