THE ABC WARRIORS
Written by Pat Mills
Artists include Simon Bisley, Mike McMahon & Kev Walker
SPREAD THE WORD! The ABC Warriors is set in the mid-21st Century, and features Hammerstein as the leader of a robot company. Under orders from a mysterious human commander, he assembles a team of other violent mechanical miscreants over the course of the first eleven episodes in order to be shipped to Mars to work as wandering lawmen of sorts, stamping out evil wherever they find it. This format runs for ten episodes before the story takes what was planned to be a break of just a few months' time.
Despite its huge popularity with readers, Mills found the series to be incredibly frustrating. The 21 episodes are divided into eleven stories of between 1-3 episodes each. Art chores were intended to be split between Kevin O'Neill and Mike McMahon. Unfortunately, O'Neill was unable to meet his deadlines and only completed parts 1 and 5. Brendan McCarthy, Dave Gibbons and Carlos Ezquerra stepped in. Despite pages of great-looking work from all its contributors, The Meknificent Seven looks like a Mike McMahon title with a lot of fill-ins. Mills set the concept aside in favor of other ideas (principally Nemesis the Warlock) until his characters could find stricter visual continuity. That wouldn't come for another five years, until the characters were revived in the pages of Nemesis, drawn exclusively by Bryan Talbot.
Now centuries in the future, Nemesis reassembled the team to battle Torquemada's armies before sending them to deal with the Black Hole problem. This classic story, the artwork split between "SMS" and Simon Bisley, really fleshed out the Warriors' characters better than anything seen before and included plenty of anarchic mad metal action.
The ABC Warriors Volume 1: The Meknificent Seven. 136 pages, £7.49 UK, $12.95 US.
Get ready for a science fiction tale of advanced robots and interplanetary war, featuring art by some of comics' greatest talents, including Kevin O'Neill (THE LEAGUE OF EXTRAORDINARY GENTLEMEN), Dave Gibbons (WATCHMEN) and Carlos Ezquerra (JUDGE DREDD)!
The Volgan war has raged for years, spreading off Earth and on to Mars. Now an Earth general has assembled a team of advanced robots - capable of withstanding atomic, bacterial or chemical attack - to finally conquer the "devil planet!" They are Hammerstein, a war-droid whose chest "puffs" with pride when he hears the national anthem; Joe Pineapples, a secretive, ice-cool sniper; Blackblood, so evil he drinks the oil of fallen robots; Mongrol, a mindless killing machine; Happy Shrapnel, a sharpshooting old-timer; Steelhorn, the self-styled "greatest robot ever created"; and Deadlock, the mysterious Khaos-worshipper and wielder of the mystical Ace of Swords. They are the A.B.C. Warriors, and they've come to tame a planet. Spread the word!
Contents:
The ABC Warriors, prog 119 (June 1979). Story by Pat Mills, art by Kevin O'Neill.
The Retreat from Volgow, prog 120 (June 1979). Story by Mills, art by Brendan McCarthy.
Mongrol, 2 episodes, progs 121-122 (July 1979). Story by Mills, art by Mike McMahon.
The Order of Knights Martial, 2 episodes, progs 123-124 (July 1979). Story by Mills, art by O'Neill (pt 1), Brett Ewins (pt 2).
The Bougainville Massacre, 2 episodes, progs 125-126 (Aug. 1979). Story by Mills, art by McMahon.
Steelhorn, 2 episodes, progs 127-128 (Aug. 1979). Story by Mills, art by McCarthy.
Mars, the Devil Planet, prog 129 (Sep. 1979). Story by Mills, art by McMahon.
Cyboons, 2 episodes, progs 130-131 (Sep. 1979). Story by Mills, art by Dave Gibbons.
The Red Death, 2 episodes, progs 132-133 (Sep. to Oct. 1979). Story by Mills, art by McMahon.
Golgotha, 3 episodes, progs 134-136 (Oct. 1979). Story by Mills, art by "L. John Silver" (Carlos Ezquerra).
Mad George, 3 episodes, progs 137-139 (Nov. 1979). Story by Mills, art by McMahon.
The ABC Warriors Volume 2: The Black Hole. 136 pages, £8.99 UK, $14.99 US.
The A.B.C. Warriors are back in this explosive collection written by Pat Mills (Slaine) and featuring the ultra-dynamic art of Simon Bisley (LOBO, Heavy Metal)! When the far-future evil empire of Termight begins experimenting with time-travel, they unleash a force that could destroy the entire universe!
Contents:
The Black Hole, 21 episodes, progs 555-566 and 573-581 (Jan. to July 1988). Story by Pat Mills, art by Simon Bisley, "S.M.S."