Carlos Ezquerra

Verified Timeline

Lore & Background

Ezquerra was asked to visualise a new character, future lawman Judge Dredd, for the science fiction weekly 2000 AD, prior to its launch in 1977. His elaborate designs displeased the strip's writer, John Wagner, but impressed editor Pat Mills, and his cityscapes persuaded Mills to set the strip further into the future than initially intended. Wagner temporarily quit over ownership issues, and Ezquerra followed him when the first published appearance of the character was drawn by another artist, Mike McMahon. In 1978 he and Wagner created 'Strontium Dog', a science fictional western about a bounty hunter in a future where mutants are an oppressed minority, for Starlord. Ezquerra was almost the only artist to draw the character until 1988, when writer Alan Grant decided to kill him off in a storyline called 'The Final Solution'. Ezquerra disagreed with the decision and refused to draw the story. In 2000 Wagner and Ezquerra revived 'Strontium Dog' based on a treatment Wagner had written for an abortive TV pilot. Other 2000 AD strips he drew included Fiends of the Eastern Front (1980), a vampire story set in World War II, and adaptations of Harry Harrison's Stainless Steel Rat novels. In 1982 he returned to 'Judge Dredd' to draw 'The Apocalypse War', a seven-month epic which he drew in its entirety. He continued to draw the character semi-regularly, handling the whole of 'Necropolis' in 1990 and 'Origins' in 2006–07.

In Their Own Story

In 1974, on the strength of his uncredited work for The Wizard, Pat Mills and John Wagner headhunted Ezquerra, through agent Barry Coker, to work for the new IPC title Battle Picture Weekly. He drew 'Rat Pack': inspired by the film The Dirty Dozen, the strip, written by Gerry Finley-Day, featured a gang of criminals recruited to carry out suicide missions. In 1976 Battle editor Dave Hunt convinced him to commit himself to the title, offering him the laid-back anti-hero 'Major Eazy', written by Alan Hebden. Ezquerra drew nearly 100 episodes in the next two and a half years, basing the character's appearance on the actor James Coburn. He returned to Battle after the Judge Dredd ownership dispute, teaming up with Alan Hebden to create 'El Mestizo', a black gun-for-hire who played both sides against the middle during the American Civil War. His son Hector inked and coloured in his pencil work for Strontium Dog between 2008 and 2012. The character of Stogie from the long-running 2000 AD strip Robo-Hunter was given the full name Carlos Sanchez Robo-Stogie in tribute to Ezquerra.

Reader's Guide

Ezquerra collaborated numerous times with writer Garth Ennis on Bloody Mary, Adventures in the Rifle Brigade, War Stories, The Boys: The Self-Preservation Society, a Hitman annual, two Preacher specials (The Good Old Boys and The Saint of Killers miniseries) for DC Comics, and Just a Pilgrim for Black Bull Entertainment. He occasionally used the pen name 'L. John Silver' for work such as 2000 AD's 'The Riddle of the Astral Assassin!' prog 118, and ABC Warriors, progs 134–136. He won the National Comics Awards for Best Artist in Comics Today in 2001 and an Inkpot Award in 2015. In later life Ezquerra moved to Andorra. He died of lung cancer on 1 October 2018, at the age of 70. He never retired, and his uncompleted final work, 'Spector,' was published posthumously in June 2019 by 2000 AD. In May 2023 the government of Zaragoza voted to name a street after him.

Did You Know?

• Ezquerra based the appearance of Major Eazy on actor James Coburn.
• He refused to draw the 'Strontium Dog' storyline 'The Final Solution' because he disagreed with killing off the character Johnny Alpha.
• His son Hector inked and coloured his pencil work for Strontium Dog between 2008 and 2012.
• The character Stogie from Robo-Hunter was given the full name Carlos Sanchez Robo-Stogie in tribute to Ezquerra.
• He occasionally used the pen name 'L. John Silver' for work including ABC Warriors.