2000 AD brings you the galaxy’s greatest stories and art in thrill-powered tales every single week – but who are the droids behind these tales? Well, each month, we’ll sit down with one of the creators who’ve been responsible for keeping the thrill-power set to maximum to get those answers – this is the 2000 AD Creator Files !
We’ll tell you more about the artists and writers who keep the Prog and the Judge Dredd Megazine a Thrill-full read! For over 45 years, 2000 AD has been bringing you the best new talent out there and now we’re talking to one of the breakthrough Judge Dredd artists of the last few years… Jake Lynch .
It might seem to many that Jake Lynch has been an art droid for the longest time. But he actually only really broke through into Tharg’s workshop for droids in 2014, so it’s been less than a decade giving us great art and establishing himself as one of those rarest of things, a modern-day great Dredd artist.
So, if you’re ready, strap yourselves in for another Creator Files – and this one’s a long one. Grab a drink of your choice and settle down for a while. It’s long, but it’s damn good reading.
Okay then, are you’re sitting comfortably? Then we’ll begin…
Jake Lynch, welcome to the Creator Files. How are you?
JAKE LYNCH: I’m good thanks. A little nervous, this will be my first deep probing and I understand you to be very thorough Droid.
Let’s go right back to the beginning – where were you born, what was childhood like, and what did comics mean to you when you were young?
JL: I was born around London but we left when I was 4 and moved to the county of Norfolk, which I’ve always considered home despite what locals tell me. I’m a complete bumpkin.
The first part of my childhood was wonderful, though I think I may have been a bit of a weird kid and often wonder if I caused any concern. Very introverted and socially awkward (I hated crowds and noise) and, if I’m honest, a bit of a ‘mummy’s boy’. But that was fine, we lived in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by fields, a river and trees. A very traditional upbringing I guess. In those days, dads were for discipline and Mums were for everything else – I was very happy.
Sadly, that all changed on my 13th birthday when my mum died from breast cancer. She had been ill for a few years but unfortunately, in order to protect us children, we never knew how ill. A few years after that we had also lost our home. It was one of those turning points when you came to realise that all the ‘pillars’ of your world, the foundations you always considered ‘solid’, were really only ever a push away from collapsing inward. Which is exactly what I spent the next 10-15 years of my life doing.
So, a brilliant childhood and a bit of a shitty youth. I genuinely believe I was made stronger by it, but it took years of tempering to get there.
Jake, you have our sympathies for the loss of your mom at such a young age. It’s a horrible thing to happen to you or anyone. But let’s use this moment to remind anyone reading this to get yourselves checked regularly. And if you have a bit of spare change, support some cancer charities such as Cancer Research UK and Worldwide Cancer Research . Oh, and Fuck Cancer.
An example of the art that was to come – Jake’s Dredd from a Vice Press/2000 AD print for the 40th anniversary of 2000 AD
What were you reading at an early age and where did it come from?
JL: I was lucky enough to have parents who encouraged me to read comics too. My dad was a huge fan of things like Asterix , so we grew up reading them, also, assorted super-hero comics, Batman , Spider-Man , which I enjoyed but never sucked me in. Yes, MAD Magazine, Beano and the like. Our own first proper foray into comics was Look-In , all about the TV shows of the time.
I was 5 when the first Star Wars came out and it changed my life, but it was a number of years after that when my brother came home with our first copy of 2000 AD . It became an obsession of mine, keying into that Star Wars stuff that was flying about my brain. I simply didn’t know that such a thing existed.
Every weekend my brother and I would have to take turns over who would read it first. Once that drama was over, the Prog would disappear and we would have to find where dad had taken it. 2000 AD worked on so many levels – we were all reading it.
After all that awful stuff happened, we had become really quite poor*, but despite this, 2000 AD was the one thing my dad would make sure we had every week and with the whirlwind that seemed to constantly blow across our lives in those early days, it became a real rock for me. A ‘constant’ to disappear into every week. I think it did for a lot of people.
*I still have a photocopy of a cheque for £17.89 on my studio wall. My father, who had a rather dark sense of humour, made it back in the day. It was once all the money we had in the world and is a constant reminder to me about appreciating what you have.
