Nemesis the Warlock: episodes 1 to 6
The strange techno-Gothic quality of Termight is fully established in this episode with huge statues to past Terminators. This world is like nothing we have ever seen in science fiction.
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.
Book One
Episode 1
Finally I had to work out with Kevin what Nemesis looked like. I did that during the Gothic Empire saga in Volume Two.
But I still had to work out what was driving Torquemada. What did ‘Be Pure! Be Vigilant! Behave!’ actually mean? I had absolutely no idea. Again, that lack of funding for story development time was costing me. It should be possible to work everything out thoroughly in advance, but it just wasn’t financially viable. Instead, it had to be done ‘on the hoof’.
So for two or three days I wandered around Lexden Park in Colchester, lost in my own thoughts, trying to figure it out. Finally, I had my Eureka moment - Torquemada wanted to cleanse the galaxy of all alien life. They were all deviants from the human ‘norm’.
Be Pure!
There must be no sexual relations with aliens. ‘No trucking with the extra-terrestrial’.
Be Vigilant!
To watch out for deviants amongst us.
Behave!
Obey Torquemada and his Terminators.
Armed with this breakthrough information, I could even design a map featured here and you can see where the Gothic Empire features.
I love the techno-fairy tale quality of this episode and the introduction of Brother Behell, a rival to Torquemada.
Episode Two
This episode sees Kevin’s clever solution to conveying violence in comics at a time when there was considerable censorship.
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