Axa (comics)

The cover of the first issue of the Eclipse Comics title. Art by Romero.

Axa was the title of a newspaper comic strip featuring the eponymous lead character, which was published in British daily tabloid The Sun from 1978 to 1986. It was written by Donne Avenell and drawn by Romero.

Publication history

Commissioned by The Sun in 1978, the series was designed as a daily three-panel adventure strip. The Sun abruptly cancelled the strip midway through a story in 1986.^[1]

Romero created 2238 strips in black/white before the comic was cancelled. The last strip published in The Sun was number 2234. It was published on November 16, 1985 (according to the Ken Pierce re-production of the Axa comic in book #9). Romero also produced a long story in full color which was published in the Spanish magazine Creepy #52-59 in 1983-1984.

Romero returned to draw his previous series, Modesty Blaise, but also took Axa to the American company Eclipse Comics, who published a two issue series of new adventures, though this time with much less nudity and Chuck Dixon as writer. Another comic book version of Axa was later produced for the Swedish comic magazine Magnum. All the strips from The Sun have been reprinted in trade paperback format by Ken Pierce Books.

In January 2011, a mobile phone game was released based on the Axa character.^[2] The game targets mainly Nokia phones, but is written in Java and is therefore expandable to other platforms.

Synopsis

Opening on a post-apocalyptic Earth in the year 2080, Axa is a woman who, having grown sick of the regimented and stifling society inside a domed city, flees into the untamed wilderness. The strip mixed elements of science fiction and sword-swinging barbarian tales (the lead character herself bears more than a casual similarity to Red Sonja). However, it is arguable that the strip's main draw were the frequent depictions of the full-figured Axa's tendency to wind up topless or fully nude, as rendered by good-girl artist Romero.

Reprints

Ken Pierce Books (US)

1. The Beginning, the Chosen (1981)
2. The Desired (1982)
3. The Brave, The Gambler (1983)
4. The Earthbound, the Tempted (1983)
5. The Eager, The Carefree (1984)
6. The Dwarfed, The Untamed (1984)
7. The Mobile, The Unmasked (1985)
8. The Castaway, the Seeker (1986)
9. The Escapist, The Starstruck, The Betrayed (1988)

• Axa Color Album (1985)

References

Notes

External links

• Axa movie website
• Unizarre Film International Film & Television Productions
• Axa at Don Markstein's Toonopedia. Archived from the original on April 7, 2012.
• Axa saga at Tebeosfera, by Félix López. (Spanish)