And here’s that cheque, thanks to Jake for sending it over…
Well, I’ve used one of the few messages to Tharg that I’m allowed to send every year to check about this and he’s come back to tell me that your brother and especially your dad are both officially Krill Tro Thargo. Absolute stars the pair of them.
Okay then, so that was how you got into 2000 AD , but when was it? What Prog number if you remember?
JL: I think the first Prog would have been early 300’s. I think we caught the end of Trapper Hag then into Star Born Thing . I was hooked from the start, I think it was all the different stories. I remember great big connections being made in my brain when I understood a Time Twister or Future Shock , but Dredd was always king closely followed by Rogue Trooper and Strontium Dog .
The next few years were spent collecting everything we could get hold of, filling in the blanks of what had happened before.
A couple of the first Progs Jake ever saw – and damn fine ones as well! Prog 307, the final Trapper Hag Dredd episode, cover by Steve Dillon Prog 310, the first Starborn Thing episode, cover by Mick McMahon – not surprisingly one of Jake’s influences
And as an artist who I think we can all agree is very much one of the great modern Dredd artists, what was your introduction to Dredd? What particular tales made you a fan? What artists on Dredd really made you sit up and think that this was sheer brilliance?
JL: That’s incredibly kind of you. That’s not something I feel.
Of course you don’t – no art droid we’ve ever talked to thinks they’re any good. It just seems to be part of the artistic mindset!
JL: I love that I have a job that I constantly learn from and get to go on adventures with my childhood hero.
There are far too many artists to name and I fear I will miss a load out now. As a very young reader it was artists like Brian Bolland, Ron Smith, Dave Gibbons, Brett Ewins. Then my tastes grew into the likes of the mighty Mike McMahon, Kev O’Neill, Brendan McCarthy, Carlos Ezquerra. Soon the latter started overtaking the former for me. 2000 AD had always embraced different styles. Indeed, the freedom we are allowed works, I believe, as one of its many strengths. I’ve loved them all and still do. An extra special mention to Cam Kennedy too, who straddled both camps for me and whose artwork has always appeared effortlessly fluid.
I could keep just throwing out names here, but I won’t. You all know them already, you read them too!
Just some of the favourite artists from young and slightly older Jake – Top row – Brian Bolland, Ron Smith, Brett Ewins Bottom row – Kevin O’Neill, Carlos Ezquerra, Cam Kennedy
Were you an artist from a young age? What path did that take you on and were your parents encouraging of your talents?
JL: Apparently so but you don’t really think about it at the time. My Grandfather was both a painter and commercial artist. My mother was very creative. My father couldn’t draw for toffee but worked in advertising in the ’60s (a real ‘madman’) and I grew up being visited by loads of creative people.
I guess I never considered myself any good by comparison to all these people and their stories. But my parents were always encouraging, allowing me to do loads of 2000 AD- related murals on my bedroom walls.
I had loads of teachers tell me I had some ability right from primary school, but when you are in it, you can’t see it yourself. I only knew I loved to draw.
On a side note, I ended up playing in a band with one of my old secondary school art teachers many years after leaving and we became good friends, even though it took me a long time to stop calling him Mr Lawson instead of just John. They could all play – I sucked and like to think I dragged them all down to my level.
If I’m right, you went on to art college to study media with the hopes of becoming a storyboard artist? Where did the inspiration for that come from and why did you not pursue a career in comics from this point?
JL: Wow, you have done your research! Is it you I hear in the bushes late at night?
Ooops, busted. But then again, if I don’t do my research, I’ll have Tharg to answer to!
JL: Yes, I studied Media. It was a very new course at the time and in retrospect was not the right one for me. I don’t think I knew what I wanted to be, but did know you were supposed to go on to college. Yes, storyboarding was something that interested me a great deal. Indeed, I have done a little since then and would always be keen to do more. I also didn’t know you could get a job in comics let alone how to go about it at the time!
Due to the earlier events, school/education was not a particularly happy time for me. I was a bit of a ‘grey-man’ just trying to get through it, hanging out in the background. I was obliged to change schools midway through secondary education and didn’t really come out of my shell so to speak.
