So my alien editor, The Mighty Tharg says to me, "Leigh, you're the most handsome artist I have, and I need a cover for part 3 of Defoe:The London Hanged, but I know you're pretty pressed for time, so I was thinking of offering it to someone else..."
And I was like, "Nooooooooooooooooo!!!!!! I can fit it in honest! Don't get someone else to draw my baby! And thanks for calling me handsome!"
So he was like, "Ok, I was thinking of Defoe surrounded by the zombies like at the end of episode 2."
And I was like, "Cool! I had an image in my head of the leader of the zombies lurched over Defoe with zombies hanging from his fingertips, like a puppeteer. Goes with the theme of The London Hanged. How's this rough for you?"
Then Tharg was like, "That's brilliant Leigh! Not only are you really, really good looking, but you're also brainy to think of such a clever idea. Get to it!"
And then I shook his Gibbleschlong and got to work! First with some photo reference! Look at me all macho!
Then some pencils....
And look! Inks!
Then I whack it in Photoshop to colour! Due to having not much time, I went for a simple colour scheme, trying to pass it off as clever design.... sssshhhh, don't tell anyone....
But knowing that the glaring red may be too similar to a previous Defoe cover I did, as shown here, I thought I'd give Tharg an alternative, and so did this light blue version....
Tharg was happy to use the red version , and you can see the final cover with text at the start of this post!
2000AD Prog 1952, featuring Defoe: The London Hanged, written by Pat Mills, drawn by me, and lettered by Annie Parkhouse,is now available in all good shops and digitally online at the 2000AD website here!!!
Buh Byyyyyeeeeeee!!!!
