"El Mestizo" is a

British comic A British comic is a periodical published in the United Kingdom that contains comic strips. It is generally referred to as a comic or a comic magazine, and historically as a comic paper. British comics are usually Comics anthology, comics antho ...

war War is an intense armed conflict between states, governments, societies, or paramilitary groups such as mercenaries, insurgents, and militias. It is generally characterized by extreme violence, destruction, and mortality, using regular o ...

story published in the weekly

anthology In book publishing, an anthology is a collection of literary works chosen by the compiler; it may be a collection of plays, poems, short stories, songs or excerpts by different authors. In genre fiction, the term ''anthology'' typically categ ...

Battle Picture Weekly ''Battle Picture Weekly'', at various times also known as ''Battle Action'', ''Battle Action Force'', ''Battle'' and ''Battle with Storm Force'', was a British war comic book magazine published by IPC Magazines from (issues dates) 8 March 1975 ...

'' from 4 June to 17 September 1977 by

IPC Magazines TI Media (formerly International Publishing Company, IPC Magazines Ltd, IPC Media and Time Inc. UK) was a consumer magazine and digital publisher in the United Kingdom, with a portfolio selling over 350 million copies each year. Most of its tit ...

. Set during the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states th ...

, the story follows a

mestizo (; ; fem. ) is a term used for racial classification to refer to a person of mixed Ethnic groups in Europe, European and Indigenous peoples of the Americas, Indigenous American ancestry. In certain regions such as Latin America, it may also r ...

slave turned mercenary returning from

Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

to America in 1862. The story was written by Alan Hebden and drawn by

Carlos Ezquerra Carlos Sanchez Ezquerra (12 November 1947 – 1 October 2018) was a Spanish comics artist who worked mainly in British comics. He is best known as the co-creator of ''Judge Dredd''. Biography Early work Born in Ibdes, province of Zaragoza, Arag ...

Creation

Since starting work on ''

'' on the strips "

Rat Pack The Rat Pack was an informal group of entertainers, the second iteration of which ultimately made films and appeared together in Las Vegas casino venues. They originated in the late 1940s and early 1950s as a group of A-list show business frie ...

" and "

Major Eazy Major Eazy is a British comic character, appearing in strips published by IPC Magazines. Eazy featured British comic war stories published in the weekly anthology ''Battle Picture Weekly'' from 10 January 1976 to 10 June 1978, written by Alan He ...

had rapidly become one of the comic's most popular artists by 1977. He was much in demand elsewhere, working with

Pat Mills Patrick Eamon Mills (born 1949) is an English comics writer and editor who, along with John Wagner, revitalised British boys comics in the 1970s, and has remained a leading light in British comics ever since. He has been called "the godfather o ...

and

John Wagner John Wagner (born 1949) is an American-born British comics writer. Alongside Pat Mills, he helped revitalise British comics in the 1970s, and continues to be active in the British comics industry, occasionally also working in American comics. ...

on designing

Judge Dredd Judge Joseph Dredd is a fictional character created by writer John Wagner and artist Carlos Ezquerra. He first appeared in the second issue of ''2000 AD (comics), 2000 AD'' (1977), which is a British weekly anthology Comic book, comic. He is the ...

for new

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 ...

weekly title '' 2000 AD''. ''Battle'' editor Dave Hunt wanted to keep Ezquerra, and assigned Alan Hebden - who had worked with the artist on "Major Eazy" - to create a story, especially for the artist, coming up with "El Mestizo". As it was, Ezquerra left as regular artist on "Judge Dredd" in controversial circumstances, and would remain with ''Battle'' for another year. As with Eazy, Hebden drew on the

Clint Eastwood Clinton Eastwood Jr. (born May 31, 1930) is an American actor and film director. After achieving success in the Western TV series '' Rawhide'', he rose to international fame with his role as the "Man with No Name" in Sergio Leone's "''Doll ...

-starring

Dollars Trilogy ''Dollars Trilogy'' ( it, link=no, Trilogia del dollaro), also known as the ''Man with No Name Trilogy'' ( it, link=no, Trilogia dell'Uomo senza nome) or the ''Blood Money Trilogy'', is an Italian film series consisting of three Spaghetti Weste ...

of films, directed by

Sergio Leone Sergio Leone (; 3 January 1929 – 30 April 1989) was an Italian film director, producer and screenwriter credited as the pioneer of the Spaghetti Western genre and widely regarded as one of the most influential directors in the history of cin ...

