Lazarus Churchyard

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caption = "Lazarus Churchyard: The Final Cut".
Cover art by Matt Brooker a.k.a. D'Israeli.
character_name = Lazarus Churchyard
publisher = Tundra Press
debut = "Blast!" #1 (1991)
creators = Warren Ellis (script)
D'Israeli (art)
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powers = Plastic implants that can adapt to defend against any attack.

Lazarus Churchyard is a fictional character in a British comics series, created in 1991 by Warren Ellis and illustrated by Matt Brooker under the pseudonym D'Israeli. The stories are cyberpunk in theme,Fact|date=July 2007 although Ellis himself does not consider it so and prefers to call it "decadent SF".Fact|date=July 2007

Publication history

Lazarus Churchyard stories originally appeared in "Blast!" magazine, and were reprinted in "Beyond 2000AD", "Judge Dredd Megazine", and elsewhere [ [http://www.2000adonline.com/?zone=thrill&page=profiles&choice=LAZARUS 2000AD profile] ] Although some stories have been illustrated by others, Ellis has said he considers only the D'Israeli-illustrated work "the definitive Churchyard".Fact|date=July 2007

Tundra Press released three-issue comic-book series, "Lazarus Churchyard", in 1992. This was collected the same year as the trade paperback "Lazarus Churchyard: The Final Cut" (Atomeka Press), reissued by Image Comics (ISBN 1-58240-180-2) in 2001.

Fictional character biography

The eponymous central character took part in a "plasborging" experiment in which around eighty per cent of his body was replaced with an intelligent, evolving plastic, which can react in 0.132 of a second to any situation and adapt accordingly. In the story, this adaptation usually takes the form of growing spikes, blades or similar weapons. The plastic also processes toxins of all kinds, essentially making Churchyard immortal.

The stories take place 400 years after this experiment. Churchyard is by now tired of his immortality and wants to die. He inhabits a dystopian future in which the United Kingdom has been taken over by the corporation Isis-Elek and renamed Savoy, while large parts of the globe have been rendered uninhabitable by germ warfare.

Themes

The stories include expressions of social conscience. In "Lucy", for example, Lazarus tells of a robot created as part of an early experiment into the intelligent plastic that created him. Called Lucy, the robot was a "sentient plastic lifeform ... sculpted to look like the prettiest twelve-year-old you ever saw", and subsequently abused by her creator.

In popular culture

The hard rock bands Lucy's Drowning and Meathook Seed both took their names from elements of the story.

Footnotes

References

* [http://www.comics.org Grand Comics Database]