Carlos Ezquerra

Yeah

... there's comedy and I think Carlos Ezquerra is so good at doing that in the, in the art that you sort of chuckle even though it's like [laughs] it's bad.

Um, and, and then essentially they, they downfall the, um, kingdom, [laughs] literally.

They literally start a revolution, get the girl back.

Now, so I've for once, and this shows you how much I love the story, memorized the story, and I just think this is just absolute gold.

I, I, I honestly, I...

This is proof to me that Carlos Ezquerra, it was Alan Grant, usually Alan Grant enjoying it.

Alan Grant did this one himself.

Now, our trade of the week, Stainless Steel Rat.

Uh, Carlos Ezquerra, um, who I stupidly didn't even realize was doing the artwork on this.

This is an adaption of a series of science fiction pulp novels that Harry Harrison wrote in the s- well, at least in the '70s, um, possibly into the '80s.

He wrote a sequence of them.

Um, I had never read this.

I, I knew they'd done this, and I know of the Stainless Steel Rat com- uh, books, and I know that they're highly regarded for their time.

Can I say, I really had a lot of fun with this, and so much of it was the sheer enjoyment of seeing the colorized Carlos Ezquerra art for a story I never read, and it really...

I mean, it was like reading a lot of Strontium Dog, 'cause it was a lot of off-world science fiction.

Whether or not they worked on the stories.

Like Dredd was created by John Wagner and Carlos Esquerra.

But God rest his soul, Carlos, I think, is dead.

So...

Bo E. L.

Marks, and written by Michael De Luca, William Wisher, and Steven E. de Souza, plus character creator writer credits for John Wagner, Carlos Ezquerra, Brian Bolland, Pat Mills, Mike McMahon, and Kevin O'Neill.

That's nine writers total in case you lost track.

Yeah, this, uh, definitely stacked with the writers.

You don't get that.

I mean, you know, Batman can be, you know, Batman and all the things inherent, but, you know, th- these characters never f- you know, they never forget they are the heroes, you know? And, um, it's, uh, there's so much, you know, whether it was by design or, um, or, or happenstance, somehow, like John Wagner and Carlos Ezquerra, uh, they sort of designed a character which just creates, um, multitudes.

And that's why I, I still love writing.

I read him as a kid, and I just always find there's something in the world and something in the character.

But I, I wrote a story called, um, a sh- a one-off called Meet, uh, probably 10 years ago, where a guy starts researching him and looks into him and kind of goes, "Oh my God, I think he's killed more human beings than any person who's ever lived," basically, you know.

Um, because at one, it, one of the great Dredd stories is the Apocalypse War, where at the end with one of the great lines in comics, uh, if you've never read it, you should.

It's a brilliant action story which goes on and on and on with Carlos Ezquerra drew it all.

And at the end, Dredd gets to, um, breaks...