Nemesis – the art of Kevin O’Neill, then and now | The Forbidden Planet International Blog Log

Nemesis – the art of Kevin O’Neill, then and now

Fri, Mar 30, 2007

Since I mentioned Nemesis while talking about Invasion! yesterday it reminded me just how much I enjoyed re-reading the Complete Nemesis the Warlock from Rebellion recently. Pat Mills and Kevin O’Neill’s far future, underground world, Termight, bizarre aliens and terrifying, xenophobic humans who embark on crusades to ‘purify’ all deviants (anyone who isn’t human, or even humans who think aliens are alright and should be left alone) was one of the first comics strips I read which seriously warped my (then) young brain, gleefully twisting the normal comics conventions of the day and offering us something wonderfully weird. No, I had no real idea quite what was going on in the early strips (you don’t even see Nemesis himself for quite a while, just his living ship, the Blitzspear) but by god it was amazing; it was one of those strips which makes you realise just how elastic comics can be in what they can do and how they tell a story.

(Kevin ONeill’s art from the Complete Nemesis volume one, (c) Rebellion. Seriously, how cool is this?)

As well as Pat Mills’ script (influenced by Heavy Metal) Nemesis had another great thing going for it in the shape of Kev O’Neill’s artwork. Belardinelli had already changed my view of what comics art could look like with his revived Dan Dare for 2000AD (starting me on a journey that would lead to visually ravishing works like Bilal’s art much later) and then Kev’s art kicked me in the head and shook loose my ideas of what a good comic looked like. I probably have artists like him and Belardinelli to thank for the interest I have in the genre today. Kevin’s art was, simply superb, and looking back at it now as an adult, all grown up and mature and sophisticated (ahem) does it still work for me? Damned right it does – the odd panel may have dated (a Kenny Everett-style DJ in one panel for instance – younger readers ask your fathers who he was) but most of it not only works today, it remains stylish, imaginative and just so damned cool, while I still remain of the opinion that Kev created some of the best alien art ever seen in a British comic.

(look at this Kev O’Neill artwork from the Gothic Empire chapters of Nemesis and then compare with the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen)

The last third of the first volume of Complete Nemesis is taken up with the Gothic Empire tale, which brings the ABC Warriors into the Nemesis storyline. Set on an empire of alien worlds run by alien mimics who have based their entire look and culture on a late Victorian/early Edwardian British Empire it offers a fantastic Steampunk SF story of Victoriana-with-modern-technology and Victorian style settings with added SF/Steampunk elements (these are space-going Victorians after all), even including a misty East End with nasty Jack the Ripper type murderer on the loose. The excellent Bryan Talbot would take over art duties part way through this story arc, but the earliest Gothic Empire episodes are still Kevin O’Neill and looking at them now isn’t it amazingly like looking almost at an early dry-run for some of the twisted Victoriana he would incorporate years later into The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, from the architecture to the Nautilus, a distant cousin to the Blitzspear?