Nick Percival Talks Judge Dredd: The Shift In 2000AD

A New Dimension In Dredd

Tripwire’s contributing writer Paul N Neal recently spoke to Tharg’s resident horror maestro Nick Percival about ‘The Shift’, his latest work for 2000AD…

TRIPWIRE: The word on the street has it that 2000AD readers will have a new horror-tinged Dredd serial from you and Kenneth Niemand very soon. Can you say when it starts? How many episodes can fans look forward to enjoying?

NICK PERCIVAL: It begins in Prog 2418 (out Feb 5^th) and runs for eight episodes.

TW: Without giving too much away, can you tease a few plot details? Does this latest storyline follow on from your previous recent work on Judge Dredd?

NP: Yeah, it’s linked to the two previous horror-themed Dredd’s that Ken and I have done, ‘The House On Bleaker Street’ and ‘Iron Teeth’. We’re developing the supernatural/horror side of Dredd’s world with a strong through line on all the stories. This new series, ‘The Shift’ takes things much further and establishes some new, dark and evil elements that will play a bigger role as we move forward. It deals with a dimensional ‘shift’ that threatens to expand further into Mega City One, all emanating from one particular city block. Dredd investigates and gets trapped there with all manner of weird, terrifying entities in this sinister dark Mega City. In the ‘real’ world, we have some of our cast back from the ‘Iron Teeth’ saga heavily involved as strange things start happening over there. We’re laying a lot of groundwork for future stuff -some really horrific things to come…

TW: I think it may be fair to say you are currently Tharg’s in-house horror maestro? Are you visually pushing the envelope even further with this new storyline?

NP: Thanks. I’m putting a ton of work into these stories – lots of detail and world building, since it all helps ground the stories and create atmosphere. I’m trying a few new techniques here and there to emphasise certain aspects of this and help define the dark mood that I want for the visuals. This one has a hint of the ‘Silent Hill’ about it which was intentional – lots of decay, texture, cinematic lighting and so on.

TW: Can we expect more Percival and Niemand Dredd later in 2025? Is there lots more to come from your creative partnership?

NP: Oh yeah. I love working with Ken and we’re totally in synch with what we want to do in our corner of Dredd’s world by continuing to stay in the supernatural/horror realm and hopefully give Dredd dangerous things to deal with that we haven’t seen before. Ken’s scripts are great and give me a lot of creative freedom visually, so no complaints. Some really dark themes in these tales and the fact that it’s all linked and building to something big is all good fun.

TW: How does the process work? Does the writer challenge the artist or does your art challenge the writer to get increasingly imaginative with the story and visuals?

NP: Both – we always send emails back and forth regarding what we want to plan out – and then we’ll check various film references and other things that might help inspire us. Ken has a strong knowledge of weird and wonderful horror-based folklore and legends, etc – so there’s always something to draw inspiration from but we know where we’re going and ‘The Shift’ really pushes all that forward.

TW: Beyond 2000AD, do you have any other projects or plans for 2025?

NP: Some film work, a bunch of private commissions and some cover work as well as a creator owned project I’m developing on the side. There’s another project with a writer I admire that we’re developing together that would be huge but way too early to say any more at this stage.

The Shift starts this week in 2000AD.