Twenty Years of Al Ewing

[shakalooloo]

"2000 AD is unusual amongst comics publishers in that it has an open submissions policy for half the year - prospective writers can submit scripts for one-off stories. Most don't meet the grade but it's always an editor's dream that a new talent emerges from the slush pile. Al Ewing was one such case, a writer with recognisable ability and a unique voice, and this Terror Tale Scene of the Crime was his first commissioned work for 2000 AD, a script that I plucked out of the pile that required very little revising. The Ewing droid had arrived, and would go on to become one of the House of Tharg's most poipular new creators to break through in the last two decades before, of course, taking the Marvel Universe by storm in recent years.

"Pairing him up with another rising star in artist Dom Reardon, Scene of the Crime is one of my favourite one-offs of the Rebellion era: moody, eerie and compelling." - The Mighty Tharg, editor of 2000ad, from the 2000ad Sci-Fi special 2020

Twenty years ago to this day - 19th June, 2002 - Al Ewing's first commissioned 2000ad story was published. Being a five page story already hammered down to maximum lean efficiency, trimming it down further to a third was a challenge. Hopefully, I captured enough of this.

So, where it all began...

Comments

[iamrman]

You gave me a start for a minute. I thought Al Ewing had passed and you were paying tribute to him.

[shakalooloo]

Apologies! No, he's only getting started!

[thanekos]

The most " .. huh! " thing about Ewing's earlier work is realizing that he was the one writing The Diary of Ralph Dibny, that contemporaneous parody of DC's weekly series 52.