Hard as it may seem to believe, Nemesis was actually spawned from the pages of Ro-Busters. The final tale of the Disaster Squad of Distinction, The Fall and Rise of Ro-Jaws and Hammer-Stein (Progs 103-115), appeared in 1978, and with it came something called The Terror Tube. A visually spectacular concept, the idea was fostered by Ro-Busters creators Pat Mills and Kevin O'Neill, but disliked immensely by IPC managing editor (and unofficial censor) Bob Bartholomew. It was pulled from the final story, much to the disappointment and anger of Mills and O'Neill.

The idea was shelved, and Mills and O'Neill went on to create their next series: The ABC Warriors. Originally meant to be drawn by two artists, O'Neill and Mike McMahon, the editorial staff had to draft in more artists to keep everything on schedule, something which Mills disliked intensely, causing a friction between him and the editorial team. Following this dispute, Mills' name hardly appeared in 2000AD for the next year, but he eventually relented, and brought some new ideas along with him.

In 1980, Pat Mills brought a new series to 2000AD: Comic Rock. Influenced by the European comics scene, and the advent of music videos, the idea was to have each story inspired by a popular song of the moment. The series proved to be a non-starter, but there was one story, inspired by The Jam's Going Underground, which fired the imaginations of readers: Terror Tube.

Produced by Mills and O'Neill, the story debuted in Prog 167 (left), and introduced the concepts of Termight, Tomas de Torquemada, The Terminators and the Blitzspear to the world at large, but it also proved to be a way to get back at Bartholomew for trashing the original prototype of the Terror Tube. The story proved to be a hit and a sequel was quickly commissioned. Terror Tube itself went to become one of the most popular one-offs ever published in the comic.

For their next outing on Termight, Mills and O'Neill produced Killer Watt (Progs 178-179) in September of 1980. If Terror Tube was weird, Mills was determined to make the sequel even weirder. The concept of the Travel Wire was introduced, as was something which became a key part of the overall series: the death of Torquemada. This time, however, the reader reaction wasn't as great as it had been the first time, but it was still enough to have a full series commisoned.

With more room to expand on his ideas, Mills decided to change the direction of the storyline, and get away from the super-science of Termight. More sword and sorcery elements were introduced to give the proceedings a more mysterious and gothic feel, and enable Mills to make Nemesis into a more interesting character. Now all that had to be decided was what the star of the series would look like. Mills and O'Neill toyed with the idea of not showing Nemesis at all, but realised they'd have to introduce the character to expectant readers eventually. After toying with the idea of revealing Nemesis as none other than Deadlock of The ABC Warriors, Mills and O'Neill decided on creating a whole new character to allow themselves more scope. Many long telephone conversations between the two ensued, and O'Neill produced dozens of rough sketches which were either rejected or elements taken from for use in his other designs. Nemesis' distinctive head was inspired by the shape of the Blitzspear' s nose and his legs added to give him a more 'demonic' look worthy of his new title - Nemesis The Warlock.

Nemesis made his first 'public appearance' in the 1981 2000AD Sci-Fi Special in a complete story (which was actually episode seven of Book 1), but didn't appear in 2000AD itself until the following month, when Nemesis crash landed the Blitzspear on the planet Earth's End, and found himself at the mercy of the human settlers. Also making their debut in Book 1 were Nemesis' familiar, Grobbendonk, and his Great Uncle Baal (faithful lieutenant Purity Brown had already appeared in Killer Watt). Everything was now in place for the saga Mills had envisioned; the epic story would follow battle between Nemesis and Torquemada, and span thirteen books in total, all of which were to be drawn by Kevin O'Neill.

Behind the scenes, however, things weren't going according to plan. O'Neill had been working on the first series for almost a year, and even then he was plagued with deadline problems. The series was originally meant to start in Prog 200, but had to be pushed back five months to give the artist more time to complete his work. The series then had to be rested from the comic twice to give O'Neill even more time.

