An Interview With ‘Judge Dredd: Iron Teeth’ Artist Nick Percival

by Rachel Bellwoar

Iron Claw. Iron Throne. With the exception of The Iron Giant, it doesn’t usually bode well when the word “iron” gets thrown around as an adjective. Writer Ken Niemand and artist Nick Percival have a new strip starting soon in the Prog with letters by Annie Parkhouse. To find out whether Judge Dredd: Iron Teeth continues the trend of “iron” portending bad news, check out this interview with Percival below:

Rachel Bellwoar: What’s the best part about painting Judge Dredd?

Nick Percival: I’ve worked on Dredd on and off over the past 30+ years, so it’s always fun to illustrate another storyline featuring him. He’s an iconic character and is still unique in the world of comics, even now. From a visual point of view, he has such a striking design, so I never get bored of painting the character and since he works so well in many different environments and story situations, each time I work on a Dredd strip, there’s always something new and original for me to get stuck into. Anytime you get to draw a big, close up of the grumpy old bastard is fine with me.

Bellwoar: Was there anything about this strip in particular that you were especially excited to tackle?

Percival: We’ve gone full on horror for the “Iron Teeth” storyline which I was keen to do and has got me firing on all artistic cylinders. Ken Niemand (the writer) and I worked previously on another dark, spooky Dredd story, “The House On Bleaker Street,” a couple of years ago and we wanted to work together again, so chucked some ideas back and forth and “Iron Teeth” was born. The setting on this tale has really given me the opportunity to illustrate all the things I love – monsters, dark horror and Dredd alone with no back up. I also wanted to pay attention to the pacing with building the suspense and atmosphere, creating a sense of increasing dread (no pun intended) throughout. Ken’s great script ticked all the right boxes for me.

Without spoilers, this new story does link back to our previous Dredd outing and it doesn’t end here. We have plans to expand this horror side of Dredd’s world and are sowing some seeds that will hopefully pay off down the line.

Bellwoar: The world of Judge Dredd can be very unforgiving. What has it been like placing kids within that universe?

Percival: I think any kids growing up in Dredd’s world will have witnessed some strange stuff for sure. This story deals with orphaned children and runaways as they go on the hunt for a legendary monster. Needless to say, they end up way out of their depth, discovering a dark, underground world that is definitely not for kids. I wanted to give each of them a distinct look and personality which hopefully comes across. One of the references Ken mentioned was the film Stand By Me, which I think was a great jumping on point as to how we would approach the attitude of these children.

Bellwoar: Your approach to lighting in your work really stands out. Given that it seems like a lot of this story is going to be taking place underground, in tunnels, does that create a challenge?

Percival: To be honest, this dark, moody style is something I’m known for and is pretty much second nature for me. I’m happy to be type cast in that way. I’m a big classic horror movie fan, particularity, the old Universal Monster films and stuff like Nosferatu which plays heavily on this story – lots of things hiding in the shadows, cinematic lighting, textures and so on. It’s one area of my art that I spend a lot of time on, to try and create a certain mood. It’s the perfect storyline for me.

Bellwoar: Having had plenty of experience painting nasty folks like the Dark Judges, where did you turn to inspiration for the title monster of this strip, Iron Teeth?

Percival: Yeah, having painted nearly 400 pages of Dark Judges art over four series, I probably developed a shorthand as to how to approach this genre of material. The Dark Judges had everything from epic action, to slow build, moody horror and even out and out gore, so it all goes into the creative pot for me to dip into for new characters. There are some small elements maybe of a Judge Death feel to ‘Iron Teeth’, but since this is a new character, I wanted a fresh new look just for him but still drawing from some classic horror icons – a bit of Nosferatu in there and even some modern characters, such as Slender Man and so on. As an artist, you’re like a sponge and soak up anything visual that’s interesting, so it all gets chucked in and mixed up for possible later use.

Bellwoar: If you could paint any other 2000 AD strip, which one would you choose?

Percival: That’s a good question. I’ve done Dredd, The Dark Judges, Sláine and so on – a Rogue Trooper grisly horror series could be fun. I was always a fan of the old Harry Twenty series, which might be fun to revisit in some weird new way. I still have ideas for the return of Judge Death at some point, so who knows…?