Lazarus Churchyard is a fictional character

Fictional character

A character is the representation of a person in a narrative work of art . Derived from the ancient Greek word kharaktêr , the earliest use in English, in this sense, dates from the Restoration, although it became widely used after its appearance in Tom Jones in 1749. From this, the sense of...

 in a British comics series, created in 1991 by Warren Ellis

Warren Ellis

Warren Girard Ellis is an English author of comics, novels, and television, who is well-known for sociocultural commentary, both through his online presence and through his writing, which covers transhumanist themes...

 and illustrated by Matt Brooker under the pseudonym

Pseudonym

A pseudonym is a name that a person assumes for a particular purpose and that differs from his or her original orthonym...

 D'Israeli

D'Israeli

Matt Brooker, whose work most often appears under the pseudonym D'Israeli , is a British comic artist, colorist, writer and letterer. Other pseudonyms he uses include "Molly Eyre" , for his writing, and "Harry V...

. The stories are cyberpunk

Cyberpunk

Cyberpunk is a postmodern and science fiction genre noted for its focus on "high tech and low life." The name is a portmanteau of cybernetics and punk, and was originally coined by Bruce Bethke as the title of his short story "Cyberpunk," published in 1983...

 in theme, although Ellis himself does not consider it so and prefers to call it "decadent SF".

Publication history

Lazarus Churchyard stories originally appeared in Blast!

Blast! (comic)

Blast! was a British comic published by John Brown Publishing that ran biweekly for seven issues from June to November 1991.It saw some of the earliest publications by modern comic talent including Warren Ellis and Gordon Rennie.-Strips:...

magazine, and were reprinted in Beyond 2000AD

2000 AD (comic)

2000 AD is a weekly British science fiction-oriented comic. As a comics anthology it serialises a number of separate stories each issue and was first published by IPC Magazines in 1977, the first issue dated 26 February. IPC then shifted the title to its Fleetway comics subsidiary which was sold...

, Judge Dredd Megazine

Judge Dredd Megazine

Judge Dredd: The Megazine is a monthly British comic magazine, launched in October 1990. It is a sister publication to 2000 AD. Its name is a play on words, formed from "magazine" and Dredd's locale Mega-City One.-Content:...

, and elsewhere Although some stories have been illustrated by others, Ellis has said he considers only the D'Israeli-illustrated work "the definitive Churchyard".

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

Atomeka Press

Atomeka Press was a British publisher of comic books set up in 1988 by Dave Elliott and Garry Leach. Atomeka ceased publishing in 1997 and was then revived in 2004, but its future seems uncertain, as it has not published any new material since 2005.-History:...

), reissued by Image Comics

Image Comics

Image Comics is a United States comic book publisher. It was founded in 1992 by high-profile illustrators as a venue where creators could publish their material without giving up the copyrights to the characters they created, as creator-owned properties. It was immediately successful, and remains...

 (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

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 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

Meathook Seed

Meathook Seed was an industrial metal project formed in 1992 by Napalm Death guitarist Mitch Harris.Since its founding, two Meathook Seed albums were released.-Embedded:...

both took their names from elements of the story.