Above: Hank is singled out for a little justice department advice.
I contacted Dave Evans on 15/11/13 to see if he had any Dredd scripts for me to draw. He sent me a script written by the talented Mr. Richmond Clements. I was of course happy to accept and the commissioning email was sent on 15/11/13. I started the artwork on 14/12/13 and had it all finished by 30/12/13. Bolt 01 lettered the artwork by 05/01/14 and the story was published on 01/07/14 in Zarjaz #21.
The story revolves around the life of mutant 'Hank three Ears' and details his adventures which lead to him meeting Dredd on more than one occassion. I thought I would draw Hank with three eyes instead of three ears to add a little ironic humour to the character.
Above: Once I've read the script a couple of times I like to draw quick thumbnail sketches which give me an idea of whats in each page.
Above: Using the thumbnail sketches I then create more detailed rough page layouts
like the sketch above for page one.
Above: From the rough page layouts I can then start penciling the finished page pencils.
As you can see the finished pencils for page one are quite close to the rough page layouts.
Panel two above is a flash back scene as Hank remembers his first meeting with Dredd. I decided to draw this panel in a slightly more comical style to the rest of the story. I wanted to try and suggest how Hank had built this memory into fantastic super-heroic proportions.
Above: Rough layouts for page two. As usual I make sure there is enough space for all the text bubbles. Although on this occassion I have not drawn them on the layouts.
Above: Finished pencils for page two. If you compare this to the page two rough page layouts you can see that I made a few few changes to the panel designs. I decided that panels one and four needed to be bigger so that I could add more detail.
Above: Rough layouts for page three. Once I've finished a rough pagelayout I always re-read the script to make sure each panel contains exactly what the scriptwriter has asked for.
Above: Page three finished pencils almost exactly the same as the rough pagelout...rare.
Above: Rough page layouts for page four. This was a tough page to design as every one of the five panels had a important things going on in them...as well as text to go on top.
Above: Finished pencils for page four. I decided to make panel one the main panel for visual impact.
I reasoned that it was the first time that we get to see the bad guys and therefore I wanted to put lots of detail into the panel.
Obviously that would mean that the other four panels would have to be smaller which would require streamlining the detail as well as providing what was asked for in the script.
Furthermore I had to remember that this story would have to work at its published size of A5 which is about half the published size of 2000ad.
To protect the story I have not included the pencils for page five.
Above: Should you wish to read 'Hanks Tale' it appears in 'Zarjaz #21' which can be seen above with the awesome Dredd cover by 'Patrick Goddard' and coloured by Owen Watts.
You can buy Zarjaz #21 via the 'Future Quake' online shop here.
Reviews for Zarjaz #21 can be found via this link here.
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