Nemesis The Warlock: The Gothic Empire Ep 1

I recalled a conversation John Wagner and I had about radio signals from Earth reaching an alien world and the creatures who lived there being affected by them.

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.

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Book Four  - The Gothic Empire

Episode One – A Steampunk masterpiece

This episode still amazes me to this day. And, apart from the Torquemada plot, it is entirely Kevin O’Neill’s creation. It had started life as another one-shot story in the tradition of Terror Tube and Killer Watt, but the world that emerged was so amazing it needed a serial all of its own. It was actually too amazing. Because, at this stage I had no idea what motivated Torquemada or Nemesis. So I had to sit down and work it out: that the Grand Master wanted to cleanse the galaxy of all alien life. So the Gothic Empire required prequels and thus Books One to Three were created and appeared ahead of this classic series. 

It’s something I and possibly other writers do all the time. We start off with one idea and then realise it needs prequels to establish the world.