More of the art yet to come from young Lynch – An expanded version of Jake’s cover to 2000 AD Prog 2147 (2019)
JL: Similarly, with art I didn’t know what it was good for. The idea that you could have a job drawing pictures seemed so far out of reach to an introverted, grieving kid living in Norfolk. I ended up dropping out of college. Looking back, I truly wish I had stuck it out. I had been approached by the Fine Arts course leaders who had seen my life drawing and wanted me to transfer, but by then it was too late. There are too few times in life where you can purely pursue your interests and I just blew my opportunity.
My dad was NOT best pleased…
Suffice it to say, the upshot was (roll of thunder) I was going to have to get a job (‘ulp)!
Yep, this would be your ‘wilderness years’ where you were out of comics, out of art, and working other jobs to make money. Where did this take you?
JL: I’ve done loads of different jobs, my first proper one was making UPVC windows, then became a glazer for the same company. That company eventually closed down (possibly due to the low-quality glazing work and manufacture) and I took my redundancy and paid for a crash course driving test which I passed. Now no one was safe. I once crashed and totalled two cars in as many weeks.
My dad was not best pleased… again!
I lived in a village called Great Ryburgh then. And it had a Wine Rack Factory which was where I ended up next. This tiny place received the Queens Award for Export while I worked there. I remember this guy with more medals than chest presenting the award while we all drank really, really cheap wine that made the glands in my neck scream. I started on the line there and ended up a power press operator, running the machines that punched the metals. I think it may have closed down since then as, it turns out, the world only had need for so many wine racks (and possibly historic power press management issues).
From there it was onto Blockbuster Video in my local market town of Fakenham. Ah, Fakenham, once voted the most boring place to live in England. Local legend had it that it was named by the Romans as they were attempting to conquer the Iceni and Britain on the whole. The story goes that, as the Romans were passing by, they saw the locals scrabbling in the mud and said, ‘F*ck ‘em’, and the name stuck.
Looking back, Blockbuster was one of my favourite jobs. I’ve always loved film and I had loads of fun, I also met an extraordinary bloke called Kris Mallett who worked alongside me. If you remind me I’ll tell you a great story about this guy later.
Whatever happened to Blockbuster video? Oh yeah, sorry about that. This was the first large corporation I brought down with my reverse Midas touch.
Yes, I was going to mention that – you really did manage to bring down every company you worked for didn’t you?
More Lynch brilliance and the shape of things to come – detail from the cover to 2000 AD Prog 2239 (2023)
JL: Dotted throughout this time were both short and long periods of labouring on building sites. My old gaffer was not someone you should have been downwind of first thing in the morning and on too many occasions I was caught in the hurricane when I was obliged to hold his ladder.
This building experience ended up with me in France. Labouring on renovation sites, which was one of the best times of my life. Living in tents or caravans, eating awesome food in the local restaurants or cooking great steaks over a fire. I remember getting so drunk with one of the locals in the pouring rain. We ended back at his place drinking his ‘moonshine’ Eau-Du-Vie and playing boules, getting drenched. I was so hungover the next day, we returned to the Bar Tabac, where we had started the previous night, for coffee. The barman was clearing up the slops from the night before and he put them in a glass in front of me as a joke. We laughed then people started crowding round me. Then the local Mayor came in and I was basically peer pressured by the village into drinking it.
It was time to leave. Though it appears that anywhere I have worked soon shuts down, at this point I should say that I am NOT responsible for Brexit. I bloody loved it over there and can’t believe where we are now.
I have done other stuff but perhaps I’ll table that for later as it’ll tie in with freelancing and falling flat on my face.
Were you drawing during this time or had you put down the pens and brushes for good at this point?
JL: I was drawing on and off during this time. I remember quite clearly, after dropping out of college, making a conscious decision to stop drawing, I just couldn’t see the point of it in the ‘real world’. But I came back to it during my Blockbuster years. I was actually pretty good before I stopped and picking it back up came with the realisation that I had forgotten everything. I think this was a real trend for me in my late teens and 20’s. I was still very broken over my mum and every birthday stung like a bitch. I think it did for all of my family – my father could never remember my birthday, he had just erased the whole date from memory, they were really effing awful times.
