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Character information | |
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First appearance | 2000 AD No. 167 (July 1980) |
Created by | |
In-story information | |
Team affiliations | Credo, the Cabal |
Partnerships |
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Abilities | Extensive magical powers, powerful psionic, alien anatomy |
Publication information | |
Publisher | IPC Media |
Schedule | Weekly |
Genre | |
Publication date | July 1980 –December 1999 |
Main character(s) |
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Creative team | |
Writer(s) | Pat Mills |
Artist(s) | |
Reprints | |
Collected editions | |
The Complete Nemesis the Warlock | ISBN 1-905437-11-0 |
Nemesis the Warlock is a comic series created by writer Pat Mills and artist Kevin O'Neill which appeared in the pages of the British weekly comics anthology 2000 AD . The title character, a fire-breathing demonic alien, fights against the fanatical Torquemada, Grand Master of the Terran Empire in Earth's distant future, and his attempts to exterminate all alien life.
The series began in 1980, in prog 167 of 2000 AD, with a story called Comic Rock "The Terror Tube", in which a freedom fighter called Nemesis escaped from Torquemada, the chief of the Tube Police, after a protracted chase through a complex travel-tube system on a planet called Termight, later revealed to be Earth ("Mighty Terra"). All that was seen of Nemesis was the outside of his streamlined organic spaceship, the Blitzspear. In "Terror Tube" the police were portrayed as a cross between the Spanish Inquisition (Torquemada is named after the notorious inquisitor Tomás de Torquemada) and the Ku Klux Klan (or from Spanish Easter penitents), making it easier to position them as the villains.
"Terror Tube" was the first of a planned series of one-offs inspired by popular music, called "Comic Rock" – in this case The Jam's "Going Underground". The series never got going, but did produce a second Nemesis story, a two-parter called "Killer Watt", in which Torquemada chased Nemesis through a bizarre teleport system based on telephone lines.
These stories proved popular, prompting Mills and O'Neill to develop a regular series, Nemesis the Warlock, which combined the early high-concept science fiction with fantasy in the "sword and sorcery" mould. [1] Torquemada was promoted from chief of the Tube Police to Grand Master of Termight. Nemesis was revealed as a demonic alien with a horned dragon-like head based on the finned nose of his Blitzspear, fighting to protect aliens from Torquemada's genocidal tyranny, although his inhuman attitude and anarchic "Khaos" philosophy gave him an ambiguous morality; for example, in Book Five, "The Vengeance of Thoth", Nemesis is forced to hijack a bus full of children, which he then deliberately crashes, killing all on board as he escapes.
Book Nine concluded in 1989, and the character barely appeared for ten years. Finally, in 1999, Mills and artists Henry Flint and O'Neill wrapped up the series with Book Ten: The Final Conflict, and an epilogue of sorts, Deadlock, which explored the political state of Termight in the aftermath of Nemesis' and Torquemada's deaths.
O'Neill's imaginative, grotesque art helped to establish the popularity of the series, but the efforts he put into creating it led to a low rate of productivity.[ citation needed ] There were a number of delays in the publication of Book One, and a second book was drawn by Jesus Redondo. This and the higher rates of pay available in America led O'Neill to leave the series prior to Book Four - although a handful of episodes he had drawn just after "Killer Watt" introduced the fourth book. O'Neill was replaced by Bryan Talbot. Other artists to draw the series include John Hicklenton, David Roach, Clint Langley and Henry Flint. O'Neill returned to the strip to illustrate its intended last-ever episode and later for a special anniversary story.
Warlocks are a sexually dimorphic species of aliens who are capable of sorcery. Both males and females are horned, fire-breathing and of demonic appearance; females have a centaur-like quadrupedal morphology while males are bipedal but have unusual combination plantigrade / digitigrade leg joints, somewhat resembling satyrs.
Most of the saga was told in 'books' of between 9 and 20 episodes, with additional stories told in one-offs, which appeared in annuals, specials, or in the weekly comic. There are a number of collections of the original instalments available, which roughly follow the books as they were originally published. The first four books were not given individual titles upon their original publication.
