British comic book character
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 Hebden and drawn by
Carlos Ezquerra
. Set during
World War II
, the strips follow Eazy, an unconventional
British Army
officer with a laidback attitude.
Creation
[
edit
]
After the successful launch of
Battle Picture Weekly
in 1975 under the guiding hand of creators
Pat Mills
and
John Wagner
, editor Dave Hunt was left to manage the typical churn of a British anthology comic. This involved identifying stories that were unpopular with the readership (typically via reader correspondence, where children writing in were encouraged to rank the comic's contents) and commissioning replacements. While "
D-Day Dawson
", "
Rat Pack
" and "
The Bootneck Boy
" swiftly proved popular, replacing the less successful stories initially proved difficult, with new stories struggling to stick.
[1]
A breakthrough came in January 1976.
[1]
A veteran of
World War II
, Eric Hebden had been appointed
Battle
's technical advisor at launch, and contributed many war stories to past IPC titles. As a result he received contributor copies of the titles he worked with, which were devoured by his son Alan. In 1971, Alan Hebden began working for
DC Thomson
at his father's suggestion, later also contributing to
Fleetway
's
War Picture Library
. After
Battle
started he wrote scripts for "Rat Pack" before coming up with "Major Eazy".
[2]
Drawing the strip was
Carlos Ezquerra
, who had been headhunted for the comic and contributed to "Rat Pack" part-time while balancing work for
DC Thomson
. Hunt and assistant editor
Steve MacManus
were able to persuade him to switch full-time for "Major Eazy", and Ezquerra designed the character.
Normally when I design a new character I base it on some actor I really like. Then I can see them moving and acting when I am visualising the story. I didn't have a very refined style until I started doing Major Eazy, my style emerged from that. He was my kind of character, an anti-hero. It also suited me that he was scruffy. My art has never been very clean. Everything looks dirty with me, so Eazy fitted perfectly.
Many have suggested he based Eazy on actor
James Coburn
, particularly his
breakout role
as Britt in the 1960
Western
The Magnificent Seven
.
[1]
However, in a 2018 interview Alan Hebden denied Coburn was the inspiration, telling Stephen Jewell "Other people might have said that but he never did, and I never did."
[2]
Instead he has noted
Clint Eastwood
's
Man with No Name
as an influence on Eazy.
[3]
Hunt felt that Eazy's attitude reflected Hebden, who he recalled "was very laid-back himself",
[1]
a sentiment echoed by
Battle
assistant editor
Steve MacManus
.
[4]
Publishing history
[
edit
]
The new story debuted in the 10 January 1976 edition of
Battle Picture Weekly
, announced on the front cover with the slogan "Like him - hate him! You can't ignore... Major Eazy!".
[1]
The strip consisted of three-page stories which were largely self-contained - a format Hebden enjoyed, later stating it "was very good to do if I was planning on going on a long journey because I could write a dozen or more of them in just two weeks". While Hebden and Ezquerra had a good professional relationship the production of the strip was not completely without difficulty; in 2018, Hebden would recall having to rewrite an episode where Eazy had been originally planned to kill an
SS
officer in cold blood due to objections from Hunt.
[2]
The initial batch of episodes ran until the 27 March 1976, before the character returned for a second longer run from 15 May 1976.
[5]
From 29 January 1977 the strip featured a crossover with Rat Pack and was renamed "Major Eazy versus Rat Pack" in reference to the antagonistic relationship between the characters; it was the first crossover between characters in
Battle Picture Weekly
- something which was rarely done in British anthologies at the time. Hunt would later admit the story was created as a solution to keep both popular characters in the comic while making room for new stories such as "
Johnny Red
".
[6]
Following the end of the arc in April 1977,
[5]
the character took another break while Ezquerra worked on designing
Judge Dredd
for
2000 AD
[7]
before working on American Civil War story "
El Mestizo
" with Hebden for
Battle
before returning for one final batch of episodes from 19 November 1977 to 10 June 1978 before ending when Ezquerra left to work on "
Strontium Dog
" for
Starlord
.
[6]
In 2011
Titan Comics
licensed the strip from then-current owners
Egmont Publishing
and issued the hardback collection
Major Eazy: Heart of Iron (Volume 1)
. Despite the name, no further volumes followed.
[8]
The rights to IPC's post-1970 library were purchased from Egmont by
Rebellion Developments
in 2016.
[9]
[10]
In 2020 they issued a collected version of
Major Eazy vs. Rat Pack
under the
Treasury of British Comics
label,
[11]
with the character's initial run being compiled as
Major Eazy Volume One: The Italian Campaign
following in 2021.