Looking back it feels a little like I may have been self-sabotaging, but maybe I’ve over-thought it, but failing to move forward or commit was a real trend for me back then.
Though I still didn’t have much of a clue of how to get into comics the idea was becoming more and more appealing. I had access to a Fax Machine (!) and cheekily one night sent a fax to the ‘Nerve Centre’ with a very (VERY) dodgy Dredd pic on it. To my surprise I got a tryout Script in the post a few weeks later. It was the first clue about how to break in. This was during Dave Bishop’s tenure and is some indicator of how slowly the gears turn for me – the script was for Judge Dredd: Lawman of the Future which was being produced to tie in with the Stallone Judge Dredd film, so guess that would have been around the mid ’90s and made me very early 20s
There came a point a few years later where I felt I had truly blown it and quit drawing (I thought) for good, but that’s another story…
CLASS OF ’79, HARRY HESTON, AND NEARLY GETTING THERE…
Class of ’79 #1 & 2 – covers by Rufus Dayglo
Now, we’re towards the end of the 1990s here and you’re back in comics with the Judge Dredd fanzine Class of ’79 .
That first Class of ’79 fanzine came out in 1998? 1999? There’s no definitive date I can see online – Rufus Dayglo’s cover art is dated ’98. That was one of the first of the 2000 AD fanzines – Dogbreath , the Strontium Dog fanzine, came out in 1997. And I’m not sure if there were more that came out before that?
JL: I’m not sure either. I think we were the first, I seem to remember that being said at the time, but, like Rufus, I can’t really remember. Perhaps it was the first Dredd Fanzine maybe? I do remember it being a great fun time though. I also did a cover for Dogbreath and a strip for Zarjaz many years later I think.
Class of ’79 was something that ended up being rather important in terms of the talent involved, many of whom would go on to feature at 2000 AD . Rufus Dayglo, Henry Flint, PJ Holden, Boo Cook, Gary Simpson, plus the late, much missed incendiary talent that was John Hicklenton – although he’d already been published in 2000 AD by then and was in the midst of his phenomenal Nemesis run at the time if I’m right. Similarly Henry had already had some work in 2000 AD at this stage.
And of course – you were there as well.
JL: Ha, yeah, very much in the background to these talents! But, yes, It does blow my mind how many came through and went on to 2000 AD from Class of ’79 in its VERY short run. Henry was already a mainstay but reached out to us to see if he could do something. Stew somehow talked him into drawing a strip.
Yes, Stew – Stewart Perkins, who put it all together and published the two A4 issues, writing as WR Logan. A lifelong 2000 AD fan, he later worked at the comic’s archives and served as an advisor to John Wagner on all things Dredd. And he’s of course immortalised by Wagner as Judge Logan – now Chief Judge Logan .
So, Class of ’79 . How did you get involved and what work did you have in there?
JL: I met Stewart through mutual friend. Stew lived in Norfolk too, out Diss way. I mentioned that we were quite poor and that meant I couldn’t afford to go or stay at comic conventions, so my first meeting with Stew was him coming round my house and taking my portfolio to show on my behalf. I think he sort of took me under his wing.
Stew was ex-Army, very confident and friendly and me being a still quite introverted and insecure individual, we became good friends. He returned with tryouts from Wizards of the Coast and 2000 AD .
Stew and I were also involved with another Dredd Fanzine that he became increasingly frustrated with as he felt nothing was ever happening. He decided he would do it himself and dragged me along with him.
Grainne Forde, Rufus Dayglo and PJ Holden and myself became like the hub of it with Stewart at the head, driving it forward, it soon came together, pulling in so many others as it went.
One of Jake’s great images of Harry Heston from the Class of ’79 days
JL: Andy Diggle had become the assistant editor at 2000 AD at the time and he became a great supporter of us.
Stew and I met John Wagner at the same time at a very small convention (where escapes me). We kipped the night in Stew’s car and were chased off by a caretaker first thing in the morning, when John was guesting. I’ve only ever known John to be a really decent human being. I’ve read all the stories of his ‘straight talking’, but to me he was always incredibly supportive and was really pushing for me to get picked up by 2000 AD .
