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Post by severance on Sept 8, 2009 13:36:21 GMT
If you were a reader of 'The Sun' in the 70s and 80s or, as in my case, your parents were, then you hopefully have vague memories of 'Axa', the post-apocalyptic comic strip that ran every day, until it was unceremoniously and inexplicably dumped in November 1986. Written by Donne Avenell, known primarily for producing years worth of strips in Scandinavia for 'The Saint' and others, and lusciously drawn by Enrique Badia Romero, artist for 'Modesty Blaise' through most of its 30+ years run in the 'London Evening Standard', 'Axa' was a young woman who rebelled against the constraints of life in her domed city and so fled to the outside - a devastated world full of biker gangs, mutated flora, fauna and all manner of animals and insects all too eager to divest her of her clothing. In the story called 'The Betrayed' running at the time of the strips cancellation, her robot companion and friend, Mark-Ten, had seemingly turned against her, a betrayal that we will never see the conclusion of. Ken Pierce Books collected the strip in its entirety in 9 volumes and here are the last three daily strips that were drawn, although these weren't published in 'The Sun' - and apologies for the size but Romero's artwork deserves it I think, hopefully my scanner can do it justice.  Romero went back to drawing 'Modesty Blaise', but Eclipse did publish a couple of issues of a comic in the States, written by Chuck Dixon, and Romero himself has released an 'Axa Portfolio' - here's one of the plates which sums up the series very well in just one image:  |
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