Zetari, an adult fantasy adventure written by Martin Lodewijk with art John M. Burns, looks set to finally be published in English, if a crowdfunder from Oak Tree Books, an imprint of Andrews UK, is successful.
In the works is the Zetari Special Edition by Martin Lodewijk and John M. Burns – a hardcover collection of both of the fantasy warrior’s adult fantasy adventures first published internationally in the 1980s, but never before in English until now, featuring restored art and exclusive features.
The late 2000AD artist John M. Burns created Zetari in the 1980s, a beautiful, fierce mercenary warrior, and illustrated two stories, both written by Martin Lodewijk, one of the Netherlands’ most prominent and productive comic artists and writers, who was also the writer of the Don Lawrence-painted Storm series.
Martin is also the co-creator of Agent 327 with Jan Kruis, a long-running secret agent series loosely based on James Bond, who lives in Rotterdam and manages to get himself into weird situations. Initially appearing in the weekly comics magazine Pep in 1966, he ended up writing and drawing the strip for close to fifty years.
After Pep became Eppo, Lodewijk became Eppo‘s chief editor. In 2011, he was invested as a Knight of the Order of Orange-Nassau, receiving this Dutch royal medal because of his comic work.
A Very Special Edition
The planned 136-page Zetari Special Edition hardback will open with a foreword by artist David Roach, followed by representations of the two graphic novel stories, restored by Robert Hammond, who, among many other projects has worked on the comic anthologies of Robin of Sherwood, The Tomorrow People, Terrahawks and Stingray. The package also includes a couple of text features, an alternate pages gallery and an art gallery featuring unseen concept sketches direct from John’s studio that are exclusive to this book and won’t appear anywhere else. It’s all rounded off by an afterword from Paul Duncan.
The dialogue and text used in this new collection are not translations: this edition utilises the original scripts written in English by Martin Lodewijk, who was kind enough to share them.
The campaign offers several rewards, some of them limited – so act quickly if you want one. From the 1980s, there are mini-prints / cards and some very nice prints. Plus a supplementary A4 sized bookazine featuring the entire second story, “The Bright Face of Death” in black and white, created from copies of the art made by by John, before he commenced painting.
The Potted History of Zetari
Zetari was John M. Burns and Martin Lodewijk’s first major international project, initiated by the Yugoslav agency Strip Art Features. “I was approached in 1983 by the Yugoslavian agent, Ervin Rustemagić, and I agreed to do Zetari,” Burns explained in one interview with author Paul Duncan. “She’s a female mercenary who plies her trade on no particular world, set in no particular time. I can use whatever monsters I want but, technically, nothing goes beyond the steam engine.”
Zetari first appeared in the Yugoslav comic magazine Strip Art (Number 38) cover dated September 1983. The stories were also serialised in Panorama magazine in Holland, in L’Eternauta Presenta in Italy and Zona 84 in Spain,, collected by Holland’s Big Balloon in 1988 and in two collections by German publisher Splitter, also in the 1980s. Most recently it was collected as an “Integral” edition by another German publisher, Erko, published in 2018.
Despite international acclaim and a strong fan following – John M. Burns was often asked for Zetari sketches at conventions – the stories have never published in the English, the original art sadly destroyed during the Bosnian War.
Remembering John M. Burns
John M. Burns, who died in 2023, had no formal art training and started as an apprentice at the age of 16 at Link Studio, under Doris White. He worked diligently, and after four years, got his first major job illustrating the 1958 Champion the Wonder Horse Annual.
After returning from National Service in the RAF in 1961, John established himself as a reliable, and then much sought-after professional artist on “Wulf the Briton” and “Kelpie the Boy Wizard” in black and white, and “Wrath of the Gods” and “Great Expectations” in colour, appearing in boy, girl and children’s comics like Express Weekly, Boy’s World, Eagle, Diana, Wham, TV Century 21, and Robin. In the 1970s, John reached some sort of high point with the full-colour SF masterwork “Countdown” in the comic of the same name. He filled shadows with colours instead of black, which became a trademark of sorts.
John continued experimenting throughout the 1970s and into the 1980s on TV-related strips like “UFO” and “Mission: Impossible” in TV Action, “The Tomorrow People”, “Space: 1999”, “The Bionic Woman”, “How the West was Won”, “Smuggler”, “Buck Rogers in the 25th Century”, and “Magnum P.I.”, in Look-In, and then “The Tripods” in BEEB.