Were you in there as just a writer (JUST a writer – oh the script droids will love that one!) or did you have any art in there at that point?
JL: I did a lot of the promotional stuff, advertising posters, layout bits and questionnaire kind of things etc. When Rufus came in and stumped up half the print money, a lot of my stuff was dropped. I was going to do both of the covers originally for example. Not a criticism in the least. My art was not strong enough and Rufus’s was simply miles better, it was quite obvious that he was going on to greater things.
I was originally going to do the Harry Heston strip but I asked Stew to see if Henry would be up for it – you just don’t look a gift horse in the mouth!
Two more of Jake’s pieces for Class of ’79 – before being replaced on Harry Heston by Henry Flint and on the cover by Rufus Dayglo!
Ah, yes, Harry Heston – the creation of you and Stewart, with Henry Flint on art – an ape judge that you’ve since managed to work into Dredd canon. We’ll get onto that in a moment.
What were the thoughts of those involved about the creation of the fanzine and the playing in the 2000 AD sandpit?
JL: Part of reaching out to Andy Diggle was to make sure that we could play in the sandpit in the first place and the legal wording stuff. That’s how Andy became one of our supporters. I think we sent him a questionnaire along with our enquiries so he could get a flavour of what we were trying for. The idea was it was a sort of Academy of Law application with joke questions as well as more pertinent ones. I remember there was a blank space that ‘Psi Division’ had supposedly imprinted a psychic image on, with a question of what you saw. Andy wrote that he saw ‘a dog with its head split open’ , so we knew we were going to get along fine.
Part of the questionnaire sent to then 2000 AD editior Andy Diggle, who gave them his blessing
JL: The approach we were taking was to make ’79 a homage to 2000 AD . The Editor would be fictional – WR ‘Whitey’ LOGAN was the first perp Dredd arrested in Prog 2. This also meant we would need a ‘flagship’ character and that really stumped us for a very long time. Heston popped into my head, I’m proud to say, in the bath. I remember a massive grin spreading across my face and I called Stew and told him not to worry but didn’t tell him any more.
We arranged to meet and I still wouldn’t tell him until we had a couple of pints, down one of his locals in the village of Scole.
The story I pitched was VERY different to the superior one that was printed, but we did agree on the character and we named him together – (Dirty) HARRY (Charlton) HESTON.
I think it may be worth mentioning the mighty Gary Simpson who was approached to write the scripts. They were great but Stew said he was obsessed with killing Harry at the end of each one and seemed to ignore any suggestion otherwise! Stew rewrote his first script and I rewrote the second. I don’t know about Stew, but I only lifted two lines from the second (sorry, Gary), but I had a plan that the next strip was going to be a riff on The Cursed Earth Dredd epic.
I wrote the third script but it sits on a hard drive somewhere these days. I remember it had a massive nod to the Burger Wars in it and cannibalism, with one of the crew realising what he had eaten and throwing up. The strip would end with Harry writing in his journal, ‘Sometimes the human race makes you sick’ – BOOM, BOOM (you’re welcome)!
After ’79 ended, I remember saying to Stewart that I would get Heston to crossover somehow. Bearing in mind that I had no foothold into that world I think Stew regarded me as a bit of a dreamer at the time and in truth, with no more ‘79 we were drifting apart.
Lynch’s Harry Heston from Class of ’79
With Class of ’79 , were you doing this thinking it would be a way into 2000 AD as an art droid or was it simply another case of scratching that particular itch to make art?
JL: I think I was. John was rooting for me, and there seemed to be a sort of wave I was riding. I remember I did pencils on a tryout for the Dredd Sex Dolls script, before I knew Andy and he had picked me out of the pile and was pushing me to ink it up.
The problem was, deep down, I had a growing suspicion that I wasn’t very good. I could do a fair Dredd, but I felt I couldn’t do anything else. I think ultimately and after countless tryouts, Andy felt the same.
