He is the Nemesis — He is the Warlock — He is the shape of things to come — The lord of the flies — Holder of the Sword Sinister — the Death Bringer —The one who waits on the edge of your dreams — He is all these things and many more.
More importantly, he is one of the stars of venerable British comic 2000AD. An alien khaos sorcerer inciting a rebellion against the theocratic, xenophobic Terran Empire, Nemesis is one of the most important precursors to Warhammer 40,000. The adventures of Nemesis and his... um... nemesis, the Inquisitor Torquemada, can be adapted for the 40k family of RPGs relatively easily, while other gms and players could find the wild flights of fancy, bizarre details and over the top swords and sorcery action very useful indeed.
In BOOK ONE: The World of Termite we were introduced to the principle characters, the Termite Empire, and witnessed the death of Torquemada again and again and again. In BOOK TWO: The Alien Alliance we find out more about the other inhabitants of the galaxy, as well as gaining some crucial insight into how Torquemada came to be such a darstard. Now, in BOOK THREE: The World of Nemesis, we learn more about the Warlock, his life, and the rivals for his affection...
Frankly, with this comic book being what it is, it's a small miracle the xenos races in 40k turned out half as unlikeable as they did.
James Thompson
Old thread with book one and two here . It also has links to previous threads with Sinister Dexter and various Dark Judge tales
This scan is from the original 1980s progs isn't the best I'm afraid but we should be able to muddle through.
Chase King
Back in the day British comics like 2000AD could typically only afford to have two colour pages. In the Prog's case this was usually given to Dredd, but reader favourites like Nemesis sometimes got the honours. The Complete Collection print run has has to do them in black and white, unfortunately, but at least its crisp.
Keep your eye out for more titanic borrowings coming up.
Ryder Bell
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Adrian Ramirez
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Lucas Bennett
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Adrian Sanchez
Fabulous 80s hair. They just don't make 'em like that anymore.
Kevin O'Neill is the co-creator of Nemesis and the ABC Warriors, and the artist for this book. He got a lot of stick at the time for not being as fast to complete pages as some of his peers, mainly because of the ridiculous amount of detail he'd put into each page. He also started the trend of getting artist credits for British comic creators in defiance of traditional publishing practices as well, which annoyed publishers no end as they were forced to pay more.
He is not to be confused with the illuminator Brother Kevin who takes far too long doing his illuminated borders and labours "under a vow of poverty and obedience" drawing strange monsters for a monstrous tyrant, understand?
Cooper Parker
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Isaiah Campbell
Not everything has to have a Good Guy. Doesn't mean you have to like it.
Colton Watson
Well really its only Nemesis who's the (relatively, at the moment) good guy, the rest of the family just want to get on with their lives. On the other side you've got Torquemada and his terminators who are, to put it mildly, dicks.
Ryan Garcia
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Anthony Lewis
BIIIIIIGGGGGG JOOOOOOOOOOBBBBBSSSSS!
Josiah Hughes
But didn't Torquemada boast about how he murdered all the nonwhite people later on ?
Easton Brown
Before Nemesis, before 2000AD even, there was a strip called Ro-Busters by Pat Mills and Kevin O'Neill in a comic called Starlord. Ro-Busters was essentially International Rescue from Thunderbirds, but with a team of robots - the filthy minded sewer cleaner Ro-Jaws, the noble Hammerstein, and the lovablely psychopathic, totally moronic demolition droid Mek Quake.
Ro-Busters was a very popular strip, so when Starlord merged with 2000AD the characters returned in a new series The ABC Warriors. Until this moment (bar one Easter egg in an earlier story ), there was no connection between the worlds of Nemesis and Ro-Busters / The ABC Warriors, but the links would only get stronger from here on out. This ties into an obsession Pat Mills has with linking everything he writes for 2000ad into one semi-cohesive timeline.
Jose Richardson
Can't remember. Possibly. I do remember he decided to make a group honorary white men, but the full context escapes me at the moment. Considering a different, less extreme group of Terminators decide to launch a crusade against freckled people it sounds quite possible.
Elijah Rivera
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Brody Wood
They're not really.
Cooper Cox
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Brody Hall
He quite literally says "We're all white men now" comparing humanity as a whole to the degenerate aliens, like mundane racism is no longer of any importance when the guy next to you is actually a skinless octopus mutant from another solar system. Something PKD also ran with in a couple of his stories.
It's a fairly skewering line in what it's taking aim at as well IMO, but Nemesis takes a scattergun approach to satire (all 2000AD does really).
Christopher Richardson
Yeah, its worth pointing out that 90% of the protagonists of Pat Mills work are Antiheroes at best. Slaine's another one - champion of the Earth Goddess, High King of Ireland, giant barstard.