Book number | Title | Progs | Artist(s) | Summary | Collected editions | |
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Titan (1980s) | Complete (2007) | |||||
1 | The World of Termight | 222–233, 238–240, 243–244 | Kevin O'Neill | Nemesis had previously appeared in the stories "Terror Tube" (prog 167), "Killer Watt" (progs 178–179) and "Olric's Great Quest" aka "The Sword Sinister" (Sci-Fi Special 1981). | Book 1 | Volume 1 |
2 | The Alien Alliance | 246–257 | Jesus Redondo | Takes the war to a variety of planets throughout the galaxy and features a plot by Torquemada to destroy the alien resistance. | Not reprinted | |
3 | The World of Nemesis | 335–349 | Kevin O'Neill | Features Chira, Nemesis' mate and the birth of Thoth, son of Nemesis. Chira is killed by imperial assassins and Thoth is adopted by Sir Hargan, his mother's killer. | Book 2 | |
4 | The Gothic Empire | 387–406 | Kevin O'Neill (first two episodes), Bryan Talbot | Originally intended to be the first full-length Nemesis story, other stories were written as an introduction to the character and his world(s), ballooning into the preceding three books. Torquemada is killed at the end of this book. Thoth, growing in power, is still in the 'care' of Sir Hargan and his wife. | Book 3 | |
5 | The Vengeance of Thoth | 435–445 | Bryan Talbot | Starting ten years after the end of Book Four, an earlier version of Torquemada is brought through time by Thoth, so that he can punish his mother's murderer. Nemesis ends up causing the deaths of Barbarossa de Torquemada and Pandora de Torquemada; offspring of Candida & Tomas. Satanus re-appears. | Book 4 | Volume 2 |
6 | Torquemurder! | 482–487, 500–504 | Bryan Talbot | The introduction of the Monad. This book also gives the explanation for Torquemada's "grandfather" Nostradamus' words in the previous book about Termight ending in "a sea of fire and blood". | Book 5 | |
Torquemada the God | 520–524 | Kevin O'Neill | A five-part story not run under the Nemesis banner, although the final episode concludes with a "End of book 6" banner. Torquemada consolidates his power on Terra, but is affected by a curious malady, which is eventually revealed to be a plot by Thoth to punish Tomas further, by killing his former incarnations. | Book 6 | ||
7 | The Two Torquemadas | 546–557 | John Hicklenton | Nemesis and Purity go back in time to 15th-century Spain to retrieve Thoth. Torquemada goes back in time to kill Thoth and prevent his degradation. Tomas de Torquemada meets his namesake. | Book 7 | |
8 | Purity's Story | 558–566 | David Roach | During an interlude Purity recalls how she first met Nemesis, remembering details that had previously been blocked from her. | Book 8 | Volume 3 |
9 | Deathbringer | 586–593, 605–608 | John Hicklenton | Tomas escapes the time wastes into 1980s Britain, leaking time radiation as he does so. Subsequent side effects of the radiation leak create upheaval, and Tomas seizes on this to become variously a slum landlord and chief of police. | Book 9 | |
10 | The Final Conflict | 1165–1173 and Prog 2000 [a] | Henry Flint (all except for last episode), Kevin O'Neill | The last series-length Nemesis story, after more than a decade of appearing only in brief stories not billed as "books". "The Hammer of Warlocks", a three-episode story, served as a prelude to this book, telling the story so far and Torquemada's intentions of finding this ultimate weapon against the Warlock. The series ends with Nemesis and Torquemada both destroyed, yet occasionally haunting Earth in spectral forms, tied to the Warlock's "Blitzspear". Purity Brown takes over as leader (president) of Termight, renaming it Terra. | n/a |
a. ^ This Prog 2000 was a special edition outside the comic's normal numbering scheme released to mark the year 2000. Another issue numbered 2000 was published within the comic's normal numbering scheme in 2016.
The series Deadlock , by Pat Mills and Henry Flint, was a direct sequel to Nemesis. Prog 2000 (20 September 2016) featured a follow-up Nemesis story (written by Mills and once more drawn by O'Neill) 'Tubular Hells' which reversed the destruction of Nemesis but it has to this point not led to further exploration of the character.
The series has been collected into a number of trade paperbacks, including:
Nemesis the Warlock: The Death of Torquemada was released as a game made for the Commodore 64, Amstrad CPC and ZX Spectrum. The C64 version of this game was made by Martech in 1987, programmer Michael J. Archer, musician Rob Hubbard
The video for Shriekback's 1985 single "Nemesis" from the album Oil & Gold features Nemesis the Warlock. [2]
Wizkids / NECA have released three figures of Nemesis the Warlock as part of their Heroclix collectable miniatures game (Rookie, Experienced and Veteran versions). These were only released in the United Kingdom, alongside other 2000AD related figures, as part of the "Indy" expansion to the game. This led to something of an outcry from the American fans of both the game and the character, and this style of "regional" figure-release was not continued in later sets of Heroclix.