I remember receiving a large envelope from Andy some time later. There was no note inside just a few pieces of artwork that I had gifted him over time. The wave had crashed and I had wiped out. I knew the ride was over and I didn’t have a bloody clue what to do with the rest of my life – that was the next time I quit drawing.
No one to blame but myself and my inability to see things through again. But I will never forget that sickening feeling in my stomach as I opened that envelope as I walked back from the Post Office.
Oh bloody hell, Jake. You really did come through the hard way, didn’t you?
As far as Class of ’79 and the other great 2000 AD fanzines, including Dogbreath , Zarjaz , and others, what are your thoughts on them?
JL: I think they are great, ALL fanzines are. They are places to cut your teeth, meet like-minded people, and are just a lot of fun. I have no regrets other than losing contact with Stewart over the period after.
And how important is it that 2000 AD , both then and now, through various owners, have always seemed to have taken a hands-off approach to these works using their characters and properties?
JL: It would have been so easy, of course, for 2000 AD to simply say no, not allowed, not with our characters. Instead, over the years, they’ve allowed them to use the characters, even gently promoted them, seen them as something of a proving ground almost.
I think it’s very important to allow a degree of freedom. Imagine having a bunch of people who love something so much that they want to show the world and then telling them no. As long as they are not taking the mick, why not, what’s to lose?
One of Jake’s numerous try-outs – this one sent from Andy Diggle, for the Judge Dredd: Sex Dolls script
THE 2000 TO 2012 YEARS – OUT OF ART, SORT OF…
But at some point you did come back to art – when was this and how did it happen? It was the odd bit of freelancing, wasn’t it?
JL: Well, as I mentioned, through my own ineptitude, I was cut loose with no idea what I was going to do. This started a long period of just sort of wandering about, cleaning work, bar work, and eventually I ended up in care work. I walked past a random care home one day and just walked in. With a bit of training, I took to it quite well and ended up becoming a Senior (running shifts and dispensing medicines sort of thing). Basically rich, private companies give you a couple of extra quid for a massive increase in responsibility. I don’t think I ever made a grand a month despite working full time. But slowly I started finding my feet and it looked like a new direction was opening up for me.
At the same time I met a guy called Paul Bennett who was a local web designer and he ended up introducing me to Photoshop. This was a ‘lightbulb’ moment for me and started my journey back to art.
Also, Senioring also meant I met loads of other healthcare officials and I got a call one day from a district nurse asking me if I would consider applying for a community based palliative care team that was being put together. At the time I didn’t even know what that was, but I had moved on to a not so great care home so there was no stopping me.
Joining the NHS, after private health care, was a revelation to me and for the next 10 to 12 years I was all in. It was the final piece of my puzzle too. I grew up, I put all my old hang ups behind me and learned what seeing things through truly meant. I worked mainly under the district nursing teams (you should see me do a two layer leg bandage, get blood out of an arm or perform CPR), I also did a stint in psychiatrics with children with severe behavioural difficulties. But I didn’t really enjoy it. I found it too step backish whereas I was used to, by this time, pushing forwards. But my main role was in palliative care, supporting patients who chose to die at home and their families through to the other side of it. The DN’s would identify patients they felt were imminent and my team would go in. It was a great honour.
I also started becoming quite proficient with Photoshop and I started feeling that old urge…
It started slowly. My drawing was rubbish, completely blown, but I could manipulate pixels pretty well. Which led me down the path of small bits of graphic design, advertising leaflets, promotional bumf and even Christmas cards for local businesses. Every job was a reinforcing that I could finish things.
A couple of those commercial pieces from Jake – sometimes comics is not enough!
Was it simply the fact that making art was the itch you just had to scratch?
JL: Yes, certainly something was happening. The drawing part of it grew sort of organically, having to do little touch-ups on these images as part of a job, blending stuff together.
And were there any thoughts at this point of making comics?
No, not really, I was sort of finding my place and comics were not part of that. I’m a bit embarrassed to admit that I have a 10 year period of not reading 2000 AD , it wasn’t part of the plan anymore. I was spreading my wings though. I can’t remember which website I used, but you could pick up storyboarding work. Sometimes paid but often not, the work was for producers to secure funding. This semi-professional period saw me getting ripped off left, right and centre, but you do learn very quickly that there are many people out there who, when wanting work, will say anything and deliver absolutely nothing.
