Nemesis The Warlock: Book 5 The Vengeance of Thoth - Ego Trip and Ep 1
A robot Torquemada ‘forgives’ sinners by crushing them to death. This was inspired by the Spanish Inquisition.
I’m blown away by Nemesis the Warlock: the Definitive Edition. My compliments to the publishers, Rebellion, and especially their designer Gemma Sheldrake for the truly inspired front and back covers.
Such a Definitive Edition requires a Definitive Commentary, a companion piece for when you’re looking at the beautiful art by art-creator Kevin O’Neill and the other talented artists that followed him. So it’s time for The Secret History of Nemesis the Warlock, an episode by episode revelation of what really went on behind the scenes.
EGO-TRIP
The Later Heresies edition of Nemesis begins with Ego-Trip, which is one of my favourite self-contained Nemesis stories. I wrote it much earlier in the Nemesis timeline, and therefore it was drawn by Kevin when he was still on the series.
It portrays the mindless, obedient zombies society would love us all to be in the form of Henry Sprutenberg, filing clerk. Two pictures from it still make me chuckle. The scene where Henry is wearing purity pyjamas which include essential mittens! And the single marital beds, separated by a mega-length bedside cabinet.
The beds were inspired by an amusing anecdote Kevin told me. As you’re doubtless aware, in Hollywood, movies from the 1930s to the late 1950s were heavily censored by the Hays Code which frowned on any kind of intimacy, including between husband and wife.
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