Book Palace Books has just announced a special edition of its brilliant illustrators quarterly, devoted entirely to the science fiction/ fantasy strip “Axa”, written by Donne Avenell and drawn entirely by Enrique Badia Romero. The strip was a longtime feature in the daily The Sun newspaper between 1978 to 1986. The Special will include the final, complete Axa adventure, “The Betrayed”, never before published in English.
Axa was first published in 1978 and read by some eight million daily readers until its sudden cancellation, mid story, in 1986. The newspaper strip centres on an often-scantily-clad, indeed often unclad, female rebel, and is set in a post-apocalyptic Earth in the year 2080. It has been syndicated globally, including to Australia, Denmark, Finland, France (appearing in the magazine Charlie), Holland, India Italy, Germany, Hong Kong, Spain, Sweden (in Agent X9 and Magnum, the latter featuring a new story written by Pidde Andersson), with over 2000 strips published.
An Axa movie has been in development since 2005, with J. Pingo Lindström and William C. Brown cited as script writers. A mobile phone game based on the character was released back in 2011. The first episode of the strip sold for over $6000 on Heritage Auctions in 2019.
AXA Special: The Art of Romero, an illustrators Special, includes “The Betrayed”, published in English for the first time, which was completed by Romero in 2012. The 132 strip long story, unfinished when The Sun dropped the strip, has only appeared previously in Spanish, in Los Traicionados, a 200 copy, limited edition book by Romero.
The Special will also include a biography of writer Donne Avenell, a guide to Axa around the world, plus presentations of miscellaneous artwork commissions and full background on Romero’s career from first comic story ever to work in Spain and the UK.
Book Palace will be publishing both a softback and limited edition hardback edition of the Special.
AXA Special: The Art of Romero plus the complete last Axa Episode ‘The Betrayed’ (illustrators Special)
Author: Donne Avenell
Artist: Enric Badia Romero
Publisher: Book Palace Books
Number of pages: 128
Format: Soft Cover; Part Colour illustrations
Size: 9″ x 11″ (216mm x 280mm)
ISBN: 9781913548407 (Softback) 9781913548438 (Hardback)
• Enrique Badia Romero – Official Web Site
• The Axa newspaper strip is syndicated by Knight Features
• AXA The Movie Official Site: www.axathemovie.com | Saturn Harvest: www.saturnharvest.com
- About the Author
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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.
Categories: Art and Illustration, Books, British Comics, British Comics - Newspaper Strips, Comics, downthetubes Comics News, downthetubes News, Other Worlds
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