Book 1, when it was complete, proved a hit with readers. Taking the simple premise of alien invasion and reversing the roles to make the aliens afraid of a human invasion was, without doubt, a winner. It went on to do for religious and racial intolerance what ABC Warriors had done for warfare. However, with the advent of Book 2: The Alien Alliance, things looked as if they were about to go badly wrong. Although the story offered a valuable look into the past of Torquemada, and explained what happened to any captured Terminators during the alien war, Mills' scripts were lacklustre affairs, and lacked the verve and punch of what had gone before. Because the first series was plagued with deadline problems, Spanish artist Jesus Redondo was drafted in to handle the second, a move which proved controversial with readers, although some believe his style of art was better suited to the story than that of O'Neill. Book 2 also became the first Nemesis series never to find its way into graphic novel form, although Titan have rectified this with their new Nemesis collection, Death To All Aliens.

However, a respite came in form of The Warlock's first annual appearance; The Secret Life of the Blitzspear (by Mills and O'Neill, 2000AD Annual 1983) was a further look at the world of Nemesis, and deeper look at the relationship between The Warlocks and the Blitzspears.

Nemesis, and Kevin O'Neill, returned to 2000AD in 1983, with Book 3: The World of Nemesis. This time, the series ran from September to December without a break, proving the success had been no fluke. Mills scripts took on a slightly darker edge, with the death of Nemesis' wife at the hands of an assassin sent by Torquemada, and became the first to herald a series of surprise appearances from seemingly forgotten characters. First of all was the return of Mek-Quake. Now in a body allegedly inspired by O'Neill's cat, the former Ro-Buster was working as a siege robot for the Terminator forces, and was only recognisable from his infamous catchphrase.

Next up was 1984's multi-award winning Book 4: The Gothic Empire. The story told of a race of aliens who had intercepted the earliest radio signals from Earth, and based their entire society on Victorian London. They believed themselves to be human, something which Torquemada and his Terminators disagreed with wholeheartedly. However, the Grand Master of Termight was in desperate need of a new and more permanent body, and had entered a pact with two Goths to furnish him with one. In return, he would hand over control of the Gothic Empire to them. Nemesis arrived a short time after the Terminators, and with him came some some more surprise appearances. Firstly came Ro-Jaws, now working in a hotel in Empire, then, due to a staff shortage, assigned to The Warlock as his personal valet. Next came his former Ro-Busters comrade Hammerstein, now working for the Termight Empire, and a more downcast mek-man into the bargain. After stopping an assassination attempt by Hammerstein on the Goth queen Victoria, Nemesis recruited him to help stop the Terminator siege of the Gothic Empire, and made him an offer: re-form The ABC Warriors. Mills took the opportunity to tie up the loose ends concerning the Mek-Nificent Seven, and showed us the fates of Deadlock, Joe Pineapples, Happy Shrapnel, Mongrol, Blackblood and The Mess.

The Gothic Empire kicked off with O'Neill handling the first two episodes, and gave us some of the most surreal and striking images of the series so far (such as Nemesis in his Y-fronts), but the artist (like many others at the time) was receiving work from the United States, and had to pull out of the series to keep his deadlines across the Atlantic. It fell to Bryan Talbot to provide the art for the rest of the story. Although not as outlandish as O'Neill, Talbot brought a cleaner and moodier style to the series, and, for many, produced what became the definitive take on Nemesis. Mills' writing and Talbot's art proved to be an unstoppable combination, and The Gothic Empire went on to win Best Graphic Novel at that years Eagle Awards.

The Mills/Talbot team continued with Nemesis Book 5: The Vengeance of Thoth. Set ten years after the death of Torquemada in The Gothic Empire, the story saw a new, alien friendly Termight, led by the new Grand Master, Krassan. Nemesis himself returned to Earth to find his son, Thoth, whom he thought was dead, and managed to see the 'resurrection' of his hated enemy. During all this, we also got the re-introduction of another Mills creation: the infamous black Tyrannosaur Satanus.

After saving Torquemada, Nemesis used the Grand Master as a guide through the Time Wastes of Termight (a massive underground maze where excess energy from the black hole bypass was siphoned off), where Thoth and Satanus had fled to. Thoth had learned to control time via the control room hidden deep in the Time Wastes, and planned to kill not only his father and Torquemada, but also the entire planet.

It was during Book 5 that Mills offered up a surprise which, in retrospect, some fans seem to now resent: the face of Torquemada. Rather than a hideously deformed creature hiding under the traffic cone, we saw an almost handsome skinhead. Some would argue that by removing the mask, Torquemada had become a far more human character, losing some of the inhuman edge he carried previously, but others would argue that it shows the depths of evil humanity can sink to. However, it was the skinhead image that permeated the art of the subsequent series.