, both for the mysterious lead character and the historical setting. John Freeman would later suggest that

Jimi Hendrix James Marshall "Jimi" Hendrix (born Johnny Allen Hendrix; November 27, 1942September 18, 1970) was an American guitarist, singer and songwriter. Although his mainstream career spanned only four years, he is widely regarded as one of the most ...

influenced the design of the character.

Publishing history

While Ezquerra greatly enjoyed both the comic and working with Hebden, but was aware the strip's unconventional nature - being the first in ''Battle'' to feature a black hero and the first (and last) story in the comic set in the American Civil War, and at the time one of the few not centred on

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

- meant it was unlikely to be popular with readers. He would recall that "England in the seventies was not the right place for this character". Their predictions proved correct as it only lasted for 16 issues before the pair were returned to "Major Eazy". Hebden would later reflect it was "too radical a story for the readership of the time", and felt Ezquerra wouldn't have left ''Battle'' to draw "

Strontium Dog ''Strontium Dog'' was a long-running British comics series starring Johnny Alpha, a mutant bounty hunter who lives in Earth's future. The series was created in 1978 by writer John Wagner (under the pseudonym T. B. Grover) and artist Carlos Ezque ...

" in '' Starlord'' if the strip had continued for longer. Since 2016, the rights to the story have been owned by

Rebellion Developments Rebellion Developments Limited is a British video game developer based in Oxford, England. Founded by Jason and Chris Kingsley in December 1992, the company is best known for its ''Sniper Elite'' series and multiple games in the ''Alien vs. Pre ...

. In 2018 they issued a hardcover collected edition of all 16 episodes under their

Treasury of British Comics Treasury of British Comics is a line of comic book collections published by Rebellion Developments, collecting British comics stories from the libraries of Amalgamated Press/Fleetway Publications/IPC Magazines. History Rebellion Developments had ...

label, shortly before Ezquerra's death.

Plot summary

A mysterious stranger appears in a

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish language, Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2 ...

border town in 1862; with word of 'El Mestizo's deeds having already spread few are willing to tangle with him. He claims to be uninterested in the

civil war A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies ...

being waged across America, instead having crossed from

in pursuit of a murderer called Hutardo - though he has no reservations about taking on mercenary work for both

Union Union commonly refers to: * Trade union, an organization of workers * Union (set theory), in mathematics, a fundamental operation on sets Union may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Music * Union (band), an American rock group ** ''Un ...

and

Confederate Confederacy or confederate may refer to: States or communities * Confederate state or confederation, a union of sovereign groups or communities * Confederate States of America, a confederation of secessionist American states that existed between 1 ...

armies. He also pays a visit to the plantation in

Alabama (We dare defend our rights) , anthem = "Alabama (state song), Alabama" , image_map = Alabama in United States.svg , seat = Montgomery, Alabama, Montgomery , LargestCity = Huntsville, Alabama, Huntsville , LargestCounty = Baldwin County, Al ...

that he escaped from, visiting old friend Shelley and killing his former 'owner', only to see her mortally wounded by a group of Yankee brigands.

Collected editions

Reception

In his foreword for the collected edition, Alan Hebden acknowledged the story's poor reception from ''Battle'' readers at the time but felt the strip had received a re-evaluation in the years since.

David Bishop David Bishop may refer to: *David Bishop (writer) (born 1966), New Zealand novelist, playwright and comics writer *David Bishop (runner) (born 1987), British Scottish international middle-distance athlete *David Bishop (gymnast) (born 1990), New Ze ...

, editor of ''2000 AD'' between 1996 and 2000, referred to the strip as "ground-breaking". Reviewing the collected edition for Slings & Arrows, Karl Verhoven praised Ezquerra's art but expressed discomfort of the strip using a derogatory slur as its title, surmising that otherwise the story "still stands up as an imaginative adventure strip, rarely predictable beyond the certainty that the title hero will live to appear in the next episode".

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mestizo, El 1977 comics debuts 1977 comics endings British comic strips British comics characters Comics set during the American Civil War War comics Western (genre) comics Western (genre) comics characters Fleetway and IPC Comics characters Battle Picture Weekly comic strips Comics set in Texas Fictional slaves Treasury of British comics titles