The Art of Carlos Ezquerra

 

 

Review By Luke Williams

Tied in with 45^th anniversary celebrations, so a year late, but only recently read by yours truly, The Art Of Carlos Ezquerra is almost 240 hardback pages of King Carlos.

Where other famed 2000AD artists have had Apex edition of their work either published or planned, to present their classic art, for Carlos Ezquerra, possibly the single most important artists in British comics over the last 50 years, they went a different route (I’d suggest he’s a good subject for an Apex, it’s not as if there isn’t enough material out there).

Arguably this is a far more fitting tribute. Whereas the subjects of the other work considered so far (Mike McMahon, Brian Bolland and soon the late great Kevin O’Neill)’s careers really took off in 2000 AD, Carlos was already well established as an artist in the UK, working on comics such as Victor, IPC stable mates like Battle and Action (for which he drew the inadvertently infamous comic neutering cover) before moving onto 2000 AD. It’s these latter comics, the rights to which are owned by Rebellion / Treasury of British Comics, publishers of this book, which are the focus for this volume.

 What is surprising is the variety of work that Carlos undertook in that lengthy career. Mainly known for his action, war and sci fi work this volume collates examples from each Carlos era; the early romance days, through to the intense war work on Battle, the dense and bizarre sci fiction work of early and “Strontium Dog”, to the looser style that developed during the 2000 AD run of that strip although it does side step the weird dayglo / Chernobyl computer colouring period around “Judge Dredd”. Carlos’ style is the very definition of “gritty” but such was his versatility that he mastered comedy as well, you only need look at “Tharg the Mighty” strips that have been included here  Carlos can do funny and wacky. And he was fast. Very fast. Perhaps the most glaring omission is his masterful and imaginative double page spreads, most notably from “Strontium Dog Journey into Hell”.

Tying it all together is Michael Molcher’s narrative providing an insight to the development of Carlos’ art and career, a fascinating insight into his background and features commentary and quotes from friends, colleagues, family and the great man himself.

As a collection of strips, it is a bit restricted, and collects one offs or perhaps the odd episode from a multi parter. The multi part epics is where is built up a head of steam and from your writer’s perspective the best example would be “Necropolis”. But there are some rare curios included, lots of one off Battle stories and representation from all the major characters he had a hand in Rat Pack, Major Easy, El Mestizo, Strontium Dog, Durham Red and at least a nod to Fiends of the Eastern Front, the most notable exception is his work on Third World War.

In terms of style, there still isn’t anyone like him. Famously, Mike McMahon was tasked with aping his style in the early days of the Prog’, but soon developed a very distinctive style (s) of his own, but he is probably the only one. Despite not having any obvious adopters of his very distinctive style, his influence and impact on British comics is immense.

It’s a fitting tribute to a supremely talented artist, character designer and creator.

Reviews & articles on Carlos’ work:

 

Bob The Galactic Bum 1-4 & Meg’ 266-273

Carlos Ezquerra

Just a Pilgrim & Just a Pilgrim : Garden Of Eden by Garth Ennis & Carlos Ezquerra

The Stainless Steel Rat Deluxe Edition

 

Strontium Dog : Search & Destroy

 

Carlos Ezquerra: Long Live The King!

The Stainless Steel Rat Deluxe Edition

“Stainless Steel Rat”, “Stainless Steel Rat Saves The World” &  “Stainless Steel Rat For President”

By Harry Harrison, Kelvin Gosnell & Carlos Ezquerra

Review by Luke Williams

This handsome hardcover collection collects all 3 of 2000ADs adaptations written by former Tharg, Kelvin Gosnell and the legend that is Carlos Ezquerra.  For those of us who don’t know the Rat (prior to reading this book that your reviewer would fall into that category) the Stainless Steel rat is otherwise known as “Slippery” James Bolivar Di Griz.  In a far future where crime is almost a thing of the past, Jim is a rebel, kicking against authority until authority finally gets the better of him. He is press ganged by Galactic Law Enforcement, Jim is as good getting out of scrapes as he is getting into them, making him an ideal candidate for the “Special Corps”, specialising in high risk, time and space spanning missions.

