Bryan's afterword to Nemesis
I enjoyed working on Nemesis. To be involved with the delightful steampunk (before the term was coined) madness of the Gothic Empire and the totalitarian insanity of Termight was challenging and fun. Challenging in that it was the first time I’d had to deal with a major comic company and meet the gruelling deadlines involved with working on a weekly strip, not to mention having to imagine and illustrate the script of an inventive genius. The fun was only in retrospect. If you’d asked me if it was fun at the time, perhaps in the small hours of the morning, deadline looming and unpaid bills waiting for the inevitably delayed cheques, I’d have rattled the chain that kept me bound Cratchett-like to the drawing board and told you to “naff off” in a voice not dissimilar to that of Ro-Jaws’
However, Pat Mills’ scripts were an absolute joy to work from. Always balanced on a knife-edge between drama and black humour, they were rich in characterisation, sub-plot and subliminal depths that are only hinted at in the dialogue. They evoked a wealth of images: pure eyeball kicks from Pat’s very visual imagination that, in a visual medium such as comics, are even more important than the words.
Torquemurder, though, was a radically different Nemesis story. It had a unique ambience - the mythic, apocalyptic ethos which pervaded the book – and a startling plot which, to be blunt, mainly involves a bunch of weirdos at the seaside having a chat. Pat’s scenario is fascinating, gripping and funny in turns and, I found, particularly effective in its manipulation of atmosphere. But the biggest change – one that Pat would later develop in Nemesis and other work – was in the story’s political stance.
There was always an underlying anti-rascist theme running through the Nemesis books. In Torquemurder, this is made explicit. Deviancy is a racial issue. Nemesis himself is coloured - he’s green, actually – a guerrilla freedom fighter battling interstellar racism. Four times Eagle Award winner for Britain’s favourite comic book villain, Tomas de Torquemada is the ultimate fascist.
Torquemada represents Order: his tyrannical oppression of Termight and xenophobic crusade against all alien races is in direct opposition to the unbridled deviancy of Nemesis, who symbolises Anarchy. One of the recurring symbols of Termight iconography used by Kevin O’Neill in the earlier stories was a straight arrow, Michael Moorcock’s symbol of Order. Hence I gave Nemesis a badge bearing Moorcock’s symbol of Chaos, a circle radiating arrows.
Yes, these issues have always been present in the stories but in Torquemurder, the racism takes centre stage. From the gloriously hypocritical Arch-bigot of Necropolis (this, written during the height of Apartheid) and his hilarious tirade against “freckled pipil” using standard phrases used to stir up racial hatred, to Torquemada’s astounding monologue wherein he rants “You’re all white men now!”, the strip bares its satirical teeth. For “deviants” read “bleks” - and note that Torque’s slogan “ Never Forgive! Never Forget! Never for Fun!” intentionally repeats the initials NF. The racist National Front party were in their heyday back then and the far right was in power under the iron hand of Prime Minister Thatcher. Today, of course, we have the NF’s successor, the asinine British National Party, the current forebears of the future Torquemada genes.
And if you think Torquemada is a bit extreme, a little unbelievable perhaps, just take a look at General John M Chivington who makes his appearance at the end of the story. This man actually existed. The massacre at Sand Creek happened as portrayed. The excerpts from Lieutenant Connors’ report are verbatim and, even more chilling, Chivington’s speech balloons all contain direct quotes from this execrable crackpot. The sad thing is that the spirit of Torquemada, Chivington and Hitler is still alive today.
Nemesis forever.
Credo!
Bryan Talbot
Sunderland July 2007
If this is the first page of the site you've landed on then also check out: the "You Are Torquemada" flash game that a fellow fan wrote. The features homepage is where we've collated all of the text-based stuff on the site and the homepage is where all of the latest updates are signposted.