''Axa'' was the title of a newspaper

comic strip A comic strip is a sequence of drawings, often cartoons, arranged in interrelated panels to display brief humor or form a narrative, often serialized, with text in balloons and captions. Traditionally, throughout the 20th and into the 21st ...

featuring the eponymous lead character, which was published in British daily tabloid '' The Sun'' from 1978 to 1986. It was created and illustrated by

Romero The name Romero is a nickname type of surname for a Roman or an Italian. The name was originally derived from the Latin word Romaeus and the Greek word Romaios, which mean Roman. #A person on a religious journey or pilgrimage from Rome (possibly t ...

with stories from Romero, with scripts based on these stories, written by

Donne Avenell Donne may refer to: People *Alfred François Donné (1801–1878), French bacteriologist and doctor *Daniel Donne (died 1617), English jurist *Elena Delle Donne (born 1989), American basketball player *Gabriel Donne (died 1558), English monk *Gave ...

Publication history

Commissioned by ''The Sun'' in 1978, the series was designed as a daily three-panel adventure strip. ''The Sun'' abruptly cancelled the strip midway through a story in 1986. Romero created 2238 strips in black/white before the comic was cancelled. The last strip published in ''The Sun'' was number 2234. It was published on November 16, 1985 (according to the Ken Pierce re-production of the Axa comic in book #9). Romero also produced a long story in full color which was published in the Spanish magazine ''Creepy'', in issuess #52-59 (1983-1984). Romero returned to draw his previous series, ''

Modesty Blaise ''Modesty Blaise'' is a British comic strip featuring a fictional character of the same name, created by author Peter O'Donnell and illustrator Jim Holdaway in 1963. The strip follows Modesty Blaise, an exceptional young woman with many talent ...

'', but also took ''Axa'' to the American company

Eclipse Comics Eclipse Comics was an American comic book publisher, one of several independent publishers during the 1980s and early 1990s. In 1978, it published the first graphic novel intended for the newly created comic book specialty store market. It was ...

, who published a two issue series of new adventures, though this time with much less nudity and

Chuck Dixon Charles Dixon (born April 14, 1954) is an American comic book writer, best known for his work on the Marvel Comics character the Punisher and on the DC Comics characters Batman, Nightwing, and Robin in the 1990s and early 2000s. Early life D ...

as writer. Another comic book version of ''Axa'' was later produced for the

Swedish Swedish or ' may refer to: Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically: * Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland ** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...

comic magazine ''Magnum''. All the strips from ''The Sun'' have been reprinted in

trade paperback Trade paperback may refer to: * Trade paperback, a higher-quality softcover version of a book * Trade paperback (comics) In comics in the United States, a trade paperback (shortened: TPB or trade) is a collection of stories originally published ...

format by Ken Pierce Books. In January 2011, a

mobile phone game A mobile game, or smartphone game, is a video game that is typically played on a mobile phone. The term also refers to all games that are played on any portable device, including from mobile phone (feature phone or smartphone), tablet computer, ...

was released based on the Axa character. The game targets mainly

Nokia Nokia Corporation (natively Nokia Oyj, referred to as Nokia) is a Finnish multinational corporation, multinational telecommunications industry, telecommunications, technology company, information technology, and consumer electronics corporatio ...

phones, but is written in

Java Java (; id, Jawa, ; jv, ꦗꦮ; su, ) is one of the Greater Sunda Islands in Indonesia. It is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the south and the Java Sea to the north. With a population of 151.6 million people, Java is the world's List ...

and is therefore expandable to other platforms.

Synopsis

Opening on a

post-apocalyptic Apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic fiction is a subgenre of speculative fiction in which the Earth's (or another planet's) civilization is collapsing or has collapsed. The apocalypse event may be climatic, such as runaway climate change; astro ...

Earth Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the only astronomical object known to harbor life. While large volumes of water can be found throughout the Solar System, only Earth sustains liquid surface water. About 71% of Earth's surfa ...

in the year 2080, Axa is a woman who, having grown sick of the regimented and stifling society inside a domed city, flees into the untamed wilderness. The strip mixed elements of

science fiction Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel unive ...

and sword-swinging barbarian tales. However, it is arguable that the strip's main draw were the frequent depictions of the full-figured Axa's tendency to wind up topless or fully nude, as rendered by good-girl artist Romero.

Reprints

Ken Pierce Books (US) # ''The Beginning, the Chosen'' (1981) # ''The Desired'' (1982) # ''The Brave, The Gambler'' (1983) # ''The Earthbound, the Tempted'' (1983) # ''The Eager, The Carefree'' (1984) # ''The Dwarfed, The Untamed'' (1984) # ''The Mobile, The Unmasked'' (1985) # ''The Castaway, the Seeker'' (1986) # ''The Escapist, The Starstruck, The Betrayed'' (1988) * ''Axa Color Album'' (1985)

References

''Axa'' publications in ''Charlie Mensuel''
BDoubliées

Notes

External links

''Axa'' movie website

Unizarre Film International Film & Television Productions

at

Don Markstein's Toonopedia Don Markstein's Toonopedia (subtitled A Vast Repository of Toonological Knowledge) is an online encyclopedia of print cartoons, comic strips and animation, initiated February 13, 2001. Donald D. Markstein, the sole writer and editor of Toonopedi ...

Archived
from the original on April 7, 2012.

at

Tebeosfera ''Tebeosfera'' is an electronic journal devoted to the study of the media related to the graphic popular culture in Spanish, including comic, cartoon, illustration, pulp novels, cinema or videogames. The founder and director is Manuel Barrero, ...

, by Félix López. {{DEFAULTSORT:Axa (Comics) Adult comic strips British comics titles 1978 comics debuts Comics characters introduced in 1978 Eclipse Comics titles Defunct British comics Post-apocalyptic comics British comics characters Comics about women Comics set in the 21st century