Al Ewing: ‘The Strip I Seem To Keep Coming Back To’

From humble droid to a titan of industry, Al Ewing has had a rich and storied career in comics, most notably penning the Eisner nominated Immortal Hulk series, but he always seems to return to 2000 AD. In this interview, we dive into his long career at 2000 AD, what it taught him about the craft and which 2000 AD series he thinks is most underrated.

Me: Let’s start at the beginning. Your first published work with 2000 AD was an unsolicited submission to Tharg (Matt Smith). What do you think made it stand out from the crowd?

Al: I can only assume there was something there he saw potential in - but I didn't hear back about it until I'd sent another, so maybe it was a case of persistence paying off. 

Me: Thinking about those early years, if you could rewrite any of your previous 2000 AD strips, which would it be and why?

Al: Probably DAMNATION STATION - having an untranslated alien language in there was a lot of unnecessary extra work for me and the reader, and I suspect the strip would have lasted longer and I'd have burned out on it less if I hadn't made things difficult for myself in that way. 

Me: More recently, in the sci fi special, you penned the Harlem Zombos strip. What was it like merging two iconic sets of 2000 AD characters together?

Al: It was fun! Since Zombo is essentially just absurdism and zombies, it can cross over with just about anything - the brief to use Harlem Heroes gave me the chance to tell a whole bunch of goofy Future Sports gags.

Me: Currently, you’re penning Absolute Green Lantern which makes me wonder, if you could give any 2000 AD character the Absolute Universe treatment, who would it be and how?

Al: I'd be interested in seeing what someone did with Mean Arena in an Absolute context. The dark future sports revenge plot would really work with the tone of an Absolute book.

Me: What obscure 2000 AD series do you wish more people knew about and why?

Al: Return To Armageddon was a wild, weird and wonderful series that consistently did the unexpected - I'd advise anyone who hasn't read it to take a look at this forgotten early gem. 

Me: Before you got into 2000 AD, you did a lot of work with Zarjazz. How did you get your work published by them?

Al: At the time, it was a simple matter of contacting the editors - we were all in the small press scene together to some extent. There are people I knew then who I still check out at UK cons today. 

Me: Is there anything you wrote for Zarjazz that you’d like to rewrite for 2000 AD?

Al: A couple of the Dredds I did would probably have worked as 2000 AD Dredds, if I'd saved them up - they were nice little one-offs of the kind I like to do for Dredd. 

Me: Thinking more about your prose work, would you like to continue any of your prose work, like The El Sombra Trilogy, in comic form within 2000 AD?

Al: I don't think so - I don't think I'd like to continue any of those at all, and if I have new ideas for prose, I'll want to keep them in prose.

Me: What did writing prose for Abaddon Books teach you about writing comics?

Al: Not a lot, but it did teach me a lot about prose - mostly that I prefer writing comics. For some reason, trying to conjure locations in the reader's mind is a lot more difficult for me than describing the nuts and bolts of them in panel description form. It might be one reason why locations are always a little nebulous in my books. 

Me: Similarly, what has writing for 2000 AD taught you about the craft?

Al: It taught me density at a time when decompression was all the rage, and I think that stood me in good stead when I made the leap to US books - instead of learning to compress like everyone else had to, I had the luxury of learning to breathe more air into my stories. 

Me: What indie comics are you loving that you’d recommend to fans of 2000 AD?

Al: The Power Fantasy is definitely the most 2000AD-esque concept I've seen in a while, and perfectly executed. If only it could come out weekly!

Me: How would you like to be remembered by 2000 AD fans?

Al: I'm happy to be remembered as a decent Dredd writer - that's the strip I seem to keep coming back to.

Somehow I feel that Al Ewing will be remembered as much more than that and will go down in history as a truly legendary Dredd writer. And I know I can’t wait to see what he does with 2000 AD next.