Through the 3 stories we see Jim tackle interplanetary espionage, corruption, theft, time travelling tyrants, a little bit of politics and most notably the pulchritudinous but lethal Angelina.

Gosnell and Ezquerra, adapt a fun packed world, Jim Di Griz is loveable rogue. A modern comparison in the Prog’ would be Nikolai Dante; someone who is spends less time grimacing and more on wise cracking, robbing you blind with a twinkle in his eye.

Gosnell was 2000ADs second editor after (Uncle) Pat Mills, but by the time the Rat was published in the Prog’ he had gone freelance, writing Future Shocks Time Twisters and went onto write the Oliver Frey painted Terminal Man in legendary computer magazine Zzap64 (Has that ever been collected?)

Never stopping to draw breath, the plot is pacey, the script punchy and witty. Despite being classed as sci fi, this is basically a collection of caper strips with ray guns, space ships and time travel and it’s great  fun . Art wise this is classic period Carlos Ezquerra, Carlos’s curvy technology (and Angelina) dynamic layouts and some gorgeous double page spreads. Carlos again uses James Coburn as a template, Jim looking a bit like Major Eazy sans forage cap & cigar but avec cheesy grin.

Rebellion have reprinted colour pages from the centre spreads when the Prog was on toilet paper, but  occasionally they have an annoying break in the middle due to the binding process, but that’s a minor complaint. The version that is reviewed was the webshop exclusive version, with a “likely to get dirty quite quickly unless you’re careful” white cover.

If you are a bit sceptical of comic adaptations of novels, (what’s the point etc?), put that to one side. This is old school 2000AD fun, prior knowledge of the character unnecessary. A good fit for the Prog’ fast paced, lots of action and most importantly, humour.

The book is now out of print on the 200AD webstore, but still available digitally or via other online outlets (or so they say anyway).

Dan Abnett is the new Wagner and Grant : Discuss

By Luke Williams

As a writing team and working solely, John Wagner & Alan Grant were incredibly prolific in the 80s, supplying “new” Eagle and 2000AD with a significant amount of material for long stretches at a time while maintaining a high quality.

 In as much as Wagner and Grant fulfilled the function of being the “core” of 2000AD for a chunk of the eighties, Dan Abnett has fulfilled that role for the past 20 years. This is about praise, where praise is (over) due, on the Abnett droids House of Tharg output and the impact he has had on the Prog’.

Following many other Marvel UKers such as Alan McKenzie, John Tomlinson and Lee Sullivan over to the Galaxy’s Greatest during the early nineties creative vacuum, Dan Abnett has made a huge contribution to the Prog’, most notably  during the “Second Golden Age”  with a range of strips with trademark witty dialogue, strong characters and dark humour. This article is not meant to be a complete and detailed overview of Mr. Abnett’s output. That would be difficult. Abnett is a writing machine, and there is no way yours truly has the time to cover everything he has written. All the while he is working on the Prog’ he was still beavering away on his DC and Marvel work such as Resurrection Man, Titans, Aquaman etc, plus innumerable books set in the Warhammer universe and his off- beat independent work such as the Lords of Misrule and Wild’s End.

This is a brief overview of his work on the Galaxy’s Greatest, occasionally veering into hagiography. So, in no particular order:

His first big hit in the Prog’ was Sinister Dexter debuting in the 1995 2000AD Sci Fi Special. For better or for worse, has been a regular feature in the ever since. For the first few years of its run it was an almost omnipresent presence as much as Strontium Dog was in the 1980s. It’s the tale of two “gun sharks”, hit men with a skewed moral code in the future European city of Downlode. Heavily indebted to Pulp Fiction, the strips back to basics approach of snappy dialogue, catchphrases, clever wordplay and extreme violence often in short bursts of single episode or 2-4 episode strips, made it a hit. Since then it has developed into a sprawling science fiction epic, with forks in the road like Downlode Tales, reboots  and as many false endings as the Lords of the Rings : The Return of the King.

One of the few Abnett strips that failed to gain traction was Sancho Panzer a future war strip starring the titular mercenary roaming the planet if Vainglory Five in a huge sentient tank called Mojo, drawn by art god Henry Flint. Developed as an ongoing strip, only one series was published and mysteriously hasn’t been collected. It seems a no brainer for at least a floppy with the Meg’.