Nemesis is a Greek mythological spirit of divine retribution against those who succumb to hubris. Nemesis may also refer to:
Patrick Eamon Mills is an English comics writer and editor who, along with John Wagner, revitalised British boys' comics in the 1970s, and has remained a leading light in British comics ever since. He has been called "the godfather of British comics".
2000 AD is a weekly British science fiction-oriented comic magazine. As a comics anthology it serialises stories in each issue and was first published by IPC Magazines in 1977, the first issue dated 26 February. Since 2000 it has been published by Rebellion Developments.
Kevin O'Neill was an English comic book illustrator who was the co-creator of Nemesis the Warlock, Marshal Law, and The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen.
Bryan Talbot is a British comics artist and writer, best known as the creator of The Adventures of Luther Arkwright and its sequel Heart of Empire, as well as the Grandville series of books. He collaborated with his wife, Mary M. Talbot to produce Dotter of Her Father's Eyes, which won the 2012 Costa biography award.
ABC Warriors is a feature in the UK comic-book series 2000 AD written by Pat Mills. It first appeared in program (issue) 119 in 1979 and continues to run as of 2018. Art for the opening episodes was by Kevin O'Neill, Mike McMahon, Brett Ewins, and Brendan McCarthy, who among them designed the original seven members of the team. Since then, they have been illustrated primarily, though not exclusively, by Bryan Talbot, Simon Bisley, SMS, Kevin Walker, Henry Flint and Clint Langley. The A.B.C. Warriors are a team of war robots designed to withstand 'Atomic', 'Bacterial' and 'Chemical' warfare. They were built to take part in the long-running Volgan War, which Mills had described in several previous 2000 AD strips, including Invasion! and Ro-Busters. Each robot has a distinctive personality – often one programmed by its human creators – but each is more or less able to act with free will.
Ro-Busters is a British comic story that formed part of the original line-up of the magazine Starlord. Similar in premise to that of the Thunderbirds television series, it was created by writer Pat Mills and was drawn by Carlos Pino and Ian Kennedy initially, before Starlord's merger with 2000 AD. After the merger, Dave Gibbons, Kevin O'Neill and Mike McMahon were regular artists on the series, along with occasional contributions from Mike Dorey.
Hammerstein is a fictional robot created by Pat Mills and Kevin O'Neill, who first appeared in 1978 as a member of Ro-Busters in the British comic Starlord but is best known as the leader of the ABC Warriors in 2000AD.
Massimo Belardinelli was an Italian comic artist best known for his work in the British science fiction comic 2000 AD.
Henry Flint is a British comic book artist who has worked mainly for British science fiction comic 2000 AD.
Finn is a fictional pagan warlock eco-terrorist created by Pat Mills. He first appeared in British fortnightly anthology comic Crisis in 1989 in the strip Third World War and later moved to an eponymous series in 2000 AD after Crisis was cancelled in 1991.
2000 AD crossovers are crossover stories appearing in British comic 2000 AD, its sister title the Judge Dredd Megazine, and other related output, such as novels, audio plays, films and role-playing games.
Tomás de Torquemada is the fictional main villain in the comic strip Nemesis the Warlock, published in the British comic anthology 2000 AD. He eventually appeared in 7 episodes of spin-off adventures of his own. He is named after and inspired by the real life Tomás de Torquemada.
Shakara! is a science fiction comics character appearing in the British magazine 2000 AD, starring in their own eponymous story, who was created by Robbie Morrison and Henry Flint.
Diceman was a short-lived British comic which ran for five issues in 1986. It was a spin-off from 2000 AD and was devised by Pat Mills, who also wrote almost all of the stories. It was edited by Simon Geller, but purported to be edited by a monster called Mervyn. The stories were designed to be played like gamebooks. Each issue contained two or three such stories and was published every two months.
John Hicklenton, aka John Deadstock, was a British comics artist best known for his brutal, visceral work on flagship 2000 AD characters like Judge Dredd and Nemesis the Warlock during the Eighties and Nineties.
John Wagner has worked on a wide range of British comics most notably working on Judge Dredd and the various spin-offs.
Pat Mills has written comics since the early seventies.
Clint Langley is a British comic book artist best known for his work on series with Pat Mills at 2000 AD and as the cover artist for Marvel Comics' Guardians of the Galaxy.
Eagle Comics was a short lived comic book publishing company that existed to reprint comic stories from the UK's 2000 A.D. magazine for distribution in North America. They existed from 1983 to 1986 and were based in London, England with product production and distribution located in Canada.