Be Pure! Be Vigilant! Behave!: 2000AD & Judge Dredd: The Secret History by Mills Pat

Author:Mills Pat [Pat, Mills]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Biography, Autobiography, Non-Fiction, Personal Memoirs
ISBN: 9780995661233
Google: ioFUtgEACAAJ
Publisher: Millsverse Books
Published: 2017-03-15T00:00:00+00:00

17. BE PURE! BE VIGILANT! BEHAVE!

Inevitably, I relented and returned to working for Tharg McManus and 2000AD, primarily because I wanted to collaborate with Kevin again, so we cautiously dipped our toe in the water with a one-off. We were very impressed by the work of the French artist Caza, who would design endless high concept one-off fantasies. Our idea was that each story should be wildly different to the next but with an over-arching hero: Nemesis. It was to be comic rock and roll, hence our sub-title: Comic Rock.

The first story was Terror Tube, because I wanted Kevin to recreate his brilliant Travel Tube system in Ro-Busters, which Bob Bartholemew had tried to scrap as he “didn’t understand it”. It introduced Torquemada and was phenomenally successful. Another story followed and—before we knew it—we were both back in the Nerve Centre.

Then Kevin drew an astonishing and wildly imaginative steampunk Nemesis, without any doubt, the greatest comic book steampunk art of all time. This story forced me to really think through the whole saga and world and explain Torquemada’s motivation which was to wipe out all alien life. My necessary six-week development time had been mercifully spread over a long period. But Kevin could no longer afford to work for 2000AD on their slave wages. I think he was living off corn flakes at the time. So he left to work for America. Luckily, I headhunted Bryan Talbot and he continued in the same style. I loved his Victorian Brick Moon!

Furthermore, he actually suggested he’d like to draw the ABC Warriors and could they be included? I was thrilled. Because for a long time Steve/Tharg had been telling the readers, in response to their anxious questions, that the ABC Warriors, the future war story they loved so much, would be returning soon. This was being somewhat economical with the truth. He never asked me at any time to return to the Meknificent Seven and—in any event—no one wanted or was available to draw the series. I think Mike McMahon had gone back to Dredd. So had Carlos, or he was working on Strontium Dog. Dave was drawing Rogue Trooper somewhere around this time, Gerry Finley-Day’s future war story, commissioned by Steve. Tharg had possibly seen from the ABC Warriors the potential in future war. For me, featuring the Warriors in Nemesis was a way—the only way—of honouring Tharg’s empty promises to the readers and bringing the Warriors back, just as I’d brought Flesh back into the comic.

Frank Plowright, journalist and organiser of UK comic conventions, once interviewed me about Nemesis the Warlock and said how he envied Nemesis co-creator Kevin O’Neill and I our Catholic childhood, because it clearly influenced and inspired our work. I hadn’t realised it showed, but of course it does and especially on Torquemada, the Warlock’s greatest enemy.

And also on The Redeemer, a successful series about a similar deranged fanatic I co-wrote for Games Workshop. In the Redeemer’s case, he went around with blazing coals in a brazier on his head, like you do.

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