Aside from his artistic partners, Abnett has worked with a slew of co writers on other projects within the Prog’. Notably, Abnett teamed with Steve White on “Rogue Troopers” attempting to merge and make sense of the disparate Rogue Trooper continuities of Friday / original RT (also covered here) alongside their respective supporting casts. Making sense of that little lot was no mean feat, whether he, White and his artist compadres (including Edmund Perryman and Steve Tappin) succeeded is debatable, being kind, perhaps the best thing to say is that they made the best of a bad job. Abnett also wrote a short series of the Rogue Trooper spin off Venus Bluegenes.

Also with co writer White, but this time with Gary Erskine the same team from Dark Horse’s  fighter jet  thriller Hypersonic on art Abnett wrote the perfectly  respectable, possibly almost forgotten  / ret conned out of existence,  Pat Mills baiting Flesh : Chronocide which saw the return of Trans Time Employee Earl Regan to the Prog’ in the 1990s.

The White / Abnett team also created the short lived Black Light with John M Burns. A cross between the BBC series “Spooks” and the “X Files”, riffing on the fad for conspiracy theories and black ops just as they were becoming the plot device du jour.  Black Light were a team charged by the US President to track down and eliminate rogue government agencies.  It lasted three series. Fun while it lasted.

With a couple of short lived series behind him, Abnett was given Durham Red to bring back from banality. Eschewing her bounty hunter background, he and artist partner Mark, thrust her into the far future in a hard sci fi reboot. Abnett & Harrison cast her as a mutant messiah caught in an apocalyptic war between the mutant and human races. After completion of the series, he returned to the character in the alternate universe “Scarlet Apocrypha”, setting the characters in some unfamiliar settings and a team of stellar artists, such as Carlos Ezquerra, John Burns and Enric Romero.

Perhaps his most prolific partnership is with Richard Elson. The first Abnett / Elson teaming was the sentient killer car short story Roadkill. The duo followed that with the epic sci fi “last human in a galactic conflict” story, the 3 book Atavar. They followed that with the incredibly popular Kingdom, another hard sci fi post apocalyptic series; a mash up of “Mad Max” / “Island of Dr Moreau and Starship Troopers  mash up. 

Genetically modified dogs defend a hibernating humanity from an alien insectoid race. The series has the hallmarks of Abnett:  clever wordplay, humour and action with a hard sci fi edge. Gene the Hackman is one of a breed monosyllabic human dog / hybrids created to protect a hibernating humanity from the invasion of “them” a race of insectoid aliens, now overrunning the Earth. With Kingdom currently on hiatus, Abnett and Elson have moved onto the fantasy stylings of Feral and Foe. The story of a wizard and mercenary who had a fought a war on the wrong side side and were now paying the price, taking the crummiest jobs to appease whatever warlord they’ve upset most recently.

Wardog, a short lived licensed strip in the Meg’, notable for some early work by the underappreciated Patrick Goddard, inked by Dylan Teague and coloured by soon to be regular contributor Richard Elson. An action series  tie-in to never released game from 2000ADs owners Rebellion, starring a soldier whose mind has been wiped and had a bomb in his head which gives him a short period of time to complete missions.

Partnering with Henry Flint again, he revived the much loved Gerry Finley Day creations The V.Cs. One of the Prog’s earliest future war strips, it’s a tale of small groups of Starship Troopers patrolling the solar system in search of the aggressive and murderous “Geeks” and alien race intent on the extermination of the human race. Reviving the series, Abnett and Flint, later replaced by Anthony Williams, create an almost completely new cast but maintain continuity by carrying over original VC Steve Smith. Its told as one long story but broken up into shorter stand alone episodes that Abnett would use again in Grey Area, which doesn’t sound particularly revolutionary, but consider that most series in 2000AD are now written as 10-12 parts to collect. The series is surprisingly affecting, more sophisticated, with a harder edge than the, original reflecting the older readership.