[12]
[13]
[14]
Plot summary
[
edit
]
British troops land on
Sicily
in July 1943, and a British Army unit receives an unorthodox commanding officer - the
cheroot
-smoking, shaggy-paired Major Eazy, driving an open-top
Bentley
scout car. Formerly a
Long Range Desert Group
soldier (where he had performed numerous actions against the Germans despite being partnered with Bedouin guide Tewfik, who made repeated attempts to kill him
[15]
), Eazy soon proves to be a formidable shot with a high-velocity rifle, and is so laid back he takes a nap as soon as the first round of fighting is over. He soon wins the respect of his initially bemused Sergeant Daly and the rest of the men with a succession of laconic heroics - taking out a
King Tiger
with a well-placed rifle shot; coercing an
SS
officer into shaving him; shooting down a
USAAF
P-51 Mustang
that misidentified their column as German; sniping Germans using children as
human shields
from a church steeple; singlehandedly wiping out a
Wehrmacht
flamethrower
squad; using rats to take control of a castle; and saving an old friend from execution as he and his men advanced to
Rome
.
[16]
Eazy's dislike of ceremony saw him arrange an artillery barrage so he could feign cowardice in front of a Brigadier to avoid being given a medal. As the unit continued to saunter across Italy, with Eazy shooting a flower girl planning to blow up Allied troops; seeing to the death of a murderous Polish captain; thrashing a black marketeer; clashing with the Mafia; and defeating an
E-Boat
after a chase through the canals of
Venice
.
[17]
After the
Rat Pack
abandoned an injured Major Taggart to the mercies of the
Gestapo
, Eazy appointed himself the unit's commanding officer and badgered them into mounting a rescue mission.
[18]
Collected editions
[
edit
]
Reception
[
edit
]
MacManus would recall that "Major Eazy" was an instant hit with readers, "booting D-Day Dawson into touch fairly quickly", and praised the "relaxed, anti-authority attitude", while John Wagner would state the strip was where Ezquerra "really started to come into his own"
[1]
Writing for
The Guardian
, John Plunkett also declared himself a fan of the character, and noted his resemblance to Coburn.
[19]
Gordon Rennie
would homage the character of Eazy in the "
Cursed Earth Koburn
" Judge Dredd story.
[20]
In his book on the
British Invasion
, Jochen Ecke analysed
Major Eazy
as an early example of the movement's style, noting the conscious unreality of the comic and its protagonist, also noting the strip's structure as posing a situation which Eazy would then solve in an unconventional way, feeling it challenged readers to guess his actions in lieu of questioning his eventual triumph.
[3]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
a
b
c
d
e
f
Bishop, David
(26 August 2003). "None But The Brave".
Judge Dredd Megazine
. No. 209.
Rebellion Developments
.
- ^
a
b
c
Jewell, Stephen (18 September 2018). "Alan Hebden Interrogation - Running with the Pack".
Judge Dredd Megazine
. No. 400.
Rebellion Developments
.
- ^
a
b
The British Comic Book Invasion: Alan Moore, Warren Ellis, Grant Morrison and the Evolution of the American Style
. McFarland. 28 December 2018.
ISBN
9781476674155
.
- ^
The Mighty One: Life in the Nerve Centre
. 2000 AD Books. 7 September 2016.
ISBN
9781786180544
.
- ^
a
b
Holland, Steve (2002).
The Fleetway Companion
.
Rotherham
: CJ & Publication.
- ^
a
b
Bishop, David
(23 September 2003). "They Were Expendable".
Judge Dredd Megazine
. No. 210.
Rebellion Developments
.
- ^
Barnett, David (October 2018).
"Judge Dredd co-creator Carlos Ezquerra dies aged 70"
.
The Guardian
.
- ^
"Comics Review - "Major Eazy: Heart of Iron"
"
.
- ^
"The Return of the IPC Youth Group"
. 11 September 2019.
- ^
"Rebellion Buys Fleetway Archive - Roy Of The Rovers, Oink, Tammy, Battle, Whizzer And Chips And More"
.
bleedingcool.com
. 25 August 2016.
- ^
"Tripwire Reviews Rebellion's Major Eazy vs Rat Pack"
. 28 August 2020.
- ^
"In Review: Major Eazy Volume One: The Italian Campaign"
. 27 February 2021.
- ^
"Preview: 'Major Eazy: The Italian Job' ? Unconventional, Insubordinate, 100% Cool"
. 26 February 2021.
- ^
"Carlos Ezquerra's Major Eazy Gets a Complete Collection in 2021"
. 22 June 2020.
- ^
Alan Hebden (
w
),
Carlos Ezquerra
(
a
). "Major Eazy"
Battle Picture Weekly
(19 November 1977 to 10 June 1978).
IPC Magazines
.
- ^
Alan Hebden (
w
),
Carlos Ezquerra
(
a
). "Major Eazy"
Battle Picture Weekly
(10 January to 27 March 1976).
IPC Magazines
.
- ^
Alan Hebden (
w
),
Carlos Ezquerra
(
a
). "Major Eazy"
Battle Picture Weekly
(15 May 1976 to 22 January 1977).
IPC Magazines
.
- ^
Alan Hebden (
w
),
Carlos Ezquerra
(
a
). "Major Eazy versus Rat Pack"
Battle Picture Weekly
(29 January to 23 April 1977).
IPC Magazines
.
- ^
Plunkett, John (29 June 2009).
"In pictures: Battle comic returns"
.
The Guardian
.
- ^
2000 AD: The Creator Interviews - Volume 05
. 2000 AD Books. 2 December 2015.
ISBN
9781849979870
.
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