The Gun Slingin’ Face of Fury Returns! Brent McKee talks about El Mestizo!
17th September 2020
The new Battle of Britain Special – out 16 September – brings back a classic when the ‘Scourge of the American Civil War’, El Mestizo returns!
Yes, it’s time for more gun-slingin’ action at last, as one of Battle’s favourites returns with co-creator Alan Hebden and artist Brent McKee at the reins!
El Mestizo was a creation of Hebden and the late, great Carlos Ezquerra, first appearing in Battle #118 (1977). Completely different from anything seen before in the pages of Brit war comics, El Mestizo was a classic outsider tale, and one of Ezquerra’s favourite creations.
Sadly, Carlos is no longer with us, but you can get the classic El Mestizo collection, 16 dawg-gawn episodes, in the Treaury of British Comics collection.
Born a slave in Alabama, became a bandit in Mexico.
Returned to become the scourge of
the American Civil War!
The very idea of El Mestizo, the slave who escaped to Mexico and then came back for the American Civil War, fighting as a mercenary, taking the jobs only when he felt it was morally right to do so, is a perfect example of what made Battle so different from the British war comics that had gone before. Where older Brit comics tended to concentrate very much on WWII and more often than not from the Allied side, with gung-ho and stiff upper lip Tommys valiantly giving it to the Hun, Battle went deeper into the nature of war, wasn’t afraid to get its hands dirty with the troops and portrayed war more realistically. Yes, it was still an adventure comic, but the range of characters and subjects was far more eclectic, wide-ranging, and hard-hitting.
And like many of the strips in Battle, El Mestizo jumped onboard a popular trend at the time – just as Rat Pack was pulling elements from the Dirty Dozen and Major Eazy was obviously modeled on James Coburn, El Mestizo was a comics callback to the Spaghetti Westerns, albeit set in Civil War era America.
And now, in plague-ridden 2020, we get the chance to experience more EL Mestizo, thanks to the strip from co-creator Alan Hebden and artist Brent McKee!
This is Brent’s first work for either 2000 AD or the Treasury of British Comics, although he’s got plenty of comics under his belt in the US. And with El Mestizo he’s done some stunning work to follow in the footsteps of Carlos Ezquerra – we sat down and chatted to McKee about what it means to be responsible for bringing back such an iconic character from a legendary artist.
Brent, you’re the artist on the new El Mestizo strip to be found in the Battle of Britain Special (coming out on 16 September) – what can we expect from the strip in Battle?
BRENT MCKEE: El Mestizo’s going to be an incredibly fun story and I’m hopeful we’ll get to see more of him in future stories.
Now, you’re a youngster and from the USA, which prompts a couple of questions… how did the gig come to you? And do you know why they came to you – obviously, you’ve got the talent – but was there anything that someone (probably Keith) had seen in your work that they thought would make you a great fit for this?
BM: Yes, I’m from the States (Ohio to be precise) but I have to give you a big THANKS for the “youngster” comment – I’m 46 now! But I’ve been around comics my whole life, my older brother collected. I got serious about it as a career in the mid-80s after reading the “Born Again” Daredevil run by Frank Miller and David Mazzucchelli. Mazzucchelli is my MAIN influence, among Others Toth, Frazetta, and Toby Cypress.
I live in a really small town with my wife and two kids. I am a graduate of the Joe Kubert School, Joe was my narrative art teacher which was incredibly humbling, he was a brilliant artist.
My breakthrough into comics came from Geoff Johns back in 2003. He came across one of my sample packets and called me at home, to which I believed to be one of my friends playing a joke. After a good laugh, he gave me a shot to do a short story with him for Noble Causes at Image. We even pitched another book after that to Vertigo, This was right before he signed exclusive with DC. I still can’t thank him enough for giving me a chance, really good guy.
As for getting the job for El Mestizo – I received an email from Keith asking if I would be interested in doing a western, to which my answer will always be YES!
