Posted in: Comics, Rebellion / 2000AD | Tagged: Carlos Ezquerra, major eazy, rebellion

Carlos Ezquerra's Major Eazy Gets a Complete Collection in 2021

We mentioned over the weekend that Rebellion was soliciting a Battle Of Britain 2020 special, reviving the pre-2000AD comic book, Battle, with an all-star cast. Well, it looks like they are continuing that newly-revived brand name and publishing history, with the very first collection of the early (mid) adventures of iconic British war comics character, Major Eazy.

Created by Alan Hebden (Stainless Steel Rat) and Carlos Ezquerra (Judge Dredd), Major Eazy is a laconic, laid-back British Army officer during the Second World War who has a total disregard for authority or protocol. Based on actor James Coburn's performance in The Magnificent Seven, Eazy was one of the most popular characters from Battle, his irreverence and coolness under pressure earning him legions of fans as he went on to command the band of convict commandos know as the Rat Pack.

Major Eazy: The Italian Campaign will take readers from the invasion of Sicily to the German surrender at Brenner Pass, collecting all of his adventures in the Italian theatre. Rebellion's reprographics team has also restored all of the strip's colour pages, which have never before been reprinted in any form.

Major Eazy had three separate runs in Battle over two and a half years, as well as his sojourn with the Rat Pack. His earliest series, oddly, takes place in 1944, chronologically three years after his second run.

When Major Eazy's strips were reprinted in the 1980s, a smoking ban at then-publisher IPC resulted in his cigar being painted out but also made it look as if Eazy was sticking two fingers up at the readers. That has presumably been restored. Eazy was also the inspiration for a later character, Cursed Earth Koburn, created by Gordon Rennie and Eazy artist Carlos Ezquerra for  Judge Dredd Megazine.

This 128-page paperback collection is the first in a two-volume series that will collect Eazy's campaigns, and the first volume will be published on the 4th of March 2021 at £14.99.

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