Before this happened, however, Mills, John Wagner and Alan Grant were assigned the task of developing a new comic. After Wagner and Grant pulled out, Mills went on (with Kevin O'Neill coming on board as art editor) to create the role-playing magazine Diceman. Alongside appearances from Judge Dredd, Sláine, Rogue Trooper and Hammerstein, there was also an appearance from Nemesis (Torture Tube, by Mills and O'Neill, Diceman #1), and, perhaps most interestingly of all, Torquemada (Trapped in The Alien Garden of Delights, by Mills and Talbot, Diceman #3). In the story/game, you got to don the traffic cone and take the roll of the Grand Master himself, as he was forced to escape from the clutches of Nemesis and his deviant hoardes.

After their brief dalliance with the Dice of Destiny, Nemesis and Torquemada were back in Book 6: Torquemurder (by Mills and Talbot, Progs 482-487, 500-504). Picking up from where Book 5 left off, Nemesis and his team (Purity, The ABC Warriors, Ro-Jaws and the Torquemada's) were chasing Thoth through the Time Wastes, and literally followed him to the end of the world. Here, man kind had evolved to the point where they chose regression over progression, and simply returned to the sea. However, once Torquemada and his brother Nostradamus arrived, they began to use the regressed humans as fuel for their war machines, siphoning off the screaming spirits into the atmosphere, and inadvertantly creating a race of creatures called The Monads (which later became simply The Monad). Miraculously, Torquemada escaped and returned to Termight to reclaim his throne.

With Book 6, there was a parting of the ways, not only between the award winning team of Mills and Talbot, but also between Nemesis and The ABC Warriors, who went on to star in their long awaited second solo series Black Hole. Taking Ro-Jaws with them, they left Nemesis and Purity to continue their pursuit of Thoth, who was slowly travelling back through time, killing the previous incarnations of Torquemada with the aid of Satanus.

However, before the rest of Nemesis quest was revealed to the world at large, Torquemada took centre stage and stole the show in the five part Torquemada the God (Progs 520-524). Having lost his beloved Candida to the folds of insanity, Torquemada met and married Sister Sturn, and was given another heir, Atilla. With the newest additions to the Torquemada family, came Kevin O'Neill, making his long overdue return to Termight to handle the artwork for the Grand Masters turn in the spotlight. By this point, O'Neill had turned to a more anarchic art style which suited the darkly comic moments of Mills scripts to a tee.

With the series now firmly established and loved by fans, both Torquemada and Nemesis were about to embark on something which only The Mighty Tharg himself had previously been privy to: the photo story. With scripts by Mills and photos provided by Tony Luke, Nemesis, Torquemada and Purity made their first appearance in the 'flesh' in the 1987 Sci-Fi Special. Not content with this, though, Torquemada and Nemesis dumped Purity in favour of Candida and made their second outing in A Bedtime Story, in the infamous Prog 534. However, these stories, fun as they were, proved unpopular with readers, and neither Nemesis or any of the other 2000AD pantheon appeared in a photo story again. In that same year, though, Nemesis and Torquemada embarked on yet another journey few 2000AD characters have dared make: an appearance in a computer game.

In October 1987, Nemesis made his return in what many see as the last great Nemesis story, Book 7: The Two Torquemadas (by Mills and John Hicklenton, Progs 546-557). Set in the fifteenth century, at the time of the Spanish Inquisition, it saw the conclusion of Nemesis' chase through time as he finally caught up with Thoth. However, Torquemada wasn't far behind, and neither was the following series. Newcomer David Roach had been brought on board to handle Book 8: Purity's Story (Progs 558-566), and both he and Hicklenton worked simultaneously on their stories (which explains the question of Purity's changing hair during the course of those stories). Purity's Story followed hot on the heels of The Two Torquemada's, proving that The Warlock was still a hit with the fans, even if the art wasn't. Hicklenton's rendition of The Warlock recieved a lukewarm reception from readers, although it's still highly praised by Pat Mills.