I’d done two previous westerns (Outlaw Territory, The Glass Tarantula) and it’s most definitely one of my favorite genres. I spent the majority of my childhood working my grandparents’ cattle farm and spent quite a lot of time trying to convince my grandfather that Clint is better than The Duke (which never happened).
I’m not exactly sure where Keith first saw my work, or what prompted him to think I would be a good fit for El Mestizo. I was approached a few years ago for a chance to work on Judge Dredd, possibly that’s where?
And when you were approached, being in the US and not being around when the original series was out, had you ever heard of El Mestizo before?
BM: I wasn’t familiar with El Mestizo when approached, but I’ve known of Carlos’s work from a young age. I used to sneak and read my older brothers 2000 ADs as a kid – yes Ed, I went in your room. And I began collecting the Quality reprints later on for the Bolland covers.
The editor of the Battle Special, Keith Richardson, has spoken about always wanting to do a new version of Battle and imagined that he’d be able to do an El Mestizo strip with Carlos Ezquerra (interview in Judge Dredd Megazine 424). Sadly, that just wasn’t to be as we lost Carlos in 2018.
And of course, Keith described you own artwork in that interview as fantastic and doing Carlos proud – which is high praise indeed.
But, when it comes to something like this, taking a much-loved, fondly remembered strip created and drawn by one of the greats – how on Earth do you approach it?
BM: There are always nerves when following one of the greats, no getting around that. But the excitement of getting to do a western again outweighed that trepidation. I can only hope that the fans of Carlos and the original Mestizo won’t be disappointed.
I don’t think they will. Like Keith, I think you’ve done a fantastic job on El Mestizo and one that adds to the legacy of the character.
In terms of getting ready to make the El Mestizo strips, I presume you were using the originals as reference?
BM: Yes, after saying yes, yes, yes to the job, Keith sent me reference materials and I looked up as much as I could online. But it wasn’t just stepping into Carlos’ shoes that made me a little nervous, there was also the format for the Battle Special (which is different to what we use here in the States) as well as the number of panels per page that made me a little nervous. Most US books top out at around six panels per page, so working on a shorter strip in a different format definitely changed my normal approach to storytelling.
In fact, what was your awareness of British comics as a whole before doing this strip? Were you aware of the likes of Battle, Action, 2000 AD?
BM: My awareness of British comics revolves mainly around Dredd. But I was heavily influenced by British comic creators, Alan Davis, Brian Bolland, Neil Gaiman, Alan Moore, Dave Gibbons, Simon Bisley – the classics!
Let’s get a little into process here, how do you go about constructing a page? Are you traditional pencils and inks on board or more digital?
BM: When I first approach a project, I read and re-read the script pages. Then I start with the first page and break it down by panels, decide how to pace the page, which panel is most important to that page.
I do quick thumbnails, add notes, then do full-size roughs and then go to pencils. I work almost entirely traditional, pencil on paper then I ink over that mainly with brush (Raphael Kolinsky 8404 #3).
Recently, I’ve have been adding touch-ups in Procreate after I scan in the originals. For El Mestizo I added mainly zipatone textures. I hadn’t had actual zipatone in years, and it’s been fun to be able to add that feel to my pages again.
Having done the El Mestizo strip, what can we look forward to seeing from you in the future?
BM: I’m currently working on Airboy with Chuck Dixon for Its Alive Press (revived from his 1980s run), and Redshift with H.S. Tak for Scout Comics (a science-based fiction set in the future on Mars coming out 2021).
After my run on Redshift ends later this year, I plan on focusing on my own book, The Oceans Daughter and the Constellation Orion. I’ve been writing and re-writing it for a few years and I believe it will be my defining work in comics.
Thank you so much to Brent for chatting with us. You can find his artwork for El Mestizo in the Battle of Britain Special, out on 16 September. Get it from the 2000 AD or Treasury of British Comics web shops to get hold of that incredible web-exclusive cover from Keith Burns.
You can find out more at Brent’s Instagram, Twitter, and of course, remember to check out his Patreon.