James Lee
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Lincoln Cook
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Grayson Sanders
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Noah Diaz
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Jose Myers
TORQUE-ARMADA!
Jack Baker
As you can see from the bottom of the page, the technical details of these titanic relics of the Lost Age of Technology provided courtesy of the Termite Mechanicus.
Gabriel Green
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Zachary Hughes
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Isaac Cox
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Bentley Reed
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Gabriel Nelson
Such a shame that so much knowledge has been lost that even the old scrolls can't help the engineers now.
Juan Cooper
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Kayden Cook
Aliens and humans have more in common with each other than what either side believes. That's probably not a positive statement.
William Taylor
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Colton Walker
I'm glad Pat takes a few potshots at the aliens too amidst all the artillery fire aimed at humanity.
Mason Walker
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Benjamin Gonzalez
Skiapodes are based on Monopodes from medieval bestiaries.
>Thing's can't get any worse. Famous last words...
You'll notice it more and more as the story goes along. "He who fights with monsters should look to it that he himself does not become a monster. And if you gaze long into an abyss, the abyss also gazes into you."
Joshua Mitchell
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Anthony Reed
Who does your interior decorating, I must know.
Aaron Brooks
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Dominic Cooper
ohboyherewego.rune
Kayden Smith
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Samuel Martin
Never make a deal with a warlock.
Josiah Brown
No matter what body his pea-sized brain is put into, Mek-Quake usually displays his thoughts on his chest display.
Juan Ramirez
Oh come on, what's the worst that could happen?
Adrian Price
... ah.
Jackson Gutierrez
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Cameron Lewis
Brother Gogol was last seen being chucked out of a window here
>Pictured: the first appearance of Brother Kevin and his manuscriptor Brother Mills.
Jordan Nelson
Thanks Shakaranon
Kayden Green
>Brother Kevin and his manuscriptor Brother Mills. Those illuminators take fucking centuries to do their work. I guess we should just be happy there aren't any bunny aliens riding snail ships skewering terminators anywhere in the comic...right?
Samuel Peterson
I miss the days Jo was Veeky Forums regular.
Asher Jenkins
Heh, me too.
Thanks for the storytime, m8. Quite the trip into Warham history.
Ryan Powell
They're not. Torquemada and Nemesis are arguably equally evil; they just stand on opposite sides of the order/chaos dichotomy.
David Lopez
>Ford
Juan Perez
People who claim that western artists are lazy and cite comics like Berserk and Akira in comparision should have a look at these British saps.
Twice as busy, 10 times the more character and the precision of a swiss watch.
Ethan Phillips
>an alien demon centaur with feathered hair will never fight for your hand in unholy matrimony
Jack Ortiz
It was quite the opposite; with Torquemada gone, two new Terminators move up and try to move away from hating aliens to hating other humans.
Then big T comes back and is PISSED because they've been doing it wrong and distracting from aliens.
Andrew Ortiz
Pictured: Torquemada and his pure, well-behaved family.
Ah yes, that's more like it. I've been trying to work out whether the two Terminators in question are based on real world people from contemporary news. I've got a sneaking suspicion that the Arch-Bigot was based on the then Archbishop of Canterbury.
Why must you say such hurtful things, user? Who made you this way?
Oliver Cook
Another short interlude before we begin Book Four, this time to show A Day in the Death of Torquemada.
Jaxon Hernandez
Improvements have clearly been made to the Exosyst since its first reveal.
Charles Fisher
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Joshua Fisher
What a delightful little villa. A perfect place to raise a family.
I do like how Torquemada's shadow looms much larger and more like his spirit form than his current body, and the framing of the gateway and portcullis as a yawning maw.
Hunter Anderson
What a lovely couple. I hope one day to share such familial joy and to be able to be so thoughtful with my gifts.
I believe this is the first appearance by Candida de Torquemada in the story. She becomes more important later.
Owen Rogers
BOOK FOUR: THE GOTHIC EMPIRE
Sebastian Cruz
As this is quite a long story and we'll need a new thread to finish it off I'll get to a suitable point and then break for the night.
Here's a quick primer on the key characters of the series so far. This Book focuses upon the Gothic Empire, which has been seen on maps like this one but hasn't yet been shown in any detail.
Justin Allen
And they're Victorians.
Isaiah Brooks
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Nicholas Morales
Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, was a Victorian statesman, soldier and victor at Waterloo. He was nicknamed the Iron Duke.
Christian Parker
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Julian Ramirez
Whitechapel was the site of the notorious Jack the Ripper murders in 1888. I'm sure that has nothing to do with the story, I don't know why I even brought it up.
Kevin Cook
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Julian Diaz
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Jackson Clark
Ro-Jaws is Mek-Quake's fondly remembered pal and apparently still wanted by the law
