THE POST-APOCALYPTIC ADVENTURES OF AXA

A cross between Barbarella and Red Sonja, Enrique Badia Romero's Axa is a sword-wielding heroine whose lusty adventures of survival take place in the future after the "Great Contamination" in a world populated by monsters and strange creatures.

Born in 1930 in Barcelona, Romero began his career as a teenager in 1947 drawing comic strips for Spanish newspapers. In 1953 he published his own magazine, ALEX. In 1955 he launched the publishing company Ruiz Romero, were he created the comic strips CROMOS (Trading Cards), HOMBRES DE LUCHA (Fighting Men) and HISTORIA DE LA GUERRA (History of War). In 1959 he started working on comic strips for the UK's Fleetway, including "Cassius Clay", a chronicle of Muhammad Ali's early life. Later, he contributed to the JUDGE DREDD magazine.

Romero self-portrait.

A significant break came for Romero in 1970 when he was hired to continue the popular UK MODESTY BLAISE strip after its original artist, Jim Holdaway fell ill and then passed away after a heart attack.

Modesty Blaise.

"I started my collaboration in strip No. 2100", Romero said. "I did the best I could, that improvised change of artist, but Peter O'Donnell [the strips writer), who was used to Jim's art, made my first adaptation of his character very difficult. I had only completed a few originals when I received the sad news of Jim's death and the offer to take over the continuation of the series. At first I had a lot of problems adapting, since Jim had created MODESTY graphically in a very specific style, and to make matters worse, he worked with a pen and I with a brush. Peter would point out the faults to me in order to make my job easier. My first MODESTYS were too young compared to Jim's."

Modesty Blaise by Romero.

In 1978, Romero developed an idea for his own comic strip with writer Donne Avenell. "I had always been drawn to fantasy themes," he said, "and I conducted a study on the basis of a possible Holocaust."

On 4 July 1978 the first AXA strip was published in the British tabloid, THE SUN. Romero commented that Axa was "a heroine to my liking and total freedom to develop her adventures."

Opening panels of the first Axa strip.

Axa enjoyed moderate popularity and was translated into several languages, including a 2-issue run as a comic book under the Eclipse imprint. There were even plans for an Axa feature film but it was eventually shelved, apparently because of lack of financial backing. He drew a longer story for the Spanish version of CREEPY that ran for eight issues from 1983-1984. The series was published in English by Ken Pierce in 1985 (see below).

When the Axa strip was cancelled he went back to working on MODESTY BLAISE with writer Peter O'Donnell until 2002 when it was also cancelled.

When asked who his favorite character was to draw, Romero responded: “I’m fond to all my characters, but Axa is my favourite because it’s practically my own child,” Romero said in an interview in 2011. “Modesty stands near Axa, very close to her. Rahan [a strip for the French magazine, PIF] is slightly different, but also an interesting character, because I had complete freedom while doing it. I like all three characters on my own way, but Axa was always very special to me.”

Enrique Badia Romero passed away at the age of 93 earlier this year on 15 February. Currently, his website is still up and you can visit it HERE.

Here are the first two episodes of the series in English that originally appeared in the Spanish CREEPY.