Garth Ennis and Jacen Burrows’ partnership is going on about 20 years now, having started at Avatar with 303 and continued into Crossed, Punisher: Soviet and the upcoming Get Fury. But the duo will head into a different direction this summer in Babs, a sword-and-sorcery satire coming from Ahoy Comics.
This sounds like something that will appeal to fans of Ennis’ work on titles like Hitman and Dicks.
“Writing Babs was an absolute hoot,” said Ennis. “The character is one of my favorite types—good at the job but crap at life, with a lousy attitude to boot—and the world of ‘Sword & Sorcery’ provides endless opportunities for deeply disrespectful humor. Having our heroine smash her way through goblins, ogres, imps, incels and other vermin was extremely satisfying; nobody’s going to be Making Middle Earth Great Again while she’s around.”
Here’s how Ahoy Comics describes the series:
The series introduces Babs, a skilled barbarian thief with an itchy metal wardrobe and the world’s worst enchanted sword (named Barry). Together Babs and Barry travel the highways and byways of a fabulous fantasy universe—a world of wizards and dragons, trolls and demons, towering palaces and piles of magic treasure—aiming to strike it rich. But Tiberius Toledo, and his band of very white knights, have different plans. While enacting her latest half-assed get-rich-slow scheme, Babs uncovers Toledo’s foul plot to exploit the baser instincts of the local townsfolk, landing her headfirst into an epic battle. Babs wasn’t looking for a fight…but then again, she’s never found a bad situation she couldn’t make a hundred times worse…
“I’ve been lucky enough to work in a lot of genres over the years but I have always wanted to work on a fantasy story,” said Burrows. “I’m having such a great time getting to design the world and characters and I can’t wait to take readers on this wild ride. The humor, the action, the wild creatures, and settings, this really is a dream project for me!”
Look for the first issue to arrive in stores July 17.