But I was also learning.
With so many of the artists in Class of ’79 , their move to the Prog came quite swiftly. For example, PJ Holden and Boo Cook got their first 2000 AD jobs in 2000, pretty much right after Class of ’79 . But you – well, let’s just say you took a little while to move from Class of ’79 to 2000 AD , with your first work at 2000 AD, a StarScan, coming in 2012.
So, what the hell took you so long? Why that decade plus between Class of ’79 and the move to 2000 AD ? What were you doing in that time? Were you still freelancing at that point? Working day jobs?
JL: Ha, Ha, yes indeed. Hopefully you can see why now. I was seriously in love with the NHS and was going to retrain as a nurse, but time was moving on and the service was changing.
Seeing what has been done to the NHS by this Government breaks my heart. I saw the start of that first hand. Each year, another bit was shaved off the wheel until it no longer turned as intended. There was a real push toward bureaucracy too. If to a hammer every problem looks like a nail, to a politician, every problem must look like paperwork and, along with all our duties, we had to start collecting stats. The Affordable Health and Care Act had also essentially privatised the service whilst making it look like record sums are still going in and keeping private the amount that is being bled out. Private business only goes for easy profit so services such as palliative suffer and I was becoming increasingly unhappy as more time went on. As I say, it was heart breaking.
Sorry, rant over…
No need to apologise. One of Britain’s finest achievements that’s being destroyed through government neglect and profiteering, it’s a disgrace what has happened to the NHS.
JL: I was doing work on the side. In fact it had gotten to the point where every job I went for I was being offered. I had also started sending stuff into 2000 AD again and was re-learning how to draw comics. I had forgotten so much and was rejected so many times. But I didn’t mind, I was an Art School dropout and I was receiving an education from an industry professional and all it cost me was the price of a stamp.
And what was it that made you change your mind? Again, I’ve seen you say it was the Karl Urban Dredd movie that put a fire under your ass?
JL: Yeah, that was pretty much it for me. I had heard there was a film that was going to be made and, keeping in mind I hadn’t read any Dredd for a very long time and being quite curious, I joined the 2000 AD Forum to see if I could glean any info. I had never been on one of these sites before and still consider myself to be a novice of this and social media generally. To be honest, I remember asking someone to explain what TBH meant.
Anyway, I came across a Dredd poster competition amongst the boarders there and thought I’d give it a go. To my surprise I won and I included the pic in some samples which is how Matt saw it. From that point, I made myself a deal. I would give it one last go but, were I not commissioned before the Dredd film came out then that was it (yeah sure).
So, you were pretty busy pitching to 2000 AD and getting rejected – what sort of responses were you getting from Tharg and his Earthly representative Matt at this point? And how did you respond to them?
JL: If I have any super-power at all it is the ability to get knocked down then get up, rejection has never bothered me. I think the young, broken, introverted, youth me just assumed that taking a beating was always just a starting point. It’s one of the reasons, in many respects, I feel so much stronger for my past. People who achieve success without setback tend to fall apart at adversity or failure, in my experience. I don’t seek it but when it’s in my face I eat it for breakfast!
I also cultivated a new attitude. I knew I wanted to do something creative or be around creativity. In many respects, due to my history, so much of my life had been about death and it had also become my job. I had, by that point, seen so much of it. I have no issues with it, but it was time to put a line under it, and make life about living.
So I said to myself, what do you want to be? – Comic or Storyboard Artist. Chance of that happening, you Norfolk Bumkin? – Slim. Okay, would you be happy being say a picture framer, you know, surrounded by art? – Yes, I think I would. Okay, working in an art museum, as a cleaner or incompetent security guard for example? – Yes, that could be fine. You do know you’re talking to yourself right? – I’m not, you are!
So I compromised and I realised there could be so many opportunities that moved me in a happier direction even if not the intended goal. I’m sure that sounds pretty obvious to you, but try to remember that I am and will always be, an idiot.
