2000 AD publisher Rebellion have announced Big-Ass Sword, an original graphic novel by German creator Andreas Butzbach. The 96-page hardcover featuring a wasteland wandering robot with a mammoth sword will hit stores November 4. Pre-orders are now open with the book expected to retail for £16.99 (UK) / $24.00 (US).
According to the Rebellion press release:
“In a world far from our own reality, a robot warrior wanders through a vast and hostile techno landscape, filled with strange lifeforms and mechanical beings left over from a long, forgotten war. At the robot’s side is a talking Skull. On his back? A BIG-ASS SWORD!
“Told in a classic European sci-fi style, but distinctly its own instinctive and unpredictable creation, Big-Ass Sword is a thought-provoking futuristic mystery!”
Big-Ass Sword, as well as other creations by writer-artist Andreas Butzbach, was first published in German indie anthology Fantasy 3000 (Weissblech Comics) in October 2023. The hardcover English-language edition will collect the entirety of the stories from Fantasy 3000, with a bonus one-shot featuring in the pages of 2000 AD ahead of its release in November.
The self-taught German artist has had some prior involvement with Rebellion projects, most notably as part of the artistic ensemble in the Guy Adams-scripted 2019 Thirteenth Floor special. He also has credits on Smash! and Monster Fun.
Talking about the project, Butzbach says it emerged during the early days of covid lockdown:
“I’ve seen a lot of zombie movies so I knew I would be in for a rather long time. I wanted to make good use of the time in isolation. I grabbed a pencil and an empty sketchbook and started to draw full comic pages right into it. The plan was to just fill the book with comic pages. No scanning or adjusting, just like back in the old days when I was a kid: ideas straight onto the paper”
Talking about his off-kilter approach to the story – which draws visual inspiration from the oeuvre of Mike Mignola, Simon Bisley, Katsuhiro Otomo, and Brutalist architecture – the creator adds:
“When I started with this comic, I did not know where to go or where it would lead me – just like the robot who leads the story. I’m not telling one big epic story arc in the traditional way. This is not a ‘save the world’ comic: it’s more a ‘this is how the world is now, deal with it’ comic. I don’t want to tell you what is going on: you should read and think about it, make your own picture and then you can tell me”.
Intriguingly, the announcement of Big-Ass Sword comes just a few months after the announcement of another original graphic novel from Rebellion – a continuation of British vintage sci-fi series Trigan Empire by Michael Carroll and Tom Foster. While it may be early days, it could be hinting that Rebellion may be testing the waters in expanding its line up of graphic novels building on top of collections from its stellar anthologies 2000 AD or the Judge Dredd Megazine. Time will tell.
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