Book 8 filled in the past of Purity Brown, which had never been looked at in much detail until now. After serving time in an asylum (her hatred of Torquemada being enough to have her locked up), Purity met Nemesis, and became an unwitting pawn in his game with Torquemada. She discovered The Warlock's real motivations, something which Nemesis blanked from her mind in a bid to keep her faithful to his cause.

A year later, John Hicklenton returned to the series to produce arguably the most surreal and far removed story of the series, Book 9: Deathbringer. Slated by many, it saw Nemesis and Torquemada turn up in an alternate England of the 1980's, and the shift in Nemesis' motivations taken a step further. Up until the revelations in Book 8, Nemesis had been an alien freedom fighter, desperately trying to overthrow the oppressive human regime, but now he was shown more and more as a god-like creature in the midst of some cosmic game with Torquemada, who couldn't care less either way when it came to freeing aliens. It was a move that never sat well with fans, and some would argue that the series never recovered.

However, there was still lots more to do with The Warlock and his minions, and in 1990, Mills decided to tie up the loose end that was The ABC Warriors and their relationship with Nemesis, in Warlocks and Wizards. The story saw The Warriors return to Gandarva to confront Nemesis, but also saw the entire continuity of the two series thrown out the window; Mills further enraged fans by refusing to explain it any of it.

During the researching of his series Third World War, Mills had enlisted the help of Tony Skinner. They carried this partnership on to several 2000AD projects, including the disappointing Nemesis/Deadlock team-up, The Enigmass Variations (Prog 723-729, art by Carl Critchlow). Attending the Festival of Kaligo, Deadlock and Nemesis wound up in the middle of a game of 'Ten Little Indians,' as a creature called The Enigmass killed each of the attending magicians one by one. Once that was over, the two promptly went their seperate ways, Deadlock into Khronicles of Khaos, and Nemesis into Bride of The Warlock (by Mills and Chris Weston, Winter Special #4, 1992), to tie up another loose end of the series: after five years in the wilderness, it was time for Candida to make a return.

Still in the asylum where we last saw her, she was visited by a passing musician, who revealed himself to be none other than Nemesis himself. Curing her of her madness, Nemesis made her an offer to extract a painful and humilitating revenge on Torquemada. She ditched him at the altar during their second marriage, and ran off with Nemesis to start a new life. However, Mills' scripting seemed flat and almost tired by this point.

Mills had come to realise that newer thrills had to take precedence in 2000AD, and so elected to cut the series short by three books. Starting with the prologue Hammer of Warlocks (by Mills and Clint Langly, 901-903), he began to wrap everything up. This was in 1994, and at the end of the series, it was promised the final battle would begin in 1995. However, Book 10: The Final Conflict, didn't appear until Prog 1165, in 1999. With Henry Flint handling the artwork, Nemesis began his final series in the pages of the Galaxy's Greatest. Replacing Torquemada with a new alien friendly regime, led by President Purity Brown, Mills finally drew everything to a close in the Prog 2000 Special, with Kevin O'Neill returning to help finish the story he'd started almost twenty years before.

However, that wasn't the end of Termight. Deadlock, in his own solo series (by Mills and Flint, Progs 1212 - 1222), made a visit there to see how things were faring under Purity's control...

While there doesn't appear to be any Johnny Alpha-style return from the grave on the cards for Nemesis, he's still been making his presence felt in 2000AD. The Warlock (along with Ro-Jaws and the original 1979 ABC Warriors line-up) made a brief appearance in the horrendous twelve part Judge Dredd tale Helter Skelter by Garth Ennis, Carlos Ezquerra and Henry Flint (Progs 1250-1261). Both Nemesis and Torquemada popped up in Prog 1280, 2000AD's Silver Anniversary issue, along with Mek-Quake, Ro-Jaws and The ABC Warriors, amongst countless others who've graced the hallowed pages down the years.

The various series may have met with mixed reactions down the years, but there's one thing that's for certain, Nemesis has found a place in the hearts of many 2000AD fans. Now, with the new Titan collection Death To All Aliens on the cards, the series could well be reaching out to new fans, and with Rebellion behind them, it's possible Nemesis could be rising from the ashes to reach out and conquer whole new areas of media and merchandising in the very near future.

But whatever happens next, one thing's for sure...

ABC WARRIORS HISTORY | NEMESIS HISTORY | RO-BUSTERS HISTORY

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