Initially, Abnett wasn’t a regular visitor to the Dreddverse. This changed with “The Black Atlantic” a strip set in the toxic waters between Brit Cit and the Big Meg and starring a bunch of Mutant pirates. In this short lived series Steve Roberts had great fun designing the various mutations.However, it was Abnett’s next Dreddverse project, this time partnering with Colin MacNeil that really hit the spot. “Insurrection”, was the beautifully drawn and compelling third and by far the most successful attempt at a space judges story. With no assistance from Mega City One, a coalition of uplifts (genetically enhanced apes) self determining robots the Judges of colony word of K Alpha 61have stopped and invasion by the Zhind an aggressive alien race. Declaring independence from the Big Meg, the various factions of the planet reunite to resist an attempt to re-impose authority by MC1 Justice Department.

On completion of “Insurrection” Abnett and Phil Winslade took a supporting character from the series and created arguably the most successful of the Dreddverse westerns . A mysterious Judge arrives on the colony world of Bedrock to take over as Marshall, but all is not what it seems. Whip smart dialogue, beautiful art and an extended storyline and a strong supporting cast has led this to become a favourite of Meg’ readers, even spawning a “Lawless” musical.

In Brink Abnett and artist Ian Culbard bring a slow burn, downbeat, unsettling strip light years away from Sinister Dexter’s goofy violence. Bridget Kurtis is a police officer working one of the many space stations that carry the flotsam and jetsam of humanity, refugees from the Earth’s environmental collapse, but the colonies   An unexpected hit for the Prog’,  Brink is a distinct change of pace from his other work. A hard sci fi detective gothic body horror mystery in space, tinged with gothic body horror.

Grey Area, the intergalactic equivalent of UK Border Force, but for all of  Earthco created by Karl Richardson has developed from a series of short episodic strips to a sprawling long term police procedural building to a sprawling soap opera style anti racist rant for the as this. The titular Grey Areas the first point of entry and holding zone for extra terrestrial migrants to Earth, policed by the E.T.C – Exo Transfer Control Squads. Like many strips in 2000AD it has strong anti racist themes and preaches tolerance, without being too on the nose, it has seen a series of artists a series of artists, including Mark Harrison, Patrick Goddard and Lee Carter.

On its debut The Out, was suspected as a spin off or thematic sequel to The Ballad Of Halo Jones. Book one was a deep space road movie. Our heroine, journalist Cyd, travelling through the “Out” : deep space, like an intergalactic hobo, recording what she sees and reporting back to an unresponsive office on distant Earth.  After a series of one offs and character building book 2  sets up the long game, seeding plot points and developing a larger overarching narrative.

Where many 2000AD strips run to 10 -12 episodes for subsequent collection, The Out, Grey Area and The V.C.s  are made up of shorter arcs that can read well separately, but fit into the larger narrative, ideal for new readers who are soon drawn into the ongoing storyline without feeling completely lost.Abnett is at home on the slow burn moody pieces as well as the high concept action fests orientated.

He really brings his “A” game to the Prog. He has quietly become an invaluable asset to the Prog’, and with a string of hit series to his name, he’s the spine. By dint of output and quality, for the Prog’ he is the 21^st century Wagner and Grant.

Where can you get some of this stuff :

Check out the webshop for trade paperback collections and digital editions, but also

Black Light in Meg’ floppies 336 & 337, alongside Roadkill

Brink is being collected in s series of trades, but a significant chunk of it in 2000AD Ultimate collection 107& 108

Durham Red : 3 trades (mainly out of print) , plus 2000AD Ultimate collection 59, but no sign of teh “Scarlet Apocrypha” sadly.

Surprisingly Flesh :  Chronocide was reprinted, in Meg’ floppy 312

Grey Area has been collected in a series of trade paperbacks & 2000AD Ultimate Collection 109 & 110

Insurrection in Judge Dredd Mega Collection 54 and two trade collections

Kingdom trades and 2000AD Ultimate Collection 60 & 61

Some of Lawless can be found in Judge Dredd Mega Collection 90 but there also a series of trades.

