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Creator Spotlight: Kev Crossley homages classic 2000AD artists for Lockdown Project

By John Freeman on June 27, 2020

2000AD artist Kev Crossley - Lockdown Project Montage

2000AD artist Kev Crossley has been distracting himself during lockdown with a series of cover homages to various creators, replicating classic covers in his own superb style.

Posted to Facebook and elsewhere, his smashing “Lockdown Project” tips the hat to artists such as Mick McMahon, Ron Smith and others.

“I learned to draw as a teenager by reading, then copying 2000AD.,” explains Kev of the project. “During lockdown work has been.. patchy! I have a few commissions on the go, but I needed to make myself busy around this work.

“Thus, I thought I’d do something I’ve been thinking about doing for years… my versions of some of my favourite 2000AD covers!

“I love the originals,” he emphasises, “but with these I wanted to produce something that honoured the spirit of what those artists did, while giving myself license to go a bit nuts in my own fashion. Hope you like looking at them as much as I enjoyed making them!”

Kev Crossley’s homage to 2000AD Prog 349 by Kev O’Neill. “By Grud, I love that cover,” says Kev.

Kev Crossley’s homage to 2000AD Prog 377 by Ron Smith. Kev says the cover “was the first 2000AD comic I ever saw, and it made a lasting impression. So I thought I'd include it in my current 'Lockdown Project'. I can't do better than Ron, so I didn't even try to emulate his inking style. Instead I riffed off his composition, re-sizing and re-arranging it to better fit this A4 template.” — Kev Crossley’s homage to 2000AD Prog 377 by Ron Smith. Kev says the cover “was the first 2000AD comic I ever saw, and it made a lasting impression. So I thought I’d include it in my current ‘Lockdown Project’. I can’t do better than Ron, so I didn’t even try to emulate his inking style. Instead I riffed off his composition, re-sizing and re-arranging it to better fit this A4 template.”

Kev Crossley’s homage to 2000AD Prog 464 by Brett Ewins. “'This one also serves as Part One of my long overdue homage series to the great Brett Ewins.,” says Kev. “I never got a chance to meet him, but I loved his work on Rogue, Dredd, Bad Company and Anderson. “I loved the cover he did for prog 464, so I re-worked his original composition, and created a whole new set of building structures. After producing the initial sketch I didn't refer to Brett's version again, and inked it 'blind'. Some kind folk compared my inking on this to early Bryan Talbot, which was humbling to hear, but I can't actually say where my inking style really comes from here. “But.. here's to Brett.. one of my heroes… (hope you'd approve mate!)” — Kev Crossley’s homage to 2000AD Prog 464 by Brett Ewins. “’This one also serves as Part One of my long overdue homage series to the great Brett Ewins.,” says Kev. “I never got a chance to meet him, but I loved his work on Rogue, Dredd, Bad Company and Anderson. “I loved the cover he did for prog 464, so I re-worked his original composition, and created a whole new set of building structures. After producing the initial sketch I didn’t refer to Brett’s version again, and inked it ‘blind’. Some kind folk compared my inking on this to early Bryan Talbot, which was humbling to hear, but I can’t actually say where my inking style really comes from here. “But.. here’s to Brett.. one of my heroes… (hope you’d approve mate!)”

Kev Crossley’s homage to 2000AD Prog 474 by Kev O’Neill. “This prog flopped through my letterbox about six months after I started reading the comic and it just blew me away,” Kev recalls. “How the hell, I thought, I could follow in Kev's footsteps with this I have no idea!! But I did it anyway. For some reason I decided to give 'Judge Dredd' a bunch of art material themed accoutrements.. (tubes of paint instead of bullets etc.) He also has a paintgun. Honestly I have no idea why. (Blame Kev O'Neill… the humour in his art had a lasting effect on my own art.)” — Kev Crossley’s homage to 2000AD Prog 474 by Kev O’Neill. “This prog flopped through my letterbox about six months after I started reading the comic and it just blew me away,” Kev recalls. “How the hell, I thought, I could follow in Kev’s footsteps with this I have no idea!! But I did it anyway. For some reason I decided to give ‘Judge Dredd’ a bunch of art material themed accoutrements.. (tubes of paint instead of bullets etc.) He also has a paintgun. Honestly I have no idea why. (Blame Kev O’Neill… the humour in his art had a lasting effect on my own art.)”

Kev Crossley’s homage to 2000AD Prog 148 by Mick McMahon. “I literally spent two weeks agonising over whether I should do this one at all,” he says

After 15 years designing video games, Kev Crossley turned his hand to illustration, contributing to numerous D20 gaming books alongside work for comics including 2000AD, Mam Tor and Kiss4k. His first published comics work appeared in Event Horizon, back in 2005.

Also an accomplished nature artist, his art and writing has appeared in over twenty art books published by Quarto and Ilex among others, and he is the author and illustrator of three books of his own; Fantasy Clip Art (2006), 101 Top Tops From Professional Fantasy Painters (2011) and Character Design From The Ground Up (2014).

Kev also writes and illustrates regularly for Imagine FX magazine and affiliated publications, and in 2012 he illustrated Ian Livingstone’s 30th Anniversary FF title, Blood Of The Zombies. In 2015, he produced illustrations for Total Warhammer and Jonathan Green’s Alice’s Nightmare In Wonderland game book (available here digitally on AmazonUK).

• Check out Kev’s work at www.kevcrossley.com | Facebook | Follow Kev on Twitter @KevfCrossley

John Freeman

The founder of downthetubes, which he established in 1998. John works as a comics and magazine editor, writer, and on promotional work for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. He is currently editor of Star Trek Explorer, published by Titan – his third tour of duty on the title originally titled Star Trek Magazine.

Working in British comics publishing since the 1980s, his credits include editor of titles such as Doctor Who Magazine, Babylon 5 Magazine, and more. He also edited the comics anthology STRIP Magazine and edited several audio comics for ROK Comics. He has also edited several comic collections, including volumes of “Charley’s War” and “Dan Dare”.

He’s the writer of “Pilgrim: Secrets and Lies” for B7 Comics; “Crucible”, a creator-owned project with 2000AD artist Smuzz; and “Death Duty” and “Skow Dogs” with Dave Hailwood.