“That was where the money was,” he once explained. “You adapt and do it. It was also a chance to do some colour. There were no other comics in Britain with good quality colour printing, and the whole comics industry in Britain has been declining since the early seventies, so you grab what you can.”
As well as some advertising and spot illustration work. John carved out a parallel career drawing newspaper strips. John is a superb figure artist, and in many of his strips there are pictures of partially disrobed and sometimes naked women. For John, this started back in 1973 with the publication of the “Danielle” strip in the Evening News, and continued with “George & Lynne”, “Eartha”, “Jane”, “Lilly” and “Girl Chat”. “This is something that I got lumbered with,” he notes. “It is not of my own choosing. I’d much prefer to draw trees than naked women, mainly because I know more about them than women.”
In addition to Zetari, John drew his fair share of strong female characters. In “The Seekers”, a newspaper strip that ran for six years, from 1966-1972, Susanne was every bit a part of the action as her partner.
John also painted two albums of El Capitán Trueno, Spain’s most popular comic character, who was inspired by Hal Foster’s Prince Valiant, in 1991 and 1993 for a Spanish publisher. Zetari and El Capitán Trueno have yet to be published in English.
In parallel and in contrast, John also executed over 300 black and white pages of boxing strip “The Fists of Danny Pyke” and teenage comedy “Dolebusters” for Eagle comic, followed by a 24-page full-colour “Dan Dare” SF adventure strip. Other iconic characters followed with Doctor Who and James Bond comics work.
From 1991 onwards, John worked increasingly for 2000AD, bringing his unique vision to “Judge Dredd”, “Nikolai Dante”, “The Bendatti Vendetta”, “Sinister Dexter” and “The Order”.
He also completed two magnificent graphic novels of Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights – the latter a story he originally adapted in 1963, for the weekly girls comic, Diana.
Last year, Book Palace Books announced they would release a limited edition art book, JMB: The Unseen Art of John M. Burns this year, still available to preorder here.
Oak Tree Books
Oak Tree Books — Andrews UK’s premium imprint — has been publishing high-quality titles since 2000, covering a range of genres from biographies, fantasy, horror, and so much more. They also publish, or restore and re-publish, beloved books of characters, brands, and strips from the 1970s and 1980s, often in conjunction with Chinbeard Books, for that nostalgic feel that everyone adores.
Oak Tree Books have been granted the license for this collection by SAF Comics, and are very grateful they’ve been allowed to publish the very first English language version of Zetari, complementing all the many different language versions that have been produced over the four decades since these two graphic novels were first published.
Further Reading…
• John M. Burns was often asked to do sketches of Zetari at conventions. If you have such a sketch, and would like it to be considered for inclusion in the book, please contact Colin Brown via robinclownATyahoo.com (replace “AT” with @)
• Lambiek: Martin Lodewijk Profile
• John M Burns Art Facebook Group
• In Memoriam: Comic Artist John M. Burns
• JMB: The Unseen Art of John M. Burns, from Book Palace Books
• International comic community pays tribute to 2000AD and Look-In artist John M. Burns
• Read our profile of John’s long career here, posted when his retirement was announced last year
• Read an extensive guide to John M. Burns work by Paul Duncan here on downthetubes
• Strip Art Features – licensing comics since 1971
• Strip Special Zaak: The Mystery of Zetari’s Extra Pages in Past Collections (in Dutch)
• Zetari Integral – German Edition Published by Erko, 2018 | 96 pages | Hardback | ISBN: 978-9610939555 | Review Here
- About the Author
- Latest Posts
John is the founder of downthetubes, launched in 1998. He is a comics and magazine editor, writer, and Press Officer for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. He also runs Crucible Comic Press.
Working in British comics publishing since the 1980s, his credits include editor of titles such as Doctor Who Magazine and Overkill for Marvel UK, Babylon 5 Magazine, Star Trek Magazine, and its successor, Star Trek Explorer, and more. He also edited the comics anthology STRIP Magazine and edited several audio comics for ROK Comics; and has edited several comic collections and graphic novels, including volumes of “Charley’s War” and “Dan Dare”, and Hancock: The Lad Himself, by Stephen Walsh and Keith Page.
He’s the writer of comics such as Pilgrim: Secrets and Lies for B7 Comics; “Crucible”, a creator-owned project with 2000AD artist Smuzz; and “Death Duty” and “Skow Dogs”, with Dave Hailwood.
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