The OutBook One has been collected in a trade. Book Two has just finished in the Prog, so that will follow

Sinister Dexter. Seemingly endless, it’s been reprinted in a series of trades, 2000 AD Ultimate Collection 67, 68, 69, 137and Meg’ floppies 374, 375, 376, 377, 378, 379, plus spin off Downlode Tales  in floppies 330, 334, 335

The VCs was reprinted in 2000AD Ultimate Collection 105 & 106

Venus Bluegenes can be found in meg floppy 318

Wardog was released as a trade, but is out of print. However, it’s a free download on the website.

Black Atlantic, Sancho Panzer & Atavar, haven’t been reprinted. Strange, considering some of the other stuff reprinted in the floppies. Feral & Foe is also missing a collection, but it’s a recent strip and perhaps too new to reprint in the Meg’ floppy.

Bad Company : A Potted History. 1 of 4

Buying new collected editions (Thank you Ultimate Collection) of old comics he already has (currently running at 4 versions of the earliest chapters in this story), it makes life a whole lot easier when writing an article like this. No burrowing through piles of 30 year old comics for Luke as he takes a look at the pseudo philosophical / hipster war story.

2000AD Sci Fi Special 2020

Word on the new latest Sci Fi special was that it was mainly reprint. That’s not a million miles from the truth, but there are also some shiny new gems in amongst the family jewels. WARNING : spoilers

“Twenty Years In The Rebellion”

Review By Luke Williams

It is hard to believe that it has been 20 years since Rebellion took over “stewardship” of the Galaxy’s Greatest and the Meg’. Love them or loathe them, it’s a pretty safe bet that if it wasn’t for them, we would be talking about 2000AD and it’s sister mag’ in the past tense. To celebrate, Tharg has drawn together a package that celebrates the china anniversary of marriage of Rebellion and the Prog’.

Behind an imposing Jock & Chris Blythe Dredd cover is a mix of reprints of some of the best one offs from the Rebellion era, new strips featuring characters from both eras and editorial features.

From the archives we get Al Ewing’s “Terror Tale” debut drawn by Dom Reardon, Dan Abnett, Andy Clarke and Chris Blythe’s sharp and playful “Sinister Dexter : Bullet Time” and a perfectly paced and heart rending episode from the final lap of “Nikolai Dante” by Robbie Morrison, Simon Fraser and Gary Caldwell.

Dredd universe representation comes from a reprint of the “Judge Fear” episode of the disturbing “Dreams of Deadworld” by Kek W and Dave Kendall and a masterful Wagner and Ezquerra Dredd, as Joe hands over the keys to his Rowdy Yates gaff to his clone, Rico.

Shiny new contributions come from Al Ewing back on Dredd after far too long. Joe pulls immigration duty and interviews a very familiar genteel walking corpse, with art by new great Jake Lynch and colours by Jim Boswell.

Dan Abnett and Richard Elson’s “Kingdom” comes out of retirement and guest stars the only ursus maritimus on the CIA death list.

John Reppion and Clint Langley goes all 90s style as they transfer  “Storm Warning” from the Meg’ with a gate crashing (not to mention slightly incongruous) “Blackhawk”.

Finally, Ian Edgington and Steve Yeowell serve up “Red Seas” vs “Ant Wars”, the mash up literally no one asked for, but that’s fun all the same.

The customary (and cost reducing) text features and pin ups round the package off.  Eveyrone loves a list and Karl Stock provides his best 20 strips from the last 20 years, provoking debate and fanboy hate on the socials and the forum. Rebellion supremo Jason Kinglsey is interviewed and so new they are still under warranty (yes, okay they have been around a few years now) art droids Dan “why isn’t he in the prog more often” Cornwell and Stewart Kenneth Moore providing a Dredd pin up and multi character DPS respectively, John Charles efficaiously colouring Cornwell’s work.

It is mainly reprint, but it’s brilliant reprint and the new material is worth admission. A little eye watering at £7.99 for those of us who still baulk at paying over £4 for a comic, but it’s an impressive package (fnar).

Strontium Dog : Search & Destroy

Another repackaging of old strips? Yes, but this is a bit special. This is pre 2000AD “Strontium Dog” in a tasty  hardcover, with the original colour spreads. Luke has all these in his “Starlords”, but he bought it anyway….