Lazarus Churchyard is a fictional character in a

British comics 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 ...

series, created in 1991 by Warren Ellis and illustrated by

Matt Brooker Matt Brooker, whose work most often appears under the pseudonym D'Israeli (sometimes "D'Israeli D'Emon D'Raughtsman"), is a British comic artist, colorist, writer and letterer. Other pseudonyms he uses include "Molly Eyre" (a pun on Molière) fo ...

under the pseudonym D'Israeli. The stories are cyberpunk in theme, although Ellis himself does not consider it so and prefers to call it "decadent SF".

Publication history

Lazarus Churchyard stories originally appeared in '' Blast!'' magazine, and were reprinted in the '' Judge Dredd Megazine''.Lazarus Churchyard at 2000ad.org
/ref> Although some stories have been illustrated by others, Ellis has said he considers only the D'Israeli-illustrated work "the definitive Churchyard".

Tundra Press Tundra Publishing was a Northampton, Massachusetts-based comic book publisher founded by Kevin Eastman in 1990. The company was founded to provide a venue for adventurous, creator-owned work by talented cartoonists and illustrators. Its publicati ...

released three-issue

comic-book A comic book, also called comicbook, comic magazine or (in the United Kingdom and Ireland) simply comic, is a publication that consists of comics art in the form of sequential juxtaposed panels that represent individual scenes. Panels are oft ...

series, ''Lazarus Churchyard'', in 1992. This was collected the same year as the

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 ...

''Lazarus Churchyard: The Final Cut'' ( Atomeka Press), reissued by

Image Comics Image Comics is an American comic book publisher and is the third largest comic book and graphic novel publisher in the industry in both unit and market share. It was founded in 1992 by several high-profile illustrators as a venue for creator-ow ...

() in 2001.

Fictional character biography

The eponymous central character took part in a "plasborging" experiment in which around eighty per cent of his body was replaced with an intelligent, evolving plastic, which can react in 0.132 of a second to any situation and adapt accordingly. In the story, this adaptation usually takes the form of growing spikes, blades or similar weapons. The plastic also processes toxins of all kinds, essentially making Churchyard immortal. The stories take place 400 years after this experiment. Churchyard is by now tired of his immortality and wants to die. He inhabits a dystopian future in which the United Kingdom has been taken over by the corporation Isis-Elek and renamed Savoy, while large parts of the globe have been rendered uninhabitable by germ warfare.

In popular culture

The hard rock bands Lucy's Drowning and Meathook Seed both took their names from elements of the story.

Footnotes

References

* * British comics titles Image Comics titles 2000 AD comic strips {{UK-comics-stub