FINALLY AT 2000 AD – 2012 ONWARDS…
Jake’s first piece in 2000 AD – his Dredd Movie StarScan in 2012’s Prog 1771
Right then, on to 2012 and your very first work in the Prog. Surprisingly, it wasn’t a Future Shock , not yet. You’d have to wait nearly two more years for that. Instead, it was a StarScan in 2012’s Prog 1771.
How did it come about and was it one of those ‘Oh my God, finally!’ moments combined with a dream come true feeling? Or did you have the feeling that this was just a first step and that you really had to work hard now to get in there with the art on a strip?
JL: Yes, as it happened it turned out to be that poster that Matt had seen in my samples, but I still hadn’t cracked strip work and that was what I wanted.
In Matt’s many, many rejection letters, there would always be a little nugget of information that, in my arrogance, I would ignore. Then, on one occasion I actually tried listening to the advice and my drawing instantly improved (thanks, Matt).
I sent off this next try-out with similarly low expectations.
I had also gone for another gig at this time on that website and was offered a huge job from it. I was still working full time and I knew that, if I took it, I would have to quit my job. True to form I bottled it and turned it down, I was too scared to go without the security of a job. My father used to say, never take any step forward that you don’t know how to step back from, and this, for me, was one of those moments. He also once said this, ‘Revenge is a PIE best served cold’, but he did drink a lot.
So I was kicking myself, for all my fine thoughts I had again blown it. A couple of weeks later I got a letter from Matt offering me a future commission.
I was in…
And he’s in! Jake’s very first strip in 2000 AD – the Future Shock Dying Wishes Page 1 from Prog 1862, published in 2014, written by Eddie Robson
The first strip, like so many, was a four-page Future Shock , Dying Wishes , written by another relative newcomer to 2000 AD , Eddie Robson, in Prog 1862 in 2014. So, what was your feeling when you finally got the yes from Matt?
JL: I remember the first feeling was astounded excitement. Stuff like this doesn’t happen to me!
I was on a late shift that day and I slipped the letter to the back of my clipboard where I kept my health service paperwork, so I could look at it again from time to time.
When the script finally dropped, the next thing I felt was anxiety. Would I really be able to do it? I am well aware of many of my limitations and that could have easily been exposed right there but, as I read it I thought, hey, I can do this.
One of my biggest weaknesses throughout my past was my inability to see things through, to finish the job and it was something I had consciously worked on, but this was the real test of that time. By complete coincidence, I also had a week off work when the script dropped.
In did it in 5 days I think.
Did you imagine at that point that a career was happening, that you could make a go of it with 2000 AD ?
JL: Like anything, you would like it to be so, but experience had taught me to never assume, so I never did. Even to this day I don’t consider myself with my feet under the table.
In those days I said I had a foot in the door, but there was a long hallway I’d have to travel down first before I even entered room where everyone was. These days I’m standing in the back of that room, pretending to look at the decor, hoping no-one will notice me, just as I would at a real party!
Page 2 of Jake’s very first strip in 2000 AD – the Future Shock Dying Wishes Prog 1862, published in 2014, written by Eddie Robson
Looking back at the art of Dying Wishes – yes, I know it may be difficult, artists never liking to go back to early days and all that – but what do you think of it now?
It’s light years away from the art you’re doing now for sure, but there’s definitely elements in there that you’ve taken through your art as the years rolled on. How would you describe it now? Has your line changed all that much, are you inking differently? I think it’s way more static than your work has become, although there’s definitely a good storytelling flow to your art even at this stage. And your tendency to use interstitial panels in between images is there at this earliest of pieces.
But the whole point of Future Shocks at 2000 AD is to get artists onboard early in their career, it’s all about seeing them learning their craft in the full gaze of the readers.
JL: I haven’t looked at it since doing it. I don’t look back at any stuff generally. I suspect I did it the best that I could, but my attitude has always been, the best piece in the next piece and I still live by that. Love the work you do intensely but as soon as it’s done forget about it and move onto the next. The only time I review stuff is just before I send it all in.
Since I now have longer runs on stories and often they call back to events from past strips, that’s the only time I look things up. The setup I have now just automatically backs everyth
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